dairy news 9 september 2014

Pasture renovation Keep it clean and green Page 36

National rules out land grab. Page 3

Co-op chief executive, Theo Spierings says checks and mechanisms in place to ensure past mistakes aren’t repeated. PAGE 6

september 9, 2014 issue 320 // www.dairynews.co.nz

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Dai ry News september 9, 2014

news // 3

nationaL saYs if it’s re-elected it will spend $10 million a year for 10 years to further enhance the quality of freshwater through a targeted fund to buy and retire areas of farmland next to waterways; the scheme will cover all farmland including dairy-ing, horticulture and sheep and beef

The money will be made available to regional councils on a case by case basis and they will work with farm-ers to determine what areas of land might be suitable for retirement. But Environment Minister Amy Adams told Dairy News the scheme is volun-tary and no land will be compulsorily acquired. The scheme is designed to target land that borders significant and sensitive waterways.

“We are not looking at buying whole farms or vast tracts of land in any one area. It’s saying to regional

councils that it is part of the package of tools you can use to restore the health of waterways. We see merit in identifying certain sections of land that border catchments where there are particularly high nutrients loads coming off small areas and retiring those areas.”

Adams says the issue is not the amount of land being retired but instead the impact of contami-nants in waterways. Land bought by regional councils would be retired from production and turned into wetlands or be planted. These areas would filter the water and improve its quality. The fund is another tool regional councils could use as part of their water quality programmes.

“The intention is that regional councils will apply for the funds to buy areas of land that meet the cri-teria. That land will then be owned by the regional council and managed by them.”

Individual farmers who sell land

through the scheme could use that money to fund other environ-mental projects on their land.

“We’ll be looking to see expressions of interests from regional councils. The ten year timeframe is important because we don’t want the coun-cils that are ready to go sooner than the others to gobble up all the money. The ten year timeframe will ensure there is an ongoing fund as we progressively iden-tify land which can benefit from this scheme.”

Adams says New Zealand is an incredibly lucky country with 400,000km of rivers and 4000 lakes.

“We could put more and more into clean-up funds but we need to have a better strategy for stopping the contaminants going into the water bodies in the first place. There

is a lot of good work done with the clean-up funds, but when I look at the new rules and requirements on water planning, the biggest impact we will be able to make is retiring especially vulnerable pieces of land. If we want to do that for a public-good reason then it is entirely appro-priate that that be paid for from the public fund.”

news ��3-23

oPinion �� 24-26

agriBusiness �� 28-31

management ��32-46

animaL HeaLtH ��49-53

eFFLuent & water management �� 54-66

macHinerY & Products �� 67-74

Action-packed season looms. Pg.21

Vital data at each milking bail. Pg.67

Cows stroll in for milking. Pgs.32-33

No land grab in freshwater planPeter BurKepeterb@ruralnews�co�nz

Fencing cows from streams to be made lawnationaL intends to make it mandatory to exclude dairy stock from streams by 2017.

This is part of the party’s environment policy announced last week by the ministers for primary industries and the environment. The 2017 dead-line is the same date as set out in the Sustainable Dairy Water Accord – the latest iteration of the now-superseded Clean Streams Accord.

All the country’s dairy companies, except West-land, are signatories to this accord.

Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy says dairy farmers have done well in addressing some key environmental issues, fencing 23,000km (90%) of waterways. Farmers are environmental-ists who want to leave their land in a better state

for their children and grandchildren, Guy says. “Our approach involves working with farmers,

water users and communities. You don’t get good environmental results by aggressively penalising and taxing key industries. A mandatory require-ment will bolster this great work and highlight the importance of this key environmental protection.”

But National’s proposal to pass a law on the 2017 deadline has drawn a mixed response from the head of Federated Farmers Dairy section, Andrew Hoggard.

He says he fully supports the Sustainable Dairy Water Accord and favours slightly reducing the deadline. But he prefers the 2017 target to remain voluntary, feeling nervous about turning a volun-

tary agreement into a law. This would set a prece-dent which may turn farmers off future voluntary agreements.

“I am worried because it is going to include Westland and those guys have a different agree-ment with their regional council. They have much bigger challenges than the rest of us and have a workable regional solution.”

Environment Minister Amy Adams says she knows about the Westland situation but says National wants to see all dairy farms excluding their stock by the 2017 deadline. They will “work constructively” with the industry for practical solutions in regions subject to extreme weather.

– Peter Burke

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Amy Adams

How mucH will Fonterra cut its payout forecast later this month?

With last week’s GDT event down 6% overall, taking the fall since February to 44%, a cut when it announces its annual result on September 24 now seems certain.

All the main banks now have fives in front of their predictions with talk of “more downside” while some analysts are talking figures starting with four and even $3.

Among them is Peter Redwood, of Redwood Associates, Auckland. At the average GDT and New Zealand dollar (NZD) to US dollar exchange rate for the season to date, the milk price would be $4.93/kgMS, he calculates.

Weighting season-to-date average and spot GDT and NZD prices the news is even worse: $4.24/kgMS; and if GDT and NZD were to remain at current levels the milk price would be $3.94/kgMS.

Redwood stresses dairy prices “matter enormously” for both the NZD and short-term interest rates, so a fall in the NZD is likely to cushion the impact, but Fonterra’s $6/kgMS forecast “will be harder to achieve with every passing auction that undershoots its forecasts”, he warns.

To achieve $6/kgMS now, GDT’s weighted average price would have to rise 40% over the remainder of the season, he says.

BNZ’s Doug Steel also warns against simply extrapolating current prices and exchange rates,

because if GDT remains where it is the NZD will almost certainly fall.

“The Kiwi will fall but it has to happen and it has to happen relatively quickly for this season’s payout,” he told Dairy News.

There’s also the risk GDT may continue to fall. “But we don’t want to be overly alarmist. Often it’s darkest just before the dawn.”

Drivers for recent falls are many, says Steel. Russia’s trade ban on EU dairy products and EU emergency storage measures for dairy are the new ones, forcing EU products into other markets and creating stocks which may overhang the market in months to come.

“But we still believe a big reason for the decline is increased milk supply and international grain

markets have a lot to do with that. Very large production and end stocks are forecast which means [grain] prices are very low and the margin for grain-based milk producers, particularly in the US, is getting wider. It’s encouraging them to produce more milk, not less, so this has a long way to run.”

US domestic dairy prices haven’t fallen as far or fast as world prices either, he points out. “The question is will the US market fall back or world prices lift to meet it? I expect the US to come back.”

The end of EU production quotas on April 1, 2015, while “on the radar” for some time, will also be having an impact. “We may even be seeing a bit of that this season. There’s been massive investment in

stainless steel in Europe so we know there’s more production coming. The question is how much and how will it impact from a world perspective. The Russian ban has rather taken the focus off that.”

Another supply-side factor is recovery in China’s production after a “horror year” in 2013, adding to inventories built from excessive

imports. There are signs stocks are now falling but whether that will translate into increased buying and prices “remains to be seen,” says Steel.

BNZ’s current forecast is $5.50/kgMS though Steel warns “we see more downside risk to that than up” and that with “so many moving parts in the market it is very hard to

make any prediction.”Westpac says the

risk in its $5.80kgMS forecast is now “clearly skewed to the downside” and ASB, which had the same forecast as Dairy News went to press, said it was “under review.” Meanwhile ANZ slashed 50c off its prediction to $5.25/kgMS last week.

DAi ry NEws september 9, 2014

4 // news

Forecast payout cut on the cardsandrew swaLLowandrews@ruralnews�co�nz

Fonterra will review its 2014-15 forecast payout this month.

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news // 5

Beingmate: no option but to take the risk

Fonterra’s deaL with Beingmate is a gamble but what alterna-tives did the cooperative have? asks Waikato agri-business professor Jac-queline Rowarth.

The cooperative needs to reach consumers in the huge Chinese market and move up the value chain.

“Good on Fonterra for trying to get directly to the market with its Anlene and Anmum and we hope that will start a Fonterra brand recognition and the product will be desired,” she told Dairy News.

“But it’s a risk, any partnership is a risk. You have to work with your other partner, and when the partnership is across countries the hazards are greater because under-standing is not always the same. Any relationship is a bit of loss of control because you have to com-promise: the question is how far?”

In respect of access to the consumer she hopes it works. “Are we in a joint venture? Sure. Do the Chinese have the upper

hand? Absolutely.”Rowarth says there

appear to be questions raised by Standard & Poor’s when it lowered Fonterra’s credit rating from A+ to A that have not entirely been answered.

Standard and Poor’s referred to “the scale of

the proposed acquisition; a reliance on dividends from the equity hold-ing, rather than having direct control over cash flows; higher leverage in the short-term from this transaction; and the capi-tal expenditure”, when it lowered the rating after the Beingmate deal was announced.

Rowarth says in New Zealand the Chinese are allow to own factories and farms. In China New Zea-landers are not allowed to do anything except build on leased land. “That’s why we have to do things with ventures and we are minority partners.

“In Australia the Being-mate stake in the Darnum

joint venture is 51% (to satisfy Chinese regulatory requirements). In China New Zealand is tiny – it is really unbalanced and we are cap in hand trying to do better.

“The distribution deal with Beingmate is getting to the actual consumer so

might be ‘doing better’ but we are dealing with a giant and a communist country so we can say it is a very different game from what we play here. The Chinese government can say ‘stop’ to anybody but you can’t here. So there are major challenges. It’s quite a gamble.”

She believes not enough details have come out. “All the stuff I can see is how great the market is and working together we will create something wonderful.

“The deal is touted as providing a ‘fully inte-grated global supply chain’. “Well that’s what everybody is urging. Good on Fonterra for trying but

gosh what’s the cost? But we keep saying we need to move higher up the supply chain. What else can we do? You have to ask what the alternatives are and evaluate them.”

America milks cows at $8 an hour on the back of Mexican labour, we milk them at $16. Our mini-mum wage is high and there’s no NZ govern-ment procurement policy so a lot of stuff must go offshore.

People say move up the value chain but they will pay for it in fashion, not in food. “Nobody does what we do pre-farm-gate in terms of welfare for humans and animals, environmental compli-ance and high quality. We have singularly failed to explain that that means our product is not a com-modity. Other countries are not operating within the legislative frame-work to do with minimum wages and environment compliance and high animal welfare that we do and those costs are put-ting us out of the market.”

Getting Anmum and Anlene into China through Beingmate’s huge network is an attempt to

Pam tiPapamelat@ruralnews�co�nz

“Any relationship is a bit of a loss of control because you have to compromise: the question is how far?”

reach consumers with higher value products. “I hope it works,” Rowarth says. Jacqueline Rowarth

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6 // news

WHILE FONTERRA repeated its $6/kgMS forecast in the last week of August prior to the latest GDT result, Westland Milk Products cut its prediction for 2014-15 to $5.40-$5.80/kgMS, down from $6.00-$6.40/kgMS.

“The reduction is driven by the falls in prices across the globe and the continued high value of the New Zealand dollar,” said chief executive Rod Quin.

Quin said Westland’s board and management were con-scious of the stress the revision would put on some suppliers but remained committed to monthly forecast updates.

“We’ll be monitoring the situa-tion and working with sharehold-ers to help ensure they have the resources and tools to manage their way through this.

“Westland will also continue its strategy to grow its capacity to produce higher value nutritional products such as infant formula. Our traditional reliance on bulk dairy commodities such as skim milk makes us more vulnerable to the cyclical swings of the interna-tional dairy market.”

westLand First to cutInfant formula venture

world-class, well sorted

cHina is a completely dif-ferent environment, Being-mate is a completely different partner and this is a com-pletely different deal, says Fonterra chief executive Theo Spierings.

“We are also completely different from where we were five or six years ago and we are learning from the past and moving on to the future,” he said, when asked what steps Fonterra had taken to ensure mistakes of the past were not repeated.

He says extensive due dili-gence has taken place on this deal from both sides and clear arrangements made on gover-nance. Two of nine directors will come from Fonterra. All directors will sit on all boards

and subcommittees. A stra-tegic committee will include himself.

“There are a lot of checks and mechanisms in place to ensure this is a ‘win, win, win’ as they say in China.”

Fonterra chairman John Wilson says the Chinese dairy market is now focused on food assurance, milk quality and controls across the entire dairy industry. “For Fonterra being able to enter a venture here for such a high quality business has been very impor-tant for us. Our team has car-ried out due diligence across the plants of Beingmate and has been very impressed.”

Spierings says some of Fon-terra’s branded products it will market in China through Beingmate may be produced in China eventually. Under the current business plan Anmum is produced and packed in New

Zealand and exported to China “but it doesn’t mean we will stick to that over time”.

“Beingmate is a world class operation and if we believe Anmum brand – certain parts of the portfolio be it toddler milk or milk for pregnant Mums – can be produced on Chinese facilities we will do so. That is too early to say right now,” he told a Chinese jour-nalist at a press conference when the Beingmate deal was announced in Auckland.

Spierings says Fonterra must turn the wheel mainly in growth markets, our emerging markets.

“This example shows with huge emerging markets like China you can link into dif-ferent milk pools and we are uniquely placed to do that. If you look at the landscape around the world there are not many companies that can link

strong demand in emerging markets to multiple milk pools with different rules. “This over time will create significant value for our shareholders.”

Chief financial officer Lukas Paravicini says for Darnum they will form a JV with Beingmate holding 51% and Fonterra 49%. That allows Beingmate to fulfil its require-ments with Chinese regulatory bodies and maintain control over its supply chain.

“But it doesn’t change any-thing in the day-to-day oper-ation. Fonterra will maintain the operations. The joint ven-ture will acquire Darnum – there will be proceeds of 51% of that for Fonterra.”

The joint venture is exclu-sive for the Darnum asset. “Beingmate picks up the prod-ucts which go out to China; we will also export skim milk powder which Fonterra will take up,” Paravicini says.

Pam tiPapamelat@ruralnews�co�nz

Theo Spierings

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news // 7

Oz processor joins trend to lower forecast payouta downwards revision in its end-of-season forecast took the shine off Australia’s largest dairy proces-sor’s financial year results, released last month.

Murray Goulburn revised its full year forecast for the southern milk region to A$6/kgMS, down from the range of A$6.15-$6.30/kgMS it announced in July.

The co-op, which competes with Fonterra for milk supply in Austra-lia, also said it was unlikely MG would provide any step-ups this financial year unless there was a “significant improve-ment” in markets.

Murray Goulburn managing direc-tor Gary Helou told suppliers although long-term demand from Asia remained strong, current global events forced the decision.

“Long term underlying dairy foods demand from Asia remains strong with a net reliability on imports to satisfy the ongoing growth in per capita consump-tion,” Helou says.

“However, international dairy prices have declined significantly from last year’s historic highs mainly due to pro-duction growth in exporting countries, namely New Zealand and the European Union, and the compounding impact of high inventories in China and the recent Russian trade ban on EU, US and Australian dairy imports.

“Given global demand growth we anticipate some recov-ery in international commodity pricing but it is difficult to predict the timing and strength of this change.”

Helou says the co-op would continue to assess the impact of the Russian trade ban and further assess China’s re-entry in the market.

It’s a stark contrast to the previ-ous financial year, when international

dairy food prices were very high, under-pinned by strong demand from Asia and the Middle East. This helped the co-op achieve record revenues of A$2.917 bil-lion – 22% more than the previous year. Despite this, net profit after tax was

A$29.3 million, down from $34.9 million the previous year – a 17% drop. It will pay an unfranked dividend of 8% on ordinary shares.

The co-op said growth was delivered from across all MG’s major divisions but exports were the shin-ing light, recording

30% growth year-on-year to A$1.5 bil-lion. Exports accounted for at least 51% of MG’s revenue.

The co-op earned A$36 million from the sale of its shares in Warrnambool Cheese and Butter. This money helped it increase its equity by A$59 million.

MG’s final weighted-average avail-able farmgate milk price paid to its sup-pliers was up 37% on the previous year at $6.81/kgMS (about 51 cents/L).

Total payments to suppliers for the year were A$1.7 b, representing 61% of

total sales, compared to 50% of sales last year.

MG increased its milk intake in 2013-14 by 8% to 3.4 b L. Its share of Australia’s milk pool now represents 37% of Austra-lia’s milk supply, up from 33% last year.

“International dairy prices have declined significantly from last year’s historic highs due to production growth in New Zealand and the EU.”

Gary Helou, Murray Goulburn.

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Malcolm Ellis, LIC.

Do the maths before slashing breeding costswitH a lower dairy payout forecast this season, farmers will be working to identify areas for sav-ings, but LIC is encourag-ing them to do the maths before making any changes to their breeding plans this

mating season.“The old rule of ‘if you

can count it, you can cut it’ shouldn’t apply to a farm’s artificial breeding (AB) because of the long term impact it will have on herd value and productivity,”

says bull acquisition man-ager and dairy farmer Mal-colm Ellis.

“In a year like this, when the spotlight is on every farm expense, farmers need to consider the real cost of reducing spend-

ing in an area that has such a long term impact on the herd asset.

“Farmers will be run-ning the rule over every farm working expense (FWE) and looking for areas to make savings, but their breeding investment is not the place for signifi-cant cost cutting.

“Spending on all of the costs of breeding and herd improvement is already pretty trim at 3.4% FWE, compared with big ticket items like feed, fertiliser and wages accounting for 60% FWE (DairyNZ Eco-nomic Survey 2012-2013, seasonal supply owner-oper-ators).

“Some of the breeding spending is non-negotia-ble, so any potential sav-ings are marginal in the total scheme of things. Such moderate savings will provide slim immediate relief, while the long term cost of a genetically infe-rior age group of animals moving through the herd is huge.

“Cheaper options cost in the long run. The reality is cows still need to get in-calf and farmers need those calves to be high qual-ity replacements for their farm’s prosperity.”

He’s warning farmers of the danger of undervaluing herd improvement in their business.

“As farmers we under-value genetics. I have milked a lot of good cows in my time but also some poor ones and I believe we totally undervalue the dif-ference.

“With a significant shift in farm production systems

over the last decade we are firing enormous quantities of feed at our cows, each kg carrying a set price per kg of dry matter. You want that feed going down the throats of good cows.

Ellis challenges the old adage of ‘90% feeding – 10% breeding’ many farm-ers have been brought up on.

“I acknowledge the value of feeding and nutrition, but 10% breeding? You’re kidding me. I regularly say to farmers, if this were indeed the case you would be prepared to draft out your top 10% of cows and sell them to me for 10% more than your herd is worth. They wouldn’t, of course, because those top cows are so good.

“During these times of lower payout, farmers need to maintain focus on breeding animals whose progeny will be the most efficient convertors of feed into profit, with high BW genetics, so they get the best value from their investment now and are ready to make the most of higher payouts in the future.

“For sharemilkers, their herd is their clearly their biggest asset, so it’s even more important they are investing their money wisely to support future growth and progression in the industry.

“Farming has always been a long game, and while there’s no denying this year will be difficult, breeding remains a vital component for the future of any farming business.”

MALCOLM ELLIS says farmers could look to offset the lower milk price by diversifying their income stream. One way to do that is by adding an extra week onto their AB plan, as that would provide surplus stock to sell next calving season.

“In a more moderate milk price environment increased stock sales are gold.

“The real pinch from this year’s lower payout will be felt next spring, but extra investment in AB this year will provide farmers with more options next year.

“Friesian heifer calves were selling for upwards of $950 each this spring, a demand underpinned by export activity that isn’t going away.

“That 90kg, literally straight out of the shed, makes a straw of semen look more like an invest-ment in diversifying the income stream rather than a farm expense.”

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news: dairYnz Board eLection // 9

Five candidates for board election

voter PacKs for the DairyNZ board seat will be mailed to levy payers this week and voting opens September 16.

“You can vote via the internet, post or by fax – or in person at the annual meeting,” says returning

officer Warwick Lampp of electionz.

“It would be great to see a strong voter turnout this time,” says Lampp, noting the norm for DairyNZ elections is only about 20%, though the milksolids levy vote ear-

lier this year saw 60% par-ticipate.

“Hopefully for this election farmers’ awareness of how easy it is to vote should be higher because we’ve just had the levy vote in May. If anyone has any queries or doesn’t

receive their voter pack by the end of September they can contact us at [email protected] or telephone 0508 666 337.”

Results will be announced at DairyNZ’s annual meeting on Thurs-

day October 16 in Timaru.Kuriger has been on

the DairyNZ board since 2007, as has chairman John Luxton and fellow farmer-elected director, Alister Body, coming in with the transitional board that oversaw the merger of

Dexcel and Dairy Insight.The other incumbent

farmer-elected directors, Michael Spaans and Ben Allomes, were first elected in 2008 and 2011 respec-tively.

The normal term for a farmer elected direc-

tor is four years. Allomes, Luxton and Spaans retire by rotation next year, and Body’s term ends 2017.

DairyNZ has three directors appointed by the board: Helen Anderson, Barry Harris and Peter Schuyt.

Barbara Kuriger’s resignation from DairyNZ to stand for National in Taranaki/King Country in the election has prompted a five-way ballot for her seat at the DairyNZ board table. Andrew swallow talked to the candidates.

Donna Smit

dairYnz’s vision of “making dairy farm-ing work for everyone” is admirable, says board candidate Donna Smit, but having 10 strategic objectives to achieve that “really is a lot,” she told Dairy News.

“To me the priorities are profit, sustainability and ensuring the competi-tiveness of NZ dairy farm-ing…. Leadership is about a clear vision and correct prioritisation of strategic objectives. It’s about get-ting in front of the issues and not being on the back foot.

“New Zealand dairy farmers have given DairyNZ a clear man-date to collect the levy. It’s DairyNZ’s responsi-bility to ensure this levy is invested proactively and I think my financial and commercial skills will be invaluable.

“I can bring to the [board] table strategic leadership that has helped build successful busi-nesses; financial liter-acy and ethics; a practical, common sense under-standing of dairy farm-ing and industry good objectives; and passion for innovation and train-ing for the success of our industry and our nation.”

Smith notes last year’s DairyNZ financials showed $32m in cash and

cash equivalents. She says she’s looking forward to this year’s figures.

“We must stay ahead of our competitors and the collective strength of the DairyNZ levy collected from all NZ dairy farmers places us in a good posi-tion to meet this and other challenges.”

Her commercial expe-rience means she has the skills to identify duplica-tion and waste, if any, in DairyNZ, she adds. “It’s important that DairyNZ does not dupli-cate work other industry bodies are undertaking. The DairyNZ levy must be invested proactively; we must be looking forward 5-10 years; sustainability is a huge industry challenge. We must take a long term view, maintain our competitive advantage. It’s about maintaining profitability in a sustain-able way to ensure the success of dairy farming businesses and to assist in building a better future for NZ.”

Besides directing a five-farm dairy business with husband Corrie, she’s a director of Kiwifruit Equi-ties, a trustee of Eastern Bay Energy Trust and until recently was company administrator for East-Pack, New Zealand’s larg-est kiwifruit post-harvest facility.


10 // news: dairYnz Board eLection

Dirk Sieling “Born dutcH I hate waste and will see that levy payers’ money gets spent effectively,” says Coro-mandel dairy farmer and DairyNZ board candidate Dirk Sieling.

He milks 830 cows on two farms close to Whitianga, supplying Fon-terra, and is retiring this year from the coopera-tive’s shareholder coun-cil after nearly eight years, allowing him sufficient time for the Dairy NZ job.

“I have an analyti-

cal mind sharpened by a healthy dose of skepticism and will never hesitate to call a spade by its proper name. I don’t like spin and firmly believe honesty keeps a board of directors out of trouble long term.”

Sieling says DairyNZ has “without a doubt improved from the days of Dairy Insight. More and better research and sup-port is available, especially in managing day to day [farm] operations.”

Some good scientists

are also on board showing real passion and commit-ment, he adds.

“More work could be done to assist farmers with independent advice on permanent pasture species and forage crops so the claims of the seed companies can be put into perspective.”

But he believes DairyNZ has an adequate budget and if more must be spent in some areas, other activities may need pruning. “I do not favour

an increase in levy.”Sieling also says

DairyNZ “needs to play a bigger role in advocacy. Fonterra has taken up a significant advocacy role but DairyNZ, representing every dairy farmer in NZ, has different drivers and with its knowledge base is more suitable to repre-sent farmers in central and local government plan set-ting.

“It needs to protect the competitive base of our industry and as per-

ception is deemed to be reality it needs to debunk the pseudo-science that informs public opinion on the impact of our farms on the environment, espe-cially waterways.”

Besides his shareholders council role, Sieling’s been Federated Farmers Hauraki-Coromandel Dairy section chairman, a Thames Coromandel District councillor and has done Rabobank’s executive development course.

Jim van der Poel

dairYnz sHouLdn’t try to be all things to all men, but it does need to ensure all the various support functions the sector needs are deliv-ered effectively and in a coordinated fashion, says board candidate Jim van der Poel.

“DairyNZ was not set up to do everything but it does need to make sure everything gets done,” he told Dairy News.

For example, there is a lot of R&D needed, but that doesn’t mean DairyNZ should be doing it. “In fact it’s important they don’t try to do every-thing themselves. It’s important the funds raised in the levy are leveraged.”

For every $1 of levy, $2 or $3 more should be invested from outside sources, he argues. If that’s done, it’s possible levy payers may see returns reaching towards $6 for every $1 invested.

“DairyNZ has a partic-ular responsibility for the stuff that’s close to farm-ers. It needs to always be an independent, reliable source of information for farmers but there’s a lot of R&D they don’t need to do themselves.”

In his profile submit-ted for the elections Van der Poel lists leveraging levy money, leadership to minimise duplication and define success, and main-

taining New Zealand’s competitive position with sustainable farming solu-tions among his priorities.

“DairyNZ is one of the few organisations that rep-resent all dairy farmers and [it] has a critical role to ensure the money dairy farmers invest through the levy has the best impact possible,” he writes.

He told Dairy News it’s the integrated nature of New Zealand’s pasture-based industry, as well as its scale, that underpins its international competi-tiveness.

“Working together to deliver outcomes requires a strong leadership role, and a lot of that has to be done at the governance level.”

Van der Poel, who steps down from Fonterra’s board at its annual meet-ing in November, says if elected to DairyNZ he’d make it his responsibil-ity to ensure that happens. “You don’t just say these things on the campaign trail.”

Besides Fonterra, he’s a director of the Fon-terra Shareholders Fund, and is a former director of DairyNZ and one of its predecessors, Dexcel. He has farms in Waikato, Can-terbury, Southland and Missouri, USA. He won Sharemilker of the Year in the mid 1980s before buying his first farm.

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news: dairYnz Board eLection // 11

Murray Jamieson

connection, coLLaBoration, change: those are the subheadings Murray Jamieson uses to summarise his pitch for the DairyNZ board.

“I am incredibly pas-sionate about the dairy

industry and want to make a genuine and meaningful contribution to ensure we can, as a country, all share in an enduring and sus-tainable industry,” he told Dairy News.

The sector is a victim of its success, social and

environmental pressures leaving it grappling with a backlash from most New Zealanders and pending pressures from trading partners, he believes.

“DairyNZ needs to be a stronger advocate for farmers and help create better industry stories.

We have no choice but to lead from the front. We cannot afford to be at log-gerheads with so many interest groups that think they occupy the moral high ground.

“We must engage con-structively in genuine and sincere dialogue with the likes of mountainbikers, trampers, kayakers, fly fisherman and ordinary New Zealanders who just want to take the family for a picnic at favorite water-ing holes.”

Jamieson says his key strength is “seeing the big

picture and having the ability to develop strat-egies to achieve objec-tives. I thrive working with a cohesive team to make informed and effective decisions.”

His 30 years practi-cal experience with low and high input systems as owner, sharemilker and equity manager give him a wealth of knowledge to share, he says.

“It is time for new per-spectives and a fresh out-look. A new generation of farmers like myself are primed to help progress the industry.”

DairyNZ’s website resources are great, and good work is being done in schools to connect with the wider community, but a frequent criticism he hears is a disconnect between farmers and the front line of DairyNZ.

Greg Maughan

as a hands-on milker of 400 cows at Marton, Ran-gitikei, Greg Maughan says he’s dealing day-to-day with the issues dairy farm-ers face, so is closely in touch with their needs.

But in his 35 years

“coming up through the ranks” of dairying he’s also had many off-farm industry roles, including the Fonterra shareholders council and chairing the Dairy Industry Awards.

And since he has

worked with most of DairyNZ’s current direc-tors he expects to quickly contribute and provide a voice for family farm-ers, sharemilkers, contract milkers and future gener-ations.

DairyNZ is doing well with human resource sup-port materials, research and environmental man-agement – “the work they have done for farmers in this area is commendable” – but he says it’s not been doing so well supporting levy payers with higher input systems.

Education and training of young people is another area it could do better, “even though there have been many initiatives over the years,” he notes.

“In my mind the train-ing programme for the dairy industry is too dis-

jointed; we would be better served with just one training organisation.”

Current levy rates are “about right”, he believes, but he says the $20m on disease control, especially TB, needs scrutinising “to ensure we are getting value for money”.

A review of NAIT to see if it would be effective in a disease breakdown is also needed. “Farmers I talk to think NAIT is a joke and has not been set up to be practical and user friendly.” But future farm-ers are his highest priority.

“We have focused a lot on environmental issues over the past few years, but the future of our industry needs young people coming into it to ensure we have the drive and the passion to achieve what we want.

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FONTERRA’S DEAL with Chinese infant for-mula giant Beingmate will be debt funded but the cooperative’s balance sheet is strong, Fonterra chairman John Wilson says.

Fonterra will spend $615 million on forming a joint venture with Being-mate to buy and run Fon-terra’s Darnum plant in Australia and taking a 20% stake in Beingmate Baby and Child to boost its infant formula sales to China.

“Farmers often ask why we have such a con-servative balance sheet,” Wilson told Dairy News. “[This] gives us the abil-ity to make investments alongside strategy when the time is right.

“We believe we’ve got the right partner and our timing is right… to be able to make these kinds of investments not only in Beingmate but also in link-ing up our global assets and our global milk pools. The sheer scale of the cooperative our farmers own ensures we can make these investments while our gearing ratio still stays at the bottom of our range. It will be debt funded but we can do that because our balance sheet is strong.”

The Beingmate part-nership is Fonterra’s next step in its strategy of link-ing milk pools, ingredients and high value dairy nutri-tional products out of its investments in New Zea-land, Australia and Europe to China’s markets, says Wilson.

“The Beingmate ven-ture is about three key things – first of all buying

up to 20% of Beingmate. In a joint venture with Fonterra and Beingmate we will then purchase the Darnum plant: Beingmate will own 51% and we will own 49% and we will con-tinue to operate.

“Darnum is particu-lar suited to manufactur-ing high quality formula for customers like Being-mate. Beingmate is a long standing customer of ours. Bringing that plant into the JV is about the Chi-nese regulations and their drive to have a simplified dairy industry with fewer but larger players who are vertically integrated into other milk pools globally. The third part of it is that we will license the distri-bution of Anmum out of New Zealand to Being-mate.

“It is a key aspect of this transaction because we have launched Anmum

into China and that has gone well but it is in a small part of the market-place.

“Beingmate distribu-tion puts us into their highly respected store net-

work and we will acceler-ate the launch of Anmum. It is good for Beingmate because they get the high quality brand out of New Zealand with New Zealand milk and that sits at the

top of their premium cat-egory.

“The product out of Darnum will go to Being-mate and other custom-ers globally including Fonterra itself because

Darnum is a high spec plant. It doesn’t just do infant formula, it does other products as well. The 51% for Beingmate is to fulfil regulatory require-ments within China; that


12 // NEwS

Fonterra deals cast more links for supply chainPAM [email protected]

Fonterra chairman John Wilson (left) believes the co-op has the right partner in China.

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Chinese processor Beingmate will now distribute Anmum products in China.

Fonterra deals cast more links for supply chainshows the control Being-mate will have over its own supply chain. But we will be contracted to the Beingmate Fonterra JV to operate that plant as we do today.”

The Fonterra business in China is different today from what it was some years ago, says Wilson. “We now have 600,000 tonnes of powder going into China, we are build-ing our second farm hub in China, we have many employees in China, from our farms to UHT, branded business and Anmum business in China and Anlene.

“We have significant growth in China itself so this is the next step along that journey linking the

strategy. This work has been going on for some time, first of all identifying who the most likely strate-gic partner is, then putting together a relatively com-plex transaction because of the multiple parts in it but simple in the ultimate outcome.

“This is good for farm-ers. The announcement across the board is all about how we optimise the value of our farmers’ milk.”

Fonterra expects its premium infant formula Anmum, manufactured in New Zealand, will be a $100m-per-year business in four to five years by put-ting the brand through Beingmate’s distribution network.

PRODUCTION HAS kicked off well across the middle of the country but the extremities have had challenges, says John Wilson.

“We are conscious of the challenges some of our Northland farmers have had. It has been good to see RD1… and others are doing what they can.

“Our area managers are spending a lot of time on the ground with farmers impacted by flooding. Southland has had a cold start earlier on. Much of the country has started well but we are at the start of the season.

“Our farmers are watching that care-fully. Obviously we are seeing global dairy trade drop significantly but we’ve seen the currency come back which is good. We are three and half weeks into the financial year. Looking at global analysis… it is our view that prices will come up during the season.

“This point now is the result of very high prices possibly six months ago and the reality of those high prices is that farmers around the world have increased their milk produc-tion.

“But the fundamentals are still very strong…. The message to our farmers is we are watching this very carefully and we will keep them updated as we get more informa-tion. But please be very cautious, manage your business prudently.”

In emerging markets over the latter part of 2013 and early 2014, when the industry saw very high ($4500-5000/t) powder prices, there was something of a fall-off in de-mand in some consumer categories in some emerging markets, Wilson said. Customers had seen that, so had the other global coop-eratives.

“We now expect with prices coming back we will start to see that demand increase at the consumer shelf. So the fundamentals we still see are strong but we have significant volatility at the moment.

“You’ve seen prices come from $4500-5000/t as recently as 10-11 months ago to where they are today at $2800/t. Our management team is doing a lot of work to formulate a view on the information we have and it’s not just about where prices are today.”

PRIcES wILL bOuNcE bAck

The deal will also pro-vide a global supply chain for nutritional ingredi-ents and products from Darnum in Australia and from Fonterra’s invest-ments in whey specialty ingredients in the UK and Netherlands.

“It is putting all that together to accelerate the

value of the milk being sold out of New Zealand. It is an entire package – using New Zealand milk, technologies and assets globally to maximise the return for our farmers.

“China is a market for our product which is really important: it creates value out of our technology and

assets globally, so both contribute to the total payout for farmers.”

Decisions to increase capacity at Lichfield and Edendale, costing $555m, will allow more flexibility for optimising production at peak times.


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14 // NEwS

Chaotic weather defies experts

THE wEATHER pat-terns sweeping the coun-try are ‘chaotic’ says Weather Watch’s Phil Duncan.

The country appears to be in a neutral phase – neither an El Nino nor

a La Nina pattern strong enough to influence events. Northland has had repeated floods, the cen-tral, western and lower North Island needs rain. Last week the Manawatu Rugby Union considered watering the ground at its stadium in Palmerston North because the ground was so hard.

Duncan says the pres-ent conditions are “a little unusual” as we head into spring.

Northland, Auckland and Coromandel have been hit by tropical storms from the north, whereas the rain in Hawkes Bay, Wairarapa and Canterbury is due to the southeast-erly patterns – numerous

PETER [email protected]

Phillip Duncan

this year. “It’s like not having the

parents around and the kids going crazy. Anything might happen: they may all be sitting quietly and the next minute running around going nuts. The weather does the same thing when it doesn’t have a driving force of La Nina or El Nino.

“The weather gets a little more chaotic, with these funny patterns for three-four months or even a year or two.”

Duncan takes issue with NIWA heavy reli-ance on and confidence in the computer models they produce. The comput-ers are only as good as the people, he says.

“For example at the start of year, the world sci-entific community -- not just New Zealand – was all talking about a high chance of El Nino coming in and the computer models were 80% sure of it. But now the computer models are backing off from that, so we had six month of hype and media attention over nothing.”

This explains why Duncan is sceptical of all long range forecasts. “You can talk trends and cycles certainly. But it’s hard to get specific in this coun-try when we are two small mountainous islands in the roaring forties. Any-thing can happen and it does,” he says.

Open country upgrades problem plantOPEN cOuNTRY Dairy chief executive Steve Koekemoer says the company has upgraded the wastewater treatment plant at its Waharoa factory.

The company was convicted and fined $35,000 last week for discharging objectionable odour from its Waharoa factory during last year’s spring flush when milk supply was high.

Residents from the Waharoa community near Matamata complained to Waikato Regional Coun-cil that the odour was causing nausea, vomiting and an inability to sleep. Complainants spoke of having to keep doors and windows shut, and children and washing inside. Some went out of town to escape the odour.

Forty-five complaints were made over 16 days in October and November.

Koekemoer says while the original wastewater treatment plant was designed to meet a peak, it was at its limit when during the huge spring flush. Seeing the problem the company set $1 m to upgrade the plant. The work is now complete – an ‘over-design’ Koekemoer says.

In a recent sentence released from the Hamilton District Court, Judge Melanie Harland commented that the effect on residents of the odour was “pro-found and continuous”.

“The defendant was [not] slow to upgrade or pro-vide adequate infrastructure, but [the] case high-lights the need to provide a buffer for unexpected infrastructure failures despite the infrastructure itself being fit for purpose.”

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‘Dirty Politics’ overshadows crucial election issues

THE ‘DIRTY politics’ saga has stifled debate on key agribusiness issues says KPMG’s global sector leader for agri-business, Ian Proudfoot.

Many people in the agribusiness sector were looking forward to a ‘fair con-versation’ about what people want for the future of the coun-try and the agricul-tural sector and how it utilises the natural resources he says.

But this oppor-tunity has been lost, the election debate now being on issues affecting city rather than rural voters instead of what’s good for the country as a whole.

Some debate has arisen on foreign

ownership of land, in particular Shang-hai Pengxin’s bid to buy Lochinver Station, but the core issue of foreign investment has been missed, he says.

“The country needs a lot of capital to take advantage of the huge oppor-tunities that exist in the global food sector, and international partners linked to markets who can provide

some of that capital. They are important to us [exploiting] the opportunities avail-able and improving the wealth of every-body in the country. But the debate… is [instead] about a lim-ited number of trans-actions that have created concerns about what people from what country are buying up land.”

Science and innovation are also crit-ical, he says, but so far in the election campaign little has been said about the

need for global connectivity. Since New Zealand has a small innovation sector it needs international partners to make it work better.

“We’re missing all those areas of con-versation and focusing on things that if anything will detract and destroy value in our economy rather than increase it.”

KPMG’s recent Agribusiness Agenda referred to agribusiness leaders’ con-cerns about the outcome of the election – especially the role of smaller parties in shaping policy.

Proudfoot says depending on the election outcome some people’s invest-ment strategies may change: moving offshore could be an option.

“Issues such as potential restrictions on foreign capital coming into New Zealand and the challenges of bringing internationally or appropriately quali-fied labour into the country could trig-ger change.”

And regulations about environmen-tal and sustainability issues could make it more challenging to make money, so people will question whether it is worth

FONTERRA LOOKING to make research investment at CSIRO Austra-lia, to ensure they’re using the world’s best brains, is a good idea says Ian Proudfoot

Sadly, unlike 25 years ago, those best brains are no longer neces-sarily in New Zealand or in the pastoral dairy sector.

“A wave of retirements is coming, in the science and agricultural education sectors such as the universities that contribute to the sec-tor. There is a similar issue among the leadership groups in many of the companies in the agricultural sector.”

New Zealand once used the lure of lifestyle to attract top qual-ity people here, but such a philosophy may be running a bit thin with some people, Proudfoot says. The issue now is about getting the work/life balance right; the ‘quality of life’ argument is questionable.

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Lessons learnt from WPC80 scareFONTERRA IS making good progress improving systems fol-lowing last year’s botulism scare, says the independent inquiry committee set up to monitor its response.

“The committee was unan-imous in its view that Fonterra management has brought a clear focus to rectifying the areas of weakness identified last year during the inquiry,” says commit-

tee chairman Ralph Norris.“It was particularly pleasing

to see evidence of the holistic and disciplined approach being taken to implementing changes that will further strengthen the co-operative.”

His comments follow comple-tion of a nine-month check-up on Fonterra’s progress that found:

Three-quarters of Fonter-ra’s plants globally have been

audited and where necessary maintenance or improvements are underway.

Protocols are now in place for engagement of external scientific and diagnostic resources includ-ing appropriate engagement of experts.

Food safety and quality stan-dards are written into all senior management employment con-tracts.

A food safety and quality coun-cil and an incident management team have been set up, as has a quality ‘hotline’.

The committee will reconvene next year to consider a final report from Fonterra, outlining progress on initiatives underway and how each inquiry report recommenda-tion has been addressed.


New director for Ballance

Ralph Norris

bALLANcE AgRI-NuTRIENTS has appointed Albert Brantley as a new independent director.

Brantley, chief executive of Genesis Energy and an engineer, has worked in engi-neering and commercial roles in oil, gas, mining and power generation worldwide.

In New Zealand he was chief executive of L&M Mining from 1987 to 1991 and chief operating officer at OceanaGold before his Genesis appointment. He replaces David Pilkington, who will retire this month after 10.5 years on the Ballance board.

Ballance reconfigured its board in 2012 to include three appointed directors to work with six regional directors elected by its farmer shareholders.

Chairman David Peacocke says independent directors are crucial to the governance of the co-operative with its turnover of almost $1 b and profits of $90 m.

“We have come a long way from being a simple fertil-iser company, with divisions including complex fertiliser and feed manufacturing and farm technology.

“A combination of farmer directors and appointed directors ensure we have the balance of skills, experience and perspectives for good governance.

“Albert brings to the table 20 years of experience oper-ating at an executive level leading operationally complex businesses which require high levels of stakeholder, politi-cal, regulatory and environmental management.”

Brantley will join Ballance directors for their Septem-ber meeting and the annual meeting of shareholders in Queenstown.

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uHT flows from Miraka

THE FIRST packs of UHT milk from the Miraka dairy factory near Taupo will head for China this week. The milk is processed for Shanghai Pengxin.

Miraka chief executive Richard Wyeth says the carefully commissioned plant produces a good quality product. The volume being converted to UHT will increase as the season progresses and as Shanghai Pengxin develops its market. Miraka plans to expand its UHT pro-duction. When it built the present facility, room was set aside to add at least another two UHT production lines.

The plant can pack 60 million L of UHT milk into 250ml packs – 240 m packs a year.

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DAIRYNz’S NEw head of R&D, David McCall, says the key thrust of its science is finding ways for farmers to operate within nutrient limits now being set by regional councils.

They need to discover solutions, practices, tech-nologies and products for agritech companies to produce that will help improve productivity and efficiency onfarm within the councils’ limits.

“So our science is not just looking at increasing profit or increasing or reducing their environmen-tal footprint, but putting those things together and focusing on driving increased profit but within that constraint.”

DairyNZ will keep working with other science providers in New Zealand and share knowledge. They will set out the challenges they face and see what solutions other science providers have to offer, including those overseas “who may be able to pro-duce products that will help us. So we will share our knowledge with them.”

DairyNZ has an understanding with Dairy Austra-lia for investment in joint research, likewise with the Irish. – Peter Burke

Operating within limits

Peak won’t stump us this year – FonterraFONTERRA SAYS it is well placed to handle the peak milk production season starting this spring.

The co-op’s assur-ance last week via a media release attempts to allay fears of another ‘butter-milk lake’.

Last October, Fonterra was forced to truck butter-milk, a by-product of dairy processing, to a lake cre-ated on a farm at Atiam-uri; a warm spring in 2013 caused vigorous grass growth in Waikato: milk production on some farms rose 20% on the previous year.

The Waikato Regional Council stepped in and ordered Fonterra to stop dumping buttermilk; the dumped milk was ordered to be applied to farmland.

Fonterra managing director of global opera-tions, Robert Spurway, says the coperative is well placed to manage the peak this year.

“During the peak our aim is to collect and pro-cess all milk, with a prod-uct mix that maximises the value of our milk, deliv-ers the greatest returns for our shareholders and meets the needs of our consumers and customers.

“To help us achieve

this, the cooperative has… 50 capital and enhance-ment projects around the country aimed at optimis-ing collection, processing, transport and manufac-turing.”

These include a new milk concentration plant at Longburn to maximise volumes of milk trans-fer from the North Island to the South Island, a recently completed UHT plant at Waitoa, and a new drier at Pahiatua now being built – each a big upgrade for managing peak volumes and optimis-ing existing plants.

Milk production is expected to peak at the end of October; a Fonterra tanker collect milk from a farm every nine seconds.

The peak potential is at least 90 million litres collected in a single day – enough to fill 36 olympic swimming pools.

Fonterra has also said it will build a drier at Lichfield in South Waikato, and install three new plants at Edendale, Southland, a $555m spend to improve capacity.

Investment in infra-structure and capac-ity is a balancing act, says Spurway. “The milk peak is chiefly driven by the

weather… so we need to be prudent in our manage-ment.”

Last season, 41% of Fonterra’s milk produc-tion was collected during

the peak. “We balance the need to collect and pro-cess as much milk as pos-sible, while avoiding plants standing idle at other times of the year,” says

Spurway.Whenever product

must be dumped, Fonterra prefers it be used as feed for calf rearers and pig-geries. Fonterra’s buttermilk lake at Atiamuri last year.


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18 // NEwS

Bigger ships to deliver cost-efficient exports

DISTANcE TO market costs New Zealand about 10% of its GDP a year, Kotahi’s chief executive Chris Greenough says.

Greater cooperation is needed between export-ing sectors to make ship-ping viable and affordable but Greenough told Dairy News he’s seen a big shift in attitude in the last three years. He has headed freight management com-pany Kotahi since it was set up in 2011 initially between Fonterra and Silver Fern Farms.

The company now has 35 exporters and 5-10 importers, manag-

ing about 40% of contain-erised exports out of the country, he told a supply chain conference in Auck-land. Kotahi had grown fast “but of course it does help if you have Fonterra as your first customer”.

New Zealand is a small and remote island in the middle of absolutely nowhere. The bulk of exports are food and they are heavy – they have to be shipped.

“Annoyingly in New Zealand we need the ocean freight carrying commu-nity more than they need us. We think we are big ocean carriers in New Zea-land with the likes of Fon-terra, but we make up 0.2% of the global con-tainer trade.”

Since the GFC the global oceangoing carrier industry has lost at least $40bn. A voyage from Sin-gapore to New Zealand and back cost US$2m. The ships need to be 90% full to break even. The average ship around New Zealand has 70-75% utilisation. Carriers lose money and the banking industry is getting miffed.

From an ocean freight demand point of view New Zealand is frag-mented: half the contain-ers we bring in are empty. Our land transport is also expensive because we ship lots of air around the country and our rail is also half empty although could be low cost if used effec-tively. Road and rail is not

well connected in New Zealand.

Kotahi recently did a deal with Maersk and the Port of Tauranga to bring 6500TEU ships into the country because they are more cost efficient, Gree-

nough says.“Our Australian com-

petitors can already take this vessel class. If you are a carrier it is quite an attractive prospect to take this vessel to Australia and shuffle goods across the Tasman on small ships.

“That adds 7-10 days to every box we ship out of the country. Some New Zealand industries would no longer have a busi-ness… even UHT milk is quite transit-sensitive.”

It would also put us at the mercy of the Austra-lian port sector. “I know we’ve had some indus-trial issues here in New Zealand with some of our ports, but we’re rank ama-teurs compared to Austra-lians. Do we want to be at the mercy of wharfies in Australia?”

Carriers need to make a buck but no one can afford to pay more. If you can’t change the price you have to change the cost. Big ships are cheap, they’re not cheap if they’re not full and you need to have ports that can take them. You need enough cargo consolidated in those ports so you can fill them

52 weeks a year. That was the think-

ing behind Kotahi. “We started in 2011 with the idea of consolidat-ing demand. All ports around the country have infrastructure invest-ment plans, but none had a demand signal to back their business case.”

One hundred and fifty empty containers every night go from upper North Island to lower North Island to be packed with exports. “We are work-ing to find more efficient structural changes as well as operation changes.”

The 10 year deal struck with Maersk is unheard of in the shipping industry and a bold move. Kotahi also wants to make sure any plans give support for regional ports to make sure they connected to the world. It was important to stay close to where the processing plants are for sheep, beef and dairy.

Kotahi also struck a 10-year deal with Port of Tauranga, committing volume to them. The port will develop the infra-structure to support big ships.

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NEwS // 21

Big job ahead for top bullsLIkE THE All Blacks gearing up for a big game, New Zealand’s top arti-ficial breeding bulls are getting ready for a busy spring season.

Farmers all over the country are relying on them to deliver the goods that will get their cows in-calf and produce top qual-ity heifers, says LIC.

This year, the bulls will be busier than ever, as the co-op expects to set a record of 135,000 semen straws processed at its Newstead bull farm on its busiest day at the peak of mating, October 31.

In total, up to 5 million straws will likely be pro-duced from Premier Sires bulls, collections taking place every day through spring and straws des-patched fresh to farms all over the country, for insemination into cows as early that afternoon.

Geoff Corbett, LIC’s general manager biological systems, says this year’s matings are expected to result in about 1.7mil-lion offspring next calving season.

“During the peak mating period we will col-lect from the bulls every morning, seven days a week. One ejaculate, once processed with LIC’s dilu-ent technology, creates up to 5000 straws for insemi-nation into cows. In total they’re expected to create about 660,000 heifers for the national herd.

“It’s a big job, but the bulls are up for it. Mating is one of the most criti-cal times of year onfarm…. We take our part very seri-ously and we’ve got it down to a fine art.”

The bulls work to a day-on and day-off sched-

ule, and the collection process is designed to rep-licate what would happen out in the paddock.

Corbett says the ease of Premier Sires makes it the breeding programme of choice for most New Zea-land dairy farmers.

“It’s a cost effective and convenient solution that provides farmers with access to a team of the highest ranked bulls in the

country, no matter where their farm is. They get the top genetics, the diversity they need, and the con-venience of our artificial breeding technician ser-vice.”

Planning for the season starts well before spring, with the bull collection roster determined by farmer mating plans and the number of cows in the country to be mated that day.

“This is what we plan for. We all work together to get it done – from the farm staff collect-ing semen in the early hours, to the laboratory for analysis and process-ing, dispatch and to the AB technician or farmer for insemination into cow.”

Most farmers put their herd to AB for six weeks in spring, but Corbett says an emerging trend is for farmers to add an extra week or two, provid-

ing more choice on what replacements to keep and a way to produce extra stock to sell in the follow-ing year.

“With our new short

gestation bulls, farmers can bring late calvers for-ward, reduce the need for bulls on farm, and get more days in milk early in the season.”

■■ Premier■Sire■semen■collection■-■2■September■-■24■December

■■ 112■bulls■being■collected■on■LIC’s■Newstead■farm,■7■days■a■week

■■ 135,000■straws■to■be■despatched■on■peak■day■(31■October)

■■ Up■to■5■million■straws■in■total

■■ About■1.7million■offspring,■660,000■heifers

■■ 960■artificial■breeding■(AB)■technicians■nationwide.

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22 // world

Infant formula sales in China has helped another dairy giant lift revenues. Infant formula helps

revenues growSTroNG INFANT for-mula sales have boosted European co-op Royal FrieslandCampina’s half year results.

The world’s fifth-larg-est dairy processor’s six-month revenues jumped

3.5% to $9 billion. How-ever, profit fell 36% to $162 million; the co-op is blam-ing negative currency and pressure on margins for commodities.

Organic revenue growth reached 5%; higher

West African acquisitionroYAl FrIESlANdCAMPINA is to buy Olam International’s dairy business facility in Côte d’Ivoire.

FrieslandCampina chief executive Cees ‘t Hart says it is pleased with the acquisition in Côte d’Ivoire as it further strengthen the co-op’s position in West Africa, where it is already marketing its brand Bonnet Rouge. Products include sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk.

The plant, employing 80 people, is in Abidjan, the main city of Côte d’Ivoire. It processes local fresh milk and milk powder into sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk branded Pearl.

Both parties expect the deal to be completed in the next few months. The dairy business and plant will become part of the FrieslandCampina Europe, Middle East & Africa group.

Olam, Singapore, has a 10% stake in Open Country Dairy, an independent dairy processor with factories in Waikato and Southland. Olam took over New Zea-land Farming Systems Uruguay in 2010.

sales prices contributed towards the growth.

The most robust growth was in China, Hong Kong and the Phil-lippines; sales volumes of infant nutrition increased. However, dairy-based bev-erages, cheese and ingre-dients sales decreased due to unfavourable market conditions in Europe, Indonesia and Vietnam. Exports of cheese to Russia also fell.

FrieslandCampina chief executive Cees ’t Hart says the combina-tion of a strong euro, high milk price, falling sales in some Asian markets and political unrest all affected FrieslandCampina’s results during the first six months of 2014.

“Despite these devel-opments, higher sales prices led to a further growth in revenue. In the consumer market, infant nutrition, one of our stra-tegic growth categories, performed especially strongly.”

The co-op says sales prices of commodities such as foil cheese, butter and milk powder were

too low to offset the high guaranteed price for the member dairy farmers.

On top of that, difficult market conditions in Asia and Europe plus negative currency moves amount-ing to $92m put volumes and margins under pres-sure. Operating costs in the first half of 2014 rose by 5.5% to $8.6 billion due to higher raw materials and packaging materials costs.

Cees ’t Hart says the worldwide offering of milk is expected to increase still further in 2014. How the demand will develop is uncertain, he says.

“In a number of European countries the markets will remain under pressure. As a consequence of the Russian boycott of dairy products, alternative products and markets must be found to offset the volume of milk exported to Russia, primarily in the form of cheese. FrieslandCampina cannot make any concrete statement regarding the expected result for the whole of 2014.”

“In the consumer market, infant nutrition, one of our strategic growth categories, performed especially strongly.”

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world // 23

ArlA FoodS Ingredients (AFI) is to build a NZ$60 million factory in Denmark to meet boom-ing demand for whey protein hydrolysates.

The co-op says the investment strengthens its position as a global leader in natural whey ingre-dients.

Hydrolysate is an important ingredient in prod-ucts for infants with allergy and products designed for sports and clinical nutrition.

The plant is to be built next to AFI’s existing whey protein facility in Videbæk, Denmark, also the site of its new lactose plant.

It triples the co-op’s capacity to produce whey protein hydrolysates, intended to accelerate growth in AFI and prepare for an increase in raw milk intake from its owner farmers.

Henrik Andersen, chief executive of AFI, says its customers make it clear that whey protein hydroly-sates are a big part of their plans.

“They are keen to work with companies who can guarantee security of supply. The investment in this factory signals that Arla Foods Ingredients will continue to be at the vanguard of the hydro-lysates sector and that we will be able to satisfy demand while adhering to the strictest quality and safety standards.”

The plant is expected to be finished by October 2015 and to be operating towards the end of 2016.

Hydrolysate boom prompts plant investment

EU farmers pumping milkAN INCrEASE in milk volumes expected as a result of the abolition of the EU’s milk quota are already showing up says Arla Foods chief executive Peder Tuborgh.

Speaking at the release of the European co-op’s half year results, Tuborgh noted that more milk was coming not only from Arla farmers but from other EU farmers intent on growing their businesses.

“The extra milk is flowing into our produc-tion sites and putting us under pressure to deliver a long-term competitive milk price for growing vol-umes,” he says.

High milk prices have boosted milk production and world supply has been at an all time high, trig-gering a slide in raw milk prices.

Tuborgh says Arla showed strong perfor-mance in the first half of 2014 and delivered record earnings for its farmer owners. But downward pressure on the world

market will force down the price paid to farmers for the rest of 2014, he warns.

“The current chal-lenges must be seen in the perspective of a bigger and promising long-term out-look for dairy companies. The world’s middle classes are growing, more con-sumers can afford dairy products, and they create a stable demand for healthy, nutritious and safe milk products.”

Arla Foods’ revenue grew by 11% to $8.4 billion in the first half of 2014; from $7.5b in first half-year 2013 due to growth in all markets and global price increases. This allowed Arla to pay suppliers a record performance price of 70c/kgMS, compared to 61c/kgMS in first-half 2013.

But Arla says the trends in global raw milk price are pointing downwards fast, so the co-op has low-ered its expectations, though it expects 2014 will be a better year than 2013 which already was a record

year. “We are pleased to

see our strategy for creat-ing more growth outside Europe is working and we have accelerated growth outside our European core markets. Our over-all organic growth is satis-factory, but we are facing a difficult period and tough market challenges.”

Arla says during the first half year it grew sales in target growth mar-kets. The Middle East and Africa grew 17%, rev-enue doubled in China and in Russia the market showed good progress. But Russia’s import ban on foods from countries that imposed sanctions on it will be a challenge. Sales in

Russia amount to about 1% of Arla’s total revenue.

Arla also reported a spike in sales of its house brands. During the first half year of 2014 Arla, Lurpak and Castello brands they grew 7% by revenue year-on-year. Arla Foods’ sales of milk pro-teins and value-added ingredients grew 8%. Peter Tuborgh

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Ruminating

milking it...

Anyone for a lottery ticket?A FEW months ago many people had high hopes some important issues affecting the economy, especially the rural economy, would be centrestage in the election campaign.

Nicky Hager and Judith Collins and their ‘mates’ have ensured this could not happen: ‘dirty politics’ has derailed sane debate. The election campaign is as immature as it could possibly be, raising the question whether the country is getting value for money out of the rabble on the hill in Wellington.

If we halved the number of politicians would the nation be any worse off?

Predictably the debate on issues agriculture has gone feral, most parties, except National, opposing the legal and democratic attempt by Shanghai Pengxin to buy Lochinver Station. Not to mention the Stephenson family’s right to sell their asset to the highest bidder.

Worse, the Greens’ are trying to use the possible sale as a scare tactic about over the expansion of the dairy industry. Co-leader Russel Norman, before he set off on a stage-managed canoe trip down the Mohaka River (about 30km from Lochinver) couldn’t resist pointing to a couple of beef animals and saying ‘cows in the river’. Naturally the townie journalists were unquestioning of the Aussie. That area never was nor could be dairy country.

Ian Proudfoot, KPMG, rightly criticises the way this election campaign has unfolded. Serious debate on the environment has descended into trite sound bites. The issues of science strategy and funding have not surfaced and the debate on foreign investment again is derailed and essentially a race issue.

This is without doubt one of two this country has seen in 50 years. The odds on a sane outcome on September 20 are worse than winning Lotto.

EdITorIAl

24 // oPINIoNDai ry News september 9, 2014

Fonterra’s ‘taboo’EVER PLAYED the party game Taboo? While there are various versions, the thrust of all is to avoid saying a pre-designated word or words. Judging by Fonterra’s media briefing on its new joint venture in China, the board and senior management have been practising it, only under a different name: San Lu. Not once did the name of its 2005 joint venture, which in 2008 turned disaster, come up. While Fonterra claimed the moral high ground as the whistleblower on the melamine contamination scandal, the failed JV still cost the cooperative over $200m. Chairman at the time Henry van der Heyden and chief executive Andrew Ferrier have since moved on. Milking It hopes those who remain learned the lessons.

Help from higher forcesEVERYONE IS doing their bit to help farmers battle mastitis; some are even turning to higher powers.

A Wairarapa company is looking to the healing powers of the mighty totara to save New Zea-land’s dairy cows from the scourge that costs the industry $100 million every year.

Totarol founder Doug Mende has been inves-tigating how totarol, the chemical compound found in totara trees that makes their wood resistant to rot-ting, could be used to treat mastitis.

Mastitis, the udder inflammation that leads to abnormal milk, affects 1:200 cows. Infected cows must be taken out of their milking round, costing valuable production.

Puzzling PrWITHIN HOURS of Glo-balDairyTrade dropping another 6% the coopera-tive pumped out a media release trumpeting “a bumper peak milk produc-tion cycle” about to hit fac-tories with tanker collec-tions every nine seconds and 90 mL, or 36 Olympic-size swimming pools of milk delivered every day. Maybe they were trying to dilute coverage of the carnage on global markets; maybe they were trying to assure the public there will be no repeat of last year’s buttermilk dump. Whatever the thinking, the timing was bizarre at best, damaging to market senti-ment at worst. Okay, so one media release won’t have too much in-fluence, but these days what’s said in Auckland one minute is relayed in London, Shanghai, Chicago and New York the next.

own goalANOTHER MEDIA release which caught our eye last week was one from Feds criticising National’s plan to set aside $100 million over 10 years to buy and retire farmland next to waterways to provide a buffer and improve water quality.National’s plan is similar to the Sustainable Dairying Water Accord put together by stakeholders, including Federated Farmers.

Why is the Feds criticis-ing a plan similar to one it has approved? Is it hedg-ing its bets, in case Labour and the Greens sneak in on September 20 and change the face of farming in this country? Got somethiNG oN

your miND?

post to: Letter to the editor po Box 331100, takapuna, auckLand 0740 or emaiL: [email protected]

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oPINIoN // 25

Jury still out on Russian banTHErE’S rArElY a dull moment in dairy these days, and in many ways the past month has been an eventful one. In addition to the finalisation of 2013-14 milk prices and financial results for most processors, the oft-mentioned targeting of ‘high-value markets’ took further shape with deals such as the infant formula joint venture between Fonterra and Beingmate, in which Australian milk and facilities will play a key role.

Perhaps the most sensational development however, was the announcement by the Russian government of an embargo on food imports from the EU, US, Canada, Australia and Norway (in addition to Ukraine, banned in July). It’s far too early to tell what the exact fallout will be, but a high level appraisal of the Russian market and some of the potential eventualities will help to interpret developments as they unfold.

With dairy exports to Russia just short of 629,000t in 2013, the country is an important market – the world’s second largest after China. Australia accounted for less than 3% of this volume in 2013, even after a boost in exports that was largely driven by a temporary ban on Fonterra (which restricted New Zealand access). In turn, though Russia took 46% of Australia’s butter exports in the 2013-14 financial year, it ranked as our 12th largest market, accounting for only 3% of our total dairy exports.

Direct impacts on Australia are therefore likely to be relatively limited – though they will fall disproportionately on those companies that have plants approved for export to Russia. While small, the effect is also enhanced by the fact that Russian buyers tend to pay a premium price for butter, thanks to their government’s accreditation requirements limiting the number of approved suppliers.

The biggest concerns

from an Australian perspective surround the indirect effects of this ban, which generates uncertainty and will potentially push surplus product onto an already weak global market. Russia’s main source of dairy imports is the European Union, supplying almost 438,000t (70%) of the 629,000t reported in 2013.

Just over half of Russia’s dairy imports by volume were in the form of cheese (319,000t), of which nearly 260,000t came from the EU. The key concern for many market participants is where this cheese will go now that the Russian market is closed; or alternatively, where the milk that would have been used to make this cheese will be directed.

The worst-case scenario would see large volumes of European cheese flood onto world markets, including those (such as Japan) where Australia has a strong presence.

There are other possibilities, all likely to occur at least in part. The first is that a proportion of EU milk will be diverted in raw form to neighbouring Belarus, where it can be processed and enter Russia as Belarusian exports. Under the umbrella of its customs union with Russia and Kazakhstan, Belarus already exports large volumes of dairy products that aren’t fully captured in the official trade data. This approach will be limited primarily by the distances and logistics involved in the shipment of large volumes of raw milk, as well as the availability of spare processing capacity in Belarus – but it could partially offset the net impact of the ban.

Another option that would maintain the global market balance is the shipment of product from banned sources to Russia via third countries (transhipment). Authorities in Switzerland (which has avoided the embargo) have flagged that they will not support such endeavours, though others (such as Belarus) have been more

JoHN droPPErTambiguous. In any case however, transhipment potential is likely to be limited by the extensive documentation requirements for import into Russia. Smuggling of very small volumes may also occur, but mainstream suppliers are unlikely to engage in this

(for obvious reasons). In Australia’s case, linkages with New Zealand through Fonterra could see a rebalancing at the Oceania level, whereby butter that may have been exported to Australia is instead directed to Russia, in lieu of Australian origin product.

Though the conflict in eastern Ukraine appears to be far from over, there is also the possibility that the embargo will be softened, or lifted should negotiations between the parties involved produce a political solution. Recent amendments include the exemption of lactose free

dairy products, which could conceivably be broadened. This may seem unlikely, however Russian authorities do face a challenge in keeping reasonably priced food on the shelves. • John Droppert is an industry analyst at Dairy Australia.John Droppert

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26 // oPINIoN

Figure the gains before sellingHAYdEN dIlloN

wITH THE pending elec-tion, the current sale of Lochinver Station before the OIO, and the wider debate on foreign invest-ment in land assets, the issue of direct foreign investment in land has jumped to the top of the

list of hot issues. Much of the discussion

has been emotive, and that is entirely legitimate, but it’s the economic debate that seems to have been lost. We pose the question, ‘What is the economic return to NZ Inc by allow-ing foreign direct invest-ment in land?’

Many of the public

offerings in the NZ mar-ketplace targeting an investment in farming offer 3-4% cash return, and 8-9% capital return. Importantly, the capital return, if treated appropri-ately, is tax free. Given that much of the NZ Inc agri-business value is tied up in the value of our rural land, the first major test appears

to fail. Profits from a gain in

the value of land are not taxed, so there is no return for NZ Inc, particularly if those funds are repatri-ated and not invested in better (i.e. greater than 3-4%) cash-returning assets.

The counter argu-ment is that if the capi-tal is released and applied to a better-returning asset, then there is some value. Using the Lochin-ver Station example, it can be argued that NZ Inc is releasing capital from one lower performing asset to invest in a higher performing asset, which has a better outcome for NZ Inc. But in the Crafar farms example, that capital simply repaid debt. What is done with the Lochin-ver purchase from an eco-nomic perspective in the future, will be the final determinant of whether NZ Inc benefits.

The Crafar example also showed another factor in foreign investment. The offer was much greater than the next closest offer, which raises the ques-tion how could a foreign entity with no experience in NZ farming systems jus-tify a value well in excess of the largest and most experienced operators in NZ, relative to the cash returns from the asset? We don’t know the answer to that as we are not privy to the wider strategy, but it needs clarifying because it appears to be putting a value on land outside what can be economically jus-tified.

Our high country sta-tions are often sold for much more than their pro-duction values, although not just to foreign inves-tors. The economic value to NZ Inc is once again negative, because the out-come will create greater barriers to entry for oper-ators focused on produc-tive returns, from which NZ Inc benefits through increased exports and profitable taxable earnings.

But there is the alterna-tive view that the land is being put to a higher value use. Tourism in Otago is valued at $2.17b, so the cre-ation of 53,000ha of cov-enants on land covering Motatapu, Mount Soho, Glencoe and Coronet Peak stations has to be seen as a big endorsement of for-

eign investment, as the land was placed into the covenants by the owners of Soho Property Ltd and its overseas owner Robert ‘Mutt’ Lange.

Underlying all this of course is our free market. It has served us well. No one should be told who they can and cannot sell their private assets to. We also need to acknowl-edge that we need foreign investment. NZ Inc is rel-atively poor in respect of the amount of capital we hold. As a country we tend to hold the value of our agribusiness industry in the value of our land, but this has been a hard fought process. Successive gov-ernments and economic polices have created an environment that makes us attractive.

So NZ Inc needs to ensure it gets a return for its investment without interfering in the mecha-nism that has created it.

The economic debate needs to move toward what measures can be put in place to ensure NZ Inc gets its share of its invest-ment.

We think the answer starts by measuring the overall outcomes from recent OIO approved decisions, and whether they have achieved what was expected economi-cally. Each OIO in itself is a detailed application, and the applicant has to achieve the agreed out-comes. But we think an overall review of OIO approvals and outcomes over the last few years would provide a more informed debate, on the benefits, and would allow an informed debate on mechanisms and process that may need to be imple-mented to ensure that if there is any misalignment, then NZ Inc is still getting its return. • Hayden Dillon is managing principal for Waikato, and head of corporate agribusi-ness and capital advisory at Crowe Horwarth (NZ) Ltd.

Are we ignoring the economic returns to New Zealand from foreign investment in land? Hayden Dillon

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28 // AGrIbuSINESS

Are China and Australia perfect partners in dairy?

IN 2013, China imported 2 .1 million tonnes of dairy worth US$8.8 billion, making it the largest importer of milk prod-ucts in the world. Imports have increased 45% in the last five years, a trend gathering pace.

As the need for overseas pro-duced dairy in China grows, the need becomes urgent for diver-sified, reliable international sup-pliers of quality product. Whole Milk

powder for instance, is supplied almost solely from New Zealand, which garnered 41% of Chinese dairy imports in 2013.

China imports the equivalent of 10 billion litres of milk each year, more than the total national production of Australia, and with Australian domestic demand increasing the chances of Austra-lian dairy ‘flooding’ the Chinese market are small.

A free trade agreement that gives Australia the same tariff provisions in the Chinese market as New Zealand will help to deepen the already strong rela-tionships between the Australian and Chinese dairy industries and lead to better deals for Chinese consumers.

The Australian dairy market has been price deregulated since 2001 and is resilient, effi-

cient and responsive to con-sumer demands on price, quality and safety. Strict government-enforced standards apply to pro-tect consumer health.

Australia already supports China’s domestic industry,

nurturing on-farm development

there with the export of 50,000 dairy heifers every year.

Dairy Aus-tralia has pre-sented at the

China Dairy Industry Association annual conference since 1995 and has worked with the associa-tion on the Dairy Australia China scholarship scheme since 1999.

In that time Dairy Australia has brought 220 Chinese schol-ars to Australia to get first-hand knowledge of our industry, and the relationships established are providing invaluable personal and business links between the two nations.

Also, for at least ten years Australia has worked with the Ministry of Agriculture, shar-ing technical information in the biennial China-Australia dairy

talks and assisting with domestic production.

For two years running, the Australian Ambassador to China has spoken in support of these growing ties at the CDIA con-ference in Shanghai, proof of the level of importance the Aus-tralian Government is giving to dairy.

As our relationship further deepens, the completion of a Free Trade Agreement will be a milestone that will benefit both countries.• Charlie McElhone is group manager trade and strategy at Dairy Australia.

CHArlIE McElHoNE

Charlie McElhone

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AGrIbuSINESS // 29

TElECoMMS CoM-PANY Spark says the roll-out of its 4G services in Waikato will help dairy farmers.

Spark spokesman David Walker says fast mobile broadband allows tapping into the latest technologies anywhere, to get on with their work faster. The 4G services, at 700MHz, put mobile apps on city speeds, a huge time-saver that raises effi-ciencies onfarm, Walker told Dairy News.

“Earlier this year one of our customers, Craig Waterhouse, a Morrins-ville dairy farmer, used his mobile device (the HTC One M8) to access 4G on the 700MHz spectrum as part of a trial we ran in Waikato.”

During the trial he used LIC’s pasture app Minda Pasture to record pasture covers during a farm walk. The data he was collecting could then be uploaded automatically in the pad-dock to Minda Land & Feed.

Walker says this shows how faster mobile speeds are saving Waterhouse time.

“We’re also seeing access to fast mobile speeds influence the com-panies creating these new

technologies, such as mobile apps, and the way they’re being presented to customers.

“Apps such as LIC’s Minda Pasture, DairyNZ’s FDE calculator or Fonter-ra’s Fencepost app make everyday tasks simpler and faster. And the design of these apps paired with 4G encourages and allows dairy farmers to anal-yse and manipulate the data they collect, for more informed decisions.”

Spark Networks chief operating officer David Havercroft says the 4G rollout in Waikato marks a start. “Over the next few months we’ll widen our 4G footprint in Waikato, including the Coromandel, and will bring this tech-nology to existing sites by February 2015.

“Before Christmas this year we’ll also extend our coverage to Rotorua, enabling 4G over 700MHz in the northern part of the region, building on our existing 4G coverage in central Rotorua on the 1800MHz spectrum. This is part of our broader plan to extend 4G on the Spark network to other locations across the country.”

Faster speeds result from Spark having bought more “spectrum blocks” in the 700 MHz range,

Faster broadband a boon to dairying

THE 700MHz spectrum is the “beachfront property” of 4G mobile, Spark says.

The lower the radio spectrum frequency, the better its signal propagation characteris-tics. In the case of 4G mobile, a 700MHz cell site will cover an area four-six times larger than an equivalent 1800MHz cell site and a 700MHz signal will go through the walls of buildings four-six times better than an 1800MHz signal.

It’s this 700MHz spectrum that will enable 4G mobile to be delivered as a high quality data service nationwide. There is only 45MHz of bandwidth available for use in the 700MHz spectrum band. Spark bought 20MHz, Voda-fone 15MHz and 2Degrees 10MHz.

For 4G mobile devices to work on the 700MHz band, they need to be equipped with the appropriate antennae and radio equip-ment. Early deployments of 700MHz around the world are mostly at the lower end of the spectrum range. So having spectrum at the lower end is a big advantage for accessing a wider range of devices during the first few years of 700MHz 4G.

‘bEACHFroNT ProPErTY’ oF 4G MobIlE

Havercroft says. “The more spectrum a mobile operator has the faster the speeds it can offer to its customers and the more data it can carry. So, for our customers this will mean much faster access

to online content on their mobile devices, wherever they’re located in 4G cov-erage areas.”

Spark expects 10 devices will work on the 700 MHz spectrum by the end of this year.

Spark is rolling out 4G services in Waikato.

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30 // AGrIbuSINESS

Women’s awards boost confidence

THE rESEArCH centre FoodHQ, Palmerston North, has become a partner in the New Zealand Food Awards.

FoodHQ , an international centre for collaborative food research, was officially launched in July 2013 as a partnership between AgResearch, AsureQuality, ESR, Fonterra, Plant and Food Research, the Riddet Institute, the BioCommerce Centre, Massey Univer-sity, Manawatu District Council and the Palmerston North City Council. It is the largest food collabora-tion in New Zealand’s history.

Programme director Mark Ward says FoodHQ’s focus is on creating high value food products for export to growing international markets.

Partnership with the New Zealand Food Awards “makes perfect sense,” Ward says. “As an integral part of the New Zealand food industry’s growth strategy we’re inextricably linked with the best of New Zea-land’s food producers and the innovative processes being developed.

“The awards showcase the best of New Zealand to the world, in line with what FoodHQ intends to do – compete on the world stage with other global centres of food innovation research….

“Our FoodHQ partners have an extensive history of research and development. We’re looking forward to… helping build the New Zealand Food Awards into an even better competition.”

This year’s awards finalists will be announced at a cocktail event at Villa Maria’s Manukau estate on Thursday evening, and the category winners at a gala dinner on September 25.

Food researcher joins awards

NoMINATIoNS oPEN next week for the fourth Dairy Woman of the Year Awards, to be made at the Dairy Women’s Net-work’s annual conference in Invercargill on March 18-19 2015.

Two new judges are named: Global Women’s Network’s director of lead-ership development Sandy

Burgham and ASB general manager Mark Heer. They join Justine Kidd, a DWN trustee, Fonterra repre-sentative and 2013 Dairy Woman of the Year. Also at the event will be the 2012 winner Barbara Kuriger and 2014 winner Char-maine O’Shea.

Kidd, of Waipuku-rau, is now completing

her 10-month scholarship with Global Women’s Net-work breakthrough leader-ship programme (the main prize for winning Dairy Woman of the Year) and will graduate in Novem-ber.

Kuriger, for 33 years a farmer with husband Louis, recently resigned as a DairyNZ director to contest the Taranaki/King Country electorate for National. She says she has learned a lot during the Global Women’s Net-work programme, “confi-dence in… who I was from the inside out and… how important regional and rural New Zealand is to me.”

She plans to encour-age nominees to follow the process and enter. “If you get nominated, don’t hold back [letting] confi-dence be the issue. There are many women out there with the ability but not the confidence.”

O’Shea is a chartered accountant specialis-ing in farm accounting and an equity partner in a Northland dairy farm with brother Shayne. Since winning Dairy Woman of the Year she has spoken

to business and farming groups, joined an eight-day study trip to China in June and was invited onto the 2014 National Bal-lance Farm Environment Awards judging panel.

She will start the Global Women’s Network programme in early 2015.

O’Shea says winning Dairy Woman of the Year has generated media interest, enabling her to promote women in agri-culture and giving her credibility in the dairy industry.

“Combined with my role as chair of the Agri-Women’s Development Trust [the award has enabled me to] advocate in the media for agri-women and the wider agri sector.

“As women we some-times do not recognise the contribution we make. This award is a way of ensuring this is celebrated and hopefully inspires other women in our sector.”

The 2015 Dairy Wom-en’s Network’s conference theme is ‘Entering tomor-row’s world’. Awards nominations close on 15 November 2014.www.dwn.co.nz

Justine Kidd Barbara Kuriger Charmaine O’Shea


AGrIbuSINESS // 31

Livestock trade powers firm back into blackrurAl SErVICE trader Allied Farmers has returned an unaudited net profit of $1.1 million, turn-ing around a $4.4m loss last year.

Chairman Garry Bluett says it has had a success-ful year in improving the result of the livestock division and restructur-ing some outstanding lia-bilities that existed at the start of the financial year.

The result was impacted by a one-off gain of $800,000 on the settle-ment of an historic obli-gation and the minimal impact of impairment of investments and loans that have been significant in prior years.

The livestock division, which includes the opera-tion of NZ Farmers Live-stock Ltd, owned 67% by Allied, reported a pre-tax profit of $1.88m, com-pared to $660,000 last year.

All North Island regions showed growth on the previous year with particularly strong per-formances in the Taranaki and Waikato regions, and encouraging numbers from Manawatu. Online livestock listing service MyLivestock.co.nz, contin-ued to be well supported.

Returns from the meat processing opera-tion were lower than the previous year, and while market share was main-tained, margins were lower than the prior year. During the year the trans-fer of the saleyard assets from the parent company to NZ Farmers Livestock was completed at market value. This was the final stage of the plan to include all of the livestock opera-tions under the NZ Farm-ers Livestock banner.

The asset management services division charged with the recovery of the ex Hanover and United Finance assets reported a small profit of $0.2m for the year; last year it suf-fered a $3.7m loss.

Bluett says this reflects some small over-recov-ery on the disposal of assets less some small

write-downs on assets still held; these assets have now largely been sold, with the value of assets still to be recovered now under $0.1m. The AMS remains active in pursu-ing a number of possible avenues for improving the return from these assets.

Corporate interest costs reduced from $0.8m to $0.3m as secured loans continued to be repaid. The balance of secured debt owed to the senior lender was $2.6m at June 2014, down from $5.1m in June 2013.

The listed entity Allied Farmers Ltd has share-holders’ funds of $3m. As in the last year’s accounts, the group accounts still reflect negative equity as the consolidated result does not attribute the full market value of the invest-ment in the NZ Farmers Livestock subsidiary or the saleyard properties held.

Bluett says the focus for the coming year will be to continue to grow the livestock business and to leverage off the client rela-tionships and trust that exists with those clients to provide value for money services.

“The effect of the reduced dairy payout is likely to have some uncer-tain impact on dairy livestock sales and the continuing high dollar is already having some impact on meat exports at the early stage of this season.

“After many years of considerable effort restructuring the com-pany, the directors are encouraged that the ben-efits of this restructur-ing are now starting to show in the financial per-formance and financial position of the company. There is still a lot of work to do and some potentially challenging situations, but considerable progress has been made during the year.

“However, share-holders and the various stakeholders should take comfort that after a pro-longed period of difficult trading and commercial

difficulties the benefits of these efforts are starting to be evident.”

Strong online livestock trading

helped Allied Farmers post a profit.

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32 // management

Cows stroll in for 24/7 robotic milking

tHeRe’S neVeR a dull moment on David and Glenys McConnell’s farm near Hamilton.

Four Lely milking robots milk the cows 24 hours a day, seven days a week; a large barn con-structed this year means cows stroll in for a feed whenever they want.

“It’s a 24/7 operation; if you go there at 1am there will be cows going through the shed,” David McCon-nell told Dairy News.

McConnell says the $2 million investment, including an effluent solids separator and a pond, are improving cow comfort and lifting milk yield.

The McConnells own the 72ha prop-erty at Puketaha. This

year they are milking 300 cows and hoping to produce 168,000kgMS. Last year they produced 121,000kgMS from 230 cows.

The barn, which has Lely cow mattresses and cubicles, completes McCo-nnell’s farming system and will be a game changer this season, he says.

“We still have to fine tune our feeding and genetics but I will prove this year that with the barn and robotics, we will end up producing more milk from fewer cows,” he says.

“The barns are hugely beneficial, espe-cially during the summer months and it can get quite hot for the cows here. Last November we were doing 29L/cow/day with the temperature about 20oC. In one week the temperature soared to 29oC and our cows lost 5L/

cow/day and continued to drop. It becomes too hot and the cows just stand around panting.”

The McConnells farmed in the Southland for 15 years before moving to Waikato for “a bit of the sun”. They started toying with the idea of robotic milking six years ago; how-ever the farm in South-land had two centre pivots for irrigation and the cows were reluctant to walk under them to the milk-ing shed.

After moving to Waikato McConnell looked around and set-tled for Lely. He was the first farmer in Waikato to install Lely robots; now there are five Lely farms.

“Why I chose Lely….it’s like why you have a Holden or a Ford car. I looked at a few systems and chose Lely because there’re more of them in

the world and the support service is great; you can’t fault them.”

The movement of cows in and around the milk-ing shed is controlled by Lely computers. Cows are milked every eight-nine

hours; some are milked up to three times in 24 hours.

As cows stroll in, the computer chooses the ones that need milking and sends them to the robots. Those that have been milked but have strolled

back in are sent to a new paddock.

The cows come when they wished to be milked. “They flow through when they want to. After milk-ing they will either be sent to pasture or to the barn

to get silage; the cows that produce more milk are automatically given more feed by the computer.

“Through the summer months they will be sent to the barn through the heat of the day and get fed

SudeSH [email protected]

David McConnell says his farm is a 24/7 operation.

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management // 33

Cows stroll in for 24/7 robotic milkingThe barn helps protect cows from the summer heat.

DAVID MCCONNELL says a lot of farmers are reluctant to embrace technology.

“We get a lot of bus tour and farmer groups coming through our farm; they leave with their minds open. They seem almost scared by what they see.”

Farmers ask him about having cows in paddocks all over the farm. “They ask why we have cows here and there and every-where. I say I know what’s what because my computer tells me.”

leaVe it to tHe computeR

silage all day.“Through winter they

are fed a bit of pasture and spend some time in the barn. They are never shut in the barn full time; it’s voluntary – their choice and cow initiated.”

McConnell is confident a better feeding regime in the barn will lift milk yield further. Last year he did 520kgMS/cow and is aiming for about 570/kgMS/cow this season; Waikato’s average is about 360kg/cow. McConnell says he was looking at 600kg/cow but with 60 heifers and 40 new cows introduced to milking this season that would be a tough ask.

Training cows to use the robots is demanding. McConnell spends spring training cows to ditch their mob mentality and adjust to being milked at differ-ent times by robots.

Cows also need to be trained to present them-selves to the robots. Some will walk into the shed but will just stand there “chewing their cud happily instead of walking to the robot”.

“So now I train them for two or three days and those still reluctant to walk to the machines I let stay there. They get hungry and thirsty and eventually their psyche changes and they walk to the machines.

“You need to pull back; we are so used to pushing the animals.”

Once they are trained,

it’s much easier, he says. He has one full-time worker on from 7.30am to 5.30pm. “The working hours are not like a con-ventional farm where the worker starts at 4.30am and finishes at 6.30pm,” he says.

Apart from a higher milk yield, robotics has other benefits. McCon-nell’s farm vet costs have dropped. “We have a lot less mastitis, very few met-abolic issues and the ani-mals last longer because there is much less stress on them.

“We fully feed the cows; a lot of farms can’t do that because of summer drought and they run out of silage in the barn. Feed-ing in the barn also results in minimal feed wastage.” Feed costs rise but McCo-nnell points out there’s a 20% lift in milk produc-tion.

But technology cannot work alone; the com-puter system is linked to McConnell’s phone and he occasionally gets a call in the middle of the night when the cups are twisted or a rubber bursts in the machine.

Lely provides a 24-hour back-up service and can be called to the farm for repairs when needed. Software issues are dealt online by Lely’s head office in the Netherlands.

McConnell says robotic milking has been a good experience for him. His advice to other farmers is

do the homework and talk to other farmers for a start.

He belongs to an online discussion group run by DairyNZ and including all New Zealand farm-ers milking by robot. “We learn by talking to each other rather than to the robotic machine sales guys.”

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management // 35

Inputs guide farmers through challenges

a HigH input system has provided a North-land farmer with enough security to farm through a horror season.

Suzanne Pasley and Barry Latimer milk 364 cows on their 115ha farm south-west of Whangarei.

The couple run a system four operation, feeding stock maize silage and PKE throughout the year. This enabled them to successfully farm through two droughts and three floods in two seasons with little impact on produc-tion.

Northland weather has scarcely left the headlines since February this year when western parts of the region suffered the big-gest drought in six years – the third in five sea-sons – followed by two 50-year floods in the north and east of the region in August.

As Pasley and Lat-imer farm an area just to the east of the Tangowa-hine Valley, he says they had to work through both extremes, the farm experi-encing drought and flood last season.

While his western neighbors were affected more by winds than rain in August, Latimer got 150mm which lay for three days on established and newly planted pasture.

And while eastern neighbors were enjoy-ing a moist wet autumn, Latimer says they got no noticeable rain in the six months from September 2013 to April 2014. “You’d pass through pockets of rain all the way back to the home and the farm was completely bone dry.”

Despite this the farm’s three-year aver-age production has been 154,000kgMS – 435kgMS/cow, achieved with a high input system to take the bumps out of the season.

While they normally use about 300t of PKE a year they needed to increase this volume to 360t for the last two sea-sons. This they mixed with maize silage till Octo-ber. They feed turnips as a summer crop. Latimer also uses grass silage and

hay extensively which he harvests off a 10ha runoff and a 70ha drystock prop-erty.

The couple fed stock in the paddock till 2007 when Latimer and his father Bryan had a 200-cow HerdHome built which enabled them to get even more out of the cows.

While they always tried to maximise production before feeding cows extra, this wasn’t always possi-ble due to the potential for reduced feed usage from feeding on the ground.

While the 200-cow barn isn’t enough to hold the entire herd, Latimer has made this work in their favor, using its size and his knowledge of herd behavior to priority feed young stock without run-ning separate herds.

“If you want to get feed into heifers you can divert the stock that walk into the shed first around the barn and back out towards the paddock.

“If you open it up towards the end of the milking when there are more heifers than cows then they’ll get a better go. There are plenty of tricks you can do to get the most out of it.”

The couple also used it as a nursery for easier calving says Latimer. They have set a split calving regime with half calving from April 1 and the other half calving from July 27.

While Latimer says he needs to keep his eyes on the ball, it allows him to get the most out of the season while keeping his options open about han-dling replacements and herd management. “If the cows don’t get pregnant in October they have another chance in January.”

The HerdHome prompted another shift, from turnips to maize. While turnips are easier feed out from a paddock, Latimer says maize offered a storage option for later feeding. Usually 10ha of the farm in river flat gets planted, yielding about 25-29t/ha, enough to last until September-October.

They still plant 4ha of turnips, which Latimer uses as a form of insurance in summer.

Mixing species worked

gaRetH gillattwell for pasture manage-ment too – rye, clover and coxfoot in permanent pas-ture replacements. It has proved more likely to sur-vive during drought while also being more resis-tant to water and flood

damage.The couple got some

help at cleanup, ASB Bank staff coming to help clean the fencelines after flood-waters had receded. “It was a nice gesture and totally unexpected.”

Barry Latimer (left) and Bryan Latimer on their farm.

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36 // management

FaRmeRS witH flood damaged and silt covered pastures must do all they can to get pastures clean says Northland Seed and Supplies managing direc-tor Phil Hawkins.

Hawkins addressed 40 farmers last week at the DairyNZ flood recovery field day held on Suzanne Pasley and Barry Latim-er’s 364ha farm southwest of Whangarei. He told attendees to act quickly on

flood damaged pastures if they wanted to bounce back quickly.

Dirt and silt can shut down plants, inhibiting photosynthesis he says.

Plans of action for deal-ing with flood damaged pastures can be catego-rised three ways: flood washed pasture, pasture covered with 1-5cm of silt, and pasture under 5cm or more silt.

When little to no debris remains on pad-docks, farmers should dislodge anything still

remaining. This can be done by putting cows on affected paddocks before mowing anything left over, Hawkins says. “Pasture cut by a mower will put down new roots and put up new shoots cutting the effects of the dirt.”

He recommends fol-lowing this up with an application of nitrogen and monitoring weeds.

When pasture is cov-ered by silt thicker than an index finger, little can be done except to apply some form of fertiliser, then

seed it with a short term Italian ryegrass-chicory mix and push it up the list as a cropping paddock.

Options are not as clear-cut when floodwa-ters leave a low level of silt on the ground, Hawkins says.

As lightly silted pad-docks aren’t likely to have the same uniformity of damage as those with heavy silting, a judgment call is required on whether to completely renovate the pasture or just adopt a heavier grazing and top-

ping regime. Consider-ations include the length of time the pasture has been under water and the ratio of Poa annua and other low value grasses in the sward.

Farmers can use a perennial ryegrass with an endophyte mixed with chicory to fill in pasture followed up by fertiliser and weed monitoring.

One thing all flood affected farmers should consider is an extra fer-tiliser application says Hawkins.

gaRetH gillatt

Get dirt off the grass after flood – seed supplier

Potash, sulphur and nitrogen were often washed away by flood-waters, and silt does not provide much nutritional value. “Unless the silt has been washed from another farm it’s likely to be clay – low in nitrogen, sulfur, potash and other key ele-ments.”

He suggests running a soil test after the initial nitrogen application to establish what other ele-ments are needed.

Farmers might also need to deal with higher weed burdens. Penny-royal, alligator weed, pars-ley dropwort, willowweed and creeping buttercup often appeared in pastures as the sward opened due to previous flooding.

Catch them now while they are small he advises. “It’s better to control them as seedlings than as established weeds so spray early.” He acknowledges that the exact chemicals

needed vary depending on the type of weeds present and the type of crop the weeds are infesting.

While it pays to deal with weeds sooner than later, farmers shouldn’t try to re-sow pastures too soon after floods, espe-cially at the start of winter. Some Northland farm-ers had already re-sown paddocks in August says Hawkins, even though the area was still in winter.

While grass needs time to germinate it also needs rising soil temperatures: many rye varieties take 12-24 days to germinate if sown in soil at 5-10oC. “Soil temperatures should be 12oC and rising.”

Pasture reseeded in August may also need to deal with extra rain. “In some situations grasses planted in September are more likely to be ready to be put back into the cycle earlier than those planted in August.”

Clean up the act: Phil Hawkins, Northland Seeds and Supplies.

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38 // management

David McCall, DairyNZ.

Avoiding the ‘creep’ of unplanned high input

daiRYnZ iS offering workshops to ensure farmers fully understand

the implications and costs of changing to a high input system.

R&D manager David McCall says moving to a high input system is not just about the ongoing

costs of buying feed such as PKE; it’s the capital cost of the infrastructure and the ongoing interest payments that can be a killer if the payout drops.

McCall says dairy

peteR [email protected]

farmers need to understand the big risk of high input systems especially when the market is so volatile, hence the ‘system choice’ workshops.

“Systems choice addresses… farmers’… decisions about intensification and putting in infrastructure… with their eyes wide open,” he told Dairy News.

“They must do this as a planned decision making process, not ‘creep their way’ into systems. Creep is where they put on a bit of PKE, then they need troughs to feed it out, then they need concrete because they think it will be easier because it reduces wastage.

“Next they might decide to do a bit of something else as well, then they buy a feed-out wagon, then they have to enlarge the shed to house

the tractor.”Before they know it

they have crept their way to another system without necessarily having done a complete investment analysis, which is what DairyNZ is encouraging. Farmers need to see a system change as an investment, with proper investment analysis to canvass financial and non-financial elements.

“The system choice workshops will pull together all these factors and point out to farmers that they need to make objective and calculated decisions about what system they farm with, rather than drift from one thing to another.”

A pilot workshop has been held in Winton and others are planned for Canterbury, Southland and Waikato.

FARMERS RUNNING intensive systems without being locked into paying interest on capital infrastructure have flexibility to change systems, David McCall says.

They can reduce cow numbers and sup-plementary feed. But problems will arise for the farmer trying to hang on with a system not suited to the current payout conditions.

DairyNZ in discussions groups is pushing the need for “tight management” regardless of what system farmers are presently in.

“There needs to be a reality about trim-ming inputs back to the point where a farmer is guaranteed a return at this payout. Above all… farmers must not waste their spring grass: this is the biggest source of wastage on New Zealand dairy farms at this time of year – when grass isn’t grazed appropriately and turns up as lower quality feed which impacts on the rest of the season in the form of reduced pasture growth.”

Farmers should also look at the perfor-mance of individual cows and when possible cull these to help improve profitability. Cut-ting farm working expenses usually will help.

And McCall says the $6.00 payout is not bad news for everyone. “A lot of farmers will be making good money with the $6.00 payout – those who haven’t got too carried away.

“The big lesson, they say, is don’t chop and change your farming system to suit the payout. These years will come up and you should be taking a good margin in the good years and not get carried away with produc-ing a whole lot more because the payout is high if it’s going to put you in the cactus when it comes to a year like this.”

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40 // management

Nothing beats home-grown grazingFatHeR and son dairy farmers Kevin Jenkins senior and junior remember every tiring hour of pouring concrete (986 bags of cement) to build a feedpad on their Jancourt East farm in

Western Victoria.Now it’s rarely used.Although the Jenkins

don’t regret adding the facility to their feeding regime, they say feed costs reduced its viability and a preference for home-

grown grazing reduced its use.

“Sometimes we may use it if it gets very wet so we can get out of the pad-docks,” Kevin junior says. “It all depends on the price of feed we have to buy to put in it.”

The feedpad was built with a roof, making it a good option during the wet winters in southwest Victoria.

But for a farm that prides itself on making good quality home grown feed, buying often unre-liable and expensive imported feed didn’t work.

With a fairly high stock-ing rate on 175ha hosting a milking herd of 186 and calves and heifers bring-ing the total to around 350, the feedpad seemed like a good idea.

“We carry a lot of young stock,” Kevin junior says. “We have nearly 350 head all told, including heifers and calves, and have no runoff blocks so we carry everything on here.

“Those cows we’re milking now are not roam-ing over 430 acres. We’re pretty well stocked up.”

The feedpad was intro-duced “because we wanted to feed the cows better”, Kevin junior said.

They started with brewer’s grain and potato mash. But the brewer’s grain had to be fed fresh and would develop a blue mould after a few days and the cows wouldn’t touch it.

The cows were better with the potato mash but costs and reliability of supply became a problem. “It was unreliable,” Kevin junior said. “When we wanted feed you couldn’t get it and when you didn’t want it, you had too much. It wasn’t consistent in the supply – very frustrating.”

They were also concerned about quality and the time involved in rotating groups of cows through the system and limiting their feeds to about 10 minutes for best health results. “It’s very labour intensive. It took dad and me a full day just to fill it up.”

If they had their time again the Jenkins would probably still install a feedpad, but Kevin junior

says it would have to be more cost effective. “You’d have to get the feed a lot cheaper and we’d have to get a decent price for our milk to make it worthwhile.”

Kevin senior, one of the original settlers in the Heytesbury settlement in 1962, is more direct. “The feedpad… you can have it.

“We’ve gone back to the old feed system,” Kevin junior adds. “The feedpad is always there as a backstop. If the weather gets real bad and prices are good we could start it again. It’s good to have the options.

“Last year was very wet and it got cold early and we didn’t have any growth. This year has been oppo-site,” Kevin junior says. “It was warm and everyone had growth and we put on more fertiliser because we’ve got so many cows on and we have to feed them well.

“Everything was going along good until the cold snap, then everything went pear shaped. It made the cows and the calves crook, it’s been a stress-ful year but I think it will turn around and we’ll have a good season, depending on the weather.”

The farm has well established pastures of fog, ryegrass and clover.

One of the joys of farm-ing for the family is the animals and breeding, however, the in-calf rate isn’t too good.

“We’re not sure why but hope it gets better. It could have been the poor quality silage, we’re not sure. We made better hay than silage last year; the silage was rubbish and we never used all of it,” Kevin junior says.

They are concentrating on supplying good quality feed to the herd to address the problem.

Nearly all the feed is home grown. “Normally the best hay we cut our-selves – it’s good stuff,” Kevin junior says.

At 85 Kevin senior still loves the land and the business, though he’s not such a fan of the cows. “You’ve got to value-add to your farm and use your head,” he says.

Kevin Jenkins senior and Kevin Jenkins junior now rarely use the feedpad they built on their west Victorian farm.


management // 41

Peter and Jenny Hulshof in front of their dairy in Victoria, now fitted with 66 solar panels.Going solar pays

off for Victorian farmersa new combined solar hot water and solar electricity installation on an Australian dairy farm at Koorooman, just north of Leongatha in Gippsland, is set to save up to A$6500 per year for the farmers.

Peter and Jenny Hulshof share-farm with owner Louisa Noordenne, milking 330-340 Friesian cows on a 42-bail rotary built 27 years ago. The property, Bona Vista, covers 224ha including the area for young stock. The milking cows run on about 168ha.

They chose Solar Dynamics, Melbourne, the sole distributor of Chromagen solar hot water products. The firm does solar power installations with a 25 year warranty.

After inspecting the dairy, site assessor Doug Phayer suggested he

quote for a solar system to supply all power for the dairy and the hot water.

A year later Louisa Noordenne agreed to go ahead. Work started on May 1 this year and it took three days to get the 15kW solar electricity system running.

Sixty 250W Canadian solar panels are fitted to the north-facing roof of the milking shed and six CR110 solar panels provide energy to three hot water units, each with 300L tanks. A pump circulates the water on each of the hot water tanks.

As no heating elements are connected on the hot water units the system operates as a pre-heat for the existing boiler at the dairy. This way solar pre-heated water is provided, so the boiler heats to the operating

temperature required for the post-milking washdowns.

“Our shed is on 3-phase power so Solar Dynamics fitted a 15,000W 3-phase grid connect inverter,” Hulshof says. “What we use during the day comes from the solar and any extra goes into the grid so we get paid for it or as a reduction off our energy bills. We get 8 cents/kW on the grid.”

Hulshof said they considered solar energy to save money. “We use 1160L of hot water each day in the dairy and that’s lots of electricity. With the high inputs in dairying, we needed to save costs somewhere. Louisa was very supportive of the project.”

The Hulshofs say as the solar energy system has only been in for a couple of months, it hasn’t been long

enough to assess the advantages. “There is a readout on the control

panel of the daily solar input and it’s easier than we thought to manage it in the practical operation of the dairy.”

Solar Dynamics director Wayne Foster estimates the combined sys-tems – solar hot water and solar elec-tricity – should reduce grid-supplied power by at least 30,000kWh/year, equating to at least $6500 per year

savings on electricity costs. “This will be a combination of

a reduction of grid power required and some solar credits for exporting power to the grid at a rate of 8c/kWh credit.

With a 17% return on the investment and the rising cost of electricity the system is expected to pay for itself in five years.

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42 // management

Winter pasture boost leaves Oz farmer geared up for springSeCOnD geneRatIOn dairy farmer, Rob Gear from Gympie, doesn’t have a lot of time to waste.

That’s why he used an enhanced efficiency fertiliser to boost the growth of his annual ryegrass pas-tures over winter.

“Using ENTEC Urea saves us time through the season and eliminates at least two nitrogen applications a year, with the same responses in the pas-ture as urea,” he said.

Mr Gear and his family milk 400 cows, grazing annual ryegrass pas-tures in the winter and native summer grasses through hotter months.

“We heard about ENTEC through Noel Matthews at Incitec Pivot Fer-tilisers and Brian Burkhardt at Land-mark Gympie,” he says.

“They explained how it can help to keep nitrogen in the soil for longer.

“We knew it had worked for others, so we gave it a go.”

Using urea extended the responses to nitrogen fertiliser for

the Gear family, allowing them to push grazing rotations and fertiliser applications out from 21 days to 28 days.

Over a seven month season, this means they are skipping two fertiliser applications.

“In our labour situation, that’s a massive saving for us,” he said.

He added that the pasture growth responses were as good as, if not better than, where urea was used more frequently.

Rob applies 125 kg/ha of urea to his ryegrass pastures each month.

“It does hang on better in the ground and that’s why we can allow longer between nitrogen applica-tions,” he said.

“At the end of the season when the summer grass is taking over, we also see a residual nitrogen response and that helps if we get a bit of rain to kick start the new pasture.”

ENTEC is suitable for use in a variety of crops and pastures.

It works by stabilising applied ammonium nitrogen in the soil for several weeks after application, giving crops a more consistent supply of nitrogen and helping protect against denitrification and leaching losses.

Unlike some enhanced efficiency fertilisers, ENTEC does not deny crops and pastures access to nitro-gen.

ENTEC has been included in sev-eral studies on dairy farms as part of the national agricultural nitrous oxide research program funded by the federal Department of Agricul-ture.

It was also included in a recent Queensland Dairyfarmers’ Organ-isation research project, conducted on dairy farms at Gympie and Raven-shoe.

But Rob didn’t wait on the results.“We’re time poor here, trying to

manage the milking and everything else, so we will keep using urea to save time and money,” he says.

Rob Gear (left) and his father Ivan are using urea to extend the response to nitrogen fertiliser in their dairy pastures from three weeks to four.

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management // 45


management // 45

Written employment pacts are vitalIt Can be challenging to understand what you may and may not do in com-plying with legislation on employing farm staff.

DairyNZ and Federated Farmers have developed this best practice guideline to help you get it right.

DairyNZ reminds farmers that it is a legal requirement to have written employment agreements for all your employees – casual, fixed term, perma-nent part time and permanent full time. You and your employee must sign the agreement.

It is mandatory for individual employ-ment agreements to include the par-ties involved in the agreement – ‘the employer’ and ‘the employee’.

The agreement also has other require-ments: position title, position job description, place of work. If the employee will be working on multiple farms then each of these farms needs to be specified.

Working hours must be specified: whether your farm operates on a roster system or a fixed number of hours per week.

The type of pay: wages or annual salary; pay period – daily, weekly, fortnightly, or monthly; payment method – bank account number/cheque/cash; payment for work on public holidays and rights in contracting out situations.

Farms, like other businesses, some-times get restructured. The agreement must cover restructuring due to transfer, negotiations with new employer, no trans-fer or employment, and resolving employ-ment relationship problems.

Remuneration is a key part of the agreement. The gross remuneration is a monetary value for agreed hours worked. Employers and employees may agree to additions to their base salary/wages in the form of incentives and bonuses. Employ-ers may also chose to offer other benefits as part of the total employment package (also known as total package value).

The total employment package can also include non-cash benefits.

Accommodation should be treated as a deduction from the total gross remu-neration after PAYE, rather than a non-cash benefit which forms part of the total employment package.

Non-cash benefits can include: power, phone, meat / food, firewood, vehicle / transport private use, and training / edu-cation.

For each non-cash benefit you need to assign a value; usually this involves inves-tigating what’s fair and then using your discretion. You must pay tax on non-cash benefits. This is called fringe benefit tax (FBT). Talk to your accountant about how to do this or visit Inland Revenue’s website.

In a lot of situations farmers provide their employees with accommodation as part of their employment. The value of the accommodation (rent) should form part of the employee’s gross salary or wages. This means:

• You and your employee need to agree on their gross salary/wages, including the value of the accommodation

• The agreed gross salary/wages needs to be recorded in the employment agree-ment

• You and your employee need to agree on the rent that will be paid

• The agreed rent needs to be recorded in a tenancy agreement (as an attachment to the employment agreement or outside the employment agreement)

• Both parties need to agree in writing (you must have your employees signed consent) to the rent being deducted from the employee’s salary after the deduction of PAYE

• Rent will be deducted out of the employee’s salary or wages after PAYE.

ALL EMPLOYEES must be paid at least the minimum wage for every hour they work. This applies to employees paid by the hour and employees who receive an annual salary.

You cannot average an employ-ee’s salary or wages over a season; averaging is capped at a fortnight. You therefore must ensure your employees’ receive at least the minimum wage for every hour they work within each pay period but capped at a fortnight.

PayIng the RIght wage

Farmers are reminded that it’s a legal requirement to have written employment agreements.

3599 Metabolizer halfpg vert.ind1 1 9/11/08 9:20:42 AM


46 // management

Adjuvant helps spray penetrate weed defences

temPeRamentaL SPRIng weather can play havoc with weed and pest control. When applied alone, many glyphosate products require up to six rain-free hours to take effect. But without effective control of resident vegetation, newly-sown species will struggle to establish suc-

cessfully. The addition of a high

quality organo-silicone adjuvant will improve the reliability and effec-tiveness of the pesticide application. Adjuvants are defined as “any sub-stance added to the spray tank that will improve the performance of the pesticide”. Simply put, adjuvants increase the reli-ability and effectiveness of applied pesticides.

There are adjuvants for different situations, for example an organo-sili-cone adjuvant is recom-mended for glyphosate. This helps the sprayed solution penetrate the waxy cuticle (outer layer) of the leaf, allowing the glyphosate easier access into the plant and increas-ing the effectiveness of the application.

The advantage of quicker and easier plant

BLaIR COtChInguptake of glyphosate is an increased effectiveness on some weeds and faster turnaround times between spraying and cultivation/direct drilling.

The addition of an organo-silicone adjuvant also reduces the rain-free period from six hours to two hours and reduces the time allowed between glyphosate applications and cultivation/grazing to one day for annual weeds and three days for peren-nial weeds. This rain-free period can be reduced even further by ensuring a high quality glyphosate is used, increasing reliability and flexibility of applica-tion timing.

In the standard 360g/L strength glyphosates there are about 640g/L of other

ingredients that make up the one-litre product. The other ingredients include carriers (water), surfac-tants, anti-foam and sol-vents. The quality of these ingredients can change the characteristics and effec-tiveness of the glyphosate formulation.

That’s why Ravens-down has a New Zealand developed, patented and manufactured surfac-tant system, Surfmax-G. This is present in Ravens-down’s Glyphosate G360 and Glyphosate 540. If coupled with an organo-silicone adjuvant such as Ravensdown’s Accelerate, this reduces the rain-free period from two hours to only 20 minutes.

Ravensdown trials have shown that adding Accel-

erate will increase a plant’s uptake of glyphosate plant by as much as four times.

• Blair Cotching is Ravens-down product development manager.

Blair Cotching

Dairy core database free to change handsthe tRanSFeR of the dairy core database from LIC to DairyNZ has cleared its final hurdle.

Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy has approved changes to LIC’s constitution removing the requirement to retain the database, which includes historic breeding informa-tion about dairy cattle.

Initial negotiations between the two organ-isations on the database

ended in deadlock, forcing the intervention of then agriculture minister David Carter.

DairyNZ’s chief execu-tive Dr Tim Mackle says the changes approved by MPI will allow the dairy core database to be trans-ferred to DairyNZ later this year; the database will be part of the dairy indus-try good animal database (DIGAD).

“DIGAD is a new data-

base that will hold the New Zealand core database, all the data required for animal breeding evaluation purposes and some additional data for industry research.

“This includes animal performance data from custom-ers of herd record-ing companies such as LIC and CRV Ambreed and data collected by breed societies.”

DairyNZ has worked with LIC for at least a year to develop means to trans-fer data from their systems and to ensure a smooth transition.

Our aim has been to enhance the national genetic evaluation system for farmers so we can identify the best sires and cows, Mackle says.

“New Zealand dairy farmers have traditionally made good use of nation-ally collated data for appli-cations such as animal improvement and finan-cial benchmarking. These have provided a compet-itive advantage for us. For example, the genetic improvement of dairy cattle is estimated to have

contributed $310 million each year to the national dairy industry.

“Industry organisa-tions must have access to collated data so we can evaluate things like breed-ing worth for dairy cattle and forage value index for ryegrass.”

DairyNZ is bringing in specialised staff to develop and support the database’s development and opera-tion.

“We’ll have new sys-tems and processes to access data for indus-try research and support the routine operation and development of animal evaluation.”

As well as LIC, Data-com, Insomnia Security and Abacus Bio are helping DairyNZ with the project.

Tim Mackle

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anImaL heaLth // 49

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Stay on the lookout for calving issuesSPRIng IS in the air and the frosty winter mornings are giving way to beautiful mild spring weather. In Northern Victoria, spring is calving time and because of this it is also the time of any cows’ life when she is at her great-est risk.

Most disease issues affecting dairy cows peak at or around calving. Mastitis, Metritis, Metabolic disease along with calving problems, paraly-sis and other com-plaints of transition occur.

With transition cow disease, it is impossible not to discuss the dis-ease known as Displaced Aboma-sum.

The abomasum is the closest thing that a cow has to our own stomach. It is the fourth of the stomach compartments and is the glandular stomach. The abomasum can become displaced to either the Left side (LDA) or the Right side (RDA) of the cow, and can, on occa-sions become torsed (twisted) as it displaces to the Right hand side (RTA).

Left sided displacement is a relatively more common problem and usually occurs in cows at or just after calving.

LDA is probably one of my favourite things to fix, because you can take a cow who is circling the drain to oblivion (culling) and bring her back into full production in the vast majority of cases.

Because it has a relatively good prognosis, I usually recommend to my client to fix a LDA. That said, like almost everything in life, pre-

vention is far better than a cure.Basically, any disease or issue

that interferes with intake in the vital transition period of a cow will increase the risk of her getting a LDA. By that I mean things like lameness or mastitis, poor avail-ability or palatability of food, poor

transition manage-ment or excessive transport, time off feed or increased stressful manage-ment interactions.

Cows who have inaccurate calving dates who spend either too long, or too short on the transition diet will also have many

introductions to the precalving group, each time requiring a new status quo to be organised with a changing dominance within the transition herd.

After calving, retained mem-branes, ketosis and rapid dietary changes are all known risk factors for a LDA.

So how do you prevent LDAs from being a problem in your herd?

Firstly, ensure that your dry cows are in good body condition and have been fed to be ideal at transition.

Availability of quality feed with low DCAD to prevent milk fever, but adequate palatability to ensure intake is critical. Supervise calving and ensure any post calving issues are dealt with quickly and thor-oughly.

This may include protocols that monitor for ketones, mastitis and metritis in the fresh cow herd.

A proactive approach is cer-tainly an important tool to prevent fresh cow wrecks which have a high

risk of LDA. The use of fresh cow drenches

may have a beneficial role in cows that are sub-clinically low in cal-cium or lack rumen fill. Talk to your dairy vet for assistance in develop-ing fresh cow health protocols.

Investigate any cows quickly who are not performing as antic-ipated, or appear to be off their feed or not eating their ration in the dairy or out in the paddock or at the feed rail.

An LDA can be easily detected by listening for the characteristic “ping” that can sometimes sound like an over inflated basketball being bounced when you flick or tap over the last few ribs on the LHS of the cow.

However, sometimes the noises can be a little more subtle and diffi-cult to detect, and I have seen many an LDA that has little or no gas in them when examined - they are a real challenge to diagnose.

I use the presence of a tinkling fluid splash when balloting (like rapid punching of the abdomen) and the presence of any gas on the LHS below the level of rumen fill as my other criteria to diagnose a LDA.

Occasionally, the rumen will ping if it has a lot of gas but will almost never give you a tinkling splash, and cows that have been not eating for several days can develop an off feed ping that can be hard to interpret if the cow isn’t fully exam-ined.

With an LDA, the cow will suffer indigestion and poor performance, low energy availability and subse-quently lose body condition rap-idly and may look sunken eyed and gaunt.

I have seen them with watery diarrhoea or firmly constipated,

but in general they have a lower volume of slightly over-digested smelly faeces present on rectal exam and many have ketosis sec-ondary to the metabolic failure (if ketosis wasn’t the primary cause).

I have taught many people how to listen for pings and think that a reasonable quality stethoscope is a good investment on any dairy farm. Your veterinarian can prob-ably help you with this skill

There are a number of techniques to “fix” LDAs, sometimes you can roll them, blind toggle them or perform any number of different surgical techniques on them.

I have for a very long time pre-ferred to perform a right sided pylo-ropexy which is where I pull the abomasum back under the rumen and attach the pyloris (the outflow from the abomasum) to the body wall to prevent it from being able to displace or twist again.

I have done many thousands of these operations and am incredibly comfortable with this technique but every vet has their own personal preference. There are even laparoscopic techniques being done to repair LDAs in cows now.

When examining a cow with a RHS ping, I take many factors into account as to where the ping is, how large it is, what does the cow look like, is her heart rate and hydration normal etc.

I can only recommend getting sick cows with right hand sided issues examine by your veterinar-ian as soon as possible as some RHS disorders are critically dangerous to the cow.• Rob Bonanno is a former president of the Australian Cattle Veterinari-ans Association and a director of the Shepparton Vet Clinic.

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50 // anImaL heaLth

Early checks key to mastitis management

hOw OFten have you or your staff been check-ing colostrum cows for mastitis?

Dairy NZ’s senior sci-entist specialising in mas-titis management, Dr Jane Lacy-Hulbert, says the minimum should be to check every colostrum

cow daily, and ideally, twice a day, for the four day colostrum period.

“Try to find and treat new clinical cases that have happened at calv-ing or just after. If you pick them up in the colos-trum cows it will help keep infection in the herd down for the whole season.”

Each quarter should be stripped and checked for clots.

“When it (colostrum) goes ‘junkety’ and the wrong colour, you know there’s something wrong.”

Making sure teats are clean, particularly for the first milking, is a must.

“Wash and dry them. If a cow’s been lying in the mud to calve, this won’t be good for mastitis.”

Putting cows onto clean pasture to calve will minimise the mess.

“A common way is to put the ones you think will calve overnight or that day through the fence onto the next break.”

Besides posing a mas-titis risk, soil on teats rubs during milking, causing abrasions and discom-fort which, depending on severity of damage, may persist for many milkings.

Incorrect milking system set-up can be another cause of teat damage, so arrange for machine test to check vacuum settings, pulsa-tion rates and ratios, and liner fittings to correct a a persistent cause of dam-aged teats.

After milking, apply a teatspray. Make sure that your teat spray meets the new requirements for avoiding chemical residues in milk. Some products have been re-registered with AVCM to reduce the risk of causing residues in milk. “Contact your teat spray supplier or your milk processor. They’ll be most aware of which products are approved and which are not.”

Ensuring the cor-rect quantity per cow is applied, and at the right concentration, is also important to minimise residue risk while ensuring the spray does its job.

In terms of prod-uct choice, Lacy-Hul-bert refuses to be drawn, saying there are “horses for courses.”

“If it’s a registered, AVCM- approved teat spray, that’s okay by us.”

Checking coverage, whether using manual application or an auto-mated system, is impor-tant.

“The best teat spray is the teat spray that gets on the teat. Teat spray on the body or legs is not going to help prevent mastitis!”

Hold a piece of card at udder height to check the spray pattern of auto-mated systems, or with a manual gun, spray the card or wall to check there’s a good cone of droplets.

“Are you getting a good cone or is it a narrow squirt or all dribbly?”

A paper towel wrapped round each teat can be

used to find out if sprays are covering all teats.

At calving the most likely cause of mastitis is Streptococcus uberis but taking samples from some clinical cases, using asep-tic technique, and storing them frozen for possible analysis later is a good idea so that if a persistent or wider problem develops, the cause of early cases can be checked.

“There’s advice on how to do this in the Healthy Udder guide or your vet will be able to tell you

what to do.”When mastitis is found,

Lacy-Hulbert says the “MRS T” routine is a good one to follow: Mark the cow; Record her number and planned treatment; Separate from herd; and then Treat.

Separating and milking later helps prevent spread-ing mastitis through milking equipment, and reduces the risk of mastitis milk, or worse still, peni-cillin treated milk, going in the vat, she explains.

ThE AdvEnT of internal teat sealants has seen the incidence of heifer mastitis tumble. “There was some research a few years ago which showed it reduced the number of clinicals in the order of 70% and a lot of farms have experienced a 50-70% reduction in cases.”

vaccination, which became

available commercially in new Zealand for the first time this year, may play a role in some herds but may not help all herds because it’s most effective against staphylococcus and coliform mastitis, adds Lacy-hulbert.

“Strep. uberis is still the main problem at calving so it’s questionable what effect

vaccination is going to have.”despite widespread

concern over the potential for bacteria to become resistant to antimicrobial products such as those used to treat mastitis, there’s been no recorded change in susceptibility of the main causes of mastitis in new Zealand over the last 20-30 years, she adds.

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Kevin Hopkinson says DairyCare cow and calf formula has helped production.Unique formula boosts

milk production

an aLOe vera and manuka stock supplement is helping a Northland herd stay healthier says its Dargaville owner.

Kevin Hopkinson, his wife Raewyn and his sons milk 250 cows on 100ha southwest of the town.

He says for 18 years the DairyCare cow and calf formula and teat salve have boosted cow perfor-mance.

The product pro-motes udder health and contributes to produc-tion, and it boosts calves’ immune systems and growth patterns says DairyCare managing direc-tor Kuldeep Sharma.

Hopkinson started using the product in the late 1990s on a word from his brother-in-law. “I always had it in the shed; it worked so well I just kept on using it.”

The herd produced 82,000kgMS before severe droughts in 2011-12 and 2013-14 but Hop-kinson says they have since managed to produce 72,000kgMS.

He has also been impressed with lifts in test fat and protein. “It improves their kgMS tests and protein and boosts their immune system. It’s because the product itself has amino acids.”

The Hopkinsons rear 100 calves on the farm’s whole milk. The calves are said to have had few met-abolic problems, gaining weight quickly and grow-ing to productive replace-ments.

Hopkinson doses stock through a Dosatron at the shed – 10-20ml/cow/day; the cows have access to the tonic all season.

Calves get the tonic in the milk, 1-2ml/feed, or more if needed.

The formula for cows

gaReth gILLattmixes at 2L/20L of water, which lasts 1-2 weeks depending on stock water intake.

Hopkinson uses the company’s aloe-rich gel on cows with cracked teats or hooves.

He says several treat-ments heal most cracks. “I probably use it for three or four days after a cow comes in with cut or cracked hooves.”Tel. 0800 820830 www.dairycare.co.nz

DaIRyCaRe’ COw and calf formula has no with-olding period and manuka honey and aloe vera is good for dairy cattle, It is a unique New Zealand product with patents ib several countries. the com-pany says.

“Regular dosing has been shown to help maintain udder health and condition in cows during calving for earlier returns to milk production.”

DairyCare cow and calf formula, made from organic herbal extracts to a full-strength concen-tration, comes as a concentrate. The cow and calf formula is given to the cows through the in-line dis-pensing system in the water trough.

A small dose daily helps to build the immune system of cows and healthy cows will produce more milk, the company says.

“A higher dose can be given to sick cows and at 100ml per day for 10 days will give some good results.”

Regular dosing good for cows

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52 // animal health

Theileriosis cases on the risetheileRiOSiS iS now widespread in the north-ern half of the North Island.

The Hauraki Plains, south of Auckland and around Hamilton, and the west coast north of Raglan, are ‘hot spots’ for the disease.

It has also been seen in

Northland, Bay of Plenty and the wider Waikato region, and in some cases in Taranaki, Manawatu/Whanganui, Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne.

DairyNZ technical policy advisor (veteri-nary) Nita Harding says in 2013 cows that calved in the second half of the calv-

ing period had the highest incidence of theileriosis.

“This may be due to exposure to the disease four to six weeks earlier, resulting in the peak of the clinical effects coin-ciding with calving,” says Harding.

“The signs of the dis-ease are those of anaemia

due to the damage thei-leriosis causes to the red blood cells. Cows will have yellow ( jaundiced) or pale mucous membranes; this can be checked by looking inside the vulva.”

Other signs include lethargy, dull/depressed appearance, hollow sides from not eating, loss of

condition and dry faeces. If a blood sample is taken, this will be very watery.

Farmers also report cases of down cows that do not respond as expected to normal treatment and management.

“As the most severe impact appears to occur

around calving, checking the springer and colos-trum mobs daily for anae-mia is advised. Cows that are anaemic should be managed to minimise energy use and stress, and veterinary advice should be sought,” says Harding.

Milking cows once-a-day, minimising distances walked, providing easy-to-eat high quality feed, dealing with any concurrent health issues and providing shelter in bad weather are suggested management strategies.

Farmers with theile-riosis in their herds have

had success with an ‘inten-sive care mob’ for theile-riosis cases. This means an extra mob but it enables specific care for these ani-mals and reminds staff to be vigilant.

Early signs of the dis-ease can be a cow out of normal order or displaying unusual or dull behaviour. Good observation will pick these cows up and enable special care.

Unless severely affected, cows will recover from theileriosis and, the earlier specific care is pro-vided, the sooner cows will recover.

THEILERIOSIS IS a disease caused by a spe-cies of Theileria a blood-borne parasite that only affects cattle and is primarily transmit-ted by ticks.

A new strain of Theileria orientalis called ikeda was first identified in Northland in late 2012. This new strain has been associated with anaemia and death in cattle.

The disease is now widespread over the northern half of the North Island with cases diagnosed as far south as Taranaki, King Country, Whanganui and Hawkes Bay.

Theileriosis affects only cattle and is transmitted by cattle ticks

Theileriosis causes anaemia in cattle and can sometimes be fatal

Cows during calving and young calves (2-3 months) are at most risk from infection

There are no human health or food safety risks associated with Theileriosis.

SignS and SymptOmS

blood-borne disease❱❱ Anaemia (yellow [jaundiced] or pale

mucous membranes)

❱❱ Lethargy, dull/depressed appearance

❱❱ Hollow sides from not eating

❱❱ Loss of condition

❱❱ Dry faeces

❱❱ A cow out of normal order or displaying unusual or dull behaviour.

❱❱ This article was first published in Inside Dairy September 2014.

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healthieR StOCK, protected staff and peace of mind are big pluses for acting early to vaccinate calves this spring against leptospirosis.

Dr Roger Marchant, veterinary advisor to the NZ Veterinary Associ-ation’s Leptosure programme, says New Zealand needs to keep working to drop its ranking from the top of the OECD for having the highest rate of human leptospirosis infections.

Latest data shows New Zealand has 100 cases of the notifiable dis-ease reported annually. However the disease is estimated to be under-reported by as much as 40 times and can be mistaken for a bad case of the flu if not diagnosed properly.

“If that ranking was not enough to give pause for concern, then the recent research on how critical it is to vaccinate livestock early against the disease should be,” says Marchant.

Traditionally calves have not been vaccinated until about six months of age. But a pilot study at Massey Uni-versity in 2012 has highlighted the risk of calves becoming infected with lep-tospirosis prior to vaccination.

If they are already infected, any vaccine administered will be ineffec-tive in protecting either the infected animal or those working around it.

“That study was a wake-up call. It showed that the age of vaccination appears to be critical to the vaccine being able to do its job and prevent infection.

“Extrapolating from the pilot study, a calf vaccinated at the tra-

ditional six month mark could be up to eight times more likely to be shedding lepto as an adult, compared to a calf vaccinated at 10 weeks of age.”

A good rule of thumb in vaccinating earlier is to plan on giving the first vac-cine shot 70 days after the planned start of AB calv-ing, and follow up with the second ‘booster’ vaccination four to six weeks later.

“You don’t want to start any sooner, or you run the risk that the protective antibodies from the mother will interfere with the vac-cine’s effectiveness. Any later and they will have run out and the calf, if exposed to infection, is unprotected.”

Many calves are at risk of lepto infection from a young age as protec-tion from colostrum is highly vari-able and short-lived in most calves. Delaying vaccination puts calves at risk of infection and long-term shed-ding. This can result in infected cows entering the milking herd.

Marchant says vets, farmers and farm staff face the greatest risk of contracting leptospirosis from inef-fectively vaccinated young stock.

Hamilton employment law expert and lawyer Andrea Twaddle says farmers are not always aware of their responsibilities on leptospirosis.

“Under the Health and Safety in Employment Act, employers have a general duty to take ‘all practicable

steps to ensure the safety of employees while at work’”, she said.

Bosses were required to identify and assess haz-ards, implementing con-trols or isolating those that might cause serious harm.

“It is practicable to vaccinate stock against leptospirosis, and there-

fore this should be considered by farmers on farms identified as at risk of the disease.”

Failing to take a basic step like vaccinating livestock for leptospi-rosis could give rise to employer lia-bility for claims for health and safety breaches by a staff member, and the employer risks being pursued by Work Safe.

The new knowledge about needing to vaccinate early has been built into a revised leptospirosis ‘Leptosure’ best practice plan.

It emphasises the earlier vaccina-tion times, covers the risk to other livestock, and offers advice specific to an individual farm’s risk situation.

Backing up the Leptosure pro-gramme are vaccines proven to pre-vent leptospirosis if administered prior to infection.

Zoetis market development man-ager and veterinarian Dr Wayne Clough says research has shown lep-tospirosis vaccines were effective in preventing leptospire shedding when administered prior to infection.


animal health // 53

Farmers have been urged to be aware of their responsibilities on leptospirosis.

Late vaccination brings health risks

An infection caused by the Lep-tospira bacterium transmitted by wild and domestic animals.

In New Zealand, the two main strains in livestock are L.pomona, and L.hardjobovis.

Infection in humans is con-tracted through contact with

the urine of infected animals.Symptoms are similar to a

severe flu condition, including headaches, sore and stiff joints, vomiting and rashes and can occur 4-14 days after infection.

Globally up to 10 million people a year are estimated to

contract it.Successful treatment is

by early diagnosis, antibiotic therapy and good nursing.

Farmers, veterinarians and slaughterhouse workers are the most at risk or carry the highest risk.

What iS leptOSpiROSiS?

Dr Roger Marchant.

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54 // effluent & WateR management

Storage determines vital flexibilityhaVing adeQuate storage offers flexibility for effluent application to fit around farm activities and irrigation conditions.

Storage facilities must be sealed so they do not leak or allow contaminants to seep out.

All areas where effluent or leachate is stored should be sealed to prevent leachate losses to groundwater.

Avoid locating effluent storage facil-

ities in sites with high water tables or a risk of flooding.

The use of well installed and guar-anteed synthetic (e.g. plastic, rubber or concrete) liners is recommended. You may be asked for a producer state-ment to demonstrate the pond and liner can meet the construction and sealing requirements of your district or regional council.

You need enough storage for:

■ Spring – the pond is filling with effluent, particularly during wet weather, or when the farm team is too busy to manage the efflu-ent system. Small volumes of effluent can be irrigated as soil water deficits allow

■ Summer – the pond should be kept as empty as possible

■ Autumn – the pond should be maintained at a low level. It is impor-tant to try to get the pond level low while conditions still permit

■ Winter – the pond should be kept as low as possible. Where possible prevent stormwater entering the pond, off unused yard areas etc. No areas contaminated with dairy effluent may be diverted.

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■ Rainy periods when the soil is too wet to irrigate

■ Busy periods when farm labour is stretched and you do not want to irrigate

■ Equipment failures (pumps or irri-gator) when you cannot irrigate. Adequate storage will allow you to

keep effluent for use when nutrients are most needed (i.e. drier months or when putting down a crop).

A dairy effluent storage calculator has been developed by Massey Univer-sity and Horizons Regional Council to allow calculation of effluent storage volume requirements. The calculator uses farm specific data such as:

■ Soil risk for effluent irrigation (high risk, low risk soil types, see pg 14)

■ Milking routine (number of cows, water use in the dairy, etc.)

■ Rainfall catchment area – what is the total surface area collecting rain water and directing it into the stor-age facility

■ Storage facilities currently on farm

■ Irrigation system and equipment ■ Climate (annual daily rainfall).

The dairy effluent storage calculator provides a storage volume recommen-dation based on the daily rainfall events over the last 30 years and the number of days conditions would have been suit-able to apply effluent.

Having an empty pond will give you

the capacity you need when you can’t irrigate because of unsuitable condi-tions, or if you have factored in extra storage for times of year such as calving.

A full pond may overflow or cause odour problems, and may result in financial loss as you lose control of effluent and capital investment tied up in the pond.

Effluent ponds must meet respective council requirements.

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effluent & WateR management // 55

Effluent issues under control, aiming now for nitrogen leaching

effluent manage-ment on dairy farms is well under control, accord-ing to DairyNZ’s environ-ment manager, Dr Mike Scarsbrook.

But dairy farmers still face big challenges in meeting limits on nitrogen leaching.

Scarsbrook is prepar-ing a report on the ‘Sus-tainable Dairying: Water Accord’, once known as the ‘Clean Streams Accord’. His report covers the first year of the new accord.

“We are in the early phase of reporting, which means collecting data,” he says. “So the milk com-panies are collecting data from farmers and are pulling that information together and we expect to release our report in December which is several months ahead of the time-frame for the old Clean Streams Accord. That report usually came out in March or April the follow-ing year.”

Scarsbrook says a new feature in the report this year will be a third-party audit by an independent auditor who will thor-oughly review and verify all the data and information presented.

Scarsbrook acknowl-edges enormous invest-ment by farmers in upgrading their effluent systems, and the role of dairy companies in provid-ing farm assessments and developing monitoring programmes. “Every dairy company is now assessing effluent management per-formance.”

And more and better data are quantifying the work of stream fencing and excluding stock from waterways. “We have far more robust estimates of actual length of streams, how many kilometres of waterways have been pro-tected and the planting of riparian zones around streams and wetlands.”

Farmers have got the message, says Scarsbrook, as reflected in DairyNZ’s work with regional coun-cils on the setting limits as stated in the National Policy Statement (NPS).

The bigger challenges are about water quality limits and rivers and what these mean to nutrient management onfarm, he says. The setting of these limits depends on what communities themselves want in the various plans being set by regional coun-cils.

A major game breaker has been the change in the relationships with regional councils.

“There are some highly effective partnerships operating right through

the country from North-land to Southland. We are working together at a technical level and with implementation on farm: Horizons is a good exam-ple of that.

“There is real sense that we are working together and getting on with getting the job done. Farmers appreciate the coordination so they are not hearing one thing from councils and another from the industry; they are all working to support the farmers in the same way.”

Scarsbrook says the NPS has helped every-one, especially regional councils that were asking for national direction and guidance and leadership on how to approach these issues.

“Each regional coun-cil will have its own time-frame and processes for working through that. In my view a lot of consis-tency has come through from the NPS and there will be more as it matures.”

Farmers are still call-ing on the wider dairy industry to do more to get

the message across to the public that they are chang-ing their onfarm practices to improve their environ-mental footprint. Scars-brook agrees and says it would also help if other environmental groups worked together on the issues facing farmers.

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■ BREAKING NEWS

■ MACHINERY REVIEWS

■ MARKETS & TRENDS

■ MANAGEMENT STORIES

■ COMPETITIONS

■ AND MUCH MORE...

All the latest stories and more at www.dairynews.co.nz

Mike Scarsbrook

Farmers have made enormous investment to upgrade effluent systems.

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No farmers pinged but still on notice

Environment Canterbury says no prosecutions were needed last season.

nO CanteRbuRy farmer was pros-ecuted last season for effluent man-agement breaches, says Environment Canterbury.

It says no prosecutions were needed while the overall rates of compliance were similar to the previous season. But compliance must improve.

Environment Canterbury’s director of resource management Kim Drum-mond says its approach over the past season has been to continue to support the collective action set out in the Sus-tainable Dairying: Water Accord.

“We continue to work with indus-try and farmers to find new approaches to lift onfarm environmental perfor-mance…. The compliance results are just one part of how we measure prog-ress made by the industry.”

The Sustainable Dairying: Water Accord sets targets for excluding stock from waterways, for installing bridges or culverts and for developing ripar-ian management plans. It also requires farmers to provide information to their dairy companies to allow for the model-ling of nitrogen loss and nitrogen con-version efficiency, with the aim to drive continuous improvement. All dairy farm effluent systems must be capable of complying with regional council rules 365 days of the year.

“During the past season there were no cases which required us to lay charges against a dairying operation, compared with three or four prosecu-tions in each of the previous few sea-sons.”

Environment Canterbury officers

made at least one compliance visit to each of the 1093 dairy farms moni-tored (out of 1100 farms) in Canterbury during the 2013-14 season. In total 792 farms (72%) recorded full compliance with the conditions of their dairy efflu-ent consents (unchanged from the pre-vious year).

Minor non-compliance was recorded at 205 farms – a 19% rate com-pared with 21% in the previous season. Significant non-compliance was 8% (96 farms) compared with 7% in the previ-ous year. In addition seven abatement and 13 infringement notices were issued to dairy operations in the 2013-14 season – a similar rate to previous seasons.

In Canterbury the proposed Land and Water Regional Plan – notified in August 2012 – sets new rules to pro-

tect and enhance the region’s fresh water, aligning with the community’s aspirations set out in the Canterbury Water Management Strategy to pro-vide for economic and environmental outcomes. Dairy shed effluent must be managed in accordance with resource

consent condition rules set out in the proposed Land and Water Regional Plan. Enforcement actions for signif-icant non-compliance issues include abatement notices, infringement notices and in extreme cases, prosecu-tions.

FEDERATED FARMERS mid-Canterbury dairy chair Jessie Chan-Dorman says farmers are tak-ing their responsibilities seriously and the hard work is paying off.

“Firstly, I would like to congratulate the 1093 dairy farms in Canterbury that have made this happen,” says Chan-Dorman.

“Farmers have really stepped up and are making adjustments to meet conditions in their effluent consents. Whilst we are not at 100% full compliance yet, we are seeing a positive trend with a reduction in the level of non-com-pliance.

“This has by no means been easy, but there has been a lot of investment by farmers, and support through industry initiatives, such as the Sustainable Dairying: Water Accord and the Canterbury Dairy Effluent Group, which have pooled resources to help drive change within the industry.

“The proof is in the pudding, where farmers have been much more proactive and meticulous in understanding and adhering to the conditions in their effluent consents.”

She says effluent compliance is not a one day a week job; it is seven days a week 52 weeks of the year, so full compliance for 2013-14 being 32 percent higher than in 2008 is a huge feat.

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Upskill to save power, water at irrigatorsiRRigatiOnnZ (inZ) is offering workshops to upskill farmers on how to save electricity and water.

Early October it will run ‘Reducing your energy bill’ in Ashburton – 16 workshops on October 2 and 3.

And in Auckland on September 25-26 it will hold its second water meter ‘master class’.

‘Reducing your energy bill’ will explain how to benchmark energy use, identify common losses and access an EECA energy audit. The pros and cons of current energy plans and pricing options will also be

discussed. Presenters will be

INZ project manager Paul Reese and Irricon environmental consultant Keri Johnson.

The water mater master class will be important especially to water metering industry representatives, specifically addressing challenges faced by the sector.

Topics will include verification (current challenges and the potential range of methods and limitations), data management (understanding compliance requirements

and associated constraints) and the accredited calibration facility (meter services), New Zealand’s only accredited water measurement testing facility.

Also offered are workshops this summer targeting farmers working with irrigation on a daily basis. The ‘irrigation operator and manager training’ one-day workshops provide the latest irrigation knowledge, recommendations and practical ‘know how’.

Register for these events by phone

(03 341 2225) or at:www.irrigationnz.co.nz

A TWO-YEAR study of energy use by 14 Canterbury and Ota-go irrigators shows much can be done improve the energy efficiency of irrigation systems, says IrrigationNZ.

The study, by INZ and the Energy Efficiency and Con-servation Authority (EECA), showed that in all but one case

irrigators were able to slash power and water consumption.

Expected annual electricity savings ranged from $500 to $20,000 and averaged $8010 (30467kWh). Though energy saving measures cost on aver-age $27,194, the payback time was 3.4 years.

INZ says these results are

conservative as the evaluations didn’t take into account the increased production gained from better irrigation equip-ment and water efficiencies.

Water savings amounted to 10-15 days over six months, further saving electricity. Soil moisture measuring devices bring big savings.

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First get rid of the fences: a new way to imagine dairyingSiCK Of effluent mat-ters? Me too, just for now. Let’s look at where dairy farming ought to be going, at the poor present state of strategic agricultural engi-neering and the boring repetitive things you farm-ers do. (We’ll forget the usual effluent stuff till later.)

About a week ago I was observing what a farmer

was doing while I was tightening nuts and bolts on his farm (a circular, mixed effluent pond). He attached the tractor to the feed-out wagon and drove it to the silage bins. The tractor was uncoupled and he bucketed maize and some hay into the wagon. He loaded the magnesium oxide doser, recoupled the tractor and hydraulic fit-tings and drove down the feed pad troughs spread-ing feed. This happened

twice and soaked up an hour. His wife drove up and down the feed pad adding whey.

Later in the day, the procedure was repeated, as it was the next day, and the next. You farmers do these mindless (to me) tasks sometimes twice daily for almost the whole season. Sound familiar? Do you feed out hay in the paddocks daily? Traipse twice a day to open and close gates and get the

cows? Mix and distrib-ute feed up and down feed pads? Cover and uncover silage with thousands of tyres? Whew.

For some years I’ve been thinking about the integrated farm an engi-neer would build, labeled by Kim Riley of Dannev-irke, a dairy farmer and well known author, as ‘The Cartwheel Farm’ because of its completely engi-neered central hub.

First get rid of all the

StuaRt Reidfences except at the boundary. There’ll be no decaying races nor water troughs nor water pipes nor gates. We will no longer have pugged pad-dock damage and slushy paddock entrances. We won’t have to get the cows twice a day nor tolerate the same levels of lame-ness. We’ll still feed the cows from the grass and silage grown on farm, but it will be a special cut-and-carry operation we’ll talk about later. So what are the essential pieces of kit we need to make this happen?

Create a central com-plex which houses the cows, allows them to be fed and milked and exer-cised with minimum shuf-fling, while all manure is collected (to stay on your farm) and turned into methane before being returned to the pasture diluted, denatured and applied uniformly via solids handling irrigators at the right time.

If breweries and dog biscuit factories can use automatic batching to mix grain and fibre, we’ll use the same things to feed the cows silage and cut grass from lidded silos. Grass? If Google can enable a car, and Trim-ble a tractor, to drive back and forth with high pre-

cision, then we’ll make small electric, intelligent, automatic, low power mowers that shuttle back and forth harvesting grass as cows want it. (No pas-ture damage, no wasted and trampled grass, opti-mum yields and beauti-fully recycled effluent.) Automatic rotary milk-ing machines, of course, and almost all farm oper-ations conducted within a 100m radius circle. Yes, we’ll even give the cows a covered exercise yard and a gym.

But the trump card is that we will suck all the warm belched gas out of the apex of the Structure-flex tent and mix it with the digested methane to fuel the gas engine elec-tricity generator that’s recharging the mowers. Greatly reduced green

house gas output. Normal digestion in the cow’s gut.

This is an integrated design idea, where we try to remove all the nega-tives associated with dairy farming by thinking stra-tegically about the engi-neering required to make it happen cheaply and reli-ably.

The savings in some areas (no fences, tractors, feed out wagons, fewer staff ) are offset by auto milkers, silos and feeding machinery. It’s farming-by-buttons and why not? What’s next? Dewatered milk, fewer tankers, less coal…

Churchill said: “Don’t argue the difficulties, the difficulties will argue for themselves”.• Stuart Reid is the chief executive of Spitfire-Revolu-tion. Tel. 04 586 3411

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Synthetic lined ponds ‘no brainer’effluent pOnd liner installation contractor Jim Walsh says synthetic liners help farmers adhere to ever-tightening coun-cil rules to reduce environ-mental affects.

“With environmental issues being a high prior-ity, synthetic liners offer a guaranteed seal – no per-meability – which most councils are now enforc-ing more aggressively,” Walsh told Dairy News.

“The alternative, clay lined ponds, will still leak and there is no guaran-tee effluent won’t leak out. Added to this, clay tends to crack when dry, erodes with stirrer use and costs almost the same as a lined pond. It becomes a no-brainer.

“In my experience most farmers are pleas-antly surprised at the cost of lining a pond,

and so are prepared to do the job right in the first instance – including cost of earthworks which are about half the cost of tanks above ground.

“They are not cheap, but often cost less than farmers expect to be quoted.”

Walsh has 10 years experience of synthetic liners: he was the first Firestone liner installa-tion contractor in New Zealand. He has worked in Australia and the UK, there involved in the larg-est EPDM lining project in the world - a Firestone lined irrigation canal.

The company’s liners are said to have excellent UV resistance; they have a 20 year warranty and 50 years life expectancy.

Firestone EPDM wide rolls speed installation and reduce the number

JIM WALSH says farmers are becoming more proactive and are making decisions for long term gains and goals.

More farmers are now prepared to invest in upgrading their systems, he says. “We’re seeing more farmers opting to build larger ponds, since larger storage provides the best value for their dollar.

“It reduces risk and provides more irrigation resource in summer to allow just a little more irrigation when things are getting dry.

“In the early days, farmers were building ponds as small as they could in order to comply. These days farmers are realising the value of the nutrients and the irrigation. Nine out of 10 farmers who upgrade say that with hindsight they would have gone bigger.

“With more storage comes more flexibility and less risk. Some farmers are suggesting it’s more cost effective to upsize their pond volume than to cover a stand-off pad.”

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of joins in a pond, good for performance now and long term. Pond dimen-sions can accommodate the roll sizes to reduce wastage and limit the number of joins.

Walsh says there are many different liner types on the market, most com-monly EPDM (usually called rubber) and HDPE (plastic). Both are good products, used interna-tionally for a long time, he says.

“Having seen Fires-tone EPDM used on jobs in Europe looking no dif-ferent today from when they were installed, I’m confident in the product I’m installing. Firestone’s oldest lined project is 41 years old and still in per-fect working order.

“We are seeing a few new entrants into the lining market and there are little known lining manufacturers offering liner at prices too good to be true. You get what you pay for.”

Top: Synthetic liners help farmers adhere to council

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now prepared to invest in effluent systems.

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Work out the value of nutrientsfaRm daiRy effluent offers a source of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), magnesium (Mg) and sulphur (S), as well as trace elements to increase pasture or crop production.

Your nutrient budget will calculate the nutrient inputs and outputs from all sources on your farm. The nutrient value of effluent for your farm is based on stock,

feed and management practices. The amount of nutrient coming in can be determined in the budget and this can also be translated to the equivalent fertiliser value.

To work out the value of nutrient in effluent, collect a sample to send to a lab for analysis. The nutrient content of effluent will vary due to variations in the cows’ diet during the season and between seasons,

the solids content of effluent (how well agitated the effluent is prior to application) and the length of time the effluent has been stored.

Take the sample from the effluent collected during the depth test. Be sure to take the sample from the irrigator not the pond.

Step 1. Fill a sampling bottle about two-thirds full with the effluent from the jug, squeeze until

effluent reaches the top to remove air, and then cap. Name and sample ID the bottle.

Step 2. Keep sample chilled. This is very important.

Step 3. Record your details and the tests requested on the lab’s form, attach to the sample, and send to the lab as soon as possible. Useful tests include % DM, total nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K),

sulphur (S), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg) and sodium (Na).

Using a nutrient budget to check the nutrient status of your effluent block will ensure you:

■ Size the effluent block to get the maximum value from nutrients in your effluent

■ Use fertiliser efficiently ■ Avoid animal health

problems from potassium (K) build-up

■ Comply with rule/consent conditions regarding N loading. Size your effluent area

to meet potassium (K) maintenance levels.

Over time K levels

on effluent blocks can become elevated. This can increase the potential for metabolic problems in cows at calving/lactation. Sizing the effluent area to meet maintenance K levels is good practice and N application rates will be well within council requirements.

POTASSIUM IS a valuable ele-ment, so making full use of levels contained in effluent can reduce your K fertiliser bill.

Management considerations for K levels are:

■ Aim to keep K levels below soil test level QTK 10

■ Avoid grazing effluent irriga-tion areas with the springer herd and recently calved cows. Where this is not possible, take additional measures to prevent metabolic disorders, such as

increasing magnesium supple-mentation

■ Take herbage samples – they shouldn’t exceed 3-3.5% K. Adjust feed/supplementation in consultation with a farm consultant or veterinarian if necessary

■ Harvest silage or hay off your effluent blocks to reduce K levels; if levels are very high, consider a crop such as maize.

*Article sourced from DairyNZ

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Effluent systems on different soil typesSOil typeS and risk profiles vary across a farm depending on the soil forming features.

DairyNZ says the best way to fully manage the variation and implications of the varying soil types is to have a farm scale soil map produced.

This information will be useful for fertiliser decisions, effluent and water irrigation planning, cropping and grazing rota-tion decisions and other farm management deci-sions, it says.

“Electromagnetic (EM) mapping is an emerging technology also starting to be used by farmers for mapping soils at paddock scale for more precise application of nutrients and water.

“All farms contain

high-risk and low-risk areas for effluent appli-cation. An effluent appli-cation plan can help to identify suitable areas of a farm for effluent applica-tion, and areas to avoid. All staff must be aware of the effluent application plan. Check your consent con-ditions for any restrictions (minimum distances, application area, irrigat-ing after rainfall or mini-mum irrigation intervals for example). It is usually recommended paddocks are rested for 10-14 days between application and grazing or further applica-tions.”

From a map of a farm, identify waterways, nat-ural drainage patterns, soil types and sub-surface drainage, slope, prevailing wind direction and neigh-

bours’ dwellings.Low risk areas are ideal

for effluent application; note irrigator runs for each paddock and high-risk or no-application zones.

High-risk zones include mole or tile drainage areas, > 7° slope, very wet soils or very free-draining areas with porous subsoil and

accessible groundwater.No-application zones

include all land within 20 m* of a drain, waterway or bore, or the boundary of a neighbouring property.

Defer irrigation if soils are too wetSOil WateR deficit (SWD), mea-sured in mm (sometimes %), is the amount of available water removed from the soil within the plants’ active rooting depth. It is also the amount of water required to refill the root zone to bring the soil mois-ture conditions to field capacity.

Field capacity refers to the amount of water held in the soil

after excess water has drained away. This is typically a day after soil satu-ration (e.g. from rain or irrigation). Adding water/effluent at this point will result in ponding, runoff or leaching.

Deferred irrigation means irri-gation is delayed until there is a big enough SWD to allow for more water to be added to the soil without

causing runoff, ponding or leaching.The greater the application

depth and intensity of the irrigator (i.e. travellers vs. sprinklers), the greater the SWD required for irri-gation.

■ It may be inappropriate to pro-ceed with effluent irrigation if:

■ The soil is too wet following rainfall or irrigation: effluent

may pond, run off to waterways, or leach through to ground-water

■ The soil is very dry and cracked, especially over tile or mole drains: effluent may travel through soil cracks to under-ground drains and then flow into waterways

■ The soil is compacted or frozen.

Profile your farm soil types

before irrigating effluent.


62 // effluent & water management

a mOrrInSVIlle farming company has received three convictions and $48,750 fines for unlawfully dis-charging dairy effluent.

During Waikato Regional Council’s inspections that led to the prosecution, Bilkar Singh, a director of B & V Singh Ltd, asked the inspecting officers not to report the matter to their supervisors and to take water sam-ples so as not to show any environmental effect.

Repeated questions such as “how much to make it go away?” were asked by Singh of the two officers.

The farm was inspected twice in November and December 2013 after its effluent system was deemed ‘high risk’. Both times unlawful effluent discharges were found to have been made to farm drains flowing to a tributary of the Piako River.

The council launched a prosecution for offences against the Resource Management Act.

In the Hamilton District Court, Judge Melanie Har-land said in her view “a stern response is required in this case to denounce the attempts by Singh to influ-ence the investigation, and to reflect the defendant’s lack of urgency in dealing with the inadequacies of its infrastructure. There seems to have been little regard for, and attempt made, to prevent the discharges into water….”

“As well as the disregard shown for the environ-ment… the behaviour of Mr Singh has been quite appalling,” says council investigations manager Pat-rick Lynch.

“For staff to be subjected to repeated suggestions to act inappropriately, and illegally, is totally unaccept-able. The two officers involved reported the behaviour immediately.”

Effluent dumping attracts fine

Mind the nutrient caps – councilaPPlYIng nutrI-ent-rICH solid or liquid dairy effluent to maize blocks in preparation for sowing can do great things for the crop’s growth, Waikato Regional Council points out.

And it’s good for subse-quent irrigating.

But, the council warns, keep the rules in mind: up to 200kg nitrogen (N) per hectare may be spread annually on maize blocks. On pasture, the cap is lower at 150kgN/ha (to reflect the fact stock are excreting nutrients also).

Solids from ponds – or

the solids from separators and weeping walls – can be directly applied to the maize paddock or incor-porated during paddock work-up.

Sludge is a good source of organic nitrogen which tends not to leach through soils as quickly, and can

improve the soil structure and its ability to retain water.

Also, these solids are not as prone to overland flow as irrigated effluent so there are no maximum depth rules.

“However, farmers still need to ensure that any

liquid slurries do not pond or run off to waterways,” says council monitoring manager Ross Wightman.

“And, when it comes to the 200kgN/ha cap on maize blocks, farmers should get sound advice from effluent specialists on how much N per hect-are is likely to end up on their maize paddocks from their sludge and from irri-gated effluent. That will help ensure not too much is used.”

Using irrigated efflu-ent can also be useful for generally keeping up soil moisture levels on maize blocks during dry spells. Making sure blocks can be easily reached by irriga-tion equipment is impor-tant, as is having the right irrigation equipment so that crops aren’t damaged during applications. Ide-ally irrigated dairy effluent needs to have a low per-centage of solids so that plants get more liquid than solids.

In irrigating effluent onto pasture used for car-

rying stock, it can also be important to get good advice about how much is safe to use so the 150kgN/ha rule for pasture applica-tion is not breached.

“A general rule of thumb is that each appli-cation puts about 50kgN/ha onto pasture so three applications in a year would generally take the load to the 150kg cap,” says Brian Nicholson, from effluent firm Hi-Tech Enviro Solutions.

Also bear in mind that effluent from feedpads, or systems 4 to 5 farms, will have higher ‘strength’

effluent and therefore the ‘rule of thumb’ mentioned above doesn’t apply. “In these cases a lab test for N content is definitely required,” Nicholson says.

Wightman says that with irrigated efflu-ent there are also rules designed to prevent pond-ing and the risk of over-land flow to water.

“Generally the rate that is spread must not exceed the soil’s ability to absorb it otherwise ponding, runoff, excessive leaching and the wasting of nutri-ents will occur.”

When priming maize blocks with effluent farmers are urged to keep the rules in mind.

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effluent & water management // 63

tHe waIKatO River Authority has received 52 applications for money to fund river clean-up projects totalling $17.2 million in its fourth funding round.

The latest round closed last week. $7 million is available to pay for work on the Waikato and Waipa rivers.

Waikato River Authority co-chairs John Luxton and Tukoroirangi Morgan say the strength and quality of applica-tions in this funding round is encour-aging, showing “a strong connection between our updated funding strategy and so many of the applications”.

“We’ve wanted to be more directive in outlining the priorities for restoration

and it is gratifying to see that direction reflected in the project proposals.”

The applications will be indepen-dently evaluated by a panel that will make recommendations to a sub-com-mittee of the authority which will then make the final funding recommenda-tions to the authority’s board. Success-ful project applicants will be announced by the end of November.

In the previous three years of funding authority has granted about $16 million to 108 projects. The authority advocates for an integrated and cohesive approach to clean-up activities in the river catch-ment covering 11,000km2.

$17m sought for river clean-ups

Evaluate your application spray patternsSPraY Pattern uni-formity varies depending on the type and condition of the applicator.

Sprinkler systems and oscillating applicators have a more even spray pattern than standard travelling irrigators. A fast traveller speed will have a more even pattern than a slower one.

Ensuring the applica-tor is in good condition through on-going main-tenance (e.g. cleaning, greasing, correct gearing, checking rubberware and tyre pressure) will get the best performance out of

the system.Regular servicing and

maintenance with a local service provider can save money and hassle in the long run.

Travelling irrigators have a ‘donut’ shaped spray pattern, increasing the load applied to certain parts of the paddock.

Areas at the outer edge of a travelling irrigator’s spray pattern get efflu-ent for longer periods, so there is a band of heavier effluent loading on each side of the irrigator’s run, and a lighter loading in the middle.

Uneven spray patterns can result in ponding or runoff, if the instanta-neous application at cer-tain parts of the spray pattern is higher than the

soil can absorb.Travelling irrigator

runs must be far enough apart so there is no over-lap on the outer edges. – DairyNZ

Ensure your effluent applicator is serviced regularly.



Pond safety rope system throws a lifeline

Pondco’s safety escape system is made of 100% marine grade materials.

effluent POnDS on dairy farms present a risk of workers falling in and drowning, prompting a pond designer and builder, Pondco, to start marketing

a safety product.The firm’s rope escape

system allows people to pull themselves out of danger from anywhere in a pond: farms are beginning to install them.

The system is better than the usual ladder at one side of the pond, which severely limits the chance of escape, the com-pany says.

“They are in a dan-gerous situation; trying to swim fully clothed and possibly fighting the effects of the stirrer would make exiting the pond extremely difficult if not impossible.

“Our system is designed so that whatever side of the pond a fall may occur, there is always a rope close at hand.”

Pondco’s safety escape

system is made of 100% marine grade materials; for most ponds only four corner posts are needed for installation.

The system has full perimeter rope coverage and access on all sides, unlike localised access provided by ladders. The rope has ‘egg floats’ about every 2m to keep the entire system visible and on the surface.

Large corner buoys sta-bilise the entire system; they also allow the rope safety system to rise and fall with the level of the pond, making the system always accessible on the surface.

The Pondco safety escape system is anchored with hi-visibility yellow, rot-resistant polypropyl-ene line, with hard-plastic ‘climbing knots’ to make exiting the pond easier.

Hardware connectors are marine grade stain-less steel for long life in an adverse environment.

The ropes are made in New Zealand, a blend of polypropylene and poly-ethylene resins; they are UV-stabilised to meet

extreme UV conditions. The 12mm ropes have

a breaking load of 2654kg, 16mm ropes 4600kg.

All rope ends are ter-minated with PPE-Grade stitched eyes housing a stainless steel thimble to prevent chafing and pre-mature wear.

The sewn rope-end ter-minations are stitched locally using UV and chemical resistant Bonded Polyester yarn, made in the USA.

The PPE-Grade sewn termination is sealed, labeled and serialized with the date of installa-tion.

The high buoyancy 70mm floats are made in NZ and seam welded for maximum performance. Buoys are made from marine grade PVC and are UV stabilised.

The Pondco safety escape system includes a pole-mounted ‘life-buoy’ with permanently stitched, clearly labeled, double braid rescue line so the rope cannot be used for any other purpose. Tel. 0800 901 109www.pondco.co.nz

Effluent ponds present a risk of people falling in.

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effluent & water mangement // 65

Spreader gentle on pasture, races

a SlurrYKat drib-ble-bar effluent spreading system is making effluent management task easier for a Southland farmer.

Jim and his wife Sarnbra Cooper, farming at Winton, wanted a means of reducing the workload, speeding up the task and preventing the damage to pasture and races that can occur with tanker spreading. They chose a Slurrykat dribble bar system, imported from Northern Ireland for their farms and for some contracting.

The ‘umbilical’ method of effluent spreading involves pumping the material from a storage pond using a Doda pump via a pipeline to a tractor-mounted dribble bar appli-cator.

Coopers have three farms with 1400ha of dairying and dairy sup-port land, milking a total of 1800 cows. They will be pumping the effluent up to 2km from their ponds and hope one million litres per day.

“Some Slurrykat cus-tomers in Europe and North America are pump-ing material 8-9km from storage with staged pump-ing,” said the compa-

ny’s export sales director Drew Linton.

Slurrykat was set up in 1994 to make effluent handlers, tankers and trailers. They make 140 products and export to 18 countries including all Europe and North America.

Once a Slurrykat drib-ble bar is set up and the delivery line laid to the paddock and connected, the applicator unit is then driven up and down the paddock towing the drag hose. Work rates are typ-ically 200m3 per hour. Application rates range from 1mm to 10mm per hectare. Paddock and race damage are minimal; the tractor and applicator tra-verse the paddock only once until it is covered.

When shifting between paddocks the pump is switched off remotely and started again in the next paddock. The model bought by Cooper has a 12m spread width and folds for transport.

The pumps come in a range of output sizes and are PTO, electric or engine driven.

Pumps can be supplied with a return hose to keep the pond agitated. The delivery line is mobile and flexible, made up of 200m lengths of lie-flat hose of 100, 125 or 150mm diam-eter.

Slurrykat can supply hydraulically driven front or rear mounted hose reels to lay or retrieve the deliv-ery line.

The dribble bar lays the effluent in rows 250mm apart with a recommended delivery height of 300-500mm. “This reduces air access, preventing odours and nitrogen loss and plac-ing all the material on the ground without splashing so the grass can be grazed sooner,” said New Zea-land sales manager Ross Groube.

When the pond has been emptied the deliv-ery line can be flushed clean by compressed air or

the line rolled up with the last of the material being returned to the pond.

With a GPS system and flow meters, applications are accurate and recorded.

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Minimise the volume to manage storage

WHEN USED properly, a stormwater diversion system will reduce the volume of effluent you need to manage. Stormwater diversion systems can only be used when the yards or feed pads are completely clean but roof water can be delivered all year. Stormwater must be diverted prior to the stone trap.

The best systems are close to the dairy and have a visible reminder for staff. Train staff in the use of these systems. Reminders can include:

■ An ear-tag on the vacuum pump switch which has to be moved before milking

■ A flashing light visible from the farm dairy and yard area

■ A flag system on the yard gate latch, which has to be moved to open the yard gate

■ A diversion system connected to dairy plant power / pump switch.

StOrmwater DIVerSIOn

reDuCIng efflu-ent volume will save time and money on han-dling and pumping efflu-ent, and will reduce the amount of storage you need.

There are many ways to reduce water use, among them guttering and down-pipes to direct roof water away from the effluent col-lection system.

You can also bund the concrete tanker apron to prevent water from the tanker loop flowing onto

it; if permitted by your council, use a stormwa-ter diversion system to take clean rainwater off the yard into stormwa-ter drains and not into the ponds.

If you are standing your herd off, consider a system that needs less water for effluent collection (e.g. bark peeling pad or a barn system with slats/bunkers to collect effluent) and in high rainfall areas consider covering and diverting the roof water from large

feed and standoff pads to reduce the catchment area for the effluent system.

It’s also a good idea to pre-wet the yard before milking to speed up the hosing process; use a rubber scraper to remove solids before hosing and low water-use backing gate wash-down options.

Also look at ways to reduce the water usage on the milking platform, e.g. water used to get cows off the platform and auto-matic cup wash systems,

and repair any leaks. Also consider using recycled water for floodwash sys-tems for yard and pad washdown. There are strict food safety guide-lines for this relating to minimum distances and water quality and method of application. Contact your milk quality advisor from your dairy processor before going ahead with this option.

Good stockman-ship will help reduce the amount of effluent generated. To help with this:

■ Plan herd management so that stock spend less time in the yards and

dairy ■ Eliminate slippery sur-

faces and sources of excessive noise or stray

voltage in the yards ■ Train staff in good

stockmanship prac-tices. – DairyNZ.

Reduce water use and keep your effluent volume down.

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maCHInerY & PrODuCtS // 67

Data On milk yield, flow rates and milking duration are there for a Cam-bridge farmer to see. The device is the electronic milk meter designed and manufactured by Waikato Milking Sys-tems - with the data being displayed on one device at each milking bail.

Peter Risi wanted real-time data on his 760 cows’ perfor-mance at Tui Glen Farms Partnership at Whitehall.

The electronic milk meter, in a large herd, is invaluable. The information that the electronic milk meter can provide on indi-vidual cows is extremely beneficial. “We tended to put cows in big groups and as a result weren’t benefitting from having individual cow data.

“For whatever reason, if a cow isn’t

producing much milk - if it’s sick for example, by using the electronic milk meter we can detect that information straightaway now. Particularly if you

have [a number of milking staff ] it takes the pressure off them trying to think ‘what was this cow like yes-terday? What will she be like tomor-row?

The electronic milk meter gives Risi real-time data such as how long a cow milks for and how many litres she produces per minute.

“We can make good decisions based on this real-time data; we can say ‘that cow’s not well’ and draft her out just like that; it individual-ises the whole process.”

“If a cow has gone around a rotary

three times and given 15L, and another cow has gone once and given 15L, you can say that second cow is more effi-cient than the slower milking cow.

“You can start quantifying your deci-sions and say that, that first cow justifi-ably shouldn’t be in this herd.”

As the season progressed and cows were dried off, data collected from the electronic milk meter was used to iden-tify cows dropping off more rapidly.

Risi is satisfied with the payback on

the price of the gear. “The payback is going to be a lot quicker than you think.

“At drying-off we can say those cows that have dropped production so much,

or have dropped so much weight, can be taken out of the group and dried off, rather than us making blanket decisions based on small groups of cows.”

Waikato Milking Systems electronic milk meter has virtually no moving parts and is easy to install, use and maintain. It integrates easily with the company’s Smart range of products and uploads data to external herd management software including LIC’s Protrack Van-tage. More real-time data is expected when the next generation of Protrack is launched.

The electronic milk meter package comes with the ‘Bail Marshal’ which manages connectivity and communi-cation between all Smart devices on each bail.

Vital data right there at each milking bail

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Waikato Milking Systems electronic milk meter sits alongside the communication hub.

“At drying-off we can say those cows that have dropped production so much, or have dropped so much weight, can be taken out of the group and dried off, rather than us making blanket decisions based on small groups of cows.”

NZ Patent Numbers: 521150, 544190, 550635, 545042. Further patents pending. International Patent Numbers: 2003267874, 03748807.9. Further patents pending

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Can You Afford to be Average? Data taken from LIC Production statistics for one NZ region

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40%

50%

60%

70%

HerdHomes Farms Region Average


68 // maCHInerY & PrODuCtS

Film-on-film baleage wrapping lifts quality

Baletite film creates a vacuum and excludes air from the bale.

fIlm wraPPIng silage bales instead of net-wrapping them before

applying balewrap is gain-ing popularity says a machinery distributor.

Power Farming distrib-utes Irish-made McHale balers in New Zealand, its

machinery division gen-eral manager Graeme Leigh saying the new McHale Fusion 3 Plus baler allows wide poly-thene film, rather than netwrap, to secure silage bales before sealing with bale wrap.

The technique is referred to as film-on-film wrapping.

“One of the options for net replacement is Baletite [made by Minster Films] specifically for film-on-film wrapping,” Leigh says. “Baletite has been around for three years and test results show it produces better quality baleage than that made with netwrap.”

In 2013 Minster Films commissioned Dr Dave Davies, formerly of the UK’s Institute of Grass-land and Environmen-tal Research and now a consultant, to run a farm trial to test the quality of the silage produced using Baletite instead of net-wrap.

Davies oversaw the production of 44 silage bales from one field of grass cut, wilted for 24 hours then baled using a McHale Fusion 3 Plus

fitted to apply either net-wrap or Baletite.

To ensure similar grass was ensiled in each treat-ment, chamber wrapping alternated between net-wrap and Baletite every eight bales.

In February 2014, 206 days after ensiling, 12 bales from each treatment were opened and assessed for silage quality using: a pressure test to see how quickly the vacuum in a bale returned to normal atmospheric levels; mould assessment, i.e. weigh-ing all the mould in a bale to assess the percentage of the bale affected; and silage analysis by taking a core sample from each bale.

The pressure test showed that the vacuum in Baletite bales took 180 seconds to dissipate com-pared to the vacuum in the netwrap bales which took 20 seconds, indicating a much better seal for the Baletite bales.

The Baletite bales had a much lower mean mould weight per bale at 5.5kg fresh matter (FM) com-pared to 23.9kg FM for the netwrap bales.

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The total silage lost, which includes storage losses plus mould losses, showed the netwrap bales lost on average twice as much DM as the Baletite treatment.

The chemical analyses of the silage by the labora-tory indicated the Baletite treated bales had better quality silage.

The Baletite bales had a higher DM than the net-wrap bales, and the Bale-tite silage had higher sugar levels (89gm/kgDM vs 70g/kgDM for netwrap silage). Baletite silage also had a lower pH (4.46 vs 4.52 for netwrap silage).

The results showed lower levels of ammo-nia-N in the Baletite bales compared to the netwrap bales. Ammonia-N con-centration in silage pro-vides a gauge of protein breakdown: the lower the level the less protein has been degraded.

Summary figures show the film-on-film bales had: 7.5% lower DM losses than netwrap bales thanks to better fermentation; 80% lower DM losses than netwrap bales through mould; and 52% lower total DM losses than netwrap bales.

“If these results are translated into outcomes for dairy farmers, film-on-film bales would give an average of 7.35kg more DM per bale than netwrap,” Leigh says.

“If you follow this to its logical conclusion, 1.0kg DM equals 11.8 mega

joules of metabolisable energy (MJ ME). This means the farmer gained 86.7 MJ ME per film-on-film bale.

“Given that it takes about 5.8 MJ ME to pro-duce one litre of milk, the additional 86.7 MJ ME in each film-on-film bale could produce an addi-tional 15 litres of milk.”

Davies says the Bale-tite bales in the farm trial showed better silage fer-mentation and lower losses than the netwrap treated bales.

This can be explained by the fact that Baletite net replacement film is tensioned onto the bale in the bale chamber, forc-ing air out of the bale to promote faster fermen-tation in the early stages while maintaining a more oxygen-free environment during the time the bales are in storage.

Film-on-film wrapping also enables automation of the feeding process and easier recycling after use.

Leigh say last year 70% of the fixed chamber McHale Fusion 3 baler-wrappers Power Farming sold in New Zealand were film-on-film machines and he expects the percentage to be 90% this year.

“People are seeing ben-efits. Feedback from farm-ers has been extremely positive and this is reflected in the sales we have had this year.”Tel. 07 902 2200www.powerfarming.co.nz

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maCHInerY & PrODuCtS // 71 Dai ry News september 9, 2014


Nissan Qashqai TS.

New diesel a little rippernISSan’S allIanCe with Renault has given birth to some fantastic

engines. The little diesel unit powering the Nissan Qashqai TS is the latest and it’s a ripper.

The front-wheel drive TS is powered by a 1.6L

aDam frICKerR9M turbo diesel produc-ing 96kW of power and 320Nm of torque. Like the 2.3L unit in the new Navara we reviewed recently, the 1.6L unit is new-generation diesel technology, notably smoother and quieter than older diesel engines, not to mention more economical.

It has great mid-range punch and doesn’t mind a few revs, another feature of many new-generation diesels.

The handsome new Qashqai also has a 2.0L petrol option, a perfectly adequate power unit, but the torque of the diesel, matched with a CVT auto-matic that keeps revs in the creamy part of the torque curve, makes for more effortless progress.

The engine has a cold-loop, low-pressure exhaust gas recirculation system. By recycling the exhaust gas at a lower tempera-ture, emissions are lower. Thermal management is also better in this engine, says Nissan, reducing the warm-up phase, friction losses and fuel consump-tion.

Nissan NZ is offering the diesel only in one mid-range variant, presumably to avoid the price pre-mium top-of-the-line die-sels often demand. For the asking price of $42,990 the TS is well equipped, fea-turing 19-inch alloys, idle stop-start, fog lights, pri-vacy glass, dual-zone cli-mate control and push button engine start.

On the down side, it costs only $1000 less than

the range-topping petrol Ti which for $43,990 adds leather, blind-spot detec-tion, lane departure warn-ing, intelligent parking assist and more besides.

While the new Qashqai shares the same platform as the new X-Trail, it has a very different character. It feels lighter on its feet and ‘sporty’, up to a point, compared to its larger stable mate.

Styling is similar to the X-Trail – no bad thing – with a tucked-in rear end and smaller dimensions overall. It is, however, still large enough inside, including the 430L boot, to be practical.

It has a few electronic tricks at play to improve the handling and ride: active ride control applies subtle braking to indi-vidual wheels and fettles torque output over bumpy roads to flatten out the ride; active engine brak-ing uses the Xtronic CVT tranny to give better vehi-cle control during decel-eration; and the electronic steering, while a bit numb, is direct and feel-some enough to let the driver read the road surface. It points and steers better than many in this cross-over SUV category.

So, it’s not the value proposition of the range, but the TS diesel’s saving grace is that sparkling little engine. The engine’s light weight contributes to the ability to rev higher than old diesel slugs, and to the claimed fuel consumption figure of 4.9L/100km.

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THAT’S STILL BETTER ODDS THAN US RUNNING OUT OF COPPERGUARD®

A bold statement and one that we firmly stand behind. Ever since COPPERGUARD® was introduced to the New Zealand market we have become the most reliable source of injectable copper for New Zealand’s farmers and vets.

With COPPERGUARD® you can treat copper deficiency on your farm with confidence, knowing that COPPERGUARD® is made in New Zealand for New Zealand conditions and is an easy to inject formulation which won’t block the injector gun.

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Machinery dealers tour new European plantlelY DealerS from New Zealand and Australian recently toured the company’s new Netherlands head-quarters, seeing the latest technology.

But not before they enjoyed seeing the canals of Amsterdam.

The dealers travelled to the Tulip factory at Maassluis, south of Rotterdam, to see the welding robots, bending robots and plasma and laser cutters used to make Lely Tulip Multidiscs and other machines.

They also learned about the latest Lely Astronaut milk-ing robots and Vector feeding robots. The automated sys-tems allow farmers to stay out of overalls for two or three days.

In seminars and training sessions the dealers learned

how to increase productivity by making the best quality silage.

Workshops covered the Lely RPC245 Tornado baler-wrapper combination and the Lely Tigo loader wagon, with a hydraulic bulkhead that provides 6m3 extra load capacity.

The building was opened by the Dutch queen in Feb-ruary, winning the Breem certificate for most-sustainable factory in Europe.

The complex will enable Lely to advance on sustain-able and innovative farming businesses.

After the Netherlands the visitors took a cross-Chan-nel ferry to England to visit a large Lely dealer, then saw the sights in London.

Lely’s new research and production facility near Rotterdam has won awards for its modern design.

Lely dealers on tour of the company operations in the Netherlands.

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Even easier to spot earliest-cycling cowsIDentIfYIng ear-lIeSt-CYClIng dairy cows is easier and more reliable with the Tru-Test automated heat detection system, its maker says.

The core function of the Tru-Test MilkHub heat detection system, with

heat detector patches and an infrared scanner, is to help farmers move their herds’ reproduction per-formance closer toward to the industry’s target.

The system builds on the tried and true method of identifying visual signs

of standing heat from mounting animals by adding an accurate ‘extra pair of eyes’ – an infrared scanner developed by Tru-Test.

Aside from breeding advantages, the system also appeals to those

farmers looking for an “improvement in life-style,” the company says.

Its simplicity, and its visual and audible alerts, allows the task of heat detection to be assigned to farm staff, “even to those with limited experience in

dairying”.“Observation is still

important but the rate of heat detection will be more reliable and more accurate with MilkHub.

Extra confidence is gained from know-ing heats are being reli-ably identified, lowering stress in the shed over the mating season.”

The system eliminates the need for staff to check visual signs against tag numbers. And combined with MilkHub autodraft-ing it will automatically draft out cows identified as on heat and ready for mating.

Tru-Test says even “top end” farmers with good grasp and practice of heat detection will see subtle improvements such as having false positives prac-tically eliminated prior to insemination, tightening up of 6-week in-calf rates and better staff manage-ment.

MilkHub self-adhesive fluorescent heat detector

patches can work as a reli-able standalone visual aid, or they can be combined with the infrared MilkHub heat scanner to form the automated MilkHub heat detection system. This suits rotary and herring-bone sheds.

An online video shows the MilkHub in action.www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7c6C54K0_0

An infrared scanner reads heat detector patches.

Restricted Veterinary Medicines. Registered pursuant to the ACVM Act 1997, No. A10591 & 10611 See www.foodsafety.govt.nz/acvm for registration conditions.

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Speedsters to set the pace at LeadfootSubaru IS continuing its involvement with the Leadfoot Festival which is run at Rod Millen’s prop-erty at Hahei on the Coro-mandel peninsula.

To be held on Waitangi weekend from February 6-8 next year, Subaru will be providing the pace cars for the event on Millen’s 1.6 kms long driveway.

“It’s great to see the event back again in 2015,” says Wallis Dumper, man-aging director of Subaru of New Zealand.

“There’s a great festi-

val atmosphere over the weekend and the changes for next year look excit-ing.”

Planning is under-way to introduce a wider range of entertainment and activities, to make the Leadfoot Festival more attractive for families.

But the main feature will continue to be the wide variety of classic and modern, racing, rally and sports cars and motorcy-cles which will do timed runs over the winding uphill driveway.

“Subaru has extended its relationship with Rod and the festival. I am sure the event has a bright future,” says Dumper. “We’re excited to be involved. The event fits with Subaru. It’s a niche

motorsport event and Subaru’s all wheel drive boxer-engine cars stand alone from the rest of the motor industry.”

Tickets for Leadfoot Festival went on sale Sep-tember 1.

Subaru is gearing up for the 2015 Leadfoot Festival.

KIwIS are softies, according to recent statistics gathered by Stihl.

In a recent promotion it asked New Zealanders to make a call on whether a farmer should save his beloved Stihl chainsaw or a cute lamb from a raging barn fire.

In online voting 30,000 people (66%) showed their softer side by choosing to save Flossie the lamb.

Stihl further tested the softy theory at field days: visitors to the company’s site voted for their ending of choice; again, two thirds chose to save Flossie.

Stihl marketing manager Stace Hall says, “We were surprised how many people chose to save the lamb over the chainsaw, especially at a field day where we expected more to choose their beloved power tool.

“We’ve listened to the public so we’re now playing the full scene with the favoured ending on television.”

The star of the commercial, Flossie, is alive and well on a farm north of Auckland.

Watch both endings on www.stihl.co.nz

Flossie gets saved after all

Stihl chainsaw came out second best to Flossie.

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Apex buys Anka

Sealing the deal... from left, Ken Breckon, Bevan Gracie, Wendy McMahon and Terry McMahon.

aPeX ValVeS, the industry leader in plumb-ing and agricultural water control valves, has recently acquired Anka Products. The acquisition means that Anka will now be powered by the 100% kiwi owned and operated manufacturer.

Anka Products offer an extensive range of fit-tings for polyethylene pipe, hose nozzle’s, check and foot valves, swivels and pipe unions which will now be made in New Zealand by Apex, a house-hold name associated with quality, performance and

service. Anka has become a pre-

ferred product by many farmers and growers over the last 18 years and is well known as the ‘blue nut’ fit-ting manufacturer. Apex Valves has over 30 years of experience in the water control valve industry and together Apex now offers a range of water control products that are true, field proven favourites among farmers.

Hydroflow is owned by Ken Breckon and is the distributor for Apex’s agri-cultural valves and Anka products.

Having Bevan Gracie as managing director of Apex Valves and Breckon distributing the product through Hydroflow the business partners are excited about the secured future of Anka.

They are both pleased that Anka will remain 100% NZ made and are looking forward to the innovations the Apex R&D team, plastic engineers and valve experts can apply to the Anka range of products.

Breckon says Hydro-flow and Anka formed a strong relationship over

five years ago and have had very positive traction in the market as many farm-ers now understand the benefits of the Anka prod-uct over the existing main market competitor.

“After discussions with the late Mike McMahon (Anka Products director and owner), we started to represent Anka in the market. Sadly, Mike passed away hence the opportunity for Apex to purchase Anka. Mike will be greatly missed”.

Breckon believes Apex and Anka go hand-in-hand and it’s a perfect comple-

ment to the Apex product offering.

“It also completes the Hydroflow range; we are plumbing and agricultural product distribution spe-cialists and Apex and Anka are key the players in the

market. They both pro-duce a premium quality product that farmers rely on.”

Wendy McMahon says Anka enjoyed a great part-nership with Hydroflow.

“Since Hydroflow came on board as a distributor, we grew from strength to strength,” she told Dairy News. “Mike would be proud to see the company sold to Apex. I would like to see Mike’s legacy con-tinue and grow. We know that these guys will do that very well.”

Anka will operate as a division of Apex and Terry McMahon, the late Mike McMahon’s brother, will

continue to manage Anka alongside the Apex team.

The acquisition of Anka opens also opens export opportunities for Anka, says Gracie. Apex, which exports to 17 countries, will use its network to sell Anka products globally.

Gracie says “Apex is already getting enquiries for Anka products from current and new overseas distributors. We look forward to leveraging off both brands and growing the Anka range, both at home and abroad.

We also welcome the Anka employees, all of which will be retained and are highly valued by Apex”.

MANUFACTURE AND DESIGNAGENTS NATIONWIDE, EXPORTING WORLDWIDE

0800 686 334www.numedic.co.nz

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dairy news 9 september 2014

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