rural news 23 oct 2012

october 23, 2012: Issue 525 www.ruralnews.co.nz

RuRalNEWS

outlook positiveGood debt repayment means the sheep and beef sector is in good shape. page 13

bright future aheadsouthdowns deliver fast growing, great survivability and conformation. pages 37-39 farming with

limitsFarmers

must adapt for better water.page 28

to all farmers, for all farmers

JAY HoWes, winner of the NZIAHs award for the leading agricul-tural and horticultural student at Massey university this year. He is seen here with the president of NZIAHs, Dr David Lewis, of Plant and Food research.Howes was one of several Massey university top agricultural stu-dents recognised recently during a gala function in Palmerston North.the annual dinner, a tradition for final-year agricultural students, this year attracted 200 students, university staff, sponsors and spe-cial guests from the agricultural sector. the guest speaker was Abby Hull, a recent ag graduate from Massey and now a DairyNZ consulting officer in the lower North Island. cameron shaw was named agricultural student of the year, while Nathan Wright won the prestigious William Gerrish Memo-rial Award and bridgette Lawn the NZ Institute of Primary Industry Management award.

massey honours ag students

Pylon problems rumble on

to page 4

Has Fonterra gone soft?

• Fonterra’s stand – page 3

SOME FARMERS in Manawatu/Wan-ganui are upset Fonterra is refusing to appeal the controversial One Plan or help Federated Farmers with cash for its appeal

The issue of One Plan arose at a meeting of Fonterra directors and shareholders in the region recently. Rural News has learned some share-

holders were bitterly disappointed at the response of Fonterra’s representa-tives at the meeting.

James Stewart, Feds Dairy section chairman for Manawatu/Rangitikei, says personally he would have liked Fonterra to appeal the Environment Courts deci-sion on the One Plan. He says some farmers at the meeting expressed the view Fonterra had gone ‘soft’ on the plan and were more interested in look-ing after the corporate image of the

organisation than looking after farm-ers’ issues.

“But it’s fair to say there were mixed views on the issue and some accepted an appeal may be difficult. Others grilled the Fonterra people, but not in an unpleasant way,” says Stewart.

Gray Beagley, who represents Feds members in Tararua District, says farm-ers were upset at Fonterra’s approach, especially its outright refusal to help in any way with Federated Farmers’ appeal

peter burke

[email protected]

to the High Court. “Fonterra said they were going

to work behind the scenes and try to make a difference that way. Fonterra is saying they’ll help us on the day-to-day stuff, but farmers are saying they can get through the day-to-day stuff themselves; it’s long term sustainabil-ity or securing the future that’s worry-ing them.”

Beagley says farmers in his area, a high rainfall one, are now just starting to get a handle on some of the numbers coming out of ‘Overseer’ and realizing they can’t do anything to mitigate that. Some farmers are saying they will be forced off their farms.

“I think it just a bit of PR exercise by Fonterra saying that they won’t go against the Environment Court,” Beagley claims.

FARMERS AND landowners in Whangerei District are the latest to lock horns with their council, and indirectly Transpower, over provi-sions the state-owned enterprise is seeking to get written into district plans.

In Western Bay of Plenty and Waimate, concerns about devel-opment and consequent land use restrictions were limited to the Transpower national grid infra-structure, but in Whangarei the council’s proposed plan change 123A will apply to all network facili-ties, ie including local lines company

andrew swallow

[email protected]

That’s what works out here.

Manure happens.Risk is a part of life out here. Always has been, always will be. You know you can’t get ahead without it. So while some other insurers try and avoid risk, we stare it in the face, help you manage it so you can get on with what you do best.Ask around about us, or for some advice call 0800 366 466.

FMG0

FMG0

FMG

216/

216/

216/AAA

There’s an rd1 sTore near you, so TaLK To us Today. 0800 731 266 │ WWW.rd1.CoM

buy 30 y Posts and

receive a free bag of

150 y Post insulators

worth $84.99

offers valid from 1 october 2012 until 31 october 2012 or while stocks last. Prices include GsT and are subject to change.

Zelam tag g2 • Provides excellent knockdown

of hard-to-kill weeds • up to 12 months residual

activity on a wide range of weed species

• Convenient 1L, 5L and 20L pack sizes

siZe Price save uP to

5l# 235771

$14999 $2000norMaLLy uP To $169.99

20l# 235769

$44999 $5000norMaLLy uP To $499.99

*Free kit includes: chest strap, waist belt, pressure gauge and adjustable nozzle.

standard y Post • sharp pointed driving end • 7 holes drilled to new Zealand

fencing standards • u slot at the top of each post • heavy black tar coating

siZe Price

1.5m# 235291

$799

1.65m# 204826

$899

1.8m# 236082

$1099

ea

ea

ea

summit multimineral salt block 20kg • Convenient and cost-effective for all round use • Contains trace minerals for animal health • salt supplementation can

increase feed intake and optimise production

# 213245

BUY 2 FOR$3998

norMaLLy uP To $21.99 ea

$400

country mile atv ramPs • extremely tough, ideal for loading aTV’s or mowers onto

utes or trailers • Lightweight and compact design for easy carrying • safety strap and lip designed to avoid slippage • Weight bearing 680kg per pair

# 237672

$19999

norMaLLy uP To $349.99

$15000

bertolini eZi-sPot sPrayer 50l • Free-standing

polyethylene tank for durable wear

• QualityShurflo12Vpump, rated at 6.8L/min

model Price save uP to

without lid# 223079

$49999 $5000norMaLLy uP To $549.99

with lid# 235573

$59999 $5000norMaLLy uP To $649.99 W

ithou

t lid

spr

ayer

sho

wn.

solo knaPsack sPrayer 425 or 475• Made in Germany • Powerful, compact

pressure sprayer• Precision engineering,

reinforced wand

# 222500 / 222498

$18999ea

includes free kit worth $40.00*

red band workboots • hard wearing, heavy gauge buffalo

leather upper for durability and comfort

• Twin layer scuff-resistant toe guard for increased wear resistance

• unisex sizes: 4-14

new Product

# 246765 / 246766 / 246768 / 246769

FROm OnlY$17499

ea

70 mile bush summer work socks 3 Pack• Low tension rib leg for comfort • Cotton/wool blend helps temperature control

through summer • reinforced sole and 'y' heel for added

durability • Made from 50% wool, 24% cotton,

24% nylon and 2% lycra

# 239545

$3299


$700

swanndri Paihia or tasman shirt • 100% cotton• Classic swanndri weave that allows for

superior air movement to keep you cool • Paihia shirt available in

khaki/white, navy or shadow/white in men’s sizes: s-3XL

• Tasman shirt available in blue/white or pink/blue in women’s sizes Xs-2XL

# 246535 / 246570

$5999ea

# 242917 / 242918

BUY 2 FOR$3998

norMaLLy uP To $23.49 ea

$700

country mile chook food or Pig tucker 20kg • high quality, well

balanced feed

chooketeria self service feeder • Chickens help themselves when they’re hungry• Food stays dry in all weather conditions• Proudly designed and made

in new Zealand

# 243051

$12999


$1000

dumPing cart 75l• Make light work around the backyard• Push and pulls with swivel

handle• easy release dumping tray

with tipping facility• dimensions: 1.15m L

x 0.5m W x 0.47m h (approx.)

# 242270

$9999


$5000

5-7 gun storage safe• reinforced steel plate with powder coating• 5 bolt locking system with separate

lockable compartment for ammunition an separate key

• 4mm door thickness• dimensions: 350mm W

x 1,450mm h x 300mm d• accessories not included

# 221208

$34999


$10000

tesa Professional touch screen weather station • Touch screen panel with usB port for PC connection• Provides weather forecast tendency• Measures rainfall, air

pressure, wind chill, wind speed and direction

# 235892

$22999


$5000

15%OFF

all newtOn's lawn seed

new range

in store

RuRal News // october 23, 2012

news 3

Head office top Floor, 29 Northcroft street, takapuna, Auckland 0622

Phone: 09-307 0399 fax: 09-307 0122

Postal addressPo box 3855, shortland street, Auckland 1140

Published by: rural News Group

Printed by: PMP Print

contacts

editorial: [email protected]

advertising material: [email protected]

rural news online: www.ruralnews.co.nz

subscriptions: [email protected]

Abc audited circulation 80,767 as at 30.06.2012

issue 525www.ruralnews.co.nz

News�.............................. 1-16

world�.............................. 18

agribusiNess�........... 20-21

Markets�.................... 22-23

HouNd, edNa�................... 24

CoNtaCts�......................... 24

opiNioN�....................... 24-27

MaNageMeNt�........... 28-33

aNiMal HealtH�........34-36

soutHdowNs�............ 37-39

MaCHiNery aNd produCts�..................40-45

rural trader�.......... 46-47

Fonterra stands its ground on One Plan stanceFONTERRA IS standing by its decision not to appeal the One Plan.

Managing director of corporate affairs Todd Muller told Rural News that having looked at the Environment Court decision they decided on balance not to appeal. He says their legal advice was that given any appeal would have to be on points of law, they felt more could be done by working “behind the scenes” with farmers and the regional council to

achieve a satisfactory outcome.Muller says Fonterra has made it

clear it will not financially support the appeal to the High Court by Federated Farmers.

“We’ve got different roles. Federated Farmers position themselves as politi-cal advocates and activists and I respect that. My view is that it’s a better use of our resources to work with the regional council behind the scenes. I think this

is a complementary approach,” he says.Muller says as well as working with

Horizons, Fonterra is working with DairyNZ to look at ways farmers can deal with the One Plan issues on farm. Farmer meetings are planned for later this year will target farmers in particu-lar land class areas and should prove of good value.

“In recent days the chairman of Horizons has been at pains to point

out that from their perspective now is the time for cool heads to step through this and see how this unfolds over the next five to fifteen years,” Muller adds.

“Through that time period there will be the opportunity for plan changes which has the potential to change direc-tion and speed of travel. A measured approach behind the scenes is the way that I think we can do that effectively.”

– Peter Burke

Is big best?IS BIGGER better? That’s the question the boards and shareholders of rural supply cooperatives Farmlands and CRT are grappling with now a merger is officially being discussed.

The move, long anticipated, looks like it would create the country’s larg-est rural retailer by turnover, though not in store numbers (see table).

However, directors of the two com-panies are staying tight-lipped on the reasons for investigating a merger now. “We’ve nothing more to report at this stage,” CRT chairman Don McFar-lane told Rural News late last week. “It’s likely we’ll be communicating to share-holders again in a week or two.”

McFarlane wouldn’t comment on whether there is any overlap in the two cooperatives’ businesses or – as it appears on paper with Farmlands oper-ating solely in the North Island and CRT in the South – whether it would be a case of two plus two equalling four, plus a little bit more. “That’s always the inten-

tion with these things,” he admitted.Farmlands shareholder and board

candidate Hugh Ritchie says there will have to be a strong case for the move to win support.

“The models used by CRT and Farm-lands are not quite the same. Farmlands used to be in real estate but got out of it; fuel is a cut-throat business – it’s high turnover but not a lot of margin, and the livestock business is the same.” How

much CRT’s operations in the latter two make remains to be seen, he notes.

The lack of information to share-holders to date, and the fact he was told there were no merger plans in the run-up to the election nominations closing – only to read in the newspaper the following morning the two co-ops were in talks – does not bode well for an open and transparent process, he says.

McFarlane says the firms “do want a pretty transparent process”, which is why at this stage they’re not prepared to comment to news media, but will do so when shareholders have been sent the initial findings.

andrew swallow

Crt Farmlands “Crt + Farmlands”

pgw (inc Fruitfed) rd1*

Shareholders 26,031 27,925 54,956?

Agria (50%), HSBC

(38%), & many more

1 (Fonterra)

Stores 31 47 78? 98 64

Turnover** $1292m $773m $2065m? $1337m $287m*

Profit before tax & rebates

or EBITDA$13.5m $5.5m $?? $24.5m $6.7m*

*2010-11 data as 2011-12 figures not yet available**Includes non store operations, such as livestock, finance, fuel.

Rural retailers compared

Future not so rosy for some kiwifruit

GROWERS ON cold, wet and low-lying sites probably do not have a future in kiwifruit, says Zespri chair-man John Loughlin. That is indicated to date by the Psa recovery pathway accessible with the introduction of the new Gold crop G3, he told Rural News.

On average the recovery is pro-gressing “a bit worse than expected,” he says. “But we are seeing some orchards as good as our best hopes and some as bad as our worst fears,” he says. Psa is worst at sites that are low lying with a high water table, exposed to wind and cold, and prone to spring frosts.

“Wherever there is stress on the vine, Psa is much worse,” Loughlin says. “There are sites where kiwifruit was grown in the past where it may not be grown in the future because of a combination of Psa and other stresses.

“If your orchard is not in the right place, you do the same thing as every-where else in the rural sector: you just have to make a change. If the world changes and your land isn’t viable you just have to do something else.

“For a number of people Psa has knocked out their income and their asset, it’s knocked out their life sav-ings, their life’s work and their dig-nity, so it’s pretty horrendous damage to anybody.”

But Loughlin believes there is a good future with the new G3 for grow-ers on the best sites, who are following best management practices including good spray programmes.

The industry conference last week had 500 people registered, the big-gest attendance ever: “People coming along who can see themselves as part of a successful recovery from Psa, who are willing to hear about their future.”

Loughlin says growing areas could become more spread out around the country, Nelson and Hawkes Bay par-ticularly suitable.

Bay of Plenty has a more tropical, moist atmosphere which makes it sus-ceptiable to Psa. Italy has been less affected by Psa because the bacteria doesn’t thrive in dry heat.

Kiwifruit needs a precise environ-ment with not too much summer heat, some humidity, ideally some winter frost to help with buds but not much frost in spring.

“Areas like Nelson and Hawkes Bay are looking much more at kiwifruit now”, he says. Loughlin says Psa is a group of bacteria that has attacked 50 plant species but it hasn’t beaten any of the industries yet. “It is something the growers are going to have to live with and adjust their management practices to; good horticulturalists on good sites will have a very good future.”

paM tIpa

@rural_news facebook.com/ruralnews

better by designDesigned For Superior Strength The nut teeth bite into the pipe for better grip, this combined with the nuts internal taper which secures the pipe onto the barbs results in superior holding strength.

Different Design, Better Performance

Non Threaded DesignWith no threads on the nut or the body of the fitting the problem of threads binding up with sand and dirt (particularly sandy and peaty soils) is eliminated.

DEMANDBLUE NUTFITTINGS FOR POLYTHENE PIPE

DISTRIBUTED BY:

LEADING WITH KNOWLEDGE

RuRal News // OctOber 23, 2012

4 news

infrastructure. One kiwifruit and avo-cado grower particularly concerned by the proposals is Dermott Malley. “I’ve got 110kv, 50kv, and 11kv lines on my property: the Royal Flush!” he told Rural News.

The council’s original proposals were “what Transpower wanted,” says Malley, but in line with Waimate and Western Bay of Plenty, and following submis-sions, the plan change now refers to existing national electricity regulations to guide development of network infra-structure.

“But it’s not a done deal. Transpower are still going to fight to get what they want,” says Malley.

Submission hearings in Whangarei start on November 5 during which land-owners’ representatives will be seeking to get further changes made during that process.

“What the council’s proposing now will still grant property rights to the elec-tricity distribution networks, for exam-ple, the ability to change voltage carried.” Increasing voltage would mean land-owners have more restrictions placed on them owing to the electricity regula-tions, he explains.

In Western Bay of Plenty Transpower has lodged an Environment Court appeal over the council’s decision to adopt a commissioner’s ruling that existing elec-tricity regulations provide sufficient pro-tection for network infrastructure.

Local dairy farmer and kiwifruit grower Steve Bailey says he believes the SOE should drop its appeal and stop wasting taxpayers’ and everyone else’s money.

“Transpower needs to understand the disconnect this is creating,” he told Rural News.

“This is the straw that is going to break the camel’s back. [Transpower] needs to recognise the role landown-ers play in their business [in hosting pylons].” If they don’t, Bailey believes some landowners will start acting to the letter of the law which allows them to say no to access under many circumstances.

Transpower’s argument that farmers

don’t recognise the importance of the national grid is particularly bizarre, given many farms are dependent on electricity for their production, he adds.

As Rural News went to press, Transpower had made no comment on whether it would drop the Western Bay appeal, or lodge an appeal over Waimate District Council’s rejection of its plea for buffer zones to be written into that dis-trict’s plan.

“It seemed to us Transpower was trying to grab control over a massive amount of land via the district plan process,” Federated Farmers Waimate branch chairman Colin Hurst said ear-lier this month, reflecting on the coun-cil’s decision.

“Imagine the width of Eden Park’s playing surface and stretch that the length and breadth of New Zealand. Given the company doesn’t pay rental for much of its tower infrastructure, it is insulting to then make ratepayers pay the cost of being its watchdog; more so when the Code of Practice for Electrical Safety Distances spells everything out in black and white. For those who want to read it, it is NZECP34:2001 and it is fairly com-prehensive.”

Pylon problems rumble onFroM page 1

@rural_newsfacebook.com/ruralnews

Crafar farm sale finally a done deal

AFTER 18 months waiting, Chinese company Shanghai Pengxin is finally cleared to buy the 16 Crafar North Island farms in a deal due for signing before the end of the year. Shanghai Pengxin and Landcorp will then begin jointly managing the farms.

Shanghai Pengxin cleared the final legal hurdle last week after the dis-missal of an attempt by King Country iwi Ngati Rereahu to block the deal in the Supreme Court. The farms went into receivership in 2009.

The company says it is delighted the Supreme Court has refused to allow a further legal appeal by iwi. It says the sale has been an unbeliev-ably protracted process, but it never considered giving up. It looks for-ward to a positive relationship with the dairy industry and local commu-nities in which it will soon be a cor-porate farmer.

“Over time, we hope we will dem-

onstrate many benefits of New Zea-land and China working together and maximising the opportunities avail-able for New Zealand’s largest indus-try in China,” the company says.

Shanghai Pengxin subsidiary Milk New Zealand Holding Ltd will own the Crafar farms. Milk New Zealand Farm Management Ltd (MNZFML) will run the farms in a 50/50 joint ven-ture with Government-owned Land-corp. The SOE will do the day-to-day management.

Landcorp will do due diligence: an inventory of the physical assets of each farm will be checked and the herds reviewed.

Management and sharemilking contracts to be taken over from the receiver will be activated before the deal is settled.

Landcorp chief executive Chris Kelly expects it to take over the run-ning of all the farms early in Decem-ber.

“Our early priority will be to begin the upgrades necessary if we are to

meet our increased production tar-gets and to commence the environ-mental upgrades agreed with the Overseas Investment Office. We are also required to establish a dairy train-ing school on one of the properties so we’ll be involved in planning that.”

MNZFML will spend $15.7 million on the properties in the first three years. The farms will continue to supply milk to Fonterra. But Milk New Zealand Holding has plans to process milk from the farms and create high-value consumer products for sale in China.

Milk New Zealand spokesman Cedric Allan says this may be a con-tract arrangement with a New Zea-land supplier or a joint venture with a New Zealand company. Milk New Zealand Holding has a marketing budget of $100 million in China in the first five years

MNZFML board appointments will be announced soon.

sudesH kIssun

[email protected]


Programmed Property Services offer a range of distinct services designed to add value individually or as a packaged approach to your property upkeep needs.

Contact us to find out more about how we can help.T: 0800 620 911E: [email protected]: programmed.co.nz

We have the expertise to look after your farming community.

Corporate Imaging

Signage and signage design

Identification and directional signage

Grounds Services

Gardens and ground services

Arboricultural services

Painting Services

Internal and external painting

Maintenance painting programmes

High pressure cleaning

Access specialists

Heritage work and specialised finishes

©

ALPINE CLEARSPAN SHEDS™

BUY ALPINE, BUY PEACE OF MINDPhone now for your FREE Brochure pack

✓ Bird proof✓ Free delivery nationwide✓ Best value✓ Best service✓ Super galvanized box

section rafters

0800 428 453www.alpinebuildings.co.nz


news 5bleak ‘horizon’ painted for HortHORTICULTURE NEW Zealand has gone on the offensive against Hori-zons Regional Council’s One Plan with a cover story in its NZ Grower magazine predicting a bleak future for the sector unless significant changes are made to the plan.

HortNZ and Feder-ated Farmers have lodged appeals against One Plan in the High Court in an attempt to reverse some of the decisions made by the Environment Court.

NZ Grower quotes HortNZ’s resource man-

agement planner Lyn-nette Wharfe saying the plan, as it stands, has seri-ous consequences for growers. She says some growers may be unable to obtain a resource consent within which they can operate or the consent process will be so compli-cated and costly they will not be able to continue in business. Wharfe says this could have major down-stream effects including limiting Horizons grow-ers to compete with grow-ers from other regions and seriously impacting

the flexibility of rotational growing systems.

Wharfe claims the One Plan could limit the avail-ability of vegetables and or push up their cost and have economic impacts on towns such as Levin. She says it could affect land prices and have flow on effects to other rural service industries.

HortNZ says it does not believe that the Envi-ronment Court ade-quately considered issues related to horticulture, hence its appeal to the High Court.

President’s WordLevy referendum result

Product groups Kumara, tomato prices soar

Foodstuffs backs down Suppliers balk at promo rebate

GIA is now alive What the industry thinks

Vol 67 • No 9 • October 2012 Horticulture New ZealaNd

Bleak HorizonsOne Plan to end them all

Dairy prices up, but so is $NZ!

DAIRY PRICES continue to rise but one economist says don’t expect a lift in payout anytime soon.

The price of whole milk powder jumped 9% to US$3421/tonne, its highest level in eight months. But it remains well below the record US$4985/t reached in March last year.

ANZ National rural economist Con Williams is still predicting a milk payout of $5.50/kgMS despite Fonterra’s GlobalDairyTrade auction recording its fifth increase in the last six events. The strong New Zealand dollar con-tinues to be a stumbling block, cancelling any benefits of firming dairy prices.

At last week’s auction, the GDT trade weighted index rose 1.8%. Skim milk powder rose 0.3% to US$3325/t. How-ever, cheddar prices fell 10%.

Williams says the result underlines strong demand for milk powders. “Over the past months we have seen skim milk powder leading the price increase; whole milk powder is now catching up,” he told Rural News.

Williams predicts prices to firm as supply out of the US and Europe falter due to weather. Production in the EU block is down 2.5% and has moved into the negative ter-ritory in the US for the first time since the drought broke out. At the same time, milk production in Australia, New Zealand and South America remains strong.

Fonterra chairman Henry van der Heyden agrees milk supply in the US is being affected. But he’s not saying how the payout will fare if supply dips as expected.

“It’s a bit too early to say,” van der Heyden says. “There are a lot of scenarios we can think of. Only time will tell. It’s all about supply and demand and how they play out will determine prices.” He believes volatility seen in the dairy market during the last five years will continue.

Williams believes WMP prices will stay within US$3200/t to $3700/t band and are unlikely to reach the dizzying heights of March 2011. Global economic growth needed for dairy prices to springboard to record levels is also unlikely.

“Once prices reach US$4200/t, we will start to see come consumer resistance so I don’t think prices will rise too much,” he says.

On the payout, Williams says the strong NZ dollar will remain a major constraint. However, there is some good news on the currency front. Williams says in recent days the NZ dollar has struggled to break through the US81-82c barrier. “We don’t expect it go much higher so that may be some relief to our exporters.”

But ASB predicts the dollar to peak at US84c in June next year. In its economic weekly report, ASB says strength in the NZ dollar will be underpinned by the continued elevated level of our key commodity export prices, low currency volatility, and gradual recovery in domestic demand.

sudesH kIssun

CROPLANDS LINKAGE SPRAYERS1 3 DEPOSIT NOW. 1 3 IN 12 MONTHS. 1 3 IN 24 MONTHS.

%FINANCEOFFER*0

*1/3 deposit, 1/3 payment in 12 months, � nal 1/3 payment in the 24th month at 0% � nance rate along with a ‘Bonus Dollars’ value attached to each sprayer to be used as a free upgrade at time of purchase. ‘Bonus Dollars’ are not redeemable for cash or other goods. Finance only available through Croplands Credit at participating dealers. Offer is subject to Croplands credit lending criteria. Supply subject to availability. Offer valid 22 October – 30 November on the three models shown only. See your local Croplands Territory Manager for full terms and conditions. All prices are exclusive of GST.

Upgrade your sprayer with BONUS DOLLARS to spend on foam marker, controllers and accessories to setup your sprayer the way you need it.

3 MODELS TO CHOOSE FROMAll come with AR70 pump, UCM 4-way controller, hose reel, 30m of 10mm hose � tted with a Turbo 400 gun, and quality Cropmaster boom.

North Island, Upper Greg Small 0276 879 010North Island, Lower Vic Barlow 0274 752 322South Island Rob Marshall 0272 486 822

Freecall 0800 106 898Freefax 0800 117 711Email [email protected]

ALGO

/CLE1814

700 litre with8 metre boom

$6,029.90

+$500 BONUS DOLLARS

1000 litre with 8 metre boom

$7,954.90

+$750 BONUS DOLLARS

1000 litre with 10 metre boom

$8,326.50

+$1000 BONUS DOLLARS


6 news

Pay true price for saving planet

CONSUMERS ARE not paying the true environ-ment cost of food production, says a Taupo farmer, Mike Barton.

He farms in the Taupo catchment, now subject to ‘Variation 5’ – a strict rule made by the Waikato Regional Council (EW) which severely limits how much nitrogen a farm can leach, part of a plan to improve the water quality in Lake Taupo. He once belonged to Taupo Lake Care (TLC) which negoti-ated with EW on to make Variation 5 in some way workable for farmers in the catchment.

Barton says Variation 5 and similar rules planned by other councils markedly affect the economics of farming, but this cost is not being passed onto consumers. Farming leaders need to ‘front foot’ the issue and explain to consumers the effects of the new environmental rules on the cost of production, he argues.

“Farming leadership needs to take this to the consumer and say ‘while we are part of the prob-lem, you as consumers are also contributing to the issue and between us we have to find a solution’.”

On the premise that his farming system is help-ing ‘save’ the lake, Barton has begun marketing a special brand of beef now returning him a pre-mium price from local restaurants.

He says the Government’s goal to improve the economy by increased intensification is at odds with new environment rules coming into force to protect the catchment.

“If, however, the goals are income targets and we look at increasing the value of the product we are selling from farming as opposed to the amount, then we can do it. We have gone from a production to a profitability focus – it’s now about production within environmental limits. This is the single big-gest challenge facing New Zealand agriculture and economic performance in a generation.”

Barton believes people are just ‘dancing around the issue’. “To say it’s going to be fixed by ripar-ian planting and effluent management is self-delusional. We’ve had riparian plantings here for 30 years and every stream in the Taupo catchment has been planted.”

Barton says as environmental rules take effect, stock numbers will have to drop and new ways of making farming profitable, besides increasing pro-duction, will have to be found.

“One thing I have learned from this process is that farmers are no different from other sec-tors of society. They will generally elect leaders and people who pick any issue up for them… who will tell them what they want to hear. But this is an issue where they need to elect leaders who tell what them what they need to hear and there’s a big difference.” (See more on Mike Barton’s farming regime: pages 28-29)

peter burke

poor season will increase debtFARM BANKRUPTCIES could rise by 10% on last season if the coun-try suffers a bad season, says Fed-erated Farmers president Bruce Wills.

Farm debt levels have increased by 12.7% since 2008 according to the Reserve Bank and Wills says the average on-farm debt is now $20/kgMS for the dairy sector alone. “It’s the elephant in the room,” says Wills. “Debt is $3 bil-lion dollars higher than when the global credit crisis struck in 2008; we are living beyond our means.”

An increasing number of high

profile large-scale farms have been going into receivership recently – including five dairy farms and two support blocks – with a combined area of 3138ha going into receiver-ship in the Hawkes Bay this month alone.

Wills says high debt levels com-bined with Fonterra’s $5.55/kgMS payout predictions for the 2012-13 season is responsible and it will only get tougher. He suspects another 10% of farmers may need to go into receivership if they do not manage their affairs correctly.

“It’s my sincere hope we won’t have mortgagee sales but I know that about 10% of farmers, roughly,

are struggling to cope with debt loads and some of those 10% won’t make it. And if there is a drought or a lower level of production, they will include those farms that don’t have any built-in resistance to cope.”

Wills is cautioning farmers to do their figures carefully before committing to any extra debt.

National Bank rural economist Conn Williams says that while the average debt sits at $20—$21/kgMS the farming sector as a whole can afford to handle the lower payout.

“The dairy sector can get through one tighter year; it’s had two good years so it has cash

on the sideline.”Williams says too that if the

2012-13 season does suffer lower production it should be reflected in higher prices at the farmgate.

He says there should be other savings too, including decreasing exchange rates and on-farm costs.

“From what I’ve seen farmers have factored in softening milk prices and are de-leveraging,” says Williams. “There is a range of responses including selling extra land and paying off debts with earnings from the previous season.”

Floats like a butterflyOnly CLAAS DISCO Contour mowers come with

unique ‘active float’ hydro-pneumatic suspension

technology as standard. The mower gently floats up

and down as it follows ground contours independently

of the tractor, significantly reducing fuel consumption

and the potential for wear and tear. With 22 different

front-mounted, rear-mounted and trailed models

from 2.1 through to 9.1 metres to choose from, you’ll

find a DISCO model that’s perfect for your needs.

Contact your local CLAAS Harvest Centre today

and find out how legendary CLAAS Greenline fodder

harvesting technology can give you the edge.

CLAAS Harvest Centrewww.claasharvestcentre.co.nz

LPNZ12203

18465_LPNZ12203_DiscoMower_260x187mm.indd 1 14/08/12 3:37 PM

garetH gIllatt



news 7

psa impact going from bad to worseLOSSES TO the kiwifruit industry from Psa-V will be much greater than the pre-dicted $500 million over five years, says grower rep-resentative Neil Trebilco.

The replacement gold crop G3 and the existing Green Hayward crops are being hit by Psa more than hoped, says Trebilco, who is president of New Zea-land Kiwifruit Growers Inc (NZKGI).

Poor weather has also hampered the Psa recovery pathway, in which grow-ers are replacing the highly susceptible Gold crop Hort16 with new varieties, in particular G3.

But Trebilco says the industry will have a clearer picture in December and he believes some more proactive growers will come through with G3.

“Late and severe spring frost has caused damage to developing canopies and to new grafts,” says Trebilco. “In combination with this, Psa is impacting both the new Gold3 variety and the existing Hayward variety more than we had hoped.”

Areas with harsher weather have been harder hit. “For instance we have seen a greater progres-sion of Psa in areas such as Waihi than we had hoped, probably because it’s colder there.”

The virulent form of Psa is now affecting 58% of New Zealand’s orchards and Hawke’s Bay is the

latest area to be hit. A Lin-coln University agribusi-ness study earlier this year predicted $500 mil-lion revenue losses to the kiwifruit industry over five years.

“I think the cost could be substantially higher than that,” Trebilco says. “But we will be thinking more about that in Decem-ber when we see how Hayward and G3 survive through pollination which is happening in the next few weeks. Once the crop has been set we will know more about how the crop looks and the impact of Psa on vines.”

But Trebilco believes some growers will suc-ceed with G3. Some grow-ers thought they would grow G3 and Hayward without a protective spray programme, he believes. “Growers must be more proactive than they thought they would have to be,” he says. “While Gold3 and Hayward are substantially more toler-ant [of Psa] than the Hort 16a variety, a comprehen-sive spray programme is

still needed.” But Trebilco says wind is hampering his own efforts to maintain a two-weekly spray cycle on his own orchard. Hayward was previously seen to be highly resistant to Psa so growers are “rightly con-cerned” about the spread of Psa in the Hayward crop, particularly in the male vines. But Trebilco says he knows of a Hay-ward orchard that has been infected since Psa was first discovered, but will set a good crop this year.

“It’s not universal; it does depend on where the orchard it is, how cold it is, whether it is stressed because of high water table – because we have so much rain that stresses the vine. You have to get everything right for Hayward and G3 to do well.” Some growers would find it difficult to afford sprays, particularly as Hayward has a smaller profit margin than Gold.

In Hawke’s Bay, Psa has only been found on one orchard so far but that was a major disappoint-ment to growers there. “We had hoped because of the geographical dis-tance from Bay of Plenty that they would be able to be Psa free for quite a bit longer yet.

“From an industry point of view the less it spreads the better because it has such an impact. This whole thing is very stress-ful for growers.”

paM tIpa

in Hawke’s Bay, Psa has only been found on one orchard so far but that was a major disappointment to growers there.


*Open to existing PGG Wrightson Rewards members only. Qualifying products to be purchased between 1 September and 31 December 2012, with bonus points awarded the month following purchase. **Open to PGG Wrightson accounts that enrol in the PGG Wrightson Rewards programme between 1 September and 31 December 2012, subject to PGG Wrightson approval. Sign up bonus points awarded the month following purchase of qualifying products. For qualifying products

and full terms and conditions see www.pggwrightson.co.nz. Find out more about PGG Wrightson Rewards at www.pggwrightson.co.nz/rewards or call 0800 62 62 62. ***For Pioneer product positioning information, talk to PGG Wrightson. Pioneer® brand products are provided subject to the terms and conditions of purchasing, which are part of the labelling and purchase documents. ®, ™, , Trademarks and service marks of Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc.

Sign up when you buy selected agri-chemicals, seed or fertiliser and receive 5,000 points to get you started!**

Earn 2 Rewards points for every $1 you spend on selected agri-chemicals and seed*.

38H20 Silage CRM 91***An extremely versatile and dependable hybrid. Used from Northland as a short maturing option, through to Mid Canterbury as a full maturity option. A regular yield winner in the South Island.

Roustabout®An excellent high strength pre-emergence option for selective weed control of annual grasses and many broadleaf weeds in maize and sweetcorn. Provides peace of mind during early establishment when combined with atrazine or Sharpen®.

Atranex® WGResidual herbicide for the control of certain broadleaf weeds in maize, sweetcorn, linseed and established lucerne. A high strength granule with good compatibility qualities. This product aids in the weed spectrum when mixed with Roustabout.

Finance from 1.95% 12 mths • 2.95% 24 mths • 3.95% 36 mths • 4.95% 46 mths*

Seasonal or yearly payment options available.* *Based on 40% deposit. Normal lending criteria and conditions apply.

DM RAPIDO

Contact your local Power Farming Dealer or visit our website www.powerfarming.co.nz

3 and 3.5 metre working widths 200Hp gearbox Quick fi t tines Cam clutch standard Packer and cage options

+GST

3 and 3.5 metre working widths

Spring Special

$23,990From

Cage Roller model

The ultra heavy duty 3 metre DM Rapido unit is available with either a cage or packer option making it well suited to a wide range of soil types.

RAB0

478/

39

Grow your business with our All In One accountThe market-leading rural loan from the agribusiness specialistsThe Rabobank All In One account is specifically designed to assist farmers to realise their future plans. It combines flexible long-term finance with easy access to funds through cheque book and ATM/EFTPOS card, and the convenience of internet banking. With one of the most innovative agribusiness loan packages available, you can make important financial decisions at the right time for your business.

n Maximise your cash flow with an interest-only loan period of up to 15 years.

n Transaction, overdraft and loan facilities in a single account.

n Book rates online without a fee and with no further documentation.

Rabobank. One focus. Call 0800 722 622 or visit www.rabobank.co.nz

RAB0478_390x265.indd 1 20/07/10 4:16 PM


news 9

trees go as landcorp ups dairy cowsSEVERAL HUNDRED hectares of one-year-old pine trees are to be mulched to make way for

pasture and then herds of dairy cows. The reason: the low cost of carbon credits and the higher returns from dairying

The development is

just out of Taupo on land owned by Wairakei Pas-toral and managed by Landcorp. According to Landcorp chief executive Chris Kelly, about 1000ha,

peter burke including land recently planned in pines, has been laying fallow waiting for clarity on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).

Kelly says with the price of carbon being so low, the company has decided to buy overseas credits and convert the land as quickly as possi-ble to pasture for dairy-ing. Landcorp presently manages six dairy farms in the Broadlands area for Wairakei Pastoral.

The initial development will involve converting land which is adjacent to those farms so that the land can be ‘bolted on’ without incurring any additional major capital cost – such as building new dairy

sheds. Already bulldozers and other heavy machinery are on the site clearing and chipping stumps, bulldozing small logs into pits and finally mulching the remaining small sticks into the soil in preparation for sowing grass.

Fescue and ryegrass are used and great care is taken to plant seed at a time when the best strike can be achieved. Fescue has a narrow sowing season – between the middle of February and the middle of March – whereas ryegrass has a wider sowing band.

Landcorp farm busi-ness manager Alan Bul-lick says it can take 12-18 months before cows can

graze the pasture and even then care has to be taken not to graze it too hard. “We start off in the first year by running 1.9 cows per ha. The next year we step it up to 2.1 and the fol-lowing year up 2.3,” he says.

When the land is fully converted it is excellent dairy land, but Bullick believes there are lessons to be learned from previous conversions. He says taking shortcuts doesn’t

work and cash has to be spent at the start to get the land properly prepared; this includes the use of lime and super.

THE EFFECTIVENESS of Auckland’s lobbying has prompted South Island local authorities to try to get a slice of the action – especially the dollars.

A ‘collation of willing’ councils has been formed and while roads are at the top of their agenda, the talking point is not traf-fic congestion.

Heading the group is Tasman District Council Mayor, Richard Kempthorne, who says all the South Island councils have indi-cated support for the new lobby group.

Kempthorne concedes that Auckland has roading problems, but points out so does the South Island. He says the prob-lem with rural roads, of critical impor-tance to the dairy industry in the South Island, stems from the fact that the NZ Transport Agency operations and mainte-nance budget has been pretty much capped at existing levels. He says that means with inflation councils will gradually creep behind in their budgets and the amount of money they can allocate to rural roads.

“Part of the issue is RONS – roads of national significance. These are mainly

motorway type projects around the big cities and this is taking a big chunk of the NZTA budget. We are going to be stressing to the Government the importance of rural roads to get them to have a better under-standing of the issue, he says.

Regions such as the West Coast have large milk catchment areas and rely heavily on good rural roads to service dairy farms.

Kempthorne says rural areas are where most of the country’s economic capac-ity is realised and rural roads are critical. “We are looking at trying to maximise the money we get for roads while acknowl-edging that the Government will want to keep focusing on the big cities and motor-way projects.”

He says South Island councils hope to pool resources and see what they can do collectively. “At our next meeting in November we’ll be looking at what is our key strategic message is and how do we have that discussion with the Government. Essentially it’ll be to maximise the amount of money available for rural roads,” he says.

Southern road lobby

oN MANY dairy conversion tree stumps will be pulled out and more likely burned later but not so at broadlands.

once pulled out, the stumps are either stacked up in a paddock or taken to a separate location where they are left to dry for up to a year. When dry they are ‘hogfuelled’ or chipped by a giant machine that can gobble up a huge stump in one go and in a matter of minutes convert it to chips.

“the chips are trucked off to the

Kinleith paper mill and used in the furnaces where they are mixed with coal dust and gas. one might have expected to see the stumps burned, but this is not seen as environmentally-friendly and there’s ways to make some money from the stumps,” explains Alan bullick.

About 2500 cows will be grazed on the newly converted land, but as the conversion continues more farms will be added.

stumps not wasted

There’s an rd1 sTore near you, so TaLK To us Today. 0800 731 266 │ WWW.rd1.CoM

Conditions apply. sale and bulk priced items do not qualify. $20 discount must be redeemed by 31 december 2012 at an rd1 store. see in store for further details.

*CONDITIONS:1. For every bag of qualifying horse feed purchased from

an RD1 store on or before 31 December 2012 you will

receive one stamp. 2. When this card is completed (10 stamps) you will receive

$20 off the next bag of qualifying horse feed purchased

from an RD1 store. 3. The $20 discount must be used at an RD1 store by 31

December 2012.4. The bonus stamp and $20 discount offer only apply to bags of horse feed supplied by participating vendors (shown beside these conditions). Sale and bulk priced items do not qualify.5. The $20 discount may not be exchanged

for cash, be redeemed against any other product or be credited to any account. 6. This card is not transferable.Offer only available at RD1 stores Expires December 31 2012

Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Phone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Equestrian group/club? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Register online to the Lifestyler newsletter which features the monthly Straight from the Horse’s Mouth article.

Visit WWW.RD1.COM fOR full Details.

For every bag of Dunstan Horse Feeds, Mitavite or Fiber Fresh horse feed you purchase from RD1, you’ll receive one stamp on your Bonus Card.

Pick up a Horse Feed Bonus Card from your local RD1 store today – collect 10 stamps and you’ll receive $20 off your next bag of qualifying feed.

ExclusivE dEalavailable for rD1 customers.

Offering outstanding performance the Mega Pack’s advanced folding system to a width of 2.5m ensures transport is easy once the job is done.

MEGA PACK RM ROLLER

• 8 metre working width• Pivot points centred on

the rings offers good weight distribution

• 630/650 cast rings• Spring loaded roller

gang• Weight 5020kg• Optional front levelling

board

Contact your local Power Farming Dealer or visit our website www.powerfarming.co.nz

FINANCE FROM

1.95%* *Normal lending criteria and conditions apply

chris Kelly

FG57

North Island : 09 275 5555 South Island : 03 437 9000 [email protected] // farmgard.co.nz

CALL FARMGARD NOW FOR A FREE INFO PACK OR YOUR LOCAL DEALER

HOE+SOW

TERMS AND CONDITIONS:Only applies to base model Pre Rippers and Seedboxes. $2000 off all Airseeders and premium model pre rippers (7 or 9 leg). ONLY available at participating Celli stocking dealers. Please call for your local dealer. Offer ends 31st October 2012. Limited stocks, rain checks available.

FREE Seedbox or Pre Ripper with any Celli Power Harrow or Spikes Rotor

Rip+Grip or Hoe+Sow

RIP+GRIP

ADVANTAGES• Savetime• Increaseforwardspeed• Savetynewear• Reducestressonmachine• Shatterploughpan• Createwaterchannelstoreservewaterina drought(inhardsoils)• Improvedrainage• Moregriponhillsidesandsteepgoing

I increased my forward speed from 1.8km/hour to 4.7km/hour with a Farmgard Pre Ripper

WAIRARAPA FARMEROwnerofFarmgardPowerHarrowandPreRipper

Having the seeder on the Spike Rotor Hoe allowed me to cultivate soil and plant almost instantaneously and I saw very quick results. In some cases the grass was there within two weeks of the old grass being sprayed out which is something that has never happened before.

NORTHLAND FARMEROwnerofFarmgardSeederandSpikesRotor

ADVANTAGES• Savetime–onepass• Cutdowntimetoaminimum• Lesspasses–cutdowncompaction• Betterstrikerates• Fasterregrowthofnewgrasses


news 11

no backlash on chairman vote – van der HeydenOUTGOING FONTERRA chairman Henry van der Heyden is rubbishing reports of farmer backlash against the appointment of a new chairman.

There were no ques-tions on the appointment of John Wilson as the new chairman at three of the eight farmer shareholder meetings van der Heyden attended this month, at Invercargill, Ashburton and Hawera.

However, some farmers are report-edly unhappy with the appointment of Wilson in preference to corpo-rate farmer Colin Armer, who resigned two months ago after failing to win the

chairmanship.Some media reports

say Wilson, a protégé of van der Heyden, won the chairmanship after inde-pendent directors swung behind him. Before Arm-er’s resignation, Fonter-ra’s board had 13 directors: nine elected by farmers and four recommended by the board and ratified

by farmers.According to van der

Heyden, the media reports are mere speculation. The appointment of a new chairman is a confiden-tial process, he says. “How anyone knows how the directors vote is beyond me. It’s nonsense,” he told Rural News.

Wilson will take over the chairmanship at the co-op’s annual meeting in December. However, he is up for re-election and must win his board seat back.

A Rural News source who attended one of

the meetings says some farmers questioned why Fonterra doesn’t have a deputy chairman.

Van der Heyden explained that a ‘flat structure’ allows the chairman director contact with chairmen of respec-tive board sub-commit-tees. Having a deputy chairman could be seen as blocking directors’ access to the chairman.

The source says the meeting “wasn’t joyful”. “There were lots of ques-tions and farmers listened carefully to the answers provided by the chair-

man,” he says.Some farmers also

questioned how Tatua, a small Morrinsville pro-cessor, had stumped the co-op in the payout battle last season and the $8.2m paid out to former chief executive Andrew Ferrier. On TAF (trading among farmers), he says most farmers have accepted the vote and await its launch.

Van der Heyden says the payout to Ferrier is not a ‘golden parachute’ deal. It is instead related to Ferrier’s performance during his eight-year stint at the co-op. Ferrier’s final payment was part of his opening address at each meeting.

“I explained in a bit more detail the final pay-

ment and made it clear it has nothing to do with a golden parachute. It’s a lot of money but it has been accrued and included short-term and long-term incentives.”

The shareholder meet-ings were also attended by chief executive Theo Spierings, chairman-elect John Wilson and Fonterra Shareholders Council

chairman Ian Brown.Brown conveyed his

council’s decision to pass the fifth and final TAF precondition, giving the board a mandate to pro-ceed with the launch of TAF. The fifth TAF pre-condition was the sup-port of at least 50% of the Shareholders’ Council.

“the appointment of a new chairman is a confidential process.”

Henry van der Heyden

John Wilson


sudesH kIssun

[email protected]

THE MOST POWERFUL MID-SIZE RANGER

0800 440 290 www.polarisindustries.co.nz

TIPPING DUMP BOXINDEPENDENT REAR SUSPENSIONON-DEMAND TRUEALL-WHEEL DRIVE UNLOCKING REAR DIFF

AWD Mode

Turf Mode

KG227/567

CARRYING / PAYLOAD

ELECTRONIC FUEL INJECTION

*Finance based on deposit, remaining balance split over two payments over 12 months, fi rst in 6 months and fi nal in 12 months. Offer ends 30th November 2012, normal lending criteria apply, offer not available

with any other promotions. Accessories fi tted not included.

0.95% FINANCE*

$5000 DEPOSIT OR TRADE-INPAYMENT – FIRST IN 6 MONTHS / FINAL IN 12 MONTHS

NLOCKING REAR DIFF

*

ONLY$16,995INC. GST


12 newsstrategy before structure: Merino man’s advice

STRATEGY SHOULD come before structure for new proposals to get the crossbred wool industry on its feet, chief executive of the New Zealand Merino Company Ltd, John Braken-ridge, says.

And premium returns to farmers will happen only when the strong wool industry is helping retailers to grow their sales. But he issues a warning that the industry faces total demise unless it finds a suitable commercial model.

“There’s been a preoccupation with structures rather than strategy,” Brak-enridge told Rural News. “Some impor-tant things in determining success for strong wool would be to have a very strong strategy that is not compro-mised, that is driven by a commercial entity with scale, that as much as pos-sible can work vertically.

“It should be able to participate in anything from fibre procurement to assisting how the product is promoted in the market. That doesn’t mean you have to own everything; it means – as an

entity like ours – to have constructive input right the way through the value chain, right out to retail with a com-mercial entity.

“Linking through to that vertical strength is a mindset that we are only going to get more money back for grow-ers if we are adding value and helping someone to grow their sales, their mar-gins and their reputation. If we can be helping someone at retail to do that, then at that point we can justify a pre-mium that can come back through to the growers.

“There are all those things, you lay out your strategy – but ideally you need a commercial model that has some scale to do that.”

Brakenridge was asked by Rural News what lessons the crossbred industry could learn from the success of Merino. He doesn’t hold with the argument that the product simply isn’t as good.

“If you go back to where we started, people were pretty much saying that about Merino too,” he says. “The active outdoors market was all polyester, poly-propelene and cotton.

“It is much easier today to say Merino is a superior product with supe-rior markets but, to a degree, Merino has marketed itself into that position.

“The argument is, why can’t cross-bred market itself into a far better posi-tion than it has now? In fact there’s a strong argument to say that if it doesn’t it’s going to be completely irrelevant.

“The fundamental premise of invest-ment in marketing and research and development is equally applicable to crossbred wool and you need that to happen.”

Brakenridge thought Wool Part-ners got incredibly close to getting off the ground as a good model and he was surprised it didn’t move forward. He says most farmers are aware of beyond farmgate.

“But I think people underestimate farmers and what they have to have is something that is commercially com-pelling…. Again don’t put so much structure in front of them but, instead, more strategy on what you are going to do, how you are going to add value and how that value is going to be returned to

farmers. For years people have tended to go out more with structures rather than strategy.”

Any proposal put forward should be tested against such as: is it a commer-cial model, does it transact wool, does it do it in a way that it can provide returns in a measurable returns and value back

through to growers?“It needs to be focused on mar-

kets and on what are the attributes and benefits of wool and how this is com-municated through the growers,” says Brakenridge.

paM tIpa


John Brakenridge

15%OFF

45%OFF

For further information: 0800 MARLEY (0800 627 539) www.marley.co.nz

Rainwater Solutions

Marley Rainwater Solutions- safe solutions for the collection, storage and distribution of rain water.

How safe is the water you are collecting?When collecting rainwater as a partial or total source for a water supply, it is important the design of the system meets the need for potable (safe drinking) water.

Water collected from a roof and stored and distributed from a water tank, can contain a nasty range of pollutants that can

contaminate your water, eg. bacteria from bird droppings, insects,

rotting debris, airborne dusts (containing heavy metals).

The Marley Rain Harvesting System comprises of a number of

unique and cost effective components that are designed to work

with the Marley range of spouting and downpipes to improve the

quality of tank water.

Debris DiverterPrevents leaves and debris from being captured in the storage tank.

1

Tank Vacuum KitWhen the tank

overflows the dirty (“Anaerobic Zone”) water is sucked away from the

bottom of the tank.

5

Floating Out-takeSuspended just below

the water surface it draws off the cleanest water

for use.

4

Calmed InletAllows water to enter

the storage tank without disturbing the sediment in the bottom

of the tank.

3

First Flush DiverterDiverts the first flush

of contaminated water away from the

storage tank.

2

1

1

2

3

4

5

®

SPEND $1,499 OR MORE ON ONE INVOICE & GET

A FREE CHILLY BIN!

WILSON SLIMLINE WATER TANKS

WILSON WATER TANKS

RHEEM CYLINDERS

MICROLENE

$183 EA

FILTERPURE

$126 EA

WILSON WATER TROUGH

220/240V SUMP PUMP

$234 EA

MARLEY RAINWATER SOLUTIONS

Various sizesFROM $223

Various sizesFROM $2,168

Various sizesFROM $113

FROM $5.15/MVarious sizes

TT900, TT1200, TT2700

FITTINGSWATER TANKS

DAIRY CYLINDERS

TROUGHS

PUMPS

RAINWATER

GIVEAWAY!

DAVEY WATER

RECEIVE A FREE FIN NOR ROD AND REEL!

When you buy a Rheem dairy cylinder***

HANSEN

DEALS ALSO AVAILABLE AT SELECTED MICO AND MASTERTRADE BRANCHES | T: 0800 101 999 F: 0800 101 777 W: www.mico.co.nzFor full address details please see our website www.mico.co.nz or phone us for your nearest store. All major credit cards plus CRT Card and Farmlands Card accepted. Special prices valid from October 2nd – 3rd December 2012. Discounts are off our normal Mico Pipelines retail price. Actual product supplied may be different to that pictured but identical in quality and price. Some promotional items are strictly while stocks last. All prices include GST unless otherwise stated. Free Mico chilly bin – while stocks last. CDNZ reserves the right to change prices or deals without prior notice. Gifts/prizes are not transferrable and cannot be exchanged for cash, credit or products. * Subject to size & nature of order - see instore for details.** Receive two free Milkers Aprons when you purchase an H J Coopers dairy cylinder. *** Buy a Rheem dairy cylinder 250 or 350L and receive a Fin Nor Boat Road & Reel, valued at $150. Or buy a Rheem dairy cylinder 450 or 600L and receive a Fin Nor Boat Road & Reel, valued at $299.

EFFLUENT PIPE

GIVEAWAY!

0.75KW PRESSURE PUMP $472 EA

RURAL ROUNDUP

SPRING 2012OCT 2ND - DEC 3RD

WHERE YOU COME FOR ESSENTIAL RURAL SUPPLIES & THE BEST DEALS IN THE COUNTRY!

FREEDELIVERY*


news 13

outlook still positive despite confidence drop

LONG-TERM PROS-PECTS are still bright for sheep and beef despite a big drop in farmer confi-dence, says Beef+Lamb NZ chairman Mike Petersen.

This drop results from farmers coming off three seasons of record prices, Petersen says. But good debt repayment means the sheep and beef sector is in a good position.

The latest quarterly Rabobank Rural Confi-dence Survey late last month found 44% of all farmers expect the agri-cultural economy to worsen over the next 12 months (compared to 36% in the last quarter). Just 15% expect conditions to

improve.Beef and sheep farm-

ers had the lowest levels – 54% of beef and sheep farmers expect worse per-formance over the next year, with only 12% expect-ing an improvement.

Peterson says all meat company predictions were for a reduction in prices for sheep meat but not beef.

“For sheep meat the correction is significant – around $20-30 a head for lamb. On top of that wool prices are nearly half what they were last year. For those two reasons com-bined you are seeing a con-fidence drop.

“Beef is different: it has held up and is fairly steady which is remarkable given the high value of the New

Zealand dollar. “If you look at the

medium to long term, and ask farmers about their confidence levels, then you would see a very dif-ferent result. We have had three very good years and

the sheep and beef sector has repaid a lot of debt, so the sector is in a strong position.

“Farmers haven’t been silly with the money that was coming in over the last three years, they have

been very prudent with what they’ve done with those very good profits so the sector is still in really good shape.”

paM tIpa

[email protected]

Beef+lamb chair-man mike Petersen.

dollar up, prices down spells declinetHe HIGH New Zealand dollar and falling commodity prices were key reasons for farmers’ declining confi-dence, says rabobank NZ chief executive ben russell.

russell says these factors were cited by 50% of farmers who expected conditions to worsen. overseas market conditions and rising input costs were also of concern.

Among farmers with a positive outlook, their confi-dence stemmed from expected positive flow-on effects on prices resulting from the us drought and tight food supplies globally.

Farmer confidence has been on the decline since March last year, but the latest survey is the first to show farmers expecting a negative impact on their own business. confidence in their own businesses was generally higher than in the agricultural economy as a whole. “this latest survey found 42% of farmers expect their own farm business performance to worsen over the next 12 months, compared to 29% in the previous quarter,” says russell.

Dairy farmer sentiment lifted slightly from the mid-winter doldrums. on their own farm businesses, dairy farmers were evenly split, one third expecting perfor-mance to improve, at least one third expecting it to remain static and slightly less than a third expecting performance to worsen.

PsA Is having a big effect on horticulturalist confi-dence, says rabobank.

Forty-three per cent of horticulturalists expect their farm performance to worsen in the next year, up from only 6% in the previous quarter.

russell says concern about the impact of Psa on the kiwifruit sector had again risen this quarter and respondents had reported this as resulting in uncer-tainty and lower incomes.

New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Inc president Neil treblico says the drop in kiwifruit grower confidence from the last quarter results from spring bringing out the worst symptoms of Psa, growers now facing a big drop in income as they regraft new species.

Worse for growers


Off er valid until 30 November 2012 or while stocks last. Normal lending criteria apply, for full details and cost please ask your local Suzuki

dealer. Off er not available in conjunction with any other promotion. Documentation fee $375, 1/3 deposit. 1/3 in 12 months and the fi nal

1/3 payment in 24 months. LT-A500XP colour Red. LT-A750XP colour Red, Green or Yellow (limited quantities).

0800 SUZUKI | WWW.SUZUKI.CO.NZ

prom

otus

462

4

⅓(in 12 months)

⅓(now)

⅓(in 24 months)

Take home a new Suzuki KingQuad 500 or 750 Power Steer today for 1/3 deposit

(or use your old bike as a trade in), pay a third in 12 months, and the fi nal third

in 24 months with 0% interest. LT-A500XP $15,995rrp – LT-A750XP $16,995rrp.

Talk to your Suzuki dealer today!

LT-A500XP $5,460 deposit LT-A750XP $5,793 deposit

0% INTEREST


dealer. Off er not available in conjunction with any other promotion. Documentation fee $375, 1/3 deposit. 1/3 in 12 months and the fi nal Off er valid until 30 November 2012 or while stocks last. No rmal lending criteria apply, for full details and cost please ask your local Suzuki dealer. Off er not available in conjunction with any other promotion. Documentation fee $375, 1/3 deposit. 1/3 in 12 months and the fi nal 1/3 payment in 24 months. LT-A500XP colour Red. LT-A750XP colour Red, Green or Yellow (limited quantities).


prom

otus

462

4

⅓(in 12 months)

⅓(now)

⅓(in 24 months)

Take home a new Suzuki KingQuad 500 or 750 Power Steer today for 1/3 deposit (or use your old bike as a trade in), pay a third in 12 months, and the fi nal third in in 24 months with 0% interest. LT-A500XP $15,995rrp – LT-A750XP $16,995rrp. Talk to your Suzuki dealer today!


0% INTEREST

Off er valid until 30 November 2012 or while stocks last. No rmal lending criteria apply, for full details and cost please ask your local Suzuki dealer. Off er not available in conjunction with any other promotion. Documentation fee $375, 1/3 deposit. 1/3 in 12 months and the fi nal 1/3 payment in 24 months. LT-A500XP colour Red. LT-A750XP colour Red, Green or Yellow (limited quantities).


dealer. Off er not available in conjunction with any other promotion. Documentation fee $375, 1/3 deposit. 1/3 in 12 months and the fi nal

1/3 payment in 24 months. LT-A500XP colour Red. LT-A750XP colour Red, Green or Yellow (limited quantities).


prom

otus

462

4

⅓(in 12 months)

⅓(now)

⅓(in 24 months)


(or use your old bike as a trade in), pay a third in 12 months, and the fi nal third in




0% INTEREST

⅓(in 24 months)


⅓(in 12 months)

Take home a new Suzuki KingQuad 500 or 750 Power Steer today for 1/3 deposit (or use your old bike as a trade in), pay a third in 12 months, and the fi nal third in in 24 months with 0% interest. LT-A500XP $15,995rrp – LT-A750XP $16,995rrp.

0% INTEREST0% INTERESTTake home a new Suzuki KingQuad 500 or 750 Power Steer today for 1/3 deposit (or use your old bike as a trade in), pay a third in 12 months, and the fi nal third in in 24 months with 0% interest. LT-A500XP $15,995rrp – LT-A750XP $16,995rrp.

0% INTEREST0% INTEREST

⅓(now)


(or use your old bike as a trade in), pay a third in 12 months, and the fi nal third in



0% INTEREST0% INTEREST

Now available on the KingQuad 500XP and 750XP!


14 news

Miraka hits a million litres a dayBIG MILESTONES have been passed by Miraka, the new Maori dairy factory near Taupo.

Chief executive Richard Wyeth says the plant recently began collecting one million litres of milk in a single day from its suppliers. At the same time last year, in its first few months of production, the peak was 600,000 litres in a day .

“This is a fantastic milestone for

Miraka. Hitting the million litre mark was due to the good season and an extra 43 new suppliers joining the company. Miraka now has more than 90 suppli-ers and also has a waiting list of others hoping to supply the company.”

Wyeth says much more milk is coming in and earlier, resulting in them being 12% up on budget for August and also slightly up for September.

The good weather with plenty of grass has been a huge factor. Many cows

have also calved early resulting in the big increase in milk flow for this time of the year.

Combined with the good milk flow, Miraka is making leaps and bounds on the sales front. This time last year they had shipped just 50 tonnes of whole milk powder (WMP). However, so far this year, 3000 tonnes has been sold. Much of this has gone to Vietnam to Miraka’s cornerstone shareholder Vin-amilk, the largest dairy company in Viet-

nam. Shipments of WMP have also gone to South America and other parts of Asia and China.

Miraka is now looking to grow its business. The present plant is set up to produce WMP, but Wyeth says it can produce some skim milk powder.

“But until we put in an AMF plant our cream is still going to Tatua Dairy Company. Obviously there is some demand for us to grow and to take the additional milk. We would look at other

products outside of just WMP over the next five or so years. The thing about WMP is it gets your foot in the door to the dairy industry so it provides a good baseline commodity.”

Wyeth has just returned from a trip to Vietnam where he met with Vinamilk executives who are pleased with Mira-ka’s products and the overall strategic business relationship.


peter burke

Wool interests look to trans-Tasman partnership

CAVALIER WOOL Holdings (CWH) may be looking to discussions with Melbourne company Lempriere Hold-ings about consolidating New Zealand wool scouring oper-ations.

That was the indication of a statement made after the Australia company announced it was buying 64% of the New Zealand scourer New Zealand Wool Services Inter-national (WSI) out of receivership and entering into a lock-up agreement with five WSI senior employees and a retired employee for a further 11%.

Premiere also plans to make a full takeover offer at 45 cents a share – up 22% of the last trading price of 37 cents. The deal is subject to Overseas Investment Office (OIO) approval.

CWH has been leading a consortium in an unsuccess-ful bid to take over WSI’s assets since it gained Commerce Commission approval to do so a year ago. WSI resisted the move which it said would have created a wool scour-ing monopoly in New Zealand.

But even if Lempriere takes over, CWH chief executive Nigel Hales says the opportunity to combine the two com-panies’ scouring operations remains. He says consolida-tion is needed in the face of declining wool volumes and competition from China for unprocessed wool. A com-bined scouring operation would bring “much needed effi-ciencies across the whole supply chain, to the benefit of wool growers, exporters and customers”.

But WSI chairman Derek Kirke told Rural News there are plenty of rumours in the marketplace. “I am well aware of Cavalier’s comments but at this point in time the board has no indication that the potential new owners have any other intention than holding onto the company as it is and keeping the operations going.”

He says by the time CWH could get into any discus-sions, its Commerce Commission approval for “a monop-oly wool scouring business would be expired”. “So there would have to be a fresh application to the Commerce Commission and there is no certainty a second appraisal would give the right for a monopoly ownership.”

Kirke says Lempriere cannot make a full takeover offer under the takeovers code until the application for OIO approval is lodged.

That was likely to have been imminent earlier last week, he said.

He did not expect the OIO application would be a com-plicated process and would take less than a month.

WSI directors are required to seek an independent appraisal and once that is the received, the directors pro-duce their own report, which may or may not agree with the proposal.

“We are duty bound to work through the process in that order so until we receive the appraisals report we will not be making any comment about the merits or non merits of the bid,” he says.

paM tIpa


AVAILABLE ONLY UNDER VETERINARY AUTHORISATION. ®Registered trademark. MSD Animal Health. Phone: 0800 800 543. SPV-412-2012.

TOXOVAX IS MADE TO ORDER – SO PLACE YOUR ORDER WITH YOUR VET NOW.

PLAN FOR SUCCESS: ORDER YOUR TOXOVAX® NOW!

Toxoplasmosis is on every New Zealand farm, and it can cause ongoing losses or abortion storms.

Your plan for success: Contact your vet to secure your order at least 8 weeks

before you intend to introduce the ram.

You can use Toxovax anytime up to 4 weeks before mating

One shot gives lifetime immunity.

Up to 8% higher lambing percentages (3% national average).

TOXOVAX IS MADE TO ORDER – SO PLACE

Up to 8% higher lambing percentages (3% national average).

SECURE YOUR LAMB NUMBERS. SECURE YOUR GAINS.How to plan for a successful season.

ELE_

0053

8_RN


16 news

dairynZ director’s in for a pay riseDIRECTORS OF indus-try-good organisation DairyNZ are in line for a pay increase.

The annual meet-ing this week in Invercar-gill is expected to approve the chairman’s annual fee increasing 3.5% to $76,500. Directors’ fees will rise 4% to $40,500. Directors also get $2000 for serving on a

sub-committee and $4000 for chairing a sub-commit-tee. These fees will remain the same.

According to voting papers, the board’s rec-ommendation to increase director fees follows an independent survey of fees paid to directors in the ‘marketplace’.

DairyNZ’s annual report shows last year it paid $478,000 in director

fees and $411,000 in the previous year.

In 2011-12 its revenues were $88 million – $61m in farmer levies from dairy companies and $27m in government funding and farm income. It spent $83m on programmes and operations.

As expected, Fonterra was the largest levy payer. The co-op’s 10,500 farm-ers paid $53m in 2012, up

from $48m the previous year after record milk pro-duction.

Open Country Dairy paid $2.3m in farmer levy ($2.4m the previous year), Westland $1.9m ($1.6m), Synlait $1.3m ($890,000), NZ Dairies $390,000 ($500,000) and Tatua $478,000 ($434,000). Other dairy processors paid $424,000 ($27,000).

In his annual review

chairman John Luxton says its board and staff have been focussing on five strategies: compet-itiveness, profit from productivity, people, achieving shared goals, and image and reputation. “It is a work in progress, but we are making prog-ress,” says Luxton.

According to DairyNZ, nationally the level of sig-nificant non-compliance

sudesH kIssun

with dairy effluent fell below 10% for the first time. The first five compa-nies became ‘accredited’ designers of farm dairy effluent systems under a programme funded by DairyNZ and the Pri-mary Growth Partnership Fund. There is also a high level of compliance with the Animal Welfare Code, according to a survey in 2011.

Luxton says in April 2012, 92% of the New Zea-land public agreed the suc-cess of the dairy industry is critical to the economy.

He says 62% of the public have favourable impressions of dairy farm-ing; and 63% agree New Zealand dairy farmers are the most efficient milk producers in the world.

“DairyNZ has a key role to play in educating and ensuring that farmers are doing the right thing. We can and do tell the good stories of land stewardship but this all gets undone by bad practice and bad head-lines. A good reputation is hard to win but easy to

lose.”The industry is also

facing the challenge of growing milk produc-tion. Much of the indus-try’s growth is occurring in Southland and Canter-bury. Milksolids produc-tion in the South Island has increased 7.7% annu-ally since 2000.

With just 15% of the arable land in these regions in dairy farming, there is still much poten-tial, Luxton says. “How-ever, if we want to achieve that growth and potential, we will need to rise to the challenges we are facing and continue implement-ing our strategies to deal with them.

“DairyNZ, and the levy that supports its work and leverages significant fur-ther government and com-mercial investment in our industry, sits at the heart of that response. So do the partnerships we have with the many other organisa-tions in our industry that are just as committed as we are to making a differ-ence.”

state of the industryAverage Ms/ha is estimated to have reached 1000.

cow numbers totalled 4.7 million.Dairy companies processed a record 1.69 billion

kgMs. the south Island has the highest proportion of

Holstein-FriesianJersey crossbreeds (42%).About 35% of all herds are operated as share-

milking operations – 19% as 50:50 sharemilkers and 16 % as variable order sharemilkers.

John luxton.

shop online

directfarmer

24/7

at CONDOR we believe new zealand farmers have been paying too much for pumpsirresistibly low prices. every time

pumps for less. always

there was an earlier time in New Zealand when the land was overgrownforests grew in massive quantities covering and devouring pretty much all the spaces that were empty of other shrubbery and busha beautiful country but the land was rugged and might have been perceived as having little agricultural value

time passed slowly and nothing much happened

the wind and rain and snow came - and wentall this time new land was being carefully shaped into a confident masterpiecethe mould was being set for the backbone of a successful farming economy preparing to supply the world with dairy products

in 1814 the first dairy cows travelled the high seas and found themselves on green New Zealand paddocks57 years later in 1871 the first dairy co-op was formed in Otago

all this time New Zealand was maturing and growing with lush expanses of green grass and rolling fields emerging from the bush

in 1884 a South Island dairy farmer imported the first Friesian cow thus the rapid growth of New Zealand dairying had begun

www.condorpumps.co.nz Card

NOW LIVENEW web-store open now

www.condorpumps.co.nz

in 1918 and at the end of WW1 some 7600 milking machines were being used daily in new zealandthe 50’s came and saw over 50% of New Zealand dairy farms using walk-through milking machinesby now the New Zealand the cow population had totalled 1.7 million

1951 saw the introduction of the first milk tanker delivery system of whole milk from dairy farmsin 1952 quite a clever Kiwi bloke developed the herringbone cow shed and chops milking time in half

and the rest ? a constant stream of successful farming advances in a beautiful new countryclever, profitable, forward-thinking moves by Kiwi farmers - laying the foundation for a lifetime of prosperity for the people of New Zealand

we are excited too, go on….visit our new site

www.condorpumps.co.nz

irresistibly low prices. every time

(and free shipping NZ wide)

so, cheersjoseph


18 world

largest cotton farm in oz sold

REGULATING GREEN-HOUSE gas emissions could shift livestock pro-duction to unregulated, less developed coun-tries unless those poorer

nations can be enticed to preserve their forested lands, a Purdue University economic study says.

Agriculture and deforestation account for about one-quarter of global greenhouse gas

alan HarManemissions, with methane from livestock production being the most important type of farm-related emission.

“Emissions from agri-culture have not had as much attention as those from fossil fuels combus-tion,” says Purdue pro-fessor of agricultural economic Thomas Hertel in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sci-ences.

“But when the world gets serious about tackling climate policy, livestock will be an important part of that discussion. Live-stock sectors are the most important contributors to non-CO

2 greenhouse gas

emissions and would be seriously affected if a tax or regulations were imple-mented.”

The research by scien-tists from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisa-tion, the Electric Power Research Institute and Ohio State University found wealthy countries alone would have lim-ited success in decreasing greenhouse gas emissions from livestock produc-tion because it would give poorer countries, with greater greenhouse gas emissions intensities, an incentive to expand pro-duction.

“In this case, we would

likely see continued expansion of pasture and cropping area in regions such as South America as agriculture encroaches on forested lands,” says Purdue research econ-omist Alla Golub. “This negates greenhouse gas emissions reductions in the wealthy countries.”

The research team looked at what might happen if emission regulations in wealthy countries were paired with incentives to retain forested land in poorer nations.

They found that without new grazing areas, those poorer countries would not expand their livestock production as much. “Indeed, this combination of policies is quite effective at preventing ‘emissions leakage’ to developing countries while enhancing forest carbon stocks in the lower-income regions,” Hertel says.

The effect, however, would be less meat avail-able for consumption in the poorer countries and a price increase glob-ally. “Just like a fossil fuel emissions tax would raise prices for energy, this would have an impact on agricultural prices,” Hertel says.

Study finds folly in emission regs

AUSTRALIA’S LARGEST cotton farm has been sold to a consortium which includes a Chinese textile maker.

Cubbie Station a 93,000ha business spread across properties on the Murray-Darling Basin in Southwest Queensland, is now 80% owned by Shan-

dong RuYi Scientific & Technological Group Co Ltd, comprising Chinese and Japanese investors.

The remaining shares will be owned by Lempriere Pty Ltd, an Australian family-owned group with a long history in wool trading and in managing agricultural

properties. A wholly-owned subsidiary of Lempriere will manage the operation including marketing and selling its cotton production.

Cubbie Station went into voluntary receiver-ship in 2009, reportedly owing A$320million.

Receivers McGrathNi-col announced this month that a sale agreement had been signed. It says the consortium, RuYi and Lempriere “have agreed to enforceable undertakings with the Australian Fed-eral Treasurer in relation to the transaction.”

The deal provides cer-tainty for Cubbie Group and its employees, says deed administrator John Cronin.

The sale reignited the foreign ownership debate in Australian politics. It also split opposition part-

ners Liberals and Nation-als, who mostly represent rural constituents.

National leader Warren Truss questioned why it is in the national interest for control of Australia’s most valuable farm, along with its massive water rights, to be ceded to overseas owners.

“Under current rules it is very difficult for for-eigners to buy a subur-ban home in Australia, but it seems the Treasurer has no issue with the big-gest irrigation farm in the

country being bought by overseas interests.

“While capital flow is welcomed, the Treasurer must explain how a pur-chase of this scale will not compromise market competition or pric-ing for Australian cotton, with Cubbie representing about 10% of our national cotton crop.” But Oppo-sition spokesman on for-eign investment, Joe Hockey publicly rebuked Nationals for speaking out against the sale.

“They do not speak

for the Coalition. They do not even speak for the National Party or the Lib-eral Party. I speak on the foreign investment policy of the coalition. We sup-port the Foreign Invest-ment Review Board.”

Treasurer Wayne Swan approved the sale on August 31 subject to a number of important undertakings obtained from the consortium in relation to employment, ownership, board compo-sition, management and water use.

Quick hitch standard, hose reel & rinse tank optional. Also available: 300, 400, 600, 800 and 1000L tanks; 6, 8, 10 & 12m manual fold booms; HYS 6 to 12m with individual hyd fold & nozzle protection for 1000L.

Martin Gray 0212 791 015 - North Island Ross Dickson 0276 727 727 - South Island

For more information, visit www.hardi.net.nz

Delivering a wealth of spraying benefits...

NK linkage is ideal for small to medium pasture or cropping programs, horticulture and spot spraying.

The Sprayer

NK 800L10m SB boom pictured

Win a STiHL MS 251 CHainSaW

We have a STIHL MS 251 Chainsaw, valued at $995, to give away in celebration of the 150th Canterbury A&P Show, to be held Wednesday

14 to Friday 16 November 2012. Simply answer the question below, and we’ll put you in the draw!

What anniversary is the Canterbury A&P Show celebrating in 2012?

EntEr at www.ruralnEws.co.nz/stihl-compEtition

n Pre-separation air filtration system n Anti-vibration system n Single lever master control n Tool free filler caps n Compensator n STIHL Ematic-System n Side chain tensioner

c o m p E t i t i o n

FEaturEs

You’ll probably need a bigger silo. Sorry about that!

Available from your local rural supplier or call BASF on 0800 93 2273Details at www.agro.basf.co.nz

Opus has been New Zealand’s market-leading cereal fungicide for many years. We know you still love it (and swear by it), but that doesn’t mean we couldn’t improve it! Especially when it means you can increase your income by an average $95 per hectare!*

Introducing Opus Ultimate, the Opus upgrade with the trial-proven potential to increase yield by boosting disease control in barley, wheat and ryegrass by up to 15%!**

Unlike Opus, Opus Ultimate is a single-action emulsifying formulation - for faster, more effective, action against all fungal diseases.***

* In four irrigated trials Opus Ultimate, at eld rates, consistently out-yielded Opus by an average of 237kg/ha grain. At $400/tonne, that’s a tidy $95/ha.

** In ve trials in 2011, Opus Ultimate out-yielded the untreated by more than 3 t/ha. grain on average.

*** In the 2010 season, the Opus Ultimate advantage was clearly seen on stripe rust and powdery mildew; in 2011,on brown rust and speckled leaf blotch.

Opus® and Opus Ultimate® are registered trademarks of BASFAlways consult the product label before use.

BSF 7253 9/12


20 agribusiness

DROUGHT IN the US and New Zealand economics are coming together in a delicate dance that could affect returns to Kiwi farmers.

Extreme weather pat-terns are a big worry. The US Midwest’s worst drought in 50 years is pres-suring already volatile farm commodity prices.

The region is a key world grain producer, with good soil, favour-able climate, up-to-the minute technology and an educated workforce. The drought-diminished output of corn, wheat and soybeans will begin to affect the world food chain.

Avoiding the debt noose

DEBT FUNDING structured so that it works for both bank and farm business means the debt is not experienced as a noose around the borrower’s neck.

This matter arises because many farms have in this era grown from small family operations into small-medium corpo-rates. But often the financial control has not kept up with this change? You can fight change or adapt and go with it.

Well-structured and timely debt can help these small corporates to grow. Insufficient working capital or poorly structured debt may pit the bank against the borrower in a situation where no one wins. Invariably the bank has the upper hand so this ends up costing the bor-rower dearly.

In past times, a borrower worked with a bank manager who was a pillar of the community. Around him were his ‘tigers’who took diary notes in meetings and converted the talk into action.

Today the banks’ number crunchers have determined that computers, credit scoring models and young staff

are cheaper to run than old guys. In this new era a customer’s history with a bank is assigned no value; that’s why sharper rates are often given or offered to potential customers and withheld from existing, loyal customers.

This week I had an enquiry from a farmer whose bank told him they want

to be repaid – and right now or else they will sell him up. The next day he received from the very same bank an item of addressed

mail – part of a marketing campaign – that said, “It’s tough out there for busi-nesses just starting up; that’s why we’ve put together a market-leading package of products and services designed to give a new business a huge kick-start.”

Unfortunately this bank was dishing out the wrong type of kick.

There are very good bank managers who understand credit and the business of farming.

The problem is they are paid to sell their employer’s products.www.rural-finance.co.nz • Stu Smith is principal of Rural Property Finance Ltd, which has no ties or allegiances to any particular funder.

stu smith


Difficult balancing act protecting farmer incomes

Europe isn’t faring much better. A heat wave in Russia (the region’s larg-est grain producer) and the UK’s dry spring and wet-test summer since records began in 1912 have also hit grain crops hard.

The agricultural food chain is interlinked: if one area is impacted so will others be. An exam-ple is pork, the supply of which in the US is at its lowest since 1975 due to rising feed costs. Pigs eat mostly corn and the cost of feeding a pig to slaughter weight is now greater than the price a farmer gets for pig meat, hence a rush to slaughter and a tightening supply.

But the recent bumper grain crop in Canterbury could benefit our grain producers with higher prices overseas. New Zea-land’s agriculture exports are rising but offshore commodity prices remain volatile making our returns hard to forecast.

Also, farm expenses in every category are on

the rise, therefore help is needed and the time is right for the Reserve Bank to start slowly start bring-ing down our base interest rates; the calls are growing louder for a cut following a 25 basis point cut early this month by the Australian reserve bank.

The Australians cut their base rate from 3.5% to 3.25%, causing the Aussie dollar to drop rap-idly against the US dollar and, to a lesser extent, our currency to drop against the US dollar, because the global market sees the Aussie and Kiwi dol-lars as interlinked. As our base interest rate sits at 2.5% there is room for a 25-point basis point cut soon, likely to help bring our currency down over the long term short-term to bring interim relief for

Kiwi exporters. The Reserve Bank

wants to keep interest rates up for fear of infla-tion. But our inflation is at a record low. And lower interest rates mean con-sumers will get less return on their savings at a time they’ve been told to save more – hardly a great incentive when interest rates are at record lows.

Lower mortgage rates will help many but may also put upward pressure on house prices – some-thing the Government is trying to avoid because of inflation problems and housing affordability.

Again this is a difficult balancing act. It is not as simple as saying reduce the interest rates or print more money because these things affect the whole economy and can be cata-strophic. The kiwi dollar is strong because the funda-mentals of our economy are stronger than those of the US and Europe.

You can fight change or adapt

and go with it.

TRAVEL FOR FARMERSPlan ahead for 2013!

FARM TO FARMNEW ZEALAND TOURS

For more information email or phone us

0800 38 38 747

CHINA – May: Intriguing China including vibrant Beijing & Shanghai, a range of farms and enterprises, the Great Wall, Buried Warriors and the Silk Road plus a 3 day Yangtze River cruise and a unique stay in Inner Mongolia. SOUTH AMERICA – May: Chile, Argentina and Brazil diverse farming, cultural and scenic experiences. Buenos Aires, Santiago & Rio de Janeiro, Andes Mountains, Bariloche and Iguazu Falls.AFRICA – May: The best of Southern Africa... A wonderful array of farms, safaris, sights plus scenic garden route to Cape Town and Nampo field days. Stunning Victoria Falls/Botswana extension - amazing wildlife!TURKEY – May/June: Discover the delights of Istanbul, Gallipoli, Cappadocia and a short cruise on the beautiful Mediterranean.EUROPE – May/June: A grand farming, food and wine tour! Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and France.CANADA & ALASKA – June: Join our popular tour taking in Victoria, Vancouver, the Rockies, Calgary, Niagara Falls and Quebec - magnificent scenery, wonderful farms plus an optional 8 day Alaskan CruiseQUEENSLAND – June: “Winter in the Sun” Brisbane to Cairns, outback stations, farm stay, Darling Downs, Barrier Reef and more.UK & IRELAND – June/July: Enjoy the best of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland – Highland Show, farms, gardens, villages, London, Edinburgh, Dublin, and more. USA – June/July: Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Mid West heartland and more – farms, sights and rural hospitality second to none. SCANDINAVIA – July: Farms, fiords, and sights in Sweden, Denmark and Norway plus beautiful Stockholm, Copenhagen and Oslo. Fantastic extension to Finland and St Petersburg, Russia.

Travel with like-minded people enjoying a superb

mix of farming, scenic and cultural highlights

Farm To Farm ToursBox 239, 77-83 High Street, RangioraPH 03 313 5855 FAX 03 313 5596 EMAIL [email protected]

www.farmtofarm.co.nz

ManitouThe Ultimate Farm Worker

One telehandler out of three sold worldwide is a ManitouWith the Manitou range, you can carry out all types of workon all job sites with an efficiency and optimum profitability,whatever the configuration of the terrain.

Waikato/Bay Of Plenty/Central North Island Piako Tractors Paeroa Ph 07 862 9064 Piako Tractors Morrinsville Ph 07 889 7055 Piako Tractors Rotorua Ph 07 345 8560 Taranaki/King Country Ag Traction New Plymouth Ph 06 759 8432 Manawatu/Wairarapa/Wanganui Transag Palmerston North Ph 06 354 7164

South Island JJ Limited Christchurch Ph 03 344 5645 JJ Limited Timaru Ph 03 688 7401 JJ Limited Mosgiel Ph 03 489 8199 JJ Limited Gore Ph 03 203 9970 JJ Limited Invercargill Ph 03 211 0013 NZ Sales Manager Rob Fuller 021 653 956 Email [email protected]

CONTACT YOUR NEAREST MANITOU AGRICULTURE DEALER

11022

Enquirenow aboutTHE NEW

MLT840-137PS


agribusiness 21Road map to farm profitability

ADAm FRiCKER

IT’S EASY to pay lip ser-vice to the question “How can we help farmers make more money?” and plenty of farm service businesses do.

Seales Winslow, now 51% owned by Ballance Agri-Nutrients, is putting considerable energy into showing rather than tell-ing – demonstrating their commitment to the goal of farmer profitability.

Seales Winslow chief executive Graeme Smith says they are upgrading their business systems and, critically, upskill-ing staff: “The aim is for staff to internalise that key message, ‘increase the profitability of farmers by delivering better nutrition through products, service and advice’.”

The team needs the best knowledge and tools to be able to deliver on that promise.

“At the centre of this upskilling we have our own nutritionist Dr Rob Derrick, and con-sultant James Hague, who we have partnered with. They are putting together the economet-ric models which will help our team work with farm-ers to assess how we can improve their bottom line.

“All our sales staff have been given a laptop so they can access these tools while they’re on the road. It’s the key to providing the right advice.”

The computer pro-gram developed for their staff is intended to help farmers identify routes to better economic returns. At a staff presentation of

this program it was clear to see this focus on prof-its; the presentation was titled ‘Routes to Profit: A Roadmap to Profitable Milk’. Hague has zeroed in on the big levers that will lift a farm’s real economic return, particularly vari-able costs such as feed and fertiliser.

“One of the biggest costs in any business is not expenditure,” says Hague. “It is the failure to gen-erate income economi-cally…. The capital gains farmers have always relied on are at risk as economics dictate that farms should be worth what they can economically return. We therefore need to ensure farms return more profit from farming activity.”

Smith says the commit-ment to a better under-standing of nutrition extends beyond their own business: Seales Winslow has signed a deal with Lin-coln University to work with Dr Grant Edwards to educate graduates and develop short courses for consultants. They have also have formed an independent advi-sory group that includes Lincoln professor Grant Edwards, Synlait’s Dr Eric Kolver, professor Warren McNabb (Riddet Institute, AgResearch, and Massey) and Waikato University professor Jacqueline Row-arth. This group will work in association with the Ballance R&D group led by Warwick Catto, so it’s all linked.

“This aim of Seales Winslow – to make money for farmers – fits with the Ballance vision of making money for farmers

through pasture, nutrition and advice,” says Smith. “Advice is the key differ-ence for Seales Winslow in the feed industry. Don’t undervalue that aspect of it; there is a need for better information on nutrition and for industry standards within the feed industry.

“Operationally we’re also working internally to improve our quality con-

trol and measuring our performance within the business. Then we will engage in the market via multiple sales channels, through merchants and direct to farmer. We plan to be a ruminant company with a true national foot-print.”

The company will dis-tribute product using Bal-lance infrastructure and

freight where appropriate, with a view to increasing efficiency and therefore taking costs out for farm-ers. Ballance also owns IT company Farmworks, and these tools could be integrated into the ser-vice from Seales Win-slow, further enhancing their ability to improve the economic return of their farmers’ businesses.

RURAL PROPERTY FINANCE

Get the best possible deal for your farm finance.

See www.rural-finance.co.nzemail [email protected]

phone Stu on 021 800 228

WE ARE INDEPENDENT – WE ARE NOT LIMITED TO ANY ONE

BANK OR FUNDER

➠

ACVM Registration No’s: A10249, A1009, A1011 and A7704. ®Registered trademarks. Schering-Plough Animal Health Limited. Phone: 0800 800 543. LMB-289-2012

WHEN YOUR LAMBS AND EWES ARE VULNERABLE, YOU NEED A TRUSTED

TEAM BESIDE YOU.

MAGNUM® The safe option for fl y and lice control across the docking board

ALLIANCE® The smart triple if you are drenching ewes at docking

LAMB VACCINE Short-term clostridial protection against Tetanus & Pulpy Kidney for lambs

When the stakes are high, you need to choose a team that’ll help you succeed – season after season. COOPERS has worked with kiwi farmers for over 120 years. You can rely on our products to work hard on your farm. So when

you need a ewe drench, LAMB VACCINE or fl y protection, make sure you’ve got the yellow team beside you. COOPERS – available from your local animal health retailer.

ELE_

0044

9_R

N


Lamb Market Trends Beef Market Trends

Last YearThis Year

70%

80%

90%

ANZ0661 - NatBank History RNews 70x544.indd 1 15/10/12 10:40 AM


Beef

Farmgate beef prices hold Meat processors have enough cattle to kill for the capacity that is on and prices have been steady to slightly weaker over the past few weeks. 300kg bull and steer held on $4.25/kg in the North Island last week. Meat processors are cranking up capacity with most expected to be fully up and running towards the end of October, start of November. On the off chance the cattle kill doesn’t follow suit, there could be some upside in prices but meat processors won’t go crazy chasing cattle. In the South Island, 300kg cwt export prime steer remained on $4.25/kg last week while bull was static on $4.00/kg. Local trade prices have taken a hit with prices having fallen 10-20c/kg over the past few weeks. Farmers have struggled to finish cattle but with schedules having eased, it’s prompted some farmers to just kill now.

US imported beef prices take a U-turn US beef traders continue to buy hand to mouth with most unwilling to take the risk of purchasing decent quantities of product while prices are at such high levels. Increases in US domestic cow slaughter had pressured lean beef values in recent weeks which has filtered through to the imported market however prices are now making a come back with imported 9OCL cow and 95CL bull increasing slightly last week to US$1.94/lb and $2.06/lb respectively. ‘Steiner’ market analysts have predicted significant price inflation for lean grinding beef into next year, predominantly as a result of improved foodservice demand as US unemployment moves lower. This bodes well for imported beef prices in the medium term.

Lamb

Farmers killing the last of their hoggets 16kg cwt export lamb prices have remained flat on $5.61/kg (net) in the North Island and the chance of prices going any higher is fading. Farmers are killing the last of their hogget’s and this has been reflected in the kill stats, with North Island slaughter up 18% the week ending October 6 on the week prior to 154,000hd. In the South Island, 16kg cwt export lamb prices are steady on $5.67/kg (net). South Island lamb slaughter jumped 24% the week ending Oct 6 to 93,000hd. Meat processors are welcoming lambs up to 23kg cwt, but there is speculation that beyond the chilled Christmas trade, processors will be even more strict on lamb criteria by discounting lambs just 21kg and over.

Overseas chilled lamb prices firm The New Zealand kill is seasonally lifting, with throughput up 24% the week ending Oct 6 on the prior week. This is in line with seasonal trends and meat processors are optimistic there will be enough old season lambs to meet chilled Christmas trade orders. New season lamb supply is questionable as lambs are a couple of weeks behind. Unfortunately any new season lambs that are finished in time will unlikely fetch any premiums over old season lambs. Negotiations for the chilled Christmas trade are being settled, with prices up on where they have been this year which has boosted NZ exporters confidence. However it is typical to see a price spike for overseas chilled lamb heading into Christmas, but they’re still at least 10% back on the same time last year.

Mutton

Mutton exports fall in 2011-12 Farmgate mutton prices have been static for most of the year at $3.20-3.40/kg (gross) in the North Island and $3.10-3.20/kg in the South. Through the same period last year, there was plenty of competition for mutton with prices at least $1.00/kg higher. Strong prices last year encouraged farmers to slaughter which resulted in a whopping 83,800t of exported mutton during the 2010-11 season. With mutton slaughter having dropped 22% in 2011-12, exports fell by 17% to 69,708t.

Euro

Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

UK Pound

US Dollar

ANZ0661 - NatBank History RNews 70x544.indd 1 15/10/12 10:40 AM


editorial

the hound

edna

want to share your opinion or gossip with the Hound?

send your emails to: [email protected]

24 opinion

“Rivers should be fenced to keep them out!”

something to chew onYOUr OLD mate’s comments about LIc avoiding the controver-sial hairy-calf issue and talking about anything and everything else did manage to raise a good humoured bite out of the co-op. A note and a couple of dog biscuits were sent to yours truly’s editor, after the October 2 issue of Rural News came out, with the following message: “Your mate sounds hungry – so here’s a snack for him/her and one for you”. Not sure if this was meant to shut your canine crusader up, but at least it gave him something else to chew on for a while.

Greens still hate farming IF YOU ever thought the Greens had changed their stance on farming, a recent diatribe by former Forest and bird officer and MP eugine Sage on the proposed irrigation scheme in the Hawke’s bay proves they are an antagonistic as ever: “Government should not be encouraging Hawke’s bay regional council to spend $80 million on the proposed ruataniwha irrigation and hydro scheme,” Sage ranted in a Green Party news-letter. “Irrigation leads to land use intensification… [which] leads to water pollution.”

Cooked their geesetHe eNVIrONMeNt court’s revision of the controversial One Plan in the Manawatu has caused angry cockies in the region to turn their guns on Fish & Game. Appar-ently, members of the hunting and fishing lobby are going to find it hard getting permission from farmers to hunt or fish on their land where the One Plan is set to be imposed. the Hound thinks it is fair enough for farmers to refuse requests by card-carrying members of F&G to gain access to fish or hunt on any farmers’ land in the Manawatu/Wanganui region.

Dot Con?YOUr OLD mate is flab-bergasted by the New Zealand media’s infat-uation with, and defer-ence to, the obese German with the fake name Kim Dotcom – quoting every utter-ance and claim without contest. the Hound is astounded to watch the fawning media pack let the convicted felon and alleged internet pirate rant on about “ethics” or the lack of them in others without him question. It’s like taking the word of another fat, fantasy figure of supposed Germanic heritage – Sgt Shultz from tV’s Hogan’s Heroes show – about prison security.

Fresh-facedtHe HOUND reckons sheep farmers feeling squeezed by the drop in lamb prices may want to look at whipping around the lambing paddock to pick up afterbirth judging by the money it is fetching. Apparently the prickly international tV ‘talent’ show boss and judge Simon cowell keeps his stony face smooth and fresh with regular sheep-placenta facials from Kiwi ewes. britain’s Mirror reports the ‘talent’ show supremo is so convinced of the rejuve-nating properties of after-birth he has become a devotee of the $650 treat-ment.

Fuel up on super deals around the country with a simple swipe of your RD1 SuperCard, anywhere, anytime!

For more information see your local RD1 store, visit WWW.RD1.COM/rd1supercard or call 0800 731 266.

4c/litre* up toSave

on fuel!Customer Support Centre 0800 731 266 Email [email protected] WWW.RD1.COM

*Terms and conditions apply, see WWW.RD1.COM/rd1supercard for more details.

TO SAY that Fonterra has been through an unsettling time in recent years would be an understatement. Like the global dairy prices, the co-op has seen it all: ups and downs, free-falls and a few spikes in between.

However, unlike dairy prices – which fluctu-ate at the mercy of issues outside the control of farmers – most of Fonterra’s misfortunes are home-made.

It all started with the ill-fated move to par-tially float the co-op back in 2006-07. Not only was that a naïve decision by the board and man-agement, it also sowed the first seeds of distrust among its shareholders.

The fierce debate on TAF during the past two years has only fanned the fires of dissent. The 66% approval for TAF, achieved with the help of large corporate milk suppliers, was hardly a resounding success for the board.

In November last year, chairman Henry van der Heyden announced his intention to step down in 12 months. Fonterra shareholders, espe-cially those opposing opening the co-op to out-side investors, may have been hoping for a clean break. However, the messy appointment of John Wilson, a van der Heyden protégé, is anything but. Clearly, Colin Armer resigned after losing the chairmanship, proving van der Heyden still has the numbers on the board.

The outgoing chairman’s decision now to hang around after Wilson takes over is raising eyebrows. Rightly or wrongly, Fonterra share-holders do not believe Wilson has asked van der Heyden to stay on, rather that this was the plan all along.

Then there is the question of a deputy chair-man. Some shareholders rightly question why Fonterra doesn’t have a deputy chairman, a nat-ural successor if the chairman goes for what-ever reason. Why was van der Heyden reluctant to appoint a deputy?

All this makes the 2012 director elections more interesting. Wilson is almost certain to regain his seat, therefore retain the chairman-ship.

Embracing TAF has been difficult and divi-sive for Fonterra. At a time when it needs stabil-ity, questions on transition to a new chairman are rocking the boat further. Van der Heyden should have made it clear from the start that he would stay on as a director to ensure stability.

But Fonterra’s communication with share-holders has always been far from perfect. Sadly, the co-op hasn’t learnt that shareholders don’t like surprises.

Own goals cost Fonterra


opinion 25

HEAD OFFICE POSTAL ADDRESS: PO Box 3855, Shortland Street, Auckland 1140

PUBLISHER:Brian Hight .............................................. Ph 09 307 0399

GENERAL MANAGER:Adam Fricker ........................................... Ph 09 913 9632

CONSULTING EDITOR:David Anderson .......................................Ph 09 307 [email protected]

NATIONAL SALES MANAGER:Ted Darley .......... Ph 07 854 6292/021 832 [email protected]

AUCKLAND SALES REPRESENTATIVE:Stephen Pollard ....Ph 09 913 9637/021 963 [email protected]

TAURANGA SALES REPRESENTATIVE:Tony Hopkinson .. Ph 07 579 1010/021 949 [email protected]

WELLINGTON SALES REPRESENTATIVE:Mark Macfarlane .Ph 04 234 6239/021 453 [email protected]

SOUTH ISLAND SALES REPRESENTATIVE:Kaye Sutherland Ph 03 337 3828/021 221 [email protected]

RURALNEWS

ABC audited circulation 80,767 as at 30.06.2012

Rural News is published by Rural News Group Ltd. All editorial copy and photographs are subject to copyright and may not be reproduced without prior written permission of the publisher. Opinions or comments expressed within this publication are not necessarily those of staff, management or directors of Rural News Group Ltd.

TECHNICAL EDITOR:Andrew Swallow ................... Ph 03 688 2080

PRODUCTION:Dave Ferguson ........................Ph 09 913 9633Becky Williams ........................Ph 09 913 9634

REPORTERS:Sudesh Kissun ....................... Ph 09 913 9627Pamela Tipa ............................ Ph 09 913 9630Peter Burke .............................Ph 06 362 6319Vivienne Haldane .................... Ph 06 858 5161

SUB-EDITOR:Neil Keating ............................Ph 09 913 9628

WEBSITE PRODUCER:James Anderson .................... Ph 09 913 9621

Golden ride on Alliance’s roadshowALLIANCE ROADSHOWS are always must-see events; the recent coop-erative meeting at Milton appeared to have the catchy theme ‘too much for too long.’ It was a mes-sage most sheep farmers will quickly recognise as our meat industry lead-ers prepare us for the inev-itable drop in schedule prices, when the season gets under way.

As well as the ‘being over-paid’ issue, there is the excess killing capac-ity problem. The reality is lamb numbers are not there and the dairy indus-try will be around well into the foreseeable future. Drive into the rolling green countryside where lambs were once finished and the reason for radical change is obvious: meat has been replaced by milk.

The Alliance team of chief executive Grant Cuff and chairman Owen Poole had seemingly predicted areas of concern and the likely questions. They were prepared. In fact all they had to do was try to make the nice questions seem interesting.

Closing down or restructuring the present works are obvious options which have already begun with the closure of Sock-burn and the inevitable wind-down of Matau-ra’s sheepmeat operation. Dairying does have cows and beef processing has been increased with a $15 million state-of-the-art

plant at Mataura.Cuff told the large

Milton gathering of sup-pliers what most already knew: that the sheepmeat market was challenging and returns to suppliers would be back on previ-ous seasons. The market was also heavily affected by the exchange rate. Two seasons ago when good export lambs were worth up to $140 the exchange rate was about US 44 cents; today it is US 82c.

Cuff said at the present exchange rate that same lamb was worth $90; in August it was worth $95. By Christmas it could fall to $85 if the New Zea-land dollar continued to strengthen.

Although the exercise took out several chains Cuff assured suppliers there is more-than-ade-quate processing capacity. At Lorneville the eighth chain has yet to be used. There are also Saturday mornings and shift work if needed.

Most of the Mataura stock would be processed at Lorneville with some taken to Pukeuri depend-ing on location. There were positions available at Lorneville for up to 260 of Mataura’ 350 employees, but the 60km drive from

Mataura south each day is unlikely to attract much enthusiasm

With decreasing sheep numbers, procurement in recent times has become an emotive issue. The big cooperatives have empha-sised the huge impor-tance of loyalty. For most farmers there are differ-ent degrees of loyalty;

to a great extent it depends on who offers the best deal. This season Alli-ance is put-ting money where once there were words. Pro-

curement will recognise and reward committed loyal suppliers.

We suppliers will be classified – a bit like bank credit card holders –

and labeled ‘platinum’ (those who send 100% of their livestock to Alli-ance), ‘gold’ (100% of one species), or ‘silver’ (uncommitted but regular suppliers). All have to be Alliance shareholders.

Once fitted into our straitjackets and provid-ing we are platinum or gold we will be eligible for the loyalty rewards. These include an advance up-front payment in October. The payment is $20 a head for up to 80% of the sup-plier’s export lambs. These monies will be recovered later on by Alliance at

the time of processing or when store stock are sold.

The exercise allows the cooperative to lend funds to platinum/gold individ-uals at a time when farm-ers can often be a little stretched financially and at the same time as the Alliance coffers are well placed.

The pool retention (10%) will be dropped and 100% of schedule paid at time of processing. Terms and conditions will apply.

Owen Poole said the move sat well within the cooperative philosophy. Alliance had listened to suppliers and recognised commitment should be rewarded. This reinforced the mutual dependence of both parties and these changes are just the begin-ning.

Poole said changes were proposed in the selection of directors. This has to be done without compromising shareholders’ democratic rights. The changes will limit the time directors can stay on the board. To keep the board ‘fresh’ elected directors will be moved on after 12 years and appointed directors after nine years.

For me and my mates there was the sad announcement that Owen Poole’s tenure as chair-man would end next year. However it’s reassuring to see his long-time protégé Grant taking on more of the glamorous stuff.

www.seedforce.co.nz

Not all beets are the sameSF Brigadier - New Zealand’s # 1 fodder beet

Proven over thousands of hectares

Multiple years of NZ based trial data

Versatility of a true grazing type

Lowest bulb DM% = any stock class

Highest above ground yield

Exceptional utilisation

Do other varieties tick all the boxes?SF Brigadier is available from leading seed retailers

a

a

a

a

a

a


26 opinionFracking creates jobs and reduces gases!

IN PARTS of the country, fracking—the process of fracturing deep rock strata by injecting high pres-sure water, sand and other compounds to release bound methane gas—has become highly con-troversial. For instance, this winter in Hawke’s Bay, 40% of submissions on the draft 10-year plan were opposing fracking. The indomitable Greens have taken Australian anti-fracking campaigner Drew Hutton on a national tour to fan the fires of local concern (as they have with

two anti-GM campaigners even more recently). Sev-eral local authorities have placed moratoria on frack-ing and the Parliamen-tary Commissioner for the Environment is preparing a report on the practice. Some claim there has not been so much angst over any issue since the anti-nuclear movement of the 1980s.

Fracking has drawn controversy overseas too. Yet while opponents com-plain about violations of property rights, contam-ination of groundwater by methane and fracking solutions (industry states

that these are 98% water and sand), generation of small earthquakes and possible adverse effects on human health and the environment, govern-ments and the oil indus-try are enthusiastic about fracking’s potential. The procedure can release large amounts of valuable gas from otherwise inac-cessible reservoirs, which improves energy self-suf-ficiency, creates jobs and even reduces greenhouse gases. How so? Burning natural gas produces 45% less carbon dioxide than burning the energy equiva-lent in coal.

A few weeks ago I came upon a new report by Bjorn Lomborg, author of The Skeptical Environmen-talist, a controversial book from 2001. (He has since authored another book

Cool It and is a professor at the Copenhagen Business School).

The new report was based on data (avail-able online) from the US Energy Information Agency. It shows that CO

2

emissions in the US have fallen dramatically in the last five years, and attri-butes this to cheap gas from fracking. Being skep-tical myself, I checked the data and made extrapola-tions for the rest of 2012 based on last year’s figures -- and it all checked out.

So in 2012, US CO2

emissions from using energy are expected to be 5100 million tonnes, com-pared with 6020 at their maximum five years ago. Indeed, they will be the lowest for twenty years,

and considering the pop-ulation has risen by 45+ million in that time, per capita CO

2 emissions have

fallen 20%. (New Zea-land’s total emissions are the equivalent of 72 mil-lion tonnes CO

2.)

Fracking in the US has produced so much natu-ral gas that prices have dropped dramatically and this has lead to replace-ment of coal by gas in US electricity generation. In 2008, electricity com-panies paid $US9.26 per 1000 cubic feet for gas, whereas in May 2012 it was $US3.02 and falling. Five years ago, coal fuelled at least half of US electric-ity production and gas 20%. In March 2012 they became even at 32%.

How does this com-pare with CO

2 reductions

achieved by renewable energy? The US’s 30,000 wind turbines reduce emissions by 50 mil-lion tons, biofuels 10 mil-lion tons and solar panels 3 million — in total less than a tenth saved by fracking gas.

According to Lomborg, Europe has opposed frack-ing and subsidised renew-able energy to the tune

of $25 billion a year, but has achieved CO

2 reduc-

tions of less than half the US on a per capita basis. The US reduction in CO

2

emissions is double the total reduction achieved by Kyoto Protocol mitiga-tions throughout the rest of the world.

Ironies abound. The US has long been casti-gated for failure to ratify Kyoto. Many Republicans deny anthropogenic global warming exists. Yet the US has almost inadvertently lowered carbon emis-sions more successfully than most (maybe all) and at little cost, generating employment and income to boot.

There is one thorn amidst all this rosiness. As New Zealanders know, methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than CO

2.

Some of the methane lib-erated by fracking could elude capture and seep directly into the atmo-sphere. However, it seems for the moment that envi-ronmental benefits from fracking outweigh liabili-ties. • Dr Warren Judd is a farmer and former editor of NZ Geographic

wARREn JuDD

*IMPORTANT INFORMATION: All deposits are issued by Heartland Building Society. Minimum term deposit investment $1,000. Interest rates subject to change. Heartland Building Society has a BBB- (Outlook Stable) credit rating from Standard & Poor’s. For further details about deposits or our credit rating, see Heartland Building Society’s Investment Statement, available at www.heartland.co.nz or by calling 0800 85 20 20.BU

FFAL

O/HB

4155

Interest paid quarterly.

5.009o Days

Interest paid on maturity.

4.50 12 Months

We invest in

1New ZealandHeartland Building Society comprises four trusted New Zealand brands – CBS Canterbury, MARAC, PGG Wrightson Finance and Southern Cross. With roots stretching back to 1875, Heartland has a proud history of supporting small-to-medium sized businesses, farms and families in your region. So when you invest with Heartland, your deposit is used to drive prosperity in your local community.

To invest or for a copy of Heartland Building Society’s Investment Statement, visit your local Heartland branch or PGG Wrightson Store, call us on 0800 85 20 20 or go to www.heartland.co.nz

HB4155 Rural News - Invest in NZ 16x3-01.indd 1 12/09/12 5:21 PM

Contact AES direct or your local AES dealerFREEPHONE 0508 78 78 7846 Sir William Ave, East Tamaki, Aucklandwww.aesblasters.co.nz

TORNADO RANGE Robust UDOR

ceramic plunger

pump with brass head.

10 models from 1800 to 5000 psi.

Genuine Honda engine with 2 yr

warranty.

ELECTROBLAST RANGETwo 230 volt and four 400 volt models with UDOR ceramic plunger pump & low rpm 4 pole (1440 rpm) motor for extended service life.

ALBERTI HOT CLEANERSUDOR ceramic plunger pump. Heavy-duty 4 pole electric

motor. 230 & 400-volt models. Diesel

hot water heater.

HURRICANE PTO WATERBLASTER/SPRAYER

250 or 600 litre tank, 540 rpm gearbox. New UDOR 3000 psi 35L/min pump. Blast, spray and drain clean!3 FOR THE PRICE OF 1!

AES SPRAYPACK 250 & 600250 and 600 litre tanks, galvanised frame. HD quick release, PTO shaft, 53L/min spray pump. 6 metre boom, 25m hose & hand gun.

UDORHigh quality Italian diaphragm pumps.From 17L/min to 240L/min.290 psi to 580 psi

SPRAY BOOMS

4.5 6 & 8m metre spray booms, horizontal fold, stainless steel lines and non-drip low drift nozzles.HOSE REELS100mSPRAY HOSE10, 12mm

SAVE$$$

PHONE

FOR HOT

PRICES

SAVE

UP TO

$800

HIGH NZ

DOLLAR = LOW

PRICES. YOUR GAIN!SPRING CLEAN UP SALE

SAVEUP TO $500


opinion 27Minister, others need to act nowre tHe ‘One Plan from hell’ editorial (Sept.18): Minister David carter now has the reports; the question is what is he going to do about it? clearly, the law is an ass on the Horizons, but the donkey has already bolted. MPI’s failure to support agriculture during the One Plan process is a disgrace. DOc had a free rein to push the environmentalistagenda. Where was the economic and practical balance from MPI?

So far we have had little but wind from the minister. As Minister of Local Government and MPI he urgently needs to step up. the One Plan decision is damaging the Government’s economic credibility; on the one hand Minister

Joyce is talking about lifting New Zealand exports from 30-40% of GDP, meanwhile Minister Wilkinson is ensuring DOc is busy applying the handbrake.

If this Government is serious about improving growth opportunities, changes to the rMA are urgently required. the recommendations that need to be implemented can be found in the technical Advisory Group report to the Minister for environment dated February 2012. the report’s recommendations are ten years overdue and it’s time the legislation was changed to give social and economic

considerations higher importance in the rMA. Also, a cull is needed at the environment

court. You don’t need to go far to find ‘wally’ decisions by the court. For example, in the recent One Plan decision relating to land-scapes, the court has included wind farms as an ‘outstanding natural landscape. What planet are these guys on? A review of land-scape law is required before the moss in the cracks in the concrete outside the Skytower in Auckland is considered ‘natural’ by an environ-ment court judge. Nigel HarwoodGolden Bay

social credit alive and well!re YOUr editorial ‘blowing in the wind’ (Oct 2): will you please explain to me, and thousands of others, why we can’t print some money?

Such action helped New Zealand pull out of the Great Depression in better shape than most. I’d like to know why and how such money creates inflation or makes the country poorer if it is invested in basic infrastructure – power, sewerage, rail, etc, where it is an internal debt against the citizens at peppercorn interest. (even the cHcH rebuild?) Yet to finance these basic needs we are required to borrow offshore, thus benefiting overseas investors, or worse still we sell them to offshore owners who then rape the population and end up in control – a double loss for New Zealand.

As you state, the New

Zealand dollar is amongst “the 10 top traded curren-cies in the world”. Answer me this: how much tax is collected on the trading of this ‘commodity’ – money – on behalf of us stupid locals who are being used as a casino for the rich?

there is no inflationary effect in collecting a ‘finan-cial transaction tax’ on this gambling or charging an upfront 6% investor tax on incoming currency, as I believe is done by brazil; genuine investors still come but gamblers are discour-aged, thus helping currency stability.

there’s one result from a hot wind blowing — ostriches bury their heads in the sand.John McCaskeywaipara (Candidate in many past elections for Democrats for social Credit)

hound annoys another FedtHIS HeADING bitch enjoys chewing a bone now and again, but the Hounds ‘mate (Rural News, Sept 18) got my hackles up. When one’s very existence is threatened by external influences, the ‘pack’ is our strength to bark louder when the threat does not allay.

the Hound’s mate sounds uniformed when speaking of ‘idiots’. When he points a finger, he should check to see where the other three fingers are pointing. Hound’s mate can come and chew my bone any day.Barb HuntFederated Farmers memberRD2 Te Karaka

GET SOCIAL

facebook.com/ruralnewsgroup

twitter.com/Rural_News

ruralnewsgroup.co.nz/rss

Keep up with the latest stories from Rural News & Dairy News by following us on:

www.ruralnewsgroup.co.nz

Are You Running Low?

www.jobevalves.com/wli

Highly visible floatDouble Bracing BracketStainless Steel Construction Fits Plastic & Concrete Tanks

••••


28 management

Leading on farming within limits

TAUPO FARMER Mike Barton played a leading role in negotiating with Environment Waikato over its controversial nitrogen loss law for the catchment, Variation 5. It’s a law which has hit all farmers in the area in the pocket, both in the short and long term.

It took over a decade to come into effect but similar limits loom in the Manawatu/Wanganui region and what’s hap-pened in Taupo is “coming to all of you soon,” he warns.

As someone who’s been

through the process, he questions the way farm-ers are reacting elsewhere, given the changes are designed to improve water quality.

“Too many farmers are stuck in the space where they keep saying that farm-ing doesn’t damage water-ways. This seems to be their strategic response,” he says.

In the early stages of Variation 5, farmers were all talking about protecting property rights.

“But property rights assigned to title don’t give

you the right to pollute a downstream property, so that argument just doesn’t hold water.”

Barton’s interest in farming goes back to his early teens when he went hunting with his father. He became involved in deer farming, then worked in the tertiary educa-tion sector for more than twenty-five years. But the love of land was always there and while having a corporate day job he bought rough blocks of country and developed them.

“I would fence them, clear them, and sell them to buy a larger block. That was how I accrued the equity to go farming.

“This is the third farm I’ve owned. I didn’t access family money or anything like that. I never really made a significant cash surplus on any of those blocks of land, but I made capital gain each time.”

In 2004 he bought his present 148ha (118ha effec-tive) ex-ballot farm. His original business plan was to finish 300 prime cattle a year.

Farmers around the country are being warned to expect strict limits on either nutrient inputs or losses. Peter Burke reports from a farm in an area already subject to such constraints.

“I understood the Vari-ation 5 legislation and made a conscious deci-sion to purchase. I think I was the only person to buy farmland in about a four year period in the catchment just because everyone was gun-shy of Variation 5.”

Barton admits he wavered between think-ing he’d done the right thing and “My god, what an idiot!”

“At times the legisla-tion looked frighteningly difficult. At one point they were talking about con-sents for five years. Well, you’d never get a bank loan on a property that had a consent for five years so in due course we won the right for 25-year consents.”

Once on the farm, he immediately became deeply involved in the Variation 5 consultation process.

“I have always believed that if you are going to be affected by something you need to get involved boots and all otherwise it will get done to you.”

Barton joined Taupo Lake Care (TLC), which was set up in 2000 when Variation 5 was first mooted. It was an incor-porated society represent-ing 95% of both private and Maori authority owners in

the catchment. The organ-isation has, for 12 years, managed to keep the vast majority of landowners in the catchment ‘singing from the same song sheet’. TLC negotiated with Envi-ronment Waikato (EW) despite the fact that at times they were poles apart. Barton was elected chairman in 2006.

“What this did was to consume me and I lived and breathed it. When the Environment Court sat to hear appeals in 2007, I devoted 155 days where I was off the farm and involved in the process.

“There were a number of other farmers similarly committed. We were fortu-nate to have such a strong team.”

A small group of “early adopters” had accepted variation 5 was going to happen and had resolved to make the best of it; a group in the middle of the bell curve were wait-ing to see what happened; and there was, and is, a tail that would and will never accept it.

“There are still people in the catchment who think that we did the wrong thing [but] hope-fully the bulk of people will agree that history will show that what we achieved here was the best deal as we could have got.”

Barton says there were times when it was extremely difficult and stressful, given the respon-sibility he had negotiating a deal that he knew would have an impact on the lives of others. He wrote and got approval from TLC mem-bers for the submission he prepared for the Environ-

ment Court.He says he always knew

the devil of Variation 5 would be in the detail and while farmers never ques-tioned the need for a nitro-gen cap, they felt many of the proposals put up by EW were unworkable. TLC hung in and negotiated its way through the process to get a deal.

“We were increasingly being confronted with sci-ence that we either had to accept or reject, and much of it was not carried out in the catchment under our soil type or climate. We argued successfully for a considerable amount of research to be done in the catchment.”

However, even today, the science around water quality for diffuse sources of pollution is uncertain. What TLC eventually signed to was a means of protecting Lake Taupo.

Barton believes the farmers of the catchment have made huge personal sacrifices for the greater good of all New Zealand-ers. In contrast, the gov-ernment who created the problem by developing the land in the 1970s abdicated its responsibilities. “Sev-enteen years after selling farmers the balloted farms, they were saying to them: ‘you are polluters – you will need to go’.”

His message to farm-ers throughout the coun-try is clear: “Look at what happened in Taupo; get together in catchment groups; deeply understand the issues, the science, and the regional economic impact. You need to work together and support each other.”

Taupo farmer Mike Barton.

New Zealand’s Number 1 Family... of the world leading crop packaging products

Integrated Packaging (IP) is New Zealand’s leading manufacturer of agricultural silage film and a specialist distributor of high quality crop packaging products.

Designed to cater for the specialised seeds of our cutomers, the SilaFARM Family products offer a range of superior quality as well as excellent value in crop packaging.

Ask for SilaFARM New Zealand’s No. 1 range of premium silage films, net wraps, bailing twines, pit covers, grain bags, mulch films and more.

0800 745 297 – [email protected]

www.ipstretch.com


management 29

Barton’s branded beef initiativeSOME COULD argue Mike Barton (see main story) was more psycho-logically prepared when he took over his Taupo catch-ment farm in 2004. Varia-tion 5 was going to happen and it was just a matter of the thrashing out final details.

Nitrogen caps for each farm, including his, were set based on the best single production year between 2000 and 2005.

“I am capped at my 2004 production levels which was the single best year when the climate and market and everything else came together. It allowed us to stay in busi-ness as usual, but the thing that’s going to sneak up on all of us is rising costs because [we] can’t grow stock numbers.”

When he took over the farm he had 120 Hereford-Frisian breeding cows which he put to a Simmen-tal bull. All progeny plus some bought in were fin-ished. The nitrogen cap put an end to that.

“Our business is now predicated upon dol-lars profit per kilogram of nitrogen leached. That’s the way I have to run my business and we discon-tinued with breeding cows.”

He’s found a new and innovative way of making his farm profitable. Since 2009 he’s been buying in weaners, normally Charo-lais x Angus, and finishing

them before their second winter, cutting cost and nutrient loss. He doesn’t use any applied nitrogen but focuses on managing clover content to fix nitro-gen and raise pasture qual-ity. Young stock also leach less nitrogen than mature cattle, he points out.

He’s set about adding value to his produce with a brand built on protecting the iconic lake: Taupo Beef. The value proposition to consumers is that buying meat produced under the catchment-wide cap is protecting the lake and they should pay premium for it. He’s persuaded EW to endorse it based on their environmental auditing.

Greenlea Meats in Hamilton provide trace-ability through their works so consumers are guaran-teed meat produced under the environmental pro-tection systems the brand promises.

“We started out with a four month trial in July 2011,” explains Barton. “We deliberately chose that period because the rugby world cup was coming up so we had a large number of overseas visitors coming to Taupo.”

The trial involved three restaurants and a butchers shop in Taupo.

“We asked those res-taurants to make Taupo Beef the most expensive item on the menu. We put

a lot of work into making the quality of the meat was as high as we could get it because every chef we talked to said ‘yes, we’ll try it, but only if it’s as good as we can get’,” he recalls.

The trial was a huge success. At the Hilton, Taupo Beef outsold other beef by 4 to 1 despite, or perhaps in part because of, the price premium. Commanding a premium: some of

Barton’s Charolais cross cattle.tO pAGE 30

3032E STARTING AT

$85*

PER WEEK

The quality won’t surprise you – but the price will.

*Interest rate based on a 36 month term, current as at 1st May 2012 and subject to change without notice. Conditions apply. Finance available through John Deere Financial to approved applicants only. Repayments based on a cash price of $21,746.50 for a 3032E tractor calculated on an annual interest rate of 1.99% with 30% deposit, GST back and 36 monthly instalments. Dealer pre-delivery, set-up, installation and freight charges are additional. Loaders, implements and attachments shown above are sold separately. †The engine horsepower information is provided by the engine manufacturer to be used for comparison purposes only. Actual operating horsepower may be less. 0800 303 100 | JohnDeere.co.nz/3E

Our 3E Series tractors are built with the notion that, if you excel in the areas that matter the most, you’ll exceed expectations as well. That’s why the 3032E has an extremely effi cient 23.1 kW (31.4-hp†) diesel engine featuring impressive torque reserves that allow you to take on punishing loads. You’ll also be surprised to fi nd a hydrostatic transmission with Twin Touch™ pedals instead of a gear version. Power steering also comes standard, which makes manoeuvring a breeze. Standard differential lock and 4WD give you the traction you need over rugged terrain. That’s why the 3032E is a no-nonsense workhorse that exceeds expectations at every turn, and with a price tag that deserves a second look.

So if you’re thinking about a new tractor, we have an easy answer. Find out more about the 3E Series from your John Deere dealer or visit us online.

Call now for more information for a 1 week obligation free trial09 414 1028www.prosol.co.nz

PROSOL PCS Ultrasonic flowmeters are simple to install, reliable and suit standard council metering requirements. The transducers mount to the outside of the pipe, and will suit most pipe materials 15mm to 3m diameter. Onsite display, datalogging or telemetry options available. Transducers can be mounted up to 100m from display.

Flowmeteringcausing you a headache?Consider Ultrasonic Clamp-on meters as your first solution


30 management

Brand extension next step

“They all said we want to do this on a permanent basis and so what was a trial has now become a way of life. We’ve increased the number of restaurants and we can’t keep up with demand.”

Two other farmers in the catchment have joined and demand has extended to Auckland, Wellington and even the South Island. Steaks, prime burgers and stroganoff ’s carry the brand, with various cuts used. Those that aren’t are processed by Greenlea and sold unbranded through normal channels.

The restaurants now want Taupo-branded lamb and one day Barton is hopeful of adding venison to the prod-uct list. Out of years of adversity over Variation 5, a winner has been found.

“The other thing it’s done is radically improved my motivation as farmer because I now understand what I need to do to have really good quality meat,” says Barton.

“It makes me think more about what I am doing and I can understand the connection between what I am doing and how diners are going to experience the end product – and that’s a really good thing.”

FROm pAGE 29

herbage seed tips tweakedDON’T CLOSE grass seed paddocks too early; heed a tweak in nitrogen rates; take advantage of new chemistry to keep crops standing longer and pro-tect endophytes. Those

are among the messages AgResearch’s Phil Rolston, FAR’s Richard Chynoweth and PGW Seeds’ Murray Kelly have been relaying to growers at a series of dis-cussion group meetings

across Canterbury.“We do know that

under normal condi-tions if you close too early you sacrifice yield poten-tial,” Kelly warned at Gary Talbot’s, Temuka. “You

wouldn’t want to be clos-ing this any earlier than [October 25],” he said of the PG One50 crop the meeting was held in. “It’s 20 days later flowering than Nui.”

Rolston echoes the need to look at flower-ing date when working out closing date. “There’s such a wide range of dates for the cultivars on the market now.”

Another spring, and another suite of subtle tweaks to herbage seed agronomy to take on board. andrew swallow reports

Using Nui as the bench-mark, if the cultivar’s flow-ering date is up to 14 days later, then simply add the same number of days to the traditional closing date for Nui in your region. For every day over 14 later than Nui, add half a day to the closing date. “As you get into the later flowering material it does get a bit more complicated.”

Irrigation buys flexibil-ity, particularly with annu-als and Italians which are prone to “shut up shop” if it gets dry, but for those brave enough to close later, the rewards can be considerable. A clos-ing date x pgr trial nearby in South Canterbury two years previously found Crusader closed on Octo-ber 25 yielded 800kg/ha more seed on average than

plots closed ten days ear-lier. “And we had a lot better activity from the pgr when we put it on fol-lowing later closing.”

The advantage in a sim-ilar trial at Ashburton was even greater: 1275kg/ha, a gain of 34%.

Such Italian cultivars are also very tolerant of the embryo seed heads being removed by late closing, so if water isn’t an issue, the risks of later closing are minimal. “With an Italian you can take up to 50% of the heads off before you see any effect on seed head density.”

Taking a crop of bale-age is an option, though such a drastic defoliation does give the crop a shock and should be done about 10 days earlier than closing in a grazed situation. Also

The objective: keeping lake Taupo clean.

CONTACT US ON FREEPHONE0800 500 275 or visit www.fieldmaster.co.nz

RECLAIM YOUR PASTURE – FASTER!

Don’t let weeds or time get away on you – buy now before the pending price review!

Are you finding your existing mower just won’t ‘cut the mustard’ when it comes to dealing with weed problems in your pasture?

Despite some grass toppers claiming to be ‘multi-purpose’ the fact is they won’t last the distance when hitting the hard stuff, often resulting in costly repairs and downtime instead of dealing with the problem you’re trying to eradicate.

Invest in a GMM Rotary Mulcher and you get a machine designed and proven to tackle all your pasture needs head on – from cutting it rough through rushes and light gorse to cleaning up paddocks after the cattle.

Please quote this code ‘ RYPF0911’ to receive 2011 catalogue pricing


management 31Talking ryegrass: FaR’s Richard Chynoweth, agresearch’s Phil Rolston, and PGw’s Murray Kelly.

New pgrs and fungicides

keep traffic to tramlines and leave at least a 6cm stubble.

Rolston notes toler-ance to loss of seedheads pre-closing is “completely different with perenni-als” where about 5% loss is the limit before yield is impacted.

Where crops become uneven as can be a prob-lem with later closing in grazed situations, topping “is probably a really good call.” “It’s more than just cosmetic. If you don’t top you’ll probably have dif-ferent heading dates come harvest time.”

Nitrogen needs to go on half immediately post

closing, but timing of the remainder is flexible, trials with applications at three, six and nine weeks after the first showing no differ-ence. “With that second application you do have a very wide window.” There’s even some evi-dence that delaying the second application can increase yield.

“The story emerging is that if you pile the nitro-gen in before the Moddus goes on, the pgr has a lot more bulk to dilute it and is less effective.”

That flexibility means those with irrigation can time the second nitrogen pass to ensure it’s washed

tHere Are now three generic formulations of trinexapac-ethyl, the active ingredient of key ryegrass plant growth regulator, Moddus, on the market, as well as the established brand. but because trinexapac-ethyly is such a mouthful, expect to hear researchers and advisors talking about “te”, says rolston.

two of the generics, trinity and trexel, contain the equivalent amount of active as Moddus, at 250g/litre, while Optimus contains 175g/litre.

the label rate for all is 800ml/ha so Optimus delivers a lower dose of active but FAr’s research to date backs up the manufacturer’s claim that “even though the active ingredient rate is lower, it does the same work litre for litre,” says rolston. “In terms of response to active ingredient amounts, it’s quite a significant enhancement of seed yield, though we need another year’s data to see how it holds up.”

Seguris Flexi’s addition to the fungicide armoury in ryegrass offers another option which appears safer on cultivars carrying novel endophytes. When partnered with a triazole, yield responses are a match for the previous standard triazole plus strobi-lurin approach.

Cereal volunteersUNSIGHtLY AS they are, cereal volunteers won’t impact ryegrass seed yields until they reach 15-20 plants/m2, PGW’s Murray Kelly and FAr’s richard chynoweth say.

“ryegrass is really competitive. Vice versa that’s why it only takes a few ryegrass plants to reduce yields in cereal crops.”

However, as Agresearch’s Phil rolston points out, contamination of samples for export, notably to Australia, is the concern. regardless of whether a shrivelled cereal grain is viable, just one in a ryegrass consignment can get it rejected.

in, and even on dryland growers could watch the forecast and aim to apply just before rain, suggests Rolston.

As for how much nitro-gen to apply, FAR has tweaked the formula down

to 175kg/ha, minus mineral nitrogen in the 0-30cm soil profile. Soils with high incubation N (ie soil nitrogen which is likely to become available later in the season) allow for fur-ther fertiliser reductions.

The beet specialistsfor experienced advice, talk to Seed Force

Proven beet varieties for any situation and advice on anything beet freephone 0508 SEED FORCE (0508 7333 36) or visit our website

www.seedforce.co.nz

*$200+GST. Offer available on any new 4WD Honda ATV. Does not apply to MUV. Stock crate available as optional extra with purchase. Cannot be substituted for cash or discount. Offer valid from 1st October 2012 while stocks last. Terms, conditions and lending criteria apply and all finance options include establishment and maintenance fees. Only one offer may be selected, and each offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer. Visit www.mtf.co.nz/terms.html or in store for details.

1. INTEREST FREE FINANCE

2. TRAILER FOR $200*

Kea Trailer model K64SF 6’X4’

Contact your local Honda Dealer FREEPHONE 0508 466 326

www.honda-motorcycles.co.nz

BUY A NEW 4WD

HONDAIN OCTOBER

1/3 1/3 1/3NOw

IN 12

mONThS

IN 24

mONThS

Plus $290 documentation fee

& YOU CHOOSE

OPTION 1 OR 2

OPTION

OPTION

Stock crate optional extra

ATV Finance or Trailer National Ad.indd 1 2/10/2012 9:51:13 a.m.


32 management

merino breeding value focusA MAJOR drive to get Merino stud breeders, and their customers, using breeding values is

underway. The New Zea-land Merino company this week [Oct 23-25] is running workshops in Cheviot, Alexandra and Omarama aimed at getting

stud breeders up to speed with using the values gen-erated by the Merino Select database in Aus-tralia.

“Only about 10% of

AnDREw swALLOw studs are using them in the merino industry here,” NZM’s technology trans-fer manager Nick Hamil-ton told Rural News.

“If we could get that up to 75% using them in two years’ time, we’d be pretty happy.”

A follow-up series of workshops for “commer-cial” – ie non stud stock – producers is planned for next month.

“That will be more about what to look for in a stud breeder and the questions you should be asking your stud breeder. The idea is to educate our stud breeders about using breeding values before we get the commercials asking about them.”

NZM has recruited Australian geneticist spe-cialising in fine wool sheep, Mark Ferguson, to facilitate the uptake of breeding values, and drive selection of stock to meet both fibre and meat pro-duction goals.

“Merino have been managed and selected mostly to produce wool for the last two centuries and therefore remain rela-tively unselected for meat and reproduction traits,” says Ferguson, who joined NZM earlier this month.

“There is enormous scope to bring more bal-anced selection and more strategic nutrition into the Merino industry to unlock its potential.”

Ferguson’s work will also assist NZM’s aim to extend the geographic range of fine wool sheep, improving breed robust-ness, and develop sheep that optimise traits for productivity and returns.

“The benefits for the market will be evident in greater confidence of supply and consistency of quality, and exciting con-tract opportunities with the likes of Icebreaker on the fibre side and Silere alpine origin merino for meat,” says the Christ-church-based company.

Chief executive, John

Brakenridge, says the desire to provide farm-ers with an easy care and market-led sheep marks the beginning of a new era in New Zealand’s sheep industry.

This can be achieved through careful selection and amplification of exist-ing genetics, rather than using some of the more controversial techniques that have been discussed in recent years, he adds.

Ferguson says molec-ular genetic technology will be used to build a new footrot genetic test.

“Importantly, this test will also check the ani-mal’s genotype for all pro-duction and health traits. This technology means

that a drop of blood col-lected from a lamb’s ear at birth could be used to not only predict the likelihood of that lamb contracting footrot, but also to predict how much and what qual-ity wool it will cut as an adult, how fast it will grow, its likelihood of getting a worm burden, and dozens of other traits includ-ing what the consumer’s eating experience will be when that lamb hits the plate,” he explains.

The work is part Gov-ernment funded through NZM’s Primary Growth Partnership (PGP) grant.

NZM says it handles about 80% of the Merino clip and finer-edge mid micron wool in New Zea-land, equating to circa $150 million of fibre sales a year.

Its contract model cre-ates strong connections and valuable relationships between grower suppli-ers and premium global brands using the fibre.

Last year it launched Alpine Origin Merino, a joint venture with Silver Fern Farms that, with a branded niche approach, aims to improve Merino producers’ returns by adding value to merino meat and co-products.More on sheep breeding 36-39.

NZM’s new geneticist, Dr Mark Ferguson.

“Merino have been managed and selected mostly to produce wool for the last two centuries.”


management 33

nut out drench strategy nowWITH LAMBING over on most farms, and tailing too in many cases, thoughts should be turning to worm manage-ment, if they haven’t already done so, says a spokesman for the national industry- and Government-funded ini-tiative Wormwise.

“Look at your whole system: what animal classes you have, the areas you expect to be grazing with what stock, and what you expect the level of con-tamination of those areas to be based on grazing in the last six to nine months,” advises Trevor Cook.

Strong pasture growth last autumn appears to have left a legacy of high larval challenge on pastures now, which is causing problems in some flocks, par-ticularly in the west of the North Island, he notes. “Normally where there are problems it’s because ewes are under-fed but this year generally they’re not and they’ve still succumbed.”

A possible factor in that is the rel-atively low uptake of advice to use an autumn “exit drench” with either one of the two new actives on the market. That said, most ewes should be getting their immunity back post lambing now, so only severe cases merit intervention.

As for lambs, tailing drenches gener-

ally don’t pay because of the protection they have from milk, so the focus should be on what to do during and post wean-ing, says Cook. The exception would be doing a faecal egg count on lambs in the South Island to check if nematodirus is present. If it is, then that’s a situation where a pre-weaning lamb drench may be warranted.

While a weaning drench is, and should be, more or less standard prac-tice, how it’s done does need some thought, says Cook. For resistance rea-sons, using a combination product is a must, and lambs shouldn’t be drenched onto pasture that’s going to be totally worm free, otherwise the only worms that get onto that pasture will be the ones that survive the drench, potentially creating a highly drench resistant population, he warns.

Putting weaned lambs onto cleaner, but not spot-less from a parasite point of view, pasture is good prac-tice. “Areas that have been grazed by older stock classes or by another species such as cattle,” he suggests.

Four weeks post wean-

ing a faecal egg count is needed to check the level of challenge lambs are facing. “Find out whether what you thought would be happening, is happening.”

Where lambs are weaned onto pas-ture with low levels of contamination and FECs come back low, there’s an opportunity to extend lamb drench intervals, but where the challenge is high the plan should be to drench every four weeks post weaning.

With drench resistance widespread, a faecal egg count reduction test should

be done at least every five years – more frequently on properties regularly importing stock – to be sure the products used will work. “There can be a lot of resistance before it becomes visually obvious that something’s not right. A drench may only be 90% effective but you’ll have no idea that that’s the case.”

Research has shown such a drop in efficacy cuts growth rates about 14%, he notes. “The value of knowing a drench is fully effective is very high.”

AnDREw swALLOw

tOO OFteN weaning date is talked about as if it’s engraved on tablets of stone, says cook, but there are good reasons to bring the date forward in years when feed gets tight.

“Seventy-five percent of a lamb’s feed from birth to weaning is pasture so the quality of the pasture they have access to is the key to good growth rates.”

On the ewe, lambs may be content because they’re still suckling, but in practice if feed is tight growth rates will be compromised because the ewes take the best feed, he explains.

“Almost inevitably you’ll find lamb growth rate really drops off and you’re almost always better to wean than leave them on. they might feel comfortable still with their mums, but if good quality pasture is scarce, they’re relying heavily on a decreasing milk yield.”

Flexible weaning dates

wormwise national spokesman, Trevor Cook.

The S690 delivers on every level. The Class 9 harvester boasts 405 kW (543-hp) at rated speed and 460 kW (617-hp*) at its peak power, making it one of the most powerful combines on the market.

Big and nimble, it can easily handle 12.2 m (40-ft) platforms including the 640FD HydraFlex™ Draper and it’s also easier to fi nd your comfort zone with 30% more interior space and familiar controls.

Expanded glass, tinted windows, and slimline cornerposts offer almost 180-degrees of visibility. The 14,100 L (400-bushel) capacity

grain tank and advanced grain cleaning system means you’ll keep moving through harvest at maximum capacity without compromise.

With JDLink™ and other extras as standard on all the S-Series Harvesters, welcome to a new era of harvesting from John Deere.

Get to know the S-Series Harvester at our website or visit your local John Deere dealer today.

Nothing Runs Like A Deere.™

*At 1900 RPM.

Good looks, brains and a whole lot of brawn.

The S690.More Power to you.

0800 303 100 | JohnDeere.co.nz


34 animal health

no problem in cold stored colostrum

Just as good: us work found no nutritional downside with stored colostrum.

A STUDY looking at the wider implications of cold storing colostrum has given the practice a pre-

liminary all clear.The Texas A&M Uni-

versity AgriLife Research and University of Florida report notes most studies analyse the effect of refrig-

eration or freezing on preservation of immuno-globulins, but the impact of such storage on other immunological factors had been unclear.

ALAn hARmAn “Passive transfer of immunoglobulins is the key element; however, colostrum also is an important source of nutrients, non-specific immune factors and biologically active compounds,” explains AgriLife Research ruminant animal health scientist Pablo Pinedo, one of the report authors.

Pinedo and Univer-sity of Florida professor Arthur Donovan looked for differences in health in 489 Holstein Friesian calves fed fresh, refriger-ated or frozen colostrum from birth. Each calf was monitored for survival, number and length of ill-nesses, and average daily gain.

“The objective was to

assess the performance, health and survival of calves fed fresh colostrum from their dams compared to calves receiving colos-trum that was not from their dams and had been treated with potassium sorbate preservative and stored frozen or refriger-ated,” says Pinedo.

Preliminary results indicate colostrums origin – fresh maternal versus stored – does not have a significant effect on per-formance, health and sur-vival.

“This is good news: proper colostrum stor-age is a very convenient tool in dairy farms and the absence of unfavorable effects on frozen or refrig-erated colostrum would be a very good result.”

UK bans ads for antimicrobialsADVERTISING VETERINARY antibiotics to farmers will be banned in the UK from next year.

The move has been welcomed by British Veterinary Association which lobbied for it.

“New antimicrobials are heavily advertised by phar-maceutical companies and there can be undue pressure put on veterinary surgeons by clients who want to try new products that promise good results, but which may not be appropriate from the point of view of responsible use,” says BVA president Peter Jones.

The ban is the result of a European Commission ruling that the UK did not correctly transpose the European Directive 2001/82/EC, which prohibits advertising of certain veterinary medicinal products to the ‘general public’.

Don’t let BVD undermine yourprofitability this season

Ask your vet to use Gribbles Veterinary Pathology, New Zealand’s leadingprovider of BVD testing and advice.


animal health 35

nAit scheme misses the mark

PPB advisory’s David webb.

JULY 1 saw the radio fre-quency tagging of cattle become compulsory under the requirements of the National Animal Iden-tification and Tracing (NAIT) Act 2012. The tag-ging and associated animal movement recording is an attempt by industry to meet international bios-ecurity regimes to ensure New Zealand’s meat and livestock exports remain competitive.

The NAIT scheme has missed the mark as a biosecurity control by excluding the estimated 40 million sheep in New Zealand. The exclusion of sheep does little to protect New Zealand agriculture from its most threatening biosecurity risk, an out-break of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD). Reserve Bank and Treasury figures estimated that a FMD out-break could:

• wipe $10 billion off the economy

• result in the loss of

20,000 jobs • close export meat

markets for 12 months• depress export prices

for up to 4 years. NAIT Ltd, the industry-

owned company respon-sible for implementing the NAIT scheme, has fallen short in improving biose-curity management, a key purpose of the scheme outlined in the NAIT Act 2012. While NAIT’s IT system has been designed to accommodate other species, it does appear that the decision for other spe-cies to join the scheme has been left to the respective industry groups to make. As a result, the current scheme fails to enhance New Zealand’s ability to respond more quickly if there is a biosecurity threat such as a disease outbreak.

It seems sheep have been excluded from the scheme due to the pre-dicted significant cost to farmers. Many are ques-tioning whether the cost of implementing NAIT is necessary in a year when:

• Fonterra payout pro-jections have declined

• beef returns are likely to come under pressure from US cull increases in response to drought con-ditions

• lamb incomes are forecast to drop by up to $20/lamb.

Initial projections esti-mated the cost of fund-ing NAIT and the Ministry for Primary Industries’ activities to support the scheme at approximately $8m/year, with a contri-bution of 18-20% from the Crown.

Although it is not easy to compare NAIT to sim-ilar identification and tracing schemes, a UK National Audit Office report ‘Identifying and Tracking Livestock in Eng-land’ estimates the cost of identifying and track-ing the movements of the 25 million cattle, sheep and pigs in England at $110m. This illustrates that the relatively low run-ning costs budgeted for New Zealand by NAIT may be unrealistic given the

uncertainty around the monitoring and compli-ance costs.

NAIT Ltd estimates the levies could cost approxi-mately $5.50 over the life-time of each animal: $2.45 in tag and slaughter levies and $2.98 for a basic radio

frequency tag. If these costs were applied to sheep, this would mean a cost of $5.50 for an animal only worth about $80 on the hook.

We have already seen additional costs applied such as the levies imposed

by stock agents on ani-mals passing through sale yards. This is, report-edly, to recoup time spent entering animal move-ments, and the investment in technology required to administer NAIT tagged animals.

Untapped potential On the surface NAIT

has the potential to be a key initiative in improving New Zealand’s biosecu-

rity. However, in the short term it fails to achieve its original objective with the introduction of a scheme that covers only a propor-tion of livestock and as such continues to expose New Zealand farms to potentially devastating disease risks.• David Webb heads Australian corporate advice firm PPB Advisory’s operations in New Zealand.

DAViD wEBB

Massey disease centreMASSEY UNIVERSITY is today (Octo-ber 23) launching an Infectious Disease Research Centre, linking researchers across the institution working on diseases that pose a threat to health, biosecurity and trade.

Centre director Professor Nigel French says the new centre creates a “one health” approach and builds on the University’s record of research that can be quickly applied to deliver real health and economic benefits.

“No single discipline has all the knowl-

edge and skills needed to meet the chal-lenges faced by human, animal, plant and ecosystem health,” he says.

“There is a growing global recognition that multidisciplinary teams are essential to tackle both the current disease problems and those that will emerge in the future.”

A symposium featuring presentations by the leaders of the research groups in the centre, and keynote addresses from some overseas research leaders, is being run in Palmerston North to mark the centre’s opening.

www.smithattachments.co.nz

Now you can stay on your bike to move your K-Lines!

SMITHAttachments LtdWe’ve got New Zealand in tow!

PEACE OF MIND

THE

WARRANTYYEAR5SMITHAttachments Ltd

Contact your local CRT, Farmlands or Motorcycle Dealer

RAKES & TEDDERS

www.powerfarming.co.nz

Contact your local Vicon dealer for more information or visit our website

TWO YEAR WARRANTY

Vicon Fanex Tedders are built around an enclosed box section chassis that maximises strength, working effectively with severe hay or silage loads.Th e 903CD offers a phenomenal 9 metre working width providing a very fast and cost effi cient means of tedding.

763 & 903CD Fanex Tedder 784 Andex Rake

RAKES & TEDDERSRAKES & TEDDERS FINANCE FROM

1.95%* 1.95%*Normal lending criteria &

conditions apply

Th e Vicon 784 centre swath rake offers the ultimate in ground following characteristics. With a working width of 7-7.8m the 784 can be adjusted hydraulically from the tractor and with a swath width of 1.3 to 1.9m is suitable for all conditions.

• Th e ProLine rotor gear box is designed for very high loads and capacity• Maintenance free ball bearings on the tine arm control• Patented Terralink Quattro suspension enables rotor to fl oat in 3 dimensions – adapting to any ground contour• Transport width of 2.85 metres• 11 tine arms per rotor

TWO YEAR WARRANTY

• Largest tines available in it’s class• Maintenance free Pro Line, oil-immersed rotor gearboxes guarantee superior longevity• Hydraulically controlled border spreading• Vibration dampers provide smooth and even

trailing• Transport width below 3 metres

www.electro-tek.co.nz


36 animal health

BLnZ tool to find ram breedersCAN’T REMEMBER the name of that ram breeder you were going to call this spring? Then Beef + Lamb’s new tool Breeder-Finder, available through the SIL website, could help.

“It’s a list of basic con-

tact details,” explains BLNZ genetics manager Mark Young.

The next step is to look at FlockFinder which allows ram buyers to find breeders who are record-ing the traits they’re inter-ested in, such as facial eczema tolerance, or lamb survival.

“The FlockFinder tool

targets breeders who are in SIL-ACE and on the basis of which traits they are recording.”

The ACE part of the acronym stands for ‘advanced central evalua-tion’ and allows between-flock comparisons within breeds. No fewer than 60% of animals recorded by SIL are now in SIL-ACE,

and Young says 85-90% of rams sales come from SIL recorded flocks. “This means about half the rams bred for farmers to buy benefit from SIL-ACE.”

The BLNZ-funded cen-tral progeny test (CPT) makes the between-flock comparisons pos-sible, providing the critical genetic connec-

tions between differ-ent breeding groups, he explains.

But Young stresses SIL does not provide or promote between breed comparisons. “We know there is much more varia-tion within a breed than there is between. We want people to seek out high performing genetics. Our

tools aim to do that rather than get side-tracked by between-breed compari-sons.”

And while the CPT builds links between genetic groups, some of which are “breeds”, it is not a breed comparison, he adds.

“You can’t characterise a breed from a few sires. So far the CPT has used 234 rams across all breeds so there aren’t many per breed. Breed compari-sons should look at lots of sires selected at random, each with a few progeny, whereas the CPT looks at a few sires and has more progeny per sire to establish the strong links between breeding groups

that it has as a goal.”Another BLNZ/SIL tool

is RamFinder but that is targeted at stud breed-ers “to help them find top genetics in other breeder flocks,” says Young.

A key point for all buyers, commercial or stud, is to know what their flock’s current perfor-mance is in the traits they are seeking to improve by bringing in new genetics.

A series of ram buying workshops targeting com-mercial flock operators begins this week in the North Island, and in the South Island next month.www.beeflambnz.co.nz

Aussies go for sheep genomics

There’s more variation with breeds, than between, says BlNZ genetics manager, Mark Young.

A GENOMICS pilot project being run by Australia’s Sheep CRC is gaining momentum.

From 450 rams tested in 2010, the project’s first year, 860 were tested last year, and now 3000.

“This is a resounding vote of confidence in the commercial value of genomics technology for sheep breeding programmes,” says Sheep CRC chief execu-tive James Rowe.

“The 1500 genotyping tests available as part of Pilot Project III have been fully subscribed, and a further 1500 tests allocated for commercial scale trials has also been over-subscribed.”

AnDREw swALLOw

[email protected]


Key features:

• Upgradeabledesign–manuallevercontroltofullautodraftcontrol

• Controlpanelwithstoragecupboard&tray• IntegratedScalemount• Internalloadbarcablerouting

forprotection• VetorVetlessmodel• eRailintegratedEIDreader

MANUAL LEVER CONTROL

AIR LEVER CONTROL

FULLY AUTO CONTROL

www.tepari.com

TEP10

37To find out more about iDraft System and the full range of quality farm equipment from Te Pari, call us or go online. Phone 0800 492 738 or email [email protected]

Whatever your farm requirements, the new iDraft range has a model to suit. From the manual lever operation, to the air control or full auto system, you can be sure the iDraft will make your livestock work easier and more efficient. The fully auto iDraft model features an intelligent touch sensitive control screen and a 10 function hand held radio remote control so the operator can control all functions of the crush and the draft gates from a distance.

upgrade

DESIGN- this -

TAKING CATTLE HANDLING

TO A NEW LEVEL

TEP 1037 iDraft Ad 280x187mm_ƒ.indd 1 9/12/12 4:30 PM

CONTROL THEM WITH

Contains the naturally occurring plant extract Rotenone derived from the roots of the Lonchocarpus plant found in South America.

Manufactured by Greyhorse Vet (NZ) Ltd Ph: 03 339 0345 Fax: 03 338 7645

FOWLS•HORSES•CALVES•GOATS•DOGS•CATS•SHEDS

lice, fleas, mites?lice, fleas, mites?

PESTENEINSECT POWDER

AVAILABLE FROM VETS,STOCK AGENTS & SADDLERS

AVAILABLE IN THE ORIGINAL 500GM PACK AND NOW. . . . . .

THE NEW CONVENIENT 250MG PACK.


southdown special 37

Breed looks to bright future

FAST GROWING, easily delivered lambs with great survivability and confor-mation: that’s what you can expect when you use a Southdown ram, says breed society president Blair Robertson.

“We’re focussed on maintaining that [early] mean kill date for our cli-ents and continuing to keep the meat content up.”

Eye muscle area scores have been steadily increas-ing over recent years and fat con-tent, once a point to watch with the breed, has come down to the point where breeders are now careful they’re not taking it too low with their selections, he adds.

“If we take it too low we might start to lose some of that early matu-rity.”

Breeders are also taking care not to take them too big, too leggy, as can happen if selection for growth isn’t handled carefully. They’re really grunty, nuggetty, lambs,” he stresses.

That’s already showing in lambs born this spring to 1200 ewes he’s conduct-ing a trial with to compare performance of the breed with five other terminal sire breeds.

The ewes were all in-

lamb when he bought them, so other than the breed they’d been mated to, sire selection was out of his hands. Growth rates, and kill dates and weights will be monitored, with carcase yield data too if possible.

“We’ll either do all the twins, or all the singles.”

Another initiative the society is considering is a spring/early summer retail or restaurant promotion based on the breed’s earli-

ness and quality of meat. To that end last year a res-taurant survey found all but one of 23 diners were 100% satisfied with the meat in their meal, and the exception was due to excess gravy.

“It was so successful we’re going to do it again this season. What we’re thinking is rather than promoting Southdown lamb as a year-round product it should have a season, a bit like the oyster season, so people look for-ward to getting those early lambs.”

Robertson notes Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s

Golden Lamb Awards, aka The Glammies, held at Wanaka A&P Show in March, while a laudable initia-tive for rewarding farmers producing high yielding, high quality meat, isn’t the ideal timing for the Southdown.

“Our focus is early maturity. A lot of the good Southdown lambs are long dead by then.

We’re taking the first draft at 10-11 weeks off their mums. We had a line of Romney x Southdown lambs out of hoggets that did 16.8kg in the first draft last year. They’re the ideal ram in my opinion.”

The meat off the “tight-wool” lambs is particularly fine, he notes. “You could cut it with the back of your fork it’s so tender. It’s the only thing we kill for the house.”

While schedules typically reward those who get lambs away early with the best prices, if producers want to grow the lambs out to heavier weights they can, he adds. “I’ve got ram clients who are killing Southdowns at 22kg. You can grow them out if you want to. They’re not like the old Southdowns that would go overfat.”

Ram sale season is just round the corner and stud breeders are starting to mob up the sires they’ll be offering in the coming months. In this special feature, andrew swallow talks to three commercial producers about their reasons for selecting Southdowns as a terminal sire for their stock. But first we relay the thoughts of Southdown Breed Society president, Blair Robertson.

rObertSON’S MerrYDOWNS Southdown stud was formed in 1999, though the name goes back long before that. “It’s been in the family since 1937 but my father dispersed the stud in the early 1990s,” he recalls.

At the time he was working away from the home farm, at Waikoikoi, West Otago, but after a stint overseas including touring and working on sheep stations in South America, he came home and re-established the Southdown stud in 1999.

today he runs 600 Southdown stud ewes, and a 1200 ewe romney stud, as part of a 5500 stock unit all sheep operation.

“I had the option of what meat breed to get into when I came back, and I didn’t just get into [Southdowns] because we’d had them in the past. I came to the conclusion they were the most commercial, easy-doing sheep.

about Robertson

Chunky: moves to payment on yield will be a good thing for southdown users, says breed society president Blair Robertson (inset )

The number of breeders has been creeping up in recent years, with just over 80 in the southdown Breed society now.

Bring forward your MEAN KILL DATE with Southdowns

Southdown Rams available throughout NZ

visit www.southdownsheep.org.nz

or contact Christine or Joanne Phone/Fax 06 323 4156

With the added value of using your Southdown rams over both Mixed Age Ewes and Ewe Hoggets!

‘Wiri’ Southdown Rams AVAILABLE

FLOCK NO 3435 OB ACCREDITED

For all enquiries contact; Jill BairdPh: 06 3727814

or email: [email protected]

Glenhazard Holdings LtdGladstone, R.D.4 Masterton

Docking Chute

0800 DOCKER(362 537)

www.vetmarker.co.nz

VETMARKERThe move to yield pay-

ments should also suit the breed, he believes.

The number of breed-ers has been creeping up in recent years, with just over 80 in the Southdown Breed Society now. Most rams are sold before the

traditional sale season starts with a few held back for the main North (ie Feilding Ram Fair, Decem-ber) and South Island auc-tions.

“There are three breed-ers holding on-farm sales too now.”


38 southdown special

Distant producers but common goalsTALK TO commercial lamb pro-ducers using Southdown rams and you’ll find common threads running through all their comments, even if they are from opposite ends of the country.

Take Wayne Bloxham, at Whiti-whiti Station, north of Gisborne: by the time you read this, he will prob-ably have sent his first draft of lambs to the works. “We aim for mid to late October, off their mums at 16kg car-case weight, sometimes a bit heavier.”

Southdown terminal sires are a key part of that early finishing strategy.

“We find they’re quite early matur-ing and quick to fatten. Normally we get a good pick off their mums and another big one when we wean them.”

At least half will be gone by the December draft and by the time it gets dry, as it can on the 1350ha medium-steep coastal property, “there are bug-ger-all left.”

He lambs in July, the Southdowns running with 1200 of a 3000-head Coopworth flock.

“Their survival rate’s normally pretty good, though this lambing wasn’t exceptional because they dropped into puddles, it was so wet.”

He’s been using Southdowns

for about nine years, and while he’s careful not to let lambs get too big, “they’re not like the old Southdown where the lambs went straight to fat,” he notes. “Now we try not to let them go over 23kg, though we have slipped up in the past and it’s not uncommon for some to hang up at 24-25kg.”

This year he’s lambed hoggets for the first time, using Southdowns as the sire with 80% of 600 mated get-ting in lamb. “There have been no lambing issues with them. They’ve been spitting them out like a piece of cake,” he said midway through the hoggets’ drop.

Down in Southland, Bill and Beth Gordon, Garston, are also keen to get lambs away early, albeit from much later lambing.

“It can get quite dry here in the summer and if it gets dry, having quick maturing lambs means there’s more space for the Romneys,” notes Bill.

That means better grown replace-ments and better condition in the 2200-ewe Romney flock, feeding through to the following year’s lamb-ing result. Even if it doesn’t get dry, having the crossbred lambs away sooner means more feed to do some-thing else with, such as fatten cattle,

he adds.“We wean [lambs] the week before

Christmas and take a draft then, up to 300 or 350 depending on the season.”

That’s from lambing starting the third week of September. He’s also using the Southdown across his hoggets. “They seem to lamb reason-ably easily.”

And while they don’t have the same coat as the purebred Romney lambs, there’s no problem with their vigour and survival as lambs, he adds.

Unlike Bloxham, Gordon’s stuck with the Southdown as his terminal sire of choice through thick and thin – “since the mid 1970s” – but makes similar comments to Bloxham about how they’ve changed over the years. “They’ve got more stretch in them now whereas they used to be a bit short and dumpy and went to fat. They’re leaner now.”

And in recent years the Gordon’s have had the competition results to prove it: three times they’ve had lambs in the finals of the Golden Lamb Awards at Wanaka A&P Show. “It’s just for interest really. Competi-tions are more interesting if you take part, rather than watching from the sidelines.”

southdown rams ready for sale this summer.

Musburg SouthdownsS W BRANNIGAN, SOUTHBRIDGE

Phone 03 3242 751 • [email protected]

October born “Musburg” Southdown X weaning draft lambs from “Cloudy Peaks Station” Fairlie. Sold Temuka sale 7th February 2011.Pen 279 average liveweight 44kgs, $130 each.

Southdowns – Ready when

you are!

For private sales phone Chris:Hm: 03 6895814 Mob: 027 6216696 Email: [email protected]

HALLAND DOWNSLilliesleaf Angus, Belted Galloways & Southdowns

HOME OF

Rob Hall Halland Downs, RD5, Gore, Southland Ph 03-207 3706 or 027 201 0440 [email protected]

Holly FarmSouthdown StudEst 1935 Flock No 1375

Rams AvailableBred under dry land conditions.IDEAL TERMINAL SIRES

Semen AvailableFrom Holly Farm P77-07.

Enquiries to: Neville MoorheadSouthbridgePh: 03 324 2671

Holly Farm P77-07

Champion Southdown Ram and Premier Meat Breeds Ram Hogget at the Ellesmere Show 2008Supreme Champion Southdown Ram and runner-up Meat Breeds Ram Hogget at the

Canterbury Royal Show 2008Champion Southdown Ram and Best Meat Breeds Pair (along with the Champion

Southdown Ewe) at the Canterbury A&P Show 2009 – 2010

ClientFeedback...James & Becky Murray,Matariki, Marlborough

Ian & Jeanette Thorneycroft, Nelson Lakes

Richard Laugesen, Craiglochart, Waihopai Valley, Blenheim

Willowhaugh Southdowns~ Established 1956 ~

Contact: IAN & CHRISTINA JORDAN, R D 1, Blenheim. [email protected] Ph 035728430 or 027 628 5308 or our PGG Wrightson Genetics representativeGraham Sidey Ph 0274 321 384

SIL recorded

rams available

• Using “Willowhaugh” Southdown rams for six years now, over the previous season’s single ewes and hoggets

• SIL records are used during ram selection

• We are happy with the Southdown rams performance

• The progeny grow well and are healthy.

• Using “Willowhaugh” Southdown rams over our hoggets for last two years

• Lambs are small at birth with good growth rates

• At weaning (before Christmas) the lambs were built like bricks and finished well at good weights.

• Since using “Willowhaugh” South-down rams over our ewe hoggets ease of lambing has been a major benefit and lamb weights have been very impressive.

• We are now changing to using Southdown as our primary terminal sire over all classes of ewes.

RuRal News // OctOber 23, 2012RuRal News // OctOber 23, 2012

southdown special 39Focussed on growth rateSOUTH CANTERBURY sheep and beef farmers the Westgarths run 4000 Coopdale ewes across two farms, one at 500m above sea-level on The Brothers range inland of Timaru, the other on the town’s outskirts.

“The two properties work so well together,” says Bruce, who runs the inland unit with wife Rosa. “We take all the older ewes down to Timaru where we put them to terminal sires: Southdown, Poll Dorset and Suffolk. We’ve had Southdowns for years. They produce good lambs, and early maturing.”

Nearly half the ewes on the 200ha down-coun-try farm, which is run by their son Hamish and his wife Amanda are put to Southdowns, plus 300-400 at the 368ha Brothers property.

Replacements come from Coopdale hoggets, 1250 of which were run with the ram last autumn,

with 1000 scanned in-lamb.

While he’s well placed to do so, Westgarth’s wary of comparing performance of the different termi-

Picks breeder more than ramWeStGArtH’S APPrOAcH to ram selection is simple: find good breeders, stick with them and reward them. “I don’t mind paying a good price for good rams because if the breeder can’t make money, they can’t improve the genetics can they?”

His three suppliers are all from South canterbury. the Southdowns come from chris Medlicott’s tasvic Downs and clifton Downs studs; the Poll Dorsets from Steve Mccall’s castlerock stud, and the Suffolks and coopdales from Peter Darling’s coryston Stud.

nal sires he uses. “There’s good in all breeds.”

Most have made marked improvements in recent years and the Southdown is no excep-tion. The short, stumpy lambs prone to running to fat if taken too heavy are long gone. In their place are rams which throw a longer, leaner lamb that’s still solidly built and fast finishing.

“Some people still have the wrong impres-sion of them,” notes

Westgarth. “They still think they’re wee fat things, though views are starting to change now.”

The growth of his Southdown x Coop-dale lambs is rapid. Last year they started lamb-ing August 22 and in the last week of Novem-ber drafted 230, averag-ing 19.8kg. “They always weigh heavier than they look.”

Admittedly, there were other breeds among them, but the Southdown at least held its share, if not more. Over the whole season, and all breeds, average kill weight was 20.3kg cwt.

“We drafted lambs every week from the end of November through to May.”

Getting more lambs away early, plus an end of season contract for the last 2000, helped them average $136/head “with-out counting the wool off them.”

As a rule they’re shorn at 38kg and go on the truck at 44kg, all to Silver Fern Farms.

Westgarth points out better prices for the lambs isn’t the only benefit to early finishing: their moth-ers make better money as cull ewes. “We try to get them on the truck the next day.”

Space freed up on the down-country farm also allows more lambs and other stock to come down from The Brothers.

With no irrigation, both properties can get dry. Again, fast growing, early finishing lambs are an advantage, in that more are gone before feed gets tight.

Bruce westgarth with a southdown cross lamb at tailing late september.

MURVALE & NGARURU SOUTHDOWNSFlocks 4396 and 4467

“The most complete meat sheep money can buy”

Murvale Farm LtdFOR BOOKING PHONE

Charles Trousdale 07 828 5715 Richard & Jane Trousdale 07 828 5713

Matahuru Valley Road, RD4 Ohinewai Waikato

MERRYDOWNS

4TH ANNUALRAM SALE

ON FARMTuesday 4th December 2012

At 1:00pm 348 Koi Road, R.D.1, Gore

FURTHER ENQUIRIES TO :

Blair or Sally Robertson 03 2076 851Callum McDonald, PGG Wrightson 027 433 6443

Paul Pearce, PGG Wrightson 027 478 5761

Approx 265 Southdown and Romney 2 tooth rams (only the top 25% of rams born are offered)

Fully Recorded flocks both Romney and Southdown (SIL)

All rams eye muscle scanned as lambs

OB Accredited

TRALEESOUTHDOWN STUD

Annual on farm AUCTION

to be held Friday

8th February 2013

316 Calder Road,

Winton

Enquiries contact Todd & Fleur AndersonPh: 03 236 9570M: 0274 874 355E: [email protected]

• Breeding rams that are well muscled with length, to produce early maturing lambs improving mean kill date.

• All rams scanned for Eye Muscle Area.

Won “Best Southdown Carcass Sheep”

at 2010 Canterbury Show

E S T A B L I S H E D 1 9 5 9F L O C K 3 6 5 6

Using top genetics and scanning to provide high

yielding rams

OUR GOALA higher return

per lamb for our clients

ANDREW & LOUISE CHRISTEYSOUTHBRIDGEPhone 03 324 2274

email: [email protected] Accredited

Silverdale & Oakdale

Stud & flock rams & ewes available

For early maturingSouthdowns.

“Some of my clients aredrafting lambs at

10 weeks and 18.5Kg”

NZ1102764-Gray, S W:NZ1066684-Gray, S W 26/10/2010 3:34 p.m. Page 1

124 Lincoln Road, MastertonEmail: [email protected] www.daytech.co.nz

Leaders in farm machinery design

CALL STUART ON 0274 387 528

• Unique lead up race helps loading by 15%

• Power draw 3-5 amps

• No belt tensioning

• No belt slippage • Fully sealed

electrical system

• Full length foot stop/start bar on both sides

• Adjustable speed • Tare weight

400kg

SHEEP CONVEYORS

Ask us about our trailer

options


40 machinery & products

Smartphone app for better seedingKUHN HAS developed a new smartphone app to help farmers with seed drill settings thus optimising seed-ing.

The app is available on Appstore (for iPhone and iPad users) and on Google Apps Marketplace (for Android Smartphone users).

It has various valuable functions for seeding, the company says.

The first function is the setup wizard. With this, owners of a Kuhn seed drill can “effortlessly” find the right machine settings.

After selecting the type of seed drill, working width and the number of rows, the crop and desired applica-tion rate can be entered. According to these parame-ters, a suggested setting is then given.

After a trial run at this setting, the user can enter the weight collected, in order to get an optimised set-ting for that seed variety. This guarantees the seed drill is set correctly which in turn ensures high qual-ity seeding.

Settings can also be saved. “This is a great time saver when working with the same seeds again,” Kuhn says. tel. 0800 585 007www.kuhn.co.nz

CULTIVATION AND planting get finer tuned with a new tool from Power Farm-ing Group – the Kverneland Megapack RM roller range. Division general man-ager Graeme Leigh told Rural News the 5.25—8.25m range of folding rollers are to replace the current RTG range.

They offer all the preceding model’s transportability with a great deal more weight and length. “Compare,” says Leigh. “The RTG rollers are 5.25m-7.25m

and weigh 3.1-3.6 tonnes. The new Mega-pack range weighs 3.2-4.2 ton or 3.4-5 ton with the optional levelling tynes. It’s a wider and heavier model than we have offered before.”

Transporting the roller between jobs is easy despite the size, thanks to its 2.5m transport width, hydraulically-controlled road transport wheels and lockable arms. The roller provides the user with a great deal of control, accord-ing to Leigh, because of hydraulically controlled crossboards and bars.

The rings have pivot points to allow for better follow-up over rough ground which is prepared with the addition of the optional crossboard which further breaks up clumps. The angle of the crossboard can be hydraulically con-trolled for optimum results.

While the international model doesn’t come with an air seeder mount-ing, Leigh says one is being prepared to fit the company’s range of APV air seed-ers. www.powerfarming.co.nz

Kverneland wheels out its new roller range

GAREth GiLLAtt

PO Box 6 Hinds, Mid Canterbury • Phone 03 303 7228 • www.robfarm.co.nzFor your catalogue of all our products please contact

Don 027 433 2212 or Danny 027 443 4777

SERIOUS ABOUT SPREADING?

• 2 floors give greater accuracy on bends and corners

• Option of spreading half bout width• More floor torque for the toughest jobs

Twin Floor Transpread

• Steering drawbar allows spreader to follow in the exact path of the tractor to eliminate any corner cutting

• Perfect for crop growers

ALL NEW AND IMPROVED OPTIONAL COMPUTER SYSTEM

Steering Transpread• Stainless steel bin• 700mm wide conveyor• 3 speed gearbox• Optional load cells and Twin floor• Optional electronic auto steer

Row Crop Spreader

“Leading from the front”49 Old Ruffell Road, Te Rapa, Hamilton | Ph: 07 850 1990 | www.agattach.co.nz

AVAILABLE FROM YOUR LOCAL DEALER OR SERVICE PROVIDER

POST DRIVERS FOR: Tractor Front-Loader - Telescopic Handlers

Mini Excavator

These post drivers can be mounted on most front-loaders, telescopic handlers and mini excavators, quickly turning it into a versatile post driving machine.

MAIN FEATURES Various hammer weights to suit the machine. Excellent view from driver seat, easily operated by one person. Downward pressure can be applied to post while hammer is moving up and down the mast, which increases the driving power of the hammer.


machinery & products 41Date change for northland

NORTHLAND’s largest outdoor event will be held two weeks ear-lier next year to fit in better with exhibitors and major Northland sporting events, says Northland Field Days president Lew Duggan.

The 2013 exhibit will be held in Dargaville from Thursday Febru-ary 21 to Saturday February 23, two weeks earlier than the 2012 event.

The change was scheduled so that exhibitors could travel

between the Northland Field Days, Central District Field Days and South Island Agricultural Field Days without having to worry about schedule conflicts says Duggan.

“Previously agricultural machinery manufacturers and rural service providers had to pick and choose which event they went to,” says Duggan. It becomes diffi-cult for any company to get from

the top of the North Island to the bottom of the South Island to three events in under a month.”

There are now two weeks between each of the events which Duggan says gives potential exhib-itors plenty of time to pack down sites from one event then send it to and set up for the next event.

“It also works alongside the 90 Mile Beach fishing competition in March giving locals some time to

get some fishing in.”Duggan also hopes the weather

will be better at the earlier date. “The very first Northland Field Days was held during Cyclone Bola and we have had our fair share of wild weather since,” says Duggan. “I’m confident the weather will be kind between February 21 and 23 in 2013.”tel. 09 439 8998 [email protected]

Ramp riskYOU LEARN from your mistakes, observes quad loading-ramp supplier Ian McNeill, of Macs Equipment.

He says this truism is captured well in the expression ‘eating dirt’, which happens to be the title of a new book by multisport adventurer Steve Gurney, who says, “Eating dirt is a metaphor... for learning from your mistakes.”

Says McNeill, “If this is true, why do farmers – many of whom can recall near-miss incidents when loading quads and machinery – continue to risk life and limb by using greasy planks as loading ramps?”

Better to use the new US-made aluminium ramps sold by Macs Equipment, says McNeill. “Having a 300kg quad fall on you is not uncommon.”

Macs Equipment stock aluminium ramps come in var-ious options: arched, bi folding or tri folding; 1.5m – 3m long; 225kg to 2260kg capacity; single units or pairs. They come with a pair of Camlock tie-downs to secure the ramps during loading.

The ramps are made by a small farming-family busi-ness in Springfield, Missouri.

“Buyers can be assured of a long history of quality man-ufacturing with no concerns of a substandard performance as recently seen with cheap imported aluminium ladders,” McNeill says.

As a Rural News exclusive, send us an image of your greasy loading planks cut in pieces and we will knock off $30 a pair of any 2.2M (7Ft) ramps-712 standard, 712HDheavy duty or 712FRfolding PLUS a 2 for 1 deal on freight to main cities and towns for you and a neighbour. tel. 0800 36 24 35 www.macsequipment.co.nz

sharemilker Neil Guy, of Huntly, loads his quad using a pair of Macs 712FR (7Ft fold-ing) ramps.

CAMBRIDGE FARM ROLLERS

Vee Ring Roller Seeder Drill with Vee bottom seed box, hydraulic clutch, ext. drawbar, ...................... $18,500 Special rollers made to order, Spare parts, Rings and Bearings. 26"dia rings ................... $85.0024"dia rings ................... $80.00 Ph: 0800-838 963

• All prices ex-Factory, Excl GST •Competitive freight rates to the North Island

NEW 10ft Roller with Extension Drawbar & Screw Jack $6700

AUSTINS FOUNDRY LTD 131 King Street, Timaru www.austinsfoundry.co.nz

Need a BIG Tank Valve?

High FlowCompact & RobustOther Vortex Models

available

•••

jobevalves.com/vortex

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

Market Data Every Week

P34.7 Plus 40kphSuit new owner. Very tidy machine - been a demo / hire machine. Replacement $130,000. Under 500 hours. Located in Te awamutu

$94,900 +gs

t

P34.7 Plus2009 model. Fully serviced through its 1700 hours life. Very tidy.Located in Ashburton ONE OWNER

$89,900 +gs

t

Merlo P28.7 EVTOnly 4645 hours. Well serviced. Priced for 1st handler buyer. Located in Te Awamutu

$69,900 +gs

t

Merlo 35.12K25Kph. Fully serviced Stabilisers. Hydrostatic trans. Great tread. Detachable forkframe. Located in Morrinsville SALE PRICE!

$74,000 +gs

t

Multifarmer 30.6116hp Deutz Powered.Very low hour machine. 2 speed PTO. Lifts 3 tonne front. 3.4 tonne Rear linkage lift. Located inHawera

$119,900 +gs

t

Suit NEW buyer

Merlo P28.7 EVTModerate hours. Well serviced fully refurbished. Located inMorrinsville

$63,900 +gs

t

IDEAL 1ST BUYER PRICE

www.powerfarming.co.nz

Contact your nearest Merlo Dealer or call Ken Bill, National Product Manager 021 925 034

PRE-LOVED TELEHANDLERS!

MERLO TURBOFARMER 34.7 PLUSWith simple to operate controls and smooth progressive hydrostatic transmission for precision loadingand placement you can’t go past a Turbofarmer.

WHANGAREI Power Farming Northland 09 438 9163PUKEKOHE The Tractor Centre 09 238 7179MORRINSVILLE Maber Motors 07 889 5059TE AWAMUTU Power Farming Te Awamutu 07 870 2411PUTARURU Maber Motors 07 882 1310TAURANGA Capital Tractors 07 543 0021WHAKATANE Jacks Machinery 07 308 7299ROTORUA AREA Maber Motors 07 882 1310

GISBORNE Power Farming Gisborne 06 868 8908HASTINGS Power Farming Hawke’s Bay 06 879 9998HAWERA Power Farming Taranaki 06 278 0240FEILDING Power Farming Manawatu 06 323 8182MASTERTON James Trucks & Machinery 06 370 8240WEST COAST Power Farming West Coast 029 200 1202 NELSON Brian Miller Truck & Tractor 03 544 5723 CHRISTCHURCH Power Farming Canterbury 03 349 5975

ASHBURTON Power Farming Ashburton 03 307 7153

TIMARU Power Farming Timaru 03 687 4127

ALEXANDRA Peter Watt Machinery 03 448 8490

MOSGIEL Power Farming Otago 03 489 3489

GORE Power Farming Gore 03 208 9395

INVERCARGILL Power Farming Invercargill 03 215 9039

PRE-LOVED TELEHANDLERS!PRE-LOVED TELEHANDLERS!

MERLO TURBOFARMER 34.7 PLUSWith simple to operate controls and smooth progressive hydrostatic transmission for precision loadingand placement you can’t go past a Turbofarmer.

The Ultimate in Farm handling solutionsThe Ultimate in Farm handling solutionsThe Ultimate in Farm handling solutionsMERLO PERFORMANCE!

FINANCE

*Based on 40% Deposit. Normal Lending Criteria & Conditions Apply

1.95% 12mths* • 2.95% 24mths* 3.95% 36mths* • 4.95% 48mths* Seasonal or yearly payment options

available* NEW MODELS ONLY

• Powered by renowned 102hp Deutz turbocharged engine• Wide spacious cab with 360º visibility• 3400kg lift capacity. 7m lift height


42 machinery & productstesting towards a higher-value cropSOIL and foliage testing is helping Te Kauwhata drystock and cropping farmer David Jefferis work towards a better maize crop.

In any given year DAVID grows maize silage, finishes 6000-10,000 store lambs and 200-400

Friesian bulls, grazes 80 dairy heifers and 300- 400 weaner bulls on summer crops.

The 485ha family prop-erty plus some addi-tional winter leased land is located 50 minutes north-east of Hamilton.

While the farm earns income from a wide number of streams, Jef-

feris is most dedicated to his 110ha maize crop which he hopes to develop from being a commod-ity to being a high quality, high demand feed.

“At present maize silage is sold on the basis of kg DM but, looking for-ward, I think it should be traded on a quality basis – as in its ME and mineral

content. Other stock feeds are currently being traded this way.”

To do that Jefferis needs to bring up soil quality and he says he has been doing that with the help of an all farm-testing soil plan and foliage test-ing for his maize crop.

The farm is on four dif-ferent soil types and Jef-

GAREth GiLLAtt

feris says getting soil samples are the key to get-ting the correct amount of fertiliser to the right loca-tions on the farm.

In the last two years he has transferred all the soil test sites information onto a GPS and says this has allowed him to tackle problems head on. “Accu-rate soil testing gives us a trend; it allows us to be proactive rather than reac-tive with our fertiliser policy. There are a lot of variables with soil testing, but we are working hard to reduce those.”

Jefferis take’s four samples from each dig site in the paddock: one at 100-150mm, one at 150-300mm, and one at 300mm-1000mm at the same time. Jefferis cred-its Hendrik Venter of Gavins Contracting with being influential in a more focused soil testing approach.

While getting the soil tests gave Jefferis a great deal of historic data and allowed him to lift maize

production, he says folia testing has let him make sure the maize is getting the minerals it needs to create a high value crop which could fetch pre-mium prices.

Jefferis has started taking the soil and tissue samples at the same time and from the same loca-tion before Nitrogen side dressing and expects to see more consistent results next year. He expects to get a great deal of information from the exercise. “We have done maize foliage testing and feeding in the past but it has been a bit ad hoc.”

He has turned to chicken manure and spreads it over a cultivated area in four lots over the year and says it is a good fertiliser subject to price. “There’s a lot of added mineral content and organic matter in chicken manure. It’s widely accepted that maize silage grown continuously in the same site removes organic matter.”

He does soil and folia tests on his crop during the growing period and says analyst Hill Labora-tories is always quick to get results back. “Subject to time of the year the test results normally take up to a week. They have given me quicker turn arounds if asked. Hill Labs also pro-vide all our DM tests at harvest as all our maize silage is sold on contract”.

Jefferis has been able to maintain maize production levels of 21- 22 tonnes DM/ha per year while keeping a tight lid on costs and says that using testing has allowed him to get the most out of his fertiliser budget and he thinks its benefits could be wider.

“With the assistance of rain, accurate soil test-ing and a detailed fertiliser plan, savings of up to 40% can be made on a poorly managed fertiliser policy.”tel. 07 858 2000 or 03 377 7176 www.hill-laboratories.com

Tunnelhouses

• Ideal addition to your block• Grow vegetables all year round and reduce your grocery bill• Very affordable and easy to install• Totally NZ made by family business making tunnelhouses for 30 years• Range of models from 2m to 8m long

T/F 03 214 4262E [email protected]

www.morrifield.com

Confused about ryegrass and persistency?

lolium boucheanum = hybrid ryegrasslolium perenne = perennial ryegrass

check your seed certification tags on the bag to ensure you have a true perennial, if you haven’t got a tag then ask for it

www.seedforce.co.nz

David Jefferis

EasyFlow camless pickup: quiet running reduced wear and tear saving service and maintenance costs

Multicut system: new rotor gives increased throughput and superior quality of cut making bales that are easy to feed out.

Variable chamber: for high density bales in silage hay and straw.

Fortima

For technology that works! www.tulloch.co.nz

EasyFlow pickup

VARIABLE ROUND BALER

Distributed by Tulloch Farm Machines – Dealers Nationwide

For more information freephone

0800 88 55 624

With you all the way


machinery & products 43

Silo makes job easierA PLASTIC SmartSilo has turned urea man-agement from a major chore into a 30-minute job, says Reefton dairy farmer Stu Bland. Stu and Debbie Bland milk 230 Jersey/Friesian-cross cows on their 90ha property on the West Coast.

With the farm on river flats with a stony, silty soil structure and getting 1800mm of rain a year the couple have a policy of putting on a little urea after cows have been on the paddock to prevent nitrogen leaching and keep up nutrient levels.

The Blands use 30 tonne of urea a year which gets delivered in three to four lots throughout the year. They spread with a 4 tonne trailed SAM spreader.

Two seasons ago the Blands took delivery of urea in bags and stored it in their calf shed but this was time consuming, Bland says. “Loading the fertiliser was time consuming, as was unloading the truck.”

He also had storage-space problems during peak seasons of the year. “Having enough spare room was a challenge at certain times such as spring when the sheds are full of calves.”

The couple had to deal with moisture issues for urea stored in bins. “If it was stored for a while in wet weather it got damp and didn’t flow through the spreader as well.”

Durability in wet weather with urea was one reason they decided on a SmartSilo says Bland.

The results were good. “I have not experienced any problems with moisture getting into urea.”

Bland says that now the SmartSilo is installed spreading fertiliser behind cows can be done in half the time. “It takes a very short time to load. Maybe a couple minutes for 2-3 ton.

“And it’s great we’re not personally required to help unload the truck any more.”tel. 0800 668 534www.advantageplastics.co.nz

software simplifies processPROCESSING ANIMALS for NAIT is said to be easier with a new piece of software for the I-Read RFID reader tag sold by Leader Products.

Sales and marketing spokes-man Murray Jacob says operators of the GST reader are now able to download a free program to easily register stock and transfer stock ownership in the NAIT system.

Farmers find uploading and

handling stock on the NAIT plat-form can require tricky navigation says Jacob. “With the software people don’t need to go to the NAIT site at all to register the animal or transfer the animal. The next thing is they’ve got an email back from NAIT.”

The hand sized reader, which can scan up to 2045 individual ani-mals on a 9v battery, is docked to the computer via a mini-USB cable.

The software uploads informa-tion from the reader as a Notepad file before showing the RFID tags in the software. Once there, Jacob says, registering the animals on the NAIT system is as easy as entering the operators’ NAIT number and the type of animals to be registered and then hitting ‘send’. Transfer-ing animals can be done by enter-ing the two NAIT numbers into the relevant boxes.

“As a convenience factor it’s just a straight registration/trans-fer operation.”

Visual tag numbers can be added or removed from the system manually and the program can be run through a proxy.

A computer running windows XP or higher and 4-net framework is required to run the program.tel. 0800 242 824www.leaderproducts.co.nz

• Side, Bottom, Top Mounting• Adjustable Float Levels• Inbuilt Check Valve• 0 - 150 psi (0 - 10 Bar)

jobevalves.com/rojo

Need a Reliable Float Valve?

FINANCE FROM

1.95 *%

Agrotron K Series (100-130 Hp)

• 4 and 6 cylinder Deutz engines• German built powershift

transmission

WHANGAREI Power Farming Northland 09 438 9163PUKEKOHE The Tractor Centre 09 238 7179MORRINSVILLE Maber Motors 07 889 5059TE AWAMUTU Power Farming Te Awamutu 07 870 2411PUTARURU Maber Motors 07 882 1310TAURANGA Capital Tractors 07 543 0021WHAKATANE Jacks Machinery 07 308 7299ROTORUA Truck & Tractor Services 07 349 6528

GISBORNE Power Farming Gisborne 06 868 8908HASTINGS Power Farming Hawke’s Bay 06 879 9998HAWERA Power Farming Taranaki 06 278 0240FEILDING Power Farming Manawatu 06 323 8182MASTERTON James Trucks & Machinery 06 370 8240NELSON Brian Miller Truck & Tractor 03 544 5723BLENHEIM Marlborough Tractor Services 03 572 8787 WEST COAST Power Farming West Coast 03 768 4370

CHRISTCHURCH Power Farming Canterbury 03 349 5975ASHBURTON Power Farming Ashburton 03 307 7153TIMARU Power Farming Timaru 03 687 4127ALEXANDRA Peter Watt Machinery 03 448 8490DUNEDIN Power Farming Otago 03 489 3489 GORE Power Farming Gore 03 208 9395 INVERCARGILL Power Farming Invercargill 03 215 9039

www.deutztractors.co.nz

*Based on 40% deposit. Normal lending criteria and conditions apply.

CONTACT YOUR LOCAL DEALER

FINANCE FROM*%* IT’S TIME TO

DO A DEALSALE

With the dollar where it is, there’s never been a better time

to buy a Deutz-Fahr. Contact your Deutz-Fahr dealer for

never seen before pricing on Deutz-Fahr tractors in our

“it’s time to do a deal” sale.

B&

PO

W01

27B


44 machinery & products

PBLs popular‘HUNDREDS’ OF people injured in remote outdoor places owe their rescue – if not their lives – to GPS-based personal locator beacons (PLBs), says the marketer of one such device, Alan Bright, of Bright Ideas.

The McMurdo FastFind 220 is said to be popular with deerstalkers, trampers, farmers and companies with agents working in remote places. It alerts emer-gency services about an accident and then transmits a GPS position and a homing signal to guide rescue services to the victim.

At least one or two get activated each month in New Zealand for a wide range of reasons says Bright. “Users crash quad bikes and motorbikes, they fall off horses or have accidents with guns and a lot of people get lost or injure themselves in the backblocks.

Six months ago the wife of one hunter who activated the device was contacted by emergency services four minutes after the beacon had been activated. You can’t complain about that service.”

When activated the GPS device signals its loca-tion and ID to the Rescue Co-ordination Centre by satellite and to the dedicated Cospar-Sarsat satellite network. Information then goes to local emergency and search and rescue services. The device also trans-mits a 121.5MHz homing signal to allow rescue ser-vices to find the beacon.

Two satellite signals are initially sent; the 406MHz signal is strong enough to pass through tree cover in deep forest gullies or up to 1m of snow. “It takes a bit longer than the first signal but it always gets there.”

The McMurdo Fastfind 220 is about the size of a mobile phone and weigh 172 grams. The battery will last six years and is guaranteed to run for at least 24 hours. It floats and is waterproof down to 10m for five minutes. “We supply them to the SAS so they’re pretty tough.”

“The registration service is free and I will reset the device for free once it has been used if people give me their activation stories.”

Owners of units are able to lend or rent them out providing they get contact details for the person using the device says Bright.

Price $699 RRP. Buy from outdoor and marine stores.tel. 0800 713 656www.brightideas.co.nz

thumbs up for crushesTE PARI Products new Cattlemaster iDraft cattle crush is said to be get-ting the ‘thumbs up’ from Lochiel Farms, Franklin, general manager Kim Rob-inson. The 3600ha farm has bought two units.

Robinson’s staff had had enough of old manu-ally operated crushes, so the business bought the

semi-automatic, air lever-controlled iDraft crushes.

“We put big num-bers of cattle through the yards but this unit han-dles them with ease,” Rob-inson is quoted as saying. “The control panel has made the job a one man operation: we can draft the cattle, squeeze them up, head bail them, mark

the calves, and tag and weigh them all at the press of a button or flick of a switch.”

And the farm has the option of upgrading to fully automated iDraft crushes.

Using the full auto system, cattle can be automatically weighed, released from the crush

and directed through the appropriate draft or exit gate.

This unit is easily man-aged by one person with the auto-draft functions set up on a touch screen control unit. It can also be operated remotely via a 10 function hand held radio remote control, says Te Pari principal Jeremy

Blampied.“It is simple to use and

well suited to an older farmer given the less phys-ical effort required to operate it. With an eRail EID reader system incor-porated into this crush, it really is possible to weigh, record and draft hundreds of animals per hour.”

Blampied says Te Pari’s new iDraft control panel – standard on all models – has precluded some prob-lems often found with cattle crushes. “One of the biggest features is the internal routing of load-bar cables, which keeps them tidily out of the way and completely shields them from activity around the crush. Up to 70% of all problems with weigh scales can be attributed to damaged cables.”

The weigh scale mounting is at eye height, easy to use and read, and no add-ons are required. Other features of the con-trol panel include a stor-age tray for tools and tags, and a cupboard where air regulators, EID reader control units and batteries can be stored.

A lockable cover goes over the control panel for extra security and protec-tion against the elements.

IMPROVED... Knotter Performance• Widerneedlerollersto

guidetwinebetterthroughtheknotter

• Lowertwinetensiongivingmorereliableknottying

• Doubleknottersforoutstandingreliabilityandstrength

INCREASED... Stuffer Speed• Improvedfeedinginthe

pre-compressionchamberimproving‘TopFill’

• Betterbaleshapeinthetoughestconditions

NEW... 2 Metre Pick-up OptionGreaterdurabilityandperformanceonundulatinggroundalongwitheasieraccessthroughnarrowgateways

Contact your New Holland dealer for full details.

BB9000 Series Square Balers BR7000 Series Belt Baler

IMPROVEYOURBALINGPERFORMANCENOW!Catch the last of the pre-season deals

NEW... Larger Diameter Rotor455mmdiameterrotorcutterandfeedergivesbetween15%-30%increaseinbalingcapacity(overtheold422mmrotor)

SAVE From $20,000* (BB9060 PC) SAVE From $9,500* (BR7060 RF)

*Offervaliduntil30thNovember2012

MS1358


machinery & products 45

Comfort and productivity foremost in new tractorsA FLAT floor and a remarkable sense of cab space distinguish the new T4 tractor range from New Holland.

Pushing hard on the operator-comfort angle, NH points out productiv-ity depends much on how the operator endures long hours in the cab. “This completely new T4 Pow-erStar range is set to rede-fine farming comfort in this segment,” the com-pany says.

Three models are on offer: T4.55, T4.65 and T4.75 (engine power 55, 65 and 75hp respectively) with mechanical fuel injec-tion.

Plenty of choice here for farmers, councils and other operators looking for versatility, manoeu-vrability, ergonomic com-fort and fuel efficiency, NH says.

All suit front loading, high speed transport and PTO work.

Transmissions have hydraulic Power Shut-tle and creeper options. Hydraulic flow is up to 48L/min.

The tractors are offered in cab and ROPS variants. The ROPS platform shares the same control layout as the cab version, flat floor and tiltable steering column.

The ROPS version can also be specified with FOPS (Fall On Protection System), to offer users the ultimate in peace of mind when operating with loaders and in enclosed

environments where they are at risk of falling objects.

NH says the entire cab has been redesigned “around the operator using advanced virtual reality techniques, which has ensured that all con-trols fall perfectly to hand for operators of all shapes and sizes.”

The main controls are to the right of the opera-tor in a ‘Command Arc’. This can be combined with an optional 15° swivel seat to help in work with rear-mounted equipment. The instrument cluster moves with the tiltable steering column.

Locating the air con-ditioning fans under the floor has improved head-room. Air flow can be pre-cision directed through 10 individual vents, which all deliver even flow.

During loading work, the see-through opening roof hatch gives a good of the loader right through its operating range, even at maximum height. The roof hatch almost meets the front glass to minimise the obscured area.

Other cab features: up to three power outlets for equipment monitors or mobile phone chargers and music players; the radio is set in the B pillar; and the full-size instruc-tors seat, with seat belt, means two adults can ride.

All models have 3.2L engines (two valves per cylinder) with maximum torque of 310 Nm.

This engine has done three years work in the current NH T4000 range and speciality series. A 540 eco PTO option is offered. Tier 3 technology applies, to meet current emissions regulations. Service interval is 500 hours.

The traditional 12 x 12 standard transmis-sion offering is available in all models and all have hydraulic shuttles. This steering column mounted lever can be operated without removing the hand from the steering wheel.

An optional 20 x 20 creeper variant is available for T4.55, T4.65 and T4.75 models, with speeds as low as 0.108km/h.

NH says the trans-mission controls will be familiar to users of New Holland’s range of larger tractors: they are situated to the right of the opera-tor.

All gear changes can be carried out from the seat, without the need to stretch and reach, and enables the opera-tor to swiftly switch from the steering wheel to the lever.

For loader or mid mounted-equipment work, an integrated joystick gives precise control without requiring the operator to stretch and twist arms and wrists.

Up to three hydrau-lic remotes are available, offering standard flow

The T4 provides excellent visibility for the operator.

of up to 48L/min. The remotes are located on the cab’s ‘Command Arc’.www.newholland.co.nz

European excellence arcusin.co.nz

Also available Auto-Stack Bale Loader

C-14C-14NEW

For fast, effective bale handlingCollects and packs conventional bales into packs of 8, 10, 12 or 14 bales (hay, straw and haylage) before releasing them as one combined bale.The new C-14 has an improved bale pickup system. Eliminate the high costs of man handling bales but retain their benefits and versatility.

16 ALBERT ST, CAMBRIDGEYOUR ARCUSIN NZ REP Greig Singer 027 266 7897, [email protected]

Run out model multi pack

B-14 one only $125,000

+gst


46 rural trader

ONE STOP WATER SHOP

Culvert Pipes Phone 0800 625 826

for your nearest stockistNew Zealand’s CHEAPEST Culvert Pipes!

FREE joiners supplied on request.

• Lightweight, easy to install

• Made from polyethylene

McKee Plastics, Mahinui Street, Feilding Phone 06 323 4181 Fax 06 323 4183

McKee Plastics, 231 Kahikatea Drive, Hamilton. Ph 07 847 [email protected] www.mckeeplastics.co.nz

300mm x 6 metre ................................ $410

400mm x 6 metre ................................ $515

500mm x 6 metre ................................ $690

600mm x 6 metre ................................ $925

800mm x 6 metre .............................. $1399

1000mm x 6 metre ............................ $2175

1200mm x 6 metre ............................ $3475

Joinerssupplied FREE with culvert

pipes

ALL PRICES INCLUDE G.S.T.

FLYSTRIKE AND LICE

❖ Fantastic Penetration❖

NO ONE BEATS OUR PRICE• Make a big job quick and easy• Retire the shower and plunge dip• Quicker and much more effective

than a hand wand!• Deep penetration, total body

coverage, 2.5 litres/sheep • No re-cycling – always fresh clean

dip prolonging residual effect of your dipping product

PPP Super JetterManufacturing Jetters since 1980.

1000’s sold in NZ & overseas.

Freephone 0800 901 902email: [email protected] or

www.pppindustries.co.nz

• The magic eye sheepjetter since 1989• Quality construction and options• Get the contractors choice• Direct from the manufacturer• Efficient application and unequalled cost savings

FLY AND LICE PROBLEM?

Phone 07 573 8512 • www.electrodip.com

NEW MODEL

• ATV Carrier Mats • Exit/Entry Areas• Calf Trailers • Horse Floats & Trucks

• Weigh Platforms • Bale Mats • Comfort Mats for Wet & Dry Areas

• Utility Deck Matting

Phone: 0800 80 8570www.burgessmatting.co.nz

Rubber Safety Matting CRAIGCO SENSOR JET

P 06 835 6863 - www.craigcojetters.com

DEAL TO FLY AND LICE

• Cost Effective

• Complete Package

• Unbeatable pricing

• Performance Guaranteed

• Faster, easier wash up!• Non toxic, Hygenically approved• Long lasting finish• Withstands pressure hosing• Resists deterioration from daily use• Can be applied to walls and floors

DAIRYCOAT

Made in NZ – 10 year guaranteed

FREE DELIVERYwww.enviropaints.co.nz

The ultimate in paint protection

0800 50 ENVIRO (0800 50 368476)14 Riverbank Rd, Otaki

SPECIALACRYLIC

FENCE RAIL BLACK

Amazing cover

$59 PER 10 LITRE

Apple Cider Vinegar

Dairy-Mate Direct

0508 324 796

LK00

4230

3©

- High Quality -Proven livestock

supplement blendsBuy Direct

200L from $340 + GST delivered

For all single, separated,divorced and widowed people.

Over half our membersfind ‘someone special’ or

their lifelong partner.

Join our successful & confidential service

Ph: 03-387 0794or see our website

www.countrycontacts.co.nz

For Information Pack, contact...Country & City Contacts

0800 287 437 or

❤C O U N T R Y & C I T Y

contacts(N.Z. LIMITED)

VISIT WWW.RURALNEWS.CO.NZ TO ENTER

WIN A LED LENSER P7 ONLINE

LED Lenser’s most popular torch is guaranteed to impress you with its outstanding brightness and range.

Congratulations to Roger Houghton for winning last week


rural trader 47

Cambridge Rollers We have a large rangeof new and used rollers in stock. Enquire now for priding. Unit pictured rolls 2.4 metres. $2900

PRICES QUOTED EXCLUDE GST

Fieldline Jumbo Buster Our deep ripping European chisel ploughs are ideal for break-ing up hard pans or compacted ground, and for ripping after crops have been harvested. We also have a few 5.7 and 9 tine models on special this month. Model pictured RRP $8495. Ex display unit $7495

ATV and Compact Tractor Rollers The original Cambridge roller design offers un-matched effectiveness when it comes to pasture repair, preparation or re-grassing. Larger sizes available too. Brand new $2595

Fieldline Disc Plough European Massey Ferguson design. Ideal for incorporating crop residue and also commonly used for plough-ing peat country. Special opening spring sea-son pricing for 4.5 and 6 furrow units. Save up to $2000. Hurry - very limited stock at these prices. POA

MF 2 Furrow Disc Plough Genuine design made in Europe. Brand new. This design has strengthening gussets behind each dropper making them stronger than Indian/Asian cop-ies. RRP $3595. 3 x units available. $2695

Combination 3 PTL and Trailed Discs These versatile discs are ideal for natural weed control in orchards, etc and secondary cultivation, incorporating cropping stubble, pasture resowing etc. 5 size options available up to 3 metres wide as pictured. Ask about our display unit – never used, badly shop soiled. $4495. Save $2000

3 PTL Backhoes Suits 25hp upwards. Re-move it in minutes. RRP $9995. We have one only ex display unit available at a very special special price of $5950. New units and larger models also in stock.

Stump Grinder Connects to any standard linkage, includes hydraulic depth control and cut angle. Made in USA. We have 1 x ex dis-play unit available for $8500. RRP $10995

Advantage Plastics Rangiora

call: 0800 668 534 or (03) 313 5750

Poultry EquiPmEnt

Free catalogue 0800 901 902 or email: [email protected]

Feeding and watering equipment. Plus many other products. Backyard to commercial operations.

www.clicdualwheels.co.nz

Clic Wheel Systems Ltd, Rotorua Ph/Fax 07 347 2292

on Duals for more traction, stability, flotation, towing power, versatility.

“Wouldn’t be without them!”

SCARTT

www.scartt.co.nz 09 912 2555

“It’s pretty good mate!”

TT

$10,990 +gst525

SAMPLE PHOTO WITH EXTRA’S

BEST VALUED UTV IN NZ

IMPROVEDMODEL!

60 Litre & 100 Litre Teat Sprayer S/Steel

pressure tanks

Contact us for more information

Phone 06 272 [email protected]

• $45.00 delivery cost in New Zealand

• Also high pressure s/steel water cylinders

GLOBAL STAINLESS

Quality

DOLOMITENZ’s fi nest BioGro certifi ed

Mg fertiliserFor a delivered price call...

0800 436 566

ANZ0540_RN\TBWA

We’re changing the face of banking.

Not the faces in your bank.

ANZ National Bank Limited

David MacKenzie AgriHastings

Alan Quaife AgriDannevirke

Rachel KeeleyAgriTimaru

If you’re a customer of The National Bank you’ll be pleased to know that your Agri Manager will stay the same at ANZ. Not only that, you can expect to see the same faces in your local branch. And they’ll continue to deliver the same great service to the same high standard you’ve come to expect.

To see how we’re building the best bank for New Zealand, visit anz.co.nz/more

rural news 23 oct 2012

Documents

federated farmers

upset fonterra

view fonterra

fonterra people

meeting of fonterra

massey university

agricultural sector

nziahs award