News
14 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – January 14, 2019
New USA deal for Cross Slot Hugh Stringleman hugh.stringleman@globalhq.co.nz CROSS Slot No-Tillage Systems of Feilding has agreed to licence a new seed drill manufacturer in the United States to supply all the Americas. Company principal and agricultural engineer John Baker said Appleton Marine in Wisconsin was the planned manufacturer and marketer.
It would be the first venture into agricultural machinery for the big heavy-duty manufacturer and fabricator of marine and mining equipment. Baker said the agreement had not yet been signed but a US notillage website had publicised the deal, including a mistaken claim that intellectual property had been sold. Following a restructuring and down-sizing last year, Cross Slot
IP would continue to manufacture the inverted T-shaped drill openers and supply them to licenced seed drill manufacturers. It would also get the openers made elsewhere under licence. Further licence agreements would be announced this year in different territories but the IP would always be retained in New Zealand, Baker said. An agreement signed in January 2017 with Carrfields Machinery of Ashburton, covering
NZ and Australia, was recently dissolved by mutual arrangement. Since Baker wrested ownership of his technology from former employer Massey University in the late 1990s some $50 million of sales of Cross Slot machines had been made in 20 countries. He had repeatedly written and spoken about the contribution that no-tillage seed sowing would continue to make to food production and security.
Cross Slots were used by a majority of arable farmers in NZ because of higher seed germination and establishment rates and to guard against the greater financial risks of failure. The technology’s share of pasture and forage sowing was lower, Baker said. The number one export market was the US and Canada, and the potential for sales in Brazil and Argentina was very good.
WHILE WE WERE AWAY
Board seat filled CANTERBURY multi-dairy farm owner John Nicholls was elected to the board of Fonterra in the re-run election between him and Jamie Tuuta, the Maori farming leader. Nicholls received 53% approval from shareholders and Tuuta 37%. The number of votes cast was 64% by milksolids and 5324 from 9347 eligible shareholders, and nearly 80% voted via the internet. The second election was required when only Leonie Guiney and Peter McBride achieved the necessary 50% shareholder approval of the five candidates vying for three seats. Both Guiney and Nicholls were self-nominated candidates, with the backing of 35 shareholders each, and shareholders did not approve of two officially nominated and endorsed candidates – Tuuta and one-term director seeking re-election, Ashley Waugh. Shareholders thereby signalled their dissatisfaction with Fonterra and its board after the first-ever loss was declared for the 2018 financial year. Before the first election Nicholls said frustration with Fonterra failing to live up to its potential had prompted him to
SALES POTENTIAL: The Cross Slot system is becoming very popular in North and South America.
Forecast cut
TOP VOTE: John Nicholls has been elected to the Fonterra board.
seek a directorship. A graduate of Massey University in agriculture and agricultural science, Nicholls is an experienced co-operative director who chairs a large irrigation scheme and previously served on the Fonterra Shareholders Council. Since starting out on their first dairy farm in the Wairarapa in 1996, Nicholls and his wife Kelly have built their Rylib Group business to six Canterbury dairy farms employing 30 staff and running 5000 cows.
VOLUME INCREASE: Fonterra’s Christina Zhu is aiming for an increase in milk volume to consumer and catering products.
Fresh milk flies FONTERRA China has begun supplying fresh milk with Anchor branding through Carrefour supermarkets in Shanghai. President of Fonterra Greater China, Christina Zhu, said this year’s objective was to treble
the volume of milk from Fonterra’s Hebei Farms going into consumer brands and catering products, from 5% to 15%. New supplies of fresh milk in 750ml bottles would be delivered to the supermarkets every day.
RABOBANK has reduced its seasonal milk price forecast to $6.25/kg milksolids, despite slower milk production growth rates everywhere except New Zealand. Milk supply growth was only 0.8% in the third quarter of 2018 across the big seven producers – Europe, the United States, NZ, Australia, Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil. NZ was the standout with a season-to-date growth of 4.9% to the end of November. Dairy analyst Emma Higgins said production contracted in Australia, the European Union and the US. Adverse weather was to blame in Australia and European growth stalled in a second half because of poor feed quantities and qualities. The US was expected to record the lowest year-on-year growth since 2013 and tighter margins impacted farmers.
MADE, TESTED & PROVEN IN NZ