NZFarmer North Island - 17 October 2023

October 2023

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October 2023

2 News NZ Farmer

Preparing for an El Niño dry

Gerhard Uys

pasture production to lengthen rotation or harvest surplus, buying supplementary feed, planting summer crops and considering deferred grazing as an option,” she said.

“Dairy farmers can reduce demand by exiting known culls or graze off any surplus stock in a timely manner.”

Farmers had to grow and use as much pasture as possible, as it was the cheapest source of feed, she said.

Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s extension manager for the Eastern North Island, Mark

Harris, said this season was looking similar to 2019-20 when a drought was declared.

Farmers also need a plan B in place, and set dates for taking certain actions, he said.

“Use a feed plan to help set the trips that will set those actions off. For example, if your feed cover is below a certain level on a certain date, you will sell steers.”

Connecting with every person down the line from the farm was important. “Connect with your processor. Check what space might be like. Talk to your bank early, because if you start to sell there are big financial implications.”

Farms recovering from Cyclone Gabrielle already carried extra costs, Harris said.

Mental health was important in times of dry, he said. In the 1989 drought his mental health had suffered considerably because he isolated himself. “Make sure you build a [support] team around you.”

In Hawke’s Bay, the regional council ran a drought indicator. “You can click on the weather station down the road and it will indicate how many days to stress point, if rain doesn’t come.”

B+LNZ had drought toolkits available online, Harris said.■

prospective entrants to find out more information about the awards and which category people are eligible to enter.

Combined, the events will connect 6000 people to the awards process.

Congdon says the regional launch events provide an opportunity to meet other potential entrants, organisers and sponsors and to learn about the awards from past entrants.

“The functions are very social, with no charge, and are at a time that makes it easy for farmers to attend.”

The 2023 National Share Farmer of the Year winners, Hayden and Bridget Goble from Taranaki, encourage people to give the awards a go.

“Bridget and I found being able to test ourselves against others, and judges looking over our business and giving their expert opinion, was invaluable,” Hayden Goble says.

Having to put their business under a microscope was time-consuming but they reaped the rewards in more ways than one.

“That kind of scrutiny really gives you an insight into what you are doing, why you doing it, what you are doing right and identifies areas you need to work on. For us, that was a huge benefit.

“And the financial and social networking rewards can’t be overlooked.”

Thirty-three national finalists will win flights to and accommodation in Queenstown for Finals Week, with the Dairy Trainees also experiencing a trip of a lifetime via a Study Tour around the region.

National winners will be announced at the National Final Gala dinner in May. The awards encompass Share Farmer of the Year, Dairy Manager of the Year, Dairy Trainee of the Year and Fonterra Responsible Dairying of the Year categories.

Entries are accepted online at www. dairyindustryawards.co.nz. Online entries don’t close until midnight on December 5, but those who enter before midnight on October 27 will go into the Early Bird Entry Prize Draw to win prizes from Honda.■

F

armers must prepare for a dry that El Niño may bring to parts of the North Island, experts say. Niwa declared an El Niño event earlier this year.

In an El Niño climate cycle, ocean water off South America to the central tropical Pacific warms above average. The warming takes place as trade winds weaken or even reverse, blowing warm water from the western Pacific towards the east.

An El Niño typically means stronger or more frequent winds from the west in summer, which can mean dryness in eastern areas and more rain in the west.

In winter, the winds tend to blow from the south, causing colder temperatures across the country.

DairyNZ general manager farm performance Sarah Speight said, “the potential El Niño weather pattern may bring a moderate to potentially severe drought across most of the North Island and east coast of the South Island, while westerly winds and more rain is predicted for western areas.”

Search on for top dairy farmers Sonita Chandar

Farmers are being warned to prepare for a possible drought this year.

Early preparation helped farmers achieve better outcomes later in the season when the potential dry weather was on them, Speight said.

With reduced milk prices, dairy farmers already faced high costs, and a potential drought added further challenges.

“Planning now for a possible summer feed deficit is important, to identify the most cost-effective way to meet a shortfall.

“Options for increasing feed supply include strategic use of nitrogen to boost

T

he search is on again for the cream of the dairy industry, with entries for the 2024 Dairy Industry Awards open.

Now in its 34th year, the awards are an opportunity for entrants to secure their future while learning and connecting with others and growing their career.

NZDIA general manager Robin Congdon says: ‘‘The awards promote best practice within the dairy industry and give entrants the chance to challenge themselves, connect with others, and earn a regional or national title, and to share in substantial regional and national prize pools.”

This year’s Share Farmer entrants will be in the running to win a CowManager system for three years and a share of the national prize pool worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Organisers will deliver more than 60 events and numerous judging days in 2024. These will include regional launch events which provide an opportunity for

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NZ Farmer Tuesday, October 17, 2023

SPONSORED CONTENT

Feeding the future: Using AgTech to sustainably feed a growing world population Innovative research supports increasing population in a sustainable and nutritious way.

B

y 2050, there is anticipated to be another 2 billion people on the planet. With an ever-growing population we need to be able to grow more food on less available land and be efficient with the resources we have.

While this presents a challenge, it also creates opportunities to develop new agricultural technology that can support food production while also keeping the land and sea healthy.

The 70% increase in food production that will be needed requires innovative technological solutions to make sure it is sustainable and healthy for the planet as well as for the people.

“There’s a huge opportunity for us to use AgTech going forward,” says Dr Brendon Malcolm, Team Leader Soil Function and Health at Plant & Food Research. The Farm2050 Nutrient Technology Trialling Platform (NTTP) project brings together scientists, startups, and investment companies to ensure that new AgTech has robust science behind it, so when it gets adopted broadly for on-farm use we can be confident in the technology.

The global Farm2050 Initiative — established in 2014 — is focusing on three technologies for the next year through the NTTP project, with Plant & Food Research trialling them in Aotearoa New Zealand to provide independently verified evidence of their efficacy. These technologies — developed by, CropX Limited, Tnue, and Pastoral Robotics — all aim to improve nutrient use on farm and help avoid problems caused by nitrate leaching, in different ways.

Plants love nitrate (one of the plantavailable forms of nitrogen), and it is a key nutrient for rapid plant growth. The issue occurs when there is too much nitrate in the soil for plants to take up all of it.

When it rains, excess nitrogen can be flushed out into the groundwater and end up in our waterways, where it then contributes to algae blooms that can damage or destroy the freshwater ecosystem.

With an ever-growing population we need to be able to grow more food on less available land.

“All of the Farm 2050 technologies address essentially trying to be more efficient with our resources, targeting nutrient use and efficiency” says Malcolm.

“Whether it’s about measuring nutrients or applying nutrients in a more efficient way.”

The first stage is testing the technology under tightly controlled conditions. The next stage — and the current stage of the project — is looking at spatial and temporal scales where there is inherently more natural variability to deal with. The third phase, should all criteria for potential success be met, is on-farm demonstration at a large scale.

“Some companies have done a lot of background testing already,” Malcolm says. “We don’t want to duplicate work for the sake of it but we’re wanting to be sure that the right science has been done, and then we scale up our research from there.”

CropX is an agronomic farm management system that combines farm data, real-time conditions and agronomic knowledge to provide insights for farm operations. One use of the CropX technology is continuous monitoring for nitrogen leaching, using data from

The third innovation Plant & Food Research is trialling is technology developed by Pastoral Robotics, called Spikey®.

“

“All of the Farm 2050 technologies address essentially trying to be more efficient with our resources, targeting nutrient use and efficiency” the CropX soil sensor that measures soil moisture, temperature, and electrical conductivity (measure of the salts in the soil). “Testing the electrical conductivity can give us an idea of how much nitrate is moving through the soil,” says Malcolm.

“The electrical conductivity component combined with a proprietary algorithm can tell us if a leaching event has occurred.”

Tnue has developed control release membrane technology which increases the efficiency of existing nitrogen fertilisers. Plant & Food Research has already completed lab experiments, looking at how quickly the nitrogen is released from the membrane under different conditions, and is currently testing the ability of the product’s ability to control nitrogen release, and in turn, leaching in wet conditions.

“We could get different blends of the Tnue products, so we want to match the blends of nitrogen to the needs of the soil and crops,” says Malcolm.

The third innovation Plant & Food Research is trialling is technology developed by Pastoral Robotics. It’s a machine, called Spikey®, that travels on the ground behind a tractor, with electrical conductivity sensors on the spikes of the rotating discs. Spikey® helps address the main source of nitrate leaching on farms — cattle urine.

While nitrogen fertiliser could be spread evenly around a paddock, cattle

Dr Brendon Malcolm, Team Leader Soil Function and Health at Plant & Food Research.

tend to urinate spots. This causes a massive concentration of nitrogen in those areas, far more nitrate than plants can use. When heavy rains occur, the excess nitrogen can flush away into the groundwater.

Spikey® can detect the areas of urine on farms, treat them independently, and then selectively apply nitrogen only to the patches where grazing animals have not been urinating. “You don’t need nitrogen on those patches,” Malcolm says, “so this means we can be more efficient with nitrogen and protect the environment.”

The NTTP project of Farm2050 is supported by Finistere Ventures, with funding from Callaghan Innovation.

“The investment needed to do the proper science is not always easy for the companies to get hold of, so we’re grateful to Finistere and Callaghan for providing the funding needed,” says Malcolm.

“The Farm2050 initiative is very valuable, bringing together the scientists, investors, and companies to collaborate and effectively do the science that is needed, to show the worth of AgTech.”

Plant & Food Research conducts research across the full food value chain, using science to create a smart green future for Aotearoa New Zealand and the world. ■ Learn more about the important work Plant & Food Research does at www.plantandfood.co.nz

October 2023

Editorial Contents

SONITA CHANDAR/STUFF

02 Drought predicted

Farmers warned to brace themselves for a drought

10

State of ag Relief for farmers ahead

13

Compliance Rules and regulations hitting farmers in the wallet

14

Flood recovery Cleaning up after weather events

20 Sheep poo

Nice to see you

B+LNZ researchers need your help

23 Animal health

Keep an eye on your stock

27

Plastic fantastic Help save the planet

Contact us NZ FARMER EDITOR Sonita Chandar 027 446 6221 sonita.chandar@stuff.co.nz DESIGN Kwok Yi Lee Sam Davenport COVER PHOTO Terri Barrett HEAD OF REGIONAL & RURAL MARKETS Kate Boreham 021 279 5361 kate.boreham@stuff.co.nz

Sonita Chandar EDITOR

T

here is no denying that farming is the backbone of New Zealand.

The country has been built on it and our farmers are world-leading in many aspects. The science and data back this up.

Five years ago, when the focus of publications moved into the digital world, several rural publications were retired or sold, including NZ Farmer.

However, we at Stuff recognise the importance of agriculture and the valuable contribution it makes to New Zealand and its economy. The industry is vital, there is no arguing that point. Farmers are at the heart of the industry, the guardians of our land. Every farm and farmer is different and every farmer has a story to tell.

Especially now when times are tough and farmers need all the support they can get.

So, the orange publication you knew and loved is back. And we will aim to be here for you, telling your stories and shining a light on all the positive, great things you do and what is happening in the agricultural industry.

NZ Farmer is still the same, but different.

It will be a monthly magazine full of a range of stories, from news to research to on-farm stories taking a look beyond the farm gate. Experience has always told us that this is what people enjoy reading the most.

Research and technology is ongoing across all sectors, with scientists and researchers always looking at new ways to do the job to ensure the industry continues to be robust, sustainable and competitive.

The opinion section is open to anyone and everyone, so if you have a burning issue you want to talk about – good or bad – then get in touch. And letters to the editor are most welcome, along with any ideas or suggestions for what you want to see in NZ Farmer. After all, it is your publication.

What is different is the magazine style with more lifestyle features to surprise and appeal to all. And just to prove we are full of surprises, there is something completely left-field on one of the pages. Each edition will have more of the stories you want to read.

The team at NZ Farmer is also different with the exception of a few, including

myself. And I couldn’t be happier to be back, albeit in a different role. I am thrilled to be heading the team at NZ Farmer and writing about this amazing industry of ours and look forward to you opening your homes to us once again.

So stick with us as we strive to be your happy place once more.

Get in touch with us at nzfarmer@stuff.co.nz

“

If you have a burning issue you want to talk about, get in touch.

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October 2023

Opinion

Spend wisely to get through Times are tough, says Kate Acland, but being prudent with spending will help farmers get through the hard times.

E

very farmer is having a tough time right now. I see this in our Mt Somers community, in MidCanterbury, and when I am out and about talking to farmers across the country.

We’ve come off historically strong prices for our beef and lamb in our global markets, on-farm inflation remains high and the scale and pace of regulatory change are a huge concern.

These weaker prices for beef and lamb directly impact not just the bottom line for farms, but also our wider community’s income. Like any household, we have to be prudent with our spending and ensure the farm business is resilient so we can navigate what looks to be a rocky period.

With the country facing these significant financial pressures, it’s more important than ever that government policy settings are fair and practical and lead to the right outcomes for farmers, rural communities and the environment. We will keep working hard on advocating for urgent changes.

With the current challenges we are facing, it’s critical that we keep investing in science, innovation and technology.

Investment in good core science is key to our sector remaining world-leading protein producers, says Kate Acland.

STUFF

Through the 1960s and 1970s, the thengovernment and the agricultural sector had the foresight to invest heavily in these fields to create tools to ensure we could improve our productivity and profitability.

This enabled New Zealand to rise through the period of deregulation and come out stronger and more profitable, due to efficiency and productivity gains – largely driven by good core science.

We will need similar levels of investment to see our sector through this current wave of change to ensure we still have a thriving sector and a strong broader economy.

There are some excellent scientists working throughout the country for the agricultural sector and the environment.

They have blazed a trail in innovation and we are the envy of the world. We should be holding these people up as heroes.

They can help us to mitigate the impact of changes beyond the farm gate and to prove to our markets that ours are among the lowest environmental footprints in the world.

We need to ensure we continue to invest in and value the work of our scientists, and to encourage successive governments to invest with a long-term view in this core science. That must include science education to make sure we have the best people coming through the pipeline.

The importance of science is why 40% of B+LNZ’s overall budget is focused on delivering tangible research outcomes – investing in projects to help lift farmers’ incomes – and getting tools and information into the hands of farmers.

B+LNZ’s research portfolio is diverse and includes programmes across animal health, productivity, genetics, environmental health, mitigations (greenhouse gas) and landscape management.

Sheep genetics is a good example of an area where the red meat sector has made significant productivity gains.

Our Sheep Central Progeny Test (CPT) is a long-standing and critical component of New Zealand’s sheep genetics system. We are six months into a two-year piece of key research around methane genetics.

We are now looking to taking the insights and lessons from the CPT and apply them to the beef industry.

The ground-breaking Informing New Zealand Beef programme aims to increase

the uptake of the use of high-quality genetics in the sector.

We are also carrying out major work into Facial Eczema (FE) and parasites – applying new science to issues which have been consistent with long-standing problems for farmers and look likely to be increasingly problematic in the future with wider distribution of the disease and reduced options for treatment.

The recently completed Hill Country Futures programme has been focused on future proofing the profitability, sustainability and wellbeing of hill country farmers, their farm systems, the environment and rural communities.

This programme included an emphasis on forages and providing decision-making tools to help farmers select the best forage option for different land types and climate.

Continuing to invest in our sector is a non-negotiable if we are to remain worldleading protein producers and remain profitable.

We must explore new areas that have the potential to make a difference to our productivity, profitability and farming practices, and be open to including those technologies we’ve ruled out in the past – it’s time to have a conversation.

And we need to ensure that policy settings and the regulatory framework allow for innovation and the adoption of all the technologies available internationally that might help our farmers adapt in this uncertain future. ■ Kate Acland is the chairperson of Beef + Lamb New Zealand.

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October 2023

6 NZ Farmer Opinion

Pondering the point Renowned soil scientist Doug Edmeades pauses to ponder the decrease in pasture production.

W

hen I was studying chemistry at Auckland University, one of my best lecturers had an interesting phrase that he would use to emphasise an important point: he would pause and say, “it is a point to ponder.”

He used the word “ponder” not just to draw attention to something, which of course it did, but to invite us to reflect deeply on the matter at hand.

A presentation I attended recently made me ponder. It was given by an experienced and respected pasture agronomist, Dr David Chapman. His talk was entitled: “Pasture Productivity – Are we gaining?”

He was, of course, reflecting on the progress we have made over the last three to four decades in terms of increasing the productivity of our clover-based pastures.

Some perspective is essential.

Clover-based pasture is the lifeblood of the NZ pastoral industry. The marginal cost of growing a kg of clover-based pasture dry matter is 4-5 cents – it is the cheapest feed source for ruminants.

Furthermore, the clover component – it fixes nitrogen (N) from the air – adds about $1.7b of N to the pastoral economy.

All up, exports from the pastoral sector are worth $35b annually. For all these reasons,

Soil scientist Doug Edmeades believes the New Zealand pastoral sector has lost its focus and more work needs to be done, including field trials on fertiliser to show farmers what pasture should look like.

the question Chapman poses is of vital importance to the national economy.

His opening gambit was data from the dairy industry, showing that from 1990-91 to 2004-05, pasture eaten increased at a rate of about 1.75% a year. Since then, the rate of increase has effectively stagnated at about 0.25% annually. There is no directly comparable data for the dry stock sector but other data Chapman presented showed a decreasing trend in pasture production in this sector also.

The relevance of these trends is worrisome because we know, at least for the dairy sector, that operating profits are

Little growth in lending for ag Chaperon economist Gordon Stuart takes a dive into the latest banking statistics and what they mean for agriculture.

T

he starting position is OK, for what is obviously going to be a difficult season ahead.

But farmers need to be alert and proactively managing challenges. External factors such as commodity prices are beyond control, but cost levers should be getting pulled aggressively now and plans being made.

Debt There has been little growth in lending over the 6½-year period other than to kiwifruit and wine. Banks have demanded increased amortisation from the dairy sector which has flattened as prices have come off their peaks, and farmers have increasingly used revolving credit facilities to match seasonal needs.

Agriculture lending stock increased by $272m in July (0.4%), driven by a $275m (0.7%) increase in dairy lending. Dairy lending annual growth has risen from 1.7% to 2.2% and will have an upward trend as cash shortfalls are met by debt.

The reduction in dairy debt over the past seven years has put the dairy sector in a relatively better position to absorb a bad season. This season is that bad season.

Banks hate surprises. Have a clear plan you can demonstrate to them as to why you need them, what caused the need, what you are doing about it and how they will be repaid. Having facilities with headroom in tough times is vital.

For debt-dependent businesses the banking relationship is a risk that ranks

as high as any other and it needs to be managed accordingly.

Deposits Agriculture sector deposits have risen from $6.6 billion in December 2016 to $8.7b in July this year. However, deposits are down from a $10b peak in April 2022, which suggests working capital is being eaten into. Debt up and deposits down is not a great combination.

Non-performing loans Bank non-performing loans are stable at around 0.5% of total loans. While interest rates have moved up, many home borrowers upped their principal contribution rather than taking the cash benefit of lower rates, which has put them ahead of their mortgage schedules. Higher interest rates are now impacting, though, but borrowers have bought some time.

Agriculture non-performing loans are 1.3% of total loans ($800 million) with dairy $450m and non-dairy $350m. Nondairy has been the mover in the past year, doubling from 0.7% of total loans to 1.4%.

Xero’s small business insights data shows relatively stable days to pay, at about 23 days for agriculture, forestry and fishing industry. Six years ago, days to pay were around 27 days.

This series will provide one indication of stress and needs watching given the combination of dairy payout, China risks, the impact of cost inflation, Cyclone Gabrielle and its wet weather hits to

directly related to the amount of pasture eaten. Is it possible that our pastoral sector has stalled or is stalling?

Putting the dilemma differently, the productivity of our pastures – the ratio of inputs to outputs – has shifted, eroding the much-vaunted international competitive advantage of our pastoral sector.

Chapman dissected the forage industry looking for the possible factors which could explain the trends in pasture productivity over the past three to four decades.

While accepting that there has been some progress at the plant selection and breeding level, he suggested these trends were not being captured in farm-system research or indeed on the farm.

His conclusion amazed me: he suggested that “N fertiliser has been the only clear and obvious source of pasture productivity gain at the national level.”

Certainly, a point to ponder?

But there is an elephant in this room.

If Chapman is right, then the question that follows is; what has the industry been doing?

We are told that, as a consequence of science reforms, beginning in the 1990s, little public-good research is now being undertaken by the Crown, i.e. in the CRIs. What research there is, is being undertaken by the private sector, i.e. the seed industry. Being commercial entities, they naturally focus on their market share rather than public-good research and at the centre of their marketing is the Forage Variety Index (FVI), which ranks ryegrass cultivars in terms of their performance.

$ Billions Term Debt

Split/Mix

This focus on ryegrass has always intrigued me. Surely if clover is the most important component in our clover-based system, why is there no ranking of clover cultivars, preferably grown in conjunction with ryegrass cultivars?

I think the pastoral sector has lost its focus. Day after day I see the consequences of this on the farm. When I was a young scientist, in the 1970s, we did a lot of fertiliser field trials and I can recall that farmers loved to look at various fertiliser plots.

I like to think they left the trial site with a clear mental picture of what a good, well- fertilised, clover-based pasture looks like. But we don’t do such trials any more and as a consequence, we have a new generation of farmers who do not know what a good clover-based pasture looks like.

If they are lucky, they may be advised that their pastures have ‘run out’ and they need to cultivate and resow with the latest ryegrass cultivar. And they wonder why, after a few years, they are back where they began.

You see, therein lies the rub. Clover has a higher requirement for all nutrients.

The fertiliser policy should be directed at growing clover. Because without the proper nutrition clover will not flourish, the soil nitrogen level will decline and because of this the ryegrass will not persist. The solution most farmers are told is to use more fertiliser N. Hence Chapman's conclusion. The major driver of pasture productivity over the last 30 to 40 years has been nitrogen fertiliser use.■

Dec-16

Jul-21

Jun-23

Jul-23

Interest Only

$39.524

$32.383

$32.088

$32.760

Revolving Credit

$14.470

$16.427

$18.902

$19.120

Principal & Interest

$4.863

$12.755

$10.950

$10.334

Other

$0.150

$0.299

$0.361

$0.358

Total

$59.007

$61.864

$62.301

$62.572

Dairy

$40.815

$38.130

$37.235

$37.510

Sheep & Beef

$13.094

$15.141

$15.318

$15.295

Horticulture

$3.210

$6.231

$7.535

$7.605

Other Agriculture

$1.888

$2.362

$2.213

$2.162

Total

$59.007

$61.864

$62.301

$62.572

horticulture, and the red tape/costs bludgeoning farming businesses.

Bank funding costs Longer-term wholesale interest rates have risen around the globe and, as expectations build, central banks will need to keep interest rates elevated for longer.

Those with long memories will recall previous periods of inflation. It does not miraculously disappear. Central banks dish out pain to force its elimination.

Bank funding costs are also rising due to a switch. More deposits are being lodged in a term deposit as opposed to a savings or transaction account.

Deposits with banks have risen $15.3 billion in the past year. Transaction balances are down $14.3b, savings balances have fallen $5.6b and term deposit are up $35.2b. Term dweposits rose $3.6b in July alone. Better rates for depositors add to borrower woes because they require an adjustment on the asset (lending side) of bank balance sheets.

Bank margins have also been rising, and it often pays to get an expert to make sure you are being priced correctly. Ten basis points on a $10 million loan is $10,000 a year.

The investigation into bank profits The Commerce Commission is investigating the retail side of bank profits. Retail banking accounts for about 40% of bank profits. Agriculture sector leadership groups should be calling for this investigation to be broadened or for a followup one on the business/farming side.

The bottom line The coming season will be difficult. There is no point sugar-coating things. As well as cash-flow pressures, there are growing geo-strategic pressures internationally and one of our largest export markets, China, is at the epicentre.

There are some shining lights. Many farmers will welcome the prospect of a new government, which polls have been pointing to. New Zealand’s massive current account deficit shows we need to earn more and spend less.

Farming is the earning backbone of the economy and will be needed over the coming decade. The decline in the NZD/USD to below 0.60 is a market force saying earn more and spend less. It will not happen overnight but will need to happen.■

October 2023

NZ Farmer 7 Opinion

Updated all day at

Where’s our humanity?

Andrew Stewart wonders when the country will put their differences aside and unite for the good of everyone.

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ecently, I was fortunate enough to take my family of four on a well-earned cruise holiday after a very busy year with the farm, farmstay and our annual cross-country running event, The Mudder.

Sharing such a trip with 2500 passengers and 900-odd crew gives you a fascinating insight into all aspects of humanity. There were people from many different countries and cultures, young and old, large groups and small.

Unfortunately, on the second day of the trip, during some rough weather, our captain received a mayday call from a yacht in trouble, and we were tasked with rescuing the three crew. This meant a 500km diversion, attempted rescue in the middle of the night and having to remain near the yacht for 12 hours until smaller rescue boats could arrive to assist.

Such drama on the high seas was certainly an eye-opener, and living in such close proximity to so many other passengers, it wasn’t long before the ugly side of humanity raised its head.

From the outset, rumours and speculation about what had happened, and was happening, spread throughout the ship like a plague. During the actual rescue, passengers set their alarms so they could wake up and look off their balconies with their smartphones to capture all the details, despite knowing there were lives at risk and people injured.

Some passengers were adamant they should be offered a full refund from the cruise company for such an interruption to their holidays. There were those who swore they would never cruise again.

And some passengers gazed out through cloudy porthole windows whilst dining, oblivious to what the drama was all about.

They simply didn’t understand, or care,

Andrew Stewart and wife Kylie are sheep and beef farmers, running Rangitīkei Farmstay and The Mudder on their property. The family recently took a well-earned break on a cruise ship.

ANDREW STEWART

what the sailors had been through or were going through.

So why am I talking about a cruise ship holiday and the behaviour of some of the passengers? The whole experience reminded me of what has been happening in New Zealand over the past few years.

Passengers staring through cloudy windows to see people who need help reminded me how it feels to be a farmer sometimes, when the bulk of society views from afar without understanding the challenges we face in our own small communities.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not suggesting that farmers should be pitied or need “rescuing”. For me, it is more about breaking down the dividing walls, or taking out the “portholes”, so farmers and the general public have a better understanding of each other. That takes work from both sides of the equation.

It is equally important for farmers to let go of the mentality that the rest of the public thinks poorly of us. Research

proves that most New Zealanders respect farmers.

As with any industry, there will be those in the farming sector who tarnish our reputation with poor practices and behaviour. It is up to us fellow farmers to encourage them to change their ways, for the benefit of everyone.

This is no different for all Kiwis outside the farming sector. We have become a nation of people with deeply divided opinions that have been fuelled largely by reactions to different political beliefs.

In the leadup to the recent election, it was hard to escape or ignore the chat and gossip around the political players and policy promises. Many felt aggrieved by the most recent government and were adamant we needed a change; equally, many felt any change in government could be just as bad as the last bunch.

All Kiwis now need to find a way to put aside their differences and come together.

The new government has massive challenges, including slowing inflation,

trying to fix broken health, education, housing and infrastructure whilst protecting and growing the economy so we can pay our bills as a country.

As a sheep and beef farmer, I am hopeful that some of the policies, particularly in the environmental space, will be relooked at. I’m not against regulation, but the previous government got some things wrong in its haste to roll out such an ambitious agenda.

It will be bloody hard and take years.

But it will be made easier if we leave the toxic side of humanity, as we saw firsthand on our cruise, disappearing in our wake. Maybe it is time for Kiwis to heed the words of Mahatma Gandhi: “The greatness of humanity is not in being human, but in being humane.” ■ Andrew Stewart is a fourth generation sheep and beef farmer in the Rangitīkei region. He and wife Kylie also run Rangitīkei Farmstay and The Mudder as successful diversifications on the family farm.

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October 2023

8 NZ Farmer Opinion

A grass-roots solution to mitigating dairy downturn Kiwi dairy farmers need to stay ahead of the game and rise to challenges in the industry to retain their position in the world. By Craig Piggott.

K

iwi farmers are the best in the world at growing, harvesting and converting pasture into milk.

Their efficiency is renowned the world over. That’s largely because of their hustle and resilience, having adapted through tough cycles to become top-performing farmers and without relying on government subsidies like many farmers in other dairy markets.

Right now, dairy farmers are adapting to these extremely challenging market conditions by managing their cost of production as tightly as possible.

Fonterra’s recent downgraded milk price payout, to a midpoint of only $6.75 per kilo of milk solids, was a tough blow after a year tainted by wet, extreme weather and rising farm costs.

And global hikes in the price of boughtin feed will see farmers relying more than ever on the cheapest form of cow feed, which is, and has always been, grass.

Pasture is four times cheaper than buying imported feed. Pasture harvested per hectare drives at least 85% of profitability for most dairy farms.

Therefore, effectively managing that pasture is essential to both reducing the cost of production and boosting profitability.

Unfortunately, conventional methods of managing pasture make it almost impossible for farmers to capture the full value from it. Historically, we’ve had

Halter founder and chief executive Craig Piggott says every blade of grass is important so pasture management is crucial.

to accept age-old constraints such as paddocks being fixed shapes and sizes, or managing round lengths to best estimates – constraints that have prevented pasture precision and maximum value capture.

While leading industry research behind optimal pasture management is well proven, in reality it has not always been very practical to implement it each day.

The daily grind of manually setting up physical fences, and using plate meters, are two examples. Virtual fencing has helped farmers overcome some of these constraints, but only to a certain extent.

What has been sorely lacking is the data to help farmers make fully informed decisions for true precision. Exactly how much pasture should be allocated for cows to feed, and exactly when and in which paddock? This was a void that we at Halter were uniquely positioned to fill.

Recognising the headwinds facing dairy

“

Pasture harvested per hectare drives at least 85% of profitability for most dairy farms. farmers, we undertook deep research into what could help these farmers unlock greater profitability. Turns out, the answer lay in how grass grows and how exactly we manage it. Over several months, our data scientists obsessed over industry research and the first principles of pasture management.

For example, with ryegrass (New Zealand’s most common grass species), a first principle is the three-leaf emergence

Brighter future ahead

The chief executive of Deer Industry New Zealand, Innes Moffat, says despite the challenges it is currently facing, indicators show a positive future is on the horizon.

T

he well-known proverb ‘‘don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched’’ means that a little bit of fortune now doesn’t guarantee success tomorrow.

I’ve been spending time with many farmers over winter. The weather has not been kind and rising input prices and interest rates are hurting.

While farmers are feeling better about the steady and rising prices that venison has been fetching, there’s still some way to go before they will be celebrating. The rising on-farm costs mean we have to get to the place where venison can command more on the international market.

Domestically, venison prices have been steadily rising. but there is still work to be done to ensure this occurs in international markets.

Venison has recovered strongly from the Covid-induced fall in prices, with closed restaurants everywhere. The world is a volatile place and change is always going to be imposed upon us; commodity prices go up and down.

If you have the land, then having deer in the mix is a good thing, because we are now seeing rising payments to farmers, with contracts at $10.30/kg - and we are very confident about future demand for our products.

Farmers with deer are now benefiting from having that diversification. This comes at a time when other commodities

are experiencing less favourable conditions in the global marketplace.

There is some evidence of that confidence growing among venison producers, which we are excited to see.

I’ve been speaking to a few farmers who say they are increasing their herd numbers.

Our industry still faces challenges, however. We have been putting a lot of work into increasing returns for New Zealand venison and promoting it as a competitive land-use option on the right type of land. We believe trees should form part of our agricultural landscape, but we

rate. Loosely translated, farmers should graze their paddocks when the third leaf has grown and before the fourth leaf emerges to optimise for pasture quantity and quality.

However, this isn’t easy to do every day as it requires pulling leaves and analysing them, which is time-consuming. Our data shows how few farmers are able to graze to the optimum leaf emergence stage using conventional methods.

So, we set out to build something that incorporated the best practice proven in research. Since August, hundreds of farms have been using our world-first precision farming app, Pasture Pro, to grow and harvest more grass.

Pasture Pro is like having an agronomist in your back pocket every day. It combines machine learning, satellite imagery, on-farm local weather data, and even photos of grass taken from a farmer’s smartphone. Artificial intelligence responds with pasture growth rates and residuals, paddock performance and supply/demand curves.

Even the smallest daily improvements to managing pasture can have a massive impact on the bottom line. For example, based on research by New Zealand’s leading pasture experts, a 300ha farm grazing a mere ‘half a leaf stage too early’ could see $90,000 of potential lost profit.

Accurate, real-time data can prevent that.

Farmers have been through tough times before, and they know how to come out the other side even stronger. These are the times when they build better businesses to capitalise on the opportunities that lie ahead.

In the current climate, and with spring upon us, the stakes are high with every decision. Every blade counts, and now is the time for farmers to take stock of how they’re managing their pasture and their business.■ are always very concerned when blanket monoculture forestry is put on good foodproducing land, because once it’s been taken out of production it’s unlikely to ever be returned.

The quality of food produced in New Zealand is recognised around the world by our trading partners, and we should be rightfully proud of that.

We shouldn’t put at risk our ability to provide nutritious high-quality food for both the domestic and international markets and to bring in much-needed foreign earnings for our economy. As well as farmers benefiting from having deer as part of a diversified mix, our marketers are also working hard on diversification of the markets around the world for venison.

One of the key initiatives that Deer Industry New Zealand and venison marketing companies are working on is market diversification for venison. Our aspiration is to have about a third of New Zealand’s venison volumes going into the US, one-third to Europe, and the rest to China and other Asian markets.

In North America, we’re appealing to segments that are interested in nonindustrial, grass-fed, free-range meats, as well as the ‘hipster-hunters’ – urban people who might not go hunting but will buy venison from the exotic meat section in the supermarket. It seems a good time to be focusing on activity in that market.

So, while we’re certainly not counting our proverbial unhatched chickens, we can clearly see an increasingly positive future for venison farmers, underpinned by the work to strengthen and grow demand in key export markets.■

NZ Farmer Tuesday, October 17, 2023

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October 2023

10 NZ Farmer News

Brighter days coming for farmers Inflationary pressures, regulatory changes, climate change and sluggish demand are hurting farmers, but things will get better.

By Sonita Chandar.

I

t is no secret that some agricultural sectors are having a tough time, but industry leaders say there are signs of recovery.

The latest Federated Farmers’ survey of more than 1000 dairy, sheep, beef and arable farmers found their confidence at a record low.

Federated Farmers president Wayne Langford says farmers have a lot on their plates now, which is causing uncertainty and stress. Federated Farmers has concerns about farmer wellbeing and what this might mean for farming families, rural communities and the wider economy.

“Farmers are dealing with a lot at the moment, with high interest rates, huge inflation and a steep decline in both meat and milk prices they receive for their products,” Langford said.

“We’re also facing an unprecedented level of regulatory change that is heaping on costs, undermining profitability and creating huge uncertainty for farmers.”

Farmers across all sectors are feeling the same pressures and uncertainty.

“The key one at the moment is that farmers are caught in a pincer move with global market demand putting pressure

on prices and revenue and there are high costs behind the farm gate, which is affecting farm profitability,” says Beef + Lamb New Zealand chief executive Sam McIvor.

He also says inflationary pressures and ever-changing rules and regulations are putting the squeeze on them and, along with the downturn in beef and sheep prices, things are tough. “China has not bounced back as quickly as we would have hoped after Covid-19 and high stocks of sheep and beef on the Chinese market are putting pressure on prices in-market, which is not always favourable to New Zealand farmers.”

B+LNZ exports to 120 markets and there are positive signs pointing to opportunities and change, McIvor says.

“One of the great things about this industry is our ability to diversify into markets and meet the demand in those markets.

“The red-meat sector was pleased with the UK-NZ FTA, which is very high quality and should lead to an increase in our beef exports there, which were nonexistent previously because of the UK’s prohibitive tariffs. The EU-NZ FTA was not as good, in particular because there was no commercially meaningful access to our beef.”

But history and New Zealand’s reputation for producing grass-fed, hormone-free, disease-free and antibiotics-free types of production is attractive to discerning buyers.

In the long term, these attributes in NZ products and systems work in its favour as more and more consumers become discerning about the products they are consuming. “We’re fortunate,

however, we have a good history of working with these markets and the government and MFAT are working hard to open new markets for the industry. ‘‘India is a work in progress and we are keen to sit down with the government to talk about a strategy to get negotiation with them going. The big opportunity here is sheepmeat as India has a 25% tariff on this,” McIvor says.

“We are also working to get into markets where the population are moving away from white meat towards the red-meat market. On the international stage, we will have doubled our production by 2050 and, although there are alternative products, fundamentally, red meat will grow.”

Climate change is a hot topic among farmers at the moment and McIvor says B+LNZ believes the focus should be on establishing a robust on-farm measuring and reporting framework and there should be no price set until the current methane targets have been reviewed, there are widespread technologies in place and farmers are getting proper recognition of their sequestration.

“We are starting to see emerging changes in our carbon footprint.

Emissions are low when compared internationally, which is also positive

“

It is not yet clear whether the stronger demand from China will be sustained.

for the industry. And our farmers are the best in the world for low-carbon and emissions production.

“That’s been proven and, in my view, they are the best at adapting to changing markets and climatic changes that are affecting the industry. The sheep and beef industry is meeting the challenges of climate change and doing it sustainably.”

B+LNZ will continue to drive productivity while remaining sustainable. Something McIvor says it has managed to do very well so far.

“Fundamentally, in terms of supply and demand for New Zealand sheep and beef, it is looking good for the long term but not looking so good in the short term,” he says.

In the dairy sector, after the forecast payout for the 2023-24 season slumped well below break-even when demand dropped, things are also looking up with Fonterra’s revised forecast.

In August, the co-operative reduced its 2023-24 season forecast of $6.25-$7.75kg MS, with a midpoint of $7.00kg MS, to $6.00-$7.50kg MS with a midpoint of $6.75kg MS as demand and GDT fell.

This month, it raised the forecast Farmgate Milk Price range to $6.50$8.00kg MS, with a new midpoint of $7.25kg MS. This could mean break-even or close to it for many farmers.

Fonterra chief executive Miles Hurrell says the improved outlook reflects both supply and demand dynamics.

“Here in New Zealand we’re forecasting collections to be slightly below last season, while aggregate milk growth in key export countries is expected to be below average for FY24.

October 2023

NZ Farmer News 11

Updated all day at

Left: The chief executive of Beef + Lamb NZ, Sam McIvor, says the agency is working hard to establish new markets.

Main: The revised forecast farm-gate milk price will be welcome news for dairy farmers but they will need to keep a tight rein on their budgets until it recovers further.

SONITACHANDAR/STUFF

“On the demand side, we have seen increases in recent Global Dairy Trade events. While this has been encouraging, it is not yet clear whether the stronger demand from China will be sustained.

For other key regions, customers remain relatively cautious in terms of their forward purchases.’’

DairyNZ chairperson Jim van der Poel says milk payout is one of the big concerns for farmers. The revised forecast will be welcome news but still below a lot of farmers' break-even milk price.

Low payouts put pressure on cashflow which added to farmers' concerns.

They often decided to cut right back on employing people and do more themselves, which could lead to more stress.

“That payout being revised up then, hopefully, changes things for farmers who will then look at keeping themselves and their business whole, instead of laying off staff and mum and dad doing everything to keep the business afloat.”

Van der Poel says wherever the payout lands, farmers will have to look hard at their business. There is plenty of help available for them. “DairyNZ has a lot of support materials as well as examples of farmers who bounced back after downturns in the past and are happy to share their story and what they are doing now to get through.”

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NZ Farmer 13

Regional Roundup

Updated all day at

An avalanche of compliance paperwork Gerhard Uys

A

n avalanche of paperwork needs to be completed to comply with new climate and environmental rules that often don't lead to benefits, a new study shows.

Waikato dairy farmer Greg Oliver said new rules kept coming and keeping up to compliance was time-consuming.

“It feels like anything we do now we can get in trouble for. Am I allowed to do this or not? Am I doing this right? Could someone come and smack me with a big stick for doing stuff you've done for years? I don't know any more. Whether there's some new rule that you break.”

Oliver said compliance often did not lead to much behaviour change. “We're literally just recording what we've always done. Like keeping cows out of waterways, I'd say 90% of people were doing it anyway.”

A study by BakerAg, commissioned

by Beef+Lamb, said in the past six years farmers had faced more than 20 new regulations. The study looked at the cost of compliance on four farms.

Beef+Lamb's whole farm data lead, Ben Hancock, said compliance created excessive admin, had unintended consequences, created opportunity loss and cost a lot.

“There’s also going to be 16 regional councils interpreting all of these different regulations in different ways.”

A farmer on one of the farms studied

spent up to 70% of their time on industrygood activities related to legislation, such as catchment groups.

Despite the proactive involvement on environmental issues, it was still difficult for them to understand regulations because the admin was too much and complex.

Another farm in the study invested $1 million in irrigation infrastructure, but could not recoup costs because a water consent was denied.

Without irrigation, the development of pastures and new fencing was not financially justifiable, so the development was stopped, and the area was now prone to wilding pines, a problem that would not exist if it had been developed, Hancock said.

To calculate compliance cost and impact on individual farms, the study used the average profit before tax for farms of similar production systems in specific regions, he said.

It showed that, to be compliant, a western North Island finishing farm faced one-off costs of $75,000 and annual costs of about $88,000, all of which were direct costs to be compliant.

The average profit before tax for farms in this region was $174,800, for the 2022-23 financial year.

The three other farms in the study, in different regions, faced annual compliance costs of between $16,000 and $30,000. This excluded possible opportunity cost losses.

Oliver said he came off lightly as he

Waikato dairy farmer Greg Oliver says there are so many new rules that he often fears he might be breaking a rule without knowing it.

milked only 150 cows.

He supplied milk to Open Country, which helped him be compliant and saved him thousands of dollars a year.

“Everything has to be recorded. Every bit of fertiliser. What is it and how much went on. Anything that goes on or in a cow [also].

Whether it’s medicine or whatever. When we get it and when it’s applied.

“It causes stress as it's another job to do that's probably unnecessary.”

A new effluent system that he believed was unnecessary cost him $35,000, he said.

The system would ensure he would be able to hold 90 days of effluent in case the ground was too wet to spread the effluent on, and there would be runoff into waterways. This problem had never arisen in the past, Oliver said.

He recently asked a consultant to calculate his effluent requirements – it cost him $1000 for half a day.

But compliance was not all bad.

The report said Freshwater Farm Plans had the potential to be a practical way to navigate policies, but the plans needed to be practical and outcomes-based.

Other farmers said despite compliance headaches there were also positives.

Waikato dairy farmer Pete Morgan said as an export country, what markets thought about food was important.

“It’s why we get a premium. Compliance goes in hand in hand with that. There is no better way to out-compete other countries and to keep surprising our markets by showing how good we are.”

Southland sheep and beef farmer Matt Tayler said, “sitting down with shepherds and drawing a farm map, looking at what critical source areas were, deciding how grazing would work, was beneficial from a planning point of view”.

Fencing off waterways meant fewer stock deaths and the knowledge that stock drank from clean drinking troughs.

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14 Regional NZ FarmerRoundup Ben and Belinda Price run two farms in South Taranaki and know the rural life comes with serious challenges to maintain good mental health.

VANESSA LAURIE/STUFF

Farmer helping others to focus on self-care

South Taranaki’s Belinda Price says the ‘grey’ areas of farming can cause stress and anxiety.

By Helen Harvey.

S

outh Taranaki farmer Belinda Price has gone through burnout and is coming out the other side.

Now Price, the Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year in 2021, is using that experience to help others as facilitator for the Rural Support Trust.

“It could be financially related, staff related, anything at all. Lots of us have done courses or lived experiences, and they’ll connect us with the right person.”

The “grey” areas of farming can all add up and cause stress and anxiety, she says.

“There are lots of grey areas. We know what’s coming in terms of climate change, but we don’t know what’s coming. What does it look like? How does it affect the business? How do we still have a profitable business going forward?

“The payout has been stressful. It has reduced by around $1, which means that all the budgets that we’d done have now dropped. It’s restricted what you can put your money on.

“We still have to keep people employed, look after people the best you can. There’s only so many levers you can pull.”

Price and her husband Ben run two properties: one is 100 hectares, plus a 29ha run-off with 330 cows. The other is a 94ha farm with 260 cows.

In 2016 they faced some issues on their farm they had never experienced before, and it took quite a while to resolve, Price says.

The situation, which they cannot discuss in detail, took its toll on their mental health.

“I was in tears. Didn’t know where to turn and Ben has had anxiety most of his life. He went to see a counsellor and got support around the anxiety. I ended up with burnout and seeing a different counsellor. It was awful.”

And recently she’s been through it again.

“I’ve had burnout in the last month, the payout drop and redoing budgets and realising you’re working really hard for nothing. All that stuff that everyone is in the same boat with, but it all just accumulated.”

She knew what was happening, so got help, she says. “It feels heavy. Your body doesn’t feel heavy, but your mood feels heavy. It’s not you, you’re carrying this

“

I’ve had burnout in the last month, the payout drop and redoing budgets, and realising you are working really hard for nothing. extra weight around, but it’s not who you are.

“I rang EAP counselling services with Fonterra. It was quite nice to talk to someone different who wasn’t in your farming space or that knew you and I could tell her everything.”

Price is a very social person, so farming during the spring is difficult for her anyway, she says.

“Because you don’t go off farm. You’re on farm all the time. Usually I’m off at a meeting, or Dairy Woman, I’m on a vet board, there’s lots of stuff that usually goes on. But nothing happens during calving time.”

With that added burden, Price closed off even more.

“People noticed I didn’t respond to the usual group chats on social media with the girls or just didn’t speak to the people I’d normally speak to. I talked to the kids and Ben already knew something was up and he was suffering himself, his anxiety had heightened.”

She cried all the time. The staff noticed that she seemed sad.

“I said ... I’m exhausted and need to do some self-care, which is anything that you enjoy doing that will give you a bit of energy or put you into a sense of flow that you forget about the time.”

There are a number of places to go and get help, she says.

Since John Kirwan revealed his mental health toll, it’s been OK for men to talk and there are a lot more places for people to get support.

But Ben Price says it is hard to ask for help. “Men don’t usually talk about things like that.”

The Coleman-Cowies last year moved 500 cows from Otago to their own farm in Marlborough. This year they are calving 580, in one of the best seasons they have experienced.

ANTHONY PHELPS/STUFF

James, left, and Mason ColemanCowie check out a native planting designed to slow runoff and capture silt. Te Hoiere/Pelorus Project covers all costs because it is a significant wetland.

PENNY WARDLE/STUFF

Tomas Ussher of Piha walks Te Araroa Trail through the Daltons Bridge farm.

COLEBRANDER

October 2023

NZ Farmer 15 Regional Roundup

Updated all day at

Flood spurs Pelorus couple to protect farm Locals had told the couple a 2012 flood was a 30-year event, so a repeat only 10 years later came as a shock. By Penny Wardle.

M

ilking cows alongside Te Hoiere/Pelorus River is a dream come true for Mason and Becky Coleman-Cowie, despite the farm being covered by floodwaters in August last year.

Three months earlier the family of four had moved to Marlborough from Ōamaru with 500 cows, excited to farm their own property, after years of working for others and share-milking.

Then the river swelled, from its bank to the base of their hill boundary, flooding about half of their 200-hectare farm, which was 7km long and only 50m wide in places. Fences, mostly along streams, trapped branches and sticks, then collapsed. There were multiple slips, and culverts blew out, causing $25,000 worth of damage.

Locals had told the couple that a similar flood in 2012 was a 30-year event, so a repeat only 10 years later came as a shock. But they were grateful that the swollen river did not dump gravel or large volumes of silt on their paddocks, which happened to other farms in the area.

The flood accelerated plans to develop a productive farm while managing flood risk. With the 3000km Te Araroa Trail from Cape Reinga to Bluff running along their river boundary, Mason and Becky also wanted to make a good impression on the thousands of people from multiple countries who walked past each year.

“One day I’d like to bring the prime minister here and be proud of the way we are farming, beside one of the cleanest rivers in New Zealand,” Mason says.

Once floodwaters dropped, he climbed slopes above the farm to figure out how a productive dairying business could be developed while managing flood risk. “The height gave me perspective. I could see seeps and where water gathers.”

Mason and Becky built a vision that included spraying weeds along waterways, and fencing so as to keep stock out of streams.

Unimproved slopes on the far side of the farm would be cultivated, subdivided into smaller paddocks, then sown first in turnips followed by permanent ryegrass and clover. Native trees would be planted in boggy areas, to soak up moisture and capture silt.

Knowing that the Government had a multimillion-dollar restoration project

to support communities restoring Pelorus rivers and streams, Mason got in touch with Te Hoiere/Pelorus Project. Catchment care co-ordinator Aubrey Tai visited and confirmed the couple’s goals aligned with the project’s objectives, so help was available.

Together they looked at where planting and fencing to exclude stock would slow rainwater runoff into the river, and reduce sediment flow into Motuweka/Havelock Estuary.

In May this year, Oliver Wade, Marlborough District Council coastal scientist, described the estuary as “one of the muddiest in the country” with Te Hoiere/Pelorus River contributing most of the sediment.

Tai said the project would pay the full cost of fencing, planting and weed control, as it was a significant wetland identified in Marlborough District Council plans.

At one end of the wetland was an old sump from a dairy shed used 23 years ago, and native bush grew on the slope above, neighbouring Mount Richmond Forest Park. “Seep from the shed used to run from the sump into the river,” Mason says. “Things were very different in those days.”

J&S Mears Contracting spot-sprayed then planted 9000 native seedlings in the wetland this winter, also building a fence with wire netting and a hot-wire to exclude rabbits, cows and calves. A gate at the downstream end could be opened to let floodwaters through.

On a recent trip to check the planting, the company noticed many treetops had been eaten out, so came back with predator dog Billy, who got on top of the possum problem.

“The contractors will follow up for two to three years, keeping weeds down,” Mason says. “This will become a sanctuary for native birds and freshwater species.”

On the rest of the farm, insurance paid for the replacement of destroyed fences. New areas were being developed and protected, with Mason and Becky providing fencing materials and plants – especially kānuka and mānuka – as time and money allowed.

Te Hoiere Project would provide labour, in a cost-sharing arrangement.

Also through the project, the Chapman-Cowies got hold of dung beetles which recycled manure through soil. “Only 14 days after being released, they were burying poo where cows had been break-fenced, and in an effluent

Farmers Mason and Becky Coleman-Cowie and their children James, 5, and Becky, 2, enjoying life on their land at Daltons Bridge, near Havelock.

ANTHONY PHELPS/STUFF

“

One day I’d like to bring the prime minister here and be proud of the way we are farming. sand trap, only 500 metres away.”

The couple says they are grateful for the project’s support, recognising it was finite, and that farmers were legally required to fence waterways.

However, with global dairy trade prices plummeting, finishing the job would take time. Costs such as animal health, fertiliser, bought-in feed and labour had to be prioritised to maintain production.

The couple also leased runoff blocks at Ruapaka, adjoining a wetland being restored by Ngāti Kuia with support from Te Hoiere Project, and near Twidles Island.

Here, the Pelorus was taking out the bank “something chronic, with 34m to 40m lost to the river”, Mason says.

Gravel buildup on the inside bend was pushing water out to the opposite bank, which had been protected by a wall until funding for protective works ended in 1991.

Despite these challenges, Mason, 31, and Becky, 28, count themselves lucky. They met 20 years ago when their families were employed on neighbouring dairy farms at Hinds in Canterbury. Seven years later they got together and worked their way up from

farm managers to contract milkers, and then 50/50 shareholders.

They say they are overjoyed to now be milking cows and raising children on land they love, with plenty of good housing and support from Becky’s family, who have farmed at nearby Linkwater for three generations.

“If we’d tried to buy today with the equity we have, the bank might have turned us down,” Mason says. “We work hard every day and our kids have to come with us, but it's a great lifestyle.”

In two years, Te Hoiere Project had supported 53km of fencing in the catchment, enough to stretch from Kaituna to Rai Valley.

Studies delve deep

Te Hoiere/Pelorus landowners and managers are being asked to share knowledge through two projects, aiming to understand the impact of river management actions on improving water quality and reducing flood damage.

Community and iwi workshops will be held later this year to look at ways to slow the rain’s pathway to the coast, such as building water storage areas, planting trees and restoring wetlands.

Anyone interested should email heather@heathercollins.co.nz Researchers at Perrin Ag Consultants and Manaaki Whenua-Landcare Research have teamed up with Our Land and Water to study how today's farming preferences will match with water quality outcomes in 20 years’ time in Te Hoiere and other catchments. To arrange an interview contact jorgia.mcmillan@marlborough. govt.nz.

October 2023

16 Sport NZ Farmer Comment

Davis on sport Sports commentator Miles Davis reflects on how rugby is played now compared to days past.

T

he tournament bearing his name is well under way but I’m sure William Webb Ellis is turning in his grave as he witnesses many parts of the modern game. (Coincidentally he is buried in the south of France, so is close to the action.)

For starters, he will feel betrayed that a game he helped inspire by picking up the ball rather than kicking it now contains almost as much kicking as football.

In the good old days the only kicking was for touch to gain some territory or the odd wipers kick to pierce or stretch a solid defence. Today’s constant box kicks hoping for the opposition to make a mistake, often turn the contest into a game of force-back rather than rugby. Ok for a couple of kids at the local park but not on the international stage. And that’s just the start of it.

Lineouts. There may be those who argue the old lineouts were a mess, but they relied on the individual athleticism of the jumper to secure the ball. All the lifting today is more reminiscent of ballet.

Imagine the reaction of the great Pinetree should a couple of his team-mates grab hold of him and hoist him aloft.

Rucks. The amount of penalties ruled at the breakdown slows the game down and

confuses most of the audience. What was wrong with letting both sets of forwards sort out who was going to win the ball and leaving the referee to keep his eyes on the backs in case they should pass it forward.

The cards. Surely I’m not the only one exasperated by the number of cards being dished out? Fine for deliberate foul play but too often accidental collisions end up in sendings off and suspensions. It’s a contact game, for heaven’s sake.

Finally, the biggest blight on the game, the TMO. Letting the referee make decisions and having to abide by them was character building. Now it’s like one parent making a decision and the kid going to the other one to get a different verdict. “Please Mummy look at the replay, that mean man tackled me high.’’

The rugby unions and referees no longer control the game, television does and the life lessons that sport used to teach us are going out the window.

And therein lies the root of the problem. All these changes are down to broadcasters and the money they inject into the game. It has given them too much influence, with administrators bending over backwards to please them and changing rules to meet the demands of their paymasters. But their subservience hasn’t made it a better game.

Now I may well be a dinosaur but, for me, rugby was a contest for possession.

A battle of attrition. A real test of your mettle. Kindly stick your 96-17 where the sun doesn’t shine and give me a good old 6-3 and players leaving the park with the scars of battle all down their backs.■ Contact Miles Davis on Facebook and X at MilesDavisLive.

Miles Davis, right, with former All Black captain Sir Brian Lochore. Back in the days when Lochore was playing the game, rugby was a battle of attrition, says Davis.

“

Letting the referee make decisions and having to abide by them was character building. Now it’s like one parent making a decision and the kid going to the other one to get a different verdict.

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NZ Farmer Tuesday, October 17, 2023

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NZ Farmer Tuesday, October 17, 2023

18 NZ NZ Farmer Farmer

Advertising Feature

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October 2023

NZ Farmer 19 Forestry

Updated all day at

Farm forestry creates diversity and income on land Forestry and farming do not need to compete and can be combined as a diverse use of land to create greater income streams.

By Scott Downs.

F

orestry and farming are often viewed as rivals in New Zealand, meaning some landowners stubbornly persist with one or the other.

We encourage farm owners, investors, and rural advisers to see the opportunity forestry can provide as part of a mixedland-use approach. With the right advice, forestry can help to optimise farm profitability and resilience, and even provide a pathway to farm ownership.

Forestry assets can also help with family succession planning, providing valuable income and assets that can be easily separated from the land value.

The NZ Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) has changed the game. Farmers can now achieve annual returns significantly higher from forestry than sheep and beef on less productive parts of their farm, as well as the harvest revenue. Cash flow from carbon is positive as early as four

years after planting and can provide excellent returns out to age 16 for radiata pine under ‘Carbon Averaging’. Under this accounting rule, there is no liability at harvest provided the forest is replanted.

We encourage landowners to be bold in their thinking when considering forestry. Do not muck around with a few hectares here and there. Identify the least productive 20-30% of your farm, so you can spread costs such as machinery transportation and infrastructure construction.

Get advice, then make informed decisions about what is best for the future of your property and business. There may be parts of your farm that are less accessible for harvesting, and these areas are probably more suited to a longerrotation species for carbon revenue. There will also be areas more suited to native tree species.

Native trees are a great option for permanent riparian and aesthetic planting. Planning these areas to meet the ETS requirements means you can at least get some carbon or economic return on top of the environmental benefits like property aesthetics, stock shelter, improved water quality, biodiversity and soil and erosion protection.

PF Olsen does not support large-scale permanent exotic forestry converting to natives purely for financial investment, as it is reliant on the ETS for any profit and is therefore very exposed to policy changes

Farmers investing in planting and harvesting trees on their farms can generate higher returns for less productive areas on their property.

and carbon price movement. Iwi and landowners with a commitment to land custodianship are exceptions who can manage this transition. Damaged areas not only have carbon earnings paused, but there is a requirement to re-establish which may require expensive intervention to achieve. Many people do not fully understand the long-term risks associated with permanent forestry using short-term species such as radiata.

Permanent exotics have a place along riparian margins, or with long-lived species like redwoods in the right areas.

But our advice is almost always to target a

timber crop with carbon as a bonus. The ETS is not a silver bullet – land that was not suited for exotic forestry before is still not suited now.

Every little bit helps mitigate climate change and will increase the resilience of your property, as well as improve the aesthetics, water quality and biodiversity in your environment.■ Scott Downs is director of sales and marketing at PF Olsen, New Zealand's largest independent forestry services provider.

Forestry can help you grow your farming business in the face of economic, environmental and policy challenges

PF Olsen can assist you to better understand how adding forestry to your farming mix can improve farm resilience and profitability.

If you’ve ever wondered how forestry can complement your farming model, PF Olsen can help you understand what areas of your farm are most suitable and what the potential returns could be.

Farming + Forestry = Farming for the future Farmlands shareholders can access a discount for our services.

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October 2023

20 Research NZ Farmerand Science

Collect sheep poo for science

Gerhard Uys

B

eef + Lamb New Zealand is looking for farmers to be part of a facial eczema study.

Suzi Keeling, its sector science strategy manager, said in a statement farmers could take part in the facial eczema research project by collecting sheep poo.

“We want samples collected across New Zealand regardless of whether farms have experienced facial eczema in the past. Beef + Lamb will provide instructions, sampling kits and cover the costs to courier samples to the laboratory,” Keeling said.

Participants would collect samples 16 times, about every two weeks, from their mob of sheep for each year of the study.

The samples needed to be taken from the same mob throughout the season, but a different mob could be used each year.

“It’s as simple as taking a walk in a paddock, there’s no need to yard the animals. Just scoop up 10 individual fresh samples from the ground,” Keeling said.

“In return for the samples, Beef + Lamb will provide faecal spore count results as soon as lab testing is completed, access to a monthly updated map showing spore counts around the country and a Prezzy Card at the end of the season if you are able to send all the samples in.”

The three-year study would help B+LNZ understand how widespread facial eczema was. The study would also look at how warmer weather affected facial eczema’s spread, she said.

The disease was caused by a toxinproducing fungus in pasture. It was spread across the country and there was no cure.

Facial eczema in sheep is caused by a toxin-producing fungus in pasture. Beef + Lamb New Zealand is seeking help with a three-year study into the disease.

The toxin could cause permanent liver damage, which meant livestock suffered from sunburn.

If animals survived, their growth was affected for life, Keeling said.

B+LNZ estimated the annual cost of facial

eczema to the sheep, beef, dairy and deer sectors was about $332 million.

“Those who volunteer to take part in the research will be playing an integral role in shaping future tools and solutions for facial eczema management,’’ Keeling said. “To

ensure we get an accurate picture of facial eczema from every corner of New Zealand, we are looking for 350 enthusiastic farmers, 22 each from 16 regions around New Zealand, to collect samples from October to May each year for three years.”■ TH2138 10/09/23

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October 2023

NZScience Farmer 21 Research and

Updated all day at

Good-looking grass A pasture management tool that might not give a pretty outlook to start with, will produce stunning results in the end. By Sonita Chandar.

A

team of scientists at AgResearch who have been working with livestock farmers trialling deferred grazing on their farms, say the results have been

positive.

AgResearch senior scientist Katherine Tozer said deferred grazing was a management tool that was a low risk and cheap option to rejuvenate pastures.

“The feedback we have had from farmers we have worked with, and the results we have seen on their farms, has been really encouraging,” Tozer said.

As evidence grows that deferred grazing can improve pasture quality and potentially resilience in a changing climate, farmers are being encouraged to try it.

Deferred grazing, the practice of dropping paddocks out of the rotation from mid-spring until late summer/early autumn, optimises grazing pressure on the remaining paddocks and maintains or improves pasture quality.

The practice can also be beneficial in providing a feed wedge at the end of summer, increasing both pasture persistence and clover populations.

The study in recent years was to gauge the value of deferred grazing. On one summer-dry beef and sheep hill country farm in Waikato, it was estimated that deferred grazing on 15% of the farm increased total farm and per-hectare gross margins by 8%, according to FARMAX modelling.

In a completed project with farmers

“

Bay of Plenty sheep and beef farmer Rick Burke said ‘deferred grazing might look ugly before grazing’, but it brought financial gains. and other partners, AgResearch scientists compared deferred grazing with traditional rotational grazing in a field plot and splitpaddock trials on three North Island sheep and beef hill country farms.

The study showed that compared to standard rotational grazing, deferred grazing improved pasture performance by increasing the pasture quality at the farm scale, increased pasture production, ryegrass ground cover and tiller densities, and increased topsoil moisture at the summer dry site.

The weed content and facial eczema spore count in the pasture were reduced.

Bay of Plenty sheep and beef farmer Rick Burke said his experience was that “deferred grazing might look ugly before grazing, but the result is outstanding” and brought financial gains, while farmer Allen Coster said deferred grazing had become a “vital and proven management

AgResearch senior scientist Katherine Tozer says deferred grazing is a management tool that offers a low risk and a cheap option to rejuvenate pastures.

practice” in his farming operation.

The positive response from farmers who had trialled deferred grazing and become converts over the years has led to further research being committed to.

In June, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor said new funding from the government and industry – through the Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures fund – would test whether extended periods of deferred grazing encouraged pasture roots to grow larger and deeper.

In theory, this would increase water and nutrient use efficiency, reduce nutrient losses and increase pasture resilience to recover from extremities in the weather, the minister said.

AgResearch is now joining with the Ministry for Primary Industries, Beef + Lamb New Zealand, DairyNZ, Ballance AgriNutrients and others to run a series of field days on farms over coming weeks to show

farmers what the opportunities are.

Tozer said it was exciting to move to a new phase of the research that would look at the opportunities from deferred grazing for root mass and depth, soil carbon sequestration and for reduced environmental impacts such as greenhouse gas emissions, nitrogen leaching. and phosphorus and sediment loss.

“The most exciting aspect for us is that we are working in a true partnership with farmers, the industry bodies and the government. It means what we learn from the research can be quickly and efficiently passed to farmers to put into practice, and that is very rewarding for us working on the science.”■ More on the practice of deferred grazing can be found at: https://www.agresearch. co.nz/our-research/deferred-grazing/

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NZ Farmer Tuesday, October 17, 2023

22 Events NZ Farmer

What’s on October 18 and 25, Dairy Women’s Network

Know your numbers today, pass it forward tomorrow, Southland and Northland.

With the country’s abundance of land, New Zealand is the perfect place to make farming a successful business.

Info at www.dwn.co.nz/events

October 18-November 2, Beef + Lamb NZ

West Coast farmer discussion meetings, various locations.

All areas of the West Coast will require a farm plan from the beginning of 2025.

Get along to one of these meetings to hear what you will be required to do and the support that will be available to help you. Registration is required.

Info at beeflambnz.com/events

October 18-26, Beef + Lamb NZ

West Coast Farm Plan Project workshops, various locations.

The workshops will cover what you will need for a Freshwater Farm Plan and how to develop your individual plan.

The workshops will go ahead only with sufficient registrations. Only registered farmers will be able to attend.

Info at beeflambnz.com/events

October 18, DairyNZ

Wintering in tight times, webinar.

Cropping, grass and balage. Wintering in tight times – tricks and tips from the experts. Info at www.dairyevents.co.nz

October 19, Beef + Lamb NZ

Agritourism workshop: exploring opportunities, Carterton, Wairarapa.

Your idea doesn’t need to be big, it

can be small but impactful. You might not even have an idea yet but want to explore potential options to diversify your income. Come along and explore ways farmers, growers and catchment groups can bring in domestic and international visitors.

Info at beeflambnz.com/events

October 24-27, DairyNZ

Lameness workshop, Taranaki.

Equip the whole farm team with the knowledge and skills to prevent, identify and treat lameness in your herd.

Info at www.dairyevents.co.nz

October 25 and 26, Beef+Lamb NZ

Farm Safety Management System Workshop, Te Akau and Waikato/ Bay of Plenty.

Learn about practical safety risk management on your farm and get the plans and procedures you need to be compliant. Info at beeflambnz.com/events

October 25-November 2, Beef+Lamb NZ

Interactive Succession planning sessions, various locations.

Set yourself and your family up for having courageous conversations, gain greater understanding of multiple perspectives, delve into what is fair v equal and more.

Info at beeflambnz.com/events

October 26, DairyNZ

Focus on dairying field day, Bay of Plenty.

In a reduced-payout season and potentially dry summer come along to hear some strategies, tips and tricks for

managing summer early in the season.

Info at www.dairyevents.co.nz

October 31, SMASH

Make the most of home-grown, Cambridge, Waikato.

Our hosts, former DIA Waikato Share Farmer of the Year winners Brian Basi and Rachel Bunnik, are in their second season sharemilking for John and Maria Numan and are focused on running a profitable business to build their equity and provide good returns for their farm owners. Info at www.smallerherds.co.nz

October 31, Dairy Training

Write a Business Plan, online.

Step through the process of preparing and monitoring accurate farm budgets to stay on top of farm finances. Have confidence in achieving longer-term goals such as self-employment or growing your farming business.

Info at www.dairytraining.co.nz

November 1, Dairy Women’s Network

Farm use beyond farming, webinar.

Join Jude Wilson and Steve Franklin from Hamertons Lawyers for this LIVE webinar, as they discuss the ins and outs of using your farm for ventures other than farming.

Info at www.dwn.co.nz/events

November 2, Beef+Lamb NZ

Massey University Wiltshire field day, Riverside Farm, Wairarapa.

This is the third on-farm field day related to the transition of a Romney flock to Wiltshire as part of a Massey University Research Project.

Info at beeflambnz.com/events

November 7, Beef+Lamb NZ

Top Crops and Feeding Flops workshop, Taranaki and Manawatū.

Getting the most out of drystock nutrition. These sessions are aimed at all classes of dry stock – sheep, beef and dairy support.

Info at beeflambnz.com/events

November 7, Beef+Lamb NZ

FeedSmart workshop.

This workshop teaches participants to assess the quality of feed and estimate its metabolisable energy, plus introduces you to some handy tools to manage pastures and stock feeding even better.

Info at beeflambnz.com/events

November 10, Beef+Lamb NZ

Join the B+LNZ Eastern North Island Extension team and many others in Hawke’s Bay for an unforgettable afternoon filled with unity, support, laughter and learning. In a year defined by unprecedented challenges, the resilient Hawke’s Bay community has shown incredible strength.

Now, it’s our time to come together, share stories, enjoy some fun and laughter with friends, and, most importantly, stand behind the Rural Support Trust Hawke’s Bay. Info at beeflambnz.com/events

Halter

Resilience nationwide roadshow, various dates and locations.

Leading lights from within the agriculture industry will come together with a shared purpose – to help the world’s best producers of milk stand strong.

For info email, simone@lomaskerr.co.nz■

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NZ Farmer Tuesday, October 17, 2023

Animal Health Farmers should stop over-relying on drench to kill parasites.

Rather, they should manage their pasture and control the amount of parasites on it, says Techion chief executive Greg Mirams. Here parasite eggs are seen under a Techion portable microscope.

Drench resistance in sheep can be a $98 million problem Gerhard Uys

F

armers can reduce farm losses caused by drench resistance by managing their pastures better.

Techion chief executive Greg Mirams said drench resistance created losses in two ways.

First, sheep grew more slowly when they had parasites in their gut, because parasites suppressed appetite, Mirams said. Second, conception rates decreased if ewes had parasites, and lambing percentages dropped when worms were not controlled.

Techion has developed a portable microscope and software platform used to do faecal eggs counts on a farm or in a laboratory.

Faecal egg counts were used to determine if stock had parasites and then to check the effectiveness of the drench used on a farm.

About 95% of parasites lived on pasture and the pasture needed to be managed, Mirams said.

“If you've got a sheep farm, and you've got some cattle, when the cattle graze through the pasture they will eat

and consume the sheep larvae and be unaffected by them, and they won't put sheep worms back on the pasture. ‘‘So that means next time you put the sheep in there, there's less exposure, so they don't need to be treated as much,” Mirams said.

“The first thing is to shift the focus on managing larval intakes.If you know which paddocks have a problem and where and when they get polluted by parasites, farmers can manage around that.

“The sun will burn a lot of these worm larvae off as they need moisture.”

Mirams said he encouraged farmers to not irrigate pasture right after they cut silage, but rather to leave the water off for two or three days and allow the sun to reach down to soil level and kill larvae.

Drench resistance came about as parasites mutated and adapted to drenches, he said. “There's already a preset ability for that population to adapt.

The more compounds you throw at the population, the more it speeds up.

“New Zealand parasites have had 40 to 50 years of drugs thrown at them. It's a significant threat to our production

system because we don't have any new drugs that we can see coming to the industry.”

Mirams said the focus needed to shift from “nuking” parasites with drugs to managing a property to reduce parasite loads.

Analyses of Ministry for Primary Industries data showed drench resistance could cost the industry as much as $98 million a year.

A 2017 study undertaken with British retailer Sainsbury’s reported that undetected drench resistance reduced carcass value by 14%, he said.

“At an individual farm level, for a property producing 4000 lambs annually, undetected drench resistance may reduce income by an estimated $81,200 per year.”

There were many trials on the growth differences between sheep treated with an effective drug and those treated with an ineffective drug, he said.

“If you've got a drug working at 80%, you will see a 15% drop in performance, those are well-established figures.”

Some of the most commonly used drugs now failed on a quarter of farms, Mirams said.■

Techion’s Greg Mirams says the sun will kill off sheep larvae, so he encourages farmers to not irrigate pasture right after they cut silage, but to leave the water off for two or three days and allow the sun to do its job.

October 2023

24 Animal NZ Farmer Health

Deer industry braces for

If chronic wasting disease is found here, it would halt

exports of deer products to key markets. By Gerard Uys.

T

he deer industry is preparing for the possible arrival of chronic wasting disease.

In August, industry representatives signed an agreement with Biosecurity NZ and the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI). under the Government Industry Agreement framework, to work towards readiness for chronic wasting disease (CWD).

Emil Murphy, policy and research manager at Deer Industry New Zealand, said CWD was a progressive neurological disease and always fatal.

There was no specific response plan for CWD, and the government would follow the generic plan for responding to an exotic disease, he said.

“If CWD is confirmed ... the relevant farm, and possibly all farms in the region or nationwide, would be placed under movement control to prevent further spread. Slaughter of the infected herds with intensive testing will happen.”

A Deer NZ newsletter said the disease had spread in North American and north Scandinavian deer populations, and it was vital to keep it out of New Zealand.

Murphy said it took 18 to 24 months from infection to develop symptoms, and

cases occurred in adult animals. The most obvious and consistent clinical sign was chronic weight loss.

“Behavioural changes are common and include decreased interactions with herd-mates, listlessness, lowering of the head, blank facial expression, repetitively walking in set patterns, and increased drinking and urinating. In Wapiti, behavioural changes also include overexcitement and nervousness.

“Many of the countries that we export to require attestation that New Zealand is free from CWD so those exports will be halted.

“Unless we were be able to eradicate the disease, we would likely be unable to export to key markets that don’t have CWD already or are trying to eradicate it. This would severely restrict our export markets and the viability of deer farming.

“The agent that cause CWD is very persistent in the environment, so the farm would likely not be allowed to have deer on it for a very long time. For comparison, the reindeer population where CWD was first found in Norway was culled in 2017-18 and they are looking at least till 2025 before starting to reintroduce animals, potentially longer.”

MPI already actively tested for CWD,

Deer Industry New Zealand’s Emil Murphy.

he said. “The key is testing animals with symptoms that might be CWD.’’ There were incentives for farmers and veterinarians to submit up to two samples from animals they euthanised that showed symptoms similar to CWD, he said.

To be eligible for this sampling, a deer from which a sample is sent “must be two years or older and showing signs of either a progressive non-responsive nervous disease or ill-thrift, or acute or peracute pneumonia, or aspiration pneumonia.”

“In addition, about 300 samples are taken from adult deer at the slaughter plants. As the test we use in New Zealand can only be done post-mortem there is no sampling of live animals.”■

Prepare for fall army worm as weather warms Gerhard Uys

A

s spring nears and temperatures increase, growers should look out for fall army worm.

Ivan Lawrie, general business and operations manager at the Foundation for Arable Research, said he was on a scouting trip in the north of the country last month and had not found any sign of fall army worm in traps that growers had put out.

“That's good news. But we don't want to be complacent, and we want people to be on the lookout,” he said.

In February, Biosecurity New Zealand deputy director-general Stuart Anderson said eggs from the pest were found in Tauranga for the first time in March last year. In December, the larvae was found on 18 farms in the North Island, and by January it had spread to the South Island.

In April, Lawrie said the agriculture pest was unlikely to be wiped out.

Fall army worm has caused devastation in other countries, with the damage in South Africa compared to biblical plagues.

It was estimated that Brazil spent about US$600 million (NZ$1 billion) a year controlling outbreaks.

Lawrie said if the pest emerged he expected to begin seeing evidence of it late this month.

Growers needed to be on the lookout for caterpillars in the early stages of the crop, he said.

Early monitoring of crops was needed in milder regions such as Northland, Auckland and Waikato, where the tropical pest may overwinter.

Lawrie said in a Foundation for Arable Research newsletter that “fall army worm can attack crops at all stages, but its control is much more effective when larvae are

“

Treatment is best between maize plant emergence and growth stage V6, before larvae can hide in the whorl. small and are feeding on leaves’’.

“Treatment is best between maize plant emergence and growth stage V6, before larvae can hide in the whorl.

“Application of an insecticide is only economic for maize if more than 20% of the plants have significant foliar damage.

Application is more effective on fall army worm up to the third larvae instar as they are more prone on the plant’s foliage and have not yet become entrenched.

“International literature says you only need to hit it once. The key is to get it early.

“Fall army worm is less of a problem for silage growers and more of a problem for maize grain growers and particularly sweetcorn producers,” he said.

Growers were advised to avoid the use of insecticides that were ineffective on fall army worm and potentially harmful to beneficial insects, such as the parasitic wasp,which appeared to be having an impact on fall army worm populations.

Fall army worm had no dormant period and needed a food source to overwinter in frost-free regions.

“Anything that is green will enable it to overwinter, and it has been observed on ryegrass and clover in a harvested maize paddock, as well as volunteer maize.”■

Above: There are no signs of fall army worm yet this season, but growers should keep an eye out, especially near the end of October.

Left: Foundation for Arable Research general business and operations manager Ivan Lawrie says growers should not use insecticides that are ineffective against fall army worm because they could affect nontarget species.

October 2023

Updated all day at

NZHealth Farmer 25 Animal

fatal disease

“

TALK TO THE EXPERTS HOMEOPATHIC PRODUCTS

If CWD is confirmed ... slaughter of the affected herds will happen.

We have a wide range of products for your animal health requirements.

Emil Murphy

Chronic wasting disease has spread in the United States and in Europe.

The power of pain relief An upswing in pain relief use for cattle is showing positive results for animal health and welfare.

Samantha Tennent

T

he dairy sector has seen a surge in pain relief usage, increasing 70% over the past four seasons, according to data from WelFarm.

With more farmers reaching for pain relief to support their animals when they are sick and as a precaution for routine procedures, it is positive news all round.

Veterinarian and WelFarm user Sara Berryman, from VetSouth, is pleased to see the increase.

She says that cows given pain relief they are more likely to turn themselves around faster and the quicker they are back to eating and behaving normally, the quicker they are back to producing milk.

Cattle are prey animals and are adept at masking signs of pain until it becomes severe. And traditionally, it hasn’t been top of a farmer’s mind to grab pain relief to treat them. But a big shift in mindset and more research has helped the sector see the benefits.

In a trial using pain relief with antibiotics in cows with mastitis, there was a 16% increased cure rate, a decreased need to use extended antibiotic treatment courses, and, even better, subsequent increases in reproductive performance.

Mastitis cows treated with pain relief in combination with antibiotics had a 10% increase in their conception rates at first service and required fewer inseminations to conceive.

The numbers also show that somatic cell counts can be lower in cows that have received pain relief, and there is a reduced risk they will be removed from the herd when compared with treating with antibiotics alone.

Pain relief is also applicable for routine procedures like disbudding calves, with studies showing that administering pain

relief along with local anaesthesia during disbudding improves calf welfare and productivity.

Calves that receive pain relief show faster recovery and reach weaning weight sooner compared to those without pain relief.

And in 2020, a UK study focused on the effectiveness of various treatments for lame cows. Initially, newly lame cows were divided into four groups and each group was given a different treatment regime. After 35 days, the cows were assessed to determine their cure rates.

The study found the most successful treatment, by a significant margin, was the combination of a hoof block and three days of pain relief in addition to corrective trimming. When compared with corrective trimming alone, this combination more than doubles the cure rate.

When the treatment period shortens, the cow will improve its productivity, condition and fertility faster, and be more profitable in the long run. This is particularly important with lame cows early in the season or during mating.

As consumer awareness over the production of dairy products grows, including pain relief in animal health management not only enhances cow welfare but also aligns with the ethical standards expected by consumers.

Chat to your veterinarian for guidance on selecting the most appropriate pain relief options for your cows and to aid in decision-making for your team.

Ensure your team members receive thorough training in administering pain relief and understand when and how to use it, and utilise WelFarm to benchmark your usage regionally and nationally.■

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Samantha Tennent is the general manager of WelFarm.

NZ Farmer Tuesday, October 17, 2023

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NZ Farmer 27 Sustainability and Innovations

Updated all day at

Recycled plastic has value An agricultural plastic recycling business is leading the way when it comes to saving the environment.

By Sonita Chandar.

S

ince its inception in 2007, the agricultural plastic recycling business Plasback has collected more than 32,000 tonnes (32 million kilograms) of plastic waste from farms all over New Zealand.

The business has come a long way since it collected its first consignment of used silage wrap from South Canterbury farmers John and Noeline Peters in 2007.

Plasback commercial manager Neal Shaw says it is positive to see the agricultural industry’s growing appreciation of the need to recycle used plastic.

“More and more companies have realised they must provide their customers a way to dispose of their waste responsibly.”

Fonterra’s Co-operative Difference Payment, which took effect in June 2021, has given the initiative a big boost. Under this scheme, up to 10 cents of Fonterra shareholders’ milk payment comes from their efforts to farm sustainably. One measure they can take to achieve this payment is to recycle their used plastic.

“This has prompted a big increase in demand for our on-farm collection service, and we have put the infrastructure in place to be able to handle it,’’ Shaw says. “We recently commissioned three new balers, which brings our total up to nine balers

The Peters family from South Canterbury were the first farmers to have waste plastic collected by Plasback. From left, Philip, Noeline and John Peters with their first Plasback collection in 2007.

PLASBACK

Silage wrap and pit covers are the main focus for agricultural plastic recycling business Plasback.

across the country, enabling us to process the plastic we gather more efficiently’’.

The company is also developing a new site in Christchurch with larger capacity to cope with the collection and baling.

Shaw says Plasback is still focusing on collecting silage wrap and pit covers from farms – the two main streams of products it began with. But there has been an upturn in demand to recycle other products.

“We have collected alkathene, vineyard netting and we more recently collected waste plastic such as building wrap from the construction sector.

“We were happy to step in and assist these businesses who were looking for a solution to dispose of these products through recycling rather than landfill.”

The Government has set a target date of June next year to have a mandatory, industry-wide product stewardship scheme in place for all agricultural plastics.

Discussions about the shape of that scheme are underway. Plasback wants to ensure any levies applied do not significantly increase the amount that farmers have to pay to cover the cost of recycling. “Plasback has shown that when

Recycled plastic is sent overseas for processing and made into pellets, which are then used for products such as tuffboard, builders’ film, tuffdeck, Plasback bins and more.

farmers and suppliers directly cover some of the cost of collection and reprocessing, it is possible to provide an efficient, costeffective service. We want this model to be part of any future product stewardship scheme,” Shaw says.

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He says as the pressure on farmers to deal with their plastic waste builds, some potential recyclers may look to cut corners by collecting loose plastic rather than using Plasback’s bin and liner system.

Doing this can reduce the value of the waste plastic to manufacturers because it is dirty and more difficult to deal with, as well as add significant costs to transport to secondary sorting sites. “We don’t want to see New Zealand get a reputation for supplying low-quality recyclables.

“Each tonne of plastic collected and recycled represents 1.27 tonnes of CO2 equivalent, so 21,000 tonnes represents about 26,670 tonnes of CO2,” Shaw says.

“Using the sustainability agency Encon’s CO2 offset formula, this amounts to the carbon bound by 1,111,250 trees. That has got to be good for everyone.”

October 2023

28 Sustainability NZ Farmer and Innovations

Planting natives on erodible hillsides

“

The largest remedial project in New Zealand to plant trees is now moving on to farms to help prevent hillsides eroding further. By Steve Mcmillan.

Steep land with bare dirt or signs of active movement and erosion is being prioritised for treament.

otearoa’s largest harbour restoration project, the Kaipara Moana Remediation (KMR) programme, is now partnering with landowners to reduce erosion by planting natives on hillsides.

During the first 18 months of operation, KMR co-funding has largely focused on fencing and planting projects near waterways, with the project expanding to further help the environment.

KMR Pou Tātaki Justine Daw says an increasing focus throughout winter and spring has been tackling erosion by planting natives on erodible hillsides, which complements ongoing work to protect waterways through fencing and planting.

“Steep land with bare dirt or signs of active movement and erosion is being prioritised for treatment – particularly if water flowing over this land will drain directly into a waterway or the Kaipara Moana itself,” Daw says.

This could include land affected by

this year’s floods, storms and Cyclone Gabrielle.

“On flatter land, the minimum KMR project size for planting is 0.25ha, and in the hill country, we are seeking projects involving larger than 1ha of highly erodible land.”

However, the first deadline for co-funding of native planting or regeneration projects is looming on November 13 and Daw is encouraging landowners to lodge their interest with urgency.

“The team at KMR wants to hear from landowners wanting to establish or regenerate native plants on erodible hill slopes or along waterways,” she says.

“We also want landowners to make expressions of interest by November 13 if they are interested in planting exotic trees on eroding hillsides, such as eucalyptus or redwoods.

“Those who want to plant poplars on eroding hillsides are also invited to express interest before March 31, 2024 to

A

The first deadline for co-funding of native planting or regeneration projects is November 13.

Left: Kaipara Moana Remediation Pou Tātaki Justine Daw says erosion on farms is a concern and she encourages landowners in Kaipara, Northland to get in touch.

plant in winter 2024. This is part of our ongoing support for landowners across the catchment, including those affected

by Cyclone Gabrielle and other adverse weather events.

“It is important to us that landowners throughout the Kaipara Moana catchment understand the sediment-reduction options that KMR can co-fund and can access the support they need to reduce erosion, in a way that fits their aspirations. ‘‘This may require a farm system perspective, forestry best practice, or simply having easy access to funding.”■

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October 2023

Equipment

Harnessing the power of the sun New off-grid solar water pumps could be the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for farmers, saving them time and money.

By Steve Mcmillan.

A

chance encounter at the Central District Field Days a few years back resulted in a Ōhingaiti sheep and beef farmer plumbing in four solar pump units on 600 hectares, 55km north-east of Bulls.

Bryan Rendle, a rural bank manager, says the capital investment has ensured his 2000 Coopworth X ewes and 600 Angus and Dairy Beef cross breeding and fattening cattle have access to constant water sources in somewhat remote

locations – ensuring good animal health and reducing farm input costs.

It was after a conversation with Perkinz manager Wayne Perkins that Rendle began investigating solar pumping options.

“We have three React pumps and one Perkinz Solar Submersible pumps and all our systems are working great,” Rendle says. “Solar is magnificent because with four panels on each of the pumps, it’s incredible how they tick away – even on very grey days.

“People who ask me about them get hung up on the fact they don’t pump at night, but that has never been an issue for us, we have plenty of storage so that water storage acts as a battery.

“The solar sub pumps from a spring, works brilliantly and pumps way more water than the specifications say. In the height of summer we move 15,000 litres of water per pump, per day – no worries.

“I did notice it slowing up at one point and replaced the screw after four months and that fixed the problem. It

was relatively easy to replace once I’d watched a couple of YouTube clips.

“The beauty of both pump types is they are simple and I can replace seals and do maintenance myself, so I am not reliant on tracking down a tradie,” he says.

Perkins says most clients who adopt the solar pumps require about 8000 to 10,000 litres of water per day.

“You can pump to virtually unlimited distance and the majority of systems we have installed pump to a height of 50 metres to 120m, with the largest being 260m which is a fair old lift,” he says.

“As always, the inside diameter (ID) of the pipe used depends on the distance water is being pumped. The further the distance, the larger ID required to cut down on friction losses. At 200m you could get away with 25mm but at 1km you probably need to go to 40mm.

“In general, for a total turnkey kit cost of about $7000, our units can pump 15,000 litres of water per summer day to a height of 50m, or 9000 litres per

summer day to a height of 100m.”

Rendle says the best way to mitigate the inconsistencies of the sun is to pump more water daily than you need to a storage tank or reservoir, allowing you to have a bank of water in the system that can accommodate the down days, effectively turning your tank/reservoir into a battery.

“Farming practices and the type of farm also impact solar water pumps because farms with a larger livestock population require more water and, therefore, more energy to pump water. ‘‘Moreover, farms located in remote areas may not have access to grid electricity, making solar water pumps the only viable option.

“As the world population grows, so does the demand for food. Livestock farming ... is still one of the most important sectors in the New Zealand and Australian agricultural industry.

Consistent water supply is crucial to good animal health and good farming practices.”■

Solar panels will generate more than enough energy to power solar sub pumps from a spring and can pump huge volumes over a long distance.

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NZ Farmer Tuesday, October 17, 2023

Updated all day at

Hands-on advantage

NZ Farmer 31 Equipment

Only the best will do for a Kiwi co-operative sourcing farm machinery for its farmers and contractors. By Steve Mcmillan.

A

respected Kiwi farm machinery co-operative established 19 years ago continues to grow and supply farmers and agriculturalists with some of the best-quality gear from around the world.

And right now, with spring underway, along with mowing and cultivation requirements for harvesting of supplementary feeds, the demand for products imported and distributed by Originag in spring is as strong as ever.

Originag, New Zealand’s only farm machinery co-operative, was formed in 2004 by a group of New Zealand-wide independent farm machinery retailers to import products directly from overseas manufacturers – on exclusive market distribution agreements – and in doing so has given shareholder members and customers a competitive and growing range of products.

The co-operative distributes numerous leading European machinery brands like Pottinger cultivation, seeding and grass harvesting equipment; Alpego power harrows, rotary hoes, mulchers and sub-soilers; Bogballe fertiliser spreaders; Hatzenbichler air seeders; Joskin slurry tankers, muck spreaders, construction

and grain trailers and pasture toppers, and Gascon disc harrows and cultivators.

More products will be added to the range to keep up with the steady growth of the business, says managing director David Donnelly. “Our success is contributed to the fact we adopted a co-operative business model with co-operative principles and an ethos which fairly represents the shareholder members and their customers' interests. ‘‘That is because co-operatives like ours are founded on strong values and we put them into practice every day,” says Donnelly.

“Relationships are built on trust and we believe our job is to work together to serve the needs of everyone, because trust is the glue that holds customers and member owners of a co-operative together.

“Our aim is to ensure customers get the best possible experience from quality equipment, great service and parts.”

Donnelly believes, unlike some larger organisations, Originag has an advantage as a smaller ‘hands-on’ company without a corporate structure, meaning his team can react and respond to customer needs quickly. “And we always welcome customer and shareholder feedback.”

Pottinger Impress Balers are available in New Zealand in both fixed or variable chamber models.

Bogballe Fertiliser Spreaders are a popular choice for Kiwi farmers and contractors.

Joskin Slurry Tankers can help farmers meet the stringent demands on their effluent management.

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October 2023

32 NZ Farmer Equipment

New acquisition extends Brandt’s service and support to greater Wellington region A privately-owned business that puts people and communities at the heart of its operation, continues expanding in New Zealand.

Brandt has acquired the assets of Wairarapa Machinery Services Ltd, which will give customers greater access to support services.

B

randt's customers will now have greater access to support after the successful acquisition of the assets of Wairarapa Machinery Services Ltd. Chief executive Simon Semple said the company was excited to welcome its 18th location in New Zealand, uniting the entire North Island under one dealer brand for agriculture, construction and forestry equipment, “This will ensure customers have access to the industry’s broadest support infrastructure, delivering the products, parts and service they need, wherever they are operating,” Semple said.

The deal comes on the heels of the company’s acquisition of AGrowQuip in January.

In addition to gaining the distribution rights for the John Deere Agricultural and Golf lines in AGrowQuip’s operational area, that deal granted Brandt the exclusive rights to sell and service John Deere Construction and Forestry equipment across the entire North Island.

Adding this location in Masterton

will immediately provide Brandt’s construction and forestry customers across the greater Wellington region with improved access to parts and service.

“Brandt’s focus remains our customers, our people and our communities,” Semple said. “And that will continue beyond this acquisition with business as usual,

featuring the same great support that customers have come to know and trust over the past 40 years.”

This acquisition marks 139 dealerships, owned and operated by Brandt, a private, family-owned business headquartered in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, across New Zealand, Australia and Canada.

The company’s extensive experience in the agriculture, construction and forestry sectors enables it to deliver the quality products and industry-best support services that New Zealand equipment owners need to help them grow their businesses.

Since arriving in New Zealand two years ago, Brandt has made its presence felt in communities across the North Island.

Through its Thanks A Billion (TAB) philanthropic programme, Brandt has made significant contributions to a variety of national and community-based charitable organisations to help ensure the success of communities across the island, including a joint donation with John Deere and Waratah of $160,000 to the New Zealand Red Cross to support communities impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle.

During the 2022 holiday season, Brandt directed $75,000 to several New Zealand organisations, including the Cancer Society, The Rural Support Charitable Trust and the Heart Foundation.

Brandt was also proud to enter a partnership with Surf Life Saving New Zealand in which Brandt supports the organisation by providing the John Deere equipment necessary for its operation.

Over the past decade, Brandt’s TAB programme has distributed more than $24 million to disaster relief and community development initiatives in 250-plus communities around the world. The company remains committed to delivering ongoing support for the communities in which it operates globally.■

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NZ Farmer Tuesday, October 17, 2023

NZ Farmer 33 Equipment

Updated all day at

FrostBoss frost fan manufacturer expands capacity to meet demand Gerhard Uys

F

rost fan manufacturer FrostBoss has spent $12 million upgrading its Hawke’s Bay factory to meet growing demand.

Marketing and business development manager Chris Kay said the company neared a pinch point and its facilities could not keep up with the current manufacturing of frostfans and frost fan blades.

There was also growing demand from overseas as increased hectares were under horticulture production and fruit needed frost protection, Kay said.

France alone had almost 900,000ha of horticulture and viticulture, an area greater than the Australian and New Zealand industries combined, he said.

FrostBoss fans were used in a dozen countries and became more popular as the climate became more unpredictable, he said.

“At a time when climate change has resulted in more unpredictable weather conditions worldwide, FrostBoss frost fans have proven their value for highvalue crops that are frequently affected by severe frosts.”

Varieties of crops that bud and flowered at the start of spring would be exposed to more numerous and more serious frost events.

“In many regions water availability is becoming a critical issue. Consequently, using overhead water sprinklers to fight frost is becoming a less viable option.’’

Water sprinklers must be turned on well in advance to achieve the right condition, Kay said. Overhead water sprinklers requires 10,000 litres of water per hectare per hour for every degree of frost. ”Frost fans will automatically start and stop, so they are only running when the real-time temperature requires it. Wind over water is an easy win to massively reduce demand for water in the viticulture and horticulture sector.”

A frost fan protected 6ha-8ha of land from frost and paid for itself in a single

A frost fan will protect six to eight hectares of land from frost.

Chris Kay, marketing and business development manager at FrostBoss, says there is room for growth as climate change means more extreme weather events.

frost event, he said.

“The new FrostBoss Blade manufacturing facility triples our production capacity. With new capacity coming on stream, we can continue assessing new geographical markets.

“In addition to manufacturing blades for our growing frost fan sales, we can now also actively offer blade upgrades.

“Our products and services are now in a dozen countries and counting, protecting wine and table grapes, nuts, citrus, stone fruit, pip fruit, berries, kiwifruit, avocados, mangoes, even instant lawn and grass – anything that can be damaged by frost,’’ Kay said.

The new facility used robotic technology and automated labour-intensive processes, making them safer.

FrostBoss also launched a fan that could be laid down when not in use. This was used in areas with visual amenity regulations, such as Unesco heritage areas, and by growers who used centre-pivot irrigation.

These have so far been used in New Zealand and France.

FrostBoss employed 100 people and had more than 2500 customers. The company had installation and service teams in New Zealand and Australia, and recently opened an EU office.■

The new $12 million factory has quadrupled production.

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October 2023

34 HR NZ Farmer News and Advice

Tips for preparing for harvest season The weather is warming, the days are getting longer, and it’s edging towards a busy time of year for farmers.

With the start of the November-June picking and harvest peak just weeks away, we spoke to Employsure’s lead employment relations adviser Maddie McKenzie about what businesses can do to prepare for the season.

It’s a time of year when many companies hire staff on the basis of recognised seasonal employment (RSE). What RSE entitlements should employers be aware of?

Because RSE workers can meet seasonal demand for a set time frame, they’re often a popular short-term staffing solution.

But there are certain RSE standards and entitlements that employers need to meet.

RSE employees cannot work more than seven months in any 11-month period and are entitled to the same basic minimum rights as permanent employees. This means at least one day off each week, a

Recognised seasonal employment workers are often hired for only a short period, but employers still need to meet their obligations.

10-minute break for every two hours of work, and a 30-minute meal break for every four hours of work.

RSE workers should always be paid at least the minimum wage + 10% for actual hours worked. This works out to be $24.97 an hour. Finally, they’re entitled to 8% of their total before-tax wages in annual holiday pay, as well as 10 days of paid sick leave each year.

From October 1, 2023, a new rule means that RSE workers get their sick leave entitlement earlier than other employees.

From this date, RSE workers accrue two paid sick days from the first day of their employment and then two additional days per month for the first four months of their employment, up to an entitlement of 10 days. This is a contrast to the normal entitlement, which only arises after six months of employment.

Climate change has made it harder to forecast weather in recent years. What do farming employers need to know when cancelling shifts due to inclement weather?

The weather is difficult to predict these days (evident by the increased, damaging floods we’ve seen country-wide), and agriculture is definitely a priority industry when it comes to planning for the worst.

The Health and Safety at Work Act (2015) means employers have a duty to uphold the safety of their workers, including protecting them from hazardous weather.

If weather conditions become dangerous, the employer can cancel the shift, but must pay workers for the hours they would have worked. This is known as “weather pay”.

If employers want to cancel shifts

without pay and stay within the limits of employment law, a clause needs to be inserted in the employment agreement.

The clause should lay out the types of weather conditions that will lead to cancellations and the amount of notice staff can expect to receive.

If employers don’t give enough notice, or cut a shift short, any rostered workers should be paid what they would have earned. It’s also vital to understand that employers cannot ask an employee to accept anything less than the cancellation pay laid out in their agreement.

What do Immigration NZ’s new 90-day trial period laws mean for agriculture companies?

The new legislation means migrant workers hired on an Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) can no longer be put on 90-day trial periods.

The old trial-period provision gave employers the ability to dismiss underperforming workers within the first 90 days of employment without exposing themselves to unjustified dismissal personal grievance claims.

The new legislation is designed to curb migrant exploitation, but it also means employers need to take steps to ensure productivity doesn’t take a hit.

First, it means companies will need to be more selective when hiring AEWV migrant workers, as they won’t be able to easily dismiss staff who aren’t performing.

Second, they should invest more time and resources in onboarding and training.

This means AEWV workers are more likely to be productive right from the start. The laws come into effect on October 29, so now’s the time to prepare.■

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36 On NZ Farmer the Farm

City girl loving new rural life and her animals

Olivia Caldwell

C

Courteney Chenery works fulltime in the agriculture industry and is living a rural dream she never knew she had.

ourteney Chenery doesn’t think of herself as a rural girl, but her menagerie of animals on a lifestyle block just outside Christchurch would suggest

otherwise.

Born in Wellington, Chenery grew up with her three sisters, four pet sheep, a goat named Gordon, a couple of cats and a labrador named Penny.

She’s now working fulltime in the agriculture industry and is living a rural dream she never knew she had.

“This one really snuck up on me and grew as I settled into the slower rural space. It feels like such a lovely slot for me now to be a little removed from the city life,” she says from the 6-hectare lifestyle block. “It’s lovely to pull up the drive after a long day and be out of the hustle and bustle of the city.”

She insists the lifestyle block where she lives with her friends, couple Daniel Pengelly and Caleb Griffioen, is “not a proper farm”.

The three mates raise half a dozen beef-cross dairy calves each year, have eight ewes, breed 150 heritage chickens, which produce 800 chicks at the height of the season, have a couple of caramel labradors, several cats, half a dozen ducks and a pair of grumpy Cape Barren geese.

“In our first year Dan and I basically picked up any lambs which were going cheap or free. We ended up bottle-feeding half a dozen orphans or triplets and through a lot of advice from very patient and kind farmers, both online and in person, every one of our lambs survived,” she says.

“I guess I am a little different from the average person you meet working in agriculture. I am a lesbian living with her gay bestie and his partner. Raising a handful of sheep and cattle whilst learning about raising animals from scratch very much on the fly is certainly not the norm.”

Having skin in the agriculture game in her day job at New Zealand Beef and Lamb as a southern extension co-ordinator, Chenery knows there really is no “norm” when it comes to Kiwi farming.

“Community in a rural setting is just a bit different. You make these incredibly strong connections based on oldfashioned systems of giving each other a hand or bartering.

“We swap eggs for fresh produce our neighbours have grown, or lend the yards to a neighbour who has promised horse-riding lessons in return.”

There are traditions that still exist, and it can be a brutal industry to enter. But given New Zealand had its first female Young Farmer of the Year in Emma Poole earlier this year, times are changing.

“I’m constantly meeting such inspiring women who are doing so much in the rural community, it’s hard to imagine ever measuring up to them,’’ Chenery says.

“We have truly incredible women I work with ... Farmers at different ages and stages of their careers like Tarsh Newport, Jenny McMurdo and Kerry Harmer, as well as Robyn Dynes of AgResearch. I love how passionate they are for the ag sector and get a lot from them.”

The thing you notice most about Chenery is she doesn’t mind laughing at herself. Whether she’s out of her depth, or well above water in the daily-farming tasks, she sees the funny side of life.

With that laughter, however, comes a bit of impostor syndrome, she says. A city girl in a hardy rural industry has its challenges.

“I do find rural people can form cliques which are harder to break into, although this of course isn’t unique to rural living, but, on the other hand, once you’re in then you’re never getting out.

“Sometimes I feel there’s a disconnection with my place in the community and so my colleagues can be a

Chenery doesn’t think of herself as a rural girl, but her menagerie of animals suggests otherwise.

From left: Gemma the dog, Courteney Chenery, Daniel Pengelly, Albi the dog, and Caleb Griffioen.

step ahead with practical knowledge I just haven’t been able to pick up yet.”

For the most part she has found farmers have welcomed her and the guys with open arms. “They are also surprisingly non-judgmental considering I’m such a novice,” she says.

“I was a bit embarrassed recently explaining how long it took me to do some farm jobs to one of the farmer counsellors I work with, but he was fantastic at reassuring me how normal it was and reminding me to be kind to myself.”

The trio buy their sheep from a North Canterbury farmer and calves from local Ashburton dairy farmer Craig Hickman.

“He’s an awesome source of knowledge for me, too. I feel like I’m annoying him every couple weeks asking for more advice.

“Last time we picked calves up he popped the sweetest little pale-coloured Jersey on the trailer. We weren’t looking for a dairy cow at that point.” They have called her Rosie.

Like many other Kiwis, Chenery did her big OE in London, lived the city-girl life, and loved it. But something has since called her to a rural life.

She says meat is the best thing about farming. “Tops is having our friends or whānau round and feeding them some slow-cooked lamb or beef that we have

raised ourselves. Knowing that we have put in so much work into the sheep, duck, chicken and cattle we eat, and that they have had the best lives we could provide, is so rewarding.”

If Chenery sounds passionate about her animals, it’s because she is. Despite some of the challenges such as wool and dairy prices, and regulations, she says that passion is shared industry-wide.

“I get to work and talk with New Zealand farmers all the time. I love hearing the passion in the community and how many awesome initiatives are being driven by some truly talented people.

“Ag is a career I never considered while I was at school. I think a lot of city kids don’t have it on their radar at all, which is a shame because I probably would have studied differently had I known how fantastic the industry is back then.”

Outside all the dirt and mud, Chenery is learning te reo Māori, pottery, roller derby (which she says she’s too soft for) and volunteers at Pillars, a mentoring organisation pairing kids who have a parent in the justice system with adults.

All said, would she move back to the city?

“For the right circumstances I would.

At this stage I don’t know what those circumstances would be – but maybe if the right lady came along.”■

NZ Farmer Tuesday, October 17, 2023

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October 2023

38 Travel NZ Farmer

Five new cruise ships to try Siobhan Downes

W

hat makes a cruise holiday extra special? Knowing you’re among the first to experience a shiny new ship. From headlinegrabbing giants to ultra-luxury liners, here are five new cruises to book.

Icon of the Seas – Royal Caribbean

Royal Caribbean is synonymous with superlative ships, and this 20-deck monster will officially claim the title of the world’s biggest cruise ship when it sets out on its maiden voyage in January.

The liner will comfortably hold 5610 passengers, and will be packed with fun features and activities, including the largest waterpark at sea, more than 40 places to eat and drink, and seven pools (a different spot for a dip every day of the week).

You’ll be able to book your spot on the behemoth on week-long cruises from Miami to the Caribbean.

See: royalcaribbean.com

Norwegian Viva – Norwegian Cruise Line

Norwegian Viva made its debut in August, as the second ship in Norwegian Cruise Line’s stunning new Prima class – and it’s a ship that has something for everyone.

You certainly won’t get cabin fever on this 3219-passenger ship, with a three-level racetrack for go-karting, a free-fall drop slide, and a virtual reality playground among the activities on offer.

Those who prefer a more zen cruising experience can book themselves in The Haven – an exclusive enclave tucked away at the top of the ship and consisting of 107 suites, with a private restaurant and lounge, sundeck with infinity pool and 24-hour butler service.

Norwegian Viva is sailing a series of Mediterranean and Caribbean itineraries in 2024.

See: ncl.com

Silver Nova – Silversea

Looking for an ultra-luxury liner?

Silversea’s newest ship, Silver Nova, is unlike anything else at sea.

The ship – which launched in August as the first in the new Nova class – is one of the most spacious out there, carrying just 728 passengers, with every suite boasting a balcony and butler service.

One of the most notable features is its asymmetrical layout, which puts key features like the pool deck at the side of the ship, instead of in the centre. This results in spectacular views of the sea, and immerses guests in each destination.

Queen Anne is the highly anticipated new cruise ship from Cunard.

In January, Silver Nova will embark on the 71-day Grand Voyage South America, before sailing to Australia, New Zealand and throughout Asia.

Also look out for Silver Ray, the second Nova-class ship, which is due to debut in the northern hemisphere summer.

See: silversea.com

Oceania Vista – Oceania Cruises

If delicious-dining options are a top priority for your cruise, look no further than Oceania Cruises, which is known for having “the finest cuisine at sea” – and its newest ship in more than a decade, Vista, doesn’t disappoint in this department.

The 1200-passenger ship – the first in a new Allura class – boasts 11 eateries, including favourites such as Italian specialty restaurant Toscana, as well as newcomers like wellness restaurant Aquamar Kitchen, serving up superfood smoothies and poke bowls, and an onboard bakery.

Solo cruisers can sail in style, with dedicated solo cabins, as well as Concierge Level staterooms designed for singles, complete with a private veranda and access to an exclusive lounge.

Oceania Vista is offering a series of itineraries exploring Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean from of Miami over the northern hemisphere winter.

See: oceaniacruises.com

Icon of the Seas will be the world’s biggest cruise ship.

ROYAL CARIBBEAN INTERNATIONAL

The aft of Silver Nova, with a bar above and dining below.

BROOK SABIN/STUFF

Queen Anne – Cunard

When Queen Anne makes its debut next May, it will be the first new Cunard ship to set sail in more than 12 years.

If you’re after a ship that harks back to the golden age of travel, Queen Anne will be it, combining a classic cruising experience – including the “White Star Service” the luxury British cruise line is renowned for – with modern comforts, such as a wellness studio.

Queen Anne will depart on its maiden world voyage in January 2025, which will include a visit to New Zealand.

See: cunard.com Above: The Grand Dining Room on Oceania Vista.

Main: The Haven infinity pool on Norwegian Viva.

NZ Farmer Tuesday, October 17, 2023

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Immerse yourself in Africa’s wonders with spectacular Victoria Falls encounters and thrilling safaris searching for the Big Five* before cruising to Rome.

Your holiday includes

Your holiday begins with an overnight in Johannesburg before you’ll transfer to Pilanesberg National Park, relishing enthralling twice-daily safaris during a three-night retreat.

Flying to Livingstone, you’ll next take in the ‘greatest curtain of falling water’ on the planet – the almighty Victoria Falls – during an immersive three-night escape. Here, you’ll delight in an escorted walking tour, a Zambezi River cruise and a refined Royal Livingstone Express journey across the Victoria Falls Bridge.

An overnight stay in cosmopolitan Cape Town then follows, before you’ll join MSC Splendida for your magical 27-night cruise. Highlights include three days in Mauritius’ Port Louis, scenic cruising through the incredible Suez Canal, and calls to Italy’s Naples and Civitavecchia, gateway to eternal Rome.

Excellent

INCLUDES FOUR-STAR FULL-BOARD SAFARI STAY & GAME DRIVES

MSC Splendida Stylish and modern, the MSC Splendida is packed with features including a squash court, F1 simulator, 4D cinema, awardwinning spa, and a pool complex complete with 150 water fountains and jets, making this cruise ship more of a floating resort.

Full-Board Cruise • 27 night full-board cruise on board MSC Splendida • Visiting: Cape Town, Durban, La Possession (Réunion), Port Louis (2 nights in port), Safaga, Petra, Suez Canal (scenic cruising), Naples, Civitavecchia (Rome), Genoa Fully Escorted Tours • Pilanesberg National Park game drives • Walking tour of Victoria Falls • Lady Livingstone river safari & Royal Livingstone Express train journey including a five-course dinner and drinks Hotel Stays • Five-star hotel stay in Johannesburg with breakfast • Five star hotel stay in Pilanesberg National Park at the Kwa Maritane with breakfast, lunch and dinner • Four-star hotel stays in Livingstone and Cape Town with breakfast All Flights, Taxes and Transfers

Discover

Victoria Falls Heralded as one of the mustsee attractions in Africa and indeed, one of the most spectacular waterfalls in the world, Victoria Falls is a true natural spectacle.

Spanning more than a kilometre and at a height of more than one-hundred metres, it is considered the largest waterfall in the world. It is known locally as Mosi-oa-Tunya – ‘the smoke that thunders’ – for cascading waters that drench its surroundings in an intense mist.

*Wildlife sightings are not guaranteed.

INTERIOR FROM

BALCONY FROM

$10,999PP

$12,999PP

ONLINE CRUISE CODE: A F R 2 2 2 4

Terms and Conditions apply, for full details please visit imagineholidays.co.nz. All prices shown in NZ Dollars.

Prices shown per person based on two passengers sharing a cruise cabin or suite and include flights from Auckland (regional flights available). Credit cards charged at 1.5%, if paying by AMEX a charge of 2.5% will be added. ABN number 48614987718. Prices are correct at the time of print and are subject to change. Offer applies to new bookings only. Hero image is intended for illustrative purposes only.

To book call (09) 941 2591 imagineholidays.co.nz

Opening Hours: Mon to Fri: 10am - 8pm | Sat & Sun: 12pm - 8pm

NZ Farmer Tuesday, October 17, 2023

40 Real NZ Farmer Estate

The complete package Property spotlight

L

ooking for the complete package of business investment and lifestyle opportunity? Here’s a chance to purchase a mostly flat 181-hectare (more or less) dairy farm currently supplying to Open Country Dairy.

Located at 86 McWatt Road in Maramarua, convenient to State Highway 2, the farm is very central to Ngatea for schooling and most amenities. Auckland is 80km north, while to the east are the beautiful beaches and fishing spots of the Coromandel.

The property has completed its second season supplying Autumn milk, producing a 3-year average of 142,067 kgms. There is also the chance to continue a 14-hectare (more or less) lease of neighbouring land.

Key infrastructure includes a well set up five year old 20 + 20 DeLaval parallel parlour dairy shed with automatic cup removers and a Del Pro management system, as well as an attached feed/ standoff pad with a 400 cow yard capacity.

Farm infrastructure includes an implement shed and calf shedding as well as yards plus a loading race situated at the centre of the farm.

Water on the farm is currently supplied by three bores, ensuring a reliable water source year-round.

The farm is predominantly flat in contour with some easy hill paddocks and soil that is sedimentary. It is divided into approximately 80 paddocks with boundary

fencing predominantly consisting of seven wire post and batten while internally it is four wire electric. The race system has been well planned, with the block centrally raced ensuring all weather access to paddocks.

There are two dwellings located on site, offering living accommodation for owner operators or a bonus which will help secure decent staff if you’re considering the property as an investment.

Schooling options are varied and include Maramarua, Mangatangi and Waitakaruru Primary and Hauraki Plains College.

Locally the area is humming with activities for the whole family. There is cycling on the Hauraki Rail Trail and other recreational activities can be found in the Maramarua Forest Park including walks and motorcycle trail rides.

Not only is this a viable business investment but a great lifestyle location for your family.

Sale details: Location: Waikato Address: 86 McWatt Road, Maramarua, Waikato Sale: By tender.

Size: 181 hectares Dwellings: 2 houses offering a total of 8 bedrooms Agents: Karl Davis and Lee Carter, Bayleys Hamilton.

Phone: Karl 027 496 4633, Lee 027 696 5781.

86 McWatt Road, Maramarua

Market commentary Whether it’s a lifestyle block or a dairy farm, location still matters to buyers according to Bayleys rural sales specialist Karl Davis.

Davis, who lists and sells property inside the golden triangle of land between Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga says for potential lifestyle block buyers (.25 to 20 hectares) location is a big factor as they get the best of both worlds. Not too far from the big smoke, but only 15 minutes or so from service centres like Ngatea, Pokeno or Paeroa and “the ability to have a few animals or a horse, a motorbike, or to turn the stereo up”.

For farm buyers, the decision can be more based on economics, not emotions. “But location still plays its

part,” Davis says. “We’ve seen quite a few sales to non-farmers who may have divested from other things like commercial property. Some buy for investment alone, others live on farm for the location benefits but have someone else run the farming operation.”

He says farms are relatively speaking, more affordable now than they were in the early 2000s and as a long term investment they still offer returns and capital gain.

Bayleys’ most recent Insights and Data report for the dairy sector highlights a flight to quality as a leading factor for buyers. With a greater selection of properties to choose from meaning more options for buyers, they can be more selective. It says quality and location of the property remain primary drivers of value.

NEW LISTING

Boundary lines are indicative only

Hikuai 492 Hikuai Settlement Road

King of the hill

7

Nestled amongst nature on 6.9106 hectares (more or less), this exceptional property boasts views over Tairua Harbour, Paku Hill and Ranges. The primary residence has been constructed using a blend of cedar and earth brick, complemented by flourishing gardens and bountiful fruit trees. Step inside to high stud ceilings and modern open-plan living that seamlessly connects to an outdoor space offering views in every direction. You'll also discover a renovated cottage, converted shed, workshop and consented building platform for a premium third dwelling. This property offers numerous possibilities in an ideal location, your a couple of 4 irons from the Lakes Resort Golf Course and a brief drive to Pauanui for its beautiful beach, cycle trails and boat launching facilities. This property must be seen to be fully appreciated.

Auction (unless sold prior) 11am, Thu 23 Nov 2023 96 Ulster Street, Hamilton View by appointment Karl Davis 027 496 4633 karl.davis@bayleys.co.nz Glenn Tanner 027 486 2399 glenn.tanner@bayleys.co.nz

bayleys.co.nz/2180637

MH REALTY LTD, BAYLEYS, LICENSED UNDER THE REA ACT 2008

3

4

NZ Farmer Tuesday, October 17, 2023

Boundary lines are indicative only

Puriri 226 Wainui Road

Scale, location, titles, and a serious seller

130 ha

Here is an opportunity to step in and start producing on this 130-hectare (more or less) dairy farm in seven titles with the possibility to lease an additional 13.8 hectares. What is on offer here is the opportunity for additional production without the capital investment that is usually required. The farm boundaries the Waihou and Puriri Rivers and sits on fertile Hauraki marine clay soils. Of the dairy platform, there is approximately 26ha available for effluent irrigation, pumping directly from the effluent pond. With the farm currently having a metered town supply, and three storage tanks, there is little risk of running out in the warmer summer months. The location is ideal, offering rural seclusion with schools, shops, and services only 14.2km away in Thames. This is a great farm and needs to be on the shopping list for Spring.

Tender (unless sold prior) Closing 2pm, Thu 16 Nov 2023 96 Ulster Street, Hamilton View 11am-12pm Tue 17 Oct Karl Davis 0508 83 83 83 karl.davis@bayleys.co.nz Lee Carter 027 696 5781

bayleys.co.nz/2314940

SUCCESS REALTY LIMITED, BAYLEYS, LICENSED UNDER THE REA ACT 2008

Boundary lines are indicative only

Mangatarata 3629 State Highway 2 and Coxhead Road

Park or farm with seaviews

98 ha

Set on 98 hectares (approximately and more or less) this functional farm park includes provision for 22 unit titles, you will enjoy a farm block and grazing, amazing sea and valley views. The easy to rolling contour with picturesque trees and established pasture is dissected by a meandering stream and central racing. Not to mention the panoramic views of the Thames Valley and Hauraki Gulf from the high points of the property. Ample shedding and reliable water from the bore, there will be no concerns for the hot summers ahead. For the savvy investor, the 18 remaining unit titles, provide the opportunity for the purchaser to sell off the unit titles down the track. Our Vendor has already sold four with the Purchasers taking advantage of the “shared farm park” that is on offer. For a great property with future development locked in, arrange your viewing of Coxhead Road Farm Park.

Tender (unless sold prior) Closing 3pm, Fri 10 Nov 2023 96 Ulster Street, Hamilton View 1-2pm Fri 20 Oct Karl Davis 0508 83 83 83 karl.davis@bayleys.co.nz Lee Carter 027 696 5781

bayleys.co.nz/2314892

SUCCESS REALTY LIMITED, BAYLEYS, LICENSED UNDER THE REA ACT 2008

bayleys.co.nz

NZ Farmer Tuesday, October 17, 2023

Boundary lines are indicative only

Patetonga 331 Tramline Road

Well-established dairy unit

187 ha

Here is your opportunity to own this 187-hectare (more or less) dairy unit in Patetonga, less than half an hour's drive from Morrinsville. On offer here is a well-established dairy farm, with proven pasture-based performance.

For the 2022/23 season, the farm supplied Open Country Dairy milking 440 dairy cows running a pasturefocused, low-input system two dairy operation. Key infrastructure includes a solid 50ASHB shed, with 600-cow capacity circular yard, complete with rubber matting. Other infrastructure includes a sturdy three-bay implement shed and two-bay calf shed plus fertiliser/feed bunker at the cowshed. Bore water is utilised for stock drinking water, pumped, and stored in two x 25,000L tanks, whilst council water is used for the cowshed and houses. The location is ideal, offering rural seclusion with schools, shops, and services only 26km away in Ngatea.

Auction (unless sold prior) 11am, Thu 16 Nov 2023 96 Ulster Street, Hamilton Phone for viewing times Karl Davis 0508 83 83 83 karl.davis@bayleys.co.nz Lee Carter 027 696 5781 lee.carter@bayleys.co.nz

bayleys.co.nz/2314946

SUCCESS REALTY LIMITED, BAYLEYS, LICENSED UNDER THE REA ACT 2008

Boundary lines are indicative only

Otapaurau 650 Sh25 - Te Rerenga-Kuaotunu State Highway

Rural meets coastal- opportunity awaits

95.3 ha

Nestled within the picturesque Coromandel region, this expansive 95.30 hectare (more or less) farm awaits, fully operational and primed for your agricultural aspirations. The land is of flat to rolling contour with free draining soil and great growing conditions, while the water is gravity fed via an easement from the forest; making a very functional farm which is currently running angus cattle, equally it could be used for horticulture. An array of infrastructure includes a hay barn, wool shed, implement shed with three phase power, along with Te Pari stock yards and an access bridge. With multiple building site options, carve out a location to build your dream home with expansive rural and sea views. A clear water stream runs through the property perfect for dips on those hot summer days. The fusion of coastal and rural renders this property an open canvas - Don’t miss this opportunity!

Auction (unless sold prior) 11am, Thu 23 Nov 2023 96 Ulster Street, Hamilton View by appointment Glenn Tanner 027 486 2399 glenn.tanner@bayleys.co.nz Karl Davis 027 496 4633 karl.davis@bayleys.co.nz

bayleys.co.nz/2180650

MH REALTY LTD, BAYLEYS, LICENSED UNDER THE REA ACT 2008

bayleys.co.nz

NZ Farmer Tuesday, October 17, 2023

EXPLORE NEW OPPORTUNITIES

ON THE HORIZON

When it comes to rural property, Bayleys’ Country is altogether better at unlocking new opportunities, delivering quality rural and lifestyle properties for sale and the latest insights directly to you.

#1

RURAL REAL ESTATE BRAND

We’ve dug deep to deliver you 140 of spring’s freshest farms, horticulture, viticulture, forestry and lifestyle properties for sale from the far north to the deep south.

Country also delves into how improved internet connectivity is bringing the rural sector up to speed and delivering productivity gains, and how lifestyle block owners can leverage their land to grow food as the cost-of-living bites.

Bayleys is consistently New Zealand’s number one rural real estate brand – with deep roots in farming communities, our local relationships, connections, and legendary professionalism mean we’re ready to guide you along country roads.

For your copy of Country magazine, call 0800 BAYLEYS or visit bayleys.co.nz/country.

LICENSED UNDER THE REAA 2008

Up to speed

Major improvements in rural connectivity are boosting productivity for farmers and growers.

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140 FARM, SPECIALTY AND LIFESTYLE PROPERTIES FOR SALE ISSUE 2 – 2023

OUT NOW Residential / Commercial / Rural / Property Services

NZ Farmer Tuesday, October 17, 2023

David McGuire Matangi 450A Matangi Road Auction

Must be sold With 32 ha of flat land just 1.6 km from Matangi and 5.7 km to Hillcrest, Hamilton, this is an opportunity you won't want to miss. Matangi is recognized as one of the Waikato's premium locations and it is easy to see why. The soils comprise of Horotiu Sandy Loam, one of the finest soils for horticulture New Zealand has to offer. Infrastructure includes two x 3 bedroom houses (currently tenanted) and a large workshop.

The property has a central race running the length of the property and established shelter belts on either side and down the middle of the farm.

The options for this property are numerous and include vegetable growing, cropping, kiwifruit, grazing stock, and others may choose to set up their equestrian property here.

However you look at it, this is a prime location that offers a very real future upside to purchasers. A great land banking opportunity close to Hamilton city with plenty of options in the meantime.

This property must be sold so call today to arrange a time to view.

Property Brokers Ltd Licensed REAA 2008 | pb.co.nz

Auction 12.00pm, Thu 23rd Nov, 2023, (unless sold prior), Hautapu Sports Club, 211 Victoria Road, Cambridge View Mon 30 Oct 12.30 - 1.30pm Mon 6 Nov 12.30 - 1.30pm Web pb.co.nz/CBR171280

David McGuire M 027 472 2572 E david.mcguire@pb.co.nz Proud to be here

NZ Farmer Tuesday, October 17, 2023

Ian & Chelly Richmond Downs 189 + 231 Walton Road Tender

As good as it gets This 100 ha (more or less) dairy unit is located in the highly sought-after Walton District and is presented to the market in excellent heart. This flat contoured farm has been in the same family ownership for 55 years and is comprised of two titles with a long road frontage. Quality farm infrastructure includes a 40-bail rotary cowshed with the convenience of in-shed meal feeders along with a full range of support buildings. The property is very well raced and subdivided, milking 315 cows with a four year production average of 120,000 kgMS. The main brick homestead is bathed in natural light and exudes charm, featuring a spacious kitchen with open plan living complemented with mature gardens. The second dwelling is a five bedroom home providing excellent accommodation for farm staff.

Properties in this location are often hard to find, therefore contact the Vendors' agents for a full information pack or to arrange a viewing now.

Property Brokers Ltd Licensed REAA 2008 | pb.co.nz

Tender closes 2.00pm, Wed 22nd Nov, 2023 (unless sold prior), C/- Farmlands, 127 Mangawhero Road, Matamata View Tue 17 Oct 10.30 - 11.30am Tue 24 Oct 10.30 - 11.30am Web pb.co.nz/MAR171312

Ian Morgan M 027 492 5878 P 07 888 6468 E ian.morgan@pb.co.nz Chelly Aitchison M 022 697 8779 P 07 280 5534 E chelly@pb.co.nz Proud to be here

October 2023

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NZ Farmer Tuesday, October 17, 2023

NZ Farmer 47 Markets

Updated all day at

NZ Farmer market dashboard Gerhard Uys rounds up developments in the agricultural sector.

Market data supplied

by Rabobank.

Lamb

Dairy

Demand for milk products could increase before global output recovered and a milk shortage is possible in future.

If buyer confidence increased and consumers flocked back and bought milk products en masse, there could be a bullish runway into next year.

Milk production would likely be below the average peak this season; milk flows for the first three months of the 202324 season were almost 2% behind on a tonnage basis, driven by lower North Island collections.

RaboResearch lowered its milk production forecast for this year for the Big 7 export regions.

Milk supply would likely grow by just 0.3% year on year this year, a downgrade from the bank’s earlier expectations of 0.5%.

Milk output from the Big 7 for next year was likely to climb by just 0.4%, far less than the annual average gain of 1.6% seen between 2010 and 2020.

Dairy is playing a supply and demand game, with a slow recovery of both.

Beef

The North Island bull price was in line with historical averages for September this year, with a slight lift above the five-year average by the end of the month.

Prices rose from $5.80/kg cwt in late August to $6.00/kg cwt by late September, in line with the normal price movements at this time of year.

Bull production was down 5% for the season to date, through early September this year.

Cow slaughter was up 4%, with a noticeable 10% increase in South Island cow slaughter season to date.

United States beef stocks made up mostly of imported product were 10% below the five-year average in August.

Lower inventory, plus imported lean trimmings trading at a large discount to domestically produced US trimmings, the market could correct itself.

This should provide positive support for New Zealand prices over the coming weeks.

August beef exports were higher by 4% year on year, driven by more shipments to the US. Shipments to China, the largest market for August, were almost 40% lower year on year by volume.

More demand from the United States pushed up beef prices in August.

Lamb prices flatlined because of ongoing high volumes of Australian lambs in the global market and continued soft demand.

South Island lamb prices tracked sideways through September at $6.90/kg cwt.

North Island prices moved upwards later in the month to shift the needle back to $7.00/kg cwt, up from $6.95/kg cwt.

Hogget and mutton slaughter numbers were close to last year’s volumes for the season to September.

China remained the top market, and demanded half of all New Zealand exports in August, just 3% lower than this time last year.

But the value of shipments to China plummeted by 25% year on year and proved the sway China held over price setting in the market.

Demand from key markets was stronger than this time last year, with exports to the US and the UK both higher year on year for volume (+28% and +50%) and value (+22% and +20%).

Across the ditch, sheep slaughter numbers remain historically high , up 51% year on year and up 17% on the five-year average.

The combination of late old season lambs with the drier conditions and falling prices are leading producers to offload stock earlier.

Consumer spending lifted in the US and so did market prices.

The average US lamb carcass price in September was 1% higher than the average in August and average lamb retail price was 1.5% higher.

Demand from alternative markets to China helped establish a firmer price floor in the face of high production volumes from Australia.

Fertiliser

Lamb prices moved sideways because of ongoing high volumes of Australian lambs in the global market.

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Month over month, the Middle East reference for urea dropped 2.5%, Morocco DAP showed a positive 4.5%, and Canadian potash was virtually steady. The downside for farm inputs is coming from stronger petroleum prices and a weaker Australian dollar.

India surprised the market with consecutive urea tenders, but the volumes and prices were below expectations.

India’s September tender offer was 3.6m tonnes, but only 0.5m were procured, and the price was lower earlier expectations.

The agrochemical front mirrored the fertiliser market but with a substantial lag.

Comparing a basket of herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides, Chinese prices dropped by 30% year on year.

This was already seen at the farm-gate level, especially for more in-demand products like glyphosate.■

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NZ Farmer Tuesday, October 17, 2023

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