Country-Wide Beef - May 2022

MAY 2022

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Make your farm business perform by maximising good science, best practice and profit

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

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May 2022

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May 2022

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EDITOR’S NOTE Opinion

Strength in numbers

W

2019 & 2021 RONGO AWARD WINNER Supreme award for excellence in agricultural journalism.

ORLD TRADE WAS HUMMING along until Covid-19 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Covid made global trading difficult but Russia’s invasion may have the greater impact.

Overseas commentators say security is now the key word.

Suddenly security of food, energy and nations are no longer taken for granted. It is at the forefront of many politicians’ minds, not climate change and green policies.

The European Union is reconsidering its green policies. Germany has given up on environmental green fields and ripping up a million hectares for grain production.

Some overseas commentators say the recent phase of globalisation may have ended because of Covid, the Ukraine war, growing nationalism and protectionism.

Will the world split up into major trading blocs?

Is the past 30 years of expectation, entitlement and instant gratification coming to an end?

The high meat prices are welcomed, but how stable is the over-reliance on China? What if there is international action against China if it invades Taiwan or for its human rights record? Where will that leave NZ with 36% of beef and 50% sheepmeat exports heading there?

It doesn’t need a war to bring about a collapse in a market. Sweden’s H&M fell foul of China’s ruling Communist party for raising concerns about Uyghur forced labour.

More trade deals are needed like the latest with the United Kingdom, to lessen the dependency on China.

The New Zealand and UK trade deal seems great for our beef trade with all quotas disappearing in 15 years. However, meat companies may be wary of rushing in because there will be strong competition from Ireland and Scotland. Also, Australia’s trade deal has a far larger access quota. Costly regulations and better prices in other parts of the world may dampen enthusiasm, until the loss of a market like China.

Within markets, does NZ need to do more about promoting its products?

Ireland has Origin Green, an umbrella food and beverage sustainability programme and brand which is helping to future-proof the Irish beef sector.

Like NZ farming, Origin Green has critics within Ireland. Here, Greenpeace is hellbent on destroying farming and the economy. In both countries efficient farming is labelled as intensive and bad.

Whatever happens market-wise, farmers can lift profits in their farm business by using the strength of numbers. The numbers from genetic gain, quality feed, weight gain, herd efficiency, and many more can add up to make a major impact.

Use them.

Terry Brosnahan

Got any feedback?

Contact the editor: terry.brosnahan@nzfarmlife.co.nz or call 03 471 5272 @CountryWideEd

Next issue: June 2022

• Beef cow fertility: North Otago vet Dave

• Champion lamb country: A King Country

• Former politician and diplomat: Northland

• Continuous improvement: A switch from

Robertson says the calving rate is not the main thing but everything. beef farmer Sir Lockwood Smith moves cattle in the morning and shapes foreign policy late at night.

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

farm which is a top lamb supplier is part of a group farming 65,000 stock units. dairy beef to an Angus herd is a better fit with a South Canterbury operation’s primary venison system.

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Contents

112

INTENSIFICATION SECURES FUTURE A successful conversion from small-scale beef to a substantial calfrearing operation.

148

KEEPING THE BULLS GROWING

A target of a full Simmental herd is in the offing on a summer-dry farm north of Gisborne.

8 BOUNDARIES 11 HOME BLOCK

158

MEAT QUALITY: NZ FARMS ARE REGENERATIVE A study of farming’s impact on meat quality has found most of NZ agriculture is regenerative.

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BUSINESS 18 20 24 28 31

The focus is on marbling IKEA’s NZ forestry plans Banks: The year of ‘Yes’ Succession: Time for action Profitability rises in sight

MARKETS 32 35 36 38

Outlook for prices strong in 2022 RA meat premium unlikely World disorder ahead Curtain lifts on beef to UK

INDUSTRY 42 Opinion: He Waka Eke Noa alternative 44 Branding: Lessons from Ireland

MANAGEMENT 52 56 58 61 62

The dairy beef opportunity Heifers: Yearling mating lifts income 20% Trading cattle on the margins Stock Check: A resistance to change Autumn bonus needed for grazing

LIVESTOCK 66 Awakino Station: A vision coming to fruition 74 Onfarm: Beefing up production 82 Meat Maker has impeccable temperament 94 Productivity and efficiency pays Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

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HE WAKA EKE NOA ALTERNATIVE

ANIMAL HEALTH 98

Make drenching count

100 Drench resistance: Monitoring is not easy

Country-Wide is published by NZ Farm Life Media PO Box 218, Feilding 4740

104 Good autumn nutrition is king 107 Vet certificates: Fit for transport 110 BVD can be managed in herds

General enquiries: Toll free 0800 2AG SUB (0800 224 782) www.nzfarmlife.co.nz

CALF REARING 112 Onfarm: Intensification secures future

Editor Terry Brosnahan 03 471 5272 | 027 249 0200 terry.brosnahan@nzfarmlife.co.nz

122 Options: Best direction steer calves?

SYSTEMS 124 Low cost bull beef system fits well

Publisher Tony Leggett 06 280 3162 | 0274 746 093 tony.leggett@nzfarmlife.co.nz

129 Trees: Cedars - I was wrong

GENETICS

Sub editor Andy Maciver 06 280 3166 andy.maciver@nzfarmlife.co.nz

130 Pick the best parents for profit 134 The skinny on genes 138 Horses for courses 141 Superior genetics add $211/ha

142

PRODUCTION 142 Onfarm: Hooked on stud breeding 148 Keeping the bulls growing

HOOKED ON STUD BREEDING

152 Hill country: Cow power rules

RESEARCH 154 Best of beef research 2022 158 Meat quality: NZ farms are regenerative

MUSTER

A young couple are set to have one of the largest recorded Angus herds in the country.

162 Haast muster requires resilience

166 The five essentials for animals and plants

ENVIRONMENT 170 Dairy switch not simple

172 SOLUTIONS 178 FARMING IN FOCUS

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IMPECCABLE TEMPERAMENT

MAY 2022

18

Printed by Ovato Print NZ Ltd ISSN 2423-0499 (Print) ISSN 2423-0596 (Online)

@CountryWideNZ

The Meat Maker is the star breed to a Wairarapa farming operation.

PASSING THE TASTE TEST

SHOWTIME Make your farm business perform by maximising good science, best practice and profit $12.00 incl gst

Cover design: EMILY REES

Partnership Managers Janine Aish | Auckland, Waikato, BOP 027 890 0015 janine.aish@nzfarmlife.co.nz

Subscriptions nzfarmlife.co.nz/shop | 0800 224 782 subs@nzfarmlife.co.nz

171 Dairy beef worth milking

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Writers Anne Hardie 03 540 3635 Lynda Gray 027 465 3726 Robert Pattison 027 889 8444 Sandra Taylor 021 151 8685 James Hoban 027 251 1986 Russell Priest 06 328 9852 Jo Cuttance 03 976 5599 Joanna Grigg 027 275 4031

Tony Leggett | International 027 474 6093 tony.leggett@nzfarmlife.co.nz

168 Study shows how to drop GHG 22%

May 2022

Jo Hannam 06 280 3168

Angus Kebbell South Island, Lower North Island, Livestock 022 052 3268 angus.kebbell@nzfarmlife.co.nz

CROP AND FORAGE

Country-Wide Beef

Design and production Lead design: Emily Rees 06 280 3167 emily.rees@nzfarmlife.co.nz

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May 2022

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BOUNDARIES

TREK HELPS HISTORY PROJECT

For Starship hospital

The Flaxbourne Heritage Trust building in Ward is closer to reality after a successful fundraising horse trek.

The recent three-day trek across coastal Marlborough raised $8200 towards the project. The former earthquake-damaged museum is to be replaced with a 250-metre-square building.

Inside will be professional-standard exhibitions, interpreting the district’s social and natural history, and an information centre.

The site is on the first South Island sheep run – Flaxbourne Station. In 1847 Charles Clifford and Frederick Weld leased land from a Ngati Toa chief and brought in 3000 sheep from Sydney. By 1879 it carried 60,000 sheep. The 38 paying horse trekkers had their own taste of coastal history, covering 60km across the original Flaxbourne Run - including The Homestead and Cape Campbell. The Trek Marlborough group, started by Lisa Paewai, has fundraised for a range of causes. Since inception in 2019 it’s raised $38,750.

Lisa says landowner support and generosity is crucial to its success. She always asks the landowner what charity they would like to support. The most popular trek to date was over Middlehurst Station, which was filled in six hours.

Lisa runs a coffee cart, The Wagon Wheel, during the week and is a fundraising dynamo in the weekends.

“We don’t make a profit, I just buy some more gear each time, like a good first aid kit for trekking.”

By Teresa Sherson

“Your child has cancer”.

Nothing prepares you for those words.

In October 2020 our son Nick (13) was diagnosed with Leukemia. I was out on the farm when a call came asking if we could take Nick straight to Waikato Hospital. I was told to pack a bag for the weekend.

We were transferred to Starship Children’s Hospital the next day and five weeks later we came home for the weekend. The town, friends and family rallied and we are truly humbled and forever grateful to the people who supported us.

The strength and compassion and, most importantly, the understanding we received from other families in Starship Hospital was amazing. The doctors and nurses that wage war upon this beast do it with love and endless smiles. These people are angels.

While we still have 12 months of maintenance to go, Nick is back driving the tractor and hanging out on the farm. We welcome this normal but we know there are families entering the scary world of Ward 27.

All of us at Black Ridge Angus and the proprietors of Shian Angus, are each auctioning a bull in the upcoming sales. These kick off on June 2 with Shian Angus at 11am then Black Ridge Angus at 2pm. All proceeds will go to the Pediatric Oncology Ward at Starship.

A Star will adorn each bull’s rump so buyers can pick them out from the other bulls on offer.

Black Ridge Angus and Shian Angus Studs are happy to showcase their bulls and answer any questions before or on sale day.

• Read the full version of Teresa’s story at nzfarmlife.co.nz/starship

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PEANUTS TO RAISE BEEF

Farmer Aaron Linton and CQUniversity researcher Isaac Cardillo.

Dual-purpose peanut varieties could hold the key to diversifying grazing operations across Northern Australia by providing both high-value fodder as well as financial returns from the sale of peanuts.

A project led by CQUniversity is testing the concept at multiple sites across Queensland and the Northern Territory over the next three years.

Lead researcher Professor Surya Bhattarai says the project is assessing whether high biomass peanut varieties also have potential to produce high value fodder. This would help diversify beef businesses and provide some feed security from extended dry seasons. It may even finish stock for sale into higher value markets, while still delivering a valuable crop of nuts at the end of the season.

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

TOP TWO-TOOTHS

LIFE LESSONS

Sam and Liz Barton took out the West Otago two-tooth competition for a second time.

The Bartons, equity partners in the Wilden farm they’ve run for seven years, won in 2019. They credit this year’s award-winning hoggets to the summersafe environment which held on with feed while other parts of the region wilted under the dry conditions.

“The catch phrase for this farm is ‘when it’s dry we fly; when it’s cold we fold’ and we managed to capitalise on that this year,” Sam says.

• More on the Bartons in the June issue.

The realities of farm life led to a surprise question for Canterbury parents of two young children recently. Having become well acquainted with the role of bulls and rams, as well as witnessing accidental canine coupling, their daughter was connecting dots more astutely than her parents realised.

They were shocked when she suddenly asked them (in front of her younger brother): “So did you two get knotted when you made us?” The parents managed to deflect the question until another day. Since then, a morning off school helping with sheep artificial insemination and some careful discussions have cleared things up.

JOK FREE WITH THE DRENCH A Wellington couple were on holiday recently in Hanmer Springs and enjoyed a drink together at a bar.

The husband, Hawke’s Bay born and bred and an avid rugby fan, noticed a man walking towards him wearing a black and white striped rugby shirt. The husband excitedly called out to him “go the Magpies!”.

The man turned around and said, “nah mate – free with the drench.”

D I D YO U

KNOW? A knocker-up, sometimes known as a knocker-upper, was a member of a profession in Britain and Ireland that started during, and lasted well into, the Industrial Revolution, when alarm clocks were neither cheap nor reliable. A knocker-up’s job was to rouse sleeping people so they could get to work on time.

The knocker-up used a baton or short, heavy stick to knock on the clients’ doors or a long and light stick, often made of bamboo, to reach windows on higher floors. One 1931 photograph shows a knocker-upper in East London using a peashooter. The knocker-up would be paid a few pence a week.

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

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A husband and wife who worked for the circus went to an adoption agency.

The social worker raised doubts about their suitability so the couple produced photos of their 50-foot motor home, which was clean and well maintained and equipped with a beautiful nursery.

The social worker then raised concerns about the education a child would receive while in the couple’s care.

“We’ve arranged for a full-time tutor who will teach the child all the usual subjects along with French, Mandarin, and computer skills.”

Then the social worker expressed concern about a child being raised in a circus environment.

“Our nanny will be a certified expert in paediatric care, welfare, and diet.”

The social worker was finally satisfied and asked, “what age of child are you hoping to adopt?”

“It doesn’t really matter, as long as the child fits in the cannon.”

XXXX

9

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May 2022

HOME BLOCK

Matata

Taking each day as it comes Spending some time out for a little contemplation in this country of ours can be pretty spectacular, reckons Paul Burt.

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VERY DAY IS A FULL DAY BUT IS THIS enough reason to get a bit rattled because the stock truck is late? An old friend died with his boots on waiting for a truck. He was 90 and it was just another day at work for him, a lovely autumn day to be with his dogs among the big prime steers that gave him so much pleasure.

He had sorted a number for their one-way trip to McDonald’s and sat down on the platform to wait. The truck was late but I doubt he was impatient or annoyed. Even if he had had some non-communicated premonition, he had lived long enough and was wise enough to accept each day as it comes, even his last.

Rather than react negatively we should use these unscheduled breaks to appreciate life. Find a comfy seat, reach into your pocket for your makings and carefully combine tobacco and paper, strike a match, draw back and let the nicotine set the mood.

Obviously we don’t do this anymore (appreciating life and sucking on a cigarette are somewhat contradictory) but you know what I mean. It’s also a crime to pollute unsolicited spare moments with technology. Staring at your phone can be as mindless as smoking a rolly. It’s a trivial distraction that prevents you from enjoying your surroundings which, in this country of ours, are pretty spectacular.

A little quiet contemplation is a very worthwhile exercise.

I am lucky enough to have moulded and manicured the same piece of land for three-quarters of my working life. It’s a privilege but one I never take for granted. Any one of life’s twists and turns could take it away. I once read of a privileged man who was described as having only one real weakness, “his inability to see the ways in which his privilege has led him to hold a certain set of beliefs”.

The connotation was negative, possibly as a result of the large block of wood on the writer’s shoulder.

I’ve never met a person of the land whose view of life, stemming from that connection, was not positive.

Farming does have its unique challenges but it seems to me the lucky ones are those of us who are able to keep these challenges from becoming

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

“It’s also a crime to pollute unsolicited spare moments with technology.

Staring at your phone can be as mindless as smoking a rolly.”

overwhelming. It must be the subconscious influence of debt that sees financial indicators appear first when we contemplate our wellbeing.

It would be far more sensible to look after our health first and our money second but the treadmill of business often takes precedence. Much of the time we are simply in too much of a hurry.

Ageing farmers are the worst because we don’t accept our physical decline and it’s so easy to blame others. Like the lovely visitors we had the other day who are responsible for my current sciatic pain in the arse. The farm tour was scheduled to pass where a particularly inconsiderate sheep had died. Instead of getting a spade to bury it (20 minutes) five seconds would see it over the fence into the trees and hidden from view. Now I’m paying dearly for that poorly executed clean and jerk.

Taking my own advice I leaned back against the rails and looked around. The valley is green thanks to timely rain. Plantation trees blanket the steep sidelings and blend into old native cover in the gorges. Two creeks meet by the yards and you can cup your hands in either and drink with satisfaction.

Stock within my view are conditioned and content.

The Lombardy poplars lining the road are just colouring and the freshness of the March air signals the oaks and other deciduous trees will not be far behind as they prepare for winter with their vivid display.

Farming is an all-encompassing occupation and provides many opportunities to apply and accommodate the checks and balances that lead to a fulfilling lifestyle. Privileged or not, I believe genuine farmers can defend their set of beliefs as the outcomes are in plain view.

The truck still hadn’t arrived and having decided I was comfortable with my own place in the world I turned my attention to the bigger picture. There is no doubt that despite being the most advanced species in existence we have problems, real over-the-top-ofyour-gumboot problems. And now, sadly, as if the list wasn’t long enough, tolerating tyrants must be added to it.

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HOME BLOCK

Owaka

What about the rain?

A dry summer means there’s not enough grass reserves going into winter for Suzie and Paul Corboy on their southern farm.

O “Feels like an absolute waste of time when they don’t take any notice of it on the processing company end.”

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NE WORD DESCRIBES THE PAST three months. Dry. We had 14mm of rain in March and some hot days. Thankfully, there has been some moisture in the first week of April, about 18mm, but lots of wind and the days are getting cool with a frost last week, so even if we get sufficient rain soon, there is not going to be enough grass growth to build up reserves for winter.

While we complain about the lack of rain, the poor buggers on the East Coast of the North Island have had far too much. We really sympathise with you all because of all the damage the floods have caused.

Fortunately the long-term forecasts accurately told us it was going to be dry, so we were proactive and sold most of our lambs as stores and the market has been strong with good grass growth in North Otago and Canterbury so it has not been difficult to find homes for them.

With all the Covid disruptions, killing cattle has been a real challenge. Every year we have problems getting sufficient killing space, despite booking space in October and filling in projected numbers for each fortnight. Feels like an absolute waste of time when they don’t take any notice of it on the processing company end.

I know it has been a very tough season for them as well, but with this year’s dry it has really amplified the problem, and the booking issues seem to occur every year. We have considered whether we need to change our whole beef system to try to minimise the annual issues we have.

I have to acknowledge that the meat processing workers, drafters and the rest of the essential workers have been doing an awesome job over a very tough period and the health of themselves

and their families is top priority.

Everyone is under a lot of stress so we just have to make the best of a tough season.

Regardless of having very low grass covers this year, our once-bred heifer system means we buy in at least 100 weaned heifer calves in late March and early April. The management plan is we wean last year’s calved heifers, killing as many heifers as are ready, as prime heifer prior to buying the weaned calves.

After a number of years learning and fine tuning we now have a large percentage of the heifers ready to kill by late February.

Unfortunately with there being limited killing space, more than half the heifers are still here at the end of the first week in April this year and we have bought in the calves so there is added pressure on the already limited grass supply.

Despite all the complaints Paul and I enjoy beef farming, and often discuss reducing our ewe numbers by 500 or 1000 and farming more cattle.

Wintering cattle efficiently and with minimal soil damage on our farm is one of the main factors why we have not moved to more beef, and when we last crunched the numbers, sheep were making us more money per stock unit. This might have changed now with better beef returns.

My other job as an ambulance officer has also been busy, with Covid adding to the workload. I really enjoy getting off farm to do something very different, but have to admit that sleepless nights are really tough on the body and this is getting worse as I get older.

Paul has learnt that it is better to not work me too hard or preferably let me sleep after night shift as I can be very grumpy, even worse than usual, when sleep deprived.

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

HOME BLOCK

Hill of Fearn, Scotland

Hallelujah, the Kiwis are coming With travel restrictions lifted, John Scott is looking forward to a team heading his way to Hill of Fearn, Tain, Scotland.

W

E’RE DELIGHTED TO HEAR THAT the borders are opening up and we have some awesome young Kiwis heading our way in the next few weeks - Kiwis who now feel comfortable enough to travel to complete their OE, which as many of you know is so important in terms of personal development.

So far we have three lined up to give us a hand over the coming months. It’s really satisfying to know the networks are still working after a two-year Covid hiatus. We look forward to hearing the accent while thriving on the energy they almost always bring to the team.

It’s going to have to work both ways, however, with our oldest, James heading out in early October to start his big adventure and yes I’m definitely jealous and would love to do it all again with the wisdom of age.

Looking ahead to summer it looks like we will have a bloody good short-term team to take us through to September. We have two placement students starting in July for a year and with our oldest two kids home from Uni plus the aforementioned Kiwis and some handy young Scots. Dare I say it, we might be overstaffed.

In theory this will allow us to get on top of jobs that we have certainly struggled to do. It should allow everyone including myself and our full time team to take some holidays, and alter the work/life balance in a positive way.

We are still on the lookout for high-quality long-term stock people. While we search, we will continue to offer those that are keen for short-term employment the opportunity so that they might return in the future for a longer period.

It's been a tough spring weather wise. It was too easy in March with virtually no rainfall, then when we needed the weather on our side it just didn’t play ball and kicked us fairly hard when we were in the

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

“Our oldest, James, is heading out in early October to start his big adventure and yes I’m definitely jealous and would love to do it all again with the wisdom of age.”

thick of lambing and calving.

We are nearly there now, though. We only have a handful of ewes plus the hoggets left to lamb and only a few cows to calve, so the end is definitely in sight.

With that in mind we are starting to think about selling the first batch which will be ready mid-May and with the price at £6($11.58)/kg and climbing, we are optimistic that returns will be decent.

You will notice I’m avoiding the subject of input costs. There's a good reason for that, these lambs have had the proverbial kitchen sink thrown at them to hit the early market and their broken-mouth mums will all be on the one-way ticket come June.

Thankfully, cull ewes seem to be on fire at the moment with our local auction centre averaging £124($NZ239)/head last week with a top of £312($602) for a Texel ewe which maybe wasn’t the most maternal by the look of her. Our own models of similar nature will get a one-way trip ASAP and as soon as the lambs are off them we will cash the rest.

On the cereal front, barley, oats and peas are in the ground and forage crops will be shortly. Fertiliser was thankfully bought early before it took off - the highest price I heard was just north of £1000($1930)/ tonne for 33.5% N but it's back to sub £800($1544) now, the only comfort that brings is that it’s going in the right direction.

With wheat futures for November at £298($575)/ tonne the last time I looked and feed barley trading at similar values, the world we operate in has certainly changed. Who knows what’s around the corner?

There’s no doubt it will be exciting and challenging, but to put things in perspective, our neighbour hasn’t just invaded our country and unleashed all sorts of horror upon us. So we are grateful for our lot and will celebrate the freedom we have to carry on our daily lives as we do.

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May 2022

HOME BLOCK

Te Kopuru

Time to buy a Lotto ticket Chris Biddles finds his usual optimism seriously challenged as 2022 unfolds.

At least Chris Biddles got a rebuilt track out of the logging.

T

HIS WAS TO BE THE YEAR I GOT my life back on track, albeit with a different way of living it. I am managing my prosthetic leg extremely well with just some skin problems holding me back a little. A great year was ahead of us as we celebrate our 40th year of farming in our own right and my 51st year farming.

Unfortunately, it has not turned out that way.

For the past six years a little under half our farm has not been farmed by us. It has been leased out.

Unfortunately, a marriage breakdown early this year has meant the end of that lease and we have the property back under our control. It was not something we really wanted. It is not a good time to be stocking a farm and borrowing yet more money.

The next shitty thing for us was having our 12-week-old grandson helicoptered to Starship hospital, Auckland, in March. He had a month in hospital with two surgeries. He is home now, a happy we boy. We are hoping there is no longterm damage.

In March we agreed to log 20ha of 30-year pines that were to be harvested last October but with the price collapse we delayed.

There was a good lift in prices in February/March hence the decision to go ahead. In April the price again collapsed but with a $40K roading bill for work already done we had no choice but to log. It is interesting that when we logged the same blocks 31 years ago not one shovel full of metal was used.

This time around there is $15K of metal on the same tracks.

The return to us is not looking that good with shipping costs blamed for the majority of the collapse. The one upside to the roading is that nearly all will have long-term benefits for us.

So, not really a great start to our year.

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

“The return to us is not looking that good with shipping costs blamed for the majority of the collapse. The one upside to the roading is that nearly all will have longterm benefits for us.”

I have mentioned in an article previously that we have had a project underway on the farm that would transform our summers. It is now time that I write about what can really only be described as a $300,000 nightmare.

Two years ago, we investigated an irrigation system for 27ha of our peat flats. In October 2020 we agreed to go ahead with the project and accepted a proposal from an experienced person in irrigation. The system has 80 permanent sprinklers with a massive diesel pump delivering the water via 200ml and 150ml pvc with 80ml alkathene feeding each sprinkler. Once up and running it will be automatic.

In January 2021 the contractor began to tell me he would be starting the next week. After about five such emails he finally started the project in April of 2021. He told Bevan he would put enough people on the job to knock it out in six or eight weeks. He started with five people on site which quickly dropped to two and sometimes three.

His people would turn up for four days then disappear for a couple of weeks. For the first time in my life, I began to withhold payments just to get him back onsite. This worked for a while but not for long. So, 18 months after agreeing to go ahead and 12 months after the start of this project we have been through two summers and not a drop of water has gone on the ground.

Two weeks ago, he finally delivered the pump then went away to make final alterations to the intake system with the promise of returning the following week to commission the system. We have not seen him.

Yep, my year of 2022 being my “get my life back” has somewhat turned into a year of crap.

My normal optimism has been seriously challenged but I am sure things can only get better.

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May 2022

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AONGATETE C & R Lee, Katikati 021 919 093 TAUREKA T & R Trenbeth, Tauranga 027 451 5594

WILLOW GULLY AJ & DL Powell, Auckland • 09 411 8380

CHEQUERS J Burke, Whakatane 07 322 2680 FLAX RIVER Z Brake, Whakatane 07 308 4999

MARU L & K Ramsey, Pukeatua • 07 872 4891

SEA SPRING A Morgan, Mangakino 07 372 8010

PARADISE VALLEY On Farm Sale 13th Sept M Phillips, Otorohanga • 07 873 8115

MARIRE M Gray, Tokoroa 027 814 2617

PREMIER D & C Hayward, Cambridge • 07 823 5608 OAKVIEW Allan Hayward, Cambridge • 07 827 1847 ONAMALUTUS P Stachurski, Inglewood • 027 441 1622 KOTARE W & J Allerby, Inglewood • 06 756 8162 MANGAOTEA On Farm Sale 15th Sept RR & Z Blackwell, Inglewood • 022 050 7119

ASPALL B & c Foy, Tokoroa 07 886 0388

STORMCLOUD C & C Burkitt, Opunake 027 318 3588

KAITOA P & E White, Whanganui 022 570 4536

KINGFISHER D & A Fowell, Manaia 027 484 8438

BROX J Badger,Palmerston North 06 3567932

KAIHINAU M Malmo, Shannon • 06 362 7361 SIMANDA S & A Tripe, Blenheim 03 573 7493 SOUTHBANK G & I Leov, Blenheim 03 572 2760

CUMBERLAND PARK G Preston, Foxton 06 362 7959 BLACK CREEK A & A Hutching, Eketahuna 06 375 8841

DENALI H & M Fletcher, Culverden • 021 313 941

OPOURI T Payton, Rai Valley 03 571 6391

HALDON DOWNS L, G & M Anderson, Kaikoura 03 319 5467

MURRAY DOWNS S Rodie, Amberley 03 314 8196

CAVAN GG & SK Rountree, Oxford 03 312 4047 AUBYNVIEW K & K Perry, Leeston 03 325 4268

KILRADIE MB & JA Mitchell, Cromwell 03 445 4546 TAMARIND SAWYER R & L McLennan, Port Chalmers 03 472 8291

SILVER FERN On Farm Sale 17th Oct CJ McIntosh, Otautau • 03 225 5884

May 2022

Levin • 06 368 8415 / 06 368 8182 YORKVALE TW & SW Clarke, Levin 06 368 6132

SHERWOOD RW Driver, Kaiapoi • 03 327 7899 WAIMAK LN Climo, Kaiapoi • 03 327 6445 NEWHALL RG & JH Hayes, Christchurch 03 318 1707 STONYBROOK C Brooks, Christchurch 027 768 9889

TORRISDALE On Farm Sale 12th Oct BS MacDonald, Winton • 03 236 2736

75 South Street, Feilding 4702 • P: 06 323 4484 E: murraygreys@pbbnz.com • www.murraygreys.co.nz Country-Wide Beef

M J Kilsby & DJ Kilsby-Halliday,

BLUEGUM R Powell, Kaiapoi • 03 327 4357 MELBURY B & J Hallenstein, Ashburton 027 683 8111

SUMMERSDALE B & J Dickson, Gore 003 207 2434

ARAWA

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BUSINESS

PASSING THE TASTE TEST Meat quality under sustainable and regenerative farming systems are subject of study in New Zealand, with a focus on marbling. Jo Cuttance reports.

T

he Impact of regenerative farming on meat quality observational study gathered data on whether meat quality differs between regenerative and sustainable (conventional) farms, and its relationship to botanical diversity.

AgFirst agricultural consultant Steve Howarth commented in the study, that studies from overseas had shown cattle finished on diverse mountain pastures, with nearly 40 species, had improved meat quality and taste compared to pastures on the flats with few species.

The observational study found some higher marbling in a regenerative system, though not statistically significant.

Lawsons Angus (Australia) managing director Harry Lawson has spent decades researching and improving the meat quality of his stock and says there are many

confounding factors in terms of meat quality claims. It was good someone was doing a proper study.

Key factors in marbling expression are genetics and diet, with other influences being age or maturity, rumen development at weaning, lifetime nutrition, and animal health, Lawson says.

Starch is a big factor in expressing marbling.

Diets high in starch like grain or corn help achieve consistent results. It is harder to achieve in grass-fed systems, but fodder beet, turnips, and some other bulbous brassicas are another source of starch.

In terms of “mountain pastures,” this was where cattle could frolic in the hills under low stocking pressure. Often as plants matured and seeded this could provide a source of starch which would help express marbling.

Agricultural scientist Jon Hickford questions

A BULL FOR THE FUTURE Harry Lawson aims to breed animals that are fast gaining, efficient and accountable for what they eat.

Romulus R1217, bred by Lawsons Angus and descended from a New Zealand bull 10 generations ago, was one such animal.

Lawson says many high growth animals also have big appetites and this is moderately heritable.

R1217 recorded a test NFI of -188kg/ day. This meant his intake was 1.88kg drymatter (DM) feed per day, less than he was expected given his body weight and ADG. He had an average

18

drymatter intake (DMI) of 8.56kg/d compared with the group average of 8.45kg/d. Over 71 test days R1217 feed intake was 134kg DM less than was expected. This equated to about $47 at $350/tonne DM. At the same time, he gained 0.58kg liveweight per day above his group average. This was an extra 41.2kg over the trial period. This equated to a $288 above group average at $7 per kg liveweight.

Lawson says this was in a group of some of the best-balanced bulls in the global Angus population, against

the general population the difference would be greater again.

Lawson says growth and feed conversion are important but it needs to be in the right package.

Cows are with us for many years. They have the biggest appetites and are also big methane emitters. Producing faster growing calves is not the answer from an economic, whole farm system approach, or environmental footprint basis.

“We need to get the balance right so our animals perform at optimal levels in all parts of the supply chain.”

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

“It’s really only the wealthy with high equity balance sheets and an idealistic approach to farming that can farm this way.” the efficiency of this system, particularly if animals are two or three year old bullocks or heifers roaming the mountains. Lawson agrees the stock would have massive intakes and consequently their methane outputs and emissions intensity (kilograms methane per kilogram liveweight or carcase weight) would be comparatively high because their maintenance levels would be high, and often, average daily gains were low.

“It’s really only the wealthy with high equity balance sheets and an idealistic approach to farming that can farm this way,” Lawson says.

They seemed to focus on the soil carbon elements of greenhouse gases and ignore that livestock are the methane emitters.

“We really need a whole farm approach,” Lawson says.

Marbling off grass ‘hard to achieve’ Good marbling scores off grass and mountain pastures are possible, but it is very hard to achieve consistently high marbling off grass and to build a supply chain and brand.

In a global food sense, the United States is the market leader for high quality marbling beef, with most of their beef consumed domestically.

Lawson has studied marbling and meat quality from a genetic, production system

Little Joe marble score 4+.

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

and consumer perspective for nearly 30 years. He has worked with Gardiner Angus Ranch (GAR) in the US, in terms of genetic improvement for onfarm and carcase traits, since 1994. GAR was involved in a large company called US Premium Beef (USPB).

USPB processed more than 1.2 million high quality cattle a year, and farmers were paid on a grid basis for meat quality and yield.

Lawson had the carcase data for the past 12 months, which had individual grid data for over 3000 head that GAR had processed through USPB. US Prime carcases were achieving grid premiums of US50c/lb, which in Australian terms was about US$440/head premium on 400kg carcase.

Lawson says GAR is routinely achieving compliance rates of 90% CAB acceptance against an industry average of about 20% and about 40% US Prime.

He saw a massive impact in terms of genetics off grass. This was monitored through Meat Standards Australia (MSA) compliance report. Lawson acknowledges this is not statistically valid genetic trials, but it useful feedback and important financial data.

The top grass-fed brand in Australia is JBS’s Little Joe’s which was a marbling score (MS) 4+. It was named after a game of cards where a Little Joe is rolling two twos, with a probability of about 3%.

Australia’s meat grading system Meat Standards Australia (MSA) is Australia’s meat grading system, based on eating quality, science and supported by consumer testing.

It is similar but more complex to the United States’ system where US Prime is the highest grade followed by Choice and then Select.

Certified Angus Beef (CAB) in the US is the upper 2/3 of choice grade.

Australia’s equivalent to CAB is an MSA marble score of 3+. US Prime is a 5+ on the Australian system.

MSA also considered meat and fat colour, and yield. The MSA Index also factored in ossification (age).

Chasing Little Joe Lawson says hitting the Little Joe's marble score 4+ and MSA Index 64+ was once regarded as "a feat near impossible to replicate".

Now they have King Island clients consistently achieving compliance rates of about >20%, over five times the compliance rate compared to industry average of <4%. This equates to $120-$150 per head premium.

Overall, they achieve premiums above the grid on 95% of cattle, and averaging over $50 per head premium above the standard grid price.

Lawson says this is not luck. They had generations of superior carcase traits stacking the odds in their favour!

New Zealand beef genetics lag a long way behind the top end of Australia and the US, he says.

“To achieve the results we are achieving in the feedlot and off grass takes generations of disciplined breeding.”

There is massive variation between animals. Ideal animals are fast growing, with good feed conversion and low Net Feed Intake (NFI).

There could be big gains in NFI over the next 10 years with potential to improve this trait (moderately heritable) by 2530% and still lead the way with other key multi-traits (calving ease, fertility, cow size, growth in the right package, EMA, marbling and yield).

More on regenerative ag p33 and p156.

19

BUSINESS

Carbon forestry

IKEA shifting into carbon forestry?

The company behind multi-national furniture and home accessories brand IKEA claims its purchase of a large Southland farm is for production forestry, not carbon farming, Annabelle Latz reports.

A

n international company which recently bought Wisp Hill Station in Southland claims its objective is, first and foremost, to create a production forest, not to mine carbon.

This is despite the fact the company is in the process of registering with the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).

The 5500ha sheep and beef farm is the first land bought in New Zealand for Ingka Investments, the investment arm of the group and its retail business IKEA. The purchase agreement became unconditional with the approval of land acquisition by the Overseas Investment Office on Friday, August 27, last year, bought from the Ward family. A leaseback requirement will allow the family to properly phase out their operations over a

20

minimum three-year period.

Country-Wide was refused a verbal interview with Ingka Investments, and received written statements instead.

Ingka’s forestland investments portfolio manager of Andriy Hrytsyuk said the plan is to grow a productive forest within an afforestation project which expands its global forestry portfolio and demonstrates its commitment to responsible forest management, with a focus on timber sales to generate a return on investment.

This recent conversation with Ingka Investments was the result of the cover story in Country-Wide’s March issue, Carbon Mining Exposed which stated the neighbouring 1250ha of Southland farm of Logan Evans called Koneburn had been bought by an international company for

carbon mining, some 80km from Wisp Hill Station. Country-Wide did not mention the name of the buyer.

Ingka Investments contacted CountryWide directly, specifically referencing Wisp Hill Station but not the farm mentioned in the article.

Two farms bought Country-Wide understands Ingka Investments has bought at least two farms in Southland on which they plan to plant both pine and native trees, one of them being Koneburn, the ownership being transferred to them on June 30, 2022.

Writing specifically about Wisp Hill Station, Hrytsyuk claimed it will not be a carbon farm, and stated carbon credits will not be part of the calculus.

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

“Our plans include serious investment into native species enhancement, and all the main riparian areas are earmarked to be planted in native species including manuka. A significant gorse and weed control programme has already been implemented on these riparian areas.”

“They are not sold, nor we do not engage in internal carbon offsetting to reduce our carbon footprint.”

In a media release last September, Ingka Investments stated it will be planting 330ha in radiata pine seedlings, with a long term plan to have a total of 3000ha and more than three million seedlings, planted in the next five years. At the same time the plan is to naturally regenerate the remaining 2200ha into native bush. The new forestry investment in NZ will see its forest planned harvest take place at the end of the first rotation, 29 years after planting.

“Our plans include serious investment into native species enhancement, and all the main riparian areas are earmarked to be planted in native species including manuka.

A significant gorse and weed control

programme has already been implemented on these riparian areas, something that has lacked any investment for over 50 years on the property.”

Hrytsyuk told Country-Wide in March that Ingka Investment’s afforestation business is a long-term investment which focuses on the cycle of planting seedlings on unforested land that will eventually become mature trees for harvest.

“We have begun the process of registering the property with ETS because it was the logical, prudent step to take as newcomers to the New Zealand market, but again we have no intention of selling carbon credits,” he said, adding that they will calculate and report the amount of carbon removed and stored in the trees, both in NZ and other countries.

It is Ingka Investments’ plan to draw on labour units to develop and eventually harvest the trees, and invest in native species enhancement. Hrytsyuk said the property will require years of labour inputs including preparing the soil, planting the seedlings, pest and weed control, thinnings and more, before harvest can happen.

Hrytsyuk acknowledged NZ’s proud tradition of agriculture, and the importance of its role in the economy, but added “forestry also has a role to play”.

“Our approach to responsibly manage forestry provides jobs and economic growth on the same land while also making a positive impact on the climate through carbon sequestration and biodiversity.”

All wood harvested in their forests is sold on the open market and does not comprise

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21

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Southland farmer Logan Evans working sheep in his yards. ‘Collectively everyone must focus on reducing gross emissions rather than off-setting them. We need a global plan to achieve this.’

KAIMOA

a significant part of the IKEA supply chain, (as a home furnishings retailer).

Logan Evans, a Groundswell member, expressed disappointment in the Government allowing the sale of farms like this to overseas investors.

“The Government has talked about stopping this happening, but when? Policies which suit their agenda get pushed through fast, so why is this taking so long?”

He agreed planting natives is better than monoculture planting, but it is still way off the mark for attempting to mitigate global warming. Especially when it involves an overseas company whose sole business model is to plant pine trees and claim credits, despite their reasons for registering with the ETS. Evans said to attempt the stopping of global warming, first the crippling of NZ agriculture needs to stop. The world needs to look at NZ farmers as the prototype of how to farm efficiently and with the environment.

“Collectively everyone must focus on reducing gross emissions rather than off-setting them. We need a global plan to achieve this.”

Evans said if he dotted on a map all the farms around him and NZ where pine trees are being planted for carbon farming (or ‘carbon mining’ as he calls it), it would be huge.

“It’s the silent assassin sneaking through our rural communities.”

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Kaimoa South Devons have pleasure in putting forward 22 Bulls in 2022 We are committed to producing meaty bulls with good frame, constitution and temperament.

With clients’ needs in mind we have sourced new genetics from overseas to maintain the highest qualities in our bulls.

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May 2022

23

BUSINESS

Finance

THE S YEAR OF THE YES Farmers seeking extra finance from banks stand a better chance this year, Phil Edmonds reports.

24

hould I borrow, can I borrow, and if I do, how much is it going to cost? These may have been three questions farmers contemplated as the year kicked off. If this was the case, the first question was likely the easiest to answer, the last probably the hardest while the second, might well have provoked a disgruntled “who knows these days?”.

Although not specifically relevant, answering the middle question will no doubt have been influenced by hearing the daily stories of rejection being faced by borrowers following the implementation of Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act (CCCFA) at the end of 2021. But it will also have been prompted by the experience many farmers have now become used to when dealing with banks – the longer list of boxes to tick and criteria to meet.

There is however the potential for that to change – ironically, due to the introduction of the CCCFA – and farmers could well now be courted by banks in a way that hasn’t been the case for some time. First though the questions again.

Should I borrow?

Well, right now there’s plenty to encourage a positive response. Farm revenues are manifestly higher than they have been for some time, and broadly predicted to remain that way for the next 18 months.

This should provide farmers with some confidence in their ability to service that debt (in the foreseeable future). Many farmers will also have spent the past

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

Banks need to keep lending in order to make money, so logic suggests they will need to look to other sectors. Surely agriculture. few seasons chipping off existing debt and at a macro level the sector has continued to deleverage from unsustainable highs. With those conditions in mind, now is as good a time as any for farmers to invest in futureproofing their businesses to an extent that may not have been possible in the recent past.

Next. Can I borrow?

A trickier one, which has a potential bank answer and a farm answer.

In theory, the bank answer should be increasingly yes. Because banks have been forced to curtail lending to house buyers with modest deposits and particular spending habits, they’ll be losing business.

Banks need to keep lending in order to make money, so logic suggests they will need to look to other sectors. Surely agriculture.

Andrew Laming, director of rural financial advisory firm NZAB, thinks the CCCFA should probably be a net positive for farmers with the sector’s overall debt level now more manageable and business viability (at least in the near term) looking more prosperous.

“Agriculture lending is now being repaid as fast as it is being lent out (making this unique compared with other sector lending). By default, banks need to ‘run to stand still’ which means continuing to write new loans.”

Bank lending data and a survey of credit conditions released by the Reserve Bank in the final quarter of last year also suggests farming is better placed than it has been in the recent past to encourage banks to continue capitalising the sector.

In October the Reserve Bank noted “demand for agriculture lending has proven

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

resilient throughout Covid-19, due to strong commodity prices and low interest rates.

These conditions have allowed farmers to increase their principal repayments, providing confidence in the sector and helping banks to become more comfortable pursuing quality growth in their agriculture portfolios.”

It also reported that credit availability to the agriculture sector has increased slightly over the past six months, with some easing in lending terms due to strong commodity prices, low interest rate environment and increased cashflow. As a result, it said banks were expecting around a 25% increase in demand for credit from the agri sector by March 2022, and that expectation would be broadly met by banks. In terms of the ‘easiness’ of accessing credit compared to the previous three years, banks were reporting that it had become ‘somewhat easier’ although a slight majority reported ‘about normal’.

That said, a sector lending summary released at the end of December showed that for the month of November, total agricultural lending had fallen by $187 million, and dairy lending was down for the sixth consecutive month, by $175m. In fact, agri lending ‘growth’ had not moved out of negative territory since the end of 2019.

Taken together, the ‘feel’ for the sector and the actual lending numbers perhaps reads as optimism lies ahead, but there’s no evidence of it yet.

The most recent ANZ New Zealand Business Outlook cautiously points to a near future that reflects what banks are anticipating. While overall business confidence was reported to be falling (understandably given the Covid-19related uncertainty), the monthly trend for

agriculture showed its level of confidence to be improving. The sector’s activity was identified as having risen sharply, as was profitability. But the sector’s own view on ‘ease of credit’ was however thought to have worsened.

This discrepancy between what appears to make sense (banks loosening their purse strings for farmers given their improved bankability) and what farmers are thinking (banking is getting harder) is what makes the question of ‘Can I borrow’ a difficult one to definitively answer.

Andrew Laming says that as ever, banks will want to make sure farmers have good financial history and good governance.

They’ll also be increasingly wanting to know if farm resources are well known and certain (land use consents are in place), the production system being employed is relatively ‘normal’, and the farm is not in a naturally sensitive area. Laming says where lending can be a problem is when a farm might have a high stocking rate which the banks might view as likely to be creating less-sustainable nutrient losses and unsustainable GHG emissions.

The best answer then, maybe yes and probably yes with a capital Y – as long as you’re thinking what the banks are thinking.

How much is it going to cost?

The final question – How much is it going to cost? The hard one, but potentially solvable.

Multiple interest rate hikes are expected this year to quell inflationary pressure.

The Reserve Bank’s official cash rate sits at 0.75%, but economists are variously picking it could end the year more than twice as high – above 2%. The arrival of Omicron

25

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May 2022

could stifle that though, if NZ’s economy mirrors what has occurred in Europe and Australia since the variant emerged.

For farmers though, it’s not just looking at OCR moves that make it difficult to determine the cost of borrowing.

Andrew Laming says that despite farm financials looking rosier, banks are pricing other sector risks beyond income into their interest rates, which are effectively pushing fixed rates higher for longer than they might otherwise be set. Banks are managing the risk they foresee (regulatory changes having impacts on farm returns) by setting rates with a margin buffer.

“It’s noticeable that some banks are uncertain about how much additional capital they might have to hold against loans in the future, so they are making up for that by pricing the longer-dated fixed interest rates higher.”

The answer to the ‘How much is it going to cost?’ question might then instinctively be ‘Too much’.

But Laming suggests farmers might

think a bit more deeply on this, which involves calculating whether that cost (albeit elevated) is still manageable, and particularly what they can do to reduce the uncertainty on what that looks like.

“If, for example, an average farmer was geared at $20/kg milksolids (MS), a 2% rise (as economists are anticipating) would just add an extra 40c/kg MS. Farmers should be in positions to manage that if their farm systems are agile (flexible enough to reduce variable costs), have supportive balance sheets, and are able to deploy product price hedging.”

The last point – hedging (beyond fixing interest rates) – is something NZ farmers are coming to see as a useful tool, and there’s plenty of scope for it to play a bigger role in de-risking financial decision making.

NZX dairy insights manager Stuart Davison says as interest rates as well as feed and other costs climb, there are more and more conversations about how farmers can create some safety buffers for their businesses.

“Most farmers that feed palm kernel or maize silage look to forward contract their required volumes, but fewer have been willing to realise fixing their milk price has the same benefits.”

That’s changing, however. There has been a massive increase in the use of NZX Milk Price Futures – up 33% on last year, with 20,868,000kg MS more milk contracted via the market. And a similar trend is holding for milk price futures for the 2023 season.

Farmers see the opportunity to lock in milk price for next season at about $8.70/kg MS already. There are already 5714 lots of open interest in the September 2023 contract, 169% more than at the same time the year before.

Davison says this trend represents a change in mindset where farmers appear to be starting to lose their fear of missing out on the highs in favour of more certainty.

This will inevitably appeal to banks, who like known quantities more than anyone.

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27

BUSINESS

Succession

SUCCESSION:

TIME FOR ACTION There is no off-the-shelf succession plan. Every business and every family is different, Peter Flannery writes.

P

reviously I raised the question of how to transfer ownership of the family farm to the next generation.

I discussed the actual transfer of land is not the difficult part. It is making the transfer of ownership work, with regards to ensuring financial sustainability while treating all family members fairly.

To that end I made the point that it is what happens before and after the transfer of ownership that will determine the success or otherwise of a succession plan.

Before any transfer of ownership can occur, you first need to build a strong business to help provide you with options, followed by having some potentially courageous conversations with the family to help define what is fair for your family’s situation.

Every business is different, and every family is different. So there is no “off the shelf” succession plan. Your plan needs to be tailor-made for your particular family, and this cannot occur without family wide consultation.

In my previous column I gave the example of a family business of 6000 stock units as follows: Total assets of $7.5million with debt at 10% of assets giving equity of $6.5m dropping out $150,000 of free cash after wages of management (drawings), tax and principal. In the example, as well as the parents, there were four children. So let’s give them some names. First, Fred who has been home on the farm for five years. Florence, a nurse, married to a successful surgeon. Sam has strong farming

Table 1: Example of a "strong business" $/su

$

6000su

$1,000

$6,000,000

6000su

$200

$1,200,000

Plant and machinery

$300,000

Total assets Debt

$7,500,000 10%

Equity

$6,750,000

ROE (after tax and drawings)

2.50%

$168,750

Principal

2.50%

$18,750

Free cash

28

$750,000

$150,000

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

aspirations of her own. Finally Bob who is enjoying an extended OE with no real plans while he tries to “find himself”.

Meanwhile, mum and dad want to retire to their yet-to-be-bought dream home overlooking the beach or lake within the next five years.

Table 2: What a plan might look like Borrow to buy equity share of:-

25%

$1,687,500

Debt level increases to

36%

$2,437,500

Existing ROE

Putting the plan into action

Increased debt servicing @

How can a successful succession plan be put into action? While the business in its current state is strong, there will be financial constraints.

If mum and dad were to sell 25% of the business to Fred, this would provide the parents with capital of $1.7m, which they would remove from the business to buy their dream home with maybe a minimal amount of cash left over. Where does Fred get his $1.7m from? Chances are that if he has been living and working on the farm for the past five years, he is not going to have a lot of capital of his own. So he will have to borrow most of the capital from a bank, which will only be lent against the assets and cashflow of the farm.

Borrowing another $1.7m of capital is going to use up most of the “borrowing capability” and free cash of the business.

Table 2 shows in this example, free cash reduces to $23,000 after repaying principal.

It works on paper, in that it gets Fred in the door to ownership, and it helps partly settle mum and dad into retirement.

However, it doesn’t address the parent’s access to retirement income and future lump sum capital requirements. Nor does it help Sam with her farming aspirations or provide anything for Florence and Bob. So it is a plan that is unlikely to work.

Principal repayments

Need for courageous discussion So if that option is not going to work, what is the alternative? First, this demonstrates the need to have those potentially courageous conversations. The success or otherwise is going to depend on the family’s attitude.

How do mum and dad view their capital?

Do they have the view that it is theirs, and must be protected at all costs, and keep it close to their chests, or do they hold the view that the capital is there to

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

Free cash

be used to benefit everyone? What are the siblings’ attitudes? Where do they sit on the continuum of self before others or others before self?

How important is it to the family that the farm stays within the family?

If it is a non-negotiable, then the successor and in this example potentially two successors, need to be treated preferentially. How fair is that? Again, that is for the family to decide.

“Your plan needs to be tailor-made for your particular family, and this cannot occur without family wide consultation.”

If Florence and Bob both have very mature attitudes and would rather see the farm stay in the family, and give both Fred and Sam their farming opportunities, then there is every chance the farm can be retained within the family, which we have established is a non-negotiable. However, if Florence and Bob both expect a significant capital payout, then the ability to keep the farm within the family starts to become less certain and is therefore no longer nonnegotiable.

What this example shows is that a seemingly strong business is going to have some severe financial constraints when it

$168,750 5.0%

$84,375

2.50%

$60,938 $23,438

comes to succession planning. It is a strong enough business to support mum and dad’s needs by providing good levels of free cash. However, once the needs of the next generation are taken into account, suddenly the business is not strong enough.

If no one is interested in the farm, the solution is simple. Mum and dad sell up when they are good and ready, distribute a bit of capital now, if they wish, and settle into a well-funded and financially secure retirement. However, that is not the case in this example, with potentially two successors and two others in very different financial situations.

We are assuming of course that Florence and Bob need to be bought out of the business. That seems to be the most common path. That is, one or maybe two end up with the farm while the remaining siblings get a cash payout at some time in the future.

However, it doesn’t have to be this way.

Again, if everyone has a mature attitude and an “abundant mentality” there are other options. An abundant mentality means “there is plenty in this business for everyone, and if we work together we can all achieve more than just doing our own thing”.

This is called being interdependent. Let’s work together so we can all benefit. Its great in theory, and there are wonderful examples of it succeeding. But humans being humans, it is not easy to achieve.

• Peter Flannery is an Invercargill-based Agri Business Consultant, peter@farm-plan.co.nz

29

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May 2022

BUSINESS

Inflation

P R O F I TA B I L I T Y RISES IN SIGHT Cost inflation is soaring, but commodity prices are leading the way, Campbell Wood writes.

W

e are in a period of high uncertainty with inflation and commodity prices.

The importance of budgeting during this time is twofold.

First to understand future cash flow requirements and being proactive with the bank if requiring additional seasonal cash flow support.

Secondly the impact any movement in prices has on your taxable position. For some farmers that don’t complete budgets, the amount of tax to pay next season may come as a surprise.

Although costs seem to keep increasing, on average profitability is still outstripping increased costs. For example, in April 2020, the lamb schedule was $6.25/kg, so a 18kg lamb $112.50, beef schedule was $3.93, so a 270kg carcase $1061.

Fast forward to 2021, these prices were $6.65 for lamb, so $119.70 per lamb, and $4.43 for beef, so $1196.1 per head. This season, we are sitting at $8.20/kg for lamb in Southland, $147.60 per head, and $5.60/kg for beef, so $1512 per head.

So in real terms, a 5000 stock unit sheep and beef

COVID IN BIBLICAL TIMES UITE OT Q AH, N ETRES – M TWO !

BACK

operation income could be up $160,000 this season.

On the costs, for comparison, in 2020 diesel was $1.21/litre, 2021 $1.48/l, and at the time of writing this the price at the pump was $2.16/l. The price of urea was in 2020 $575/tonne, 2021 $674/t, and now $1270. These are just two examples in a long list of costs continuing to go up. From what we have seen, overall costs so far this season have increased 15-20%, so between $10-15/stock unit.

A lot of people have the mind-set that costs will have outstripped increased income, however this is not the case for most farmers.

So far over the past month or two everyone I have revised numbers with, is sitting about $20/ stock unit better than last year in terms of operating surplus. This represents between $5.60-$6.60 in extra tax per stock unit depending on the structure.

This is consistent across our client base and some of the discussion groups we facilitate.

It is important to be proactive with this in your planning before next season, and set some of this year’s surplus towards paying this tax, so you can start next season fresh, as who knows where things may end up next year. By regularly reviewing budgets, farmers should be either increasing provisional tax instalments to allow for the extra tax, or be budgeting for a larger terminal tax payment in the following season.

Inland Revenue assesses the provisional tax on the previous season’s profit and then adds a further 5% for inflation. We recommend that if cash flow allows, pay more than the provisional tax requirements and pay tax according to your budget.

You can only do this if you regularly update your budgets and compare them to your actuals.

As always, it is important to understand your business and what your bottom line looks like so you can make proactive decisions at the right times.

If the red meat market was to drop, each farmer should know well in advance the effect on their cash flow.

• Campbell Wood is an accountant for Agrifocus, Invercargill.

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

31

MARKETS

Outlook for prices strong in 2022 Record prices for export beef have continued into 2022, despite continued disruption to international shipping, Mel Croad writes.

F

armgate beef prices have hit the ground running in 2022. Prices have never been stronger for this time of the year as export demand underpins returns. This is in stark contrast to the opening months of 2020 and 2021 where depressed prices featured heavily.

What caused the low prices in ’20 and ’21?

Basically, prices dropped so low during our first run with Covid-19 in April 2020 - they took a long time to recover even to near normal prices.

Then we had a large flow of cattle into processing plants through early 2021, depressing prices again - alongside a stuttering foodservice sector.

That all changed from April 2021 when global food service started to recover and markets

looked for beef. That trend hasn't stopped hence the strong export prices achieved into 2022 which has kept farmgate prices at a record high for this time of the season.

North Island bull and prime steer averaged $6.14/kg in January, a year earlier prices were languishing at $4.90-$4.95/kg. This equates to a $360-$375/head year-on-year premium on a 300kg carcase animal, giving a very clear indication of the different market dynamics at play this year. South Island prices displayed similar trends in January although the pricing difference was slightly greater enabling increased returns of $390-$420/head.

Seasonal pricing trends since January have seen farmgate prices edge lower, but nothing to the extent farmers usually expect. Give or take, the average reduction has been close to 20c/kg but even with this downside accounted for, prices are still a record high. Considering prices tend to bottom out through these late summer months, the outlook for beef prices remains strong well into 2022.

What’s driving it?

A few key drivers are underpinning this strong pricing run. Domestically the supply of cattle into processing plants has been limited since the start of the new processing season on October 1. At nearly the halfway point in the processing calendar, the national beef kill is running 6% or 70,000 head behind last season – this is almost split evenly between the two islands.

Tougher spring conditions knocked the condition of killable cattle, delaying their arrival into processing plants. Many were forced to carry cattle into the new year and even now there are reasonable volumes of R3 cattle trading on the store market.

The arrival of Omicron on our shores has also impacted processors’ ability to efficiently operate plants due to a lack of available staff. This has further impacted slaughter numbers since the start of March and led to backlogs developing at plants across the country. Fortunately, these backlogs have not translated into significant pricing pressure at the farmgate. This suggests prices have been more in tune with export returns than previous years where procurement pressure was the driving force behind farmgate prices.

Average export values (AEV’s) for New Zealand

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Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

Meat processors are dealing with a vastly complex landscape in terms of increased costs right throughout the supply chain. Shipping and freight costs have gone through the roof since the start of the pandemic.

NZ beef exports (thous. tonnes) Source: B+LNZ

60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Oct

Dec

Feb

Apr

Jun

NZ cattle slaughter (‘000 head)

Aug

Source: NZ Meat Board

80 60 40 20 0 Oct

Dec

Feb

Apr

Jun

North Island prime steer slaughter price ($/kg CW)

Aug

Oct

Source: AgriHQ

7.0

beef have been on the march higher since April 2021, underpinned by a well-documented recovery in the global foodservice sector. However, shipping logistics are still slowing parts of the global supply chain, and lower beef production in key markets, continue to prolong the sense of urgency globally to secure beef.

AgriHQ data shows AEVs for beef in April last year were $7.72/kg. By February this year export values for beef had broken a record for the third consecutive month, pushing to $10.40/kg. This is a little over $3/ kg or 43-44% above both last February and the fiveyear average for the month. The NZ dollar also helped drive export returns for beef through February.

The counter seasonal shift higher in AEVs through January and February for beef was unexpected. It has meant relatively stable, albeit record farmgate prices for this time of the season. While there are questions as to why farmgate beef prices haven’t shifted even higher to reflect the record export returns, there are a few factors to consider.

6.5

Plants unable to run efficiently

6.0

Meat processors are dealing with a vastly complex landscape in terms of increased costs right throughout the supply chain. Shipping and freight costs have gone through the roof since the start of the pandemic. Equally labour costs continue to punch higher. But the real kicker has been the inability to run processing plants efficiently.

The community spread of Omicron through NZ has further tightened the labour force, reducing plant capacity but doing little to reduce overheads, therefore eroding margins and profitability.

Fortunately costs and returns have moved in tandem.

Achieving this balance has meant record farmgate prices have been maintained through early 2022 while also accounting for high costs of producing and exporting beef.

Regardless of the slower throughput at processing plants, NZ beef exports this season haven’t fully reflected the lower production. Total beef exports for the season to date clicked over 200,000 tonnes by the end of February. This was a reduction of 6000t on last season. However, when viewed against historical data, it is the second highest export volume recorded for the first five months of any export season.

Despite all the disruption to global shipping lines,

5.5 5.0 4.5 Oct

Dec

Feb

Apr

Jun

North Island R2-R3year steer ($/kg LW)

Aug

Oct

Source: AgriHQ

3.50 3.25 3.00 2.75 2.50 Mar

May 5-year ave.

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May 2022

Jul

Sep 2020-21

Nov

Jan 2021-22

Mar

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NZ beef continues to access key markets. There has however been some redirection to Asian markets where shipping has been less of an issue than accessing the United States market.

China remains our largest market based on volume. This season NZ has shipped 86,000t of beef there, a lift of 5000t on last year. This takes China’s market share of NZ beef to 43% up from 39% over the corresponding period last season.

The US market remains in second position, however volumes shipped there have dropped by close to 8000t this season. This is despite the record prices on offer within this market. Again, shipping congestion at key ports on either coast of the US continue to hamper trade to this market. Fortunately, overall demand for NZ beef has been widespread this season, which has spread the risk profile and enabled beef returns to trade across the top of the market.

US 90CL cow (US$/lb)

Source: AgriHQ/USDA

3.0 2.8 2.6 2.4 2.2 2.0 1.8 Jan 20

May 20

Sept 20

Jan 21

Domestic

May 21

Sept 21

Jan 22

Imported

Omicron, drought hit As the autumn cow cull gathers momentum there is concern that the three short processing weeks through April will condense the kill into May and possibly stretch it out into June. How this processing period plays out will also be determined by how far through the Omicron wave NZ is and whether processors have recouped staff numbers.

By early April, most North Island processing plants were starting to claw back capacity as staffing numbers improved. In contrast, many mid-to-lower South Island plants were only just taking a staffing hit. Unfortunately drought conditions in Southland have added to these processing woes within the lower South Island.

The inability to shift finished stock off-farm and into processing plants has also stalled the store market in these regions.

Overall, store cattle prices are the strongest they have been for four years on a straight cents per kg basis. But relative to where farmgate slaughter prices are sitting, they could be considered on the soft side, suggesting buyable store cattle still exist. But slow going in the processing space is delaying the return of buyers to the store market, keeping demand in check.

The strong start to the year for beef prices does appear to have the stamina to continue towards spring. AgriHQ recently forecast a return to pricing upside from early winter centered on an improvement in processing ability and a continuation of strong export demand.

• Mel Croad is a senior analyst for AgriHQ.

34

NZ has shipped 86,000t of beef to China, a lift of 5000t on last year.

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

MARKETS

Regenerative ag

RA meat premium unlikely REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE produced meat is not a big hit with overseas consumers.

B+LNZ has identified regenerative farming as a potential selling point for New Zealand meat overseas. However, the International Food Information Council (IFIC) has found United States customers may not be willing to pay a premium for meat with claims of regenerative ag processes being used.

The IFIC released their survey findings, Consumer Perspectives on Regenerative Agriculture, in February.

The survey was made up of 1000 interviews conducted among adults in December 2021.

Results found over half of the respondents had heard of organic farming, crop rotation and sustainable farming, however fewer were familiar with terms like soil health

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

(33%), and regenerative ag (19%).

People with college degrees and those making more than $80,000/year were more likely to say they had heard of regenerative ag than those without college degrees, and those making less than $40,000/yr respectively.

Participants were given a definition for regenerative ag practices. This was “farming that aimed to restore and maintain optimal levels of nutrients and microorganisms in the soil”, before they continued with the survey.

With definition in hand, respondents were provided with the following scenario.

Results showed most people were not willing to pay more for a product made with regenerative ag.

Two thirds of participants said they would be either highly likely or somewhat likely to

buy the cheaper option.

Participants were asked when deciding whether to buy a food or beverage, how important different factors were in their decision. Overall healthfulness of the food ranked highest, followed by the vitamin and mineral content of the food. One in four said regenerative ag was a very important factor when choosing.

The two top practices for human health were choosing foods and beverages made without the use of pesticides, and with environmentally sustainable farming.

For the full survey: foodinsight.org/consumerperspectives-onregenerative-agriculture/

35

MARKETS

Exports

WORLD DISORDER AHEAD International trading is under pressure, with war in Ukraine just the latest challenge to disrupt existing mechanisms, Glenys Christian writes.

N

ew Zealand faces “an even more than usually disordered world”.

That is what Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) deputy secretary of trade and economics, Vangelis Vitalis told the New Zealand Meat Board’s online annual meeting. He had pre-recorded his sobering address ahead of the meeting on March 15 as he was about to fly to Europe with the Minister for Primary Industries (MPI), Damien O’Connor.

Vladimir’s Putin’s move into Ukraine was very serious, and a grave change to the way we have thought about the world, he said.

“It’s a long time since the map of Europe has been redrawn by force.”

Vitalis said for the first time many countries were in a frantic race to put in patches defending the existing world trade order rather than building on what was already there.

“Major economies are either unable, unready or unwilling to show leadership.”

While the Biden administration was giving all the right signals in terms of a more structured and predictable trade policy, the United States wasn’t likely to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) any time soon.

Bilateralism was being seen in the two big architectural structures of the CPTPP and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), including the 10

36

members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

“The US is in neither, but these two groups are going to drive change,” he said.

Vitalis said this placed a lot of pressure on the international trading system and the question was how NZ could make sure its interests were still pursued and prosecuted.

China remained NZ’s largest trading partner with over half the Pacific economies relying on it for up to 40% of their trade and one economy exceeding that amount.

But trade flows were slowing with Covid.

As countries tried to pick themselves up in its wake Chinese demand would be an important driver.

“It will be interesting to see where it goes,” he said.

Vitalis said the period from 1994 to 2018 was “the golden weather” for trade but that had now ended. There was rising protectionism not seen for five years with tariff barriers and subsidies globally at an all-time high.

“We’re in a different world now.”

He said while NZ was continuing to support trading rules already in place there was a growing sense of disorder.

“The challenge is that as a small economy we are vulnerable and none of the changes are insignificant.”

Some of these changes in the role of trade which needed to be faced were the sharp decline in trade with the US and EU. This

was matched by the rise of China, India and Indonesia, all of these important markets for this country. In NZ’s favour was the fact it was adept and agile. With the challenges facing Australia’s wine and barley exports to China, a functioning, rules-based system meant it was able to step up exports of these products to the US, EU and Brazil.

Risks with digital disruption Another recent trend was the changing nature of trade where digital disruption was affecting certification, identification and phytosanitary agreements.

“It’s already changing the way we think about international trade,” Vitalis said.

“There are advantages but challenges with privacy and protecting information as we don’t have a digital agreement at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).”

He said the role of trade was also changing in line with sustainability concerns about what could or couldn’t be done.

“Consumers don’t want to be greenwashed.

“But I see it as an opportunity. NZ has a strong story to tell and our reputation as an honest, credible partner goes a long way.”

Vitalis said there were additional challenges which would need to be worked through in the future which were likely to come into sharp relief in the ratification phase of an EU trade agreement.

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

“It’s a long time since the map of Europe has been redrawn by force.”

The Government’s trade recovery strategy of supporting exporters involved three parts; refreshing, retooling and reconnecting with the world. It took a sharp and structured approach to the present challenges by focusing on how help could be given to generate more returns.

When it came to the reinvigoration of the architecture of world trade, Vitalis said there were high hopes that the postponed 12th ministerial conference of the WTO, which will start on June 13 in Geneva, would sustain that organisation.

The free trade agreement NZ had made with the United Kingdom had delivered significant outcomes meaning this country would be able to compete on a much more level playing field.

“I’d love to be able to tell it will be as good from the EU, but based on the EU’s past agreements, I’m afraid that it will disappoint.”

With the CPTPP, he said applications to join from the UK, China, Chinese Taipei and Ecuador could be time consuming and challenging.

NZ, Singapore and Chile’s digital trade agreement made two years ago could well attract other countries, with Korea close to joining and China having already applied

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

for membership.

“Hopefully Canada will look to join too,” he said.

But while it was good to have rules in this area the bigger question was how member countries’ actions would match up.

“I encourage the meat industry to think about what it means,” he said.

“It is a challenging world out there and it will continue to be difficult, notwithstanding the good export returns recently.”

Opportunities for farmers Farmers would do well to think of the opportunities presented by the changing nature of trade and the benefits that could be facilitated.

“But we need to be very alert to public perceptions of trade,” he said.

“It’s important to tell the story in the right way so it’s understood.”

MFAT, together with MPI, NZTE, Customs and other NZ Inc agencies, was there to help in solving problems and addressing issues and wanted to make sure the support it provided was fit for purpose. He was looking forward to the year ahead.

Meat Board chairman, Andrew Morrison, said a rules-based system was vital.

A sustainability lens was now creating the story and systems in trade.

In answer to a farmer’s question about how this was happening, Beef + Lamb NZ chief executive, Sam McIvor, said it was a big part of the UK FTA discussions and there was no doubt it would figure in the EU negotiations.

“That’s a strong message around the expectations of our trading partners,” he said.

Work being done under the He Waka Eke Noa initiative was being talked about with the expectation that sustainability concerns would increase over time, making the next 10-15 years challenging for farmers.

Another farmer wanted to know more about the risk of protectionism escalating.

“We’re a world in crisis with Covid and Russia invading Ukraine,” Morrison said.

Export restrictions on Russian wheat already put in place in Argentina and Hungary would benefit Ukraine as a major exporter. And McIvor said he had been told

by Vitalis previously that up to 60% of the value of FTAs could be lost with non-tariff barriers.

“But NZ can be very agile in responding and that gives other countries confidence to deal with us.”

37

MARKETS

Trade access

Curtain lifts on beef for UK Can a free trade agreement breathe new life into beef exports to the UK or have New Zealand’s major exporters moved on permanently, Nigel Stirling asks.

O

ne word suffices when Alliance Group’s general manager of sales Shane Kingston is asked about the Invercargill-based processor’s beef exports to the United Kingdom.

“None,” Kingston says.

Until the UK’s recent break with what is now the European Union, exports of NZ prime beef were restricted to a mere 1300 tonnes annually.

Former Trade Minister Lockwood Smith memorably commented that it was not much more than he produced in a year from his Northland farm.

Even for that amount UK importers paid a 20% tariff to buy NZ beef.

Once that quota was used up the tariff on additional sales jumped to 50% or more.

NZ’s quota was slashed again when the UK left the EU in 2020.

“It was 450t,” Kingston says.

“It was just not appropriate for any exporter to build [sales] programmes.”

However Brexit was far from a wash-out for NZ exporters.

Cut loose from the EU’s trading arrangements with the rest of the world Britain was desperately in need of its own

replacement deals to ensure its exporters remained competitive in global markets.

Once a deal with the EU was secured, the focus of UK trade negotiators quickly swung towards the growth markets of Asia where Australia and NZ as original signatories of the Comprehensive and Progressive TransPacific Partnership became key targets.

Australia’s deal with the UK was signed in December, and NZ followed closely behind with its own agreement in February.

Both deals stand out for the quality of access for agricultural products, particularly for dairy which will enter the UK market

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etipu.boma.global Country-Wide Beef May 2022

tariff-free after five years.

For NZ beef a tariff-free annual quota of 12,000t is created initially, rising in equal annual instalments to 60,000t within 15 years, after which time quotas will be scrapped completely and everything can enter the UK market tariff-free.

Kingston says the initial quotas are large enough for exporters to spend serious time looking at getting back into the UK market.

British customers are used to NZ grass-fed lamb and existing relationships provide a base for exporters to build on with beef.

“There is a familiarity and confidence in NZ red meat protein.

“The FTA and quota allows us to extend our conversation to encompass beef.”

NZ beef has a 12,000t/year access quota with the UK which rises to 60,000 in 15 years and then everything enters tariff-free.

A willingness to pay ANZCO’s general manager of sales and marketing Rick Walker says even without tariffs questions remain over the market’s willingness to pay globally competitive prices.

Demand from China and the United States is pushing prices up.

With lamb the trend was for UK supermarkets to ask NZ exporters to provide more for less, however.

“We are very lucky that we do not need the UK right now to be turned on...”

British customers are used to NZ grass-fed lamb and existing relationships provide a base for exporters to build on with beef.

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May 2022

“The standards they are imposing on us from a packing perspective or from an animal welfare perspective or a transport perspective are becoming more and more onerous to a point where the potential value of operating in that retail space in the UK is getting less attractive versus being able to move that product into other markets that are less onerous.

“I think you will find the same challenges with beef.”

Walker expects NZ beef’s grass-fed, antibiotic-free attributes will attract interest from Michelin and other five-star restaurants in London and other major cities.

“The challenge there is more the logistical side of things and how big is that niche.

“We have similar sorts of business into China and North America… and the scale of those are big enough that you can take container loads of product in and that makes sense.

“We are looking at the top end [in the UK] but it is niche and it is small.

“The question is how do you do it?

“Because you might be taking pallet loads rather than container loads.

“So is that air-freighting? Which is an additional cost.

“That is one of the things we are working through.”

The market for grinding beef for hamburgers also look like a dead end, Walker says.

Continues

››

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The lean attributes of NZ grinding beef prized by American importers are not relevant in the UK. “The model in America is that we supply the lean meat because they have got so much fat because they are grain-fed.

“In the UK it is our understanding that is not quite the case.

“They are looking for decent-quality, costcompetitive protein.”

Walker says he isn’t downplaying the importance of the FTA. It could come into its own if one of NZ’s major markets went belly-up in the future.

“We are very lucky that we do not need the UK right now to be turned on to make sure that we maximise the value back to our farmers,” he says.

Kingston expects the UK beef market to be “challenging” for NZ exporters.

It is well-supplied with grass-fed beef by Irish and Scottish producers who would put up a fight in both the food service and retail segments of the market.

Leveraging off lamb business However, its long-standing lamb business meant it is a “strategically important” market which the southern cooperative is prepared to invest in developing further.

“Alliance Group feels it is advantaged in the UK market.

“We have a large presence and a large number of partners and breadth of business across a number of channels that have already indicated an appetite to work with us on our beef portfolio.”

Existing customers included supermarket giant Tesco, pub chain-owner Mitchells & Butlers, and online retailer Ocado.

Kingston says the UK is definitely a “middle cuts” market.

Alliance last assessed global returns 12-14 months ago, Kingston says, and found the UK to be competitive on beef pricing.

“When we last did an audit it was attractive commercially.”

Kingston says Alliance is ready for the upfront cost of promotional spending to establish its brand and counter the strong “Buy British” message in supermarket aisles in particular.

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May 2022

NZ beef’s grass-fed, antibioticfree attributes will attract interest from Michelin and other five-star restaurants in London and other major cities.

“The specifics of that we do not know yet and will depend on how strongly the market incumbents react.

“Will they see NZ as a threat now this FTA has been signed?

“What actions are they taking to secure their business to create really sticky customers?

“All of that will determine how ambitious we are and the programme and associated cost.”

NZ exporters look likely also to face a determined challenge from Australian rivals.

Australian exporters start with a larger tariff-free quota than NZ of 25,000t, rising to 110,000t after 10 years.

Furthermore the Australian government is backing its exporters in new markets with significant amounts of money.

“They are fundamentally trying to reduce their reliance on China by opening up new markets,” Kingston says.

After last month’s FTA with India the Australian government assigned A$270m to advertising and product promotions.

“They are very determined how they go about market entry and they are pretty

competent at it and spend the money to ensure success.”

Kingston says talks with Beef + Lamb NZ are happening now about how the levyfunded body could support exporters in the UK when the FTA enters into force in 12-18 months’ time.

Ideally that support would be in the form of collecting information about UK consumers and their preferences.

“They can provide intelligence to us of that nature where it is easier for them to go and mine that data rather than each of us doing an exercise like that and then feed it back to us to implement in our programmes.

“That is one of the things that has been successful for us all in a number of markets recently.”

Kingston says there could also be a role for B+LNZ’s Taste Pure campaign.

That had a heavy emphasis on reaching younger consumers through social media and had already been rolled out to the US and China.

“There hasn’t been a discussion to date but that could be a vehicle that could be successful.”

41

INDUSTRY

Opinion

alternative HE WAKA EKE NOA

Rural pressure group Groundswell has prepared alternative proposals to He Waka Eke Noa options and is seeking farmer input to remove duplication, reduce costs, empower farmers and reward, rather than penalise, environmental efforts, James Hoban writes.

H

e Waka Eke Noa options and consultation have led to strong public criticism. Groundswell’s voice has been one of the most prominent in reacting to He Waka.

Groundswell has released a carefully crafted alternative to He Waka and recently provided further details to answer critics.

While Groundswell’s initial response to He Waka was to fight unworkable regulations, they reached a point where they decided a more worthwhile approach would be to develop an alternative.

Throughout this process it had a lot of feedback about policies being created in silos leading to duplication and perverse outcomes. It decided to develop an integrated framework that included emissions but also other pressing topics including freshwater and biodiversity.

The group says more should be made of the hundreds of farmer and communityled environmental initiatives already happening. They believe their framework would remove duplication, massively reduce costs, empower farmers and reward (rather than penalise) environmental efforts.

The major change Groundswell is

42

proposing is to link all environmental issues into one integrated policy framework. This proposal is a bigger beast than their He Waka alternative and is still being developed. There is already a lot of information on the Groundswell website but because they are seeking feedback from so many people it is evolving and taking time. It will be made public soon.

A broad-based tax on farming Groundswell leaders say that after carefully reviewing He Waka, they believe it has shifted from its founding principle, to incentivise uptake of new technology and management, towards a broad-based tax on farming.

Their alternative is based on adopting a short-term research fund to develop emission reduction tools. They want to see existing industry levy organisations and funding used for this. A more comprehensive emissions scheme would follow in time, but would not be developed until solutions have been tested. The scheme would then focus on incentivising uptake of new technologies and management changes.

They say that He Waka proponents

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

are setting price signals on emissions without establishing credible, workable options to reduce emissions.

Groundswell says this is tantamount to He Waka forcing farmers and growers to reduce stocking rates and productivity.

Groundswell wants levy-funded organisations alongside government groups to take the lead in investigating the most efficient pathways to achieving emissions reductions, while allowing farmers to maintain productivity and “reasonable” profitability. These organisations would also take the lead in providing proven best-practice management examples and encourage uptake during the research phase.

It would be an interesting exercise for Beef + Lamb NZ to run scenarios and show viable solutions on its demonstration farm. Lanercost is an extensive dryland property in North Canterbury. Given the criticisms from many people that He Waka will lead to afforestation of these types of farms, could B+LNZ show that a productive sheep and beef future is possible, using Lanercost as a demonstration?

Groundswell says He Waka modelling shows a significant majority of emissions reductions will be achieved through research and new technology and it believes all emissions-related revenue gathering should be focused where it will achieve the most.

Efficient use of farmers’ money is their top priority and every spending decision must work backwards from a detailed assessment of what is actually required. Its leaders say He Waka works on creating a “giant slush fund then working out ways to spend it.”

According to its leaders, Groundswell’s proposal would be enacted at no additional cost to farmers and funding would come entirely from existing levy body payments. Farmers pay over $100 million per year in industry body levies, Groundswell NZ

seeks a full review and re-prioritisation of that funding “so it can be allocated where farmers need it most.”

A different approach Where Groundswell has taken a different approach to industry groups is that in the face of criticism they have produced more information to answer questions. Industry groups have responded to criticism of He Waka by stoically repeating; ‘it is better than agriculture being included in the ETS’.

This will not pacify farmers indefinitely and has already exasperated many.

Barriers to acceptance of an alternative to He Waka include industry leaders’ willingness to listen and support their farmers, government acceptance of farmer voices, insistence of tight timeframes and the fact that more than one farmer group has suggested an alternative.

the dissatisfaction with He Waka options is.

In addition to the groups mentioned, Keith Woodford, Jane Smith and Graham Brown joined forces to submit on He Waka. These respected rural leaders came together to write their submission “because of a mutual concern that the He Waka documents are seriously flawed and that there is major distrust within important segments of the agricultural sector”.

In what is clearly intended to be a constructive submission, the three have highlighted what they believe to be major issues with He Waka. More on this in Country-Wide in June.

The Groundswell team is made up of volunteers who work on their own businesses and squeeze the work for cause often at the expense of downtime, social time and family time.

When critics pull apart their ideas and identify gaps it continues to provide further information. They have got to a point now that it is up to industry groups to either work with their ideas or make it clear why they will not.

One of the reasons given for industry groups struggling with policy is that in the case of Federated Farmers and Beef+Lamb NZ, they have to attempt to represent multiple sectors. Satisfying competing interests often leads to positions that stakeholders are unhappy with.

How then has Groundswell galvanised such a large, cross sector group? Their policy positions seem to resonate with multiple sectors. When it comes to gaining grassroots farmer support, boots on the ground appear to be trumping the ivory tower approach.

Groundswell does not claim to have all the answers yet and says it will continue to develop its proposals alongside farmers and industry groups.

“Their alternative is based on adopting a short-term research fund to develop emission reduction tools. They want to see existing industry levy organisations and funding used for this. A more comprehensive emissions scheme would follow in time.”

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

The fact that more than one group has gone to the extensive effort to build credible alternatives to He Waka should more than give industry leaders pause for thought. The worry though is that this could count against farmers – if these voices can be labelled fragmented then they might be dismissed.

Two of the most credible alternatives to He Waka have been put forward by Groundswell and by a farmer group, covered in Country-Wide in February.

These alternatives are not mutually exclusive. Much of the logic is shared and should not be ignored. That so many volunteer hours have gone into their development shows how strong

• James Hoban is a farmer and environmental consultant.

43

INDUSTRY

Branding

Lessons to learn from Ireland Lincoln University scientist Nic Lees looks at Ireland’s Origin Green programme, how it is implemented in the Irish beef industry and its relevance to New Zealand.

44

C

ompared to Ireland, the New Zealand beef industry has been slow to implement important programmes such as the measurement of farm-level carbon footprints, traceability and consistent quality assurance standards.

Origin Green is Ireland’s food and beverage sustainability programme and brand, and claims to be the world’s only programme of its type that operates at a national scale. Launched in 2012, it aims to set measurable sustainability targets involving all parts of the supply chain from farmers and processors through to food service and retail.

The programme needs to be understood in the context of the work of Bord Bia (the Irish Food Board). This organisation was established in 1994 from a merger of the Irish Meat and Livestock Board and the food promotional activities of the Irish Trade Board. Later it incorporated the horticultural and seafood sectors. Bord Bia’s primary function is to promote, assist and develop the marketing of Irish food and beverage products.

Bord Bia receives about €70 million (NZ$112m) in funding, representing about 0.5% of the €14.5 billion ($NZ23b) value of Irish agri-food exports. The only nongovernmental funding is from a statutory farmer levy of NZ$9.5m. Most of Bord Bia’s income is used for marketing and promotions and the remainder is spent on specific projects and operating expenditure.

A total of €5.9m ($NZ9.5m) is allocated to the Origin Green quality assurance schemes.

The foundation of the Origin Green certification was the Irish beef quality assurance and traceability schemes. It was originally developed in response to pressure from large retailers, as well as the outbreaks of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) (1984-2008), and foot and mouth disease (2007). They set standards for traceability, food safety, hygiene, health and safety and animal welfare.

The significant change to these quality assurance schemes with the introduction of the Origin Green was the addition of a farm-level measure of carbon footprint.

Other sustainability measures included are water use efficiency, biodiversity,

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

and energy efficiency.

The addition of a carbon footprint measurement was in response to several published studies on the impact of the livestock sector on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. These questioned the sustainability credentials of the Irish beef production system. This highlighted the need to develop verifiable industry data to measure GHG emissions and establish a basis for demonstrating progress.

Measurement of a farm-level carbon footprint uses the Carbon Navigator – a tool developed by Teagasc (Agriculture and Food Development Authority). The carbon footprint scheme is certified by the internationally recognised Carbon Trust and utilises methodology aligned to specific standards – GHG protocol product standard PAS 2050 and ISO 14067.

These methodologies use a life cycle assessment approach and are based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change guidelines. Food and drink manufacturers are independently verified by international auditors, Mabbett and Associates.

To measure carbon footprint, data is collated from several different sources. This includes the Department of Agriculture’s animal identification and movement system, the Irish Cattle Breeders Federation database, and slaughter weights from the beef processors. Additional data is collected from Bord Bia’s quality assurance audit, which requires farmers to record information on all farm inputs and outputs.

Following each audit, the farmer receives a sustainability report showing the results and feedback on the farm’s performance, with reassessments every 18 months. This report identifies areas that can improve the carbon footprint of their farms by evaluating key efficiency areas. These include extended grazing, calving rate, daily live weight gain, improved economic breeding index (EBI), nitrogen efficiency, slurry management and energy efficiency.

Importance of Origin Green in the marketplace Origin Green aims to be an umbrella for all that the Irish food and beverage industry is doing in the sustainability space.

Beef industry leaders have stated that the carbon footprint data is important because it enables the beef industry to measure and demonstrate its environmental credentials.

Like New Zealand, Ireland has always traded on its ‘green’ island environment.

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

Origin Green aims to set measurable sustainability targets involving all parts of the supply chain from farmers and processors through to food service and retail.

“The significant change to these quality assurance schemes with the introduction the Origin Green programme was the addition of a farm-level measure of carbon footprint.”

However, the Irish beef industry found this perception is no longer sufficient and they now need to demonstrate this is true.

Origin Green is seen as a way of futureproofing the sector and ensuring Irish beef continues to be competitive in a changing environment.

From a market perspective, farmers have said it is difficult to evaluate the impact of the Origin Green brand, especially for returns at the farm gate.

They are aware the Irish industry is dependent on large retail customers such as Tesco and McDonalds and therefore they set the rules. As a result, they felt Origin Green has become a standard they require rather

45

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“...there are significant lessons relevant to NZ’s efforts to verify and communicate its sustainability credentials.” than something that provides a premium.

Those who are closer to the market through involvement with branded products, such as Hereford or Angus, are more positive about the benefits.

Some farmers are also concerned that all farmers are treated equally and there is no premium for those who have a lower carbon footprint.

Most farmers commented on the significant additional information required for carbon footprint measurements. Many considered this to be time-consuming and not very relevant to their farm business.

However, with increasing environmental regulations there is greater acceptance of the need to record and demonstrate environmental sustainability measures.

Some highlighted the benefit of the report in identifying areas where they could be more efficient. This seemed to be a more important motivation than specific environmental concerns.

Although Origin Green may not have achieved all its primary goals, there are several positive outcomes: • The programme has taken a proactive approach to the environmental impacts of beef production and in particular carbon emissions. Origin Green introduced the farm-level carbon footprint measurement in 2012, which was well ahead of any other beef-producing country. This provided evidence that the industry was taking its environmental impacts seriously and was trying to address its sustainability issues • It has been able to produce independently verifiable data with which to engage in the debate on the impact of beef production on the environment. Without this, the industry would be vulnerable to data produced from outside the beef industry and would not be able to question the validity of these studies • It has identified some key areas where farmers can make changes to their production system that improve both

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

In contrast to the Irish industry, the NZ red meat sector has struggled to develop a coordinated industry strategy or national branding programme that provides verifiable sustainability measures.

environmental outcomes and farm efficiency • It has helped the industry engage with stakeholders, especially the large retail customers and supports them with their own sustainability agenda. This has helped keep Irish beef in a competitive position in markets where there is strong competition from local beef.

Relevance to NZ Despite some of the challenges in implementing Origin Green, there are significant lessons relevant to NZ’s efforts to verify and communicate its sustainability credentials. Bord Bia and the Origin Green programme have enabled the Irish beef industry to be proactive about traceability, quality assurance, measuring GHG emissions and promoting its sustainability brand. It has also been able to extend this across all its food and beverage exports. In

this respect, Ireland is well ahead of NZ. NZ does not have an equivalent food sustainability programme that includes a farm-level carbon footprint measurement.

These are under development but are still several years away from being fully implemented.

For example the B+LNZ Environment Strategy and Implementation Plan aims to have a system for farm-level accounting and reporting of agricultural emissions in place at the farm level by 2025. Another document that outlines the commitment of primary sector industries to mitigate climate change is He Waka Eke Noa – Our Future In Our Hands: Primary Sector Climate Change Commitment. This proposes that all farms will have an emissions reporting system in place by 2025. This highlights how NZ tends to respond to government regulation rather than taking a proactive approach.

Ireland has had animal traceability

47

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systems and quality assurance schemes in place since the 1980s. In the Irish scheme any animal can be located through its ear tag. It is a legal requirement that every time an animal moves, farmers are required to enter the new location of the animal in the system.

In contrast, the NZ National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) scheme was introduced in 2012. There was considerable opposition from farmers and farmer organisations who saw it as an additional cost on their business for no tangible gain. They were also concerned about the privacy of data and how government agencies might use this.

As a result, the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) introduced the scheme with no mandatory recording. It was not until the recent incursion of Mycoplasma bovis that serious deficiencies in the traceability system were identified. Since then, there has been a major review of NAIT with a number of the recommendations implemented to strengthen the system.

NZ has also been behind Ireland with

its quality assurance schemes for beef and lamb. The NZ Farm Assurance Programme (NZFAP) introduced in 2017 was the first comprehensive industry-standard farm assurance programme. Before this, farmers had to meet the requirements of multiple farm assurance schemes depending on the specific processor or customer requirements.

Many of these schemes were similar but often required multiple audits on the one farm.

In contrast to the Irish industry, the NZ red meat sector has struggled to develop a coordinated industry strategy or national branding programme that provides verifiable sustainability measures or has the ability to communicate the unique characteristics of our natural production systems. Recent initiatives, such as the B+LNZ Taste Pure Nature, aim to address this but with limited resources and only in select markets.

Despite the shortcomings of Origin Green, it highlights the opportunity for NZ to develop a similar sustainability brand.

It also shows the potential to extend this

LOCK IN A

beyond just the beef industry and bring together all NZ’s food exports. Furthermore, the Irish experience has highlighted the need for an agency or organisation to provide leadership across the food sector to implement change.

Without this leadership it is likely that this country will continue to struggle to introduce a unified food strategy or respond to the repeated calls for a NZ food sustainability brand.

• Dr Nic Lees is a senior lecturer in agribusiness management and director of the Lincoln University Agribusiness and Food Marketing programme. Email: nic.lees@lincoln.ac.nz.

Dr Lees’ project was partly funded by AGMARDT. During his time in Ireland he was hosted by the University College Dublin. For a copy of the full report please email the author.

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49

MARKETING

Grass-fed

LA focus for grass-fed beef campaign ANYONE DRIVING AROUND LOS Angeles County over the next few weeks will soon become very familiar with the attributes of New Zealand’s grass-fed beef.

Until mid-May, 24 billboards will be strategically plotted around the county in high traffic areas and within close proximity to retailers selling branded NZ grass-fed beef products from companies including First Light and Silver Fern Farms.

This is just one of the initiatives Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s (B+LNZ) origin brand, Taste Pure Nature, is carrying out, either on its own account or in conjunction with processing companies, as it builds awareness, preference and ultimately sales for NZ grass-fed beef.

Taste Pure Nature’s Marketing Manager, Elise Le Compte, says a previous billboard campaign generated over 130 million impressions and she expects this number

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In September last year, B+LNZ and Silver Fern Farms collaborated on a threeweek joint campaign promoting grass-fed beef through Silver Fern Farm’s directto-consumer e-commerce platform. The campaign resulted in a 247% increase in website traffic, a 291% increase in beef products sold and a 254% increase in beef revenue.

Le Compte says promotional tactics included curated beef bundles, a promotional product offer, paid digital media, social media, email marketing and an online influencer campaign.

At the same time B+LNZ and ANZCO joined forces in Beijing to promote NZ grass-fed beef in high-end supermarket chain, 7-Fresh.

This week-long co-branded campaign

Taste Pure Nature campaigns are growing awareness and sales of NZ grass-fed beef.

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MANAGEMENT

Opportunities for the supply of dairy beef calves are increasing.

THE DAIRY BEEF OPPORTUNITY Beef finishers have the opportunity to cash in on the dairy industry’s supply of bulls, writes Dwayne Cowin.

D

espite 100kg dairy beef calves falling out of favour with beef finishers over the past couple of years, an 18-month bull finishing policy remains one of the most profitable livestock trading enterprises within drystock operations.

Success of this enterprise, though, is based on the requirement for the bull to achieve an average daily liveweight gain of 0.9kg/ day over its lifetime on farm.

While the financial performance of the 18-month bull finishing enterprise still consistently outperforms other beef finishing and/or dairy support enterprises, there seems to be recent apprehension for beef finishers to buy 100kg calves in the

52

spring for the following reasons: • Summer rainfall is becoming more variable and less predictable, irrespective of farm location • The hotter summer temperatures; and/or • The increasing level of breeding stock performance in general over most farms, therefore most farmers are carrying more stock over summer (i.e. finishing lambs) and placing additional feed pressure on a variable feed supply.

Despite the above, opportunities for supply of dairy beef calves are increasing, with the dairy industry showing increasing awareness around the sensitivity of onfarm euthanasia and selling bobby calves.

Relative profitability of bull finishing One would hope the financial performance of farming bulls would make up for the common pain points associated with farming them. These are the increased management complexity with having to farm more mobs, the potential for increased R&M costs and the strategically left ‘bull holes’ they tend to leave behind around troughs, gateways, gullies etc.

Table 1 shows analysis comparing an 18-month bull finishing enterprise to other livestock finishing and/or dairy support enterprises on a dollars per kilogram of drymatter (DM) consumed basis.

As Table 1 shows, the 18-month bull

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

Table 1: Relative profitability of different beef enterprises.

Schedules: Bull: $5.50 Prime: $5.60

Grazing rates:

Calves: $9 Heifers: $11.50

18 month bull

2 year old bull

2 year old bull

Beef heifer

Beef steer

Dairy heifer

1/11/2021

10/12/2021

15/03/2022

15/03/2022

15/03/2022

1/12/2021

110

110

400

200

230

110

$530

$500

$1,122

$616

$773

Purchase date Purchase weight Purchase price Sale date

1/02/2023

15/11/2023

15/12/2022

1/08/2023

15/12/2023

30/04/2023

Sale weight (LWT)

540

625

625

520

625

440

Sale weight (CWT)

270

325

325

265

325

$1,458

$1,820

$1,788

$1,485

$1,853

$928

$1,320

$666

$869

$1,080

$778

0.9

0.7

0.8

0.6

0.6

0.6

Sale price Margin/head Average LWT gain Total feed consumed (kg DM)

4010

6736

3664

4717

6566

3824

Return ($/kgDM)

$0.23

$0.20

$0.18

$0.18

$0.16

$0.20

finishing policy still has the ability to generate the strongest financial returns on a cents per kg DM basis at 23 cents per kilogram of drymatter eaten. The 18-month bull policy also has the potential to deliver high per hectare returns. For example, assuming a bull wintering stocking rate of 2.2 bulls per hectare, a gross trading margin of $2040/ha ($928 x 2.2) can be generated from a livestock class that only has to be wintered once.

The bull policy also generally fits well with seasonal pasture growth, where the calves are bought in spring as pasture growth rates are lifting, and the older bulls are sold in the summer/autumn when pasture growth rates decline again.

The bulls are generally wintered at a lower stocking rate, therefore have a lower feed demand per hectare, and generally this aligns with the lowest pasture growth rate period of the year.

Successful bull finishing The biggest determinant of success for the 18-month bull finishing enterprise is the requirement for the bull to achieve an average lifetime liveweight gain onfarm of 0.9kg/day.

Table 2 shows the required target LW and subsequent gains at six key periods for a springborn bull, from entry into the bull finishing system through to sale to the works.

While achieving the lifetime target LW gain of 0.9kg/day is pushing towards top end performance requirements, failure to do so can have the following implications on the bull finishing and/or overall farming system: • The bulls have to be retained longer into

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

Table 2: Target liveweights and liveweight gains for a successful bull finishing enterprise.

Date Target weight (kg)

Target LWT gain (kg/head/day)

November 1

110

0.9

February 1

190

0.7

May 1

256

0.9

August 1

334

1.2

November 1

445

1.0

February 1

540

-

Total average

“Opportunities for supply of dairy beef calves are increasing, with the dairy industry showing increasing awareness around the sensitivity of onfarm euthanasia and selling bobby calves.”

0.9

autumn or early winter to achieve the target sale weight (which could place additional pressure on the feed budget) • The bulls have to be sold lighter at the same target sale date (thus reducing the profitability of the enterprise) • The bulls do not achieve a finished target sale weight, and they either have to be sold store or retained for a second winter. These bulls normally get caught in a ‘no-man’s land’ of about 450kg LW, and are at a weight of being ‘too big to sell store or winter again’, yet ‘too small to finish’.

Conversely, achieving a lifetime LW gain average above the 0.9kg/day means bulls can either be: • Sold earlier at the same target sale weight, or • sold heavier at the same target sale date.

For example, lifting lifetime average LW gain

53

to 1.0kg/day means the bulls could be sold one month earlier at the same sale weight (and would lift the cents/kg DM return to 25 cents/kg DM); or be sold an extra 15kg CW heavier at the same sale date (and would earn an extra $81/head based on the heavier sale weight).

Successful 18-month bull farmers

The financial performance of the 18-month bull finishing enterprise still consistently outperforms other beef finishing and/or dairy support enterprises.

54

Based on the average LW gain of 0.9kg/day, most aspects of the farming calendar need to go ‘right’ in order for this to be achieved. While it may be easy to simply work out the required LW gains based on when the bulls are targeted to be bought and sold, many farmers struggle to pull off the required target gains.

But there are a number of common themes amongst successful farmers who achieve at or above these target LW gains and operate a successful bull beef finishing enterprise. These include: • Setting up a bull finishing system which allows individual bull wintering rotations with mobs of between 25 to 40 bulls, at a stocking rate of 2.0 to 2.4 bulls per hectare • Having a discipline or the ability to pay attention to detail on all aspects of the bull finishing enterprise; • Ensuring replacement bull calves are well-weaned and onfarm at a minimum of 110kg on or before November 1 annually

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

“... there are a number of common themes amongst successful farmers who achieve at or above these target LW gains and operate a successful bull beef finishing enterprise.”

• Ensuring “feed quality is king” particularly over the first summer as bull calves – and having either a ‘good natural eye’ or robust grazing plans to achieve high quality feed in the required quantities are available. This will ensure target LW gains are achieved • Having a regular weighing and monitoring programme to assess actual LW gains • Having the skillset and ability to make timely decisions if LW gains are below target, and potentially sell other stock classes earlier, or delay other planned purchases • Potentially providing supplements if the animals drop below target LW gains due to pasture quality or quantity limitations • Having a well-executed animal health plan, so the bulls are never ‘checked’ • Having an average May 1 bull LW of over 256kg heading into winter • Having a May 1 average pasture cover target of over 2000kg DM/ha • Ensuring the bulls still grow at 0.8kg/day over winter • Having an average November 1 bull LW of over 445kg • Potentially selling tail end bulls that are not going

to reach the end target LW by March 1 as store bulls in November • Potentially killing bulls lighter than target over summer to ensure the calves maintain their target LW gains.

Despite what may seem like an exhaustive list of traits in order for the bull finishing system to be successful, an increasing opportunity exists to leverage off the dairy industry and implement a highly profitable finishing enterprise into most drystock operations.

The profitability of 18-month bull finishing continues to outperform other beef finishing enterprises due to its high conversion of feed inputs into finished product. Also, running a relatively low wintering stocking rate (yet generating high financial returns) also presents other advantages, including a lower environmental footprint (especially compared to wintering older cattle, and achieving lower LW gains).

But just remember ‘feed quality is king’, and every day needs to be a growing day for the bulls in order for the farmer to realise the relative success of the enterprise profitability.

• Dwayne Cowin is a consultant with PerrinAg.

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MANAGEMENT

Heifers

Yearling mating lifts income 20% Making a plan early allows time to set heifers and cows up for successful calving and mating later this year, Rachel Joblin writes.

M

ating as a yearling isn’t for everyone. On some farms there isn’t the feed available to guarantee success year-on-year. Where the farm is set up for it, the returns can be significant.

Comparing the same feed profile of yearling mating versus two-year mating on today’s prices, the additional cattle revenue generated can be more than 20%. On a farm with 200 mixed-age cows, this equates to $37,000 which well and truly covers any additional cost (labour, vets, bull, etc).

The intangible benefits also mean mating heifers can have a positive impact on the lifetime performance of the cow herd by greater fertility pressure on the herd.

Only heifers that go through puberty early and get in calf early are retained as replacements.

Under the right management, heifers that get in calf early continue to get in calf early as a MA cow and any non-performers are culled early, speeding up genetic gain.

To minimise the risk of failure, liveweight (LW) targets must be set and regularly monitored. There are no silver bullets, LW drives performance. This ensures the heifers will hit puberty and are cycling when they are joined with the bull.

As mature cow weights have shifted over the past 10-20 years, target yearling mating weights have shifted along with them. The consensus now sits at 60% of mature weight for the first mating as a yearling and 85% of mature weight for mating as a two-year-old. For a 550kg cow this equates to a 330kg LW target (300kg min) when she is mated as a yearling and a 470kg target (450kg min) when she is mated as a two-year-old.

For most hill country farms weaning a 180kg heifer calf, this requires 60kg of LWG over the autumn and winter (400g/day), and 90kg of LWG in the spring (1kg/ day). This level of performance requires priority feed (allocated crop, grass rotation, rotated with hoggets, etc.)

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Above: Mating heifers can have a positive impact on the lifetime performance of the cow herd by greater fertility pressure.

Getting in calf early The value of getting in calf in the first or early in the second cycle cannot be overstated. It gives a tight calving spread for ease of management, longer interval to cycle and get back in calf (see post-partum oestrus below), a heavier calf at weaning (more days on earth) and sees the cow stay in the herd longer as she is unlikely to be dry or late.

To manipulate this process, it is common practice to mate as many heifers as possible that meet the grade (weight and type) and then restrict the mating period to 42 days (two cycles). Some farms with good history of performance pull this back to 32 days (1½ cycles). Topend performance with a two-cycle mating interval would be an in-calf rate of greater than 90% against industry average at 84%.

There are two schools of thought on timing of mating.

Some mate their heifers 20 days before their MA cows, others on the same date. There appears to be about a 50:50 split. This division of policy is largely centred on the postpartum oestrus period. This is the time it takes for the heifer or cow to cycle again after calving. Most research suggests the period is 40-60 days for MA cows and 60-80 days for heifers.

When conditions are below optimum (restricted intake, low BCS), this period can be stretched out by up to 60 days. This postpartum oestrus period becomes a crucial number when added to the 280-day calf gestation length.

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• 70 days postpartum oestrus + 280 days gestation = 350 days (inside the 365-day breeding cycle) • 100 days postpartum oestrus + 280 days gestation = 380 days (outside the 365-day breeding cycle).

If a cow’s postpartum oestrus is extended to 100+ days for successive calvings, the cow becomes a late, then a dry-dry and her time is over.

To get around the heifer’s longer postpartum oestrus, some farmers adopt the strategy of mating their yearling heifers 20 days earlier than the MA to ensure there is enough time for the 2-year-old heifer to cycle in line with their MA bull date.

The contrary view is to mate the yearling heifers on the same date as the MA cows and take the view that for every day later a cow is calved, the postpartum oestrus is also reduced by one day (she cycles sooner).

This is put down to an increase in pasture quality and quality, longer day length and higher air temperatures.

Feeding at key times From a weaner to mating as a yearling, the heifer needs priority treatment. Regular weighing needs to occur along the way to track progress. Steady and consistent LWG over winter is recommended to ensure the heifer is not compromised early in her life. With specific management areas set up in the spring, yearling heifers can easily achieve growth rates north of 1kg/day.

Through mating, the heifer needs to stay on this rising plane of nutrition. Post-mating, the aim should be to keep the heifer growing at 0.5kg/day until early winter. This is the most effective way to minimise calving difficulties, as the bigger the heifer, the more in proportion she is to her calf. Restricting the heifer during early stages of pregnancy is unlikely to impact the birthweight of the calf.

Ensuring this weight is on early also gives a greater chance of the heifer meeting her two-year-old mating weight target the following year. In the last 50 days before calving, the aim should be for the heifer to maintain her condition. Any LWG noticed is the calf growing inside her. It is recommended not to overfeed during this time as excess fat around the birth canal can make calving difficult. The most common strategy is to keep heifers fit on the hills before being brought down to calving blocks.

Nutrition in the three weeks leading up to calving has significant bearing on the postpartum oestrus period. It is important heifers (and MA cows) do not lose any condition during this time.

Post-calving, the system needs to be set up to ensure the heifer’s feed intake is unrestricted. During this time, she is under a massive amount of pressure as she is lactating, gaining LW, and going through the physiological change of starting to cycle again.

Underfeeding at this stage results in the greatest

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May 2022

“To minimise the risk of failure, liveweight targets must be set and regularly monitored.

There are no silver bullets, LW drives performance.”

re-breeding failure rates. For this reason, it is crucial that the calving date lines up with the creation of a surplus of feed in the farm system. If this cannot be guaranteed, the calving date needs to be revisited.

Develop a plan with your vet for animal health.

From weaning onward, common practice is to drench weaner heifers every six weeks through to early winter. One drench is given in the early spring as a yearling and then depending on performance/ assessment they can be drenched again in the summer and/or autumn.

Most cattle will require a lice pour-on coming out of winter.

Trace elements need to be monitored. Copper is used strategically on most properties and administered either in a bolus or injection form. An effective Lepto and BVD vaccination policy is required to protect the herd (and yourself).

Yard weaning or intensive management and human contact early in the heifer’s life will ensure the itstay calmer during calving beat. Calve close to yards and monitor regularly so assistance can be offered quickly.

Be prepared to assist with 5% of the line.

The recommended bull ratio is 40:1 for two-year-old or experienced bulls. This number can drop to 25:1 if using yearling bulls. Choose a bull specifically bred for calving ease as any growth rate penalties will be offset by a reduction in calving difficulties. Other EBVs to consider include days to calving, scrotal size and milk.

Talk to your breeder about matching bulls to your heifer mating programme.

Planning and managing heifers for successful mating starts now. Getting the feeding, LW gains and animal health right through winter and spring will produce a heifer that is more likely to be a high performer for her lifetime.

• Rachel Joblin is a BakerAg consultant.

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MANAGEMENT

Margins

1.13kg LW gain/day they would weigh 630kg on March 24, 2022.

There were no comparable R2 year old steers sold at Temuka on March 21, 2022, but pricing them at $2.90/kg would be in the ballpark, putting them at $1825/head less costs.

The margin of $1105/head should have costs taken off to give a gross margin in economic terms, but note the margin equates to about 34c/kg drymatter (DM) less costs.

Alternatively these steers could have been sold directly for slaughter, if you could get slaughter space. In that case a slaughter weight of 345kg would be achievable. Current pricing of $5.80/kg carcaseweight (CW) would value them at $2000/head, to give a higher margin of $1280/head or 39c/kg DM, less costs.

Some processors have been paying premiums above their published schedules which would place the carcase price at higher than $5.80/kg.

If the steers were grown at a lower growth rate of 0.75kg LW/day they would have hit 495kg LW on March 24, 2022. Selling at Temuka sale would value them at $1435/head for a margin of $715/hd, equating to 26c/kg DM.

Beef weaner heifers

Profit margin depend on what class of stock is bought or sold.

TRADING CATTLE MARGINS Kerry Dwyer looks at prices for stock sold last year as an indicator and possibilities for trading gains in 2022.

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B

eef prices are at record high levels in New Zealand, so it is worth reviewing what trading margins have been available in the last year. To keep it simple we can look at several gross profits that could have been made, based on buying various types of cattle at Temuka auction market last April.

I am using these as indicative figures, buying and selling elsewhere in NZ will have had similar but different results.

Beef weaner steers At the Temuka calf sale of April 7, 2021, there was a good range of beef-bred calves available.

Let’s pick one pen of Angus-Hereford steer calves, weighing 233kg on the day, bought at $720/head which was about the average sale price at $3.09/kg liveweight (LW).

If these were grown at a high growth rate of

Buying beef-bred heifer calves at the same Temuka sale of April 7, 2021, is another option. The siblings to the steer example would have been 210kg Angus-Herefords at $2.40/kg LW or $505/head.

If these were grown at a high growth rate of 1.05kg/day they would have weighed 575kg

by March 24, 2022.

Selling these back at the Temuka saleyards on March 21, 2022, you could have expected $2.65/kg liveweight, to gross $1520/head.

That gives a margin of $1015/head which would equate to 34c/kg DM. If they had been sold direct to slaughter their value would have been $5.80/kg CW, the same as the steers, to give $1820/head, a margin of $1315/head or 42c/kg DM. If the heifers had grown at a lower rate of 0.7kg/day they would have been 455kg LW by the end of March 2022 which would have put them on the knife edge between killable and store market option. Entering them in the store cattle sale would have priced them at about $2.45/kg LW, being $1120/head, a margin of $615/head equating to 24c/kg DM. Or putting them in the prime sale they might have been slightly higher at $2.60/kg to give an additional $70/head.

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May 2022

Table 1: Summary of margin possibilities, cattle trading 2021 - 2022 Type

Buy price/head

Sale price/head

Margin/head

c/kgDM

Beef steer calves – high growth rate

$720

$1825 = saleyards $2000 = slaughter

$1105 $1280

34c 39c

Beef steer calves – slower growth rate

$720

$1435 = saleyards $1480 = slaughter

$715 $760

26c 27c

Beef heifer calves – high growth rate

$505

$1520 = saleyards $1820 = slaughter

$1015 $1315

34c 42c

Beef heifer calves – slower growth rate

$505

$1120 = saleyards $1190 = slaughter

$615 $685

24c 25c

Friesian bull calves – high growth rate

$505

$1930 = slaughter

$1425

42c

Friesian bull calves – slower growth rate

$505

$1225 = saleyards $1400 = slaughter

$720 $895

26c 32c

Dairy heifers – winter trade

$645

$1800 = saleyards $1980 = slaughter

$1155 $1335

43c 50c

“...there is variation in what was achieved last year depending on how well cattle were grown.”

Friesian bull calves The next option would have been to buy Friesian bull calves, again at Temuka, for a comparable time trade. To make them comparable with the steers, a 230kg bull calf in early April 2021 is worth maybe $2.20/kg LW or $505/head.

If that had been grown at a high growth rate of 1.13kg/day and sold to slaughter at the end of March 2022 it would have been 625kg LW, worth $1930/hd at base schedule price. That equates to a margin of $1425/head or 42c/kg DM.

Growing them at a lower rate of 0.75kg/day would give a 490kg LW bull which might just slip into the premium CW range. If sold for slaughter that would be worth $1400/head, for a margin of $895/hd, equating to 32c/kg DM. Sold as a store animal the pricing would be at about $2.50/kg LW, to give $1225/head, a margin of $720/head or 26c/kg DM.

R2 dairy heifers We could look at other cattle trading options, buying R2 cattle instead of calves and selling them in spring for slaughter is the most common. As a variation on that, let's look at buying empty dairy heifers and wintering them.

In the Temuka sale of March 29, 2021 there were numerous Friesian heifers sold in the boner pens. Average price for 410kg heifers was $1.58/kg or $645/head.

Assuming these were reasonably well-bred Friesians they could have been wintered, then sold seven months later at the end of October having grown at 0.9kg/day to achieve 600kg LW. Selling direct to slaughter would have given a schedule price of $6/kg CW for these, to be $1980/head, a margin of $1335/head which would equate to about 50c/kg DM. Selling them back at the Temuka sale of November 1, 2021, would have valued them at about $3/kg LW for a similar result at $1800/hd.

As Table 1 shows, there is variation in what was achieved last year depending on how well cattle were grown. I have not taken account of costs because they will vary with each option and with your own cost structure, work that out yourselves with what your finishing cattle have done in the same time frame.

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MANAGEMENT

Stock check

A RESISTANCE TO CHANGE BY: TREVOR COOK

C

hange is the tool of progress. Without it we do not get better. But lots of change happens without a clear outcome that is better. While not strictly true for the quest to lower methane outputs, the benefit is way beyond the farm gate, unless of course it is the pathway to better markets.

Willing compliance will be to access that market rather than to help save the world.

The triggers for change come from many sources.

When they come from within there should be no objection or obstacles to change.

An interesting case I recently encountered was where governance triggers forced the change on management. It was a large corporate-like farming structure with a large dairy component and a larger sheep and beef component. A decision at governance level was that there were to be no bobby calves.

The sheep and beef unit already grazed the replacement stock for the dairy herd, so the bobby calf change meant all calves from the dairy farm came on to the sheep and beef farm. This forced a significant change in the stock policy to accommodate this influx but also to maintain profitability.

“I recently participated in an online discussion about the process of change. Why at times in the face of an obvious need, is there so much resistance to change?”

Going from 25% of the stock units being cattle under one year of age - remember that the dairy herd replacements were already in the stock mix - to over 60% was the scale of the change. Obviously something had to give and it was the breeding cows.

But the change to so many young stock upset the balance of grazing priorities.

Almost suddenly more higher quality pasture was required, more mobs and fewer big mouths. But in the face of drier summers being the norm, more trading stock giving more flexibility could be a plus.

Of course the discussion was had about reinstating the breeding herd based on dairy cross heifers from the dairy farm. Apart from there not being enough room, creating more young stock did not fit, although

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May 2022

those hefty weaners from the dairy cross cows would all be sold at weaning.

Profitability probably will not be compromised if it is as simple as trading stock replacing breeding cows. But the cows were adding value to the sheep system, so can some of the trading stock replicate that function? There are plenty of examples of them doing just that.

As more and more bobby calves end up on sheep and beef farms it has to be seen as an opportunity. Growing young cattle to a different market of much younger and lower carcase weights has been demonstrated as a viable policy but not one I see being taken up.

Maybe that market needs to be more developed.

Our beef breeding herds being dairy cross is hardly taking off but neither has the flood of calves from the dairy herds yet.

Another change being considered by many is to be less exposed to dry summers. Regions that treated a very dry summer as an occasional unwelcome intrusion are now finding them a regular intrusion.

It always begs the question: how frequent do unusual weather patterns have to occur before they are treated as the norm? Southland is hardly at that point, but Waikato is.

How do you make a farming system less exposed to very dry summers? Wairarapa farmers seem the best at coping with them. What do they do?

Not a lot of breeding cows. Early lambing. Lots of trading stock. But it is more than that.

Reacting quickly and knowing what to do is a real feature of those farmers. Supplementing ewes before mating is commonplace for example. Being set up to do that makes it an easy option when late summer feed is short. Add to that destocking early and prioritising key stock classes early.

It is ironic that the same region is struggling with too much feed going into this winter.

Though it’s much more preferable than not having enough feed.

I recently participated in an online discussion about the process of change. Why at times in the face of an obvious need, is there so much resistance to change?

A piece I took out of that discussion was the power of having some ownership of the need to change. “My idea is not a good idea until it is your idea” - hardly a recipe for success when so much of the change before us is very much someone else’s idea.

Adding to the assertion at the start linking progress and change, it is still relatively common to find farmers who want to progress but are reluctant to change. An impasse hardly confined to farmers.

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MANAGEMENT

Grazing

Autumn bonus needed for grazing Farmers who buy beef calves for finishing may also be interested in growing on dairy heifers farm consultant Graham Butcher writes.

U

sing today’s parameters on pricing and using “standard” stock policies for southern New Zealand we can get a perspective on how dairy heifer grazing fits into southern farms.

Right now, dairy heifer grazing has a gross margin of 18.3c/kg drymatter (DM) consumed which is about the same as a sheep flock doing 140% with 50% hogget lambing.

So, both are comparatively good margins. Not much incentive for a sheep farmer to alter policies at this higher level of performance. At 135% and no hogget mating we can achieve about 16c so some motivation here to look at dairy support.

Those who buy beef calves for finishing may also be interested in dairy heifers.

Assuming our “standard” trading policies for autumn beef calf purchase, we can achieve about 14.5c/kg DM for both heifers and steers. There’s a little more motivation to look at changing cattle

policies and they are both young cattle coming on and leaving finished. On the surface they appear to be similar policies.

Breeding cows are sitting at between 10c and 12c/kg DM consumed. This is just added for some perspective, we can’t substitute breeding cows for dairy heifers. But we need to note that breeding cows consume lower quality feed, groom pastures and make use of areas that sheep struggle with. None of these are taken into account with our 10c to 12c.

Do dairy farmers have waiting lists of folk wanting to graze their stock?

Probably not, it’s more likely they have issues with finding heifer grazing to their satisfaction. Intensification rules haven’t helped recently but even before these rules became an issue, I don’t think dairy farmers had waiting lists.

I believe one of the reasons, perhaps the main reason, is the impact dairy heifers have on autumn feed budgets.

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Autumn feed pressure The structure of grazing contracts is usually 100kg calves come on board in December for a grazing fee of $8.50/wk. On May 1 for the next 12 months there’s a $12.50/wk fee.

This is what our 18.3c margin is based on. If we compare feed demands with say autumn buying of beef calves, two things happen.

First, dairy heifer calves are on board from December, three to four months before beef calves.

Secondly, in the autumn, beef calves are cleared on average earlier than the dairy heifers. All R2 dairy heifers are there until April 30. While we will still a have R2 beef animals on board at the end of April, we should have managed to send a reasonable proportion to the works prior to this date.

This has a significant effect on autumn feed demand.

In southern NZ, autumn is a critical period where build up of pasture cover is critical for managing the winter. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard how much an R2 in-calf heifer can eat.

To put some figures around this problem, figure one shows the daily feed demand from three stock policies (dairy heifers, autumn beef steer and heifer calf purchase) from February through to June, our critical period.

Figure 1 details the daily feed demand from our “standard” dairy heifer policy compared to buying and finishing beef animals. Each policy is for 100 cattle and it’s just one average scenario to illustrate the point. There’s a considerable amount of detail that has gone into these lines and if anyone wants this detail I’m happy to provide it.

For about three months, we have about 350kg DM/day increase in demand compared to beef calf finishing – that comes to just over 31,000kg DM – because of the structure of heifer agreements. On top of this, we also have the dairy heifers coming on earlier. The December/January period should be easier to manage though, calves are small and they are there when feed supply is less critical, (except for this very dry year!)

Graziers should make provision for this altered feed demand in the autumn. In the calculation of the gross margins, I have included a cost for 4ha of summer turnips to feed out to 100 R2 heifers. Note though, we still get a reasonable 18.3c return. What is not taken into account is the effect of 4ha

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May 2022

A major reason beef and sheep farmers don’t take on grazing is the impact dairy heifers have on autumn feed budgets.

Figure 1: Comparative autumn feed demand – three cattle policies Daily feed demand kgDM 100head

1800 1600 1400 1200 1000 800 600 400 200 0 Feb

March

Dairy heifer

less for winter and spring (turnip stubble).

Simple enough to manage the autumn but there are flow-on costs. Could possibly use a leafy turnip or rape and carry some feed into winter, but still a cost involved.

So, even going from beef calf finishing to dairy heifer grazing we still have the autumn issue. If we want to substitute sheep with dairy heifers, the same constraint will apply in the autumn, high feed demand

April

Beef heifers

May

June

Beef steers

from dairy heifers and declining grass growth coupled with wanting to flush ewes and build autumn grass cover.

Some things need to happen. Dairy farmers need to recognise the grazier’s autumn issue as a constraint and graziers need to recognise that well-grown in-calf heifers are important to future production for the owner.

There could be a win/win position here

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if a performance bonus was available for achieving April 30 weights. It needs to be enough to encourage policy changes such as summer turnips or paying more attention to weight and feeding yearround.

My suggestion is to have heifer grazing contracts structured into three periods rather than two. The May to April period at $12.50 could be split into a May to February period (remaining at $12.50) with March and April at $12.50 plus a premium of $4.00/wk but only if target 30th April live weight is achieved.

This should attract competent graziers and reward them adequately for their management efforts. Dairy farmers will gain from well grown heifers, so a win/ win position for both parties. We would likely see more stable grazier/owner relationships.

• Graham Butcher is a farm consultant based in Gore.

Heifer grazing contracts could be structured into three periods rather than two to allow for the extra autumn feed cost.

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ONFARM

fruition VISION COMING TO

Ensuring every stock class has two different income streams is one of the major strategies for success on Awakino Station.

Story and photos by Victoria Rutherford.

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May 2022

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I

t’s a long-term game farming a highcountry station, but if there’s one thing Dan Devine doesn’t like, it’s losing.

“We're trying to stay ahead of the game as much as we possibly can,” he says, “hence trialling things and looking at old ways and reinventing them.”

Dan and partner Jasmine Mathisen have been steadily building production on Awakino near Kurow, North Otago over the past six years. They have two daughters Ava (5) and Ida (1).

Dan says they’re constantly thinking, changing, and trying to keep ahead of everybody else.

“We don't want to be in the bottom

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bloody 50% of the farmers, we want to be in the top 20%... I hate losing. It really annoys me.”

One of the major strategies they have employed is ensuring every stock class has two different income streams. Every stock class on the place was scrutinised when they took over. The station now winters almost double the stock units it did when they arrived - 24,000su split between sheep (50%), beef (25%) and deer (25%).

“We’ve worked hard on trying to guarantee an income stream through every month of the year,” Dan says.

“We’ve diversified out to secure this, instead of relying on one period of the year where we're rich and the rest of the time

we're broke.”

Dan is quick to credit the previous managers for laying the foundations needed for the station to up its potential.

“We’ve been lucky,” Dan says. “It was all there ready to go, it just needed someone to push the production at the other end.”

Family-owned since 1986 when it was bought by Dan’s grandfather Tom Fraser, a Dunedin businessman who dreamed of owning a high country station.

Dan is the first family member to farm Awakino. Climate heavily influences the way they farm - hot, dry summers and cold winters are expected.

“One of our biggest drivers is farming to the season that we have,” Dan says.

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

Left: Mustering Top Browns block on Awakino recently. The station winters 1200 cattle. Above: Dan and partner Jasmine Mathisen with their two daughters Ava (5) and Ida (1).

“We can go from having 800mm of rainfall one year to 350mm the next year.

The variability makes it challenging to farm.”

Having multiple stock classes offers options when dealing with high-country climatic scenarios. “Flexibility around the seasons is probably one of the biggest things we had to build into the programme.”

Winters have been a bugbear of previous managers, but it's less of a problem nowadays with feed budgeting. Baleage and silage is cut in spring in preparation for the winter months. Summers remain the biggest challenge - decisions are based on fattening through the spring and having everything off by Christmas, before the dry hits.

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

“We either have too much feed or none at all, normally it’s the latter.”

This year they’ve had 900mm of rainfall and everything has stacked up nicely.

“If you want to whinge about it, we haven't had the sunshine to be able to utilise it as much as we normally would. But hey, no-one's complaining.”

After spending time working on extensive high-country farms, Dan moved to the stock manager role at Ben Todhunter’s Cleardale Station in the Rakaia Gorge. It was there he met Jaz, the Cleardale stud manager.

“I can’t speak for Jaz, but the reason why I went to Cleardale originally was to learn about the intensive side of management,” he says. “Cleardale was a golden opportunity to do that.”

EBVs play a big part in Awakino’s operation across the three stock classes.

They target one or two traits, including

growth rates. “If we get other traits that are acceptable, we'll take it, but it's just really focusing on two main traits that don't have any correlation to each other.”

Of particular focus has been the efficiency of the cow herd, who are instrumental in maintaining pasture quality. Their sole duty is to clean up post-weaning, and Dan says they do a tremendous job.

“The cattle are very necessary for this place, they're a vital tool,” says Dan. “They're probably the lowest-earning stock class on the place, but we couldn’t do without them.”

Awakino winters about 1200 head of cattle as a closed herd. Progeny are kept as replacements or sold as in-calf heifers. EBVfocused growth rates are key, with a close eye kept on constitution. Fertility and eye muscle are also considered.

“EBVs are huge for us, but, at the same time, we still need to ensure the cattle are

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Awakino runs 430 mixed-aged cows.

Farm facts • Awakino Station, Kurow, North Otago • Ownership: Familyowned, governance board • 7500ha intensive flats to extensive high country • Sheep (50%) beef (25%) deer (25%) wintering 24,000su • Annual rainfall 350850mm • Six full-time staff: Manager, stock manager, three shepherds, general/ tractor driver. Jaz cooks for the staff and a gardener is employed part-time.

• GFI: $2.4m ($320/ha) • FWE: 68% (target 65%)

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suited for travelling around the hills.”

The 430 mixed-age cows are Hereford. A high EBV growth rate Hereford bull is run for the first two cycles, followed up by a high EBV Angus chaser to ensure the third cycle progeny can catch up.

Hereford bulls have been sourced from Benmore Station for years now. “They've got a good, broad spectrum of types,” Dan says.

Younger Angus bulls from Cleardale are used over 75 R2 first-calving heifers, targeting growth rates. About 130 R1 red heifers are kept as replacements, and Dan is particularly proud of his 96% in-calf scanning rate for the heifers, which he believes has come through his focus on using EBVs.

Fertility already sorted There’s been little fertility improvement since they’ve been here.

“Previous manager Tony Plunkett put a lot of energy into culling underperforming cows, lifting fertility and calving percentages.”

Ease of calving is also important. The switch to Cleardale genetics has helped with a focus on low

birthweight EBVs. “When we first came we were pulling a lot of calves from first-heifers, but now we are only pulling one or two a year,” says Jaz. About 70 R2 Angus-cross steers are finished for Five Star Beef at 480-500kg liveweight and 70 R2 Angus-cross heifers are sold in-calf to other stations as replacement progeny.

They’ve carried on a Hereford chaser bull programme selling into the dairy market, set up by a previous manager. It works well with their diversification strategy and clients are returning.

“Early spring is a very good one for bulls, it provides us with a solid income when we don't have a lot coming in.

Dan says the dairy bull market ranges each year between $2200 to anything up to $2600, based on schedule plus a small premium.

“We're careful not to overcharge because we want to keep those loyal people coming back each year.”

About 134 R1 and 130 R2 Hereford bulls are run, with the true Hereford colour a priority so the buyers can tell the difference between cycles in their dairy herds.

“Red-necked, too much white - that really

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

throws them off, so we've stuck to a traditional colour with the Herefords and it's important for us to stay with that.”

The bulls also help maintain pasture quality over their two winters, running through the deer unit on clean-up duty after the hinds.

“They are fed maintenance with no preferential treatment, and then as soon as that spring period happens, they go onto lucerne to power up for the dairy guys.”

“We’re careful not to overcharge because we want to keep those loyal people coming back each year.”

They aim to have them between 500-600kg LW for the dairy market. Too small and they struggle to get up to weight to kill by the end of summer, but over 600kg and they can be too big for dairy heifers.

“We've got to be reasonably good at predicting what weight we're going to have them at so we can shut them down or speed them up if necessary. If we must speed them up, we’ll run them on to a supplementary crop that's left over from another stock class after winter.”

Dan Devine contemplating his next move during the muster.

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71

Switching up the sheep side

With ample feed at the front of the station this year there was no need to use the back country.

A switch from Romneys to Halfbreds is working well on Awakino. Six years ago the station was running about 750 merino mixed-age ewes and 4000 Romneys, not including hoggets. They now run 4000 Merino ewes and 4000 Halfbred ewes including two-tooths.

“The Romneys weren't doing it for us with the wool, hence the change to Halfbreds,” Dan says.

The Merinos have stayed static in weights, lambing and weaning percentages, however the Halfbred performance has been surprising.

“We thought we’d get a 10 to 15% drop between Romneys and Halfbreds fertility-wise, but they're not far behind. In fact, they're almost bang-on what the Romneys were doing.”

They scan about 180% for mixed-age ewes and lamb 155%.

Two-tooth Halfbreds scan and lamb 160%, and 145% (to the ram), respectively. Lambs are contracted at 38 to 40kg LW with Alliance for the Merino meat brand Silere.

“That’s an important one for us.”

He says the specs for the contract are 17kg CW, and generally they'll pay about 40 cents above schedule. The breed change has lowered their output but they hope to be back to capacity of 10,000 lambs this year to capture the 10c/kg volume supply payment.

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Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

Spot the shepherd: Sam Pilet and his dogs.

Hoggets are separated into dry and inlamb mobs and fed through the winter.

Ewes and two-tooths are scanned, drafted and split into lambing mobs, and fed kale or swedes post-shearing. This continues through to set stocking in September. Twin and triplet ewes are supplemented.

They’ve moved from Halfbred rams to three-eighths to fine up the micron of the halfbred replacements from average of 26 to 24 micron. Genetic selection over the past six years has been based on fertility and footrot scores, but Jaz says they’ll turn focus back to wool, which has been treated more as a by-product while getting to where they want to be. They are ruthless with their culling but need to be with footrot and hard winters.

Replacements are taken from the twotooth flock. Everything else just goes to a blackface terminal for simplicity.

“Genetic gain is fast-forwarded as much as possible through using younger stock,” Dan says.

On the Merino side, they buy in 1000 replacements Benmore Station in October.

They’re sitting about 15 microns with good EBVs and footrot resistance. The Awakino

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May 2022

mixed-age Merino ewe flock is about 17 microns.

“It's a good system for us. We're riding on Bill's back… he does all the bloody work!”

It also offers flexibility.

“If we do get a bad drought, we can dump everything in that Merino sector and then pick it up again the next year by just buying and replacing from Bill again.”

About 1000 Merino hoggets are brought from Lachie McKenzie at Tabletop Station in the Hakataramea Valley, wintered, then shorn in October.

Merino ewes are mustered out by shepherds to the extensive country on the Maniototo side of the property in February.

They've got to be back before the snowcap (late March/early April), otherwise they won’t get them back over the St Mary Range again.

Dan says years ago, they used horses and walked them.

Now, they’ve cut the muster down to two to three days.

“We'll get the chopper out and then just muster one block to a hut each day and slowly bring everything home.

“Using a helicopter has sped everything

up. They can find the sheep and drop people off right on the mobs rather than spending half a day looking for them.”

They use data to their advantage with all animals EID tagged. This makes decisions around production and footrot easier.

“Excel is quite a powerful tool for us,” he says.

Most of their decisions now are based on historic data. The previous managers may not have had the computer power, but they've kept reasonably good diaries.

“I've got good records, right the way through.”

They’ve used Farmax for the past five years but find modelling the hill country station a struggle.

The hill offsets the flats a lot so they needed two models, one for hill, another for intensive fattening.

Everything's shared through Cloud Farmer, so the staff members have access to information as well. If they want to know something, it's just at their fingertips on their phone.

• More on Awakino in the June issue.

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LIVESTOCK

Onfarm

Beefing up production A good beef herd is crucial for lifting pasture quality for sheep, reckons King Country farmer Alan Blake. Story and photos by Mike Bland.

B

ehind every great ewe there’s a great cow.

That’s definitely the case on Alan and Kerri Blake’s Whakamaro Station in central King Country, where sheep performance has lifted markedly in recent years, thanks in no small way to cows.

While increased soil fertility, better stock management and genetics are other key factors, Alan Blake says a good beef herd is crucial for lifting pasture quality on steep hill contour.

“Cows groom pastures for the ewes and help us get more production out of the sheep.”

The Blakes winter more than 10,000 stock

units, including 5000 Perendale ewes and 350 Angus-Hereford cows on 1200ha at Otunui, south west of Taumarunui.

Alan’s parents Jim and Lindsay and his uncle and aunty, Tom and Heather, bought 1000ha Whakamaro as part of a succession plan in 2013. Alan and Kerri leased the farm until buying it in 2018. They also lease another 200ha block nearby Whakamaro’s effective area includes 30ha of easy-rolling contour, 120ha of medium hill and 850ha of steep hill. The balance is mostly native bush.

When she’s not helping out on the farm, Kerri, a Massey University graduate with an impressive range of qualifications, works three days a week in Taumarunui as a

support staff member for VetEnt. She and Alan have two sons, Archie, aged five, and Finn, 3.

The Blakes employ full-time shepherd Aidan Jury on Whakamaro, and Alan’s father Jim is always happy to help out.

Alan, who has worked on a range of different farm types both in New Zealand and the United Kingdom, says he and Kerri prefer hill country farming because they like a challenge.

Whakamaro’s steep contours can certainly test the spirit of man and beast. The main cause of cattle loss is misadventure - animals falling off bluffs or down steep slopes. About 20 cows die this way each year, despite improved fencing.

Whakamaro’s beef cows make a big contribution to improved pasture quality and higher sheep performance.

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Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

Whakamaro’s key goals Lambing (ewes to ram)

135%

Product/ha (meat and wool)

180kg

Two-tooth mating weight

60kg-plus

Heifer mating weights

300kg-plus

Lamb weaning weights (90 days)

30-32kg

Calf weaning weight (150 days)

220kg

Sheep losses through misadventure are much lower, something Alan attributes to the mobility of the Perendale ewes.

“Perendales can be frustrating at times but they are very hardy and they have no problems getting around the hills and bringing the lambs in.”

Three years ago the Blakes started a development programme designed to help them reach a target of 180kg of product (meat and wool)/ha.

Capital fertiliser was a vital ingredient.

The farm had high Olsen P levels on the small area of easy contour but only 3 to 6 on the hills.

Following advice from fertiliser consultant Doug Edmeades, the Blakes decided to lift P levels to 10-12 on the hill country. In 2019, 550kg/ha of superphosphate, along with some potassium, was flown on to the hill country.

Alan says the application included 250kg of capital fertiliser, which cost about $100,000.

They borrowed the money to do it.

“Instead of spreading capital applications out over several years we decided to do it in one hit so we’d hit optimal P levels faster.”

That decision paid off. P levels in the hill country are now within target range and Alan says the farm is growing a lot more grass, particularly on the shoulders of the season.

Production is now trending upwards – from 140kg/ha (meat and wool) in 2018 to 154kg/ha in 2021.This year the farm is on track to reach 160kg/ha.

Fencing and water reticulation have been other key priorities.

Alan says they’ve invested about $120,000 into new water systems and troughs over the past five years. This includes the recent installation of a solar-powered water pump which pumps water from four natural springs and delivers it up to three water tanks with a combined 90,000 litre capacity.

Water is gravity-fed from these tanks to 300ha of the farm.

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

Alan and Kerri Blake with their son Archie, 5.

Farm facts • Alan and Kerri Blake, Whakamaro Station, King Country • 1200ha total (including 200ha leased), 1000ha effective • 850ha steep-hill contour • Running beef herd and breeding ewes • Mostly store production • Development programme underway to improve stock performance.

About 70% of Whakamaro’s 110 paddocks now have troughs and this has significantly reduced the farm’s reliance on natural water. The aim is to get reticulated water to 90% of paddocks.

Since 2013 the Blakes have replaced a lot of old fencing, adding about 1-2km of new fencing annually. The largest paddock is 134ha, making it a challenge to muster, but Alan hopes they can eventually split this paddock into more manageable chunks.

Farm access has been improved and yards have been upgraded. Weed control is ongoing and about 40ha of scrub is cut and sprayed each year, along with 60ha of ringfern.

Feral goats are controlled through an annual culling programme. Alan says he shot 1300 in the first year “because mustering them was getting us nowhere”.

Hardy cows handle hills Whakamaro’s mainly Angus-Hereford beef herd has been built from scratch as there were no cows on the farm when the Blakes began leasing it in 2013. They started with trading cattle and gradually built up cow numbers.

Alan jokes that he likes the whiteface cattle because they are easier to spot in the scrub.

But the cows are ideally suited to the contour, and their crossbred calves show the benefits of hybrid vigour and are highly marketable.

He says Angus-Hereford cows have a quiet

75

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May 2022

temperament and this is important because they only come into the yards about four times a year.

Young cows grow up on the easier contour, where they are mated at 300kg-plus and calved behind a wire. Mixed-age cows are set stocked with the ewes in the hills at about 1 cow/3-4ha from August to January. They calve in the hills from November.

This year 300 mixed-age cows went to the bull, along with 67 first-calvers. All replacements are bred on the farm and surplus heifers are sold in August at 15 months.

Most steers are sold as yearlings at 400kg liveweight (LW) average.

The Blakes buy one Angus two-year bull and one Angus yearling bull every year from the Puke-Nui Angus Stud, and a Hereford every two-three years from Craigmore Polled Hereford Stud.

Bulls are selected for calving ease and growth rate. Alan prefers smaller bulls.

“We don’t want anything over 1000kg because they would struggle in the hills.”

Alan says ideal cow weight is about 500kg.

Heavier cows would be less efficient and more prone to misadventure.

Calving efficiency is about 80-85% calves sold/cow wintered, and the aim is to get steers to 220kg and heifers to 200kg by weaning.

“At the moment we are averaging about 190kg at 150-days, but we are able to feed

Kerri Blake recently started her own plant nursery on the farm.

them a little more each year.”

This year about 80 steers were sold in early November instead of December.

“I told our agent I wanted $3.80/kg for the steers and he said ‘I can get that now’, so off they went. That’s helped us put more grass into the heifers.”

About 84 heifer replacements were retained this year.

Whakamaro’s present sheep-to-cattle ratio sits at about 70:30, but Alan says this is likely to shift towards 60:40 in future. “Because we are growing more grass, we’ll need more cattle to maintain pasture quality”.

Strong store country

Alan Blake is a goal-driven farmer. Key targets are mounted on his office wall “where they stare me in the face every day”.

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May 2022

Alan and Kerri Blake don’t see the farm’s lack of finishing contour as a weakness. Instead they focus on its strength as a producer of healthy store lambs, steers and heifers.

Alan says the district has a good reputation for producing lambs and cattle that finish well. These animals are keenly sought after by finishers in regions like Hawke’s Bay and Wairarapa.

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Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

Store lambs typically provide about 6070% of Whakamaro’s income. Lamb sales this year will contribute about $600,000 to an estimated gross farm income of $900,000.

Alan says a huge chunk of this income is generated over the space of just four weeks – between December 14 and January 14 – when about 700 cull ewes and 4000 store lambs go.

“We drop about 4000 stock units straight after weaning in December. It puts a big smile on my face when I think of the income coming in, and it takes a lot of the pressure off the farm for summer.”

After Christmas about 3000 lambs are left, including the ewe replacements.

Alan says while being a store lamb producer means “you are at the mercy of the market”, he takes a proactive approach to lamb marketing. Livestock markets are carefully monitored, particularly in the regions where most Whakamaro lambs traditionally go to.

“I also keep an eye on weather reports, especially in the Hawke’s Bay, Manawatu and Wairarapa, because the weather obviously has a huge influence on demand for our lambs.”

He works closely with livestock agent Richard Bevege, NZ Farmers Livestock, to maximise lamb value.

“I could sell lambs direct but I like to use an agent because it’s worth it in the long run. I tell Richard the price I want and I know he’ll do his best to get it. An extra 5c/ kg can make a big difference when you are selling a large number of lambs.”

Whakamaro usually finishes about 800900 lambs off-mum at 16kg carcaseweight (CW), but this year only 500 were finished due to a lack of processing space. Mixed-sex lambs sold store before Christmas averaged $107/head – a big improvement on the $80/ head achieved the previous season.

Most lambs go at 29-30kg, although this can vary from year to year. Alan says a key goal is to increase 90-day weaning weights to a “consistent 30kg for maternal lambs and 32kg for terminal lambs”.

He’s never been afraid of seeking advice from professional sources. For the past six years the Blakes have used VetEnt’s StockCare farm improvement programme to help them make key farm management decisions. Sheep are condition scored and key performance indicators, like scanning, lambing and docking percentages, are carefully monitored.

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May 2022

Left: Alan’s father Jim is always happy to help out.

Below: Beef cows improve pasture quality which lifts sheep performance.

Three years ago, vet William Cuttance suggested they adjust their lambing dates to improve lamb growth.

In 2013-14, their first season on Whakamaro, terminal-mated ewes lambed from August 10 and the maternal ewes lambed from August 20.

“Will suggested we slide lambing back 10-14 days, so last year our terminals lambed from August 25 and the maternals from September 5.”

Alan says they like to try “small changes every year”. In 2022-23 the maternals and the terminals will both lamb from September 5.

He says the terminals haven’t performed as well as expected over the previous two years, so the switch in lambing date is

designed to better match pasture growth.

“In the past we’ve split lambing dates to spread risk and the workload, but this year we’ll lamb them at the same time to see if it makes a difference to ewe performance and lamb weights.”

Ewes are run in four to five mobs of 10001100, with about 200 tail-enders farmed separately to boost condition.

The Blakes aim to get as many ewes as possible to condition score (CS) 3 for mating and lambing.

“Last year we had heaps at CS4 but there was no noticeable production gain.”

Hoggets aren’t mated but the Blakes still try to get them to a minimum of 40kg by May. Alan says hoggets “never see a flat

79

paddock” but perform well in the hills. Any sheep that gets daggy or shows signs of illthrift is moved to the terminal mob.

Lifting two-tooth weight

Shepherd Aidan Jury has been on Whakamaro for a year.

A crucial part of the Blakes’ plan to improve ewe production is to increase the weight and frame size of two-tooths. Alan says the goal is to reach 60kg by mating time. This has been achieved over the last two years.

“The farm is growing more grass, so we can put more into them. It’s a fine line between production and development and we don’t get it right every time. One year we robbed the hoggets to feed the ewes and that backfired on us.”

The region has had two dry years in the last three, but Alan doesn’t like to use drought as an excuse for missing targets.

“We don’t plan for a drought every year.

That’s how you miss opportunities.”

Lambing performance has improved steadily since 2013’s 94% (ewes to ram). Last year’s lambing reached 134%, tantalisingly close to the Blakes’ goal of achieving 135%

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“We’ve still got improvements to make but I think we’re developing a recipe that works.” “consistently in good and bad years”.

Alan puts the lift down to better feeding and genetics.

“One of the advantages of the monitoring work we do through the StockCare programme is that we know if we are heading in the right direction. We’ve still got improvements to make but I think we’re developing a recipe that works.”

Ewe wastage dropped from 5.9% in 2017 to 3.6% in 2021, which Alan again attributes to pasture growth, improved subdivision and good genetics.

Building facial eczema tolerance has been a key priority for the Blakes who source FE tolerant Perendale rams from Raupuha Stud and Coopdales from Nikau Coopworth Stud.

This year they started their own recorded flock, using 30 ewes and 15 hoggets from Raupuha’s Russell and Mavis Proffit, who

have been supplying Whakamaro for nine years. These sheep were selected for their high EBVs for FE tolerance, growth and fertility.

The farm will run 150 recorded ewes this year, all farmed in the hills with the other ewes.

While the stud adds work, Alan says livestock breeding has always been an interest.

He wants to breed a ewe that is perfect for steep hill contour. Once the stud is established it could add an income stream in future.

Forestry is another form of diversification and this year the Blakes will plant 70ha of pines on the farm’s least productive land.

The plantation will be registered under the Emissions Trading Scheme.

“It’s only 7% of the farm, but we will double what we make off it now.”

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May 2022

Looking after the river Alan and Kerri Blake are founding members of the Otunui Valley Catchment Group, which comprises about eight farms in the region.

Alan says the group has been monitoring water quality for 18-months and hopes to include more farms in future.

The Whakamaro River, a tributary for the Whanganui River, runs through Whakamaro Station and the Blakes have planted about 2km of their 5km stretch so far.

Kerri, who has a Certificate in Horticulture, recently started their own nursery to produce natives for further planting and possible sale in future. She says the nursery has capacity for about 8000 riparian plants, including kowhai, flax and tree lucerne.

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81

LIVESTOCK

ON FA R M

BREED HAS IMPECCABLE TEMPERAMENT The Meat Maker is the star breed to a Wairarapa farming operation.

By Russell Priest.

Photos by Brad Hanson.

F

or Tinui’s George Williams, the temperament and performance of the McFadzean Meat Maker composite far outshines any other beef breeds he’s farmed.

Primarily an Angus Simmental cross, the Meat Maker comprises about 75% of George’s herd. He focuses on the maternal type (one quarter Simmental and three quarter Angus) as opposed to the terminal type (three quarter Simmental and a quarter Angus blood).

“They are so laid back and their performance is impressive considering we work them hard,” George says.

“They clean out the rubbish among the rushes and the brown top thatch which smothers the clover if not removed.

“The ewes would die rather than eat that stuff.”

Past Wairarapa Sheep and Beef Farmers of the Year (2019), George and his wife Luce children farm “Grassendale” a 1565ha (1050ha effective) hill-country station 55km east north-east of Masterton. She is the third generation of Dalziells that have farmed the station. When George and Luce bought it off her parents in 2009 the station was carrying a high performing Simmental herd. Wanting to push performance, George increased the herd numbers from 160 to 400 while introducing the Angus blood to help moderate cow size. Under his management the role of the cow is to maintain pasture quality for sheep in a predominantly native grass sward so the day the bulls go out is the day the cows get screwed down.

“If you’ve got your cows still cleaning up pasture in June/

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May 2022

83

July you’re defeating the purpose of having them.”

The dry cow rate peaked at 15% and those that didn’t adjust were culled. The Angus cross calves were not in the same league as the Simmentals and needed to produce good weaners. Angus bulls were also too expensive.

George first saw McFadzean bulls as a shepherd at Wairere. Impressed with the progeny and the simplicity of using Meat Maker bulls without having to crossbreed, George began using them in 2013. He saw an immediate reduction in cow dry rate and both the temperament and the growth rates improved.

“The best calving we’ve had with them is 93% (calves weaned/cows to the bull) and we continue to thrash the cows to control the native pastures.”

Despite of the heifer calves only weaning at about 200kg the best 50 of these selected

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May 2022

Left: 515ha of Grassendale is either in pines or native bush. Above: A specialist Angus bull for heifer mating.

as replacements still manage to reach 400kg

by November 20 (bull-out date) when they are barely yearlings.

“We push them along over the winter in their own rotation on grass and baleage so they get every opportunity to maximise their growth.”

George doesn’t have a cut-off weight for heifer mating but selects replacements on size and weight at weaning.

takes care of any potential calving issues.

Both heifers and cows receive two pourons, selenium before mating and a lice one before the winter.

The heifers calve on a flat paddock supplemented with baleage then moved to adjacent paddocks and grazed fed ad lib grass.

“If you’ve got your cows still cleaning up pasture in June/ July you’re defeating the purpose of having them.”

Using easy calving bulls Low birthweight Angus bulls from Michael Kennet’s Waigroup-based 300 cow commercial herd are used for heifer mating.

Michael specialises in producing easy calving bulls for the dairy industry. George often buys Michael’s older herd sires.

Heifers are mated for a period of 60 days after which they join the two-tooth ewes on the hills in their rotation. George believes running them on the hills before calving

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May 2022

“They are so quiet and easy to handle it’s a pleasure working with them even if we have to intervene occasionally in the calving process.”

Bulls go out to MA cows November 20 at a ratio of 1:40 and a mating period of 60 days. Mixing yearling and MA bulls together in the mating mob astonishingly results in little fighting and few injuries.

“They are so placid they just don’t seem

to be interested in scrapping.

He likes to buy bulls in pairs so they are familiar with one another and are less likely to fight.

“If we do get a troublemaker he’s culled.”

The calving date allows lamb weaning and shearing to be completed before the bulls go out. Secondly, it allows the cows to be set stocked for calving in the ewe paddocks after they have lambed.

Cows and calves follow the ewes over the summer tidying up pasture. After weaning in March the cows are mobbed up and used to remove any remaining roughage on the hills before going into a 200ha forestry block for three months from May to July. Having a large area to winter cows is a significant asset while also generating substantial future income in the form of logs and carbon credits.

“The cows probably won’t see the forestry block this year ‘cos we’ve had such an exceptional summer there’ll be plenty of clean-up work to do.

“Our neighbour said he hasn’t seen a summer like it in 40 years.”

Scanning the herd for dries, singles and twins reveals on average 12 cows are carrying twins. Separated from the main

85

The Meat Maker genetics make up 75% of the beef herd.

herd at weaning, these are wintered with the weaner heifers and calved separately with most rearing their two calves.

George says the bumper season they’ve had has resulted in the best calves he’s seen.

He admits it’s much easier on the eye that way and maybe has been working them a little hard in the past. In spite of this, the herd still contains cows that are more than 11 years old.

He has learned through experience the secret to successfully farming breeding females is to know when their intake can be reduced and when they need to be fed well.

A strong advocate of turning over the generations as quickly as possible, George admits bulls are getting too expensive to follow this philosophy. However, he’s still prepared to pay top money for his Meat Maker bulls last year outlaying $8000 for a yearling. The fact that bulls are sold with only raw data doesn’t concern him but he does pay close attention to the pedigree information, being particularly keen on any Kerrah Simmental blood.

“They come from a 1000-cow herd, suit

86

Key points: • Grassendale 1565ha (1050ha effective) sheep and beef breeding.

• 200ha production forestry, 315ha native bush.

• Uses McFadzean Meat Maker bulls.

• Has 4270 recorded ewes.

• Running a 400-cow herd.

• Goal is to keep farm costs below 55% of GFI. • Two major costs fertiliser, $20/ su and genomics at $25/su.

what we’re trying to do, are exceptionally quiet and have good longevity. It’s also a simpler system having just the one breed involved.”

A trading cattle component has been added to the business following the dropping of cow numbers to 280. All Meat Maker weaner heifers are wintered with the 70-80 culls being sold in early October in Feilding at 380-400kg. Providing valuable

cashflow, it also frees up scarce flat land for about 1000 sale rams coming off the hills.

After selling the Meat Maker steer calves to a regular private buyer at 230kg for $775 last year, Grassendale bought 50 Angus steer calves for $500, wintered them on grass and sold them in the spring for $1100.

Sheep goal efficiency and productivity The sheep generate a large part of the income. Grassendale has 4270 recorded ewes consisting of 2300 Romneys, 1000 Romworth, 600 terminals (mainly Beltex Suftex cross) and 370 facial eczematolerant composites (Perendale x Romney x Coopworth).

George believes successful sheep farming rests on efficiency and productivity, finding the breed and strain of sheep that best suits the environment.

“Our biggest genetic challenge with the Romneys is to achieve a higher performance at a lighter bodyweight and with the aid of genomics and detailed sire summaries significant progress has been made.”

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May 2022

When selecting rams, George places a lot of emphasis on the maternal index which has a significant negative weighting on mature size. They must also be structurally sound, clean around the points and have a 34 micron fleece with a quality score of seven.

Romney and Romworth ewes plus 1200 commercials are run on Grassendale while the other two flocks are farmed as a joint venture with George’s cousin. The ram lambs from these flocks are run on George’s brother’s place near Masterton. This helps ensure the genetic integrity of the breeds.

Between 700-800 rams a year are sold to 114 clients at prices between $1000 and $2000.

Most rams are sold privately however a small number of Beltex Suftex cross rams have been sold at auction with last year’s averaging $1900.

All stock on Grassendale are run commercially to simulate the conditions under which commercial clients are likely to farm their flocks.

“Acclimatising rams to a harsh

MA Romney ewes with rocky crop of argillite in the background.

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100 Yearling Angus bulls at our Annual On Farm Sale and Hybrid bidr Auction

6th Sept 2022, 12.30pm 87

Lot 2: KayJay Laser R414, an exciting prospect that was used over 30 Heifers.

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environment so they perform well for our clients is what we’re endeavouring to do.”

Being traditionally summer-dry, Grassendale provides plenty of challenges in particular the early autumn. The biggest of these is feeding the capital stock and replacements including ram hoggets. Feed was so short one autumn poplar trees on the hills were felled and the leaves fed to the ram hoggets.

“Acclimatising rams to a harsh environment so they perform well for our clients is what we’re endeavouring to do.”

Depending upon the season, ewes can be grazed in a rotation (when there is reasonable summer rainfall), block grazed or set stocked.

Rotational grazing is Grassendale’s preferred option but is seldom possible because feed runs out. Block grazing is the default option as George is not a fan of set stocking. Grazing a block of 150ha at once the ewes are shuffled on when the feed starts to get short.

“Using this system ensures you’ve always got something up your sleeve.”

As soon as autumn rains arrive 150kg/ha of DAP13S is applied. Now a low priority mob, the ram lambs get mobbed up and the area used for ewe mating is spelled.

Livestock manager Joshua Volman and shepherd Sam Peffer weighing ewes.

Single-sire mating constraint Requiring 30 paddocks for single-sire mating from March 20 really complicates management as these paddocks effectively become set stocked for 34 days (two cycles).

This constraint significantly compromises the ability to build up winter feed reserves as rotational grazing is not possible during this period.

“Fortunately mating is more or less over in 20 days but if rain doesn’t arrive by March 15, generating a wedge of feed for the winter can be further compromised.”

DNA for pedigree identification enables Grassendale to use multiple-sire mating groups and the nucleus-multiplier concept to generate large numbers of genetically superior progeny for the benefit of its clients.

Post-mating, ewes are mobbed into two groups (two tooths and MA) and the winter rotation begins. George would ideally like to get this out to 60 days however this is seldom achieved.

Continues

››

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May 2022

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TENDERLOIN

RUMP

RIB

PLATE

SHANK

BRISKET

E

BLADE

SIRLOIN

E

C

RIB

KNUCKLE

OUTSID

K

C HU

TOPSID

NE

CK

Est 1957

FLANK

K

AN

SH

70 A+ ANGUSPRO BULLS ON OFFER

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90

TOUGH CATTLE TENDER BEEF Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

George believes it’s better to maintain ewe body condition through the winter rather than try and put it on before lambing.

Scanning in mid-June identifies dry ewes and those carrying multiples and singles.

The dries are culled while the single-bearing ewes are immediately locked up with the cows in a large paddock. The multiples go onto a daily shift.

Multi-bearing ewes are set stocked on the easier hill country at 5.5/ha and the singles on the steeper more exposed country at 6.2/ ha. Scanning averages 177% (140 – 145% lambing) with George freely admitting he doesn’t want it any higher than this.

Unfortunately high scanning percentages mean high numbers of triplets and after such a growthy summer/autumn,more than usual are predicted.

“In spite of not giving the triplet ewes any special treatment we still have ewes that wean three good 29kg lambs.”

Lambing time on Grassendale is far busier than most sheep farms as the 3300 recorded Romney and Romworth ewes need to have their lambing details recorded and their lambs tagged. Quietly moving through the ewes once a day on foot, horseback or quad, each shepherd is responsible for his/her own block. Making this considerably easier are the EID (electronic identification) tags carried in the ewes’ ears. Once each ewe is identified on the operator’s hand-held device her lambing data can be recorded and immediately sent back using wireless technology to a home-based computer.

A Meat Maker bull has good temperament and performance.

EID technology has greatly enhanced the amount of monitoring possible. Most of Grassendale’s drafting is done using preselected drafting lists and a five-way auto drafter.

“Our weighing system can process and draft 700 animals an hour.”

Ewe must have lambed as hoggets Condition scoring and weighing the recorded ewes at weaning and mating provides valuable information for SIL to estimate mature weight breeding values which are of particular interest to George.

A prerequisite for entering the Grassendale recorded flock is for ewes to have lambed as hoggets. Selecting the best 1150 ewe lambs early on size and accelerating their growth rate using crops and grass results in about 1000 getting in lamb. The smaller ewe hoggets are often grazed off the station.

“Our whole focus with hogget mating is to minimise wastage by growing them as well as we can so that they reach a satisfactory weight as two tooths and rebreed.”

Hoggets are run with terminal rams from the end of April for two cycles.

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ANNUAL SALE 3.30pm | Tuesday 28 June 2022 SPRING SALE 10.30am | Tuesday 20 September 2022 PAUL & SARAH WILLIAMS  021 189 4114 | � turihaua@gisborne.net.nz | � www.turihaua.co.nz

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Last year the two hogget mobs averaged 40 and 42kg but George confessed he would rather use a minimum cut-off weight of 40kg.

Grassendale’s drenching philosophy is based on minimal use and refugia. Ewes are not drenched and lambs are only drenched sparingly. Lambs’ faecal egg counts are monitored after weaning particularly in the autumn when Barbers Pole can be an issue.

“We are trying to breed sheep that don’t require drenching.”

Selecting for neither resistance nor resilience but for production means anything that has to be drenched or is not performing in a large mob situation is culled.

With George away so much, a lot of managerial responsibility is placed on his staff. They include Joshua Volman (manager), 25, Sam Peffer, 24, and Nico Bresaz, 20.

Rising to 330m asl and subject to strong nor-westerly winds the contour on Grassendale is mainly medium-to-steep with only 115ha cultivable. Annually 30ha is sown in Raphnobrassica providing a summer green-feed crop mainly to accelerate the growth rate of ewe lambs to enable them to achieve satisfactory mating weights as hoggets. The cropping programme also aims to introduce more drought-tolerant cocksfoot into the pasture mix. Average paddock size is 12ha.

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May 2022

George is using EID tags for the 3300 recorded Romney and Romworth ewes.

Below: Cows and calves.

Based on sandstone, siltstone, mudstone and argillite the soils are prone to serious erosion. Working closely with the Wellington Regional Council land management group, George and his team plant 500-600 willow poles a year for erosion control.

“It’s awesome working with those guys.

Without their expertise we wouldn’t be able to farm this place.”

Luce’s father John put a lot of effort into soil fertility. With most of the soils not being inherently fertile the Olsen Pand PH levels of 18 and 5.7 respectively on the hill soils are commendable. Typically low on sandstone and argillite soils are the sulphur levels.

With so many clients to service George chooses to spend a lot of time on the road visiting them and familiarising himself with their individual farming situations.

“I discuss all sorts of issues with them including any concerns they have with their rams.”

George is concerned about the loss of so much good hill country to carbon farming.

The encroachment of forestry has also brought an explosion in the population of feral deer.

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LIVESTOCK

Efficiency

PRODUCTIVITY AND EFFICIENCY PAYS After weaning, feed intake and animal growth rate are the most important parameters raising beef, Ken Geenty writes.

P

roductivity and profit of your beef systems relies on combinations of good calving percentages and weaning weights then efficient growth of weaners to sale or slaughter. A key element is astute feeding according to animal needs at all stages of this production cycle.

Several measures of productivity and efficiency can help benchmark your production against previous years and/or other farms. Estimates for breeding cows involve both cow and calf parameters whereas after weaning it boils down to feed intake and animal growth rate. Breaking down and examining the components of these measures will help identify areas where you can improve.

The overall productivity of a breeding cow is made up of both weaning percentage and calf weaning weight. These are often combined to give cow productivity:

(BCS) which should be about 6-7 as calves are weaned.

Generally smaller cows that wean heavy calves in excess of 50% of cow liveweight are most efficient. This is probably easiest by crossing a larger terminal sire breed with smaller dam breeds. However, as shown in Table 1, the difference in annual feed consumption (kg DM/head/year) for small, medium or large cows shows small cows rearing small calves can be just as efficient and profitable as large cows rearing large calves. Remembering though that small calves may be more difficult to market.

Therefore small, medium or large cows that wean calves about 50% of cow liveweight are almost equally profitable. So it’s numbers of calves weaned at good weights that make a beef cow herd profitable. The high levels of feeding for this calf weaning will also hold cow BCS to ensure good ongoing production.

In summary the total weight of calves weaned is influenced by: • Reproductive performance – empty cows are unproductive passengers • Feeding levels of cow and suckled calf – generous allowances, especially during lactation • Cow and calf genetics – based on proven breeding values plus hybrid vigor • Cow and calf health – effective animal health plans • Calf age at weaning – ideally near 200 days.

After calf weaning the all-important parameters are animal growth rate and feed consumption. The measure of efficiency here is the ratio of the amount of feed eaten per unit of liveweight gain. Because feed is the numerator the lower the value the greater the feed conversion efficiency (FCE).

Values for fast growing cattle at pasture are in the range 7-10kg of DM consumed/kg of liveweight gain. High performance cattle on feedlot concentrates are considerably more efficient with values closer to 5-7. Pig and poultry producers aim for FCEs below 2 as monogastrics are much more efficient than ruminants.

The major factor affecting FCE in beef animals is rate of liveweight gain. As shown in Table 2 values vary from 19 to 6.3 as daily weight gains increase from 0.25kg/day to 1.5kg/day.

From Table 2, a steer growing at 0.75kg/day eats 40% more DM per kg

PRODUCTIVITY = No. of calves weaned x Ave weaning weight No. of cows joined with bull

Table 1 Feed efficiency for three different breeding cow types

However, the total feed consumed by large cows is greater than for small cows.

To allow for this the term weight of calf weaned per cow joined, or productivity, is divided by cow liveweight to give an indication of efficiency as follows:

Small

Medium

Large

Cow weaning weight (kg)

430

470

550

Calf weaning weight (kg)

215

235

275

2880

3131

3657

100

92

79

Number of calves (at 80% CW/CM )

80

73.6

63.2

Kg DM/kg calf weaned

16.7

16.8

16.6

Profitability4

High

High

High

1

Feed eaten per cow (kg DM/year) Number of cows

2

EFFICIENCY =

3

Productivity Cow liveweight Usually autumn or cow weight at weaning is used for the above estimate of biological efficiency. Consideration should also be given to cow body condition score

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Cow weights 10% lower winter-pre-calving (less weight of conceptus) No. of cows consuming roughly equivalent total feed 3 CW/CM = no. calves weaned/no. cows mated 4 Profitability = return/kg feed and gross margin/stock unit 1

2

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Table 2 The impact of liveweight gain (LWG) on FCE for a 300kg steer LWG (kg/head/day) FCE (kg DM/kg LWG)

0.25

0.5

0.75

1.0

1.25

1.5

19

11.4

8.8

7.6

6.4

6.3

Table 3 Relative value of pasture DM per month Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

PGR1

4.5

7.2

17

31

43.4

40

35

24.6

21.3

28

24.4

9.3

Rel Value2

5.3

3.3

1.4

0.8

0.6

0.6

0.7

1.0

1.1

0.9

1.0

2.6

Average daily growth (kg DM/day) per month, annual av. 23.8 2 Annual av./monthly av.

1

“It’s numbers of calves weaned at good weights that make a beef cow herd profitable.”

of liveweight gain than one growing at 1.5kg/ day. Clearly suggesting maximum liveweight gain should be achieved for more efficient use of feed. Remembering other factors such as different feeding costs during the year, seasonal pasture growth rates, managing pasture quality, competing needs of other livestock etc. also need consideration.

A summary of relative value of pasture DM per month, given in Table 3, reflects the opportunity cost of DM through the year. In this table nominal seasonal pasture growth rate values are used for example.

Slower pasture growth rate in winter has a higher value equivalent to charging $13/cow/week for dairy grazing versus charging $1.50/cow/week in summer. Therefore the enterprise, beef or sheep, with greater demand over winter will ‘pay’ more

for the pasture dry matter so should be generating higher returns per kg of DM. An alternative method of expressing animal genetic differences in FCE is use of net feed intake (NFI). Progeny of different bulls are measured for feed intake, normally on a feedlot, with measurements compared with expected values from feeding tables for similar animals.

A bull whose progeny consumes less feed than expected over the test period will have a lower or more desirable FCE. Whereas a bull with progeny having a higher NFI will have a more positive or less desirable FCE. Australian research has shown bulls ranked on feedlots for FCE of their progeny show similar ranking under pasture grazing. This is fortunate as feedlot data can be used for selecting bulls for pasture or feedlot systems.

Annual on-farm bull sale

Wednesday 29th June 2022 10:30am, State Highway 2 Nuhaka

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The Cameron Clan would like to invite you to their annual

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Unlimited, sold to Turiroa 2020 KAHARAU GEORGE 589-16

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97

ANIMAL HEALTH

Drenching

MAKE DRENCHING S T N COU

Farmers should target worm control in cattle at young animals and use oral drenches as long as they can, Wairarapa vet Sara Sutherland writes. heep and cattle systems have some subtle differences with respect to drenches and drenching. For example, worm species are (mostly) different, the availability of pour-on drenches for cattle, the limited availability of novel drenches, the lack of information about drench resistance, and the lower reliability of faecal egg counting.

The basic principles are the same though. If you’re making decisions about worm control in cattle, keep these basic principles in mind.

Younger animals are more susceptible to worms, shed more eggs, and suffer more from worms.

This means that you should target worm control at that age group. The highest risk for developing resistance is where you have lots of young animals that need drenching.

In beef, this is usually Friesian bull beef where you buy in animals either at weaning/100kg or at four days old. Heifer grazing is another situation where drench use and the risk of resistance can be high. If you are running those systems, like lamb finishing, you need to monitor regularly, provide refugia with each drench, and use effective combination drenches.

We know that pour-on drenches are less effective than injections, which are less effective than oral drenches. You should use oral drenches as long as it is safe.

Triple combination Using triple combination drenches delays resistance because the worm has to change a different thing in their genome each time they develop resistance to a different chemical. It takes them longer to develop resistance to three drenches at once than subsequent single or double active drenches.

In cattle the only triple drenches available are oral drenches.

Adult animals develop their own immunity to worms. Drenching adult animals increases the likelihood of resistance. Because adult animals ingest larvae but these don’t develop into adult worms, you can use adult animals to reduce the larval challenge on pasture. Cattle over two years old should only be drenched on an individual basis

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May 2022

"Using triple combination drenches delays resistance because the worm has to change a different thing in their genome each time they develop resistance to a different chemical.”

If you would like to learn more about these basic principles, look up the excellent website www. wormwise.co.nz or ask when the next Wormwise workshop is available in your area.

if an individual is suffering from worms.

In adolescent cattle, as in hoggets and two-tooths, you should target drenching to those that need it and avoid drenching those that don’t. With cattle there is a great advantage over sheep with the common use of electronic identification linked with scales. Many of my farmers will see the daily gain since the last drench pop up on the screen.

Research suggests a good way to target drench in yearling to 18-month cattle is to drench individuals that are not achieving 80% of your target growth rate, or 80% of the average weight gain of the mob (this means weighing a sample of the mob first). This reduces drench use, increases refugia, and optimises weight gain – a great technique!

The cattle worm Ostertagia ostertagii (not the same as the sheep worm now called Teladorsagia which used to be called Ostertagia) can burrow into the lining of the stomach and overwinter there, sometimes breaking out and killing young cattle in the spring. Luckily most drenches containing a “mectin” family will get rid of the stage and prevent that breaking out.

Graze for dilution Quarantine drenching is tricky with cattle as we don’t have the novel anthelmintics (although Zolvix Plus can be used in cattle).

The principles though are the same – use a drench that should be effective even if they have triple-resistant worms on board, then graze them somewhere where there are likely to be lots of worm larvae to dilute any worms that escape the drenching.

Should you quarantine-drench adult cattle? Tough call and this will depend in part on how likely these animals are to be bringing in resistant worms. If you are buying in two-year-old store cattle, don’t have young cattle on the farm, and they are bringing in resistant worms, but you are never drenching them, then does it matter if they bring in resistant worms? In that situation it might be better to avoid a quarantine drench altogether.

Monitoring by faecal egg counting (aka worm egg counting) is less reliable in cattle over 12 months, in the sense that if you see a high egg count it means that the worms are there, but a low egg count doesn’t mean they aren’t. This is at least partly from the sheer volume of faeces produced (the small amount you sample might miss the bit that has eggs in it). If an older cattle beast has signs consistent with worms then by all means do a worm egg count (WEC), but interpret the results taking this into account.

This means that doing a faecal egg count reduction test (FECRT) to tell which worm species are resistant to which drenches is more difficult in cattle. Talk to your vet or Wormwise facilitator if you want to know more about setting up a FECRT in young cattle.

In summary, target worm control at young animals, use oral drenches as long as you can, use adult animal to reduce challenge on pasture for younger animals, avoid drenching adult animals unless they are suffering from worms, after the first year of age target drenching to animals that need it, and be aware of how to interpret faecal egg counts in cattle over a year old.

• Sara Sutherland is a veterinarian with Veterinary Services Wairarapa.

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ANIMAL HEALTH

Drench resistance

AMAZING WHAT YOU FIND IF YOU

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Monitoring worms and cattle is not easy, Garth Riddle writes.

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’m going to go out on a limb and suggest there are very few people reading this that don’t have resistant cattle worms on their farms.

I would wager very few have any real idea what’s happening on their own farms to prove me wrong. That’s my challenge.

But don't be too hard on yourselves.

Monitoring worms and cattle is not easy.

I have often been accused of giving a

vacant stare, and a long pause, when asked a seemingly simple question about drench and resistance. Unfortunately simple questions do not all have simple answers.

So bear with me.

Before going into what I have found recently, it is important to know what “resistance” means in this context.

Resistance is diagnosed when there are egg counts done before and after

drenching and it is found that there has been less than a 95% drop in egg numbers.

This is not necessarily an easy or exact science.

Worm counting in cattle is less accurate than in sheep. To put it bluntly there is just so much more poo to go searching for worm eggs in. This realistically limits doing worm egg counts on younger animals.

(This can cause some issues as in cattle

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there can be a difference in worm species with the age of the animals. Eg: younger cattle are more likely to have Cooperia. This can mean what we learn does not apply as strongly to older animals on the same farm as the worm species they have could be different.)

We use egg counts as a measure of parasitism as there is no other simple way to try to gauge how many worms there are inside a live animal.

But there are further limitations.

Egg counts only reflect what number of adult worms are present, not the immature ones that can be causing much of the production losses.

Sometimes when a drench has been given the worms are not killed, but they are sufficiently “knocked” that they stop laying eggs. This can give a false impression that the drench is better than it really is.

With all these caveats, testing drench effectiveness is still a good idea, but it just means that the results might need not be taken at face value.

If there is a high count after drenching then it’s obvious there is a problem.

Carry out a drench test The entry level testing for a drench is doing a drench check. This is where a faecal sample is taken from a group of animals after being given a drench. If this is sampled within the life stage of the worms, about three weeks, and any eggs are present it is probably a bad thing.

What we do not know is if this means there is resistance. If there were 100 eggs per gram at the start and 50 now, then we have only decreased the count 50%, this is bad. If there were 1000, then the drench is at 95% so is deemed effective.

If there is a high count after drenching then it's obvious there is a problem.

But you may not have resistance.

Obviously a sample from one animal is much less reliable than sampling 10 individuals and taking an average.

If the count is zero, am I happy? Well, I’m much happier than if there are eggs there.

But, I don't know if there were even any eggs present when the animals were drenched. If we started with no worms, who’s to say if the drench was any good as there was nothing there to kill.

So to get the next level of information we need a drench check that has egg counts at the start and at the end. Usually this is

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Worm counting in cattle is less accurate than in sheep.

To put it bluntly there is just so much more poo to go searching for worm eggs in. done after an initial drench check test raises concerns.

Does this show we have resistance if the egg counts do not drop enough?

Maybe.

There are many other possible reasons for a drench not to work. In my experience these need to be investigated before/while going down the next steps.

It is much easier to fix a broken drench gun, weigh animals properly, make sure the backpack isn't held the wrong way up, etc than it is to counter resistance.

These are good “mistakes” to find.

Triple-acting failed So going the full monty is the faecal egg count reduction test (FECRT).

This is where we count the number

of worms before we start, look at worm species, test a range of different drench families and collect the results.

In 22 years as a vet I have done this twice.

Both this year.

Both showed triple drench resistance.

That is, even a triple-acting oral was not successful in getting a 95% drop on either farm.

Is it worth the extra effort ? A qualified yes.

If we just look to production as a guide to resistance it will be too late. I liken it to slowly cutting through the anchor rope.

If you’re using the guide of, “has the boat floated away yet” as the only measure of if the rope is any good. At some point there will be bitter disappointment.

Doing a full FECRT means checking each of the three strands of your rope in isolation. It lets you know just what's left holding the drench together for your farm.

To carry that analogy, if you are running a higher-risk system that is reliant more on drenches working to maintain your system, say intensive young bull operations, your boat is bigger and so the strain on the rope greater. You need a closer look.

I am on a lifestyle block and have a low

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“It was very effective at controlling the worm burden and we achieved the

weight gains we needed to shift cattle ahead of the winter” Robbie explained, the fact that it’s rain resistant was also a bonus.” They also used the TURBO® Pour On their R2 bulls this year ahead of the annual bull sale and believe it was a contributing factor to the sales success.

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“It was the best line of Hereford bulls we’ve ever presented and our highest average on record. With slick coats and no sign of parasites you could say the drench had something to do with it.”

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stocking rate, few young animals and rarely drench. My boat is a small dinghy.

What I do with drench products or practices isn't going to put any appreciable strain on resistance.

How much of an issue are resistant worms in beef systems? I honestly can't say as we know so little about the status of cattle worms. I know there are many successful farmers that have been following their systems for years. What I don't know is how these systems are impacting sustainability long term.

Have a talk with your vet about your system, concerns and goals. Work out what's the right fit for you.

Years ago as a young yet I was offered a piece of advice, which has shown itself to be true many times.

“You will miss more by not looking than not knowing.”

• Garth Riddle is a vet with Bay of Islands Veterinary Services, Waipapa, Northland.

In 22 years as a vet Garth Riddle has only done two FECRTs, both this year, and they showed triple drench resistance.

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ANIMAL HEALTH

Nutrition

GOOD AUTUMN NUTRITION KING If the stock condition is going backwards it is often because of poor nutrition Sarah Sutherland writes.

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utumn ill-thrift in finishing cattle is a recognised condition in New Zealand.

It presents as R1 or R2 cattle that were previously growing well having reduced or negative growth rates for three to eight weeks in autumn despite good feeding levels.

The condition often but not always presents with scouring and poor body condition. The condition can also occur in growing lambs.

There are several factors which may be involved, and not all will be present on each farm. The most common reason is that feed quality or quantity may be lower than you think. Other causes are parasites, trace element deficiencies, diseases especially BVD, Yersiniosis, adenovirus, facial eczema, or toxic fungi in the grass. In some cases a cause cannot be found despite a comprehensive work-up, which means

there may be something out there which has not yet been identified.

The overwhelming cause of ill-thrift is poor nutrition. Steers weighing 500kg with a growth rate of 1kg/day require 127 MJME/ day (range 109-135). Normally protein is not limited in autumn pastures. Autumn pasture has a lower efficiency of energy use than spring pasture even though it has high digestibility and high protein. This is because the pattern of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) released from the rumen bacteria is different, and there is an increased energy demand to convert excess protein to urea.

Very low fibre, high soluble carbohydrate diets can lead to scouring and poor growth.

The low fibre diet doesn’t stimulate chewing and rumination, which means the animal absorbs less saliva. Cattle saliva is necessary to prevent rumen pH from dropping. Rapid fermentation of soluble carbohydrates also reduces the pH of the rumen.

Rumen bacteria killed Low rumen pH (acidosis) kills off rumen bacteria, further decreasing the energy released and changing the volatile fatty acid profile. Intestinal contents that are less well digested suck water into the gut from the digestive tract, causing diarrhoea.

Fast growing spring and autumn pastures in NZ are typically low in non-digestible fibre (NDF) and good growth rates are still achieved in many cases. If this is a component of the problem, adding fibre to the diet by supplying hay or straw will stop diarrhoea, and improve the efficiency of digestion.

Parasites can contribute to autumn illthrift. Worm egg counts are less valuable in cattle than in lambs, and parasitism can be a factor even with low worm egg counts in animals more than 15 months. However, high worm egg counts mean that a drench is needed. Cooperia is a common worm in young cattle in autumn. Often the most sensitive indirect measure of parasitism in cattle is lower than expected growth rates.

If your farm does not have a bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVD) control programme or there has been a potential biosecurity breakdown, may be the cause. Cattle infected at this age have a period of about one month of poor growth rate or weight loss and scouring. You may or may not also see lame animals, or sometimes animals that are drooling or have a discharge from the nose.

Animals not born with BVD will recover in about four weeks and then usually regain full productivity after recovery.

A blood test for antibodies will tell us whether BVD is active in the herd. If BVD might be an issue in your herd, we strongly recommend you book a BVD consultation with your vet. They will be able to help you make a BVD control programme for your herd. Vaccination may not be cost effective in a trading mob, but identifying

The most common reason for ill-thrift is the lack of quality feed.

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Steers weighing 500kg with a growth rate of 1kg/day require 127 MJME/day (range 109-135). and getting rid of the permanently infected (PI) animal may be.

Yersiniosis is a bacterial disease that can affect weaner cattle in autumn after a period of cold, wet weather or after periods of stress including nutritional stress such as after an autumn drought. It causes fever, scouring, weight loss and occasionally some deaths.

Diagnosis is by culture of the bacteria from faeces or from post mortem samples.

Sick animals can be treated. Adenovirus can also cause scouring, weight loss and death in younger cattle. This disease also seems to occur more commonly after a period of poor nutrition.

Wairarapa cattle lack trace elements Trace element deficiencies are common in cattle in the Wairarapa. The two most

common deficiencies seen are copper and selenium. In young cattle either of these deficiencies will be displayed as poor growth rates.

Trace elements are required as components of enzyme pathways. When they are absent or only available in low amounts, the pathways are slowed, causing poor growth rates. Blood samples or liver samples will tell us whether supplementation will improve growth rates in your animals. Your vet can then advise which products will achieve this.

Research has implicated fungi and endophytes as part of the autumn ill-thrift syndrome, however we don’t know enough about these to make recommendations for their control. Facial eczema can cause reduced growth rate before you see visible lesions (reddened, crusty, peeling skin).

Some years and some paddocks are more

likely to grow the fungi that cause facial eczema.

Grass can be tested for spore levels to determine whether facial eczema is likely to occur. Facial eczema is a problem in some years and not others in the Wairarapa.

Other fungi or endophytes may cause problems but we do not yet have a way to test for these.

In summary, autumn ill-thrift is a common syndrome in beef cattle in NZ. There are a number of different factors that may be involved. This means it is always worth talking to us about a mob you are concerned about. The most common reason is poor nutrition. Remember that in autumn feed availability and quality may not be as good as it looks.

• Sara Sutherland is a veterinarian with Veterinary Services Wairarapa.

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ANIMAL HEALTH

Vet certificates

FIT FOR TRANSPORT Animal Welfare law mandates any animal whose condition is not 100% must have a transport fitness certificate issued by a vet to allow it to be moved to the nearest processing works. By Rachael Fouhy.

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ssuing transport certificates is something vets are asked to do on a fairly regular basis. Over the years the rules have become more stringent due to reviews of the Animal Welfare Act and to ensure we meet the market access requirements of many of our customers.

Fitness for transport certificates are a requirement for any animal that is not 100%, should you wish to transport it.

This is for any type of transport, not just transport for slaughter.

Key considerations when deciding if it is feasible to issue a certificate for an animal include: • Animals need to be sent to the closest meat plant. This can be frustrating when you are not a client of the closest works, however this is a key rule that needs to be adhered to. Depending on where you live you may have a few options, but in some areas there is only one option. This needs to be

Fitness for transport certificates are a requirement for any animal that is not 100%.

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May 2022

arranged before the certificate is issued.

We have had multiple instances where clients have crossed out the meat plant listed and replaced it with another.

That puts you and your vet at risk of a considerable fine.

• Cancer eye/eye growths - These are a common request for certificates.

We can issue certificates for growths less than 1cm diameter. Those 1-2cm diameter are at the owner’s risk, those greater than 2cm diameter are not allowed. This is because they are most likely to have spread to other parts of the body. We can not send any cattle who have tear staining, are blinking or holding one eye shut - in other words anything that suggests pain and inflammation. Animals with scars from healed pink eye are normally fine to go.

• Lameness – animals between lameness score 1-2 may be able to be transported depending on the degree of lameness.

This includes animals with functional lameness e.g. from injury. To increase the chance of a lame cow being accepted it can be helpful if it can travel with some herd mates. Personally, I will not send a lame cow alone. As a rough rule the cow needs to weightbear evenly on all four feet 80% of the time. Look how your cow stands, if she stands square she should be fine, if she stands with a hunched back or feet out behind she is less likely to go. The same applies to bulls with chronic injuries.

Often these animals can weight-bear but have a slightly abnormal gait. We can no longer send animals that have healed fractures or who sustained other significant injuries when they were young, unless they received veterinary treatment at the time.

• Horns – we can not send animals within a week of dehorning. Animals can not have ingrown horns or broken/ bleeding or discharging horns. Animals with horns outside of their ears struggle to get up the race and can get trapped in the stun box. Smaller horns are easier to deal with than large horns so if you have horned animals I recommend getting them dehorned prior to a year old.

Continues

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• There is a seven-day time frame on certificates which is there so that there is no significant change to the condition of the animal from the time the certificate is issued. This can be a frustrating condition of these certificates. Extra time may be granted by the vet and the meat plant for those who live further out.

Above: Animals with horns outside of their ears struggle to get up the race and can get trapped in the stun box.

• Penile issues – these commonly arise from mating injuries although can also apply to young bulls with penile warts. The extent of the damage and the distance a bull has to travel will impact on if these can be sent or not.

• BCS – very skinny animals are no longer suitable to be transported unless it is for animal welfare and they are going to significantly better feed.

• Other – you are not allowed to send anything that is bleeding or discharging. This applies to old eczema wounds, old injuries etc.

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MPI has developed a very useful app – Fit for transport, which outlines what is and isn’t allowed.

I recommend downloading it. There are many cases where vets can not decide if the animal will or will not be okay for a certificate. It often comes down to the meat plant vet and what they see when the animal gets off the truck.

Many of us have received grumpy phone calls and emails from these vets and this can make us a bit gun-shy about issuing certs for borderline cases.

With that in mind it is now best for both parties (farmer and vet) if we can take a video/or photo and send it to the works vet for feedback. This also means that should the animal’s condition change considerably on transport there is also proof that it was okay when the certificate was issued.

• Rachael Fouhy is head vet at Tararua Vets.

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ANIMAL HEALTH

Biosecurity

BVD can be managed in herds A level of complacency sees a serious cattle disease continue to cause problems for cattle, writes vet Andrew Cochrane.

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s rural vets we are constantly involved in BVD breakdowns and the ensuing damage this causes to beef productivity and profitability.

Every year at our practice in Northern Southland, we find ourselves having the discussion with farmers following a poor scanning or routine blood testing and the past season has been no exception.

It’s not through lack of education, BVD (bovine viral diarrhoea) has been a relatively constant topic for the last decade, whether through the rural press, veterinary newsletters or farmer seminars/field days.

But unfortunately there still seems to be a complacency among farmers and livestock agents, that sees this easyto-manage disease continue to cause problems.

As part of the mycoplasma bovis eradication effort we have blood tested a lot of beef cattle recently and this has been a great opportunity to screen for BVD at a heavily discounted rate. Many of our farmers took us up on this offer and it has been a useful way of identifying herds with underlying BVD issues. Any beef farmers reading this that haven’t yet taken this opportunity, I highly recommend talking to your local vet clinic about

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getting your herd tested under this offer.

Of the herds tested we found 21% with active BVD infections, lower than the national average of 45-55%, but significant nonetheless. Some of the worst-affected had been impacted by poor scanning results with one farm only scanning 50% in-calf.

The best thing about BVD is that once you commit to eradicating it, this can be achieved relatively quickly through a test and cull policy. Good biosecurity measures can then be enough to keep BVD out for good and when this isn’t possible an effective vaccine is available to protect your herd.

There will most likely be a national eradication scheme in New Zealand within the next decade, but why wait when you could easily eradicate BVD from your property now? Need more convincing on the merits of eradicating BVD? Let’s look at what happens when it all goes wrong…

One of the affected farms we dealt with last year is an example of the impact it had and some of the tough decisions that had to be made during the outbreak.

We were first alerted to this farm in March following a disappointing pregnancy scanning. Initial blood work

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May 2022

Four options for a farmer 1. Cut the losses and cull all the positive calves, continue with mating as planned 2. Draft out the positive calves, match them to their mothers and mate this group separately 3. Early weaning – wean the positive calves, hope for the best and mate the cows as planned 4. Do nothing, rely on the vaccine to provide protection.

Persistent infected carriers

Option 1 was the tidiest option but not a pleasant one. This would also see many transiently infected calves being culled unnecessarily.

Option 2 was the preferred option but we had tried this approach before (albeit on a much smaller scale) and had issues with bull fertility. The result was an 80% empty rate due to the high transmission of virus overcoming the vaccine and rendering the bull infertile.

Option 3 wasn’t really suitable as some of the calves were only a few weeks old.

Option 4 was still risky, especially given

Source: DairyNZ

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showed high exposure to BVD (S/P ratio of 1.63). Follow-up testing found 30 of 663 animals were positive for BVD and likely to be persistently infected (PIs). These PI animals were culled and by calving time the cattle on the farm were BVD-free.

However, we knew there remained a risk of BVD infection in the calves yet to be born.

This is the ‘Trojan cow’ scenario, where a pregnant cow that has tested negative to BVD gives birth to a positive persistently infected calf. If these calves are left in the herd during the subsequent mating there is a real risk of further BVD infection and productivity losses.

Testing calves at foot can be a logistical nightmare, especially in this case where a late calving spread meant cows were still calving late into spring. In the end, 456 calves were tested in mid-December and 95 (21%) came back positive!

This was a shock for all involved and it took several conversations and emails to plan the next step. With the start of mating already delayed and Christmas fast approaching some tough decisions had to be made quickly. Fortunately, we had already decided to vaccinate the herd prior to mating which would help provide some protection to the cows. Regardless, experience with past outbreaks told us that some bold actions were still required and we had four basic options: 1. Cut our losses and cull all the positive calves, continue with mating as planned 2. Draft out the positive calves, match them to their mothers and mate this group separately 3. Early weaning – wean the positive calves, hope for the best and mate the cows as planned 4. Do nothing, rely on the vaccine to provide protection.

May 2022

the high amount of BVD virus circulating.

In the end the farmer chose a mixture of the options. Some calves were weaned very early and as expected many of these subsequently deteriorated, requiring euthanasia as a result of stress and progression of the disease.

A group of the remaining 65 positive calves and their mothers were kept in a separate mob and left unmated initially.

This group of calves was retested a month later, the calves confirmed as PIs were then weaned (at a much better age) and the bull was joined with the cows and negative calves.

In total 30 calves tested negative on their second test and were therefore found to have been transiently infected. These were able to continue in the herd with no longterm ill effects and while mating had been delayed five weeks for 65 cows, this was deemed better than risking a 80% dry rate.

A decision about what to do with the weaned, positive calves remains. These calves are a high risk to the herd and keeping them on the farm is not generally advisable. On top of this, many of them never make it to an age or condition where they can be finished.

One option considered was to send them to slaughter at weaning, where they are killed as a ‘cull cow’ and can still fetch up to $400. However, in this instance a decision was made to send the calves to a separate block with no breeding cattle.

What happens to them from here is still up for debate but one possibility is that another farmer takes them on and attempts to finish them, fully aware of the risks.

This farmer doesn’t have any breeding cattle and the arrangement is such that he wouldn’t pay for cattle that don’t make it to finishing.

While some of the solutions to this outbreak were unusual, the outbreak itself is similar to many that happen around the country every year.

The outcomes often have a significant financial and emotional impact, leaving the farmer with lost production and replacement animals to source.

Fortunately, the full force of these impacts can be avoided with a robust BVD management plan. Talk to your local vet about how you can control the threat of BVD in your herd.

• Andrew Cochrane is a vet with Northern Southland Vets.

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Tim Dangen with rising two-yearold steers run on leased land at Waimauku.

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CALF REARING

ON FA R M

INTENSIFICATION SECURES FUTURE Coming home to help out his parents on the family farm, has seen Tim Dangen convert a small-scale beef operation to a substantial calf-rearing operation. By Glenys Christian.

Photos by Alex Wallace.

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incoln graduate Tim Dangen made huge strides in his 18 months on a Southland dairy farm.

As his three-month placement extended out he was rapidly promoted from his farm assistant role.

“In two months I was 2IC then in another two months I was farm manager,” he says.

But by Christmas 2014 he had reached a crossroads.

Farm owners Simon and Janine Hopcroft wanted him to contract milk their 1000-cow herd, while his parents, farming near Muriwai, northwest of Auckland were keen to move the farm to the next level. The Hopcrofts had been very generous to him and ran a well-oiled operation, he says.

“It was a case of choosing life in Southland or coming back here with family, friends and my future wife Jenny.”

So he returned to the 110-hectare (effective) farm his grandparents bought with his parents in the 1980s.

And over the last seven years along with his parents he’s overseen its conversion from a small scale beef operation to intensive calf rearing, which turns out up to 1000 head annually.

When his grandparents, Selwyn and Una, first arrived from Kaitaia to take advantage of better educational opportunities for their children closer to Auckland they farmed a small block at nearby Waimauku. Their son, Lyall, Tim’s father, persuaded them to buy the much

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Above: Stock on the Worrall Road leased land at Waimauku. Right: Tim Dangen moving stock on the same property.

larger farm at Muriwai but there were no boundary fences, house or water supply.

“There was another 100ha of bush on the farm which had the ability to be grazed,” Tim said.

They built up to running 500 Perendale ewes and about 100 Angus or Hereford breeding cows as they tackled development work. But with little income both Lyall and his wife Robyn worked full-time off the farm.

Lyall set up a firewood business, then ran a sawmilling operation in Swanson, west Auckland, for 20 years while Robyn returned to nursing after the birth of their five children. Along the way they also fenced off a 30ha stand of bush including large kauri in the middle of the farm as well as waterways.

Then a sudden brain tumour diagnosis saw Lyall unable to work for five years until surgery was performed.

‘It was hard on him and the farm,” Tim says.

“We kids were too young to run the farm but we got through. Mum and Dad showed inspiring resilience through this period which has rubbed off on all of us kids.”

As the only boy he was never really

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Farm facts: • • • •

Kauri Valley Farm Muriwai, northwest of Auckland 110ha effective Intensive calf rearing operation producing up to 1000 calves a year • Milking up to 40 bought-in cows through an eight-aside dairy for feeding calves • Four lease blocks at nearby Waimauku and Kaipara Flats where 150-200 heifers and steers are grazed to reach 260-300kg carcase weight. 300 yearlings are also run to be traded through peak market periods • 7ha developed each year on the home farm, planted in turnips then chicory or plantain before going into permanent pasture.

“They had a vision of what a farm can be if the balance is right between environmental, social and financial goals and I saw how much joy that can bring.”

Arriving back home he found the farm was “at a teetering point”. On the plus side there was low debt and his father didn’t employ anyone to help him out.

“But Mum and Dad had identified that something needed to change and I’ll always be thankful to them for that,” he said.

There had been five years of “unintended neglect” through his father’s illness then it took the next five years to get the farm to the state it had formerly been in.

“All three of those goals were not where we wanted them to be but we had the opportunity to turn it around,” he says.

“We needed to establish a business model so we could afford to stay here.”

Making the change pushed into farming and intended after finishing his Bachelor of Commerce with agriculture with a double major in rural valuation to head down the rural professional path.

“But Simon and Janine were inspirational people,” he says.

Knowing the answer was to intensify they opted for calf-rearing, arriving here through using what advantages the farm and location gave them. Being close to many lifestyle blocks they hoped to command a premium for their calves. They thought there was an opportunity to provide a

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May 2022

flexible service to smaller farms as well as concentrating on cutting costs.

The 40 beef cattle with calves at foot were sold and his father started work on building an eight-aside herringbone dairy. Tim helped him finish it in 2015 and they were underway for their first season.

Thirteen cows were bought along with 187 four-day-old calves from the Tuakau Saleyards, south of Auckland. The calves’ arrival on the farm is staggered over an eight-month period to maximise grass cover both on the home farm as well on four lease blocks they gradually took on at Waimauku and Kaipara Hills, further north.

With a bank loan needed to fund development work which also included

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building calf-rearing sheds cashflow was paramount.

“We knew quickly that calf-rearing was profitable and our aim was to get enough profit to cover the rest of the business.”

The Dangens took on the remainder of the development work required themselves.

They subdivided seven large paddocks to make 40 smaller ones, put in a new water supply system and embarked on fertiliser and pasture renewal plans.

“We knew it was a large workload but we’re both good at prioritising and we went for the low-hanging fruit,” Tim says.

While they ran at a loss for the first two years not covering overheads, now margins of about $900/ha have allowed them to take

on a full-time worker on the home farm and a part-time stockman on the lease blocks.

Stock numbers have built up to about 40 cows being milked, some coming from Waipu, in lower Northland as no replacements are kept. High milk production is a must so up to 15 Holstein Friesians which are F12 and above, are bought in every year. They’re not worried about somatic cell counts, and as the cows don’t need to walk far to and from the dairy udder formation and feet aren’t so important so that reduces the cost.

Their spring-born four-day-old calves are still bought at Tuakau which saw them reduce numbers by around 100 head last year due to its closure during the Auckland

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Tim by Goldies Bush River which runs through the Muriwai farm.

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Covid-19 lockdown. But up to 400 of their autumn-born calves come from one farm at Waipu.

“They’re very good calves and we’re lucky to get them.”

They will spend four weeks in the calf-rearing sheds being fed four litres of whole milk from the cows once a day from day one. That’s supplemented by some milkpowder mix fed ad lib but feeding mainly whole milk means they avoid animal health issues such as scours, Tim says.

“Coccidiosis is the biggest problem so we give all the calves a drench at four weeks then go into the usual drenching programme from 10 to 12 weeks.”

From 300 to 400 spring-born calves mainly go to lifestyle block owners, who take them in single or double numbers when they weigh 100kg. Some are sold privately and some through stock agents.

While their autumn-born weaners are sold off the home farm yearlings all go to the lease blocks with the Dangens having a fluid stocking system depending on grass availability.

“That means we can hit the markets if the prices are good,” Tim says.

“There are a lot of synergies because we can sell when there’s a lot of grass and prices are high but are still able to utilise

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Above: Cows are bought in every year to milk through the eightaside dairy on the Muriwai Farm where calves are raised before going to the lease blocks.

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our grass with the weaners coming through.”

They also make around 200 bales of baleage annually. The lease blocks are consistently stocked with 150 to 200 heifers and steers which will go off at around two years of age for the heifers and steers at 30 months.

Heifers will usually reach 260kg carcaseweight and steers 300kg before they leave. Also run on the lease blocks are 300 yearlings which are traded through peak market periods.

Boosting the average weight

Some of the bought in cows which only have to walk a short distance to the dairy.

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They are still breaking in some of their scrubby land covered in gorse and tobacco weed at a rate of about 7ha a year. After it’s cleared and cultivated a winter crop of turnips followed by a summer crop of chicory or plantain will be planted then after a dressing of nitrogen it will go into permanent pasture.

Weaners take the first graze in autumn then the milking cows will be moved on to it.

The Dangens did grow a larger area of summer crop including chicory, plantain and red clover but have now moved away from that.

“We wanted to match the feed demand

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“We can go and watch the All Blacks and then drive home. I wouldn’t trade it.” but found it more economical to largely destock before the Christmas to March period,” he said.

“There were too many variables as we can have up to 400 millimetres of rain over December, January and February or none.

Chicory’s a marvelous plant but it’s not foolproof – it needs a freshen-up.”

This year in early February there had been no rain since December 15.

Their pH levels have been boosted from 5.3 to 5.9 in some areas with the application of five tonnes/ha of lime. About 500-600kg of straight superphosphate goes on with Olsen P levels which were about seven now up to the mid 20s.

Now the farm is facing another crossroads with Tim’s youngest sister, Kaycey, in her last year at Massey High School. So plans are well underway to build a wedding venue on the farm and

rent it out along with their six-bedroom farmhouse.

“Long term we won’t stay as a large calf rearing unit,” Tim says.

So by the end of this year they aim to be running the wedding venue themselves as part of a transition plan which will gradually see its income grow as “the wedding season extends into the calfrearing season”.

A balanced city and farm life Tim Dangen enjoys an enviable work/life balance. When he finishes work for the day on his parents’ Muriwai farm he drives 35 kilometres to Hobsonville Point, one of Auckland newest suburbs, acclaimed for its future-thinking design.

He and wife Jenny, who married at the end of last year, decided it made sense for them to live halfway between their

POLLED HEREFORDS

respective jobs, as she’s a tax accountant working in the north Auckland suburb of Albany.

“We enjoy the balance of city and farm life and leaving every day makes me more motivated,” Tim says.

“We can go and watch the All Blacks and then drive home. I wouldn’t trade it.”

While he used to play rugby he now opts for summer touch and an occasional game of squash. For the third time last year he placed second in the regional finals of the Young Farmer of the Year Competition, but at 29 consoles himself he can have two more goes.

“I’m quite competitive and quite wellrounded,” he says.

“I enjoy stacking up against other young farmers.”

And this year he will get the chance to do that at the Grand Final in Whangarei on

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“We need more doers rather than finger-pointers.”

July 7, having just taken out the Northern Region title.

Despite the farm being only a 40-minute drive from the Auckland CBD in good traffic he says there are surprisingly few issues that come with being that close to a large population mass. A number of lifestyle blocks are by the top entrance to the farm but otherwise it enjoys privacy. And the proximity comes in handy when they advertise their calves on Trade Me as they command a premium because they’re so close at hand for many buyers.

There’s also a responsibility in being close to the city which sees them regularly engage with the local Waimauku School, always supporting its ag day, as well as Mt Albert Grammar. Plans are to use their planned wedding venue to host more school visits which Tim hopes may help correct the “harrowing statistics” of just 160 graduates a year completing agricultural and horticultural degrees while around 3000 opt for environmental studies.

“We need more doers rather than fingerpointers,” he says.

“We talk about the challenges facing our industry but the solution is attracting young people because they will solve them.”

Tim has recently taken out the Northern Region title for the Young Farmer of the Year Competition.

He doesn’t see so much of a rural/urban divide but says agriculture is still fighting the old stigmas of too much work and not enough pay, which is slowly changing.

“The responsibility is with all farmers to be advocates and champions of the industry,” he says.

He believes that has been corrected over the last few years as with Covid-19 more

people have had cause to reflect on who the economy’s essential workers actually are.

“The country needs to look at what we’re good at and all the support roles in agriculture need to be promoted,” he says.

“Everything taught in high school needs to be taught through the lens of food production. It starts with people already in the sector.”

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121

Options

CALF REARING

Best direction steer calves?

Kerry Dwyer samples the sales figures from Temuka saleyards to get a steer on the numbers of dairy-origin calves compared to those of beef breeds.

Table 1: Temuka saleyards numbers and average values, dairy-sourced weaner calves.

2020 - 2021

2021 - 2022

No. sold

Ave. price/head

No. sold

Ave. price/head

Weaner steers

1244

$385

533

$473

Weaner heifers

2853

$321

1802

$409

Weaner bulls

5855

$331

3675

$379

Mixed weaners

253

$289

360

$259

November 2020 – May 2021

October 2021 – March 2022

Table 2: Estimated calf rearing figures for spring 2022.

Calf rearing costs

Per calf

Calf price

$80

Cartage

$25

Calf milk replacer

$95

1 bag @ 20kg

Meal – 20% protein

$27.50

25kg @ $900/t

Meal – 16% protein

$45.00

50kg @ $750/t

Animal health

$12.00

Dehorning

$10.00

Bedding

$7.00

Housing

$7.00

Straw – feed

$12.00

Grazing

$25.00

Power, fuel, machinery

$14.00

Interest

$4.50

Losses @ 3%

$13.50

Total

$377.50

Contract sale price

???

Net profit

???

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100kgDM @ 25c/kgDM

Overdraft of $200/calf for 120 days.

3% of $450 calf

L

ast year I wrote an article on calf rearing, considering the number of dairy sourced calves sold at the Temuka saleyards in the 2020-21 season. It is interesting to do a comparison for the 2021-22 season to date.

Sourcing these figures I have used the saleyards results from Temuka over the times, noting that most of the weaner steers are beef-dairy cross, as are the weaner heifers. The bull calves are Friesians while the mixed are exactly that.

The sales to date in 2021-22 show the throughput at the Temuka saleyards is 2700 calves less than in the same time the previous season, while prices have generally risen by an average of $50/head, from $335/hd to $385/hd in 2021-22.

My estimated rearing cost, at June 2021, was $300/ hd to get a calf to 100kg liveweight so the average reared calf will have given a profit margin of maybe $85/hd.

Unless the price of a four-day-old calf is markedly different between beef calves and Friesians, bulls and heifers, then the best profit has been in the steer calves.

These figures raise several issues worth discussing further.

Sales numbers The total number of calves sold at the Temuka saleyards this season is about 25% less than the last, by 2700 head. There is no accurate gauge for the number of dairy-sourced calves reared until they hit the saleyards or slaughter.

Taking the number of bobby calves processed off the total number of calves expected to have been born is a fairly blunt tool that might be accurate to within a few 100,000 calves. By comparison the number of beef-bred calves can be fairly accurately measured by the average calves rate of the number of beef cows, which is a far smaller number than that of dairy cows in New Zealand.

Does the lower throughput mean fewer of these types of calves were reared? Or have there been more paddock sales to make up the difference? Or have they been reared and retained onfarm? As a calf-rearer I would like to know where the difference lies because it impacts my business, lack of that quality information is a major impediment to planning.

Types of calves The reduction in numbers has been spread across the three main sale types – steers, heifers and bulls, which may indicate a general reduction in calves reared.

Our calf-rearing operation has removed Friesian bull calves from the mix due to a lack of profitability compared with beef-cross calves, for obvious reasons as the figures show. It costs similar to buy and raise beef-cross calves as Friesian bull calves, with far better profit margins. The

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market pays a premium for beef-cross steers over beef-cross bull calves, of the same weight and the same breeding.

Mycoplasma bovis has reduced the movement of South Island calves to the North Island, which seems to be a major cause of the lower bull calf prices in the south. Without a census of what is shifted across the Strait it is difficult to quantify that impact, but it seems to have been enough to alter the South Island calf-rearing industry. Combined with the reduction in NZ pasture land and a general aging of farmers, bulls have become less attractive to many.

Profit margins Rearing beef-cross calves, for sale as steers and heifers, feeds into the general prime and local trade beef system, which has been going very well with record high export pricing for the last year.

A few years ago the average annual margin on finishing cattle was about $500/head/year. In the past year that has increased markedly and margins of $1000/head/year or better have been achieved. That might indicate that store cattle have been under priced to some extent on the back of a general pessimism in the covid years.

I do wonder what is going on here versus Australia.

Store cattle there are running at twice the price per kg liveweight (or more) compared to here. Their slaughter prices are higher also, but not enough to explain the relative differences to NZ. Exporting meat from NZ seems to consistently have pessimism attached to it rather than optimism.

I saw an article recently promoting rearing all dairy calves for beef, a noble ambition that may eventuate as dairy processors push to have no calves lost from the industry. To gauge the profitability of some calves we can look at what profit can be achieved on an average Jersey bull: • 550kg liveweight Jersey bull = 300kg carcaseweight • Average daily growth rate 570g/day • Sold at $5.80/kg carcaseweight at 32 months age • Consumed 7500kg DM to get to 32 months age • Sale value $1740/hd / 7500kgDM = 23c/kg DM Virtually all other beef rearing options can return better than 23c/kg DM, which puts the Jersey bull calf at a relative value of zero at 100kg LW. And that is without taking the attitude factor into account.

High milksolids pricing will have some impact on the numbers of surplus calves reared in the dairy industry, along with on-going staff shortages.

Kerry Dwyer’s calf-rearing operation doesn’t use Friesian bull calves anymore due to a lack of profitability compared with beef-cross calves.

The 2022 spring costs We have some autumn-born calves being fed milk at present, but how the pricing will work out for the spring of 2022 is not set as yet. We are seeing rampant inflation in most costs which will considerably raise our costs for the coming season.

Maybe it will look like the figures in Table 2.

• Kerry Dwyer is a North Otago farm consultant and farmer.

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Galloways are well known for their hardiness, great converters, easy calving with low weight calves and naturally polled.

KEEP A LOOK OUT FOR OUR INAUGURAL BULL SALE MID-2022

w w w. n z g a l l o w a y. c o . n z 123

SYSTEMS

LOW COST BULL BEEF SYSTEM FITS WELL When the dairy boom moved in on their inland Oamaru farms, the Harveys took a break before settling on the Herbert farm to concentrate on bulls. Story and photos by Lynda Gray.

B

ig bulls and all grass are the long and short of the Harvey family’s beef finishing story.

Over the last seven years Brent Harvey, along with his son James and wife Sue have developed an effective low cost dairy bull-based finishing system to fit the growth, soils and terrain of their North Otago dryland farm.

There are no grazing cells, winter crops and huge spending on supplements. Instead

dryland grass is grown in a holistic-type system, and up to 2000 bulls bought and finished to a target liveweight of 600kg as part of a July to pre-Christmas or January to June finishing cycle.

The Harveys buy in mostly Friesian bulls from the lower half of the South Island, selfsourcing from saleyards and onfarm, and from a network of livestock agents.

The main intake is during autumn of about 600-700 R2s averaging 380-400kgLW

which are mostly finished before Christmas.

From late July through to September there’s another intake of about 400 bulls, mostly R3 dairy bulls in the 450kgLW-plus range which are finished by January. More bulls are bought outside these times, according to seasonal conditions.

“We’re always on the lookout for bulls that meet our weight criteria,” James says.

The bulls graze diverse pastures of red, white and Persian clovers; plantain, chicory,

A lot of time is spent moving bulls to and from the yards.

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“We’re not out to max out grass growth, for us it’s more important that the bulls reach their full growth potential.” grazing brome, rape, turnips and Italian ryegrasses.

The important thing with feeding, is that the bulls are not restricted, Brent says.

“We’re not out to max out grass growth, for us it’s more important that the bulls reach their full growth potential.”

The Harveys don’t get overly hung up on measuring drymatter and grass growth rates.

However, they keep a close eye on how pastures should be shaping up at key times such as the end of August when they ideally want 1300kg DM/ha covers across the farm which is the ideal base to maximise spring pasture growth.

Another crunch time is from late December when they manage grazing to open the pastures up to encourage the growth of clover and plantain.

About 700-800 bulls in the 400-500kgLW range are wintered on saved grass and 400 bales of bought-in balage that’s fed from mid-August until spring growth starts.

By mid-September, during peak grass production, about 1200 bulls are in 25 mobs achieving average daily growth of about 2 to 3kg a day. That slows to about 1.5-2kg over the summer.

The first draft leaves about October 20.

How quickly and in what number the rest follow depends on seasonal conditions and the availability of killing space. This season about 80 a week were dispatched from the start of November, leaving 300 onfarm by mid-December.

James (left) and Brent Harvey.

Sue keeps track of inward and outwardbound cattle. She records NAIT tags and truck arrival/departure details using Xero and Figured. It’s always a work in progress and every week is different. On the week Country-Wide visited, 84 cattle were dispatched in three loads on different days by different transport companies. Over the same time 150 cattle arrived in six loads over four days.

Past, present and future At a glance: • Harvey family - Brent, Sue and son James (28) • Herbert, North Otago • 750ha (250ha freehold and 500ha leased) of easy to rolling hill country • Buy in 350kg LW-plus mostly dairy-sourced bulls from the lower South Island, finishing about 2000 a year to 600kgLW on an all-grass dryland system.

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The Harveys moved to Herbert seven years.

The move followed 25 years of mixed cropping and bull beef finishing on two partly irrigated properties at Tokarahi in the Waiareka valley, inland from Oamaru.

Brent and Sue came to a crossroads situation where they realised that the future, given ongoing irrigation development in their immediate area, was in dairying. But it wasn’t a path they wanted to go down.

“It didn’t make sense to us, it would mean selling a farm, more debt and me becoming

a dairy farmer which I didn’t want to be doing at the age of 50,” Brent says.

Instead they sold both farms – within six weeks – leaving them set up to start a new farming chapter. But finding a farm took three years during which they lived on the outskirts of Oamaru while Brent took on contracting work.

They bought the Herbert block in 2014 and Brent combined bull and steer finishing with contracting. But when neighbours Barry and Steph McMillan mentioned the leasing of their neighbouring farm the Harveys decided the time was right to grow the bull-beef business.

James was in on the discussions about taking on the lease block but went back to the United Kingdom where he was working on farms. However he returned permanently in July 2016 on getting the message from his parents that if he was serious about farming, he needed to come home.

After five years they’re still learning and refining the bull system. A difficult and

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traumatic time was Mycoplasma Bovis which struck in January 2019. It hit them hard, and they don’t want to talk about it, suffice to say it changed their finishing focus.

“We got caught out with light animals and a dropping autumn schedule… It cost us a lot and the lesson we learnt is that it’s better to concentrate on older and bigger animals because of their meat value potential,” Brent says.

M-Bovis aside, they’re pleased with what they’ve achieved.

“We’ve got the management sorted from June to Christmas, it’s the January to June period that’s difficult to nail because of the unpredictable weather patterns,” James says.

The Harveys’ system wouldn’t suit everyone given the feeding and juggling of multiple mobs in a summer dry-prone dryland system, as well as the almost daily handling, shifting, loading and unloading of big bulls. Also, adds Brent, a bull farm is never a pretty farm because there’s always a fence to fix or post to replace thanks to the testosterone-charged antics of bulls.

Typical bullish paddock behaviour is not always the case, James says, who has observed occasional random acts of kindness. A recent example was the mob of bulls who strip-grazed a paddock apart from a small area in the middle which on inspection revealed a nesting Pukeko.

Brent says they’re smart and that’s part of the attraction of farming them.

He’s always liked working with bulls and especially likes that they’re capable of piling on lots of beef.

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Above: About 80ha of new pasture is established a year.

Below: A lot of time is spent recording. Up to 300 bulls a week are weighed.

Margin traders Brent and James describe themselves simply as ‘margin traders’, which is true but understates their speculative buying and selling approach underpinned by an encyclopaedic knowledge of past, present and projected beef schedules; typical weather patterns; and bull growth rates.

They buy counter-intuitively, avoiding grass market-fueled prices waiting instead until the schedule price dips. What they pay for bulls is based on the estimated saleable meat yield, which is 52% of schedule price.

The Harveys target a $200-$400 margin, or a weekly return of $20-$25 per head grazed.

Brent’s always been a fan of recording the weights of cattle and sheep. He started out with a Donald weigh box about 30 years ago.

“We thought it was great at the time.”

As technology has moved on so has he, buying more powerful and advanced weighing systems with add-ons.

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

Recording is done on a tablet connected to a Cloud server.

Smart scales and set-up

Key points: • Low cost bull finishing system based on minimal feeding costs.

• Wintering cost is about $50 per bull.

• Focus is on finishing heavier bulls because they produce more saleable beef.

• Bulls are bought in when the schedule price is low.

• Ideal price paid for bulls is 52% of schedule price.

• The target is a weekly return of $20 - $25 per bull grazed or a $200 - $400 margin.

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Two years ago the Harveys upgraded to a Te Pari30 integrated yard, crush and scales.

They knew exactly what they were getting because they tested a prototype of the system for Te Pari. The Harveys were ideal test candidates weighing up to 300 bulls a week and only a 20-minute drive from the company’s head office in Oamaru.

The Harveys weigh all bulls off the truck and graze them in arrival mobs of 40 to 50.

They follow a five-paddock, five-to-sevenday rotation and are weighed six weekly but more regularly as they approach target weight.

In addition to weight, the basic details of breed, Nait tag number and bull vendor’s name are recorded. Target kill weights can be entered from which the number of days to slaughter is calculated based on past average growth rates. This information helps the Harveys forecast their kill plan as well as the booking of processing space and sourcing of new bulls.

The regular recording has helped single out and get rid of poor growth rate bulls sooner rather than later. It’s also helped identify health issues before they become a serious problem, a good recent example was a bull with Woody Tongue that Brent noticed because its growth rate was well below the mob average leading to closer inspection.

An add-on extra, a Te Pari dosing gun has reduced the spending on drench by more than $1300 a year. The gun is connected to the scales and calculates and dispenses drench according to the actual weight of each bull, rather than the mob average weight.

Bulls are quarantine drenched on arrival and again in spring after the first draft is sent away.

“We find that’s when we get the worm pressure, so we like to be proactive.”

They have a ‘spot drench’ policy treating those bulls in the bottom 10%.

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95

HEREFORD BULLS FOR SALE

WEDNESDAY JUNE 8th 2022 Mid/South Canterbury

THINK

LOOKING FOR

MORE LIVE CALVES ON THE GROUND,

F O R HE IFE R MATIN G

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SYSTEMS

Trees

Cedars – I was wrong

Peter Arthur has been planting trees on his Hawke’s Bay farm for 51 years and shares his wisdom.

Below: Cedrus deodara: The true cedars make fine, broad-spreading specimen trees and can reach 50m in height and 3m in diameter.

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A

BOUT 40 YEARS AGO I USED TO write a regular column for the local newspaper about interesting specimen trees to be seen in Napier and Hastings and I decided to write about one of the cedars.

There are four true cedars, the deodar (Cedrus deodara) from the Himalayas, Atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica) from Turkey, Algeria and Morocco, Cedrus libani from Mt Lebanon and Cedrus brevifolia from Cyprus.

The first two are commonly seen and easy to distinguish. The deodar has branches that hang down at the tips, the Atlas has branches that point upwards. The growing tip of young deodars can droop right over until almost parallel with the main stem and I have often seen it staked to keep the leader upright but that is not needed. The growing tip will eventually point skywards.

C. brevifolia, which is not such a tall grower, and has shorter needles, is seldom seen and the Lebanon cedar, which looks very like the Atlas cedar is also a rarity in New Zealand. Legend has it that King Solomon built his temple with Lebanon cedar, as was Noah’s Ark and the fleets of the Egyptian Pharoahs. The great stones used to build the Pyramids were rolled into place on cedar logs, and the Crusaders felled them for the construction of their palaces in the Holy Land.

The cedars are the trees most often mentioned in the bible and are frequently seen in church grounds and cemeteries.

However, I discovered A Cedrus libani in front of the Methodist Church in Hastings and was lucky to find paperwork at the church that confirmed it was in fact a Lebanon cedar and not an Atlas cedar. It is difficult to tell the difference between the two and the only certain way is with a magnifying glass.

The Atlas has needles with a minute, translucent spine at the tip. I didn’t know this trick so I relied on the church’s paperwork which

said a soldier on leave from Gallipoli climbed Mt Lebanon, collected seed and sent it back to the church gardener who successfully propagated and planted three trees, one of which was in front of the church. I duly wrote an article about it, quite confident it was a Lebanon cedar.

A week later there was a letter to the editor saying I was quite wrong. The writer said there had been a wedding at the church, someone had driven over the tree and it had been replaced with an Atlas cedar.

The Atlas and deodar cedars are both very tough conifers tolerating drought, cold, wind and snow, but not liking wet feet, salt spray or weed killers like Answer, Escort and Metsulfuron. I have killed 10 metre tall deodar trees spraying small gorse seedlings near them. It took a couple of years for the trees to die, but die they did. These sprays leach through the soil to the roots but only affect some trees. I have killed big Acacia dealbata using these sprays. I don’t use hormone sprays but I gather they can also be damaging.

The true cedars make fine, broad-spreading specimen trees and can reach 50m in height and 3m in diameter. They can live for at least 700 years. Some farm foresters have planted smallish, trial groves for timber but they will need to wait about 60 years before harvesting.

There is a blue form of the Atlas cedar, Cedrus atlantica glauca which is the one most commonly seen in parks and gardens, and a very strange weeping form, also blue, Cedrus atlantica pendula which is a grafted tree.

They produce nice, dark, spice-scented timber for cabinet making and joinery. When cut the deodar has a very nicely scented, oily sap. I cut down an 80-year-old tree for firewood, put a match to a ring I had just cut, and the sap immediately burst into flame.

Cedar wood oil can be extracted from sawdust and wood chips by steam distillation and the resulting essential oil is used in cosmetics, perfumes, soap and insect control. It has a nice smell. The Americans use juniper instead of cedar, but still call it cedar wood oil.

Europeans pronounce Cedrus as Kedrus while English use a soft C. Caesar, Kaiser, Czar and King.

There are many other trees commonly called cedars—America has the incense, western red, eastern red, the Alaskan yellow and the Port Orford cedar. Japan has the plume cedar and the Hiba cedar, but botanically none of them are true cedars. The Australians have Toona australis which is called red cedar, plus there are many other trees commonly called cedar, but botanically they are not.

If you want a tough, nice looking tree that will easily outlive you, plant a cedar. It could still be there 700 years later.

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GENETICS

PICK THE BEST PARENTS FOR PROFIT When selecting bulls, the best way to achieve genetic improvement in offspring is selection based on EBVs or an index, Dorian Garrick writes.

M

anagers tend to seek out and make changes that improve their profit. Most normal management interventions such as changing feeding levels, choosing the date the bulls go out, the date for weaning the calves, vaccinating the animals, or applying anthelmintic treatments, are done at the level of the whole herd, or at least to all the animals of a particular age class.

Farmers should always be considering management interventions that are practical, proven, and cost-effective.

This includes those that have short-term impact and others that may provide benefit over longer timeframes.

Animal phenotypes are the technical description for those characteristics that we can see or that we can measure on an animal.

Farmers like certain phenotypic outcomes such as fast growth rates, docility, easy calving, disease resistance and longevity. They do not like other phenotypic outcomes such as slow growth rates, temperamental behaviour, difficult calving, susceptibility to diseases, or failure to rebreed in a timely fashion.

Collectively, the profitability of the farming system is determined by the value of the phenotypic performance of each individual animal, summed across the value of all the products from the animals on the farm, minus all input costs.

Within any group of animals of the same age and managed in the same mob and treated alike, there will still remain significant variation. We refer to this variation as phenotypic variation. It does not include differences in performance between animals that are in different mobs.

Phenotypic variation, observed within a mob, will always

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be less than the variation observed across animals from different mobs, farms, or years.

Most management practices do not influence the variation within a mob, except for drafting outliers and providing preferential treatment to make them more alike.

This practice is commonly applied to body condition score, where fat cows are put on poorer pastures and skinny cows are provided better quality and higher feed allowance.

Genetic improvement Assuming a farmer is managing their animals in the most practical and cost-effective way, the biggest opportunity for further improvements in profitability of that farming system is through genetic improvement.

An individual animal does not exhibit genetic improvement, as its genetic merit was defined at conception and does not change over its lifetime. Genetic improvement occurs in any year when the average genetic merit of the animals that are allowed to become parents is higher than the average genetic merit of all the candidates that were available for consideration.

In a well-managed improvement scheme, the average genetic merit of every successive crop of calves is better than the average genetic merit of the previous crops. Genetic merit drives phenotypic performance in any management circumstance, and the technical term used to describe the true genetic merit is the breeding value (or BV).

An astute farmer seeking improvement in their farming system, would include consideration of genetic merit of their replacement bulls and replacement heifers, along with due consideration of all the other management practices available.

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In practice, we cannot observe the BV or true genetic merit of an animal. The most reliable approach to estimating the BV, known as the EBV, is from a wellmanaged and carefully conducted progeny test.

Since the genetic merit of the progeny of a bull (or cow) is determined by the half of the genome they inherited from their sire, plus the half of their genome they inherited from their dam, it makes sense that an aboveaverage sire assessed on hundreds or thousands of progeny from different mates, will be easily recognised as being superior.

In a large well-managed progeny test, the EBV can be simply computed as twice the average superiority of the offspring, adjusted for non-genetic factors such as contemporary group effect, date of birth, and age of dam.

The “twice” multiplier reflects the fact that offspring only inherit half of the genome of the parent.

Bull too old By the time we wait for progeny test information, a sire is typically too old to be of much interest. A bull cannot normally be used as a sire until he is a yearling, and after a 282-day gestation, the sire will be two years old when his progeny are born.

In the case of reproductive traits, it will take another two years before the daughters become mothers and can begin to be assessed for maternal traits. At best, a progeny test sire would be five years old before he can be selected from a progeny test for maternal performance and be widely used to produce commercial offspring.

"Genetic merit drives phenotypic performance in any management circumstance, and the technical term used to describe the true genetic merit is the breeding value (or BV)."

In the case of carcase traits, these can be assessed on offspring harvested about 18 months of age. So the progeny test results will be available before the sire is four years old, but typically not soon enough to be selected from progeny test results to produce commercial calves before five years of age.

Most selection therefore must take place without the most reliable source of information which comes from a progeny test.

The traditional approach for early selection was to base the EBV on performance information collected on the candidate of interest. This might sometimes be based on phenotypes for the actual trait of interest, such as calving

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Tim Coombs NZ Wide Studstock Transport

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• M: 027 248 5024 • H: 03 4897521 • E: e.strauss@xtra.co.nz

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ease, weaning weight or yearling weight, but is more commonly based on correlated traits.

In the case of carcase EBVs, the correlated traits are usually measures of muscularity or fatness obtained from real-time ultrasound machines.

The use of an animal’s own performance measures to infer or estimate its genetic merit, creates somewhat of an enigma.

This is because the genetic merit or BV causes the phenotypic performance, not vice versa. Lots of factors determine phenotypic performance, not just genetic merit.

A sire with above-average genetic merit will produce a crop of offspring that are typically above-average relative to offspring of other sires that might have been bred with the same mates. However, an individual with an aboveaverage genetic merit can exhibit below average individual performance, and an individual with below-average genetic merit can exhibit aboveaverage individual performance.

Conversely, an individual with above average phenotypic performance or appearance, might produce offspring that are below-average for that particular trait. The strength of the relationship between genetic merit and individual performance can be quite strong, for traits like gestation length or mature size, or can be quite weak for traits such as reproductive performance during first lactation.

Animal breeders refer to the strength between genetic merit and phenotype using the term “heritability”.

Using SNP chip technology Genomic information can be used to improve the accuracy of estimating the BV of young animals and is typically collected using SNP chips. Many of these chips contain about 50,000 genomic features and are therefore referred to as 50k SNP chips. Just like progeny testing, the effective use of SNP chip technology requires large databases of information on animals with phenotypic data.

Provided a DNA or tissue sample has been collected, it is a simple matter to buy genomic information on that animal to build the size of the database of animals with phenotypic and genomic information. However, it is not nearly as straightforward to buy phenotypic information.

It is not possible to go back in time and collect phenotypes other than those that were already collected. This led a colleague from Edinburgh to once remark that “in the age of genomics, phenotype is king”.

This does not mean we should use phenotype to make selection decisions regarding the likely

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Choosing the best parents, based on EBVs, can make measurable and cumulative improvements to farm profitability, Dorian Garrick says.

“It is not possible to go back in time and collect phenotypes other than those that were already collected. This led a colleague from Edinburgh to once remark that ‘in the age of genomics, phenotype is king’.”

performance of offspring of a potential sire or dam. That decision will be most accurate when it is based on EBVs, or on an economic index constructed by combining EBVs for traits that influence income or expenses.

For the commercial farmer buying bulls, genetic improvement of successive crops of offspring is best achieved by bull selection, based on EBVs or an index. For a bull breeder, selection ensures that each crop of sale bulls is better than the previous crop with respect to the offspring they produce on the farms of the bull buyers. That selection relies on the widespread collection of phenotypes comparing the relative performance of all the animals within every mob on the bull breeding unit. Those phenotypes are used along with pedigree and genomic data to generate EBVs that represent the best predictions of relative performance in the next generation.

Choosing the best animals to use as parents, based on EBVs, can make measurable and cumulative improvements to farm profitability.

• Dorian Garrick is Massey University professor of animal breeding and genetics.

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THE G SKINNY ON GENES

enetics set the potential for the upper and lower production limits an animal can achieve. Alongside animal health and nutrition, it is one of the most economically important production components of the modern beef system.

Genetic change is easy, one only has to look at the Angus New Zealand champion national sale bulls from the 1960s to the present day, to see that we can change the genetic make-up and ‘type’ of cattle we have.

The key is to make genetic improvement. Genetic improvement is about producing the best genotypes of cattle to suit a specific beef system, and importantly this genetic gain is cumulative and permanent.

So, what genetic change has the NZ beef cow herd made and are we improving?

What genetic change has the New Zealand beef cow herd made and are we improving? Amy Hoogenboom writes.

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Where we’ve come from and where we are now?

First, let’s look at some general trends of the NZ beef cow herd from a breed composition aspect. Using information from Beef + Lamb NZ’s Compendium of NZ Farm Facts (between 2010 and 2020) cattle numbers, breeding cows and heifers have remained relatively stable.

What has changed is the breed composition of the nation’s cattle population, with the percentage of straight-bred Angus increasing by 10%.

The percentage of Hereford and Angus/ Hereford cross cattle have stayed similar.

Mixed breed cattle dropped at a similar rate to that which Angus has increased.

The percentage of Friesian (in the form

of bull beef) has reduced slightly but still hovers about 20% of NZ beef cattle numbers.

Another genetic trend, possibly overlooked, is the increasing number of polled cattle within the population.

This is partly due to the change in breed composition towards a breed which is naturally polled. It is also through conscious effort by breeders to breed for the polled trait in their herd. Introducing the polled gene to a herd is one which rewards the farmer for decreased input costs in the form of reducing or removing the need for dehorning and improving the animal welfare aspects.

Focusing on the Angus and Hereford breeds, what way have the lines been trending for recorded traits of economic importance?

To find the answers I went searching for the two breed associations’ trend graphs for the various estimated breeding value (EBV) traits reported. These were less readily available than hoped, but fortunately a couple of helpful breeders were willing to share their Breedplan reports. They include the breed average genetic trend Information from the early 2000s to present day. While we cannot directly compare EBV values between breeds due to the genetic base for each breed being different, the units the traits are expressed in are the same, therefore we can compare the rate of genetic gain between breeds.

Both breeds have increased growth from 2000 to 2020, with Angus having a slightly higher rate of gain (about 0.3kg/ year) than the Hereford breed for 200-

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and 400-day weight EBV average. The carcaseweight EBV breed average has also lifted from 2000 to 2020 at a rate of 1.45kg per year for NZ Hereford and 1.15kg per year in NZ Angus cattle. As is well-documented, the high correlation of mature cow weight with growth and weight traits, means increase in growth has also resulted in an increase in mature cow weight EBVs at a rate of 0.95kg/year in Angus and 1.05kg/year in Herefords.

Premiums pushed marbling Intra-muscular fat (IMF) was the big on-trend word for the 2021 bull selling season. This was off the back of announcements from some meat companies of better premiums for carcases displaying higher eating quality attributes for which marbling was a key criterion.

Both breeds have made improvement to their IMF EBV breed averages, though Angus breeders have pursued both IMF and eye-muscle area more aggressively than Hereford breeders.

The rate of genetic gain in the Angus breed being almost double that of Hereford for these two traits. Only very small changes to external fat cover EBV averages have been made in both breeds.

When we look at birth traits and traits of maternal importance, we have already mentioned the increased mature cow weight. Milk EBV breed averages for both breeds have also increased which, depending on the production system and environment in which the cows are run may not necessarily be desirable, especially when combined with an increased mature cow weight.

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National calving percentage has remained almost stagnant at about 82% over the past 30 years.

Birthweight for both breeds has, after trending upwards in the early 2000s, come back to the same, if not slightly less than where the breeds were at in 2001.

This is most likely driven by a shift in some breeders' focus towards supplying bulls to the dairy market. The same can be said for gestation length and days to calving where downward pressure has been applied by breeders supplying the dairy industry, in turn reducing the breed average for each of these.

If we diverge from traits recorded for a moment, but to one of high maternal importance, the NZ national calving percentage (calculated as, the number of calves weaned, as a percentage of cows

mated) has remained almost stagnant at ~82% over the past 30 years.

Varying factors on each farm impact this across the three production components of genetics, nutrition, and animal health, but there is considerable potential for increased reproductive performance and efficiency of the national beef herd to be made through something as ‘simple’ as increased calving percentage. Having the genetic potential for increased growth and carcase merit is of little value if you cannot get a calf on the ground in the first instance.

In summary, we’ve made good improvements in terminal traits which have led to higher weaning weights,

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NOMINATE YOUR BULLS Beef + Lamb New Zealand Genetics is on a mission to give breeders and farmers the tools to produce great-tasting beef backed by a strong environmental story, while at the same time improving production efficiency.

The Informing New Zealand Beef programme, a joint initiative between Beef + Lamb New Zealand and the Ministry for Primary Industries’ Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures fund, is running an across-breed Beef Progeny Test as part of its programme with the aim of helping our sector meet the growing demand for high quality food produced with a lower environmental footprint.

The Dairy Beef Progeny Test, in partnership with LIC, is looking for bulls that can deliver value for both dairy farmers and dairy-beef finishers.

Coming up in June, we’ll be inviting expressions of interest for bull nominations for both the across-breed Beef Progeny Test and the Dairy Beef Progeny Test.

For more information, please visit www.blnzgenetics.com/informing-nz-beef or contact anna.boyd@blnzgenetics.com

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“Where is the sweet spot between maternal and terminal traits to realise a more efficient and profitable beef system across the whole chain?” yearling weights, and carcase weights. We’ve done a variable job on improving the traits that add value to the end product beyond carcase weight. However, we are probably falling short on improvement of key maternal traits that are becoming increasingly important with regards to more efficient production and a smaller environmental footprint.

Where are we going or where should we be heading?

One of the great challenges of the beef cattle industry is that the dollar benefit of these terminal trait improvements made by the bull buyer/cow-calf producer are very rarely seen by them, unless they are a breeder-finisher which is of low occurrence in the NZ beef system. What the cow-calf producer does experience is the increased feed cost or maintenance associated with these bigger cattle.

To widen our profit margins, we cannot always count on increasing our income, but rather decreasing our inputs. Which raises the question: where is the sweet spot between maternal and terminal traits to realise a more efficient and profitable beef system across the whole chain?

Let’s say you’ve bought an Angus bull to put over your 15-month heifers and he has a +2.0kg for BW and a CE direct of +5.0 %. For the past few years, you have not pulled calves from any

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heifers or are pulling less than 2%, do you need to keep driving those numbers up/down? When does it become detrimental to other parts of the operation?

If there are no onfarm issues with the related application of these traits you are using in your bull selection process, it is probably okay for you to keep buying at this threshold for these two traits, allowing for more selection on other traits where improvement is wanted. You can apply this same principle to other traits to help prioritise selection decisions.

If we wish to improve the efficiency of the beef cow herd population, undoubtedly some changes in the slope of these genetic trend lines are needed.

Adding another 10kg to mature cow weight over the next 10 years will not improve efficiency of the beef system from any standpoint, most particularly at the cow-calf producer level where it is most needed, nor is it likely to stand the scrutiny of beef production's impact on the environment. What traits are we not recording for and giving adequate attention to that with small change could make significant improvement to the efficiency of beef production?

The modern beef cow herd needs to be a low-cost calf factory that produces an end product that meets market demand.

• Amy Hoogenboom is a veterinarian and Zoetis beef genetics area manager.

New Zealand Angus National Sale Bull Champions 1968, 1992 and 2018

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GENETICS

Numbers

Horses I for courses

Sharl Liebergreen goes by the numbers to improve beef genetics.

’m a numbers guy, mostly. Creating, analysing, understanding and using numbers is how I help farmers who are trying to improve the genetics of their animals, or plants. Farmers ask me to look at the numbers because they are busy people, and they are short on time.

Farmers definitely want to use the numbers (after all, they invested time and money to generate them) but they have a multitude of other things to do besides looking at data. So that’s how I help.

I use the word ‘mostly’ above because us number guys and gals have to be careful we aren’t only about the numbers. Appreciate that bulls, for example, are living, breathing beasts that look a certain way and need to be able to do a job.

The trouble with the numbers, which often tell a great story about the potential of a bull’s ability to do the job, is that they are not the whole picture. I don’t know for example whether the bull is big or small, fat or thin, wide or narrow or whether it’s easily excitable. There are plenty of things my numbers don’t tell me, and if I also allow for variation in farms and farmers, then it’s a complete wonder I’m able to offer any support at all.

Not all farmers are looking for the very best in beef genetics. Many are just looking for a good bull that meets their needs (produces calves) and can be managed through most conditions (dry and wet).

Some farmers are definitely looking for something special in a bull like fast growth, feed efficiency, intramuscular fat and high carcaseweight. But many just want something that’s easy-care, won’t cause calving difficulty, and may even put up with some rather lacklustre management and feed, but still turn up for mating next season.

New Zealand goes up and down on the globe, covering a number of degrees of latitude. This means it’s colder in the south and can be sub-tropical in the north. We also have plenty of mountains and a few lakes which means there are a bunch of microclimates scattered throughout the land.

The amount of pastoral land or number of farms able to reliably support high-performing genetics could be quite high, but we have a bell-curve of management to contend with.

There are high performing farmers who monitor and plan and are able to feed well. And there are farmers with farms who are constrained, that can’t always produce as much feed as they would like to. Their soil types might be less than desirable; their pastures might be difficult to

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...a racehorse performs best on a racecourse to which it is specifically suited. If you don’t have or can’t create the conditions needed for highperforming beef genetics to express and excel, then don’t buy a super-sire. renew. There are plenty of situations where bulls with big numbers are unlikely to receive what they need to be able to express their genetic potential.

Grass can be the same. It would be great if all the farms in the country were able to sow, grow and fully utilise the latest in pasture species. Wouldn’t that be exciting. The reality is that we have topographies, climates and aspects that continue to be sown in traditional ryegrass cultivars like Moata or Tama ryegrass and they are doing fine.

I guess what I’m saying is that it’s ‘horses for courses’, or the fact that a racehorse performs best on a racecourse to which it is specifically suited. If you don’t have or can’t

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create the conditions needed for high-performing beef genetics to express and excel, then don’t buy a super-sire.

Think carefully about what your farm is capable of and perhaps more importantly, what you are capable of. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for making the most of genetics to create more profit. But it is all about producing calves that will grow out and finish within the constraints they are presented with. As a numbers guy, the last thing I want to hear about are stories of disappointment when the big guy didn’t produce the goods.

Talk to your breeder. Breeders are the consummate experts in being able to scan the horizon for genetic opportunities, deciding whether or not they will suit a market, and delicately asking farmers about their farms and abilities. Breeders are in the business of maintaining great relationships and having repeat business. They’re on your bench, so use them.

• Sharl Liebergreen is an agribusiness consultant with AbacusBio.

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Inherit Select full page

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GENETICS

Report

difference in the price between autumn and spring calves.

Dairy farmers producing high quality calves often felt frustrated with variable and inconsistent demand from beef finishers.

Bobby calf policies - a reason to change

When used across dairy cows, superior beef genetics can improve gross margins for finishers and improve feed conversion efficiency.

Superior genetics add $211/ha

R

esults from the Beef + Lamb Genetics’ dairy beef progeny trial (DBPT) builds a compelling case for dairy farmers to use high genetic merit beef bulls across their herds. But how does this benefit finishers?

A recent report summarised the findings of a whole-farm modelling process where the progeny of the highest ranked beef bulls from the trial were compared with the progeny of average bulls.

These showed a 15% growth advantage at 400 and 600-days compared to the average bulls. This would improve gross margin returns by between $172 and $211/ha and improve feed conversion efficiency by 10%.

This in turn would reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The report, by farm consultant Bob Thompson, says modelling demonstrated that when the top 10-15% trial bulls for marbling (intramuscular fat) were compared with the average trial bulls there was a 20% improvement. This correlated with an increase in the strike rate with beef quality supply programmes, although with a price premium of 30c/kg carcaseweight (CW), this only increased the gross margin by another $22/ha.

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The modelling also compared one and two winter finishing policies and highlighted clear advantages and disadvantages to both. The ranking of DBPT bulls did not change between the two policies.

Compared to the two-winter, the onewinter system occupied one third less land area with 15% more feed conversion efficiencies.

The disadvantage was in lighter carcaseweights (160-220kg CW) when processed between November and February.

These weights were outside targeted beef grading and associated payment schedules.

Building a connection The report noted a disconnect between dairy farmers and beef finishers and the advantages for both parties to address this.

Working with a dairy farmer who is investing in superior beef genetics gives the finisher the opportunity to benefit from significantly improved growth rates and carcase attributes.

This disconnect has come about because finishers tend to prefer to buy dairy-beef weaners in autumn rather than rear them over summer. In drought years, there is little

Dairy farmers will likely be faced with a no bobby calf kill policy within the next few years and will either have to produce calves that have value as a beef finishing animal or reduce cow numbers to accommodate the rearing of surplus calves.

“Either way, the value of the surplus calves can be raised significantly by dairy farmers utilising high genetic merit beef bulls over the dairy cows which are not required to generate their dairy replacements.”

The high genetic merit beef bulls identified in the DBPT are proven performers and their genetics are only available in commercial quantities through artificial insemination.

Analysis has shown that the actual cost of beef AI in dairy herds is slightly less than natural mating and generated many more advantages. These included shorter gestation length, proven easy calving and calves which will grow faster and to heavier weights for finishers.

There was also better biosecurity and work safety associated with AI.

Dairy beef progeny test The purpose of the DBPT, which began in 2015, was to identify high genetic merit beef bulls that would benefit both dairy and beef farmers. Over the course of the programme, detailed and comprehensive phenotypic data has and continues to be collected, analysed and reported for a range of traits including gestation length, calving ease, growth rates, carcaseweight and carcase quality.

The trial includes a number of beef breeds with around 20 new bulls being progeny tested every year. The most up-to-date report showed the top five bulls ranked on carcase weight represented five different breeds.

The weights of all the calves are recorded at 200, 400 and 600 days.

Calves are run in four groups after weaning (two groups of heifers and two groups of steers) for finishing and are DNAverified to Progeny Test sires.

• Supplied by Beef + Lamb NZ

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PRODUCTION

ON FA R M

HOOKED ON STUD BREEDING Max Tweedie was just 21 when he founded Hallmark Angus Stud and after buying the Waiterenui herd recently. He’s set to have one of the largest recorded Angus herds in the country. By Rebecca Greaves. Photos by John Cowpland.

M

ax got his first stud cattle at the age of 18, and he was quickly hooked after selling a bull to a stud breeder for $22,000 when he was still a teenager.

In hindsight, Max, 28, says the result was a total fluke, but it whet his appetite for breeding cattle – and it paid for his OE. Max’s passion for cattle oozes out of his pores and his enthusiasm is unbounded when talking about his favourite subject, fostered by a long family history of breeding (he is a fourth-generation breeder).

He counts himself lucky to have the opportunity to farm on his own account, alongside fiancee Lucy McLean, at a young age.

“I’m farming the farm I grew up on, it’s buzzy. We have been able to make our own mark on it, which is a cool feeling.”

Max got the bug for farming from an early age, but an interest in breeding took longer to develop, despite his grandfather, the late John Bayly, being a respected breeder. “As a kid we’d go there at Christmas and help him shift the bulls, but it didn’t mean much to me then.”

It was when he went along to Future Beef and took part in the hoof and hook competition his interest was piqued.

“I got totally hooked on the beef cattle side. Breaking in and presenting a steer, leading it through the ring and then getting into judging and stock skills.”

Through Future Beef and the Angus Association, Max travelled around the world, including the United States,

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the United Kingdom and Australia.

It’s been his goal to learn as much about beef cattle as he can.

“I’ve always been thirsty for knowledge and, if I’m interested in something, I tend to go full hog on it.”

At the age of 18 he got his first stud cattle after flushing a cow that belonged to his grandfather, breeding four calves.

“I absolutely fluked it.”

He was in his third year at Lincoln University and put them in the Gisborne Combined Angus sale where his grandfather had always sold his cattle. ‘‘I sold one to a breeder from Southland for $22,000 and I thought ‘oh, this is easy.”

It took him another 10 years to sell a bull to a stud.

Max says the experience taught him a lot, particularly the importance of investing in the right animal. The cow he flushed was magnificent; sound, with an excellent maternal background, genetic merit and she looked the part. Those principles have formed the basis of Max’s approach to breeding ever since.

“That day I said, ‘yea, this is me, this is what I want to do’.”

Given his family history, Angus was the obvious choice for Max. Maternally, Angus ticked all the boxes for him as the best allrounder.

Max’s ultimate goal is simple, he just wants to be a good farmer. To be a good commercial farmer and have good genetics, producing cattle people want, is the aim.

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Fourth generation breeder Max Tweedie has a passion for beef cattle and, along with fiance Lucy McLean, has recently taken over ownership of the Tutira farm he grew up on.

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The Tutira farm, in Hawke’s Bay, is medium to steep hill country, with light, free-draining soil.

Genetics to the fore The visual aspect of an animal is important to Max, but he’s also developed a keen interest in genetics.

After his OE he spent six months studying at the University of New England in Armidale, Australia, a place he describes as the mecca for animal breeding. He was fascinated by genetic evaluation and successfully applied for a job with Beef + Lamb Genetics.

The role initially involved measuring animals and turning the data into information for farmers, but he soon moved into an extension role and ran the national beef programme in genetics, including the progeny test that involved 2200 commercial beef cows across six properties using AI. He was able to leverage some of the relationships he had formed in Australia to kick-start a Trans-Tasman maternal project.

While working for B+L Genetics he founded Hallmark Angus Stud, paying his father a market rate grazing fee to run the animals on their family farm.

Max knew it needed to be market rate, as that was an opportunity cost to his father, and also to be fair to his sisters.

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Farm facts: • Max Tweedie and Lucy McLean • Tutira, Northern Hawke’s Bay • 800 hectares (720 eff) Mokara (home farm) and Pa Hill • Two years of farm ownership • First financial year GFI $1100/ha • FWE 68%, high development • High annual rainfall area, about 1250mm • Pumice and Taupo ash, light freedraining soil • Medium to steep hill country, no cash cropping.

It wasn’t a handout.

“The prover for dad and I was, although it’s high input and costs, we have been able to keep the stud profitable after the first year. To do it within a sheep system was key.”

After five years with B+L he returned home and worked for his dad for several years.

Max says this would have continued longer but, sadly, his mum was diagnosed with terminal cancer and the family

completed farm succession early.

“Nine months later mum died. We were very lucky we had multiple blocks so now my sisters have a block, and Lucy and I have a block.

“Dad was always of the mindset that before you get tired and old you should have a crack, and he just backed us. We do have significant debt now but that’s the exciting part of farming. It’s very motivating.”

Ownership at a young age provides the opportunity to pay off debt, and to grow.

Max is keen to grow his operation, the key driver being his dream of transitioning away from commercial cows and focusing on breeding bulls, because that’s what gets him out of bed in the morning.

And his dream is about to be realised with buying the Waiterenui herd from Will and Viv McFarlane.

Establishing the farm system Max and Lucy have nearly completed their second full year of farm ownership. They have invested heavily in setting the farm up for an onfarm bull sale, as well as moving an old farmhouse on for them to live in.

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This enabled them to employ a staff member.

For these reasons, farm working expenses (FWE) were high in year one, at 68%. Max says they are tracking for 55% this year, which is still a touch high, but the reality of stud farming and the rising cost of inputs.

The high FWE are down to the extra labour and costs associated with stud breeding, and initial outlay to establish and improve facilities to enable an onfarm sale, including a purposebuilt selling complex, as well as shifting the extra house on.

“I got totally hooked on the beef cattle side. Breaking in and presenting a steer, leading it through the ring and then getting into judging and stock skills.”

In their first financial year they recorded gross farm revenue of $1100/ha and an economic farm surplus of $300/ha. Max had hoped for a much better surplus result, but that came down to the higher FWE. The stud may be his passion, but Max believes it is important to maintain a commercial side to his operation, and sheep underpin his entire business.

Max says the light, free-draining soils on the farm lend themselves well to cattle, though there is minimal area suitable for cultivation.

The pumice soil doesn’t respond well to harrowing and tillage, so they direct drill.

Max’s dream of transitioning away from commercial cows and focusing on breeding bulls is about to be realised with the purchase of the Waiterenui herd from Will and Viv McFarlane.

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Max and Lucy with their dog, Maisey.

Kale crops are used in winter for commercial cows and then put into new grass, which is used for finishing lambs and bulls. Max has found Mohaka hybrid ryegrass gives him good persistence and performance. When it runs out after three to four years, it goes back into kale.

The sheep system is simple, solely terminal, and Max says they couldn’t operate without sheep.

All 2100 ewes go to a Suftex ram on March 10 and their two-year lambing average is 163%, giving them about 3500 lambs, all of which are finished. They kill about 30% of lambs off mum, a number Max hopes to lift.

They buy his father’s five-year ewes (from a different farm) annually and, although they do have an older flock, this works well and they are able to get lambs away fairly quickly.

“I really love the sheep and enjoy that side of it. I get a kick out of fattening lambs. It’s fun and I also think it’s important to maintain our relevance there with clients.”

Sheep are set stocked in lambing country

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Angus cattle tick all the boxes for Max, maternally, as the best all rounder.

and, post lambing, are spread out through the calving country, a great tool to combat worm burden.

Cattle numbers are at 230 commercial cows and 170 stud cows, but as the Waiterenui herd comes on they will transition out of the commercial cattle.

“You could say we are a bit cattle-heavy.

We do the weaner fair thing, I love that, there’s a bit of an art to it.”

He has put a Simmental bull to a B mob in the past, saying it keeps him honest and ensures they put the best cows to the best bulls, commercially. This year they topped

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the weaner fair at Stortford Lodge on price per kg and British bred price per head, with $3.90/kg for 256kg calves.

Opting for onfarm sales Hallmark Angus was founded in 2015 and 2022 marks their seventh annual two-yearold bull sale. Forty-five bulls will be sold at their onfarm sale in the second week of June.

Last year was their first onfarm sale, with the first five sales held at Stortford Lodge saleyards. They hosted over 300 people for the 2021 sale, achieving a top price of

$48,000 and an average of $9632.

Max’s approach to breeding is a combination of the visual appeal, how an animal moves and its soundness, and his time spent studying genetics and evaluation means he balances the presentation with an objective eye.

“It’s more of an art than a science. I think successful breeding programmes combine the soundness and functionality component with that science. They understand their clients’ needs and are driven to create a product that suits those needs.”

Max believes everything starts with the

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cow. He is focused on where the cow will be, with changing land use (particularly forestry and carbon) meaning cows are pushed further into marginal country. Given sheep are more profitable and the cow has to pave the way for other stock classes, it’s all about maternal performance.

He says tools to improve maternal performance are poor and the EBVs to describe the cow are not good enough and need improvement. To make any real progress on beef cow maternal performance, more description and information is need.

“My goal is to ensure the cow is functional, and weans a calf early every year for years on end.”

Max is less-focused on the carcase component at this stage.

He wants females that become excellent replacements and calves that have a downstream value for the people who finish them.

Max sees the cow of the future being an efficient, moderate-sized animal with a high value calf.

This is why his ears perked up at the opportunity to buy the Waiterenui herd, which he considers to be the pre-eminent maternal herd in the country.

Sale two-years of planning Will McFarlane had indicated he was considering retirement and his children, although keen farmers, were not keen to continue the stud, which has a 108-year history. Max approached Will and, after two years of planning, they came to an agreement.

In early April 330 mixed age cows from the Waiterenui herd moved to Tutira. Will is set to continue as a mentor to Max, helping guide breeding decisions and working with clients.

A tribute to Max’s late mum, Rose. The photo is of Max and Lucy’s great Grandfathers - they had a comedy war relief skit show together in Hastings during the war, and raised money.

Stock • • • • •

About 7500 stock units wintered 2100 Romney breeding ewes 230 commercial cows 170 stud cows Supporting stock

Max says Will thrashed his cattle and there are few herds that have had that kind of environmental challenge, years of drought in a highly summer-dry hill country environment.

“The stock shift so well, we have had cows and bulls from there and they always come to the top.”

Max always admired that, and their maternal qualities.

They will have more to eat at their farm but will have to climb more for it.

“It’s going to be great, population genetics, big mobs, more pressure, more to choose from – the survival of the fittest idea has more relevance. “ It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I’m so lucky to buy those cows.”

He praised the McFarlane family and their contribution to the beef cattle industry.

Waiterenui has been the seed for so many of the herds today. Three generations of stud masters have all heavily influenced the industry. The influence of their sires has been enormous and the Waiterenui cows have always been a feature.

They want to make it long-term.

“Bull breeding is a 40-year game, if you do it right.”

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PRODUCTION

Onfarm

Jeremy Kemp says quick growth from weaning is critical to the success of his beef finishing operation on the summerdry property at Rere. These rising two-year in-calf heifers are part of the herd of around 250 mostly Simmentals.

KEEPING F THE BULLS GROWING A target of a full Simmental herd is in the offing for the Kemps on their East Coast summer dry farm north of Gisborne. By Tony Leggett. Photos by Louise Savage.

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ast early weight gain is vital to mitigate the risks from dry summer conditions for East Coast farmers Jeremy and Georgina Kemp.

The couple farm Pouriwai, 1025ha at Rere, 40km north of Gisborne, where droughts can hit anytime from late spring to the end of the summer.

Their systems for beef and lamb production are tuned to maximise early weight gain so stock can be slaughtered if pasture growth evaporates.

Their mixed-age cow herd of 230 head plus replacements is approaching full Simmental.

This after the opportunity came up to buy a large number of commercial cows from nearby Gold Creek Simmental herd. They are also made a decision to breed back to Simmental after introducing Angus and Hereford-Friesian genetics several years ago.

“We’ve got about another two or three years left to breed back to a full Simmental herd and the plan is to increase the herd size to about 270 cows over that time,” Jeremy says.

Their herd includes cows from the now deregistered Pouriwai Charolais and Simmental

studs set up by Jeremy’s father Gerald, now semi-retired and living near Gisborne.

A small number of herd bulls are sold to nearby farms and former Pouriwai stud clients, but the majority of male calves are left entire and finished to an average liveweight at slaughter between 630-640kg, mostly within 12-14 months of weaning.

Male calves typically wean at an average of about 280kg LW. They are sorted into groups of about 20 head each and usually spend up to the next 12 months on a five-seven-day rotation around 15-20ha of the farm’s 100ha of easier country.

A small amount of back-up balage is bought in to top up during any feed pinches but the farm has a reliable early August start to growing spring grass and the bulls (stocked at 1.6/ha) often graze their paddocks among ewes and lambs or weaned lambs.

“In a growthy spring, we will bring in mobs of cows to clean up paddocks so the bulls get moved out the way for a while as the cows come through.”

Depending on pasture growth and the season, the first of the bulls slaughtered usually average 660kg - an impressive 1+kg/

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Rising-two-year, in-calf heifers, bred mostly from bulls from Gold Creek Simmentals, are mated to low birthweight bulls to reduce calving issues.

day weight gain from weaning on pasture – and the aim is to get 50% killed by the end of January.

The heaviest four or five bulls from each mob are selected for slaughter, making room for another group to emerge at the top a few weeks later.

Jeremy says keeping the bulls growing right through the winter creates options if the season turns dry in spring or summer.

“We used to be hard on the commercial cattle through the winter and they would lose a bit of weight, and then we’d have a dry summer and it was always a battle to get them up to good weights for slaughter.

“I’ve found keeping fat on your cull cattle certainly increases the ability to get them to the weights we target with good yields.”

He is also content with running heavier breeding cows, because of their capacity to reliably wean heavy calves.

Cattle struggle in January heat “The Simmental breed type is also different now. They are a lot more feminine these days, so fertility is very good and mature cow size has come back a bit.”

“I don’t mind having a big cow. We’ve had more bad years than good years and I like to know that I can get bulls through to

Farm facts • Rere, 40km north of Gisborne • Annual 900mm • Clay on steep country, light pumice soils on easy country, silt loams on flats • Total: 1026ha (930ha effective) • Flat: 18ha • Easy: 85ha (less than 30ha tractor country)

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• Medium: 240ha • Steep: 561ha • Balance: Forestry 21ha; waste 51ha (native bush 21ha, 29ha erosion control) • 11.6ha average paddock size, post/wire, electrified • 125m at house, 413m at trig on highest point

January and they will be over 300kg on the hook when slaughtered,” he says.

“We get hot here in January and February and cattle struggle to add weight and then the cull dairy cow kill kicks in and the schedule can come back. That’s why having our bulls up to good weights before the end of year means we have options to hold or go early depending on feed and schedule.”

Other reasons to add more cattle is a looming battle with drench resistance in the sheep operation and a reduction to one full-time staff member after long-time stock manager Duncan Macpherson passed away.

A logging company is also part-way through logging a large area of trees on the farm, meaning about a 20% of the farm has been opened up for access to remove the logs.

To maintain the winter stocking rate of 8.7 stock units/ha, an increase in cow numbers and more short-term cattle trading is likely.

The Kemps are mindful of the risks of carrying more, heavy cows through the winter and the impact on soil structure if it turns wet. However, they are confident the combination of 20% more cows and a likely

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heifer trade when seasons allow will be a comfortable compromise for fewer capital stock ewes.

“Heifers suit our operation better than trading steers, I think. The beauty of having the bulls away nice and early is that we can hold heifers on for longer if feed allows to target the export market.”

Margins vary depending on the option chosen for trade cattle, but the aim is to buy and take through to slaughter each time.

“As soon as I hit August, I know we’ll start to grow grass so the aim is to get any trade cattle in late June or July.”

Until this year, all the cattle were slaughtered through Greenlea Meats in Hamilton. But tightening space for East Coast cattle means the Kemps have switched to killing stock through Silver Fern Farms’ Hawke’s Bay plant.

“We always found Greenlea was ahead of the other companies on price by up to 20c/ kg, but they are getting plenty of cattle from the Waikato region now, and it’s harder to get space” Jeremy says.

Livestock

Mating dates:

• • • • • •

• Heifers: October 10 • MA cows: October 20 • Bull removal date: December 10-15

June 1: 8.7su/ha MA Cows: 248 R2 heifers: 75 R1 heifers:126 R2 bulls: 124 Ewes: 4000 (mated to terminal)

Calving past 5 years • MA cow 90% + ave • R2 heifers 80% + ave

Jeremy and Georgina Kemp with children Ophelia, Digby and Beetham, on their farm at Rere north of Gisborne. Below: A small number of herd sires are sold to local farms from their now unregistered Pouriwai Simmental and Charolais stud herds.

These rising two-year bulls will be sold in the coming months.

In the past few years, their ewe flock of 4000 has been mated entirely to terminal sires (Hampshires and Poll Dorsets) to boost their chance of getting lambs away at their target carcase weights (minimum 16.5kg) before drier weather sets in in mid-November.

Mixed age ewes start lambing from August 12 and the aim is to achieve 40% of lambs killed prime at weaning 100 days later.

The remaining lambs graze the farm’s easier country and crops over the following months before slaughter at 18kg. Depending on seasonal conditions, the Kemps will buy in store lambs to finish.

This tupping, the Kemps have returned to using maternal rams in about 35% of the ewe flock after struggling to find suitable replacement two-tooths with the extra bone and structure they prefer, along with facial eczema tolerance. This will increase to 60% next year, reducing the impact on drench resistance from bought-in stock.

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PRODUCTION

Hill country

Angus-Hereford cows are hardy enough to handle steep hill contour while producing good calves.

Cow K power rules

Angus or AngusHereford cows are the stock of choice on Paparata Station, Mike Bland writes.

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ing Country farmer Trevor Johnson has always been an enthusiastic advocate for beef cows on hill-country.

With wife Trish he owns Paparata Station, an operation that farms 65,000 stock units on 7100-hectares effective in the Tokirima and Ohura districts.

“The nature of the contour here means it’s difficult to subdivide, so it’s hard to maintain pasture quality. But the cows have the ability to turn spring pasture growth into winter feed by carrying surplus condition into winter.”

Trevor says feed that’s not utilised during the November/December period ends up as poor quality pasture that has to be removed in autumn and winter.

“Cows will clean up this low quality feed, and they can take a knock if things get tight without sacrificing a lot of production.”

The Johnsons’ business spans four blocks – 2420ha Paparata, 1400ha Tokirima, 1730ha Heao and 1550ha Te Moata. Stock farmed by the Paparata Group includes 30,000 Romney ewes and in-lamb ewe hoggets, 2700 cows, 2200 R1 cattle and 500 R2 steers.

The beef herd on recently-acquired Te Moata is largely Angus, and the other farms carry mostly Angus-Hereford cows.

Trevor, who was raised on the Tokirima block, says beef cows are crucial to the success of the operation.

The Paparata Group runs a 55:45 sheep to cattle ratio, which means Paparata farms are probably carrying higher cattle numbers than other similar properties in the region.

“But for us that’s an ideal ratio to maintain pasture quality. It’s easy to justify a high cattle ratio because it lifts our sheep production. The beef cows complement our sheep.”

Cows were used as a development tool initially, breaking in country that was previously covered in ringfern. Cow numbers have increased steadily since 1998.

“During the 1990s we experimented with reducing beef cow numbers and increasing the number of dry cattle. We bought reared calves, but the end result was that using dry cattle to clean up hills was expensive. Liveweight losses had to be rebuilt and this meant stock was effectively grazed for no return. The delay in getting them to market weights came at a financial cost and the venture didn’t prove worthwhile.

“The difference between breeding cows and drystock is that the cows have the ability to consume that extra feed in late spring and put

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Paparata owner Trevor Johnson says beef cows are crucial to the success of the operation.

Farm facts: • Paparata Station, King Country • Farming four blocks totalling 7100ha effective • Mainly hill-country • Breeding and finishing • 45:55 sheep to cattle ratio

weight on their backs. In winter we can use them to tidy up surplus growth and improve pasture quality, but if things get tight they can lose 50kg of liveweight without any problems further down the track. There’s usually no financial cost in doing this because they recover that weight loss in spring, prior to mating.”

Friesian bulls used

‘For us that’s an ideal ratio (55:45) to maintain pasture quality. It’s easy to justify a high cattle ratio because it lifts our sheep production.

The beef cows complement our sheep.’

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In the 1990s Trevor and his management team introduced a recording and tagging system to identify top producing cows and sires. Friesian bulls were used over Angus-Hereford cows and production increased due to better genetics and the benefits of hybrid vigour from the three-way cross.

But over the past 10 years the station has gone back to Angus-Hereford. Trevor says while the milking ability of the Friesian was beneficial, Friesian-cross cows were harder to manage through winter.

“They were producing too much milk, their udders were getting too big and their progeny were harder to sell.”

He believes the mix of two traditional beef breeds provides the perfect combination for hill- country conditions.

“We are still getting a 15-16% gain from hybrid vigour, and the main advantages of the beef-sired animals are their hardiness and their ability to increase liveweight over the springsummer period.”

All calves are tagged at birth – Herefords with a blue tag and Angus with yellow. Blue-tagged cows and heifers are mated to Angus sires and the yellow tags go to a Hereford.

Paparata buys about 30 bulls annually.

Angus sires are sourced from the Stokman and Waitangi studs and Herefords come from Craigmore and Kokonga.

Trevor and his team look for easy-calving bulls that provide high growth rates.

“We don’t want a high birth-weight because we are calving cows in the hills. So we look for Angus bulls with a birth-weight EBV of between three and five, and a 600-day growth-rate of 110 or higher. For the Herefords we want a birth-weight EBV of four to five and a 600-day growth-rate of 70 or over.”

Paparata sells about 2200 cattle a year – about half steers and the rest cows and heifers.

Surplus progeny are finished or sold store. Steers are sold as yearlings in December or carried through to two years of age and finished at 310330kg carcaseweight (CW).

As part of a strategy designed to counter increasingly dry summers, fewer steers will be finished in future.

Trevor says annual rainfall has fallen below 1300mm during the last three years.

“At the moment we are looking to sell over half of the steers as yearlings and that will help take the pressure off the farm in summer.”

All heifers are mated at a minimum of 300kg and surplus heifers are sold in NovemberDecember.

While the cattle are regarded as vital for maintaining pasture quality on Paparata’s steep hills, one of the disadvantages of carrying large numbers of breeding cows on heavy mudstone soils is the amount of pugging damage in winter.

Trevor says management has changed to reduce pressure on the hills.

In the past, mobs of 200-plus cows have been rotationally grazed around the hills, but mob stocking is now avoided wherever possible.

Prior to calving, cows are instead set-stocked with the ewes in the hills at about one cow every two hectares. They calve in November.

More on Paparata’s Te Moata Station in Country-Wide June.

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RESEARCH

W

elcome to my imaginary best in beef research awards, an entirely arbitrary celebration of the best beefy science published over the past year. I am in isolation as a household contact of the much anticipated Covid-19 virus. This is my coping mechanism and, once again, welcome to it.

In the interests of time, we ask you to withhold clapping (or slapping) until the end of the ceremony.

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THE FOOD PACKAGING ‘BEST USE OF WATERMELON STATISTICS’ AWARD It’s serious science, but there is a cartoon watermelon and beetroot in the abstract of this paper1 from Gansu Agricultural University in China. Yup, these authors were definitely playing my song!

Did you know China is the world’s largest watermelon producer? Or that Beijing alone produces 10,000 tonnes of waste watermelon rinds a day? Or the cost of pectin (yes that stuff Nana used to make jam) is getting out of hand for food manufacturers? You do now.

And how does this all fit together?

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“The hunt is on for sustainable “active packaging”- that is packaging that not only contains the meat, but puts in the hard yards controlling or measuring the chemistry of beef. ” Well it’s simple. This ingenious team used watermelon rind to make pectin and combined that pectin with beetroot extract. Bing, bang, bong. You’ve got yourself a biodegradable, non-toxic disk that sits in with your packaged beef.

This clever disc acts as a pH indicator and tells you (through a change in colour) if there has been a breakdown in the cold storage of your chilled beef. A win for food safety and for consumer trust when buying highend chilled beef.

As a plus, your Nana would probably be able to replicate the very well written (and not at all scary) process they used to make the melon give up its pectin.

There were other notable papers on beef packaging.

Scientists are putting the pedal to the metal to address consumer concerns about the origin and safety of food packaging. The hunt is on for sustainable “active packaging”- that is packaging that not only contains the meat, but puts in the hard yards controlling or measuring the chemistry of beef.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS: All the research teams making antimicrobial coatings out of, among other things, chitosan (from prawn shells), agar (seaweed) and essential oils.

THE FOOD SCIENCE ‘BEST COPRODUCTS RECIPE’ AWARD Want to know how to get the elderly to eat more beef rolls? The best spices to put in your pepper soup beef hides? Wanna make a surimi-like substance out of spleens? The food scientists have got you covered.

Our committee thought long and hard about which off-piste beef they would most like to partake in.

It was definitely the garlic marinated beef hides2 from the University of Dschang-Cameroon.

But, ultimately the prize belonged to the team from New Zealand’s own Lincoln University3 who are turning beef lungs into protein supplements. Lungs are usually rendered as they are prone to contamination. On top of that, they look creepy as all hell, even to your pet.

Processing them into a powder yields a nutritious,

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safe protein powder that is rich in iron, copper and magnesium. It has the makings of an affordable health supplement. The authors are able to tell us what it looks and feels like when added to semolina dough, but no word yet if anyone took a bite.

THE SOCIAL SCIENCE ‘BEST USE OF TWITTER’ AWARD Like the rest of us, the data scientists have been poring over social media trying to work out what on earth is going on.

Twitter is a popular platform to study, perhaps because it is the wild west of public interactions.

Got a half-baked opinion on something? Hold the line while Twitter finds a thousand perfect strangers to tell you how wrong it is. Got a cute picture of your cat, mmm okay, let’s show that to two coworkers and a B-list celebrity.

Twitter is obviously bonkers, but it is nice to have some scientific proof. Our winners dish up a 25-page analysis4 of twitter interactions following the 2019 IPCC report on land.

The Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) released a very carefully worded report (and their own Twitter tweets) about land use. They explicitly stated that they were not there to recommend people’s diets. Perhaps because they anticipated (correctly) how poorly people respond to being told what to eat. They also mentioned that it would be great if people could waste less food and that animal-sourced food is all right by them if produced sustainably. Then they brushed off their hands and considered the job done.

But, my friends, that is not how Twitter works. Our winners analysed over 27,000 Twitter posts that were part of the extensive social media debate that ensued.

To make their job a little easier, 76% of these posts were discarded because they were copy-paste retweets or inane posts from parasitic robots.

The remaining posts were analysed for “toxicity” ranging from neutral discourse to out-and-out hate speech. For any farmer who has ventured on to social media, it will be little surprise to hear that the topic of meat-eating was particularly venomous - its toxicity

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ratings a narrow second place to a discussion about whether or not the IPCC is a scam. But the IPCC didn’t make any recommendations about meat eating? Doesn’t matter.

One side of Twitter thought the IPCC was telling them to quit meat and was angry about the IPCC pandering to the vegans. The other side knew IPCC wasn’t trying to have meat banned and they were pissed off about the IPCC pandering to the meat-eaters. Both groups were able to hit the low-tide point on human civility.

The authors helpfully point out that the days of sending out a press-release and considering your science communication “done” are over. You have got to stick around and try to manage the crazy rollercoaster of public debate.

HONORABLE MENTIONS: The team using the world’s tweets to identify supply chain interruptions. There is also a team that analysed who is winning in the Twitter beef between the people tweeting #eatlessmeat and people tweeting #sustainablemeat or #ethicalmeat. Although, you are probably better off not knowing the answer.

THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: ‘THE SASSY AWARD FOR THE SPICIEST PAPER’ Our winners start punching early with the title “Garbage in Garbage out: the precarious link between IoT [internet of things] and blockchain in food supply chains”5. Firstly, I need to skirt over some definitions. The Internet of things is pretty much what it sounds like - things connected to the internet. You know, sensors and eID readers and the like all talking to the tin men in the sky.

Blockchain is an information system that is kind of like telling everyone in your discussion group to turn to today’s date in their diary and write down that cow 93 died, using an indelible marker. There you go, now everyone has a record of cow 93’s demise and you can’t take that information back without all your neighbours

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calling you a liar. Of course, that doesn’t make it true.

Perhaps you forgot your numbers again and it is actually cow 63 pushing up daisies. Or to use the words of our winners, “data on blockchain may just be … very secure garbage.”

The authors even take jabs at the bedrock beneath the feet of the ag tech bros. The very thesis of all this gibbering excitement is that deploying these information systems enhances trust between supply chain partners.

Not so, say the authors, and nor is it necessary.

If you trust someone you won’t want to read their diary.

If you don’t trust them, how is a wheelbarrow of possibly bogus information going to help? Besides “the key feature of successful economies is that they involve the ability for strangers to engage in commerce”.

It’s a zero trust environment where you rely on the authorities to get rid of the bad actors. When I review recent history that rings true. If babies start dropping dead with melamine in their system, then we can rely on the Chinese government to execute someone. If beef patties test positive for horse DNA (nature’s blockchain), then someone is saying hello to a European jail cell. Ignore enough drug withholding periods and you can get your whole country banned from the international markets.

Despite all the rocks being thrown, our winners are not against the use of blockchain. They operate a system called BeefLedger which sounds like a deceased Hollywood actor, but is actually some kind of beefed up blockchain arrangement.

IMMUNOLOGY: ‘BEST USE OF A RAT’ AWARD Do you remember a time when rapid antigen tests (RAT) were not common vernacular? Once upon a time, you saw a plastic stick with two lines on it and you awkwardly mumbled “congratulations?”. But scientists have been working on introducing RATs, or as they are more commonly referred to as “lateral flow tests”, into the food industry for years.

The variety of tests in

References 1. Guo Z, Ge X, Li W, Yang L, Han L, Yu Q. Activeintelligent film based on pectin from watermelon peel containing beetroot extract to monitor the freshness of packaged chilled beef. Food Hydrocoll. 2021 Oct 1;119:106751.

2. Maguipa TCL, Mbougueng P, Womeni H. Evaluation of the sensory attributes of pepper soup beef hides and determination of the preservative potential of the spices used for its preparation. J Agric Food Res. 2022 Jun 1;8:100293.

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“data on blockchain may just be… very secure garbage.” development gives a pretty good insight into the diversity of the global beef market. Would you like to test your beef for the presence of duck meat, donkey meat, insecticide residues, or a certain bacteria?

Would you like to test your cattle feed for animal products? How about the animal itself?

Would you like to test for tuberculosis, johne’s disease, leptospirosis, etc? Or circle all the way back to pregnancy tests?

It seems we are on the precipice of a real change in how we diagnose and treat life’s little agricultural upsets. I predict a future where we will no longer look to clairvoyance to treat a sick animal.

So it was hard to pick a winner in this category. But the prize ultimately went to a paper6 from a group at the University of Shanghai. This team is developing a fluorescent RAT test that detects three different forms of bacterial contamination in beef samples.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS: We are going the Time Magazine route and doing an honourable mention to RATs themselves.

That concludes our awards ceremony. We would like to thank all the scientists putting in the hard yards this past year. The ones investigating the less newsworthy topics of greenhouse gas emissions modelling, growth rate trials, arguing over the genetic correlations of production traits, cooking protocols, beef additives, disease prevalence etc etc. I see you. I respect you. I honour you… just not with awards!

3. Reshan Jayawardena S, Morton JD, Bekhit AE-DA, Bhat ZF, Brennan CS. Effect of drying temperature on nutritional, functional and pasting properties and storage stability of beef lung powder, a prospective protein ingredient for food supplements. LWT. 2022 May 1;161:113315.

4. Sanford M, Painter J, Yasseri T, Lorimer J. Controversy around climate change reports: a case study of Twitter responses to the 2019 IPCC report on land. Clim Change. 2021 Aug 31;167(3):59.

5. Powell W, Foth M, Cao S, Natanelov V. Garbage in

garbage out: The precarious link between IoT and blockchain in food supply chains. J Ind Inf Integr.

2022 Jan;25:100261.

6. Liu C, Wu Y, Tian Y, Fang S, Wu M, Liu T, et al. A Lateral Flow Immunoassay Strip with AggregationInduced Emission Tcbpe for Multiple Detection of Shigella Boydii, Salmonella Typhimurium, and Escherichia Coli O157:H7 [Internet]. Rochester, NY: Social Science Research Network; 2022 Mar [cited 2022 Apr 1]. Report No.: ID 4008742. Available from: https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=4008742

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RESEARCH

Meat quality

A NZ farms are regenerative A snapshot study of farming's impact on meat quality, found most of Kiwi agriculture is regenerative, Jo Cuttance writes.

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gResearch senior scientist Katherine Tozer has found many of New Zealand’s farming practices are kind to the land, sustainable, and farmers, whether they are regenerative or conventional (sustainable).

Tozer, along with AgResearch scientist Mustafa Farouk were part of a team who did a snapshot study titled, Impact of regenerative farming on meat quality.

One thing in the study which stood out was a lot of our approaches are already regenerative, she says.

“So regardless of what camp people put themselves in, if you compare it to overseas, we are very much regenerative,” she says.

Tozer found farms were already being managed with quite a regenerative foraging approach, compared to overseas farmers which had a lot more intensive farming, and indoor farming.

“It really was how you defined regenerative, because it varied a lot between farms and farmers.”

Tozer says the snapshot allowed them to find out what the consistent patterns were which could be used as a starting point to work out where to focus effort.

“If people are not from a science background, they can go with unrealistic expectations of what this sort of study will produce and what you can get out of it,” she says.

In the study they gave some definition and narrative to how they defined regenerative agriculture based on what they heard from the farmers. This enabled them to make some direct comparison.

Sustainable (conventional) farmers in particular wanted to know more about profitability and the use of fertiliser in regenerative agriculture.

Farouk says overseas people are looking at regenerative compared to conventional, so it was good that they had done preliminary work here, because it gave an opportunity to build on that, so they can be ahead of other countries.

Farouk, who specialises in meat, says they can not say anything conclusive about what they had seen in regards to meat quality until all the proper work has been done. That would only come after all the economics, management, plants and other things were sorted.

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Long term study needed The observational study looking at the impact of regenerative farming on meat quality, has provided some focus for future research in sheep and beef hill country.

It looked at how cattle finished on regenerative and sustainable (conventional) farming systems differed in their meat quality attributes. That the differences between the systems in meat quality are associated with differences in pasture diversity.

The study, which involved both sustainable and regenerative farms, produced mixed evidence. It did provide a basis for designing robust and focused field studies to identify causes, and quantify effects.

Tozer says sustainable farmers in the study wanted to know what the economic value proposition would be if they had to change some of their methods.

Fertiliser is one of the biggest differences they found between the two groups.

Changing fertiliser choices would lead to differences in production and economics, and the different methods of farming would also lead to differences in economics.

Mixed species in a regenerative pasture trial.

“If people are not from a science background, they can go with unrealistic expectations of what this sort of study will produce and what you can get out of it.”

“For a number of farmers, the conventional ones in particular, they are wanting to know what it is going to mean for their economic viability,” Tozer says.

The economics question is one of the next steps needed. This would be looked at in another project by someone else. In terms of soil, plant and pasture, which was Tozer’s focus, longer term monitoring is needed to look at the difference in the pastures, in terms of their production, their quality, and what is happening both above and below ground, and what are some of the impacts environmentally.

Farmers were particularly interested in soil life, so there is a lot of scope for good,

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solid research. This involves trials set up, replication that is controlled, not a survey approach but something which would allow robust applications between systems or even just the way pastures are managed.

A systems study is needed, that can also be a pasture study, she says. Then they can start looking at some of the mechanisms, not just observable differences or lack thereof, and what is causing changes.

Minimum of three years needed For pastures a minimum of three years is needed, but really four or five years to get good information. This is because you have to get the whole interaction of climatic

factors, how pastures respond with drought is going to be different to how they respond in ideal conditions, and that is going to depend on the management.

“By the time you have differences in soil type etc, layer in that difference in management, then you get differences in climate, you can get all sorts of things going on,” Tozer says She says there is no way you can do a short-term study and get a good picture.”

“This assumes it is at one site but if you really want to get some grunt you need to be doing it on different sites.”

Farouk focused on meat in the study.

A lot of factors needed to be considered when looking at meat quality. You have to consider different breeds of animals, different types of feeding and the finishing, how old the animals are, along with the numbers you had to run.

“There are a number of factors that have to be considered to give a conclusive answer,” he says.

Continues

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In the study, they just sampled what was available.

To have something conclusive they would have to raise the animals from the start, equally, same age, same breed, and get as many as possible spread out along many different systems.

Then they could say for sure these animals have been treated equally in different types of systems and everything is controlled except for the practices that exist between regenerative compared to sustainable.

Once that is done, they could say: this is the answer, but otherwise all they have done is just preliminary - it needs to be taken further to become conclusive.

Farouk says it would be possible to set up a study like this but it would need to happen after pasture studies were completed.

Farmer input crucial

‘Sowing something with other species is not always good for an individual plant,’ says Dr Katherine Tozer.

BENEFITS OF DIVERSITY How well diverse crops perform in monoculture and how well they perform when mixed with other species, is the focus of the snapshot project.

Diversity definitely has benefits, but maintaining that diversity can be difficult. Often the diversity benefits come from key characteristics of key plants.

“It’s not so much just having a broad scatter of a hundred different plants,” Tozer says.

The key features of those key plants are important for the environment where you are farming. If a farmer is in a dry area, a key feature might be something drought tolerant and deep rooted.

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“It’s the traits they have got, and adapting the mix with the right species for the right climate and farm type,” Tozer says.

If you sowed something alone and purely focused on production, and it produced 10 tonnes, then sowed it as a quarter with other species, you would expect it to grow at 2.5t (one quarter).

If it produced more, it had benefited by being sown with other species, if it produced less, then you knew it had been suppressed by being sown with other species.

“Sowing something with other species is not always good for an individual plant.”

For researching the impact of different farming practices on meat quality, the participation of famers would be very important.

They would have to get as many farmers who work in regenerative practices, as well as conventional practices, interested in the work itself, he says. Once they had as many farmers as possible, then they would have to decide what stock breed to use.

For example, if they used dairy beef, they would have to be bred, once at a certain age they would then need to be distributed to farms. Then the farmers would need equal incentives for inputs, to allow these

Plants might benefit or they might be suppressed, and it is all to do with the trait.

A lot of work has been written by scientists looking at pasture diversity persistence and weed ingress.

Tozer says it is very difficult to keep the diversity farmers want, which led to issues in terms of the quality of the feed, and the production of feed.

“The issue was keeping pastures with a sown diversity that would fulfill the role of what farmers wanted to get out of it.”

This role is usually related to production and having a mix that could capitalise on this.

Often the thinking of farmers with

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There are regenerative ag and sustainable farmers who use chemical sprays.

animals to graze and follow regenerative or sustainable practices, measurements of what they were consuming would need to be done, and then the animals would need to be harvested at the same time.

Farouk says they would have to get the meat works involved and interested in the work. This would cover when those animals were ready to be processed, taken to the meat works, be processed, samples collected and studied. Getting co-operation from the processors would be very important.

After all that, they could get the meat and do the measurements.

“It will have to involve a lot of control, controlling the animal, the breed, the

diverse mixtures is: what sort of mix are they going to get that is going to give the livestock good quality feed right through the year – a more resilient mix.

She says in reality it is very hard to maintain a desirable, diverse pasture that farmers wanted.

Each species still plays a function but some would have really negative impacts on animals. Thistles and yellow bristle grass are examples, diversity would be increasing but they could have really big problems for animals.

Results from this project will be released later in the year, and would show if it is worthwhile to do a larger study.

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same age, distributing them to people’s farms so that everything is the same,” he says.

It is doable because there is a lot of interest.

“I’m sure when conditions are right and we have enough time, we’ll be able to get more farmers interested in being part of this study.”

For now, they would need statisticians to work out how many animals would be sufficient to get a conclusive outcome.

Tozer is involved in an application, with others, for funding from Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures to look at some work, not for meat quality but for grazing. To look at above and below ground and the effect of different grazing management strategies.

Farouk has not applied for funding to study meat quality from different farming practices. For his type of work, onfarm practices need to be sorted first.

When the kind of work Tozer and others do is complete, and when farms are fully characterised and classified then they could put animals on those farms.

Farouk says they needed an animal management team. The researchers had plants and soil, but needed people who are breeders, meat scientists, and people who would take the meat and put it on a plate for the consumer. They would then look at what the consumer wanted, from nutrition, to eating qualities. His work on meat quality was at the tail end of research on the impact of regenerative farming on meat quality.

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1. Bringing in Courtney Landreth’s cattle for weaning along Arawhata Beach during the Haast muster. 2, 3. Courtney mustering in her cows and calves from the Jackson River block for weaning. 4. Checking on the cattle in the Waitoto Yards during the weaning draft.

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HAAST MUSTER REQUIRES RESILIENCE Raising beef cattle on the river flats of South Westland provides distinctive challenges for local farmers. Lynda Gray reports.

Photos by Vicky O’Connor.

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etting the calves from their remote bush and river valley home blocks to market is the real story of the annual Haast calf sale at the Turnbull saleyards.

For the Landreth family this year’s weaning muster story was short and sweet. It took only two weeks whereas it has sometimes dragged out over a month due to rain, which in South Westland ranges from 4.6-8.2 metres a year.

“We face a lot of challenges with the rivers,” Courtney Landreth says.

It’s not unusual to get 700mm of rain in 48 hours during what Courtney describes as ‘flooding weather’, it creates huge problems and 2019 was one of those years. The weaning muster was literally a washout and the Haast sale was postponed.

Tides are also a problem because access to one of the Landreth’s blocks is over a tidal river and along a beach, creating a small window for access. But this year the tides and weather were all in alignment.

“If anything, the rivers were almost too low which meant there could have been a problem getting jet boats up the rivers… luckily, we got a top up of rain.”

The Landreths have farmed in South Westland since 1997. Courtney’s parents Kim and Hayley bought the farm in two halves over

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“If anything, the rivers were almost too low which meant there could have been a problem getting jet boats up the rivers… luckily, we got a top up of rain.”

Top: Courtney and Simon Cameron cross the Waitoto river during the muster of the Waitoto Flats. Left: This year the tides and weather were aligned for cattle moving along Arawhata Beach.

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Stock agents from Hazlett Rural take Courtney’s calves to the pen after tagging them with NAIT tags.

two years from the Eggling family, a name synonymous within the region.

The original intention of Kim, a Wanaka contractor, was to farm trees rather than cattle. However, Kerry Eggling persuaded him otherwise by inviting Kim along on a cattle muster before selling him the second half of the farm. It gave Kim a true appreciation for the extraordinary farming way of life which now comprises, for the Landreths, 250 head of cattle farmed in four river valley blocks.

Initially a farm manager was employed but that arrangement changed when Kim and Courtney went into a farming partnership six years ago. Courtney with the help of her partner, Simon, oversees cattle management on three of the four blocks. The Waiatoto block is the most remote, it’s a 27-kilometre drive from Haast and access to the top of the valley is by jet boat and then horseback for the final stretch.

Another block is along the Jackson River valley; and the third is accessed by beach at the lower end of the Arawhata valley.

The landholding arrangements in South Westland are hard to understand and explain to outsiders, Courtney says.

“Our leasehold stewardship arrangements are quite disjointed.”

The blocks are all connected by a river or a beach, but there is a lot of distance between them.

It makes the organisation of a weaning muster sound difficult but generally – weather permitting – it's relatively straightforward.

Up to 10 family and friends get the call-up to help out with the mustering, cooking and general support.

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Courtney oversees that everything goes according to plan but says everyone knows the drill and works as a team.

Mustering starts at first light to beat the heat of the day, when the cows and calves are out from the cover of bush grazing along the river flats.

Once the mustering is done, there is yard work. The culls and dry cows are drafted off and the replacement heifers selected, and the rest of the breeding herd are put out into the holding paddocks to wean.

The Hereford-Angus calves weaned particularly well this year, which Courtney attributes to lots of sun and good feed. At the sale all the 70 steers and 50 heifers sold.

“They looked amazing”.

With the business end of selling the calves over, the cattle work continues with the job of returning the breeding herd back to their blocks.

“There’s just as much work to do after the sale but we like to give the cows a break for a couple of weeks before taking them back.”

For the record: Prices were up at this year’s Haast calf sale, reflecting the strong beef market and the generally good condition of the calves on offer, Craig Knight PGGWrightson said.

There was a good group of buyers from as far afield as the North Island for the 900 beef breed calves on offer.

“It was good to see the return of North Canterbury buyers. Generally, those who were there were reflective of where the feed is.”

The top price of $1000/head was shared by Maurice and Kathleen Nolan, Cascade Station, for a line of 22 Angus steers, and J B Cowan Marks Station for 20 Angus steers.

Medium calves sold for $750-$850 and the lighter ones, $500-$650. Top heifers sold for $750.

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CROP & FORAGE

Trace elements

The five essentials Doug Edmeades discusses the issue of trace elements including the under use of Molybdenum.

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he late Professor Walker told us that if he wanted to become a millionaire he would start out as a trace element salesman.

His reasoning was sound. You are dealing with small things that can have large effects and it is often a matter of life and death for the animals. Put together, the subject becomes emotional.

This makes an ideal environment for the muck and mystery man keen to score a few sales at the expense of gullible farmers. This is consistent with my own experience working with farmers. It is a subject that usually provokes lively discussion.

In our NZ context there are nine elements classified as trace elements – trace because they are present or only required at low concentrations. Of these there are five which are of particular concern.

Alphabetically: Boron (B), Cobalt (Co), Copper (Cu), Molybdenum (Mo), and Selenium (Se).

Importantly, B is essential for plants, particularly brassicas, but not for animals and Co and Se are essential for animals but not for plants.

The other trace elements, Iodine (I), Iron (Fe), Manganese (Mn), and Zinc (Zn) are of minor concern.

Very good technical summaries in the public domain cover the critical levels for the trace elements required in soils, plants and animals and the amounts required to correct nutrient deficiencies (e.g. “Use of Trace Elements in NZ Pastoral Farming available free at fertiliser.org.nz/ site/resources/booklet”).

This booklet also describes the role these trace elements play in the soil/pasture/animal system.

There is no need to regurgitate this, but some points about the management of trace elements are worth emphasising.

The most frequent trace element problem we see is Mo deficiency. In our practice it occurs about 20% of the time. Going back to the pioneering days in the 1950s, it was found that tiny amounts of Mo applied to Mo-deficient soils resulted in spectacular improvement in clover growth.

Given these results – a huge increase in pasture production for such little expense – farmers 'overdid it’ and ran into problems.

Too much Mo in the diet ‘locked’ up the Cu ingested by the animal inducing Cu deficiency – a horrible wasting disease, particularly in cattle.

This resulted in a backlash, with farmers who then swore not to use Mo again and passed this experience on to the next generation.

The consequence over time is that they mined the soil Mo reserves ending up with Mo deficiency.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire!

There was a time when trace element problems could be predicted by the soil group. For example, Se and Co deficiency (in animals) and Mo deficiency (in clover) were problems exclusive to sedimentary soils.

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Mo deficiencies in Waikato Cu problems occurred in peats and some pumice soils. These patterns of deficiencies may not necessarily hold. For example, we are discovering cases of Mo deficiency on ash soils in the Waikato. I think this is occurring because we have been farming these soils for 100 years and the onceadequate levels of Mo in these soils has been depleted.

At the practical level, trace element deficiencies manifest themselves in several ways on the farm: a) poor clover growth (Mo), b) poor growth in brassicas (B), or c) poor animal health (Co, Se or Cu).

Clover is very sensitive to Mo deficiency.

The absence of clover in the pasture, or if clover growth is restricted to excreta, and other nutrient rich areas, is a visual clue of Mo deficiency.

Out of the frying pan into the fire. When Mo is added to deficient soils there is spectacular clover growth but too much can lock up Cu and kill cattle.

“Going back to the pioneering days in the 1950s, it was found that tiny amounts of Mo applied to Mo-deficient soils resulted in spectacular improvement in clover growth. ” There is no soil test of Mo so the only way to determine the soil Mo status is via analysing clover-only samples (leaves only).

These should be collected by being very careful to avoid any nutrient-rich areas (dung and urine patches and camping areas). A handful of clover leaves is required for analysis.

The samples should be analysed choosing the ‘Clover profile’ which will also measure the macro nutrient concentrations, noting that the absence of clover can also occur if there are macronutrient deficiencies.

Boron deficiency is not known to occur in mixed pastures but should be applied to brassica crops and to clover grown for

seed. B is required in the fruiting stages of plant growth.

If the concern is the trace element status of the grazing animal, tissue tests (blood and/or liver) should be taken from selected animals. This will require input from a vet.

To complement the results from the vet, mixed-pasture samples should be collected, to find out what the animal is eating in terms of the trace elements Co, Cu and Se i.e. a mixed-herbage sample, collected randomly, to grazing height.

These samples should be analysed using the ‘Animal Health Profile.’

I am often asked why we do not have soil tests for the trace elements? Unfortunately,

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and despite trying, we have not yet developed and calibrated soil tests for the trace elements.

Sure, it is possible to measure the concentrations of the various trace elements in the laboratory but the numbers in the lab do not necessarily relate to what the plant sees in the field. In other words what the plant ‘sees’ and what the labs ‘sees’ are not correlated. Some labs do offer full trace element analyses. The interpretation of such information should be treated very cautiously.

One final comment. The amounts of various trace elements ingested by an animal are the product of its concentration in the feed and the amount of feed ingested. For this reason some trace element deficiencies can be simply a consequence of underfeeding rather than an absolute soil deficiency.

• Dr Edmeades is a scientist and owner of agKnowledge, a science consultancy.

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167

ENVIRONMENT

Emissions

STUDY SHOWS HOW TO DROP GHG 22% A new era of counting and paying for greenhouse gases is approaching and dairy beef animals offer a way through the maze, Joanna Grigg writes.

F

armers who aren’t fans of dairyorigin cattle to grow for beef might consider a rethink.

A novel life cycle analysis study has shown that replacing a beef cow and calf system with bought-in dairy beef animals can cut greenhouse gas emissions per kilogram of meat sold by 22%.

This is because the maintenance emissions of a dairy cow is shared between the milk and meat (her calf sold), while a beef cow has her annual emissions all loaded on to her beef calf meat.

A new era of counting and paying for GHGs is approaching. This will put a new and increasingly significant economic driver into a beef system.

Stewart Ledgard, AgResearch, who was involved with running the numbers, says now a price is going on carbon,

Bought-in dairy beef stock for beef cows can cut GHG emissions per kg of meat sold by 22%.

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farmers need to look at their farm system emissions and what the numbers are showing.

“Emissions are driven by cattle days on the farm.”

In collaboration with three other scientists around the world and funded

by Beef + Lamb NZ, Ledgard created a model of the NZ cattle population and computed the GHG emissions per kg. It was done for suckler-beef and dairy beef systems.

The model showed replacing 100% of the beef herd with dairy-sourced calves cuts meat GHG emissions by 22% (21.3 to 16.7kg C02 equivalent/kilogram of carcase weight).

Already the dairy industry contributes 40% of the beef sold (cull cows and slaughtered surplus calves). About 900,000 dairy calves go into beef production but about 1.7 million dairy calves are slaughtered from four-days old.

Ledgard sees an opportunity here, as well as improved industry image for dairy systems.

“We should also remember that grassfed beef produces less carbon dioxide than a grain-fed system because there is less use of finite fossil fuels and this produces carbon dioxide that stays in the atmosphere longer than other greenhouse gases, including methane.”

Ledgard has a distinguished career in life cycle analysis and most recently, has focused on energy, water and GHG in farm systems. As a dairy farming lad from South Westland, he sees the practical implications of cross-breeding surplus dairy cows or heifers with beef genetics like Angus and Hereford for use on hills.

“This research is hypothetical and of course, farmers need to consider the practicalities in terms of grazing hill country.

“Beef cows also improve pasture quality for sheep and growing cattle, making them grow faster and therefore more efficiently in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.”

But the message is also clear – there is a lineal relationship between replacing beef cows by bought-in dairy-based animals and a decrease in GHG

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

emissions per kilogram of meat grown.

The research involved apportioning dairy farm emissions to either milk production, or to growing a calf and maintaining the cow. About 85% of emissions are allocated to producing milk. This is based on energy used.

“We also took into account extra milk powder and grain to grow out a four-day old dairy calf on a beef farm.”

In the model the diet of all animals was fresh pasture (10.2 MJME and 18.5% crude protein) with only a small proportion of intake via supplements.

This is in the range used in the NZ GHG Inventory based on surveys.

Beef cows can eat poorer quality pasture and this affects productivity which can increase the GHG emissions per kg feed eaten.

Lower ME concentration means slower

growth or higher calculated emissions per kg dry matter eaten but it wouldn’t change the conclusions, he said.

Another tool in the toolbox to reduce greenhouse gas emissions per cow is to improve weaning rate from 86% and calf growth rates. This spreads the maintenance energy costs over more sale meat.

Ledgard adds that research indicates methane inhibitors (e.g. a bolus or vaccines) as holding the biggest potential for reducing emissions.

“At the whole farm level, the methane from rumen breakdown of feed is about eighty percent of total GHG emissions.

“If inhibitors can reduce this loss by 30% it would hold by far the biggest potential, and may help growth rates by channelling lost energy into growth.”

A win win.

More dairy-sourced calves on beef farms to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) footprint • Beef sector has nine percent share of NZ’s GHG emissions • Replacing 100% of beef herd with dairy-sourced calves cuts meat GHG emissions by 22% (21.3 to 16.7 kg CO2e/kg carcaseweight) • About 900,000 dairy calves go into beef production but 1.4 million dairy calves slaughtered from 4-days • Dairy beef little difference in meat quality if grown under similar conditions to beef • Option to inseminate dairy cattle with beef semen (especially Jersey cows) • If farmers paying GHG levy, switching some beef cows to dairy-origin cattle would reduce these costs. Switching 50% of existing herd would drop GHG by around 11% in total (22% if switch all).

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169

ENVIRONMENT

Dairy beef

There is an opportunity to make better use of the 1.8 million calves sent to slaughter but dairy and beef farmers need to work together, Professor Steve Morris says.

Dairy switch not simple BY: JOANNA GRIGG

U

sing dairy genetics may lower greenhouse gas from your beef farm but will black and whites really stack up against the beef cow?

Switching out traditional beef to boughtin Friesian or Jersey stock may improve industry efficiencies but needs to be thought through.

Professor Steve Morris, of the School of Agriculture and the Environment, Massey University, tackled the question from a farm systems approach.

The Life Cycle Analysis study, (Ledgard, AgResearch) compared a dairy beef system to a traditional breeding beef cow system.

It concluded that replacing a beef cow and calf system with bought-in dairy beef animals can cut GHG emissions per kilogram (kg) of meat sold by 22%.

Unashamedly a fan of the beef cow, Morris said that her strengths are her ability to eat poor quality pasture and still grow a calf at one kilogram a day. He said the study was done assuming both classes were grazing pasture worth 10.8 megajoules of metabolizable energy. This is probably

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higher-quality feed than an average cow would eat over the year, so not a fair comparison, Morris said.

Dairy beef steers would not grow on the standard poor-quality feed eaten by cows, and it will actually extend their time on the farm.

“This would make them less efficient and increase emissions per head.”

“If Friesian bulls can be slaughtered to weight at 15 months, why not beef breeds?”

Cows do the hard-yards cleaning up taggy country, sucking in high volumes of dry material then tightening belts at crunch times. The dairy equivalent, is perhaps an in-calf or empty carry-over cow. An option to integrate more dairy genetics might be grazing carry-over cows, for a weekly income, or purchasing them in autumn when the price is typically lower. They

could be fattened for sale in spring.

Morris would like to see more work on understanding the methane outputs of different beef systems. This research is only just starting, he said. The breeding beef cow typically emits 82kg methane a year, based on her eating 3800kg of drymatter feed annually and 21.6 grams methane emitted per kg feed intake.

There is an opportunity to make better use of the 1.8 million dairy calves sent to slaughter but it needs dairy and beef farmers to work together on system solutions.

The beef industry is taking about 900,000 dairy calves to grow on.

“We need more rearers and more people to graze them on.”

Dairy farmers need incentives to spend the extra money on sexed beef-breed genetic semen, to produce the male beef crosses required. Usually, dairy farmers like their heifer dairy calves born first, while beef finishers want male calves first and don’t want to buy the younger and typically smaller later calves.

Another option is for beef farmers to buy in beef breed/Friesian-cross heifer calves.

These could be grown on and finished or bred from as once-bred heifers. This would do away with the need to maintain a breeding herd.

These would need feeding at levels above a typical breeding cow. There was a lot of research on this in the 1990s, Morris said, and the idea needs to resurface.

Carcaseweight targets are heavy because they are set around efficiencies for processing plants, not necessarily meat quality and farm systems. If plants rewarded lighter carcaseweights this might help make dairy beef more viable, he said.

The Argentinians kill cattle at 220 to 230kg CW, he said, and they are often considered great eating, while our 300kg cattle make cuts that are often too big.

When it comes to making a beef breeding herd pay its way in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, the old-fashioned basics are key.

“Heifers should be mated at 15 months, cows should only calve for two cycles and the in-calf rate should be over 90%, not at 84%.”

He lays down a challenge to beef finishers.

“If Friesian bulls can be slaughtered to weight at 15 months, why not beef breeds?”

“We can make up efficiencies here.”

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May 2022

Dairy beef worth milking BY: JOANNA GRIGG

M

arlborough farmer Fraser Avery, Bonavaree, buys or grazes dairy genetics when the price and opportunity presents itself.

“Friesian bulls are usually our first option when an opportunity presents – they are very tradeable.”

The 2555 hectare coastal dryland farm has close to 50% of its 20,000 stock units in what Fraser considers to be trading or opportunity stock. He sees opportunities for sheep and beef farms to carry more dairy genetics. Collaboration would benefit both groups, he says. This includes working in with dairy farming friends or contacts to get suitable stock genetics, sex and aged cattle.

Friesian bulls make a fairly smart and consistent return for the Avery’s business, returning about $0.25 cents/kilogram (kg) of drymatter eaten.

Each year 200 Friesian bull calves are contracted to be bought at 100kg in November. The early calves are usually the better and heavier calves.

“This is done through our meat company and they organise the calf rearers, who do a great job year in year out.”

This class of stock is popular with Fraser as they are the fastest at turning pasture into meat, he says, whether it is on crop or on the hill. They usually grow at 150 to 200 grams per day as calves, building to a target annual growth of one kilogram per day.

The buying decision is not just driven by financials, however. Fraser is happy to buy in carry-over dairy cows (either in-calf or dry) and use them like a beef cow to improve pasture quality.

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May 2022

Some beef cows could be replaced with cull cows for pasture management to create flexibility.

“They do a great job on pasture – even better than a beef cow as they are not rearing a calf at the same time.

“And the improved pasture quality earns their keep.

“Beef guys may question it but empty dairy cows are a fantastic animal – they climb the hills and do a great job.”

The returns for this class swing and change, depending on whether they are grazed at a weekly rate or bought in and fattened. Bonavaree does a mixture of both and they can be onfarm for up to a year.

Cattle make up 50% of the livestock on the farm. The Averys still run 300 beef cows and the herd has increased over recent years.

He says they do a great job on poor pasture.

“Feed a finishing animal this poorer feed and you will pay for it.”

Forage barley provides autumn cattle and winter lambing feed. It is sown mid February at 125kg seed/ha and produces about 6t/ha. It is used as a multiple graze forage crop and is paddock-grazed, not strip grazed. Grazing rates are about four to six stock units/ha. Bulls also graze the lucerne blocks – either pure or mixed swards, or hill country permanent grass/clover mixes.

This growthy summer has seen Fraser out shopping for more trading stock.

“Spring feed will be poorer quality if we don’t buy stock now.

“Dairy cows have such a huge capacity to eat bulk poor quality feed if you want them to, or they can tighten their belts too.”

Fraser admits bulls require solid posts, troughs, gates and hot fences. Bulls are typically grown out to at least 680kg liveweight so require solid infrastructure.

He sees big opportunities for sheep and beef farmers to more closely align with dairy farmers in terms of genetics, getting the offspring type wanted.

“Using sexed semen is an option.”

Fraser says from a wider industry perspective more dairy cull cows should be retained on sheep and beef farms, fattened over winter and then sold. This would ease things for traditional beef sales and give profit to farmers rather than processing companies who buy cull cows in autumn at a weaker price.

Weight can be added to cull cows and then sold later, when processing isn’t an issue.

“Maybe drop some beef cows and use cull cows for pasture management – it creates flexibility.”

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SOLUTIONS

Progeny test data is being generated on Kepler Farm near Manapouri in Southland.

Fat focus a blunt instrument

I

nitial analysis of data gathered through the Informing New Zealand Beef programme (INZB) progeny test has already identified some interesting trends.

Massey PhD student Franzi Weik has analysed progeny test data under the supervision of Jason Archer, the programme’s lead scientist. While it is still early days in the Beef + Lamb New Zealand programme, two of the findings have been surprising.

The first is the relatively low correlation between body condition score (BCS) in cows and fat depth measurements in heifers and bulls.

Archer says they have found this correlation to be only 25%, which makes a focus on EBVs for fat a blunt instrument for indicating a cow’s ability to hold her condition through winter.

Early results suggest that it could be better to measure BCS and create an estimated breeding value (EBV) based on that as a more reliable indicator of a cow’s

172

ability to maintain body condition during feed deficits.

The other finding was the link between sires and a heifer’s ability to get back in-calf at her second mating.

Archer says they found there was no variation between sires and a heifer’s ability to get in-calf for the first time as a yearling, but there was variation when it came to getting that heifer back in calf a second time.

“That’s the important mating because that inability to get back in calf makes for a very expensive animal.”

Early indications suggest this variation disappears once the cow moves into the mixed-age herd.

“We couldn’t see a variation between sires at that stage, but we didn’t have a lot of data at the time of analysing.”

Another factor that could have skewed these results was the AI programme used in the progeny test. R4 cows were included in this programme at their third joining and

the drugs used could possibly have masked the cows’ natural fertility.

These results were generated from the original beef progeny test which was based on five herds across NZ. The programme has now moved into a new phase with some different objectives and progeny test data is now being generated on Landcorp Farming’s (Pamu) Kepler Farm near Manapouri in Southland.

While they have just been using Angus and Hereford genetics in the progeny test, Jason says the programme is now looking for a second farm to set up a progeny test, preferably in the North Island.

“This will help expand the progeny testing programme and allow us to introduce some new genetics into the mix.”

At Kepler, they are able to run Hereford and Angus cows side-by-side and undertake crosses both ways.

What they will be looking to do at the new site is to include maternal-type Simmental genetics into the mix.

While traditionally used as a terminal breed in this country, Simmental are commonly used in maternal crossbred cows in other parts of the world.

Archer says there are maternal lines of Simmental available in NZ which would be suitable for use in a maternal crossbreeding programme.

While Covid-19 has disrupted extension activities initially planned by the Informing NZ Beef programme, Archer says they are developing online workshops to be held in the lead-up to the bull buying season.

The first of these is a workshop based on the better beef breeding workshops.

Numbers will be limited to allow engagement between all participants and will cover topics such as setting breeding objectives, breeder selection, using EBVs and structural assessment.

These will be followed up with a post bull-sale workshop which will focus on getting the most out of the investment in genetics.

He says one of the goals of the programme is to collect data from commercial beef enterprises as traditionally it is stud breeders who performance-record and whose data is used to generate EBVs. • Supplied by Beef + Lamb New Zealand.

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May 2022

Vat milk a viable option

Tom Sanson, left, and Andrew Cribb with local vet Andrew Cribb (centre).

Whangara Angus – A new generation TOM SANSON AND ANDREW CRIBB hit the ground running when they took over Whangara Angus, and it’s safe to say they haven’t stopped in the months since.

Soon into their tenure as the new owner/ operators of this well-known Angus stud, the pair made the bold move of securing the exclusive New Zealand semen rights to top Australian sire, Millah Murrah Rembrandt R48.

The purchase of this $240,000 second-top priced sire, via a threestud syndicate, certainly set the tone for what’s ahead for the new generation of Whangara.

“From the outset, we’ve been very forthcoming about the fact we are committed to securing the best genetics available to take our operation, and consequently that of our commercial clients, to the next level.

“This bull is the ultimate combination of data and composition so we are really excited by what he will bring to the mix.”

Their pursuit of new genetics didn’t stop

there last season, with the purchase of five other bulls as well as a 50% share in another.

“We secured four top priced bulls from around the country, including one from Te Mania Angus which we bought in partnership with neighbouring stud, Turihaua Angus.”

He said when it comes to buying bulls to further their herd, figures play a crucial role in their decisions, with EBV accuracies becoming increasingly higher in today’s world.

“The increased emphasis on EBVs however, doesn’t mean we compromise on structure, docility, constitution and type.

“We believe you don’t have to sacrifice structure to achieve high performance, and we endeavour to prove that with the high-quality genetics we have brought into our programme.”

Looking ahead to this year Tom is confident they have another solid line up of sale bulls, all of whom are already ahead of where last year’s lot’s where at this stage.

“We believe you don’t have to sacrifice structure to achieve high performance, and we endeavour to prove that with the highquality genetics we have brought into our programme.”

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May 2022

ANIMAL MILK REPLACERS have become considerably more expensive this season.

For the dairy market, the lift in milksolids payout means whole milk in the vat could possibly exceed milk replacer costs making it a very viable option to rear replacement heifers or even some bull calves on calf milk replacer (CMR). While this trend of feeding CMR to dairy heifers gained traction a few years back and then the added returns for dairy farmers rearing their own bull calves for the beef market, it had swung back to the traditional use of just vat milk for a possible cost saving.

Milligans Feeds recommends farmers and rearers talk to their local farm supplier or contact Milligans Feeds directly for the best options, advice, or information in order to set a plan for maximum performance and returns. You can also try out the ‘Whole Milk vs CMR’ calculator on the Milligans Feeds website before making your decision.

– Supplied.

At the farm gate, he says the implementation of their new farming policy by farm manager, Chris Richardson, is already resulting in huge production improvements.

“Calf weaning weights are up 50kg on last year.

“Further to this, we have successfully condensed calving, from five months down to what will be two this year, with a cow scanned pregnancy increase of 18%.”

He says whilst this is all a great start, there are certainly no plans to stop there.

“We have an ambitious vision for our breeding programme that aspires to deliver genetics to our clients that will support the full picture – from fertility and calving to the best premiums at the end of the chain.”

173

SOLUTIONS

Te Mania pulls new backing

W

hen Thomas Grothe heard that Te Mania was looking for an investor last year, he didn’t sit on his hands. Grothe, of German descent, was keen to be part of New Zealand’s farming industry and he needed the right engine.

What Grothe saw was a thriving stud business with strong foundations, a keen eye for progression in new technologies and Will Wilding, the young man with an innovative mind, vast knowledge, and a desire to make it all work.

He was particularly interested in the talks of improving feed efficiency when he initially began discussions with the Wilding family.

“Methane is going to be the next big issue for farmers and we know that net Feed Intake and methane emissions are closely correlated at 0.9,” Will says.

One of the first partnerships forged since Grothe came on board is with Vytelle, a global precision livestock company focused on reshaping the industry and genetic progress. Vytelle Sense is a research feed pad technology that identifies the most efficient/elite performing animals with an individual animal feed intake and weight gain data capture system.

Animals are run through a feed pad in groups of 35 bulls or 40 heifers for 66 days and the Vytelle technology collects individual weight, feed intake and

SAFER FARMS IS REINFORCING the value of crush protection devices (CPDs) on quad bikes and urging farmers to take advantage of a cash back offer in its Control the Roll campaign.

Quad bikes contribute significantly to on farm fatalities. A CPD is designed to reduce the chance of serious injury or death in the event of a roll over.

The ACC cash back offer allows farmers to receive $180 (plus GST) cash back on up to two devices, including the Quadbar, Quadbar Flexi, and ATV Lifeguard CPDs.

behaviour data on cattle in the pens as they eat and drink.

Vytelle claims genetic selection for feed efficiency will reduce feed intake by up to 12%, reduce methane production by 30% and improve profitability.

Since shifting to AngusPRO, Te Mania has access to the Net Feed Efficiency EBV. However this is calculated with genomics alone and has a moderate accuracy of around 40%. The addition of phenotypic data from the feed pad will improve this accuracy.

Embryo Transplant will allow Te Mania to flush the most feed-efficient females in the herd and after sourcing semen from the most feed-efficient sires, they will be able to generate a refined bloodline that has reduced methane emissions and this will undoubtedly have appeal to the end consumer.

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Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

Glyphosate supply issues

FTA breaks 50-year export drought SIGNING OF A FREE TRADE AGREEMENT between New Zealand and the United Kingdom in March opened up a wealth of opportunities for this country’s beef industry, Beef + Lamb New Zealand says.

While the agreement has yet to be ratified by both parties, which will likely happen early next year, it signifies the end of more than 50 years of virtually no access for NZ’s beef products.

Frances Duignan, B+LNZ’s Senior Manager, International Trade, Policy and Advocacy, says this agreement gives exporters 12,000 tonnes of tariff-free exports from the outset. This increases every year for 15 years after which there are no quota limits or tariffs.

While the FTA includes any beef products, Duignan says given the nature of the UK market, it will likely be a market for high quality cuts, either fresh or chilled, rather than manufacturing beef.

While NZ beef will be competing with Australian, South American, Irish and Canadian beef in the UK, Duignan says NZ’s advantages sit with its high animal welfare standards, which aligns with those of the UK’s, food safety standards and sustainable farming practices.

Unlike other countries, NZ’s sheep and beef farming are typically intertwined, so processors and marketers will be able to leverage off NZ’s strong reputation for high quality sheep meat in the UK market. As NZ will be starting from a zero base, Frances

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May 2022

says it will mean beef could be diverted from Asian and United States markets into the UK, but most importantly it allows beef to go to whoever is prepared to pay the best price.

“The more markets open up for us, the better able we are to get the most out of every animal. It’s a big win for us.”

Duignan acknowledges British and Irish farmers are not welcoming the UKNZFTA, just one of several FTAs the UK government is entering, but it is a time of significant change for British farmers with Brexit, subsidy reductions, and the fall-out from the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

This agreement will have its advantages for the UK, with opportunities to export products such as dairy products, whisky and gin tarifffree into this country.

It also opens the possibility of British beef producers working alongside NZ in the future to ensure continuity of supply into the Asia Pacific region under the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans Pacific Partnership ( CPTPP), a free trade agreement involving NZ and 10 other countries in Asia Pacific region.

NZ already works closely with its competitors in the International Beef Alliance and the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef which works to ensure that global beef exports are delivered to NZ’s high standards and that the bar keeps lifting.

THE CROP PROTECTION industry is closely monitoring global glyphosate supplies after Bayer was forced to call a Force Majeure event.

Queensland Country Life reports this was after a supplier of raw materials used to make glyphosate suffered a serious mechanical fault in its plant.

Force majeure is a legal term for an event that constitutes unforeseeable circumstances that prevent someone from fulfilling a contract.

Bayer’s global head of active ingredient manufacturing Udo Schneider said the company’s ability to supply glyphosate or glyphosate-based products as per agreements could be impacted.

The global crop protection industry is experiencing historically tight supply due to challenging trade flows and effects of the pandemic. They have continued to put pressure on already tight supplies, which will mean further disruptions to the supply chain will put even more strain on the market.

News reports indicate the issues at the raw materials plant may extend for as long as three months.

• Supplied by Beef + Lamb New Zealand.

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SOLUTIONS

Taking guesswork out of beef genetics

T

he selection of herd replacements in commercial beef herds has until now relied on a judgment call of phenotype, pedigree and performance. Is it an intimidating process given the influence those genetics can play in the future of the herd.

Performance Beef Breeders commonly known as PBB, in Feilding has recently launched Igenity Beef for New Zealand commercial beef farmers, a tool that helps remove some of the guesswork from those decisions.

PBB National Territory Manager Ella Holland says the aim when selecting herd replacements is to choose females that have genetic merit that aligns with selection objectives and avoid unwanted genetic traits.

“Igenity helps remove the guesswork of herd replacement selection - giving commercial beef farmers more confidence in the genetic decisions they’re making.”

“Phenotype, pedigree and performance are fine if determining if a female should be culled, but they can be inconclusive when the commercial farmer is comparing middle-performing animals.”

She offered the example of two heifers that have the same sire and look and weigh the same. It can be hard to tell which has a greater genetic merit and is more profitable to retain as a herd replacement - it’s here

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2899 TOWN 06 272 2621 06 762 Hawera d Stratfor 7000 66 06 863 7019 e 32 06 838 Gisborn 4232 127 06 867 Wairoa 8881 e 06 837 S Herries Bayly Gisborn 6382 EAST 06 862 NAME JH & JM Nuhaka brug 8642 AND , NZ. Bay Hooger aw Alpine 06 862 ZEAL g 4740 ood P&P Tolaga 8089 e 32 STUD S NEW Cricklew S Crawsh 06 867 , Feildin angusnz.com CG & Gisborn 3876 u ANGU Street n e Kahara 06 862 L Edginto un Gisborn 75 South Email: office@ 6125 dt 503, Kenhar 06 862 K Dodgsh Te Karaka eia n 4468 PO Box 06 323 4484 angusnz.com Bay Johnso Mangah 06 864 : 1933 www.

B&K Tolaga g 6558 Head Phone 09 401 020 64 Dowdin Nicks 06 837 C&S Ohope 0837 Story ori 021 999 Orere 06 867 & NK Kaikohe 5070 MJ han Kotema 5044 ira d e 09 409 Brosna Rangat 06 863 Aucklan 5836 SA & J Gisborn 2807 i hu D 06 839 35 O’grady Ratanu 06 862 RJ Quinn Kohuko HLAN 4948 H&R Motu m 6709 y NORT e 09 404 77 Resurga 06 868 N Egerton Napier 9584 DJ McHard aw Gisborn ck 8805 Argyle e 09 401 Shamro 172 06 838 P Crawsh rick D Booth Kaikohe & 0357 Dog B Gisborn u 0336 u Black 09 405 Kirkpat Tangiha Elliott 06 867 Okaiha 0184 ga R&K Wairoa s 2865 ne) D Hills Hokian e William ll 021 130 2106 Tawa 06 862 MJ Toohill of DB Graham Kaeo (LC Rangita P&S Gisborn ti Kapiro e 09 432 Tuawhi T Powdre DF & Est ll Ruawai k 8108 AR & Gisborn a 63 a Limeric 09 423 Turihau Watson BC Maxwe ey Waiotir 1589 PGH 8363 rd McKinl Lomond 09 439 Turiroa 06 857 M&S Wellsfo 3797 i artin P Lane 3645 ta Mataur 151 urau 09 437 Waima 150 06 374 CA Davie-M Te Kopuru 7552 West Angus Waipuk 8288 ara arei IL Lawson North irke 09 402 81 Whang 06 855 DR & Whang Dannev 8857 Puketi 374 u Biddles Harvey 06 J BAY CH Paihia Ridge C& Takapa ES g Silver 858 4909 irke HAWK i P Cook 0239 B Pickerin Dannev North 06 ord 5834 Te Atarang k 07 347 King Abbotsf TY 06 839 J & J Bayly 4611 J&M Haveloc 2814 PLEN Te Huia 09 405 Blue Duck 06 374 Rotorua gi BAY OF WB Philip Napier ood 5477 357 2142 maku Waitan 836 irke 07 ATO / Brookw 06 Waima 7842 SM Duncan Dannev eith / WAIKDavenport 467 607 09 232 Dandal K Rotorua LAND 5709 D Absolom h Napier North 021 & Y Fogarty AUCK 877 4143 k 07 828 Elgin Dorotic r J Bowen Pokeno 3315 Bear J&T Haveloc North 06 3874 ai N Heathe Black k 07 312 Ellerton 06 874 Angus GB & Ohinew 8532 M Tweedieton Haveloc oke 5528 na Hauturu Dell s 07 882 Gembro 136 06 855 B Glover Crawford Waima 5774 r D Warbur Bone Hasting 3889 rk ino FA Heathe hau 07 884 Price VC Hallma 06 374 MA & Mangak 8292 DR & Poranga l & TM ein 3828 top High Valley a 07 827 70 Hollow 06 857 EK Mitchel Te Aroha 5836 t M Fraser y Pongaro i 4543 dge & CA Koberst Hillcrof a 06 839 Kawatir 06 376 Kenned WMG Cambri en 3097 a MA Waipaw 6747 233 Ramsd HKTK 09 lle Kiwikaw Ridge 130 06 856 D Fogarty Napier pai 3808 JD & BB n Woodvi ing 8762 Kaianga ga 07 827 Lighten 151 06 874 C Brown Tuakau 1108 I Pharazy Friel Ongaon oa 8863 dge Kauri s 07 533 Moanar 06 858 D Elliott Allen Cambri 6205 KA & MJ Hasting 3895 Lake Farm (CL Waihora) 09 627 urau Motere 021 223 6015 JV & ME tt Te Puke ana 1847 R Kent MacFarlane Waipuk d Rotomah 07 827 urau VP Mt Mable 06 876 S Coldicu ws Aucklan 9617 WA & Waipuk Angus dge Mahuta s 07 573 144 Onga RN Matthe Cambri Mara CE Pattisonley Hasting nui O’Reilly d Matai 021 669 Waitere 133 J&P Te Puke ra 9557 G Dunker ro 7065 d Matapa PA Haywar 021 276 2446 49 Waiwhe 06 372 AR & Aucklan A Stewart 7324 ford wahia Muir O’Reilly 129 on 07 333 Walling 137 06 376 B&J Ngarua 2702 Mastert 2838 apapa Oakview a 07 870 79 Whenu 06 372 L Wright ton & S Adams Rotorua e n 2131 Pahiatu 2782 dge Rapaho on 07 828 T Thomso A 06 372 n J Harring Cambri AH & ARAP 863 7954 wahia Stokma Fouhy Kjestrup Mastert on Rima 372 7041 S 07 WAIR LJ & 06 & M Ngarua Rock JM Mastert 7041 oo Rolling & RT&SK on Dandal 06 372 S Le Cren Hayward Waihi n NF&JE Mastert rth 7059 Stokma SC Higgins on 36 Glanwo 06 307 RB & 3884 to KJ & G Mastert 8583 Sharpe Takapo 06 752 ston Kayjay 06 375 & A Falloon AI & PA Feather 5702 872 6978 p W A Falloon Twin Oaks 372 na 07 Oregon 06 Urenui heta 8508 W& Eketahu k Waigrou 3368 tu AKI n Waitaw on 06 762 Pineban 06 370 Te Awamu TARAN 2364 T Simpso l Mastert 8400 5 d TRY / & K Jury on 027 426 7211 Pinehill 06 376 le J Stratfor COUN BD Bendal ycroft Mastert ky Stockda KING a 07 896 Thorne Sandus S & DF Bishop Taupo 7998 L&R Pahiatu ick Hills 762 unui 65 Ariki AH 06 Borthw Seven 137 PJ & Taumar Jackson h 6030 R&R 9784 k s&T d Aysgart 07 894 Tapiri 06 328 B Jakschi Stratfor 2870 a D Reynold 6302 I e Sherson Aywon 06 762 Te Whang ITIKE Feilding 027 437 1300 D&T Ongaru 3981 Forest ui / RANG d Black 06 753 ville Totaran 06 355 ANUI S Harvey Stratfor 3114 th Ridge Hunter 4748 491 WANG Park Black / 81 Dalziell st 027 06 329 A&V New Plymou 2840 A&M Ashhur WATU 8608 Scobie d Bos 07 872 st MANA 06 322 N&M Stratfor tu 7541 J McAlley Ashhur 4050 gall Colvend Briggs 07 877 Atahua 06 329 RJ McDou Te Awamu nd 4805 SJ & JP Marton 7519 Downse 06 762 st Hill View 06 388 Te Kuiti M Wells & N Stuart tong 8349 D Ashhur rawa 754 od Gillama 112 06 Kahuta Inglewo RKA Jolly d 6714 RL Rowe Taihape n Highlan 07 896 Camero Komako BG BevegeBlackwell Waitara 6657 A&F ton May 2020 unui JM Hingaia 07 877 Merchis Beef RR & Taumar r 7686 PA Revell ahi 42 Barbou son y-Wide Iona 07 895 Ngaput J&M Te Kuiti tea Countr 2816 unui Mangao CS Donald 07 873 Okaka AG & Taumar 8935 nga Cave Parakau Sherson 07 877 A & N & RL & TT Otoroha ui 8002 ui SJ Puke-N 06 765 BD & Mahoen i d Brittain Rotowa T&K Stratfor Purdie Shian R&N Oaks Martin Storth P & JL wer Tarango

New Ze

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176

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TOWN

PG

NAME

Lander CP & EO Gane C A, P &

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that Igenity comes in.

Igenity is offered as part of PBBs genomics partnership with Neogen and provides in-herd evaluation that’s been calibrated to NZ beef data.

Holland says it’s an easy-to-use system that harnesses the power of genomics to rank females top to bottom on performance and profitability.

The evaluation is available for straight and cross bred cattle of the following breeds: Angus, Red Angus, Hereford, Limousin, Shorthorn, Simmental and Gelbvieh.

Neogen’s Manager Business Development, APAC Genomics, Dr Pieter van As says the data will allow farmers to make more informed decisions about replacement heifers and mating groups to make the best gains.

It achieves this by utilising DNA scores (1-10) for 16 maternal, performance and carcass traits to create advanced animal profiles.

Each Igenity score has a corresponding molecular breeding value and it’s this value that is the prediction of how future progeny of an animal are expected to perform compared to the progeny of other profiled animals.

Holland shared an example of a cow with an Igenity average daily weight gain score of eight, producing progeny that

NOW E ONLIN

will gain 0.036kg more per day than the progeny of a cow with a score of three. The difference in scores means the progeny of the cow with a score of eight will weigh 5.4kg more at 150 days on feed than the other progeny.

All Igenity users are assigned their own dashboard where their herd can be sorted, comparisons made within herd and benchmarking against other herds in the database undertaken. The dashboard also features three selection indexes – maternal, performance and terminal.

“The Igenity profiles provide beef farmers with greater insight into a female’s potential fertility and performance without having to have a calf on the ground. This helps optimize selection decisions on-farm and can help pinpoint any weaknesses and strengths within a herd, leading to greater genetic gain and return on investment,” she says.

Importantly, Igenity allows farmers to focus time, feed and resources on breeding young stock of verified merit.

“It just takes users a few moments to prioritise ranking of heifers for selection and management decisions. Users can also customise their own index to raise cattle tailored to their production and grazing goals,” she says.

More? Visit www.pbbnz.com/igenity

MAY 2022

NZ BREEDER DIRECTORY nzfarmlife.co.nz/beefstuds

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

Agriculture Emissions Pricing SUMMARY

Farmer Feedback THE AG EMISSIONS PRICING FARMER CONSULTATION IS NOW CLOSED – HERE’S WHAT YOU TOLD US The Government has legislation in place to price agriculture greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 through the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) if a credible alternative is not agreed upon.

The ambition of the Primary Sector Climate Action Partnership – He Waka Eke Noa is to keep our sector out of the ETS, and to develop an emissions pricing approach which is more practical, fair and will incentivise farmers to make positive change.

Ninety nine percent of farmers who participated in our recent roadshow told us they don’t want agriculture in the ETS. They also told us they were concerned about the impact on farm business viability and wanted to see some changes to the partnership’s proposals.

Below is a summary of what farmers told us and the key areas DairyNZ and Beef + Lamb New Zealand will focus on during the discussions with He Waka Eke Noa partners.

86% THE PREFERRED OPTION: FARM-LEVEL LEVY There was a strong preference for the farm-level levy option. Farmers told us they want to be recognised and incentivised for individual actions, have a say on the farm emissions price and have choices about their farm management. However, there were concerns about sector readiness for a farm-level pricing system and the cost of implementing by 2025.

HOW WE GET THERE

47%

MOVING STRAIGHT TO FARM-LEVEL

These farmers didn’t want to pay for two systems. They wanted to find a solution that could be set up in one step.

40% PROCESSOR-LEVEL TO FARM-LEVEL TRANSITION These farmers felt that starting at a processor-level and transitioning to farm-level gives the sector more time to get farmers ready.

What farmers told us is important to them RECOGNITION FOR SEQUESTRATION

KEEPING THE COST OF ADMINISTRATION LOW

TRANSPARENT REVENUE INVESTMENT

LEVY PRICE SETTING GOVERNANCE

You support the recognition of a wider range of vegetation not eligible in the NZ ETS and that individual on-farm actions are recognised. However, some felt the proposed 2008 sequestration baseline and exclusion of soil carbon were not fair.

You want to see a cost-effective approach to any pricing system, and suggest exploring existing avenues for the administration of pricing (e.g. Inland Revenue).

You want revenue reinvested into research and development, with transparency of where money is going and the plan to deliver technology to farmers.

You want our industry to have a seat at the table when levy prices are set. Price setting should be science-based, not influenced by politics. The price setting criteria needs to be transparent with industry bodies involved.

What we’re doing next DairyNZ and B+LNZ will continue to work hard to ensure the voices of our farmers are heard. We’re focusing on doing everything we can to minimise costs to ensure your business remains viable and our communities continue to thrive. We’re also working to make sure that what’s eventually introduced is practical, sensible and works on the ground for farmers.

DairyNZ and B+LNZ will meet with the other He Waka Eke Noa partners to discuss all the feedback received, and work through the practicalities and further strengthen the final recommendation to the Government, which is due by 31 May. In parallel, we’ll continue to advocate for the Government to report on warming as well as emissions, and to commit to the latest science when methane emission targets are reviewed in 2024.

We’ll keep you informed along the way.

Jim van der Poel DairyNZ Chairman

Andrew Morrison Beef + Lamb New Zealand Chairman

FARMING IN FOCUS

Top left: Max Tweedie Hallmark Angus. Aim of the game – Making dehorners redundant. Centre left: Big beef at Max Tweedie’s Hallmark Angus stud. Top right: Weaners penned for sale at Haast’s Turnbull saleyards. Centre right: Bidders at the Haast calf sale. Above: Aerial view of the Turnbull saleyards at Haast, South Westland.

178

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

Top left: Awakino Station muster, North Otago. Top right: A dog’s life at Awakino. Centre right: Awakino winters about 1200 head of cattle as a closed herd. Centre left: Grassendale livestock manager Joshua Volman. Above left: Purebred Beltex ram. Between 700-800 rams a year are sold to 114 clients from Grassendale. Above right: George Williams: ‘Our whole focus with hogget mating is to minimise wastage.’

Country-Wide Beef

May 2022

179

COMMITTED TO NEW ZEALAND. COMMITTED TO YOU.

We’re here for NZ farmers for the long haul. We’re Boehringer Ingelheim, the name behind the brands trusted by farmers.

Season after season, brands like EPRINEX®, MATRIX® and BIONIC® have been trusted on farm to deliver exceptional health and production outcomes for farmers. Boehringer Ingelheim is the name behind these brands that continues to invest in NZ agriculture by developing and manufacturing these products right here in NZ, ensuring kiwi farmers maximise production - not just this season, but for many, many more to come.

180

PROUDLY AVAILABLE FROM YOUR LOCAL PARTICIPATING VETERINARY CLINIC. Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health New Zealand Limited. Level 3, 2 Osterley Way, Manukau, Auckland, New Zealand. MARKS-MIN®, EPRINEX®, ECLIPSE®, MATRIX®, and BIONIC® are registered trade marks of Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica GmbH, used under license.

Registered pursuant to the ACVM Act 1997, No. A011687, A007191, A009270, A011151, A009390, A011825. See product label for full claim details and directions for use.

Country-Wide Beef May 2022 © Copyright 2022 Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health New Zealand Limited. All rights reserved. NZ-BOV-0009-2022.

BOE 1314

BOE1316

futureproducers.co.nz

IGENITY

DNA powered selection for commercial herds Focus time, feed and resources on breeding young stock of verified merit

SELECT THE BEST, GET THE BEST RESULTS Maternal traits drive production Performance traits drive efficiency Carcass traits drive value

pbbnz.com/igenity

To find out more information Ella Holland National Territory Manager P: 06 323 4484 M: 027 386 2410 E: ella@pbbnz.com

BEEF GENOMICS EMPOWERING YOUR FUTURE Igenity is a cross and straight bred in-herd commercial evaluation.

Igenity provides scores for 16 maternal, performance and carcass traits.

Igenity contains genetic and performance data from over 18 million animals across the globe including New Zealand.

Igenity produces your results from one DNA test.

MAXIMISE POTENTIAL GENERATION AFTER GENERATION

Igenity Commercial Females

Stud Bull EBV’s

Greater genetic gain & profit

pbbnz.com/igenity

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“The yards work so well it’s easier just to bring them in now because I know the cattle yards are going to flow. I know there’s never going to be an issue, they come into the yards really good so it’s a big a time saver.” Steven Joyce

“The reason I upgraded was because my cattle numbers were getting higher and the wooden yards I had weren’t cutting the mustard. So, I went the Te Pari way because I’ve heard a lot about them and once I got the concrete pad, which is non-slip and the big set (of cattle yards) I’ve got here they just flow so well. I should have done it 5 or 6 years ago!”

Te Pari Cattle Yards are designed to harness natural cattle behaviour to ensure operator safety and encourage good cattle flow. Cattle have a natural tendency to circle their handler, so cattle yard designs with circular pens will allow cattle to flow better. Research shows circular yards can be up to 30% more efficient than square or rectangular yards thus allowing a much higher throughput of cattle.

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“If I was upgrading cattle yards, I’d definitely be buying Te Pari. They may not be the cheapest on the market, but it is the better quality.

They’re a great set of yards and I’d recommend them to anyone.”

Steven Joyce.

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