rural news 19 august 2014

august 19, 2014: Issue 567 www.ruralnews.co.nz

RuRalNEWS

animal healthOral and injection combo advised for control of deer parasites. page 35

who won the ute?Waikato farmer comes up trumps in Mahindra’s Win the ute competition. page 12

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butter is back!Fonterra chief technology officer Jeremy Hill gleefully displays a recent Time cover that tells its readers to eat butter. He says that after losing ground to margarine for 50 or more years, butter is back in favour with consumers. Find out more about the work Hill and his team of technologists at Fonterra are doing to help dairy products find their way back into consumers’ and health advocates’ good books again. – page 5

Local miller feels grind More lambs this yearBEEF + Lamb NZ expects 300,000 extra lambs this season, assuming kind weather and adequate feed supplies.

Scanning results averaged nation-wide are estimated higher than in 2013. But the lift is modest, reflect-ing last year’s drought and a high mutton kill.

BLNZ’s economic service says its nationwide survey in the past season shows sheep numbers down by 3.2% to 29.8 million, and beef cattle up by 1.6%.

Chief economist Andrew Burtt says the main reason for the drop in breeding ewe numbers (now 19.96 million) was an overall decline in sheep numbers in the South Island. This reflects changing land use – fin-ishing farms converting to dairy or dairy support.

Strong mutton prices driven by rising demand from Asia encour-aged high cull ewe processing for a second year.

For the first time since 2006-07 beef cattle numbers increased, to 3.76 million, reflecting good feed conditions and improved returns, which led farmers to hold on to older cattle.

“Breeding cows were in good con-dition at mating,” Burtt told Rural News. “With favourable feed supplies over the winter, and assuming good feed supplies continue into spring, the calving percentage is expected to be similar to last year.”

– Peter Burke

MULTINATIONAL INTERESTS are putting the squeeze on farmer-owned start-up flour producer Farmers Mill.

“We’ve got a real battle on,” chief executive Grant Bunting told Rural News.

In the past three months he says Champion Flour has slashed prices in the South Island to what he believes must be below the cost of production. “We are well aware of the costs: 85% of the cost of flour production is grain.”

The prices are at an $80-90/t discount to those being quoted in the North Island

where, to date, Farmers Mill hasn’t been marketing its product.

“The cosy duopoly still exists up there,” says Bunting. “It defies logic that the two islands should be so far apart in pricing parity.”

Bunting believes Japanese-owned Champion and British-owned Weston Milling are struggling to compete with the provenance of Farmers Mill’s 100% New Zealand grown, owned and pro-cessed flour, and they’ve been losing market share in the south as a conse-quence.

The success of that marketing pitch,

and smooth running of the new mill in Timaru’s Washdyke industrial area, has seen Farmers Mill process 30,000t of grain in its first year, well ahead of its budgeted 22,000t.

Now Champion, bought by Nisshin Flour Milling from Goodman Fielder last year, is fighting back on price, but at prices which Bunting says must be unsustainable for the corporate. “They are probably more sustainable for us, because we are grower owned.”

Bunting says Farmers Mill’s direc-tors and shareholders, chaired by large-scale farmer and recent rich list debutant

Murray Turley, are prepared to raid the balance sheet to win the battle if need be.

However he says he “wouldn’t rule out” a complaint to the Commerce Commission if such predatory pricing persists. In the meantime they’re taking the fight to the North Island, looking to expand Farmers Mills’ markets.

The Commerce Commission con-firmed to Rural News predatory pricing is illegal but prices must be shown to be below cost for a sustained period for it to investigate.

Champion Flour did not respond to Rural News’ request for an interview.

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RuRal News // august 19, 2014

news 3

issue 567www.ruralnews.co.nz

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THE ODDS of a heifer having triplet calves has got the experts in genetics somewhat flummoxed.

It’s also got Otaki dairy farmer Ted Cobb and his friends searching the internet to work out the odds.

The best anyone can come up with is one in eight million!

The two and a half-year-old Frisian heifer was mated to a pure bred Here-ford bull and was one of the first heif-ers on the farm to calve.

“I knew she was close to calving so we bought her up close to the shed so we could keep an eye on her,” Cobb

told Rural News. “We were there standing there

watching and after the second one arrived we were getting ready to milk. But we saw her trying to calve again so we got her in the shed. The last one was coming breech, but we managed to save it and they now are all very healthy.”

Cobb says in the 60 years he’s been milking cows he has never seen or heard of triplets being born to a cow – let alone a heifer.

Two of the calves are female and the third is male.

More debate neededTHERE NEEDS to be a debate on the level of foreign ownership of land in New Zealand, says Federated Farmers national president William Rolleston.

His comments come amidst a flurry of debate on the merits or other-wise of the Chi-nese company Shanghai Pengx-in’s plans to buy the sheep and beef property Lochinver Sta-tion in the cen-tral North Island.

Rolleston says the issue of foreign ownership of land has been well canvassed among Feds members, resulting in a policy that will help drive changes to the Overseas Investment Office Act to tighten criteria for the sale of land to foreigners.

“The property rights argument is a valid one, but there is also a wider stra-tegic issue in New Zealand about where we should be heading,” he told Rural News.

“It is a view that it is a property right to be able to sell to whom you want, but on the other side there is a strate-gic issue about vertical integration and land aggregation by overseas owners. We aren’t saying foreigners shouldn’t be able to buy land, but we need to debate what that level should be set at.”

Rolleston says part of the problem is that no one knows exactly how much land is owned by foreigners and that’s why his organisa-tion is pressing for a register of foreign owner-

ship. He believes people would probably be happy with about 5% foreign owner-ship.

“But as any overseas company aggregates more and more land, the test about the benefit to New Zealand economically should be tougher. The OIO rule says there has to be substan-tial and visible benefit economically to New Zealand and so we need to see what that is.”

PeTer BUrKe

peterb@ruralnews�co�nz

tHe saLe of Lochinver has quickly become an election issue, Labour promising to stop the sale, if it can, if it forms a government.

Concerns that the farm will be converted to dairying would raise the ire of environmentalists.

National says the OIO must make the decisions. and the aCt Party spokesperson on agriculture, Don Nicholson, has waded in on the prop-erty rights issue, saying politicians should not interfere with voluntary sale

of private property. He says if Lochinver owners the stevenson family choose to sell to shanghai Pengxin that should be no concern of the government.

“aCt isn’t concerned about the sale of private assets such as farms to anyone in particular because land is not mobile. If a foreign individual or firm can pay more than any other bidder, then their investment in New Zealand is welcome. that’s how markets should work.”

Meanwhile, shanghai Pengxin chief

executive gary Romano says in the short term it appears little will change in the mix of businesses at Lochinver station should his company get to buy the property.

though more dairying is planned, the focus will remain on sheep and beef. a move to some dairy farming is because shanghai Pengxin already owns a dairy farm – part of the Crafar package – which backs on to Lochinver.

“I can’t exclude what might happen

in the next 10-15 years, but the focus at the moment is on the protein side of the business. shanghai Pengxin has sheep interests in China for example. We do, however, want to develop consumer products for the Chinese.”

Romano says shanghai Pengxin has a track record of developing and looking after farms, as shown by their work on the Crafar farms and in the south Island.

“We are developing our credentials as good custodians of the land.”

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“Part of the problem is that no one knows exactly how much land is owned by foreigners and that’s why his organisation is pressing for a register of foreign ownership.– William Rolleston


THE OUTLOOK for the dairy industry is extremely positive despite the slide in commodity prices, says Fonterra executive Matt Bolger.

But he cautions that price volatility and increasing expectation on farmers continue.

Bolger, Fonterra gen-eral manager of share-holder relations, spoke at the recent New Zealand Institute of Primary Man-agement conference in Hamilton. He rubbished the argument that it was no longer viable for New Zealand to sell dairy prod-

ucts at market prices.Based on strong long-

term demand for dairy that argument is flawed, he says.

“It’s important to have a value added business; but don’t take the current drop in prices as indicat-ing demand for dairy isn’t strong.”

The mega-trends are positive, he says, point-ing out the rise of middle classes in Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

According to Bolger, people start consum-ing dairy product when their income gets to about US$10/person/day; in China the average income is US$16-17/day result-

ing in growing demand for dairy.

“As more and more people come out of pov-erty and start entering those formal markets, we expect demand for dairy to continue to rise.”

“When people have more money they also start taking care of their kids, themselves and their parents as they get old.

“So we are seeing this rise in demand for infant formula and infant nutri-tion and for products that help people age better.”

With growing income, more people are moving into cities and these new city dwellers start con-suming dairy in different

ways.“They start eating

pizza with cheese for the first time, eating burgers and getting to a bakery.”

New Zealand produces about 20 billion L of milk annually; about 50bL is traded in the global dairy market.

Milk production in Latin America and North America is in balance; Aus-tralia and New Zealand are growing their milk supply. However, China, India, the Middle East and Africa have “enormous gaps” between how much they produce and the demand from growing economies.

“So that essentially drives demand for milk;

the argument that we are supplying too much milk and the world can’t take it… that’s not the situation at all.”

Bolger defended the environmental perfor-mance of Fonterra farm-ers, whose attitudes he says have changed. But he cautioned that expecta-tions of sustainability will keep rising over time.

Recently, for the first time, officials from Nestle travelled to New Zealand to do onfarm assessments instead of auditing Fonter-ra’s dairy factories.

They visited 50 ran-domly selected Fonterra farms and assessed them for food safety, animal welfare, environmen-tal impact and staff and labour management.

“Customers and con-sumers are far more inter-ested in where their food is coming from and how it is produced.”

That was also coming through in New Zealand, where consumers were interested in what was happening on the farm from an environmental and animal welfare point of view.

4 news

NEW ZEALAND can compete with China in making wool yarn says Pri-mary Wool Cooperative director Hamish de Lautour, commenting on the proposed purchase of Christ-church Yarns NZ, which is in receiv-ership.

“It is a myth that NZ cannot com-pete with China; we just don’t want to play the same game as them,” he told Rural News, saying the quality of carpet wool out of China is often not good enough.

Primary Wool Co-op (PWC) and Elders Primary Wool have a con-ditional purchase agreement on Christchurch Yarns woollen spin-ning mill. The agreement is through Primary Wool’s 50:50 joint ven-ture with Elders. Elders was itself recently returned to 100% New Zea-land ownership after being bought by the South Island Carr Group. A new company, NZ Yarn Ltd, has been set

up to enable the Christchurch Yarns purchase.

Christchurch Yarns is understood to be the only independent carpet yarn-spinning business in the south-ern hemisphere and without it some carpet manufacturers would have to turn to synthetics.

But de Lautour says the quality and consistency of carpet yarn out of China are not good enough for many carpet makers.

“The value in locally produced goods is in the NZ brand story, sus-tainable production practices, con-sistent quality product – all the attributes required to satisfy our dis-cerning customers. NZ does not want to play the cheap game.

“Sure we must be competitive and our exchange rate makes that a chal-lenge on its own but it seems foreign investors are slowly realising our economy may not be as healthy as they once thought and an exchange rate correction back towards the mid US70c is considered to be NZ’s com-

fort zone.”The conditional purchase of the

Christchurch Yarns woollen spin-ning mill is furthering the co-op’s principal reason for being, de Lautour says. “If you consider the co-op’s driv-ing statement – ‘100% grower owned, committed to capturing the real value of wool, returning profits to mem-bers, supporting and funding indus-try-good initiatives…’ and then look at the interest in getting growers linked further into the value chain through the spinning mill... it all makes sense.

“Add that to the National Wool Week that Primary Wool funded for the Campaign For Wool, which is walking the talk with industry-good activity.

“Customers need to understand the ‘wool story’ then selling them a carpet is actually not a problem pro-vided the colour and style are right.” De Lautour says you should add to this the huge impact the Elder’s ‘Just Shorn’ programme is having on awareness of wool in the US market.

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news 5

EAT BUTTER, Time recently told its readers in a cover story.

This is gaining momentum with butter now back in the centre of the table, says Fonterra chief technology officer Dr Jeremy Hill.

Hill told Rural News that after losing ground to margarine for 30-50 years, butter is back in favour.

“Back then there was hardly any dispute about dairy’s nutritional cre-dentials; people recom-mended you drink your milk. But then there began a wave of ‘science’ – not necessarily proven science – against dairy products, butter in par-ticular.

“Opinion started to change, particularly the

perceptions about dairy products in westernised markets.”

Hill says, over the years the whole sector, Fonterra in particular, has led in

fighting to fairly position dairy products, including the fat in dairy products, a particular target of critics.

“We have been actively involved in getting people

to revisit the science. It’s not lobbying, it’s getting people to look at the sci-ence and fill in some of the gaps. As a result we have been able to turn the tide.”

Hill says modern con-sumers are looking for innovative, but natural, products.

“So the prize is there for those who can create innovative, convenient products that match modern lifestyles and needs with natural ingre-dients and components.

“Which is why dairy has an important role in diets. We have a natural product that lends itself to a variety of eating occa-sions.”

Hill says Time backs butter for a variety of rea-sons. A lot of misinforma-tion persists in the public arena about butter, some

Fonterra fronting butter’s returnbased on flawed science about the effects of butter and milk fat consumption on cardiovascular health.

“Current science would say there is noth-ing intrinsically unhealthy about butter consump-tion. It is calorie dense, but as part of a balanced

diet… with control of calo-rie intake and expenditure, there is no problem con-suming milkfat.

“In the past, avoid-ing milkfat was seen as healthy, whereas scientific evidence now is at least neutral and not detrimen-tal.”

PeTer BUrKe


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Chief technology officer Dr Jeremy Hill says a recent Fonterra innovation are a range of advanced creams for the restaurant trade.

a drawback of normal cream is it tends to separate quickly, making it difficult for chefs to get a dish using cream looking perfect.

“We now have specialty cream products that don’t separate, an enormous advantage for chefs during meal preparation,” Hill explains. “It gives them huge flex-ibility in timing. Other creams have whipping properties superior to standard cream products for in meal offerings in restaurants.”

Fonterra is employing leading chefs to make sales pitches to other

chefs, Hill says.“these highly respected chefs

go along and talk to the head chef in a restaurant about how they can use the new cream products in recipes – the advantages they give – and demonstrate them in the kitchen. this is an important way of selling and promoting these prod-ucts because chefs will listen to chefs.”

Jeremy Hill says fonterra has been leading the fight to fairly position dairy products, including the fat in dairy, a particular target of critics.

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6 news

Falling prices due to demand

Keep sector swings in perspective

WANING DEMAND rather than increasing supply is the main reason for falling dairy prices in China, says Westpac chief economist Domi-nick Stephens.

In the bank’s latest review of the economy Stephens says while they had anticipated a fall in dairy prices early in the year, the ‘step down’ in prices in July was not foreseen.

It appears Chinese consumers are feeling ‘gloomy’ about sluggish economic growth catch-ing their wholesalers by surprise, Stephens says. Ample stock-build early in the year now has them holding too much, thus little competition for fresh supplies.

It’s a similar story in the log market. “The good news is we expect the situa-

tion in both markets to be temporary,” he told Rural News. “Growth prospects in China have improved, and eventually this will flow through to the consumer sector. Supply and demand should move back into better balance, wholesalers will run down their stocks and as demand rallies they will need to step back into the market.

“Already there are reports of this starting to happen in log markets. We also expect the usual seasonal pickup in Chinese dairy imports towards the end of the year to help bolster demand.”

Stephens says over the longer term Westpac remains convinced domestic Chinese suppliers will be unable to keep pace with growth in domes-tic demand.

He says while China provides excellent oppor-tunities for New Zealand, the recent events high-light the risks often associated with rewards.

On other matters dairy, Stephens points to the lifting of European dairy quotas next year as adding an “additional layer of uncertainty to international markets”. Lower grain prices and the conflict in Ukraine also could influence inter-national dairy markets.

But the market for our meat, not so influenced by China, is good, Stephens says. International prices for meat, especially beef, have made fur-ther gains, as heard at the recent Red Meat Sector Conference in Wellington.

Westpac predicts the lower dairy prices will strip $4 billion from farm incomes, dampening onfarm investment and household spending, and muting the overall economy.

PeTer BUrKe


DAIRYING’S DOWNSIDE and red meat’s rise are in danger of being over-emphasised as commenta-tors latch onto recent shifts in markets and/or per-ception, claims a leading agribusiness academic.

“Usually with these swings of pessimism and optimism people tend to overshoot the real-ity,” Lincoln University professor of farm man-agement and agribusiness Keith Woodford told Rural News.

“I feel we might just be starting to see an over-shoot on the downside with regards to dairy, and we’re maybe just a bit over the reality with regards to red meat. In neither industry have the long-term fundamentals changed much from where they were six months ago.”

Woodford says he’s “reasonably confident” dairy markets will turn around as consumer demand in China remains strong, as are farm-gate prices there.

“The price in China for milk has dropped, but they are still getting NZ$12/kgMS over there and companies like Fonterra [in China] may well be making more than that. So it still makes sense for them to buy our milk powder, even at prices a lot higher than they are now.”

What everyone now well knows, with hind-sight, is the stockpile and forward orders whole-salers in China amassed late last year.

“Now we’re waiting for that to work through the system but the reality is no-one knew it was occurring at the time. When will the turnaround be? We still don’t know.”

On red meat Woodford says things are “look-ing reasonable” but again “the basic fundamen-tals haven’t changed much”.

“Demand for lamb from the EU and UK seems to have come up a bit and the demand for lamb and beef from China will almost certainly con-tinue.”

In the US beef production will eventually rebound but a shortage of breeding cows after several years of drought means that’s not hap-pening yet, even though corn and soy prices are “way, way, down,” he notes.

“For both corn and soy it will be a record pro-duction year in the US.”

As for the New Zealand dollar being over-valued, that depends on your perspective, says Woodford.

“If you’re an exporter you might say it’s over-priced but people tend to forget all the insur-ance money that’s still flowing into the country for the Canterbury rebuild. That’s all coming in from overseas.

“It’s a key factor in stimulating growth and it’s kept the exchange rate high.”

Tumbling milk prices are a factor that can weaken the New Zealand dollar, but so is inter-national investors’ appetite for risk.

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news 7

new dairy season off to flying start

MILK PRODUCTION for the new season has got off to a good start, says Fonterra.

For the first two months of the 2014-15 season - June and July - the co-op collected 24 million kgMS, 8.3% more than the same period last year; this was mostly driven by good milk yield on North Island farms.

In its monthly global dairy update to the New Zealand Stock Exchange last week, the co-op notes that milk vol-umes are building.

North Island collection in July reached 13 million kgMS, one million kgMS ahead of July last season despite bad weather in Northland.

“The central and lower regions of the North Island have started the season with favourable conditions, however heavy rain created challenges in North-land with some regions experiencing significant flooding,” it says.

South Island collection in July reached 2 million kgMS, consistent with July last season.

Only a small number of South Island farmers supply milk in winter, but with

spring calving starting, milk collection will lift over the coming months.

The co-op also reported good milk collection in Australia, where the dairy season starts July 1; the first month’s collection - 7.6 million kgMS - was 11.2% higher than July last year.

Fonterra says this time last year the Australian dairy industry was reeling from the effects of poor pasture growth and a lower milk price.

However, this season the growth in milk collection is being supported by good pasture growth and Fonterra con-tinuing to attract new milk from other processors, it says.

Commenting on GDT, Fonterra says the GDT price index for the financial year-to-date was down 37% compared to the same period last year.

The drop in prices is attributed to growing milk supply out of key regions- the US, EU and New Zealand while demand out of the key Chinese market has eased slightly.

“Global milk production and dairy exports continue to grow, while demand from China, although strong compared to last year, has slowed as they work through inventory levels.”

The co-op says its assessment of

published industry statistics indicates that supply growth temporarily exceeds demand growth, which has contributed to the decline in dairy commodity prices over the past four months.

Milk prices in the US and EU remain at relatively high levels, feed costs are low and weather patterns have been benign, supporting production growth.

At the same time, Global Trade Infor-mation Services (GTIS) data shows that for the month of June imports into China have fallen month-on-month for the past four months, however WMP was up 93% compared to June last year.

Fonterra says milk production in the major dairy exporting countries increased on a year-on-year basis, with the exception of Argentina, where pro-

duction is lower. Growth has slowed in the EU but full year milk supply is fore-cast to grow by 2.8% over last year.

In the US, milk production has jumped to 1.9% on a year-on-year basis for the month of June. New Zealand ended its 2013-14 production season with 10% more milk than the previous season; In Australia production was maintained at the previous season’s level.

Both the US and EU were still exporting more dairy products but the rate of growth in exports was slowing, Fonterra says.

Milk powders were the major driver of export growth; more whole milk powder was exported from the US, New Zealand, EU and Uruguay. Skim milk

powder exports were also higher from the US, EU, New Zealand and Australia.

The US also continued to export more cheese, however, New Zealand, Australia and the EU exported less cheese in May this year.

Imports into China continue to grow on a year-on-year basis, with a 52% increase in June 2014 compared to June last year. However growth has slowed, with import volumes decreas-ing over the past four months.

In June 2014 powder imports were 93% higher than June last year, but 24% lower than May 2014. Imports of butter and cheese grew on a year-on-year basis, while whey volumes were flat.

Imports into Russia fell 9% or 12,000 MT in April, the first drop in 26 months.

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8 news

Tiny organism a big challenge to methane researchers

A TINY micro-organism one thousandth of a mil-limetre long is proving a huge challenge for scien-tists in New Zealand and overseas.

It’s called a methano-gen and it produces meth-ane in the rumen of farm animals which they emit when they belch. That methane in the atmo-sphere contributes to the global warming now caus-ing massive problems.

The agricultural sector accounts for 46% of New Zealand’s emissions, a

Much effort and intellectual grunt is going into solving the livestock methane emissions problem. Peter Burke reports on this science challenge facing New Zealand.

serious challenge given our large ruminant popu-lation.

New Zealand scientists hope within five years to develop on-farm technolo-gies to help reduce meth-ane gas emissions from cattle , sheep and deer.

The Pastoral Green-house Gas Research Con-sortium (PGgRc) and the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre (NZAGRC) are working together to solve this problem, by funding research to develop ways of reducing methane pro-duction.

One scientist work-

ing on methanogens is Dr Peter Janssen at AgResearch, Palmerston North.

Janssen says the rumen of animals is where feed is held and fermented by a complex community of different micro-organ-isms including methano-gens. These live on the hydrogen gas that is a by-product of the rumina-tion process; the methane they produce is no use to the animal so is expelled during belching. “These methane pro-ducing micro-organisms are evolutionarily dis-tinct from the other parts

of this complex system including the ruminant animal. They are biolog-ically different – prom-ising if you are trying to develop a strategy to elim-inate those without harm-ing any other part.”

Trouble is it’s difficult to develop a vaccine or any sort of inhibitor, Jans-sen says.

The science challenge is underpinned by con-tinuous investment by the PGgRc and NZAGRC, funded by the government and the primary sector.

Janssen says it takes a long time to build up knowledge and expertise

animal trials are integral to the research being carried out at the nZaGrc.

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news 9

Tiny organism a big challenge to methane researchersagresearch’s Peter Janssen is one of the scientists working on methanogens and reducing nZ’s agricultural emissions.

in this area – a clear under-standing of methanogens, in part by growing them in a laboratory.

Various scientific strat-

egies are being worked on and trialled. These includ-ing breeding animals that produce less methane and studying different feed

types for their effects on the amount of methane an animal produces.

Our scientists have bred animals that pro-duce less methane. Vari-ous brassicas are found to reduce methane emis-sions, to a limited degree. Scientists are working on a vaccine and an ‘inhibitor’ but a solution is still five years away.

Janssen says New Zea-

land researchers’ contri-bution is significant and the quality of their work world class.

“Similar research is being done in Australia, Canada, to some extent in the US and some EU countries [but there is no] comprehensive programme. We have a programme of hedging our bets with low impact, low risk and high impact, high

risk strategies. “No one else has pro-

grammes applicable to our agricultural systems so we have to look after our own and make sure we develop things that work in our farming systems.”

There is no guarantee a solution developed over-seas would work in New Zealand given the unique nature of our farming sys-tems.

aNIMaL tRIaLs are integral to the research being done by the NZagRC and the PggRc.

at the research facility, based at Palmerston North, experiments on sheep and cattle measure the effects of mitigation strategies, Dr Peter Janssen says.

Before the animals undergo the methane tests they get time to acclimatise to the environment. sheep selected for tests are fed for two to three weeks prior on the diet they will have during the two-day trial.

“the aim is get the rumen adapted to the food otherwise huge errors, or variance can occur. so they might be on cut pasture or lucerne pellets or a brassica; it depends on the type of experiment.

“We often use a lucerne pellet diet because you can produce a large amount of it and it’s consis-tent from day to day and from experiment to experi-ment; whereas pasture changes a lot. You have to be careful it wasn’t the change in pasture quality that’s causing a slight difference in the methane emis-sions.”

this helps ensure validity of data over a longer period, given that variations in feed quality are effec-tively taken care of.

after two to three weeks of the new diet, the animals are taken to the research facility, put in metabolism crates and tethered and fed for about three days acclimatise to their new environment. No welfare issues arise and they soon settle.

Once acclimatised to the laboratory environment they are moved to the next room and the methane chambers – respiratory chambers where for two days air is pumped in and everything coming out is measured every six minutes including the methane.

“We can give them a defined amount of feed and measure how much of that they can eat…. Later we measure how much methane they produce, so we know how much they ate and how much methane they produce. then we can calculate ‘methane yield’, basing our measurements of methane on the amount of methane per unit of feed eaten.” From this they can calculate whether some feeds produce more or less methane.

Vaccination trials can determine any impact on methane production or the animals can be dosed with an inhibitor to test its impact on methane production. the researchers can also identify animals which are low methane producers.

In a nearby computer room all data is collected and stored.

Breathe in, now breathe out...

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10 newswoolgrowers warming to levy – proponent

How the levy will work

ENGAGEMENT HAS been “amazing” from wool growers and the post-har-vest industry on the upcoming wool levy referendum, says Sandra Faulker – Wool Levy Group chair.

She is confident a healthy propor-tion of wool growers have a high level of awareness about the referendum. Voting papers will go out on Septem-ber 10 with a definitive proposal and voting closes on October 10.

“We are working with the whole industry … the contribution both from growers and the post-harvest industry has been huge and we would like to extend our appreciation to the industry for that,” Faulkner told Rural News.

“As the chair of this group that is easily the most important thing… that doesn’t necessarily mean they all agree with us, but they are all willing to help us build this proposal.”

It’s taken a while to get to this stage and the process is now at the

“pointy end”. “There are those that very much concerned that it could be hijacked by various interests but it just can’t be with the amount of engagement we’ve had.”

The proposal is long-term plan-ning on behalf of an industry, she says. The Wool Levy Group has out-lined key objectives in communica-tion, education and R&D.

Just one aspect Faulkner believes offers exciting possibilities is offering teaching fellowships at universities. The only wool related tertiary activi-ties she knows of are about eight to 10 lectures at Lincoln University on pro-duction science.

“There’s huge potential to encour-age young people back into our indus-try with training.”

On the innovation side they have had meetings through the consul-tation period with lead researchers in the industry onshore. “They are doing some great stuff which is not being communicated well.

“There are some areas within the farmgate where extension could be

quite useful but it is making sure that growers know what’s available. Even I, as a wool grower, have got quite excited about some of the things have papers writ-ten on them and we just haven’t heard about.”

The Wool Levy Group has identi-fied areas of communi-cation and extension to farmers.

Getting the story out can be quite targeted, Faulker says. “That is where the use of modern social media and such like can be used to great affect without great expense.”

Faulkner says they are still looking for feedback before the voting papers and proposal are printed: [email protected]

tHe WOOL Levy group proposes an initial levy of no more than 3c/kg.

On the average 5.4kgs (including slipe) greasy weight equivalent per head produced per annum this would equal: 16.2c per sheep; 2000 sheep

- $324 per annum; 5000 sheep - $810 per annum.

In a new Wool Commodities Levy act, it is proposed an upper

limit of the levy of 5c/kgwould be stipulated.

allocation of funds includes:Communication (advo-cacy) - $0.5m:

• support trade nego-tiations and improve market access;

• a voice for wool and first point of contact for

government, business, banking and universities;

• an economic service • regular grower communications. education (Raising demand) – as a

critical aspect, $2.7m;• the Campaign for Wool (replacing

the existing test house contribution);• contestable fund for collabora-

tive projects educating retail staff and consumers;

• tertiary teaching Fellowships; • a contestable scholarship fund;• New Zealand’s IWtO obligations;• Key stakeholders consulted to

ensure a better understanding of lead markets including the most effective ways to create demand. innovation (r&d) - up to $0.5m:

• coordination, communication and extension of investment currently being made in wool research and development, leading to direct benefit to wool producers;

• a contestable fund for research projects not covered by current funding but are clearly of the benefit to the industry

• the projected spend of $0.5m may be reassessed after year one, based on the industry’s research needs.

governance and administration will cost $0.5m.

administration kept to a minimum, with a proposed board of three farmer elected directors (elected nation-ally) and up to two appointees post-harvest.

It is proposed that three farmer directors on the Wool Levy group will form the first transitional board for continuity and momentum.

PaM TiPa

pamelat@ruralnews�co�nz

sandra faulkner

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news 11

Feds aim for science focus

new fed farmers board ready for action. from left: anders crofoot; andrew Hoggard; rick Powdrell; William rolleston (seated); Katie milne; ian mackenzie and chief executive Graham smith.

FEDERATED FARMERS president, William Rolleston, says the organisation will have a good look at the agricultural science system from a farmer’s point of view.

Speaking to Rural News, just before new board’s first meeting last week, Rolleston said he planned to put together a special group from the federation to look at this area and see what benefits farmers get from it.

“Plenty of people are

looking at it, but we want a farmer’s view about what has and hasn’t been effec-tive and where the frus-trations are and what the strategic issues are,” he says.

“We’ll look at all farm-ing types, as well as the environment because sci-ence and innovation sits across those areas.

“It’s about how we improve our productiv-ity. How we add value. How we manage our envi-ronmental footprint and how we deal with all those debates in the public arena. Because if the sci-ence is not right and prop-

erly scrutinised, then you get the wrong outcomes.”

Rolleston says under his watch the Feds will continue to play a “con-structive” role in decisions related to the farming sector and work collabor-atively with other organ-isations.

“My view is that poli-tics is about the achievable and you have to have aspi-rations, but you can’t just stand on a principle to the exclusion of all other out-comes.

“That’s where that collaboration model is very good because when you sit down and

start talking to people whom you think have a completely different view, you find you agree on a lot more than you think you did. It’s about seeing what we can achieve for farmers in New Zealand,” he explains.

“The approach we’ve taken is that we have to look at what we can achieve and go for that. That doesn’t mean making compromises. It’s plan-ning a strategy which gets an outcome you want, but maybe doing in it a less confrontational way.”

Rolleston says he plans to run the Fed’s board just

like he runs every board. “I am not a details

person – I am much more of a high level, strategic person. I think I’m pretty much in the style of Bruce Wills who allowed the conversation to flow and

reach its conclusions.” Rolleston says in many

ways the Federation is like a “mini government” where board members have their own portfo-lios. The way they have been allocated for the next

three years is based on themes and he says they all interlink.

Not surprisingly, Rolleston is looking after the science and innovation areas, as well as trade and economics.

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12 news

open on trends and consider carefully why the ban has occurred and how the New Zealand feeling aligns.”

Russia has banned imports on beef, pork, fruit, vege-tables, poultry, fish and dairy products from the EU, US, Australia, Canada and Norway for one year; the tit-for-tat sanctions followed sanctions imposed by the US and EU.

In a media conference earlier this month, Fyodorov was asked about markets that would be used to make up for the shortfall.

He said 40 new Brazilian companies can now export meat products to Russia.

Extra cheese, butter and powdered milk will come from South America and New Zealand, he says.

For vegetables and fruits, Russia is relying on China, the Middle East and former Soviet bloc countries.

Beaut, he won our ute!OF THE many thousands of entries in the Rural News ‘Beaut I Want to Win that Ute’ competition, Richard Main of Pukeatua is the lucky winner.

Richard and Margaret Main live south of Mount Maungatautari, near the Waikato township of Pukeatua.

The rolling country of their 198ha farm was once home to the Te Whanake South Devon stud, which is no longer registered. The main

income on the farm now is dairy grazing, which provides more steady income than the beef and sheep used to.

Richard was taken aback by his win, saying he hadn’t had a lot of luck in his time.

“Thanks very much to Rural News and to Mahindra for the opportunity. I can’t believe it,” he said.

But the win creates a problem of

sorts: what to do with the faithful 1986 Land Rover 110 that has served him so well, but is suddenly surplus to requirements.

Keen to avoid clutter, Margaret Main had the answer: “Sell it!”

Thanks to all the Rural News read-ers who entered this competition.

More great prizes are coming and we wish you the best of luck with those.

Russian banfRom page 13

Mildew resistance breakthroughGERMAN AND Australian researchers have made a break-through in understanding how barley resists powdery mildew.

It has long been thought polysaccharide callose is the main component of papillae “plugs” that barley cells build around invading strands of fungus but the researchers found two other polysaccharides play a key role.

“It appears that callose acts like an initial plug in the wall, but arabinoxylan and cellulose fill the gaps in the wall and make it much stronger,” says University of Adelaide senior research scientist Alan Little.

“We can now use this knowledge to find ways of increasing these polysaccharides in barley plants to pro-duce more resistant lines available for growers.”

– Alan Harman

Farmlands electionsCOOPERATIVE FARM-LANDS is calling for director nominations for two North Island seats and one South Island.

Directors retiring by rotation, Don Macfar-lane (South Island) and Tony O’Boyle and Nikki Davies-Colley (North Island), are available for

re-election. Nomina-tions can only be made by transacting share-holders for three or more years with Farm-lands or its predecessor companies and must be signed by two sharehold-ers and the nominee.

Deadline for nomina-tions is noon August 29.

Get upto date news at www.ruralnews.co.nzLATEST STORIES EVERY DAY

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news 13

more NZ milk off to the Russian front?

RUSSIA WANTS more dairy products from New Zealand but are we ready to sell?

After banning prod-ucts from some major producers, Russia’s Minis-ter of Agriculture Nikolai Fyodorov named New Zea-land as one of the coun-tries to make up for the shortfall.

However, Dairy Com-panies Association of New Zealand (DCANZ) says the situation is evolving and politically complex.

DCANZ execu-tive director Kimberly Crewther says it regrets the political impasse in Ukraine is impacting food trade.

“We are seeking to better understand the developments both in terms of the Russian

market and the broader global dairy market impli-cations,” she told Rural News.

“It is too difficult to say what those might be at this time. Russia is the 25th largest market for New Zealand dairy exports, and there are some nota-

ble differences in the New Zealand product mix pro-file and the Russian dairy product import profile, particularly in relation to cheese.”

New Zealand is already a significant supplier of dairy products to Russia; NZTE figures show we

exported $193 million of products to Russia in 2010 and supplied more than half of Russia’s imported butter.

But pumping more dairy products into a country that has banned imports from the US, EU and Australia may not be a

good look.Prime Minister John

Key said whether we sell more dairy products to Russia needs to be worked through.

“I’d hate to think that New Zealand was doing something other countries weren’t, but you’ve got to

remember this is being driven by the Russians and not driven by us.”

Key says refusing to sell products to a country out of protest, was not a stance the Government had ever taken.

“We can have a look at that, and we can take some advice on that, but at this stage I suspect we would sell if demand was there.

“And these are private sector companies so we couldn’t actually stop them from selling [their prod-ucts] there if they want to.”

University of Waikato’s Jacqueline Rowarth agrees with Key.

She points out that Belarus is the main sup-plier of milk and dairy into Russia and isn’t banned. EU countries- namely the Netherlands, Finland and Germany- export $1.1 bil-lion worth of dairy prod-ucts annually into Russia,

Belarus sends $2.3b worth of products.

Belarus also dominates meat exports with Brazil and Paraguay, another two countries not on black list; together they make up 50% of Russian meat imports.

“So I’m with PM John Key in needing consider-ation of pros and cons,” Rowarth says. “It is possi-ble that the EU countries banned will now be trying to put product into other markets, so I think we should keep all eyes

SUDeSH KISSUN

[email protected]

SOME AUSTRALIAN farmers will directly feel the effects of Russia’s sanctions, says National Farmers Federation president Brent Finlay.

Australia annually exports around A$400 million worth of agri-cultural products to Russia. Finlay says the farm sector was concerned about disruptions to export markets due to the fact Australia exports over 60% of its agricultural produce, and is inherently export orientated.

“We expect some Australian farmers to directly feel the effects of the sanctions; however, the severity of total impact to the farm sector is

still to be determined,” says Finlay.Australian Agriculture Minister

Barnaby Joyce says it will work closely with affected producers to minimise the impact on their busi-ness.

Joyce says it’s disappointing that rather than listening to international concern about its actions in Ukraine, Russia has chosen to apply import restrictions.

“The Australian Government is currently working to assess the full impact of the ban on imports of certain agricultural products, raw materials and foodstuffs from

Australia,” he says.“Our priority is to ensure the

ongoing success of Australian agri-cultural producers and exporters.”

Russia is not a major export market for Australia; it takes only 1% of its agricultural exports.

Australian agricultural exports to Russia in 2013 were valued at about A$405 million but included some commodities now already banned including beef (A$159 million); milk and dairy products (A$76 million); live animals, excluding seafood, (A$55 million); and fruit and nuts (A$9 million).

Australia gets whacked by banKimberly Crewther

to page 12

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New Zealand2012 - 2014


14 news

falling payout may force on-farm changesA REDUCTION in cow num-bers and a move by some farmers to less costly pro-duction systems could be among consequences of the predicted $6 payout to dairy farmers for the 2014/15 season, says a dairy industry financial expert.

KPMG’s Brent Love told Rural News the lower payout may trigger some significant changes in farming systems as farmers seek to maximise production and reduce costs. The other factor driving this change is the rules regional councils are now imposing on farming, which particu-larly affect the dairy industry.

But Love adds the high prices of the past two sea-sons – and especially the last season – will provide a buffer

for farmers to manage this season. A lot will depend on the financial position of the individual farmers.

“At $6 those with little debt and who can alter their variable costs easily will be well back on their profitabil-ity from the last season, but will still produce a profit. But farmers who have got high debt levels and are facing increasing interest rates, and are unable to pull back their cost structure quickly, will find that the $6 payout will put them into a deficit situ-ation.

“It’s about managing your liquidity through the time when you have a lower payout until things pick up.”

Love says high stocks of milkpowder in China mean the present market volatil-ity could continue for some months and prices could fall

even further especially as surplus dairy products from the USA and Europe hit the market because of the import ban imposed by Russia. It could take until Christmas before the inventory stocks come down.

Love adds while many farmers have retired debt, others will have taken the risk and spent money on development.

“Banks are relatively understanding and have a good knowledge of the market, so they are not going

to make any rash decisions over the next six months over farmers’ positions,” he says. “They will be more will-ing to send farmers signals about how they can manage their position. I suppose the real risk is if we go through this season and things don’t pick up as we suggest, and we end up with another season being at $6, I think that would then start to put a bit of stress on parts of the industry.”

Farmers spoken to by Rural News say they will be

very hard-nosed about costs and the performance of their animals in the coming season. One farmer indicated he would quickly cull any poor performing cows and would look closely at the cost benefits of supplements such as PKE.

Love expects dairy farm-ers to re-do their budgets with a view to optimising production for the lowest possible costs. A lot will depend on the nature of their systems and whether or not it is possible to change these quickly.

Love says while the drop in payout will create some problems, the situation is nowhere near as bad as when the global financial crisis struck in 2008/09. The banks and Fonterra are in a much stronger financial position now.

peteR BURKe

[email protected]

THERE IS talk in some farming circles that the dairy industry is about to go through what could be termed a ‘reality check’— similar to what the sheep industry went through in the 1950’s after the boom/bust of the wool industry.

There are hints that a lower payout may put off sheep and beef farmers either converting to dairying or dairy support.

But Love says, from his experience, a downturn is possibly the best time to do a conversion.

“Dairy cattle prices might come back a bit and the cost of conversion might not be as inflated as when times are buoyant,” he says. “The better conver-sions that I have had anything to do with, over the last 20 years, have been done in a downturn not in an upturn. So some-times it is a good time to convert.”

Love believes conversions in Canter-bury and Otago have dropped slightly due mainly to the changes to local envi-ronment rules. But conversions are a long term project and are generally based on a conservative payout figure of around $6. The present drop in the payout will see conversions continue at a ‘moderate rate’.

Time to convert?

Falling dairy payout may see a drop in cow numbers and a move to less costly production say KPMG.


news 15

on the buzz for volunteer farms

VOLUNTEER WAIKATO farms are wanted for pollina-tor research.

Reliance on the honeybee for pollination of pasture and horticultural crops is becoming risky with varroa mite and colony collapse, says researcher, Jamie Stavert, a PhD stu-dent at Auckland University.

“So we need to look at other strategies for pollination in agricultural systems,” Stavert told Rural News. Many other insects pollinate crops including bumblebees, native bees and flies. The planned experiment looks at how land use intensity changes these alternative pollinator communi-ties.

Stavert says they need about 10 more farms for the research which involves sowing in mid October a 50x50m accessible corner of the farm in pak choi. Researchers would return in December to assess the pollinators and rate of pollination, but they would need to follow the plot through until seed harvest in about February.

Up to 10 more farms are needed – offers from any type of farm are welcomed, and researchers will need to assess which ones which work best.

The government-funded research programme involves Plant and Food Research and the University of Auckland.

“There’s a number of other insects that are good polli-nators – bumble bees, there are a lot of native flies, native bees,” Stavert says. “You can imagine at some sites which are really intensively managed like dairy farms there isn’t much habitat for these unmanaged pollinators so you wouldn’t expect to find many of them at these sites. As you move towards farms where there is a high proportion of natural habitat within the farm, you will find a higher diversity of these unmanaged pollinators.

“We plan to find farms along this land use intensity gra-dient, plant out fields with bak choi which is just a yellow flowering brassica crop. We use that as a model crop to measure the pollinator visitors to the area and then we can also measure how well they were pollinating.

“We basically will be bean counters for a month, walk-ing transects through the plants and recording the number of pollinators and measuring how much pollen they trans-fer from flower to flower – that sort of thing.”

He hopes it will lead to some strong practical applica-tions such small changes in the farming practice which could potentially increase the diversity of pollinators within an area.

Dr David Pattemore, leader of the Plant and Food Research-led programme, says alternative species can make an important contribution to pollination. “We are developing ways to use these other species, so that grow-ers are not reliant on managed honeybees as their only pol-lination strategy,” he says.

Any farmers who can offer their farms for the experi-ment can contact Jamie Stavert on [email protected] or phone 021 0235 6137.

pam tIpa

[email protected]

Researcher Jamie Stavert says a number of other insects are good pollinators.

Consultant research raises questions

THE INITIAL report of an extensive survey of farmers about decision making, governance and succession plans “raises more questions than answers” the chief executive of the New Zealand Institute of Primary Industry Management (NZIPIM) says.

“The figure of $4 return for every dollar spent with

consultants is particularly interesting,” NZIPIM chief executive Stephen Macaulay told Rural News following last week’s Lincoln University media release on the work of senior lecturer in farm management research, Dr Kevin Old, and research fellow, Dr Peter Nuthall (see management, p33).

“It’s an opportunity for us to have a more meaningful discussion about how we build

the capacity of consultancy; how we bring more talented young people into the farming area; how we meet the future demand for consultants, particularly as these resource management plans come on stream around the country.”

A worrying finding was that despite, on average, a good return on investment in consultants many farmers don’t use them, there are trust issues, and most of those that do use a consultant

only do so to a limited extent.Macaulay says he sees that as a

challenge for NZIPIM.“We need to better articulate

the value proposition of consultants, not just to the farming community, but also to Government, especially MPI, if we’re to hit that target of doubling primary industry exports.” – See pages 33-34.

aNDRew Swallow

[email protected]

@rural_news

facebook.com/ruralnews

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RuRAL NewS // AUGUST 19, 2014

16 news

farmers need to step up for higher profits – BlNZ chair

IT’S TIME for the sheep and beef sector to be stepping up to boost profitability behind the farmgate, Beef + Lamb NZ chairman James Parsons says.

The sheep and beef sector hasn’t achieved anywhere near its potential in adopting more finely tuned farm systems that drive production and efficiency and reduce costs, he told a farmers meeting at Wellsford, north of Auckland.

The top 20% in the

sheep and beef industry showed what could be done and were exceeding dairy profitability on a per-kilo basis, he said.

At a previous meeting of mixed farmers Parsons took a straw poll and asked, “dairy farmers put up your hands if you know how much you produced in total production last year”. About 13 were in the room and they all raised their hands.

Of about 25 sheep and beef farmers in the room he asked, “how many of you know how much you produced in total meat and wool production

pam tIpa

[email protected]

last year for your whole farm?” One raised his hand.

“These guys were having a rigorous discussion on meat industry reform… there were factors outside the farmgate which needed to be sorted before they would be profitable.

“I respectfully pointed out to them ‘if we don’t know how much we produce and more importantly the cost to produce each kilo and the profit we make on each kilo we sell, it is unfair for us to be blaming external factors before we truly interrogate our own business’.”

Parsons says sheep and beef farmers need to understand where they sit today and set some targets on where they want to be then “start to move forward”.

While the top 20% of sheep and beef farmers get the same prices as

other farmers – just over $4/kg – a standout feature is their lower costs of production per kilo, despite having higher costs per hectare. When they divide their costs across 270kg of production rather than the average 180kg/ha, then the costs per kilo

reduce quickly. This is something the traditional per-hectare analysis doesn’t illustrate. These farmers after debt servicing are making a greater profit per kilo of product than dairy farmers, although on an EBIT measure they are more closely matched. Parsons keeps hearing that the sheep and beef industry is broken and can’t make money, but the data does not support that.

“I’m trying to be a bit provocative with different ways of looking at things,” he says.

BLNZ wants to

BLNZ recognises farmers need someone to help walk them through aspects of improving their business. One part of the Red Meat Profit Partnership looks at how the industry lines up the rural service professionals “to ensure we get a consistent message through the pipeline on how farmers do that change”. – James Parsons

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news 17

farmers need to step up for higher profits – BlNZ chairBeef + Lamb chair James Parsons says the sheep and beef sector hasn’t achieved anywhere near its potential.

help farmers do things differently and is lining up extension activities and support mechanisms for different farm systems – e.g. beef finishing, lamb finishing or perhaps hill country sheep breeding.

“It is up to individual farmers to identify where the opportunities sit within their business,” he said. If you are growing sufficient grass and utilising that grass well yet still not performing at the top level, then maybe genetics is the limiting factor. “So it is about working out where the best point of intervention is. Do a stocktake of your farm… then identify just one intervention which will make a difference.”

Parsons says the BLNZ website will soon have a quick easy tool to calculate production: farmers can plug in opening stock numbers, liveweights, work out sales less purchases and plug in grazing stock numbers and finally expenses.

“It will calculate what total production is for your farm, then you can work out the cost of production and profit

per kilo. If people start identifying where they sit today, where their costs are and start setting small goals for where they want to be, it’s a good journey to go on…. We’ve got to get some focus and drive. The dairy industry does this a lot better than we do.

“It’s time for us in the sheep and beef sector to start stepping up; there are always opportunities outside the farmgate. I’m not trying to discredit opportunities for achieving more per kilo for our product; that is really exciting. But if we can get both stars aligning – more per kilo of product plus producing more cheaply, then we get a double whammy.”

Parsons says BLNZ recognises farmers need someone to help walk them through aspects of improving their business. One part of the Red Meat Profit Partnership looks at how the industry lines up the rural service professionals “to ensure we get a consistent message through the pipeline on how farmers do that change”.

“The other

MEAT INDUSTRY Excellence (MIE) will focus on

industry procurement methods and using indepen-

dent consultants, paid for with $219,000 funding

from Beef + Lamb NZ, says Parsons.

MIE is a lobby group pushing for structural reform

in the meat industry.

Parsons says BLNZ wouldn’t normally fund the

work of a lobby group but a majority of farmers at

BLNZ’s annual meeting voted in support of an MIE

remit asking for money.

Before the funding was granted MIE was required

to submit a business plan, “rather than BLNZ just

writing out a cheque”.

That plan was submitted and the funding

granted. “They have a focus on procurement prac-

tices and more efficient procurement methods.

The important point here is independent consulting

firms are being contracted by MIE; this not just MIE

doing a desktop analysis and coming up with some

ideas.

“We want to see some credible analysis that adds

to the body of knowledge and ways we can move

forward.” Use of B+LNZ funding will be limited to

this. “They are pushing for structural reform. There

is no way any funding will go from BLNZ to putting

meat company directors up for election or things like

that.”

Meat ginger group gets its funding

component is benchmarking: 80% of farmers think they are in the top 20% from surveys we’ve done. If a farmer believes he or she is in the top 20% but in reality sits at the 40th percentile and is struggling to break even… then it is understandable they will be frustrated

with the sector. So maybe the lights need to be turned on regarding the opportunities through good benchmarking.”

Parsons told Rural News some findings from the Red Meat Profit Partnership regarding top performers should be released by early next year.

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18 news

Miraka looks beyond Chinese market

MAORI-OWNED DAIRY company Miraka says it will probably pull back a bit from sales to China in the coming season. It is likely to spread its products further afield, says chief executive Richard Wyeth.

Miraka is following the lead of most other dairy com-panies in offering an initial payout of $6/kgMS for the coming season – a reaction to the “softening” whole milk powder market.

Wyeth and Miraka chair-man Kingi Smiler are just back from Asia where they visited existing customers and prospected for new ones.

They hope to exploit new opportunities within three to five years, Wyeth says.

“Vietnam has always been important… given our share-holding in Vinamilk, but we have never focused entirely on Vietnam. Last year, China was a strong market for us; we sold more product into China last year than in either of our previous two seasons.”

Miraka in the next few weeks will produce and send the first of its UHT packs to China as part of a deal with Shanghai Pengxin. The com-pany has two processing lines capable of packing 60 million L of milk annually into 250ml Tetrapaks. It hopes to have both lines running to capac-ity by the end of the year. The plant has space for two more lines and Miraka is likely to diversify into other markets.

The company is seen as a model for other Maori trusts and incorporations. Rural

News knows of several others in the North Island weighing their options about adding value to the milk they pro-duce. Wyeth says this is great and will complement their operation.

“If we can inspire other Maori entities and whanau-based busi-nesses, that is fantas-tic.”

MIRAKA, NOW in its fourth season, has developed faster than expected.

The company is essentially a joint venture between two Maori trusts – Tuaropaki and Wairarapa Moana.

Tuaropaki owns the land the factory is built on at Mokai, and the geothermal power station that supplies its electricity. Wair-arapa Moana has 10,000 cows on farms around Mangakino.

Other shareholders in the venture include the Maori trustee and Vietnam’s largest dairy company Vinamilk, which owns 19% of the company. Other Maori trusts and individual farmers supply milk to Miraka.

Financially strong Miraka has invested $27 million on the UHT plant linked to supplying branded products for Shanghai Pengxin in the Chinese market. And it got a $1.75 million Primary Growth Partnership (PGP) grant, matched by equivalent industry co-funding, to develop ways of extracting high value proteins from milk. Miraka and Wairarapa Moana (which Kingi Smiler also

chairs) are the first Maori agri-business recipients of a PGP grant.

Wyeth says the company is happy with its growth and finan-cial results, and with provisions it has made for shareholders and staff.

“In revenue we are just short of $250 million for this financial year and over three years that is significant growth. We built the UHT plant 12 months ahead of the original plan when we were putting the strategy together and we filled the factory 12 months ahead of time.

“By getting to capacity on the whole milk plant, that enabled us to generate the revenue and gave us the confidence to step into the value-added side of the business and invest in the UHT plant.”

The company has a waiting list of suppliers, nice considering it was at first looking to attract farmers. Many farmers took a leap of faith to become a Miraka supplier. Now the company has gained credibility with suppliers and is seen as an alternative people are happy to come to.

Fast growth in 4 years

PETER BURKE

[email protected]

Miraka chief executive Richard Wyeth.

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world 19More support for drought-stricken farmers

AUSTRALIAN LAMB exports are forecast 218,000 tonnes this year, up 2% on the record set in 2013.

Meat & Livestock Australia spokesman Tim McRae predicts lamb will keep its favourable posi-tion with Australians; and demand from the US, China and the Middle East remains strong at 66% of exports.

“In 2014 Australian lamb exports to the Middle East are on track to reach 61,000 tonnes, and lamb exports to the US are forecast to grow 8% to 42,500 tonnes, the highest since 2007.

“China will remain important for Australian sheepmeat in volume and value, with lamb exports up on year-ago levels during the first six months of the year and forecast 1% higher on the record 2013 volume, at 40,000 tonnes.”

Australian mutton shipments are seen falling 7% in 2014 to 160,000 tonnes; live sheep exports are expected to rise 16.6% year-on-year to 2.3 mil-lion head.

“The recovery in live export demand is under-pinned by the reopening of potentially large mar-kets, especially in the Middle East, and should see an increase to 2020,” McRae says.

The Australian sheep flock is seen rebuilding after two years of drought. MLA estimates the June 2014 numbers 2.7% down, to 72.2 million head, but McRae says a confident lamb industry expects flock numbers of about 75 million from 2015.

“The sheep flock grew to 74.7 million by 2012 fol-lowing wet years in 2010 and 2011, but since then the overall flock has declined primarily due to the higher sheep slaughter in the 2013-14 fiscal year, the result of drought in many regions.” – Alan Harman

Aussie lamb exports boom

MORE FINANCIAL relief is on the way for drought-stricken farmers in Aus-tralia.

The Federal Govern-ment this month said it will grant an extra A$20 million for farm finance loans in Queensland and NSW, and A$20 million for loans to help Western Australia farms cope with drought.

Minister for Agri-culture Barnaby Joyce says the 2014-15 grant to Queensland and NSW farmers recognises they are “doing it tough bat-tling drought… and the effects of drought on their farms”.

“These loans are one way we can help farmers get through hard times. We responsibly allocated this funding where it is most needed.”

The scheme allows eli-gible farm businesses to restructure debt via low interest loans – farmers now hard-up but whose businesses are commer-

cially viable longer term.The scheme succeeded

in 2013-14 and the government expects many to take the help this year. Queensland and NSW now have A$50 million available this financial year. In Queensland, loans up to A$1 million are available at 4.5%, and in NSW up to A$650,000 can be borrowed at the same rate.

The scheme covers all states and the North-ern Territory. The 2014-15 application rounds are now open in Queensland, NSW, Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory. Tas-mania and Victoria farm-ers can apply shortly.

Says Joyce, “Loan con-ditions and eligibility differ in each state and territory to reflect regional differences, so I urge farmers to contact their delivery agency for all the information they need. It’s important not to self-assess but to talk

to an expert.“Other support mea-

sures are available now for farmers doing it tough. Talk to the experts and find out about the support options available.”

Farmers in Western

Australia are soon to get help following agreement between the Federal and WA governments. Eligibil-ity for loans is agreed and A$20 million will soon be available.

“The loans will help

those experiencing drought to restructure their existing business debt.”

The five year loans will fund up to 50% of eligible farm business debt up to A$1 million at 4%. Parched NSW farmland.

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66

Market snapshot laMb Market trendsbeef Market trends


Beef & venison prices are reported as gross (before normal levies & charges are deducted). Lamb & mutton prices are reported nett (after levies & charges are deducted).

BEEF PRICES

c/kgCWT Change Last Week

2 Wks Ago

Last Year

NI P2 Steer - 300kg +3 4.98 4.95 4.60M2 Bull - 300kg +3 4.93 4.90 4.47P2 Cow - 230kg n/c 4.05 4.05 3.65M Cow - 200kg n/c 4.05 4.05 3.55

Local Trade - 230kg n/c 4.90 4.90 4.68SI P2 Steer - 300kg n/c 4.60 4.60 4.35

M2 Bull - 300kg n/c 4.10 4.10 4.20P2 Cow - 230kg n/c 3.20 3.20 3.10M Cow - 200kg n/c 3.15 3.15 2.95

Local Trade - 230kg n/c 4.75 4.75 4.50

Slaughter

Export Market DemandChange Last Week 2 Wks

Ago Last Year 5yr Ave

95CL US$/lb +5 2.83 2.78 1.93 1.82NZ$/kg +17 7.38 7.21 5.32 5.26

Procurement IndicatorChange 2Wks Ago 3 Wks


% Returned NI -0% 66.4% 66.6% 83.61% 77.3%% Returned SI -1% 55.6% 56.9% 78.0% 71.4%

LAMB PRICES

c/kgCWTChange Last

Week2 Wks

AgoLast Year

NI Lamb YM - 13.5kg n/c 5.98 5.98 5.36PM - 16.0kg n/c 6.00 6.00 5.38PX - 19.0kg n/c 6.02 6.02 5.40PH - 22.0kg n/c 6.03 6.03 5.41

Mutton MX1 - 21kg n/c 3.80 3.80 3.15SI Lamb YM - 13.5kg n/c 5.98 5.98 5.33

PM - 16.0kg n/c 5.98 5.98 5.35PX - 19.0kg n/c 5.98 5.98 5.37PH - 22.0kg n/c 5.98 5.98 5.38

Mutton MX1 - 21kg -5 3.13 3.18 3.15

Slaughter

Export Market DemandChange Last

Week2 Wks


UK Leg £/lb n/c 2.10 2.10 1.82 1.81NZ$/kg +4 8.38 8.34 8.06 8.43

Procurement IndicatorChange 2Wks

Ago3 Wks


% Returned NI -0% 73.0% 73.4% 67.6% 72.1%% Returned SI -0% 71.6% 71.9% 67.0% 73.4%

Venison PricesChange Last

Week2 Wks


NI Stag - 60kg +10 6.35 6.25 6.80 7.60SI Stag - 60kg +10 6.55 6.45 7.00 7.96

Play your part Record all your stock movements in the NAIT system

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MatingFarm to farm Events Grazing Gypsy Day From a sale yard

A & PSHOW

news price watch


BEEF

NI beef prices entice more to slaughter

Export bull and steer schedules in the NI continue to climb on the back of high global prices. The lifting prices have enticed more numbers to slaughter than seen at the same time in previous years. Both export steer and bull was between $4.90-$5.00/kg last week. Farmers are deciding whether to take advantage of the high prices and get rid of killable cattle now, or hold on and put more weight on, knowing that replacing at present is difficult given scarce numbers of store cattle. The very low numbers of cattle being slaughtered in SI have kept schedules low in comparison with the NI. Prime schedules are firm at $4.60/kg driven by a competitive local trade market at $4.75/kg. Bull schedules in the upper SI are reaping some benefit from higher NI prices, but still remain 60-70cpk behind.

Bull beef outlook is promising

US beef prices have continued their dizzying climb over the last two weeks with imported 90CL and 95CL both at unprecedented highs. Consumer demand so far appears unchecked by the rising prices, with foodservice demand leading the way. The question remains though: is there a limit to the amount an American will pay for a hamburger? With the market in completely uncharted territory few are game to pick how long prices will continue to climb; the end of the grilling season come October may be a trigger. However, most agree that the tight supply of beef in the US market will result in positive market sentiment for the next 12-18 months. Bull beef farmers should be reaping the benefits of firm schedules through the coming season.

LAMB

Lamb schedules continue to hold steady

Lamb schedules in both islands remained unchanged last week with $6.00-$6.20/kg gross the range. Lamb slaughter numbers are holding up better than earlier anticipated and processors are feeling relatively comfortable with current production levels, particularly with the bobby calf season in mid stream. The downturn of the NZD has done much to ease the pressure on processor margins, but any resultant lifts in schedules are likely to be slower coming as companies look to plump their own margins up a bit first. There is some variance in mutton schedules at present, which is indicative of the markets being targeted by individual companies. With mutton prices in China subdued, there has been some pull back in prices by those reliant on this market. In contrast, South East Asian markets are proving quite lucrative and companies targeting these markets have firm mutton prices, with some in the NI offering over $4.00/kg.

Store sheep markets positive across country

As store lamb numbers become more scarce, NI prices have subsequently pushed higher. At both Feilding and Stortford last week, very few lambs under 40kg traded for less than $3.00/kg; and the shorter term lines over 40kg still managed between $2.70-$3.00/kg. Paddock prices have been fuelled along by the firm trading in the yards, and are on par with what is achieved at auction. In the SI, both supply and demand for store lambs has about run its course. Prices are around 15-20cpk below those attainable in the NI.

DAIRY

World dairy prices tumble further

The latest globaldairytrade auction saw world dairy prices slump to new lows at 40% below prices seen in February this year. Analysts report that the fall is typical of a commodity cycle. The first of half of 2013 saw a reduction in global milk supply of half a billion litres, resulting in record high prices. The high prices enticed increased production and this, in combination with an absence of droughts, has seen a 7 billion litre increase in supply for the first half of 2014. Take away the massive buying power of China as they work through high inventories, and the result is an oversupply of milk. It is expected to take a bit of time for supply and demand to become balanced again.

WOOL PRICE WATCH DAIRY PRICE WATCH

Indicators in NZ$ Change 07-Aug 31-Jul Last Year Indicators in NZ$/T Change Last 2

WksPrev. 2

WksLast Year

Coarse Xbred Indic. -3 5.41 5.44 4.57 Butter +76 4234 4158 5253

Fine Xbred Indicator +5 5.78 5.73 5.01 Skim Milk Powder +79 4366 4287 5759

Lamb Indicator - - - - Whole Milk Powder -43 3999 4042 6218

Mid Micron Indic. -5 7.55 7.60 7.65 Cheddar +65 5233 5168 5475

Overseas Price Indicators Overseas Price Indicators

Indicators in US$/kg Change 07-Aug 31-Jul Last Year Indicators in US$/T Change Last 2

WksPrev. 2

WksLast Year

Coarse Xbred Indicator -4 4.58 4.62 3.62 Butter n/c 3600 3600 4150Fine Xbred Indicator +3 4.90 4.87 3.97 Skim Milk Powder n/c 3713 3713 4550Lamb Indicator - - - - Whole Milk Powder -100 3400 3500 4913Mid Micron Indicator -6 6.40 6.45 6.06 Cheddar -25 4450 4475 4325

CURRENCY WATCH

vs. NZ Dollar Last Week 2 Wks Ago 4 Wks Ago Last Year

US dollar 0.845 0.850 0.882 0.799Euro 0.633 0.635 0.648 0.597UK pound 0.503 0.504 0.515 0.514Aus dollar 0.913 0.915 0.939 0.879Japan yen 86.02 87.49 89.32 77.29

Euro

May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct

UK Pound

US Dollar

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A & PSHOW


22 agribusiness

CHINA’S DAIRY giant Yili, through its subsidiary Oceania Dairy, has collected its first milk direct from New Zealand farms as commissioning continues at its $214m, 10t/hour capacity plant at Glenavy, South Canterbury.

“I’m very pleased,” Oceania chief executive Aidan Johnstone told Rural News. “To have our first milk delivered August 4 was pretty good.”

Johnstone says as calving begins on Oceania’s 48 supplying farms all milk will be collected by Oceania and processed at Glenavy under the control of construc-tion firms Tetrapak and Babbage until commissioning of the powder plant is complete in mid September.

“It will be our staff working under their directions.”

It’s envisaged all product will be exported to China for further process-ing and retail, except for cream in the early part of the season.

“Our AMF plant won’t be commis-

sioned until November so we’re send-ing our cream to Synlait until then.”

Total intake this season is expected to be 170m L; the original target was 130m L from 40 farms. It will also take 50m L from Fonterra, as permitted under DIRA , putting total intake at about 220m L – 73% of the plant’s nominal 300m L capacity.

“So even if there’s no increase in our production capacity next season we’ll still be able to pick up extra milk from local suppliers.”

This season’s supply is within 50km and Johnstone doesn’t envisage needing to go much beyond that to fill the cur-rent plant, given the growing number of dairy farms in the Lower Waitaki areas of South Canterbury and North Otago.

The Glenavy site has plenty of space

for expansion but no plans or consent applications for a second dryer have been made.

Seven of this season’s supplying farms are new conversions, a few are former Fonterra suppliers, and “the core” are a block of former Synlait sup-pliers who moved en masse to Synlait for three seasons from New Zealand Dair-ies (NZDL). Fonterra acquired Russian-owned NZDL and its plant at Studholme, about 15km north of Oceania, after it went into receivership in May 2012, locking NZDL’s remaining 34 suppliers into supplying Fonterra for seven years in return for picking up NZDL’s missed milk payments.

Johnstone, who was chief executive at NZDL, notes Oceania’s dryer is “twice as large as the one at Studholme” and

unlike NZDL, Oceania’s parent Yili pro-vides an integrated supply chain all the way to retail.

“We’re not competing with Fonterra in the open market. Effectively it’s a closed supply chain.”

As such, the company’s business is “pretty well protected” from falling global dairy prices, though with Ocea-nia’s farmgate price locked at a 10c/kgMS premium to Fonterra’s milk price, falls in Fonterra’s forecast will be a concern to Oceania’s suppliers, he acknowledges.

“Yili is a large corporate, recently ranked tenth-largest dairy company in the world, so compared with past expe-

rience in this region the milk cheque is secure.”

Johnstone, trained as an accountant and in the dairy industry for 30 years, does not believe companies such as Oce-ania will erode milk prices for New Zea-land farmers in the long run.

“Fonterra’s payouts have increased as a result of the competitive tension and Fonterra remains far and away the dom-inant player so there is room for small and middle-sized competitors.

“A little competitive tension around the edges benefits everybody. We offer an alternative to Fonterra with minimal or no risk.”

Oceania Dairy chief executive aidan Johnstone says the first milk was delivered on august 4.

New dairy factory begins production

aNdrew swallow

[email protected]

“Yili is a large corporate, recently ranked tenth-largest dairy company in the world, so compared with past experience in this region the milk cheque is secure.”

MO

H09

66/R

N/D

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agribusiness 23

lincoln teams up with st Peters schoolPROFIT AND sustainability are the key drivers of a new demonstration farm in Waikato.

The St Peter’s School-Lincoln University demonstration dairy farm, launched last week by Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy, has set its sights on being in the top 3% of farms in the region for profitability and environmental performance.

Farm practices will be shared with other farmers in the region.

A joint venture between the school and Lincoln University, the farm will promote sustainable dairying, principally in Waikato but also the greater North Island, through collaborative research, education and training.

The 183ha eff dairy farm has been part of the school campus since it was developed in the 1930s.

St Peter’s principal Stephen Robb says its primary purpose until today has been efficient and productive dairying and adding to the environment of the school.

“The joint venture with Lincoln University, however, provides an opportunity to harness the farm’s resources, and with an upgrade in technology and world-best practice to lift performance and deliver tangible value to the dairy industry and the New Zealand economy.”

Lincoln vice-chancellor Dr Andrew West says the joint venture with St Peter’s will replicate the demonstration dairy farm the university and its partners operate in Canterbury.

“The Waikato region, like Canterbury, faces environmental challenges and the joint venture with St Peter’s will provide a similar platform to the one we have in the South Island, to demonstrate that sustainable, profitable dairying can be achieved while protecting the environment.

“The farm will give a boost to the Waikato because it represents the realities of dairy farming in the region.” It will provide leadership on farming profitably within the environmental limits set by the regional authorities.

West says he is is banking on interest from existing and potential dairy farmers and the public.

“The farm will be a best practice dairy farm in action, able to be observed and studied physically and for its strategy, practice data and results.”

Onsite field days will be held and results published regularly online, in papers published by Lincoln and by educating future farmers through the St Peter’s and Lincoln curricula.

Last week’s launch was also attended by Fonterra chairman John Wilson.

farm facts❱❱ the demonstration farm is milking 470

cows this season.

❱❱ situated along 4km of the Waikato River, the farm’s soil types vary from wetter soils on the northern side to sandy soils closer to the river.

❱❱ small pine plantations and gully sidings are planted.

❱❱ streams fenced off are being planted with native trees and shrubs.

❱❱ average pasture cover is 2200kgDM/ha.

an aerial view of the demo farm at

st Peter’s, Cambridge.

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24 agribusiness

New facility boosts company’s infant formula potential

INFANT FORMULA maker GMP Dairy Ltd has commissioned a new pro-duction line fitted with the latest food safety and traceability technology.

The Auckland company now has two production lines capable of process-ing about 40,000 tons of value-added dairy powder products. Their patented technologies include a self-developed ‘black box’ system, consumer-friendly 3D smartphone integrated traceability and auto-matic finished-production inspection.

Trade Minister Tim Groser, chief guest at the launch, commended GMP’s innovative sys-tems and its commitment to food safety, especially infant formula safety.

Groser said he was impressed with GMP’s patented ‘black box’ and traceability technologies which enable the produc-tion to be transparent to the public.

New Zealand food is highly regarded on food safety in global markets; Groser said GMP’s for-ward thinking and self-developed technologies will further boost our rep-utation.

The ‘Black box’ system is integrated with various recording devices, such as CCTV cameras, sen-sors, batch readers, X-Ray images and other devices installed at all critical stages of production. GMP Dairy is able to collect all the information and data, and store it in a safe loca-tion that is resistant to fire and earthquake.

The consumer-friendly 3D smartphone inte-grated traceability system records a digital image and a physical image of each individual unit, and gen-

erates a unique QR code for each product. This QR code is accessible by cus-tomers on their mobile apps and can be scanned before purchase.

The digital image allows customers to see the internal composi-tion of the product and to make sure there are no metal contaminants in the product. In addition, con-sumers can see impor-tant information about the product and supply chain. The physical image of the unit with the QR code helps customers identify fake products.

GMP’s new produc-tion line also uses sophis-ticated robotic systems and a vertical gravity drop processing system, all of which reduces labour required and substan-tially prevents contamina-tion by minimising human error and interference.

GMP’s assistant oper-ations manager Stelios Simpson says the company is the first manufacturer to develop and apply these technologies to the pro-duction of infant formulas, with the aim of improving product integrity, authen-ticity and safety.

The systems have had lots of attention from local New Zealand and overseas media, he says.

In March 2014, GMP Dairy’s pharmaceuti-cal grade system also impressed auditors from Certification and Accredi-tation Administration of the Peoples Republic of China (CNCA).

As a result, GMP Dairy was the only company out of the thirteen infant for-mula plants in New Zea-land to be registered by the Chinese government for manufacturing and exporting infant formula products to China, with-out corrective actions.

According to Chi-

na’s new regulations on imported infant formula, only registered manufac-

turers are able to make and export infant formula to China.

sudesh kissuN

[email protected]

Check out the latest market data atwww.ruralnewsgroup.co.nz/markets

Market Data Every Week

Trade Minister Tim Groser at the launch of GMP’s new production line.

At first we were pretty naïve about BVD. We knew nothing about it other than having some friends whose herd had been infected. We decided to

test after seeing what they were going through with fertility losses and that sort of thing. And because our young stock were grazing with other animals, we knew there was a chance they might be compromised.

After the tests, we found out that some of our stock were positive and we were looking for a PI or persistently infected animal. It was really disappointing, but the good thing about farming in New Zealand is that everybody talks to everybody else and soon we knew we weren’t alone. There were a lot of people we could draw on to help us work it through.

We put a management plan in place with our vet and made a decision to look at that year’s lowest producing heifers. That was a lucky guess backed

up with some science, because we found our PI straight away and were able to remove her. Following on from that, we made a decision to vaccinate calves with Bovilis every year to build up the herd’s immunity.

Vaccinating has given us huge peace of mind. We knew we wouldn’t completely remove BVD, but stopping young calves becoming PIs was a big step in increasing our herd’s reproductive efficiency – and also making sure the calves grew up and put weight on properly.

If you find you’ve got BVD in your herd, my advice is don’t be on your own with it. Go to your vet, put a plan in place and monitor that plan until you’ve completely finished with it. As long as you don’t give up halfway though, you can definitely get on top of it.

Ciarán Tully Dairy Farmer, Thames

Hear how other farmers tackled BVD at bvd.co.nz

“ The thought that we may have BVD in our herd really bothered us. The potential profit loss would threaten our family’s financial security.”

Ciarán Tully

“ Stopping young calves becoming PIs was a big step”

“My advice is don’t be on your own with it. Go to your vet, put a plan in place and monitor that plan until you’ve completely finished with it.”

Manage BVD. Vaccinate with Bovilis®

AVAILABLE ONLY UNDER VETERINARY AUTHORISATION ®Registered trademark. MSD Animal Health. msd-animal-health.co.nz Phone: 0800 800 543 NZ/BOV/0514/0001

ELE-

0138

8-RN


agribusiness 25

east Coast farmers welcome erosion funding boostEAST COAST hill-coun-try farmers making use of a government funding scheme to manage erosion on their land say they wel-come any improvements

that would increase acces-sibility to other landown-ers.

Associate Pri-mary Industries Minis-ter Jo Goodhew recently announced changes to the East Coast Forestry Project,

which provides funding to Gisborne district landhold-ers to assist with sustain-able land management on eroding and erosion prone land.

As the result of a three-year review and con-

sultation process, the 22-year-old initiative is to be known as the Ero-sion Control Funding Pro-gramme (East Coast) from August 28. Several changes aim to make the programme easier for land-

owners to participate, including the removal of certain paperwork, as well has speeding up payments to reduce the need for bridging finance.

Gisborne farmers Rob and Sandra Faulkner

sarah CharTerisrecently made use of the ECFP on their property, Wairakia. They farm in partnership with Rob’s sister Jo Graham and her husband Bruce and Faulkner says without the funding they would not have been able to plant 12ha of radiata and eucalyptus.

“There is a catchment known as Overlay 3A which was classified as the most highly erodible land and ours wasn’t a part of this originally,” said Faulkner.

“But we had parts that were highly erodible with a low stock rate and needed to do the right thing by the land. We asked the coun-cil to come and re-look at it which they did and we have since been able to make use of the ECFP to plant the trees.”

The 600ha is a family sheep, beef and cropping operation and Faulkner said the planting was part of their succession plan-ning. Their proactiveness in looking at the land’s future, and other initiatives they use on their farm, saw them named the Supreme win-ners of the 2014 East Coast Ballance Farm Environ-ment Awards.

“There have been four generations farm this land and succession plan-ning is a big part of it,” said Faulkner.

“The eucalyptus could be harvested in about 30 years and it will be making that section of land more profitable and sustainable. It is a positive outcome for us and any changes that make the process easier for other landowners can only be a good thing.”

Sandra Faulkner, who is also Federated Farm-ers Gisborne-Wairoa Meat & Fibre chair, said any-thing that assisted farmers

into good practice on farm would also have the sup-port of Federated Farmers.

Nick Seymour and his wife Pat made use of the scheme on their property back when it first started.

They fenced out 140ha of their 810ha hill country farm north of Gisborne and planted radiata from 1994 to 1996.

Seymour said given the district’s susceptibility to storms such as Cyclone Bola in 1988, and a high per-centage of erodible land, a funding scheme was a good idea.

However, he agreed changes did need to be made and he hoped uptake would increase, while still maintaining accountability.

“You had to meet the costs of the planting your-self and once you had completed it and met the requirements, you got the grant back. This meant you had to have a sympathetic bank manager.

“But in the past it meant accountability, so if your planting wasn’t up to it you didn’t get the grant. I hope that accountability is still there.”

Seymour said the plant-ing was successful on their land and the true outcome of their efforts could be measured soon.

the gisborne district has a severe erosion issue – 26% of gisborne district’s land is susceptible to severe erosion, compared with only 8% of all land in New Zealand.

severe erosion causes long-term damage to the productivity and sustainability of rural land and to water quality. this causes a ripple effect through other communities and industries in the region.

While many landowners have accessed the scheme since 1992, 60,000ha of eligible land still remained prone to erosion across the region, which prompted the review.

the changes come into effect on august 28.

east Coast erosion

sandra Faulkner

At first we were pretty naïve about BVD. We knew nothing about it other than having some friends whose herd had been infected. We decided to

test after seeing what they were going through with fertility losses and that sort of thing. And because our young stock were grazing with other animals, we knew there was a chance they might be compromised.

After the tests, we found out that some of our stock were positive and we were looking for a PI or persistently infected animal. It was really disappointing, but the good thing about farming in New Zealand is that everybody talks to everybody else and soon we knew we weren’t alone. There were a lot of people we could draw on to help us work it through.

We put a management plan in place with our vet and made a decision to look at that year’s lowest producing heifers. That was a lucky guess backed

up with some science, because we found our PI straight away and were able to remove her. Following on from that, we made a decision to vaccinate calves with Bovilis every year to build up the herd’s immunity.

Vaccinating has given us huge peace of mind. We knew we wouldn’t completely remove BVD, but stopping young calves becoming PIs was a big step in increasing our herd’s reproductive efficiency – and also making sure the calves grew up and put weight on properly.

If you find you’ve got BVD in your herd, my advice is don’t be on your own with it. Go to your vet, put a plan in place and monitor that plan until you’ve completely finished with it. As long as you don’t give up halfway though, you can definitely get on top of it.

Ciarán Tully Dairy Farmer, Thames

Hear how other farmers tackled BVD at bvd.co.nz

“ The thought that we may have BVD in our herd really bothered us. The potential profit loss would threaten our family’s financial security.”

Ciarán Tully

“ Stopping young calves becoming PIs was a big step”

“My advice is don’t be on your own with it. Go to your vet, put a plan in place and monitor that plan until you’ve completely finished with it.”

Manage BVD. Vaccinate with Bovilis®

AVAILABLE ONLY UNDER VETERINARY AUTHORISATION ®Registered trademark. MSD Animal Health. msd-animal-health.co.nz Phone: 0800 800 543 NZ/BOV/0514/0001

ELE-

0138

8-RN


26 opinion

editorial

the houndWant to share your opinion or

gossip with the Hound? Send your emails to:

[email protected]

edna

Grumpy!Your old mate hears that the recent Red Meat sector Confer-ence (RMsC), held in Wellington, was a posi-tive gathering of various industry people. But not everyone was happy. MIE’s John McCarthy was grumpy that his ginger group was not invited and given a speaking slot at the event. MIE met up in the capital, at the same time, and held their meeting in a motel – while the RMsC do was held at the more salubrious surrounds of te Papa. McCarthy reckons it was kind of appropriate that the ‘status quo’ confer-ence (RMsC) was held at a museum.

Cheap fakes!this old mutt reckons it is somewhat ironic that the NZ stock Exchange – owner, controller and publisher of a number of rural titles –tries to portray itself as in touch with heartland agricul-ture. so the Hound had a bit of a giggle when NZX is handing out 100% poly-ester tops, made in China – as a give-way to any cockies foolish enough to pay a sub for one of its magazines. Nice one – not!

racist? Not us!the Hound reckons most of the antago-nism over the potential purchase of Lochinvar station to shanghai Pengxin comes down to good, old fashioned racism. Much like that hollow claim: ‘that some of my best friends are Maoris’ often made by red necks before crit-icising the tangata whenua.

a long monthYour old mate reckons that the next four weeks of polit-ical posturing and elec-tioneering will be a very long month indeed. We’ve already had billions and billions of dollars of prom-ises made by various polit-ical parties – who have been carping on for the past three years about what a terrible state the country is in finan-cially. We’ve had effigy burn-ings; drunken and abusive chanting; billboard destruc-tion; boring candidate meet-ings; tired, old racist jokes by tired, old racists. there have been claims of Chinese takeovers of our country and a takeover of one polit-ical party by a fat, german fraudster on the run from the us. Hurry up sept 20!

No problemHow come all those poli-ticians who are desper-ately trying to itch New Zealanders inherent dislike and uncomfort-ableness with asians for their own political gain have not uttered a word of criticism over London-based Craigmore sustain-ables recently buying another North Otago dairy farm to add to the three it already owns in the region? Not a peep from Winston Peters, Colin Craig, David Cunliffe or Russel Norman. and does the greens muted response have anything to do with the fact that the owner of this company happens to have been one of its big political donors?

“who do we vote for to lead the ‘Farmers against land sales to Foreigners’ committee – Marinovich, McTaggart, O’Reilly or Van Dyke?”

Time to know who owns whatIT MUST be election season: foreign land own-ership is supposedly the hottest political issue for New Zealand voters.

Forget the economy, jobs, health, education, spies, the environment or even Nicky Hager’s latest conspiracy theories. It seems evil foreign-ers coming here and taking over our farms is the big issue.

And right on cue Winston Peters has awoken from his three-year slumber to beat his familiar xenophobe drum – though it was the Conserva-tives’ Colin Craig who beat him to the punch on the possible sale of Lochinver Station to Shang-hai Pengxin Group.

Soon the me-too brigade – Labour, Greens, Maori Party – was stepping up with further anti-foreign land sales policy. (No word from Inter-net/Mana on the issue, perhaps because of their foreign ownership.)

This is a pitch to voters that scratches the economic nationalism itch and is not unpopu-lar, especially given Asian buyers’ activities in the marketplace.

Though loathe to admit it publicly, New Zea-landers are uncomfortable with ‘different look-ing’ people owning farms and houses in our country. We dress this up as being not about race but ‘concerns’ over economic control of ‘our’ assets.

Fact is many of our assets are in Australian hands. The US, Switzerland and Australia own more of our farmland than do the Chinese, but that doesn’t grab the same headlines as Asian buy-ups.

China is now our largest trading partner. We are happy to sell them logs, lamb and milkpow-der, but prefer them to lay off ‘our’ farms. Hang on, Fonterra owns farms in China, and many New Zealand farmers own land in Australia, the US, South America and Europe.

Also disregarded in this spurious argument is the matter of individual property rights – the right to sell one’s own house or a farm to who-ever, foreign or local.

Lack of knowledge about foreign ownership of New Zealand seems to fuel much of the debate. How about we organise an easily accessible reg-ister of how many foreigners are buying farms and city properties? (Three Auckland CBD office towers this week went to Hong Kong owners.)

Surely such a log, as suggested recently by Federated Farmers, would help blunt the nas-tier edge to this angst.

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opinion 27

Cheaper food threatens sustainable farmingHOW MUCH should you pay for unbiased news? The cynical might be asking if there is such a thing. News reporting often seems more about shock value than facts, and attempts to achieve balance in a debate are focussed more on having ‘both sides of the story’ than the weight of evi-dence from a credible source.

Last month Statistics New Zealand, a reputable source of data, released a report on 100 years of food. The report featured on two pages of The NZ Herald and showed clearly that food has decreased in price.

A one pound pack of butter in 1914 cost 4p;

in today’s money that is $9.80. In the supermarket last month, 500g butter was $4.07. A dozen eggs in 1914 cost 18p, which in today’s money is $11.60. A dozen eggs in the super-market last month cost $3.74. And a loaf of bread in 1914 cost 4p, which in today’s money (and adjusted for size) is $1.90. At the time of the Statis-tics NZ report a loaf of

bread was $1.80.That was, however,

before the supermar-kets started advertising a dollar-a-loaf, assuring us they’re looking after con-sumers.

But some consum-ers are farmers and all New Zealanders depend on farmers for their life-style. Promoting cheap food overlooks the reali-ties of production, and the importance of sustainable production to the econ-omy; being sustainable includes being economi-cally viable.

The news that the fore-cast milk solids payout has decreased should have sounded alarm bells for the national econ-omy; instead news media

wanted reassurance that milk in the supermarket would decrease in price. However, only about a quarter of the price of milk goes to the farmer; the bulk of the cost of a

litre of milk is GST, pro-cessing, packaging, trans-port and retailing. GST hasn’t dropped, and nor have wages and costs of fuel and power; any price change is likely to be a short-term supermarket loss leader, like the dollar-a-loaf.

To promote their dol-

lar-a-loaf ‘caring for the consumer’ approach, one of the supermarkets paid for a wrap (a mock front page) in the weekend edi-tion of a major paper. This incensed a rural reader; it

was to him the final straw that a national newspa-per would value adver-tising over the economy. Note that the supermar-ket has been the subject of ministerial debate because of the way it has treated growers.

The reader cancelled his subscription of 30

years standing. The news-paper’s call-centre oper-ator, well spoken but lacking in understanding, tried to change his mind. The $12 weekly price for the paper was cut to $8, to no avail. Offers of “just the weekdays” and even “just the weekend” were made; again, no! Another call urged keeping the 30 year subscription at just over $6 a week – almost half the original price.

The rural reader got angrier. Nothing was done to reassure him about future advertising, or about attempts at balance. It was clear to him that the revenue from advertising outweighs the value of one reader subscription, that subscribers are simply

numbers used to entice more advertisers, which in turn means the value of advertising is likely to have major editorial impact.

So the question remains, how much should you be paying for ‘news’?

Chances are, if you ring to cancel your subscription, the result could be a lower bill which, given the drop in the milk solids payout and marginal returns in meat, could be a good thing. And perhaps with fewer subscribers the advertising features would decrease and balance could be restored.• Jacqueline Rowarth is pro-fessor of agribusiness, The University of Waikato.

Promoting cheap food overlooks the realities of production, and the importance of sustainable production to the economy.

* Applies to items that are in stock at the time of placing your order for orders placed between 1 June – 31 August 2014. Delivery terms and conditions apply. Product offers valid until 30 September 2014 or while stocks last. Prices include GST and are subject to change. Some products may not be available in all stores but can be ordered.

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28 opinion

ag twitsRural News’ irreverent and hypothetical look at what’s happening in the farming world

Top Bleats view all

crazycolincraig: Did you know China believes New Zealand is the moon. So they are sending spaceships over here, landing on our farms and claiming them as their own. How looney is that? #planetcraignomoonlandingsorfor-eignownership

winstonfirstandlast: How dare those racist, xenophobic Conservatives steal NZ First’s racist and xenophobic polices? NZ First will not be letting any slanty-eyed Chinese come here to take our land, women or jobs. And we’ll also remove GST on caviar, champagne and oysters. #immigrantsofanycolourwelcomeas-longasyouarewhite

rnormangreens: As a committed Australian communist I’m most upset about Chinese buy-ing land in Aoteoroa. In the Greens, we favour smart, green policies— but not smart, yellow investors. We’re definitely not racists because we love NZ – just not the Chinese part or the farming bit. #someofmybestfriendsarechinese #stillhatefarmers

honenomana: I can’t believe John Key and his bloody lowdown Tory mates are selling out our country to foreigners. That’s disgusting. It would be akin to me allowing a fat, German millionaire buying my political movement and using it for his own personal crusade. #fatger-mansugardaddyownsme

davidjesuscunliffe: Under the last Labour government twice as much farmland was sold to foreigners compared with the current government. Obviously the Nats are only half as good as Labour at flogging off this country. However, I’m now extending Labour’s man ban to include a ban on any Chinese man buying NZ farm land. #blowingthedogwhistle

johnkeypm: Actually I am pretty relaxed about farm sales to foreigners. Unless it starts to hit us in the polls then you can bet your bottom dollar I will not be as lax about the Chinese buying our land. #whatdothepollssay

thatguynathan: I agree with John Key. I always agree with John Key. I wish I was John Key. When I will grow up I want to be John Key. #teamkey

damienoconnormp: I wish Labour had a John Key. I wish labour had Shane Jones. I wish Labour had fewer gays. I wish Labour had fewer unionists. I wish Labour had fewer gay, unionists. #bugger

drbillfeds: Don’t you just love election time. It is great to see such a reasoned, deep and meaningful debate from our politicians on foreign land ownership issue – not! #hur-ryupSept20

Sub-Standard Sowing needS careful management

tHE INCIDENCE of poor undersowing, or ‘contractor error’, is apparently common.

In autumn I uninten-tionally ran a new pasture trial on my small beef farm and compared the results of the work of two undersowing contrac-tors. In late February, six of 35ha were sprayed out and drilled in early March with coated aR37 diploid ryegrass and two coated

clovers at 24kg/ha. Four hectares were drilled by the local contractor but, as the drill was too wide to cross a bridge, a second contractor drilled 2ha over the river.

Both contractors were asked to drill the seed no deeper than 12mm to allow for clover germi-nation. a month later there was a good strike of ryegrass and clover in the 2ha over the river and by

late July the paddocks had been grazed three times. In July, the paddocks grew 70kg/DM/day and fed a mob of 55 yearling heifers for 14 days. Needless to say I was pleased with the new pasture.

By comparison, of the 4ha sown by the local contractor, ryegrass either failed to germi-nate or plants were sparse and here was no clover germination. the rises

were bare, there were bare strips throughout the paddocks because of blocked coulters and numerous drill-width bare areas 10-15m long where nothing but weeds germi-nated. One paddock alone had seven of these bare areas and in another the area extended the entire length of the paddock.

a good strike over the river eliminated the dry weather as a possible

cause and the driver denied burying the seed too deeply, but said the problem was due to a lack of drill maintenance. the contractor agreed there was a problem with the drill, but claimed I had made a mistake by drilling clover with ryegrass.

He stated several times “nobody drills clover with ryegrass”, but was unable to explain why plenty of clover had germinated

in the paddocks sown by the second contractor. He finally agreed to replace the seed and re-sow three of the four paddocks.

the 3ha were sprayed out a second time and re-sown mid-late april with a different drill. the driver was reminded again that there was clover in the seed mix and that it should be drilled no deeper than 12 mm. Part way through the job, when he was stopped and told seed was going down 40mm, his response was: “this is how I’ve always done it”, “I can’t change it” and “It will grow”.

the cost of poor under-sowing is not simply replacing and re-sowing the seed. It includes the cost of herbicide, a second

spray, loss of feed and paddocks out of rota-tion in winter when feed demand is at its greatest. the 3ha ideally would have grown 20,000kgDM by late august which at 15-20c/kg could have funded more pasture renewal. Instead poor undersowing resulted in a feed shortage, which forced the sale of cattle at a loss of over $4000.

My recommendation is to choose your contractor carefully and if in doubt run your own trial. a trial will not only identify poor contractors but also spread the risk of failure and reduce losses. Trish hoskingNgongotaharotorua(abridged)


opinion 29

Contractors need a seasonal worker scheme too!IT WAS good to see the recent decision by the government on its plans to increase the annual recognised seasonal employer (RSE) cap to 9000 workers.

Undoubtedly this boost to seasonal workers will help in delivering the horticulture industry’s forecast growth plan.

The RSE scheme provides employers in the horticultural sector with a stable and reliable workforce and also gives them confidence to expand and invest in their businesses. With the election just around the corner it is worth pointing out to all politicians that a similar scheme is also badly needed in the rural

contracting sector.There is no doubt

the horticulture sector is an important and valuable part of New Zealand’s economy and the government is right to make provisions for that sector. However, so is the rural contracting sector and we definitely need similar provisions for seasonal workers – as there is a major gap between rural contractors’ needs for trained, agricultural machinery operators and those unemployed New Zealanders who are capable of doing this work.

RCNZ believes the rules on employing temporary, skilled people from overseas – those willing to work for 6-8 months each year – need to be simplified.

So do the regulations restricting people who have previously worked here in past seasons coming back to work again.

Contracting is a seasonal business and one that uses sophisticated machinery that requires technical skill to operate productively. Part of this shortfall can only be met by bringing in skilled operators from overseas.

Rural contractors are doing the right thing in trying to employ Kiwis

in our industry first, before having to bring in overseas workers. But we are still short of skilled machine operators in our industry. This leads to our ongoing issue with immigration that has been troubling the rural contracting sector for years.

Political parties of all persuasions need to understand that a dire shortage of suitable agricultural machinery operators means rural contractors rely on employing skilled people from overseas on a temporary basis each season and we have done so for many years.

Unfortunately, many of the applicants Work & Income NZ (WINZ) tries to place in these roles do not have the right skills and/or attitudes to succeed.

Rural contractors are operating highly technical and very expensive machines. It is unrealistic, dangerous and impractical to expect unemployed people to walk off the street and successfully do these jobs. The seasonal nature of rural contracting means workers with the right skills are needed for only a few months each year. Understandably, this kind of short-term employment often does not suit locals who are looking for fulltime work.

RCNZ will continue to work with the

sTeVe leVeT government, political parties and officials to ensure locals have the best opportunity for employment, and to lobby for changes to the rules on engaging overseas seasonal workers for the benefit of the rural contracting sector.

New Zealand’s rural contractors last year

contributed almost one billion dollars to the country’s economy. This proves rural contracting is not only a major contributor to our all-important agri sector, but is also a strong and vital part of New Zealand’s overall economy.

With an election only a few weeks away, it is important our politicians

know about the issues important to rural contractors and how we are a vital component in keeping the agriculture sector – the powerhouse of New Zealand’s economy – running.• Wellsford agricultural contractor Steve Levet is the president of Rural Contractors New Zealand (RCNZ).

Rural contractors need a seasonal worker scheme to help plug the gap for trained machinery operators during peak periods like silage making season.


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THE SCALE of operations on Waitatapia Station, Bulls, has to be seen to be believed.

Brothers Hew and Roger Dalrymple are the fourth generation of the family to farm the 1440ha home property and they are taking the productiv-ity of it, and several sur-rounding blocks, to a new level, as a Foundation for Arable Research field day last month found out.

Irrigation is at the heart of that, 980ha to date from a standing start eight years ago. Water is drawn from ten bores, three only 12m deep and deemed con-nected to the Rangitikei River; three more about 40m deep, and the deepest reaching 70m.

“They’re all relatively shallow and cheap to pump; a real asset,” says

Hew.Being close to the coast

means even the river-con-nected bores rarely go on restriction as the environ-mental impact of a low river flow is limited.

Three of the pivots have variable rate con-trol so water is tailored to topography and soil type. When it was fitted an immediate 20% saving in water use was realised.

“The electricity saving was phenomenal and we’re not getting the ground too wet [between humps] which is the big-gest problem with a lot of irrigation in my view.”

Soil moisture measure-ment is done by HydroSer-vices with neutron probes, and they’re trialling real-time data delivery with a company called Varigate.

Crops include maize, squash, peas and barley. Potatoes and onions are also grown by another

farmer under a share-farm arrangement.

Maize yields ranged from “a bit of a shocker” of 9.5t/ha to 15t/ha last summer off 430ha. “That’s over the weighbridge with every paddock kept sep-arate. I was reasonably happy. It met budget.”

Only 15ha of the 650ha cropped isn’t irrigated.

Forestry, which once covered 405ha of the 1440ha station, is now down to 350ha.

“I’d like to get that down to 300ha or possibly a bit less. It’s been going OK the last year or two but overall it’s not that great a return off this country if we can put more pivots in and produce a whole lot more food.”

For example, one pad-dock taken out of trees did 12.5t/ha of maize grain last summer, another over 60t/ha of potatoes. “That’s why pine trees

don’t stack up.”Annual ryegrass and

clover following will likely produce good winter feed due to the warm soils.

But converting what were sand dunes many centuries ago and are now covered in trees into pro-ductive paddocks doesn’t come cheap.

“Just to take it out of

forestry is about $2500/ha, to get all the stumps out. If we don’t need to contour it then it’s just another $200-$300/ha to tidy it up and then you’ve got your fertiliser and grass seed; but if you’re contouring it the cost’s a lot more, and depends on the precision. To get it gun-barrel per-fect costs about $4000/

ha, though we’ve got that down to $3500/ha as we’ve got better at it.”

With another $1000 budgeted for finishing cultivation, fertiliser and seed, there’s no change out of $7000/ha. In total, 500ha more or less has been levelled over the years.

Whether a block is

worth converting depends on the soil depth. About 200mm of black sand is the minimum. Under-growth under the canopy of the forestry is a strong signal the land’s good enough to go into crop or pasture.

For land already in pas-ture, without irrigation the growth in summer would be next to zero but in spring and autumn, pro-vided it’s not too wet, it’s

30 management

Who:

Hew and Roger Dalrymple Where:

Bulls What:

Irrigation

levelling hills and water tablesaNdrew swallow

[email protected]

Brothers Hew (pictured) and Roger Dalrymple are the fourth generation to farm waitatapia station.

To PaGe 31

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management 31

“quite stunning”. “We’re putting in more plantain and clover to try to get a bit more production out of the stock.”

GPS-levelled open drains are cut to manage the water table. “We use a combination of depth and distance [between drains] to get the water table right. If we don’t get it quite right initially then we adjust the depth because the distance is a bit more difficult once they’re in.”

Weirs in creeks cross-ing the farm slow the flows, preventing erosion.

About 28,000 lambs and 1800 steers/dairy cows are wintered, but the big-gest livestock enterprise is contract grazing and quar-antining heifers for export, about 11,000 of them (see sidebar).

They’ve also “gone over to the dark side”, adding

a dairy farm to the enter-prises with their recent purchase, in partnership with two Maori trusts, of former research and train-ing station Flock House, renamed Te Hou. The new name reflects the cultural significance of the prop-erty to local iwi Ngati Apa.

The dairy occupies 320ha of Te Hou and is being upgraded with a feed pad and irrigation. Judg-ing by gains on a neigh-bour’s property, the water should increase pasture yield from 12tDM/ha to 18tDM/ha.

Dry stock and crop accounts for another 600ha of Te Hou, and for-estry 207ha. “There are some quite flat patches in the forestry so it’s quite probable it could grow something else.”

Ironically, the emis-sions trading scheme provides an incentive to

remove the trees while EU carbon units can be bought for as little as 25c/t CO2, compared to $4/t for the equivalent NZ unit, he adds. However, that loop-hole will be closed at the end of the year and a crash in the log market is also complicating the decision.

With environmen-tal legislation emanating from Horizons Regional Council, their approach is to be proactive and get council representatives and executives out to the farms to see what’s being done and, where changes are planned, what’s pro-posed.

“I think our systems need to be robust to manage the nutrients as well as the science will let us.”

Areas of significant native vegetation are pro-tected in agreement with the iwi partners.

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32 managementTechnology tipped to resize machinery

BIG IS good, right?Wrong, at least when it comes to

cropping machinery, says Australian grain grower and technology pioneer Andrew Bate of SwarmFarm Robotics.

“For years we thought that by going bigger, using bigger machinery in our paddocks, we were being more efficient. But really, each time we went bigger we went backwards, particularly regarding soil compaction,” says Bate, who will be among speakers at two Northern Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) research update events later this month at Warra and Condamine, inland of Brisbane.

He’s been working with Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and the Australian Centre for Field Robot-ics (ACFR) developing fleets of small autonomous vehicles to work on crops. He believes they have the potential to spark as big a shift in agriculture as horse to tractor.

“What we’re looking at is technology that will flip modern farming practices on their head… swarms of small, lightweight machines that work

together in a cooperative team. So instead of one large tractor you might have six small ones about the size of a ride-on mower.

“Small means little or no soil com-paction. We are facing a huge challenge to not only increase food produc-tion but do it in a way that is sustain-able and sees environmental impacts reduced. Robotics will be the way of the future.”

They’ve already put a sprayer on a self-driving golf cart that can track up and down the paddock without an oper-ator in sight. If it comes to an obstacle such as a power-pole, or even an unan-ticipated one such as a parked tractor, its sensors stop the vehicle and guide it around the obstacle until it is back on track and can resume work.

They’ve also trialled no-till seeding tools on the golf cart.

“But the golf cart is not intended as a solution for agriculture,” Bate told Rural News. “It has been a ‘develop-ment platform’ allowing the research-ers to build the software, code and systems for autonomous vehicles. We are now working on a series of custom-built robots that can perform useful tasks out in the field.”

Bate and his various research col-leagues see robotics becoming an ‘enabling technology’ for agriculture.

“Robotics will allow us to perform field tasks and develop new methods of farming never possible on traditional tractors and machinery.”

An early priority is deploying the technology to help combat herbicide-resistant weeds, as well as reducing soil compaction. He stresses they are not trying to build autonomous tractors.

“We are working out how to apply robotics to farming; to increase yields; to increase input efficiencies and reduce the environmental impacts of farming. The age-old idea of the driverless trac-tor has no benefit to farmers other than a potential labour-cost saving, and even then I’m not convinced.”

The SwarmFarm approach breaks complex tasks into simple jobs that ‘swarms’ of simple robots can do. A big advantage is the scalability of the tech-nology, says Bate.

“Our robots are small and have few moving parts or complex electrical systems on board. A small farmer may operate one robot, and a larger farmer may use 30-40 of exactly the same machine. All farmers will have afford-

able access to the latest technology. It even has potential to increase food pro-duction in third-world countries.”

That’s a stark contrast to the ever-bigger machinery of recent decades, often costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, too much to be viable on smaller farms, he notes. Not that Bate’s farm

is particularly small: he grows about 8000ha of cereals and runs 3000 head of cattle.

The technology’s also caught the attention of the Queensland govern-ment, which last year put A$3m toward fast tracking robotic technology on the state’s farms.

aNdrew swallow

[email protected]

Queensland farmer andrew Bate with the golf cart used to pilot swarmFarm’s driverless systems.


management 33

Good return on consultant spendWHAT FARM input gives you a $4 return for every dollar spent?

According to Lin-coln University research, employing a consultant does; at least, it does on average.

That’s the good news from analysis of about 800 farmer survey responses by senior lecturer in farm management, Dr Kevin Old, and research fellow, Dr Peter Nuthall.

The bad news is use of consultants is low, and the range of return is wide.

“The primary indus-try is doing relatively well and we can’t say it’s a train wreck but this does suggest consultants add value,” Old told Rural News.

The findings are the first tranche of what’s expected to be four papers resulting from a survey of farms conducted last winter (see sidebar).

Old says the survey was “mostly around succes-sion and governance” but their initial analysis has focussed on how decisions are made on farm.

Understanding that is important because of farming’s influence in New Zealand’s economic well-being, and to find the best ways to transfer new tech-nology and skills to farm-ers.

The survey found 75% of farmers confer with

family or colleagues on strategic issues, but only 37% rated professional farm advisors as impor-tant in such discussions. When it comes to actu-ally making a strategic decision 58% of farm-ers do so alone even if some ‘trusted person’ discussions occur first.

Similarly for tac-tical or short term decisions, 68% gen-erally make such decisions alone after conferring with family or colleagues, 45% decide after using consultants, and 48% make such deci-sions without discussion.

“Overall they’re not taking a great deal of advice from farm consultants, though we found those with greater assets tend to use farm consul-tants more,” notes Old.

A possible reason is revealed in responses on a scale of one to five to questions about trust: 44% were ambivalent or worse when it came to trust in consultants.

“This was a surprise result to us,” says Old, noting the average score overall was 2.42, which strongly suggests an over-all ambivalence.

Less surprising is that the higher the capi-tal invested in a farm, the more is spent on consul-tants, though the amount spent might be a shock to some. Farms with a net

investment of less than $5 million paid $1330/year on average while those with a net investment of over $25m spent $17,700/year on average.

By sector, dairy and crop farmers spent most on consultants, at $4240 and $5800 per annum respectively.

“This is perhaps unsur-prising as crop farms have important decisions to make each year regarding selecting crop mix,” note the authors.

Underlying those expenditure figures, the time farms employ a con-sultant averages 21 hours/year but over half those surveyed used less than

aNdrew swallow

[email protected]

To PaGe 34

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34 management animal health 35

10 hours paid advice a year. At the other end of the scale only 4% used over 70 hours/year, the equivalent of about six hours/month which could represent just one appointment/month.

Farmers under 35 tend to use con-sultants more, averaging 42 hours/year, compared to those over 55 who average 21 hours/year.

“However, these are averages, and many farmers will not employ con-sultants at all,” they note.

Some use ‘company representa-tives’ to help with decision making, averaging 14 hours/year with such sources, while ‘trusted persons’ such as a respected colleague or family member topped the consultation-time table clocking an average 51 hours/year.

That trusted person category did not include rural professionals such as bankers, accountants or lawyers, Old says.

“We found young people tend to use their accountant more, while the older ones tend to use lawyers more, which is perhaps to do with succes-

sion and they’re maybe using them as consultants for outside [ie off-farm] investments.”

The researchers conclude initia-tives aiming to improve farm man-agement should focus on farmers themselves as most decisions are made without professional assistance.

Consultant use pays off

THE EIGHT-PAGE survey questionnaire was sent to 2000 farmers nation-wide, with the mailing list structured to be representative of commercial farms by region and type. Other than that, the list was random. A draw entry for four copies of the Lincoln University Farm Budgeting Manual was offered as an incentive and 36% returned the survey. “It was a pretty good response rate. We had about 800 useable responses,” says Old.

An initial paper, focussed on decision making, is soon to be published in the journal of the New Zealand Institute of Primary Industry Manage-ment.

How survey workedfrom page 33

AFTER A couple of years with cor-porate winners, a family farm busi-ness is certain to win this year’s Lincoln University Foundations South Island Farmer of the Year competition as there isn’t a corpo-rate entrant among them.

Most are from Canterbury, Otago and Southland with opera-tions ranging from large-scale pig farming to beef cattle, dairying, sheep for meat and/or wool, and deer farms. Two entries include cropping.

“This is a show-case of the very best in farming practices in the South Island,” says Foundation chairman Ben Todhunter.

“It says something of the stan-dard of farming, and the competi-tion, that we are now getting such

a high level of interest from farm-ers and/or their nominees who feel they are at the top of their field in terms of enterprise, leadership, quality, innovation and entrepre-neurialism.”

Wine producer, Yealands Estate, Marlborough, won in 2013 and multi-farm dairy business Synlait Farms won in 2012. South Can-terbury cropping farmers Ray and Adrienne Bowan, who’ve vertically integrated their potato production through to market with Heartland chips, won in 2011.

“Traditionally it has been very hard to get farmers to put their own hand up and say ‘I’m a top-notch farmer’ but when they’re nominated by others that seems to take the ‘tall poppy’ factor out of it and they’re

more willing to let their nomina-tion go forward,” notes Todhunter.

The overall winner receives a $20,000 travel/study grant to fur-ther their business. Finalists are also up for four $5000 special cat-egory prizes: The BNZ award for Human Resource Management; The Silver Fern Farms ‘Plate to Pasture’ award; The Lincoln University prize for Technology and Innovation; The Farmlands Cooperative Prize for Resource Use Efficiency.

Initial judging takes place over the next month or so, with finalists announced in October. Finalists will gather at Lincoln November 19 to make a presentation about their businesses to judges and a wider audience, before winners are announced that night.

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Rural News 20x3

Notice is hereby given that the following three elections will be held in 2014 for Fonterra Co-operative Group Limited.

Board of Directors: Election of Three (3) Directors

Shareholders’ Council (22 Wards): Election of One (1) Councillor in the following new Wards (which come into existence after the 2014 Elections) due to a boundary change or retirement by rotation: 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15, 19, 22, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34 and 35.

Directors’ Remuneration Committee: Election of Two (2) Members

Invitation for Candidate NominationsNominations are called for candidates to stand for these three elections. Fonterra shareholders are eligible to stand for all three elections. Nomination forms and candidate handbooks can be obtained from the Returning Officer.

Nominations must be received by the Returning Officer by noon on Friday, 5 September 2014.

Elections for Shareholders’ CouncillorsThe Shareholders’ Council has recently completed a review of the Co-operative’s ward boundaries to ensure all Fonterra Farmers have sufficient local representation. The review has shown a significant increase in Fonterra farm numbers in the South Island and as a result the Council approved the following recommendations:

1. Number of Wards to remain at 35 with one Councillor in each.

2. North Island representation reduced by three Councillors – one less in Northland, two less in the Waikato.

3. South Island representation increased by three Councillors – two extra in Canterbury and one extra in Southland.

Due to these boundary changes, this year there will be elections for 19 new Wards (which come into existence after the 2014 elections). Shareholders affected by boundary changes will have the opportunity to vote for their preferred representative for their new Ward.

In addition, there will be elections due to retirement by rotation for new Wards 19 Central Taranaki, 22 Northern Manawatu and 25 Wairarapa.

2014 Shareholders’ Council Elections:

Ward 1 Northern Northland Ward 2 Central Northland

Ward 3 Southern Northland Ward 5 Hauraki/Coromandel

Ward 7 Piako Ward 8 Matamata

Ward 9 Western Bay of Plenty Ward 13 Rotorua

Ward 14 Eastern Bay of Plenty Ward 15 Taupo

Ward 19 Central Taranaki Ward 22 Northern Manawatu

Ward 25 Wairarapa Ward 27 North Canterbury

Ward 28 Rakaia Ward 29 Ashburton

Ward 30 South Canterbury Ward 31 Waitaki

Ward 32 Otago Ward 33 Northern Southland

Ward 34 Southern Southland Ward 35 Western Southland

For further details, call the Election Hotline on free phone 0508 666 446 or contact the Returning Officer at [email protected].

Warwick Lampp

Returning Officer – 2014 Fonterra Elections

Email: [email protected]

Election Hotline: Free Phone 0508 666 446

Notice of ElectionsFonterra Co-operative Group LimitedBoard of Directors, Shareholders’ Council and Directors’ Remuneration Committee

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RuRal News // AUGUsT 19, 2014

animal health 35

FORGET POUR-ONS and adopt a dual active oral plus mectin injection approach to drenching deer, a special-ist Southland vet is advising in light of four years’ research.

What’s more, the oral needs to be administered at rates well above those used historically and recommended for cattle.

The reason is the ostertagia spe-cies which affect deer have devel-oped resistance to mectin drenches, and the resistance appears to be pres-ent on nearly all farms.

“Farm type doesn’t seem to matter,” vet Dave Lawrence told Rural News. “There’s always some resis-tance to the mectin family. You’d have to be an eternal optimist to think that there are any deer farms left in New Zealand that do not have a problem.”

His comments follow four years of analysing worm burdens and response to drenches on deer farms.

“The majority were in the South Island with a smattering across the North Island. They represented a wide range of farm types, from inten-sive lowland to extensive high coun-try. All had problems.”

Such a study is no mean feat as faecal egg counts are an unreliable indicator of worm burden in deer so the only way to scientifically assess drench efficacy is to slaughter animals after treatment and examine gut con-tent for worms.

“Obviously that’s fairly expensive, especially where you are using a prod-uct that prevents the carcase being available for sale,” notes Lawrence.

During the course of the research, which was levy, NZDFA and Elk & Wapiti Society funded, over 300 ani-mals from 10 farms were tested in this way. It followed earlier work with pour-on, oral and injected mec-

tins which showed concentration of mectin in the blood stream following pour-on treatment was a tenth of that achieved by oral treatment, and a six-tieth compared to injection.

Lawrence notes early 1980s work at Invermay showed 99.9% of gut worms in deer, particularly ostertagia, were killed by mectin pour-ons. “It was quite a break-through but after two or three decades of using pour-ons the level of chemi-cal required [to kill the worms] has risen dramatically.”

Today, mectins are still effective against lungworm, and, when admin-istered by injection or to a lesser extent orally, give some control of ostertagia that a pour-on simply wouldn’t take out.

To ensure any ostertagia that sur-vive even injected mectin treatments are taken out, another mode of action must be administered at the same time, hence the simultaneous oral dose recommendation.

But the research found oral BZ drenches, such as oxfendazole, are also not particularly effective at normal cattle dose rates so triple and quadruple cattle dose-rates have been tested and found to be safe and much more effective.

Even at those rates though a few ostertagia will survive the injection plus BZ oral approach, so levamisole in combination with the BZ oral is rec-ommended.

“The only treatment shown to be effective against ostertagia-type parasites on these farms [in the research] was Cydectin injection plus an oral white & levamisole combination drench.”

The problem is levamisole is toxic at high doses, and triple or quadruple the cattle dose would be getting into the danger zone, hence Lawrence, and DINZ (see panel), are recommending a double-rate levamisole with triple or quadruple rate BZ.

A 50:50 mix of Oxfendazole C Plus (oxfendazole plus levamisole) with

straight Oxfenda-zole C, adminis-tered at 1ml/5kg liveweight is one way to achieve that. Lawrence admits it’s “far from ideal and messy” to be recommending a mix of drenches, but manufacturers have said there’s no problem with compatibility and it is probably more

convenient than taking two drench guns into the yards and giving every animal a squirt with each, as well as the injection.

“It is important to get dose rates right. Under-dosing accelerates resis-tance. Over-dosing can be fatal.”

The 50:50 mix plus injection rec-ommendation will cost about $1.40/treatment for a 70kg weaner, simi-lar to the previous advice which was to use an injection plus a double rate Scanda (oxfendazole + levamisole) orally, he adds.

While that may seem expensive, it will be more cost effective in the long-run than using a cheaper mix or sole active which lets a resistant pop-ulation of ostertagia build up on the farm.

“Don’t think resistance won’t happen to you. Deterioration in drench efficacy can happen rapidly. A 50% reduction in three years is not unheard of.”

– More page 36

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36 animal health

Ostertagia resistant to mectin drenches were found in deer on all farms tested but lungworms remain susceptible.

non-chemical tools too

KEEPING AS many non-chemical measures as possible in the system to minimise parasite pressure is also essential to try to

protect drench efficacy. Adult deer should only

be drenched when there is a clear need, such as when under immune system stress. For stags that might mean post rut; for hinds, particularly first calvers,

during lactation. During the rest of the year their natural immunity should suffice, says Lawrence.

Using refugia to ensure a susceptible population of parasites remains will also help delay resistance

developing. In adults that means only treating ani-mals that most need it, not the whole mob, and while the same can apply to weaners, if they’re being finished intensively and face a high worm chal-

ers off high challenge pas-ture and onto crop which will be clean is a good idea. They should be given the three-way drench going onto the crop then moni-tored.

If there’s no access to infective grass, such as round the edges of crop, then it may not be neces-sary to drench again until several weeks after they’re off the crop and back on grass in the spring.

“You definitely shouldn’t be drenching them as they come off crop back onto grass,” warns Lawrence.

The reason is any worms which survive that treatment will likely have multiple resistance, and all the eggs shed will carry that resistance, establish-ing a highly resistant popu-lation of parasites on that pasture.

“Drenching weaners and them putting onto clean pasture is a no-no.”

With the weaners approaching a year old, their adult immunity will also be starting to kick in.

“It’s pretty strong in reds by the time they’re 12 months old. With the

hybrids, which of course a lot of weaners for finish-ing are, they’ve not got full immunity by 12 months, and for the Wapiti there’s no way they’re immune by 12 months.”

Other stock spe-cies, particularly sheep, should be rotated with deer to mop up deer para-site larvae. “Touchwood, there’s never been a sheep ostertagia species found in deer so it appears there’s no risk of cross contami-nation.”

Of the four species of ostertagia ever identi-fied in deer, two appear deer specific; one, Oster-tagia ostertagia, is mainly a cattle species that has, on occasion, been found in low numbers in deer; and one’s a deer species that has occasionally been found in cattle. Nonethe-less, the threat of cross contamination is low and rotating deer and cattle is still preferable to having blocks dedicated to partic-ular livestock species, says Lawrence.

Pasture finishing blocks for deer are a particular problem. “You’re creating a cesspool for resistance!”

Deer Industry New Zealand producer manager Tony Pearse endorses Lawrence’s advice to use three drench families in combination to keep parasites under control.

“Replacing a mectin pour-on with an injectable can dramatically improve growth rates, but the best bet – based on recent on-farm trials – is to use a triple mix: a mectin injection, plus a white/clear combination oral drench.”

some farms have increased weaner growth rates from 250g/day to 400g/day just by switching to mectin injection. Better weaner health and a reduc-tion in losses from Yersinia and Johne’s have also been reported.

The aim with triple mix is to stave off the inevitable, the day when parasites develop resistance to all three drench families. Pearse says it’s crucial because trials suggest new mode of action drenches startect and Zolvix are ineffective in deer.

The dual oral plus injection approach is a departure from label direction so veterinary advice should be sought. “Once you go off-label, a default withholding period of 91 days kicks-in. With a veterinary prescrip-tion this drops to 49 days for Cydectin injection.”

The recommended drench regime has been circu-lated to specialist deer veterinarians and is posted on the DINZ website with detailed internal parasite management advice. see www.deernz.org.nz – click on “tools” then “Parasite control plan”.

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lenge, Lawrence admits he’d “be doing the lot.”

In such situations, and in general, getting wean-

andrew swallow

[email protected]

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animal health 37

shunned dog gets second chanceRECENTLY I received an email from a teenag-er’s desperate parents. Their son was on a highly regarded cadet training farm and they were landed with his young dog, Baz, that they had reared.

Baz was friendly, had basic manners, and was neither spoilt nor scared but when he was taken to the training farm and given the opportunity to handle sheep, both the tutor and a respected dog triallist told Andrew his young Heading dog wasn’t any good and advised him to get another dog to train, which he did, and Baz went back to town.

The parents told me the dog’s faults. I laughed and said I’d seen them all before, they shouldn’t be a problem and yes I was happy to take him for a couple of weeks.

Baz’s faults were to run at a million miles an hour straight at the sheep then split them in all directions and bite. If he was growled at he would lie on the ground and not move.

To cut a long story short I gave Baz four brief lessons. Firstly I took the dog for two walks down the road on a lead with the purpose of bonding, stop-ping to ‘sit’ and walking forward to ‘walk’.

Then we had two short lessons in a race learn-ing not to bite and teach-ing ‘up’ is to walk towards the sheep - I’ve written about this several times and demonstrate it at my training days.

That was all I did.Next, I let the quiet

sheep into a large yard and left a long rope on Baz so that if all hell broke loose I could gain control. I told Baz to stay and, as a pre-caution, positioned myself between him and the sheep before encouraging him to start working them.

He was stunning –

immediately! I guided him with my stick, and used my body position and quiet words to encourage him into the correct posi-tions. We played around for about half an hour.

I had used no cru-elty, no pain whatsoever and spent less than two hours with him in total. I rang the owners and told them that he was one of the nicest young dogs I’d seen, that he was highly intelligent and very natu-ral, calm, careful and with mouth-watering style.

Because he was so easy all the training was done on two to six sheep in a small holding paddock and Baz had complete free-dom. Once or twice when I asked him to head he was going to cut in but I antic-ipated it and corrected him before he did – growl-ing at him so he under-

stood that his thoughts were wrong. I say thoughts because I stopped it before it became an action.

With six hours’ training Baz was heading beauti-

fully, stopping at the point of balance, pulling, slow-ing or getting faster when asked, winging and driv-ing sheep. He’d picked up seven commands in this

time but because he was so natural and calm I hardly used them.

When Andrew saw his dog he was amazed at the incredible change. It

annoys me that both the tutor and dog triallist, who teach young shepherds about dog training, con-demned this dog without giving it a chance. I wish they could have been there to witness the lessons and see how simple, quick and easy it had been. And I wish the other boys on the station had seen it as well.

Interestingly, because of his coat, I questioned Baz’s breeding. Turned out his grandfather was a top UK trial dog that briefly visited NZ.• Anna Holland is teaching people dog training. For more information www.annaholland.co.nz or Ph 06) 212 4848 or [email protected]

Quick learner: Baz’s faults were soon corrected.

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38 animal health

stud flock takes resistance title once againA SOUTHLAND Romney stud has claimed the SIL-ACE dual purpose award

for internal parasite resis-tance in the Beef + Lamb Sheep Industry Awards for an unprecedented third time.

It was one of 10 genet-

ics awards made at the finalists’ dinner in Napier earlier this month which also saw Focus Genetics’ breeding partner, Goud-ies Farm near Reporoa,

win the award for facial eczema tolerance.

Andrew and Heather Tripp’s Nithdale Romney flock has taken out the internal parasite award

since its inception and Andrew told Rural News they aim to keep winning it as they want to keep their flock ahead of the pack.

andrew swallow

[email protected]

“We’ve been breeding for [parasite resistance] for 22 years and we have made some good progress but we’re not there yet. That will be when we don’t have to drench any-thing.”

Already the ewes never get a drench and lambs are getting a lot fewer than they used to, for exam-ple, ram lambs weren’t drenched until February this year.

“It’s part of our phi-losophy to breed low cost, low input sheep that still perform.”

That performance is demonstrated by the flock also winning the SIL-ACE dual purpose award for

reproduction, and coming second in the broad-brush award for reproduction, lamb growth, adult size and wool production.

While they’re in the far south, between Clin-ton and Gore, they’re also selecting for facial eczema tolerance using the Sheep 50k and 5k SNP chip tech-nology, however they’ve only been working on that for three years.

The award for facial eczema tolerance went to Focus Genetics’ breed-ing partner Goudies Farm, Reporoa in one of a suite of awards picked up by the Hawkes Bay breeding company. Goudies’ farm manager Ken Burt said winning such an award was vindication of years of work.

“This shows that breeding sheep resist-ant to facial eczema has been well worth it. We’ve made significant progress in improving the tolerance of our Waihora Romney flock.

“I would estimate the sheep we now have are at least six times more tol-erant to the disease than when we started, through selecting for and breeding from facial eczema toler-ant sheep, dosing the ani-mals and recording the data.”

Burt describes facial eczema as “an insidious disease” as symptoms are only seen in very severe cases.

“It’s extremely serious and very limiting so if you can do something genet-ically to help prevent it, you should.”

The disease is caused by toxins from ingested fungal spores that attack the liver and metabolism. It reduces fertility, meat production, wool produc-tion and growth rate, not to mention animal wel-fare.

“We’re comfortable with the level we’re at with our facial eczema resis-tance programme. We’ll continue to make progress but we can now focus on other traits with empha-sis on growth and parasite resistance.”

For a full list of Sheep Industry Awards winners, see www.beeflambnz.com

“It’s part of our philosophy to breed low cost, low input sheep that still perform.”

Nithdale Romney breeders andrew and Heather Tripp on farm.

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machinery & products 39

navara’s two-stage turbo a blastA COIL sprung rear axle and an efficient two-stage turbo engine are features of the new Nissan Navara, dubbed the NP-300.

Recently revealed to the Australian and New Zealand media in Thailand where it is manufactured, the Navara’s new efficient engine technology and the replacement of leaf springs with coils on the rear axle were points of interest for our market.

Some Aussie journalists at the launch got hung up on the fact that the power and torque output of the new YS23 engine remain the same as the current model. Get over it. The fact is 140kW of power and 450Nm of torque, while no longer class leading, are more than adequate for a ute. The real story is how

the new engine delivers its power and torque.

The engine bound for the New Zealand market is a 2.3L turbodiesel developed as part of the Renault-Nissan alliance. It features a two-stage turbo that widens the maximum torque range so the full 450Nm is avail-able from a low 1500rpm through to 2500rpm. The two turbos are in-line, the first active from about 1000rpm, hand-ing over to the second at about 2000rpm, produc-ing seamless torque and power delivery.

The current single-turbo engine is no slug, but peak torque comes in late and rough compared to the YS23, which delivers a strong progressive surge from just above 1000rpm. The new engine is also noticeably quieter.

The new engine is 10kg lighter, 19% more fuel-effi-cient and is built to Euro 5 emissions standards so CO

2 emissions are down

too. The chief engineer on the NP-300 project, Takashi Fukui, told Dairy

News the engine will also meet Euro 6 emissions standards when they are imposed.

Weight has been cut in other areas, a total reduc-tion of 70kg for the vehi-cle, which contributes

to the efficiency gains. A more slippery body shape

with lower roof line that produces 11% less drag

also contributes.Nissan NZ manag-

ing director John Manly says more Kiwis buy auto-matic Navaras than manu-als. They will get a 7-speed auto in the NP-300, the same gearbox found in the current V6-die-sel powered STX-550 (the V6 engine has been dropped from the new model range). A six speed manual is also available.

The current chas-sis carries over to the new truck, but is still the biggest in its segment, according to Takashi Fukui.

For the first time though, Kiwi buyers will get a 5-link coil sprung rear beam axle instead of the more common leaf springs. Fukui says the carrying capacity and durability of the new rear

adam friCker

To page 44

Tough guy... Navara NP-300 in Thailand. Inset: Comfort levels take a leap forward in the new Navara NP-300.

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40 machinery & products

AUSTRALIAN FARMER Matt Haitsma is back on the family farm after a couple of years at Latrobe University, milking about 130 cows out of their total herd of 210.

He works with his father, Jan and mother Jean, on their 80ha prop-erty near Rochester, cen-tral Victoria, where for 10 years they have milked on a 22-bail herringbone.

Last October they bought a 31ha run-off at

Comfortable and easy to operate machine

Bamawm to grow hay and silage and keep young stock.

“This property needed knocking into shape in improving the pastures,” says Haitsma.

“We have two Kubota 4WDs to handle the work at the Rochester farm – one with a cab and one with ROPS. So we looked

around for a tractor to look after the jobs at the new place.”

In February they took delivery of a Mahindra 9200 4WD with ROPS and a roof, and fitted with a Mahindra ML480 front loader, through Echuca TM&V dealership.

Haitsma says they first saw the Mahindra trac-tors at the Elmore Field Days. “We didn’t go on any farms to look at them working, but we knew Echuca TM&V handled them.

“It does the job we require. There are no fancy electronics, but it has all the bits you need. And the price is compet-itive.

“We looked at other brands and ‘horsepower to price’ was the decision-maker with the Mahin-dra.”

The Mahindra 9200 is powered by a 3.53L, 4-stroke, direct injec-tion, turbocharged, water-cooled diesel. Haitsma says that it is a basic trac-tor – solid and functional, at a good price.

A dedicated left-hand synchronised reverser gives good control during intensive front loader work.

Terry Scurrah looks after tractor sales at Echuca TM&V and enthuses about the Mahindra brand. He researched them when the dealership was looking to sell them. “They were sell-ing like hotcakes in the US because they represented value for money and are robust.”

Mahindra has been making tractors and 4WD vehicles in India for 62 years.

“The 9200 is an honest tractor with a heavy chas-sis weight and 12 forward, 12R reverse synchro shut-tle transmission. A Dana limited slip differential on the front drive is a major feature in difficult condi-tions.

It comes with tandem hydraulic pumps, deliver-ing 60L/m which means good front loader perfor-mance.

“Plus the engine has Bosch injection and the electrics are Lucas.”

The Mahindra is kept permanently at the Bamawm property. It is used daily for feeding out to the heifers, and for spraying and cultivation. Haitsma’s brother Chris looks after some of the daily work and Matt and Jan do the bulk of the trac-tor operating.

The tractor is comfort-able to operate and easy to get on and off with the flat floor, particularly as the operator is in and out of it to open and shut gates and to take wrapping off bales. It works well in all condi-tions. “We’ll cut oat and

lucerne hay off this block this season. It’s been a good year so far,” he says.

The Mahindra 9200 is powered by a 3.5L diesel engine.

Chris dingle

Matt Haitsma, Victoria, with his Mahindra 9200.

“It does the job we require. There are no fancy electronics, but it has all the bits you need. and the price is competitive. “

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RuRal News // AUGUsT 19, 2014


spray rig saving time and money

PACKAGING COMPANY Agpac is releasing a limited run of pink bale wrap and pink/black netwrap to raise awareness of breast cancer in rural communities for this silage season.

Agpac crop packag-ing specialist Sam South-combe says his company has worked with two of its international suppli-ers to develop the pink forage packaging products in order to highlight rural women’s health, and in particular breast cancer.

Israeli company Tama is supplying rolls of pink and black striped netwrap and Swedish company Tri-oplast is supplying pink bale wrap.

“Women have integral roles in the contracting and farming businesses that we work with but they seldom get the attention and rec-ognition they deserve,” Southcombe says. “We are also aware that rural women do not have the access to the health care and information that women in our towns and cities have.

“We wanted to do something to change this and the pink bale wrap and netwrap is our way of supporting breast cancer awareness. Agpac sales rep-

resentatives will each have an allocation of pink bale wrap and pink/black net-wrap this season so you can expect to see pink bales dotting the rural landscape all across New Zealand.”

Along with provid-ing a visual reminder that women should be aware of breast cancer prevention, Agpac says it will donate a percentage from the sale of each roll of pink bale wrap and pink/black net-wrap to the Louise Perkins Foundation – a charitable trust that operates under the name Sweet Louise to improve the lives of New Zealanders living with sec-ondary breast cancer. Tel. 03 338 2400

Pink wrap for cancer

BRADON PRICE manages one of Stu and Jan Moir’s run-off blocks, a 180ha property located in the Upper Grey Valley district.

Last November, the Moirs bought a 2000L Hustler trailed sprayer for this block. Seven months on and 600ha of ground sprayed, the company reports Price is happy with it and it is saving the farm money.

A few teething issues were quickly resolved: the machine was up-specced to include electric fenceline nozzles which take the 14m boom out to a 16.5m, an induction hopper, venturi filler and Raven Envizio guidance,

auto rate and auto boom shut-off. Hustler says Price can comfortably

cover up to 40ha in a day spraying Roundup at 100L/ha and operate at up to 21km/h, though he usually runs at 13-16km/h.

He says overspray issues have reduced, saving him 15% on his chemical bill and cutting other costs. In one spray alone – 200ha of bug spray – Price is said to have saved $5500.

And of the GPS system, he says “Any muppet can use it. Once it is set you don’t have to worry about it, just drive until the screen is

painted green.“I like the induction hopper,

especially having it equipped with the bottle cleaner. The venturi filler is faster to fill with this than water from the cowshed.”

He adds that the self-levelling suspension on the boom is a boon.

Other features: easy to clean, filters well placed, easy access to the tank and better ground clearance.

The sprayer was supplied by Hustler’s West Coast agent CB Norwood. Tel. 0800 487 853www.hustlerequipment.co.nz

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nothing quite beats his new tractor

The new 110hp McCormick X60-40 in action.

A 110 HORSEPOWER McCormick X60-40 has been a reliable addition to the fleet of a Bay of Plenty farmer.

Alan Paterson and

Michaela Mollison, milk 300 cows on a 140ha dairy farm near Rotorua for Jamie and Chris Paterson, Alan’s parents.

The new 110hp McCor-mick X60-40 tractor upstages the farm’s previ-

ous tractor, some years old and not always serviced on schedule. “Performance had progressively gone down as other workers forgot to do regular main-tenance. There’s nothing worse….”

The McCormick, chosen for its simplic-ity and price, has been on the farm for three months and is doing just what they wanted.

Working off a flat to rolling 140ha property

gareTh gillaTT

meant there wasn’t the space for a larger tractor Paterson says.

Producing 100hp and 410Nm torque, it is set up in a way that suits its working on the property. It will allow more to be done this year without the help of contractors.

As the farm was bought as a sheep and beef oper-ation before being con-verted to dairy, a lot needed doing to improve pasture performance. The family has been slowly replacing pastures over the last 10 years, using cropping as a tool to intro-duce high performance pasture species.

Normally a green fed turnip crop is used, drilled by a contractor. Pater-son says they will use the McCormick to spray out the paddock before seeds go in, and level the soil once it has been cultivated with discs. On steeper paddocks the Patersons simply spray and drill without discing.

Pasture seeds are broadcast spread with a tractor which Paterson

says brings a good strike rate.

He says driving the McCormick has been easy thanks to a dial to improve clutch responsiveness and a roof window to allow for better control of the front loader.

Paterson says he has even been able to teach his wife how to drive “and she has never driven a tractor before.”

He has plenty of expe-rience behind wheel him-self. Before leaving for Australia to work in the mining industry as a diesel engineer Paterson drove tractors for an agricul-tural contractor in Bay of Plenty. “I mainly drove John Deere and Deutz Farr tractors. In compari-son the the McCormick is pretty simple; the trans-mission is easy to use.”

Paterson says he was also impressed with the ride the tractor gave. “It’s got a smooth loader, great suspension, and puts a good level of power through the hydraulics.”Tel. 07 573 8132www.agtek.co.nz

Easy on armsTRANSPORT ARMS added to Stallion Calf Care’s milk tanker-mixers ease the task of carting feeders and milk between milking shed and calf shed, the company says.

Mounted on each side of the tanker, the arms can carry two five-teat feeders, enabling users to carry enough feeders to accommodate 20 calves.

The unit also features the same 4-stroke, 5hp Honda engine as is used to power the pumping and mixing system in the company’s mixer-tanker-feeder range released at the Waikato field days. Stallion chief exec-utive Grant Allen says the engine enables mixing a full tank of solution in three minutes, and to complete its auto-wash cycle in the same time.

Development of the mixer-tanker and mixer-tanker-feeder units is a move to lift sales to farmers who want to feed calves in pens as well as paddocks. “It’s multi-use and not just a mobile for feeding,” Allen says.

“It can mix milk powder or [supplements] for a farmer who wants to send every drop of milk to the fac-tory. It can also transport milk/colostrum to calf sheds or to storage tanks for use later.”

Models come with either a 450L or 800L tanks mounted on strong galvanised steel frames.Tel. 06 356 8816www.stallion.co.nz

Call us on 0800 487 853 Global Headquarters + 646 879 7926or visit www.hustlerequipment.co.nz

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wood Contracting Nelson’s Ben lewis harvesting trees by remote control.

Tree felling from afar now a realityREMOTE-CONTROL TREE felling is now reality and could save lives says Associate Primary Industries Minister Jo Goodhew in light of trials in the Steepland Harvesting PGP earlier this month.

An operator was able to successfully fell and bunch several trees from a safe distance at the top of a steep slope using a remote control device in what is believed to be a world first application of the technology.

“The use of remote control to operate machinery on steep land will essentially remove forestry workers from hazardous areas and prevent injuries and death.”

The Steepland Harvesting PGP is led by Future Forests Research, working with Wood Contracting Nelson and Scion.

Keith Raymond of Future Forests Research says remote controlled machines are common in the mining industry and in the military

but understands application to tree-felling is a world-first.

A remote control unit fitted in a John Deere 909 feller buncher for the trial achieved the programme’s aim of improving safety and productivity in harvesting, as well as the progamme’s vision of ‘No worker on the slope, no hand on the chainsaw’.

“We’ve completed the first of three stages of this project which was to achieve remote control of machine functions of the John Deere 909 feller buncher….

“The next stage is to incorporate video and audio feedback. Once we’ve completed this, the operator will be able to operate the feller buncher from a safe distance to avoid hazardous tree felling situations.”

The full tele-operation control system is expected to be commissioned May 2015.

Goodhew notes the PGP has already spawned the ClimbMAX

harvester, a ground-based harvesting machine that fells and bunches logs on steep slopes using a computer controlled hydraulic winch system to help with traction and mobility.

“Four of these machines have been built and are now in commercial operation with a fifth under construction….

“A new camera system called CutoverCam has also been developed. It uses wireless camera technology to provide clear views of operations to hauler operators who no longer need to rely on radio messages and sound signals from ground crews, while a new HarvestNav on-board navigation system provides important information on harvest area terrain.

“These are exciting breakthroughs that mark significant steps towards ensuring forestry workers are kept out of harm’s way, and at the same time increase the productivity of forest harvesting operations.”

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suspension set-up is equal to the current leaf spring set-up. Tow rating is 3.5 tonnes.

The benefits of coil springs are in ride and handling. Ride particularly is improved over the cur-rent leaf-spring arrange-ment, removing much of the bounce and jitter when unladen. We’ll have to wait for a longer drive to test how it works with a heavy load, but can con-firm it took in its stride the worst tracks Thailand could throw at it.

On the tarmac it is still a large vehicle in the cor-ners but quicker rack-and-pinion steering makes life at the helm much less demanding.

Noise and vibra-tion levels are also much better, as are interior com-fort and convenience. The comfy front seats are

worthy of mention, and rear passengers get plenty of legroom and more recline in the seatback. The bench is set lower and the floor in the rear seems higher relative to seat height, a product of the lower roofline, but head-room remains the same as in the current model.

A purpose-built off-

road course demon-strated the electronic traction aids, the excellent approach (31 degrees) and departure (25.6 degrees) angles and the wheel articulation. The course was concrete under foot. Again, a real-world test in New Zealand conditions will reveal how well the traction aids work when it

is slippery.It has ‘brake LSD’ (lim-

ited slip differential) which shifts the driving force from left to right according to which side has the most traction by gently applying the brake to the side with least trac-tion, reducing wheel slip.

It also has a hill descent function that

maintains low speed downhill with no input required from the driver (other than steering), and hill start assist that will

hold the vehicle stationary on a slope for three sec-onds, allowing you time to get your foot safely from the brake back onto the accelerator.

Globally the ute seg-ment is vital to car manu-facturers, as it is in New Zealand, so Nissan has put the NP-300 through the wringer during devel-

opment. It is the product of 40,000 tests and 1 mil-lion km of road testing in various climatic extremes

worldwide, including alpine testing in the South Island of New Zealand.

The design team has produced a suitably tough looking exterior and the car-like interior, with spec-ification levels to match, that is now expected in the ute category. Nissan NZ is yet to confirm the full range for our market – the double cab will be the big seller as it is with the current D40 model – and pricing won’t be con-firmed until closer to the local release date.

The current D40 Navara has been a hit down-under but has been in the market for seven years, and Ford’s Ranger and the VW Amarok have shifted the goalposts. The new Navara is an impor-tant product for Nissan NZ. Expect it here in the first half, if not first quar-ter, of 2015.

new nissan ute a smooth ridefrom page 39 The styling includes a ‘spoiler’ integrated

into the tailgate. Inset: The YS23 engine features a two-stage turbo.

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Tractors prove their worth hauling feedTWO LANDINI tractors are good value in their roles of feed loading and hauling at a high-productivity dairy goat farm near Cambridge, reports the distributor, AgTek.

A Powermondial DT120 (120hp) tows a combination harvesting and feed out wagon for the animals’ loafing barn, and a Powerfarm DT95 (95hp) does all loader work.

Hugh Phillips-Turner, general manager, says the farm was converted from a horse stud during an expansion of the dairy goat industry.

He reckons the dairy goat industry is one of the few in agriculture that looked at market demand before figuring out what to supply and in what quantities.

There was a clear demand for goats’ milk so a co-operative was set up. It then became apparent they could not meet the demand, hence a decision to expand the co-op. That’s when Phillips-Turner and his team came on board.

“That’s the reverse of how farming is traditionally done. Usually farmers provide stuff and then scratch their heads over who’s going to buy it. The group who established the co-op did it the other way around.”

Now NZ has 50 co-op dairy goat farms and demand is still increasing. Most of the milk is exported to SE Asia.

On the Cambridge farm 1000 goats live inside for economy and because it keeps them worm-free. The farm is free of caprine arthritic encephalitis (CAE), a virus said to be like AIDS in goats.

The flock was established by ‘snatching’ the kids. The kids were taken off their mothers 24 hours after birth to ensure they don’t catch this disease.

The goats are primarily Saanens but Phillips-Turner wants to build up a mixed breed flock. “A herd with a mix of breeds has better animal health

but the main reason is for better production and fertility.”

A tanker takes the milk away and it is made into powder for infant formula.

“There is a demand for fresh milk and that will be met as time and supply permits.”

The 41ha that supports the goats has been specially planted in herbal ley. Phillips-Turner says the farm managers David and Amanda Drake are among the pioneers in biological farming in New Zealand.

They soil test regularly and fertilise with natural products such as guano and aim for a balanced soil. Used bedding is made into compost and spread back onto the farm.

“We keep as green as possible. It’s pure common sense. Making our own compost reduces the cost of fertilisers, which is a major expense. Being green and sustainable and being financially viable are not in opposition.

“We got the Landini tractors as they were the best value for money with respect to horsepower dollars,” says Phillips-Turner.

The Landini Powermondial DT120 arrived in September 2012.

“It’s the second Landini we’ve bought and we’re happy with the work it’s doing. Essentially it came down to price as there’s little difference between most of the European tractors.”

The Mondial has a dual power system that boosts up to 120hp. That gives it the power it needs for the wagon when it’s harvesting but on the trip in and out to the barn it doesn’t draw that much power. It then operates on a lower system of 112hp. This saves fuel and is more efficient.

The boost to 120hp occurs during road transport (up to 40km/h), or when the driver uses the PTO at over 1000rpm.

Another feature is the engine revs drop at road speed, giving a quieter,

more fuel-efficient ride.The Powermondial

puts 90L/min through the hydraulics, plenty for the harvest wagon. The transmission has 36 forward gears and 12 reverse.

Tel. 07 573 8132 www.agtek.co.nz

The performance and economics

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rural news 19 august 2014

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