rural news 506 dec 13 2011

december 13, 2011: Issue 506 www.ruralnews.co.nz

RuRalNEWS

agronomy tourWheat, barley, beans and even lupins on PGW’s Agronomy Tour. page 23

35 green tractorsThere’s only one make of tractor for Neil Houghton. page 29 strong views

Fonterra’s newest board member

speaks out.page 10

to all farmers, for all farmers

Strawberry slip prompts review

HORIZONS REGIONAL Council chair-man Bruce Gordon says his council has been misrepresented in the mainstream media over claims it plans to buy a dairy farm.

About two years ago the council sold its 11% shareholding in Port of

Napier for $9 million. It still holds a 23% share in Centreport/Port of Wel-lington.

The interest earned, currently about $1.5 million, eases HRC’s rate demands.

The dairy farm idea is to achieve rev-enue equivalent or better than the bank

investment, but also with an opportu-nity for capital growth.

“It was all generic, but somehow it’s come out that we are buying a dairy farm,” says Gordon.

Gordon describes the fallout from the meeting as a nightmare with a lack

of understanding of the issues. He says the council does not want to spend the $9 million on any single project, it just wants to invest the money wisely, pro-tect the capital and use the interest from the investment for the benefit of the community of the region.

Council dairy idea ‘misrepresented’

to page 3

MAF DIRECTOR-general Wayne McNee says he’s asked for a detailed review of last month’s strawberry growing kit biosecurity incident. Packs containing strawberry seeds were imported from China by Tui Products with nearly 7000 offered for sale by The Warehouse.

When this was drawn to MAF’s attention last month they were withdrawn from sale and a media release issued requesting the 1362 packs sold be returned, or, if they were already growing, destroyed.

As of Wednesday last week, MAF Biosecurity said 67 kits had been returned and eight calls seeking destruction advice received. With eight kits bought by MAF itself, that’s 83 kits accounted for, or 6.1% of those sold.

However, because buyers were given the option of destroying kits or resulting plants themselves, accounting for all those sold will not be possible.

“It was important to make compliance easy for purchasers,” Andrew Coleman, deputy director general compliance and response told Rural News.

Coleman says the product recall was “thoroughly promoted by wide-spread advertising in national news-papers, signage in The Warehouse stores, website promotion and a MAF media release which received substantial news coverage.”

Beef niche beckonsNEW ZEALAND has a unique product and the story to go with it, says an inno-vative marketer.

Gerard Hickey, Firstlight Foods, told farmers at a recent BLNZ field day in Southern Hawkes Bay that New Zealand’s grass-fed Wagyu beef has captured the imagination of afflu-ent consumers in Japan, the US and Europe.

Wagyu beef, famous for its mar-bling, originates in Japan and is nor-mally reared on grain in feedlots. But Hickey says there is an ‘anti feedlot, anti grain’ move taking place, opening the door for our grass fed, free range Wagyu beef. Firstlight is working with a small, select group of farmers includ-ing Maori incorporations, family farm-ers and breeders finishing grass-fed Wagyu beef.

Hickey says young, affluent consum-ers want a free range, natural product rather than animals produced in feed-lots, which “tend to be associated with antibiotics, hormones and a whole lot of industrialisation”.

“So whereas feedlots may be the future to feed the world, the view is that New Zealand’s ideal customer is some-one who wants the story; they want to buy something they know has been well looked after and well grown.”

The success of New Zealand Wagyu has stemmed from a quest for excel-lence by all involved. Innovation, R&D, product differentiation and a ‘value

chain’ approach has made the differ-ence, he says.

New Zealand is selling steers and heifers; no bulls. Cross breeding gives them extra hardiness to cope with New Zealand conditions. They are grass-fed year round and supplemented in tighter feed periods with silage, hay and some crops.

Animals must be finished prop-

erly before they are slaughtered oth-erwise the meat does not marble fully and starts to lose its ‘structure’, Hickey says. Wagyu is genetically predisposed to marbling, but needs good nutrition as well.

Unusual about Wagyu is where the value lies. “Whereas the forequarter of a traditional animal would go to burger meat, the Wagyu has heavy marbling in the forequarter and we make those into premium barbecue cuts which get sold in Japan and Korea. Cuts that from another animal would be ground up for hamburger meat are, in a Wagyu, highly valued for their style of cooking.

“In the US the high value middle cuts are sold to steak houses and spe-cialty restaurants looking for a ‘grass fed story’ and great steak. We also do a range of burgers mainly from the leg end of the animal; much of this goes to Europe.”

Currently about 6000 Wagyu steers and heifers are slaughtered each year, coming from about 15,000 Wagyu beef animals around the country. Hickey says the aim is to lift the herd to about 50,000 in the next few years.

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issue 506www.ruralnews.co.nz

The Warehouse and Tui Products have picked up the cost of the national advertisements. MAF is covering the retrieval and disposal of unsold and returned kits.

MAF is now growing plants from the kits, in quarantine, to test them for viruses. Results are expected in March.

The growing medium in the kits was cocopeat (coir peat) supplied from the Netherlands, originally sourced from India or Sri Lanka under a quality system.

The accompanying phytosanitary certificate from the Netherlands met MAF’s requirements and a small sample

THe ImPOrT Health standard for strawberry seed requires tests for six viruses to prevent entry: Fragaria chiloensis latent ilarvirus, raspberry ringspot virus, strawberry latent ringspot virus, Tobacco streak virus, Tomato black ring virus and Tomato ringspot virus. The IHs applies to

strawberry seed from any country. Of these diseases, two are

now known to be in New Zealand and three of the others are not reported to be in china, the origin of the strawberry seeds in this instance. The only virus known to be in china is Tomato ringspot virus,

of which there are strains already in New Zealand, although not strains that infect strawberries.

mAF sees only a low risk of the seeds being infected with one of these viruses, successfully growing and transmitting the virus to other plants in New Zealand.

one of six virus risk

from page 1

Strawberry biosecurity incident review dueof the growing media tablets was visu-ally examined by MAF inspectors.

McNee says he’s asked the head of his internal audit team to do the review, and to go right back to the import health

standards: “How the [strawberry seeds] actually came though the border, who made the decisions, and then how we responded to it? Did we make the right decisions at the right times?

“The person undertaking that review is independent of the people involved in the ‘strawberry incident’ and she will report directly to me.” McNee says he expects to have a report in a week or so.

Synlait seeks farm fundsONE OF New Zealand’s largest dairy farm operators is seeking investors. Synlait Ltd hopes to use new capital to develop its 13 Canter-bury farms.

Synlait Ltd’s decision to partially float its subsidiary Synlait Farms follows a similar move involv-ing its Synlait Milk subsidiary last year. Synlait Ltd, founded in 2000 by John Penno, Juliet Maclean and Ben Dingle, sold a 51% stake in Syn-lait Milk to Chinese dairy giant Bright Dairy for $82 million. Milk from Synlait Farms is processed by Synlait Milk.

Synlait Ltd chairman Barry Brook believes it’s an opportune time to seek investor interest due to the positive international demand for protein. The balance sheet remains strong and it will only enter into a transaction on terms that fairly reflect the value of the business, he says. Proposals from poten-tial investors are being sought by December 20.

WHILE OUR politicians were busy fighting the election, bureaucrats in Wellington would have been busy pre-paring ‘BIMs’ for the arrival of new and enthusiastic ministers.

BIM is the acronym for ‘briefing for the incoming minister’. A BIM is pro-duced by each government department after every general election. Cabinet reshuffles can prompt interim BIMs.

The BIM is a snapshot of what’s

happening in a department and what’s planned. They’re publicly released after the minister and department have had a chance to discuss the content.

Of particular interest to the primary sector will be the BIMs for MAF, MfE and MFAT (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade).

In the case of MAF, expect to see water matters high on the list along with climate change, food safety, new

regulations, trade and biosecurity. The BIM is also likely to detail the depart-ment’s restructuring – the changes and savings made.

The MfE BIM will be huge on water and environmental matters affecting farming. There should be synergies with MAF’s in relation to climate change. MFAT’s will focus on trade issues, espe-cially progress on the development of new FTAs.

‘BIms’ on parliament seats

Lamb flow still slowMEATWORKS NATIONWIDE are still struggling to get a regular flow of lambs in what has been one of the slowest starts to the lamb processing season for years.

Alliance chief executive Grant Cuff says the kill is at least 20-30% behind previous years.

“There are a number of reasons. Some older [new] season lambs were

killed in September which has reduced numbers and although there is plenty of grass around, the colder weather slowed lamb growth so now the weather is warmer some farmers may be hold-ing on to stock to increase lamb weight.”

Cuff says farmers need to be aware that if they hold on to lambs they may face a wait for space.

“They could be waiting a week to ten days, having to keep them on the farm eating feed they may want for other

stock... They may be caught out espe-cially after Christmas.”

BLNZ chairman Mike Petersen echoes Cuff ’s comments.

“It’s been a cool spring and a lot of lambs haven’t done so well; especially in the North Island, it’s been hard to get their weight up.”

Petersen warns last year’s steadily rising schedule through the summer was an anomaly, and predicts a more typical curve to pricing this year.

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4 news

PLASTIC WRAP, now a kitchen essential, looks like finding a slot in agriculture too, markedly improving the yield of maize crops.

Plant and Food Research scientist Andrew Fletcher told farmers at the Foundation for Arable Research’s (FAR) annual Crops expo last week that Canterbury was at the margin of where maize could be reliably grown, but some Irish technology could make a big difference.

Limerick company Samco has developed a plastic film that when laid on the ground raises soil temperatures by an aver-age 5˚C.

“It’s about half the thickness of Gladwrap and it’s biodegrad-able so the sunlight breaks it down,” Fletcher says.

“By increasing the soil temperature, the maize germinates faster, the leaves come out faster. By 30-40 days afterwards it’s all finished, all broken down and you’ve got a much more advanced maize crop.”

Fletcher says the film is rea-sonably expensive, about $350/ha, but trial work shows it could pay for itself in improved pro-duction.

“We’ve found you can grow the same hybrid for the same duration and you’ll get about the same yield but you’ll get it three weeks earlier with the plas-tic and in that system you can then plant whatever your next thing going in is, a cereal crop or going back into grass, earlier. Three weeks in autumn is really important.

“The other thing you can do is alter your hybrid around so you’ve got a longer duration hybrid so you can harvest on the same day as you did before and you can get maybe three tonnes more yield. So it’s really about how you want to use it in your system.”

Fletcher says the film clearly works on small plots and this year it’s being tried on a larger scale.

“You’ve got to get a return to make it work and experi-mentally we think we’ve got it somewhere there but there are some guys trying it on larger fields this year so that’s the real acid test.

“It’s just like a glasshouse; it’s amazing stuff. On a sunny day it can be 12˚C warmer at five cen-timetres.”

More maize with biodegradable plastic mulch

Beef grazing tips WHeN IT comes to measuring pasture there are high tech and low tech options. rowe relayed one of the latter at the field day: two cans of speight’s on top of each other.

“The concept is to have crude way of knowing when the pasture is high enough to graze and we’d be targeting 2500 kgs/dm per ha. If you put a can of speight’s on top of another that equates to the stars on the top can. The ideal height to harvest the plant down to is 30-40mm – to the stars on the lower can.”

the speight’s-o-meter

BEEF FARMERS, and to a lesser extent sheep farmers, could learn a lot about pasture management and feeding stock from their colleagues in the dairy industry, says farm consultant Lindsay Rowe.

Rowe spoke last week at a BLNZ field day on Federated Farmers Manawatu/Ranitikei president Andrew Hoggard’s dairy farm.

“Good dairy farmers understand establishing a rotation and then chang-ing that rotation to match what’s going on with the growth rate of the plant.

“They also understand grazing to a target residual, i.e. leaving enough of the plant behind to ensure it recovers rapidly.”

Dairy farmers are lucky in getting ‘instant’ reward in the vat for doing it well, whereas feedback for beef farmers is slower and more difficult to measure and respond to, Rowe acknowledges.

However, there’s no reason why the beef farmer can’t focus on the pasture part of the equation.

“Watching the plant, watching how hard the stock are grazing it, is some-thing a beef farmer can easily monitor and respond to more often than many do.”

Rowe says a key to monitoring rye-grass pasture levels is the ‘three leaf ’ principle.

The aim is to harvest as much quality pasture as possible by getting the rye-grass to grow three leaves.

“As the plant gets to the three leaf stage, the minerals we desire – calcium and magnesium in particular – are lift-ing and the less desirable sodium and potassium are declining.

“Also more protein will be produced by the nitrogen that’s been taken up through the plant. So getting that third leaf up is important for getting a better product for stock to eat.”

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news 5

record Crops crowdA COLD southerly and threatening skies last week didn’t deter a record number of farmers from attending the Founda-tion for Arable Research’s (FAR) annual Crops expo in Chertsey, Canterbury.

Heavy rain fell until the last minute before the expo started but never-theless 560 farmers came to see the results of latest research by FAR scien-tists and work by Plant and Food Research staff.

“Each year there’s new information; some of it’s a refresher but this year there’re some new con-cepts too,” FAR chief exec-utive Nick Pyke told Rural News.

“One of the great things about arable farm-ing is it’s an annual crop-ping system so farmers can look at something and say, ‘I’ll go home and try that on a small area of the paddock’.

“They don’t compro-mise a large area of the farm for a long time. We find that seeing some-thing is believing some-thing. Some farmers want to read it, some farmers want to see it, some farm-ers want a one-on-one talk about it; we try to do a bit of all that here.”

This year’s expo cov-ered the usual arable sub-jects and included results of work on cereal silage; DairyNZ came along to tell dairy farmers what to look for in grain feeds.

A major theme was a target of 20 tonnes of wheat per hectare by 2020.

“That’s a tall order but if we don’t have a big goal, we’re not going to get any-

where near the goal,” Pyke says.

FAR scientist Rob Crai-gie told farmers that over the past ten years yields had increased by an aver-age 2% per annum and he was hopeful of hitting the 20t target with improved genetics, earlier drill-ing, keeping the canopy greener for longer and keeping disease at bay.

“I guess the trick is not to just have it in an occa-sional paddock but to get everyone up. We’re not saying everyone will be hitting 20 tonnes but if the top guys can get 20 tonnes then hopefully it’ll pull the middle guys up two or three tonnes... It’s just to push us a bit to look at new ways of doing things, to find new avenues of research.”

Arable farmers have had it tough for the past few years but with prices up this year, there were more smiles on faces – and perhaps less pressure to convert farms to dairying, adds Pyke.

“Dairy farming

toNy BeNNy

FAr’s crops expo was expanded this year with the inclusion of displays and talks from “plat-inum sponsors” involved in the arable industry, but planned demonstrations of machinery had to be cancelled because after days of rain in canterbury the ground was too wet.

rain prevents machinery demo

is a threat to arable farming but it’s also an opportunity.

“I see farms go into dairying and I think, ‘that’s a bloody waste of good land that could be cropping’, but at the end of the day that’s the

farmers’ choice. “Even though there are

a whole lot fewer arable farms in the country, we’re actually producing more arable product than ten years ago; what we’re pro-ducing off the area of land is way, way higher.”

Nick Pyke

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6 news

maori’s first milk plant opened

THEY CAME from Maori trusts throughout the North Island, and from companies involved in Miraka, to see the plant opened. This is Maori’s first investment in a dairy processing plant; chances are it won’t be the last.

Chairman Kingi Smiler says it was a fantastic occasion for whanau and friends who’ve helped build Miraka. A “stunning show” displayed the fac-tory and its products. It was wonderful to see the shareholders’ and owners’ pride in the project, he says. Manuhiri (guests) where welcomed by tan-gata whenua into a mar-quee erected for the event; just as well – rain arrived as people were seated for the powhiri and opening ceremony.

Miraka is essentially a joint venture between Maori trusts Tuaropaki and Wairarapa Moana. Tuaropaki owns the geo-thermal power station powering the plant and the site at Mokai. Wairarapa Moana has 10,000 cows on farms around Mangakino. Other shareholders include the Maori Trustee, Vietnam’s largest dairy company Vinamilk (19% shareholder), Wairarapa Moana, other Maori trusts and farmer suppliers.

Smiler told guests the project’s history and how it was built on time and to budget. A commemora-tive plaque was unveiled by Karaihe Rotarangi, Lila

Andrews, Taini Morere Wright and Robert Kin-sella Workman.

Says Smiler, “The four people that opened it built up the two trusts – Tuaropaki and Waira-

rapa Moana. It was appro-priate the benefits we’ve reaped from that work be recognised by them being invited to open the plant.”

The 600 guests enjoyed

a sumptuous lunch and entertainment by Maori cultural groups. Not to be outdone, a delegation from Vinamilk fronted with a traditional song.

Vinamilk has been very

No politicians – just 600 ordinary people proudly attended, celebrating in a traditional way the official opening, early December, of the $90 million Miraka dairy factory northwest of Taupo. Peter Burke reports.

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6 news news 7

maori’s first milk plant openedrain didn’t stop play.

THe VINAmILK chief executive and chair, madam mai Kieu Lien, says she’s happy with the miraka project, factory and products.

“The arrangement with miraka provided Vinamilk with an excellent opportu-nity to invest in New Zealand,” she told Rural News.

Lien first came to New Zealand ten years ago and has been back several times to view progress on the miraka project, Vinamilk’s first overseas inve-ment.

“The whole milk powder we import from here is reconstituted into other consumable products such as infant formula and condensed milk.”

With Vietnam’s population now 80 million there is growing demand for dairy products, hence the partnership with miraka, to put more dairy products on supermarket shelves.

Vietnam’s dairy industry, and dairy consumption, are small compared with New Zealand and other western countries. Potential exists for greater volumes from New Zealand.

Vinamilk was formed in 1976 as the southern coffee-dairy company. since then it’s undergone many restructurings, becoming Vinamilk in 2003.

It makes condensed, powdered and fresh milk, yogurts, cheeses and other products derived from milk. It exports powdered and condensed milk to the middle east, cambodia and Australia. It’s 47.7% owned by the Vietnamese government, the balance trading on the Ho chi minh stock exchange.

Vinamilk delightedsupportive and is pleased with the operation, Smiler says. The company is keen to buy all the products Miraka makes.

“It’s positive for our expansion. We need to build our milk supply because we have custom-ers ready to buy it. We’re getting more suppliers already and are recruiting more.”

Other Maori trust are keenly interested in Mira-ka’s achievement.

2

4

1. milk shake: Vinamilk’s madam lien and miraka chairman Kingi smiler.

2. Vinamilk’s delegation.

3. Part of the scrumptious lunch.

4. Kaumatua at the opening.

This year’s Spring Land Production guide is packed with quality products and sound technical advice for all your pasture and cropping requirements.The PGG Wrightson team can also help you choose the right products for the best results in the months ahead.

Visit your local store or talk to your Technical Field Representative today.

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help you choose the right products for Spray Out 04-05

Brassica 06-13

Cereals 14-19

Maize 20-27

Pasture 28-39

Brushweeds 40-41

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Land Production Planner 48-51

Index 52

Contact Information Back Cover

Spring land production

Your ultimate guide to crops, pastures, sprays and fertilisers.

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8 news

frost bites barleyBARLEY’S YIELD poten-tial on much of the Can-terbury Plain looks to have been capped by late frost.

“A whole lot of grain’s not developing,” PGW’s Graeme Jones told grow-ers on the firm’s annual agronomy group trials tour. “It’s been frosted.”

Typical symptoms are shrivelled spikelets at the end of the ear which fail to develop. “If you go around Canterbury you’ll see a whole lot of this to vary-ing degrees... especially inland.”

Jones says the worst he’s seen could cause 10% yield loss. “I’ve not seen anything more than that.”

Despite a touch of such frost damage in the Tavern crop surrounding PGW’s fungicide trials most ears in the May-sown crop have laid down 16 or 17 pairs of grains.

“Fourteen’s reasonably good – it should do 10t/ha alright. There’s a good head number and density so the grains should fill

well. The question is how the fungicide programme will last.”

Ramularia was speck-ling leaves of untreated Tavern plots, threaten-ing to infect the yield driv-ing awns and upper leaves should the fungicide pro-tection leave an opening.

Jones says the key is to be proactive and make

aNDrew SwaLLow

ramularia starting to take hold in untreated tavern.

preventative treat-ments.

“If you wait and watch for ramularia you’ll miss it. It was bad last year and it’s setting up to be bad this year.”

However, growers may not have noticed it if they used a robust fungicide at ear emergence, he adds.

“Proline plus the strobs are very good so you don’t necessarily see it.” Pro-line (prothioconazole) plus a strobilurin, typically Acanto, has proved itself the “industry standard” in barley. PGW’s trials are exploring tweaks to the timing of this mix, and variations around it, nota-bly integrating last year’s newcomer Seguris Flexi (isopyrozam) and another SDHI fungicide in the reg-istration process from Bayer.

“We’re looking at

some later, full ear emer-gence timings,” explains Jones. “Our thoughts are that under irrigated crops we’re not quite getting the control of ramularia and leaf rust right through to the end of grain fill. We see the disease come in and the crop’s cut short.”

Persistent protection against these two diseases is Seguris’ main selling point, he notes. How Bay-er’s product will perform remains to be seen.

“It won’t be registered next year,” Bayer product development manager Roy Stieller told Rural News. Owing to restrictions on promoting products pre-registration, he was other-wise tight-lipped about the product’s features.• More from PGW’s field day on p23.

in brief

PGW agronomist chris Nottingham says while seguris flexi is “getting a bit of a slot as an awn spray in barley”, PGW’s trials with it in wheat “didn’t really show it as a no brainer last year.”

“in wheat the question is what do you mix it with. it’s difficult to position but longevity of protection is one of its main features.”

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news 9

Biosecurity on Dg’s mindMAF DIRECTOR-gen-eral Wayne McNee says the one thing that keeps him awake at night is bios-ecurity.

Speaking exclusively to Rural News recently he said that while his overall job is big, it’s manageable. But the consequences of a serious biosecurity incur-sion are so huge that man-aging that risk keeps him awake.

One new measure he believes has cut the risk is an electronic system to identify people and car-goes more likely to pose a threat. It’s been put in place by MAF and Cus-toms.

“In the past if some-body went through the border and was identi-fied as carrying a risk to biosecurity, we relied on a paper based system to identify them the next time they came through to pick them up. We now have a system that flags ‘risk’ characters – people who have previously offended or people identi-fied as a risk.”

Just two days after they installed the system someone smuggling seeds in ballpoint pens was apprehended at Auckland airport.

“A person carrying an apple is a risk, but the people actively trying to breach the border, bring-ing in goods they know are illegal are the ones we have to get,” he stresses.

To that end, MAF is taking a new look at how it can police the border better.

McNee says it’s a fresh approach with new ideas

and new people. While he doesn’t mention it, the former director of MAF Biosecurity, Barry O’Neill, is no longer with the department and Peter Thompson, another with a major role in that group, now has a position else-where in the organisation.

Discussions over gov-ernment-industry agree-ments (GIAs) are ongoing

with various primary industry groups and McNee hopes an agree-ment which will meet the needs of all parties, including government, can be reached. The aim is to have a paper on the subject up to the Cabinet in March.

He praises Federated Farmers’ initiative in call-ing a meeting of inter-

peter BUrKe

ested parties some weeks ago and says Feds played an active role in get-ting people to acknowl-edge GIAs are coming and that people need to work together. As a result of that meeting, a small working party has been set up to thrash out an agreement.

Meanwhile McNee and a leadership team have

met Horticulture New Zealand’s board to discuss biosecurity. He says their concerns are understand-able given the nature of the industry and what has happened with PSA in the kiwifruit sector; indeed, he shares them.

“I’m concerned because it’s their liveli-hood. We have commit-ted to working with them

mcNee Is spending a day or two a week out of his office meeting people involved in the primary sector. It’s a response to feedback that mAF was too ‘transac-tional’ in its approach.

“We were told we only talked to people when we wanted something, or they talked to us when they wanted something. everybody said they wanted us to build long-term relationships. All my deputies and directors have now been given responsibility for building long-term relationships with different sectors.”

It’s important mAF connects more effectively with the sectors, he adds.

“We need a better understanding of the opportuni-ties and challenges. This is important because when we are regulating and developing standards, we want to enable them to do what they need to do, rather than putting barriers in the way.”

mAF’s also looking at secondment opportunities.“We want to have some of our staff spend three

or six months working out in the real world and have people from the primary sector working within the department for periods as well; obviously not in areas where there would be a direct conflict, but the idea is for both sides to get a better understanding of how the system works and to get some new ideas into the mix.”

on the road

fmD exercise planneDmAF Is planning a major biosecurity exercise in march, simulating a foot and mouth disease (Fmd) outbreak with other government agencies and primary sector bodies involved.It will last about a week and will run as a ‘real time’ simulation, building on desk top exercises on such a situation.media will also be involved because in such an event, communicating to farmers and the wider community is critical, says mcNee.

and making sure they are involved in the process.

“They are saying they want to get involved in

discussions about the whole biosecurity system, not just the GIA and I am open to that discussion.”

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getting the minority to performA ten-way tussle last month for three seats on Fonterra’s board saw Taranaki council chair and businessman David MacLeod elected, alongside incumbents John Monaghan and Jim van der Poel. Peter Burke asked MacLeod what his priorities are.

SOME DAIRY farmers are performing poorly on environmental mat-ters, but Fonterra’s new director David MacLeod,

Taranaki, is confident they’re in the minority. However, for the industry, those poor performers are the priority because the

whole sector gets tarred with their brush.

“We need to identify those weakest perform-ing farmers and somehow

assist them and encourage them or whatever it takes to improve their farm-ing performance,” he told Rural News.

“Until we do we will never be able to have a dis-cussion with New Zea-land society and say we are worthy of being sup-ported. By far the major-ity of our dairy farmers are good performers envi-ronmentally, but unfortu-nately we have a minority who need to do better.”

MacLeod says Fonterra

has done a good job with ‘Every Farm Every Year’, identifying farmers who need to lift their perfor-mance. But he urges care in such an approach.

“You have to be care-ful you don’t double dip. It would be inefficient to audit every farm again next year. You need to identify where the issues are and deal with those but leave the rest of the dairy farmers to get on with their business.”

Farming must be as strong as possible given the unknown times ahead, MacLeod says. Last year was great but there are potential problems.

“Many dairy farm-ers are highly geared. The days for high gearing have gone. Banks don’t want it any more. It’s now about sustainability and profit-ability.”

Production is not everything. Farmers went through a period of want-ing to be the biggest rather than the best, but now “there’s a difference between who is the big-gest and who is the best. A lot of people have got into strife because they focused on growth rather than performance.”

MacLeod has been connected to the dairy industry all his life. His family have farmed for 130 years near Manaia, South Taranaki, and have run their present farm since 1904.

After secondary school-ing he took an electri-cal apprenticeship with a view to returning one day to the farm, but that never happened. Instead he worked for, and eventu-ally bought, Greaves Elec-trical, Hawera, one of the province’s largest electri-cal contractors. Now half his company’s business is

electrical work in the dairy industry, for farmers and dairy companies.

“ I gained huge under-standing of the process side of things in those early days as an electri-cian on farms and at some big dairy factories such as Kiwi in Hawera. I knew the chairman of Kiwi Dairy at the time. That’s when I got my appetite for governance – looking at those guys and think-ing, ‘wouldn’t it be won-derful to be at the decision making table of a great company like Kiwi’.”

With his business well established, MacLeod sought a new challenge, winning a seat on the Taranaki Regional Coun-cil in 2000. For the last four years he has chaired that council, seen as pro-gressive and responsive to community – urban and rural. He is also a director of the Port of Taranaki.

Then came election to the Fonterra board and to the committee of man-agement of Parininihi ki Waitotara (PKW), a large Maori incorporation in Taranaki with 8500 benefi-ciaries or shareholders.

It has 13 dairy farms and two support blocks. About 7000 cows are run on the 2160ha milking platform and they pro-duce 2.3 million kgMS/year, making PKW Fon-terra’s single biggest milk supplier in Taranaki. Most farms have 50/50 share-milkers.

His family are benefi-ciaries of PKW, which in 2006 won the Ahuwhenua Trophy for Maori Dairy Farming Excellence.

“My mother and father were keen for me to take an interest…. It’s an elected position and you have to get voted onto the board.”

david macleod

“ i gained huge understanding of the process side of things in those early days as an electrician on farms and at some big dairy factories such as Kiwi in Hawera.”

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12 worlD

25% of world land ‘highly degraded’LAND DEGREDATION and water shortages pose a profound challenge to the task of feeding a world population expected to reach 9 billion by 2050, says a recently released UN Food & Agriculture Organisation report, The State of the World’s Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture (SOLAW).

In the first ever global assessment of land deg-

redation, it says 25% is highly degraded, 8% moderately degraded, 36% stable or slightly degraded, and 10% ranked as “improv-ing.” The remainder is either bare land or inland water.

While the last 50 years saw substantial increases in food production, “in too many places” it has been with management practices that degraded

land and water systems upon which food produc-tion depends.

A number of those sys-tems “face the risk of pro-gressive breakdown of their productive capac-ity under a combination of excessive demographic pressure and unsustain-able agriculture use and practices,” warns the report.

No region is immune: systems at risk can be

found around the globe, from the highlands of the Andes to the steppes of Central Asia, from Aus-tralia’s Murray-Darling river basin to the central United States, says the FAO.

New Zealand is listed with a group of nations at risk from pollution of soils and aquifers, loss of biodiversity, degradation of freshwater ecosystems, and increased crop failure due to increased climate

variability.There are particu-

larly high incidences of degradation down the west coast of the Ameri-cas, across Mediterranean Europe and North Africa, across the Sahel and the Horn of Africa, and throughout Asia.

The greatest threat is the loss of soil quality, followed by biodiversity loss and water resources depletion.

Some 1.6 billion ha of the world’s best, most productive lands are currently used to grow crops. Parts of these land areas are being degraded

through farming prac-tices that result in water and wind erosion, the loss of organic matter, topsoil compaction, salinisation and soil pollution, and nutrient loss.

As natural resource bottlenecks are increas-ingly felt, competition for land and water will become “pervasive,” the report suggests.

This includes compe-tition between urban and industrial users as well as within the agricultural sector – between live-stock, staple crops, non-food crop, and biofuel production.

Meanwhile climate

change is expected to alter the patterns of temper-ature, precipitation and river flows upon which the world’s food produc-tion systems depend. As a result, the challenge of providing sufficient food for an ever-more hungry planet has never been greater, says the report.

FAO director-gen-eral Jacques Diouf says the systems at risk may not be able to contrib-ute as expected in meet-ing human demands by 2050. “The consequences in hunger and poverty are unacceptable. Remedial action needs to be taken now.”

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AMERICAN FARMERS’ net farm income and net cash income this year are, for the first time ever, forecast to exceed US$100 billion.

The US Department of Agriculture says it expects net farm income to be up 28% to $100.9b while net cash income is seen rising 18.8% to $109.8b.

Net value added is expected to increase by almost $23.9b to $153.7b, the highest recorded since 1974.

Sales of crop and livestock are expected 16% up, with gains spread out among many different categories.

Price rises and drought have played a major role, beef exports being up 27% from last year, pushing predicted cattle cash receipts up 21% to US$62.3b.

Dairy receipts are forecast to increase more than 25% to US$39.4b as milk prices have risen.

Hog producers are expected to benefit from strong demand for US pork products, especially from Japan and China, with up receipts up 23% to US$21.9b.

Crop sales are expected to exceed US$200b for the first time in US history, with record or near-record levels across different crop categories.

Sales of wheat are expected to increase by 30%, reflect-ing USDA’s forecast of more than 51.7 million tonnes sold at an annual average price of $270/t. US wheat produc-tion for 2011 is forecast to be down more than five mil-lion tonnes from last year.

The USDA expects the 2011 corn harvest to turn out to be the fourth largest on record with more than 261 mil-lion tonnes sold by US farm operations at an average price of $238/t.

Offsetting the price increases, production expenses are seen jumping 12% or US$34b to nearly US$320b, driven by increases in input prices. This is the first time expenses will have exceeded US$300b. The increase was only 1.5% in 2010.

uS farmers coin it

aussie report reveals fmD riskAUSTRALIAN PORK pro-ducers are in shock follow-ing revelations meat from South Korea was illegally shipped to Australia at the height of an extensive foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreak.

The imports were reported in a review of Australia’s preparation for FMD. It warns an outbreak might not be detected early and could quickly spread, leaving authorities overwhelmed as they try to slaughter and bury dis-eased livestock.

The Department of Agriculture commissioned Ken Matthews, a former department secretary, to provide the assessment. He found that in 2010 an Australian Quarantine Inspection Service (AQIS) investigation uncovered substantial illegal impor-tation of animal product including pigmeat from South Korea, then battling widespread FMD.

“The operation uncov-ered a long-term, estab-lished supply chain dedicated to the illegal importation of pig meat

into Australia, involving importers, brokers and the operators of quarantine approved premises,” Mat-thews says in his report.

The operation involved resale of illegally imported material at retail level.

“The case has been treated as a top priority considering that illegal smuggling of animal products is thought to have caused FMD outbreaks around the world, including the outbreak in the United Kingdom in 2001.”

Australian Pork chief executive Andrew Spencer told ABC he was in shock reading the Matthews report. “My confidence in AQIS’s ability to protect the health of our livestock industries is flowing out my office door,” he said.

The report also says the sheep industry’s lack of an individual identifica-tion system makes it vul-nerable and this should be quickly rectified.

Matthews’ team “fears it may be weeks before an outbreak is detected and reported by which time the disease could have spread extensively.”

An FMD outbreak could be more demanding than any previous animal disease outbreak. State, national and industry resources could quickly be overwhelmed. Human and physical capacity for large-scale slaughter and burial would quickly be exhausted.

“Further, there may well be unanticipated community opposition on animal welfare and per-haps food security/food wastage grounds.”

That FMD would most likely reach Australia through conventional, legal import processes is also disputed. A more

likely pathway is through non-transparent, illegal import channels not subject to routine AQIS intervention, says the report.

It acknowledges the strengths in Australia’s biosecurity system but highlights 11 areas for improvement.

aLaN HarmaN


14 agribusiness

turbo charge theme for business conferenceTHE CREAM of New Zea-land’s large dairy farmers will gather in Palmerston North in March for their annual conference.

The New Zealand Dairy Business Conference – formerly Large Herds Conference – will hear from top industry and

business leaders. Fonter-ra’s new chief executive Theo Spierings is one of the speakers.

Hosted by the New Zealand Large Herds Asso-ciation and Altum, the 43rd annual event runs from March 27-29. Its theme is ‘Turbo charge your knowledge’.

Organising committee

chairman Phil Butler says being designed by farm-ers, for farmers, makes the event stand out. “We address the topics that come up outside of the formal discussion groups, on the opportunities for progression and improve-ment, rather than the mechanics of cows and grass.

SUDeSH KISSUN • What: New Zealand dairy business conference

• Where: Awapuni racecourse, Palmerston North

• When: march 27-29, 2012

more information: www.largeherds.co.nz

“As the country’s big-gest export earner, the dairy industry is vital to the New Zealand econ-omy. As participants in the industry, we need to ensure we are up with research, technology and global trends, to help drive continued progress and improvement,” says Butler.

The conference theme will inform farmers on

key business and industry leaders’ views of research, technology and brand opportunities.

Organising committee member Owen Greig says the opportunity to net-work with dairy farming business colleagues and agribusiness profession-als is another draw card. He farms with his family south west of Palmerston North, milking 2000 cows

on a self-contained unit of 1500ha. He is also a Fon-terra shareholders coun-cillor.

The conference begins with an overview of the dairy industry by Adrian Foster, Rabobank AsiaPa-cific, and business com-mentator Rod Oram.

Field trips include visits to Massey Univer-sity, AgResearch and Fon-terra research centres and

Landcorp farms in the Motua basin.

Final day speakers include 2010 Entrepre-neur of the Year Tim Alpe, DairyNZ’s newly elected board member Ben Allomes and Spierings.

Greig says farmers will get maximum value from attending the whole con-ference. But they may register for single days if that’s all time allows.

Phil Butler

Read NZ Co-ops association chairFORMER FONTERRA Shareholders Council chairman Blue Read has been elected chairman of the New Zealand Cooperatives Association.

“I look forward to the opportunity to work with cooperative leaders and Government over the coming year as they help lead the celebrations for the UN International year of Cooperatives 2012 by developing a deeper understanding of

cooperatives for themselves and the people whom they represent,” says Read.

“I am confident that by celebrat-ing the International Year of Coop-eratives in 2012 many more people will get the opportunity to appreci-ate what is special and specific about the cooperative business model and its importance to the New Zealand economy.”

The NZCA promotes discussion and cooperation with government, research in support of cooperative business models, and collects and publishes information relevant to co-ops and mutuals.

There are 200 such member-owned businesses in New Zealand generating aggregate revenue of $30b. Of the world’s 300 largest co-ops and mutuals, six are in New Zealand.

EID growth spawns new roleGrOWTH IN weighing and electronic identification (eId) prod-ucts has prompted Gallagher Animal management to create a new position of technical support manager.

Product manager for weighing and eId systems Geoff Pooch has been appointed to the role.

“Gallagher products are designed to be simple to use and it’s my job to ensure that farmers can use them to their best advan-tage,” he says.

Pooch has an extensive background in computer program-ming and training for a number of organisations, including Hill Laboratories. He joined Gallagher in 2006 as a business analyst/software designer.

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16 markets & trenDsLamb Market Trends Beef Market Trends

Lamb Prices

c/kgCWT ChangeLast Week

2 Wks Ago

Last Year

NI Lamb YM - 13.5kg -12 7.66 7.78 5.95

PM - 16.0kg -12 7.68 7.80 5.98

PX - 19.0kg -12 7.70 7.82 5.99

PH - 22.0kg -12 7.71 7.83 5.99

Mutton MX1 - 21kg n/c 4.70 4.70 3.95

SI Lamb YM - 13.5kg -10 7.78 7.88 5.66

PM - 16.0kg -10 7.78 7.88 5.68

PX - 19.0kg -10 7.78 7.88 5.70

PH - 22.0kg -10 7.78 7.88 5.71

Mutton MX1 - 21kg n/c 4.58 4.58 3.70

NZ Slaughter Estimated Weekly Kill

1000s Change2Wks Ago

3 Wks Ago

Last Year

5yr Ave

Lamb NI +32% 151 114 184 242

Lamb SI +3% 136 132 196 259

Lamb NZ +16% 287 246 380 501

Mutton NZ +32% 85 64 159 145

Export Market Demand

ChangeLast Week

2 Wks Ago

Last Year

5yr Ave

UK Leg £/lb n/c 1.95 1.95 2.35 1.55

NZ$/kg -33 8.63 8.96 10.70 8.53

Procurement Indicator

Change2Wks Ago

3 Wks Ago

Last Year

5yr Ave

% Returned NI +2% 91.8% 89.3% 57.7% 53.0%

% Returned SI +3% 91.5% 88.7% 55.1% 56.9%

Venison Prices

ChangeLast Week

2 Wks Ago

Last Year

5yr Ave

NI Stag - 60kg -5 8.35 8.40 7.70 7.01

SI Stag - 60kg -10 8.75 8.85 7.80 7.37

NZ Weekly Lamb Kill

0

150

300

450

600

Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb

Last Year

This Year

Demand Indicator - UK Leg Price

£1.60

£2.10

£2.60


Last Year

This Year

Procurement Indicator - South I.

45%

55%

65%

75%

85%

95%

Sep Nov Jan

Last Year

This Year

Procurement Indicator - North I.

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Sep Nov Jan

Last Year

This Year

Beef Prices

c/kgCWT ChangeLast Week

2 Wks Ago

Last Year

NI P2 Steer - 300kg -5 4.53 4.58 3.90

M2 Bull - 300kg n/c 4.68 4.68 3.80

P2 Cow - 230kg -5 3.65 3.70 2.95

M Cow - 200kg -5 3.50 3.55 2.85

Local Trade - 230kg n/c 4.45 4.45 3.80

SI P2 Steer - 300kg +5 4.35 4.30 3.70

M2 Bull - 300kg +5 4.20 4.15 3.60

P2 Cow - 230kg +5 3.45 3.40 2.60

M Cow - 200kg +5 3.25 3.20 2.50

Local Trade - 230kg +5 4.30 4.25 3.60

NZ Slaughter Estimated Weekly Kill

1000s Change2Wks Ago

3 Wks Ago

Last Year

5yr Ave

Cattle NI +20% 27.8 23.1 37.7 35.6

Cattle SI -1% 9.7 9.8 9.7 10.3

Cattle NZ +14% 37.5 32.9 47.4 45.8

Bull NI +48% 9.6 6.5 9.7 12.0

Bull SI -7% 1.4 1.5 1.7 2.3

Str & Hfr NI +13% 13.3 11.8 18.0 16.4

Str & Hfr SI -2% 6.3 6.4 6.2 6.5

Cows NI +2% 4.9 4.8 10.0 7.2

Cows SI +5% 2.0 1.9 1.8 1.5

Export Market Demand

ChangeLast Week

2 Wks Ago

Last Year

5yr Ave

95CL US$/lb n/c 2.06 2.06 1.77 1.41

NZ$/kg -31 5.81 6.12 5.17 4.46

Procurement Indicator

Change2Wks Ago

3 Wks Ago

Last Year

5yr Ave

% Returned NI +5% 80.6% 75.5% 73.54% 77.7%

% Returned SI +4% 71.4% 67.3% 69.7% 73.2%

NZ Weekly Beef Kill

0

20

40

60


Last YearThis Year

Demand Indicator - US 95CL Beef

$1.60

$1.80

$2.00


Last Year

This Year

Procurement Indicator - South I.

55%

65%

75%

85%

Sep Nov Jan

Last Year

This Year

Procurement Indicator - North I.

60%

70%

80%

90%

Sep Nov Jan

Last Year

This Year

Market Snapshot Meat

North Island South Island

c/kgCWTChange

c/kgLast Week

Changec/kg

Last Week

Lamb - PM 16.0kg -12 7.68 -10 7.78

Steer - P2 300kg -5 4.53 +5 4.35

Bull - M2 300kg n/c 4.68 +5 4.20

Venison - AP 60kg -5 8.35 -10 8.75

North Island 16.0kg M Lamb Price

$3.5

$4.5

$5.5

$6.5

$7.5

$8.5


5yr Ave

Last Year

This Year

South Island 16.0kg M Lamb Price

$3.5

$4.5

$5.5

$6.5

$7.5

$8.5


5yr AveLast YearThis Year

New season price

North Island 300kg Bull Price

$3.0

$3.5

$4.0

$4.5

$5.0



South Island 300kg Steer Price

$3.0

$3.5

$4.0

$4.5


5yr Ave

Last Year

This Year

North Island 60kg Stag Price

$6.0

$7.0

$8.0

$9.0



South Island 60kg Stag Price

$6.5

$7.5

$8.5

$9.5


5yr Ave

Last Year

This Year

New season price

Beef & venison prices are reported as gross (before normal levies & charges are deducted). Lamb & mutton prices are reported nett (after levies & charges are deducted). Note: Freight is paid in the North Island but not by all companies in the South Island.

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markets & trenDs 17

Beef Mixed week for export cattle prices North Island export cattle prices were mixed last week. 300kg cwt bull returns held at $4.68/kg but 300kg cwt steers eased 5c/kg to average $4.53/kg. Kill numbers have been picking up with delays of up to a week reported in some regions. Many farmers have decided to cash in now with some wary about the lift in the dollar and the number of kill days left until Christmas. Slaughter capacity is lifting with most plants set to introduce extra shifts. This could help to hold the market in the coming weeks although as supplies seasonally ramp up prices may start to come under pressure. Export slaughter prices in the South Island actually firmed last week. 300kg cwt steers are now earning $4.35/kg with 300kg cwt bulls making $4.20/kg. Slaughter rates have been above average for the last month so supplies could be an issue in the coming weeks, particularly given the abundant feed supplies most currently have on hand. Processor demand remains strong, underpinned by solid US market demand and the lack of supplies out of Australia which are currently being affected by heavy rainfall and flooding in some states.

Confidence remains high in the store market With cattle slaughter prices nationally feeling little pressure to ease, confidence in the store market remains at an all time high. Also driving store values higher is the abundant feed that many farmers are contending with, something that has been lacking in recent years for this time of the season. Buyers have been competing strongly for all classes and age of cattle. Yearling cattle have been favoured with 1yr steer prices skipping over $1000/hd at numerous sale centres in recent weeks.

Lamb Lamb prices feel seasonal pressure North Island new season export lamb prices continue to slip with a 16kg cwt lamb averaging around $7.66/kg (nett) last week. Numbers are finally starting to seasonally lift and with only a few weeks until Christmas, space will likely be tight into the New Year as more farmers are pressed to offload. Prices could well be pressured at this time with processors expected to claw back some margins while supplies allow. Some farmers are hedging their bets and are drafting off their top end now to counteract any price drops if they do eventuate. New season lamb prices in the South Island slipped by another 10c/kg last week with a 16kg cwt lamb now earning $7.77/kg (nett). Larger lines have been attracting slightly more money in the last few weeks though for how long this continues is unknown. Most farmers are in little hurry to get a draft away which is keeping a tight hand on killable supplies. The bulk of the lambs that are flowing are coming out of the earlier northern and central regions with the bulk of the lambs in Otago still a few weeks away from making their way to the plants.

China and South East Asia hungry for New Zealand lamb Despite the fall in lamb numbers this year New Zealand continues to hold the bragging rights over Australia in the Chinese and South East Asian markets. In the last 10 months of 2011 NZ exported 63,000 tonnes of sheepmeat to these destinations, an increase of 14% compared to the same period in 2010. Australia on the other hand saw exports ease by 3% to 47,000t driven by a 28% fall in mutton exports due to their tight supplies this season.

Venison Market eases as chilled season over for another year Venison prices have started their seasonal decline as the chilled season has wrapped up for another year. Weekly slaughter prices for 60kg AP stags have dropped below $9.00/kg in the South Island with North Island prices easing back to average $8.35/kg last week

Currency Watch

vs. NZ DollarLast Week

2 Wks Ago

4 Wks Ago

Last Year

US dollar 0.781 0.742 0.795 0.755

Euro 0.580 0.557 0.575 0.572

UK pound 0.498 0.480 0.495 0.484

Aus dollar 0.764 0.765 0.764 0.774

Japan yen 60.78 57.44 62.03 63.23

Euro

0.52

0.57

0.62


Last Year This Year

UK Pound

0.45

0.50


Last YearThis Year

US Dollar

0.65

0.75

0.85


Last YearThis Year

Wool Price Watch Dairy Price Watch

Indicators in NZ$ Change 01-Dec 24-NovLast Year

Indicators in NZ$/T ChangeLast 2 Wks

Prev. 2 Wks

Last Year

Coarse Xbred Indic. -9 6.28 6.37 4.85 Butter +165 5119 4953 5923

Fine Xbred Indicator -8 6.55 6.63 5.10 Skim Milk Powder +337 4647 4310 4015

Lamb Indicator - - - 5.09 Whole Milk Powder +184 4815 4631 4640

Mid Micron Indic. +19 9.40 9.21 7.92 Cheddar -321 4664 4985 5528

Overseas Price Indicators Overseas Price Indicators

Indicators in US$/kg Change 01-Dec 24-NovLast Year

Indicators in US$/T ChangeLast 2 Wks

Prev. 2 Wks

Last Year

Coarse Xbred Indicator +17 4.89 4.72 3.61 Butter -50 3800 3850 4500

Fine Xbred Indicator +19 5.10 4.91 3.79 Skim Milk Powder +100 3450 3350 3050

Lamb Indicator - - - 3.78 Whole Milk Powder -25 3575 3600 3525

Mid Micron Indicator +50 7.32 6.82 5.89 Cheddar -413 3463 3875 4200

Wool Indicator Trends

350

450

550

650

750

Dec Feb Apr Jun Aug Oct

CXI FXI LI

Coarse Xbred Indictor in US$

200

400

600


Last Year

This Year

Coarse Xbred Indicator

250

350

450

550

650

750


Last Year

This Year

Dairy Prices Trends

3,000

4,000

5,000

6,000

7,000

Nov Jan Mar May Jul Sep

SMP WMPBut. Ched.

Whole Milk Powder Price in US$/T

3,000

3,200

3,400

3,600

3,800

4,000

Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan

Last Year

This Year

Whole Milk Powder Price (NZ$)

3,500

4,500

5,500


Last Year

This Year

Wool Indicator in US$

185

285

385

485

585

685

Dec Feb Apr Jun Aug Oct

CXI FXI LI

Dairy Prices in US$/Tonne

2,500

3,500

4,500

Nov Jan Mar May Jul Sep

SMP WMPBut. Ched.

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18 opinion

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“i hope you realise what that’s going to cost in carbon charges!”

HORIZONS REGIONAL Council’s mooted investment in dairying copped flak last week from many quarters, but the idea isn’t as daft as it sounds.

With $9m to invest, from a financial perspec-tive the return on capital should knock spots off a bank deposit at current interest rates, assum-ing the farm or farms are well managed.

Then there’s the opportunity for capital growth. Okay, farm values have eased in the past two or three years, but they’re at a level now where sales activity is picking up and it seems unlikely values will go lower; long-term the trend is bound to be up.

But the merits could be more than monetary. With its fingers in some dairy pies, council staff would have involvement with practical farming, even if only at a directional level. If the coun-cil went the whole hog, or should we say ‘whole cow’, they might even have some colleagues who manage and work on the farm(s). Inherent them-and-us barriers of communication between farmer and regional regulator could be broken, allowing policy makers and enforcers an inside line on the impact of their actions or proposals at a grass roots level. Granted, there are farmers or former farmers at the Horizons’ council table already, but this proposal could enhance under-standing among council rank and file.

However, it’s this inside line the nay-sayers – mostly environmentalists – have leapt on, crying in near unison “conflict of interest”. How could a regional council, whose primary function is envi-ronmental regulation, police a business on con-sent criteria if it owns that business?

Clearly, there’s not a lot of trust in the integ-rity of the council. Then again, these nay-sayers are mostly the sort of people who would rather we didn’t have dairy farms in New Zealand, or at least, not at the scale and intensity needed to be efficient at today’s land and milk prices.

So should Horizons listen to them, or go ahead with its dairy investment and be damned? Sadly, the answer is it would probably be better to go elsewhere with its money. The perception of con-flict of interest would be hard to shake off, par-ticularly if for some reason one of the farms it did invest in happened to have a lapse in its effluent management, or some other activity that caused a breach of consent conditions.

Horizons’ recent history has been controver-sial enough. It shouldn’t court further agro. If it does, and things go wrong, the people of Palmer-ston North and the wider region could suddenly find themselves in the situation of Cantabrians, with commissioners, rather than elected coun-cillors, ruling the roost.

Small world?

HAs ANYONe else noticed how a certain other farming publica-tion’s ‘World’ pages are nearly always packed with reprints from one of the uK’s agricultural papers? Now, your old mate doesn’t mind reading the odd piece about the problems faced in the old mother country, but ‘world’? Hardly.

work smart, not hardKOrdA meNTHA, receivers of the crafar farms, certainly knows how to generate a good return from dairy land with minimum effort.It’s just taken another $1 million fee out of the port-folio of 16 farms. That makes over $6 million in two years. spread over the 8000ha portfolio, that’s circa $750/ha, or $375/ha/year. dairy NZ figures show the average dairy farm’s operating profit in the bumper 2009-10 season was $834/ha; the previous season it was $127/ha.

activists’ annual outingYOu KNOW summer is here when Green-peace digs out the old dirt on dairy farm use of palm kernel. It’s almost become an annual event you can set your clock to. This time it’s the carbon footprint of PKe that’s the problem, but as usual, the ‘facts’ are selective, to say the least.The palm oil industry isn’t driven by dairy; it would be going gutbusters without a cow on the planet so adding its greenhouse gas emis-sions to dairy farmers’ ‘account’ is absurd. You can rely on Greenpeace not to let the facts get in the way of a good story.

what’s a Cow frow?THIs PAPer’s last edition had a heading that left your old mate chuck-ling. “Good cow frow saves time” it read. Was it a story about a partic-ularly efficient Austrian milk maid? sadly not, and as my more educated missus pointed out, that would have been frau, not frow. It was all good stuff though, with tips on how to improve cow flow from a dairy NZ milksmart programme.

grain import insultYOur OLd mate has heard from a mainland mucker that feed grain is being imported through Timaru to supply a major user further south. Now, I’ve no problem with free trade, but I’m told the stuff that’s coming in is of questionable quality, and there was plenty of opportunity to do a deal with local suppliers earlier in the season. sadly, the buyer opted for over-seas material. It will serve them right when they find they’re surrounded by dairy cows and are at the whim of the world grain market.

Dairy punt not worth it


opinion 19

taf second vote still vitalMOST EVENINGS I get calls from concerned Fon-terra shareholders asking what progress we are making on getting another vote on TAF (trading among farmers). We are steadily adding signatures to petitions making that call, but from the board, as yet, there’s been no signal they’ll agree to it.

On Friday (Dec 16) Fonterra will broadcast about TAF on Sky 950, scheduled for noon and 8pm. Perhaps things will change then. In the mean-time, I want to reiter-ate why another vote is needed.

TAF has changed from the original proposal we voted on, the key differ-ence being farmers will no longer hold the share title: it will be transferred to a custodian. Fonterra will own the custodian, which, Fonterra maintains, means we will retain 100% own-ership and control. But our legal advice is that we won’t.

This custodian will issue units correspond-ing to the shares to a unit trust. Investors will buy those units, which entitle them to the dividend on the corresponding Fon-terra share, and any capital gain or loss on the value of the unit. It will not give them voting or supply rights.

At a recent Share-holders Council meeting, Fonterra business devel-opment manager Chris Pearce explained shares sold into the fund will be held by the custodian

but they have no value there. The cash has been provided by the inves-tor or unit holder and is on the farmer’s balance sheet. The asset – or unit – against which that cash was provided will show on the trust balance sheet. I asked him to repeat this for clarity. The asset would be on the trust’s balance sheet, he said. This means company law would apply, and trustees must act in the interest of the benefi-ciaries of the trust, which would be the unit holders. These unit holders hence have rights to influence Fonterra and even remove Fonterra as manager of the custodian. If the asset stays with the farmer this can’t happen.

So TAF, as currently proposed, would compro-mise both ownership and control of our coopera-tive. Fonterra’s new chief executive says the co-op is reviewing this problem but how much time and money has been spent on a structure that could never deliver on the promised 100% ownership and con-trol? Do we really need it?

The redemption risk argument for TAF was well addressed by the first stages of our capital restructuring. Dry shares give some headroom so there’s no obligation to redeem, and dividends make it more logical to retain those shares. Shar-ing up at the start of the season also prevents the ‘gaming’ that was occur-ring on share value. These changes were sensible, inexpensive, effective and presented no risk to our

cooperative’s principles.Suggestions TAF is

still needed because Fon-terra’s capital is unpro-tected are also flawed. If there is more than a 5% run on capital our consti-tution allows Fonterra to issue capital notes instead of cash to those redeem-ing shares.

TAF gives up the right

to redeem shares for the right to trade them. It encourages short term-gain behaviours that may benefit individuals today, but ultimately weaken the cooperative and future farmers’ returns via inevi-table downward pressure on milk price.

I urge all shareholders to watch Friday’s broad-

cast. If changes haven’t been made which will guarantee the 100% own-ership and control we were promised, then we need that second vote.• Leonie Guiney, with husband Kieran, are fully shared up Fonterra-suppliers with four dairy farms near Fairlie, South Canterbury.

leonie Guiney

LeoNIe gUINey

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20 opinion

publish science behind product claimsSCIENTIFIC RESEARCH validates product claims. The Department of Sci-entific and Industrial research (DSIR) was established in New Zea-land in the 1920s to push back the frontiers of understanding and the Ministry of Agricul-ture was the independent assessor of new develop-ments, testing them on farm.

The New Zealand Grassland Association (NZGA) was formed shortly afterwards (1931), bringing agribusiness pro-fessionals together for interchange of ideas and information flow from farmers, consultants, field officers, scientists, rural businesses, academics and (recently) levy bodies in every direction. Overcom-ing barriers to sustain-able production through the process of scientific research and technology transfer was the purpose.

Eighty years from for-mation, NZGA is still going strong and the pur-pose is the same. The organisation’s strap line is ‘fuelled by science; tem-pered by experience’. In these days of funding shortages, NZGA plays a vital part in research eval-uation.

Past president War-wick Catto, who man-ages research funding at Ballance Agri-nutrients, says “the NZGA confer-ence provides a valuable forum to have our science peer-reviewed and com-municated within a key group of scientists, exten-sion agents and farmers. This scrutiny of science, especially of commer-cially orientated work, is an important role NZGA must continue.”

Scrutiny is more than ‘has the trial been set up rigorously and have the results been analysed and interpreted correctly?’ It also involves the appropri-ateness of the interpreta-tion and the applicability of the work. Results from metre-square plots mon-

itored during spring for two months in one area on one soil type should not be extrapolated for the whole of New Zealand, for instance, however exciting the data.

The debate about the efficacy of fine particle analysis fertiliser centres upon such an experiment. The research formed part of the work of a doc-toral student, and though the results look prom-ising, they need valida-tion in more than a small plot trial over a short time

period. Furthermore, the economics of potentially improved efficacy of nutri-ent uptake against the increased costs of appli-cation need investigat-ing. These are the sorts of issues NZGA considers before accepting any paper for publication in its pro-ceedings.

Anders Crofoot, imme-diate past president, simi-larly emphasises the value of NZGA. This year Anders used his presidential address to speak about the importance of research farms, as well as on-farm research, for exploring options and validating developments in a real-life situation.

“On-farm research has an advantage because it has to fit into an existing

system,” he said. “In con-trast, research farms can set up isolated trials in ways commercial farms might not be willing to do, or long-term trials where commercial farms might not be willing to carry out the same practice for many years – particularly if it isn’t seen to be prof-itable.”

The problem is that research, and maintaining research farms, is expen-sive. Increasing confu-sion about what type of research is being done by which organisation is not helping efficiencies within the system. And things – such as products – can fall through the cracks. Although some companies will pay for independently run trials of their prod-ucts, others will not. The taxpayer should not have to pay for the research yet

the cost to the country of using products which have not been properly evalu-ated is high.

Past president Catto says Ballance Agri-Nutri-ents values the endorse-ment that comes with publication of results in the NZGA proceedings. He suggests “more pressure should go on companies to have product claims pub-lished in a forum such as NZGA so the correct scru-tiny can be given.”

NZGA has thought so for 80 years, and is delighted to assist.• Jacqueline Rowarth is Professor of Pastoral Agriculture, Massey University. She is also president of the New Zealand Grassland Association, www.grassland.org.nz

“on-farm research has an advantage because it has to fit into an existing system. in contrast, research farms can set up isolated trials in ways commercial farms might not be willing to do.”

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management 21

Selling store an opportunitySTRONG STORE lamb prices present a huge opportunity for breeders to raise flock performance, says a Wairarapa farm con-sultant.

Chris Garland was among speakers at a recent Beef and Lamb New Zealand field day in Southern Hawkes Bay. He told Rural News the store lamb market is stron-gest it’s been for about 30 years.

He believes produc-ers should grab the money with both hands and effec-tively de-stock their prop-erties faster than they normally would. Good 28kg lambs are fetching $3.70 - $3.80 and 25kg lambs up to $4/kg – very good money, he says.

“They would still have

good money in the bank and redirect that feed to growing out young replacement stock and getting capital stock up to speed. There is some good thinking out there now on differential feeding of stock based on condition score.” By putting feed into capital stock they can set themselves up better for next season.

The store market has turned in favour of breed-ers, away from finishers, Garland says. This began last year, but a dry Novem-ber put a lot of breeders under pressure to sell and some missed out on what might have been higher prices. But the market picked up in February and that trend has continued into this season.

“In the last three or four years things have been pretty tight. The

breeders have been forced to finish lambs to get the bottom line right and have done that to one degree of success or another. But sometimes it’s been a cost to their overall perfor-mance because finishing those lambs has taken feed away from other classes of stock such as replacement ewe lambs.”

Garland is surprised to hear some stock agents say there are farmers not doing as well as they could in having store lambs well presented and ready for sales. This might change a bit now lambs are worth more, he says. Stock agents say farmers who present their stock well tend to get better money and the agents work better for them.

“The farmers the agents like to work for are those who plan their weaning and selling three-four weeks in advance. They know what weight ranges they’ve got and they have the mobs lined up in different age groups so they can programme their sales and tell their agent pretty much what they’ve got weight- and

number-wise. This will be done by the time the agent arrives.”

These farmers have the animals looking bright and healthy, some having had health treatments three weeks prior to sale to ensure they are at their best. Agents will then be positive about marketing that line of lambs.

As Christmas nears, farmers are busy like everyone else making sure things are right for that special day. But, without wanting to put a damper on Christmas, Garland notes the 10-day holiday falls in the middle of the main marketing period for a lot of stock. So the market often loses some momentum.

“There’s a lot of pressure on selling stock that would normally be kept. They end up

peter BUrKe marketing product they might not otherwise have marketed and it causes a supply stretch. As far as marketing goes you could just about do without

Christmas.”But this year may

not be problematic, he says. There is so much feed around the country nobody’s under pressure.

chris Garland

“the store lamb market is strongest it’s been for about 30 years.”

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22 management management 23

Spare some sheep for dog trainingI HAVE been surprised to hear farm workers say their bosses won’t allow them any sheep to train their dogs on. I suppose it isn’t surprising as sheep prices have never been so high.

In the past it has been a common practice to have a few dry sheep or some hoggets available on farms for dog training, but it seems that on today’s market, some places feel sheep are worth too much,

and they aren’t prepared to leave even half a dozen close at hand, for this important purpose.

Mind you, I have seen some pretty poor stock-manship, non-existent dog training skills and dogs being allowed to get away with near murder on some undeserving sheep, so I don’t blame the farmer; they have probably seen it as well.

However, farm dogs do need training. Yes, there is a certain amount you can do without sheep but a dog will perform more efficiently if it has some experience of handling sheep and any problems are ironed out before it gets to the job.

Bosses, consider for a moment: isn’t it better for a dog to run amuck on six sheep rather than 600? I have to say though, if people adopt training methods similar to mine the sheep won’t be abused and injury to them is highly unlikely.

If you employ staff to handle stock with dogs, it is in your interest to allow them the use of the facili-ties and a small number of healthy sheep to train a dog on. Dogs can get injured, sick and some-times die prematurely and shepherds need to have a young dog coming on as insurance. They need x

number of capable dogs to do their job, so it is a win-win situation for both employer and employee.

If you are concerned for the sheep, you need to point out to your worker that if the sheep are harmed or mistreated you will take away the privi-lege. But staff should be allowed the opportunity to prove they will treat stock with humanity, and respect your generosity.

I cannot put a high enough value on my train-ing sheep; they are worth their weight in gold to me and I don’t allow any dog to terrorise them; the last thing I want is for them to panic at the sight of a dog.

Dog-training sheep need to be healthy; it is cruel to hound lame or sickly sheep around day after day with a young dog. And there is no need for sheep to be crashing into fences and rails and being chewed up by an unruly dog.

Incidentally, I do a large part of my dog train-ing in the sheepyards, and when that is going well I move into holding pad-docks. If you don’t have control of a dog in the con-fines of a sheepyard how are you going to control it in a holding paddock? And if you can’t get a dog to run, stop, go left and right and work sheep calmly in a holding paddock, how are you going to be able to command and control it on hundreds of valuable animals in a big paddock? • For more see www.annaholland.co.nz or Ph 06) 388 1318 or [email protected]

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management 23

Lupins and more on pgw agronomy tour

PGG WRIGHTSON’S recent cereal agronomy group annual field day saw busloads of growers shuttled round six trial sites in Mid Canterbury. New chemistry, cultivars, even crops, were on the menu.

“We’re thinking lupins might handle a sub-optimal environment PGW grain product development manager Nick Brooks told one of the groups as they took in a FAR and industry protein crop trial near Ash-burton.

“Low pH, drought. Maybe we can grow them where beans won’t?”

With both crops the goal is a home-grown alternative to soya, but with the latter’s consistent 40% plus protein, and price of about $590/t at present, it’s proving a challenge, says Brooks.

Beans have proven less consis-tent here than in the UK with yields across the 5000t grown for PGW last year averaging 4t/ha. Also pro-tein slipped from the usual 25-28% to average 22%.

This year’s crops are on contract at $470/t at 25% protein, but with soya prices at their present level, beans would have to be below $400/t to compete, he says.

“We don’t want to go there but soya is very, very competitive.”

Lupins have higher protein and in a good year have done 6-7t/ha in Aus-tralia.

“The protein level’s 30-40%. It’s closer to soya so if we could get 5 or 6t/ha at that sort of protein it’s an option worth considering.”

In one of PGW’s wheat cultivar trials, part of the CPT series, grow-ers had the chance to look at some of the first South American origin vari-eties ever grown in New Zealand.

“It’s another germplasm source for us,” milling wheat breeder Ger-

rard Pile told Rural News. “We’ll see how they compare and whether they’re worth trialling.”

The spring sown plots also feature Swiss material – “from the same pro-gramme that produced Bakker Gold” – plus a range of other European and New Zealand origin varieties.

In barleys it’s a similar story with UK and Danish material dominating, but Dutch and – for the first time – Czech lines also in the ground.

“They’ve got a new breeding system we thought we should have a look at.”

But it was new cultivars Garner and Chronicle that PGW’s John van den Bosch chose to highlight, pre-senting the barley CPT1 & 2 site.

“Garner’s one of the most consis-tently high yielding in the south of the North Island as well as Canterbury,” he said of the Syngenta, UK-bred vari-ety developed here by Cropmark and PGW.

In this year’s FAR cultivar evalu-ation booklet it was coded NFC406-112, showing high yields dryland and irrigated, with stiff, moderate to tall straw.

Disease data is limited: it appears moderately resistant to scald and

mildew but moderately susceptible to leaf rust.

“Most of the seed will be for mul-tiplication but we may have enough for a limited commercial release,” he added.

Chronicle is a new malting-type from the UK, though Van den Bosch stressed “that doesn’t mean it will meet the maltsters’ spec here.”

“It’s only had two years’ trials here.”

On the UK’s HGCA recommended list it’s the second highest yielding variety. “It’s only beaten by a variety from Limagrain which we discarded because the yield ranking was the reverse here.”

In wheat PGW’s focus was on Sensas, both as a cultivar and for plant growth regulator (pgr) and fun-gicide work (see panel).

“It’s potentially a premium one milling wheat to compete with Con-quest,” said PGW agronomist Chris Nottingham. “It will really depend on the quality of this harvest as to the way it goes.”

Bred in France, it’s fast develop-ing so shouldn’t be drilled before July, with good disease resistance bar leaf rust.

aNDrew SwaLLow

Wheat fungicide timing workPGW’s WHeAT fungicide trials presented on the tour are investigating tweaks to timings, delaying the first application to either leaf two emergence, or flag leaf.

The thinking is that on varieties such as sensas where leaf rust is the only real worry there’s little point protecting the crop until later in the season when

that disease typically comes in. “The majority of the

programmes started at flag leaf,” Nottingham explained.

Half a dozen of the 15 plots have programmes starting at leaf two, followed by ear emergence and another application three weeks later. “T one-and-a-half, T two-and-a-half, and T three-and-a-half.”

PGW grain product development man-ager Nick Brooks.

www.rxplastics.co.nz


24 animal health

grass to blame for ‘cranky cows’?NEXT TIME your cow kicks off cups and strikes out, don’t dismiss this as another case of temperamental behav-iour, says Australian rumen nutrionist Damian Moore, in New Zealand speak-ing to dairy farmers courtesy of Nutri-tech earlier this month.

Crankiness in cows often results directly from perennial ryegrass toxic-ity, he says. “Affected cows will be tem-peramental and tend to strike out, kick the cups off and be frightened easily.”

Toxins produced by ryegrass endo-phytes – more prevalent in older pas-tures – are to blame for such irritability, as well as the better recognised symp-toms of staggers, heat stress, lower feed intake and reduced milk production.

Moore says New Zealand dairy farm-ers lack knowledge of this, an issue DairyNZ could more actively address.

‘Cranky cow’ syndrome is a much misunderstood and misdiagnosed problem in New Zealand, he told Rural News. “It is a seasonal problem, occur-ring usually when soil temperatures rise in October/November. It will nor-mally start in the north and move south during November and December. It is

about the same time as the ryegrass goes to head.

“What most farmers probably know is ‘staggers’ caused by the endophyte, but this will normally happen later in the season – February/March.”

The endophyte is a micro-scopic fungi which grows between the cells of the plant. Its symbiotic relationship protects the plant against insects, nematodes and drought. But there is “an unfortu-nate side”. In protecting the plant it produces toxins including ergo-valine and lolitrom-B.

Moore says ergovaline tends to rise early in the season and is responsible for much cranky cow behaviour.

“Work by Lincoln shows ani-mals fed a diet free from ergova-line could graze in temperatures about 40˚C, yet when the toxins were introduced this temperature reduced to about 23˚C.

“Ergovaline will also act sim-ilar to a neurotransmitter, hence all the problems associated with temper-ament, udder sensitisation. It also pre-vents the production of prolactin, a hormone needed for the production

of milk. Local work has shown there could be up to a 9% reduction in milk production when cows graze an endo-phyte positive pasture.”

Other problems associated with ergovaline include lower feed intake

(cows put in a paddock with what appears plenty of feed do not eat much of it), scouring (cows tend to be very loose when, in fact, the manure should be firm when grazing a high fibre diet),

and ergovaline has also been associated with increases in cell counts.

Lolitrom-B is a neurotoxin respon-sible for causing the staggers in ani-mals. It will also affect the white muscle movement and feed digestion.

Moore points out New Zealand leads the world in pasture research with the introduction of the novel endophyte like AR1 and AR37. Although these reduce the production of some of the

toxins, a specific programme is needed for re-grassing to prevent ‘wild’ endo-phyte types re-emerging.

“There have also been some ques-tions about the persistence of these [novel endophyte] pastures, particu-

larly when faced with long dry conditions,” Moore says.

An alternative to reduce the impact and severity of the toxins is using binder. “Binders will actu-ally bind to these toxins in the feed and prevent the animal adsorbing them thus reducing the effect.”

Moore’s company Meriden Animal Health’s product Fusion is a new generation mycotoxin binder which contains a cliptino-lite that can help reduce the direct effects of perennial rye grass tox-icity.

Moore admits the product is not a magic bullet but commer-cial field results on dairy and sheep farms in Australia and New Zealand show a decrease in symp-

toms associated with ryegrass toxicity 24-48 hours after treatment.

Fusion contains inorganic and organic binders which lock onto 95% of the ergot alkaloids in vitro.

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Toxoplasma and Campylobacter are present on nearly every New Zealand farm. The risk for your farm is that these diseases will increase the number of dry and late lambing ewes and reduce your number of lambs overall. In serious cases, they can cause losses of 20-30% through abortion storms.

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26 animal health

planned weaning can cut parasitesPLAN LAMB grazing and monitoring when wean-ing them to minimise the worm impact once they’re off their mum, says par-asite specialist Trevor Cook, of Totally Vets and Wormwise.

“It’s not just about what to drench and when

to drench – it’s got to be part of a plan,” he says.

Lambs have little immunity to internal para-sites and as they approach weaning or are weaned that is the time farmers must act, he told Rural News.

“To some extent they’ve been protected by the amount of milk they are getting from the ewe.

It’s not necessarily a large amount of milk, but any milk seems to have a pro-tective effect.”

Once weaned, with-out that milk effect they become much more vul-nerable due to the com-bination of stress of weaning and change in diet to all pasture.

Cook warns worm

burdens can accumu-late rapidly, so managing the whole weaning pro-cess and the risks to lambs needs planning.

He believes a combina-tion drench at weaning is essential, and it is pretty much common practice.

“The expectation after that depends entirely on where they are going to

peter BUrKe graze. A common prac-tice is to put them back on the paddocks they came from. So the lambs are going back onto what we know are contaminated pastures so they will start accumulating a worm burden straight away.”

A better approach, if possible, is to put weaned lambs on pastures that don’t have a recent history of sheep grazing. This will slow down the accumu-lation of worms in a lamb compared with those that go back onto contami-nated pasture.

As for a drenching pro-gramme, on North Island farms the rule of thumb is drench every four weeks. But he says it will vary from farm to farm depending on the level of worm challenge. Regu-lar monitoring to keep a

track of worm burdens is important for determin-ing any drenching pro-gramme.

Cook says cooperia will tend to dominate in summer and trichostron-gylus can appear at any time.

Looking at the present season, he doesn’t see the parasite issue being any different from normal, though with more pas-ture available to lambs they may suffer less expo-sure. The caveat on that is the rain.

“If it carries on raining throughout the summer that will present a risk. The worm cycle just loves wet summers.

“When it’s hot and moist they hatch and develop very quickly. The worst problems occur in wet summers.”

COOPERS IS warning Australian farmers that warm, wet weather has heightened the risk of the highly infectious cattle disease pinkeye.

The disease, also seen in New Zealand, causes eye inflammation and ulceration and temporary or permanent blindness. It can also cut growth rates and cause rejection from certain markets, points out Coopers veterinary tech-nical advisor Damian O’Brien.

“Given the recent weather an increase in flies is highly likely and we know flies play an important role in transfer-ring disease causing bacteria from infected to non-infected stock.”

The causal bacteria is Moraxella bovis. Coopers says vaccination of young stock with Piliguard helps prevent the onset of the disease and is best used as part of an inte-grated approach.

Avoid yarding of animals in dry, dusty conditions; use fly-repellents; minimise use of eye-irritating supplemen-tary feeds such as seedy hay, and promptly segregate and treat any pinkeye affected animals, it advises.

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machinery & proDucts 27

SOW GRASS into existing pasture, or sow grass or forage crops into cultivated ground, or over-sow and fix pugged pad-docks – it’s over to you, says Orgin Agroup of its new Hatzenbichler tine harrow with broadcast air seeder.

Versatility is the main thing about these Austrian machines, Origin says.

“The 6m working width at 10-15km/h gives high productivity. Weight (before seed) of only 550kg, and three point-link-age mounting with a hydraulic folding frame to 3m, makes it suitable for smaller tractors and easy to use on hills.”

The harrows is made up of three flexible sections that “float and flex” with changes in the ground contour for even pressure on each tine.

The spring tines are made from 8mm thick x 450mm long, oil-hardened spring steel said to give three times the service life of a normal spring steel tine. They suit ripping or “gentle cultivation.”

The harrows can be fitted with an 8-outlet or 16-outlet air seeder capable of sowing small seeds at 1kg/ha or grass seeds

at up to 40kg/ha. Seed distribution is via distributor plates across the full width of the machine, giving even overlapping spread via twin fans driven by 12V motors. An optional hydraulic fan is available for heavier seeds or greater working widths.

Hopper capacity is 400L. Calibration is quick and simple, Origin says, with seed-ing application rates being maintained via a ground driven wheel.

An optional computer controller allows the operator to know the amount of seed being applied during operation and the amount of seed remaining in the seed box.

It allows up to 19 separate seed varieties to be stored in its memory, eliminating the need to calibrate the machine each time.

Broadcast air seeders are also available separately, allowing them to be fitted to Cambridge rollers, discs, power harrows, etc.

Other features: powder coat finish, cen-tral tine-angle lever adjustment, and a plat-form for easy filling of the seed box.tel. 07 823 7582 www.originagroup.co.nz

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The Arcusin B14 mul-tipack stacker, made in

Spain, collects 10, 12 or 14 conventional bales and ties them ready for col-lection. It can gather 500 bales an hour – hay, straw or haylage.

“It is fully automatic but can be operated manu-ally from the cab or from the machine when it is

stationary,” says product specialist for AgriZone, Greig Singer.

Tied bales can be wrapped or, if necessary, lifted by a Stolle Pro-H attached to a frontloader onto a truck.

Says Singer, “Through-out New Zealand lots of conventional bales

are pressed. With this machine the labour inten-sive part of collecting and stacking can be mecha-nised to reduce labour and costs.”

The machine is gentle on the bales, efficient and “dead easy” to operate.

Minimum power 95hp.tel. 027 266 7897

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28 machinery & proDucts

landini to agtek

‘too stupid to know they were beaten’

murIHIKu, THe southern Land, is another dVd new from south coast, showing the splendours of Fiordland, the south-land plains, the catlin mountains and stewart Island by means of aerial film, set to music.

Here are the region’s people in the land-scapes they know as home.

Here is the south as we seldom see it.

Beauty of the south

‘WISH ME luck as you wave me goodbye’ go the words of the old song.

South Coast Produc-tions’ DVD offerings for this holiday season include Wish Me Luck: New Zealand Families at War, a chron-

ological account of men who fought and women who worked and waited. Lots of archive film and many interviews, narra-tion by the familiar voice (Radio NZ) of Wayne Mowat.

The heading above is a jest by Sgt Eric ‘The Ferret’

Batchelor, DCM and bar, who attributes Kiwis’ sol-diering prowess to their dogged ability to keep going with skill, courage and good humour – always a help in a tight spot.

For example, South-lander Pat Hamlin, pris-oner of the Italians, noticing a chicken scratch-ing near the compound wire, grabbed and killed it and sought to hide it under his greatcoat – but they spotted him. Off to the guard house!

“What were you doing with that chicken?”

“Well sir, the chicken attacked me, so I killed it in self defence.”

Even better, the cap-tors sent him and a mate to fetch ‘vino’ in a big flagon. On the return trip they both decided they felt like a pee. Yes, you guessed it…. “The Italians will sing better tonight,” they quipped.

Hamlin had earlier (during the fighting) been treated to some German

humour, albeit grim. His truck was buzzed by a German fighter plane. “Don’t worry, he’ll be out of ammo by now,” he assured the others. Sure enough, on a second fly-over the German fired nothing – he simply dropped a toilet roll.

But this is, of course, an account of pursuing deter-mined enemies with fire and steel, destruction and death.

Pat Harris, merchant seaman gunner recounts the terrors of sinking by bomb and torpedo. Espe-cially demanding were the convoys to Murmansk, Russia. He was dragged from the sea, frozen and injured, by a German

destroyer crew, who treated them well.

Less chivalrous were the Russian allies Harris’s convoy was supplying. In a hushed-up episode, the Russians refused to allow British doctors to treat British naval wounded at Murmansk.

They relented only in the face of threats by Brit-ish destroyer captains to turn their guns on the Rus-sians’ shore establish-ment. They were, says Harris, a less-than-ideal ally.

DVD (55 mins) by South Coast Produc-tions, PO Box 58, River-ton. Tel. 03 234 8109. [email protected] www.videosouth.com

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TAURANGA MACHINERY company Agtek Ltd has been appointed distribu-tor of the Italian tractor brand Landini, made by Argo Tractors SpA.

Effective Jan 1, the deal includes after-sale and spare parts service for McCormick products, Agtek becom-ing a “dedicated reference point for McCormick end users,” says Argo Tractors export sales director Mario Ribolla.

“We are extremely satisfied…. New Zealand is a most important market to our company and finding a com-pany with the same ethos as our own is a strategic result to increase Lan-

dini market share.” Argo Tractors has been in business at least 120 years, sell-ing here at least 30 years.

Agtek will sell Landini tractors 25-225hp – wheeled, crawler, isodi-ametric and specialised tractors for vineyards or orchards.

Agtek managing director Gayne Carroll, “instrumental in the origi-nal success of Landini in New Zea-land, knows the product well and has a strong passion for it,” Ribolla says. “The opportunity… was a natural pro-gression for both companies.”tel. 07 544 2911www.agtek.co.nz

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28 machinery & proDucts vintage/motoring 29

green tractors a godsendAN UNKOWN tractor collector has said “All machinery and tractors are man-made, except John Deere; God sent them direct.”

“My association with their products suggests the statement has a strong element of truth,” says Neil Houghton.

Neil and Shirley Houghton have been on their 137ha farm at Ngarua for 40 years and “every-thing you can see we have put here,” says Neil.

His long association with tractors and machin-

ery dates back to age ten, when he drove a Farmall F20 towing a two furrow Reid and Gray trailer plough.

Neil is from Manawatu and Shirley from Waikato. They sharemilked before settling at Ngarua.

In those days he had a standing order with a salesman – not John Deere – to buy, each March, his company’s latest model, trading the old one.

“Those days trac-tors came with a two year unconditional guarantee and the tax system for new machinery enabled farm-

ers to write off 40% in the first year.”

When the franchise changed hands he bought his first John Deere a 2040S 4WD and the rest is history. He has updated his farm tractors, mean-while collecting vin-tage models. Now he has 35, most restored and working, a few ‘in progress’.

With the tractors are 40 John Deere and other stationary engines as small as 3hp – a Lister programmed to instantly start and drive a genera-tor to supply all the farm’s

electric motors in case of power failure.

“I’ve always had a han-kering for the vintage models and over the years acquiring and restoring

them has given me a lot of enjoyment.” Many visit-ing groups and individuals have also enjoyed them.

He bought his first vin-tage machine from Athen-

ree – a John Deere model “G” 2-cyl. in 1976.

His latest acquisition from Opunake is a model JD 2120, 79hp 4cyl, made in 1968.

“The ageing owner told me that he had used it to pull the mortgage off his farm and now that was gone he had decided to sell it.”

toNy HopKINSoN

Neil Houghton on one of his favourite steeds.

‘Dear Santa...’TEXT SANTA, beg, borrow, do what-ever, to get a Polaris RZR at Christ-mas. This advice from the maker of some of the world’s hottest sports ATVs.

And their Polaris RZR 170 is a cool way to get into powersports, they say.

“It’s easier to drive than any car – with a CVT automatic gearbox, steer-ing wheel and car-like pedals. The parents will like the olds-only adjust-able speed limiter, so they can con-trol your top speed as you get some skills.”

And like the award winning full-size version, two seats means double the fun. Unlike bikes and single-seat ATVs, invites for a ride are not lim-ited to only those that have their own. With a Polaris RZR a different mate can always come along for a ride every weekend.

The RZR 170 comes standard with two helmets, full cab frame, daytime

running lights, rear tail light, front and rear hydraulic disc brakes, and an adjustable driver’s seat. RZR 170 is also stable thanks to its wide rear axle and low centre of gravity.tel. 0800 440 290www.polarisindustries.co.nz

key specs• 2 bucket seats with

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WAIMUMU15th, 16th, 17th February 2012


30 rural lifeand now the weather forecast – to 2020IRRIGATORS AND water resource planners should expect the next 10-20 years to be a bit drier than recent times, says NIWA.

Principal scientist Ross Woods is studying variability in river flows over decades and the influence of cyclical changes in the Pacific Ocean atmosphere system, the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO).

“If you had to guess about the coming 10 years, expect a slightly drier South Island. It certainly affects Canterbury and has implications for the design of irrigation and hydro power schemes.”

Understanding variability in river flows over decades can be critical for the design of water infrastructure, he stresses. “Without this understanding, it is difficult to use river flow data from the past as a guide to the future.”

An IPO phase typically spans 20-30 years, then the system changes to a different circulation pattern. The IPO was in a negative phase from 1945-77 and positive from 1978-99.

During a positive phase, El Nino events and westerly winds are more frequent, with more rain than usual in the west and south of the South Island. The Bay of Plenty is drier than usual and has fewer floods. The opposite applies during a negative phase.

“The phase we are currently in has only been going for ten years, so there is a reasonable chance that it has another ten years to go.”

Woods’ research is Ministry of Science and Innovation funded and was presented during last week’s 2011 NZ Hydro-logical Society Conference, “Learning From The Past : Cre-ating The Future”.

Cutting trees is oKNEW ZEALANDERS lack understanding of the role forestry plays in our society, says a leading scientist and New Zealand United Nations commissioner.

Andrew Matthews says there is a gap in the education system whereby children are encouraged to plant trees, but then there is widespread concern when it comes to cut-ting them down.

Matthews’ comments were made to Rural News at a function last week in Wel-lington to celebrate the UN International Year of Forest.

He says while New Zealanders under-stand the recreational value of forests, they don’t seem to realise the contribution they make to water quality, erosion control and replacing construction materials that require fossil fuels to be produced such as concrete and steel.

“New Zealand’s exotic forests are in fact sustainably managed. We cut trees down and we plant a fresh growth, but that mes-sage is not getting through.”

People also don’t appreciate what can be done with wood fibre, a field in which Scion (forest research) has done excellent research, Matthews says.

Log exports are expected to earn New Zealand $4.7 billion in 2011/12.

Meanwhile FIRST Union, which repre-sents 1600 wood processing workers, says there’s a crisis in the after-harvest wood industry.

“For years wood production has been declining, sawmills closing and workers losing their jobs,” says union general secre-tary Robert Reid, in light of Eurocell Tim-ber’s Upper Hutt mill closure with the loss of up to 40 jobs.

Eurocell blames the closure on a lack of pick-up in the Christchurch rebuild, trou-

ble sourcing affordable logs, a weak hous-ing sector and competition from exporters of raw logs.

Reid estimates 1200 wood processing jobs have gone since 2008, and that’s per-haps less than half the true figure when attri-tion and unreported job losses are counted.

A crisis meeting with Forestry Minister David Carter, the EPMU and wood indus-try representatives was held earlier this year, putting forward six ideas to help the wood processing industry.

“The government cannot sit back and do nothing.”

peter BUrKe

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rural news 506 dec 13 2011

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