Country-Wide June 2020

BACKING FARMERS

Walk talk THE

Manawatu mixedcropping farmers Rachel and Brendon Williams profit from looking after their soils p78

Country-Wide

June 2020

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June 2020

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June 2020

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June 2020

EDITOR’S NOTE

A city under lockdown

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any of us in the city were envious of farming families freedom and space on farms. Quite rightly farming was deemed an essential service and could carry on.

Country-Wide magazine was initially not deemed essential, which threatened to stop delivery of the April issue and printing of Country-Wide Beef.

Government officials changed their minds and the magazines landed in mailboxes though later than usual.

One of the benefits of the lockdown in Dunedin was only a few cars on the road. Biking around the streets was safer without car doors opening and vehicles passing too close. A new danger was people walking along the footpath, encountering other walkers coming in the opposite direction and suddenly side-stepping on to the road. Racing along on an e-bike at 20km/hour there were a few close calls.

Walkers also took over the road. When rounding a corner there could be five or more people in the middle of the road.

Costs fell dramatically during lockdown. Most of our personal expenses go through the credit card and our first bill in lockdown was 30% less than the monthly average. The next month it was 55% less. No travel or frequenting cafes. Sneaking out of work for snacks, haircuts and shopping all gone. My wife made only one trip a week to the supermarket because it was such an effort lining up and waiting to get in. Later she showered and washed her clothes. It might seem excessive but that’s what we were told to do when a family member is immunocompromised.

Thanks to ultrafast broadband most of us in cities could work from home and hold virtual meetings.

Virtual meetings are good as long as the technology works and there is space. Two parents and two teenage girls all needing to join meetings isn’t easy when the broadband is limited to a few rooms. On the odd occasion the internet crashed and all hell broke loose.

Long serving Country-Wide columnist Trevor Cook found the virtual farmer-group meetings were okay if he knew the farm and the farmers. But it was a poor substitute to going on the farm if it was a new farmer and group.

We are told to have emergency supplies and a plan on what to do if an earthquake or any disaster strikes. What about if the disaster happens to you? If you suffer a serious illness or accident, will the farm business be able to carry on without you?

Could someone step in and run it tomorrow without any direction from you? In the first of a series, Country-Wide June looks at Plan Bs. We also examine supplementary feed and the options for getting through winter. What is the cost of different feeds and some of the dangers with feeding them.

These and many more great articles await inside. So tuck in.

Terry Brosnahan Got any feedback? Contact the editor: terry.brosnahan@nzfarmlife.co.nz or call 03 471 5272 @CountryWideNZ

Thank you everyone who contributed to the Country-Wide lockdown photo competition.

This months’ winners

There are talented photographers out on the farms and we want to see more. So the competition will continue until July 1. Up to four photos can be entered and an entrant can win more than once.

Matthew Roy Lake Heron Station, Ashburton Jane Orr Kingston Crossing, Northern Southland

Winning entries will be announced in June, July and August issues.

MERIT PRIZES GO TO: Greer Bill Kaikohe, Northland Lindsay Will Waituna West, Feilding Ian Evans North Waikato

Each month we will pick two winners who will receive a twin-pack of Mudhouse wine.

Three merit prize winners for each issue will receive a Gallagher electric fence tester.

Country-Wide

June 2020

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CONSIDER JOHNE’S VACCINE MORE P47

Country-Wide is published by NZ Farm Life Media PO Box 218, Feilding 4740 General enquiries: Toll free 0800 2AG SUB (0800 224 782) www.nzfarmlife.co.nz

EDITOR: Terry Brosnahan | 03 471 5272 | 027 249 0200 terry.brosnahan@nzfarmlife.co.nz PUBLISHER: Tony Leggett | 06 280 3162 | 0274 746 093 tony.leggett@nzfarmlife.co.nz SUB EDITOR: Andy Maciver | 06 280 3166 andy.maciver@nzfarmlife.co.nz DESIGN AND PRODUCTION: Emily Rees | 06 280 3167 emily.rees@nzfarmlife.co.nz Jo Hannam jo.hannam@nzfarmlife.co.nz SOCIAL MEDIA: Charlie Pearson | 06 280 3169 WRITERS: Andrew Swallow 021 745 183 Anne Hardie 03 540 3635 Lynda Gray 03 448 6222 Robert Pattison 027 889 8444 Sandra Taylor 021 151 8685 Cheyenne Nicholson 021 044 1335 James Hoban 027 251 1986 Russell Priest 06 328 9852 Jo Cuttance 03 976 5599 Rebecca Harper 06 376 2884 PARTNERSHIP MANAGERS: Janine Aish | Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty 027 890 0015 | janine.aish@nzfarmlife.co.nz Tony Leggett | Lower North Island 027 474 6093 | tony.leggett@nzfarmlife.co.nz David Paterson | South Island 027 289 2326 | david.paterson@nzfarmlife.co.nz SUBSCRIPTIONS: nzfarmlife.co.nz/shop | 0800 224 782 subs@nzfarmlife.co.nz Printed by Ovato Print NZ Ltd, Riccarton, Christchurch ISSN 1179-9854 (Print) ISSN 2253-2307 (Online)

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Contents BOUNDARIES 8 9

Lynda Gray writes a history of Kiwi deer farming Wairarapa community band together for the Rapa Feed Run

HOME BLOCK 10 11 12 13 14

Robert Carter finds silver lining to ‘splendid isolation’ Hemp brings new business for Blair Drysdale Dani Darke gets learning while in lockdown Charlotte Rietveld, the subconscious pandemic prepper Robert Hodgkins gets advice from passing walkers

BUSINESS 16 18 20 22 23 24 25 26 28 29 30 32 33

What’s the farm business’s Plan B? ‘My dogs are my legs’ Diverse farm business wins in Tararua Wet markets thrive in China US meat processors in strife M. bovis plan fails farmers Venison price a low blow Food supply post Covid-19 Bay’s farmers want extension Watch out for Covid-19 scams Helping to manage risk Opportunities under lockdown Hard work pays off

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June 2020

LIVESTOCK

LIFT, CHIP AND FEED MORE P63

34 39 47 50 52 54 55 56 57 60 62

Building a stable beef future Profitable and sustainable at Romani Animal Health: Consider Johne’s vaccine Dairy problem, beef solution?

Shear it all Hybrid sales set to go nationwide Bull sales move online Virtual fencing for real Feed services provide support Check animal trace elements Stock Check: Virtual world has pluses and minuses

THE DEER FARMER 63 Lift, chip and feed 66 Encouraging the young 68 Engine room of deer research

CROP AND FORAGE 69 70 72 75 76 77

Plugging the feed gap Home-grown barley ideal Overcoming the feed gap Using grain to replace rain Lucerne: Nitrogen the key Western Australia: Challenging harvest but good prices

ENVIRONMENT DIVERSE FARM BUSINESS WINS MORE P20

OUR COVER: Soil conservation is a top priority for Rachel and Brendon Williamson on their 174ha mixedfarming operation at Marton. It has taken them time to get the soils to where they are, and the couple value them highly. p78 Photo: Brad Hanson

NEXT ISSUE: JULY 2020 • Deferred gazing: How it can regenerate pastures and soils, and provide a cheap source of summer feed.

• Carbon credits: What does the Covid-19 global pandemic mean for the carbon price, and the regulation surrounding it.

78 The answer lies in the soil

YOUNG COUNTRY 84 Shepherding recognises

Wairarapa’s best

COMMUNITY

85 Is drench a Covid-19 cure?

86 Eager for challenges

SOLUTIONS 88 Driving profitability to next level 89 Tackling Johne’s in deer

TIME TO SHARE: PHOTO COMPETITION 91 Country-Wide readers’ photos

from life in lockdown

• Off to a good start: A calf and lamb rearing special looking at how to make them thrive.

• Pig farming: A sheep farming operation has managed to diversify risk and improve profits.

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June 2020

Eager for challenges

MORE p86

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BOUNDARIES | BIRTHDAY BUDGET WASH UP

From pest to asset BY: LYNDA GRAY

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arch 13 marked 50 years since the issue of the first licence to legally farm deer in New Zealand.

To mark this milestone, I’ve been working away for far too long on a book “In Hindsight, 50 Years of Deer Farming in NZ”. It’s about what happened when, but more importantly about some of the people who made things happen and advance deer from a feral pest to a $320 million export industry.

It’s a pastoral industry that has defied the odds by ‘taming’ and farming the first new domesticated species in 5000 years, or so a speaker at a 1997 World Deer Congress said.

In the beginning deer farming was stymied by over-the-top laws and rules made by over-zealous government officials. The prevailing attitude seemed to be that deer would cut loose and cause chaos throughout the land. It took years of lobbying to get the rules amended, relaxed and in some cases dropped altogether and the book

A blind man on a bar JOKE stool shouts to the bar tender “wanna hear a blonde joke?”

The guy sitting next to him says “Before you tell this joke you should know something.

“The bar tender is a blonde. The bouncer, also, a blonde.

“I’m 6ft tall, 100kg and a black

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talks to some of the early farmers who battled the bullshit and red tape.

From the early days of adrenalinefueled helicopter live recovery, the industry earned a reputation for visionary thinking and action.

Cervena is another example of forward thinking. It was launched in late 1992 to distinguish NZ farm-raised venison produced within strict specifications, from stuff produced elsewhere in the world. It was controversial because of the amount of deer farmer levy money spent on it over the first few years, and its future decidedly was shaky at times.

It’s survived but as an astute venison exporter said it’s only starting to reap rewards now almost 30 years after launch.

Deer farmers have shown extraordinary examples of selfregulation through the development of velveting regulations and a code of practice. Velvet is like no other primary product and the development of the know-how on growing, harvesting, processing and selling it is covered in the book.

belt. The lady sitting next to me weighs 120kg and is a professional rugby prop, her girlfriend is a wrestler, and you know what? We are all blonde.

“Think about it Mister. Do you really wanna tell that joke?”

The blind man says “nah, not if I’m going to have to explain it five times”.

The Government’s $400m for new InterIslander ferries means bigger ships which is great, but let’s have them sailing to and from Lyttelton, not Picton. It would save billions in freight costs and road wear and tear without the environmental issues and slow-sailing problems of ferries in Marlborough’s Sounds.

Extending Covid-19 wage support where business income is still down 50% or more, is money down the drain. It is time to face the hard facts here. If that much turnover’s gone and it’s not recovered under Level 2, it probably won’t recover for years, if ever. Time to restructure. Our future taxes, because that’s what Government is spending, would be better invested in R&D. And retraining opportunities for Covid-19 employment casualties. Some might even want to try farming.

ZOOM MEETINGS One of the best free shows during lockdown were public local body Zoom meetings.

With split screens, ratepayers could see how hard each Dunedin city councillor worked.

They could be seen picking their teeth after lunch and one brushing her hair who then asked what they were voting on. Dunedin's councillor David Benson-Pope didn’t even bother wearing trousers. Only one councillor was seen taking notes.

COVID-CANCELLED EVENT A charity event in Fairlie organised by Andrew Hurst to raise money for the Westpac Helicopter was already sold out when it had to be postponed due to the Covid-19 lockdown.

Besides telling his story and insights in light of his accident, youth leader and inspirational speaker William Pike was to present on recovering from adversity (Pike lost a leg on Ruapehu), and the Westpac Helicopter crew and ACC were going to talk too. “We’d sold 300 tickets and could have sold 600. It was really well supported.” And that wasn’t just in ticket sales: some substantial donations for auction on the night had come from local businesses while other organisations including Rural Support Trust and Young Farmers had stepped up to help with catering and logistics.

“It’s all sitting there ready to go. We just need the green light on the Covid situation and we’ll be able to set a new date.”

Hurst’s also agreed to give a talk to the Fire Brigade and local Civil Defence.

• More on Andrew Hurst p16

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June 2020

EMPLOYER WELFARE BENEFITS

Annabelle Guscott, Ella Hansen and Ben Guscott show their support for the Rapa Feed Run.

Rapa Feed Run for drought BY: REBECCA HARPER The Wairarapa farming community has banded together to get vital feed supplement to their drought-stricken regional neighbours in Hawke’s Bay. The ‘farmers helping farmers’ mantra meant an overwhelming 450 bales were supplied or donated to the Rapa Feed Run in the first two days of the initiative.

Organisers Sophie Hansen and husband Daniel are farming in south Wairarapa but are from Hawke’s Bay originally. They wanted to show support for their neighbours and set

up the Rapa Feed Run to provide a central hub to co-ordinate feed and its delivery.

The concept is simple – if many farmers are able to supply even just one bale of feed, this has the potential to add up to a meaningful quantity for those struggling to feed stock in Hawke’s Bay. In the event there are any proceeds from the Rapa Feed Run, it will be donated to the Rural Support Trust.

To register your feed availability or need, please contact Sophie Hansen: wairarapafeedrun@gmail.com #rapafeedrun

THANK GOD THEy’vE GONE BACK TO WORK

The Government is pumping billions (thousands of millions) into wage employer subsidies.

Businesses rushed to be in on the easy money from the Covid-19 employer wage subsidy. Did they all need it and if not, will they pay it back? It was open to businesses with an expected 30% drop in income over a four-week period from January to June 9 this year.

If a business had a good year in 2019 and was back to normal this year it would benefit.

Companies which were still operating, some in a more limited capacity claimed. It should have been based on a rolling average for the past three years and for a drop over the three months.

Two of the bigger claimants in agriculture were the meat companies Silver Fern Farms, $42m; Alliance, $34m and ANZCO about $20m. They will pay it back if they don’t meet government criteria, but that shouldn’t be difficult with killing deferred.

Perhaps the worst to claim were companies owned by charitable trusts who don’t pay company tax, up to 33%.

Another $8 billion is available for an eight week extension. It is for businesses who suffer a 50% drop in revenue 30 days before they apply compared to a similar time last year.

One good thing the Government did was set up a register on the Ministry of Social development website called COVID-19 wage subsidy employer search. Employees can put in their employers name and find out if their boss claimed the subsidy or not. Some have claimed the subsidy but made their staff take annual leave or paid them less than the subsidy or sacked them. Some have also been alleged to have claimed contractors as employees.

Want to check who is claiming? Go to services.workandincome.govt.nz/eps

SALEYARDS IN MPI’S SIGHTS? It’s great to see saleyards around New Zealand resume regular auctions post Covid-19 lockdown. They’ve been sorely missed and it beggars belief saleyards were not deemed an essential service, especially in a drought with weaner fairs fast approaching.

With social distancing and extra hygiene measures, sale barns in the United States, marts in the United Kingdom, and saleyards in Australia have operated throughout their lockdowns, so why not here? It smacks of a hidden agenda at MPI.

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June 2020

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HOME BLOCK | COLUMN

Left: Robert Carter’s fencing and tracking team, Suzanne, Travis and Daniel.

Isolation postives Taumarunui farmer and Whanganui River tour guide Robert Carter finds some silver linings in his ‘splendid isolation’.

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ecently I found myself speaking with Brian Crump on Radio New Zealand about being in what they termed “splendid isolation”.

I found the title a little privileged bearing in mind the privations and intolerable conditions borne by others particularly in urban situations.

However, on reflection, I thought that being in isolation for a contagion is best served in a rural setting, as in many ways nothing has changed at all except to say that we appear to be appreciated once again, as we provide food for the masses.

Yes, it has been a ‘splendid isolation’ but that has always been the case living in the wilds of the Whanganui river.

We have had to put some controls in place as our daughter-in-law is a frontline health worker.

Upon arrival at The Poplars Farm after work we simply put her through the spray dip with a good mixture of Virkon and Diazinon added, she now is possibly the cleanest woman in Aotearoa.

We did heat the water, though, even though she is Canadian and used to the cold. Our son also reports that there has been very little fly strike in his house this

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TAUMARUNUI

year too. I have to note here that perhaps some readers may like to take my writing with a grain of salt. We have been lucky in other ways too. Our tourism business has halted, (not lucky) but there have been some silver linings in that cloud.

One is that we have acquired Dan the Pleasant Peasant Fencer, he’s joined our bubble. Dan is normally a tour guide driving busloads of tourists all over New Zealand. Being sort of ‘no fixed abode’ we’ve now got another son and he’s super capable and so our fencing programme is now well ahead of what we may have done alone. Travis has had us all going hard on tracking, fence lines as well as new grass and fertiliser.

I have to pay tribute to our local farm supply stores, too. They have been solid in their support and nothing has been a problem, so take a bow Farmlands, PDC Barn and PGG Wrightson in Taumarunui.

There was a small delight for me, in this modern day of plastic this and that when I went on a search for post staples.

Cliff and John at PDC barn had plenty and they were in wooden boxes too!

I hope this is a sign of a return to the good old days when things were packed

in cardboard or wood. (I remember all our shearing gear being carted from shed to shed in modified wooden nail boxes instead of the now-common 20 litre pails).

One thing I found weird, was driving a truck through Taumarunui carting fertiliser, in the middle of a weekday and the main street was quite empty.

That was contrasted by day one of level three when I saw the Macca’s drive-in, totally blocked by traffic.

The next contrast has been the short supply of Perfit-Seal preserving jar seals.

For years Suzanne has preserved fruit at this time, and now the lockdown has seen a resurgence of this old skill.

We thought we had the monopoly on purchasing seals but even millennials and ‘gen Xers’ are into it. This is good stuff!

Notable also was the short supply of flour and yeast for a while, caused again by folk returning to the old skills we’ve always employed.

I read the commentary about the lockdown in various media, potential witch hunts being started by various politicians around the dilemmas faced: Health outcomes versus economic activity. I would not have liked to be the Government at this time and despite the beauty of hindsight, they have done the right things, in my view.

Civil defence, police, fire and emergency have also been stand-out in their service to our community.

I also note and admire how our local Iwi organisations have stepped up in their delivery of manakitanga and whanaungatanga. They’ve been true to putting care of people and family before anything else and that fits with our rural way completely. My last word goes to the local food suppliers, they’ve seen the best and worst of human behaviour but remained organised and kept things going despite the difficulties.

(I’m not going to mention the drought except to say it’s been bloody tough to endure on top of everything else).

Kia kaha me kia manawanui Aotearoa, Be strong and be steadfast New Zealand. Taku aroha ki a koutou.

Love to you all.

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June 2020

HOME BLOCK | COLUMN

Left: Tulip bulbs on the way to be planted into good soil conditions on the Drysdales’ farm.

Testing times under lockdown Hemp has brought new business to Blair Drysdale’s Northern Southland operation.

W

hen I wrote my last column back on December 5, we had not even heard of Covid-19, now it and the Government rigidly rule our everyday lives like nothing most of us have known before.

Our last outing pre-Covid was at the Wanaka Show where we were in the Rabobank tent with our Hopefield Hemp range of products and I must say I was slightly anxious about being on the sales side of the desk for only the second time in my life, the first being a part time shoe salesman while at school in Dunedin during the weekends.

But my anxiety disappeared quickly as Jody and I met many new people and had the privilege of telling them our story and that of our products, while also meeting existing clients and getting some heartwarming feedback hearing how hemp has improved their lives.

Life onfarm since lockdown has been testing to be honest, although we as food

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June 2020

producers are incredibly lucky compared to some and my heart goes out to them.

With my parents isolating in Queenstown and a mate who helps me out with harvest after his normal day’s work no longer being able to come onfarm, it was down to Jody and myself for harvest, stock work, seeding and everything else that needed done, not to mention becoming BALFOUR teachers all of a sudden. It dawned on me very quickly that this was not going to be easy.

I don’t normally feel the pressure too much or get at all stressed, but I felt both before too long. However, I seem to achieve more when I am under a bit of pressure (yes, I’m once again writing this at the 11th hour) and with some long hours and very testing days, this proved true once again.

Harvest was only an average one that finished on April 29 which is the latest ever for me and all bar 20 hectares of cereals has been sown out and is now

looking good, so I’m happy enough with where we got to given the circumstances.

We have lacked sunshine hours here badly since the beginning of the year which is extremely unusual for us here in Northern Southland and it has certainly had an impact on feed levels all the way through. With still having a lot of store lambs onfarm at the beginning of April due to space issues at the works, all our pastures got 65kg of urea applied and the winter crops two extra applications of UAN to push growth along to give us the extra feed buffer we knew we’d need.

We are now in a particularly good feed situation all round now but have taken on hogget grazing rather than buying another unit load of store lambs because of the uncertainty of prices in the spring.

On the Saturday night of Wanaka show we attended a surprise function for the wonderful editor of this publication, the man himself Terry Brosnahan. And it was without doubt a surprise to Terry as he may have been slightly under-dressed – his lovely wife Eleanor couldn’t quite convince him to change out of his shorts!

It was a great evening and a pleasure to meet everyone who was able to make it. I always find it so refreshing being around like-minded people you don’t know and chewing the fat with them over a few beers.

Many thanks to Charlotte Rietveld for organising it.

Even though we’re only halfway through the year, I’d like to flush the dunny on most of it already and I’d love to have a serious chat to the scriptwriter of 2020. On my way home from our family holiday I got a phone call from my mother, one I will never forget. A lifelong friend that I’ve known since we were both in nappies had died suddenly of a heart attack, childhood memories came flooding back and will never be quite the same now. A hard-working man who would yarn to anyone and give you the shirt off his back.

If you are not feeling yourself, please see a doctor people.

Rest in peace Tim.

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HOME BLOCK | COLUMN

Left: Awesome results we had with our deferred grazing.

Lessons learned From her Lockdown refuge in the King Country Dani Darke set out to learn new stuff.

H

opefully by the time you read this Lockdown is all but a distant memory. As I write we have just had the news that we will be heading down to Level 2 in a few days.

As lockdown hit, I fantasised about a beautiful time with my hubby and kids – farming, riding ponies and getting lots of jobs done.

Then I checked my expectations, realised I wasn’t going to get 10 years’ worth of digital photos printed out into stylish and well-organised albums, and that it turned out I didn’t really care about getting the house Marie Kondostyle cleaned out.

I love learning, so with that in mind I decided to spend some energy through lockdown learning new stuff: specifically getting to know more about Brenè Brown’s work.

Brenè is a researcher and writer who

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is interested in vulnerability, courage, belonging, empathy and shame.

You’ve possibly heard of her – Brenè’s TED Talk on vulnerability is one of the most-watched globally with 48 million views. Through ARIA Lockdown I devoured her TED Talks; two of her eight books ‘Daring Greatly’ and ‘Rising Strong’; a Netflix Special: ‘The Call to Courage’; all of her podcast episodes; and two books by authors she interviewed on episodes of her podcast ‘Unlocking Us’, while saving several more to my list. I feel like I have learned so much about myself and humans in general.

One of the things that has immediately impacted me is Brenè’s research about the usefulness of getting curious about our moods or feelings rather than letting them rule us or judging them as good or bad. It turns out our feelings have things

to teach us if we pay attention.

I decided to get curious about why some mornings I felt really energetic, bouncing and singing out the door; whereas other mornings I felt frazzled and anxious; and other mornings I just felt a bit off.

By spending a bit of time reflecting and back-tracing my steps, it became clear that the mornings I turned on music or had a chat to a close friend or my sister, I felt really good and ready to take on the world.

An early coffee without any physical activity left me with a frazzled mindset, and the mornings I slept in often left me feeling a bit irritable. I’m stoked to know this now – I feel like it’s given me a real insight into how I work, and I can have an influence on how I feel, and therefore how I show up.

This is only a tiny wee snippet of the stuff Brenè talks about, but look her up on YouTube if you want to know more.

Why have I chosen to write about all of this? Mainly because I didn’t want to write about drought or Covid-19. Really though, I feel like sometimes we show up to life in a way that is the sum of our experiences, and perhaps fall short of the way we would like to show up.

When we get curious about ourselves rather than judging ourselves, we get the space to nut out some stuff that could have a really big impact on our lives and those closest to us. I plan to continue reflecting and finding stuff out, but I won’t lie, it’s an awkward and uncomfortable process.

In true Brenè Brown fashion, I am now feeling really vulnerable writing about feelings and self-discovery in a farming magazine so to make me feel better I’m tacking on some photos showing the awesome results we had with our deferred grazing we did this year.

These are areas that were shut up in November and break-fed to bulls over February – April, and have come back like new grass. Hopefully this ensures my farming cred.

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June 2020

HOME BLOCK | COLUMN

Left: Happily getting lambs away despite reduced prices.

PM Judith Aturn?

Rural people have been subconscious pandemic preppers for years, Charlotte Rietveld writes.

L

ike many farmers, I’m having to remind myself that this is a tough time. Hasn’t onfarm lockdown been a dream. A chance to relax that drivewaywary eye and dry the smalls in full view.

Additional benefits included saving a small fortune on hair and make-up outgoings, airing a back catalogue of longforgotten, feral clothing and not having to see Eugenie Sage on the news every night. Silver linings indeed.

Obviously, it hasn’t all been homebrew beer and skittling trees while the authorities are blinded. I don’t envy all those who home-schooled the daily ABC and spare a thought for our fellow countrymen enduring the BCD trifecta of Bovis, Covid and Drought. It is clear that farming incomes are going to suffer due to Covy, but if March and April were anything to go by, we are at a huge advantage. Buying and selling animals remains as difficult as comprehending the conversation of a Perspex-shielded maskwearing check-out attendant but I’m otherwise convinced we rural folk have been subconscious pandemic preppers for years.

Supermarket shopping fortnightly at most? No problem. Limit social interaction to a confined few? A geographic necessity. Overseas travel?

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June 2020

In my dreams. No idea when your income will come or go? Well doesn’t that sound familiar.

Welcome, urbanites, to the rural way of life. Now how about we come and protest on your doorstep and demand yet more life-stifling legislative change.

But pride cometh before the fall; we ourselves are not yet out of the economic woods and either way, rubbing salt will do no good. Publicly at least. I am hugely thankful for the work of Federated Farmers and take great pride knowing the mettle is there to take the right people to task behind the scenes. If farming is indeed the engine to slowly grind us out of this economic canyon then I trust the Feds’ executive to exert influence where needed.

What I am less trusting of is our own memory. It seems in the face of adversity we forget so very quickly. She hardly needed another crisis to show her exceptional leadership talents, but wasn’t Jacinda outstanding?

While cracks are most certainly starting to show, throughout March and April she held a masterclass and pity anyone who denied it.

As someone who has had three babies in the last three and a half years, memory for me is a long-forgotten concept. Thus,

like so many others, I was front and centre of the socially spaced maybe-sheain’t-so-bad-after-all queue. Surely only Bob Jones and David Seymour would fail to be charmed by those reassuringly short sentences, heart-felt pursed-lipped pauses and talk of the tooth-fairy?

Fortunately my 98-year-old grandfather was on hand to snap me out of my fangirl turncoat trance. Grandad misses the odd detail, including minor ones like our prime minister’s correct name, but he most certainly still has his marbles. “That young prime minister Judith Aturn,” he tells me, “she’s wonderful, but make no mistake, she’s still got an agenda and she’ll return to it the moment she can.”

RAKAIA It’s easy to forget that preGORGE Covid, business confidence and in fact the economy itself was starting to take a dive. Yet sure as plant-based eggs, the anti-farming legislative barrage would have continued regardless. The coalition Government may well acknowledge farming’s supreme importance now, but it wouldn’t have a few months ago and all who value a stable economy would do well to remember that. Either way Grandad thinks the days of “Judith Aturn” as prime minister are numbered.

“They loved Churchill but they turned on him the moment he won the war and they’ll turn on her too.”

While I’ve always thought of Grandad as quite the prophet, perhaps he’s been around long enough to see history repeating itself and he’s giving me all the answers in one. Maybe September will indeed see Judith getting Aturn.

Above: Charlotte in more social times with her grandfather Colin Watson.

13

HOME BLOCK | COLUMN

If I lived with a wife and two kids in a small block of flats with no garden and was in lockdown… I would be walking bloody miles as well.

was a social media comment about a coughing sheep, and if the sheep should be moved from the fields into “lockdown” in barns to avoid giving the virus to walkers.

Anyway, ignoring all the madness farming has continued much as it ever has, we had a nasty outbreak of abortion in one of the dairy sheep groups which has ended up costing us. (We moved that group away from the public eye pretty damn quick).

Vet advice was to let it run its course and then disperse all that group of ewes across the rest of the flock so we can gain some immunity to it next lambing.

So with genetics I think we are making progress, but as ever that is only half the story. The environment plays a huge part, to that end I managed to borrow the arable side’s big drill for a few days and managed to direct drill 120 acres of clover into some During lockdown the footpaths through existing swards.

Robert Hodgkins’ farm in Hertfordshire, While I was in a borrowing mood I England, saw an influx of walkers escaping decided to also borrow a slug pelleter and reseeded another 70 acres of ground under their confinement. solar panels with clover seed as well. True to form with my luck it has now been t has been a whirlwind of activity happy to stop me on my rounds and tell three weeks since planting and we have here. We are finally getting the me what I am doing wrong. not had a drop of rain with none on the sheep started on the path to As an illustration of the problem long range for at least another couple of maximising their return. We are at Youngsbury, a 90-hectare block of weeks. certainly not there yet but confident unimproved parkland holding 340 of our I hope the seed will just sit there until we are putting in the right steps. performance recorded ewes, I swear we some moisture comes along, grass covers First the genetics of the flock are just must have had 200 walkers go through are certainly struggling and we have started getting better and better. The Nithdale the middle of the sheep everyday. splitting the paddocks up into smaller injection of Myomax across the flock has I seemed to spend half my time areas to start a rotation going. certainly started to see a lot more shape on local social media Facebook As usual the plantain and clover mixes into the lambs. If this lambing is anything site (“I love Baldock,” “spotted are thundering along despite conditions to go by, it certainly has not affected in Hitchin”) etc deflecting – we lambed the ewe lambs on them, lambing ease, which when farming in the questions and accusations of the lambs coming out are second public eye is a vital requirement. animal cruelty. generation Myomax so there will be Boy are we in the public eye at present It does make me smile that some double copies floating around with old mate Boris introducing lockdown the first these people know – they look fantastic, we are looking over lambing the footpaths going through about Elderly Ivy in the forward to Ashley and Jo from HERTFORDSHIRE, Zoetis telling us what they are the farm have been rammed, choked and flat above being dead is ENGLAND blocked with people. five weeks later when the like.

I can’t really blame them if I lived with a smell gets pretty bad but if they think they Now we are in year two of our wife and two kids in a small block of flats have seen a lamb with joint ill they are recording programme, after the first year with no garden and was in lockdown… raising a petition to have you hung and was weeding out the crap, we hope the I would be walking bloody miles as well. started a Just Giving page for its lifetime next two to four years will be starting Trouble is how many of them seem to treatment in a swanky private vet practice to get our SIL scores and focusing on think they know everything about sheep/ in Switzerland. improvements to the flock that will see countryside and even worse are quite Perhaps the highlight of the lambing some real financial returns.

Advice comes walking by

I

14

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June 2020

You can rely

on Wairere

James Bruce, near Martinborough, feeding baleage to Wairere Romney ewes which tailed 162% in 2019. Mid March, 2020.

Proven Predictable Profitable Wairere, making your sheepfarming easier and more profitable

www.wairererams.co.nz | 0800 924 7373 Country-Wide

June 2020

15

BUSINESS | PLANNING

Left: It happened here: Hurst at the brow where he and the farm ute collided.

What’s the farm business’s Plan B? What’s Plan B for your farm business? Could someone step in and run it tomorrow without any direction from you? If you suffer a serious accident or worse and the answer to that question is no, then you and your family have a problem. In the first of a series, CountryWide writers look at Plan Bs. BY: ANDREW SWALLOW

K

eep farm systems simple to help make the business manageable in the event you’re suddenly taken out by illness or accident, says a South Canterbury farmer who has first-hand experience of such a situation.

In June last year Andrew Hurst found himself under the farm ute, looking at the sole of his boot and thinking that’s odd, you can’t usually see it like that. The boot was still on his foot but the shin was shattered and bent double.

“There was bone sticking out through the trousers. It was pretty gory.”

He’d been riding a motorbike up the

16

farm drive to grab another fence tester from the house when the ute, driven by his farm worker, crossed the drive, coming over a sharp blind brow on to it.

“I just happened to be in exactly the right place for us to collide,” he recalls.

Neither he, nor the worker, were going particularly fast but they couldn’t see each other as they approached the junction and as the only two people working on a 2300ha farm, neither expected anyone or anything to be crossing their path.

“I remember seeing the Toyota emblem by my right elbow and thinking this isn’t good. I hit my head on the bonnet then went straight underneath. My leg was trapped between the bike and Hilux.”

Judging by the dent in the ute bonnet, he reckons his bike helmet was probably

the first thing that saved his life. Then, as Josh went to fetch help he says he could feel the life draining out of him, so wriggled round to get his head, and the blood-flow to it, downhill.

“What I didn’t realise at the time is that doing that bent my leg round and slowed the blood-flow, which is probably the second thing that saved me.”

Police were first on the scene, then St John Ambulance, the Fire Brigade, two doctors from Fairlie, and within about half an hour, the Westpac helicopter which took him to Christchurch. Awaiting surgery, he was warned he might not have the leg when he woke from anaesthetic.

“Apparently the thing that saved it was they could still make my toes wiggle even though the foot was only hanging on by a thread.”

Eleven months later, including a second spell in hospital with amputation again on the cards due to infection, he’s at home but physical farm work is still impossible with his leg in traction, growing new bone.

Reflecting on the experience, there are things he’s keen to relay to other farmers so that if they should suffer a similar misfortune, the disruption to the farm business and their families will be minimised.

NEED ADEQUATE COVER One of those is ACC’s CoverPlus Extra option. “It will pay for someone to do your job. I’d recommend every farmer gets it.”

That’s especially important for owner operators with no staff, he believes.

“If you’re on your own and no-one apart from you knows when, where and what to do to keep things running on the place, you’re going to have to get someone pretty good to come in and do it, and that’s expensive.”

In his own case, he’s grateful he and wife Jo, who works off-farm, had employed their then worker, now farm manager, fulltime a year and a bit before the accident.

“He already knew the systems of the place because he’d worked here in his holidays while he was a Lincoln student and had gone through a winter with us. He became a farm manager overnight. He was dropped in the deep end.”

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June 2020

Besides, who is going to run the farm, there’s also family income to consider.

Hurst says his standard ACC (CoverPlus) has worked well in meeting his medical needs but loss of income cover is only 80% of the previous year’s income, as recorded in the accounts. Given the nature of farming, that can be highly variable, so you could find you’re getting 80% of not very much, he warns.

“With CoverPlus Extra you can nominate an income figure.”

He also reflects that he and his family would have been much better off now had they taken the life insurance policy they’d just looked into shortly before the accident.

“It can cover mortgages etc... you just never think something like this is going to happen to you.”

Another point he makes is the value of regular, reliable contractors who, over the years, come to know the farm and how things are done. They might not be the cheapest every year but in the event of an accident such as his, or worse, they’re generally ready, willing and able to come in and do tasks such as shearing, silaging, spraying and sowing with minimal direction.

“If you’ve shopped around on price and changed every year that’s much less likely to happen.”

Similarly, building strong relationships with farm service personnel, such as his Ravensdown representative, will prove invaluable.

“She’s been a fantastic support, helping

Josh manage the feed crops.”

He also has some advice for those offering help to someone who’s just suffered an accident such as his own: look for a specific job that needs doing, and say you’ll come in and get that done.

“Everyone wants to help but farmers don’t like accepting help, even if it’s needed. What you need is someone to say ‘I can see that mob of ewes by the gate need crutching. I’ll just get that done for you.’”

While some individuals and organisations advocate writing detailed farm procedures to inform anyone having to pick up the reins after an accident such as his, Hurst believes that’s not so important if the business has good relationships with contractors and suppliers, and keeps a thorough farm diary.

A simple flick back through that should inform a newcomer as to what needs doing when and by whom, he points out.

Another key point he makes is to keep farm systems simple, and where something is complicated for historical reasons, such as a tap hidden under a paint-pot for frost protection, half-way down a paddock behind a shed, or a quirk to starting the farm generator in cold weather, fix it so that someone coming in doesn’t need that niche knowledge. Such quirks aren’t practical to document in any case, he adds.

“We’ve all got things on our farms that only we know how they work. Try to minimise those so that any reasonably capable person could come in and do the job.”

Top: Traction control: Andrew Hurst’s leg has been gradually stretched to grow 15cm of new bone.

Above: Hurst’s right ankle on arrival at hospital.

FORESEEN ACCIDENT? With hindsight, Andrew Hurst wonders whether he should have seen the potential for the freak collision that nearly cost him his life, not to mention a leg.

“I’d been away in the North Island for three nights to go to a bull sale and only been back a couple of hours… so I was riding the bike, looking where I was going but with all these things going through my head I wasn’t really registering what I was seeing, other than the obvious.”

The obvious was the clear track up to the house ahead of him. What he might have realised, he says, is that the Hilux he’d seen pull out of the shed in the yards

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June 2020

below a minute earlier might come up the track hidden from his view and be about to cross his path.

“I couldn’t see it coming, but if I’d been more alert, I might have realised it could have been coming up that track.”

His comments echo what he says a WorkSafe audit of the farm not long before the accident had emphasised. “It was more about attitude to health and safety than the physical things.”

The farm’s machinery is professionally maintained to minimise risk of brake, steering, or other dangerous failures, and Hurst says he’s always worn helmets when riding farm bikes or quads. Roll-

over protectors on the quads have proven an invaluable investment and every farmer, even those on the flat, should fit them, he believes.

“A steer flipped me over on one on a flat paddock and I just got out and put it back upright again... If you were lying in a hospital bed with your neck broken and you were offered the chance to walk again for $1300 you’d take it every time.”

The blind cross-over, which had been there for ten years without incident since a drive cut to a new house site created it, has since been blocked with a barrier and will remain so until it’s reworked with a bull-dozer to improve visibility.

17

BUSINESS | PLAN B

Left: Anita Kendrick broke her back in 2011, but with the help of a modified ATV and a great team of dogs, she still works full-time as a shepherd.

“My Dogs Are My Legs” BY: MIKE BLAND

I

t took a while for Anita Kendrick to adjust to life without the use of her legs.

But the King Country shepherd hasn’t let her disability keep her away from the job and the lifestyle she loves.

Anita broke her back in a quad bike accident in 2011, when she was 18. She was mustering when the bike flipped and rolled over her.

“I was saving to buy a western saddle for my horse. I remember lying there and thinking I’d broken my ribs. But when the air ambulance crew and my Dad arrived I could see by the look on their faces that my injury was much more serious.”

The first two years were particularly tough for someone with their heart set on a farming career. Passionate about horses and dogs, Anita had always wanted to be a shepherd. She was raised on King Country sheep and beef farms owned by parents, Bob and Robyn.

She got a lot of support from farming friends and family after the accident.

Mickey MacDonald, manager of Pamu’s (Landcorp) Te Wharua Station, where she has worked for the last nine years, told her there was a job waiting if she wanted it.

Anita says the first two years after the accident were the toughest both mentally and physically.

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But with the help of others, including brothers Scott and Cameron, she developed innovative ways to get back to full-time shepherding. ACC helped out by providing her with equipment like a modified sideby-side ATV. “I’ve learnt how to be more patient with myself. I still find it frustrating when I’m working with someone and I know they need help with a job but I physically can’t help them. I’m also extremely independent, so I’ve had to learn to ask for help when I need it.”

When it comes to jobs like mustering, she is as capable as anyone.

“She’s great with stock and she’s got the best team of dogs on the farm,” says Mickey MacDonald.

Anita splits her time between Te Wharua Station and Murray Gemmell’s farm, both north of Taumarunui.

“I’m lucky to have two great bosses and the variety that comes with working on two different farms.”

Anita runs a team of nine dogs, most of which she bred herself. She can trace the ancestry of her dogs back to their grandparents or great grandparents and has got pretty good at spotting pups with potential and training them up.

“A friend of mine at Whangamomona taught me a lot about training dogs.

But there is still a lot of trial and error involved.”

A good working dog, she says, is strong

and stocky and easy to teach.

“They’ve got to have a brain but they can’t be so clever that they think they know best.”

Loyalty is a common trait that all dogs share, and Anita says it’s what she likes most about them. “They’ll always love you, even when you’re cross with them.”

With her modified ATV and a team of well-trained dogs Anita performs a range of stock work.

“My dogs have effectively become my legs.”

She also does other farm jobs, such as weed wiping and pasture measuring.

Now in her late 20’s, Anita says she has well and truly come to terms with her injury.

“I’m probably the happiest I’ve ever been.”

Her next challenge is to find work on a South Island farm.

“I love the King Country but I also love the South Island and I try to get down there every year.”

A job on a South Island stud farm would suit her perfectly, though she admits it might be hard finding work in an area where people don’t know her.

“Some farmers will look at my wheelchair and think ‘what can she do’?

But hopefully I will find a positive, openminded employer who will give me a chance to show what I’m capable of.”

Outside farming, Anita has a range of hobbies to keep her occupied, including running a Border Collie breeding business with her Mum. She also tries to keep fit.

“That can be a real challenge when your mobility is limited, so I’ve got a gym set up at home and I also get to boxing classes in Taumarunui when I can. I don’t drink alcohol anymore, and that’s helped me stay healthier.”

Occasionally she gets envious watching her co-workers perform certain tasks on the farm.

“Funnily enough, the job I miss most is dagging. It brought out the competitive spirit in me and I used to love getting in there and dagging as many as I could!”

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June 2020

Country-Wide

June 2020

19

BUSINESS | COMPETITION WINNERS

Diverse farm business wins BY: REBECCA HARPER

A

clear business plan with excellent governance and a willingness to engage outside experts helped a couple win this year’s Tararua Sheep and Beef Farmer of the Year.

Simon and Trudy Hales were commended by judges for their high performing, sustainable and diverse business. All achieved while striving to make a difference to those they work with, the community and the wider industry.

Kereru at Weber, just south of Dannervirke, is a 970ha breeding and finishing farm (791ha effective), and terrain ranges from rolling to steep. The couple always have an eye to the future and have been recognised for their commitment to working alongside nature and striving to leave the land in the best possible state for the next generation with their win in the Horizons region Ballance Farm Environment awards.

Simon says they are guided by what “feels right”. That might sound vague, but what he means is doing right by the land, as well as the business.

To them, best practice, is trying to do

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things they think is sustainable for the farm and business.

He says they are looking through the lens of “how do we feel about what we are doing?”

“That’s what drives us, in farming, in business and in the community.”

And doing what’s right has led to what judges described as leading light environmental practices. This included retirement or exclusion of the majority of the Akitio River from stock, Trudy’s propagation of native seedlings, fencing of riparian areas and reverting areas back to native bush.

But the Hales are also business-minded.

They’re not afraid to seek the advice and help of experts, providing clarity and confidence in decision making, while holding them accountable.

When Simon first returned to the family farm he felt, while he was making good decisions, there were potentially missed opportunities and fine tuning was needed.

When the couple bought the farm in 2016 they engaged farm consultant John Canon.

They set up an advisory group including Canon, their bank manager and their accountant, which meets quarterly.

They wanted to have a good group of key people around them to draw on, and have

KEY HIGHLIGHTS: • Clear business plan with measurable and accountable goals • Good use of governance and advisory structure • Seeking to lead and demonstrate environmental practices • Supporting the growth and development of staff • Keen to diversifying the business income streams • Gather support and expertise from specialists • Active involvement in community and industry • Consistent financial performance • Innovation with the Kereru Goods brand

an open, no surprises policy with them.

The group covers all key decisions and influences on farm, from stock policies to feed budgets, interest rates and tax implications.

“We go through our plan and where it may take us, look at where the variances are.”

They discuss goals, the business KPIs

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June 2020

Economic Analysis

Economic Analysis Kereru Farm 2019-2020 Year: 2019-20

how they are tracking.

Getting off the farm and having the meeting at the accountant’s office helps Simon and Trudy to focus, working on their business rather than in it.

This gives the couple a structured approach and confidence in the direction they are headed, as well an ensuring their trusted advisors are 100% on board.

“There’s real buy-in from them, and in turn that gives them confidence in us as business managers.”

This approach also means that when opportunities do come up, the advisors have a comprehensive understanding of what is happening in the business. It is easier for the couple to take advantage of opportunities, quicker.

The Hales engage other outside experts, like their vet, agronomist and fertiliser rep.

They cultivate a personal relationship with those people.

When there’s something Simon doesn’t know he is keen to get the best advice.

The couple know they are selling a product but deal in long-term relationships with people they trust.

“Our business is a really open book to those people and we’re fostering a culture of all working in the same direction and getting buy-in from those people working with us.”

The Hales apply the same approach to staff, actively supporting them to develop their skills.

“I think staff with aspirations work hard for you. We like to see a young person with a plan ahead of them and goals. We like to employ people who want to learn from us, pick our brains and even challenge us a bit.

“We want to develop leaders and see them grow and advance in their careers and be proud of what they have achieved.”

It is a source of pride, and a wider contribution to the industry, when their staff have gone on to management and, in one case, farm ownership.

Simon says the number one goal is to be a profitable and sustainable business.

Environmental and management practices, staff and the advisory board are all building resilience into their business and life.

The Hales appeared in Country-Wide issues July 2019, p66-71 and January 2020, p75-76.

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June 2020

Location:

Physical Data Sheep su: Cattle su: Deer su: Total SU: SU/ha: LW/ha:

Revenue

Kereru Farm

Farm Class: Semi finishing - summer dry Open 4,724 1,743 0 6,467 8.2 0

Close 4,705 1,702 0 6,407 8.1 0

% change -0.4% -2.4% -0.9% -0.9%

Sheep revenue: Wool revenue: Total sheep revenue: Cattle revenue: Deer revenue:

Total $718,669 $50,028 $768,697 $194,085 $0

per su $152.13 $10.59 $162.72 $111.35 $0.00

Total stock revenue:

$962,782

$148.88

Expenditure

Effective area (ha): 791

Lambing %: 152.9% Hogget lambing %:77.5% Calving %: 96.1% Sheep D&M%: 4.5% Cattle D&M%: 1.2% GFI/Lab unit $482,388 per kg $33.07 $2.14 $0.00 $0.00

Total labour units: 2.0

Total SU's/labour unit: Sheep SU's at open: Sheep SU's at close: Wool prod(kg greasy) Wool prod/SSU: Wool prod/sheep ha:

Net crop revenue: Grazing revenue: Other farm revenue: Gross farm revenue: GFR/ha: GFR/su:

Total $0 $0 $1,993 $964,775 $1,220 $149.18

per ha per su % GFR $68 $8.34 6% $65 $7.91 5% $97 $11.90 8% $4 $0.53 0% $61 $10.25 5% $149 $18.21 12% $63 $7.75 5% Farm $65 $8.00 5% finishing $50 $6.16 4% Farm 2017-18 $35 2018-19$4.34 2019-203% Average finishing $39 $4.83 3% Physical Data Description 2017-18 2018-19 2019-20 Average Effective hectares 791 $699 791 791 791 Standard farm expenses: $552,702 $85.47 57% Physical Data Total stock units 6,830 6,480 6,467 6,592 Farm surplus: $412,073 $521 $63.72 43% Effective hectares 791 791 791 791 Stock units per hectare 8.6 8.2 8.2 8.3 Managerial salaries: $0 $0 6,480$0.00 0% Total stock units 6,830 6,467 6,592 % sheep stock units 89% 75% 73% 79% Wages of management: $65,201 $82 $10.08 Stock units 8.6 8.2 8.27% 8.3 Labour unitsper hectare 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 Depreciation: $21,380 $27 % sheep % stock units 89% 75%$3.31 73%2% 79% Lambing 143.4% 133.4% 152.9% 143.3% Economic farm surplus: $325,492 $50.33 34% Labour units 2.0 $411 85.9% 2.0 2.0 2.0 Calving % 0.0% 96.1% 91.0% Lambing % and missing % 143.4% 143.3% Sheep deaths 6.2% 6.0% 4.5% 5.6% Capital fertiliser: ($4,830) ($6) 133.4% ($0.75) 152.9% -1% Calvingdeaths % 0.0% 96.1% 91.0% Cattle and missing % 4.2% 2.5%$0.40 1.2%0% 2.6% Lime: $2,595 $3 85.9% Year: 2019-20 Kereru Farm Sheepper deaths and 6.2% 4.5% 5.6% Wool sheep sumissing % 7.0 ($14) 6.0% 4.7 5.0 5.6 Capital R&M: ($11,005) ($1.70) -1% Farmdeaths class:expenditure: 2 Semi dry Cattle and missing % finishing - summer 4.2% 2.5%$0.75 1.2%1% 2.6% Development $4,873 $6 Revenue Wool perand sheep 7.0 4.7 5.0 5.6 Interest rent:su $264,027 $40.83 768,697 27% Description 2017-18 $334 720,965 2018-19 2019-20 Average Sheep revenue 754,914 775,081 Revenue Cattle revenue 103,027 143,069 194,085 146,727 Capital Ratios Cash Analysis per ha per su per ha Physical Data Sheep revenue 754,914 775,081 720,965 768,697 Gross Farm Revenue 879,579 865,517 964,775 903,290 Land and building value: Return on Capital 4.2% revenue: $6,440,000 $8,142 $996 1,220 Effective hectares 791 791 Farm cash 791 791 Cattle revenue 103,027 143,069 194,085 146,727 Standard Expenditure 525,603 519,416 539,462 Plant and vehicles: expenditure:528,160 $106,901 1,022 Total stock units 6,830 6,480 Farm cash 6,467 6,592 Gross Revenue/ Gross Farm Revenue 879,579 865,517 964,775 903,290 Economic Farm Surplus 325,492 288,139 surplus: 198 Total stock: Land296,166 Value $1,228,730 $190 6.68 8.2Farm cash Stockvalue units per hectare 8.6Ratio: 242,759 8.2 8.3 Standard Expenditure 525,603 519,416 539,462 528,160 CV as Going Concern: $7,775,631 $9,830 $1,202 % sheep stock units 89% 75% 73% 79% Expenditure Economic Farm Surplus 296,166 242,759 325,492 288,139 Labour units 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 Wages 54,523 51,072 53,928 53,174 Lambing % 143.4% 133.4% 152.9% 143.3% Expenditure Animal health 40,849 48,781 51,161 46,930 Year: 2019-20 Kereru Farm0.0% Calving 85.9% 96.1% 91.0% Wages %and Lime 54,523 51,072 53,928 53,174 Fertiliser 82,302 87,270 74,722 81,432 Sheep Series deaths and missing % finishing - summer dry 6.2% 6.0% 4.5% 5.6% Time Analysis Farm class: 2 Semi Animal health 40,849 48,781 51,161 46,930 Shearing 55,501 51,558 48,440 51,833 Cattle deaths and missing % 4.2% 2.5% 1.2% 2.6% Fertiliser and Lime 82,302 87,270 74,722 81,432 Freight 3,862 4,968 8,147 5,659 Description 2017-18 2018-19 2019-20 Average Wool per sheep su 7.0 4.7 5.0 5.6 Shearing 55,501 51,558 48,440 51,833 Feed and fodder crops 98,047 123,570 121,224 114,280 Physical Data Freight 3,862 4,968 8,147 5,659 Weed and pests 10,772 4,841 7,999 7,871 Revenue Effective hectares 791 791 791 791 Feed fodder crops 98,047 123,570 121,224 114,280 Farm and Working 20,321 21,206 33,960 25,162 Sheep revenue 754,914 775,081 720,965 768,697 Total units 6,830 6,480 6,467 6,592 Weedstock and pests 10,772 4,841 7,999 7,871 Repairs and maintenance 75,048 29,495 40,731 48,425 Cattle revenue 103,027 143,069 194,085 146,727 Stock units per hectare 8.6 8.2 8.2 8.3 Farm 20,321 21,206 33,960 25,162 Vehicles 25,739 37,411 39,868 34,339 GrossWorking Farm Revenue 879,579 865,517 964,775 903,290 % sheepand stock units 89% 75% 73% 79% Repairs maintenance 75,048 29,495 40,731 48,425 Administration 24,489 24,838 28,050 25,792 Standard Expenditure 525,603 519,416 539,462 528,160 Labour units 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 Vehicles 25,739 37,411 39,868 34,339 Rates and insurance 34,150 34,406 31,232 33,263 Economic Farm Surplus 296,166 242,759 325,492 288,139 Lambing % 143.4% 133.4% 152.9% 143.3% Administration 24,489 24,838 28,050 25,792 Debt servicing 189,831 296,092 264,027 249,983 Calving % insurance 0.0% 85.9% 96.1% 91.0% Expenditure Rates and 34,150 34,406 31,232 33,263 Actual Expenses as a % of GFR 60% 60% 56% 59% Sheepservicing deaths and missing % 6.2% 6.0% 4.5% 5.6% Wages 54,523 51,072 53,928 53,174 Debt 189,831 296,092 264,027 249,983 Cattle deaths missing Per 4.2% 2.5% 1.2% 2.6% Animal health andas 40,849 48,781 51,161 46,930 Actualha Expenses a % of%GFR 60% 60% 56% 59% Grossper Farm Revenue 1,112 1,094 1,220 1,142 Wool sheep su 7.0 4.7 5.0 5.6 Fertiliser and Lime 82,302 87,270 74,722 81,432 Per ha Actual farm expenses 664 657 682 668 Shearing 55,501 51,558 48,440 51,833 Revenue Gross FarmFarm Revenue 1,112 1,094 1,220 1,142 Economic Surplus 374 307 411 364 Freight 3,862 4,968 8,147 5,659 Sheep revenue 754,914 775,081 720,965 768,697 Actualand farm expenses 664 657 682 668 Feed fodder crops 98,047 123,570 121,224 114,280 Cattle revenue 103,027 143,069 194,085 146,727 Sundry Economic Farm Surplus 374 307 411 364 Weed and pests 10,772 4,841 7,999 7,871 Gross Farm Revenue 879,579 865,517 964,775 903,290 Farm Cash Income per hectare 1,124 1,090 1,220 1,145 Farm Working 20,321 21,206 33,960 25,162 Sundry Standard Expenditure 525,603 519,416 539,462 528,160 Farm Cash Surplus (Deficit) per ha 220 59 198 159 Repairs and maintenance 75,048 29,495 40,731 48,425 Farm of Cash Income per hectare 1,124 1,090 1,220 1,145 Economic Farm Surplus 296,166 242,759 325,492 288,139 Ratio GFR : Land value 7.3 7.4 6.7 7.1 Vehicles 25,739 37,411 39,868 34,339 Farm Cash Surplus (Deficit) per ha 220 59 198 159 Return on Capital 4.0% 3.2% 4.2% 3.8% Administration 24,489 24,838 28,050 25,792 Expenditure Ratio of GFR : Land value 7.3 7.4 6.7 7.1 Rates and insurance 34,150 34,406 31,232 33,263 Wages 54,523 51,072 53,928 53,174 Return on Capital 4.0% 3.2% 4.2% 3.8% Debt servicing 189,831 296,092 264,027 249,983 Animal health 40,849 48,781 51,161 46,930 Actual Expenses as a % of GFR 60% 60% 56% 59% Fertiliser and Lime 82,302 87,270 74,722 81,432 Shearing 55,501 51,558 48,440 51,833 21 Per ha Freight 3,862 4,968 8,147 5,659 Gross Farm Revenue 1,112 1,094 1,220 1,142 Wages and keep: Animal health and breeding: Fertiliser: Nitrogen: Shearing: Feed and grazing: Sundry working: Year: farm 2019-20 Repairs and maintenance: Farm class: 2 Semi Vehicle fuel: Year: and 2019-20 Description Administration: Farm class: 2 Semi Rates and insurance:

Total $53,928 $51,161 $76,957 $3,450 $48,440 $117,774 $50,106 Kereru $51,736 summer dry $39,868 Kereru $28,050 summer dry $31,232

3,234 73% 73% 23,402 5.0 41

Time Series Analysis Time Series Analysis

Time Series Analysis

Time Series Analysis

BUSINESS | OVERSEAS

Wet markets in China, are a lot like the farmers markets in NZ.

Wet markets thrive in China BY: HUNTER MCGREGOR

T

here has been a lot of talk about Chinese wet markets, especially around one market in Wuhan. There was some research which came out from Beef & lamb New Zealand saying wet markets in China have been banned. This is not the case.

Wet markets that I use in China, are a lot like the farmers’ markets in NZ. I regularly shop at one in Shanghai for fresh vegetables, fruits and some meat. I have never seen any imported products for sale at any of the wet markets I have visited during my thirteen odd years of living in China.

What clearly should be banned (and was after SARS) are wild food markets full

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of live animals. These types of markets are not very common in China and I was surprised to hear that a market like this was even operating in the city of Wuhan.

It will be a challenge to change habits and remove places like that in China, but the Chinese Government has made moves to ban these types of markets.

Studies have shown that wet markets are the cornerstone WUHAN of China’s food distribution system.

Even in the middle of winter and when the Covid-19 situation started there was no panic buying or major price increases of food in China. There is always some pricing increase around major

holidays (especially during winter) and by the middle of February prices at these markets were back to normal.

In the early 2000’s supermarkets tried to replace wet market in a bid to “upgrade and modernize” Chinese cities. Faced with this challenge, wet markets made major improvements to both sanitation and hygiene. Now they continue to thrive throughout China and other parts of Asia, and as of 2019 there are nearly 1000 wet markets in Shanghai alone.

Even though it is the backbone of China’s food supply, it is not a channel for NZ products. It is a high volume, low margin sales channel, where consumers are only looking for what is fresh, cheap, and the best value at the time of shopping.

Wet markets and supermarkets did not close over the past few months, and at one point they were the only places open.

Shanghai was never locked down as NZ has been, but some other parts of China were. When Covid-19 started it was the middle of winter and nothing was open in Shanghai. People stayed at home. There were plenty of restrictions on the number of people in shops, buildings, and public places. Most of these restrictions have now been removed.

You often see in the NZ media that China is back to normal, but is it?

From a personal perspective the only thing that is different is that people are wearing facemasks. Outside of that you can just about do everything normally, and even bars are back up and running.

Hotels and the tourist industry has very slowly restarted and during the May Day Holidays (May 1-5) internal travel was down about 70%.

For businesses in China it is a different story, and things are really tough. China’s e-commerce is leading the world in innovation. NZ companies could learn a lot from what happens in SHANGHAI this space in China. Even though online food sales massively increased in February, this increase was not enough to offset the overall downturn in sales of major players, Alibaba and JD.com In February, people bought food online but not much else. Things are slowly

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getting back to normal with all online sales. It is going to be interesting to see if consumers continue to buy large amounts of food online.

Logistics into and around China had plenty of issues in early February but most things were back to normal by March.

SF-Express (SF) is one of the largest courier companies in China. Their delivery volumes are down. By how much it is not clear but in my Shanghai office building, it is considerable. Talking to my SF-Express delivery guy, my office building is down 50% in volume of deliveries and pickups compared to pre-COVID-19. We are not a large office building, seven floors with only about 140 or so small companies.

The office building next-door is a little smaller and is 100% down in volume as all the companies have closed or moved out. This is only a small snapshot from downtown Shanghai, but it’s one thing to be open and another thing to be busy.

Many companies are adjusting their business model to keep going. One high profile example is BYD (Auto Company based in Shenzhen). In late January they started to make both facemasks and bottles of disinfectants. They built their own production lines and had about 3,000 engineers involved. Now they are the world’s largest producer of facemasks, about five million masks per day. They also produce about 300,000 bottles of disinfectants per day.

Some companies are investing into pig farming. Both Vanke (Chinese second largest real estate developer) and NetEase (large technology company) have started to invest into this area. There are still plenty of challenges within the Chinese pork industry because of African swine fever, but it is interesting to see that pork production is still an attractive investment.

China is back up and running but is experiencing plenty of challenges.

• Hunter McGregor is a Chinese-speaking Kiwi who has been based in China since 2007. In 2015 he started importing, distributing and marketing NZ venison to the top hotels and restaurants around China. He is the only Kiwi based full time in China selling NZ meat and offers valuable insight into what is happening in the Chinese market.

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USA meat processors in strife BY: JO CUTTANCE

T

he US meat processing industry has been brought to its knees by Covid-19 says US meat and livestock industry commentator Steve Kay. Writing for Australia’s Beef Central, Kay said worker absenteeism and safety measures meant that beef and pork processing plants were running at less than 60% capacity.

“The decline has been staggering both in its speed and magnitude.”

In five weeks to May 2, the year-to-date cattle slaughter total went from being 203,000 head above last year to 466,000 head below.

The last week of April’s slaughter represented 58.5% of total industry capacity of 726,000 head/week. Total hog slaughter for the same week of 1.5 million head represented 55.7% of total capacity.

Reduced utilisation and other factors meant operating costs had quadrupled.

Fixed costs had increased because of the

new measures to protect workers’ health.

Processors also paid workers staying at home full wages and benefits.

President Trump’s executive order required meat and poultry processing plants to stay open.

A red meat shortage loomed and processors were asking high prices. In one week with daily price rises, the choice cutout advanced US$74.19/ cwt (50.8kg) to US$367.56/cwt, the select cutout advanced US$71.14/ to US$350.16. Pork cutout advanced an unprecedented US$29.58/cwt last week to US $105.52/cwt.

Slaughter for the last week in April was 37% below the same week last year. Beef production was down about 34%, pork production down 25%.

Covid-19 had also affected the price of US grain cattle, and the normal flow of cattle from range to feedlot. In April cattle prices fell below US$100 per cwt for the first time since October 2016.

Kay believed the US cattle and beef markets might not return to any semblance of normality for at least a year from now.

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BUSINESS | COMPENSATION Left: Ross and Deanna Ferguson were given poor compensation after they were not allowed another two months to finish their stock.

M bovis programme fails farmers BY: TIM FULTON

A

top-level admission of system failure by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) is only the tip of the knife for beef farmers Ross and Deanna

Ferguson.

It took 16 months for the Mycoplasma bovis programme to notify Ross and Deanna Ferguson of an infection on their North Canterbury farm. By this time, the suspect stock were just a few months from being finished.

The Fergusons have been compensated tens of thousands of dollars, including the value of culled stock and operational costs involved with the supervised M bovis slaughter. The Hawarden couple did not give Country-Wide an exact compensation figure but it’s understood to be at least $40,000.

“The compensation was worse than marginal. We would have got more out of it if we’d just sent them to slaughter,” Ross Ferguson said.

The couple are most upset at the M bovis programme’s failure to notify their stock infection sooner – and confusion and back-

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tracking over how, and when, cattle would be sent to slaughter.

The biggest problem was a lack of farming know-how, empathy and clear communication, Ferguson said.

“MPI didn’t allow us to finish them.”

Their sisters were killed and the stock would have been killed at two years. They also had to put a man at risk to put up portable yards.

“There’s no common sense, that’s the main point.”

In February 2017 Ferguson bought 124 bull calves and six heifer calves from his brother Duncan’s dairy farm at Oxford, about 50km west of Christchurch.

The Fergusons planned to grow the animals to prime value over two years, but the Oxford farm was subsequently classed as an infected farm.

Ross Ferguson said MPI knew about the calf purchase in February 2018 but did not contact them to notify a suspected M bovis infection until May 2019.

He said their animals, regardless of their sisters’ test results, represented no risk of spreading M bovis around Hawarden.

Nor further afield, as their farm had no neighbours farming cattle nearby, had never left home and would do so until

slaughter at two years old.

In mid-2019 Ferguson wrote to their Kaikoura electorate MP, Stuart Smith, asking him to advocate for them.

He did not want to go to the market and buy replacement cattle that may have had M bovis or enter into negotiations about the cost of the feed budgeted (but not eaten) to feed their bulls.

“If we can kill them as prime in December [2019] there will be no cost to the taxpayer.”

Ross and Deanna failed to see the urgency to kill these bulls, especially in light of their sisters’ [ultimately clear] results. No tests have been done on the bulls, and MPI were made aware of these bulls in February 2018, the letter to Smith said.

Ferguson also wanted to know why they couldn’t pen animals in the permanent yards they had recently bought.

After Smith put the Ferguson’s letter to Agriculture Minister, Damien O’Connor, an advisor to the minister said MPI “accepts that the delay in notifying [the Fergusons] that their stock contained animals suspected of M bovis infection fell well short of the standards and approach that the eradication programme sets as good disease management practice and farmer support.”

The M bovis programme advised the Minister’s office that a cull of the farmers’ cattle was needed as soon as possible.

“Although MPI understands [the farmers’] desire to delay the depopulation, there is a high probability that these stock will be infected, as they come from a property confirmed as infected, and to stop the potential for wider spread of the disease it is important that depopulation now occur as soon as practicable.”

However, the Minister’s advisor promised the Fergusons that “special efforts” would be made to ensure they were well supported in the cull and compensation process. Further, the farmers “would be compensated for any loss against the full prime value of the stock, regardless of when the stock are culled.”

Ferguson disputed apparent discrepancies in his proposed compensation. He told Country-Wide their first ICP (Incident

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BUSINESS | SCHEDULES Control Point) manager, one of several who ultimately worked with the couple, offered to value their cattle on a growth rate of 800g/day.

The Fergusons said that after several months of negotiation with officials in the M Bovis Programme, they were offered a per head price, based on an independent PGG Wrightson valuation.

The Fergusons asked, why, when their animals were always going to be finished for slaughter, could they not be offered a per/kg price?

In a written response to Country-Wide, M bovis programme Northern South Island regional manager, Lydia Pomeroy, said in this case, it was determined that the animals were trace animals (i.e. had earlier been part of an infected herd) and that the stock needed to be culled.

“Our ICP Managers worked with the farmer to develop a plan for the removal of the trace animals,” she said.

In order to compensate for the farmer’s losses, it was policy and procedure for an ICP Manager to organise a valuation from one of the approved valuers.

“This process was followed, and it is simply not true to say the ICP manager gave a verbal valuation.”

Per-head valuations by an approved valuer were completed and sent to the farmer. Valuations based on weight were also made at the time of loadout, which took place on October 15-16, 2019.

The Fergusons could use the valuations to determine which one they wished to submit to claim compensation. Farmers were compensated for production losses when beef animals were culled before they reached their target weight, Pomeroy said.

“Compensation is for the lost income for these animals culled by MPI and is based on what the target weight for these stock would be, less any costs of production avoided of not having these stock on the farm, and any mitigations achieved.”

Compensation claims could be made for future loss of meat production due to a direction under the Biosecurity Act. Pomeroy said The M.Bovis Programme and DBCAT (DairyNZ and Beef + Lamb New Zealand Compensation Assistance Team) would continue to support the claimant through the compensation and recovery process.

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Venison price a low blow

D BY: LYNDA GRAY

eer farmers have copped the brunt of the Covid-19 effect on red meat prices.

Silver Fern Farms and Alliance enforced on suppliers from early May a “base” schedule price with the possibility of a top-up payment depending on the eventual market price received.

Hardest hit are SFF suppliers, who in the week beginning May 10 were offered prices ranging from $3.80 to $5/ kg, depending on weight. For the same week Alliance prices ranged from $5.70 to $6.50/kg.

John Somerville, NZDFA chair said deer farmers were aware of the pressures along the supply chain most but were blindsided by the new payment arrangement.

“Most farmers were getting everything killed before the lockdown at about $7/kg and then it was ‘bang’ – a lot of farmers are angry at the suddenness of it all.”

Specialist venison exporter Duncan NZ was sticking with its usual schedule payment system although chief executive Andrew Duncan said in a newsletter to suppliers that this arrangement might not be sustainable.

He said that a big influence on demand will be the time it takes to unclog the supply chain of venison held in cold storage during the lockdown of restaurants and foodservice distributors.

This product would be first in line for consumption as demand slowly kicked in, so a lag time in new orders was inevitable.

Mountain River would continue to offer a “competitive schedule”, marketing manager John Sadler said. He downplays the significance of Covid-19 on the price plunge and says that stocks of venison had been accumulating well before the pandemic.

“There was too much stock and then Covid came along. Its impact kicked in after the main venison season, but my

It might be cold comfort for deer farmers, he believed the long-term prospects for venison were good.

concern is how it will effect the next chilled season.”

He blames the stocks build-up in part to the “pet food bubble” of 2017-2018 leading some marketers to divert venison from European wholesalers to the higher paying United States pet food market.

That bubble burst and left New Zealand exporters with a stock problem when they failed to get back into European markets.

Sadler said venison, unlike lamb or beef, lacked liquidity in marketing terms.

It was a niche and seasonal product of small volumes which was difficult to swap in and out of markets.

“Unfortunately, the meat industry is based on short-term pricing which makes it difficult when you’re trying to develop and support long term marketing strategies.”

While it might be cold comfort for deer farmers, he believed the long-term prospects for venison were good.

“My opinion is that we will ride through this. It’s a short-term problem, but exactly what that means remains to be seen.”

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BUSINESS | OPINION

Food supply post Covid-19 BY: ANNA CAMPBELL

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have been reading and listening to a number of reports and podcasts on the impact of Covid-19 on food supply and buying patterns and I attempt here to summarise what I have learned.

It is interesting to note that many of these trends were identified before Covid-19, but the pandemic has shifted the dial in terms of the pace of change.

We are likely to see many of these shifts sustained in the Covid-19 recovery and beyond.

In the United States, Covid-19 has increased the dominance of the large food players such as Walmart and Amazon (who own Whole Foods). Small grocery chains and independents, prior to Covid-19,

made up 40% of the grocery sector – this is rapidly shrinking.

Workers within the large chains are negotiating higher pay and in general, profit margins on grocery products are decreasing. This will make it harder for small players to compete, especially without the benefits of robotics and artificial intelligence systems.

The most efficient grocery exemplar internationally would have to be British company Ocado, where their entire food supply system is roboticised except for the delivery person – the only human in the chain. For more on this, listen to an excellent panel discussion led by Professor Damien McLoughlin, University College Dublin: “The Post-COVID Consumer: A Remaking of the Market?” https://www. alltech.com/futurefarm#hubspot.

There has been a massive shift in consumer buying behaviour from bricks and mortar to online. Prior to Covid-19 in the United States, less than 4% of groceries were bought online. In the first two weeks of March, one third of US consumers bought food online, with 47% claiming it was the first time that they had done so.

The biggest casualty in all of this has been the hospitality sector. In New Zealand, local cafes opening in the next few weeks will tread water at best. If we want to keep our local food entrepreneurs afloat, we need to support them for a lot longer than a few weeks, it will be incredibly difficult for many to recover from what will effectively be many months of low/no income and fixed costs.

There is a rally call to buy local and we will where we can – but is that possible

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for all of us and for all of our food? An interesting analysis was published in Nature Food (Kinnunen et al.) where they examined staple crops from around the world (wheat, barley, rye, rice, corn, millet, sorghum, cassava and pulses).

They showed that 27% of the world’s population could get their temperate cereal grains within a radius of less than 100 kilometres.

The share was 22% for tropical cereals, 28% for rice and 27% for pulses. In the case of maize and tropical roots, the proportion was only 11-16%. In this context, for most people in the world living solely on “buying local” is not possible.

We have seen this played out in NZ in staple wheat production. We have had a good growing year for wheat and are coping well with the 500% increased demand by New Zealanders www. farmersweekly.co.nz/section/arable/view/ demand-good-for-kiwi-grains. Yet with much of our prime cropping land replaced by dairy production in the past two decades, we produce enough wheat only for the South Island.

Much of the wheat consumed in the North Island is imported from Australia and unless transport costs from south to north are reduced, this is unlikely to change.

On the global scene there are reports that the United Kingdom, Russia and others are holding back grain to keep for their own supply, helping to push grain prices to season highs. “Buying local” for our full food basket is incredibly complex

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Yet with much of our prime cropping land replaced by dairy production in the past two decades, we produce enough wheat only for the South Island. and costly and there are some serious economic and social considerations which need to be assessed for most products.

What we are buying is shifting – we are going back to the basics and as we move into our own kitchens, we are cooking what we were brought up with in terms of culture, flavours and ingredients. On top of that we want to do what we can to be in optimal health, should we contract Covid-19.

The relationship of food and health is on the rise – in the words of Ian Proudfood, KPMG’s global head of agribusiness, “consumers are seeking lifestyle solutions to build immunity and minimise risk of contagion” and we should expect “functional and nutraceutical foods to go stratospheric.”

I have said for a long time, that NZ food companies need to be innovating more in this area – I believe this so strongly I think I will still be ranting in my grave.

Let Covid-19 be the catalyst for some big moves in this space from NZ food companies and researchers.

Finally, governments will look to greater protectionism of their own food supplies and we expect to see significant shifts in food trade volumes and patterns. There are examples of food supply disruption in nearly every traded food type.

There is a fantastic commentary in

Nature, by Máximo Torero, FAO’s chief economist, calling for a global approach to food security.

He cites many food disruption examples – in India, farmers are feeding strawberries to cows because they cannot transport the fruit to markets in cities; in Peru, producers are dumping tonnes of white cocoa into landfill because the restaurants and hotels that would normally buy it are closed; and in the US and Canada, farmers have had to pour milk away for the same reason.

For NZ, as food exporters, it is increasingly obvious that geopolitics will play a major role in food trade.

Relationships between heavyweights, US and China are deteriorating. As the US calls for a WHO review of China’s response to Covid-19 and Australia and others join the charge, I wonder what this will mean for the politics of food trade. China is critical for our economy.

Our country’s leadership during the pandemic has been recognised internationally. We have the opportunity to move the focus from how NZ is dealing with Covid-19 to what is a better model for food supply in the world. Let’s not be afraid to step up.

• Anna Campbell is managing director of AbacusBio, a Dunedin based agri-technology company.

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BUSINESS | CATCHMENT RULES

Bay’s farmers want extension BY: TIM FULTON

H

awke’s Bay farmers banged up by one of the worst droughts in living memory are appealing to the Government to cut them slack on catchment rules that will forever change the way they operate.

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council (HBRC) gave farmers in the Tukituki catchment till the end of May to supply details of a new resource consent regime.

Environment Minister David Parker has refused a Federated Farmers request to use Covid-19 emergency powers to extend that deadline by 12 months. Parker said he did not consider his powers would be able to adequately deal with the deadline issues in a timely way.

Feds Hawke’s Bay vice-president, Matt Wade, said the consent deadline was adding stress for farmers dealing with severe feed shortages and other problems.

“The country’s wanting farming to dig the economy out of a hole – and we’re in support of that but [Government] need to give us a bit of breathing space. They can’t say one thing and then go and do another thing.”

Wade estimated the HBRC’s consent

28

plans would eventually affect up to 1000 farmers in catchments across Hawke’s Bay. He understood the rationale, but the region’s farmers were under extreme pressure.

“We’re not trying to bugger the environment or anything like that; we’re all on the same page but you’ve got to put rules in place that we can actually work within.”

HBRC was 18 months behind its original timeframe for introducing consent rules and it seemed unfair to now expect farmers to rush through the next step, he said. “If we’d been 18 months earlier, we would have probably had things in a much more useable format before the whole Covid thing.”

HBRC had come up with a “stop-gap measure by breaking the implementation process into three parts, the first of which was relatively simple form-filling. “It’s reasonably easy to fill out, but it’s the whole premise of them being late on their part, and then having all these other circumstances piled in on top that we’ve had to deal with as well.”

Farmers didn’t receive guidelines for the consent regime until late October last year, after which Federated Farmers started working with HBRC on a joint plan to

adopt the plan “in the most practical and useable form”.

A planned consultation meeting in March or April was scrapped because of the Covid-19 lockdown.

Farmers needing to apply for consents in the Tukituki had since been unable to meet farm advisors or other rural professionals.

“Then you put the drought on top of that so there’s been a slowdown at the freezing works which has created a backlog. And people just spending day in, day out, trying to feed and water stock.”

Wade acknowledged central Government had delayed proposals in the Essential Freshwater package because of Covid-19 economic damage but, even so, “we’ve just been asking to cut us some slack or to give us a bit of a breather.”

Federated Farmers has also asked HBRC to consider the drought as it calculates farmers’ individual nitrogen profiles and allowances when they apply for new consent.

Wade said the drought could skew the balance of the four-year rolling average of nitrogen used for consents. Farmers who had de-stocked drastically in response to severe feed shortages would have a much lower N profile than usual. An abnormally low N average would give them a much lower N allowance for normal farming, while an N result could shoot unusually high for farmers who kept livestock but bought supplementary feed.

Either way, no farmer should be penalised for having an “outlier” profile during the drought, Wade said.

Many parts of the upper North Island are dry, particularly the East Cape, parts of Waikato, King Country and Northland.

Pockets of Marlborough and Canterbury are also short of rain and feed.

In May, the Government announced a $500,000 fund to help drought recovery for farmers and growers.

The fund will pay for recovery advisory services of up to $5000 (excl GST). It can be used for a range of advisory services and drought-related advice, like strategic planning, development of farm business plans, advice on sustainable land management, soil and pastures, animal production, and feed budgeting.

The Government has invested $17m this year to help drought-stricken regions.

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June 2020

BUSINESS | TECHNOLOGY

“Our systems have also spotted malware-laden sites that pose as sign-in pages for popular social media accounts, health organizations, and even official coronavirus maps,” they said.

I wrote about how to spot a scam in April last year and the main advice I offered then still stands.

LOOK FOR:

Watch out for Covid-19 scams BY: KIRSTEN MILLS

I

t’s only two months since I wrote a column about April Fool’s Day tricks to play on your workmates or family or friends.

“Obviously do not try these things if the person you are pranking is on a deadline or is having a bad day already,” I wrote. Little did I know that come April 1, many people would be having bad days, or at least unusual days, compared to their pre-lockdown and pre-pandemic days.

In my defence, while Covid-19 was being covered in the media at the time of writing, it wasn’t a huge focus in New Zealand. The World Health Organization had not yet declared it a pandemic and we would not have our first case until a week after I hit the “Send” button.

While it did not take long for the world to change, it also did not take long for scammers to take advantage of the situation. By the time you read this we will hopefully be at Level 2 or better, but one thing is likely – the scammers will not let up.

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June 2020

Google summed it up well in April: “Hackers frequently look at crises as an opportunity.”

In a world that feels upside down, it might seem plausible that the Ministry of Health would email you asking for information, or that your bank would email offering support or that a charity would email asking for donations.

In late April, Google’s threat analysis group reported 18 million daily malware and phishing attempts related to Covid-19 in the previous two weeks – in addition to more than 240 million Covid-19-related spam messages.

Google says Covid-19 messaging is being used in cyberattacks, with a range of new scams such as phishing emails (emails appearing to be from a legitimate source asking you to provide things like usernames, passwords and banking details). Google has seen emails purporting to be from charities and NGOs battling Covid-19, emails pretending to be from work administrators to employees working from home and even emails spoofing healthcare providers.

• Poor spelling and grammar.

• A disguised email address: mouse over the sender’s address in the email on a computer (or right click on it) or tap on it on a mobile device and you will see the underlying address. It may be obviously wrong (e.g. an email purporting to be from the IRD that is from jimbob324@gmail.com or a more subtle take on the address that looks legitimate at first, e.g. irdalerts@ emailalertsird.co.nz instead of noreply@ info2.ird.govt.nz).

• Rather than using your name in greeting, the sender uses your email address or has a generic greeting (eg “Dear Client”).

WHAT TO DO: • Do not give them personal information – in fact, it is better to never reply at all.

Replying confirms your address is active and you could end up with even more spam.

• Never click on links or open attachments unless you are certain the email is legitimate. Hovering your mouse over any link will reveal the full website address, but it is best to manually log in to the organisation or company’s site and see if they have tried to contact you. Sometimes scammers set up a fake website that has a URL that is similar to the legitimate one and which looks identical when you view the site.

• Use the “junk email” or “block sender” function of your email. If you’re not sure how to do that – try googling instructions for the device and email software you’re using. Failing that, at least the email.

• Google key phrases from the email and see if other people have reported the same email as a scam.

• If you’re working from home, use your company’s address for emails – don’t use your personal email address.

• Keep your security software up to date on your computer.

29

BUSINESS | MANAGEMENT

Hedging to manage risk BY: TOM WARD

T

his article is about risk management, so when I refer to hedging it is in a general sense – measures farmers may take, from time to time, to manage risk.

Everything we do, whether a farmer or not, whether in business or family life, is a decision on the future value of a matter or issue or asset. Generally, we leave the matter open, trusting on our experience, or the advice of others, that our decision will be a good one.

From time to time however, the farmer will be motivated to “fix” the future value of a purchase or sale, thereby eliminating or perhaps reducing the future risk.

There are different levels of risk mitigation: 1. Whole farm level including balance sheet strength, 2. Livestock and crop policy, 3. Intra-season decision-making in response to events as they arise.

There are different types of risk mitigation, ie forward contracts in a physical sense, increased flexibility in management, and derivatives (futures contracts on the financial markets).

Today, many, but not all farmers, employ a variety of physical “hedging” strategies within their farm operations, both in a strategic and day-to-day basis.

First, these farmers have systems which allow a majority of stock to be sold early in the season – trading cattle are a good option here – when pastures and stock are healthy, and markets firm.

These cattle can be sold at any time from spring till when the farm starts to dry out.

In addition, if the dry persists, replacement cattle do not need to be bought, reducing the winter stocking rate. Contrast that with the predicament faced by many farmers this month where, having waited to have stock killed as the drought put freezing works under pressure, they are again waiting for the works, delayed by reduced freezing works throughput caused

by Covid-19 manning requirements.

Secondly, they have systems in place which accumulate supplementary feed or cash in good seasons, or run a low stocking rate, or have areas of heavy soil, or invest in irrigation, or run a low debt.

These strategies appear inefficient until you appreciate that they are really hedging strategies.

Thirdly, they will from time to time sign a contract to fix the price of their products

for sale or inputs to purchase.

Table 1 shows a FARMAX analysis where a moderate stocking rate allows surplus grass to be conserved as balage in a good season. The following year, a drought, the balage is fed out to ewes, two-year cattle sold a little earlier, only 50 cattle bought to replace the 100 sold, and hogget replacements grazed off. The actual cash results are $61,306 and $102,790 for 202021 and 2021-22 respectively.

Sir Sidney Kidman, the iconic Australian grazier of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, built a farming empire in the driest part of a very dry continent, and prospered at a time when many were failing.

His stations were not strategically located to provide diversification. They were situated and were managed, to enable the business to survive and thrive in a highly uncertain environment.

The farms stretched from Northern Territory to South Australia, providing a pipeline from breeding to market. They were connected (or nearly connected) to each other so that livestock could be continuously moved if necessary to pastures which had received rain.

They were located astride or beside stock routes, rivers and stock water sources

Balage July 21 - Jul 22 (Drought year)

Table 1. Balage July 20 - July 21 (Good year)

Balage (big bales)

Balage (big bales) Feed

Close

Date

Open

600

394

206

Jul 20

206

110

95.5

Aug 20

Sept 20

95.5

30

65.5

Sept 20

629

Oct 20

65.5

174

239

Oct 20

629

Nov 20

239

174

413

Nov 20

629

Dec 20

413

413

Dec 20

779

150

629

629

160

469

Date

Open

Jul 20 Aug 20

Buy

Prod.

Sell

Buy

Prod.

Sell

Feed

Close

1185

356

829

829

200

629 629 629

150

779

Jan 21

413

174

587

Jan 21

Feb 21

587

253

840

Feb 21

469

150

319

Mar 21

840

253

1093

Mar 21

319

150

169

Apr 21

1093

1093

Apr 21

169

169

May 21

1093

1185

May 21

169

169

Jun 21

1185

1185

Jun 21

169

Total

600

1185

Total

1185

30

92.4 0

1120

0

534

169 150

0

0

1166

169

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June 2020

Compare Forecast Profit and Loss Compare Forecast Profit and Loss July 20-June 21 and July 21-June 22

in a major meat works in Kansas, which was expected to reduce beef processing Cranleigh 100ha Cranleigh 100ha capacity nationally, increased the rate at Difference which they sold their fat cattle. This was Sales - Purchases 144,706 131,096 -13,610 driven by their ability at that time to close Wool 11,240 11,048 -192 Sheep out their futures contracts at a profit (ie: Capital Value Change 492 -960 -1,452 they could buy back their derivative sale Total 156,439 141,185 -15,254 contract for less than it was sold for). These Sales - Purchases 22,020 78,359 56,338 Revenue extra cattle on the market depressed the fat Beef Capital Value Change 0 -64,150 -64,150 Total 22,020 14,209 -7,812 cattle market further.

Capital Value Change 38,032 -66,051 -104,083 As time passed, the freezing companies Crop & Feed Total 38,032 -66,051 -104,083 were, through overtime and working Total Revenue 216,491 89,342 -127,149 together, able to process cattle with Animal Health 3,791 3,754 -37 Stock minimum delays. The following is a Shearing 4,854 4,591 -263 theoretical illustration of the above Conservation 33,587 0 -33,587 discussion: Forage Crops 12,000 12,000 0 Feed/Crop/Grazing • Expected sale price (Sept 2019) of steers Regrassing 4,620 4,620 0 Grazing 0 33,528 33,528 sold April 2020 $1500 (a) Fertiliser (Excl. N & Lime) 15,000 15,000 0 • Sale of Futures contract (Sept 2019) for Fertiliser Nitrogen 2,301 2,301 0 steers, matures April 2020 $1500 (b) Weed & Pest Control 7,000 7,000 0 • Actual sale price of steers April 2020 Vehicle Expenses 6,000 6,000 0 $1400 (c) Expenses Fuel 5,000 5,000 0 Other Farm Working • Purchase price of Futures contract Repairs & Maintenance 5,000 5,000 0 (close-out price) $1250 (d) Freight & Cartage 2,000 2,000 0 • Gain in Futures transactions (b)-(d) Electricity 1,000 1,000 0 $250 (e) Administration Expenses 5,000 5,000 0 Insurance 4,000 4,000 0 • Nett return for steers (c) + (e) $1650 Standing Charges ACC Levies 3,000 3,000 0 A similar scenario exists today in New Rates 3,000 3,000 0 Zealand, with the freezing works currently Total Farm Working Expense 117,154 116,794 -359 struggling to adjust to the strict Covid-19 Depreciation 0 0 0 manning protocols. I think in two or three Total Farm Expenses 117,154 116,794 -359 weeks throughput will be pretty good, Economic Farm Surplus (EFS) 99,338 -27,452 -126,790 although probably not in a form that is Farm Profit before Tax 99,338 -27,452 -126,790 sustainable long term.

Farm Profit per ha before Tax 883 -244 -1,127 If you think derivatives “hedging” is a EFS is a measure of farm business profitability independent of ownership or funding, used to compare performance between farms. waste of money, you might be right – if EFS should include an adjustment for unpaid family labour and management. This can be added to the expense database as management wage. you had hedged your cattle price you would not have benefited from the high (which his company dominated), and a derivative because it derives its value beef prices caused by African swine flu finished adjacent to railheads so fat cattle from an underlying physical good and in China, if you had hedged your milk Sircould Sidney Kidman, the iconic Australian grazier ofparallel the late nineteenth and be moved to markets in any of the always runs to the physical good price you would have missed out on $1/kg big three cities – Melbourne, transaction. example, you are early twentieth centuries,Sydney built and a farming empire inForthe driestifpart of selling a very drymilksolids (MS) this year, and if you were Adelaide. weaner steers in the autumn, and you American Airlines it would appear a good continent, and prospered at a time when many were failing.

In general, his farms were understocked, wanted to hedge the sale price, you might move that you have not hedged your fuel andstations there waswere an opportunity cost to this.located sell atofutures contract in the financialThey purchases.

His not strategically provide diversification.

However this moderate stocking, ability markets. You would then buy that contract But you might also like to put yourself were situated and were managed, to enable the business to survive and to move cattle, and graze areas with feed back, to close it out, at or about the time in Sir Sidney’s shoes. His farming business thrive a highly uncertain environment.youThe stretched from when in rainfall was sporadic and random, sell properties your steers physically. existed in a very uncertain environment – was effectively a “real”to futures play. providing If the markets are working the Northern Territory Southoption Australia, a pipeline fromwell, breeding to it was set up to manage drought! If severe Very little derivative hedging is done change in the sale price of the steers droughts increase in severity, as many in New Zealand farming, with only the should negate the change in the nett value climate change proponents suggest, or if dairy of the buy and sell derivatives transactions. volatility continues to be the norm, some • industry easing into that. Outside of agriculture, power distribution companies If the price of steers increases you will not farmers will recognise that their business hedge their electricity costs, Air NZ hedges get that benefit, which is the opportunity will not survive a very bad year. For them it’s fuel costs, some exporters/importers cost of your hedging. some form of hedging would be desirable hedge their foreign currency, and there are In the United States about 48% of the and their financiers may actually decide share and interest rate (swaps) hedging. beef cattle pipeline is hedged through that for them.

A futures contract or option (an option is derivatives, and the hedged operators the opportunity, but not the obligation, to often drive the physical price. For example, • Tom Ward is an Ashburton-based farm take up a future sale or purchase) is called last August hedged feedlotters, after a fire consultant.

Jul 20 - Jun 21 and Jul 21-Jun 22

SBD 7.2.2.58

D & M Baynes01 - 2020-2021 112.5ha 1 1

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June 2020

D & M Baynes01 - 2020-2021 112.5ha 1 1 5

31

BUSINESS | COVID-19

Opportunities under lockdown

A

BY: ANNABELLE LATZ

nationwide lockdown due to Covid-19 made life particularly tough for those who did not fall into the essential services bracket.

But it provided an opportunity for some smart thinking for those who continued with some business.

Closed signs went up on rural butcher shop doors throughout New Zealand amid great confusion leading up to and into the early days of lockdown.

Both the homekill sector and rural butchers had been given the verbal green light from the Ministry of Primary Industries they’d be on the essential services list. When the list came out just before lockdown, neither was on there, but the homekill sector managed a change of ruling a couple of weeks into lockdown.

Animal welfare was one of the main reasons for the change.

Coming into lockdown, rural butchers had their shelves full in the anticipation of continued business.

Federated Farmers Rural Butchers member Mike Hanson said this meat had to be frozen which meant it lost quality, putting many butchers out of pocket.

Farmers could still get processing done for themselves, and injured animals could also be processed.

Between social distancing rules and farmers reluctant to visit their local towns,

Lockdown and social distancing slowed down shearing.

things were quiet on the processing side of things.

Hanson, who owns Netherby Meats in Ashburton, expected farms will be under strain now because farmers will have more stock than usual heading into winter.

“We’re four weeks behind with the processing.”

With Gypsy Day looming, farmers will be in a hurry to get rid of beef cattle.

Alert level four came into play in the thick of the shearing season, but operations continued with limited capacity in the essential services bracket.

NZ Shearing Contractors Association president Mark Barrowcliffe said staff numbers were a problem due to some returning to family for lockdown and social distancing requirements. Fewer

shearers in the sheds meant shearing took double the time, and not everybody could work.

Shearing gangs did receive the wage subsidy which he said was a “godsend”.

King Country-based Barrowcliffe said the backlog of sheep still needing to be shorn will be noticed when the freezing works start to process at capacity again.

“As the freezing works crank up, then pre-lambing starts, there will be increased pressure on shearers and farmers to get the job done.”

Depending on border closures there may be fewer international shearers here next summer.

“We will have to rely more on each other.”

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Country-Wide

June 2020

Hard work pays off PGG Wrightson Wool general manager Grant Edwards said it was thanks to the hard work between the industry and MPI that the wool supply chain has been able to work through the different status levels caused by Covid-19.

Under alert level four they were able to shear sheep where required and mobilise the delivery of high density scoured bales for wool shipments to meet contractual export agreements.

Under alert level three wool stores were able to operate. Wool scouring and wool dumping also recommenced.

He said MPI provided direct guidance on what could and could not operate under the different status levels and further outlined the strict protocols that the industry has operated under.

“Largely, overseas wool markets have been closed although some future business is now being written with China.”

Many overseas clients are also requesting delayed shipments for contracts.

‘As the freezing works crank up, then pre-lambing starts, there will be increased pressure on shearers and farmers to get the job done.’

No auction sales were held throughout April, but they resumed late May with one North Island sale and one in the South Island.

Edwards said working and interacting with each other was important in the timing and volumes offered at these auction sales, as was the need to take into account farmer cashflows.

“It is a matter of balancing the unknown nature of future market levels with a responsible auction sale programme.”

Rural Livestock’s Simon Cox said the timing of lockdown did take some pressure off the meatworks because they were limited for space.

“Combine that with lack of feed from droughts, and then add in lockdown, and it was the perfect storm.”

Despite this, he said it was a tough

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June 2020

few weeks, and everyone worked hard to ensure they got through it.

He said 70% of their business is usually done outside of the yards, and during lockdown there were lots of calves to shift which would have gone to the sales.

“It was hard work, but my guys were able to get on with it and move pretty much everything privately.

There was a lot of phone work, but we got there.”

As an essential service, there was extensive logging of his staff’s movements.

“We were planning 10 days prior to lockdown, saying ‘what if what if.’”

Cox said during the first week, Steve Morrison of NZ Stock and Station Association did a fantastic job keeping in touch with the Ministry of Health, MPI and the Stock and Station firms concerned.

The meat companies operated at 50% then 75%, so there was a shortage of space to process prime stock.

He expects June bull sales to operate at some sort of normality and will be dependent on New Zealand operating at alert level 2 or less. Online sales have been a successful option too.

Veterinarians are used to working at a fast pace, but during lockdown this was not possible.

A spokesperson for the New Zealand Veterinary Association said most consults were conducted over the phone or video call, and individual clients were only allowed to enter the building when absolutely necessary.

For many owners this meant dropping their pet at the door and sitting in the car for a phone interview with the vet seeing their pet inside.

Delaying non-urgent appointments and procedures and avoiding interaction with people wherever possible meant clinic doors stayed closed.

An unavoidable home visit meant pet owners often putting their animal outside while speaking to the veterinarian over the phone or through a window. A house or ‘bubble’ entry required full PPE. It was easier for the large animal veterinarians, as physical distances were much easier to maintain outdoors.

Revenue is down at Farmlands due to

Above: PGG Wrightson Wool general manager Grant Edwards said under level 3 wool stores were able to operate.

the lockdown. Droughts hit revenue pre Covid-19.

Chief executive Peter Riedie said less foot traffic for retail and a hit to their card and fuel businesses also made a significant impact.

A click and collect service at Farmlands meant they could operate as an essential service under lockdown and into alert level four, and into level three where stores were still closed.

Staff movements were restricted, some shareholders still required on-site access for decision making, and field staff visited sites under stringent conditions which included no physical interaction.

The temporary webstore did four times the volume of sales in one week than it did in an entire year.

“That is a huge change in buyer behaviour and it remains to be seen if this will be a long-term change.”

The first day of trading under alert Level 2 was encouraging but not their busiest day by any stretch.

“We do not expect to see a significant uplift on the back of the move to Level 2.”

Farmlands applied for and was granted a wage subsidy by the Government.

Riedie said the co-operative will need to adapt to the changing behaviours and requirements of shareholders as they deal with uncertainty surrounding exports and global factors.

“We have to look at our ways of operating and cost base to ensure we get through this.”

Assessing the future of Saturday trade at some of their stores will be part of this.

33

LIVESTOCK | ONFARM

Duncan Robertson of Northland is one of the growing number of beef farmers in New Zealand getting involved in Wagyu breeding.

Building a stable beef future Farming and building have similarities. You’ve got a framework and you shape it in a way that suits your purpose, to create the best product you can, Annabelle Latz writes.

D

uncan Robertson used to spend his working life with a hammer in his hand until 2016, then he put his building business aside and

resumed farming.

Born and raised in the Rangitikei River area in the Manawatu, Duncan studied a Bachelor of Commerce after school and

34

ended up getting a trade as a builder.

It was while building a butcher’s shop in Auckland that he got exposed to the Wagyu beef concept – grass-fed very tender beef that the Americans loved. He decided to get involved.

“I was quite fascinated by it.”

He and his family have a dairy and Wagyu beef farming operation on the outskirts of Kerikeri, but initially looked all

over New Zealand at different sheep and beef farms.

After some careful advice they opted to buy the 14-hectare dairy farm they’re on now. In addition to this they lease 170ha down SH1 for grazing, and further grazing blocks in Paihia, Kaikohe and Kaeo totalling 195ha. This means there’s plenty of room for the beef side of things.

In the earlier days of this farming

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June 2020

KEY FACTS • 170ha under Extension 350 project.

• Using Wagyu and Kiwicross genetics.

operation Duncan says they’d sell most stock as yearlings, but accumulating lease blocks over the years has provided the ability to finish more stock himself.

Two years after they moved on to the dairy farm, they trialled a couple of mobs plus a handful of straws over their dairy cows. Last Autumn 2019 they reared 180 calves and last spring 2019 it was about 160.

“It’s good to see them come all the way though, do well, hit those weight targets.”

For five years now they’ve been milking 360 cows, and in addition have 1000 beef cattle, in particular for the Wagyu beef market.

Producing tender grass-fed beef is the attractive selling point that pulls the premium prices, as the marbling is “tiny flecks, and unlike most beef, this ensures the meat is always juicy and tender”.

Duncan works closely with First Light, which set prices annually for Duncan, which suits him well. He plans to become a shareholder later in the year. His farming model gives him options for both dairy and beef markets, and breeding his own Wagyu finished stock insulates against the commodities market; they’re not at the mercy of fluctuating sale prices, and being aligned with First Light means prices are set at the beginning of the year.

Progeny must be 50% Wagyu to be classified as such, and mixed with the Kiwicross is giving Duncan results he is very happy with. The Kiwicross means they’re faster finishing. His stock are finished at about 30 months, as opposed to taking three years for the straight Kiwicross.

At this age, steers average 320kg carcaseweight (CW), and the heifers are 290kg.

“We tried 50% Wagyu Angus, but the marble score wasn’t reached. Marble scores are measured on a scale of 1-9.”

›› Opportunity for diversity p36 Country-Wide

June 2020

A Wagyu-Angus cross heifer of Duncan’s, a breed combination that works well for his business.

Twisty Creek Block 5 – Wagyu Performance

2 year Wagyu Steers liveweight profile 20 head running on 12.2ha Month

Open kg

In kg/d

Out kg/d

Close kg

Gain kg

Gain kg/d

April 19

11,300

May 19

11,540

11,540

240

8.0

21,378

458

14.8

June 19

21,378

21,858

480

16.0

July 19

21,858

Aug 19

15,859

15,859

65

2.1

16,593

735

23.7

Sept 19 Oct 19

16,593

17,553

960

32.0

17,553

18,660

1107

35.7

Nov 19

18,660

Dec 19

19,833

5568

19,833

1173

39.1

14,956

691

22.3

Jan 20

14,956

5392

Feb 20

9786

9786

222

7.2

9960

174

6.0

Mar 20

9960

Total

11,300

10,146

186

6.0

10,146

6491

17.7

9380

13,992

23,372

20,056

31,016

Gross Margin April 2019 - March 2020

Beef

Revenue Crop & Feed

$/ha

$ Total

Sales - Purchases

906

153,994

Contract Grazing

342

58,083

Capital Value Change

808

137,358

Total Beef

2055

349,385

Surplus Feeds

837

142,344

Capital Value Change

0

0

Total Feed

837

142,344

7.5

2893

491,729

25.9

Conservation

74

12,600

Forage Crops

393

66,816

Regrassing

51

8640

Nitrogen

69

11,767

Total Crop & Feed

587

99,823

Animal Health

31

5193

Total Stock Costs

Total Revenue

Crop & Feed

Expenses Stock Costs

c/kg DM

23.3

31

5193

Interest on Capital (livestock & feed)

160

27,139

Total Variable Expenses

777

132,155

7.0

2115

359,574

18.9

Gross Margin

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Feeding out maize silage to R2 bulls.

Opportunity for diversity Wagyu First Light general manager Matt Crowther says farmers must have a minimum of 50 cattle to be involved in the programme. There is increasing interest from bull farmers looking to change to Wagyu for diversity.

He says the breed has been around in NZ since the mid-90s, but has only become well known in more recent years. There are about 50,000 Wagyu-cross cattle in NZ and the numbers are growing. Of these, 13,000 will be processed this year. On the export side, 60% is earmarked for the US, 15% stays here, and the rest goes to Europe,

the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

Crowther says the increased interest in Wagyu beef is partly to do with farmers looking for stability in their returns.

“Typically new suppliers are looking to balance the commodity cycle of traditional beef pricing. We offer forward pricing for up to 24 months out, and more.”

More farmers and their bank managers are finding this an attractive addition.

“Our target production is 30,000 cattle processed per annum, then we will likely close the doors on new supply.”

A small percentage of Wagyu hits the top end of the marbling scale, level 9, which earns the farmer up to $9/kg. Most finished Wagyu sit between three to five.

“The average base return will be $6.25/ kg for the whole year. Our shareholders will also receive a further payment to provide an average return of more than $7.00/kg.”

Crowther says the “semi-co-op” in nature works well, because the suppliers own the cattle through to the market so are incentivised to do a good job for each other to maximise returns.

Stock reconciliation numbers by month for 2019/20 actuals to end January (End of the month)

Apr 19

May 19

Jun 19

Heifer Calf

148

148

148

1-year Heifer

190

190

190

148

148

148

2-year Heifer

24

24

24

102

102

102

94

24

Cow

Jul 19

Aug 19

Sept 19

Oct 19

Nov 19

Dec 19

Jan 20

Feb 20

Mar 20

101

101

101

101

101

223

223

223

223

223

223

102

102

50

41

41

41

35

35 75

75

75

75

89

89

89

89

Bull Calf

75

1-Year Bull

108

108

108

2-Year Bull

6

6

6

Bull Steer Calf

78

73

73

71

5

4

4

4

28

25

25

39

39

39

39

39

1-year Steer

29

29

29

25

25

25

78

78

78

78

78

78

2-year Steer

80

80

80

29

19

19

46

46

46

46

46

46

44

44

44

44

44

14

13

13

13

525

439

415

603

771

715

705

705

705

Steer Total Beef

36

585

610

610

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June 2020

SECOND CLASS CITIZENS • From mid-November 100 weaner bulls bought from the dairy farm at market rate from mid-November onwards. These bulls are taken through to 27-30 months of age before being sold to the works.

These bulls are the exit strategy if something needs to go early.

• A controlled grazing system is implemented. About 120 paddocks are of varying sizes split into 10 rotations.

• The target livestock policy is 416kg CW/ha. It is expected within the Extension 350 project that the farm will build up to this over time. This year's target was 318kg/ha. They ended up at 270kg CW. Off target but shows the impact droughts can have. February ended up being a negative production month with large numbers of stock having to be held due to lack of exit options. The farm has potential to do much more so the focus is moving to converting that potential into reality.

• About 40kg N/ha is used. In April 30kg N was applied over the whole farm in April, another 26kg N/ha was spread over 60ha in August.

• About 110 tonnes of whole crop maize silage (5ha at 22t/ha) is made and fed out on the beef unit.

Below: A good example of a Wagyu-Dairy cross steer.

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June 2020

Herd a mixed bag Duncan says for the beef market, they’re looking at putting Hereford or Speckle park over our more Friesian-dominant cows F12, F14 and F16, and the rest to Wagyu.

The herd is a bit of a “mixed bag” as they target a cow around the F10 J6 mix.

They have some Angus Wagyu which were brought in as weaners off another farm.

Their four breeding bulls are put over 80-90 heifers, then three of the bulls are taken out in week six of mating and used over 360 cows once the AI has finished.

Duncan uses breeding bulls and AI for his breeding programme, the main difference being the genetic gain, which is a couple more years advanced with the AI over the breeding bulls.

“As more data is collected from grading and the marketplace, there is a better understanding and knowledge of which sires produce a higher growth rate and better quality of meat, ie the marble score.”

This coming mating October 2020 they will use sexed semen to get dairy replacements, which hasn’t been readily available in Northland before, and should result in producing fewer Kiwicross bull calves.

“We will end up with a lot more better quality beef animals, either Hereford Speckle Park or Wagyu, plus by only mating our top 100 dairy cows to the sexed semen our herd’s genetic gain should speed up as we are only replacing

our dairy herd with the best genetics.”

The volcanic soils in this area of Northland are favourable, which allows the rye grass, clover, and pockets of kikuyu grass to grow a couple of weeks earlier. This does mean things dry up a little earlier, but locking some land up for maize silage means when feed is at a pinch there is always a good back up.

“We raise the calves here, and put the Wagyu over there,” Duncan says, pointing to the lease block a couple of kilometres further down SH1.

Key farming operating dates are on par with most in the area.

The mating season begins on October 1 and calving begins on July 10. Calves are reared on calf feeders and virtually out to the paddock straight away.

The drought has of course put a strain on feed supplies, which is where the maize silage has offered some reprieve.

First Light raise their Wagyu beef on grass, without grains or palm kernel, however maize silage is still an option.

On a good year they won’t need to supplementary feed their stock at all, but they’ve been feeding silage to both their dairy and beef stock since the beginning of the year.

“Luckily we sold all the older regular beef stock in November at high prices, now it’s just a matter of keeping the young stock growing,” Duncan says, adding they were still gaining 0.5kg/day which he was happy with.

Extension 350 was launched in 2016 and is led by Northland farmers.

“I had heard word of mouth they were requiring farmers to get involved. Since it was my first year starting off, I wanted to have more support around me, and wanted to see if Wagyu was feasible.”

Kim Leigh-Mackenzie, Farm Consultant for AgFirst Northland works with farmers on the programme, with the aim to help Northland farmers better understand their farming businesses and the opportunities to improve. Increasing profitability, environmental sustainability and farmer wellbeing are the three main planks of the project.

The personal satisfaction of achieving high marbling scores off grass drives Duncan to provide a premium quality beef animal with the best carcasses, out of

37

THE PLAN

a predominantly Kiwicross dairy herd.

Obstacles he has faced have been the dry summers, and fluctuations in the commodities which maize and Wagyu have helped buffer.

He is always talking to people and asking questions, because there are so

many different ways to doing things.

Duncan’s five-year plan is to still be on the farm, continually learning and improving his farming practice.

“I find that exciting, there’s always something new going on. I like change, I’m not scared to change.”

Following a whole-farm assessment a combination livestock policy plan was put in place.

A high priority was transferring 100 dairy heifers from the dairy farm as weaners in mid-November and returning to the dairy unit as in-calf heifers on May 1, 17-18 months later.

Grazing payments are $7/head/week as calves until May then increased to $10.50/head/week as yearlings for the final year.

Also high priority are 120 First Light Wagyu sourced out of the dairy herd as weaners late November at 90kg liveweight (LW). These heifers are wintered twice then drafted between October and May as two-year cattle.

Heifers are sold from 500kg LW and steers at 600kg LW onwards as First Light requires. About 100 Wagyu steers are transferred in as yearlings that have been running on the lease blocks as weaners.

In June 90 autumn-born Wagyu are bought from external sources as weaners.

“What do I have to do to reduce my greenhouse gas footprint and still be profitable?”

“I think I should do a winter feed budget, but I’m not sure how.”

“Store prices are low, is now the time to buy?

“LET’S FARMAX THAT.” Free FARMAX Lite Farmax Ltd is offering New Zealand red meat farmers free access to FARMAX Lite to support planning and feed budgeting through the current drought and impact of COVID 19.

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June 2020

LIVESTOCK | ONFARM

Ross Richards on his Taumarunui farm.

Profitable and sustainable Fallen logs littered many of the paddocks when the Richards bought Romani.

Russell Priest reports on the challenges faced at the farm near Taumarunui.

R

oss Richards is sometimes thought of as a bit of a hippie having grown up on the Coromandel Peninsula but he is regarded as a visionary and good farmer.

Behind his rugged exterior is a man who has successfully combined profitability with sustainability in a farming business he and his wife Ruth, with help from her family, started from scratch.

Their Taumarunui farm, Romani, has dung beetles, green thistle beetles, sheep that are facial eczema and flystrike-tolerant and require little drenching.

The Richards’ drive to achieve a more sustainable farming business involved

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June 2020

compromising when they took over Romani in 1993 as equity partner managers with Ruth’s family.

Ross says in the early days he may have been a little too preoccupied with his ecosystem concept when paying off debt should have been his main priority.

However now debt has diminished the development of more sustainable farming practices and livestock has accelerated.

Farming on the southern side of the watershed between the Pungapunga and Taringamotu streams 14.3km east of Taumarunui, the Richards own 356 hectares and lease 544ha (400ha effective) of adjacent Maori land involving six separate blocks. Only 660ha is effective

with the ineffective area is mainly regenerating native bush.

The farm had been heavily logged when they took over.

Ross says some NGAPUKE paddocks were littered with so much timber that one could hop from one side to the other without touching the ground and there was hardly a fence standing.

It hadn’t had fertiliser for 20 years. The phosphate level was 4 and sulphur low whereas the pH ranged up to 6.8.

Ross and Ruth have four children, nine to 28 years old.

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The Richards are farming 90ha of which only 660ha is effective with the ineffective area mainly regenerating native bush.

KEY POINTS: • Farming 900ha (660ha effective) • Commercial sheep and beef, plus a Coopworth stud • Sheep:cattle ratio 51:49 • 8000su at 12.1su/ha • A high performing business, EFS $851/ha • Strong focus on sustainable farming practices • Using genetics to reduce farm input costs

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The couple run a complex farming business involving commercial sheep and cattle breeding and finishing as well as a Coopworth stud.

There are 180-190 Angus-Friesian cows and about 125 in-calf once-bred heifers. All male calves are left entire and finished or sold store before their second winter.

Fifty 100kg AF heifer calves are bought in the spring and mated to Willie Falloon’s Angus bulls at 15 months on December 10 for six weeks at an average weight of 300kg. Normally 94% get in calf delivering a calving of 95% (of those in calf) and an average calf weaning weight of 195kg in February.

“We used to buy Hereford-Friesian calves however we found as cows they were giving us too many udder-related problems so we switched to Angus-Friesian with much improved results.”

Mated to South Devon bulls on December 20 (for six weeks) as two-year olds and mixed-age cows they achieve a 95% calving based on cows wintered and wean calves in February at an average weight of 220kg.

Cows and heifers used to be break fed over calving however because of time pressure they

are now set stocked among ewes and lambs.

All heifer calves born to either AngusFriesian heifers by Angus bulls or to AngusFriesian cows by South Devon bulls go into the once-bred heifer programme. In the last two years 140 have gone to Angus bulls for six weeks with 125 getting in calf. Their calves are weaned in February at about 175kg and the heifers are killed at 230kg CW from the end of February soon after weaning.

“If we have the feed to carry them on for another month to six weeks their yields improve significantly,” Ross said.

All cows are mouthed and their udders/teats checked annually and any that are low in the mouth or unsound are culled as are any dries or wet dries.

All male calves born are wintered and either killed at 18-20 months between January and the winter at 270kg average CW or sold as stores depending upon where the best money is.

He could have sold them store before Christmas for about $1400 but due to work commitments he ended up killing them throughout the summer and averaging $1200.

“Unfortunately I don’t always get it right.”

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June 2020

Encouraging the best

Above: Beats running around Below: Ross Richards and the sole employee, Chris Andrews.

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June 2020

The Richards run Coopworths, 2350 commercial ewes and 650 stud ewes.

Ross is adamant that stud sheep must perform under pressure in a commercial environment run with the commercial animals whenever possible. To this end his sheep selection policy can only be described as “brutal” particularly with the studs.

“We make life as difficult for them as we can which encourages the best animals to float to the top.”

He says with genetics, variation can be induced by putting them under pressure for greater progress because it makes it easier to identify those top animals.

Only ewe hoggets that get in lamb are eligible to enter the ewe flock. Having a live lamb is not compulsory because 20% of the hoggets abort in spite of being vaccinated against toxoplasmosis and campylobacter.

“It has been suggested to me that the campylobacter vaccine may be only 80% effective.”

Any ewe that requires drenching, gets flystrike, is dry or wet dry, is lame or unsound is culled. Any ewe carrying a black spot(s) is culled unless it is an exceptional

animal in which case it goes into the B flock. Any ewe that requires preferential treatment is tagged and if this occurs again it either goes into the B flock or is culled.

All ewes are mouthed and have their udders palpated annually and those unlikely to last another year and/or have unsound udders are culled. Stud ewes are not castfor-age as Ross believes the old ewes are the best ewes in the flock. They are checked to determine whether he thinks they will last another year or two and kept or culled accordingly. Those commercial five-year ewes deemed to be able to last another year or two are sought after as one-to-twoyear ewes and sold for breeding as are any surplus (lighter) ewe lambs.

The Richards have been culling animals susceptible to flystrike for 25 years. The sheep flock has not been dipped for fly for seven years so a number of families within the flock that have never been exposed to fly-control chemicals. Animals that do get fly struck, which occurs more in wet summers than dry ones, are treated with a long-acting insecticide.

Two-tooths are tested by farm areas

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The farm’s annual superphosphate-based maintenance fertiliser of 25 units of phosphate and 30 units of sulphur fortified with copper, cobalt and selenium goes before lambing

FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE An ANZ Bank analysis for the 2018/9 financial year showed Romani’s financial performance was well within the top 20% of sheep, beef and deer farms in the King Country region.

Economic farm surplus, $851/ha (top 20% $756), gross farm revenue was $1695/ha (top 20% $1404) and earnings before interest tax, rent and management $818/ha (top 20% $729).

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‘We looked at milk goats, but land up there was far too expensive so we had to settle for Taumarunui because it was all we could afford. Romani was the same price as an 18ha farm in the Waikato we’d been looking at.’ renown for fly and facial eczema and are home to the two-tooths providing them with a severe challenge from both.

Ross claims susceptibility to flystrike has been scientifically proven to be both heritable and repeatable and questions why one would not cull those that succumb.

The Richards run a B flock, 550 cull ewes from the stud and commercial flocks.

The are mated to Focus Genetics terminal sires on March 10 for two cycles and they start lambing on August 5. The lambing percentage is usually 150. Half the lambs are killed off the ewe at 18kg carcaseweight (CW) in November for a significant premium.

Stud ewes are mated March 10 while the rams go out with the commercial Coopworths on March 25 for two cycles to start lambing on August 20. The stud

Coopworth ewes generally deliver a lambing percentage of between 160-170 while the commercials are about 10% behind.

Ewes are not consciously flushed starting their winter rotation when the rams go out.

“The fertility/fecundity genes are now so strongly fixed in our Coopworths that even in a drought year they scan 180%.”

All ewes are scanned for dries, singles and multiples.

Ross said the best scanning percentage is 210% but this was too high. The average percentages for MA ewes is 185%, for two-tooths 175% and for hoggets 120%.

Normally after scanning single-bearing ewes are run separately from multiples however last year there weren’t enough carrying singles to put enough pressure on them in a separate rotation so all the ewes were grouped according to their condition.

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June 2020

Shelter important Six weeks before lambing triplet-bearing ewes are pulled out of the twin mob and run and lambed separately. A paddock in the middle of the farm with a lot of uncleared sidlings providing shelter and an abundance of good lambing sites is used to lamb the triplets.

“Shelter is important to achieve good triplet survival rates however the number and quality of lambing sites is more important,” Ross said.

“A good lambing site is one where a ewe can lamb and remain undisturbed for three or four days while she bonds with her lambs.”

The best lambing percentage achieved with the triplet-bearing ewes is 215%. Ross believes one of the tools for successful triplet survival is the use of Nilvax to vaccinate the ewes. He has found that far fewer lambs die just prior to docking using this product. His theory is that because Nilvax stimulates greater antibody production than other vaccines (because of the presence of levamisole) triplets receive more antibodies through the ewe’s colostrum hence greater immunity.

All ewes (except triplet bearing are rotationally grazed over winter until the first lamb is born then set stocked on to pasture covers as close to 1200kg drymatter (DM)/ha as possible.

The 1200kg DM is the target but the past two years it has been short of that.

“You certainly notice that the paddocks with better covers at lambing deliver the heavier lambs.”

The lambing dates were a month later however Ross changed because of increasing dry summers.

Commercial lambs are weaned early December with 30% of males killed at 16.5kg CW. Commercial ewe and wether lambs get a drench at weaning and thereafter monthly and ewes don’t get drenched at all unless in an emergency.

Ross operates a flexible lamb selling policy over the summer/autumn. He sells on both the store and fat markets depending upon where the best money is.

Coopworth ewe lambs receive priority treatment over the summer in an endeavour to get them up to best-practice tupping weights and beyond.

Going ahead of the wether lambs followed by the ewe flock in as long a rotation as possible, they also spend some time on stands of plantain and clover.

These are also used to feed twin-bearing hoggets from lambing to weaning and for finishing lighter lambs.

Target cut-off tupping weight for hoggets is 42kg or better. Last year it was 40kg and the previous

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June 2020

Left: Ross with the team Below: The Richards’ Coopworths are facial eczema and flystrike tolerant which require little drenching.

Bottom: Ross and Ruth Richards with their daughter Isla.

43

The Coopworth ewes lamb between 150-160%, the stud flock, 10% higher.

year 44kg. About 1300 hoggets are put to the ram on May 1 for 35 days. Of these 500 are studs and are mated to stud Coopworth rams while the balance are commercial Coopworths mated to Focus Genetics terminal sires. About 1000 hoggets (80%) get in lamb delivering a 100% lambing.

The first of the lambs sired by Focus Genetics terminal sires out of hoggets are killed in late February at 18kg with

44

all of them killed by the end of March at between 17-18kg.

“We generally have no trouble getting the hoggets that have lambed back up to 60-62kg for mating as two tooths.”

The environment they farm in is a hot spot for facial eczema and a haven for internal parasites. Ross believes the only long-term solution to these diseases is to breed sheep that have some tolerance and

through genetic improvement increase the degree of this over time. His initial interest was in breeding for facial eczema tolerance. He pursued this trait for 15 years by buying Coopworth rams from Cambridge’s Edward Dinger. In 2015 when Edward retired the Richards bought his entire stud flock.

At the time it was regarded as one of the most facial eczema-tolerant in the country.

Ross deliberately “neglected the hell out of Edward’s flock” to creating genetic variation.

Edward had not been selecting for worm resistance within the flock so Ross pursued this.

The protocols for developing a genetic prediction for this trait involve not drenching the stud lambs until the end of January. Before being drenched their dung is sampled and the number of worm eggs counted in a laboratory. This data is then sent to SIL where it is used to predict individual animals’ breeding value for worm resistance. The ram lambs received a drench 8-10 weeks later. The ewe lambs enter the normal lamb-drenching programme.

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June 2020

Good yards and swinging gates Good infrastructure and a high standard of maintenance is a feature of Romani.

The farm only employs Chris Andrews and carries 8000su at a rate of 12.1su/ha.

“Because there are only two of us running 8000su we need things that work, like gates that swing, stock-proof fences, yards that are easy to work in and laneways that make stock easy to move, so we keep up with the maintenance,” Ross said.

The farm area is well subdivided into about 250 paddocks which is the result of having so many small leased blocks. These give Ross lots of management options and help him to grow more grass.

Weathered Taupo ash 0-2m deep (ejected 1300 years ago) covers most of the farm while the leased blocks are mainly mudstone with pumice flats. The latter is deficient in copper, cobalt and selenium.

Phosphate levels are 25-40, sulphurs 1024 (organic sulphurs 8-12) and PH is 5.8.

Romani’s annual superphosphate-based maintenance fertiliser of 25 units of phosphate and 30 units of sulphur fortified with copper, cobalt and selenium goes on before lambing. Ross doesn’t hesitate to use nitrogen in the mix if Farmax modelling indicates a shortage of spring feed. Last year after a dry summer, autumn feed covers were extremely low so 40 units of nitrogen were applied in May over the whole farm.

“It was a bit of a gamble because it was so late and I wouldn’t normally apply nitrogen so late,” Ross said, “but it paid off and feed grew all winter.”

Most of the home farm is south-facing with the contour of the whole farm being mainly easy hill with 20% steep and 10% cultivable. Annual rainfall varies between 900mm and 1500mm with an average of 1250mm. Most of the rain falls in winter and arrives from the west and northwest.

Nothing comes from the east. Snow falls occasionally with 150mm being the deepest fall at the house but it only lies about for 24 hours.

“We used to get lots of thunderstorms during the summer which promoted good pasture growth but we seldom get them nowadays.”

The Taumarunui area can be one of the hottest places in NZ during summer and in recent years has experienced some exceptionally dry summers.

“The moisture status of pumice soils can be very confusing in the summer,” Ross said.

“The grass can be kept green by regular but small falls of rain while the pumice underneath can be very dry. I get very nervous when this happens.

“We are heavily stocked so we see the dry coming before most farmers in the area.”

Few crops are grown on Romani. Swedes (5-10ha) are sown as a winter crop, followed by a summer crop of kale replaced in the autumn by a stand of clover and plantain.

Two and a half years ago an 8ha northfacing, dry pumice paddock badly infested with calis was sown in a wide range of clovers, including annuals.

Swinging gates and good yards make life easier for employee Chris Andrews.

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June 2020

INDUSTRIOUS DUNG BEETLES Four species of dung beetles have also been introduced on to Romani in recent years.

“We’ve introduced thousands and thousands of dollars of beetles in cowshit on to the farm in the last three years and we haven’t seen them since, so hopefully they’ve established,” Ross said.

“They’re very industrious. What’s excreted today will be buried by tomorrow. Once they’ve established they’ll be active virtually all year round.”

Some of benefits of beetles are increasing plant rooting depth, improving organic matter incorporation and, reducing internal parasites on pasture.

Five years ago they introduced a green thistle beetle courtesy of Horizons Regional Council to control Californian thistles.

The population now occupies an area of five square kilometres and has reduced the cali population by 80%. Ross says there are still too many thistles, however the beetle is definitely making significant inroads.

Ross has been particularly impressed with the amount of winter growth delivered by the annual clovers but the whole stand has been extremely productive over the spring/summer as well. It was used for lambing 250 twin-bearing hoggets and carrying them through to weaning. After weaning their lambs were returned to the paddock and stayed there until the end of February.

In mid-November in a growthy spring Ross shuts up an area to fallow over the summer. The grasses go to head and set seed before collapsing and making way for clovers. The area is grazed in February by either weaned calves out of once-bred heifers or by lambs.

“Lamb growth rates on it are as good as on a summer crop and certainly better than you would expect.”

If the remaining feed is not required Ross drives large mobs of ewes and cows and calves over it (preferably on a rainy day) to trample it into the ground which creates an ideal seedbed for the mass of seed lying on the ground.

“It’s a cheap summer crop and paddocks are noticeably more productive over the two years following summer fallowing,” Ross said.

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Congratulations to Stu and Jane McKenzie T E R A N G I S TAT I O N , W H A N G A E H U VA L L E Y

Winners of the 2020 Keinzley AgVet Wairarapa Farm Business of the Year Field day date to be advised subject to Covid-19 guidelines in place at the time

THANKS TO ALL SPONSORS

More information contact BakerAg, Masterton, 06 370 6880 46

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June 2020

LIVESTOCK | ANIMAL HEALTH

About 80% of NZ sheep flocks are infected, but only 18% of farms experience or are aware of any losses.

Consider Johne’s vaccine BY: JOANNA GRIGG

A

top veterinarian sees Johne’s disease as the overlooked but potentially biggest curve ball to New Zealand’s agricultural image.

Johne’s disease is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) and causes chronic enteritis in ruminant animals. The disease is responsible for significant economic losses worldwide.

Vaccination can help improve the outcomes for animals and onfarm productivity.

Peter Anderson is an enthusiastic member of the Johne’s advisory group, a group of appointed scientists, veterinarians and agricultural industry representatives, charged with reviewing Johne’s science and raising issues with the wider industry.

The industry-funded Johne’s project (2016) showed 80% of NZ sheep flocks are infected, but only 18% of farms experience or are aware of any losses. Its undercover nature makes it easy for farmers to overlook it.

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June 2020

“I regard it as number one; it is potentially more of an issue than TB, as we are pretty well on top of that now.

“We need to be prepared to be able to show we are doing something and that Johne’s infections are declining.”

That something, he says, is vaccinating sheep. Vaccinating is one simple step to control the disease and bring profitability benefits to farms.

He calculates a one percent death rate in a flock of 1500 ewes costs $7300 to the flock each year (reduced sale of cull ewes and their wool, associated lamb loss, ewe replacement cost).

“This does not include the subclinical loss in wool and milk production and fertility from affected sheep that have not died.”

A vaccination for replacement hoggets would cost about $1300/year. This is a fourfold return on investment over the flock.

Anderson estimates 20% of fine wool flocks are vaccinated and a very low percentage of strong wool flocks. It used to require ear marking sheep but not now.

However, farmers still need to notify meat processors if sheep have been vaccinated for Johne’s in their lifetime, on the animal

status declaration (ASD) form.

Care is required while vaccinating as selfinjection can cause unpleasant reactions.

Anderson suggests having a handler to help hold the animal still or using a conveyor with a crush are good ideas.

The number of vaccinations for Johne’s sold in NZ increased by 30% from 2018 and 2019, Anderson said, as farmers are starting to realise the production benefits.

“Farmers that start a vaccination programme soon start to appreciate the significant drop in missing sheep and the lack of scungy ewes that continually appear in the flock.”

The vaccination option, Gudair by Zoetis, is a single shot that can be given at any stage from tailing through to hogget selection. It costs about $3.68 per hogget.

Vaccination will not eradicate the disease in a flock but seriously reduces shedding and the number that develop into cases and die.

“It’s a good option for flocks and we are crazy not to use it.”

Anderson said the world’s demand for healthy food means NZ may have a

›› Continues p48 47

potential marketing advantage if they can be seen to be controlling Johne’s.

The Johne’s advisory group keeps a watching brief on emerging research relevant to the sector both domestically and internationally. Recently, associations with Crohn’s disease in humans have been raised, however, further research is still needed by the international scientific community before any definitive conclusions can be drawn.

The Ministry for Primary Industries website document on ‘MAP & Crohn’s disease’ states evidence is inconclusive that MAP is a causative for Crohn’s disease and that the food safety control measures in place (pasteurisation of milk and good hygiene during slaughter) in NZ are appropriate. This hypothesis has been reviewed and investigated by the United Kingdom, Ireland and the European Union Food Safety Authorities.

Above: The sheep may look fine from the outside but, inside, the lining of the small intestine thickens and starvation results. Stress can trigger the Johne’s bacterium to take hold.

Table A: Ewe death effect four times more than vaccination cost (1500 fine-wool ewes with one percent loss rate), Johne’s calculator developed by Peter Anderson, veterinarian.

Number ewes

1500

Annual death Johne’s

1%

EWE LOSS

Vaccine cost

No Johne’s deaths annually

15

Replacement rate

25%

Ewe carcass value

$160

Number

375

Ewe carcass loss

$2,400

Cost/hogget

$3.68

Wool fleece value

$70

Total

$1,380

Total wool loss

$1,050

105% 16

Lamb carcass value

$90

Lamb fleece value

$42

Lamb wool loss

$662

Extra replacements required

15

Value

$120

Total Cost

$1,800

TOTAL LAMB LOSS $2,079

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COST BENEFIT Total $7,329

• Improve health and welfare.

• Infected adult sheep shed bacteria onto pasture but may look fine (i.e. not scour).

• A vaccinated flock has reduced chance of developing the disease and shedding the bacteria. Young sheep are very susceptible.

• In a 2016 study, mortality from Johne’s averaged 2.8% in fine wool flocks and 0.4% for other breeds but there was a large property variation.

• By the time sheep die (three to four years) shedding has infected others.

• The one-shot-for-life vaccine costs about $3.68/head but rewarded with four-fold returns.

• Now a simpler process (no special ear mark required).

• May help solve the missing Merino wether issue.

• Get tallies right to assess true loss.

• Vaccinate lambs at four weeks or at weaning, or at hogget selection. Earlier is best for high risk flocks.

• Blood test sheep (ELISA test) showing signs of wasting and cull immediately if ‘high positive’.

• Keeping the flock in good condition can minimise risk as stress from poor nutrition can trigger the disease.

• Don’t hang on to suspect Johne’s sheep – there is no cure and they are highly contagious.

• Don’t expose lambs to pastures grazed by wasting sheep or goats.

LAMB LOSS Lambs lost

WHY VACCINATE REPLACEMENT HOGGETS FOR JOHNE’S?

JOHNE’S BEST PRACTICE

TOTAL EWE LOSS $3,450

Lambing %

While the issue simmers away in the background, Anderson said we need to be prepared to be able to show we are doing something and that Johne’s infections are declining.

Anderson also supports vaccination for dairy cows outside TB risk areas, with identity tags so they are then not tested for TB (they would be reactors due to the vaccination).

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Missing sheep alarm bell Fading ewes or wethers in the flock?

Discrepancy between tallies, where you can’t find the carcases? Sheep fading despite feeding them better or drenching them?

These are all signs that Johne’s is impacting flock production.

To confirm, a post mortem is recommended. Johne’s shows as sheep in very poor condition with corded lymphatics, enlarged lymph nodes and thickened small intestine. This inflammation prevents absorption of nutrients and no cure is available.

Veterinarian Peter Anderson, said Johne’s can present with what was a fat twin-bearing ewe going downhill, losing her milk and lambs, and then succumbing herself.

“If you see one sheep dead there will be more.”

He recommends starting a vaccination programme, with the ideal time to inject being post-shearing or hogget selection.

“Vaccination doesn’t prevent infection but does prevent disease.”

“It reduces the clinical cases of the disease,” he said.

A sheep mortality study (2016) funded through the Johne’s research consortium (industry and government funds) showed that the vaccine efficacy was 72%. This was across 20 flocks in both the North and South Islands over two years. In all these flocks, some of which were vaccinating or had partially vaccinated the flock, none of the sheep with clinical Johne’s were vaccinated animals.

The benefit of vaccinating ewe lambs in a fine wool flock was calculated at 5.4 times the cost. It also paid for other stronger wool breed flocks, even though the mortality rate prior to treatment was only 0.7% of the flock. The benefit was still 1.6 times the cost. This was only the loss from ewe deaths and did not include the subclinical losses from reduced ewe performance.

Merino and Merino cross breeds were more susceptible and suffered a greater production loss than other breeds.

A much earlier study (1980s) of Romney, Merino and Merino-cross genotypes studied 3500 ewes over eight years. In their final year of production, ewes with clinical Johne’s disease had 5.3kg lower

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June 2020

Top: Veterinarian, and Johne’s advisory group member Peter Anderson would like to see more farmers start a vaccination programme for hoggets.

Above: One percent death rate in a flock of 1500 ewes costs $7300 to the flock each year.

liveweight, half a kilo less wool and 13% fewer lambs born and lower litter weaning weights, compared with clinically normal ewes. Over the eight years of monitoring, 3.5% of Romney ewes and 4.8% Merino and Merino-Romney cross ewes were diagnosed with clinical Johne’s disease. Annually this is 0.9% and 1.2% of the mobs. Clinical Johne’s disease led to significant losses in bodyweight, greasy fleece weight and number of lambs born in the lifetime production of ewes.

Overall, there was a 46% reduction in productivity.

Loss of production coupled with animal welfare, combine to make a strong case for vaccination, whatever the sheep breed.

FARMERS RESTART VACCINE Tim and Sally Wadworth, say their Merino flock will continue to be vaccinated for Johne’s as the benefits are so obvious; both visually and financially.

The Marlborough hill country farm Aschworth started a vaccination programme for ewe lambs in 1994. At that time, it was a live vaccine that had to be mixed and administered very carefully. Each lamb was tipped up and the vaccine injected into the cheek muscle. It received a special earmark for identification, which was then a legal requirement.

Five years on, Johne’s had visually disappeared from the flock.

“We were now in a situation where we were losing very few sheep and production had increased,” said Tim. After vaccinating for about 15 years and with very little stock loss, an increase in production and wool weight, and with no apparent sign of Johne’s, they decided to stop vaccinating. But slowly Johne’s returned.

Over four to five seasons, the Wadworths noticed a higher incidence of individual sheep in poor condition. The vaccination programme was rebooted.

Vaccination is slightly easier now, Tim said, with a different product and method of injection but still requiring extreme care.

“Like all vaccines they will only work if administered correctly.”

Vaccinations are given to replacement hoggets at shearing, straight off the shears, in the shed. The experience has left the Wadworths committed to annual vaccination of all young capital stock.

Above: These 18-micron ewes from Aschworth, Marlborough, clip 6.5kg of wool. Their longevity and production are protected by a Johne’s vaccination programme.

49

LIVESTOCK | BOBBY CALVES

Dairy problem, beef solution?

BY: CHEYENNE NICHOLSON

B

obby calves have been a hot topic in the dairy industry for a long time with many suggestions being floated.

Among these is raising them naturally on pasture for prime beef. It’s this topic that farmer Trudy Bensted’s recent Kellogg report focused on.

Specifically, the concept of beef forward marketing.

Beef forward marketing would involve marrying together the dairy and beef industries to form a partnership that benefits everyone in the production chain.

Dairy farmers sell their bobby calves at a margin to a calf rearer at 10 days old. The calf rearer then sells on to a beef finisher

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at an agreed marginal price, at an agreed weight. At finishing every shareholder would receive a percentage of the profits.

Everyone shares the risk and gains to continuously improve, creating a quality product through collaborative planning.

With global demand increasing and farmers struggling to source good quality calves, that will finish with a profitable value, Bensted says the concept could be the answer.

“It’s not a silver bullet fix and it’s about trying to find a system that’s going to be compatible for each farm.”

From her research, Bensted says that beef farmers say they are suffering the consequences of dairy farmers dictating the genetics for the beef industry due to their focus on cost-effective systems and the need for easy calving animals. While dairy

farmers say on-selling beef dairy crosses is hard work with low profit due to their focus on milk production decreasing the yielding in beef carcasses.

“Forward marketing agreements are about developing long-term security for dairy farmers, calf rears, and beef finishers to be complementing each other’s business and smooth out that volatility and risk.”

Some common issues facing farmers when it came to their business were: sourcing of low birthweight calves, easy calving bulls that aren’t too pricey, sexed semen being expensive with unconvincing conception rates and reproduction issues in general meaning the requirement for replacement heifers is still very much there.

“That’s where my forward marketing beef agreement comes in, it’s implementing that two heads are better than one.”

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By having experienced dairy and beef farmers working together to create a higher genetic merit calf, quality will be driven and bobby numbers decreased. Dualpurpose breeds could also be an option for farmers to introduce genetics that benefit both dairy and beef.

On paper, beef forward marketing contracts between dairy farmers, calf rearer, and beef finishers have substantial merit and while forging relationships between the various parties and hashing out individual agreements would require some work, the question remains – where will these animals go?

Since 1990 dairy farming has taken up almost one million hectares of sheep and beef finishing country and many have been encouraged over to dairying swayed by more competitive returns. In recent years sheep and beef farmers are being elbowed out of the high country by increased forestry further limiting profitable finishing land.

In an article written by farm consultant Bob Thomson for Country-Wide Beef 2018, he highlights the issue of space needed to grow bobbies for prime beef, the need for a premium that translates to a significant change in profit per hectare and a reward for quality assurance.

“Dairy farmers on marginal land are likely to consider returning to beef finishing with a schedule payment of $7/ kg. A change in land use will reduce their environmental footprint with fewer dairy cows, which will also mean fewer bobby calves. If the NZ dairy herd fell by 700,000 there would be enough land available to raise all the surplus bobby calves as prime beef,” Thomson wrote.

‘New generation beef’ could be part of

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June 2020

Increased price volatility

Improved specifications and feedback

the answer to the issue, Bensted says. The concept developed and researched by Massey University provides a new avenue to utilise lightweight, yearling steers of dairy origin. Cattle are culled between 10 and 12 months of age producing small, more tender cuts of beef.

“Beef farmers seem to be quite excited about new generation beef, they don’t have to carry animals over an extra winter.

In saying this, I think a lot of work would need to be done to promote the end product to drive demand and increase the value of that product.”

Along with renewed and focused marketing efforts, NZ’s grading system and processing plants would need an upgrade to make something like new generation beef an option, Bensted says.

“Upgrades within NZ’s processing with more automation will extract more value and offer more feedback and confidence for the producers and information that can

Development of specific products

further drive their productivity.”

Although bobby calves might be a dairy industry issue, its beef farmers who have the potential solution. A large percentage of finished beef already comes from dairy origins. Going down the route of beef forward marketing would need some solid leadership and relationship building between industries and individuals as well as a means by which to connect farmers to forge suitable partnerships.

“I think relationships are one of the biggest issues. There is little trust between dairy and beef farmers but I see an opportunity for dairy to start taking on leadership and to bring the beef industry into a partnership that drives profits and exports higher while creating more quality in the end product.”

There could be potential for beef forward marketing to provide security during uncertain times such as we are experiencing now with Covid-19, however, this would rely on solid relationships right through the production chain and well thought out contracts with suitable contingency plans in place. Bensted says she’s hopeful that beef forward marketing can be a way of the future for some farm businesses and has the potential to link in others in the production line like restaurants.

Bensted along with Massey University Rebecca Hickson has created a Facebook group ‘Dairy Beef Collective NZ’. It has been created as a support platform for NZ farmers wanting more advice and support around genetics to connect dairy farmers, calf rearers, and finishers.

51

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Clean water & sustainability of pastoral soils Farmers know that their engine room is the soil. As the industry grows, farmland usage is being intensified. Over 100 million tonnes of dairy, cattle, sheep and horse dung is deposited every year. The run-off is steadily degrading our waterways, while the residual mess is infecting our animals and impoverishing our soils and pastures.

Sometimes Nature knows what’s best In this case, it’s the humble dung beetle, evolved over millions of years with our stock. Tests conducted abroad and in NZ prove that introducing dung beetles is a practical, sustainable and cost-effective way to alleviate many of the problems we face in farming while lifting profitability. The answer isn’t always fencing and planting. enr94436

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LIVESTOCK | SHEARING

Left: Angus Moore shearing his way to be the 2019/20 PGG Wrightson National Shearing Circuit champion, at Golden Shears. Back home in Marlborough he owns a shearing contracting business and follows the mid-micron wool trends closely.

Photo: Pete Nikolaison.

Shear it all BY: JO GRIGG

P

ut any type of sheep in front of shearer Angus Moore and he won’t be fazed.

The 35-year-old Marlborough shearer and shearing contractor talks more like a sheep breeder, with an appreciation of wool genetics and sheep structure, that shows his farming genealogy. His technique of elegantly removing a fleece; fine wool, second shear or strong wool, up against the clock, was shown to be the best in New Zealand.

Moore won the prestigious Multi Breeds Shearing section of the PGG Wrightson Wool National Shearing Circuit, held at the 2020 Golden Shears event.

Moore has won the right to represent NZ at the Trans-Tasman Shearing Competition.

He also has the use of a Hyundai Santa Fe for a year. One of the first jobs for the seven-seater after the Covid Pandemic lockdown will be delivering two of Angus and Ratapu’s six children to Seddon School. The couple welcomed another baby in May. Despite a busy family life and a shearing run from the Clarence River to the Marlborough Sounds, and St Arnaud, Angus accumulated enough points through the Summer Show circuit to qualify for the final at Golden Shears.

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June 2020

“I couldn’t make all five qualifiers so aimed to qualify by shearing Merino wethers at Alexandra, Corriedales at the Christchurch Show, and second-shear Romneys at Pahiatua.”

Moore made it through to the semi-final as number ten of twelve shearers. Here they shore three sheep of each type, in a very technical competition.

‘Competitions give me something more to aim at in terms of professional development, to be better than I was yesterday.’

“It was a really great event, shearing in front of four thousand people plus thousands watching online.”

“I tried to shear the three Merinos and three Corriedales well, using my experience there, as we are used to shearing more fine and mid-micron sheep in Marlborough, compared to crossbreds, especially secondshear in other parts of the country.”

“Other boys were probably faster than me.”

Moore also won the competition in 2012. From Marlborough farming stock,

Angus built up shearing skills at home then around NZ on the job. Hugely humble, he credits his success to support from his wife and particular help from competition shearers Sam and Emily Welch, Dion Morrell, Chris Jones and Paul Paikea, his wife’s uncle.

“There are so many people whom I have learnt from.”

The Moores’ shearing gang is a family affair and very supportive.

“My brother-in-law is one of our main shearers in our gang and is awesome, and two of Ratapu’s sisters continue to help when they can.

“The whole gang gets along very well, and is always keen to do a good job for us and our farmers.

“Competitions give me something more to aim at in terms of professional development, to be better than I was yesterday.

“It puts you among people who are really passionate about wool and the industry.”

Angus and Ratapu bought their first run from Joe Douglas in 2016, then added another a year later. About 15% of the run are Merinos, 60% Corriedales or halfbreds and 25% stronger wool sheep.

He said he is very blessed with the farmers he shears for.

“They are keen to work together and take pride in what they do with their wool.”

He closely follows the changes in the genetics of flocks and will be interested to see how the trend to reduce micron plays out. He rates the Saxon-based Isolation merino flock of Rob and Sally Peter, Marlborough, as something really special, with their clip weights and style. Their composites produce a fat lamb, so they have both ends of the spectrum covered.

He has noticed some mid-micron flocks moving about two microns finer and is interested to see how the breeders of midmicron will improve their genetics.

“A challenge is getting the trend of the Romney/Merino cross right, as there is a high potential of colour in the fleece.”

53

LIVESTOCK | TECHNOLOGY

The absence of saleyard auctions also meant there was a lack of true market price discovery.

Hybrid sales set to go nationwide BY: ANDREW SWALLOW

T

he Covid-19 catalysed revolution of New Zealand’s livestock trade leapt forward again last month with the first online-onsite hybrid cattle auctions where internet bids were taken simultaneously with ringside bids.

The success of those sales means the service will be rolled out nationwide in the near future and sheep added in due course, New Zealand Farmers Livestock general manager, Bill Sweeney, told Country-Wide.

It could also become available through other companies if they take up NZFL’s invitation to them to use the service for a modest fee, he says.

“We’ve already emailed the other companies inviting them to put their cattle through the platform but at this stage none have taken the opportunity.”

Initial sales at Frankton, Stratford, and Te Kuiti achieved near full clearance, a marked contrast to the PGG Wrightsonowned online-only platform Bidr which Sweeney estimates cleared less than a third of store stock offered during the Covid-19 lockdown.

54

“We’re adamant saleyards are a necessity for the New Zealand farmer; always have been, and always will be.”

Sweeney says online bidding through NZFL’s MyLivestock live auction in tandem with bids from buyers ringside means vendors’ stock reaches a wider market.

Some lines from the initial sales went to buyers beyond the usual catchment for those saleyards.

“From Frankton we had cattle go to Taranaki and from Te Kuiti some went to Whanganui.”

That greater geographical reach could prove particularly helpful in times of drought, making it easier for buyers from regions with feed to access cattle in areas where it is short, and in turn, for vendors needing to offload stock quickly to do so.

Indeed, part of the motivation for fasttracking the service during the Covid-19 lockdown was because other online sales channels and paddock sales weren’t getting the numbers moved that needed to be.

“If you’re trucking cattle, there’s not a huge difference in cost whether you’re moving them 40 to 50km, or 400 to 500km.”

The absence of saleyard auctions also meant there was a lack of true market price

discovery, which was why NZFL resumed sales as soon as Level 3 was introduced.

While inter-regional trade from saleyards has always been possible, in the past it’s required either long distance travel for the potential buyer to attend in person, with all the time, cost and uncertainty of success that incurs, or engaging a buying agent.

Sweeney says online participation also facilitates bidding in multiple sales at different locations on the same day, and buyers can be confident in stock weights because saleyards have certified scales.

Sale catalogues go online several days before sales and are updated with last minute changes as necessary. During a sale, remote bidders can view three camera angles: two on the livestock as they go through the ring, and one on the rostrum.

Bids take less than a second to go from a remote buyer’s screen to an auctioneer’s screen on-site, at which point the auctioneer calls “bid!” as per normal.

Sweeney says auctioneers should be making it clear it’s an online bid too, by calling “online”, in the same way as they might clarify where in the gallery an onsite bid came from.

The system has cost a considerable amount to develop, particularly as they worked “night and day” to bring its launch forward due to the Covid-19 lockdown and drought pressure.

However, Sweeney says NZFL isn’t increasing vendor commission for hybrid sales, nor is there a fee to register as a buyer.

Rather, it’s hoped the extra service will increase NZFL’s clientele (an NZFL account number is required to access the Live Auction portal) and stock throughput so a return on the investment will be generated that way. A permanent bidder number is generated the first time the Live Auction portal is accessed which can then be used online at all subsequent MyLivestock live auctions, regardless of location.

Besides offering hybrid cattle auctions at the other saleyards where NZFL operates, including South Island locations, Sweeney says future developments could include adding a pre-sale video of cattle lines, perhaps with commentary, and sheep sales.

The nature of sheep sales will require a roving camera to relay shots of auctioneers, and the stock offered, as the sale progresses pen to pen, he notes.

Country-Wide

June 2020

Hybrid auctions old-hat overseas

S

aleyard auctions with simultaneous remote bidding have been available since at least 2004 in the US, which was when its saleyard industry representative body, the Livestock Marketing Association, launched its live streaming service.

Today, the LMA livestreams regular sales from 95 sites and it says there are similar web-based services from other providers used by another 150 of the roughly 1000 saleyards in the country.

“The vast majority [of saleyards] are independent, family owned businesses,” LMA’s Kristen Parman told CountryWide. “There are also a few cooperative auctions, owned by a group of livestock producers that saw a need for an auction in their region.”

Australia’s StockLive is also a thirdparty solution to streaming auctions and enabling online bidding. Manager Libby Hufton says since launching three years ago, it now has 15 of the 85 or so saleyards in Australia that run weekly or fortnightly sales using its service, as well as a number of stud stock and special feature sales.

“While there are other online auction players in the market, none are gaining significant traction and none are dedicated specifically to support saleyards like StockLive,” she told Country-Wide.

There’s no fee to bid through StockLive.

Whether vendors pay an additional fee to be part of a livestreamed sale is at the discretion of the saleyards which choose the level of service they wish to provide, from livestream only through to “the full suite of livestreaming and bidding facilities.”

StockLive is fully adaptable to various market requirements and is interested in expansion opportunities in NZ, says Hufton.

Country-Wide

June 2020

Onfarm auctions are unlikely to disappear, but different platforms and options to sell bulls are likely to continue to emerge.

Bull sales move online BY: REBECCA HARPER

B

ull sales around the country are going ahead but in a very different way to normal.

PGG Wrightson National Genetics Manager, Callum Stewart, said sales would be held online using the Bidr platform, from May 13, with 38 sales booked for Bidr.

Stewart said some clients had decided to push sale dates back and carry on as usual.

“Many people would prefer an onfarm auction, but with the Covid-19 restrictions there are a lot of challenges around social gatherings.”

He said PGW wanted to help offer solutions for clients to sell bulls, as it was a significant part of their income, and farmers still needed bulls to get cows in calf. People have taken up the option to use Bidr and carry on with their sale dates.

Stewart said a lot of work was going on behind the scenes conditioning buyers and sellers on using the technology and offering support for those who needed it.

“Bidr is owned by PGW yes, but it’s open to anyone, and it’s supporting a Kiwi business.”

He said regional livestock managers

were being conditioned on how people sign up, how to use Bidr, that their understanding is with technology and how to help them. They can sign people up on their behalf if they were struggling.

“It’s about the bigger picture and helping the whole country.”

Viewing bulls was an obstacle to overcome and farmers needed a safe plan for this to happen at alert level 3.

He said it might be by appointment only, so vendors might have an open week. People could still make their selection in the flesh while practicing social distancing and observing government protocols. Others are choosing to put their trust in their livestock rep to make the selection for them.

He admitted it would be a big change for many but believed there could be positives come from it.

There would be big cost savings for people in going online. If it’s successful, people might choose to utilise it in the future.

“It’s going to create diversity.”

He doesn’t believe onfarm auctions would disappear, but there was likely to be different platforms and options to sell bulls.

55

LIVESTOCK | STOCK CONTROL

Virtual fencing for real BY: LYNDA GRAY

V

irtual fencing looks to be cheaper and more effective than permanent fencing for keeping cattle out of waterways.

That’s the highlevel conclusion of AgResearch trials investigating the suitability and potential for virtual fencing on a typical New Zealand hill sheep and beef system where cattle make up 25-30% of stock units farmed.

The finding is good news for farmers looking for cheaper ways to fence stock from waterways, but there are other add-on benefits from virtual fencing, AgResearch scientist David Stevens says.

“The upside is improved pasture utilisation and quality by being able to move and restrict cattle to certain areas of large hill blocks.”

Stevens is overseeing the second year of a trial at Waipori Station on the shores of Lake Mahinerangi in Otago. The project started in late 2018 following a visit earlier in the year to Agersens, an Australian company developing eShepherd, solarpowered GPS trackers for livestock.

A proof of concept trial of over summer 2018 looked at whether the Australiandeveloped technology would work in a typical NZ cattle system. As well as looking at whether the cattle could be tracked in rugged hill terrain the trial investigated how easily cattle adapted to the technology and whether they became

56

Agersens managing director Ian Reilly with the eShepherd virtual fencing collar.

stressed with the collar-based system.

For the trial a group of 50 Angus steers with non-active collars was contained in an electric fenced area, and another group of 50 with working collars contained within the same-sized area using virtual boundaries.

The cattle trained very quickly and once settled only needed audio cues rather than a minor pulse (which is about 20% the intensity of a boot from an electric fence) to deter them from overstepping the mark.

“They got the message very quickly and there was no evidence of stress. It proved that containment was close to 100%. We also found that the few times an animal did overstep the boundary it only took about 10 minutes to (virtually) herd them back to the group,” Stevens said.

The second trial started late last year, looked at the suitability of using the collars on cows with calves at foot. The collars, at 2kg each, can’t be used on livestock under 250kg liveweight (LW) so the experiment was to see if the cows become agitated and ‘broke’ the fence if their uncollared calf overstepped the virtual boundary.

The raw and yet to be analysed results are promising, Stevens says.

“There was less of a containment problem than with the R2s and no sign of agitation and stress of the cows if their calf wandered outside the boundary… the only failure we did have was with the electric fence used on the control mob.”

The next step is likely to be a large-scale grazing trial by Agersens in Queensland

How does it work?

A virtual fence is drawn on a device.

A base station is installed on the farm to relay the fence’s location to GPS-enabled collars worn by livestock.

Base stations are solar-powered, and the collars are solar-trickle charged. The base station relays the virtual fence’s location to the collars via Internet (3G or satellite) The collars use patented CSIRO training technology to “shepherd” cattle to the desired location, largely by use of an audio cue.

If the animal ignores the audio cue and continues towards the boundary, the collar delivers a mild electric pulse. It is a single pulse and not continual like a shock from an electric fence.

Livestock can be moved by changing the location of the fence assigned to their collar.

The life expectancy of an eShepherd collar is estimated at five-10 years.

before commercial release of the collars.

The big question – the cost of the collars – is commercially sensitive at this stage, Stevens said.

The NZ distributor for eShepherd is Gallaghers.

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June 2020

LIVESTOCK | WINTER FEED

Feed services provide support BY: SANDRA TAYLOR

D

rought in the north, wet weather in the south and the impact of Covid-19 processing delays mean farmers throughout the country are now facing significant feed deficits.

Industry modelling suggests deficits range from 10-30%, depending on the location and Waikato-based farm consultant Bob Thomson says there is a North Island-wide shortage of feed. While it is possible to introduce feed such as palm kernel to cattle, it is much more challenging for sheep and supplementary feed options for ewes are both limited and expensive.

Northland has had some rain, but Thomson is hearing reports of nitrate toxicity as crops and pasture come away.

There’s still some ‘standing hay’ on hill country pastures in Waikato and this has provided valuable feed but with recent rain, the quality of this is fast disappearing.

Farmers are being urged to stay off pastures in the wake of rain to allow covers to build, but he understands the difficulty with this when feed options are so limited.

The situation in Hawke’s Bay is dire and a number of initiatives are underway to help support farmers in this badly affected region.

Farmers struggling with feed resources need to understand the size of the challenge.

“You need to understand the feed supply, the extent of the feed demand, identify the gap and what you can do about it – knowing is far better than wondering.”

Thomson is one of the AgFirst consultants working alongside the Ministry of Primary Industries, Federated Farmers, DairyNZ and Beef + Lamb New Zealand to help farmers plan their feed management.

This industry-resourced service, which was launched in April, offers feed budgeting and professional farm systems advice.

In the first instance, farmers will get an assessment of their feed planning needs by their relevant industry or levy organisation, from there they can access an advisor who can discuss management options and avenues for practical support.

For farmers who require more in-depth support, they will be referred to a farm systems consultant, but there will be cost to this service.

He says they are giving farmers a hand to get the numbers together and to create a plan about how they will get through the winter.

“It’s about sharing the problem, there is no shame in getting someone to give you a hand to put the numbers together – second opinions are usually valuable even

when confirming you’ve already covered all bases.”

Thomson, who jokes about being around long enough to have lived through many droughts and floods, says the service is also about sharing the experiences of others.

Some strategies might include pushing breeding cows a bit harder, as this stock class has come through a dry summer in good condition and carefully managing ewes to try and build covers for spring while protecting their performance.

“It’s not ideal to knock condition off them but they might have to suck it up to get through to October-November when we can expect to see a surplus.”

“It’s about feeding on needs not wants.”

To get through this winter, he says it important farmers have trust and hope.

“Trust that the plan is the best it can be and you have thought of everything.”

It is also about trusting advisors, friends or colleagues to act as a sounding board and provide advice.

“A problem shared is a problem halved, it’s an old cliché but it is so true, and of course you have to have people around you who you can trust.”

Retaining hope is critical and Thomson says farmers need to remember they will likely have feed surpluses next spring and will be wondering what to do with it all.

›› Cost of feed p58

Feeding out in Hawke’s Bay.

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Cost of Feed Feed type

% DM

kgDM/ wet tonne

MJME/ kgDM

$Cents/ kgDM

c/MJME

Range Cents/ kgDM

Pasture

18%

180

10.5

10

0.95

8.5-12.5

Swede

11%

110

13.5

27

2.0

24-30

Turnip

10%

100

13.5

30

2.2

26-34

Rape

20%

200

12.4

31

2.5

26-34

Kale

16%

160

11.9

31

2.6

26-34

Fodder beet

20%

200

12

22

1.8

19-25

Green maize

24%

240

10.5

20

1.9

17-23

Lucerne

24%

240

11

23

2.1

19-27

Fodder radish

11%

110

11.5

24

2.1

20-28

Oats

17%

170

13

21

1.62

17-25

Barley

17%

170

12.5

31

2.48

26-35

Ryecorn

17%

170

12.2

19

1.56

16-23

Wheat

17%

170

9.5

30

3.16

26-34

Crops

Green feeds

Supplements Feed type

% DM

kgDM/ wet tonne

Cost/unit

MJME/ kgDM

Cents / kgDM

Cents / MJME

Range ($/unit)

Balage

37%

370

$90/Bale (450kg)

10

54.1

5.41

$80-105/Bale

Hay

85%

850

$80/Bale (300kg)

8

31.4

3.92

$70-$90/Bale

Hay - Lucerne

85%

850

$130/Bale (300kg)

9

51.0

5.66

$120-140/Bale

Silage - Maize

35%

350

$119/T

10.8

34.0

3.15

$110-$130/T

Silage - Grass

35%

350

$116/T

10.5

33.0

3.14

$105-$125/T

Straw - Barley

86%

860

$45/Bale (200kg)

7.1

26.2

3.68

$40-$50/Bale

Straw - Pea

86%

860

$30/Bale (210kg)

7.2

16.6

2.31

$25-$35/Bale

Straw - Wheat

86%

860

$30/Bale (220kg)

5.7

15.9

2.78

$25-$35/Bale

Concentrates

% DM

kgDM/ wet tonne

Cost/tonne

MJME/ kgDM

Cents/ kgDM

Cents/ MJME

Range ($/T)

Sheep nuts

94%

940

$835

12

88.83

7.40

$805-$865

Wheat

86%

860

$470

13.5

54.65

4.05

$450-$490

Barley

86%

860

$450

13.1

52.33

3.99

$430-$470

Oats

86%

860

$440

11.6

51.16

4.41

$420-$460

Maize meal (kibbled)

86%

860

$510

13.9

59.30

4.27

$485-$535

Linseed cake

86%

860

$1100

12

127.91

10.66

$1000-$1200

Peas

86%

860

$400

13.1

46.51

3.55

$390-$410

Broll (Pollards + Bran)

85%

850

$440

10.5

51.76

4.93

$420-$460

Brewers grains

35%

350

$615

10

175.71

17.57

$580-$650

Molasses

75%

750

$384

11.8

51.20

4.34

$370-$400

Lucerne meal

86%

860

$1000

10

116.28

11.63

$950-$1050

PKE

90%

900

$420

11

46.67

4.24

$400-$440

Soybean hulls - pellets

88%

880

$615

12

69.89

5.82

$590-$640

Soy meal

88%

880

$750

12

85.23

7.10

$730-$770

Tapioca

88%

880

$390

12.5

44.32

3.55

$370-$410

Canola meal

89%

890

$685

11.7

76.97

6.58

$670-$700

Corn gluten meal

95%

950

$480

12.7

50.53

3.98

$460-$500

Dry distillers wheat

95%

950

$485

12.7

51.05

4.02

$460-$510

Carrots

13%

130

$40

13

30.77

2.37

$10-$50

Potatoes

24%

240

$30

12.6

12.50

0.99

$10-$50

Onions

10%

100

$25

13

25.00

1.92

$10-$40

Pumpkin

8.4%

84

$40

12.9

47.62

3.69

$10-$50

Table information is presented in accordance with industry averages. Pricing is subject to change over time as well between regions of New Zealand and companies. Some of these feed sources are not commonly found, this report is intended to provide guidance on a vast range of supplement livestock feeds. Although some feed types appear superior from a cents/ kg or MJME aspect it needs mentioning that there are a range of other nutritional factors not included in this report (e.g. crude protein, fat, minerals). All prices are exclusive of freight.

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SUPPLEMENTARY FEED TABLE Farmers are considering a range of supplementary feed options this year and recently developed feed tables will help them make informed decisions about the best feed for their budget and stock requirements.

Put together by BakerAg for B+LNZ, the feed table provides drymatter (DM) and energy (MJME) content of a wide range of supplementary feeds as well as a breakdown of costs per kilogram of DM and MJME. B+LNZ Extension Manager Mark Harris says the table includes a number of less commonly used feeds such as tapioca, canola meal, corn gluten meal, broll and vegetables.

He says the costs provided were the costs of the feed on April 20, so while these may vary, these will at least give farmers an indication of the relative value of different feeds.

All of the costs are exclusive of freight and while energy (MJME) is a critical value, other nutritional factor should be taken into account when farmers are looking at purchasing non-traditional supplementary feeds.

See Tables: To calculate cost of feed: a) Unit (eg tonne, bale, bag) b) Unit weight (kg) c) Dry matter % d) kgDM/unit = b x c e) Cost f) Cost per kgDM = e/d g) ME h) Cost per mjME = f/g Example calculation: Balage bales Unit weight = 450kg. Dry matter = 37% kgDM/unit = 450 x 37% = 166.5kg. Cost = $90 Cost per kgDM = $90 / 166.5 = 54.1c ME = 10. Cost per MJME = 54.1c/10mjme = 5.41c/MJME.

FEED SERVICE PROVES INVALUABLE One couple, who were pro-active in using the service when it first became available, say they were given some very valuable advice and a feed budget they could work with.

They had many sleepless nights before talking to Beef + Lamb’s Mark Harris and AgFirst’s BobThomson.

The couple (who did not wish to be named) found themselves in what they describe as the perfect storm. Experienced farmers, they bought their undeveloped hill country sheep, beef and deer farm in

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the South Island one year ago and walked straight into a drought.

While they knew the first couple of years were going to be tough as they invested in capital fertiliser and a fencing and development programme, they had not bargained on the combination of drought and an inability to shift stock.

They had bought some supplementary feed but it was not enough to meet the demands of the extra mouths they unexpectedly found themselves carrying and the cartage costs of shifting supplementary feed out of other parts of the country was prohibitive.

They knew that some outside help would be valuable, but the budget wouldn’t stretch to a farm consultant, so they grabbed the opportunity to use the free feed budgeting and advisory service when it became available.

“There is always someone who has dealt with worse situations who can share their experiences.”

They urge other farmers dealing with stretched feed resources to use the service.

“It’s ok to put your hand up and benefit from some fresh thinking”.

“We really encourage people to use the B+LNZ feed service and get advice because someone else might think of something you haven’t thought of, no matter how experienced you are.”

To access this service, phone these tollfree numbers: Dry stock sector- Beef + Lamb: 0800BEEFLAMB (0800 233 352) Dairy sector-DairyNZ 0800 4 DairyNZ (0800 4 3247969) This service will be available until 30 June 2020 at which time farmer need will be revised.

FARMER CASE STUDIES AgFirst has compiled four farmer case studies to allow other farmers to see how a range of management tools and plans have been successfully applied in areas of the

country with feed deficits.

They include a farm overview, options analysis, gross margin comparisons, a detailed breakdown of the decision-making process, practical considerations and next steps.

The level of detail included in these case studies allows farmers to see the whole decision-making process and cost analysis as well as the practical implications of the management changes.

These can be found on the Beef + Lamb NZ website.

A COORDINATED EFFORT In recent weeks Waikato-based AgFirst consultant James Allen has been working with multiple organisations to help coordinate the drought response. This has included the pulling together of the MPI, Federated Farmers, B+LNZ and Dairy NZ Feed Service and allocating support to sheep and beef farmers using the service.

He has also helped develop farmer casestudies for B+LNZ and is putting together fortnightly feed surveys for MPI. This means he has a finger firmly on the pulse of feed supplies throughout the country.

Recent rain has helped ease the feed situation in Waikato and parts of the Northland, but despite pasture growth rates of 40-50kgDM/ha/day in these areas, farmers will still be well below target pasture covers on 1 June. While Taranaki is faring better than other regions Wairarapa is a mixed bag.

Hawke’s Bay is by far the most severely affected region with pasture growth rates ranging from 0 to 10kgDM/ha/day.

The situation in North Canterbury is mixed, with some parts receiving reasonable rainfall, while Central and South Canterbury are doing well, thanks in part to irrigation. Conversely, too much rain in Southland means winter feed crops are well below target.

• More winter stories p69.

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LIVESTOCK | ANIMAL HEALTH PLANS

Check animal trace elements As part of a series on reminders for farm animal health plans, Canterbury veterinarian Ben Allott looks at trace element supplementation.

T

he Autumn period often brings a focus to discussions around trace element supplementation. There are several points to highlight.

The genuine need to supplement different trace elements is highly variable across the country. Stock classes carried, soil types, fertiliser history, forage types used and feeding levels are just some of the many factors that will influence the trace element status of stock on a farm. The need to supplement should be based on farm specific monitoring.

Strong NZ-based animal trials generated the reference ranges advocated by Neville Grace, Scott Knowles, and Andrew Sykes are robust for livestock. Beef + Lamb NZ have two excellent factsheets covering this material. Trace element nutrition of sheep and Trace element nutrition of cattle are both freely available on the its knowledge hub. Double check that your advisor is

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making recommendations based on these NZ reference ranges rather than from material derived from overseas data.

MONITOR TRACE ELEMENT STATUS. Every test you do should contribute important information to your understanding of the farm. Different sampling methods, e.g. blood testing versus liver testing, give contrasting bits of information. It takes a well-planned approach with a thorough understanding of your farm system to execute a testing regime well. Sit down with an animal health advisor before spending money on testing. Develop a well-planned approach to ensure your spend delivers genuine value for money.

WHAT TESTING/MONITORING OPTIONS DO YOU HAVE? Liver biopsy – while more timeconsuming to collect, biopsies provide

the most reliable assessment of the trace element status of a group of animals, particularly in the case of assessing copper and vitamin B12 status.

Blood samples – useful for confirming the current (adequate vs. deficient) status of a mob but less useful in making longer term projections.

The analogy I like to use for copper is: ‘A liver biopsy is like measuring how much water is in the tank at the top of the hill. I know if there is enough for my immediate need. But I can also make an estimate as to how long the water (copper) will last me. A blood test is like turning on the tap at the bottom of the hill – there is enough water coming out for right now but this test doesn’t give any information about how long the water will last.”

Herbage testing – if you are testing the feed quality of herbage on a block/ crop or doing dry matter assessment for

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Left: A liver biopsy is like measuring water in the tank at the top of the hill. A blood test confirms enough water is coming out, but doesn’t say how long it will last.

Right: A pre-winter drench should be an oral, triple combination drench and if pre-winter lice control is needed, use a separate lice specific product.

yield calculations you can extend your feed test to include a number of trace elements. We have a good understanding of the nutritional requirements for copper, selenium, cobalt and this feed test information can be very useful.

We are several steps away from our animals here and the relationship between soil status and animal status is less reliable.

However, an understanding of the soil type and fertility, the measurement of some key trace elements, and the assessment of levels of interfering elements can provide useful insights into likely animal status. This may trigger targeted animal testing to provide more robust measurement of the true need to supplement.

Doing your own visual/measured assessment, observing and measuring the response to supplementation is a valid and very valuable process to undertake. It is important to get good advice on designing these trials to ensure the data collected is valid, and able to be interpreted in a useful way.

GENERAL REMINDERS FOR SHEEP LATE AUTUMN • Scanning: In the March article I briefly discussed how different approaches to scanning can provide numerous benefits to managing tight feed supply.

Remember, for the sheep scanner to age fetuses reliably, or to pick out triplets, the scanning date will need to be earlier.

• Shearing: Late-pregnancy/pre-lamb shearing brings with it a number of risks i.e. milk fever, sleepy sickness, and reduced lamb vigour. These risks are significantly increased in years where more ewes are in low body condition and when winter/spring feed levels are tight. If you shear ewes in late pregnancy seriously explore autumn shearing in early/mid pregnancy.

• Body condition scoring: Feed levels are very tight through many areas of the country and there’s a lot of discussion around feed supplements for sheep,

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grain versus pellets etc. Drafting low body condition ewes allows you to target higher cost supplements to the sheep that need it, reducing the amount of imported feed used. Sheep in adequate body condition can go on to tighter maintenance-only allocations.

• Iodine deficiency: It is a common cause of higher lamb loss, particularly in farm systems with brassica wintering.

Scanning is a common time-point for iodine supplementation to occur if necessary. If you have not looked at whether iodine deficiency could be affecting lamb wastage on your farm now is the time to ask the question.

• Nitrates: Be conscious of the risk of nitrate toxicity on autumn-sown grasses, fodder cereal crops, N-fertilised pasture, and brassica crops. The Hill Laboratories NZ website has an excellent free technical note that I refer to constantly called ‘Nitrate-nitrogen in pasture & stock feeds.’

With high nitrate feeds the highest risk is during the introduction of new feed types. A slow transition period with increased allocations over a 7-10 day period will significantly lower the risk.

Hungry sheep that gorge on feed are at higher risk – gut fill before the crop/ green feed allocation to slow down intake is useful.

REMINDERS FOR BEEF CATTLE: • Drenching young cattle: most weaners will have had their first drench and will be lining up for their next prewinter drench sometime in later May. My standard recommendation is that this drench should be an oral, triple

combination drench and if pre-winter lice control is needed, use a separate lice specific product.

• Copper and Selenium supplementation of young cattle: If a genuine need to supplement is confirmed the treatment options are numerous, each with their pro’s and con’s. There is no one right answer but there are a few points to discuss with your advisor. In general terms, oral bolus products provide a larger amount of trace element, supplement the animal for a longer period, and are safer than many injection products. E.g. a 2mL dose of copper injection provides 100mg of copper. A 20g copper wire bolus (once efficiency of absorption is factored in) is likely to provide at least 9-10 times more available copper.

• Toxicity risk: Many injectable products should not be used alongside other animal health treatments due to the risk of toxicity. This can make them more difficult to safely use in mobs, particularly young stock, where you want to minimise yarding events.

• Transitioning young cattle on to winter crop: Yes, it is recommended to reduce the risk of stock dying from rumen acidosis, bloat, and nitrate toxicity but a well-managed transition can significantly increase average daily gain through the rest of winter. Many young cattle that develop bloating and diarrhoea when introduced to crop are suffering from sub-clinical acidosis which goes on to reduce their feed intake, feed conversion efficiency and growth rates for the rest of winter. The time taken transitioning onto crop is well worth the effort.

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LIVESTOCK | STOCK CHECK

Problems with virtual BY: TREVOR COOK

I

f you believed in a greater power, it could be accepted that external factors conspired to combine their effects to exaggerate the impact of each other.

But this leaves no one to blame, which is necessary to do to help get through the consequences of this.

A drought on its own can almost be accepted as an almost necessary part of weather variations or cycles which have to be endured. There are a number of farmers this year who will be finding it difficult to offer any acceptance because of the extreme nature of dry. The drought management packages are always brought out when those weather events occur. But when some of the key actions advised to take in such packages are not available because of the forementioned conspiracy, the outcome can be very dim. Add to that so much uncertainty about what is ahead and it can be hard to feel really positive. Whenever there is a commentary about how well we are placed because we produce much needed protein there is another commentary about the difficulties in accessing such markets. These latter commentaries always soften their concerns by highlighting the benefit to farmers of a falling dollar. Almost as if this has been a saving strategy.

So where to from here? I have been virtual interacting with a number of farmer groups and farming businesses over the last few weeks and have been heartened by the rational discussions and focus on factors that maintain productivity.

That has to be the focus with so much uncertainty. Review everything later in the year.

This virtual interaction is being touted as the communication of the future. Being forced into it presently has required some learning but also some reflection on what the most effective way is to communicate to farmer groups, a small business team or an individual. For individuals, the communication channels of the past have continued.

But as the primary channel, replacing

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Virtual group meetings are not as good as going on to the farm.

face to face is difficult to accept. A recent virtual advisory board meeting for a farming company went well and was as effective as if we had all been together as in the past.

We knew each other well, and we all had a good understanding of the topics being discussed. From a time effectiveness point of view, it was awesome. In three hours we had it completed. In the past there has been half a day travel there and back, the meetings took more like four hours due to more discussion, and banter, and longer coffee breaks. Was the virtual meeting the other day more enjoyable? No. The virtual farmer group meetings, which are replacing get together meetings are a different story. Usually I do not know any of the farmers. My presentations I rattle through in about half the time than speaking to them directly. By the end I have answered about half as many questions than in the past. I cannot tell if I have penetrated any minds and do not know any farmers any better than before. So how effective was it? This virtual platform prevents changing course in presenting which I often do once sensing what the audience is wanting or in response to me sensing that I am not hitting home. Instead I just charge on gazing at the screen almost oblivious to where my words are landing. This is certainly the case for one-off meetings.

Another group that I interact with about every two weeks is becoming much more interactive. I knew the members of that group before the new communicating style and the topics are very specific. Still not as effective as being together and certainly not as enjoyable. Interacting with people is what we are programmed to do and what I enjoy.

The future could be a blend of virtual and actual interaction. Reducing the amount of travel is one benefit of virtual communication, along with more time spent at home.

Having just spent over eight weeks at home I am thinking that benefit might not be as big as it might appear. On the other hand, going around a farm sharing that farmer’s commentary of how it is farmed is precious. So much can be learned, the farmer can feel understood in what he/she is doing. As long as I am not critical, my assessment of pastures and stock condition for example can be made and a basis for further discussion is set.

Virtual farm appraisal can never do this.

But maybe farm business meetings can. I am yet to be convinced that virtual group meetings or discussions can ever be as useful. The changes ahead are those of opinions and may not be as restricting as many are suggesting. Changes that lower enjoyment will be a hard pill to swallow though.

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DEER FARMER | ONFARM

KEY POINTS • Elk stud, commercial breeding and weaner finishing, trophy breeding and hunting; velvet production.

• Winter 15,000 stock units on two farms, Calchanburn at Patearoa, and Loganburn at Pareau.

• Clachanburn 2700ha - 300ha of partially irrigated flats, and 2400ha of hill country.

• 11,000 SU comprising sire and trophy elk, breeding hinds and weaners.

• Loganburn, Styx Valley 270ha - includes 250ha of developed flats.

• 4000SU comprising red velvet stags and hybrid weaners.

John Falconer inspects this year’s fodder beet crop.

Lift, chip and feed BY: LYNDA GRAY

L

ifting, chipping and winter feeding with lucerne silage is the next chapter in fodderbeet feeding of deer at John and Mary Falconer’s Maniototo

farms.

This year about seven hectares of the total 70ha crop will be lifted, chipped and carted for feeding to hinds as well as sire and trophy stags on the rougher foothill country at Clachanburn.

A beet bucket will be used to lift, depending on the weather, a week to 10

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days of crop at a time. The beet will be put through a diesel-powered beet chipper and mixed with silage for feeding from a silage wagon.

Carting and feeding a tailor-made diet of beet and silage, as well as grazing the crop in situ should create a more efficient feeding system with less waste, John says.

A good example is the small mobs of velvet and trophy stags who used to share and graze five strand hotwire subdivided beet paddocks. There was a lot of wastage and on top of that was the hassle of shifting of the breaks. Feeding the smaller mobs the chipped beet on the lower hill

country will be a lot easier.

“I think that spreading some of the mobs on the hill will improve utilisation of the crop and reduce the potential for mud, but it should also be easier on the animals because they’ll have good access to shelter.”

In the past, weaners and stags transitioned on to beet over three weeks with access to a run-off paddock. The system worked well enough, although the two and three-year-old stags, familiar with the crop from the previous year, tended to gorge themselves. It was difficult to regulate because of the hassle of break shifting and led to a few cases of acidosis which John is keen to eliminate.

This year the transition time will be extended and based around the feeding of chipped beet and silage from mid to late May until moving onto the crop around Queen’s Birthday weekend. The new management should give the deers’ rumens more time to adapt to digestion of the crop and reduce the likelihood of acidosis.

Transition issues aside John is convinced that the lifting of fodder beet for feeding to sheep, beef cattle and deer will catch on.

“I believe that over time we’ll see more lifting of beet for feeding, rather than bulk feeding and grazing of the crop because of environmental, animal welfare and ultilisation benefits.”

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This year’s crop is a mix of medium to high drymatter varieties SFGitty , SFLifta, and SF1505. The beet was precision drilled at 90,000 seeds/ha in early November with 250kg/ha of Ravensdown fodder beet fertiliser. Escolta was sprayed on in early February and mid-March. It’s the second season the fungicide has been used and it’s led to a huge improvement in leaf health.

“It’s been a game-changer. It keeps the leaf healthy through the autumn and means there’s extra growth and quality feed into the winter.”

Weeds are controlled with two sprays of Quattro, 12 days apart.

He used to worry about the size of the beet but now pays more attention to the size of the weeds and when to spray.

“You have to hit them hard and if you take short-cuts, you’ll struggle with them for the rest of the season.”

Quattro and DAP are applied by helicopter to avoid soil compaction and plant damage.

‘Spreading some of the mobs on the hill will improve utilisation of the crop and reduce the potential for mud, but it should also be easier on the animals because they’ll have good access to shelter.’

“We’re growing nine plants to the square metre and I want to maintain as high a plant population as possible, because the loss of one plant makes a big difference to the yield.”

The crop is irrigated during establishment with roto-rainer and K-line irrigation. The crop yield varies from 18 to 26 tonnes and costs about $1800-$2000/ ha to grow.

“It’s expensive on a per-hectare basis but for me it’s about the cost per kilograms of drymatter and for us in our system fodder beet works.”

This year’s 70ha will be grazed from the week after Queens Birthday until the end of September by 2700 weaners as well as 470 red stags and 400 elk bulls.

The area is evenly split between the two farms. The Clachanburn crop is for elk stud, trophy and velvet stags.

At Loganburn, a 20-minute drive from Clachanburn, the crop is for hybrid weaners and red velvet stags.

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The beet and lucerne silage mix will be used to transition deer onto the beet crop and will also be carted and fed to other mobs of deer wintering on low hill country blocks.

A lot of rot Fodder beet is grown throughout Central Otago and generally performs well, although some of the low drymatter varieties are struck by bulb rot caused by repeated hard frosts. The Falconers used to grow low drymatter varieties’ but when bulb rot struck crops leaving them short of feed for weaners, they changed to higher ones.

A trial at Clachanburn as part of the Central Otago Advance Party that John belongs to, confirmed the higher tolerance, yield and longer life of the higher drymatter varieties in hard frost conditions. For the trial two rows of three

different cultivars - low medium and high drymatter varieties - were sown side by side.

The higher drymatter variety looked much the same as the lower one but yielded an extra three to four tonnes.

This was significant given that all varieties cost the same amount to grow.

The big benefit from John’s perspective was that the higher dry matter variety maintained quality until mid-September.

“When your fodder beet crop goes mushy after four to five days of 8 degree frosts it’s scary, especially when you have 1000 weaners to feed.”

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Early adopter The Falconers were one of the first in the region to start growing fodder beet, trialling a 12ha crop of Brigadier in 2009 to compare yield and feed quality to the swede crop traditionally fed to Clachanburn deer.

There was no precision drill available locally, so John used his Aitcheson direct drill sowing 90,000 seeds/ha. The first crop yielded 7t DM/ha more than what the swedes would have with the same amount of water and fertilizer convincing him that the crop was a much more cost competitive option.

Interestingly the cost of the seed has stayed much the same, which doesn’t add up in John’s mind.

“We paid $367/ha in 2008 when it was in short supply. Since then the area grown has increased hugely and the seed is readily available which I thought would have reduced the price but this year we paid $370/ha.”

Since the first crop there’s been continual developments around the management of the crop.

“We put on a ridiculous amount of

fertiliser in the early years, but we’ve learnt a lot since then. The success boils down to getting it in the ground early, feeding the leaves, and weed control.”

Six years ago, year the Falconers bought an Inodecker pneumatic precision six row seeder which means the crop can be sown when the conditions are ideal rather than having to wait around for a contractor. It’s been used for kale and swedes but the yields of neither got close to the fodder beet, and on top of that was the aphid and insect strikes which are never a problem on the beet.

John says he’ll stick with fodder beet because it’s ideally suited to their system, which is constrained by a lack of area for winter feeding.

They have 300ha of paddocks to winter 15,000 stock units which need 1400t of brassica-type supplements.

“I couldn’t do that without fodder beet.”

He believes they are at optimal production under a partially irrigated system, and will be happy if yields stay up.

Lucy and Charlie Falconer with some of this year’s trophy antler cut from animals that were destined for hunting clients that never arrived because of Covid-19.

TROPHY TIME

Lucerne the key Fodder beet is big at Clachanburn, but so too is lucerne silage.

About 3000t is ensiled every year.

“We spend more money making silage than we do growing beet.”

John says the feeding of lucerne silage along with the beet is the key to the overall success of the winter feeding system.

“It’s a high-protein supplement and we’ve never had a problem with deer tiring of the beet which I think is due to the lucerne silage.”

The silage is tested in April for quality and drymatter which is then used to calculate winter feeding.

The daily drymatter feed allowance is budgeted at 4% of deer liveweight and comprising two-thirds beet and one-third silage. Scales on the silage wagon keep tabs on what’s fed out.

Right: John is still experimenting to find the ideal size of chipped beet.

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June 2020

Trophy antlers are lined up along the tiered bench seating of the Falconer’s selling arena. It’s the end result of trophy hunting season cut short.

Trophy breeding and hunting is an important income stream at Clachanburn. The Falconers have developed both an elk and red deer park which they populate with home-bred elk and red deer and other bought-in trophy animals. John does most of the guiding but also hosts other guides with paying clients. Last year 70 trophy animals were despatched and the early signs were that a similar number would be hunted this season.

However, Covid-19 brought an abrupt halt to the season. The trophy deer were brought back down from the hunting blocks for antler removal and wintering on crop. The Falconers hope the borders will be open again by the time they go out again next season.

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DEER | LEADERSHIP

Karen Middelberg: ‘We desperately need rain.’ Photo: Richard Hilson.

Encouraging the young BY: LYNDA GRAY

H

awke’s Bay deer farmer Karen Middelberg is the new North Island executive council member of the NZDFA following the retirement of Grant Charteris.

It isn’t the ideal time to step up to an industry governance role given the global disruption and turmoil created by Covid-19, she says.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty but the deer industry is not alone. The obvious challenge is trying to predict what the future will be like.”

But an unexpected spin-off from the pandemic could be a change in attitude towards agriculture.

“Other sectors have come to a stand-still, but agriculture has kept going so it could be that people start see farming as a more stable career choice.”

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Encouraging the next generation to become involved in deer farming is one area she is keen to keep driving. The deer industry had some good initiatives in place such as the Next Generation programme but perhaps that could be built on with development of a clearer career pathway like the dairy industry.

“That would be a fantastic step, but it would need the buy-in and support of farmers.”

A big plus for the deer industry was the collaborative working relationship of farmers, processors and Deer Industry New Zealand.

“We have a great networking system, and a lot of readily accessible information to draw on and it’s something that the industry should be proud of.”

Karen has governance experience from school boards and Central Hawke’s Bay Consumers Power Trust. She also completed the Agricultural Women’s

Development Trust Escalator course two years ago with part sponsorship from the Ian Spiers Trust, a deer industry grant fund.

Aside from the challenge of a new governance role, a more pressing issue is the winter feeding of deer. She is involved in the running of two mixed livestock farms Jedburgh, with husband and vet Richard Hilson: and Clovelly with sister Michelle.

On both farms weaners usually graze on saved pasture with a top-up of maize through late autumn and winter, but that option has all but dried up with the absence of rain since October reducing rainfall to about one-third of the usual 12-month average.

“There’s no feed locally to buy in so we’ve had to feed palm kernel to weaners… we desperately need rain.”

However, a 14 hectare crop of Kestrel kale (3ha at Jedburgh and 11ha at Clovelly) will maintain hinds from early July until

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June 2020

KEY POINTS • Karen Middelberg. Central Hawke’s Bay deer farmer and NZDFA executive council member.

• Farms Jedburgh, with husband Richard Hilson; and Clovelly, with sister Michelle, and stock managers Tom Paget and Zac Averill.

Jedburgh • 208ha of flats near Takapau • Deer 1300su (300 weaners, 290 – 300 MA hinds, 100 velvet stags).

• Sheep 900su, cattle 200su • In the process of reducing sheep numbers and building velveting herd.

Clovelly • Deer 2000su (400 weaners, 400 hinds incl R2s, 100 velvet stags) • Sheep 2700su, cattle 900su.

the beginning of September. Kestrel has been the winter mainstay for hinds since 2009 because it yields consistently and is cheap to grow. Keeping the hinds on kale also frees up paddocks for the weaners. They’re rotated around paddocks which has the added advantage of helping control internal parasites.

It’s a simple system. The start date of feeding is based on crop testing in mid-April to assess the total drymatter on hand. That amount is divided by the per hind daily feed allowance of 2.5kg/ head and worked back from August 30 to get the starting date.

The hinds are given weekly breaks and topped up with either balage or silage.

At Jedburgh it costs about 6c/kg DM to grow, and usually yields about 12 tonnes/ha.

The Kale is part of a three-year rotation into new pasture. This year’s crop at Clovelly followed old pasture and will be followed with plantain before going into grass in 18 months time.

Kale is a cost-effective and simple system that they’ll stick with, Karen says.

“It’s never failed and its why we keep growing it.”

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June 2020

Research restructure BY: LYNDA GRAY

A

change to the structure of funding for deer industry research is not a cost-cutting measure, Innes Moffat, DINZ chief executive says.

“We are committed to current levels (of funding) and if the new model is successful there is the opportunity to increase funding,” he says.

Late last year DINZ announced that the two joint venture groups, DEEResearch and VARNZ (Velvet Antler Research NZ), that have since the mid-1990s co-ordinated and prioritised research will be wound up.

VARNZ was a joint venture between AgResearch and DINZ. It was formed in 1994 when New Zealand was leading the way in velvet-related science driven by a specialist research team at Invermay.

DEEResearch was a three-way partnership between DINZ, AgResearch and Pamu. AgResearch was the major funder contributing about 75% of the annual budget which ranged between $1.8 million and $2 million over the past five years. Pamu, the country’s largest deer farmer, has provided support in kind

as well as about $50,000 a year. DINZ has contributed around $400,000 for the past three years and will fund at a similar level for the coming financial year, Moffat says.

Under the new structure velvet and antler will come under the same generic deer research banner.

“In the early stages of the industry it was felt necessary to separate velvet and antler from other deer-related research, but the feeling now is it isn’t necessary because we’re dealing with one animal in an integrated system.”

Research will fall into one of four categories: genetics; environmental stewardship; pre-farmgate; and postfarmgate. Each category will be managed by a steering group of industry representatives, including farmers, who will prioritise research needs.

“I’m not envisaging a wholesale change in the direction or themes of research. What we’re looking for is better engagement from farmers and the wider deer industry.”

Deer farmers are supportive of the move, NZ Deer Farmers Association chair John Somerville says.

Set for spring BY: LYNDA GRAY

S

et up for spring feeding now, advises Glenn Judson, Agricom animal nutritionist and adviser to the deer industry’s P2P feeding

group.

Unlike sheep and beef systems early spring for deer systems was the critical time to have feed budgeted to capitalise on the main venison and velvet markets.

Weaners were gearing up for growth, velvet stags were on the brink of button drop, and hinds were in the final trimester of pregnancy.

“It won’t be easy given the feed shortages in a lot of places but now’s the time to be looking at where and how you can ration things, so you have a feed bubble for August and September,” he said.

Anecdotal evidence was that the yield of winter crops was back about 20-30%.

“It’s ugly but you need to know just how ugly, are you dealing with a 50 tonne or 250 tonne feed gap?

A winter feed budget was an obvious and important step, but there was potential to further finetune by identifying maintenance and sub-maintenance lines of stock.

“You can split mobs up according to when you plan to quit stock or when you absolutely have to start increasing their intake.”

His other tip in a tight feed winter situation was to match the feeding of supplements with fodder beet and brassicas according to protein content. A good example was fodder beet which was higher protein source over the first part of winter until the leaf started wilting and dying off.

“For beet it makes sense to feed the lower value protein supplements early on and the higher protein supplements later on.”

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DEER | LINCOLN RESEARCH

Engine room of deer research

L

incoln University is entering a new wave of deer research.

A $200,000 upgrade of the university’s deer research facility, including specially adapted pens to study the diet-related metabolic processes of deer, is the engine room of research led by Pablo Gregorini, Professor of Livestock Production.

Since joining the faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences three years ago he has developed a research relationship with the deer industry working on projects looking at dietary influences on the feed utilisation, welfare, and environmental effects of deer.

The results of one of the projects suggest that replacing a ryegrass diet with plantain could reduce the environmental footprint of deer.

“We have found that red deer fed plantain excrete more urine with less nitrogen, and drink less water compared to those grazing ryegrass,” Gregorini says.

Another project was looking at the best method for measuring the drymatter intake (DMI), as well as the digestibility and faecal output of deer. Methods had

been developed for sheep and cattle, and the research hoped to validate whether these were applicable to deer. Long term the methods and data generated could help identify and select more feed efficient deer with a lower environmental footprint.

Another project was looking at whether deer, which are highly susceptible to stress-related diseases, could potentially self-medicate by grazing a diverse herbbased diet.

“We see that this could possibly add value to venison.”

One of Gregorini’s PhD students Cristian Moreno Garcia is replicating a beef project for deer, looking at their different grazing “personalities”. This involved tracking over time where, what, and how different classes of deer grazed, and the results could lead to the design of forage and herb mixes according to landscape.

The deer projects are part of broader based studies looking at the development and potential of pastoral livestock systems which are profitable, and sustainable and ethical from a consumer perspective.

Some of the research questions the environmental sustainability of

Benchmarked production and Johne’s disease info on your deer Carcass weight

traditional ryegrass and white cloverbased ruminant systems. In research papers co-authored by Grigorini he said such systems produced an excess of crude protein (nitrogen) of which only 30% was utilised by the animal for growth.

The rest was excreted, mainly in urine.

Also, ryegrass and clover systems were focused on maximising production and profitability at the expense of biodiversity, water and air quality and soil health.

In a research paper submitted for academic review Grigorini and co-author Matthew Beck argue that ‘functional dietary diversity’, as opposed to ‘dietary monotony’ offers livestock better nourishment, health benefits and wellbeing.

Grigorini is lead organiser of an international workshop on ‘Grazing in Future Multiscapes’ to be held in July 2021.

Base your deer management decisions on the numbers.

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Contact DeerPRO for your report.

65 60 55 50 45 15/16

16/17

17/18 Season

68

Pablo Gregorini, Lincoln University Professor of Livestock Production.

18/19

19/20

0800 456 453 or info@deerpro.org.nz

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DP0520

BY: LYNDA GRAY

June 2020

CROP & FORAGE | FEED

White lupins are a very high protein (30%) large seed option, ideal for a protein boost to sheep.

Plugging the feed gap BY: JOANNA GRIGG

P

asture and crop wintering systems are running close to the bread line. Farmers are needing affordable supplements to top up stock on much of New Zealand’s

east coast.

Through autumn many farmers in North Canterbury, Marlborough, Hawke’s Bay and Northland fed maize, grain, peas, palm kernel, lupins, silage, balage or hay. For many this has continued into winter.

Andrew Johnston, Pasture Development Manager, Luisetti Seeds, said barley is the ideal feed to fill the gap over winter.

“He said it was best value for money for energy feed, consistent in quality, easy to budget per head and can be purchased as you need it.”

Late autumn, the grade feed barley price ex-Canterbury was $380 per tonne, moving up from $360/t over summer. Ewes can have body condition maintained over winter with hay or silage, but an addition of barley offers energy through carbohydrates and ten percent protein.

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June 2020

Table A: Silage, balage and hay example weights and typical kilograms dry matter content. Based on Beef + Lamb NZ table.

FEED TYPE

Typical weight and dry matter (DM)

Kilograms dry matter

Stack silage

28-35% DM

180-230 kg DM per cubic meter

Silage in a wagon

28-35% DM

150 kg DM per cubic meter

Hay e.g. Freeman

370-400kg at 85% DM

315-340kg DM

Hay e.g. Vicon rounds

350kg x 85%

297kg DM

Balage e.g. Freeman squares

750kg each at 40% DM

300kg DM

Balage e.g. Vicon rounds

600kg each at 40% DM

240kg DM

He said wheat was a similar price but not as safe to feed – it’s a bit trickier.

Recommendations from Beef + Lamb New Zealand is to introduce grain at low rates (25 to 50 grams/day) lifting to full rates of 250g/d over eight days. This helps the rumen adjust. Grain should be a maximum of 30% of total feed, so feed silage, balage or hay alongside.

If sheep over-eat, bacteria in the rumen ferment the grain into strong acids. This can cause metabolic acidosis, toxic shock and death.

Crushed grains can be more prone to causing this. Johnston said farmers should

also look towards early spring.

“June is not too late to drill a cereal feed crop like Intimidator oats or Maimai ryecorn.”

“This is especially useful if paddocks have been used for set-stocking for feeding, and are exhausted.”

Getting hoggets on to grain can be helped by feeding sheep nuts alongside, for the first few days. Spread on top of silage or hay to increase uptake and utilisation.

A sprinkle of salt can help attract sheep.

Shy feeders can be moved into separate

›› Continues p70 69

mobs if necessary. Sheep nuts are typically more expensive but can be fed straight onto the paddock with minimum wastage. They also contain a fuller range of minerals and have a high metabolisable energy (ME). High starch (higher energy) sheep nuts should be feed with hay, balage or pasture.

Bruce Clarke, Kiwi Seed, said very dry conditions in Marlborough saw an increase in sales of high protein feed.

The usual demand for peas for ewe flushing was higher and farmers also tried feeding white lupins and ‘seconds’ of broad beans, he said.

“This was the first year we have sold white lupins, sourced from Western Australia, and they are dead cheap when you compare feeds on a protein level.”

White lupins have protein of around 30% and were $525/t landed in Marlborough. Peas have 24% protein and cost $520/t landed.

Clarke recommends feeding 70g of lupins per head to ewes as a supplement to dry pasture or balage, with a gradual introduction over the period of a week.

“Spread them thinly in a line so all ewes get a chance and they can’t overeat.”

“The advantages are they are big and easy for the ewes to scoop up and are not wasted or trampled as much as grain.”

The 25kg bags means farmers without hoppers can feed off a truck, making them suitable for very steep country not suitable to pull a trailer.

Using hay, silage or balage to hold body condition in ewes or to grow on calves is all about the quality of the feed and volume. Pre-purchase testing is highly recommended as well as an agreement for a discount price on any mouldy or poor-quality bales.

Silage is usually very high in fibre and moderate-low in protein. When feeding hay or silage the higher the value (high quality pasture and good fermentation), the higher the productive gains.

Hay from pasture usually has a drymatter (DM) content of 80-85%, with a 500kg bale having up to 420kg DM. Neither of these feeds needs to be introduced as slowly as other supplements, but it’s worth taking some time increasing the amount gradually.

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Mark Zino and Sam Zino, Hawarden, grow barley grain for supplements for their ewes and rate it highly for energy. They fed up to 400 grams per day to lighter ewes and 100g to heavy ewes prior to tupping.

Home-grown barley ideal BY: JOANNA GRIGG

B

arley ticks the box as a crop between permanent pastures and as a home-grown source of supplementary feed.

Brothers Mark and Sam Zino, Hawarden, North Canterbury, moved to a policy of growing between 15 and 20 hectares of autumnsown barley for grain, 10 years ago.

“It works out about $100 a tonne to grow, and if we don’t need to feed it, we can store it,” Mark said.

This doesn’t count the opportunity costs of the paddock but it usually needs replacing with a crop anyway. Each year 50 to 70t are grown and stored and the residue provides a handy source of straw for cattle.

“And feeding barley from a ute is cheaper than running a tractor with silage.”

The 1100ha Hawarden farm had a trying summer and autumn, with very dry

conditions over tupping for ewes. The 3350 Longdown ewes were all supplementary fed barley during tupping, with the aim of maintaining condition. Barley is only used when ewe condition is under threat due to dry conditions, Mark said.

“I don’t need a real flush as I will get too many triplets, so I aim for maintenance.”

Mobs are condition scored and fed appropriately during the six week lead up to tupping. Lighter ewes are fed 400 grams/day (g/d), average ewes are 200g/d and heavy ewes only 100g/d. Once tupping starts the grain is fed at 200g/d except for the heavy ewes at 100g/d.

“There is no point in overfeeding wellconditioned ewes over tupping with our genetics.”

“Often drought feeding results in overfeeding ewes at tupping which has the unwanted effect of too many triplets.”

The Flaxmere ewe flock will scan 200% typically so the goal is maintaining

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June 2020

‘There really wasn’t much to eat in the pasture so, for the first time in a long time, we had to feed hay and balage with the grain.’ bodyweight through tupping and through winter, until spring pastures coincide with peak lactation.

During tupping this year, the ewes were rotated around the heavy clay soils and paddocks identified for pasture renewal.

Ewes were fed 200g/d of barley and meadow hay mixed with lucerne balage for bulk.

“There really wasn’t much to eat in the pasture so, for the first time in a long time, we had to feed hay and balage with the grain.”

“Some may say 200 grams is high but the ewes know it, and we’ve never had losses, in fact we rarely lose ewes over tupping using grain, it gives the ewes so much energy.”

This autumn, grain feeding was scheduled for late afternoon, after lockdown home schooling finished for the teenagers.

“Ewes got a few hours down the roadside in the morning and I did other jobs, then the boys and I fed out late afternoon.”

Barley is fed from the grain hopper towed behind the ute. The tractor feeds the hay/balage mix first, to get the ewes out of the way, and then the ute has a clear run.

The shy-feeding ewes tend to be last to the grain so Mark aims to feed them last, and slows the truck speed down so more grain goes out to them.

If the weather stays dry but cold, barley will be fed. If it goes wet and cold, silage will be fed while it is muddy underfoot.

“This is such a different season for us, we are normally all grass, but the drought has changed us into feeding more saved supplement.

“Barley is ideal for us – it’s cheap to grow and suits our feeding requirements

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Lucerne supplements are typically the gold standard for adding bulk and energy to a diet, with balage fetching up to $130 for 700kg big rounds and $90 for 350kg medium squares of lucerne hay in autumn, ex Canterbury.

at critical times.”

As ewes are only fed grain as “an emergency”, the two-tooths are sometimes unfamiliar with it and have to be trained.

To do this, Mark holds them against a fenceline with a dog and spreads barley up and down in front of the mob. Most of them notice it when they walk over it.

“About a third stop and sniff it and by the second week about half have figured it out and we can feed one hundred grams a head.”

“Restricting other feed can get them interested too.”

Feeding barley will continue until Mark is confident that growth has recovered and got ahead of stock. He aims for pasture covers on lambing blocks to hit 1100 to 1500kg drymatter mid-August. Any lighter ewes that are not coping are pulled out at shearing in early May, then again at scanning, and preferentially fed.

Putting stock on fast-growing short grass or lucerne immediately after rain can create nitrate poisoning issues. Feeding grain can help give pastures, including sub clover or crops, time to build covers, using up the nitrogen flush before introducing stock.

Grain is fed every year to deer. The mob of 300 velvet stags and 600 hinds with fawns are fed barley each autumn. This trains the weaners as barley is used every season to get top weaner growth between

February 10 and May 20.

“They are great converters of grain to meat so it’s really cost effective to feed.

The grain helps move the lighter animals up into the September-October premiums when sold prime.”

This autumn, beef calves and cows were lightly stocked over the hills while Italian ryegrass grew on the irrigated flats for the calves at weaning. Calves are wintered on fodder beet crops with hay and lucerne balage.

When the Amuri Irrigation Company’s Hurunui South scheme is completed almost 40% of the farm will be irrigated.

The irrigated area is hugely important to the dryland operation, Mark said.

“It actually helps us protect our soils, grow much more food and sustain our livelihood.

“The ignorance about the benefits of irrigation to the environment, soils and the economy is so sad.

“The government should be building and paying for irrigation schemes to help farmers use it to convert water into high quality food as food is number one.

“We need to realise we are all in this together and farmers are using our country’s water for you, the consumer, to produce food.”

In times of drought and food supply disruption this is even more apparent.

›› Over coming the feed gap p72 71

CROP & FORAGE | FEED

Overcoming the feed gap I have developed a model farm which could be anywhere in the drought zone.

Suffice to say that it is a very traditional system (purposely simple), the key assumptions are:

BY: GREG SHEPPARD

A

t the time of writing, the entire North Island and the east coast of the South Island from the Selwyn district to Marlborough and Tasman are deemed to be in a state of drought.

Although we have received some welcome rain in places, pasture covers are low and soil temperature is falling as we get closer to the start of winter.

Exacerbating this are the issues caused by Covid-19 lockdown restrictions – namely the inability to get surplus stock processed quickly by meat companies.

The availability of balage and hay seems to have almost dried up. Many farmers are having to consider buying alternatives and for many, unfamiliar supplements such as sheep nuts, maize and palm kernel to name but a few. But what are the financial implications of this?

Effective area: • 610 hectares (ha) of which 10ha is in a forage crop • Pasture cover June 1 of 1150kg DM/ha Livestock: • Ewes 2500 (lambing August 15 – 130%) • Ewe hogget’s 750 (empty and gaining 50g/day) • Cows 115 (calving September 1, 90%) • R2 yr Heifers (in calf) 35 (calving September 1, 90%) • R1 yr Heifers 68 (gaining an average of 0.5 kg liveweight/day) • R1 yr Steers 68 (gaining an average of 0.57 kg LW/day) The effective stocking rate is 7.4su/ ha and the feed profile used in this

Greg Sheppard.

analysis is for the period from June 1 to September 30 (Table one).

The feed demands used in the feed budget reflect the ideal situation where stock are assumed to be able to consume sufficient feed to prevent weight loss and realise their performance.

Each farm is different with its own set of pasture cover drivers such as aspect, topography, soil fertility, climate, grazing management, livestock numbers, classes and performance levels. All of which influence pasture cover – your feed budget

Figure One Example farm

Pasture Cover (kgDM/ha)

Feed Budget Dashboard 1-Jun

16-Jun

1-Jul

16-Jul

1-Aug

16-Aug

1-Sep

16-Sep

1150

1156

1179

1145

1105

1051

991

959

Pasture Growth (kgDM/ha/d)

9.0

8.0

5.0

6.0

9.0

14.0

19.0

22.0

Supplement Use (kgDM/ha/d)

0.8

3.1

3.1

2.3

0.0

0.0

0.0

0.0

Total Feed Supply (kgDM/ha/d)

9.8

11.1

8.1

8.3

9.0

14.0

19.0

22.0

Sheep Demand (kgDM/ha/d)

6.7

6.7

7.2

7.6

9.3

14.3

17.2

19.1

Cattle Demand (kgDM/ha/d)

2.7

2.7

3.2

3.2

3.3

3.4

3.9

4.3

Total Feed Demand (kgDM/ha/d)

9.4

9.5

10.4

10.9

12.6

17.7

21.1

23.5

Daily Cover Change (kgDM/ha/d)

0.4

1.6

-2.3

-2.5

-3.6

-3.7

-2.1

-1.5

Pasture Cover (kgDM/ha)

1156

1179

1145

1105

1051

991

959

916

Key Stock Data

1-Jun

16-Jun

1-Jul

16-Jul

1-Aug

16-Aug

1-Sep

16-Sep

Breeding Ewes

2500

2500

2500

2500

2500

2500

2500

2500

Ewe Hogget's

750

750

750

750

750

750

750

750

MA Cows & R2yr Hfrs to Calve

150

150

150

150

150

150

150

150

R1yr Heifers

68

68

68

68

68

68

68

68

R1yr Steers

68

68

68

68

68

68

68

68

Calves

68

Liveweight/hectare (kg/ha)

520

527

539

551

522

519

528

570

Total SU

4527

4527

4527

4527

4527

4527

5015

5671

7.4

7.4

7.4

7.4

7.4

7.4

8.2

9.3

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June 2020

Stocking Rate (su/ha Total Farm Area)

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R1yr Heifers R1yr Steers Calves Liveweight/hectare (kg/ha) Total SU Stocking Rate (su/ha Total Farm Area)

68 68

68 68

68 68

68 68

520 4527 7.4

527 4527 7.4

539 4527 7.4

551 4527 7.4

Figure Two Figure Three highlights the volume of feed (DM), required to fill the feed gap and the cost of doing so based on some autumn supplement prices. These costs do not include cartage and will vary between regions.

Pasture Cover

Figure Two: Target vrs Budget Pasture Cover (kgDM/ha)

Target Minimum PC

may be quite different to this scenario.

This feed budget (Figure One) and graph (Figure Two) shows the pasture cover remaining stable through until mid-July.

This is common in practice and often offers a feeling of “we’ll get through this okay”. Unfortunately, this in not reality.

Feed covers will drop as the extra demand from pregnancy and early lactation kick in. In this scenario it falls to about 900kg drymatter (DM)/ha – 300kg DM/ha below target.

The target cover in this graph would allow livestock to be fully fed without remedial actions needing to be taken.

Research indicates, ewes can only be fully fed at pasture cover above 1200kg DM/ha. Having this set as the bottom out pasture cover target is critical if you wish to realise optimum performance from an enterprise such as outlined in this scenario.

As a rule of thumb, look to match this bottom out cover to the period when we can expect pasture growth to break even with pasture demand. By achieving this you optimise feeding levels and spring pasture quality. You’ll be in the driving seat.

The projected feed profile shows pasture covers dropping below adequate.

If nothing is done, there is likely to be a high incidence of metabolic problems and possible animal welfare issues over lambing and calving. Plus animals grazing down to these low covers in September are likely to have their future performance compromised.

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June 2020

Start of Period PC

WHAT ARE THE OPTIONS? We find ourselves looking at the prospect of covers being 300kg DM/ha below target.

This equates to a total feed shortfall of approximately 188 tonnes DM. Fortunately, there are options within your control. Some are more palatable than others. These include: • Graze stock off-farm • Buy extra supplements • Sell stock • Apply nitrogen – too late to apply now and may not give you the lift in cover early enough in the spring • Use ProGib – best results occur when applied in conjunction with nitrogen and when pasture is actively growing • Accept a compromise between cost and livestock performance

Points to consider: • Will it be possible to source 630 bales of balage or 725 bales of hay?

• What are the practical implications of feeding out on your farm?

• How much time will be involved?

• What’s your access like?

• Is it safe to cart feed to the stock?

Not all feed is equal: • Hay has low Metabolisable Energy (ME) and only moderate crude protein levels • Balage has moderate to good ME (depends on quality of pasture harvested) and good crude protein levels sufficient for Lwt gain and pregnancy needs. Be aware that some moulds which grow in balage can cause abortion – fresh is best!

• Sheep Nuts are grain-based, high in ME and normally formulated to contain additional protein and mineral to support liveweight gain and pregnancy needs • Grains (wheat and barley) are high in ME but low in protein and if overfed can cause acidosis.

Figure Four considers the amount of feed required based on the ME content of the feeds. Not all feeds are equal.

Figure Four: Cost/kg DM for supplements based on Metabolisable Energy content

Figure Three: Supplement Options - DM Basis Bales /T required

Daily Feed Rate

$/Unit

Total Cost

Cost/ kgDM

Balage

629

5.2

$140

$88,020

$0.47

Hay

725

5.9

$120

$87,053

$0.46

Sheep Nuts

219

1.8

$510

$111,853

$0.59

Grain

219

1.8

$400

$87,728

$0.47

Total Cost

Cost/ kgDM

Figure Four: Supplement Options - ME Basis Bales /T required

Daily Feed Rate

$/Unit

Balage

647

5.3

$140

$90,535

$0.48

Hay

979

8.0

$120

$117,521

$0.62

Sheep Nuts

175

1.4

$510

$89,482

$0.47

Grain

182

1.5

$400

$72,882

$0.39

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By considering the ME content, we note that the relative cost of drymatter changes.

Hay becomes the most-costly feed at $0.62/kg DM and grain the cheapest at $0.39/kg DM. By the time you take into account cartage costs, it’s likely that the cost effectiveness of concentrates over hay and balage improves further.

Overall, buying in supplements is really expensive at between $73,000 and $118,000.

Figure Five: Grazing Livestock Off Days

No. Head

Graze Cost $/hd/wk

Cartage $/hd

Total Graze Cost

Cost $/kgDM Saved

Cost/head

Ewes

61

822

$2.50

$4.00

$21,192

$0.11

$25.79

Ewe Hogget's

122

382

$2.50

$4.00

$18,167

$0.10

$47.57

MA Cows

76

102

$20.00

$40.00

$26,144

$0.14

$257

R1yr Hfrs/Strs

122

111

$15.00

$30.00

$32,415

$0.17

$291

Figure Six: Selling Livestock and rebuying No. Head

Sale Value

Re-purchase value

Capital Cost $/hd

Opp Cost.

Income

Total Cost $

Cost $/kgDM Saved

Ewes

248

$120

$140.00

$20.00

$24,181

$29,142

$0.15

Ewe Hogget's

382

$110

$160.00

$50.00

$-

$19,095

$0.10

MA Cows

57

$1,200

$1,500.00

$300.00

$33,277

$50,342

$0.27

R1yr Hfrs/Strs

111

$700

$900.00

$200.00

$-

$22,245

$0.12

WHAT ABOUT GRAZING OFF? Figure Five looks at grazing off options with consideration made for the practical timeframes around grazing pregnant versus non pregnant stock off farm for either part or all of the period (June 1 to September 30 – 122 days). Therefore you would need to graze 822 ewes off-farm for 61 days to hit target cover (or 382 hoggets for the whole period).

Of course this assumes grazing can be sourced when so much of the country is struggling with a feed shortage.

I also acknowledge many dairy farmers have had to find alternative grazing due to existing grazers not being able to graze stock.

Consequently, grazing fees are higher than in previous years and vary markedly between regions.

This table shows that grazing stock off farm is likely to be considerably cheaper than purchasing supplements with the relative feed costs ranging from $0.10 $0.17/kg DM.

SHOULD WE SELL STOCK? Perhaps the most unpalatable option when you know that at some stage you will have to restock! However it remains an option.

The number of livestock noted in Figure Six is based on the number of head from an individual livestock class that need to be removed from the farm at the beginning of June in order to lift the pasture cover to the target level.

The prices for sale and then re-purchase of livestock are an estimate only. The important figure is the net difference in the re-purchase cost and sale price. Add the opportunity cost of income forgone if ewes or cows are sold. This opportunity cost reflects the value of lambs and calves that would no longer be available for sale in the spring or autumn.

In this scenario, the cost of selling and rebuying stock is not too dissimilar to grazing off costs and may be much cheaper in the long run than buying supplementary feed.

The intention of this article is not to provide absolute figures or answers,

but rather to challenge your thinking and planning on how to overcome the feed deficit you may have now and in the spring. Getting a plan sorted now will minimise the financial effect of the drought.

• What is the best “gap filler” for you? Is it buying supplements, grazing off or selling stock?

• Identify the feed gap. Then start looking at ways to fill it • Accept that your business will suffer a financial hit – how can you minimise this? How long do you want this to impact your business i.e. productivity in the long term or short term “gap filler”?

• When buying supplements, consider the true feed value and cost • Can you find grazing? It might be cheaper than you realise • Selling certain classes of stock may not be as costly as you first think • Make decisions early to maintain options.

Do your homework (do a feed budget – this quantifies the gap you need to fill) now because you’ve still got time to make really good decisions before hitting the thick of winter when the options will be much more limited and costly.

All options come with a cost. Consider engaging support such as a Farm Consultant to help you work through the issues for your situation.

• Greg Sheppard is a farm management consultant with Sheppard Agriculture and a registered drought recovery adviser with MPI. Left: Many dairy farmers have had to find alternative grazing because grazers could not graze their stock.

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CROP & FORAGE | FEED

GRAIN GAME • Useful to make scarce forage go further.

• High energy: beware acidosis risk.

• Introduce slowly and feed daily.

• Compare costs using MJ of ME. • May lack protein for late pregnancy if grass short.

Utilisation of grain fed to sheep on dry soil will be near 100%.

Using grain to replace rain BY: ANDREW SWALLOW

B

efore you pay through the nose for forage to fill a drought-induced feed deficit this winter, could buying grain be a better bet?

In many cases it will be, Agresearch’s David Stevens says, provided certain precautions are heeded and you have the facilities to handle it.

“Grain is a very cost-effective option to fill feed deficits, as long as you have storage for it.”

During early to mid-pregnancy it can make up 40% of a ewes’ diet and, because it has a much higher metabolisable energy (ME) content than balage, and especially hay, it will make those scarce resources, winter crops and grass go further.

For example, 300g drymatter (DM)/ ewe/day of good quality barley with an ME of 13MJ/kg DM is about 40% of

CATTLE SUPPLEMENT Contrary to some schools of thought, rolling or cracking grain isn’t essential for feeding to cattle, Agresearch’s David Stevens says.

“You might see the odd grain go straight through them if you don’t do it but they still get to use most of it.”

As a temporary supplement for beef cattle Stevens says he wouldn’t

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June 2020

maintenance*. With balage at ME 9-10MJ/ kg DM you’ll need 390-430g DM/day/ewe, a third as much again, to deliver the same amount of energy.

But, as most farmers should know, grain must be introduced to the diet gradually, Stevens stresses.

“Start with a small amount spread widely so the dominant feeders don’t gorge themselves and the shy feeders get a feed and start adapting to it too.”

An allocation of 50g/ewe/day is a good starting point, fed for two or three days, or longer until all ewes are onto it. Then increase in 50g/ewe increments every 2-3 days until the target ration is reached.

Forages, be that hay, balage, or a fresh break of crop or grass, should be fed earlier in the day, before grain is put out, to reduce risk of ewes gorging on an empty stomach and succumbing to acidosis.

“Always feed the fibrous stuff first.”

Another key point is to make sure grain

use grain for more than 25-30% of their diet, and as with sheep, it needs to be introduced gradually.

Larger mouths make troughs more worthwhile as they won’t manage to clean grain off the ground as well as sheep.

Blending with palm kernel meal makes grain safer and easier to feed to cattle, but palm kernel’s

is fed at roughly the same time each day.

“Never let them go on to it hungry.”

That daily labour requirement is one of the downsides of grain, whereas balage can be put out once every three or four days, Stevens says.

Utilisation of grain fed to sheep on dry soil will be near 100%, but if ground is wet losses can reach 30-40% so budget accordingly, says Stevens. Troughs will cut losses but might not be practical with large mobs.

If two people are available, feeding grain from the back of a slowly moving ute works well. A feed-out trailer makes it a one-man job but if the slide can’t be opened on the move a few sheep gorging on the heap made before the vehicle gets moving is a risk.

Where a high proportion of the diet is grain and conserved forage, particularly if the forage is old, and it is being fed for more than a few weeks, mixing lime flour into the grain may be necessary to prevent calcium deficiency.

“Or you might want to make sure they have access to some sort of mineral lick.”

Later in pregnancy, while grain is a good, low volume option to keep energy intake up as space for the rumen gets squeezed by the expanding uterus, straight cereal grains may not provide enough protein.

›› Continues p76

high copper content makes it risky for sheep. They may not drop dead when being fed, but the copper can build up in the liver then get released when the sheep have a sudden change in diet, causing toxicity problems and death.

“With cattle that’s not a problem and it is really cheap, safe and easy to feed.”

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CROP & FORAGE | LUCERNE

Nitrogen the key BY: TOM WARD

L

incoln University professor Derek Moot has discussed the challenges ahead, principally dairy farms reaching their biological maximum and dry stock farms in general still exhibiting a nitrogen deficiency.

He made the point that irrigation has taken former dryland farms from annual pasture growth of 8t DM/ha to 14t DM/ ha, but it is applied nitrogen that has allowed 20t DM/ha to be grown. Similarly, in the high country, perennially very dry environments, it is the ability to capture early season moisture that determines the season’s success. The key is nitrogen (and sulphur) and that is why lupins are so effective; being a legume, lupins initiate the nitrogen cycle, promoting native tussock and cocksfoot. At Lincoln, dryland pastures increased from 9.8t DM/ha to 15.8t DM/ha simply with the addition of urea, i.e maximising growth when moisture is sufficient.

With dairy on light soils, farmers have taken nitrogen from one biological limit (a deficiency) to another biological limit (the environment) but the same principals apply to feeding dairy cows as to feeding sheep, beef and deer.

The lack of legumes in drystock farms is often due to over-grazing, destroying the legumes and depleting the pasture of the better grasses, leading to browntop dominance. Overgrazing is sometimes due

to drought, at other times due to too much set stocking, e.g around lambing.

The systems change by introducing legumes is slower than if the farmer applied nitrogen fertiliser. However once completed locks in a lower cost system.

The well-profiled farms of Bonaveree (Avery family) and Bog Roy (Anderson family ) with lucerne, and Tempello (Grigg family) with sub clover on uncultivatable dry hill country, are examples of significantly improving production and profit through the introduction of legumes. For wetter uncultivatable areas, or for irrigated finishing farms, red and white clover with plantain is suitable.

The change in thinking involves understanding that the legume improves spring, early summer growth; it is NOT a solution to summer droughts. Livestock policies need to be designed to utilise the improved early growth so that animals are sold by early summer. So, for example, the focus of research at Lincoln University has been to consistently grow lambs at 300kg / day for 100 days. This has been achieved at Ashley Dene, with lucerne and sub clover on Lismore stony silt loam soils, some of the lowest water holding capacity soils in NZ. Doug Avery became effectively, a farmer of water.

Lucerne, if it is the feed of choice, is still a challenge to manage. Its taproot makes it efficient at accessing moisture, but this attribute becomes a weakness in high rainfall years. In South Canterbury we have to deal with climate variation as much as with drought. Growing lucerne on medium

slopes assists with drainage. Lucerne can also be very high in protein in early summer and needs to be balanced with a carbohydrate until it flowers. Lucerne can be difficult to grow where there is an iron pan, and it needs a pH of 5.9-6.0 to thrive.

Well-managed lucerne stands are still profitable after 10 years.

In South Canterbury, lucerne can grow between 10 and 18t DM/ha/year, with 60-90 % growing by the end of December.

Some farmers are reducing breeding ewe numbers in favour of lamb trading and beef fattening, reflecting the opportunities opened up through growing more earlyseason feed and also reducing summer stocking pressure.

There is a line of thinking that in North Island uncultivatable hill country, the success of legumes (red, white clovers, sub clover) is too reliant upon the previous season’s rainfall. Some research suggests urea should be applied as the source of nitrogen and this is supported by observations that many northern slopes have, due to lack of moisture, a very low response to phosphate. Nitrogen fertiliser is the suggested answer to a N deficiency, together with some sulphate, which leaches.

• Tom Ward is an Ashburton-based farm consultant.

›› Continues from p75 “It all depends how much grass they’re getting and what it’s like. If there’s a reasonable amount of spring growth, especially if you’ve used some nitrogen, then they’ll be getting enough protein but if they’re still mostly on another supplement like balage or hay, then you’re probably going to need a better protein source like peas or white lupins for the last six weeks of pregnancy.”

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Getting conserved forages tested to remove the guesswork out of rationing is a good idea, he adds.

Which grain to use is a trade-off between acidosis risk, price, and energy provided. Oats are the safest as the grain comes with fibre attached, but also lower energy and greater bulk to transport and store. Barley’s seed coat means it is the next safest option, then the naked grains

of rye, maize and wheat.

“Wheat is the hottest… Definitely don’t crack the grain if you’re using wheat but with barley and oats giving it a roll might improve efficiency.” *For a table of ewe energy requirements throughout pregnancy search “pregnant ewes” in www.beeflambnz.com/ knowledge-hub

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CROP & FORAGE | WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Challenging harvest but good prices BY: VICTORIA O’SULLIVAN

T

he 2019/20 harvest season was one many West Australian farmers will be happy to put behind them.

A challenging season characterised by limited rainfall and hot temperatures resulted in a smaller-than-average grain intake. In stark contrast to the bumper crop of 16.4 million tonnes received in 2018/19, the state’s grain handler CBH received just 9.7 million tonnes.

According to industry body Grain Industry Association of Western Australia (GIWA), it was ‘one extreme to the other’ in 2019, irrespective of location.

In the north of the state grain yields were more than 50% below 2018 for all crops except oats, and in some cases up to 75% below 2018. Moving south in the state the combination of severe frost followed by very hot windy conditions resulted in unprecedented loss of production for some growers.

On the south coast of the state, some growers recorded their best-ever result due to the lack of waterlogging, while others were hampered by a lack of rain and frost.

The exception was in the higher rainfall regions of the south west, where grain yields were spectacular and quality excellent.

GIWA estimated average wheat yield for the state to be about 1.17t/ha from about 4.5 million hectares planted, the lowest for such a large area for well over 10 years.

Grain quality was ‘all over the place’, with growers delivering into more segregations than ever before due to the

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range in protein and screenings.

Perth-based farm consultant Shane Sander of Agvise Management Consultants says the price of wheat was the one highlight, underpinned by the significant volumes transhipped from WA to the eastern states for feed.

He said strong demand from eastern Australia and greatly reduced production out of WA saw prices strengthen later in the season. While not quite at the peaks of the 2018 harvest prices were generally at decile nine levels or greater. Spreads from milling grades to feed tightened with discounts to the lesser grades, nominal.

WA normally exports most of its grain, but Sander said for much of the harvest the WA crop was too expensive to compete at an international price level, with the eastern states market driving the price. Normally net exporters of wheat, Queensland and New South Wales crops were badly affected by drought, requiring wheat to be shipped in to meet the demands of intensive livestock producers.

Barley prices, particularly feed, were not as well-supported as wheat values. Canola values strengthened, influenced by a tight European Union balance sheet, he said.

RAIN ELUSIVE AS SEEDING STARTS WA growers are geared up and waiting, but rainclouds are nowhere to be seen.

“Despite reasonable summer rainfall events across much of the state, we are still waiting for an opening rain event,” Sander says.

The rains they have received have been light and haven’t pushed very far into the main growing regions. With no significant events forecast in the near future, he

suspects growers might be getting edgy.

“Despite the lack of rain most growers have commenced dry seeding and I’d suspect that the large portion of canola and lupins would already be in the ground.”

He doesn’t expect there to be any significant changes to planting programs at this stage.

Based on price signals, he says wheat plantings will likely be higher in 2020 with barley the obvious reduction.

Locally, he expects the influence of Covid-19 to be limited, in part because WA’s domestic market is very small.

Transhipments to the eastern states will likely cease as soon as the east coast’s new crop comes online.

As for crop inputs, he said many farmers already have this year’s full requirements on farm.

He said the issues might be what effect the weak Australian dollar has on pricing inputs for the 2021 season and how would this look on the profitability of growing grain.

As exporters, WA farmers will be keeping watch on the world markets and the local currency. The International Grains Council has suggested that world demand for wheat will largely remain unchanged.

“There certainly will be significant volatility more around the currency effects on pricing into export markets.”

He said there was a lot going on in global markets before coronavirus turned up.

“Issues like swine flu, trade sanctions and market access haven’t gone away they’ve just been pushed to the side.”

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ENVIRONMENT | ONFARM

The answer lies in the soil A quest for knowledge has set a Rangitikei couple on the path to unlocking their arable and stock finishing farm’s full potential. Victoria O’Sullivan reports.

F

or Brendon and Rachel Williams, soil conservation on their 174-hectare mixedfarming operation is top priority.

“The most important thing is definitely our soils and the way we look after them,” Brendon says.

“It’s taken time to get them to where they are, and we have to value them.”

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The gross farm income on a three-year average is $2300/ha and farm working expenses, $850.

The third-generation Marton farmers are carrying on a legacy implemented by Brendon’s father and grandfather, potato producers who bought the original block for its class I and II soil types.

Brendon and Rachel returned to the farm in 1999 and spent five years in

partnership with Brendon’s parents, Ian and Kate Williams. They then bought the neighbouring block on their own behalf, forming Pencoed Trust. Over time, Brendon and Rachel have added more blocks, while Brendon’s parents have slowly pulled back.

Of the 174ha, 58ha is made up of a lease from Brendon’s parents. They work to a five-year cropping programme, consisting

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Left: Aerial views Pencoed trust farm.

Above: Brendon and Rachel Williams.

KEY POINTS: • 174ha (includes 58ha leased) • Arable and finishing weaner heifers, ewe lambs • GFI $2300/ha, FWE $850 • Using precision agriculture • Farm environment award winners

of two years permanent pasture, 23ha of maize for grain production, 24ha of peas for seed production, 25ha of winter wheat, then back to pasture. Rotation differs slightly on the heavier soils.

“We’ve got to make sure our cropping rotation has longevity for our soils and allows the next generation to carry on if that’s what they want to do,” says Brendon.

When it comes to returns, Brendon

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prefers to focus on the big picture.

They try to make each part of the operation as profitable as possible but a do not concentrate on the return per hectare of each crop. Maize may be the highest returning crop in recent years, but their focus is on maintaining the rotation.

Paddocks are in the best condition for maize. If they chased the highest return Brendon believes the rotation would lose shape.

Maize grain yields on average 12-13 tonnes/ha, winter wheat 10t/ha, spring wheat 7.5-8t/ha and, depending on the variety they are assigned to grow, 3.5-4t/ha of peas. Their recent harvest was aboveaverage for wheat (11t/ha winter and 9t/ ha spring) and peas (4.5t/ha), while the maize yields were back on account of the dry season.

During the grass cycle they bring in 100

beef-bred weaner heifers during autumn and take them through to summer, aiming to finish at 15 months 240kg carcaseweight (CW) for ANZCO. Heifers are sourced from the same farms MARTON annually, with a winter weight gain target of 900g/ day. Up to 2500 ewe lambs are finished on the farm with a target weight gain of 250g/day. They are brought in at 30-34kg LW and taken through the winter on annual grasses to be killed out at 21.5kg CW. If the season is favourable, they have the option to finish more lambs over summer. Lambs are supplied to Crusader Meats.

The couple have two children – Hannah (19) who is studying at Massey University, and Macca (15) who is at secondary school and helps out on the farm during the holidays. Rachel does the books and supports at busy times, while also working off-farm. The operation is managed entirely in-house.

Brendon say he is lucky to have his parents farming on their back boundary.

“Dad is always there to lend a hand if we need a spare tractor driver.”

›› Farming with precision p80 79

Above: Brendon closely inspecting his Kiwitea Loam soil.

80

Farming with precision The implementation of precision agriculture on the farm plays a large part in ensuring the couple’s farming objectives are met.

“My wife probably thinks I’m obsessed,” Brendon says with a laugh.

The couple were finalists in the 2020 Horizons Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA), taking out the Ballance Agri-Nutrients Soil Management Award and the Massey University Innovation Award.

The BFEA judges described Brendon’s understanding of ‘how spatially accurate GPS-based sensing (electromagnetic (EM) soil mapping; soil moisture; NVDI satellite imaging), cultivation, fertiliser application, seed density sowing and yield mapping can work together to improve yields and environmental outcomes’ as ‘impressive’, and praised their commitment to embracing technology to improve crop and environmental outcomes.

They have used auto-steer for a number of years but have levelled up recently, working with Methven-based company Vantage (formally AgriOptics) to gather as much information about their soils as possible.

Some of the more variable soils they’ve had EM soil

mapped, allowing them to put soil type data into the GPS, which is controlling the planter.

Brendon says with variable rate maize planting, where they have two distinct soil types in the paddock they can write a prescription map. This allows the two soil types to be planted at different rates, targeting less plants on heavier soils that are more likely to dry out in summer.

They are also trialling precision planting at higherdensity levels along sloping field margins, to see whether the plants will uptake nutrients that would have otherwise been lost to shallow drainage.

The chance to be involved as a trial farm for the Horizons District Council One Plan was a pivotal point for the couple.

They had their first full farm plan done back in 2009.

“From that we got an inkling of what Horizons were looking to do, and the impact the One Plan regulations could have,” Brendon says.

Nitrate leaching was one of the first areas they targeted.

After the initial plan was done and [Horizons] set out where the limits were likely to be, they were only just outside them.

The first plan gave them good direction of where they

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Left: Aerial views of one of the planted dam areas.

Below, left: Up to 2500 ewe lambs are finished on the farm.

Below: ‘We’ve got to make sure our cropping rotation has longevity for our soils.’

‘We wanted to reduce our cultivation as much as possible to keep our soil on the farm instead of seeing it disappear down the drains and creeks, so we moved our maize planting to strip tillage.’ could make changes.

They brought maize forward in the cropping rotation and addressed stock classes to reduce impact on the soil types.

They used to winter dairy cows because it fitted in with the cropping rotation quite well. They worked with their farm consultant John Stantiall to see what other opportunities there were with stock.

Brendon says they tried several things over the years with weaner bulls and that sort of thing but settled on the weaner heifers.

Combined with regular soil testing and nutrient budgeting to reduce their application rates of N fertiliser, they reduced their N leaching from 31 to 17kgN/ha.

BFEA judges described Brendon’s overall management of soil fertility, including his estimation of crop demand and soil

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supply before prescribing fertiliser use as ‘exemplary’.

Soil pH is targeted at 6-6.2 and Olsen P 28-30. Regular soil testing is conducted across the farm, including soil mineral N prior to planting. Crop residues are also tested prior to incorporation to capture their nutrient contribution.

They soil test before the crop and the programme is worked around their target yield.

“What’s already in the soil and what we think the plant is going to need.”

They have used satellite imagery a little with cereal crops to give an indication of any weak parts of the paddock. Then they are able to do a soil test to see if it’s a water issue – a wet part of the paddock, or a fertility issue.

Versatile Kiwitea silt loam soils (melanic soils) make up most of the rolling land

on the farm, with the balance winter-wet Beaconsfield and Marton silt loams (pallic soils with a perched water table). The latter are managed with mole and pipe drainage.

The soils are well-drained, mostly with Novaflo polythene pipe drainage. They have dams around the farm, so all drainage water goes through them. The idea with the dams is it’s a holding point for the water and the chance for it to get some sunlight and take a bit of nutrient out.

The dams are planted in natives and include sediment traps. Waterways have been fenced off from livestock and the couple have worked with Horizons to plant natives along the Tutaenui stream.

Sediment loss is another area they have focused on.

“We wanted to reduce our cultivation as much as possible to keep our soil on the farm instead of seeing it disappear down the drains and creeks, so we moved our maize planting to strip tillage.”

Permanent pasture is sprayed out and the strip till machine makes a pass to cultivate rows, then maize is planted directly into the rows during the second pass.

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New ZealaNd Hill CouNtry Farms The origin of many a greaT recipe Save productive farmS for food not carbon farming if you believe in the place and importance of new Zealand Hill country farms, a key ingredient in the supply chain that produces world leading protein & contributes significantly to the NZ economy.1 and if you are concerned about productive farms being blanket planted in pine trees, the impacts on the service industries that support the sector, and a landscape covered in a monoculture of pine where currently we grow quality food then please help us continue our fight to ensure productive farmland stays in production. We want New Zealand to continue as a food producing nation with the wealth that generates.

We are asking the government to stop the blanket planting of good farmland immediately and to change the policies that incentivise the purchase of farms for carbon farming.

We are not against planting trees, nor against forestry. We do believe in the right tree, in the right place, for the right purpose.

our hill country farms have become the sacrificial lamb in our country’s effort toward managing climate change. Mitigation practices that allow emitters of man-made gases to kick the can down the road at the expense of farming is a temporary step that does not benefit NZ in the short, nor the long term. We ask that the etS bill before parliament LimitS the extent of emissions that can be offset by forestry, if at all. this bill proposes to lift the carbon cap and it is widely acknowledged the impacts of this will result in more conversions of farms out of production and into carbon forestry.

1. Total exports reached $1.1 billion in March 2020, an increase of 12 per cent on March 2019. MIA press release April, 2020

doNate today

you CaN Help us save Farms For Food

w w w. 5 0 s h a d e s o f g r e e n . c o . n z the right tree, the right place

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There’s been multiple benefits from this method – crop residue provides cover for the soils, while fewer passes mean a saving on fossil fuel. Crucially, it has facilitated the growth of a clover cover crop.

“It almost started by accident.”

“We sprayed a permanent pasture out with roundup and just after the maize germinated, we noticed that the clover was still there.”

They spoke to a Pioneer representative David McDonald about whether they should be spraying this out, and decided to leave it and see how it went.”

A cover crop works in well with the couple’s nutrient management objectives, soaking up excess nutrients over the winter on the maize ground, which had typically been left fallow. They have also had a couple of grazing’s off the clover for their lambs following the maize harvest.

The past couple of years they carried out their own trials on leaving the clover to grow under the maize crop.

“We’ve been playing and critiquing, and sometimes learning the hard way what works and what doesn’t.”

Brendon is working on the timing and the chemicals used to allow the maize crop to establish without the competition of the clover. Targeting fertiliser placement and timing to support the maize rather than clover is another critical piece of the puzzle.

Brendon says there are people with knowledge about cover cropping who are happy to share.

“We always think we are a jack of all trades and master of none, so it’s a matter of finding people who are in a position to help when you have a problem.”

They are in the process of harvesting their second-year crops of maize and awaiting yield data.

Left: Heifers grazing on Pencoed Trust farm.

Below: Rachel and Brendon’s Son Macca, at home helping build planter boxes during Lockdown.

“Then we‘ll sit down and hatch a plan from there.”

The next step in the precision ag implementation is targeted fertiliser application. He’s also keen to transition into some value-added crops.

They have done some in the past – squash, sweetcorn and bok choi for seed production.

Brendon says they’re interesting crops, but they need to find regular markets for them.

One of the biggest challenges has been

getting their heads around Overseer. To combat this, they’ve turned to the experts for guidance – in this case environmental consultant Pete Taylor of Catalyst Group.

With a bigger focus on the environmental impact of farming consultants are an important source of knowledge. Nutrient budgets and farm plans are a valuable tool for making informed decisions onfarm.

Brendon says nobody expects every farmer to be an expert in everything so it’s important to gain their input.

On the right track Brendon says it was the quest for more knowledge that set them on the path to entering the Ballance Farm Environment Awards. After implementing most of the recommendations from their 2009 and 2013 farm plans, they felt ready to put themselves under scrutiny.

“We decided it was probably a good time to bring in some outside people to look over the farm and give us some feedback.

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The awards were an opportunity to access leaders and experts in their different fields, so for us entering was more about the feedback.

Brendon and Rachel were thrilled with the outcome.

“We didn’t enter looking for accolades, but we did want to get a benchmark of where we sit, and where are we going.”

It gave them clarity that they were heading in the right direction.

“Now it’s more about us getting into the finer detail and implementing to push for further gains. “ He says the competition was a good experience and recommends other farmers should put themselves through the process.

He found it good to have them to come and critique the farming operation.

“And to suck as much knowledge out of them as we could.”

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Emerging leader award

By Victoria O’Sullivan

A Flynn Wilkinson: ‘It was good to get out of my comfort zone.’

Wairarapa’s best

By Victoria O’Sullivan

W

airarapa shepherd Flynn Wilkinson’s a country boy through and through.

The 20-year-old proved just how far he’s come in his four-year career by winning the John Daniel Memorial Trust Wairarapa Shepherd of the Year 2020 competition in April.

Wilkinson works at Bush Gully Station, an 1800-hectare sheep and beef property near Hinakura, in the southern Wairarapa.

He said it was a surprise to be named the winner out of the four finalists, but he was rapt.

“It was awesome,” he said. “It was a good challenge, and it was hard mentally not knowing how the others had gone, but you just have to try your best and hope you are better than the next person.”

Contestants undertook four 45-minute practical modules which included sheep, beef, shearing, homekill, fencing and an interview.

The initial interview process to name the finalists was the toughest part, while on the competition day he felt the fencing and homekill modules went the smoothest, he said.

Wilkinson grew up rurally and loves being out on the hills. Bush Gully is an intensive hill country property running Perendale sheep and Angus cattle with plenty of good work for his dogs.

He takes great pride in seeing his young dog team progress.

“I broke them all in myself, and it’s quite 84

rewarding when you are breaking them in rather than buying them.”

His advice for aspiring shepherds was to find a supportive employer and give it a go.

Wilkinson wants to progress into management, with his overall goal property ownership. In the meantime, the competition has been a real confidence booster.

“It was good to get out of my comfort zone, good for me to give it a go – it paid off.”

Competition organiser Kurt Portas of Palliser Ridge Station said the competition attracts about 10 applicants, which is whittled down to four finalists following initial interviews.

The competition has evolved since Portas has been at the helm.

“When I took it over four years ago it was more just a drive round [with the contestants], and it was about who could chat up the biggest storm,” he said. “But some of the good shepherds don’t say much – they are humble, hard-working guys and we need to reward that. So we said ‘show us how to do a mutton, show us how you shear a sheep and show us how you work your dogs’.

Portas said it’s about raising the profile of shepherding as a career.

“It’s about rewarding the labour force that make farms tick, encouraging personal development in our shepherds and recognising the best shepherds in our area.

That’s why it was started.”

32-year-old Martinborough stock manager is Wairarapa’s Emerging Red Meat Leader for 2020.

Toby Rowland was ‘surprised but stoked’ to win the interview-based competition in February, and $5000.

He saw the competition advertised and decided to step outside his comfort zone.

“I want to try and get my name out there and promote myself, open up some opportunities for the future,” he said.

The judges were impressed with Rowland’s story and aspirations, praising him for his ‘clear vision and an awareness of his place in the industry that belies his age.’

“It wasn’t until I started rattling off our story that I realised that we have done quite a lot in a short amount of time,” he said.

The judges look for someone who ‘has meaningful impact on farm, financials and stock performance [and] has goals and aspirations to be a leader for the future.’

Rowland grew up rural and spent most of his school holidays working for the Henderson family at Dannevirke. He went on to shepherd for them, learning the fundamentals of farming, stockmanship and hard work.

Married to Kimmy with three children, Rowland works for Charlie Cresswell on a 1050ha sheep and beef farm at Huangarua. He started as a shepherd and has been there almost 12 years.

Rowland said they’ve had some good opportunities over their time at Huangarua. The couple recently bought a 120ha farm which is leased back to the operation.

“It’s a win-win, it’s going pretty well.”

One of Toby’s big passions as stock manager is helping others learn.

“I get quite buzz out of seeing shepherds progress.”

He said Huangarua is a good training ground for shepherds to develop a broad range of skills and then leave ready for the next level.

“I enjoy working with them on basic stockmanship, which I think is getting a little bit lost in modern-day farming.”

He believed stockmanship was one of the most important elements of farming.

Left: Toby and Kimmy Rowland.

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COMMUNITY | SCIENCE

8 PENS TODAY, BRO!

Is drench a Covid-19 cure?

BY: NICOLA DENNIS

W

hen Monash University announced that ivermectin was a possible treatment for Covid-19, the world collectively chuckled.

Farmers wet their stubby shorts with laughter and checked the labels on their drench containers. The urban mums and dads, mostly unaware that ivermectin is also used as an endectocide for livestock, sniggered that their child’s head lice treatment might hold hidden powers. A few armchair commentators rolled their eyes in a “scientists will study anything” kind of way.

But as amusing as it might be, it makes perfect sense to call ivermectin into the room when auditioning for a medical hero.

Ivermectin is most widely recognised as a thing that fries parasites because that is the role it was born to play. Ivermectin came about in the 1970’s when a microbiologist

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discovered a previously unknown species of Streptomyces bacteria (eventually named Streptomyces avermitilis) in a Japanese golf course. It looked interesting and was shipped off to Merck where weird and wonderful Streptomyces strains were being tested for antiparasitic effects. Again, not a strange action to consider since twothirds of the naturally sourced antibiotics come from Streptomyces types of bacteria.

It was worth the effort, poking and prodding the little Streptomyces avermitilis bacteria gave rise to the avermectin family of medications. Basically all the ‘mectins found in your animal health cabinet (e.g. ivermectin, moxidectin, abamectin, etc).

It also earned its loyal researchers a Nobel Prize in 2015.

Ivermectin took off as a veterinary treatment for internal and external parasites. In fact it was, and may still be, the leading animal health product sold worldwide. With ivermectin’s research debts well and truly paid through veterinary purchases, Merck has literally

given ivermectin away for human use.

Billions and billions of doses of ivermectin have been donated by the company over the past 30 years via the ‘Mectizan Donation Program’. This is used to treat parasites in humans to prevent diseases like river-blindness and elephantiasis. The names of these conditions are fairly selfexplanatory, one makes you blind and the other makes you swell up till your limbs look like that of an elephant.

Once a drug has been proven safe for human treatment, then it is good science to explore what else it can do. At low concentrations ivermectin paralyses parasites by turning on their chloride channels - think of these as tiny pumps that dump all the salt out of the parasite’s cells. At high doses, ivermectin seems to be able to do the same to human cells, which is more useful than it may sound. Highdose ivermectin has shown promise as a treatment for overactive muscles (muscle spasticity) in people with spinal cord injuries and also for killing leuksemia cells (a type of blood cancer).

At high doses in the lab, ivermectin can also conquer viruses. It first came to the attention of virologists nearly a decade ago when it showed promising results against HIV. It is worth stopping to break that statement down. The fast mutation rate of the HIV virus means that there are already some strains of HIV that are resistant to current treatment. This means that researchers must continue to explore all possible HIV treatments as a backup. Viruses on their own are meek.

Unlike bacteria, viruses cannot replicate by themselves so they do not “grow” outside of their host. To make baby viruses, a virus must hijack the machinery of its host cell. In a petri dish, ivermectin was able to interrupt the machinery that HIV uses to hijack the hosts cell’s DNA thus preventing viral replication. Thankfully, these pathways are common between different types of viruses which means that one antiviral treatment may be repurposed for different viruses.

In a cell culture (read petri dish) ivermectin has been shown to halt the replication of a variety of viruses including west nile virus, and influenza.

For whatever reason, ivermectin has not graduated to clinical trials for these

›› Continues p86 85

COMMUNITY | MULTISPORT

diseases. It has, however, been used in clinical trials for dengue fever. Here, a single oral dose of ivermectin was able to reduce the level of viral proteins in the blood, although clinical benefits were underwhelming. As a bonus it will probably kill any pesky mosquitos lining up to spread the dengue fever.

During malaria clinical trials, ivermectin has also been shown to reduce malaria transmission by flattening the mosquitos that bit the ivermectin-treated malaria patients.

So now that we have taken a trip through ivermectin’s work experience, we can respect that it is not so kooky to consider it as a Covid-19 treatment.

What happens next for our plucky little hero? Well it has to be said that the doses used in the petri dish at Monash University were particularly high, way higher than the FDA would feel comfortable pumping into a human being.

As we have seen with Dengue fever trials, giving humans safe levels of ivermectin does something against Dengue fever, but not enough to help with critical cases which is where treatment is needed the most. This may also be the case if ivermectin reaches clinical trials for Covid-19. The Mectizan programme has been donating ivermectin for humans for decades, but they don’t seem so convinced there is anything to write home about. The NZ Ministry of Health has also been quick to downplay the ivermectin vs Covid-19 research. It has to be said, though, that the primary motivation of these groups at this point is to prevent the public from overdosing on sheep drench and head lice medicine.

The science community will give ivermectin a ‘looksy’, and if they think it is worth proceeding, then it will be given to some Covid-19 patients or at-risk health care workers as part of a clinical trial. There are a lot of other Covid-19 treatments being trialled at the moment. You may have heard Donald Trump enthusiastically backing hydroxychloroquine which is usually used to treat malaria. The antiviral, lopinavir-ritonavir, used to manage HIV, is also getting plenty of airtime. Perhaps, by the time you are reading this, there has been a breakthrough.

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Corrinne on her way to winning this year’s Kathmandu Coast to Coast Longest Day title.

Eager for challenges BY: ANNABELLE LATZ

T

here have been harder, colder, more painful and tougher times.

The thoughts of this year’s female winner of Kathmandu Coast to Coast’s Longest Day when she digs deep.

Meet Corrinne O’Donnell (30) the pharmacist, bull calf rearer, soon to be kiwifruit producer, and MBA student, who draws a synergy between racing and other compartments of her life.

“You have good days and bad days. You take it on board and learn from what you did wrong and what you did well.”

Not a moment during the final 50km road bike stage of February’s iconic New Zealand multisport race did she think she had it in the bag.

Going as hard as she could for as long as she could, she biked, ran and paddled the 243km race from Kumara Beach to Sumner Beach, crossing the finish line with 12 hours 53 seconds on the clock, just three kilometres ahead of her next

opponent. It was the thought of messing it up that close to the finish that got her to the line.

Despite the result, it was far from the perfect race.

Rough kayak conditions with strong winds for the 67km paddle through the Waimakariri Gorge made for a rough kayak, and earlier in the day the 33km Goat Pass mountain run was dosed with cold conditions and high river levels.

Bay of Plenty based, her experience in racing was her biggest contribution to the win.

Corrinne and her husband Thomas, a civil engineer who used to manage Corrinne’s parents’ dairy farm, live in Edgecumbe. They fatten up 200 bull calves off her parent’s runoff, selling early on as they get the best prices.

A spare haybarn houses the calves for twice a day feeding of 6L of milk/feed, then they’re moved to paddocks, (50 calves/paddock) for once a day feeding, when calf meal is also introduced.

They’re weaned off the milk at 70kg.

She tries to use the surplus colostrum

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Left: Corrinne expects their first kiwifruit harvest next year.

Below: Corrinne is a familiar face around the sports scene, including New Zealand’s premier adventure race GODZone.

from her parents’ farm early on to help the calves get those protective antibodies, leaving it as late as possible to transition on to milk powder. Like all farming, the weather dictates a lot of her decisions.

She usually bases each stage on the particular calf’s development.

“A good sized four-day old calf will get to 100kg in a 12 weeks, using my system.”

Her dad’s dairy yearlings come behind to graze down and clean out.

Being a self-employed pharmacist allows for the “very rewarding” calf rearing and their kiwifruit orchard which was developed two years ago, a venture that’s doing well in the Bay of Plenty.

“We have loved the challenge, and learning about a new industry.”

A nursery from bruno seedlings has established the G3 (Sungold) variety for their 5.8 canopy hectare orchard, with an “ambitious goal” of about 9000 trays/ha; aiming for their first crop in 2021.

They have tried to do most of the work themselves. Both families have helped out with jobs like post ramping or wire straining.

“My Nana helped us mark post placements.”

The bay size is 3.6m by 6m. They used the opposing female system; male plant every second row of every second bay, then after a few years they will change to strip female.

“We used bruno root stock, applied for G3 licence then grafted on G3 once our licence was successful.”

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Registering with EastPack and Zespri, attending field days and talking to others in the industry has helped with their learning.

“Working on the land, you also get to see progression, that could be nurturing a healthy bull calf up to weight or seeing kiwifruit plants grow and develop.”

She believes the industry is always keen to find better ways to farm and likes to be part of that.

Her younger brother is also studying his MBA. “I love to learn and feel like it is important to keep developing myself.”

She says it might help her with the dining room table conversations.

“We are a competitive family and love to talk about the agriculture/horticulture industry.”

Corrinne is grateful to live in a culture where everyone is willing to help out and finds no one is too competitive.

In the pharmaceutical industry they say ‘it’s better for everyone to be better’.

“In agriculture, and horticulture it’s about being better to make the industry better.” Born and raised on a dairy farm, her mother Donna Smit is a Fonterra director.

“As a kid, my siblings and I always helped out, and we are all involved with farming in some way now, so maybe we enjoyed it more than we realised as kids.”

Corrine is a familiar face around NZ’s

multi-sport and adventure racing scene; this was her fourth time crossing the finish line at Sumner Beach and she has always finished in the top five.

The sports have taken her to China, Reunion Island, cycling in Holland with a Dutch team, and the NZ adventure race GODZone.

Corrinne’s uncle Neil Jones has also clinched a Coast to Coast title, his stories always intrigued her.

“I had always thought Coast to Coast and adventure racing seemed liked the ultimate challenge.”

Corrinne clinching this year’s Kathmandu Coast to Coast Longest Day title, at Sumner Beach.

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SOLUTIONS | PROFITABILITY

Driving profitability to next level

V

isiting successful beef farms with farmers prepared to share their methods and financial analysis is providing effective learning for a Hawke’s Bay Red Meat Profit Partnership (RMPP) action group.

The seven-strong group of both beef and sheep farmers and beef-only farmers is focused on working collectively to better understand the drivers and limitations of beef farming and develop the skills to improve profitability within their farm businesses.

“The farm visits have been gold,” says group facilitator Dave Warburton. “The same theme keeps coming up – that an eye for detail and financial success are closely connected.”

The RMPP Action Network supports small groups of farm businesses to work together to explore ideas and share expert resources to help them make positive changes on-farm.

Dave, a production animal vet with Vet Services Hawke’s Bay, has “a passion for helping farmers to upskill”.

“This group all wanted to improve their reproductive performance and understand the role of the beef cow in the hill country system and productivity compared to other classes of beef stock,” Dave says.

“We benchmarked reproductive performance for each member’s farm business. That helped members to identify what their targets could be and things they could work on to make their numbers go higher.

“Their various targets include monitoring live weights better in young stock, checking bulls more regularly over mating and identifying conception dates and more profitable early calvers.”

Dave contacted consultants BakerAg and asked if they could connect the group with some highly successful beef finishers and breeders, who would be willing to share their financial analysis benchmark (FAB) data and host farm visits.

“We did an overnight trip to the Wairarapa, taking in two farms, and also visited a leading farmer in North Wairoa and a Landcorp farm,” Dave says.

“The trip to the Wairarapa was also very good in terms of

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helping the group to connect and be more confident about asking questions during visits.

“We’ve now done six farm visits. All very different but the same themes come up in terms of getting to the next level of performance. It’s that detail, doing the basics well, including good infrastructure, water and good grazing management.

Knowing how to feed appropriately and to match your policy to the environment you have.

Dave Warburton.

“We went to a rearing and finishing operation with very wet land, and the farmer had grown the business very significantly and shared his financial performance year-on-year.

The next visit was to a dry hill farm, but the overriding messages were the same.

“Farmers also talked about the tools they’d used, for feed budgets, analysis and close monitoring of change. That’s given some of the group confidence to start using tools more, and consultants.

Group member Max Turnbull, who farms sheep and beef on 700 hectares at Tutira, says he’s made some changes on-farm, as a result of the group’s targets, and is also doing more benchmarking.

“I think it has also made us question where we are sitting as farm businesses, financially and environmentally, compared to where we want to be,” he says. “While we knew the direction we wanted to go, seeing farmers who have invested in water and fencing and made their businesses more profitable, helps give you the confidence around making changes.”

Group member Andrew Stewart, who farms 280ha at Kereru, near Hastings, says the visits, combined with the group dynamic, have been very positive.

“Dave’s done a very good job of selecting farms. We all wanted to see what we could be doing better and the very strong message that’s come from visits is the importance of keeping your eye on the detail. Having the financials is good because you know these are farmers who are really walking the talk.”

Dave says group members take different things from different visits. For Andrew, the visit to a Landcorp Farm was particularly educational.

“They have 2500ha techno-fenced (where the farm is divided into a grid of grazing cells) and have done a lot of analysis. They are growing 37% more drymatter in the techno area than in adjoining paddocks. I’m operating a similar principle of on-off grazing and it gave me the confidence that I’m on the right track.

Building confidence is one of the biggest things that has come out of the group for me.”

The group has now been going for almost a year and Dave says the next step will be to start measuring results, with members collecting data from their next round of pregnancy tests.

Supplied by RMPP

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SOLUTIONS | ANIMAL HEALTH

Tackling Johne’s in deer

F

ifteen years ago the New Zealand deer industry established a national control programme for Johne’s disease.

Through the 1980s and 90s the fledgling deer industry saw its stock beset with rapidly spreading and severe outbreaks of the fatal mycobacterial gut infection Johne’s disease. A major new animal welfare and productivity issue was emerging at pace and at cost. The industry decided to act.

Today these same farmers can think back with satisfaction at overcoming the issue as they look ahead to the new wave of challenges.

So what brought down this epidemic?

Five stand out.

Solidarity was the first. The industry banded tightly together, determined to do whatever was necessary to beat it.

Next, Disease Research Limited at the University of Otago developed diagnostic tests suited to finding the disease in deer.

Then, an industry surveillance system using data from the deer slaughter plants was established to monitor trends in the disease and communicate to individual farms about the disease.

The fourth critical event was education.

Researching and distributing the information veterinarians needed to

assist their clients in controlling the disease and the information farmers needed to continue improving the general management and performance of their herd. The last is continued monitoring.

As a result we can see a 50% improvement in rate of disease. We can also see a lower impact of disease. Reports of severe outbreaks have dried up. Farmers now worry about other issues.

There is the occasional blip from time to time but overall the issue has faded from the priority list. Fifteen years of adding resilience to the future by fixing the problems of the present. That’s a good story.

Innovation through research

B

ioBrew is a New Zealand success story that began in 2010 with a first small project at Lincoln University. This project led to a long-term relationship with Associate Professor Craig Bunt, who continues to advise the company.

BioBrew managing director, Andre Prassinos, said, “I think that more NZ companies should take advantage of the R&D resources made available through MBIE, Callaghan Innovation, Sustainable Food and Fibre (SFF), NZTE, Agmardt, and the other government-supported

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programmes available to NZ innovators.

“We first received funding for a legal opinion, a Freedom To Operate, that allowed us to begin work with confidence that we were not impinging on another company’s IP.” The company then began several years of work at Lincoln University with support from Callaghan Innovation.

As the work at Lincoln was coming to completion, SFF provided funding in 2012 for a large-scale trial involving 296 calves on three farms.

Two and a half years later, SFF again

provided funding to look at the longerterm effects of using CalfBrew on the treated calves.

Additionally, funding recently came from Agmardt for a piece of fundamental research in a murine (mouse) model yielding very promising results that will guide future research projects.

“It is safe to say that we would not be where we are today if we had not received this support,” Prassinos said. “I encourage every NZ innovator to look carefully at all of the resources available to them here in NZ.”

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PHOTO COMPETITION | ENTRIES

Clockwise from above: ‘Hey, what are you looking at?’– Carys Bates, Kakatahi near Whanganui.

Molasses-covered goat.

– Pip McLane, dairy goat farmers, Morrinsville, Waikato.

Shifting ewes at Lake Heron Station during the autumn muster. – Matthew Roy. Nachos the pony and Basil the one-eyed Huntaway saying goodbye to level 4 from Kingston Crossing, Northern Southland. – Jane Orr. Connor (5) and Lucy (3) Evans of north Waikato helping out during lockdown. – Ian Evans

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