Farmers Weekly NZ July 25 2022

14 Boost for rural connectivity Vol 20 No 28, July 25, 2022

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Vigilance needed to keep FMD out of NZ Neal Wallace

T

neal.wallace@globalhq.co.nz

HE risk of a footand-mouth disease outbreak in Indonesia reaching New Zealand is considered low, but farmers are still being urged to tighten biosecurity and accurately record livestock movements.

The economically crippling disease is rampant in Indonesia – and last week routine testing of Chinese imported pork products in Melbourne supermarkets detected viral fragments of both foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and African swine fever (ASF).

Undeclared beef smuggled into Australia by an airline passenger from Indonesia was also found to have FMD fragments.

Seven times between 2019 and 2021 FMD viral fragments, in which the virus is dead but shows the animal was exposed to the disease, have been detected in food sampled at Australia’s borders.

The Australian Government said

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Heading for one last sale

the Indonesian outbreak is the closest the disease has come to its shores in more than 100 years, but because no live virus has been detected, the country retains its FMD-free status.

Beef+Lamb NZ’s senior technical policy manager Chris Houston said Indonesia has a large livestock population and the FMD outbreak is extensive, but he has faith in NZ biosecurity.

It’s certainly not welcomed but I would term it as cause for measured concern.

Chris Houston Beef+Lamb NZ “It’s certainly not welcomed but I would term it as cause for measured concern,” said Houston.

He urged farmers to be vigilant, tighten their own biosecurity

Continued page 3

LEGEND: A 67-year career selling working dogs came to an end for George Prouting at the 65th annual Gore Sheep and Cattle Dog Sale held at the Charlton sale yards this week. Prouting reckons he’s sold about 400 dogs over the years and brought the last of those, Jack and Glen, to the sale. The Gore dog sale is something of an institution, and also on offer alongside Prouting’s two entries were 53 other dogs, ranging from 15-week-old pups to a nine-year-old heading dog, Hum, who PGG Wrightson agent Ross McKee said was the sale of the day.

Read more about Prouting’s career on P40.

Photo: Natwick

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NEWS

ON FARM STORY

28 Cultivating a new crop Retaining New Zealand’s place as a top agricultural global producer requires attracting young talent to the primary sector. Gerald Piddock spoke to Kerry Allen, who is pioneering agribusiness teaching in schools across the country.

REGULARS Newsmaker ���������������������������������������������������22 New Thinking �����������������������������������������������23 Editorial �������������������������������������������������������26

7 UBCO hits global trail New Zealand-based UBCO is poised for its next round of capital raising as the electronic bike firm moves from the startup to growth phase in its development.

Pulpit �������������������������������������������������������������27 Opinion ���������������������������������������������������������26 On Farm Story ����������������������������������������28-29 Real Estate ����������������������������������������������30-32 Tech & Toys ����������������������������������������������������33 Employment �������������������������������������������������34 Classifieds �����������������������������������������������������34 Livestock �������������������������������������������������������35 Weather ���������������������������������������������������������37

14 Rural services may be

boosted with super-fast tech

Trials on extra high-speed internet in Canterbury are proving there could be a viable wireless option for farmers who may have despaired of ever having fibre-like speeds for their farm internet.

15 Milk-E powers ahead New Zealand’s – and perhaps the world’s – first electric milk tanker has been unveiled in Morrinsville and will be on the road operating this milking season.

Markets ����������������������������������������������������36-40 GlobalHQ is a farming family owned business that donates 1% of all advertising revenue in Farmers Weekly and Dairy Farmer to farmer health and well-being initiatives. Thank you for your prompt payment.

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 25, 2022

3

Pressure from Aus flock rebuild Neal Wallace neal.wallace@globalhq.co.nz THE speed with which Australian farmers have rebuilt their sheep flock has surprised some observers – but also prompted a warning that our Trans-Tasman neighbours are set to export more lamb than ever before.

Decimated by drought, the flock hit a low of 64 million in 2020, but Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) is forecasting a recovery to 76m as at June 30 this year and a further increase to just under 79m next year, a level last seen in 2006-07.

In 2017 the flock numbered 72m.

AgriHQ senior analyst Mel Croad said Australia’s extra lamb production is being exported, primarily to the United States.

Croad said in 2016 Australia processed 23m lambs and exported 242,000 tonnes. In 2022 it is forecast that 22m lambs will be processed, leading to record exports of 308,000 tonnes with projections that for next year that export volumes could hit 310,000 tonnes.

“They are rebuilding their sheep flock and that means more lamb will be available to supply export markets.”

Continued from page 1 and to consider moving to OSPRI’s electronic animal status declaration system for livestock movements, which would be easier to use should there be an exotic disease outbreak.

NZ Pork chief executive Brent Kleiss said his industry is very concerned at the spread of ASF and FMD. The fact that viral FMD fragments were found in a Melbourne supermarket shows biosecurity can be breached, he said.

The primary concern for NZ

As a comparison, in 2020-21 New Zealand exported 309,000 tonnes.

Traditionally Australia has exported about 250,000 tonnes, but Croad said it appears its domestic market is fully supplied.

In 2016, 47% of Australian lamb was exported. This year it is expected to be 56%.

Aided by a favourable season, Australian lambs are heavier, averaging 24.9kg carcass weight

compared to 22.5kg.

Croad said this is starting to affect the US market, where some larger-sized cuts of Australian lamb are undercutting comparable NZ lamb cuts, and she warned this has the potential to change market dynamics for NZ. “If we maintain our export volumes, Australia over the space of five or six years has added a further 60,000 to 70,000 tonnes of

export lamb onto global markets.”

Since covid, the US market has been one of NZ’s best performing markets.

“NZ exporters are now talking about seeing more Australian lamb in the US market.”

Croad said at a time when Australia is expanding its flock, NZ sheep numbers continue to decline, a process accelerated by forestry companies buying farmland.

Meanwhile, the percentage of chilled NZ lamb being exported has declined significantly this season.

Croad said chilled meat is financially lucrative for companies, and as a percentage of exports equates to about 27% at the peak of the season, reducing to 13% at the low point.

In the past two months that percentage has fallen to between 8% and 10%.

Total chilled lamb exports this season to June are the lowest on record at 34,000 tonnes, well down on the five-year average of 50,000 tonnes.

She attributed this decline to shipping disruption and staffing problems in plants where companies have forgone adding value to ensure processing speed and efficiency.

farmers is ASF, and Kleiss said they are justifiably proud of the high health status of their industry, which is due to the priority they place on biosecurity.

But there are fears that status could be threatened as NZ is expected to import greater volumes of pork due to new animal welfare measures increasing costs for domestic producers.

While accepting that biosecurity cannot stop everything, Kleiss called on all pig owners to ensure they feed only meat that has been cooked at 100degC for one hour.

Feeding uncooked meat to pigs

is one of the quickest ways to spread exotic diseases.

There are no direct flights between NZ and Indonesia but the Government is heightening biosecurity measures and offering assistance to Indonesia.

The Australian website Beef Central is reporting farmer anger at what they call the lax biosecurity of passengers returning from Bali.

It reports there are no additional checks or sniffer dogs and passengers have not been required to clean shoes or clothes, even if they declare that they had been on a farm.

It also reports that store and prime cattle prices are falling as farmers offload stock, fearing they will be left with unsellable animals should there be an FMD outbreak.

The Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry reports the viral fragments were detected in pork floss, dried meat that can be imported if it meets strict import conditions.

The product is processed, but investigations have not found evidence that the treatment is up to Australia’s requirements.

The Australian Government said it is working with Indonesia to control FMD and is tightening

OFF THE MENU: AgriHQ senior analyst Mel Croad attributed a decline in the amount of chilled meat exported to shipping disruption and staffing problems in plants where companies have forgone adding value to ensure processing speed and efficiency.

NZ exporters are now talking about seeing more Australian lamb in the US market.

Mel Croad AgriHQ senior analyst There have been cases where chilled consignments have had to be frozen because shipping delays have reduced the product’s shelf life.

While export values have remained elevated, Croad said she can see some road bumps ahead in the form of competition from Australian lamb, and ongoing shipping issues.

Unlike the past two years, when demand has been consistent throughout the year, global red meat markets are reverting to normal buying patterns, such as demand easing during the northern hemisphere summer holidays.

“We are coming off two big years of heightened demand in all our export markets, but we are now seeing some changes,” said Croad.

biosecurity, including reviewing import permits, heightened awareness at borders and increased vigilance with travellers.

It is advising farmers to tighten on-farm biosecurity practices, including records of visitors and livestock movements, and to not allow people who have visited FMD-infected areas within the past seven days to visit farms, or handle or feed livestock.

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 25, 2022

Devil in the details on EU deal Nigel Stirling nigel.g.stirling@gmail.com MEAT exporters are already facing a reduction in their new access to the European Union market, just weeks after New Zealand apparently concluded a free trade agreement with the bloc.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern travelled to Brussels in Belgium last month to clinch the deal with the EU after four years of negotiations.

But Beef+Lamb NZ’s general manager for policy and advocacy, Dave Harrison, said negotiations between the EU and NZ had not stopped with the PM’s announcement.

“What was agreed in Brussels was the high-level agreement and there were still things to work through,” he said.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade posted more details of the agreement on its website this past week.

For example, it can now be revealed that the 5,400 tonnes of new sheep meat quota announced last month, rising to 38,000 tonnes after seven years, includes a cap on the volume of chilled product that can be exported tariff-free.

Only a third of the new quota can be filled with higher-value chilled cuts.

NZ’s existing 125,000 tonne sheep meat quota for the EU does not face such restrictions and remains untouched.

The restriction on the new quota adds fresh disappointment to what was an already very disappointing deal for meat exporters.

“Pragmatically it probably does not make a huge amount of difference but as a matter of principal it does because you are not able to send the product the market is asking for,” Harrison said.

However, NZ negotiators had managed to gain more flexible terms for the 10,000 tonnes of new beef quota created.

“It will be more liberal than

ACT calls for tariff removals BusinessDesk

QUOTA: The free trade agreement’s finer points are still being worked out – and not all of them are going NZ’s way, says Beef+Lamb policy tsar Dave Harrison.

Quite a bit of stuff was left in unwritten form when they concluded because it was all a bit of a scramble at the end. So I am not surprised and we are worried about it.

Malcolm Bailey Dairy Companies Association our current [quota], which only allows carcases of a certain weight and must meet certain carcase classifications.

“So that is a positive in terms of having a little bit more liberal access around what beef we can send in,” Harrison said.

Still, the industry is disappointed with the overall quota volumes

achieved, which remain a drop in the bucket compared to the 4.5 million tonnes of beef consumed in the bloc each year.

“Our main concern is around the volume rather than conditions of access,” Harrison said.

He said it could be another six months before the final text of the agreement is released.

Despite the ongoing negotiations he is confident the details most important to the meat industry have already been nailed down.

An undertaking from both sides to uphold their Paris climate change commitments has already been announced.

Any additional environmental or animal welfare provisions are unlikely to trouble NZ farmers or exporters, he said.

“The interesting thing about what the EU is trying to do with our deal is trying to set a precedent with how you link trade and sustainability.

“We are in a fortunate position that a lot of our standards have

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followed the way the EU has moved in recent years.

“Part of the EU strategy is to limit access to other countries based on the likes of NZ agreeing to those standards.”

Dairy Companies Association chair Malcolm Bailey said he is waiting for more detail on how the ongoing negotiations will affect new dairy market access.

“Quite a bit of stuff was left in unwritten form when they concluded because it was all a bit of a scramble at the end. So I am not surprised and we are worried about it.”

The dairy industry is already disappointed about the small quotas achieved for key products, and has questioned whether even those can be filled because of high in-quota tariffs, which it has said will make them unusable much of the time.

For that reason it has said that the eventual $600m in annual gains estimated by the Government from the deal for the dairy sector is a vast overestimate.

THE ACT party is proposing to remove all remaining trade tariffs unilaterally as part of its plan to curb inflation.

ACT leader David Seymour accused Labour of playing “gesture politics” and said with inflation at a 32-year high, the Government needs to take concrete action to lessen the cost-of-living burden.

The party also called for returning the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s mandate to a sole inflation focus and wants to change how people are appointed to its board so it will be made up of monetary policy experts from NZ and abroad.

ACT deputy leader Brooke van Velden said the case for free trade is a unilateral one.

“We improve the wellbeing of New Zealanders by pursuing free trade regardless of what other countries do,” said Van Velden.

She said the government levies $195 million of tariffs on imports such as clothing, chocolate biscuits, chardonnay, railway locomotives and ambulances, and adds an estimated $20 to the cost of a school uniform.

“New Zealand has preached the gospel of free trade on the international stage since the 1980s; it is time to practice what we preach and unilaterally abolish New Zealand’s remaining tariffs,” she said.

The party would also replace the Resource Management Act to make it easier to build supermarkets, logistics infrastructure and farm improvements.

News

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 25, 2022

5

GDT falls but recovery predicted Hugh Stringleman hugh.stringleman@globalhq.co.nz WEAKER global dairy demand sparked by the recent weakness in the Chinese economy contributed to the 5% fall in the Global Dairy Trade prices in the latest auction.

Although the futures market had predicted a possible fall of up to 6%, reduced prices for all five dairy commodities offered showed a developing general weakness, Westpac senior agri economist Nathan Penny said.

Skim milk powder went down 8.6%, whole milk powder 5.1%, anhydrous milk fat and butter both 2.1% and cheddar was down 2%.

Skim milk powder is down 20% from its recent peak in early April and WMP is down US$1,000/ tonne or 25% since March.

Penny pointed out the Chinese GDP – hamstrung by covid outbreaks and lockdowns – rose only 0.4% in the June quarter when compared with the same period in 2021.

He still expects China to grow 5% in the calendar year, which implies a strong bounce-back in the second half, which will boost demand for dairy products.

However, there is no denying the sustained fall in dairy prices

over the past four months is turning into what is now downside risk to farmgate milk price forecasts.

Westpac is sticking with $9.25/ kg milksolids for now and ASB predicts $10.

Eight of the past nine bimonthly auctions have resulted in downwards movements of the GDT price index. There was a solitary rise of 1.5% in the first June auction.

Since March 1 the index has fallen 370 points or 23%.

The steepness of the fall shows a pattern similar to the same time of the year in 2015, although the market level was a great deal lower that year.

This year the index has fallen from 1,593 to 1,223; in 2015 it fell from 965 to 514, down 46%.

The good news from history is that August 4 2015 marked the arrest of the decline and the start of a 60% market rise over just two months.

Further good news is that our dairy prices would be lower if it were not for the fall of the New Zealand dollar from US70c in March to 62c today, which in itself translates to 80c/kg benefit to the spot price of milk.

All dairy companies, and Fonterra in particular, use a lower

BOUNCE: Westpac senior agri-economist Nathan Penny says Chinese GDP rose only 0.4% in the June quarter when compared with the same period in 2021, but he expects China’s economy to grow 5% in the calendar year, which implies a strong bounce-back.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

NZD to hedge their future foreign exchange needs and thereby buffer the effects of falling dairy commodity prices on the milk price.

ASB economist Nathaniel Keall said the NZ spring looms as the next key inflection point for the season, so auction-to-auction swings in pricing are no reason for stress.

“Dairy prices are under pressure in the near term, with buyers a bit

more hesitant than during some of the spicier auctions earlier in the year.

“But last season followed a similar trajectory with buyers cautiously on-hold over the winter before normal service resumed when it became clear global production was still stuck in a rut.”

Keall said the supply-side fundamentals remain tight, especially in Europe, where May

milk production was down 1.8% compared with 2021.

“The poor first half of the year in the EU means there is 325,000 tonnes less milk floating about from the world’s largest exporter.

“Suffice to say we find it hard to see global dairy prices losing too much ground in this sort of environment and expect them to find support as the season progresses.”

Demand for better genetics drives LIC earnings Staff reporter LIC has reported a 15.3% increase in underlying earnings and will return $26.2 million in dividends to shareholders.

This equates to 18.43 cents per share with a 18.5% gross yield on the current share price. It will be paid on August 19.

The result has been driven by increased farmer spend on

premium genetics and herd improvement services to breed more efficient cows with a lighter environmental footprint, the cooperative said.

“The board is pleased to present this result for our farmers, particularly after a year hampered by covid-19, inflationary pressures and supply challenges,” board chair Murray King said.

“I want to thank our farmer shareholders for their ongoing support, many of whom faced similar challenges as us.

Delivering value for our farmers is at the centre of everything we do and it’s results like this that enable us to do just that – through our herd-improvement products and services, a solid dividend, and, importantly, the right R&D investment to keep their herds

profitable and sustainable into the future.”

King said the result was driven by more farmers opting for the co-op’s premium bull teams to breed high genetic merit cows that produce more milk, more efficiently – resulting in a lower environmental footprint per kilogram of milk solid produced.

“We don’t need to milk more

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cows, we just need to milk the best cows and we’re really pleased that our farmers are making solid progress in this space.”

The co-op expects underlying earnings in 2022-23 to be in the range of $20m-26m, assuming no significant climate event or milk price change takes place between now and then, nor any major impacts from Mycoplasma bovis or covid-19.

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 25, 2022

7

UBCO eyes global expansion Richard Rennie richard.rennie@globalhq.co.nz NEW ZEALAND-based UBCO bikes is poised for its next round of capital raising as the firm moves from the startup to growth phase in its development.

The all-electric motorbike originally developed in a Wairarapa farm shed has moved firmly to the global stage, helped in part by the recent prime ministerial visit to the United States, which included some export heads.

Grant Payton, UBCO director of agriculture, said the trip also gave the mix of Kiwi exporters a chance to catch up with one another, and raised the possibility of future collaborative opportunities, both at home and abroad.

Meantime the company has cemented a large deal with a US bike company lodging an order for 1500 of the two-wheelers. The US company intends to build a retail network.

“This is a great opportunity to get the bike visible in a market where we see great potential, in some respects for uses similar to here in New Zealand,” said Payton.

“There are a lot of synergies between NZ and the US when it comes to using the bikes recreationally.”

Through the funding source Snowball, UBCO is about to move to a Series B growth round and Payton was confident funders’ interest was strong enough to continue to fuel a growth phase spreading through the US, United Kingdom, Scandinavia and the rest of Europe.

“There is far greater mainstream acceptance of EVs now and we are starting to get more and more enquiry from people who want to make a difference by owning one.”

The current sales split between exported bikes and domestic is about 60:40, but Payton said he expects this to align closer to

ZOOM ZOOM: UBCO bikes agri manager Grant Payton says there is a large rural market in the US for the company to explore.

There is far greater mainstream acceptance of EVs now and we are starting to get more and more enquiry from people who want to make a difference by owning one.

Grant Payton UBCO 70:30 in the coming couple of years.

Here at home significant

potential continues to lie in the farming sector, where the bike was originally developed, and upcoming modifications are likely to add significantly to its appeal.

“It is a given that the New Zealand dairy farm is probably the toughest environment for any equipment, and particularly motorbikes,” said Payton.

The fifth generation of the bike is currently being upgraded to include new software, brakes and possibly increased power to the rear wheels of the two-wheeldrive bike.

Payton said with everincreasing on-farm operating costs, the all-electric bike compares favourably with the likes of quad bikes that on average

have about a quarter of their retail value spent on them in repairs every year.

Through its centre-ofexcellence innovation process, UBCO has trialled a subscriptiontype service for dairy farmers wanting to use the bikes. But Payton said it remains uncertain whether this will be expanded in future.

The potential rural market in the US has also been scoped out. “We are looking closely at particular markets like beef farms in Texas.”

Payton said while the bike may be up for some future adjustments, the “naked frame” concept will continue, given its distinct visual appeal and the way

it lets owners adapt and attach different pieces of kit to it.

“That design was based on the original Honda CT90 and users are putting surfboard racks, gunholders and grubbers on them, so we will be sticking with it.”

He said the crossover in use between farming, hunting and conservation users was strong.

Adoption by Owen Boynton of the Toa Hunter Gatherer Māori Television show has also raised the profile in recent years, with Boynton describing the electric motorbike as his “stealthy companion”, allowing him to hunt with minimal disturbance.

UBCO now employs more than 100 staff between New Zealand and Oregon in the US.

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 25, 2022

MPI offer of big bucks concerns consultants Richard Rennie richard.rennie@globalhq.co.nz FARM consultants are questioning the wisdom of the Ministry of Primary Industries’ decision to establish a farm consulting division they say threatens to suck the limited talented pool dry with the lure of salaries well above market rates.

MPI has started advertising for permanent on farm support regional farm advisors for Northland, Nelson-Marlborough, Taranaki and Southland, offering a salary band from $78,817 to $124,570 per year.

The job description says the advisors’ role is to provide onthe-ground support to connect farmers and growers to the right information, expertise and opportunities to help them navigate requirements around climate, water and environmental management. The unit is newly established.

Skills required include broad primary sector experience, an understanding of rural communities, and problem solving and influencing skills.

But the move has Waikatobased farm consultant Rob Macnab challenging the need for a consulting unit that he sees doing little to advance the quality of consulting services in general, and even competing against those established consultants the service aims to connect farmers with.

“I give full credit to MPI for the provision of up to $22,500 a year to farm consultants to train 100

new consultants up, provided for in the Careers Pathway scheme, that’s a good move.”

But he sees this plan scoring an own goal for the ministry, with salary rates drawing graduates into the government role rather than private consulting.

“To offer this sort of salary level to new consultants in their own business unit just blows the market,” said Macnab.

He said he knew of one graduate with only a year’s experience who is considering a position in the unit offering $105,000 a year, well above what typical consulting firms would pay.

He estimated most commercial consultants will not offer much over $65,000 a year at this point, with graduates typically on about $50,000 a year.

“But if MPI is offering up to $120,000, then we have lost them.”

Estimates are that the total pool each year of graduates with a degree suitable for consulting is about 50 students from Massey and Lincoln universities combined.

MPI is recruiting 16 regional advisors for the positions around NZ. Canterbury agricultural environmental farm consultant Charlotte Glass had mixed feelings about MPI’s move into consulting after a long absence that ended with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) back in the early 90s.

“The main thing that bothers me is those salaries, particularly given we are recruiting now too.

But the graduates we really want

BLOWN: Rob Macnab says his concern is that MPI salary levels will suck out viable candidates from the private consulting sector.

are not the ones who are just happy to take the money.”

But she also acknowledges that the more people who can be engaged in offering advice in the primary sector, growing the talent base in the process, the better.

To offer this sort of salary level to new consultants in their own business unit just blows the market.

Rob Macnab Total Ag consultant “Farmers are having to deal with so many specialists now. If that person [an MPI consultant] can work well with the right consultants, it may be a good opportunity.”

But she said she suspects MPI’s move will have a quite polarising effect on the consulting community and she can see how conventional consulting

companies could view MPI’s move as a threat.

AgFirst director James Allen welcomed MPI’s response in setting up a consulting unit after earlier criticisms that its profile with farmers was too low.

He too was concerned the salary levels could put pressure on private consulting salary bands in future.

MPI’s acting director for agriculture services Dr Chris Rodwell said the agency is seeking people with a broad range of skills, and local knowledge of their farming region will also be important.

A key objective is to help improve on-farm performance and sustainability practices.

He said MPI is aware that about 20% of farmers or growers are accessing advisory services, and there is a shortage of advisory expertise.

He said the salary ranges have been set using an evaluation tool in keeping with rates paid for comparable roles in the primary sector.

Rodwell said the approach will complement MPI’s work with the private sector to expand the farm

advisory sector and workforce, including the pathway’s scheme and internship programmes.

Both Glass and Macnab were also concerned about what level of next-tier supervision a new MPI team may be getting.

“My greatest fear is to have a consultant go rogue, convincing a farmer to pursue an area like regenerative farming for example, when they may be in no financial position to do so. You have to have good oversight, without the risk these consultants are simply going to deliver whatever MPI’s regulatory line is,” Macnab said.

He also cautioned job hunters about the risks of signing on to a new government department as the Government is being pressured to pursue greater austerity.

“I witnessed it myself when half the graduates in our year went to MAF in advisory roles, only to be told a few months later there was no position anymore. They were snapped up by the private sector into fertiliser companies and banks.”

MPI aims to expand the service to 80 regionally based advisors by 2025.

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 25, 2022

9

Doubling down against FMD Staff reporter THE Government is putting more protections in place to make sure foot-and-mouth disease is kept out of New Zealand.

FMD was recently found in the tourist hotspot of Bali, and Biosecurity and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor is urging everyone to be vigilant and play their part to protect NZ’s economic security.

“Biosecurity New Zealand will this week begin using foot mats with disinfecting chemicals for arrivals from Indonesia to step onto, in a trial to help ensure their footwear is clean of the virus – adding another layer of protection to the measures introduced last week,” he said.

There are no flights directly from Bali or elsewhere in Indonesia to NZ. “Regardless of this, every passenger arrival card is examined and those from countries that have FMD (including Indonesia) are directed to a different process of questioning, baggage search and disinfection,” said O’Connor.

“This means that should passengers transit other airports, risks are still addressed.”

O’Connor said Biosecurity New Zealand’s experts are providing him with regular advice on the FMD situation overseas.

Anyone who has been in contact with livestock in Indonesia should stay away from farms and animals in NZ for one week.

“We also ask if anyone sees their pigs, goats, alpacas, llamas, cattle, sheep or deer with symptoms including high fever, mouth and feet blisters or erosions and lameness, to call their veterinarian or the Ministry for Primary Industries’ exotic pest and disease hotline, 0800 80 99 66.

“We’ll continue to work closely with our Australian counterparts and primary sector partners, and I thank them for their work to raise FMD awareness.”

Recent measures to protect against FMD include: • A new wide-reaching awareness campaign targeting travellers before they travel to Indonesia, through in-flight announcements and on arrival at international airports.

• An on-the-ground audit of the palm kernel supply chain in Indonesia.

• Biosecurity New Zealand is launching an

FMD Readiness Taskforce to refresh NZ’s preparedness.

• Providing regular updates to primary sector partners and the country’s veterinary network and working with primary sector partners to ensure their farmers remain vigilant.

• Providing personal protective equipment, disinfectant, backpack sprayers and other tools to Indonesia to help on the ground, as well as our technical expertise.

STOP THE ROT: Minister Damien O’Connor says Biosecurity New Zealand will this week begin using foot mats with disinfecting chemicals for arrivals from Indonesia.

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 25, 2022

Momentum builds in bid to clean up the Kaipara Hugh Stringleman hugh.stringleman@globalhq.co.nz NEW Zealand’s largest catchment scheme, the Kaipara Moana Remediation (KMR), is gathering momentum and putting up impressive numbers in a fight against sedimentary run-off into our largest harbour.

Formally signed in late 2020, the co-governance programme between central and local government and Kaipara Uri was preceded by the Integrated Kaipara Harbour Management Group in the early 2000s.

Two years ago the Government, through the Ministry for the Environment, came up with a commitment of $100 million over five years to kick-start a project that is expected to cost $300m over 10 years.

The other partners are Ngā Maunga Whakahii o Kaipara, Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Whātua, Te Uri o Hau, Northland Regional Council and Auckland Council.

Two-thirds of the Kaipara catchment is in Northland and one-third within Auckland’s regional boundaries.

The overall aim is to reduce the sedimentation rate of the Kaipara Harbour to no more than 2mm annually by encouraging riparian fencing and planting on all waterways in the huge 6,000 sq km catchment and then tackling sources of hill country erosion.

This will help restore and protect the mauri of Kaipara Moana, including its incredibly valuable fish resources.

More than 60,000 land parcels are within the catchment and KMR has contact with 1,500 landowners already, although there are more.

The programme, which is voluntary, offers dollar-for-dollar grants to landowners for fencing and planting.

After agreement on shared priorities, landowners can get paid contractor rates for work on their own properties and there are accredited field advisors and contractors sourcing plants from 70 participating Auckland and Northland nurseries.

KMR aims to plant at least 20 million trees and plants, and this winter alone expects 450,000 trees to go in the ground, sourced locally.

Over 10% of the catchment or 73,000 sq km is now covered by Sediment Reduction Plans (SRPs), similar to Farm Environment Plans, for nearly 300 landowners to date.

The focus is on waterways, lakes and wetlands with hill country, afforestation and soil conservation efforts in the future.

The KMR operates through two funds, the Landowner Grants and the Whenua Whānui Fund.

The Whenua Whānui Fund has been designed to assist non-

EXPERTISE: Field advisors undergo training funded by Kaipara Moana Remediation and delivered at Atiu Regional Park by contractor Duncan Kervell, centre.

commercial landowners that support restoration efforts such as land under multiple ownership, community halls, Landcare groups, environmental action groups, and marae.

Funding costs must be matched 50/50 with in-kind contributions such as time and volunteering.

An example is the Forest Bridge Trust, aiming to control pests across 50,000ha from the eastern Kaipara shore at Mataia to the eastern seaboard at Matakana and Tawharanui Regional Park, so kiwi can move around.

The trust has SRPs and programmes to train its staff members in field advisory.

Contractor Duncan Kervell, a former senior land management officer with Northland Regional Council, told a Northland Inc. seminar for rural professionals that the KMR model was to use grants and accreditation to multiply resources and achievements.

KMR has 11.5 full-time equivalent staff members based in Whangarei and trains field advisors and contractors with an emphasis on young Māori mātātahi acquiring skills.

Fifty people have been trained

as field advisors since November last year and from 13 in the latest group, 11 are tangata whenua and seven are women.

Some 20% of the trained people are now contractors to KMR. Fencing, planting and spraying contractors now number 22.

The finished number of SRPs is 225 and KMR has worked with 290 landowners out of the 1,500, not counting those assisted by Fonterra and the Department of Conservation in the Living Water programme on the Hikurangi flood plain.

Accreditation includes testing of knowledge thresholds, good employment standards, health and safety, biosecurity compliance, eco-sourcing and professional standards.

KMR is a model for cogovernance in environmental work elsewhere and is training field staff contractors who will spread out around the country to meet what is going to be a massive need for these skills.

Kervell said the Government has several environmental and climate change projects that will need a small army of advisors and contractors, followed by auditors.

“Nurseries are happy to work

Keep an eye out The latest issue of Dairy Farmer will hit letterboxes on August 1.

Our On Farm this month features Pouarua Farms, comprising 10 farms owned by local iwi on the Hauraki Plains.

CONSERVATION: Kaipara Moana contractor Duncan Kervell, known in Northland as the land management officer with a Scottish accent.

together to share knowledge and plant material, right from the biggest in the land, Kauri Park, down to the smallest community and hapu nurseries,” he said.

The next development for KMR is a sediment management strategy covering afforestation, poplar planting for hill slope erosion, gully erosion and slip erosion.

Kervell said half of the Kaipara sediment comes from river and stream bank erosion and the other half from hill country movements (see accompanying story).

1

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We also catch up with the Dairy Industry Awards Farm Manager of the Year on his South Canterbury farm and talk with the farmer who runs a beauty salon on-farm.

Rural mental health and wellbeing are also a key topics.

farmersweekly.co.nz 0800 85 25 80

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 25, 2022

11

Better living through eating local Eric Frykberg A NEW research programme was launched last week to combine the benefits of a healthy diet with the economic advantages of promoting New Zealand’s own farm products. It is called He Rourou Whai Painga, which refers to a nourishing basket of food.

The aim is to find data to help the fight against noncommunicable conditions such as diabetes and heart disease, which have a high incidence in New Zealand.

Under He Rourou Whai Painga, 200 people will take part in a programme for 12 weeks. They will have 75% of their diet provided to them by the project, all of it locally produced. They will buy the other 25% themselves.

Later they will be tested, using a health measurement system known as a metabolic index.

This looks at things like waist circumference, blood sugars, cholesterol, blood pressure and blood fats like triglycerides.

The findings will be used to develop further health promotion measures.

“We have a unique opportunity to show [the benefits of] a healthy diet based on predominantly New Zealand-produced foods and beverages,” said High-Value Nutrition Challenge director Joanne Todd.

“We can improve health, while providing strong scientific evidence that can be used to grow our local economy through the domestic and export consumption of our products.”

The High-Value Nutrition Challenge is part of the National Science Challenge organisation.

It is getting $4 million from the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) to fund the scheme.

In its publicity, the programme stresses that it is pushing a largely vegetarian diet, full of vegetables, legumes, fruits, whole grains and cereals, nuts, seeds, olive oil and

“a moderate intake of seafood”.

There is no mention of meat, though it won cautious endorsement later from one of the scientists involved in the scheme, Jeremy Krebs, who is an endocrinologist at the University of Otago in Wellington.

We have a unique opportunity to show the benefits of a healthy diet based on predominantly New Zealand-produced foods and beverages.

Joanne Todd High-Value Nutrition Challenge director “We recognise that meat is an important part of a healthy dietary pattern,” Krebs said.

“But it is important to make sure that the meat that people are consuming is high quality with as little saturated fat as possible.

“It is also a matter of making sure that meat is not the dominant source of the protein part of the diet.”

Dairy products were also excluded from High-Value Nutrition’s initial rush of publicity.

But Krebs said later that dairy does have dietary value.

“Dairy is a great source of calcium, which is important for bone health. We are certainly not saying don’t have any dairy, not at all,” said Krebs.

The problem appears to be that, unlike meat companies, no dairy companies signed up to support the programme, so the organisers had to buy the products themselves.

According to Krebs, that situation “may change in the future and the door is always open for any company to contribute”.

A BETTER BASKET: Jeremy Krebs, an endocrinologist at the University of Otago in Wellington.

In the meantime, he gave dairy a reserved tick of approval.

“We would need to look at [dairy consumption] within the overall dietary pattern, particularly looking at saturated fats for example, but also looking at it from a positive point of view, which is calcium.”

Economically speaking, dairy is the heaviest lifter in the primary sector, and this programme is supported by a state agency, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE).

But Craig Armstrong, who’s a director at NZTE, said he has no worries about the dairy industry’s limited role in this programme.

And he stressed the ability of the dairy industry to move beyond existing food styles toward specialist types of nutrition. ‘“It takes a different kind of leader to be courageous and

curious enough to be able to step away from the day-to-day and to start to think at the edges of what their operations might be.”

Armstrong said he played no part in the negotiations with the dairy industry but he is confident that some of the companies that are not part of this scheme will join later as awareness grows.

Meanwhile, it is clear that the experiment being launched by High-Value Nutrition has limited control of the diet of its subjects.

It will give people 75% of their diet, meaning the other 25% could have varying levels of quality food and junk food or sugary drinks.

Asked about the chance that the variable content of the remaining 25% might corrupt the findings of the research programme and produce less than robust data, Krebs said that could be a problem but probably will not be.

“That’s a possibility and a risk, but we will be encouraging people to continue to purchase healthy foods [in that 25%],” he said.

“We saw in a pilot study that people who are signing up to take part in this research are doing so because they want to improve their health outcomes.”

Krebs predicted another source of comfort: the probability that the impact of the remaining 25% would be averaged out over 200 people, which would lead to generalised findings that boost the quality of the research.

In addition, food purchases from the remaining 25% will be recorded and the data will used to analyse the final result.

MORE: FOOD PRICES START TO BITE

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 25, 2022

Nitrogen use reporting looms for dairy farmers Hugh Stringleman hugh.stringleman@globalhq.co.nz DAIRY farmers are required to report to their regional councils on their nitrogen fertiliser use by the end of the July, rural professionals have been told.

This is one of four main obligations placed on farmers in the National Environmental Standard (NES) for Freshwater, finalised in August 2020, and being implemented over five years.

Fonterra sustainable dairying advisor Helen Moodie told rural professionals at a Northland Inc. seminar that the NES requirements regarding nitrogen fertiliser are now looming and that farmers are going to need help to comply.

Enforcement won’t be optional and farmers who don’t comply risk abatement notices and fines from their councils, so please help your farmers get through the grief cycle.

Helen Moodie Fonterra In a former role Moodie was involved in the DairyNZ engagement with the Essential Freshwater policymaking process in 2017-18.

The NES contains a cap on the use of synthetic nitrogen of 190kg/ ha/year that applied from July 31 2021, plus the annual reporting requirement.

The report must contain the total farm area, divided into grazed and non-grazed

land; the grazed land split into grazed forage crops and nonforage crops; the kilograms of nitrogen applied to each land use category; the name of the fertiliser applied, including the nitrogen percentage; the New Zealand Business Number; and the dairy supply number.

The 190kg/ha nitrogen limit applies to a contiguous area but doesn’t apply to fertiliser used to grow maize or pasture silage.

The limit applies to all pastoral land but only dairy farmers have to report their usage, and only on their milking platform, not noncontiguous support land.

Moodie said the means of reporting have not been established but regional councils are trying to build one data hub for all local government areas.

Fertiliser companies are also working on tools for collation of information that farmers can check and then submit to councils.

Fonterra farmers will have the relevant information in their Farm Dairy Record, to comply with the Co-operative Difference payment scheme, but reporting will be duplicated at this stage, she said.

Other approaching NES deadlines are categories of cattle exclusion from waterways by July 1 next year.

They must be excluded and kept at least 3m from the edge of the bed of a lake or a river greater than 1m, including intermittent streams.

Fonterra’s policy to date has applied to permanently flowing streams, not intermittent.

Next year’s requirement is for beef cattle and deer being intensively grazed, being breakfed on annual forage crops and irrigated pastures, along with all dairy cattle.

Beef cattle and deer on lowslope land (generally under 10

COMPLIANCE: Fonterra sustainable dairying advisor in Northland Helen Moodie says dairy farmers need to report their synthetic nitrogen use to regional councils by the end of this month.

degrees) and dairy support cattle will be covered from 2025.

Cattle must also be excluded from all natural wetlands greater than 500sqm by July next year.

The person who owns the cows is liable, not the owner of the land, so some grazing agreements may need to be modified.

“Enforcement won’t be optional and farmers who don’t comply risk abatement notices and fines from their councils, so please help your farmers get through the grief cycle,” Moodie said.

“Dairy farmers have had 10 years or more to achieve stock exclusion; beef farmers have got two.”

Freshwater Farm Plans are coming down the track as a key delivery mechanism of NES

attributes, and these will have to be certified and regularly audited, by contractors to the regional councils.

That part of the new Resource Management Act amendments will come into effect in 2023 and phased groups of regional councils will be rolled out until the end of 2025.

The content of these plans is still being finalised but will focus on the catchment context, risk assessment and analysis, management actions and the regulation.

The need for a consent to intensify any area greater than 10ha is awaiting regional council notification of a plan that complies with the 22 new NES attributes.

Councils are required to have that part of their Regional Plan drafted, consulted upon and written by the end of 2024.

Already one application has been made to the Northland Regional Council to bring dairy support land into the dairying platform, which comes under the heading of intensification.

Moodie advised rural professionals and their clients to investigate council funding subsidies for treating erosionprone land, including retiring pasture and marginal hill country, fencing and planting, and associated soil conservation.

She also recommended Land Air Water Aotearoa and its website lawa.org.nz for very useful information.

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 25, 2022

Super-fast tech trialled to boost rural services Richard Rennie richard.rennie@globalhq.co.nz TRIALS on extra high-speed internet in Canterbury are proving there could be a viable wireless option for farmers who may have despaired of ever having fibre-like speeds for their farm internet.

Spark, in partnership with PGG Wrightson, has started a “5G mmWave” test site at Mouse Point North Canterbury on spectrum lent to it by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE).

Renee Mateparae, tech evolution lead for Spark, said 5G mmWave is the equivalent of taking the conventional 4G-5G bandwidth, seeing it as a conventional twolane highway, and turning it into a 10-lane data highway capable of even higher speeds and greater data volume.

It offers significantly greater capacity and speed than any of the other bands currently in use on the network, but its reach is lower than existing bands – meaning often deployment will be in highly localised areas where high speed and high capacity are needed.

But Mateparae said the rural

application of the tech delivers some high-speed opportunities that offer options for farmers and remote users.

“As a solution for greater speed it is easier to deploy than fibre to all houses. What we wanted to find out more about was the impact that distance has on that speed in rural areas. We have found that at 7km from the tower it is still delivering 1Gigabytes per second. That is pretty good at that distance.”

As a solution for greater speed it is easier to deploy than fibre to all houses.

Renee Mateparae Spark At 3km from the tower that speed was 2.4Gbps.

A 4G-enabled smart phone will receive data at 50 Megabytes per second.

Mateparae said this highresolution 5G frequency could mean

farms could be set up as smart farm hot spots for high data demand tasks that could be tapped into. Video analytics are proving to be an area this sort of connectivity is ideal for.

PGG Wrightson CEO Stephen Guerin said the company’s livestreaming livestock auction service Bidr is one system likely to benefit from such technology.

“This type of new connectivity technology could provide our online customers with high-definition livestreaming with minimal delays of our auctions,” said Geurin.

PGG Wrightson has a supply store in nearby Culverden, only 6km from the test site, enabling rural operations to utilise 5G connectivity.

As pressure grows on rural health provisions, the technology offers greater opportunities for remote health consultations, with highdefinition video adding to consult accuracy.

Mateparae said Spark will continue to work with PGG Wrightson exploring the options and opportunities the tech provides.

MBIE officials have said they hope to make mmWave spectrum available as soon as is practicable, subject to the conclusion of ongoing spectrum consultation.

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ZOOMING: Renee Mateparae says the rural application of the 5G mmWave technology will deliver high-speed opportunities for farmers and remote users.

News

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 25, 2022

Milk-E powers ahead

LEADING THE CHARGE: Minister for Energy and Resources Dr Megan Woods and Fonterra chief operating officer Fraser Whineray launch the new electric milk tanker in Morrinsville.

Gerald Piddock gerald.piddock@globalhq.co.nz NEW Zealand’s – and perhaps the world’s – first electric milk tanker has been unveiled in Morrinsville and will be on the road operating this milking season.

Dubbed Milk-E, the tanker will be trialled by Fonterra over the next two years as a solution to decarbonise its milk collection fleet of almost 500 tankers.

The tanker was built in Fonterra’s depot in Morrinsville and will be based at the co-operative’s Waitoa factory.

From there, it will be dispatched like any other tanker on a route to collect milk when milk collections start to get underway over the next month.

It will be managed and have its data collected and monitored at Fonterra’s office in Hamilton, from where the co-operative oversees its national tanker fleet.

It can carry 28,000 litres and has a range of about 140km on a full charge. It costs about 30 cents per litre of milk to run.

Fonterra chief operating officer Fraser Whineray said Milk-E will help reduce both Fonterra’s emissions and its diesel costs.

“It’s early days, Milk-E is a trial for us, we have a lot to learn and the team have done an amazing job to get up to this point,” Whineray said.

The trial has multiple parts, including tanker maintenance and driver training, he said.

“If it is successful, we can expect to see more of these in the future, because driving at 30 cents a litre for electricity instead of diesel prices is very favourable.”

It is believed to be the first full-sized electric milk tanker in the world, he said.

After the tanker has finished its route and the milk has been removed at the factory, it is cleaned and the battery – which sits behind the driver cab – is removed by a crane and a replacement is installed.

That battery is then taken away for recharging.

Whineray said the process should take about six minutes.

Excluding the spare battery, the tanker costs in excess of $600,000. Fonterra received co-funding for the project from the Government’s Low Emissions Transport Fund, which is administered by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority.

Minister for Energy and Resources Dr Megan Woods said the technology has the potential to be transformational.

The nationwide emissions from Fonterra’s milk collection are estimated to be about 126,000 tonnes of CO2 and if this project is successful, it could significantly reduce Fonterra’s heavy fleet emissions and help NZ meet its climate targets.

“It will offer important lessons for Fonterra’s competitors who want to follow suit. The project provides an important piece in the nation’s heavy freight jigsaw given the valuable insights it will provide into how to manage the logistics of operating and changing heavy freight vehicles.”

Heavy freight is a large emissions producer and the trial will play a valuable role in helping to understand how this technology works in a NZ context so it can be shared across other companies, Woods said.

Every farm is unique, even if they’re neighbours.

That’s why you need a vaccination programme that fits your farm’s unique requirements.

Have your say on this issue: farmersweekly.co.nz

15

Schering-Plough Animal Health Ltd. Phone: 0800 800 543. www.msd-animal-health.co.nz. NZ-NLV-220400001 NZ/NLX/0518/0003e © 2022 Intervet International B.V. All Rights Reserved. 1. Baron Audit Data. March 2022.

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 25, 2022

Fonterra baulks at two proposed DIRA changes Hugh Stringleman hugh.stringleman@globalhq.co.nz FONTERRA plans to have its new flexible share structure and associated regulations ready for implementation by the end of the year, depending on the speed of amendments through the parliamentary process.

Chair Peter McBride is confident that Fonterra can reach agreement with Primary Industries Minister Damien O’Connor and his department, to whom Cabinet has delegated the protracted formulation.

The ministry has received submissions on its proposed response to Fonterra’s capital restructure, now published on the MPI website.

Amendments are being drafted to the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act (DIRA) which O’Connor will then place on the Government’s legislative timetable.

Fonterra has pushed back on two Government proposals;

Government’s support.

“I believe that agreement will be reached and that we will be able to implement the changes to make Fonterra more competitive and capital-efficient,” he said.

Competing dairy companies have used the MPI consultation to hammer the milk price setting process and Fonterra’s alleged discretion over its level.

They also claim the restructuring will remove the remaining substance of the free-exit provisions in the DIRA, effectively tying farmers into the giant co-operative and raising the investment risks for independent processors.

Both are quite technical arguments that are fundamental to the DIRA and Fonterra’s position and powers in the dairy industry.

The largest competitor, Open Country, continued to allege that Fonterra manipulates and inflates the base milk price.

Without a fundamental revision of the Milk Price Model and the

the so-called independence of the chair of the Milk Price Panel (MPP) and whether Commerce Commission findings over the milk price setting mechanism should be binding on Fonterra.

Agreement will be reached and we will be able to implement the changes to make Fonterra more competitive and capitalefficient.

Peter McBride Fonterra “We disagree with those proposals because we think adequate checks and balances already exist,” McBride said, while not speculating if Fonterra’s pushbacks would threaten the

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POSITIVE: Fonterra chair Peter McBride believes that agreement on the Dairy Inudstry Restructuring Act will be reached and changes can be implemented to make Fonterra more competitive and capital-efficient.

panel the proposed DIRA changes would give a stronger incentive and greater capability to Fonterra to inflate the base milk price, it submitted. “(Fonterra) has a long track record of exploiting its discretion to set a milk price that is unfair and non-transparent,” Open Country said.

Any Commerce Commission findings, which in the past have criticised inputs to the model, should be binding in the year that they are made and not delayed to next season.

The three next-level processors, Synlait, Westland and Miraka, said the MPI proposals for amending the DIRA did not address the capital restructuring effects on competition at the farm gate for milk supply.

“Reduction of the share standard directly increases Fonterra’s power to retain and secure milk,” they said in a joint submission.

The steep fall in the price of Fonterra supply shares and the breaking of the bond with Fonterra Shareholders’ Fund units has frustrated the free-exit provisions.

They also complained about what they called a statutory bias in milk price calculations.

Fonterra’s Co-operative Council chair James Barron submitted that the DIRA requires the company to set the maximum sustainable milk price and that the robust process had worked well for the whole industry.

“Suppliers to the other companies are not complaining, only the companies themselves,” he said.

Fonterra said the MPI proposals over the MPP ran the risk of over-complication and would be unnecessarily prescriptive.

“The setting of the base milk

price is robust because it is already set within a tightly defined and controlled governance process, with multiple elements providing independence from Fonterra.

“We do not understand why a separate and greater standard of independence should now be overlaid onto this regime for the chair, and we do not understand the benefits it would deliver, particularly in light of the potential costs and risks it raises.”

Not just anyone could serve on the MPP because of the industry and dairy markets knowledge required.

Fonterra took the opportunity to fire back at the other processors, saying they should be required to publish their own milk prices on a comparative basis.

“If we are setting the price too high then why are dairy companies being formed and being successful and why are we losing milk market share,” McBride said.

“Their rhetoric and their performances don’t align.

“We have to the pay the highest sustainable milk price and perform as a company, remain viable and pay dividends to our shareholders.”

The proposed changes to the capital structure put still more emphasis on Fonterra to perform.

He strongly defended the rigour of the milk price setting system and the MPP and that any recommendations of the Commerce Commission had either been pre-empted or followed promptly.

Pye Group, a large familyowned farming company in Mid-Canterbury with 10 farms, said it did not support any of the proposed MPI amendments on milk price setting because they would add no benefits, only costs.

Contact us Editor: Bryan Gibson Twitter: farmersweeklynz Email: farmers.weekly@globalhq.co.nz Free phone: 0800 85 25 80 DDI: 06 323 1519

News

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 25, 2022

Planting scheme starts on Hawke’s Bay farm

IN THE GROUND: Last week thousands of Himalayan cedar and radiata pine seedlings were planted on erodible areas of Evan and Linda Potter’s farm.

Staff reporter THE first trees have been planted as part of a programme to future-proof Hawke’s Bay farms, support rural communities and improve the environment.

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and global environmental non-government organisation The Nature Conservancy is leading and funding the programme, known as Right Tree Right Place, in partnership with landowners.

The project supports farmers to plant trees on marginal and erodible land, enhancing their soil health and farm systems.

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Project lead Michael Bassett-Foss said it’s exciting that the seedlings are in the ground for the first pilot farm.

“This is a significant milestone for this project, which aims to give farmers the tools, expertise and capital to realise their vision for their farm. If this goes well, we will scale up this project so more farmers can get involved.”

Evan and Linda Potter in Elsthorpe, Central Hawke’s Bay, own the first pilot farm to be involved in the project.

Last week, about 3,300 Himalayan cedar and 10,000 radiata pine seedlings were planted on 13ha of erodible areas of the Potters’ farm. Further plantings will involve native species.

Evan Potter said being involved with the programme will change their current pastoral system by reducing about 400 stock units out of the system, reducing their workload and enabling them to focus on pastoral systems on the better land.

“It will add resilience to our business and it|will allow us to focus on our better class of land, be more productive, and generate good income off the tougher parts of our farm,” Potter said.

“I know pine trees are a swear word and in some instances trees are a swear word, but it might be worth having a look at what they offer to improve business resilience.”

Bassett-Foss said they will be working with up to 15 farms in coming months to establish the programme and financial arrangements, and will work with participating farmers to develop detailed farm and forestry plans.

“We need an innovative, transformational scheme to slow erosion, improve freshwater quality, enhance biodiversity and support climate resilience.”

17

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News

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 25, 2022

Days of cheap migrant labour are gone Gerald Piddock gerald.piddock@globalhq.co.nz THE primary sector needs to face up to reality when it comes to its reliance on migrant labour, and realise that those days are probably gone.

This is according to Zespri chief executive Daniel Mathieson, who says the sector has to look at how it can restructure its business and take in more people on a permanent basis.

Speaking at a panel of sector leaders at the Primary Industries of New Zealand Summit in Auckland this month, he said Zespri is in discussions across the kiwifruit industry about how to progress people so they are not just turning up and leaving.

He backed calls to focus on New Zealanders first, but said this would not be enough, given the industry’s growth projections.

“Demand is enormous. It is getting stronger and it won’t go back. New Zealand is seen as a great place for food products – healthy, safe and nutritious – and we are a great country to supply the world, but we are going to need people to do that,” Mathieson said.

There needs to be a better balance between the industry

Covid has changed our world, and now it’s time to reset and get that balance right between NZ and the workforce we need to come in to make sure our industry is successful.

Daniel Mathieson Zespri

ALL HANDS ON DECK: The primary sector will have to revisit the matter of permanent jobs in the industry given the challenges of getting enough temporary workers to meet its needs, a summit was told.

demonstrating healthy growth for the local workforce and the number of people coming into the country.

“Covid has changed our world, and now it’s time to reset and get that balance right between New Zealand and the workforce we Generation Change is back! August 2, 2022 need to come This one-day workshop and mentoring programme in to make sure from @AgriWomensDevelopmentTrust our industry is prepares young women to make an impact in food & successful in the fibre. By exploring their values and strengths, drafting a future.” career plan and connecting with inspiring food & fibre At Zespri, people - it’s about supporting the next generation of labour issues primary sector women to bring their true selves to the sector. are having a Know a young woman starting her primary sector marked impact on journey in tertiary study or training? Tell product quality, her about Generation Change, happening in he said. Zespri Palmerston North. makes its money Learn more at: by being the best https://www.awdt.org.nz/generation-change-2/ in the world, but the lack of people It’s all about YOU across the supply Calling all primary sector women!

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because we are seeing extreme pressure,” Williams said.

“At the end of the day it is all about people and we need to look in the toolbox for all of the things we can to make sure we mitigate adverse effects on them.”

Horticulture New Zealand chief executive officer Nadine Tunley said the industry is characterised by its sharp seasonal peaks and it is about 6,000 workers short for the season ahead.

There is confusion and complexity around the process of getting foreign workers, which makes it challenging – though the industry also needs to make sure it takes advantage of opportunities to bring workers in when they are offered by the government.

“That’s a criticism Minister O’Connor managed to throw at me the other day, that all of us have asked for certain numbers in the last six months and haven’t been able to fill them,” Tunley said.

For the horticulture industry,

Agrecovery and Plasback join forces

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Phone 0800 85 25 80 or email adcopy@globalhq.co.nz

chain in the past two years means quality standards are starting to slip.

“That’s actually starting to erode customer goodwill and the value we can get in the marketplace, so it’s a really serious issue,” Mathieson said.

But the situation is also providing opportunities to ensure there is a healthy workforce across the sector, and to address the issue of permanent employment opportunities, he said.

Former Federated Farmers vicepresident Karen Williams said it is a fair cop that the primary sector is being asked to map out what its future looks like when it comes to the labour issue.

The effects of the shortage of labour are being seen in health and safety, she said.

“We lose, on average, 16-20 farmers a year from accidents so we need to look at the labour requirements really carefully to make sure we have the right numbers coming to deal with this

it is an issue of timing. By the time the industry had requested the numbers and they had been processed, it was too late and no one picked them up, she said, adding: “There’s quite a bit of education we have to do across the ministry.”

Mathieson said young people want to work for a company that has purpose and will address social and environmental issues.

This presents an opportunity for agribusiness to tell that story.

“Sustainability is at the forefront of our mind and we know that if we don’t make changes, we will not have a viable industry going forward.

“I think there is an opportunity here to inspire younger people both in New Zealand and outside to come and work in the industry because we have a lot of businesses here trying to do good for the world.”

It is a big opportunity but that story needs to be amplified, he said.

Asked why the government is not more responsive to requests for labour, Mathieson said some self-reflection is required.

While there are some amazing employers, there are also some scoundrels – and the negative often has a bigger impact.

“It’s distorting the story and we have to have a look at ourselves as well, and when we see behaviour that is not right for the agribusiness sector, we have to take action against it,” he said.

AGRECOVERY and Plaback have signed a memorandum of understanding and will work together to improve the services they provide farmers and growers.

It will see them join forces to provide the most efficient and cost-effective means to collect and recycle used farm plastic.

“Our focus is on finding the best ways to meet the needs of primary producers,” Agrecovery chief executive Tony Wilson said.

“Agrecovery and Plasback have different and complementary strengths and areas of expertise. By working together we will target our future investments to take farm plastic recycling to the next level.”

Both companies have been collecting and facilitating the recycling of farm plastic in New Zealand for more than 15 years.

Both are accredited voluntary product stewardship schemes under the Waste Minimisation Act. “Plasback has developed an on-farm collection service for silage wrap and pit covers, while Agrecovery has established a nation-wide drop-off service to recycle agrichemical containers and large drums,” Plasback commercial manager Neal Shaw said.

“Now our aim is to develop a service that can collect all agricultural and horticultural plastics for recycling.

“Tony and I both get calls every day from farmers and growers who want to do the right thing with their used plastic.

Going forward, we will work together to take that problem off their hands.”

The two organisations have made the decision to co-operate at a time when the Government has announced its intention to establish a mandatory, industry-wide

product stewardship scheme for farm plastics.

The anticipated go-live date for the regulated scheme is July 2024.

The scheme will include an up-front stewardship fee on designated farm plastic products, including packaging.

A wider scheme for consumer goods packaging is also being designed.

Agrecovery and Plasback are working with the Ministry to come up with a scheme that costs industry as little as possible but is still comprehensive enough to collect, process and ship all used farm plastic to domestic and overseas recyclers.

Shaw and Wilson said farmers and growers are facing significant price increases on agrichemicals and crop packaging products.

By working together they can keep any additional costs in recycling plastic from the primary sector to a minimum.

News

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 25, 2022

Help for growers in aphid battle

HUNGRY: Aphids cause millions of dollars in crop damage each year, but a new online tool can help growers pick the best time to carry out control measures.

Staff reporter A NEW digital tool will help growers make decisions around aphid management and when to act to prevent damage to their crops.

Developed through a partnership between the Foundation for Arable Research (FAR) and Kiwi ag-tech company HortPlus, the free-to-grower Aphid Tool can be accessed via the Weather and Disease portal on the FAR website.

The tool helps identify periods of time that are most favourable to aphid reproduction, helping growers to make decisions about when monitoring should be undertaken to determine population levels and help guide management actions.

“Early winter is an aphid risk period for cereal crops so this tool is well timed for New Zealand’s cereal crop growing farmers”, FAR senior researcher for cereals Jo Drummond says.

“This new tool provides valuable data that growers can use to make decisions about aphid control measures, such as when to spray, and when spray is not needed.”

In New Zealand, aphids can cause millions of dollars of damage to crops every year.

Aphids are a common vector for plant diseases such as Yellow Dwarf Virus (YDV), which can significantly reduce yield among wheat, barley and oat crops.

The main YDV vectoring species in New Zealand cereals are the bird cherry oat aphid (Rhopalosiphum padi) and the rose grain aphid (Metopilophium dirhodum).

These species require temperatures above 5.8C to reproduce.

The data driving the Aphid Tool is sourced from a network of weather stations across New Zealand, which give insight into the environmental conditions for aphid population reproduction.

“If farmers apply an insecticide when risk periods are highest according to the data, rather than using a calendar-based approach, this can also reduce the number of spray applications required. That’s a win for the environment and another key reason we have worked with HortPlus on this tool as one of the many actions underway in support of the industry-wide A Lighter Touch sustainability initiative,” Drummond says.

FAR also has a regional network of monitor paddocks that track aphid and beneficial insect populations.

By using data from these monitor paddocks, combined with the new Aphid Tool, farmers and other growers can now manage their aphid control measures more strategically than in the past, she says.

HortPlus director Mike Barley says partnering with FAR to develop the tool was the obvious choice.

“With the ongoing challenges New Zealand’s growers face, there is a lot of benefit in having insight for pests such as aphids. We will continue to develop the Aphid Tool further to integrate different data sources including aphid and beneficial species population monitoring to provide a comprehensive management view.”

MORE:

Access the Aphid tool here: https://www.far.org.nz/auth/login

19

Calving 2022

Support lifetime traceability • • •

•

Ensure all Calves are fitted with a NAIT tag before they reach 180 days of age.

Register any fitted NAIT tags within 7 days of tagging.

All calves must be tagged and registered before their first movement. So, if you are sending them off your location, make sure you meet your NAIT obligations.

Calves must be NAIT tagged correctly.

For more information go to OSPRI.co.nz or 0800

842 463 NAIT is an OSPRI programme

Failure to comply with NAIT obligations may result in fines or prosecution issued by the Ministry for Primary Industries.

For more information about your obligations as a PICA, please visit our website ospri.co.nz.

20

News

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 25, 2022

Food price rises start to bite Staff reporter NEW Zealanders are spending more on food, getting it delivered more often and cutting down on meat, a new survey from Rabobank and KiwiHarvest has found.

The research — completed in quarter two this year — found fewer people are getting their “5+” of fruit and vegetables a day and just under a third say they plan to decrease meat consumption.

Rabobank head of sustainable business development Blake Holgate said the research – part of a wider study undertaken by agricultural banking specialist Rabobank and food rescue charity KiwiHarvest – found four in 10 Kiwi households now say they are spending more than $200 a week on food (up from 35% last year).

“With food prices rising strongly over recent months, it’s no surprise to see household food spend has increased markedly from a year ago,” said Holgate.

“At the top end, the number of Kiwi households saying they spend more than $300 per week jumped to 15%, from 12% last year, while at the other end of the spectrum, the percentage of households spending less than $100 per week has dropped to just 11% from 14% previously.

“And with inflation also impacting prices for most other goods and services, it’s no shock to see the survey identifying ‘cost of living’ as the number one concern for Kiwis in 2022.”

The survey found usage of food-

delivery services continues to rise, with several of these services recording strong growth over the past 12 months.

“This follows a strong jump in recorded usage of these apps in the 2021 survey, and food service brands such as HelloFresh, UberEats, My Food Bag and Menulog are all now well established in the New Zealand market,” Holgate said.

“National and regional covid-19 lockdowns are likely to have played a role in helping drive uptake of these services over recent years, while the convenience and growing range of choice offered by these services are further key factors.”

The number of respondents saying they identified as vegan rose to 5%, from 2% in 2021, and the number of vegetarians also rose, climbing to 9% from 7% previously.

“In line with the increased number of New Zealanders favouring plant-based diets, we’ve also seen a continuation of the trend towards lower meat consumption in 2022. As with last year, there are many more Kiwis in the survey flagging a desire to eat less meat (29%), in comparison to those saying they plan to eat more (7%).”

Holgate said there were a number of factors driving change in New Zealanders’ diets, with the high cost of some food items now playing an increasingly significant role.

“Health reasons and a desire to reduce the impact on the

Health reasons and a desire to reduce the impact on the environment were the two most significant drivers cited by those saying they were planning to reduce meat consumption. However we’ve also seen the price of meat emerge as a further key factor, with this cited by 41% of Kiwis looking to eat less animal protein.

Blake Holgate Rabobank

IS IT OFF? KiwiHarvest founder Deborah Manning says more work needs to be done to educate people on ‘best before’ and ‘use by’ labels to reduce food waste.

environment were the two most significant drivers cited by those saying they were planning to reduce meat consumption.

However, we’ve also seen the price of meat emerge as a further key factor, with this cited by 41% of Kiwis looking to eat less animal protein,” he said.

KiwiHarvest founder Deborah Manning said the survey found understanding of food labelling such as ‘best before’ and ‘use by’ stickers was largely in line with 12 months ago.

“Increasing understanding of these labels is a key component of the educational work KiwiHarvest

undertakes in the food waste space. However, it’s clear more needs to be done so that more people have a full grasp of what these labels mean,” she said.

“For both ‘best before’ and ‘use by’ labels, more than a third of Kiwis said they weren’t sure what they meant, or identified them incorrectly. And we need to keep working to reduce this proportion, as better understanding of these labels has the potential to make a substantial difference to the amount of food being wasted in households across Aotearoa.”

Cannasouth near 12-month high on German deal The shares rose as high as 41 cents in early trading on the NZX and were recently up 9.6% at 40 cents.

Cannasouth didn’t provide details of the minimum sales volume, but said current market pricing indicated the total value of the deal during the second and third years could be worth between $12 million and $15m.

The companies agreed to work together to develop a cannabis cultivar to best suit the European market.

Cannasouth said it would retain sufficient flower to supply the NZ market to enable its medicinal cannabis products to be verified.

The flower was expected to be a popular form of medicinal cannabis with the country’s patients, it said.

CAN'T SEE THE FOREST FOR THE TREES?

Chief executive Mark Lucas said Cannasouth would benefit from the opportunity while it “ramped up” production and completed its good agricultural and collecting practices certification – which was expected soon.

Lucas said the deal meant Cannasouth could proceed with its growing programme and begin the next phase of its cultivar development.

“Exporting medicinal cannabis flower has always been part of our strategy for generating additional revenue streams while we develop our own medicinal cannabis products for the New Zealand market.”

Global demand, particularly in Europe, created an early revenue opportunity in the export of premium cannabis flower, Lucas said.

Subscribing to our Forestry Sector Market Reports means you'll receive the most convenient, comprehensive set of price data for NZ log products. Updated monthly, you'll get in depth commentary on industry happenings and pricing.

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FORESTRY MARKET REPORT

Domestic and export log markets, drivers of price trends and updates on New Zealand's global markets for logs, lumber, panels and other exports.

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LOG PRICE REPORT

A detailed regional breakdown of the various log products and their prices.

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A high level "indicator" of the price trends.

LH013

CANNASOUTH shares jumped more than 12% to their highest level in almost 12 months after signing a major deal with a German pharmaceutical company.

The NZX-listed cannabis company signed a supplier agreement with Weeco Pharma for the supply of cannabis flower from New Zealand into Europe, it said in a statement.

Volume 115 I July 25th, 2022 I email: agined@globalHQ.co.nz I www.farmersweekly.co.nz/agined Are you a parent or teacher and want to receive AginED every week directly to your email inbox? Send us an email to sign up at agined@globalhq.co.nz

Firearms and looking out for your mates while you stay safe!

Rule # 7

YOU HAVE TO BE IN TO WIN WINNER ANNOUNCED AUGUST 1ST! As teenagers, you can be susceptible to peer pressure in multiple areas of your life and it is really important that you remind yourself of the consequences if things go wrong when handling firearms. Remember, you only get one chance and you can’t take it back once you have pulled the trigger.

Rule # 7 highlights the use of something that is never ok to use while handling firearms so this week we want you to send in what Rule # 7 is and…

- What these substances are and why it is imperative that you or your hunting companions do not consume these while handling firearms.

a personal account of what you would do if you were offered one of these substances whilst out hunting, through to agined@globalhq.co.nz.

Next time we will ANNOUNCE THE WINNER of the Burris Binoculars! Each time you send in your answers it gives you a higher chance of winning - this is your last chance to enter.

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Remember to check out the Rivers to Ranges website for all your other hunting needs at https://www.riverstoranges. co.nz/rangiora-northcanterbury/

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Good luck and happy hunting!

Harriet :)

WHAT IS IT? Foot and Mouth disease (FMD) is a highly contagious disease that affects cloven hoofed animals (animals that have two toes) including cattle, sheep, pigs, deer, goats, llamas and alpacas.

Affected animals usually have a fever followed by blisters mainly around the mouth and feet.

FMD is extremely contagious and is spread amongst animals by breathing, saliva, mucus, milk and faeces. Humans and other animals like dogs, cats, horses and birds are not affected by it.

HOW DOES IT AFFECT SUSCEPTIBLE ANIMALS? CATTLE • Drooling and smacking the lips • Shivering • Tender feet with sores and blisters • Raised temperature • Drop in milk yield and sore teats SHEEP AND GOATS Signs may be less obvious and potentially overlooked. They include: • Sudden (maybe low-grade) lameness with tendency to lie down • Raised temperature • Blisters in and around the hooves and mouth • Generally off colour

DEER • Like sheep symptoms may be mild • Raised temperature • Lameness and depression • Blisters in and around the hooves and mouth • Loss of appetite.

1

We will put you in the draw to WIN a brand new pair of Burris binoculars valued at over $600 thanks to Anna and James from Rivers to Ranges in Rangiora!

Harriet

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ACROSS

FOOT & MOUTH DISEASE

PIGS • Sudden lameness with tendency to lie down • Squealing when attempting to walk • Raised temperature • Blisters in and around the hooves and snout • Loss of appetite

WINTER WONDERS

PLUS...

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Foot-and-mouth disease has occurred around the world, most commonly in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and South America.

North America, Central America, Australia, Chile, and some countries in Europe have not had outbreaks in the last 50 years. New Zealand has never had an outbreak of FMD. Currently New Zealand is FMD free and we all need to play our part to see that things stay this way. Recently the popular tourist hotspot Bali has confirmed cases of FMD amongst livestock and it is already widespread in other parts of indonesia. With borders reopening and people keen to visit other countries again risks of bringing things such as FMD home are increased.

It is estimated that an outbreak lasting six months in the North Island alone could result in lost export earnings of $15 billion

Conditions are often very _________ after prolonged rain and stock movement 6 Most dairy cows start calving in ____ 9 Precipitation falls as _____ when the air temperature is below 2 °C 10 Dairy cows predominantly finish calving in _________ 12 Common crop grown for winter fodder 14 When a ewe has three lambs these are called

DOWN 2

Summer grasses cut and baled for winter roughage 3 Popular footwear for winter 4 This should be provided in each paddock for stock to use during winter and summer 5 NZ garment keeps you warm even when damp 7 Popular breed of dairy cow 8 When a ewe has two lambs at once these are called 11 A common form of food fed to stock during winter (particularly cattle)?

13 This slows significantly during winter due to colder temperatures

ANSWERS

Across: 1 Muddy 6 July 9 Snow 10 September 12 Kale 14 Triplets Down: 2 Hay 3 Gumboots 4 Shelter 5 Swandri 7 Friesian 8 Twins 11 Baleage 13 Grass

HELLO ADVENTURERS!

DO SOME RESEARCH 1

What are the current requirements for travellers returning to NZ from a country where FMD is present?

2 Are these requirements enough? If not, what else should be being done?

3 If an outbreak did occur what would affected properties need to do?

4 Can animals be vaccinated against FMD? 5 Can countries that are FMD free import vaccinated animals? Why or why not?

6 What is the stand down period for a person returning from a country with the disease before they should go on to a farm in NZ? Why is this period of time necessary?

7 How long can the virus survive on surfaces or in water?

8 Can animals that do not become unwell from the virus still carry and pass it on to susceptible animals?

The occurrence of even a single case of foot and mouth disease in a previously disease free country results in an immediate ban on the economically valuable export trade

Vet warns of foot and mouth risk from Tourist hotspot Ross Ainsworth is a consultant vet living in Bali which has just confirmed foot and mouth disease among livestock on the island. He says that wandering animals near tourist areas heighten the risk of the disease being spread through tourists to their own country of origin.

To listen follow this link: https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/player?audio _ id=2018848732

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Newsmaker

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 25, 2022

TOP FARMERS: Silver Fern Farms Plate to Pasture award winners Jessica McCrostie with Molly, Alan and Cathy Donaldson with Isla McCrostie, and Tom Donaldson, from Taumarunui.

Kin a constant in evolving industry Family is what drives this year’s winner of the Silver Fern Farms Plate to Pasture Awards. Neal Wallace meets the Donaldsons from Taumarunui.

W

HEN Alan and Cathy Donaldson ran a shearing contracting business in the 1980s, staff were served typical meat dishes from that era: chops for breakfast and sausages or a roast for lunch.

When the judges for the Silver Fern Farms Plate to Pasture Awards visited their Taumarunui farm earlier this year, they were served Cambodian-inspired lamb meatballs on bok choy leaves with lime pepper dipping sauce and cumin lamb rump with a soy and grapefruit dipping sauce.

That culinary transition is an analogy for how red meat production has changed since the Donaldsons bought their first farm in 1990.

Alan Donaldson says back then they were paid $5 for old ewes, their lambing percentage was 86%, and 700 lambs could fit on a truck and trailer unit because they averaged 12.5kg.

Today they sell lambs from November to April at an average weight of 17kg-18kg, and up to 20kg in better years.

The 2022 winners of the Silver Fern Farms Plate to Pasture Awards, the Donaldsons farm 2500ha southwest of Taumarunui on the banks of the Whanganui River, along with son Tom and daughter Jessica McCrostie.

Of that, 2200ha is medium to steep hill country and 300ha easier country.

“It is typical good King Country

hill country,” Alan says.

They run 200 stud Angus cows, 320 commercial Angus cows, 9000 Romney ewes and 2000 ewe hoggets.

The awards, which are in their ninth year, assess suppliers for consistently providing stock that meets company specification and presentation requirements.

Cathy and Alan met when Cathy, recently arrived from Auckland, got a job in the shearing gang in which Alan worked.

“My father suggested I get a job as a rousie, but I had no idea what that was,” Cathy says.

Eventually they established their own contracting business, a way to achieve their ultimate goal of buying a farm.

They achieved that in 1990 after selling the shearing run.

Progressing to where they are today required many small steps, but one of the earliest was loyalty to a meat company, something they deemed crucial for the dry or wet years when they needed to quit stock.

They supplied the Waitotara plant, which was bought by Richmond and then by PPCS – later renamed Silver Fern Farms (SFF).

“We followed the buyouts,” Alan says.

That loyalty became even easier as they bought in to SFF’s transition to a consumer-led company built around a longterm vision for the meat industry.

Cathy says that long-term thinking aligned with their own

long-term approach to farming.

The Donaldsons accept that farmers have had to change and adapt to satisfy consumer demand.

“Without consumers farming will not survive,” says Alan.

“We’re very much focused on understanding and satisfying what consumers want.”

They supply SFF’s Angus prime contracts for that reason.

Without consumers farming will not survive. We’re very much focused on understanding and satisfying what consumers want.

Alan Donaldson SFF Plate to Pasture winner That resulting international perspective has also introduced them to flavors and cooking techniques that were unthinkable when they were feeding shearers and shed hands.

“We tried to do things differently back then and use the whole carcass, but it wasn’t always that well received,” Cathy says.

Central to their business is targeting a first lamb draft in late November, around which all

other management is scheduled – tupping, lambing, docking and drenching.

Lambing is spread over five weeks to avoid a bottleneck of lambs ready to go to the processors at once.

Their goal is to finish all their lambs but, if the season prevents that, they will sell them to someone who can.

“We would rather not kill lambs at lower weights but let someone else do it,” Cathy says.

When handling stock they do it in manageable mobs so they can be returned to their paddocks in a timely period and avoid having large numbers of animals waiting around the yards.

Native vegetation is being left or fenced off and a recently logged pinus plantation they acquired is being allowed to revert to native vegetation. What doesn’t revert will be replanted into pinus.

Succession has been another business foundation.

The couple have three children and realised early on that two, Tom and Jess, were keen on farming. Their eldest, Sam, is a mechanical engineer in Auckland.

Jessica and her husband Callum have two children, Molly and Isla, and Tom and Lou three: Blue, Huckleberry and Jed. Steve has a son, Jack.

Alan and Cathy say they are not ready to retire, so to accommodate their children the farm has been expanded to the point where Tom and Jess each have a block of their own to manage.

Cathy says they have been transparent about their business, including their financial situation, and all three children are included in succession discussions and decisions.

Alan says some years ago their accountant suggested they write down their vision for the future of the farm, then meet and discuss it with their children.

This exercise should be repeated regularly so everyone knows what is happening and any changes in circumstances can be accommodated.

Farming with their children is rewarding and Alan finds them more open to frontfooting the sector’s legislative challenges.

“We have always told them to focus on looking forward not on looking back, and with all these regulations, they help keep them in perspective.

“They work out how to work it into the system and it helps to keep them in perspective.”

Looking ahead, the Donaldsons’ property is being mapped so they can become suppliers of zerocarbon beef and lamb once SFF starts marketing it.

“We understand the way these trends are going and what people want from us.”

Melissa Sowden, SFF’s Agribusiness Support manager and judge, described the Donaldsons’ business as a consumer-driven concern that is both economically viable and environmentally conscious.

New thinking

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 25, 2022

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How plantain in the paddock cuts nitrate lost from livestock Ongoing research is confirming that plantain has a powerful role in helping to address nitrate leaching. Neal Wallace spoke to Agricom animal nutritionist Glenn Judson about the work they’ve done.

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EW trials have confirmed that plantain can at least halve nitrogen leaching on dairy

farms.

Agricom animal nutritionist Glenn Judson says the company’s own trials, studies at Massey and Lincoln universities, and work currently underway in a Plantain Potency and Practice project funded by Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures, continue to suggest a pasture sward containing between 20% and 40% plantain can significantly cut nitrogen leaching.

Judson says Agricom has been researching and developing plantain for more than 20 years and has developed its own cultivar, Ecotain.

It reduces leaching using four mechanisms: reducing the proportion of dietary nitrogen excreted by a cow, diluting the nitrogen concentration of urine,

delaying the nitrification process in a urine patch, and restricting or suppressing the nitrification process in the soil.

Judson says up to 90% of all nitrogen leaching on a dairy farm originates from urine patches.

A cow can excrete urine about 13 times a day.

The average dairy cow grazes 140sqm of pasture a day and deposits about half the nitrogen it consumes in an area of about 3sqm.

Concentration does vary, but at its most intense, urine is most regularly equivalent at between 600 to 800 units/N/ha – still too concentrated for surrounding pasture plants to take up.

“It’s these hot spots of nitrogen in urine patches that creates leaching issues,” Judson says.

Ecotain has been bred to enhance the best attributes of plantain.

Typically, about 50% of a cow’s dietary nitrogen is cleared as

FIELD ARTILLERY: Plantain is proving to be effective against nitrate leaching, for reasons that range from delaying the process to diluting the concentration in urine.

urine but Ecotain reduces that to between 35% and 40%.

It also dilutes the concentration of nitrogen in urine by increasing urine volume, a consequence of consuming a wet feed that is lower in dry matter, and has a diuretic effect.

Research by Lincoln University shows cows fed plantain produce almost 40 litres more urine than those fed ryegrass, meaning excreted nitrogen is heavily diluted.

Ecotain has also been proven to slow the nitrification process in urine patches, increasing the potential for plants to use it.

Judson says it does this by delaying the nitrification process by locking the nitrogen in the soil as ammonium, which does not leach – a key attribute for those on light soils.

Ecotain also restricts or suppresses the nitrification process in the soil. This could be through biological inhibitors originating from the roots.

That, says Judson, could be a consequence of the plant’s evolution while inhabiting poorly fertile soils such as waste areas.

These soils are traditionally light and lack nitrogen, so the plant appears to have developed an ability to retain and store nitrogen for its own use.

Judson says Overseer recognises the reduce-and-dilute functions of Ecotain, and work is underway to get recognition for its other two attributes.

Research shows that pasture containing about 40% Ecotain achieved a 45% reduction in leaching compared to a ryegrass pasture.

Hydrologically isolated paddocks at Massey, in which all

BODY OF WORK: Agricom animal nutritionist Glenn Judson says Agricom has been researching and developing plantain for more than 20 years.

runoff and leaching is centralised through one system, shows reductions in nitrogen leaching of 50%, although Judson says this was a site where leaching is not a significant issue.

Judson says sizeable reductions in leaching can be achieved with swards containing 20% to 30% Ecotain.

“The current target is a 30% Ecotain sward but there is a real possibility that when other mechanisms are recognised, significant reductions in leaching are likely, even when Ecotain makes up a lower proportion of the sward.”

One issue with any plantain is that it can be crowded out by other cultivars, especially ryegrass.

Judson says farm system research shows longevity is enhanced by preventing Ecotain from seeding.

“I fear undergrazing Ecotain more than I do overgrazing. That management is far kinder to the plant than letting it seed.”

It is palatable to stock, has been successfully grown in climates as diverse as North Queensland and Southland, is suited to NZ farm grazing systems, active in cool seasons and has been bred to be upright.

Reseeding a paddock is by simply broadcasting seed and

fertiliser, or even adding it to applications of magnesium oxide.

Judson says it has been shown to struggle in fertile, irrigated paddocks, but once the irrigation season is over, it thrives.

The Ecotain cultivar’s ability to reduce leaching can assist farmers where they may be struggling to meet their environmental regulations.

Glenn Judson Agricom In a trial in Manawatū last autumn, which was dry, the cultivar hung on and took off when the rains came.

As for cost, Judson says Ecotain is cheaper than some Italian ryegrass cultivars.

He says Ecotain’s ability to reduce leaching can assist farmers where they may be struggling to meet their environmental regulations.

Growing farming talent in NZ schools Retaining New Zealand’s place as a top agricultural producer requires attracting young talent to the sector.

Kerry Allen is pioneering agribusiness teaching in schools across the country, keeping that pipeline of talent open.

Watch the video now at youtube.com/OnFarmStory This episode was made possible with support from Rabobank

On Farm Story

On Farm Story

24

Opinion

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 25, 2022

EDITORIAL

A future even the kids can embrace

A

LOT of the conflict in society comes when people who want change come up against those who want things to stay the same, or even to return to an earlier time.

Nostalgia is a funny thing.

It tends to have a filter, so you’re left with memories that are big on the good times and missing the bad.

The Donaldsons of Taumarunui, winners of this year’s Silver Fern Farms Pasture to Plate Award, have their eyes firmly on the future.

One part of the award is the Food Challenge, which involves entrants preparing a meal.

The Donaldsons served up Cambodian-inspired lamb meatballs on bok choy leaves with a lime pepper dipping sauce and cumin lamb rump with a soy and grapefruit dipping sauce.

That’s a long way from lamb shoulder with mint sauce.

So what drives the Donaldsons?

Understanding their consumers and building a business their children want to be a part of.

And that, according to Alan Donaldson, means they now have a leadership group that’s committed to front-footing the sector’s legislative changes.

There’s plenty to look back on fondly in this life, no doubt.

But today’s problem can’t be solved with yesterday’s solution.

Wanting to wind back the clock to a better time usually involves making things worse for other people or the environment.

So, no matter how long you’ve lived, remember there’s always someone else who knows things you don’t, regardless of their age.

They’ve probbaly got a different set of dreams, or want to fulfil a shared goal in a different way, but that shouldn’t be a barrier to working together.

In farming, sustained success comes from meeting the needs of those who buy what you make.

And it means learning what matters to your kids and giving them the space to help you achieve those goals.

Bryan Gibson

LETTERS

Why does animal welfare raise hackles?

I AM bemused by the brouhaha stirred up by the recent episode of Country Calendar showing the measures the owners of Lake Hāwea station have taken to improve their animals’ welfare.

We’re accustomed to tree planting and pest control for the sake of the natural environment, but attempts to ameliorate animal environments seem to have touched a raw nerve with an astonishing number of farmers.

Are Geoff and Justine Ross sullying the Southern Man image?

Is this the start of a creeping virus of treating with respect the animals farmers depend on for their livelihood?

Is it envy at the station

owners’ wealth that has viewers vomiting into their vodka?

At least that wealth has been well used to keep the property in New Zealand hands rather than falling to foreign ownership.

But wait, there’s more – the latest episode of Country Calendar focuses on Happy Cows.

Whatever next!

Rebecca Glover Waiuku

Lenders don’t hold all the cards IT STRUCK me the other day that lending money is a bit like playing a game of Phase 10.

It can seem really clever, collecting all the hefty twelves, elevens and wild cards that

every other bank is discarding.

That’s fine while inflation is minimal and interest rates are at an all-time low, and commodity prices for lamb, mutton and dairy products are soaring at all-time highs.

But play the game for a few more rounds.

Play the game when inflation is high, reserve banks are aggressively pursuing inflation by lifting interest rates, when players begin to meld and go out, and you realise as a bank you’re left high and dry holding a hand full of twelves, elevens and wild cards who can’t pay their bills and you don’t know what on earth you’ll do with them.

You can’t simply dispose of all of them as they are going to cost you big money that cleans up all the gains you ever made.

Then the wisdom of holding on to the low cards, the blue chip borrowers and potential deposit holders dawns on you.

By then it’s too late to change your strategy.

Every card is valuable and worth collecting, even the little ones.

The Jack of Hearts Dave Stanton Geraldine

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Opinion

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 25, 2022

25

Climate accounting 101 Geoff Ross

A

CCOUNTING’S fundamental principle is that what is applied to one side of the ledger is equally applied to the other.

With climate change, the two sides are emissions and sequestration. For New Zealand farmers this involves our stock and inputs on one side, and sequestration like trees on the other.

If a farmer has emissions there should be a cost for that, and likewise, if your native trees are growing there should be a benefit, right? Not necessarily.

The recent recommendation from Rod Carr and the Climate Commission, if we are to adopt it, has a major discrepancy on the sequestration side.

The emissions side is easy to account for and is pretty hard to argue with. Each stock class will have a methane number, as will our tractor hours, and any nitrous oxide emissions will be added. It’s simple maths. It’s on the sequestration side that the vagueness and inconsistencies lie.

The recent recommendation states that sequestration shouldn’t be recognised under He Waka Eke Noa if it doesn’t comply with the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) definitions. This is the problem.

The ETS definitions for sequestration are far too narrow.

In most cases they won’t recognise riparian planting, wetland conservation, some plantings

The

Pulpit

under Queen Elizabeth II National Trust land covenants, shelterbelts, native regeneration from retired land, and more.

Unfortunately, much of our current farm vegetation in NZ is likely not to be recognised under the ETS. Climate change action is urgently required by all. If NZ farming can be at the forefront of these actions, we stand to gain a competitive advantage internationally and command premiums over our competitors, breaking out of the commodity cycle.

While it is often the case in emerging sectors and new markets that the science lags behind the opportunity, some accounting fundamentals need to be applied right now.

There are only two options if we are to balance the books

and correctly recognise the sequestration side of the ledger: He Waka Eke Noa recognises all on-farm additional sequestration, or the ETS is modified to include all positive management changes in vegetation on farms, such as riparian planting. Alongside this, NZ supports a voluntary carbon credit market that will pick up more forms of sequestration, like most other countries are doing.

I favour the latter. It would bring farming into the same system as other businesses – the businesses we sell to – giving us a common currency.

If we don’t recognise positive on-farm changes in vegetation, the wrong behaviours will emerge. That won’t contribute to our country’s climate change commitments or our biodiversity, water, and cultural goals.

Let me paint a scenario: A farm has planted its waterways in native trees and retired some regenerating gullies in the back country that are seeing native bush emerge. The farm wishes to meet a net carbon zero position. However, this planting and positive management don’t count under the ETS and there is no He Waka Eke Noa payment, therefore the farm must import carbon credits as offshore offsets from cookstove projects with low traceability. We know this scenario is emerging under the status quo.

NZ is currently a large net importer of voluntary carbon credits, some which are questionable. But current recommendations encourage this

BALANCED: Carbon sequestration and emissions must both be fairly counted, says Lake Hāwea Station director Geoff Ross.

behaviour while not incentivising the farm to sequester carbon and improve biodiversity and water quality. NZ should be paying farmers for their sequestration via the ETS and voluntary market, not projects around the world.

We not only need a broader definition under the ETS of what counts as vegetation, but must also support a market for voluntary carbon offsets.

He Waka Eke Noa sequestration payments wouldn’t be needed if we made these changes. Farmers would be rewarded with the highest price for sequestration through land use change and using good management practices with changes to the ETS and an emerging voluntary carbon market.

Here’s another scenario.

A farm chooses to increase its cattle numbers and pay a higher levy. The same farmer then decides to fence off some regenerating bush along a creek to

protect the habitat of native fish.

This is done primarily for habitat restoration and would have been done regardless of carbon credits.

Current rules make it unclear if this should be counted for sequestration payments.

An increase or decrease in emissions or an increase or decrease in sequestration – no matter the motivation – deserves to be counted under the same accounting principles. Because sure as hell the emissions will be counted.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but for the first time in my life, “let’s hear from the accountants” and balance the carbon books.

Who am I? Geoff Ross is a director of Lake Hāwea station.

Disclosure. Ross’s son is a PhD candidate in carbon sequestration and is the founder of carbon trading company Carbonz.

War chest underpins meat board’s work Sam McIvor

F

OR more than seven decades, many millions of dollars of interest from a former wartime fund has been channelled into industry-good programmes to benefit New Zealand’s beef and sheep farmers and overall export sector.

Over the past 15 years alone, $79 million of interest from this fund, managed by the New Zealand Meat Board (NZMB), has been invested in the industry.

The NZMB tends to take a back seat in these projects – it’s a funder that adds to levy dollars to enable Beef + Lamb NZ to establish these programmes and drive them forward.

Many farmers will not even be aware of the role the NZMB plays.

However, as the organisation celebrates its centenary, it is a very good time to reflect on and celebrate the significant contribution it has made and continues to make to the sector.

The hugely successful sheep improvement programme, the pastoral genomics programme, market development in the UK and Germany and early support of the National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) are among the many programmes that have benefitted from this interest.

The current focus is on genetic

ON BOARD: The New Zealand Meat Board has been funding innovation, market development and support for 100 years, says CEO Sam McIvor.

improvements to beef through the Informing New Zealand Beef programme.

The fund – standing at $81.1m as of March 2022 – was established with money left over from New Zealand’s bulk red meat purchase agreement with the UK during World War 2.

It is held and managed by NZMB as a contingency fund to help New Zealand re-enter export markets following a biosecurity incursion such as foot-and-mouth disease, or disruption to quota markets – NZMB’s other major responsibility is to manage New Zealand quotas in the European

Union, United Kingdom and United States export markets.

The importance to New Zealand’s sheep and beef farmers and our wider economy of NZMB’s role in managing this contingency fund prudently and distributing the interest cannot be underestimated.

It provides an opportunity to invest where there is market failure. There are areas of the industry that cannot make investments alone, but the funds held and managed by the board mean that collectively we can.

The programmes to improve sheep and beef genetics are key

example of this. It is important to invest in advancing industry genetics but there is often a disconnect because it is the breeders who need to invest to grow the value of livestock for export – but it is the productive farmers who finish the animals who see the benefits.

So, over the past 10 years, the NZMB has been putting money in “at the front end” to keep improving genetics.

It has invested in that underlying infrastructure that would not otherwise receive investment, to ensure the industry can produce improved animals which will capture increased value further along the line.

Not only that, but NZ farmers can now use evaluation technology, also underpinned by NZMB investment, to benchmark genetics across most sheep breeds.

It uses a world-leading process of combining genomic and pedigree data to make a real difference for farmers.

The outcomes have been transformational and the focus is now on giving beef farmers access to similar advantages, with the NZMB committing up to $1m this year towards the Informing New Zealand Beef genetics programme.

The board also considers capital applications for significant projects. A good example of this is

the Red Meat Profit Partnership, another transformational piece of work that has produced outcomes including the electronic animal status declaration (eASD), the New Zealand Farm Assurance Programme (NZFAP) and the Action Networks.

The NZMB does not make these decisions alone – it seeks farmer feedback before any funds are allocated.

It’s a key part of the good robust systems NZ has in place, given to us by our parents and grandparents. Historically, industry leaders set up the systems that allow for this research and development and for NZ to support world-class farmers.

It’s important to us today as it was to those who farmed before us and, as the NZMB enters its second century, it will continue to play a vital role in our farming future.

Who am I? Sam McIvor is chief executive of the New Zealand Meat Board.

Your View Got a view on some aspect of farming you would like to get across?

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26

Opinion

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 25, 2022

So much more than a game Alternative View

Alan Emerson

LIKE many of you, I suffered the recent All Blacks-Irish tests. To put the record straight, Ireland totally deserved to win.

They played better rugby, hung onto the ball, made fewer mistakes and took their opportunities.

We started badly, couldn’t win our lineouts and lacked leadership.

We have a tired old team that has lost direction and is badly coached, in my view.

If massive changes aren’t made we’ll be lucky to end up in the top eight in next year’s Rugby World Cup. That we have lost four of the past five tests is testament to that.

Going on social media after the last two test failures, I was offended by some of the posts telling me it was only a game.

It is much more than that.

NZ Rugby chief executive Mark Robinson describing the performance as unacceptable is an understatement and begs the question as to what he and the NZRFU board are going to do about it.

When current board chair Stewart Mitchell was elected he was asked what he had to offer.

His reply, arrogant as it was in my view, was that he was from Canterbury and knew how to win.

As he has obviously lost that ability with the All Blacks, one could respectfully ask if he is intending to step down.

Losing four out of the past five tests certainly isn’t winning.

I knew Mitchell was an accountant but I hadn’t realised he’d played for the NZ Colts 50 years ago.

The issue to me is that the All Blacks are not only about rugby, they are about New Zealand.

Their brand is synonymous with NZ. That brand is important, having been valued as a multimilliondollar brand.

It achieved that because it had the ability to deliver repeated success and winning on the big stage.

It is huge for NZ, having a global fan base of 60 million people.

Putting that in perspective, the team has 12 supporters for every man, woman and child living in New Zealand.

The 2019 World Cup in Japan generated 857 million viewers, with the experts believing that next year’s event in France will be even greater. Test rugby in NZ is not just a game.

It is an important part of our culture and, more importantly, it provides us with a recognisable brand on the world stage, That brand was created on our ability to win.

It is obviously losing its gloss and value and something needs to be done about it.

MUST TRY HARDER: Ireland totally deserved to win, having outplayed the All Blacks.

I’m not blaming the players or the coach. If you’re offered a plum job you’ll take it.

I’m blaming the NZRFU board.

As one who played his rugby more with enthusiasm than ability, I’m not going to castigate the All Blacks.

It isn’t easy to get to play at that level and I don’t believe a player wouldn’t give his all at test level.

I don’t agree with the suggestion it is the worst All Blacks team ever.

Rugby today is much harder and faster than it was.

I don’t believe you can honestly compare today’s teams with those

of an earlier era.

I’m going to sheet the blame firmly at NZRFU board level.

As it says on NZ Rugby’s website, the board is charged with setting strategy, direction and policy for NZ Rugby and is ultimately responsible for the decisions and actions of NZR management and staff.

My polite question would be to ask what strategy and direction?

Let’s start with coaches.

Sir Graham Henry was superb.

Despite some original speed wobbles he set the team up.

He was followed by Steve Hansen, and how much he contributed and how much was Sir Graham’s legacy we don’t know.

We now have Ian Foster.

Coaching selection has always been a mystery to me.

Take NZ Rugby’s decision

to appoint Mark Hammett as Hurricanes coach, even though he was unproven in that role.

The reason we in the provinces were given was that he was marked for greater things.

Hammett’s claim to fame in my book was encouraging most of the Hurricanes stars to join other franchises and then moving from the Hurricanes to relative obscurity.

Dave Rennie unsuccessfully applied for the job and is now the head coach of Australia.

We also lost Jamie Joseph, Tony Brown, Warren Gatland and Joe Schmidt overseas, although the latter two have since returned.

Rennie’s time with the Chiefs was more successful than Foster’s.

The two most successful coaches in NZ are Razor Robertson and Leon MacDonald.

Robertson applied for the top job but failed.

Something must change and change now if we are to maintain the value of the All Black billiondollar brand and with it the nation’s fortunes.

That should encourage incisive action from the NZRFU board. I’m not holding my breath.

So I’m not blaming the players or the coach. If you’re offered a plum job you’ll take it. I’m blaming the NZRFU board.

The next two tests in South Africa will be interesting.

Your View Alan Emerson is a semi-retired Wairarapa farmer and businessman: dath.emerson@gmail.com

One hitchhiker you don’t want to pick up From the Ridge

Steve Wyn-Harris

I’VE written in the past that the two things we should be most fearful of are viruses and meteorites.

At the time I was thinking of human viruses, given the current covid pandemic being front of mind, but recent events have reminded us that animal pandemics are yet another thing to cause justifiable concern.

Foot-and-mouth has again reared its head and this time in Indonesia. Of even more concern for us here, it has now been confirmed to have infected animals in Bali.

Just as international tourism is coming back on stream and up to a million Australian and tens of thousands of Kiwi tourists visit that holiday destination.

By all accounts, cattle and pigs wander freely among the visitors, making it possible for them to encounter infected animals and pick up the virus on their footwear.

There are no direct flights between Bali and New Zealand, but as the virus can survive outside of a host for 24 to 48 hours, there is the opportunity for it to hitch a ride to this country.

The chances are small but the impact if it happened are immense for our sector and NZ. Foot-and-mouth has been present in several Southeast Asian countries for many years.

It’s good to see that Biosecurity NZ is rolling out the footmats with disinfectant for arrivals from Indonesia and that the Australian government is lifting its own biosecurity game.

Just last week, Australia detected viral fragments – which aren’t capable of infecting animals – on food products that had come in from Indonesia and China.

Food products with the actual virus attached have been implicated in outbreaks in other parts of the world in the past.

The cause of foot-and-mouth was found to be viral back in 1897.

It is a highly infectious disease that affects cloven-hoofed animals.

The virus is of no risk to humans.

In animals, it causes blisters on the mouth and feet that can be so severe, they are unable to stand or walk.

When outbreaks occur

everything possible is done to contain and then eliminate the virus, but this is no easy or cheap matter.

Not only is FMD very infectious among animals, it is easily transmitted via footwear, on clothing, in fodder, on vehicles and by long-distance aerosol spread.

The United States has had nine outbreaks, mostly in the earlier half of the 20th century.

The United Kingdom had an outbreak in 1967 resulting from legally imported infected lamb from Argentina and Chile. It cost NZ$14 billion in today’s money to clean it up.

Many of us remember better the UK outbreak of 2001. It is believed that outbreak resulted from illegally imported meat scraps destined to be fed to pigs.

Six million sheep and cattle were killed to halt the disease and I can well remember the terrible footage of the pits, fires, anguish and misery.

Something that those who have had to deal with M Bovis eradication know extremely well.

The response to that outbreak was slow, which compounded the scale and cost. The total cost in today’s money amounted to $28bn to eradicate the virus.

The Australians have estimated

BOOTS ON THE GROUND: We need to bring the strict protocols we learnt under covid to efforts to keep footand-mouth out of the country.

it could cost A$80bn if they had a major event.

We have a $52bn export industry at stake and I’m not sure we could afford to spend these sort of sums to clean it up here. None of us would want to go through the trauma, not to mention the hit on our incomes and the resulting carnage on our balance sheets.

So, prevention is critical.

We already have some of the tougher biosecurity measures against foot-and-mouth incursions and it is good to hear that these measures are being stepped up at airports – and I hope ports as well.

We have shown the lengths we will go to prevent a human virus getting into the country, and I’d

like to see the same diligence and scrutiny applied against this disease.

Like the Australians, we are supporting the Indonesians to try to control and hopefully eliminate the virus.

And we farmers have a responsibility as well to ensure NAIT and ASD records are accurate and current, and to be vigilant for any potential symptoms.

We might be learning to live with covid 19 but none of us ever want to deal with foot-and-mouth.

Your View Steve Wyn-Harris is a Central Hawke’s Bay sheep and beef farmer. swyn@xtra.co.nz

Opinion

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 25, 2022

27

Commission gives sector a dose of climate reality The Braided Trail

Keith Woodford

BIG decisions are now required, both by rural industry groups and the Government, following the Climate Change Commission advice on the He Waka Eke Noa (HWEN) proposals.

The commission, chaired by Rod Carr, has supported some aspects of the HWEN proposals put forward by the industry, but has poured cold reality on other aspects.

Beef+Lamb and DairyNZ have responded by suggesting that it is all or nothing.

However, that is not going to wash with the Government.

Once again, the rural industry groups have challenging decisions to make as to whether they are inside the tent or outside.

First, there is a key area of agreement, which needs to be celebrated.

The commission supports the split-gas approach, with this being fundamental to keeping methane away from the Emission Trading Scheme.

Given this support, the Government can now be expected to align firmly with this.

But there is still a lot of hard work to be done on sorting out the pricing mechanism for methane.

The big area of disagreement between the commission and HWEN relates to sequestration credits for vegetation types that currently lie outside the ETS. Industry wants this to be included within HWEN, whereas the commission says this is not administratively practical.

The commission suggests that there are much better ways to acknowledge the ecosystem benefits of some vegetation types that are not ETS-eligible.

There are also some improvements for sequestration within the ETS itself that could be made.

Before proceeding further, it is important to understand the respective roles of the Government, the Climate Change Commission and HWEN in terms of how we got to the present position and who is responsible for the next steps.

The underlying legislation is the 2019 Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Act, which was signed up to by all major parties. The exception to

unanimity was ACT Leader David Seymour, who, at that time the only ACT member of parliament, somehow missed the vote while otherwise distracted.

This legislation says that agriculture comes into the ETS by January 1 2025 unless acceptable alternative mechanisms can be developed by rural industry partners.

That is where HWEN came into the picture, representing 11 industry groups.

The legislation also says that methane emissions must be reduced by 10% by 2030.

The role of the commission in regard to these specific issues is not to question the 10% figure.

Rather, the 10% figure is a “given” within existing legislation.

That is the framework within which they have to operate.

Accordingly, any discussion of the 10% target is a discussion for another time.

However, the commission has been required to report to the Government on the readiness of the rural sector to have an HWEN system operative by January 1 2025.

It is in that context that the commission has given a tick to farm-based methane charges as being feasible, with this being assessed at the level of individual farms rather than as a processor charge.

However, the commission has also said that trying to achieve this for sequestration is not possible within the required timeframe.

Also, the HWEN sequestration proposals fail on grounds of logic, consistency and equity.

The commission has also said that at this stage it does not believe that the industry can be ready for farm-level assessment of nitrous oxide, and that the way forward, at least in the interim, is a charge on synthetic nitrogen applied at the processor level.

I will return to that later in this article.

A key point going forward is that it is the Government that now has to make the decisions.

It doesn’t have to accept the Climate Change Commission’s recommendations, but it is required by the legislation to explain any non-acceptance.

As for HWEN, its role going forward is by invitation.

The Government is free to ignore HWEN if it wishes.

Of course, that might have political ramifications at the ballot box next year, but with HWEN partners doing plenty of squabbling among themselves, that could be assessed as manageable.

So where does that take the debate?

FENCED OFF: Industry groups insisting on an ‘all or nothing’ approach on the He Waka Eke Noa proposals will find this doesn’t wash with the Government.

As indicated, the immediate response in a combined statement from both Beef+Lamb and DairyNZ was that the HWEN proposals are “all or nothing”.

This reflects that HWEN struggled hard to get internal agreement for its current proposals.

It required lots of internal political horse trading between the groups, and the generation of much internal heat.

The idea of negotiating something new is not appealing to them.

Ironically, the Climate Change Commission has suggested there are much better ways to get acknowledgement of the ecosystem benefits associated with vegetation types not currently included in the ETS. But it seems that key industry groups are not hearing.

The “all or nothing” approach is also likely to have been the attitude of the Federation of Māori Authorities (FOMA), for whom the sequestration issues are very important.

However, I have not seen a public statement from them.

Alas, if these industry groups now hold to the “all or nothing” position, the risk is that it will be “nothing”.

Hopefully, a little reflection might lead to a more nuanced position.

But at this stage, based on the drum beats I am hearing on the breeze, I am not hopeful.

I am told that at least some of the partners think that HWEN is in danger of self-destructing.

I am told that the programme office for HWEN remains in place through to the end of September but nothing has been decided

beyond that time.

For much of the past six months I have made my position known, both publicly and privately to some of the HWEN partners, that their sequestration proposals had no chance of being acceptable to the Climate Change Commission.

Some of the partners acknowledged this privately but others were not open to that acknowledgement. Oh, what a mess!

I see no chance that the Government will go against the commission on this matter.

Essentially, the commission is saying that trying to bring sequestration within HWEN would be shambolic.

It would be a very brave Government that acted in contravention of that professional advice.

One of the problems is that Beef+Lamb used the promise of sequestration benefits to keep important parts of their own fractious constituency aligned and within their own tent.

It is now very difficult for them to walk backwards from that.

Perhaps they would prefer to go down fighting.

Ironically, the Climate Change Commission has suggested there are much better ways to get acknowledgement of the ecosystem benefits associated with vegetation types that are not currently included in the ETS. But it seems that key industry groups are not hearing.

Key challenges going forward are to make progress on the pricing of the methane levy, and to work hard on farm-level pricing for nitrous oxide.

Both of these issues were poorly handled within HWEN, which got distracted from the main game by sequestration issues on which they were never going to win.

In relation to pricing, the starting point has to be acknowledgement that the whole purpose of the levy is to reduce emissions, but that this has to be done in the context of not destroying pastoral agriculture.

The way forward is surely to start by asking what the research, development, extension and

education needs are to achieve this.

And then, what financial resources are required to achieve this?

That will determine the necessary levies.

In discussions with individual partners, I received no disagreement with this approach, but, with partners distracted by other issues, it did not come through into the final document.

The other vexing issue is nitrous oxide.

Unfortunately, the HWEN document did not lay out with any coherence how farm-level assessment might occur, and hence the commission was justified in saying that systems could not be in place as required

by January 2025.

However, my assessment is that the commission has no fundamental objection to farmlevel assessment of nitrous oxide.

It just needs to be given evidence as to how this could be achieved.

Given the lack of coherence among the industry partners, it seems likely that it will be the Government working alone that will now have to make the big decisions, with these decisions required to be made by December 2022.

Given the looming implementation date of January 1, 2025 as set down in legislation, this cannot be further delayed.

Alas, I am not convinced that the Government has the technical expertise within the Ministry for Primary Industries and the Ministry for the Environment to come up with the right architecture to make everything happen in an acceptable way. It is a very difficult task they face.

Your View Keith Woodford was Professor of Farm Management and Agribusiness at Lincoln University for 15 years through to 2015. He is now Principal Consultant at AgriFood Systems Ltd. He can be contacted at kbwoodford@ gmail.com Previous articles can be found at https://keithwoodford. wordpress.com

28

On Farm

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 25, 2022

Cultivating a new crop Retaining New Zealand’s place as a top agricultural global producer requires attracting young talent to the primary sector.

Gerald Piddock spoke to Kerry Allen, who is pioneering agribusiness teaching in schools across the country.

F

OR nearly a decade, Kerry Allen has worked to pioneer agribusiness in New Zealand’s secondary schools, keeping that pipeline of talent open and growing the pool of young Kiwis eyeing careers in the primary sector.

Allen spearheads the Agribusiness in Schools programme at St Paul’s Collegiate in Hamilton as the school’s agribusiness curriculum director, a role she has had since 2014.

The programme takes knowledge from the sector and uses it in the classroom, highlighting how careers in fields such as law, medicine, tourism and marketing can be incorporated into the sector.

“We’re aiming for those top kids who have business or finance acumen, or the top science knowledge that’s really needed for innovation and technology,” Allen says.

The nationwide scheme is in its ninth year of operation, having grown from a piloted plan in 2013 to being in 107 schools across the country as of last year.

Agribusiness in Schools evolved out of a 2013 St Paul’s parents survey, which concluded it was not meeting the needs of its students with rural backgrounds in encouraging them to consider pathways into the primary sector.

Teaching agribusiness has not been without its challenges. It was a new teaching subject without any recognised standards.

Early on, Allen used achievement standards from other subjects and recontextualised them for teaching agribusiness.

This led to her pitching to

the Ministry of Education in Wellington in 2017, advocating for the creation of a new agribusiness subject and new achievement standards.

“There were a lot of barriers in the way because it was the first time a sector group had gone to the ministry to propose a subject.

Usually, it goes the opposite way and the ministry tells you what everybody needs.”

But a year later, Allen got the subject its own achievement standards.

Unlike maths where when you learn the content it generally stays the same, ours constantly changes and my role regarding the curriculum is to try and keep the teachers up to speed.

Kerry Allen Agribusiness in Schools

The new subject also withstood the Labour Government’s education reforms, and agricultural and horticultural science and agribusiness are now seen as subjects of national significance.

Ten schools came on board to trial the new standard – including state and privately run schools.

It was a St Paul’s initiative, but Allen says she has always seen the curriculum as something bigger

than just being for them.

“It’s something that was needed across the whole country.”

Of the 107 schools currently teaching the curriculum, 57% are in urban centres and 43% in rural areas.

As of 2021, 79 schools are teaching level 2 agribusiness achievement standards, 74 are teaching level 3 and 415 schools are teaching some form of primary sector education.

Over the past five years, 8577 students have also been taught agribusiness and 535 teachers have attended agribusiness conferences, personal development sessions or training.

The curriculum has seven achievement standards – four at level 2 and three at level 3, covering topics ranging from issues that influence the sector and future-proofing it, to strategies the sector can use to mitigate challenges.

It also looks at new and innovative uses for organisms, cashflow forecasting, business structures including cooperatives and iwi structures, innovation and adding value, and strategic expenditure within the agribusiness.

It includes field trips, where the students travel out to different farms to see how what they have learnt in the classroom relates to inside the farmgate.

Part of the innovation standard includes students or groups of students having to come up with an agri innovation, which they have to pitch to the school’s version of Dragons Den – The Crocodile Pit. The top three then enter their innovation at the Innovation

Awards at Fieldays.

St Paul’s Collegiate School also teaches agricultural and horticultural science with two classes at level 1 and one each at levels 2 and 3.

The agribusiness curriculum is also designed to keep it relevant to the region in which it is being taught, to provide opportunities for students to go out and see inside the farmgate or practice in action. For example, a Bay of Plenty school may focus more on horticulture than sheep and beef farming.

It also provides a pathway for students to study agribusiness at university with the subjects qualifying them for those degrees.

Teaching primary sector subjects has its own unique issues. The subjects are resource hungry, requiring access to farms or orchards as well as equipment the industry uses.

As more schools took up the programme, Allen hired Melanie Simmons, who is the agribusiness advisor to other schools, teacher training colleges, and the Government, to keep growing capacity.

Last month, Allen added a third person to her team to help with administration, communications and marketing.

There are no textbooks for teaching primary sector education in secondary schools, and Allen and Simmons had to create their own agribusiness workbook at level 2 and are currently writing another for level 3.

The content is always evolving, with the impact of new legislation affecting water and climate change affecting how the primary sector operates.

The curriculum has to reflect those changes, says Allen.

“Unlike maths where when you learn the content it generally stays the same, ours constantly changes and my role regarding the curriculum is to try and keep the teachers up to speed,” she says.

On the floor of Allen’s office is a large pile of books, newspapers and magazines filled with Post-It notes on articles she is reading to keep up with the latest changes in farming.

Both Allen and Simmons also teach the curriculum at St Paul’s to ensure they both retain that connection to the front line of

GROWTH MENTALITY: As of 2021, 79 schools are teaching level 2 agribusiness achievement standards, 74 are teaching level 3 and 415 schools are teaching some form of primary sector education.

On Farm

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 25, 2022

29

It’s not seen as a sexy subject and somewhere where top academic students should go. Yet farmers and growers are running multimillion-dollar businesses and need the best and brightest to work with them.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Kerry Allen spearheads the Agribusiness in Schools programme at St Paul’s Collegiate in Hamilton as the school’s agribusiness curriculum director.

education.

This allows them to gauge the success or failure of the teaching resources they create.

“If I write resources but don’t actually teach it, how will I know it will work? Sometimes they don’t and you need to be at the coalface to do that.

“It also grounds us ... a lot of educationalists who write educational resources don’t actually teach students, and teaching has changed in the last 20 years, students are more instant, they are more visual, and they don’t read as many books,” she says.

The constant changes are why Allen loves teaching the subject.

“I’ve been teaching 27 years and there’s nothing that I taught back then that I teach now. It’s constantly evolving, which is what I love, but it’s also quite stressful because you can’t fall back on some of the resources you have got.”

Finding specialised primary sector teachers in a sector already struggling with staffing shortages was another challenge.

When a school has a primary sector teacher, it is important they get support. Too often they are

one-person operatives and if they transfer to another school, the subject falls over.

Allen and Simmons help schools needing assistance in implementing agribusiness eduction, with Simmons regularly taking calls from teachers asking for advice.

They have also developed a website as a port of call for teachers looking for advice.

“We provide a huge amount of support. Sometimes we’ve taken calls in the middle of class when the kids are talking to you.

“Kids are very digital and want

PLANTING THE SEED: St Paul’s Collegiate School also teaches agricultural and horticultural science with two classes at level 1 and one each at levels 2 and 3.

the answers now, and with us being available, we’re able to do that,” she says.

The programme, including Allen and Simmons’ salaries, is funded externally from groups and companies including Gallagher, AGMARDT, Rabobank, NZKGI, Fairview Motors, MIA, DairyNZ and Beef+Lamb New Zealand.

Allen has also had to counter the negative perception of agriculture in some quarters of the education sector.

“It’s seen as being there only for people who are practically minded and who are not that good academically and it’s for dummies,” says Allen.

“It’s not seen as a sexy subject and somewhere where top academic students should go. Yet

Kerry Allen Agribusiness in Schools farmers and growers are running multimillion-dollar businesses and need the best and brightest to work with them.”

She also works closely with former St Paul’s headmaster Grant Lander to try to get the curriculum into more of the larger Auckland schools, which may not initially see its value.

“We’re trying to make them aware that there is value. It’s the only thing that’s been keeping the economy going in the last few years. It’s growing and we need the students.”

The only way to change those teachers’ attitudes is to talk to them and open their eyes to the exceptional, high-salaried jobs that are available, Allen says.

“If I had this opportunity 30 years ago, I don’t think I would be a teacher. There’s some great opportunities and they don’t have to be in one part of the sector, these skills are easily transferable to all of the other sectors,” she says.

Looking ahead, Allen says she wants to keep building on the 107 schools, but that goal is tempered by realism because of limited resources.

“If more schools are interested in it and more teachers are interested in it, it becomes a selffulfilling prophecy and teachers will change into the subject to do it,” she says.

If that happens, the curriculum will keep growing, providing further pathways for getting the next generation into dynamic

GERMINATE: The constant changes are why Kerry Allen loves teaching agriculture.

Waimiha Ongarue Stream Road

Taumarunui 5896 State Highway 4 Open Day

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Forestry investment / Lifestyle opportunity 178 ha in two titles with approximate distance being 45 km southeast of Te Kuiti, 62 km north of Taumarunui, 89 km north-west of Taupo and 28 km south-west of Tokoroa. The larger 161 ha title consists of 122 ha cut-over having had radiata recently harvested with the remaining 39 ha being predominantly native bush. The smaller 16.5 ha title consists of 14 ha of 25 year (approx) Douglas Fir with the balance being cut-over and native bush. Situated on this title near the Okauaka Stream is a 1990's built cottage/bach that consists of a kitchen/living area, two bunk rooms and a bathroom.

First farm start up Tender closes 4.00pm, Mon 22nd Aug, 2022 (unless sold prior), Property Brokers - 131 Rora Street, Te Kuiti, 3910 View Wed 27 Jul 12.00 - 1.30pm Web pb.co.nz/TER103401

Doug Wakelin M 027 321 1343

This well located 130 ha (more or less) block could be the first step on the farm ownership ladder or a large lifestyle block that could entertain your hunting and wilderness wishes. Situated only 11 km north of Taumarunui it could be an easy commute into town for work or a swift trip to Te Kuiti.

The farm is complete with: • Four stand woolshed • Covered sheep yards • Cattle yards and load out • Three bedroom + office & rumpus room • Native bush • River boundary

Auction 2.00pm, Thu 11th Aug, 2022 View Thu 28 Jul 1.30 - 2.30pm Web pb.co.nz/TUR13167

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Mangaokewa 228 Mangaokewa Road Tender

King Country grazing and forestry 378 ha located at 228 Mangaokewa Road, 25 km southeast of Te Kuiti between the Mokau and Mangaokewa Rivers.

This undulating to medium hill contour farm offers significant diversity in stocking options and could run all cattle on the grazable 200 ha, the balance being 105 ha of forestry and 73 ha of beautiful native forests, some that are registered under QEII Trust. It is complemented by a landowner share of a 90 ha forestry right due for harvest anytime within the next few years. Infrastructure includes a four bedroom main dwelling, cottage, four stand wool shed, sheep and cattle yards, two haybarns and an implement shed. Stock numbers wintered include: 265 R1 Cattle, 30 R2 Cattle, 450 MA Ewes, 60 Lambs and 20 Rams. Don't delay inspection of this diversified grazing and forestry opportunity, as this is an estate sale where genuine motivation exists to sell. Motor bike and helmet required to view.

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Tender closes 4.00pm, Mon 22nd Aug, 2022, 131 Rora Street, Te Kuiti 3910 View By appointment Web pb.co.nz/TER103923

Doug Wakelin M 027 321 1343

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Di Janett M 027 554 2227

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Ashburton 956 Christys Road Tender

214.52 ha - 'Avonlea' Avonlea has been an intergenerational farm acquired in 1962. In more recent years the property has been developed into an intensive irrigated arable/dairy support/lamb finishing unit. Soils have progressed with large deposits of humus from the ANZCO Wakanui beef feedlot which combined with the irrigation has seen record maize yields.

Tender closes 3.00pm, Mon 22nd Aug, 2022 (unless sold prior), Property Brokers Ashburton View By appointment Web pb.co.nz/AR102293

With proprietary seed contracts in place for both grain and pasture seeds, dairy support history and good quality improvements this farm stands out as 'opportunity plus' in a keenly sought after location.

Maybe a once in a lifetime opportunity in a tightly held area. Genuine Vendors leave the farm in excellent heart.

Paul Cunneen M 0274 323 382

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Proud to be here

32

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Ross Dyer 0274 333 381 A Financing Solution For Your Farm E info@rdlfinance.co.nz

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MORRINSVILLE DAIRY COMPLEX

TE KUITI SALEYARDS THURSDAY 28TH JULY 2022 12.00 PM

SHORT NOTICE CLEARING SALE THURSDAY 28TH JULY 2022 12 Noon On A/c Client Approx. 110 Frsn X & XB Dairy Cows

On A/c: WAIPAPA STATION (Farm Sold)

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500 X SIL Romdale Ewes 4 Tooth to 4 Year Old Waimai and Waiteika Romney, FE Tolerant Ram (5th April to 24th May) For Further Details Contact: Vaughan Rogers 0274 521 568 Brent Bougen 0272 104 698

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FARMERS WEEKLY – July 25, 2022

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MARKET SNAPSHOT

36

Market Snapshot brought to you by the AgriHQ analysts.

Mel Croad

Suz Bremner

Reece Brick

Fiona Quarrie

Hayley O’Driscoll

Caitlin Pemberton

Deer

Sheep

Cattle BEEF

SHEEP MEAT

VENISON

Last week

Prior week

Last year

NI Steer (300kg)

6.10

6.10

6.00

NI lamb (17kg)

9.10

9.10

8.80

NI Stag (60kg)

8.05

8.05

5.60

NI Bull (300kg)

6.10

6.10

5.90

NI mutton (20kg)

6.10

6.10

6.40

SI Stag (60kg)

8.15

8.15

5.60

NI Cow (200kg)

4.40

4.35

4.50

SI lamb (17kg)

9.25

9.20

8.40

SI Steer (300kg)

6.20

6.15

5.50

SI mutton (20kg)

6.05

6.05

6.45

SI Bull (300kg)

6.05

6.05

5.35

Export markets (NZ$/kg)

SI Cow (200kg)

4.60

4.60

4.25

UK CKT lamb leg

Slaughter price (NZ$/kg)

9.60

9.13

US domestic 90CL cow

9.91

9.95

8.78

North Island steer slaughter price

7.0

7.0

South Island lamb slaughter price

9.0 $/kg CW

South Island steer slaughter price

7.0

5.5 4.5

Oct

Dec 5-yr ave

Feb

Apr 2020-21

Jun

Jun

2020-21

Dairy

Oct

Dec

Aug 2021-22

Apr

Last year

2.55

2.55

2.80

37 micron ewe

-

-

30 micron lamb

-

-

NZ average (NZ$/t)

Prior week

Last year

Urea

1340

1340

799

2.75

Super

495

495

339

-

DAP

1794

1794

1055

Top 10 by Market Cap

CANTERBURY FEED WHEAT

$/tonne

$/kg MS

Meridian Energy Limited (NS) Auckland International Airport Limited

600

10.0 9.0 8.0

550

Jul-21

Sep-21

Nov-21 Jan-22 Sept. 2021

Mar-22 May-22 Sept. 2022

DAIRY FUTURES (US$/T) Nearby contract

YTD Low

4.82

5.36

4.32

21

33.4

19

7.43

7.95

6.88

Spark New Zealand Limited

5.02

5.08

4.3

Mercury NZ Limited (NS)

5.85

6.36

5.2

Ebos Group Limited

38.46

44.3

36.11

Mainfreight Limited

70.06

94.4

66.11

450

Contact Energy Limited

7.47

8.42

6.82

Infratil Limited

8.04

8.4

7.33

Port of Tauranga Limited

6.65

6.88

5.96

350

Jul-22

YTD High

500 400

7.0

Close

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Corporation Ltd

650

11.0

Aug 2021-22

Last week

Company

MILK PRICE FUTURES

Jun

2020-21

FERTILISER Prior week

Grain

Data provided by

Feb

Fertiliser

Aug 2021-22

Two weeks ago

Coarse xbred ind.

5-yr ave

7.0

5-yr ave

(NZ$/kg) Apr

8.0

5.0

WOOL

5.0

Feb

9.0

7.0

6.0

Dec

South Island stag slaughter price

6.0

8.0

5.0

Oct

7.0

6.0

6.5

4.0

8.0

10.0

10.0

4.0

9.0

11.0

5.5

4.5

North Island stag slaughter price

5.0

5.0

5.0

Last year

6.0

8.0

6.0

6.0

Last week Prior week

10.0

12.02

$/kg CW

$/kg CW

Slaughter price (NZ$/kg)

9.0

6.5

$/kg CW

12.31

North Island lamb slaughter price

10.0 $/kg CW

9.50

Last year

11.0 12.25

Export markets (NZ$/kg) US imported 95CL bull

Last week Prior week

$/kg CW

Slaughter price (NZ$/kg)

Sara Hilhorst

Ingrid Usherwood

Jul-21

Sep-21

Nov-21

Jan-22

Mar-22

May-22

Jul-22

Listed Agri Shares

5pm, close of market, Wednesday

Company

Close

YTD High

YTD Low

ArborGen Holdings Limited

0.235

0.27

0.205

The a2 Milk Company Limited

4.89

6.39

4.2

600

Comvita Limited

3.25

3.78

2.98

Delegat Group Limited

11.38

14.45

10

Fonterra Shareholders' Fund (NS)

3.15

3.78

2.75

CANTERBURY FEED BARLEY Prior week

vs 4 weeks ago

WMP

3860

3905

4225

550

SMP

3680

3900

4200

500

Foley Wines Limited

1.52

1.57

1.38

Greenfern Industries Limited

0.175

0.25

0.089

450

Livestock Improvement Corporation Ltd (NS)

1.38

1.73

1.3

Marlborough Wine Estates Group Limited

0.18

0.26

0.155

New Zealand King Salmon Investments Ltd

0.21

1.38

0.187

PGG Wrightson Limited

4.7

5.76

3.93

Rua Bioscience Limited

0.305

0.53

0.29

AMF

5530

5690

6125

Butter

5630

5630

5870

Milk Price

9.35

9.35

9.36

$/tonne

Last price*

400 350

Jul-21

* price as at close of business on Wednesday

WMP FUTURES - VS FOUR WEEKS AGO 4200 4000

$/tonne

US$/t

Nov-21

Jan-22

Mar-22

May-22

Jul-22

WAIKATO PALM KERNEL

4400

3800 3600 3400 3200

Sep-21

Aug Sep Latest price

Oct

Nov 4 weeks ago

Dec

4.2

5.07

4.03

4.4

5.59

4.07

Seeka Limited

4.7

5.36

4.45

550

Synlait Milk Limited (NS)

3.39

3.54

3.04

T&G Global Limited

2.75

3.01

2.7

500

S&P/NZX Primary Sector Equity Index

12222

14293

11724

450

S&P/NZX 50 Index

11199

13150

10588

S&P/NZX 10 Index

10888

12725

10291

400 350

Jul

Sanford Limited (NS) Scales Corporation Limited

300

Jul-21

S&P/FW PRIMARY SECTOR EQUITY

Sep-21

Nov-21

Jan-22

Mar-22

May-22

Jul-22

12222

S&P/NZX 50 INDEX

11199

S&P/NZX 10 INDEX

10888

37

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 25, 2022

Analyst intel

WEATHER

Overview A large low sits in the Tasman Sea to start this week. Meanwhile a high is to our east, and between the two a northeasterly airflow gets dragged over New Zealand. Most regions are looking a bit cloudy with the odd light shower, the far south should stay dry though. On Tuesday a front flinging out from the low passes brings some rain, especially to the North Island. This front moves out east on Wednesday with temperatures warming up in the east. A cold front moves through on Thursday bringing in a WSW airflow, showers in the west and drier conditions in the east. The flow tends northwest on Saturday then a high moves in on Sunday.

Pricing upside comes with some conditions

14-day outlook A northeasterly airflow lies over the country for the first half of this week, tending more northerly on Wednesday as a front moves offshore to the east.

Thursday sees the arrival of a cold front pushing in from the Tasman Sea, wet in the west and south as this moves through. Friday a west to southwest airflow brings showers in the west. This continues on Friday but the airflow tilts more northwest then a high moves in on Sunday. Monday through to Wednesday next week the high moves out to the east and northerlies build.

Northerlies continue for the rest of the week bringing wet weather out west, and drier weather in the east.

Mel Croad mel.croad@globalhq.co.nz

Soil Moisture

Highlights

20/07/2022

Wind

Northeasterlies will be a bit fresh and gusty for the upper North Island today and tomorrow. Winds calm for a time then on Thursday gusty northerlies build ahead of a front. Friday has a strong west to southwest airflow over the country, easing on Saturday.

Source: NIWA Data

Temperature

7-day rainfall forecast

Tuesday sees warm temperatures move into the upper North Island then these warm temperatures spread to eastern regions on Wednesday. Warm then cold on Thursday as a cold front moves through, remaining fairly cool from then through to the weekend.

A northeasterly airflow brings patchy showers or drizzle to the eastern and northern parts of the country today. Rain starts to move in to Northland as a front pushes in, this rain spreads to much of the North Island on Tuesday and the top of the South Island. Dry in the east on Wednesday, meanwhile showers continue out west. Showers in the west and far south Thursday through to Saturday then drying out on Sunday as a high moves in.

0

5

Highlights/ Extremes

10

20

30

40

50

60

80

100

200

400

Rainfall accumulation over seven days starting from 6am Sunday July 24 through to 6am Sunday July 31. Forecast generated at 12am on Thursday July 21.

Temperatures about the upper North Island on Tuesday then eastern regions on Wednesday could reach into the late teens as warm air depends from the north.

It doesn’t last all that long as a cold front starts to move through from Thursday.

Weather brought to you in partnership with WeatherWatch.co.nz

AT THIS time of the year attention turns to what is happening on farm.

Most farmers are head-down-tail-up preparing for a few months of hard slog. A return to a good old-fashioned, traditional winter means, for some, the hard work has already started.

The busyness of on-farm work between now and spring means for many there is often little time to spend monitoring slaughter prices and trends.

Slaughter rates do quickly slip to winter low levels as processing plants close for planned maintenance or switch to processing bobby calves. However, despite what processing data depicts, those who want to remain ahead of the game should really keep an eye on market drivers.

Beef slaughter tallies typically bottom out in the North Island through mid-August and about a month later in the South Island. Slaughter numbers basically halve between autumn and late winter to about 25,000-30,000 head.

Having sat at 400,000-500,000 head per week through autumn, the national lamb kill seasonally drops to about 200,000 per week through August.

Lower slaughter rates through this part of the season also account for falling export volumes.

This tends to show up quickly for lamb with August and September low-volume months.

For beef the slowdown in export volumes isn’t typically reached until October.

The reduced supplies onto the export market tend to reawaken export demand.

Typically average export values start to gather some momentum and that is reflected in firming farmgate slaughter prices.

The question this year is just how high slaughter prices will go.

If there was ever a season to keep an eye on pricing trends, this is probably the one.

Especially for those setting budgets about now.

Farmgate prices have never been higher for this time of the year, but we are coming off the covid-induced bubble of demand and export markets are starting to revert to

traditional trends.

Lamb prices bottomed out earlier in the year at levels well above $8/kg.

This is not bad, considering the low point in 2021 ranged from $6.50-$6.25/kg in the North and South Island respectively.

Lamb prices have since risen to over $9/ kg.

AgriHQ’s Livestock Outlook report for July forecasts further upside.

But it comes with numerous conditions, some of which weren’t a factor this time last year. Remaining lamb supplies point to a much higher offload to October.

Factoring that in alongside softer export prices does increase volatility.

Australia is now bullishly indicating record lamb exports for 2022, with much of it earmarked for release into global markets between now and December.

If there was ever a season to keep an eye on pricing trends, this is probably the one.

Especially for those setting budgets about now.

This will coincide with higher NZ supplies, requiring solid export demand to ensure prices don’t topple over.

For beef, the outlook remains solid.

AgriHQ is forecasting further pricing upside to November, with prices set to taper off into December as finished supplies increase.

This outlook does hinge on some level of normality returning to export demand.

Key markets such as China and the US have been battling various headwinds this year. China’s lockdowns dented demand for beef.

Now as shipping starts to free up, it will allow a greater flow of beef there.

If trade with China can lift and be maintained it will take some of the reliance off the US market, effectively providing some competition.

The US still has a mountain of domestic beef to work through but, all going to plan, import demand is expected to lift later in the year, underpinning current pricing expectations.

38

SALE YARD WRAP

Winter mode hits sale yards A few weeks of winter-like weather and the fact that it is nearing the end of July meant that winter mode finally kicked in at the yards.

For the store lamb market, this was good timing as it gave everyone a bit of a breather. Demand has been wavering over the past few weeks due to inclement weather, lack of feed, and finishers currently full. At Feilding on Friday, July 15 only 5000 lambs were offered, the smallest sale since the short week of Easter, and at Stortford Lodge last Wednesday tallies reached 3700. The Friday Matawhero sheep sale was cancelled. At South Island yards, the weather was largely responsible for small tallies. Temuka yarded just under 900-head, which was in stark contrast to the 6,000 offered at the same sale last year as sellers chased the strong prices available at auction.

NORTHLAND Wellsford store cattle • Top pens of R2 dairy-beef heifers reached $3.03-$3.07/kg • A pen of 21 later-born R1 Angus-cross steers, 170kg, reached $730, $4.29/kg • Autumn-born weaner Charolais-cross steers, 91-109kg, made $565-$600 • Most R1 dairy-beef heifers weighed 205-281kg and sold for $2.76-$2.88/kg New local faces in the crowd supported a buoyant market at WELLSFORD last Monday. Just over 330 cattle were penned and the balance of the R2 beef-cross and dairy-beef heifers sold on a very satisfactory market at $2.82-$2.94/kg.

A small yarding of R2 steers traded in line with the heifers, aside from one pen of 398kg Hereford-Friesian which reached $3.14/kg. R1 Hereford-Friesian heifers varied from 328kg at $980, $2.99/kg to 197kg at $630, $3.20/kg. Autumnborn Charolais-cross heifers sold well at $510, $5.50/kg.

Read more in your LivestockEye. Kaikohe cattle • R2 beef-cross steers fetched $2.90-$3.00/kg • Good R1 Angus steers made $3.80/kg • Good R2 Hereford heifers sold well at $3.70/kg There was a smaller sale of 300 cattle which sold on a firm market at KAIKOHE last Wednesday, PGG Wrightson agent Vaughan Vujcich reported. R1 Angus heifers returned $2.70-$2.80/kg. The best of the R2 Angus bulls made $3.00/ kg.

AUCKLAND Pukekohe cattle • Prime steers earned $2.83/kg to $3.03/kg • Weaner crossbred steers made $410-$490 • Weaner heifers realized $380-$430 Store cattle were strong at PUKEKOHE on Saturday, July 16 with light steers able to achieve $2.76/kg to $3.28/ kg, $1010-$1180. Medium store heifers earned $2.50/kg to $2.70/kg, $870-$1090. Lighter prime heifers traded at $2.74$2.80/kg, $1260-$1280.

COUNTIES Tuakau prime cattle 20.7, sheep 18.7 and store cattle 14.7 • Heavy prime steers reached $3.40/kg • Hereford-cross cows, 650kg, earned $2.53/kg • Prime lambs reached $214 • Hereford-Friesian steers, 240kg, made $960 Prices for prime steers, heifers and boner cows lifted 10c/kg at TUAKAU last Wednesday, Carrfields Livestock agent Karl Chitham reported. Heavy steers, 650-740kg, sold strongly at $3.32-$3.40/kg and 550-600kg steers managed $3.12-$3.30/kg and 400-550kg heifers, $3.12-$3.28/kg. In the boner section, 500-600kg cows returned $2.17-$2.28/kg while 400-500kg earned $1.78/kg to $2.07/kg. Heavy prime lambs realised $196-$214 last Monday and light-medium, $142-$184. Forward stores fetched $136-$147 and lightmedium stores $81-$117.

Good-medium ewes traded at $167-$200 while lighter types sold down to $35. About 500 cattle were yarded at the store sale on Thursday, July 14 and the market was firm. Most Hereford-Friesian steers in the 300-400kg range earned $2.95/kg to $3.22/kg while 300-420kg heifers made $2.87/kg to $3.19/kg.

WAIKATO PGW Frankton cattle • R2 Hereford-Friesian steers, 501-562kg, returned $3.15-$3.26/kg • R2 Angus-Friesian steers, 463-478kg, fetched $3.20-$3.22/kg • R2 Charolais-cross heifers, 375-456kg, earned $3.11-$3.20/kg • Prime Speckle Park and Hereford-Jersey steers, 655-677kg, were $3.28-$3.35/kg

• In-calf Friesian cows and heifers, 451-518kg, traded at $2.36$2.46/kg The sun was shining at PGG Wrightson’s FRANKTON sale last Tuesday and this placed the yarding in very good light.

Apart from a good collection of Friesian bulls, 179-296kg, that made $540-$720, the main cattle of significance in the R1 pens were beef-dairy heifers over 200kg that achieved $540-$710. A very robust market was available for autumnborn weaners and highlights included 102kg AngusFriesian heifers that traded at $520 and 99kg HerefordFriesian, $495. There was plenty of interest in the prime pens that held only two lines of heifers. These were 524kg Angus-Friesian and 502kg Hereford-Friesian that made solid returns of $3.23/kg and $3.20/kg respectively. Read more in your LivestockEye. NZFL Frankton cattle • R2 Hereford-Friesian steers, 445kg, earned $3.24/kg • R2 Angus-cross steers, 570kg, made $3.21/kg • R2 Hereford-Friesian heifers, 381kg and run-with-bull, reached $2.57/kg • R2 Angus, 215kg, achieved $3.16/kg • R1 Speckle Park-cross heifers, 200kg, sold for $3.30/kg Values between $2.99/kg and $3.24/kg were common ground for the better lines of R2 steers at New Zealand Farmers Livestock’s FRANKTON sale last Wednesday.

In the R1 pens, Angus-cross steers and heifers were the main attraction and good tallies of 150-223kg steers sold for $3.33-$3.39/kg while their sisters, 253-263kg, returned $2.65-$2.73/kg. R1 beef-dairy heifers, 250-300kg, commonly returned $2.68-$2.78/kg. In the prime pens, 546kg Hereford-Jersey steers made $3.13/kg and 506kg Hereford-Friesian heifers, $3.17/kg. There were several very heavy lines of boner cattle available, such as one pen of 820kg Friesian that made $2.30/kg and another of 602kg Friesian-cross at $2.66/kg. Most others were Friesian-cross, 381-496kg, that returned $1.90/kg to $2.09/kg. Read more in your LivestockEye.

KING COUNTRY Te Kuiti cattle 15.7 and sheep 20.7 • R2 cross-bred steers, 312-462kg, ranged from $2.49/kg to $3.04/ kg • R1 Angus steers, 155-168kg, made $4.10/kg to $4.18/kg • R1 whiteface Angus-cross steers, 132-166kg, returned $3.78/kg to $4.19/kg • Scanned-in-lamb ewes earned $167 • Prime 2-tooth ewes made $130-$144 There were 40 pens of cattle offered at TE KUITI on Friday, July 15. Vetted-in-calf Angus cows, 488-540kg, ranged from $2.03/kg to $2.14/kg. Vetted-in-calf Hereford cows, 627kg, sold for $1440 and very heavy crossbred cows, 680kg, fetched $2.25/kg. Prime lambs sold well last Wednesday as the best reached $179-$220. The best of the prime ewes made $150-$179 and the next cut, $130-$145 while lighter types traded at $100-$117. Ewe lambs earned $132-$140 and mixed-sex lambs returned $95-$138. Male lambs sold for $146-$158.

BAY OF PLENTY Rangiuru cattle and sheep • Heavier boner cows realised $2.32-$2.35/kg • R2 Angus steers, 473kg, collected $3.00/kg Markets were kicked into gear at RANGIURU last Tuesday and most cattle made better returns than the previous week. Demand pushed steers over 600kg up to $3.19-$3.27/kg and others made $3.12-$3.14/kg. Angus and Shorthorn-cross heifers, 488-498kg, managed $3.11/ kg. Boner cow returns jumped 20c/kg and medium types made $2.11-$2.19/kg. Well-marked R2 Hereford-Friesian steers earned $2.96-$3.04/kg and heifers of the same breed which weighed 430kg realised $2.78/kg. R1 steers and bulls were Friesian or Friesian-cross and were capped at $2.71/ kg for 207kg Friesian bulls while Hereford-Friesian heifers,

152kg, made $3.22/kg. In a larger yarding of sheep, top prime lambs collected $186 and medium store options traded at $124-$136. Friesian bull calves returned up to $75 and Angus-Friesian heifers made $40. Read more in your LivestockEye.

POVERTY BAY Matawhero sheep 15.7 • Heaviest prime lambs returned $208 A small yarding of sheep was sold at MATAWHERO on Friday, July 15 and started with Romney ewe hoggets which had been run with a Wiltshire ram in May. The heavier draft collected $168.50 and the second cut returned $147. The pick of a very limited store lamb line-up was good mixedsex lambs that were shorn and made $145. Most prime lambs traded at $162-$182 and 4-tooth Suffolk ewes were the heaviest of their group and earned $170.

The sale was closed by mixed-age ewes, scanned in-lamb at 175%, of which the best fetched $198. Read more in your LivestockEye.

TARANAKI Taranaki cattle • Hereford bulls, 655-716kg, returned $2170-$2405, $3.29-$3.36/kg • Top R2 steers made $3.02-$3.06/kg regardless of breed 40 pens of cattle were offered at TARANAKI last Wednesday though only equated to 158-head. The balance of the R2 steers varied from $2.57/kg to $2.95/kg. R1 quality was very mixed and buyers selective. Shorthorn-cross steers, 196kg, made $3.27/kg and 200kg Hereford heifers $3.38/kg to be the highlights. Most other lines were well off that pace. Read more in your LivestockEye.

HAWKE’S BAY Stortford Lodge prime sheep • The top pen of ewes returned $200 • Other heavy to very heavy ewes traded at $170-$194 Lambs were very popular at STORTFORD LODGE last Monday. The first pen of the day contained more than a third of the overall volume and after rapid bidding they sold for an impressive $233. This was later eclipsed by a line of nine males that returned $249. Most remaining pens of heavy lambs also numbered less than 10-head but sold for a minimum of $223 while medium pens made $155$198.

The most numerous ewes available were good to very good types that traded at $149-$169 whilst medium and light-medium returned $120-$143. Read more in your LivestockEye. Stortford Lodge store cattle and sheep • Capital stock Angus cows, in-calf to Angus, sold well at $1405$1570, $2.53-$2.68/kg • R2 Friesian bulls, 413-456kg, firmed to $3.39-$3.42/kg • Very good R2 Charolais-cross heifers, 416-449kg, returned $3.04$3.09/kg • 88 heavy and woolly cryptorchid reached $227 • Good to heavy ewe lambs lifted to $147-$160 In-calf Angus cows, R2 Charolais-cross heifers and R2 Friesian bulls were the pick of the bunch at STORTFORD LODGE last Wednesday and drew in some determined buyers.

A further 12 Angus cows, in-calf to Angus, sold for $1645, $2.58/kg and R2 Angus heifers, 425kg, sold on a slightly softer market at $2.99-$3.00/kg. A heavy pen of R2 Friesian bulls, 528kg, reached $1700, $3.22/kg. The balance of the sale was mainly small lines of mixed quality or Friesian cows, 527-607kg, which sold for $2.22-$2.27/kg.

Only lambs were presented to buyers and at winterlow tallies of 3700. Males made up 70% and sold on an improved market as heavy lines made $175-$202 and good, $140-$168. Light to medium ewe lambs returned $124$138. Read more in your LivestockEye.

39

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 25, 2022

The heaviest ewes returned $248 on a steady market.

Read more in your LivestockEye. Canterbury Park prime cattle, all sheep • Angus steers, 515-675kg, fetched $3.59-$3.62/kg • Eight heavy ewe lambs collected $288 Throughput remained low in the cattle pens at CANTERBURY PARK last Tuesday, but quality and demand had also dropped away which resulted in a softer market.

The pick of the steers traded at $3.45/kg or more, but many returned $3.14-$3.25/kg. The best of the prime heifers made $3.30-$3.40/kg and lighter types realised $2.90/kg to $3.09/kg. Angus were the winners of a reasonable line-up of bulls at $3.29-$3.34/kg.

Heavy beef cows collected $2.50/kg and dairy options ranged from $1.81/kg to $2.10/kg. The highlight of the sheep sale was 271 one-shear Romney ewes, run with Romney and Suffolk rams in March, that made $196-$238.

Medium to good store lambs sold to some demand and returns were steady at $136-$159 while lighter options were heavily discounted. Most prime lambs settled between $140 and $240, and the lion’s share of ewes realised $105-$178.

Read more in your LivestockEye.

SOUTH-CANTERBURY

MORE: P40 STEADY BOY: George Prouting keeps a calming hand on Glen, one of the estimated 400 dogs the 82-year old has sold in his career.

Photo: Natwick Dannevirke sheep 14.7 • Store ewe lambs averaged $145 • Top ewe price was $149 A small yarding of sheep sold on a mainly steady market at DANNEVIRKE on Thursday, July 14. Store ewe lambs made up the biggest section and varied from $70 to $146.

One pen of wethers returned $147 and males, $153. Prime ewes started at $115 and averaged $135 while a small prime lamb section averaged $163.

MANAWATŪ Feilding store cattle and sheep 15.7 • R2 Angus steers, 347-503kg, held at $3.28-$3.34/kg • R2 Angus heifers, 441kg, were $3.28/kg • Good 5-year Romney ewes, scanned-in-lamb 183%, lifted to $218 • Store male lambs averaged $155 • Store ewe lambs averaged $129 Only 374 cattle were yarded at the FEILDING on Friday, July 15. R2 Hereford steers, 506-525kg, were $3.19-$3.22/ kg while large lines of 376-388kg traditional R2 heifers were mixed at $2.72/kg and $2.94/kg respectively. R1 Angus steers, 287kg, eased to $3.40/kg and 181-206kg R1 Angus heifers made $2.93-$2.97/kg. Almost 4500 store lambs met a steady-to-firmer market. Prime males were $216, followed by forward-store at $162-$174, good $144-$160.50, medium $130-$140 and light, $110. Ewe lambs maxed out at $151$155 with good lines usually $137-$142, medium $116-$125 and light, $104-$117. Read more in your LivestockEye. Feilding prime cattle and sheep • A pen of shorn lambs fetched $241 • A pair of Angus heifers, 515kg, collected $3.06/kg Quality was better again in the lamb pens at FEILDING last Monday and a quarter of the lots traded at $219 or more. Most mixed-age ewes collected $105-$151 and all 2-tooths settled in the same range. Young cattle were very limited and Hereford-Friesian steers, 555kg, made $2.90/ kg. Boner heifers at 500kg returned $2.72/kg. Angus-cross cows which weighed 575kg realised $2.26/kg and two other

pens of beef cows traded below these at 20c/kg increments.

Dairy cows dominated and were mostly Friesian which, aside from the odd lighter pen, traded from $2.10/kg to $2.30/kg. Read more in your LivestockEye. Rongotea cattle • R2 Hereford-Friesian and Speckle Park-cross steers, 431-580kg, made $2.65/kg to $2.91/kg • R2 Hereford-Friesian heifers, 400-455kg, realized $2.70/kg to $2.85/kg • R1 Hereford-Friesian steers, 215-305kg, ranged from $2.60/kg to $3.02/kg • Boner Hereford-Friesian and crossbred cows, 438-669kg, improved at $1.36/kg to $1.99/kg Heavier cattle made up the bulk of the yarding at RONGOTEA last Tuesday, New Zealand Farmers Livestock agent Darryl Harwood reported. R2 beef-cross steers, 428560kg, made $2.71/kg to $2.89/kg. Angus-cross and Speckle Park-cross heifers, 348-473kg, returned $2.07/kg to $2.81/ kg. R1 Friesian bulls, 255-313kg, were able to achieve $2.20$2.24/kg. In-calf Friesian cows made $700-$850.

CANTERBURY Coalgate cattle and sheep 14.7 • Friesian steers, 688kg, fetched $3.62/kg • R2 Speckle Park-Friesian heifers, 390kg, returned $3.18/kg High demand and a short supply of prime cattle drove returns up at COALGATE on Thursday, July 14. All 14 steers traded upwards from $3.40/kg and the top group collected $3.58/kg or more. Hereford-Friesian heifers, 615-658kg, along with 527kg Limousin, fetched $3.48-$3.58/kg. A Hereford bull at 725kg reached $3.38/kg and cows which weighed 635-685kg earned $2.54-$2.56/kg. R2 HerefordFriesian steers, 357-408kg, made $3.06-$3.11/kg and Angus, 402kg, joined them at $3.08/kg. Dairy-beef heifers were the pick over Hereford-cross options. Store lamb tallies only reached 73-head, of which one pen held 33 woolly ewe lambs that made $147. Prime lambs sold on a stronger market, and many earned $160-$179.

Temuka prime and boner cattle; all sheep • Boner crossbred cows, 435-455kg, lifted to $2.11/kg • Angus and Angus-cross cows, 540-709kg, fetched $2.40/kg to $2.66/kg • Top prime mixed-sex lambs made $220-$254 Wild weather turned the tables at TEMUKA last Monday.

Cattle tallies dropped significantly to 363-head and prime steer tallies were down almost 80% from the previous week’s sale. Steers with good weight at 500kg plus sold well and no lines dropped below $3.21/kg. Almost two-thirds of the sale was made up of boner cows with an average Friesian sale price of $2.14/kg. Sheep throughput was significantly down at 1596-head, due to recent adverse weather. Both lambs and ewes sold on an adequate but steady market.

Good store ewe lambs made $150-$154 and the mixedsex pens were split into meat breeds at $136-$148 and Halfbred and Dohne at $111-$135. The balance of the prime lambs traded at $140-$208 and most prime ewes held at $123-$179. Read more in your LivestockEye.

OTAGO Balclutha sheep 13.7 • Store lambs varied from $80 to $142 • Prime lambs earned $152-$198 Store lambs offered by PGG Wrightson at BALCLUTHA on Wednesday, July 13 eased with the average down $19 to $118. Prime ewes ranged from $95 to $210.

SOUTHLAND Charlton sheep 14.7 • Store lambs ranged from $75 to $130 • Prime lambs reached $198 There were 704 prime ewes offered at CHARLTON on Thursday, July 14 which averaged $130 and reached $208. A small offering of prime rams ranged from $60 to $111 and lambs averaged $180.

Lorneville cattle and sheep • R2 Hereford-Friesian heifers, 330-450kg, made $950-$1400 • R1 beef-cross heifers, 180-210kg, earned $630-$710 • Heavy prime ewes lifted to $166-$196 • Top store lambs made $120-$130 There was a small yarding of store cattle which sold on a firm market at LORNEVILLE last Tuesday. R2 HerefordFriesian steers, 430kg, were able to achieve $1390. Heavy prime lambs made $186-$212 while light to medium types earned $122-$172. Light to medium store lambs traded at $80-$115.

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40

Markets

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 25, 2022 NI SLAUGHTER LAMB

SI SLAUGHTER STEER

SI SLAUGHTER LAMB

($/KG)

($/KG)

R2 DAIRY-BEEF HEIFERS, 375KG AVERAGE, AT WELLSFORD

($/KG)

($/KG)

9.10

6.20

9.25

2.97

high $1405-$1570 $3.57/kg Prime traditional steers, stock Angus lights Capital cows, in-calf to Angus, at 595kg average, at Stortford Lodge

Canterbury Park

Closing the gate on the training ring Suz Bremner suz.bremner@globalhq.co.nz

A

FTER a lifetime of training and selling working dogs, the time has come for renowned dog man George Prouting to reluctantly hang up the dog whistle. Prouting, who is 82 years old, sold two dogs at the 65th annual Gore Sheep and Cattle Dog Sale held at the Charlton sale yards on Wednesday, bringing to an end 67 years of training and selling dogs.

“We are selling our property and moving into town and my wife Joan says no dogs!” says Prouting.

The place he has trained pups and re-trained countless dogs is in Pukeuri, Oamaru. It boasts a training ring and a small hill, which Prouting says some think is an unconventional way to train dogs, but it worked for him. The property also has a 16-kennel hotel, which was often full of dogs.

Over the years, Prouting believes, he has sold more than 400 dogs privately and at sales, starting back when he was a boy in Coldstream. His father told him “never get married to a dog” and at the age of just 15, young George sold his first dog, Roy, for £10, followed by Roy’s brother not long after for £35.

But Prouting’s most memorable sale was a little grey bitch called Lyn, who sold for $210 and left with her new owner, only to escape in the high street of Gore and return to the exact spot at the showgrounds that she had last seen Prouting. Another attempt was thwarted, until she eventually left with her new owner.

Prouting’s dedication to his dogs was just as strong as their dedication to him, and his career of training and selling dogs was built around shearing, working on farms and a stint at the processors, always with a dog or two by his side. His preference is heading and handy dogs as they are “not as noisy”, and he took great pleasure in retraining a dog that someone else couldn’t.

What started 67 years ago as a necessity became a lifelong passion and finished with the sale of two-year old plain-eyed heading dog, Jack, for $2000 and Glen, a similar-aged strong-eyed heading dog who has been to dog trials and placed in show trials.

Glen was the star of the day for Prouting, selling for $6300.

The Gore dog sale is something of an institution, and also on offer alongside Prouting’s two entries were 53 other dogs, ranging from 15-week old pups to a nine-year old heading dog, Hum, who PGG Wrightson agent Ross McKee said was the sale of the day: “The vendor wanted the dog to go to a good home since he had sold his farm 18 months ago. For the dog’s age, $2600 was a great price”.

McKee was pleased with the day, especially the fact that the sale was held under clear blue skies after some turbulent weather. “We did breathe a sigh of relief for both the weather and getting through the day. It was a good day, though buyers were selective. Anything under 18 months had to be working

SALE DAY: On offer alongside the two entries that George Prouting, centre, brought to his final sale were 53 other dogs.

Photo: Natwick

well and there was more interest shown in the older dogs.”

The top-priced heading dog was Mask, a 4.5-year bitch, presented by Roger Ballantine of Gore, which sold for $9300.

Other top heading dogs ranged

from $6300-$7600 and huntaways reached $5200.

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