Dairy Farmer April 2020

Health & Safety n White Gold – from grass to glass April 2020

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Creating the best mozzarella Championing for climate change Good news in uncertain times

Rising to the challenge

A Waikato farmer and Dairy Women’s Network regional leader takes on challenges on and off the farm that put her to the test

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April 2020 Editor

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Health & Safety n White Gold – from grass to glass April 2020

Incl $8.95 GST

COVER Waikato operations manager Chelsea Smith has a big role.

Photo: Chelsea Millar

Creating the best mozzarella Championing for climate change Good news in uncertain times

Rising to the challenge

A Waikato farmer and Dairy Women’s Network regional leader takes on challenges on and off the farm that put her to the test

20

www.farmersweekly.co.nz ISSN 2624-0939 (Print) ISSN 2624-0947 (Online)

4

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

Contents NEWS 16 Milk Monitor Good news in uncertain times 18 Looking after pets Don’t forget to look after your animals during the covid-19 lockdown 19 Dealing with debt Farm debt meditation scheme will help farmers and banks

ON FARM STORY

8 Life’s challenges Waikato farmer Chelsea Smith rises to the challenges of farming and being a DWN regional leader

20 Milking buffalo Clevedon farmers Richard and Helen Dorresteyn build an award-winning business with buffalo milk

FARMING CHAMPIONS

7 Guest column – Miles Hurrell

28 Dairy champion – Aidan Bichan

8

THEME 44 Health and safety 55 White gold

REGULAR FEATURES 32 At the Grassroots – Ireneo Molina

GlobalHQ is a farming family owned business that donates 1% of all advertising revenue in Farmers Weekly and Dairy Farmer to farmer health and wellbeing initiatives. Thank you for your prompt payment.

33 Industry good 34 Farmstrong 36 Technology 38 Research

Protect your Profits and lower Greenhouse Gas ATTENTION DAIRY FARMERS

Use our unique, farm specific approach that is: 99Profit focused 99 Internationally verified 99Global standard 99Independently assessed programme

Phone 0800 ALLTECH for obligation free information newzealand@alltech.com Alltech.com/newzealand | AlltechAP

WE’VE GOT YOUR BACK DAIRYNZ: SHAPING A BETTER FUTURE FOR THE DAIRY SECTOR providing a voice on your behalf educating the next generation telling your stories to the public positioning dairy as a career of choice supporting local communities

In May, you will be asked to vote on whether you want to continue the levy on milksolids, enabling DairyNZ to continue industry good activities.

Your vote is an important one for the whole industry.

For more information about how we support the dairy sector and everything else your levy covers, visit dairynz.co.nz/vote

YOUR LEVY, YOUR FUTURE

GUEST COLUMN

Fonterra is adaptable

I

In these unprecedented times Fonterra chief executive Miles Hurrell sums up the co-op’s performance over the past six months and looks ahead to how it might navigate the covid-19.

T’S been a busy first half of the 2020 financial year for the co-op.

We’ve introduced a new strategy and a new customer-led operating model.

We’ve re-organised our business so it fits with our more targeted strategy and we’ve improved our financial performance.

We’re a very different co-op to this time last year – we’re prioritising New Zealand milk and staying focused on what we know we’re good at and what makes a difference to people.

But we’re also operating in a very different world.

There are clearly some clouds on the horizon as we see the ongoing global impacts from covid-19.

I sit here and think thank goodness we did what we did in the first half of the year.

We’ve increased our total group underlying earnings by 87% to $584 million.

And we’ve done it by delivering stable underlying earnings from our Ingredients business, improving gross margins in food service and reducing our operating costs.

We’ve also reduced our net debt by $1.6 billion. I have to say this is my pick of the numbers and it’s exactly what we needed to do to help us through these kinds of times.

Yes, the sale of DFE Pharma and foodspring, which gave us $624m in cash proceeds, helped a lot in reducing our debt but we also improved our cashflow thanks to improved earnings, lower working capital requirements and lower capital expenditure.

The big question now is what’s ahead of us?

The covid-19 situation is very fluid and uncertain so I don’t have all the answers but I can share what I’m seeing today and I can also share some of the levers Fonterra can pull to navigate carefully through the challenges we’ll face in the second half of the 2020 financial year.

Our top priority is to do everything we can to stop our people contracting the

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

Fonterra boss Miles Hurrell says the co-operative has a robust business continuity plan and is preparing the business in case the situation deteriorates further.

So far, our global operations have been largely unaffected. virus. That is the reason we’ve stopped face-to-face meetings and domestic and international travel and why many of our teams are now working from home.

We’re doing what’s necessary to protect the business. We have had a dedicated team of people working on this since January to understand the situation and minimise the risks for all of us.

There is a robust business continuity plan in place and we are preparing the coop for if the situation deteriorates further.

So far, our global operations have been largely unaffected.

There’s been a slow-down in processing of containers at some ports but our product is still clearing in our key markets.

We’re also seeing a level of resilience reflected in global dairy prices at this point.

Markets are changing fast and our customers’ responses are also changing

fast. For example, during February nearly 80% of stores in China were closed and that obviously affects our food service performance.

But it seems like China is slowly turning a corner and now only about 25% of stores remain closed.

People are adaptable. Restaurants are doing more take-out, drive-through and home deliveries. More people are cooking at home and this is reassuring for our consumer business in some markets.

It’s important we take this one day at a time – it’s a fast-moving situation but one of the strengths of the co-op which is so valuable in times like this is that we are in a number of markets and have a number of products from base ingredients right through to high-end ingredients and consumer products.

This means if one segment, category, market or region falters we have the ability to move our products around or turn our farmer owners’ milk into the products that are most in need and most in demand.

For now, though, we are keeping a very close eye on this extraordinary situation.

As we navigate through it, it’s important we stay focused on our strategy and what we need to do to minimise the risks for our employees, our farmer owners and our customers. n

7

ON FARM STORY

Chelsea Smith is the operations manager on a 260-hectare Waikato farm milking 800 cows. She is also a Dairy Women’s Network regional leader and recently completed The Edge leadership programme.

Photos: Capturing Mouri by Chelsea Millar 8

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

Facing her fears and challenges

B

Waikato dairy farmer and Dairy Women’s Network regional leader Chelsea Smith is not afraid to take on new challenges that not only test her both mentally and physically but help in her leadership role. Samantha Tennent reports.

EING flipped upside down in freezing cold water led Waikato dairy farmer Chelsea Smith to understand there is more to leadership than organising meetings and overseeing workloads.

She is the operations manager on a 260-hectare farm at Honikiwi near Te Awamutu, Waikato, milking 800 cows and is also a Dairy Women’s Network regional leader.

She was the recipient of a scholarship from the network of chartered accounting firms NZCA, which recently partnered with Dairy Women’s Network.

The support included sending a network regional leader to join nine accountants on The Edge leadership programme with Outward Bound in

the Marlborough Sounds last year.

Smith raves about the opportunity.

“There’s a lot of things that you fear in life and that fear stops you from doing certain things. The course helped my comfort zone grow by pushing the fear out,” she says.

The course is a unique experience.

The group spent six nights there in late July and early August then went home for three months before returning for another four nights in November. During the second trip they wrote a letter to themselves to be posted six months down the track, reminding them of their goals and what they learnt.

Smith almost missed the second trip because things were hectic on farm.

“I was under the pump mentally and physically after the first course as it was the busiest time of the year on-farm and

The Edge leadership programme made Chelsea face her fears and put her in situations she found challenging but equipped her with skills that will help in her Dairy Women’s Network role.

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

I didn’t get a break till the second trip. I almost didn’t go.”

She took over managing a farm this season after the previous manager took time off for health reasons. And she had hired a new team the week before she was due to leave. It all felt a bit much but she made it work and knows it was the best thing for her.

She had left the first course motivated and with lofty goals.

But they were too ambitious and were parked and forgotten about.

The second course grounded her. She set realistic goals and expectations of herself and had more confidence.

On the course there were numerous activities that revealed everyone’s strengths and weaknesses.

Smith had a fear of cold water and struggled with an activity in a kayak where they had to flip over and trust their partner would get them out of trouble if needed. It was a light-bulb moment. The activity showed her what happens when she lets fear take over, that she focused on her own feelings and forgot to pay attention to those around her.

It was the opposite during a high ropes activity that she enjoyed. She encouraged others and was looking out for other people, not just thinking about herself.

“When you’re put in situations where it’s sink or swim, you tend to default back to thinking about yourself.

Continued page 10 9

FARM FACTS n Farm owners: Jim and Sue van der Poel n Operations manager: Chelsea Smith n Location: Honikiwi, Waikato n Farm size: 260ha n Cows: 800 now, 900 next season n Production: 2018-19: 371,720kg MS n Production production: 2019-20 320,000kg MS

In between working on the farm alongside the team Chelsea has been helping organise the Dairy Women’s Network 2020 conference.

“But that’s when you need to take a step back and make sure everyone else is okay.

That’s what leadership is about.”

She has learnt a lot about herself, her natural instincts and how to be a better leader. And these are all valuable skills to have in her regional leader role in the King Country with the network.

The role entails event organising and liaising between stakeholders, particularly the local dairying community. She also put her hand up to help organise the network conference in May in Hamilton.

“Helping with conference has been a real eye-opener as well. It’s the first time 10

I’ve been part of the committee and its interesting seeing what goes on behind the scenes,” she says.

“We started planning in September last year because it takes time to get everything ready so it all runs smoothly.”

She has a new appreciation for the costs of running an event and the value to attendees.

“You’re getting so much out of a conference compared to what you actually pay for. That’s the amazing thing about all these dairy industry bodies.

“It costs a lot to get some of these people or speakers or information. If you

were paying for it off your own back to hear some of these people it would be really expensive.”

She moved to live off-farm in Otorohanga this season, which has opened further opportunity in her network patch.

There are two other regional leaders in King Country and they use each other’s strengths to engage with their community.

This year they are focusing on creating new evening events to try capture a larger crowed of women. They want to provide a safe, familiar place for people to go.

“When I meet new people and say I’m involved in DWN they ask me what we do.

Some have been farming their whole life and it makes me wonder how we capture these people.

“The industry seems to be familiar with DWN but not necessarily what we are about and what we do.”

In March they held a wellness event that included yoga and two inspirational speakers sharing their journeys. One woman had dealt with a breakdown and the other has supported her husband with depression through most of their marriage.

The event was well attended and she hopes more like those will encourage new faces to get involved.

She grew up in a dairy farming family.

Her parents sharemilked on a family farm in Wairarapa till she was 12 when they bought a farm in Canterbury. It was split calving 1000 cows and had only a 36-aside herringbone shed. She had nothing to compare it to at the time so she had no idea how crazy her parents were milking that many cows through that size shed.

Milking took 10 hours every day.

“That was my weekend job. I’d get 20 hours of milking in,” she says.

When she left school she dabbled in

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

Chelsea came from a farming family in Canterbury and after leaving school dabbled in the wine-making industry but missed the cows and working with stock so decided to give full time dairy farming a crack.

the wine-making industry but missed the cows and working with stock so decided to give full time dairy farming a crack. She worked on the family farm and did an AI run for LIC. After a couple of seasons she wanted to spread her wings further but her brother was managing the home farm, leaving limited progression opportunities for her.

She started looking for another job and a farm on her AI run snapped her up. She spent two seasons there.

The farm was a breath of fresh air.

It was spring calving 420 cows milked through a 26-aside herringbone. Working alongside the owners they ran a simple system. She thoroughly enjoyed working

with them and had a lot of flexibility, making farming a lifestyle for her.

Her partner at the time was originally from Te Awamutu and was keen to head north so she started looking for roles.

She landed a job with the van der Poel family, which has given her some great opportunities to grow.

“When I was living in Canterbury it was home and I had my friends, family and a great support network so I never got out of my comfort zone. Everything was quite accessible.

“Moving up here with a new job and new area there was so much to learn and so many people to meet. I really had to put myself out there.”

She flew up for her initial interview in February 2017 and recalls it was a dry summer. She had never seen dry before.

She drove to an astonishingly green Honikiwi where the farm was.

“It was summer safe for a Waikato farm.

I had also been naive that all Waikato farms were small so was surprised to find this one with 1100 cows.”

She had applied for a 2IC position but between her interview and the end of the season the manager role became available and she was offered that instead.

The following season she moved to an exciting new challenge of an 800-cow

Continued page 12

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Chelsea heads to the milking shed at least two or three times during the week to let someone have an extra sleep in and keep an eye on what is happening.

contract milking position on a farm at Ngahinapouri that was also owned by the van der Poels.

Her 2IC and farm assistant from Honikiwi moved with her and helped the transition. They started with a wet winter and had a few problems with an existing team member on the farm. But they got through as a team and she thrived running her own business.

Her home-life was not going well and she struggled to get support from her partner and the relationship ended out of the blue.

It hit hard and she felt lost.

“I talked to the owners and explained I wasn’t sure how I would cope up there alone.”

She had spent 18 months in the North Island but had been so focused on the farm she had not had a chance to build a support network. She considered moving back to Canterbury to be closer to her family but the van der Poels created a role that would give her more time to look after her own wellbeing. She could take a year off the front line and see how she felt after that.

She took two months off and had a real holiday. When she got back she stepped into an overseer role supporting the four 12

dairy farms though it quickly changed when the operations manager of the Honikiwi farm became unwell and had to take some time off.

Fortunately, she was familiar with the farm and stepped in to cover but he ended up handing in his notice so she stayed on board as the Honikiwi operations manager. She is enjoying keeping the farm on track.

It is 260 effective hectares and they are milking 800 cows this season. They sold the autumn calvers and are heading to be a solely spring calving system next season. The farm has rolling to moderate terrain and the cows walk long distances.

“When I was managing that first season I found the staff didn’t get a break, the cows didn’t get a break and we didn’t get any maintenance done on farm. There wasn’t time for anything other than the day-to-day feeding and milking cows. It was constantly busy.

And because there are long walks and we get a lot more rainfall in the winter we were dealing with a lot of lame cows.”

She wanted to simplify the system and discussed with the van der Poels the benefits of having one farm as an autumn farm and allowing the others to have a break over the winter period.

There’s a lot of things that you fear in life and that fear stops you from doing certain things.

“Now we can focus on feed and days in milk and we have fewer passenger cows as it gives us options for culling,” she says.

In her short time in Waikato she has discovered every season is very different.

“That’s why people either love or hate farming in Waikato. When I turned up three years ago they said we only get six weeks dry guaranteed but we are way past that this season,” she laughs.

“Every season is so variable. And with the changes with palm kernel and feed has changed the way we think about farming as well.

“A lot of us want a less intensive system and not have to rely on bought-in feed as much.”

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

Chelsea with some of her team.

The lower stocking rate has allowed them to harvest enough feed in spring and early summer to feed out during the dry spell. She targets feeding a tonne per cow with most made from maize and palm kernel or another feed in the shoulders.

The farm has a support block where they grow the maize, planting 40ha every year then planting an annual pasture. The herd grazes on the support block for 30 days during winter before returning to the platform to get ready for calving. The young stock are grazed on the support block too. The other farms use another support block at Te Kuiti.

On the platform they grow small amounts of chicory, usually to feed the autumn calvers. They have 10ha this year but it has not been enough to make a difference, she says. They have grazed it three times since October.

“We lost opportunity not having those paddocks in pasture. We could have taken three or four cuts off it before the summer dry.

“If we keep our stocking rate low and stay at a System 3 to 4 I don’t see a benefit of crops. For regrassing we could look at under sowing or direct drilling or putting in hybrids to get a couple more years out of the grass.”

The chicory gives them an eight-year turn around on the pastures.

“I think the ryegrasses last a lot longer than that and it’s a waste of money when you aren’t building up the establishment.”

Next season they will calve 960 and peak milk just over 900 cows. The farm

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

Chelsea checks out the Minda reproduction figures for the herd. The six-week in-calf rate this year is 75%.

targets 340,000kg MS, averaging 420kg MS/cow. When they were milking 1100 cows they were getting 380kg MS with a higher input of supplement.

Calving starts July 20 in Waikato, whereas in Canterbury it was always around August 6. They keep about 200 replacements each year, rear them onfarm and send them to the support block in December. The herd is DNA tested which gives them certainty of which they are breeding and keeping.

They do a big collection of cows and

calves in the morning and depending on the day they will head out one or two more times to collect any more calves that have been born to make sure they get their early feed of colostrum.

Their six-week in-calf rate this year is 75%, which will go a long way to helping them condense their calving now they are heading to a spring calving system.

The basis of the herd is Friesian but they are trying to bring the size down

Continued page 14 13

About 40ha of maize is grown on the runoff and harvested in spring and early summer. Chelsea checks out the maize stack during this extended dry period.

You’re getting so much of out a conference compared to what you actually pay for. That’s the amazing thing about all these dairy industry bodies. with Kiwicross. They are aiming to breed a smaller, more efficient cow that leaves a smaller footprint. Mating starts on October 10 and they do five and a half weeks of AI followed by four weeks with the bulls. They tail off with a week of short gestation semen to finish on Christmas Eve. “That’s one thing I love about Waikato, it’s nice to get Christmas off,” she says.

“In Canterbury they do AI until January 10.”

The shed is a 60-bale Waikato rotary 14

that was built nearly 10 years ago with all the gizmos and gadgets, making milking a breeze.

“You can smash out 800 cows by yourself and it’s quite enjoyable and not too stressful,” she says.

On-farm she leaves the manager to organise the day-to-day team and milking rosters but will head to the milking shed at least two or three times during the week to let someone have an extra sleep in and keep an eye on what is happening.

She is always looking at ways to make the farm attractive to good staff. The farm is close to Otorohonga and Te Awamutu but they seem to have trouble attracting the right people. And she knows when you have large cow numbers you need a good team because you cannot do it on your own.

She says they are lucky and have a great team on the farm. Irwin Conwell is the manager and Gene, his son, is the herd manager. And she acquired farm assistant Cameron McArthur from a couple she met through the NZ Dairy Industry Awards.

The fourth team member is Alan Takitimu who has worked for the van der Poels for more than a decade. He is the go-to who knows how to fix a lot of the problems like water leaks and electrical blips.

“The team gel well. It was a bit tricky getting everything sorted when I was going on my second course but we got through and I really appreciate the dynamic we have.”

“I think my sanity has been saved by living off farm and getting involved in different things outside of the farm too,” she says.

As well as DWN, she helps organise the local Dairy Industry Awards. She won the manager of the year title during her first season in Waikato. She enjoys giving back to the dairying community and likes to be involved in off-farm activities.

“If it’s dairy related, I don’t feel guilty for taking time out.”

It has been a journey but her open mind and clear communication pathways with her farm owners have allowed her to continue growing in her roles on and off farm and get the right support when needed.

She is a little nervous to receive the letter she wrote herself in November but is working hard to keep on track for her goals and knows the opportunity with Outward Bound has set her up with good skills and knowledge to handle anything thrown her way. n

Video link: bit.ly/OFSsmith

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

The Honikiwi farm is usually summer safe but over the past three seasons has found the weather can vary greatly. This year they have gone beyond the usual six-week dry period.

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DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

05-03-2020 12:04

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MILK MONITOR

We’re counting on farmers Each month the milk monitor Stephen Bell delves into the dairy industry and gives us the low-down on the good, the bad, the ugly and everything in between.

A

LL bets are off.

But hold your tickets.

There is good news among all the confusion and uncertainty created by coronavirus.

We’re still exporting our farm produce and people overseas are still buying it.

There are questions about how much they will be able or willing to pay for it if enforced inertia causes recession but New Zealand farmers are constantly told they are the most efficient in the world.

I guess we might be about to find out.

We also need our follow-on industries to be equally as efficient and then it’s up to others to get our goods to market and distribute them. So now we will also find out just how good the likes of Fonterra, Zespri and Kotahi are.

If we are to believe what we are told then the worst is over in China and being so involved with that market might prove to be a strength as Europe and America get to grips with the virus.

The good news for the dairy sector is that the introduction of tough measures here comes at the time of least production. The sector has a few months up its sleeve to sort things out.

Farmers have time to plan for various contingencies and the Government must make sure it supports all farmers because they will be generating the nation’s income as the revenue from tourism and overseas students dwindles away.

I reckon farmers need to keep reminding politicians and anyone else they can corner that farming this year really will be the backbone of the economy. Don’t let them take you for granted.

Interest rates have been cut to the bone and the banks have promised they will be standing by their farmers when they need seasonal finance.

But farmers must still push their case when it comes to Government support.

It’s a time for leaders to stand up and tell it like it is. Farmers don’t need nambypamby politically correct figureheads who are afraid to speak out in case some one, anyone, gets offended. It’s time for blunt speaking because the nation is 16

Decisions dairy farmers make now about how they will cope with the drought and the virus will have a massive influence on how the economy copes.

going to need every cent farmers can bring in and farmers need to know those who are paid to do so are sticking up for them.

We don’t want to waste time making sure all the language is politically correct when we could be out there saving the world.

It is time for all those groups farmers belong to to make sure they provide farmers with all the advice, tools and help they can lay their hands on.

And it’s up to farmers to use any advice, tools and help available. It’s not time for farmers to hang back and wait for other farmers to show something works. There’s even a term for that – it’s called social proof. And we know Kiwi farmers are world-famous for picking stuff up once they see another farmer doing it. Well, now’s the time for every farmer to show leadership and get on with it.

Once farmers have considered the advice and possible outlooks they need to make their decisions and plan accordingly to cope with the challenges of the virus and the drought.

So, though there’s plenty to worry about, there is still that good outlook for our products.

And those who should know what they

The Government must make sure it supports all farmers because they will be generating the nation’s income as the revenue from tourism and overseas students dwindles away. are talking about tell us the dairy sector if faring much better than others. Figures for price drops for some goods are astronomic but the fall in dairy prices is a mere blip in comparison.

People working in the dairy sector feared prices would fall much more than they have and though the economists are pulling back their farmgate mmilk prices for this season they are all still above $7 and Fonterra has reiterated it is leaving its forecast at $7 to $7.60 and is comfortable in doing so. n

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

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NEWS

Look after your pets

T

HE Veterinary Association says owners must continue to care for their animals’ health and welfare during the country’s response to

covid-19.

“We appreciate there are many issues that people are dealing with in relation to covid-19, particularly those self-isolating or with family members taking this precautionary measure,” association chief veterinary officer Dr Helen Beattie says.

“We would like to re-assure New Zealand animal owners that, despite a second dog in Hong Kong testing positive for the covid-19 virus, there is currently no reliable evidence that animals are playing a role in the widespread transmission of the disease between humans or other animals.

“We are being guided by the World Organisation for Animal Health and the World Small Animal Veterinary Association.

“Both dogs that tested positive were living with people affected by covid-19.

“There have been no clinical signs reported in the dogs and the positive tests are likely due to the animals being contaminated by their owners.

“These organisations also recommend owners affected by covid-19 take similar precautions in interacting with their animals as they would with people during this time - physical distancing as much as is practical, which limits possible virus transfer, and good hygiene practices.

“They should limit close contact with

During the covid-19 outbreak don’t forget to look after your animals including working dogs.

their pets and maintain high standards of hygiene such as washing hands before and after interacting with their animals.

“There is certainly no justification for abandonment, euthanasia or any measures that might compromise animal welfare in the light of the outbreak of covid-19.”

Beattie said people to act responsibly towards their veterinary team during this time.

“We have heard of clients that should be self-isolating turning up at veterinary clinics with their animals.

“This is unacceptable and puts the profession at risk. We implore anyone affected by covid-19 or self-isolating call your clinic first if your animal needs

urgent veterinary care. This allows the staff to make an appropriate plan whilst lowering their exposure risk.

“We need the veterinary profession to stay healthy during this time. Risking the health of your veterinary staff risks their ability to provide effective care for everybody’s animals.”

Beattie also encourages animal owners to be sure they are accessing accurate information, given the rapidly evolving nature of the covid-19 situation worldwide.

“It is really important that people exercise critical thinking when taking on new information. Make sure that you are tuning in to credible sources when you do.” n

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NEWS

Farm debt mediation – the next steps Help is available for farmers feeling the burden of debt.

SAMANTHA TENNENT

F

INANCIAL stress can impair business performance.

And with the volatility of the payout and weather New Zealand dairy farmers are regularly susceptible to that stress.

The Farm Debt Mediation Act came into effect on December 13. It brings a new approach to farm debt mediation and the Ministry for Primary Industries is establishing a Farm Debt Mediation Scheme.

The scheme is designed to address any power imbalance between stressed farm businesses and their creditors. Creditors will be required to offer mediation to eligible farmers before they can take action on a debt default. Farmers can also request mediation at any time.

The scheme will come into operation on July 1 and MPI has begun considering applications from mediation organisations wanting to take part.

“We’ve already heard from leading mediation organisations that are interested in participating. If an organisation is approved, it will then make sure the mediators are trained for the new scheme,” MPI agriculture and investment services deputy directorgeneral Karen Adair said.

The scheme will help provide a way forward when a farm business comes under financial stress.

“It will ensure a fair mediation process takes place with an independent, neutral mediator and all the key people around the table.

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

Karen Adair, MPI’s deputy directorgeneral of Agriculture and Investment Services says the Farm Debt Mediation Scheme will help provide a way forward when a farm business comes under financial stress.

“This provides the best chance that everyone involved can reach agreement on a good way forward. This may be a way to turn things around or, in some cases, to wind down the business.”

Mediation creates a safe environment for farmers. It gives them a chance to work constructively with creditors through debt problems. It might not always save the farm business but it can allow farmers to make a dignified exit or it might allow the parties to explore options for turning things around.

They will have up to 60 working days to complete the mediation process unless both agree to extend it.

Photo: Natwick Photography.

If creditors don’t want to take part in mediation a farmer can apply for a prohibition certificate. It means the creditor can’t take enforcement action on the debt for six months. After the six-months the creditor will have to offer mediation before taking enforcement action.

If a farmer declines to take part in mediation the creditors can apply for an enforcement certificate, which will allow the creditor to proceed with enforcement action in line with the terms and conditions of the loan agreement.

The certificate has a duration of three years from the date of mediation concluding.

The farmer will not be able to initiate further mediation processes in relation to that debt during this period.

Where possible a mediation agreement is produced at the end of the mediation process. It sets out the agreed actions for future management of the debt. The agreement must be agreed to by both sides and is binding.

Lenders benefit, too, because it brings a transparent and timely process to work through debt issues.

One feature of the scheme will be that, if a farmer prefers, mediation can be based on tikanga Maori protocols.

“This could help get better engagement and outcomes. We are working with mediators who are experienced and knowledgeable in tikanga to set this up.”

The scheme means a more level playing field for farmers who are tackling financial issues. Otherwise, there is a significant power imbalance when they deal with creditors. n

19

ON FARM

Helen and Richard Dorresteyn are pioneers of buffalo milk cheese in New Zealand. They set up the Clevedon Valley Buffalo Company, which is the country’s only large-scale buffalo farm, in 2006.

Photos: Frances Oliver 20

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

Buffaloes bring success The first thing that springs to mind when thinking of dairy is cows but an Auckland couple put something a bit different through their milking shed – buffaloes. Gerald Piddock caught up with the couple who have built a thriving, award-winning business.

B

UFFALO mozzarella has a rich, pure, white milkiness with none on the blandness of massproduced mozzarella made from cows’ milk.

It is a cheese Richard and Helen Dorresteyn have painstakingly created for 13 years from New Zealand’s only large-scale buffalo herd on their farm at Clevedon, South Auckland.

Three times a week their milk is taken from their farm to their factory in nearby Papakura where it is turned into cheeses, yoghurts and spreadable dairy products.

But it is their top-selling mozzarella that their business, the Clevedon Buffalo Company, is most famous for. They have won multiple awards and at the cheese awards last month picked up several more.

“You make mozzarella with buffalo milk because it has got so much more flavour.

It’s a lot richer and it’s got a lovely, creamy, full-bodied, smooth feel,” Richard says.

“It’s also a pure white colour unlike the more cream coloured cows’ milk mozzarella.

“It’s a fresh, clean flavour.”

There is no aging in the mozzarella cheese-making process, giving the cheese a distinct milk flavour unlike a cheaply made cows’ milk cheese that has the taste removed because of the process, he says.

The milk has a different composition to cows’ milk with roughly twice the protein, twice the calcium, twice the fat and half the cholesterol.

Its high fat content gives the cheese a creamier, fresher taste. It also has a higher solid content meaning roughly twice as much cheese can be made from the milk in comparison to the same volume of cows’ milk.

Buffalo milk is a popular alternative for those who suffer from cow milk allergy.

The Dorresteyns milk their 62 Riverine water buffalo cows year-round to ensure continuity of supply on their 24 hectare farm in south Auckland.

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

FARM FACTS n Company: Clevedon Valley Buffalo Company n Owners: Richard and Helen Dorresteyn n Location: Clevedon, Auckland n Farm size: 24ha, runoff 48ha n Herd: 62 milking, 160 animals total n Production: 120,000 litres

Making a good mozzarella is as much about texture as flavour and a freshly made ball comes apart like peeling an onion, Helen says.

“A good mozzarella is not forced together, it’s bound together.”

The company also makes ricotta cheese from leftover whey, feta cheese, a marinated soft cheese in oil, gouda, Oaxaca cheese, yoghurt and a spreadable cheese product suitable for dips or bread.

The milk comes off the farm via a 3000l custom-built truck. It is pasteurised and if mozzarella cheese is being made that day the curds and whey are separated with the large blocks of curds put on a large steel table in the factory It is then cut up in a chipper machine before being stretched. The cheese now resembles a thick, elastic liquid.

When they started they had one vat and stretched the cheese four to five hours every day by hand, a hugely labourintensive process for Helen. The cheese would then be packed and Helen would deliver it to customers.

“We did everything and Richard had to

Continued page 22 21

Helen is a former art teacher and Richard an industrial electrician but they turned their hand to milking buffalo and now make yoghurts and cheeses that have won multiple awards.

milk every second day,” she says.

But as the business grew over four years it became impossible for to create

the cheese by hand and get orders out on time. Nowadays, a stretching machine, resembling a large bakery mixer does the

Richard Dorresteyn stretches the cheese in the factory where they process and make their cheeses and yoghurts.

22

job. They have also grown their staff to nine including Helen and Richard.

After stretching, the cheese is pushed through various circular molds to create 10g cherries, 50g bocconcini and 125g mozzarella balls sold in packs of 10. It is then put in a cold brine for storage. They also create larger balls for restaurants.

The entire process takes about 12 hours from 5am when the milk arrives to 5pm when they deliver it to customers.

The business produces about 300400kg of mozzarella cheese and 500l of yoghurt a week. Production of other products is about 200l a week.

They make products to order for repeat buyers and for retail sales, supplying New World and Countdown supermarkets across the country, Moore Wilson in Wellington, Raeward Fresh in Queenstown, Sky City and high profile restaurants such as Spor and Soul Bar in Auckland.

“When we started a chef told me the good chefs will come to you,” Helen says.

“She was right, with the cheese being a highly sought-after product for Auckland’s top restaurants.”

Sales follow seasonal patterns. Easter is usually a time of peak demand for mozzarella, for example, and quietens

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

After stretching the cheese is pushed through various circular molds to create 10g cherries, 50g bocconcini and 125g mozzarella balls.

milking herd after calving.

The farm also has a 48ha runoff about 10km away where they farm their yearlings, bulls, young and dry stock.

While generally the principles of farming dairy buffalo are similar to dairy cows there are differences. Buffalo take slightly longer to milk than dairy cows when they enter the 14-aside herringbone shed twice a day over summer before switching to once a day in winter.

Calving is also different. The calves are left on their mothers for about four days before being separated using a crush and reared in pens in a shed next to the milking shed. Weaning is also a challenge with the calves often rejecting the bottle feeder.

The gestation length is longer in buffalo, taking 10-10.5 months compared to nine months for a cow. Buffalo cows are much less susceptible to mastitis but are vulnerable to malignant catarrhal fever, an airborne disease they can get if they come into contact with sheep.

Next to the shed and yards are pens of calves eating silage on one side and some of the milking herd on the other.

The farm’s pastures are barren because of the drought and Richard is relying on 100% supplementary feed until the rain replenishes the soil.

That feed is maize silage, lucerne and grass silage at about 18kg/day an animal.

He is careful what he feeds to the buffalo. In the past he fed them chicory but its high-protein content altered the composition of the milk, making it harder to stretch the cheese. Turnips and brassica are also not considered because they might taint the milk’s flavour.

“We’re very wary of it, particularly

when we are feeding 100% supplement,” Richard says.

When not in drought the cattle’s diet is 100% grass and he operates a break-feed system rotating the animals around the paddocks.

It’s a challenging farm with the marine clay soil prone to summer dry and is vulnerable to pugging in the winter. To prevent that the cattle are put on the standoff pad. The pastures are a mix of ryegrass and clover and this year he tried millet as a summer feed but the dry weather meant it did not grow as well as he hoped.

New genetics are brought in from Italy in semen straws to breed a Mediterranean-style Riverine buffalo for its milking ability. Those genetics are really starting to come through after years of careful breeding, he says.

“We’re pioneering and we’re 10-15 years in. When we started we were at 3l a day and we’re at 9l now. That’s from culling some crappy ones out and keeping the best ones.”

Those top cows include animals that are top producing but also take a while to get in calf. He keeps them rather than culling them because of the animals’ milk production and being a rare breed, he cannot afford to get rid of the animals.

There might also be reasons a cow can not get in-calf, such as seasonal pressure from drought.

“It’s a combination of many things, getting in calf, milk production, temperament, it’s a big balance,” he says.

“You’re looking at the results of 10 years of pretty intensive breeding. They are very good animals when you compare it to what we first brought in,” Helen adds.

in winter because it is a summer-time cheese. But they manage milk supply and customer demand extremely closely to avoid wasting any milk.

“The cost of our milk to us off the farm is so high that if we waste it we wouldn’t be in business,” she says.

Farming buffalo is a skill they largely picked up on their own apart from attending buffalo congresses every four years where they go to learn. NZ is a minnow globally when it comes to milking buffalo compared to places such as Italy and south Asia.

About 12% of the world’s milk comes from buffalo.

Richard milks the 62 Riverine water buffalo cows year-round to ensure continuity of supply on their 24 hectare farm with the cattle numbers including calves and bulls farmed at 160.

He and farm manager Sumedha Yapa operate a regime similar to a split-calving system, producing 120,000l of milk a year.

He runs the springer cows separately in another paddock and they join the Buffalo milk products are a popular alternative for those who suffer from cows’ milk HFS ad - Mar 2020 - Dairy Farmer - 210x86mm-PRINT.pdf 1 18/02/20 2:40 PM allergy. The Clevedon Valley Buffalo Company’s mozzarella and other products can be

Continued page 24 found in supermarkets across the country and are used by a number of chefs.

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It’s a combination of many things, getting in calf, milk production, temperament, it’s a big balance.

Richard Dorresteyn

The Clevedon Valley Buffalo Company has a steady stream of visitors wanting to buy Helen’s and Richard’s award-winning cheeses.

After separation the calves are put into individual pens in a covered shed next to the milking shed. The young animals are put into single pens so they can be closely monitored to see if they are drinking milk.

They feed the calves either milk from its mother, a mix of powder and mother’s milk or straight powder.

From there the calves are transferred to a larger pen where several are kept together and are transitioned from milk to a solid diet – muesli or grass silage.

“We watch them, some will do better than others and some will be slower.”

They keep a few male calves as bulls that run with the cows when they are not being inseminated as well as after a period of AI. The rest are sent to another farmer near Gisborne where they are grown to 18 months as steers and processed for their meat.

Effluent mitigation operates on the same principles as a cow dairy farm.

Effluent is collected from the milking shed and stored in a two-pond system and is spread on the farm as fertiliser.

The animals are 25% more efficient in

processing their feed, in theory meaning less waste.

On two sides of the calf shed is the feed pad where some of the milking herd eats maize.

The Dorresteyns have intensified as much as they can on the land they have got. They would love to grow the herd but are handicapped by their lack of land.

The farm’s location on the doorstep of Auckland is both a blessing and a curse.

It is great for getting their high-value but perishable product quickly to market but the high cost of land and pressure for more housing makes expansion virtually impossible.

Conversely, moving south to north Waikato would push them further away from their biggest market as well as the Clevedon Farmers’ Market where they sell their products, Helen says.

“We’d be two hours away, so what’s the point?”

Helen was one of the founders of that market and its creation led to the business they have today. In 2005 she was teaching art and Richard was working as an industrial electrician.

Their children were still young and Helen was due to return to work but realised it was going to be a juggling act trying to balance everything.

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The Dorresteyns began by milking just five buffalo. They now milk 62 and have 160 animals.

“Although I loved teaching I knew it was going to be difficult. I realised I needed a kitchen-table business.”

During a holiday in the South Island they visited several farmers’ markets and were impressed. They decided they

needed one in Clevedon so began setting it up. It started out small, about 10 stalls, but has grown quickly and now they have more than 90 stalls.

“We needed cheese for the farmers’ market and decided to do the cheese

The gestation length is longer in buffalo, taking 10-10.5 months compared to nine months for a cow. Calves are left with their mums for four days.

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

ourselves. There was no one making cheese around here and there was no way of building a decent farmers’ market without a cheese maker,” she says.

They came up with the idea after a trip to Italy where they tasted buffalo mozzarella. They decided on buffalo to give themselves a market niche against the flood of imported cows’ milk cheeses available.

“We went on a belated honeymoon and in the Bay of Naples. We tried the most amazing fresh mozzarella,” Helen says.

“That is when the penny dropped that it has to be fresh. Flying it in fresh is not an option.”

They went to Darwin, Australia, to get their first animals from a farmer they found online. The animals were seveneighths and three-quarters crossed Mediterranean buffalo.

They also entered the cheese awards for the first time and won an award for their ricotta.

“Nobody had ricotta like that before. We were gobsmacked,” Helen says.

The subsequent media coverage from the win greatly lifted their profile and suddenly everyone wanted their cheese.

Continued page 26 25

This season is a bit different because the farm is experiencing drought so the cows are fed maize silage, lucerne and grass silage. Their diet is normally 100% grass so the milk is not tainted.

Staff in the factory process the milk to make mozzarella and bocconcini cheese.

The cost of our milk to us off the farm is so high that if we waste it we wouldn’t be in business.

Helen Dorresteyn

“We were milking five buffalo at the time and we were on Campbell Live.

And suddenly every person in Auckland seemed to come to the Clevedon market that week wanting buffalo cheese. It grew just like that,” Helen says.

“The animals arrived in January 2006 and in early 2007. We cleaned up at the

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cheese awards and we’ve done very well winning golds for our mozzarella, ricotta and yoghurts.”

Demand for the cheese skyrocketed and to make sure they capitalised on that win Helen answered every email and was constantly out on the road meeting chefs.

Pounding that pavement enabled Helen to take it from nothing to earning a good turnover.

She says she remembers being terrified the first few times she showed the product to some of Auckland’s top chefs.

“They were lovely and there we were, a young couple making the best cheese we can and they liked it,” she says.

“They like the fact that you’ve gone to the trouble of bringing an animal into the country and you are going to make them the best cheese you can and you’ll stand right behind it.”

Shortly after getting their first animals they had to learn the art of mozzarella cheese making.

They initially began experimenting in the factory but were unhappy with the results.

Then in 2008 they attended the World Buffalo Congress in Italy to learn from the experts.

“At the congress we met a scientist whose life work was mozzarella. We went to his university and he made cheese with us and we took a lot of notes on the equipment and how they did it.”

They returned armed with the knowledge they needed to create the cheese. But it was another year of trial and error before they were satisfied they could create a product that was consistently good enough for retail. They were also

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

Josh Owen works in the shop, factory and runs the stall at the Clevedon Farmers Market on Sundays.

battling the mindset among customers that if it was from Italy or Europe then it was better than its NZ equivalent.

They refused to sell a second-rate product until they were happy they were consistently producing a top product.

“It wasn’t good enough just to be doing it. It had to be better than the Italian stuff coming into the country. It was pure pressure because if it was rubbish they wouldn’t switch to our product,” Helen says.

While it was stressful, they were determined to make it successful.

“When you know you’ve got something good and you go down and look at that herd, you just make it happen.”

In 2009 they felt they were ready to sell mozzarella.

“And since then we haven’t missed a beat.”

Helen says the journey over the past 13 years has had its tough moments and it is in only the past few years they feel the business has turned a corner and in the past six months financially it was beginning to pay off.

“We survived from the earnings from the farmers’ market. We’ve lived pretty simply and we’ve just survived.

Everything’s gone back into the business.”

She puts that success down to perseverance.

“We have got the right people and we have worked extremely hard for an extremely long time for nothing. But it’s been a hell of a lot of fun.” n 27

DAIRY CHAMPION Aidan Bichan has worked hard over the years to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the nitrogen leaching rate on his own farm, Kaiwaiwai Dairies.

Doing what he preaches Carterton dairy farmer and DairyNZ climate change ambassador Aidan Bichan is doing all he can to help others understand the challenges and environmental regulations so they can leave the land in a better state for future generations. Gerald Piddock reports.

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ARTERTON dairy farmer Aidan Bichan is a man with many hats.

He is a member of Federated Farmers, a Fonterra supplier, a registered farm consultant, DairyNZ climate change ambassador, dairy environment leader and member of Forest and Bird.

He is also heavily involved with local catchment groups for the past 18 years and was recently appointed to the freshwater leaders group involved with the Government’s freshwater proposals.

Being engaged and involved in so many organisations reflects his desire to leave the land in a better state than when he arrived on it, he told farmers at Limestone Downs Station’s recent annual field day near Port Waikato.

Other farmers need to get involved in discussions to influence policy makers with 11 pieces of legislation emerging since February last year that in some way affect the industry. That involves attending meetings, getting informed and, most importantly, engaging in the process, he says.

When it comes making submissions, like the one recently finished for the freshwater reforms, farmers need to get weight of numbers.

28

“It’s a pain in the arse but we need to do it.

“Attend meetings, do submissions and tell your stories – the stories that have come through in the Essential Fresh Water and the highly productive land policy from farmers have been really good.”

Farmers need to showcase their industry to the public and tell people good stories.

When he speaks to Government policy people Bichan tells them if he gets good policy he will be innovative in achieving or exceeding its objectives. If the rules are bad he will find a way to bypass them.

“If we’re involved and have a say in it you’ve got an opportunity to influence it.”

Farmers risk being screwed over if they are disconnected.

“No action means no choices.”

The son of a Presbyterian minister and doctor, he was born in Wellington but grew up in several places including Mangakino and Cannons Creek in Porirua.

Members of his wider family were involved in farming so he spent time on farms before settling on sheep and beef farming. However, while studying at Massey University for an agriculture degree he changed his mind and decided to go into the dairy sector.

He spent 12 years working as a

consulting officer for the Dairy Board (now DairyNZ). He worked in the Farmwise team for about eight years before setting up his own consultancy business.

In the early 1990s he was the supervising consultant on a Wairarapa dairy farm owned by several Taranaki farmers and an accountant. As parcels of shares became available he would find replacement investors.

“Over the years more and more local farmers took on those shareholdings and today there is only one original shareholder left.”

He, too, is a shareholder in the syndicate that is Kaiwaiwai Dairies and while the original 1200-cow farm was sold they retain a 900-cow winter milk farm.

He has consulted on a range of topics and to various businesses including farmers, QEII, politicians and regional councils assisting with their environmental plans. He was also involved in cow shed design.

“As a tutor for the DairyNZ Milksmart programme I have a pretty good understanding of shed flow, what works and what doesn’t.

“However, after the flurry of conversions there are not a lot of new sheds being built now and certainly not at the level they once were.”

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

Having spent several years involved with catchment management and community groups he believes they are the best people to identify issues in waterways and find a solution.

In his own catchment in South Wairarapa the water quality issues are based largely on legacy issues dating back to a nearby meat processor, which closed in the early 1980s.

“It’s still leaching nitrates into the ground water.”

Bichan says local government also likes catchment groups because they are more effective than regulations.

When in Wellington he makes sure to wear his Fonterra proud dairy farmer shirt.

“I am a proud Fonterra dairy farmer and I’m proud of the industry having worked 37-odd years now. It’s a great industry. We’ve got to do some things better.”

Most of the issues he faces when speaking to non-dairy farmers and urbanbased policy makers are caused by a lack of understanding.

His view of the dirty dairying tag is that while it was bloody uncomfortable and harmful it set up the industry well as the environment came under the spotlight.

One challenge he saw was the constant turnover of government policy staff in the Primary Industries and Environment ministries.

“These staff were not nasty, just uninformed,” he says.

The new staff are often graduates and Bichan tries to educate them as well as he can on farmer issues.

“We host a group a week on farm in some form or another to try to get that education going.”

New Zealand’s environment has been heavily modified since colonisation and he doubts farmers had much understanding of the implications of what

Carterton farmer Aidan Bichan says farmers should attend meetings so they are better informed and can have their say in policy discussions.

they were doing when they made the modifications, particularly over the past 40-50 years.

“These days we do realise that a lot more,” he says.

Bichan is also a part of the Freshwater Leaders Group and in 2018 was selected to become a Dairy Industry Climate Change Ambassador. That group of 15 helps dairy farmers understand the challenge of climate change, new scientific research and environmental changes they can make on their farms.

They also work on a range of initiatives including improving water quality, reviewing their farm system to reduce its environmental footprint and working at a grassroots level with their community to achieve better outcomes for the environment and farming.

“I totally believe communities will make much better decisions and get better outcomes than central Government-driven rules and regulations,” he says.

He has worked hard over the years to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and his nitrogen leaching rate on his farm.

The 618 hectare farm’s nitrogen leaching rate is about 15kg of nitrogen a hectare, largely thanks to the sizable wetland on the farm. The region averages around 33kg of nitrogen a hectare and nationally it is 36kg.

His biological greenhouse gas emissions sit about 6.3 tonnes a hectare, down from 9.9 tonnes eight years ago.

The 0.75ha constructed wetland was

Continued page 30

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The 0.75ha constructed wetland built four years ago takes out about 680kg of nitrogen a year including 35ha of Bichan’s farm as well as 200ha from other neighbouring farms.

Kaiwaiwai Dairies is a System 4 operation with 25-30% of the herd’s diet from supplementary feed including kale undersown with plantain for the winter milking herd. built four years ago. It was funded in part by the Kickstart for Freshwater project as well as with help from Niwa, his regional council and others.

The wetland takes out about 680kg of nitrogen a year including 35ha of Bichan’s farm as well as 200ha from other neighbouring farms. The wetland also acts as a buffer for the nearby 9000ha Wairarapa Moana wetland.

“The more nutrient we can keep out of that the better.”

30

Bichan said the construction of the wetland did not cost a lot. The farm budget includes $8000-$10,000 set aside for environmental work.

The wetland meant losing around $25,000 of land on the farm and cost an estimated $55,000 in total. Of that, $27,000 was funded to build the wetland.

The farm is run as an equity partnership with six partners, peak milking 900 cows.

It is run as a System 4 operation with 25-30% of the herd’s diet from supplementary feed including about 60 tonnes of palm kernel fed over winter. The farm also grows fodder beet, maize, kale and oats.

It has a small amount of irrigation that grows about 17 tonnes of drymatter feed.

It operates an autumn calving system with 300 of the herd calving now.

Bichan and the rest of the partners also do riparian planting and bush restoration on the property.

Races are sloped away from drains to prevent runoff spilling into them. It runs back into the pasture so it filters in the paddock rather than in the water.

The farm is an open gates host for Fonterra’s yearly open days when about 1200 people, mostly from Wellington visited the farm.

Bichan has used Overseer since its inception and uses the tool intensively to monitor the farm’s emissions and experiment with what would happen if he changes the farm’s system or adds inputs or infrastructure. In the process he learned that reducing his emissions also reduced his nitrogen input.

“What was good for the environment in terms of nitrogen leaching was actually really good for our GHG footprint.”

He believes he was able to reduce his emissions by switching from ploughing to direct drilling.

He has also halved his water use by better using green wash.

“A typical dairy farm uses 70l a cow through the farm dairy. We’re running at the moment at 36l. Our target’s 25l.”

He says farmers needed to keep up the

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

Aidan Bichan is one of several shareholders in Kaiwaiwai Dairies, a 900-cow winter milk farm in Wairarapa.

good job they are doing when it comes to environmental mitigation. The industry knows it is headed in the right direction but does not have the data to back it up.

“The rural sector in the last 10-15 years has really ramped up its effort and one of the challenges we have got is that we are not yet seeing all of that data coming through.”

To maintain that momentum farmers need to have a farm environmental plan to maintain that momentum.

The 1% of the world Bichan wants to feed are those willing to pay the most for his product. Those customers want a good provenance story around their product, he says.

“A really well documented farm plan is just what you plan to do and I believe they will be compulsory in time and personally I think they should be mandatory.”

Meat and dairy processors will make the plans mandatory because those businesses need it for their quality assurance programmes to convince customers their farmers have the best animal welfare and environmental stewardship.

“We need that for our 1% of the market.”

He says it is highly likely farm plans are going to be compulsory in the Government’s freshwater plans.

“If we don’t get in first and have our own, someone else will decide.”

Away from the farm he is an active member of the Wairarapa Deerstalkers branch, trained in first aid and is a member of the local search and rescue group though he admits to finding the hills seemingly getting steeper. n

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

AT THE GRASSROOTS

A proud Kiwi dairy farmer Filipino migrant Ireneo Molina came to New Zealand in the hope of a brighter future. He faced many difficulties but is grateful to a kind-hearted and welcoming community who made a big difference to their lives and settling in.

M

OVING to New Zealand as a migrant worker on a dairy farm was a huge step for me back in 2008.

And that decision was made in the hope for a better life and a brighter future for my family. It’s a choice by fate as I say, moving to Aotearoa.

I was one of the millions of Filipinos wanting to go overseas for work. I applied for a dry stock farm and tractor operator position in the United States and it was going well then suddenly, it didn’t work out because the visa application was declined.

Despite my frustration I remember that we had an agent from Cambridge visit the farm where I was working in the Philippines. He left me his calling card with his contact details.

As soon as I could I contacted the agent and asked him to assist me in finding work on a dairy farm in Waikato.

Relocating is not easy for us migrants, especially as we don’t know many people from different backgrounds or with different cultures.

But open-hearted kiwis made us feel welcome and to return the favour we will do our best to work with the highest level of honesty, integrity, effort and work hard.

It was very challenging at times, especially in those early days, working on NZ farms because the way we farm in our country is way behind in terms of dairy technological advancement and innovations.

The technology available is very impressive which makes NZ dairy farming among the best in the world.

It was luck for me as a migrant to meet good people along the way in the dairy industry who supported me through all the challenges I faced and helped with career opportunities.

32

Ireneo Molina arrived in New Zealand in 2008 and has steadily built a life, home and rewarding career in the dairy industry.

I had a very kind boss in Pukeatua.

Chris Lewis and his family were very supportive to us since day one when my family and I arrived on their farm.

He was a very challenging boss who helped me a great deal. He taught me a lot and pushed me to succeed and taught me that you can still do more within the industry. I worked for him for a decade.

I started as a farm assistant and worked my way up to managing his 1100-cow dairy farm.

I have now moved on and am now contract milking to see and learn more about the business side of the industry.

The inspirations and motivations to work hard are driven by wanting to do the best for my wife and kids. Making them happy is one my biggest goals in life.

Also, I am lucky to have my cousins Neil and Mark who always provide a lot of encouragement to work better.

As a migrant I have learnt it is important to always have people in the industry that you can talk to.

It is very important for us migrants to know that there are people around who will help and lend their support if and when needed, especially in those early days when everything is new and we knew no-one.

People helped by lending or donating household goods and showing us where to go to buy groceries and household items.

Having kind-hearted people who were willing to show us these little things made a huge difference and made us feel welcome.

There are lots of opportunities available to everyone to for progression in the dairy industry and some migrants have now progressed to managing farms, contract milking and sharemilking jobs.

There’s a lot of opportunities in dairy farming and I hope to help others now like I was helped. And I would encourage young Kiwis to realise and see what great opportunities there are in this productive and beautiful country, which, for me as a migrant, feels like a home away from home. I am proud to be a dairy farmer and call NZ home.

As migrant workers we are isolated from our friends and families overseas, even more with the covid-19 pandemic.

Us migrants feel that we have a firsthand duty to comply with what the Government and health department needs us to do in fighting to stop the spread of this virus to others and our community.

Like others, we cannot travel for family emergencies and they can’t come to us.

Our support network is not as great as others so support from others is even more crucial at this time.

We are in this together and must work to continue keeping everyone safe and stop the spread. n

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

INDUSTRY GOOD

Dairy image positive Lee Cowan

Senior communications and engagement manager, DairyNZ

W

E OFTEN hear concerns from dairy farmers about how they are viewed by the wider

community.

DairyNZ does regular independent public perception surveys that can shed some light on what the public actually thinks about dairy farmers and the sector.

In our last two surveys 56% of the people surveyed had a favourable or very favourable view of dairy farmers. About 25% were neutral while only 20% saw dairy farmers unfavourably.

That is good news and we should celebrate it – while never losing focus that we can help improve it.

We know there is a strong desire among farmers to share all the great things happening on farms to improve the environment and the important role dairy plays in supporting the country’s wellbeing.

DairyNZ has a range of work under way to do that.

Our movement The Vision is Clear aims to inspire Kiwis to care for our waterways by sharing the work on dairy farms and in communities to improve water quality.

Stories are shared through online news, videos and Facebook.

More than 500,000 people have visited The Vision is Clear’s online hub in the first 18 months of the campaign and videos have had more than five million views.

In recent surveys people who had heard of The Vision is Clear said they, too, have a role to play in looking after waterways and had a more positive impression of dairy farmers.

DairyNZ also sent 300 stories to the media in the past year and interacted with the media 775 times – to answer questions or share story ideas.

People often tend to remember news

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

A joint project to improve water quality in the Aparima catchment in Southland involving more than 600 farmers, DairyNZ, Beef + Lamb and Environment Southland is one of many initiatives shared with the public through the Vision is Clear.

stories they are interested in so there is a perception that media coverage is mostly negative – but actually about 90% of stories on the dairy sector are positive or neutral.

That is something else that should be celebrated because we believe dairy has a powerful story to share that all Kiwis should be proud of.

DairyNZ has produced farmer guides to social media, story-telling and taking a great photo. They are available online at www.dairynz.co.nz/publications under dairy industry.

We also sponsor organisations like AgProud and Open Farms to help share the story and deliver educational programmes about dairy in schools.

Our movement to engage with the public on how we can collectively look after water quality is going really well.

The Vision is Clear’s WorldWaterDay celebrated World Water Day on March 22.

This competition asked Kiwis to upload their favourite summer water photos to Instagram to be in to win. The competition was designed to celebrate the great work being done by all Kiwis to improve our waterways and to encourage people to get involved and follow the movement.

Check out www.dairynz.co.nz/thevision-is-clear.

If you’re wondering how you can

with DairyNZ support the effort you can have an amazing impact just by sharing your authentic and caring view of how we do dairy in New Zealand.

There are many different ways to do that – from posting photos and stories on social media and sharing them with your friends to opening your farm gates to the community through to taking stunning photos of your farm and backyard. You have something special to show people and they will love seeing it. n

VOTE SOON Milksolids levy voting opens soon.

What: You’re being asked to vote on whether you agree a levy on milksolids, used to fund research and development and other sector activities, should continue.

When: Voting opens on April 17 and closes on May 30.

How: Levy payers can vote online or by post – look out for your voting pack in the mail.

MORE: For more information visit dairynz.co.nz/ vote.

33

FARMSTRONG

Keeping perspective Farmstrong ambassador Sam Whitelock says there are many factors farmers cannot control but focusing on what they can control will help keep things in perspective.

J

Focusing on what you can control when the going gets tough helps you maintain perspective, Farmstrong ambassador Sam Whitelock says.

UST like in rugby, there are always going to be things in farming you can’t control.

In rugby it’s the ref. In farming it might be the weather, commodity prices or new

legislation.

What you can control, however, is how you react and think about a situation.

That can have a big impact on your stress levels.

Healthy thinking is about catching negative thoughts then thinking about a

situation in a more helpful way.

An example: Yes, it’s been a tough year with drought but the long-range forecast is more promising and every farmer in this area has been through this before and got through okay.

Thinking like this gives you balance and helps you manage stress.

If you feel like you are not coping it’s about being proactive and coming up with an action plan.

Focus on the things you can control.

Ask yourself what are the one or two

top things you need to work on right now?

Is it destocking, fertiliser and getting extra staff – what’s going to make the biggest difference?

Focus on the top two things and park everything else. Once you are feeling back in charge your stress levels will go down.

Staying in the right head-space means you’re much more likely to cope when the weather or the global market throw a curve ball your way.

Here’s how other farmers look after the top paddock. n

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Tangaroa Walker Contract milker, Southland I see the farm, the investors and the people who work on it a bit like a trailer.

I’m providing the pulling power to move it forward so I’ve got to make sure my headspace is good and that I turn up for work every day with yesterday’s stresses gone. If I don’t, it’s going to slow down the vehicle.

Blake Marshall Dairy farmer, Canterbury I can’t control the milk price or exchange rate or Government policy.

All I can do is control the way I respond to those things.

If people can learn to deal with a stressful situation in a positive way they’re much more likely to move out of it quickly.

Often there’s an on-farm event you can’t control – you can’t change that but you can stop yourself getting stressed all over again by having a good response to it. Knowing how to frame stuff in your head when you’re under pressure really helps.

Nick Bertram Sharemilker, Woodville The thing with farming is that if you’re working too hard and not eating or getting enough sleep a problem becomes a lot bigger than it needs to be.

You need to keep things in perspective.

That’s why I joined the volunteer fire brigade. A call-out from the fire brigade soon changes your mindset about what’s a bad day.

I like to say farming is half of my life

and being with my family is the other half. It is easy to forget that sometimes.

Cheyenne Wilson Contract milker/agribusiness student Sometimes we are our own worst critics.

I’ve learnt it’s important to just step back and acknowledge what you’ve achieved and value your skills.

One of the things I’ve learned is to enjoy the small wins in the industry, the little achievements throughout the season. It’s all those moments that add up to the big production target at the end of the season.

Geoff Spark, dairy farmer, Canterbury “If you’ve got your life in balance – your family, your fitness and your mental wellbeing – then your farming’s going to go well too.

It’s really great to get local farmers together to support that idea.

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

Healthy thinking is about catching negative thoughts then thinking about a situation in a more helpful way.

farmstrong.co.nz

Duncan Rutherford Dairy farmer, North Canterbury Farming can get stressful at times and the pressures are different for everyone.

If there’s a drought, for example, the farm owner and the farm manager will be getting stressed out but if it’s a wet winter it’s the junior staff who get stressed because they’re out in the mud every day.

It’s about being aware of things like that. We make sure our farm managers always have a lever to pull in terms of buying feed or destocking. There’s always a way out for them, so they don’t get stressed.

35

TECHNOLOGY

Technology research and development will help in the future production of food.

Feeding the world New Zealand will be at the forefront of research looking at ways technology can help increase food production for the growing global population. Tony Benny reports.

N

EW Zealand will soon be at the centre of a global search to find innovative and sustainable ways to boost world food production by 70% to feed a projected population of 10 billion, partnering with some of largest international agri businesses.

New Zealand is the first country partner of Farm2050, an initiative launched in 2014 by Google chairman Eric Schmidt to find new technology to produce more food sustainably and soon a three-year series of field trials will start here.

Participation in this project is one of three initiatives to come out of the recently published Agritech Industry Transformation Plan, the result of nearly a year of consultation between the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment and other government departments and industry.

The Government views the agritech industry as having high potential for

36

export growth and throughout March workshops were held at Auckland, Hamilton and Lincoln where the industry was briefed on process so far and what happens next.

Three high-impact projects have been identified, a horticulture robotics initiative, an agritech venture capital fund and the Farm 2050 Global Nutrients Project.

“Eric Schmidt got together with a number of leading venture firms and they pulled together a large fund of potential investment to invest in the type of technologies that will help disrupt current food supply to make sure we can feed ourselves in 2050,” Agritech NZ executive director Peter Wren-Hilton says.

The first global Farm2050 initiative is to identify nutrients that will improve plant yield but also have a positive impact on environmental sustainability and a white paper will be released in the next couple of months with details of the field trials to be done here.

“It will set out a three-year

Agritech New Zealand executive director Peter Wren-Hilton says technology will be at the forefront of solutions to feed the world.

initiative whereby a number of global agribusinesses together with NZ companies that want to take part in field trials across NZ where we can actually

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

Opportunities like this one do not come around too often.

David Downs Agritech Taskforce

benchmark performance of different nutrient technologies so we will have a much better understanding as to potential future use of nutrients and how that will impact on both plant yield and the environment,” Wren-Hilton says.

“We’d like to run this in conjunction with Ireland because it gives us a northern-southern hemisphere opportunity to accelerate the field testing.”

Wren-Hilton believes the project will be a great opportunity for NZ to identify itself as a global expert in this space.

“It will also enable a lot of early-stage companies the opportunity to partner with some of the world’s largest agribusinesses. It’s a massive opportunity and fits in very nicely with our overall strategy of producing more food profitably and sustainably,” he says.

The Government is also keen to see the establishment of a horticultural robotics academy. Agritech Taskforce leader David Downs of NZ Trade and Enterprise says we have the chance to become a world leader in this field.

“Multiple universities and some organisations and companies had come together and said ‘let’s be a world leader in horticultural automation

Advances in technology are making milking a lot easier for farmers with their record keeping.

products and sensing and we think we have all the moving parts to do that’,” Downs says.

“There are multiple parties working on how Government can support them to create this national centre of excellence for horticultural robotics and it will address some major issues both within NZ and globally around things like labour shortages in horticulture.

“It links us into international markets so it ticks many of the boxes of where we think agritech could take us.”

The third initiative is an agritech venture capital fund and the Government has committed $300 million to what is now called NZ Growth Capital Partners (formerly the NZ Venture Investment Fund).

“Work is going on to identify sub-funds to invest in and this will come to fruition shortly,” Downs says.

In addition to the high-impact projects there are six core work-streams looking at global opportunities, commercialisation, investment, data interoperability and regulations, skills and workforce and governments’ role.

More than 200 people attended the three workshops and the official launch of the Agritech Industry Transformation was due to be held in April at the MobileTECH Ag 2020 in Rotorua but this has now been delayed due to the covid-19 lockdown.

“To date, the focus of our work has been on Government consultation, however, from April the focus would have been on delivery but this too may change,” he says.

“We are keen to fully engage the widest representation of the sector.

Opportunities like this one do not come around too often.” n

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RESEARCH

Getting a handle on gas emissions SAMANTHA TENNENT

G

REENHOUSE gas emissions are difficult to quantify on farms, a job made harder by the numerous assumptions and huge variations in results from feeds.

So it is difficult for farmers and the sector to get a handle on the real picture of farm emissions and understand the mitigation options available.

A laboratory in Auckland has been working with various farms to create a data set that could take one assumption out of the equation.

It will help paint a more accurate picture of what is happening with nutrient efficiency on farms.

The lab, Alltech IFM, it supports the work of the carbon footprinting company Alltech bought in 2015, Alltech E-CO2.

The lab operates an in vitro fermentation model that incorporates a rumen fermentation simulator where the feed samples degrade the same way they do in a live cow. It measures the products of the fermentation and the speed of digestion.

The Alltech team is gathering large amounts of data that could help the sector with emissions profiling and mitigation planning but because of the large variation in feed farmers use and the range in quality it has been difficult to understand individual farm emissions.

“Farmers need to know their greenhouse gases but they also want to know how that interacts with their farm and what it means for their practices.

They want to know what low-hanging fruit there are,” innovation sales manager Nigel Meads says.

“The data from the in vitro fermentation model will allow farmers to see the numbers to help them quantify what their personal footprint is and the overall life cycle analysis from Alltech will help them determine whether their efforts are leading to improvement.”

Alltech is working closely with other New Zealand research groups to ensure

38

Alltech innovations sales manager Nigel Meads and a lab technician check out the feed samples in the firm’s IFM lab that is supporting the work being done by its carbon-footprinting company Alltech E-CO2.

The biggest farmspecific data set for pasture-based farming is in NZ but the Irish are on our tail.

Nigel Meads

they do not duplicate any work and complement what is already available.

“I’m aware of about 115 carbon calculators and they all work to certain degrees of accuracy but none of them has incorporated farm-specific, experimentally derived data,” Meads says.

“The biggest farm-specific data set for

pasture-based farming is in NZ but the Irish are on our tail. Hopefully, we will beat them to the mark.”

Alltech is building the experimentally derived data and working on tying it into its life cycle analysis carbon calculator.

The calculator works to an international standard.

It has been researching farm efficiency and sustainability for 40 years.

The IFM data is adding accuracy and removing assumptions and will provide a better reflection of what is happening on farms.

“When we say farm-specific data we aren’t just talking about the number of cows and how much feed they’re feeding.

We are directly looking at how much gas the feed makes,” Meads says.

“Feedstuffs can vary plus or minus 50% from standard gas emission numbers people use. When you measure a farm specifically you can see that variation.

“We are trying to understand why the variation is there and that will give us

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

better ideas around best practice.”

The life cycle analysis reporting allows producers to exploit the interchange between different elements of systems to get the best outcome for farmers and the environment.

In a recent pilot study in Europe Alltech showed that by focusing on animal health.

The study included 15,000 animals on 58 farms in 19 countries.

Alltech calculated the footprint at the start then worked with those farmers on bespoke solutions to reduce the losses from those farms. Examples of the losses included animal health problems and early culling.

A year later they recalculated those farms and found the farms mad more money by combating losses.

Collectively, the farms cut 7000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.

“The animals were doing better and the farmers were making more money and the environmental impact came down at the same time.

“Those are the three touch points we are keeping our sights on – animal welfare, the farmers’ back pocket and the environment,” Meads says.

Alltech is using the in vitro fermentation model that will let farmers see the numbers to help them quantify what their personal footprint is.

“The country has a target to reduce carbon by an absolute number but needs to make sure when we get to that absolute

number we are producing the most salable product we can for the carbon budget we’ve been given.”

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RESEARCH

Greening the world for and with children TIM FULTON

C

HILDREN are changemakers for recycling and waste minimisation, environmental educator Lesley Ottey says.

Through her Eco Educate business Ottey visits more than 150 Canterbury schools and preschools a year to educate kids and teachers on the dos and don’ts of waste management.

Supported by funding from Waimakariri and Ashburton District Councils Ottey and her small team talked to about 2000 people a month in schools and the community.

She finds many children keen to adopt more eco-friendly practices if only they could find a way.

“Quite often when I’m in a rural school you can see the children’s disappointed faces as they say to me ‘oh, we just burn it’. I tell them ‘I know it’s really hard for you because you don’t own the farm but one day you might’.”

Farmers are doing more to get their back yards straight, she said.

On a visit to the Waimakariri council waste recovery centre at Oxford she was thrilled to find six young farmers on a rubbish drive.

“Awesome people. At one stage we had six farm vehicles on site with their house recycling. One had come from the top of the Waimak gorge to do the right thing.”

Ottey talks to kids about problems with farming practice but doesn’t slam the industry.

“We start by talking about what happens at the top of the stream and what happens with erosion down the river … and then we show them cows and rivers and things.

“But then we start talking about the urban environment, with heavy metals off cars and rubbish on the side of the road, chemicals going down drains and paint going straight into the waterways. The urban environment has got just as much to answer for as the rural environment.”

A world-first research project by

40

Landfills are full of items that could be recycled and research shows only 60% of plastic containers are recycled.

the Waste Management Institute found New Zealand households dispose of 1.76 billion plastic containers in their kerbside recycling and rubbish bins each year.

But only 60% of the plastic containers goes into a recycling bin and even less is optimally recycled and given a second life.

An institute audit hand-sorted and counted contents from the rubbish and recycling bins of 867 households from eight locations around the country. It showed the number of plastic containers in kerbside rubbish and recycling bins surpasses the combined 767 million containers made from metal and 854 from glass each year.

But progress is slow.

The audit found 14% of milk bottles and dairy containers are put in rubbish bins. That means about 29m dairy containers a year that could be recycled go straight to landfill instead.

The audit said deterrents to recycling include market prices, consumer error, packaging design and practices by brand

owners and packaging manufacturers, including not using the plastic identification symbol.

There is also a lack of standardisation as to what is accepted for recycling around the country.

Ottey said recycling messages hit home better if kids take charge, like an eightyear-old making sure recycling goes in the back of the car on a trip anywhere near a transfer station.

“Combine it with something else you’re doing. It doesn’t have to be parents who organise this.”

It is easy to dwell on environmental troubles but Ottey tries to talk about positive actions, like fencing and riparian planting or hanging up old feed sacks for sorting paper, cardboard and glass.

“It’s giving them the positives before we leave – the actions they can help do, even if it’s just picking up a lollypop stock so it doesn’t go up a turtle’s nose.”

Adults can also make changes without turning their world upside down.

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

OUR PLASTIC PACKAGING: OUR BUSINESS THE TRUTH ABOUT RECYCLING PLASTIC CONTAINERS

HOW MUCH PLASTIC DO WE USE IN NZ? EACH YEAR,KIWI HOUSEHOLDS GET THROUGH A STAGGERING

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854 MILLION 767

1.76 BILLION

MILLION

87% OF PLASTIC CONTAINERS ARE EASILY RECYCLED THERE ARE

LIMITED MARKETS FOR PLASTICS

3

46

%

26

6

7

NO!

%

THAT'S

2678 TONNES

15% Environmental educator Lesley Ottey who runs Eco Educate talks to 2000 people a month on the dos and don’ts of waste management.

4

NO!

OF NZ'S PLASTIC CONTAINERS THAT DON'T ALWAYS GET A SECOND LIFE YET ONLY

NO!

NO!

62% OF PLASTIC CONTAINERS ARE PLACED IN RECYCLING BINS

WHY AREN'T MORE PLASTICS RECYCLED IN NZ? IT'S NOT JUST CONSUMER ERROR

April 2020

258 MILLION

46

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PREVENTING THEM FROM BEING RECYCLED INTO LIKEFOR-LIKE ITEMS. THEY MAY ONLY BECOME BINS OR PALLETS, WHICH MAY NOT BE RECYCLED AGAIN

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DAIRY FARMER

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“People say to me ‘oh, I’m not doing enough’. I say ‘well, what is one more thing you could be doing this week?’”

Change is about lots of little improvements, she said.

“We never used to wear seat belts and we used to drink and drive like crazy.

Some people still do but you try saying in front of your mates now, as a joke, that you drove home drunk.”

Agrecovery general manager Simon Andrew is leading a quest for industrywide agreement on recycling for everyday items like agrichemicals, silage wraps and tyres. The user-funded group is waiting on Government recommendations on a recycling regime that’s paid for by everyone, from manufacturer to end-user.

The levy-funded Agrecovery expects industry and the Government to set up a recycling system for six priority products including veterinary medicines and materials such as refrigerants and electrical goods.

For the past nine months the agrichemical industry has been paying Agrecovery to run a product recovery stewardship scheme on its behalf.

Agrecovery will soon be leading work with farm plastics too, Andrew said. n

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41

OPINION

Everyone must respond DR TIM MACKLE

A

S A remote island nation reliant on agriculture and tourism our way of life depends on a united approach to protect our plants, animals and people from biosecurity threats.

Last year primary sector exports totalled $46 billion with dairy export revenue alone at $18b while 3.8 million international visitors arrived and Kiwis made a further 3m trips abroad.

With such widespread movement of people, animals and goods biosecurity isn’t something one party alone can deliver.

We’re seeing the scale a biosecurity challenge can pose with coronavirus.

It’s not easy to detect and requires significant co-ordination across and within countries to respond.

Mycoplasma bovis poses similar challenges with detection and it has tested New Zealand’s biosecurity system all along the chain. It has had a significant impact on our rural communities and has required both farmers and organisations working with farmers to step up their biosecurity awareness and practices.

The economic impact of disease outbreaks can be devastating with African swine fever recently wiping out 65% of China’s pork herd. An outbreak of foot and mouth disease would essentially cripple our livestock sector, which contributes $28b to our GDP. Biosecurity will continue to be a critical issue for NZ. As an island, we have opportunities to tackle biosecurity risks many landlocked countries don’t have.

Our rural communities have faced diseases such as enzootic bovine leukosis (EBL) and tuberculosis (TB) and despite challenges they have persevered and gained ground.

TB has been here for over 100 years.

Actively managed since the 1950s, TB had a resurgence in the 1980s and 1990s. By 1994 almost 1700 herds were affected.

Turning that around took hard work from farmers, with support from the government, until by 2019 only 26 herds were affected.

The TB fight is far from over as we’ve recently seen but farmers continue to 42

DairyNZ chief executive Dr Tim Mackle says biosecurity will continue to be a critical issue for New Zealand.

share their biosecurity knowledge with the next farming generation through regional committees.

EBL, a virus that can lead to cancer in cattle, was successfully eradicated here in 2008. That occurred 11 years after it was detected and the eradication followed a successful milk screening programme.

Finding, containing and controlling biosecurity threats isn’t easy. They are usually difficult to detect, take a significant amount of time to tackle and setbacks are common along the way.

Over the past 18 months DairyNZ has been working with farmers, Beef + Lamb and the wider community through our OnFarm Biosecurity programme to address how we can collectively take

Over the years rural communities have faced a number of diseases such as tuberculosis and Mycoplasma bovis that can restrict stock movements. responsibility and respond to these threats.

We’ve seen farmers becoming increasingly biosecurity conscious with many treating their farms as an island with strong borders.

Improved biosecurity measures such as secure fencing, vaccination against infectious diseases and visitor procedures

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

Changing long-standing behaviour is a process rather than an overnight event. to clean boots and equipment have been put in place. Stock movements are planned and tracked and regional farmer action groups champion biosecurity in the community.

Given the right tools and support most farmers will take the right steps to protect their livelihood. But, as with any community, there are always some who let the rest of the team down.

Responsibility for on-farm biosecurity also goes well beyond the farmer and it will be important the upcoming Biosecurity Act review recognises that.

To be successful the whole community needs to be aware of what others are doing and the risks they could pose to on-

farm biosecurity. That helps identify those who need more support and to call out those who are actively flouting the rules.

Changing long-standing behaviour is a process rather than an overnight event.

Farmers, government, transporters, vets and others have worked together over the past year to support ongoing improvements to Nait. The Government recently recognised having industry and farmers at the table with it has fundamentally improved the M bovis programme and shown the way forward for future biosecurity management.

Thanks to the commitment of many farmers across the country the farming community has a richer knowledge of biosecurity threats and how to manage them.

But, ultimately, we can protect ourselves only if we work together to strengthen the weak links in our defence.

It takes perseverance and teamwork to overcome biosecurity threats and we all have a part to play to protect our precious vegetation, animals and people.

Farmers must plan safe stock movements on moving day.

Moving day is a high-risk biosecurity

event – if we don’t all take steps to reduce risk.

With moving day only a few weeks away now’s a great time to plan how you can keep your stock and our national herd safe for the future.

Here are four simple steps to do it.

Trace – ensure all stock movements are tagged and registered in Nait.

Screen – check stock and question their history before you buy them.

Border control – check all entries and exits on farm are secure. They can be pathways for biosecurity threats to access your property.

Defence lines – check and maintain secure boundary fences. n

Who am I? Dr Tim Mackle is the Chief executive at DairyNZ

MORE:

For detailed advice on protecting your farm, practical tools and guidance visit www. dairynz.co.nz/ biosecurity Your local OSPRI committee can also provide valuable support and tips. For information visit ospri.co.nz

Working smarter.

So your feed works harder.

Specialists in customisable feed Silo | Bulk | Liquid | Calf 0800 300 313

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

GrainCorpFeedsNZ

www.graincorpfeeds.co.nz

43

HEALTH & SAFETY

Help’s there – use it

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The Rural Support Trust aims to sustain productivity and support wellbeing in the agri sector. Ross Nolly catches up with some of the Taranaki team.

ARMING is a rewarding but challenging occupation.

And it’s very easy to let things get on top of you when you have your nose to the grindstone each day.

Rural Support Trusts provides free and confidential help to farmers and those making a living from the land who are under stress. The trusts area well-placed to point them to those who can provide further advice and aid.

The trusts have existed since 2007 and are a result of the 2004 Manawatu floods.

The Taranaki Rural Support Trust is one of 14 independent charitable trusts staffed by trained locals who are conversant with their community needs.

Their motto is Big ears, small mouth.

The Taranaki region has 43 facilitators from Mokau to Waverley.

“I’m a city girl who worked for Inland Revenue for 30 years. When I started this job I didn’t know the stresses that farmers face. We undertook a mind-map of the stresses and found that there are 98 across 14 categories that I had no idea existed,” Taranaki co-ordinator Marcia Paurini says.

“All create tension or stress and we aim to help people nip those stresses in the bud. This will minimise the chance of farmers losing confidence, becoming anxious and falling into the rabbit hole of depression.”

The trust has been training rural professionals and other related-industry people who deal with farmers. The aim is to help them recognise when their colleagues or clients might need help and how to initiate that conversation.

The trust promote WellSouth Primary Health Network’s award-winning Good Yarn Workshop programme. The handson workshops are designed for rural professionals and those living in rural communities.

The workshops focus on how to recognise the early signs of mental health problems and manage stress and mental health in the rural environment. They also teach participants how to talk to someone they’re concerned about and how to guide

44

The Rural Support Trust encourages farmers to take regular breaks away from the farm to ensure they don’t burn out. Try a different hobby, sport or pastime or get back to doing what you once loved such as surfing with your partner.

that person to appropriate support.

“When I talk to rural people about mental health I tell them what mental health issues look like, what they can say and do if they think someone is in a bad place and how to direct them to where they can receive help,” she says.

The Taranaki trust got 184 calls for support last year and 226 calls about the 2018 drought. It helped 44 families access funding through the Social Development Ministry’s Rural Assistance Payment which distributed $247,000.

“Nearly half, 48%, of the calls were related to people who already had anxiety or depression or had been on medication, 85% were male and all were under 45-years old. There’s still a great deal of stigma about asking for help,” Paurini says.

“We hold Bereaved by Suicide workshops. Taranaki hasn’t had an agri primary sector – people earning a living off the land – suicide since July 1 2017. My goal is to educate everyone in the region to protect the industry and the people within it.”

Taranaki Rural Support Trust coordinator Marcia Paurini says there is still a stigma about reaching out but farmers need to reach out if they need help or even just someone to talk to.

Calls are increasing to discuss bullying, most often an employer bullying an employee. That is a sign the employer could be under stress.

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April 2020

It’s easy to be fobbed off on the phone so if you are concerned about someone’s wellbeing, visit them.

Marcia Paurini

She has seen cases where young farm workers were expected to work 60 days without a break. That puts the worker’s family under stress and often causes relationship problems.

“The shame and reduction in confidence that those young workers underwent forced them to take two-weeks off, be put on medication and register with MSD’s sickness benefit.

“We sit around the table with those involved to see how we can help. In this type of case the worker usually relinquishes the role because they don’t have the mental capacity to continue.”

Taranaki Rural Support Trust chairman Mike Green feels many people enter into contracts unaware of what they’re getting out of them. That triggers a great deal of stress and is a problem that tends to fly below the radar. Those who don’t do due diligence are often caught out.

“Many contract milkers, sharemilkers and lessees don’t get professional advice.

DairyNZ and some accounting firms now run Business for Success programmes because they realise it’s become an issue,” Green says.

“Panic often pressures people into signing agreements practically on the gatepost on May 31 in a take it or leave it situation. I can understand why they’re pressured to sign because it’s now becoming difficult to find good staff because there are so many people leaving the industry.”

Many mental wellness problems often occur because of financial stress. Banks recognise how important it is for their farming customers to get away for a break. Farmers who make bad decisions because of stress or tiredness don’t help either party.

Getting off the farm can be a huge alleviating factor, as is starting a fitness regime or trying a new pastime. Physical activity is a scientifically proven way of relieving stress.

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April 2020

Getting back to nature is a great break away from the farm. Get off farm and take a short bush walk to clear the mind.

People under stress often avoid answering the phone. The trust is regularly contacted by accountants and other rural professionals if a farmer won’t answer the phone. Usually their circumstances have got to the stage where the farmer just wants it go away, but it doesn’t.

A pile of unopened envelopes, a dishevelled appearance, an untidy house or farm, the farmer seeking solace with alcohol or demonstrating behavioural changes are all red flags that something isn’t right.

The trust doesn’t just advocate and point farmers towards help, it also works on a more practical level through harnessing the power of social media to seek help. If food parcels are needed it will post a request on the Facebook page and always receives supportive responses.

It has found relief milkers for farmers who don’t want to continue milking but have been unable to sell their farm.

When a tragedy occurs the farming community’s generosity is overwhelming.

The local community rallies to support the affected families. Local farming families have even offered the use of their coastal baches to the trust for stressed farmers in need of a break.

Talking to a professional who possesses the skills to help can sometimes be easier than talking to someone close to you.

But the bottom line is to talk. Clinical psychologist Dr Sarb Johal, who helped during the British foot and mouth crisis, says 80% of stress disappears when an affected person knows someone is there for them.

“It’s easy to be fobbed off on the phone so if you are concerned about someone’s wellbeing, visit them. Use any excuse to visit and any excuse to get them away from the farm. It’s difficult for them to say no when you tell them I’m coming around to pick you up and we’re going fishing,” Paurini says “Without being accusatory say I haven’t seen you at the rugby lately. Is everything okay? Use it as an ice-breaker to gently initiate a conversation. Pick up on what they’re saying because it’s never too late to reach out for help or to help.

“Local doctors always make time for us because if we contact them they know it must be serious. The Taranaki District Health Board and the mental health assessment and brief care team also refers people to us when they’re due to be sent home. This allows us to provide continued support.

“Talk to someone who cares. There are no points for being staunch and thinking she’ll be right because often it won’t be.

Nip it in the bud before it becomes a problem.” n

SUPPORT RESOURCES: http://www.rural-support.org.nz/ FarmStrong checklists: https://farmstrong.co.nz/wellbeing-topics/ the-big-five/ https://farmstrong.co.nz/wp-content/ uploads/2018/07/5-Ways-to-wellbeing-SamWhitelock.pdf https://farmstrong.co.nz/wp-content/ uploads/2019/01/FAR_ManagingStress_ WarningSigns.pdf 45

HEALTH & SAFETY

WorkSafe ran the Agrikids Module at a Young Farmer of the Year event last year to help teach them about safety on farms.

Old dogs, new tricks?

A Kellogg Rural Leadership report has found varying attitudes to health and safety on farms so creating a positive health and safety culture in rural New Zealand has been an uphill battle for the industry.

Cheyenne Nicholson reports.

A

For her 2019 Kellogg Rural Leadership report Nicky Barton from WorkSafe NZ researched farm accidents.

46

GRICULTURE records the highest number of deaths of all industries.

Almost 20 lives a year are taken in workplace accidents in the food producing industry.

Almost a quarter of them are people in their 60s.

When combined with the number of workers over the age of 70 the group makes up almost half of all fatalities on farms, which raises the question of what

influence age has on health and safety behaviours and outcomes.

NZ’s accident rate across all industries is twice that of Australia and four times that of Britain, costing about $3 billion in 2014.

Nicky Barton of WorkSafe NZ looked to uncover what ages people are being fatally injured and how and if attitudes to health and safety vary across age groups in her 2019 Kellogg Rural Leadership report.

Her research uncovered a challenge to

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

While experience reigns high at this age so do a decrease in cognitive ability, physical limitations and overestimation of ability.

Nicky Barton

all in the rural health and safety system – that when farmers are at their most experienced and perceived to be most adept at assessing risk they are also being killed in the highest numbers.

“While experience reigns high at this age so do a decrease in cognitive ability, physical limitations and overestimation of ability.”

Creating a positive health and safety culture in rural NZ has been an uphill battle for regulators, industry bodies, levy organisations and farmers alike.

WorkSafe inspectors see a reluctance to engage in health and safety and the expectations of WorkSafe from older farmers, which they put down to the damage done by the OSH brand to the relationship between regulator and farmer. The issue of changing lifelong habits from farmers was also raised.

However, one inspector’s observation was that as socialisation of the Health and Safety at Work Act and familiarity with its requirements increased they saw some self-regulation in the sector, usually taking the shape of younger to middleaged farmers calling out older farmers and asking them to come into line.

Farmers across all ages consistently view increased age with increased experience and ability to assess and manage risks, a result very much at odds with the number of deaths later in farming careers.

Most farmer respondents referred to the dangers of working with stock and equipment but made little of vehicles or vehicle competence despite that being the primary mechanism of fatal harm on farms.

Many older farmers discussed the need for good on-farm culture and considered

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April 2020

Most common mechanism of fatal harm for each age group. Data obtained from WorkSafe.

Total number of fatalities between 2011 and 2018 grouped by age group. Data obtained

by WorkSafe.

their leadership and that of others to be the key to improvements in health and safety and many felt regulations had prompted a change in their behaviour, proving that you can teach an old dog new tricks.

Older farmers, while ranking highest in fatal harm, did share some really positive health and safety attributes when discussing their approach and attitude on farms.

The research shows the increase in fatal injuries to older farmers is not down to a disinterest in good health and safety but other factors like slower cognition, overestimating ability and underestimating physical limitations.

Barton’s research showed the rural community’s acceptance of health and safety has moved forward in leaps and bounds since previous similar research and across all age groups farmers see it as being a necessary and important part of their business.

Some of Barton’s recommendations focus around governing bodies and industry groups collaborating on campaigns focusing on safely incorporating children in farm activities and encouraging better risk assessment and decision-making by parents, the industry as a whole better highlighting vehicles as key contributors of harm and using the suggested contributing factors to the high rates of fatal injury in older farmers as the basis for intervention design by WorkSafe and industry groups.

Messages being rolled out by WorkSafe and other organisations are having the desired effect and continuing to work with and engage farmers in their youth and early careers will continue to be important to create sustained generational change. n

MORE:

The report is at www.ruralleaders.co.nz 47

HEALTH & SAFETY

Play it safe

F

Farm deaths and accidents are a sad part of the agriculture industry but there are steps farmers can take to mitigate the risks so everyone returns home safe at the end of the day. Tony Benny reports.

ARM owners need to take greater responsibility for training their staff if New Zealand is to reduce workrelated deaths and injuries on farms, Canterbury farm safety specialist D’Arcy Palmer says.

In the year to the end of January 24 people died in on-farm accidents with a peak of seven in January alone. Palmer believes all those deaths could have been prevented.

“It comes back to training,” he says.

“Eighty percent of my clients and their workers do not come from a farming background, they might come from overseas and they weren’t brought up on a farm as a child and taught the dos and don’ts by their parents.”

Palmer owns Farmers for Farm Safety, an independent health and safety advisory service promoting the first priority in farming is to take all reasonably practicable steps to prevent farmers and farm employees losing their careers, lifestyles, family members, friends or financial security.

FFS has a vast and varied client base encompassing sole operators through to large corporate farming entities. Client farms and companies run 2500 to 42,000 stock units and 340 to in excess of 11,000 dairy cows employing one to 55 staff.

FFS services also encompass agricultural contractors and agricultural shows.

D’Arcy Palmer, who has 40 years of experience in the agriculture industry, runs Farms for Farm Safety and works with farmers and businesses to develop health and safety plans.

Working with farm businesses developing health and safety plans Palmer says there’s a huge range of potentially dangerous activities on most farms from dealing with livestock and operating machinery to what vehicles

should be used to tow calfeterias.

“Depending on the size and brand a quad bike’s allowed to pull only 385kg and a calfeteria’s around 600kg but on some farms they’re pulling two of them on muddy ground. If someone jack-knifes

Ten Basic Fertiliser Facts You Must Know and Adopt to Meet 2025 Water Quality Limits: Dr Bert Quin

48

Fact 1. The overuse of soluble P fertiliser is by far the largest cause of P run-off and leaching, and therefore of the decline in the quality of Kiwi waterways.

Fact 2. Once you have Olsen P levels that are more than a third of the P retention (ASC), application of additional soluble P is very prone to loss to the environment.

Fact 3. If you want to build up your soil P in an environmentally-protective way, simply apply RPR. It does not get leached or lost directly in run-off, but releases P in a sustained fashion for plants.

Fact 4. There is nothing to lose and everything to gain. RPR-based fertilisers are even cheaper than super-based products as well! Added sulphur bentonite (sulphur 90) is far more efficient than the excess sulphate in super.

Fact 5. Following 1-4 above will greatly reduce P run-off and leaching. This should be done before anything else, and the situation reassessed before spending huge amounts of money!

Fact 6. It is nonsensical to give in to pressure to install expensive mitigations riparian strips, excessively large wetlands and ‘phosphorus walls’ when you have no idea of their long-term effectiveness and maintenance costs, and before you have established whether changing to sustained-release RPR is all you need to do!

Fact 7. in any case simple fenced-off 3-metre wide grass riparian strips are essentially as effective and vastly cheaper than more complex strips. Both reduce bacterial and sediment losses. Neither will have any significant long-term beneficial effect (on a whole -farm basis) on soluble P and nitrate-N loss. But grass strips can be harvested in summer to be fed out, to improve P and N cycling.

Fact 8. In a nutshell, for maintenance of P levels any genuine RPR (not an RPR/Boucraa mix please!) can be used. Just check the Cd content. For low fertility situations or low rainfall, use a blend of RPR and high-analysis soluble P. Fact 9. For N, rather than granular urea, use prilled urea, sprayed immediately prior to, or during, the spreading with urease inhibitor. Use of N can be literally cut in half with big savings.

Fact 10. Potash is more efficient, and must less likely to cause metabolic problems, if applied in small doses 4 times a year, adding up to 50-60% of the total annual amount you are using now. Easy to mix with your prilled urea. Leaching of anions like nitrate will be minimised as well.

For more info, email Bert Quin on bert.quin@quinfert.co.nz, or phone 021 427 572, or visit www.quinfert.co.nz

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April 2020

it and dies it’s the employer who goes for the skate because he hasn’t supplied the correct vehicle,” Palmer warns.

He was brought up on sheep and cattle property and farmed for 34 years but 13 years ago decided to broaden his experience by working on a dairy farm for nine months.

“You can’t be credible in health and safety in agriculture if you haven’t done it yourself.

“I was fortunate a contract milker allowed me to work on his farm and be part of his staff, to work 11 days on, three days off, 10 hours a day,” he recalls.

“I found out what fatigue did, I found out what it was like to work for someone else, I found out what it was like to work with overseas workers and others as just one of them and not as the boss.”

He also learned how dangerous an occupation farming can be when a fellow worker crashed into him at 60kmh.

“I was sitting on the quad bike waiting for the cows to go into the paddock and heard this noise coming up behind me and thump, I was unconscious on the ground.

“He picked me up and put me on his carrier, unconscious. He could’ve broken my neck or anything.

“The things that went wrong were just unbelievable. They thought I was dead but I’m a tough bastard,” he laughs.

He was luckier than many accident victims and 10 days later he was back on light duties but he had a new appreciation of how easily mistakes can be made that put lives at risk.

Palmer says employers have a duty of care to their staff by ensuring infrastructure and machinery are up to standard. They have to make sure all their staff understand the risks they face and follow safe operating procedures. It’s not enough to casually outline farm safety hazards. Employers must be sure their staff understand.

He’s developed what he calls a worker induction acknowledgment-of-training form that includes a list of all the potential on-farm hazards and requires all staff to sign off every single one.

“It’s a simple exercise they do with their staff. They sit round the table and print it off for each one and go through it,” Palmer says.

“It is the employer’s responsibility to ensure his workers are trained in every activity or undertaking asked of them and if something happens they’ve got to have proof that they have actually trained them.”

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April 2020

D’Arcy Palmer has national qualifications in all aspects of health and safety applicable to farming and has developed a health and safety plan all staff must complete and sign.

Among the many farm hazards Palmer encounters are effluent ponds, which, on some farms, are inadequately fenced, he says.

One farm owner he dealt with resisted putting more than a single wire around the pond, arguing there was no requirement to do so in the building code despite the multiple hazards.

Don’t play the odds, play the consequences and have policies and procedures in place.

“Effluent ponds are raised, you can’t see them from ground level, there’s stirrers, a walkway out to pontoons and submersible pumps. I asked the farm owner, who is also an absentee owner, if he wanted to be responsible for someone else’s child when he’s not there?”

When he goes on to a new client’s property Palmer does an audit of infrastructure and machinery and discusses safety issues and says farmers are often surprised just how many hazards he identifies.

“The point about it is they hadn’t even thought about the Health and Safety Act and how the associated regulations apply to farming,” he says.

“They know how to run their farms, they’re good on feed management and animal health but when I walk round I see things like uncovered PTO shafts or 15-year-old augurs that have no covers on the pulleys.

“If someone loses two fingers in that it’s a $100,000 fine to you so get some covers put on. It doesn’t matter that it wasn’t made with them – put them on now.”

Farmers need to be especially attentive to workers from overseas because many have trouble understanding English and have no farm experience before coming here. But even experienced locals can be a problem.

“I get a lot of phone-calls from daughters-in-law saying ‘D’Arcy we need to see you. Granddad’s out of control.

He’s got them on the quad bike, he’s got them on the trailer, he’s got them on the ute deck, he’s got them in the tractor and it’s got no cab’.”

The attitudes of those old-timers have to change too because lives are at risk.

“You’ve got to have safe operating practices for everything you do on the farm and pass that knowledge on and supervise until workers are trained.

“Don’t play the odds, play the consequences and have policies and procedures in place,” he says. n

49

HEALTH & SAFETY

Keeping farmers safe

A

GRICULTURE and the manufacturing, fishing, construction and forestry sectors account for more than half of all workplace injury entitlement claims.

Justifiably, the Government has very high expectations of employers when it comes to workplace health and safety – and this requirement is no different for farmers.

Having your heart in the right place and a good attitude is by no means the end of your obligations.

Most farmers are aware of the fundamental liability risks they face daily but insurer FMG gets regular queries from farmers, rural operators and agri businesses regarding health and safety and the potential issues that can arise.

The most common causes of death on farms are from quad bikes while tractor and side-by-side accidents are also 50

significant contributors.

Workplace accidents can cause interruption to your business, undue stress and operational pressures but, more importantly, can have dramatic personal consequences for you, your workers and the community.

FMG insures over 50% of rural New Zealand, which has enabled it to learn a great deal about the causes of tractor and quad bike rollover accidents. FMG has then taken these insights and worked with industry experts to develop advice to keep you and your team safe on farm.

What you and your team can do to avoid tractor and quad bike rollovers: Tractor rollovers occur on both hills and flats.

The most common factor in tractor rollovers is hilly terrain with compounding factors including slippery conditions, towing and failure to apply the handbrake.

However, tractor rollovers are not

specifically a hill country issue. Nearly half of rollovers occur on flat or near flat land, often involving sharp braking or turning a tractor with a front-end loader.

They’re not restricted to wet, slippery conditions either. Rollovers are just as common in summer as they are in winter.

Front-end loaders change the centre of gravity.

In a modern four-wheel-drive tractor the centre of gravity is roughly where the driver’s feet are. Lifting a round hay bale to the loader’s highest point shifts the centre of gravity in height from the driver’s feet to the driver’s eye level. It also moves it forward from a couple of feet in front of the rear axle to a couple of feet behind the front axle.

This significant lifting of the tractor’s centre of gravity affects its driving capabilities and increases its propensity to roll or tip.

Drive with the loader positioned as low and as safely as possible to maintain

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April 2020

Tractor rollovers can happen just as often on flat land as they do on hilly terrain and are just as common in summer as they are in winter.

Quad bikes are a versatile and popular machine but are the most common cause of death on a farm.

Having your heart in the right place and a good attitude is by no means the end of your obligations. a lower centre of gravity, especially if carrying a load.

Speed is another common factor in tractor rollovers.

If the cornering speed is doubled the force trying to roll the tractor is quadrupled, which means if the cornering speed is halved the forces trying to roll the tractor are cut by four times.

Even a small drop in cornering speed can give a significant improvement in

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

tractor handling. Decreasing the speed around a corner from 40kmh to 35kmh decreases the force trying to roll the tractor by 25%.

Rollovers are the leading cause of significant tractor damage. Half of FMG’s claims are for more than $10,000. Almost one in 10 tractor claims are from tipping or rolling a tractor.

Popular quads are overrepresented in claims.

The versatility of the 400–500cc quad makes it a popular choice on farms.

However, their versatility can mean they are pushed beyond their limits so 400–500cc quads are over-represented in rollover statistics, accounting for 75% of rolled quad claims.

Newer quads more likely to roll.

Quads that are two years old or newer account for half of all rollover claims despite accounting for only a quarter of the quads insured. Subtle handling differences can exist between manufacturers and even between different models of the same quad. If you’re buying a new quad be sure to get the retailer to explain the handling differences between your old and new quads.

Park brake at the gate.

Almost 20% of accidents have happened when the rider has hopped off and the quad has moved, in neutral with no park brake, or driven away by itself and rolled when the accelerator has been hit either by getting off or by the dog. The most common scenario is getting off to open and shut gates.

On average FMG receives a claim for a quad rollover or accident every day. Over the past five years FMG has received 2000 claims for quad rollovers and accidents, worth more than $8.1 million.

FMG has seen a dramatic rise in the use of side-by-sides as an alternative to other farm vehicles.

The number of side-by-sides insured

by FMG over the past five years has doubled.

It’s important to note that though used for similar jobs they do handle differently to two-wheel motorbikes and quad bikes.

FMG recommends heading to WorkSafe to make sure you’re using the right vehicle for the job (worksafe.govt.nz/ dmsdocument/3732-use-the-right-farmvehicle).

Side-by-sides are more likely to have an accident with another vehicle From side-by-side claims FMG has found they are three times more likely to have an accident with another vehicle than quad bikes because of their car-like characteristics. They are often parked near other vehicles and there have been occasions where the side-by-side has been backed into other vehicles.

Multi-tasking is still an issue.

Both side-by-side and quad bike accidents occur while the rider is performing multiple tasks such as spraying or moving stock. FMG recommends focusing on the ground ahead. A small lapse in concentration can lead to a collision or worse a rollover, so keep your eye on the most important task at hand when operating your vehicle. n

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HEALTH & SAFETY

Getting farm fit Keeping fit both physically and mentally takes hard work so a Taranaki farmer is keeping himself fit and healthy while helping others by running boot camps on the farm.

Ross Nolly reports.

T

HERE’S a farming quote that says you’ve got to look after the top paddock.

Mental health and physical fitness often form a symbiotic relationship. Being physically fit is a way to help keep your mental fitness in a healthy state.

Taranaki farmers Kane and Nicole Brisco have taken the top paddock mantra to heart.

They operate a twice-weekly fitness boot camp to help farmers get a muchneeded fitness boost and keep their mental health in top order.

The couple are 50:50 sharemilkers at Meremere, east of Hawera. They milk 210 cows on 70 hectares effective with a further 40ha of gullies for their young stock.

The impetus for starting the boot camps came after Kane retired from rugby. It was the first spring he’d ever gone into without having a core fitness level to call on.

“I’d always played rugby and boxed so had a good level of fitness but that spring I was 10kg heavier and it was horrible.

“I said to myself ‘I’m not doing that again’.

“Dairy farmers have their biggest rest period just before their busiest time and a fitness decline just before it’s needed.

That got me thinking about initiating a training regime to help farmers get fit for calving.”

Kane’s gym is an open paddock with one of the best views in the country – right across the ring-plain to Mount Taranaki.

He began holding his boot camps on Wednesday and Friday evenings in January last year. He expected only a few people to turn up to the first sessions but had six on the first night and before he knew it he had 10. He now has 15 regular members.

The programme runs through to calving with the first two-months focusing mostly on developing all-round baseline strength. As the participants 52

After he stopped playing rugby Kane Brisco wasn’t as fit as he had been and found the spring calving tough so began a farm fitness boot camp aimed at increasing health and wellbeing.

Photos: Ross Nolly

develop they progress to more difficult exercises.

“We work towards spring so we are cardiovascular fit and can comfortably accomplish multi-joint exercises with reasonable strength. They hit the ground running rather than becoming fit through the calving season.” Kane says.

All the members found last year’s spring calving physically easier.

They had more energy, fewer injuries and increased mobility.

He feels if a job is physically easier the mental side becomes easier too.

“Our aim was to get people fit for spring calving but the community factor of getting people together to do something active and positive is a strong element.

We make the workouts difficult enough to forget about the farm. Exercise promotes fitness and health and is a way to destress and come together as a community,” he says.

He believes it is very easy to become insular on a farm so it’s important to get

farmers out of their front gate and onto another farm. The social aspect of the group is a way to communicate stresses and has had a positive outcome.

“That’s one of the reasons why I attend discussion groups. You work on the farm for 10-12 hours a day and don’t often visit the neighbours or go to town. I can go a month without going to town and seeing what everyone else is up to,” Kane says.

“Having a reason to get off the farm refreshes the mind, and getting together with people in a similar situation makes you feel less alone.”

It can be difficult reaching those who have retreated. Once a person has begun that process it’s common for them to retreat even further within themselves.

“You almost need to go and pick them up. We encourage people to bring their neighbours along. Often they’re the ones who need that little push to start. Once they’re here they feel 100 times better and return for more. That first step is usually the difficult one.”

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April 2020

About 15 people regularly take part in boot camps run by Kane Brisco.

He aims to make the workouts not only physically challenging but mentally challenging too. The psychological barrier is usually the biggest hurdle to overcome.

When he began his boot camp the participants would often say they couldn’t complete some exercises.

But after being guided through would get satisfaction they could do it.

They just need that guidance and a little push to try.

The boot camps aim to get people out of their comfort zone. Many of those who attend don’t play sport or haven’t been particularly active. When they commit to boot camp they gain a tangible sense of achievement after completing the workouts.

Kane feels most participants need the group environment, especially at the beginning. Just knowing someone else is in the trench is a motivating factor. He feels that applies to farming too. Having discussions with a group of peers makes farmers realise they aren’t alone.

“The older generation of farmers are the ones that are the most committed and moan the least.

“When I give them a tough assignment you can tell they’ve faced tough mental and physical challenges before.

“They just get on with it.

“One of our aims is to help the younger ones push through some discomfort to discover what they’re made of.”

You don’t need formal training sessions to become fit and healthy. Kane knows of farmers who have improved their fitness by walking to get the cows in for milking.

“I wanted to improve my chin-ups so, once the cows were out of the shed, every time I walked through the herringbone

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

Boot camp participants get their strain on.

gates I’d do a chin-up. You do that 20 times a milking and all of a sudden you’ve done 20 reps.

“Work simple things into your daily routine. It takes a little while to get into a habit, but if you’re doing the right things it makes a significant difference.”

He strongly advocates breaking the habit of sitting on the couch, which will benefit health and family life.

“It’s very easy to say you don’t have time to work on your fitness but then spend half an hour scrolling through your Facebook feed.

“Become more active with your kids at home. Throw or kick a ball around or take them out on the farm with you. You’ll be amazed how many more calories you

burn by being active throughout your day.

Daily activity burns more calories than an hour-long training session.”

He recommends finding an enjoyable activity that gets your body moving, even though you might not consider it as exercise.

“The best exercise doesn’t feel like exercise. The enjoyment factor is what gets people sticking to it. Whatever your choice is you’ve got to enjoy it. Just do more of whatever you enjoy doing.

“We use as much farm gear as possible for training. It doesn’t have to be overly complicated and you don’t need a lot of equipment.”

Continued page 54 53

It’s incredibly rewarding to be receiving so much positive feedback and knowing that what we’re doing is making a difference to someone’s life.

Kane Brisco

Boot camps are held twice a week and run through to calving with the first two months focusing mostly on developing all-round baseline strength.

All the participants have stayed the distance and have thoroughly enjoyed their experience.

The original physical boot camp idea has now evolved into a social media entity by the creation of an Instagram account and a Facebook page. The goal is to provide inspiration and information to the wider community.

Kane posts updates on social media in an attempt to get other farmers involved and pass on ideas and inspiration and he posts a weekly workout video for people

to try. The videos often refer to how things were for granddad and grandma in simpler times.

“You didn’t see them chucking back supplement pills and protein shakes. It was all about being active through the day and eating wholesome, nutritious food.

Our lifestyle has changed but we can learn from the past.”

“Our videos aim to teach the fundamental principles of health and fitness without doing any of the crazy stuff. Just showing these guys off is pretty

All the participants found last year’s spring calving physically easier after getting fit at boot camp. They had more energy, fewer injuries and increased mobility.

54

cool too. Having them coming here inspires me to keep going.”

His fitness social media posts are closely aligned with mental health awareness. He shares thinking and techniques that have helped him get through tough times.

Last year he completed a personal trainer qualification. Most of his previous fitness knowledge came from his boxing trainer Steve Hartley. Kane describes Hartley as “old school with a no bullshit attitude” who impressed on his pupils that they have to work hard to succeed.

The Briscos entered the dairy industry during the high payout years. When the payout dropped they went from feeling like they had a rosy future to feeling like they’d had the rug pulled out from beneath them.

Boxing was still dear to Kane’s heart. He remembered how it changed his life and direction as an 18-year old. The Briscos were losing a great deal of money and Kane wasn’t in the best frame of mind. He took up boxing again, which helped him get through that tough financial period.

“When you’re boxing you are 100% focused on the task. It’s a mental reset.

You come back to the farm and those problems are still there but you’ve had a breather and can start afresh.”

Boxing forced Kane out of his comfort zone and improved his selfconfidence and a great deal of his anxiety disappeared. Boxing’s mental challenge and discipline gave him many tools to use on the farm.

“The boot-camps are a labour of love. We just want to help people. It’s incredibly rewarding to be receiving so much positive feedback and knowing that what we’re doing is making a difference to someone’s life.” n

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

WHITE GOLD

Finding their own way

T

Sheep milking is common in many parts of the world and in recent years has gained popularity in New Zealand. Cheyenne Nicholson catches up with one South Island family milking the woolly animals.

AKE a librarian, a horticulturist and a management consultant with limited farming experience but unlimited enthusiasm and you’ve got the McMillian family.

Husband and wife Heather and Rodney with their daughter Katrina run Lonsdale Sheep Dairy. They are relatively new to the growing sheep milk industry.

“We always wanted to go farming eventually and were beginning to think that time was running out a bit as we weren’t getting any younger,” Heather says.

They learned about sheep milking through a friend of Katrina and went to the inaugural NZ Sheep Milking Conference in 2015 to find out more. They were conscious that whatever farming venture they started it needed to tick a few boxes for it to work for them.

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

“We thought sheep milking was something we’d be able to do physically and we saw it as being environmentally friendly, didn’t need a huge amount of land and was something that the whole family could be involved with.”

Having settled on sheep milk as their farming venture the next step was doing research into establishing a business.

With valuable new contacts from the sheep milking conference they soon secured a small flock of East Friesian sheep and were on their way to their farming dream.

“Although all sheep can be milked there are specialised milking sheep breeds and because the industry is fairly small in New Zealand we did have to spend some time looking around for suitable sheep.

“A person we met at the conference rang and asked if we were interested in buying some sheep. We instantly said yes, which left the ever-so-small problem of

Sheep have a much smaller udder and teats than cows so the McMillans had to install a new sheep milking plant.

not having a farm to put them on,” she says.

At the time they lived on a small lifestyle block in Upper Hutt, not exactly

Continued page 56 55

Our goal is to improve our milk genetics so we can produce more milk per ewe and therefore increase milk production without increasing stock numbers.

Heather McMillan

Katrina, Rodney and Heather McMillan entered farming with sheep milking in 2016 and now milk 300 ewes in Canterbury.

ideal for a small flock of sheep. A friend of Katrina came to the rescue and their newly acquired flock headed south for 12 months while they looked for the perfect farm.

“I took this time to get my Certificate in Sheep Knowledge and Rodney finally put his agricultural science degree to good use.

“We did a lot of research into what we needed to do once we found a property, from registering a risk management plan to complying with all the environmental rules and regulations.”

Developing a risk management plan and getting consents to farm, irrigate and spread effluent was difficult at times because the industry was still new. There

weren’t many statistics to support their applications.

“AgResearch had been working on the environmental impacts of sheep milk and we were able to show that milking sheep was going to be considerably easier on the land than milking cows. This was important as we are close to Lake Ellesmere and in a phosphorus-sensitive zone.”

In 2016 they bought the 35ha Lonsdale Farm at Springston.

The former dairy farm had plenty of shed space, a single-stand shearing bay, calf pens, a winter feed pad and a 16-aside herringbone shed.

“We had to downsize most of the hardware as the milk volume is much less

and install sheep bales so the ewes could munch on barley during milking. That was relatively straightforward and being able to adapt it rather than completely refitting it was a saving.

“We only installed 16 sheep bails on one side of the shed at this stage. We wanted to ensure the market and industry were sustainable in the South Island before converting the shed fully. Milking 300 sheep through 16 bails is slow but we hope to increase this to 32.”

During the farm development they baled most of the 35ha into hay and balage to build up a supplementary feed store before the flock moved home.

Pasture production is now excellent all year with the help of irrigation where needed. They are setting up smaller paddocks to improve pasture utilisation and enable them to manage multiple mobs more easily.

“We’re shifting break fences most days, which is a huge time investment that we could be putting elsewhere.

“Rodney works mainly off farm so it’s Katrina and I here on a daily basis.

We look forward to the fencing being

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completed so during the milking season there will be one less job to do.

“Our sheep are not used to being hungry and will walk through any threewire, temporary electric fence that isn’t operating to full capacity.

“Even then some will just jump the three wires and we are forced to run a four-wire fence if we want to graze a section a bit harder.

“Access to water in the temporary breaks is also a challenge as each 5ha paddock has only one trough. We are forever fixing leaks in hoses running to temporary troughs.”

In 2016 the 80-strong ewe flock lambed in September. They planned to begin milking in November once lambs were ready for weaning but the Primary Industries Ministry licence was held up so milking was delayed till January.

“MPI was really great during the period when we were setting everything up.

They’d answer all our questions and point us in the direction to get more information.

“We had a bit of an issue in regard to effluent. Because the sheep-milking industry is still fairly new MPI wanted to place the same rules around effluent on us as they do on conventional cow dairies.

Our effluent output is very minimal so we did a lot of work with them around this.”

Over the past four years they have refined their breeding strategy to ensure they are breeding for good producers, udder conformation and good feet.

“Our goal is to improve our milk genetics so we can produce more milk per ewe and therefore increase milk production without increasing stock numbers.”

Their 300-sheep flock is predominately East Friesian with some Awassi and Lacaune genetics added in recent years.

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

a big ask for someone to be the farmer, Awassi are a meat and milk breed and producer and marketer.” their introduction to NZ has helped To be able to supply volume Lonsdale diversify NZ’s genetics base and provide Sheep and two other farms have hybrid vigour without compromising formed a group to supply cheesemakers milk production. throughout the South Island.

Lacaune come from France and were Katrina and Heather also make sheep developed for their milking ability. milk soap to sell. Katrina is the chief soap East Friesians aren’t a hardy breed and maker constantly experimenting with the purebred animals can struggle in the new ideas, recipe tweaks and fragrance NZ climate. options.

“The aim is to find a sheep that suits “The soap side of the business began the environment of our farm. quite by accident actually. We made some “We get some nasty southerly for ourselves, shared it with friends and easterly winds, especially then had people asking to buy it. around lambing time.

Sheep milk is high in fat, Currently our vitamins and minerals, which mix is doing makes it a great ingredient well with higher for a nourishing soap.” lamb survival The bulk of their and fewer foot income still comes issues.” from rearing lambs Unlike the but the milk income is North Island, growing rapidly with the the South Island cheesemakers ordering lacks large more each year as the processing market develops. facilities for Next season they hope sheep milk, to launch a sheep milk which means options for yoghurt. the end-product are limited.

Heather says sheep milk In Canterbury the makes a thick, rich yoghurt full big processors want the Katrina and Heather also of nutrients. It doesn’t take a lot volume of milk to make make sheep milk soap to fill you up. investing in a plant or that is sold at events, The animals and pastures are taking time away from markets and locally. improving all the time. processing cow milk to “We couldn’t have achieved any of process sheep milk using the existing this without the support of friends, plant worthwhile. neighbours, the Red Meat Profit “There are plenty of farmers out there Partnership group and professionals ready to milk sheep but they are waiting from agronomists to the vets. It’s been an for there to be guaranteed processing exciting few years. facilities.

“Like all farming it has it’s tough days “This is causing a bit of a stalemate. but we are really happy to have had the Alternatively, anyone going into sheep opportunity to fulfil our dream to go milking needs to be prepared to process farming.” their own milk into an end product. It’s n

The 300-sheep flock is predominately East Friesian with some Awassi and Lacaune genetics added in recent years to produce animals suited to the New Zealand climate.

57

WHITE GOLD

Rapid freezing for milk TIM FULTON

I

NTEREST in non-bovine dairy is growing as farmers look for ways to reduce risk in their businesses.

Until recently most New Zealand sheep and goat milk platforms have tended to be farflung.

Animal numbers and milk volumes are typically low in the early stages of a sheep or goat-milking operation, potentially making processing unfeasible.

As more farmers consider milk sheep or goats on a standalone basis or alongside bovine dairying there is growing interest in novel ways to store milk for processing and marketing further afield.

Smaller herd milkers typically supply local cheese-makers who might want to buy milk only once a week.

Some, wanting to stabilise their product, resort to freezing the milk, perhaps in pails or two litre bladders that are stored and transported for domestic use or exported to yoghurt and cheese manufacturers. Using the conventional method of freezing milk, done slowly and in bulk, its quality deteriorates when it is stored.

To help overcome issues with slow bulk freezing researchers at Massey University and GNS Science, led by Professor Richard Archer, have developed a rapid freezer to enable non-bovine milk to be stored for long periods without jeopardising quality.

This new rapid-freeze technology allows milk to be aggregated until

Milk from animals other than cows is giving people a chance to try new products.

Photo: Chris Williams

Post freezing product applications include cheese, powder, yoghurt and ice cream. volumes are large enough to be sold for processing.

Though the focus of the rapid freezing project is sheep milk, the technology is suitable for other non-bovine milks including goat and deer and also for non-dairy liquids such as fruit juice and smoothies.

Archer’s team is investigating how and why freezing milk affects quality and is using the knowledge gained to design a simple, affordable freezer system suitable for on-farm use.

They have found the most important factors for thawed milk quality are the speed of freezing, final storage temperature and storage time.

Best quality is achieved when freezing is as fast as possible – within a minute or two – when the frozen milk is kept as cold

as possible, below - 20C, and the storage time is minimised to weeks rather than months.

Rapid freezing followed by storage at temperatures below -20C can maintain high milk quality for months though some kinds of milk are more sensitive to freeze-thaw than others.

The unit being designed for on-farm or near farm use is likely to have a 1000-litre capacity. A day’s production would probably fill half bins flat out.

Rapid freeze technology allows farmers to store milk for multiple days. It also makes it possible to take the freezer to the milk – it works well with a mobile milking platform – so two or three farmers could share a freezer and collect milk till they have sufficient volume to send to a drier such as the one at FoodWaikato.

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production is not jeopardised.

“We need food so other sectors need to do better.

“This is a breath of someone to finally fresh air for say Rankin says while that.” reports have been previous scathing of farming, this one is less so.

“I felt like this report has helped us turn a corner, that affected by climate farmers are change but we The Intergovernme also really need them.” on Climate Change ntal Panel The report found (IPCC) report global food is being welcomed systems account

by New for a quarter of Zealand farming greenhouse gas leaders as an emissions and endorsement of agricultural emissions of nitrous our low impact systems and the oxide and methane importance of are increasing. maintaining food But land also has production. a role as a The IPCC says carbon sink, absorbing land on which 30% of the we rely for food, planet’s greenhouse water, gas emissions health and wellbeing energy, between 2008 and 2017. is already under pressure Crop production and climate is being change will exacerbate affected by higher temperatures, through desertification that changing rain patterns degradation potentially and land frequency of extreme and greater affecting events. food security.

The report warns consumption The report’s advocacy patterns, land management and balanced diet including of a population growth will determine animal protein sourced the planet’s future from resilient, in a changing sustainable, low climate. greenhouse systems is an endorsement gas “Pathways with higher demand for NZ, for food, Beef + Lamb chief feed, and water, insight officer more ON-FARM training Jeremy Baker says. resource-inten courses have an sive consumption important role to “This is the NZ She said there should and production play red and more limited always future, Feilding High in agriculture’s be an opportunity production system. meat technological improvements Reesby said the to role that form Meaghan Reesby School student training because do practical of training plays “It is definitely in agriculture yields, says. trained in increasing the not saying that The year 13 pupil result in a better understanding staff have skills of people in we all need to higher risks from of how their agriculture should become vegetarian agri-commerce at plans study water scarcity workplaces, such not be overlooked Massey University or vegan.” in drylands, land as farms, function, and any future next year but said degradation and which is good for changes in how not everyone employers and It is an opportunity food insecurity.” training course are interested in agriculture employees. delivered needs to ramp wants to go up promotion to remember that.

Report contributor to university. of the Taste Pure Feilding High School The daughter of Associate Himatangi dairy Nature brand, Professor Anita Some people prefer can build their practicalpupils farmers, Meaghan’s to tell Wreford, of farming global meat eaters 40 million on approach, whether a more handsLincoln University’s experience while on the family farm, brother works about NZ’s lowthat is through at school by Agribusiness complementing a cadetship or beginning carbon footprint, and Economic taking courses offered what he learns at he says.

Research Unit, work with building their knowledge a job and Gateway, a programme through DairyNZ climate says it shows the practical courses, through change importance of for young while her sister courses offered people in their last ambassador Trish also is also full time not implementing by workplace year of school Rankin is on contradictory the farm, training that allows them providers such as fitting her Massey heartened the policies. to Primary report says some course work ITO. training made up complete around that. sectors need to “The report is of theory and reduce their highly practical unit standards. emissions faster for NZ as we grapple relevant to ensure food MORE: trade-offs involved with the greenhouse gas P3 emissions, with reducing adapting to the change, managing impacts of climate the areas we value and maintaining supporting our communities and and societies in this process.

Neal Wallace

neal.wallace@glo balhq.co.nz

HE red meat industry hopes to ramp up its Taste Pure Nature brand campaign on the back of international climate the latest change report.

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Post freezing product applications include cheese, powder, yoghurt and ice cream.

Now the rapid freezing technology is developed Archer’s team is working with a New Zealand company to develop a freezer that is simple to operate, robust and requires minimal labour input.

Ensuring the equipment complies with relevant regulations is also a major consideration.

It is hoped the new freezer will be available to buy in the next year. n

The Rapid Milk Freezer Project led by Massey University to commercialise a milk freezing unit promises to expand the country’s supply chain for goat, sheep and deer.

How the speed of freezing affects milk quality FREEZING milk creates ice crystals.

During storage, water molecules that normally lubricate proteins migrate from the proteins to the crystals.

That forces the proteins to stick together and lose solubility.

When you freeze milk fast you create lots of tiny ice crystals that trap proteins.

Even if those small bits of protein lose solubility over time they will make only tiny, soft flakes.

On thawing the liquid still behaves like fresh milk.

In contrast, freezing milk slowly produces a small number of big ice crystals, which crush all the proteins together. Once the proteins have stuck together in a big lump it might not be possible to completely reconstitute them during processing.

If milk has been frozen quickly, less damage is accumulated during storage.

Furthermore, the colder you store it and the shorter time you store it for means less damage accumulates.

And, importantly, if you freeze and store the milk ice in small lumps it can be thawed really quickly, giving bugs little time to grow. Pails and bladders can take a long time to thaw.

The rapid freezing work is being done as part of the Food Industry Enabling Technologies project, funded by the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment.

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

Gold for goat milkers TIM FULTON

D

EVELOPERS of rapid milk freezing for aspiring goat-milkers have struck gold in their quest for on-farm storage to expand the

industry.

Most producers rely on collection and processing by the Waikato-based New Zealand Dairy Goat Co-operative, which is brimming with milk and reluctant to accept new suppliers.

Blenheim-based engineering firm Cuddon Freeze Dry is working with technology pioneers to store frozen milk in small pellets till it can be thawed for further processing and sale.

The Rapid Milk Freezer Project led by Massey University promises to expand the country’s supply chain for goat, sheep and deer milk. Cuddon has a licence with Massey and its partners to commercialise a milk freezing unit.

The key to a commercial roll-out is making the gear the right size for farms, Cuddon chief executive Andy Rowe said.

Cuddon does mechanical engineering work and has specialist irrigation, refrigeration and freeze dry divisions.

Most of its driers are exported.

Rowe expects a commercial product to be ready for farmers in a few months.

Massey University research team leader Professor Richard Archer said all its work freezing and thawing milk has one

purpose: to develop a rapid freezer for use on or near farms in NZ. Cuddon is just the right partner for the work, he said.

“Here, we have struck gold.

“After prototyping several approaches we have found one which meets all our criteria. It is simple, compact and affordable.”

Cuddon is designing and building the first commercial prototype for a particular sheep milk producer. Another potential 10 buyers are lined up for the next units.

Cuddon’s system is also applicable to frozen goat and deer milk.

A number of companies and industries showed interest in the units as the Massey team’s work became more public, Archer said.

“As people start to consider how they might reduce fossil fuel use in favour of renewable energy a switch from thermal drying to electrical freezing is starting to look more attractive to some.”

The Rapid Milk Freezer Project is part of Food Industry Enabling Technologies (FIET), funded by the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment.

FIET supports new process developments that can add significant value to the economy.

The programme has six partners, Massey University (the host), Riddet Institute, Auckland and Otago Universities, Plant and Food and AgResearch. Funding is $18m over six years until 2021 for precommercialisation activities. n 59

WHITE GOLD

Proving them wrong

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A mid Canterbury farmer was told he was crazy to even think about milking deer and he thought it was a crazy idea too but has built up a deer milking farm and business. Tony Benny went along to see what is involved in milking deer.

EOPLE told mid Canterbury deer farmer Mark Faulks milking deer couldn’t be done but he and partner Graham Carr are proving them wrong and they’re now considering taking the fledgling venture to the next level.

“People said it was just crazy and to be fair we thought it was pretty crazy as well,” Faulks laughs.

“But the more people told us it couldn’t be done, the more we wanted to do it.”

Both well-known in the deer industry, they ventured into deer milking in 2014 and they and their staff now have the skills and infrastructure to comfortably milk 150 hinds once a day for a 100-day season, starting in mid February once the November-born fawns are weaned.

Faulks describes himself as a deer farmer by trade and early on managed the development of Minaret Station on the shores of Lake Wanaka. He turned the undeveloped property into a large-scale deer farm taking it from 1800 stock units to 18,000 in his 10 years there.

Soon after leaving that job his wife Lesley was diagnosed with breast cancer so with their three children they moved to Canterbury to be closer to her parents and a hospital. While caring for Lesley was his priority he needed something else to do and took a job with Carr managing his deer farm at Mt Somers and they moved there.

When Mark and Lesley, who seemed to have beaten cancer, decided to look for an equity partner to buy a farm of their own Carr suggested they form a partnership with him and they took a stake in the Mt

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Mark Faulks was told milking deer couldn’t be done but he has proved them wrong and now milks 150 deer once-a-day.

Photos: Tony Benny

Somers farm as well as another deer farm near Ashburton.

They moved to the Ashburton farm and it was decided that property should be converted to dairying and Mark oversaw the conversion. But then the family got devastating news.

“Lesley was skiing with the kids and her back got sore. The cancer had come back with a vengeance and we couldn’t stop it.

We lost Lesley in 2008. She was only 43.”

Mark was left to care for their children then aged 10, eight and six, alone.

“All I could do was roll up my sleeves and take it on.

“Luckily for the children and me we had

great family support plus the amazing help of an old friend, Cindy Mackenzie, who over time became my partner and second mum to the children.”

With the dairy conversion completed they moved back to Mt Somers, which was now being used for dairy support and then he and Carr were approached by a man looking for a supply of deer milk.

“We had a meeting with him and he wanted a partnership but we thought we’ve already got a good partnership and what ruins good partnerships is when you bring other people into them,” Faulks says.

Though they didn’t want to go into

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

another partnership they were intrigued by the possibilities.

“We thought maybe we could milk these bloody things.”

They knew of a farmer at Maniototo, Otago, who was playing around with deer milking so they went for a look.

“He wasn’t going to do it any more but his worker was quite keen to carry on so we said why don’t you come and work for us so she did.”

They bought a second-hand goatmilking plant and had the deer shed altered to accommodate the new project.

“We took the end out of the deer shed and got the digger in there and dug a pit, made a herringbone shed and bought a 2000 litre vat off Fonterra, one they used to use for colostrum, and brought it up to compliance to produce milk to food grade standard.

Now they had to figure out just how to go about deer milking and there was little information available to help them.

“If you want to milk sheep, goats or cattle you can buy a mob of milking animals but you can’t go and buy a mob of milking deer so we just got some deer, said you’re quiet and put them in the milking stalls,” he says.

We thought maybe we could milk these bloody things.

“Some were okay and others didn’t want to know about it. It’s one strike and you’re out. We don’t muck around just for the safety of the animals and the team.

Some deer just haven’t got the nature for it. They’re fine if you see them once a month but not once a day.”

Any hinds with the wrong temperament are culled and now he is concentrating on selecting animals with higher production.

He says some animals produce 300ml and others as much as 1.5 litres a day.

Deer milk is quite different from cow milk.

“It takes 10 litres of cows’ milk or goats’ milk to make 1kg of cheese but only 3.5 litres of deer milk. If you put a jug of deer milk in the fridge it won’t settle out, the fat won’t go to the top.”

With local producers Talbot Forest Cheese keen to expand their range the milk found a ready market and was made into gouda and havarti.

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

Deer milk manager Simon Wakefield puts cups on the deer which have smaller udders and teats compared to cows.

“We made a lot of cheese at the start but they couldn’t sell it for two years until we’d done all the testing. We got an exemption to make the cheese and store it from MPI but still couldn’t sell it,” he recalls.

“We made gouda because it has a good shelf life and it gets better the longer it’s stored but then we had this big mountain of cheese to get rid of, which we’re still selling.”

The cheese is now for sale but has been slow to take off with consumers so far though it did get a boost when Faulks and the business were featured on Country Calendar last year.

“It’s beautiful cheese but there are lots of beautiful cheeses. It’s more about the uniqueness of it, I suppose.”

This year’s milk production is being frozen and it’s going to be turned into milk powder, which is easily stored and transported, unlike the liquid milk, which can’t be stored fresh for long.

The partners are now deciding what’s next for the business.

If they can find a reliable market for the milk they’ll likely move the operation onto a nearby farm Faulks recently bought. He says the project has paid its way until now, albeit not making much profit. But this year they’ve invested more in research and development.

“If you looked at it with a calculator you’d throw it in the bin at the moment but sometimes you’ve got to look at things further down the track,” he says.

Mark and deer milk manager Simon Wakefield in front of their 2000 litre vat. They sell the milk to Talbot Forest Cheese. This year’s milk production will be frozen to be made into milk powder.

“We’ve got the people, we’ve got the deer and if we lose momentum, that’ll be it.

“If we can find the right market this year we’ll take it down to the other farm and ramp it up to 400 hinds.

“That’s what’s keeping us going, I suppose. We can see the potential in this milk, which we have found has a lot of unique features.” n

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WHITE GOLD

Big prices for equine milk Milk from donkeys is similar to human milk and has been drunk for hundreds of years for health benefits. Cleopatra even bathed in it. Now it is an emerging market. Neil Clarkson from Horsetalk takes a closer look.

There are no milking donkeys in New Zealand but their milk is sought after for its potential health benefits.

The jenny on the left is Donnbrae Tui, the foal is Donnbrae Velvet and the other jenny is Donnbrae Eva with her foal Donnbrae Electra.

E

QUINE milk products are consumed by an estimated 30 million people worldwide, Nicoletta Miraglia, Elisabetta Salimei and Francesco Fantuz reported in a review published in the open-access journal Animals.

Even so, consumer recognition of equine milk and its derivatives remain limited.

The team of researchers say this emerging niche market raises questions on appropriate management strategies for mares and foals, mainly related to nutrition, environmental issues, food security and animal welfare.

Miraglia and her colleagues set about reviewing available scientific literature on the key issues around equine milk production.

The trio noted the nutritional and therapeutic peculiarities of equine milk have been known since ancient times and were described by Hippocrates and Herodotus in the fifth century BC. In central Asia the consumption of the traditional drink koumiss or airag is considered a popular remedy for a variety of diseases.

The traditional use of donkey milk is also reported in China and South America for the treatment of many illnesses.

Recent scientific findings on the composition of equine milk and its potential health-promoting properties have increased interest of its use for human consumption, especially for sensitive consumers such as children with allergies to cows’ milk protein as well as immunocompromised or debilitated people.

Horse and donkey milks are closer to human milk in terms of both protein and lactose content than cows’ milk.

However, as a food for infants it does not have enough calories and requires supplementation.

62

The review team traversed a wide range of properties identified in equine milk including a range of bioactive compounds that point to the desirability of equine milk.

Milk yield is affected by many factors including farming systems, nutrition, feeding strategies and the type of milking, individual milkability, the stage of lactation, the size and body condition of the animals and genetics.

The core of the dairy equine enterprise shows important differences from conventional dairy species.

Firstly, dams and foals live together until weaning, which occurs at seven months or later. The mothers won’t start to be milked until 20 days after foaling.

Since the equine mammary gland is characterised by small volume, milk harvesting can be done many times a day.

In the steppes of central Asia mares are milked four or five times a day. In more intensive dairy farms in Europe, depending on consumer demand, mares and jennies are frequently milked up to eight times a day.

Milking is done at least two hours after foal separation from the mother.

“It must be noted that milk ejection is not reported to be affected by the presence of the foal during milking in the dairy donkey farm while it is recommended in the dairy horse farm for a complete oxytocin release.

“In this regard, the selection for milkability of mares would greatly

improve the milking routine, reducing the labour costs.”

Milk harvested per session is reported to range from 500ml to 2000ml for mares and 200m to 900ml for jennies.

In intensive farming systems adapted sheep milking machines are used.

In Italy the price of donkey milk ranges from €9 to €15 a litre raw and €14 to €17.5 a litre for pasteurized milk.

Powdered milk is €27.5 to €36 per 100 grams. No prices were given for mares’ milk.

The authors went on to explore animal management, concluding that in-depth studies are still required, especially in terms of nutrition and feeding.

“A better understanding of nutrient requirements of the dairy equid at pasture in heterogeneous and marginal areas will boost the interest toward endangered equine breeds, their milk and their habitat,” they said.

“Among the innovations for sustainable agriculture, the production of equine milk and derivatives with high nutritional value and health-promoting properties should be, therefore, considered a promising extension of the equine industry for the modern and future society.”

Miraglia and Salimei are at the University of Molise, Fantuz is with the University of Camerino. n This article first appeared in Horsetalk and is reproduced with permission.

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

WHITE GOLD

Camel milk for Kiwis Around the world camel milk is being produced and sold fresh but there are no camel milking farms in New Zealand yet. In the meantime a Taranaki company is filling the gap. Tim Fulton reports.

L

IMRAH Corporation in Taranaki is dipping its toes into one of the world’s oldest consumables – camel milk.

Director Abdul Mohammed said Limrah started three years ago as a distributor of smart, electronic appliances.

Last Christmas Limrah swapped tech for imported milk, aiming to provide a healthy, trendy and comfortable lifestyle for Kiwis and rest of the world.

Abdul’s business partners and relatives Irfan and Ezra Mohammed saw more potential in health food.

Pharmacist Ezra recognised the nutritional value and they both knew no-one in New Zealand stocked camel milk.

In Australia, where camels are plentiful, their milk comes fresh or powdered but Limrah has looked further afield for supply, to the Indian desert state of Rajasthan.

It gets raw material from small farmers to help them sustain a livelihood and build networks in the Gulf states, including Al-Ain farm in Dubai, one

wobbly because the product packaging is done in China, where covid-19 has disrupted supply.

Camel-farming is quite an expensive business at the best of times so Limrah

of the world’s Camel milk tastes biggest camel milk similar to cow milk but producers. It was a is better for lactose intolerant people. natural link for Irfan and Ezra, who had decided freeze-drying and pasteurising friends and family helping them build the was the best way for it preserve the business from over there. nutrients and make a go of the business.

“In Dubai they’ve got camel milk “It’s not easily transportable from everywhere in the restaurants,” Abdul other countries. We could still do it in said. refrigerated transport but it wouldn’t be The powder can be consumed either cost-effective.” as a drink by itself or as an ingredient in Limrah is working with a NZ health baking or smoothies, for instance. food chain that’s chasing sales on It tastes much like cow milk but is Trade Me, eBay and through saltier, Abdul says. supermarkets.

“Apparently, camel milk is pretty good As a small business Limrah is likely for people who are lactose intolerant. to be affected by the industrial and “The proteins in this milk are easily consumer knockback from covid-19. digestible and just like any other milk it’s Already, it’s packaging from China has recommended you consume it at least been delayed and its supply of the next half an hour before a meal or two hours batch is on hold, for now. Normally the after meals.” goods arrive once a month.

Limrah’s individual 20-gram sachets “Everything’s on hold at the moment make up to 250ml of milk and sell for because of this virus.” $5.99 each.

Limrah is ready for growth, though, The milk can also be bought in five, 10 with IT workers and customer delivery or 20-pack boxes. staff on the books and a couple more Shipments arrive monthly though the hires in the wings. delivery schedule has become a little bit n

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April 2020

65

COVID-19

Farmers to lead rebound

R

URAL people are urged to band together in keeping safe as they ride the tough times of the coronavirus pandemic.

Social resilience is key and if everyone works together “we will get through this”, the Mental Health Foundation says.

Agriculture is still in business and likely to lead the bounce back, ASB rural economist Nathan Penny says.

“Farming is likely to be the quickest to rebound from the fallout from coronavirus.

“When crisis hits, food demand remains and that will be no different this time,” Penny said.

China is getting back to business and sectors that deal with China will rebound quicker.

While farmers might not get paid as much there will be demand for food, with the exception of luxury foods such as prime steak, seafood and wine.

Coronavirus is also affecting key competitors and Penny predicts it could reduce overseas farmers’ ability to produce.

New Zealand farming production is unlikely to change and can hold up better than others.

Looking at the next three to six months everything is fluid, Penny said.

Federated Farmers has published a coronavirus information sheet and the implications for employers.

First and foremost employers should heed their obligations under the Health and Safety at Work Act and those as employers, including individual employment agreements.

They should develop a plan with

66

People in agriculture will lead the nation’s rebound from coronavirus, ASB rural economist Nathan Penny says.

employees for likely workplace scenarios and if an employee is sick ensure they do not pose a threat to other employees.

If an employee cannot work or is required to self-isolate bosses should work with them on matters such as working from home, sick leave and special leave in line with individual agreements.

They should consider the type of work an employee is doing, including whether staff can isolate themselves or work on their own safely.

The Mental Health Foundation is aware that the covid-19 outbreak is causing significant anxiety and stress.

So it has developed a new online resource – Looking after mental health and wellbeing during covid-19.

Its website has tips on wellbeing and frequently asked questions.

The foundation is updating the website with resources, activities, tools and information as they become available.

“The number one message we want people to hear is – we will get through this if we work together.”

Connecting with people who make you feel safe and loved is the most important thing you can do to look after your mental health and the mental health of people around you.

“Self-isolation or staying at home means connecting will happen in different ways.

“We also know that things are really

The number one message we want people to hear is we will get through this if we work together.”

Mental Health Foundation

tough right now for some people who live with mental illness.

“Stress, anxiety and uncertainty don’t help.”

The wellbeing tips are small, practical actions everyone can do. n

MORE:

Details on employer obligations, specific guidance, the support package and coronavirus updates are at fedfarm.org.nz.

Tips on mental health at mentalhealth.org.nz or free call or text 1737 Get up-to-date information on the Ministry of Health website If you have symptoms that include a fever, cough or shortness of breath, sneezing or a runny nose call Healthline free on 0800 358 5453 or your local doctor for the most up-todate, professional advice

DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

One last word ‌

T

HERE has never been a better time to be a farmer.

We farmers live and work in rural locations relatively isolated from the rest of the population.

We are well used to long stretches without seeing other people off the farm. And, generally, farmers are well equipped with supplies. Going to town to shop for one or two things makes it expensive so most rural folk I know shop fortnightly or even monthly so have well stocked pantries and freezers anyway.

What this means is that, luckily, we can carry on with our daily lives and continue working to produce the very food people are scrambling to buy.

Civil Defence has been warning people for years to be prepared and encouraged them to have emergency supplies should they be cut off in times of disaster. This shows people around the country are still not following their advice.

The magnitude 7.8 Kaikoura earthquake of November 2016 really highlighted that as stores rapidly emptied of bottled water and food. A DAIRY FARMER

April 2020

couple of months after that quake. I was at a field day on a farm and during lunch the discussion turned to the quake. I asked about a dozen farmers how ready they were in the event of an emergency.

Every single one of them said they had enough bottled water and food to last at least a month and many of them had generators, diesel and batteries to carry on farming.

Then I spoke to about a dozen urban friends and asked them the same question. Less than half admitted they had little to no supplies and had done little preparation. However, the earthquake and preceding events had made them think twice about preparedness.

But the scenes in supermarkets of empty shelves and panic buying which has led to fights breaking out and restrictions on the number of items per customer just shows there are far too many who are still unprepared.

There is no need to panic buy because the industry reassures us the supply chain is not and will not be affected. In the meantime, however, this sudden bulk buying could be a problem for

farmers due to do their own bulk shop and it might take several trips to the supermarket to get the shopping done.

But this a serious situation and unprecedented. Times are uncertain and we cannot foresee what will happen in the coming months. No doubt there will be more restrictions coming. But as farmers, take heart in knowing that your hard work in producing food to feed the nation is appreciated.

Due to the outbreak of covid-19 across the country and Government directives banning all indoor gatherings of more than 100 people, many events on the dairy farming calendar have been either cancelled or postponed. Therefore we will not be publishing a diary in the foreseeable future. Instead please refer to the individual websites of industry organisations for further information.

Take care and stay safe. n

Sonita Like us: farmersweekly.co.nz Follow us: @DairyFarmer15 Read us anywhere: farmersweekly.co.nz 67

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PRO DU C

HEALTH

ON TI

THREE WAY CROSS S LID O

S

FRIESIAN X JERSEY X VIKINGRED OR FRIESIAN X MONTBELIARD X VIKINGRED

HETEROSIS IS PROVEN TO IMPROVE: Vitality, Fertility, Health, Survival, Lifetime Production & Natural Defence Against The Effects of Inbreeding.

WHY THREE WAY CROSS? The goal of any crossbreeding program is to utilise heterosis. Heterosis is the increase of favorable characteristics in the hybrid animals over their parents. Heterosis occurs when two unrelated breeds are crossed. By using a Three Way Cross you can achieve steady heterosis of 86% in your herd.

Using the VikingRed as your third breed results in a herd of medium sized cows that have optimum health and fertility. Due to their economical frame size and strong feet with dark hooves they are suitable to walk long distances from pasture to the dairy shed.

This is why we have selected the VikingRed as the ultimate third breed for the Three Way Cross here in New Zealand.

Josh Philp’s(Kiwi Farmer) 720 Three Way Cross Herd in Victoria Australia Using The VikingReds