NEWS
MACHINERY & PRODUCTS
AGRIBUSINESS
Pork sector sets the standard. PAGE 14
New Navara ute enhanced for loads. PAGE 27
Sheep milking a serious business. PAGE 19
TO ALL FARMERS, FOR ALL FARMERS MARCH 20, 2018: ISSUE 649
www.ruralnews.co.nz
Irrigation adds-up – Jones DAVID ANDERSON davida@ruralnews.co.nz
DESPITE STRONG anti-irrigation rhetoric from certain parts of the new coalition Government, it appears Crown funding of new irrigation schemes is not entirely off the agenda. Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones says irrigation is essential to the growth of the regions. “It is especially so in the case of climate change and asking rural NZ to do the heavy lifting in regard to changing our carbon emission.” When the $1 billion a year Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) was launched in Gisborne last month, Jones said the Government would no
A-Maizing! Maize planted on October 20, just beating a three-week delay because of rain, was harvested recently on James and Stephanie King’s Oldson Farms at Eureka, near Hamilton. The crop – 22 tonnes/ha and 36% dry matter – will be fed to the Kings’ 550 dairy cows. The difficult season with its persistent rains followed by near drought made conserving grass extremely difficult, so the maize crop will be a valuable resource to help Kings’ mixed-breed herd maintain condition prior to calving. – PHOTO MARK DANIEL
longer support ‘uber mega’ irrigation schemes. However, in an interview with the Rural Exchange (REX) radio show, Jones indicated that irrigation schemes were still an important part of his plans for the fund. “We identified that irrigation is essential to the growth of a lot of our regions,” Jones says. He added that while dropping large irrigation schemes was no longer on the Government’s agenda, “there remains some wiggle room within the fund to pursue better water management and water storage”. Jones concedes that the confidence and supply agreement the Greens have with Labour means a cessation
of government backing for such large irrigation schemes. “The thing we are no longer able to acquiesce to is these things called ‘uber’ schemes,” he told the REX show. “However, in the PGF there remains some wriggle room in the criteria to pursue better water management and storage.” Jones gave as an example the $543,000 allocated in the PGF for the next stage of the Makauri Managed Aquifer Recharge trial in Gisborne. The project is aimed at injecting water from the Waipaoa River into the aquifer for use on 3000ha of irrigated horticultural farm land. Jones claims this will give rural New Zealand confidence that he’s
got their backs. “My party, myself, my leader and the broader Government do accept that you can’t have ongoing productivity out of rural New Zealand in the absence of water,” he said. “That’s just as simple as learning arithmetic as a six-year-old.” Meanwhile, in what could be seen as a slight at some of his coalition partners’ anti-irrigation rhetoric, Jones caustically dismissed these criticisms. “For areas such as the Hawkes Bay and Northland without better water storage and management – I am beggared if I can see what we can do with that land.” @rural_news facebook.com/ruralnews
EGG PRODUCERS SHELL OUT LAW CHANGES requiring the end of battery and colony cages will cost as much as $1 million for a smaller farmer and up to $60m for larger companies, says the NZ Poultry Industry Association. Executive director Michael Brooks says that under current law, by 2022 a certain percentage of NZ’s cages have to be gone – depending on their age – and by late 2022 all battery cages will have to be gone. “That will make us the only place in the world, after the EU, where this has happened. Australians have just done their review and decided to keep some cages,” Brooks says. However in NZ, after 2022 colonies, barn and free range will be the only systems allowed. Last year, the two NZ supermarket chains said they would no longer take colony eggs and would only accept barn and free range supplies. Brooks says a farmer told him that one week before the supermarket chain he supplied made that decision, he had paid $750,000 to put in a new colony system. Brooks says extremist views propagated by activist groups such as Safe are a big concern for the industry. “They are a big, international organisation. In NZ they have three offices and 25-30 staff these days and a lot of money. Their power on social media with the supermarkets and the general public is huge.” • More on NZ poultry sector page 6