rural news 3 february 2015

FEBRUARY 3, 2015: ISSUE 577 www.ruralnews.co.nz

RURALNEWS

MANAGEMENTMassey students run trials to see if bulls can be grown faster. PAGE 28

MACHINERYNew Magnum lineup celebrates 28 years. PAGE 35 ANIMAL HEALTH

Next year’s lamb crops starts

now!PAGE 31

TO ALL FARMERS, FOR ALL FARMERS

RAIN PLEASESheep and beef farmer Jamie Powdrell surveys the parched pasture on his property at Wairoa, on the North Island’s east coast. He is not panicking just yet about the dry because of good rainfall in December. However, he believes if there is not substantial rain in the next few weeks then things will get much tougher. More from the eastern North Island and the rest of the country enduring the big dry on pages 6-7. PHOTO SARAH CHARTERIS

LITTLE RELIEF ON HORIZON

Upsurge in student no’sTHERE’S BEEN a 20% increase in stu-dent enrolments in agricultural degree courses at Massey University for 2015, the first such surge in many years.

Dr James Millner, programme direc-tor for the ag science degrees, says this year about 140 students will take their degree courses, including bachelor of agri science, emphasising production, and bachelor of agri commerce, with more of an off-farm focus. Interest is also rising in BSc with an agricultural component.

Millner can’t precisely explain these increases, but says Massey intends to survey the students when they arrive on campus.

“Students are more focused on where careers and the highlighted

opportunities in the primary indus-tries are starting to have an effect,” he told Rural News. “Most students seem to be from rural backgrounds, but also from cities – including the metropoli-tan cities.”

Massey has had its recruiters out in key markets to sell the message about the value of agricultural degrees. They are trying to attract students from the big cities.

Millner a lot of effort is going into pointing out to young people, parents and teachers that agriculture is more than just farm work. These jobs are in

the service industries including law, accounting, finance and consulting.

“But I am still getting feedback from students in prestigious high schools who should know better about the opportunities in agriculture.

“Young people have said that when it’s suggested they pursue a career in agriculture they get laughed at and told to get serious and asked ‘why aren’t you more ambitious’ and all that sort of stuff.”

Millner says, sadly, agriculture is still regarded by many influential teachers as ‘second rate’.

Meanwhile, Lincoln University is also seeing a rise in students wanting agriculture courses.

Head of Lincoln’s faculty of agricul-ture, Professor Tony Bywater, says agri-cultural student numbers have steadily grown over the past few years.

“While this is good for the industry, I am not so sure if it is a good thing for me!” Bywater joked to Rural News.

“I am looking at 300 agriculture students in my first year class this semester.”

LONG TERM relief from the dry spell may be weeks away: that’s the prediction of Weatherwatch.co.nz’s Phil Duncan.

Any rain in the next few days may be short-lived and he predicts a return to hot, dry conditions for much of February. The high pres-sure systems which influence the chance of rain vary each year and ‘park’ themselves in different places, he says.

“It’s like going to the beach: you don’t always park in the same place and the highs do the same,” he told Rural News.

“This year they’ve been consis-tently centred over the middle of the country or the South Island; so we have seen a lot of light winds, blue skies and calm days – with the rain-makers coming close to us but run-ning into that high.”

Duncan sees a temporary change in that pattern at the end of January and into the first week of February. This could open a window of oppor-tunity for rain in some, but not all, regions.

“Unfortunately, by the end of the first week of February we are back into those westerlies and they could be hot and dry.”

Though there are tropical storms in the Pacific, the high pressure sys-tems are forming an invisible wall that prevents them coming down to New Zealand. – Peter Burke

PETER BURKE

[email protected]

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NEWS 3

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ISSUE 577www.ruralnews.co.nz

TO DECLARE OR NOT?

The flying knapsack

RUMOURS ARE circulating around South Canterbury that local arable farmer Warren Darling has broken the world record for barley yield – currently 12.2t/ha.

Plenty of action – including people, cars, helicopters and even rumours of film crews – was seen

around Darling’s header when the crop was harvested in early January.

However, when asked by Rural News if that was the case, Darling said he could not comment and passed on all enquires to his seed supplier, Can-terbury Seed.

The supplier, a division of the Carr

Group, said there was “nothing offi-cial” to report.

Meanwhile, North Otago farmer Chris Dennison officially claimed the world record for oilseed rape crop after harvesting his crop earlier this month.

• See full report page 10

Nothing official...

AN URGENT declaration is not necessarily the right response to a drought, says a senior MPI official.

David Wansbrough told Rural News the right response is to have systems in place to help farmers prepare for a drought and ensure they have contingency plans and the necessary support networks to help them deal with it.

Referring to the dry conditions in South Canterbury and North Otago, Wansbrough says the Gov-ernment does not see a drought declaration as necessary. How-ever, MPI and farmer and indus-try organisations are monitoring the situation.

“We haven’t been asked for it and our assessment is that while it is hard and challenging for farmers, they are doing what they should be doing – planning, making early decisions, talking to each other and getting extra feed in where they need it.”

Wansbrough says some areas of the South Island east coast haven’t had rain for six months. And the lack of rain is not the only prob-lem; the lack of options available to farmers must also be taken into account.

Marlborough and Wairarapa are also very dry.

People are naturally getting very concerned and the numbers tell the real story, Wansborough says.

“For example, if you look at the average rainfall in Timaru you can see they haven’t made the aver-age in any of the last six months. They are well below average for six months.”

• More on the dry - pg 6-7

IT STARTED off as a project to spray rice in Japan, now it could provide a solution to spot spraying noxious weeds on seemingly inaccessible places on New Zealand farms.

It looks like the perfect toy for any mechanically or technology-minded person; a mini helicopter no less, but not one you’d find in Noel Leemings or a toyshop.

The Yamaha RMAX UAV is a large unmanned aerial vehicle configured to spray weeds or drop fertiliser on places hard to access on foot or too small or uneconomical for a larger rotary or fixed wing aircraft.

The UAV was on show at the recent Wings over Wairarapa air show and was part of a large trade display of UAV’s. A sales rep for the UAV, Cory Hills-ley, says its development began in the mid-1980s.

“The purpose was to minimise the risk of pilots doing small niche areas for spraying. It came into Australia about four years ago and this one on display is the first in New Zealand. We have plans to come here and do the same thing,” he told Rural News.

“We are looking at it first for spray-ing weeds such as gorse on steep and hilly terrain where larger aircraft would find access difficult. And also areas where it’s hard for people on the ground to get access.”

The RMAX can be fitted with two 8L tanks for spraying or two 13L tanks

to hold granular fertiliser. It looks like a mini helicopter. Typically the RMAX would fly at up to 300m, but lower as required. In some ways, it’s a flying knapsack.

Hillsley says at present the operation of the UAV is manual, but the company is developing a GPS mapping system for the machine which would see it meet New Zealand requirements to have electronic proof of the exact area flown if the machine was spraying.

“We are developing one in Austra-lia at the moment because we have the

same requirements there. It’ll be a map-ping solution and it’ll print out exactly where you fly and your flight path and it’ll change colour when you have oper-ated the spray equipment.”

Hillsley says they are not trying to take any of the work off the bigger guys, rather targeting areas where there may be narrow and smaller spray buffer zones.

The company is working with CAA and hopes to start trials in New Zealand later in the year.

PETER BURKE

[email protected]


PETER BURKE

[email protected]

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4 NEWS

Deer industry PGP agreedMPI director general Martyn Dunne has formally approved the business case for PGP.

DEER INDUSTRY New Zealand (DINZ) and MPI have agreed on long-awaited primary-growth partnership (PGP), to be called ‘Passion2Profit’.

The $16 million, seven-year scheme is intended to be a ‘game-changer’ in the production and marketing of venison. It is expected to raise the industry’s turnover by $56m a year – by the scheme’s culmination – and to reverse the decline in the size of the national deer herd.

$16m will be spent – $7.4m from the PGP during the scheme’s life and the balance from DINZ and its commercial partners.

MPI director-general Martyn Dunne approved the business case for Passion2Profit, opening the way for negotiating a contract.

DINZ chief executive

Dan Coup says the agreement is a big milestone.

“Our farm-raised venison is arguably the best red meat in the world, but a major investment is needed to achieve its market potential. Only with the support of PGP will Passion2Profit have the resources to create the step changes we need.

“We are over-reliant on the European market. Demand there is seasonal

and not in step with New Zealand’s venison supply.”

Coup sees two opportunities from the project.

“The first is branding and positioning lean, tender, farm-raised venison as a luxury red meat sold year-round in new markets and market segments. The second opportunity is helping farmers adopt systems and technologies for them to deliver the

venison that markets want, when it is wanted.”

Coup says the project is supported by farmers, processors and exporters.

“A highlight is the support of the five processors who represent 95% of the venison produced in New Zealand. Alliance Group, Silver Fern Farms, Firstlight Foods, Mountain River Venison, and Duncan and Co are working on industry agreed quality standards

THE PGP aims to boost the value, productivity and profitability of farming via investment by government and industry. It enables New Zealand to keep pace in primary sector innovation.

When the two recently approved schemes are under contract, there will be 18 PGPs.

PGPs usually run five-seven years,

overseen and monitored by the Invest-ment Advisory Panel and MPI.

Monitoring is by steering groups, quarterly progress reporting, annual plans, financial audits, progress reviews and evaluation of the overall programme.

Government funding is paid out on receipt of invoices for work done as agreed in advance.

AIMING FOR MORE

and support the concept of marketing venison under a single brand into new markets and market segments.”

Other supporters are the New Zealand Deer Farmers’ Association and the deer branch of the NZ Veterinary Association.

Coup says the PGP project will help farmers

integrate modern genetic, feeding and animal health into their farming systems.

“Survey data tells us many farmers would like to improve the performance of their herds, but they lack the latest technology in a form they can apply to their individual farms.

“While we have several programmes in place to promote technology adoption, we don’t have the resources needed to drive this at the pace needed to position the industry for future growth. Passion2Profit will enable us to do this.”

WORKSAFE NZ and ACC are launching a six-year farm safety scheme this month “that will educate and inform” through media campaigns supported by online and print materials.

WorkSafe says more people are killed and injured on farms than any other New Zealand workplace and the only way to reduce this toll is by farmers and their families, farming organisations

and WorkSafe NZ working together to improve safe practice and reduce unsafe behaviour.

“This is a multi-faceted attempt to change behaviour on farms,” Work-Safe’s programme manager agriculture, Al McCone, told Rural News.

The scheme will be launched at 16 regional events, starting Feb 9 in Lin-coln and finishing Feb 26 in Dargaville.

FARM SAFETY CAMPAIGN

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NEWS 5

Drought-breaker needed for parched southAN EASTERLY airflow promised brief respite from the central South Island’s dry late last week but a drought-breaking weather system is des-perately needed, farmers’ leaders and industry rep-resentatives say.

Without that, winter feed crops will fall woe-fully short, or fail com-pletely. Already most farms have offloaded store stock and there are reports of dairy grazers being sent home with-out warning, compound-ing problems on already struggling dairy farms.

Yet official declara-tion of the drought as an adverse weather event still seems some way off, judging by comments at a Rural Support Trust meet-ing to brief and hear from rural professionals in Timaru last week.

“The moment you put the word ‘drought’ in the paper the price of stock goes down and feed goes up,” local farmer and Rural Support Trust member David Williams told the meeting.

Associate Agricul-ture Minister, and local MP, Jo Goodhew, was present but left the talk-ing to MPI’s South Island research policy manager, Trish Burborough.

“The turnout is an indi-cation of the significance of the situation,” she told the packed venue.

Burborough outlined the measures an official “adverse event” could trigger and said MPI is in weekly contact by cross-industry conference call.

“One of the scary things with this [drought] is what’s going to happen with feed and what options are there. It would be good to get some hard facts and fig-ures from you people because that’s something we could feed through to the Ministers,” she said.

In answer to a later question, an MPI col-league said a “high level” assessment of feedstocks would be undertaken by the ministry.

Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy last week said Government

is keeping a close eye on condi-

tions in the Central South Island and how local communities are coping, noting the forecast for rain.

“I’m getting regular updates from MPI and NIWA on soil moisture levels.”

He also used it as another opportunity to highlight the need for irri-gation and water storage projects, and Govern-ment’s $120m com-mitment to irrigation projects in the past two Budgets.

“We don’t have a shortage of rain in New Zealand – it’s just that sometimes it falls in the wrong places at the wrong times.”

Alpine-fed irrigation schemes are so far gen-erally flowing without restriction – the excep-tion is the newly commis-

sioned Rangitata South which needs a flush-ing flow from the main divide to refill its ponds – but coastal river extrac-tion has, almost without exception, ground to a halt along the east coast.

Even irrigators in the dam-fed Opuha scheme have been on restriction since well before Christ-mas and will be cut off completely come Feb 20.

“It’s not a case of a few more steps to go: we are staring at the cliff,” Opuha Water chief executive told the Timaru meeting.

Meanwhile the dam has so far maintained a 3.5 cumec environmental flow in the Opihi River at State Highway 1. Without it that stretch of the river would now be dry, McCor-mick told Rural News.

While it didn’t come out at the Timaru meet-ing, some in the region are far from happy with the lack of a drought decla-ration.

“Until we get that offi-cial declaration no-one will take it seriously,” dry-land cropping farmer Jeremy Talbot says.

Sharemilkers, partic-ularly those on dryland farms or where the irriga-tion is running out, will be some of the hardest hit with the pincer of feed shortage and poor payout, he says.

But Feds’ regional sharemilkers chair, Ben Jaunay, says while they are finding it tough, so far banks are being “very sup-portive.”

ANDREW SWALLOW KEY POINTS● Mid-Canterbury south through Otago

extremely dry.

● No official declaration request due to feed and stock price fears.

● Dryland store stock gone and dairy grazers being offloaded.

● Foothill river irrigation running out.

● Irrigated crop yields good; dryland a poor average.

● Winter feed: beets better than brassicas but all dryland fading fast.


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MPI’s DAVID Wansbrough says a lot of people look for the headline ‘drought declaration’, but they should understand what this means in practical terms.

It doesn’t mean huge amounts of government dollars flowing into a region, he says.

“What we declare is the size of the recovery measures that might be needed. Our policy is that if we think the drought is localised the Government won’t go in to help.

“We expect communities to have a fair bit of resilience and do risk management at the local level. When it gets beyond the local level and clearly communities are not able to cope – particularly if we think animal or family welfare are at risk – then there

are measures we can put in place.

“People should also know

that regardless of whether or not a drought is declared, help is always available. IRD is

receptive at any time to talking to farmers about equalisation schemes or even some leniency on the timing of what they owe IRD.”

Wansbrough says when a drought is declared there will be a little extra assistance available, but most assistance is available all the time if required.

MPI has for ten years focused on putting in place systems and support networks to help farmers deal with adverse events. The Rural Support Trust, DairyNZ, Beef + Lamb NZ and Federated Farmers work with MPI to support farmers.

Right now in South Canterbury and North Otago these organisations are working with MPI to monitor the situation. Wansborough refers to regular meetings and a weekly conference call to help assess the situation.

6 NEWS

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What does a ‘drought’ declaration mean?

PETER BURKE

[email protected]

THE DROUGHT in Canterbury has highlighted the difference in irrigation water from alpine and lowland sources, Wansborough says.

Some farmers are severely restricted in the amount of water they can take for irrigation, while others are largely unaffected.

“Irrigation systems which get their water off the main divide don’t have problems,” he says.

“This highlights the importance of doing a bit more water storage and making sure all the water that falls in New Zealand is available. If we can shift that water – in time and place — we can use some in other parts of the country at other times of the year. This will give environmental and economic benefits.”

MPI is concerned that the drought will affect farmers’ ability to grow feed for winter. A lot of rain will be needed to get soil mois-ture levels back to normal, let alone enough to grow winter crops.

Anecdotal evidence suggests farmers are better managing their way through droughts.

“They’re going to have to get used to situations like the present one because all the forecasts suggests there will be more seasons like this.”

IRRIGATION ISSUES

STORE MARKET SUBDUED

EARLY ARRIVAL of the dry period in the lower North Island has ‘subdued’ sales of store lambs in the past week or so.

PGG Wrightson’s Tony Gallen says the store market has been “hard work” because it’s been so dry and this uncer-tainty has caused a drop in the number of lambs coming for-ward in the last few weeks. He told Rural News that farmers appear to hanging on to stock in the hope rain will come and don’t want to sell their stock at low prices.

“We had decent numbers of store animals earlier on, but the other week the numbers were back a bit. Everyone is saying that if it could rain in the next week or ten days they’d be fine, but if it doesn’t come, there could be problems.

“Last year, there was 80-100mm in January and the drought didn’t kick in until late February. But this year it was

showery and cool pre-Christ-mas and all of a sudden the rain stopped and it’s got stinking hot.”

Store lambs are fetching $1.90-$2.10/kg.

Gallen says on a positive note, there was a large ewe fair at Feilding the other week with some 13,500 ewes for sale and prices were on a par with the rest of the country. “Two-tooths were fetching $1.50-$2.00 and in some cases $3.00. Five-year-old ewes made $0.95-$1.05/kg.”

Gallen believes the cattle market has been positive until now. He says at a recent weaner fair most of the ven-dors were happy provided the weaner bulls had a bit of weight on them.

“Only the dairy weaners have been on sale and the typ-ical Friesian/Hereford cross bulls sold at $450-$550. Heifers made $350-$450 each.”

– Peter Burke


NEWS 7

Wait and see – but not too long!

BE PROACTIVE in your thinking and recognise your options because the next three weeks will be crucial in planning to deal with drought.

That’s the message to farmers in Manawatu/Rangitikei region from the local Fed Farmers’ Meat and Fibre chair Richard Morrison. He says the dry weather has come earlier than normal to his region and that’s got local farmers wondering what’s going to happen next

Morrison says it hasn’t rained there for a long time, but most people grew a lot of grass leading up to Christmas so there has been feed on hand. It seems like a stand-off with people waiting to see if the rain is coming before planning their next move.

“It seems like the works should be flat-stick because everyone should be off-loading stock and while people are booking space the works probably aren’t as full as they might be,” he told Rural News. “I think people are prob-

ably getting the lambs into their yards and finding they’re not as good as they hoped or thought they would be. I believe they are sending off the lambs that are ready and hoping they’re going to get a shower of rain to be able to bring the next bunch along.”

Morrison thinks lambs in the region are probably a bit lighter than what people would hope or like.

“We have had bad droughts before and this is early – it’s not February – and people are wondering, is this just a typical dry summer or is it going to get worse and will the rain come? Everyone can remember the last three years and how challenging that was.”

Morrison says the Rangitikei River is running low and it’s possible restric-tions on irrigation could be imposed. “The soil moisture maps are out and the deficit looks pretty bad and anyone can see just how dry the grass is.”

He says farmers should be looking closely at feed budgets and starting to develop a plan they can implement if the situation gets worse.

Follow-up rain needed

RAIN IN the past week may have helped farmers in Gisborne and Wairoa but the real benefits will only be felt if predicted followup rain arrives.

Until last week, records were showing an average of just 0.6mm in the Gisborne district since Christ-mas, while Wairoa’s district average sat just below 2.5mm in January. Tem-peratures have also been consistently in the high 20s and early 30s – mean-ing conditions are getting increas-ingly dry.

Federated Farmers Meat & Fibre group vice-chairperson Sandra Faulkner said last week’s showers caused some Gisborne rain gauges to reach double figures, while for others it barely dampened the dust.

“It took the pressure off some farmers, but realistically it wasn’t enough and the follow-up rain fore-cast for this Wednesday and Thurs-day is what we need,” says Faulkner, who runs a sheep and beef farm south of Gisborne at Muriwai.

“At our farm, we got 20mm, but

I’ve heard the figure range from zero for some people to 60mm plus for others. It has been patchy for every-one this summer and everybody needs that followup rain.”

Faulker said the biggest problem had been the consistently high tem-peratures.

“There is no ‘normal’ for this time of year and you are always expecting it to be dry. But the heat this year is drying the pasture and it’s burning off for some farmers.”

For Wairoa sheep and beef farmer Jamie Powdrell, water is the issue. He operates a total of 620ha, running 1900 ewes, 200 mixed-age cows and 40 in-calf heifers.

“We aren’t panicking yet, but our main reticulation and dams have dried up a lot more this year,” he said.

“We got around 90mm in Decem-ber, but have had nothing since; we got just 5mm rain last week. I’m lucky because here we are linked to the town supply and I can tap into that if we need it; the next couple of weeks and until March will be the tell-ing time.”

Powdrell says he has killed 1600

lambs since the end of November and hoped the crops they had would be enough to keep their remaining stock going.

“The bottom has gone now on the pasture and so hopefully the crops we have are enough; we were lucky to have grown enough feed in Decem-ber for the cows.”

Crops in Gisborne and Wairoa are equally thirsty.

Prior to last week’s rain Cedenco agronomy manager David Oudes said a good amount was “undoubt-edly needed”.

From his observations he believed Gisborne to be slightly drier than Wairoa and while crops were still in reasonable condition, some were started to show slight effects.

“Some plants are starting to twist up and sweetcorn in areas is showing a little bit of stress,” he said

Grapes are faring somewhat better. New Zealand Wine Growers deputy chairperson John Clarke has a vineyard inland from Gisborne at Te Karaka and says the hot dry weather did not have the same impact on grapes as on process crops.

PETER BURKE

[email protected]

SARAH CHARTERIS

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In 2014 Honda had a great story to tell with an all-new ATV range. With a completely

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Honda now introduces new additions to the range, with a further host of upgrades

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THE BEST...JUST GOT BETTER


8 NEWS

New Zealand out to bowl over IndiaTHE CRICKET World Cup is a ‘game opener’ for better business relations between India and New Zealand, says Sunil Kaushal, India New Zealand Business Council chairman.

Primary producers are being invited to attend an international summit in Auckland called ‘Growing with India: Inspire, Innovate, Grow’ in Auckland on March 13. It will coincide with New Zealand and India facing off in World Cup matches.

The council is asking the pipfruit and avocado indus-tries to take part because they could be exporting to India. And Kaushal also sees opportunities for honey,

wine, meat, agricultural machinery and products, agri services, new technology and other primary produce.

This year’s summit builds on the success of last year’s, but with the added benefit of top industry leaders from India also taking part – some making the journey to New Zealand for the World Cup games.

Kaushal says though India aims for self-sufficiency, there’s a lot of opportunity for agritech and services to help its primary sector develop. “New Zealand has a lot to add to that but India needs to be open also.”

A key message he will push to visiting Indian rep-resentatives is that New Zea-land is not a threat: it could never produce enough to

feed India’s 1.2 billion pop-ulation “but we should be there to complement and collaborate”.

“The World Cup is a game opener for us – an ice breaker – that is another common thread that we have.” Cricket has already opened doors for New Zealand lamb into India via companies like Quality New Zealand and Alliance. (Quality NZ is headed by NZ cricket personalities Sir Richard Hadlee and Stephen Fleming).

Even if New Zealand com-panies look only to India’s premium market (1% of the population) it would face a market exceeding New Zea-land’s total population, Kaushal says. “The forum is a good opportunity to come and engage with India, learn

more about what India needs and wants. India is a country of feel, touch and see.”

Agritech is impor-tant: up to 40% of India’s produce goes to waste before it reaches households. Pip-fruit also has opportu-nity because its export season is during India’s non fruit producing season. India also runs out of onions on a seasonal basis.

“India is opening up: the Prime Minister is saying ‘come, we are ready to do business; come and do busi-ness with us’. But any game is two way – you’ve got to think how the other party will ben-efit from it.” For instance India has produce not grown in New Zealand such as man-

goes and pomegranates.“We also talk about dairy

but we shouldn’t limit it to milk powder. Dairy is many other things.” India has vari-ous environments weather-wise, he says. New Zealand companies could look at how they can help various states in cow productivity, feed, soil, environment, fertiliser, etc.

www.inzbusinesssummit.com

PAM TIPA

[email protected]

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS at the Inter-national Summit include Nandan Nilekani, from India, an acclaimed entrepreneur, bureaucrat and politi-cian.

Time listed him as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2006 and 2009. Fortune conferred on him ‘Asia’s Businessman of the year 2003’. He was named the Corporate Citizen of the Year at the Asia Busi-ness Leaders Award (2004).

“I see many opportunities for trade and cooperation between India and New Zealand to flourish,” says Nile-kani

Also joining the keynote speakers is Dr Reuben Abraham, chief execu-tive at the IDFC Institute, a think-tank set up by India’s largest infrastruc-ture finance company. The IDFC Insti-tute’s focus is on political, economic and other issues. Abraham entered the Wired ‘Smart List 2012: 50 people who will change the world’.

He was selected as a Young Global Leader for 2009 by the World Economic Forum, where he serves on the Global Agenda Council on Emerging Multinationals.

BIG-NOTER BILLED

Former NZ cricket captain Stephen Fleming is already being used to open doors for NZ lamb in India.


NEWS 9

Farmers cautious despite GDT rise

DAIRY FARMERS are still wary despite three suc-cessive lifts in global dairy auction prices.

While economists say dairy prices have bot-tomed out, Federated Farmers Dairy chairman Andrew Hoggard it’s still “a real dodgy world out there”.

“There are still a lot of geo-political factors at play; things are tether-ing at the edge and any little thing could upset the apple cart,” Hoggard told Rural News.

Russia’s actions in Ukraine still worry the western world, the recent change of government in Greece has sparked fears of economic instability and lower oil prices are seen as demand dampen-ers for dairy products.

Hoggard says the recent GDT auction results are a positive sign but farmers remain cau-tious. “It’s too early to say that we have turned the corner,” he says. The 1% lift in GDT price index two weeks ago followed a 3.6% jump a month ago.

Whole milk powder, New Zealand’s largest dairy export, rose 3.8% offsetting falls in several other categories including anhydrous milk fat which was down 5%.

Butter milk powder was down 6.4% and ched-dar was down 4.3%; rennet casein rose by 3.3%, skim milk powder 1% and butter was flat with a 0.1% increase.

Overall prices remain about 46% lower than a year ago. And banks are not raising their forecast milk price; ANZ dropped its forecast to $4.35/kgMS last month.

ASB remains most optimistic, matching Fon-terra’s current forecast for this season at $4.70/kgMS; BNZ sits in the middle at

$4.50/kgMS.Rabobank senior dairy

analyst Hayley Moynihan warns of another hurdle. “The firming trend will be challenged as we get closer to the removal of European milk production quotas on April 1. Volumes on offer from New Zea-land start to decline sea-sonally, but the Europeans coming into spring and milk production quotas coming off are likely to test market prices the closer we get to April 1.”

However she says last month’s GDT result is “along with our expec-tations of a slow price recovery through the first half of this year”. “The most notable thing was the rebalancing in pric-ing between whole milk powder and returns from skim milk powder and butter. The lift of whole milk powder put the stream returns back into balance.

“But in some respects it is a lacklustre result given the reduction in vol-umes on offer. The price lift could [arguably] have been stronger but it is a reflection of plentiful product availability glob-ally and buyers being well stocked up. The positive is that at least it is in the right direction and three auctions in a row have had a slight firming.

“That is further evi-dence we are at the bottom and at least start-ing to show some encour-aging signs.”

ASB economist Nathan Penny says there’re ten-tative signs of a recovery, but they are “baby steps”.

“It has taken a lot of reduction in volumes to get there particularly with whole milk powder. That has been hard work. Nonetheless it is pointing towards the recovery – but gradual.

“We are seeing export growth around the world slow so that should sup-

SUDESH KISSUN

[email protected]

port prices.” But demand is still weak from two big dairy importers, China and Russia.

“Beyond this season, we remain broadly posi-tive on dairy prospects,”

Penny says in his latest update. ASB expects the 2015-16 milk price to rebound to around $6/kgMS. “But for now, the baby steps are likely to continue.”

Recent auctions have seen an increase in whole milk powder – NZ’s largest dairy export – prices.

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gone back to a more rig-orous cultivation regime, using heavier, deeper tines for the third and fourth passes, having found the Wakanui silt loam soils were getting too com-pacted under a no-till or minimum till regime.

An April 4 pre-emer-gence spray of Magister (clomazone) and triflu-ralin took care of broad-leaved weeds. “Shepherds purse, fumitory, wire-weed: they’re the main ones we were chasing. Sometimes fumitory escapes but this time it worked really well.”

Endure (metalde-

hyde) slug pellets went on at 4kg/ha as the crop was emerging April 10, followed by 330ml/ha of Fusilade Forte (fluazifop-p-methyl) on April 24 to take out volunteer barley.

Grassweeds got another hit with Gal-lant Ultra (haloxyfop-p-methyl) applied with 0.7L/ha of prochloraz on July 30 to clean up phoma. Follow-up fungicides of 0.55L/ha of Folicur (tebu-conazole) at early bud break and 0.6L/ha of Pro-line (prothiconazole) at mid-flowering to coun-ter sclerotinia went on Sep 11 and Oct 21 respec-

tively. “The Folicur acts as a growth regulator too,” points out Dennison.

The fertiliser pro-gramme began with a standard autumn main-tenance application of 400kg/ha of potassic superphosphphate at pre-sowing, delivering 30kg/ha each of potash, phosphate and sulphur. On Aug 5 the crop had its first 77kg/ha of nitrogen, plus a top up of 36kg/ha of sulphur and 25kg/ha of potash deliv-ered as 250kg/ha of Ammo 31 (an ammonium sul-phate plus urea blend) with 50kg/ha of potassium chloride.

A month later 200kg/ha of urea completed the nitrogen input, taking the total applied to 167kg/ha.

“When you consider the yield, that’s not a lot of nitrogen,” notes Den-nison. The paddock has been cropped for at least 20 years too so soil min-eral nitrogen levels were likely low, especially after an unusually wet autumn, he adds.

“We didn’t mineral N test this year because we figured there was no point: the results would all have been low.”

The only other nutri-ent inputs were a foliar spray of 2L/ha of Borsolve and 50g/ha of sodium

10 NEWS

World record oilseed crop landedNew Zealand’s credentials as an excellent cropping country, already proven by Southlander Mike Solari’s world record wheat yield, received another endorsement late last month. Andrew Swallow reports.

NEW ZEALAND can lay claim to another world record cropping yield: the highest ever for oilseed rape, aka canola in some counties.

North Otago grower Chris Dennison harvested 64.37t off 10.2ha on Friday January 23, a yield of 6.31t/ha, comfortably beat-ing the previous record of 6.14t/ha claimed by UK grower Tim Lamyman last July.

“It was quite surprising because during the day we didn’t think we were going

to make it,” Dennison told Rural News.

“The combine yield meter was indicating it wasn’t quite good enough and as it turned out it was under-measuring the field area. When we got the actual yield off the weigh-bridge and divided that by the surveyed area, it made all the difference.”

Every load was checked across a certi-fied weighbridge with two independent witnesses verifying the tonnage, and the yield corrected to

the industry standard 9% moisture content. “The moisture ranged from 11.85% at start of the day to 7.8% on the final load.”

Two cultivars made up the crop: the hybrid Flash (7.2ha), which was grown for birdseed, and the high oleic Vistive for Pure Oil New Zealand.

Dennison says it was a good opportunity to com-pare the cultivars. The yield meter suggested Vis-tive had an edge but visu-ally there was nothing to choose between them.

“In terms of growth habit and disease levels you couldn’t tell them apart.”

Both cultivars were treated identically from cultivation to combin-ing, sown in 30cm rows on April 3 following a five-pass cultivation pro-gramme to prepare the ground after straw from the preceding barley crop had been removed. “That sounds a lot of passes but they’re all 6m tools so it wasn’t many hours per hectare.”

Dennison says they’ve

TO PAGE 15

Pouring in: Chris Dennison’s Lexion 750 disgorges another tank of the record breaking canola crop.

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12 NEWS

The changing face of farming: more technology

ALL AT A TOUCH!Excerpts from the agricultural scenario in MYOB’s ‘The Future of Business Report, New Zealand in 2040’, released this month:

● The rooster’s crow wakes the farmer at 5am on February 6, 2040. He gets out of bed and launches the farm management app on the dashboard of his tablet…..

● A diagnostic programme on an alarm is alerting him to a power fluctuation in one of the fence lines …he’ll have to send a line runner out to repair the break …..

● He checks on one of the camera feeds in the office to make sure the cows are lined up in front of the auto milking shed, being gently herded by a pair of rolling barriers which guide them through the gates. He’ll go down shortly and check his herd … but first he needs to launch the drone from its hangar to head out on the first of its visual inspections of the property.

● As he heads out the door, he checks the irriga-tion app on his smartphone, and selects the best irrigation pattern for the day’s weather forecast he’s just received … Looks like it’ll be another good day…

THE FUTURE of farming described in a recent agricultural scenario (see side-bar) is not far distant, says Nick Clark, Federated Farmers manager of general policy and chief economist.

Different scenarios depicting the future farmer are already percolating through, particularly in more intensive dairy operations, he says, as a commen-tator in the MYOB report.

“As time passes and a new genera-

tion comes through, you’ll see more and more of that approach to farming and by 2040 I’d expect it to be much more widespread, perhaps even ubiq-uitous.”

Clark says compared to where farm-ing has come from – even five years ago – it is amazing how much electronic and machine technology is in use on farms. Farming is perceived by many to be low-skilled and low-tech, but the reality is very different. By 2040 farming will be in many ways a high-tech industry.

“This level of sophistication will

be extremely important by 2040 if our productive sector is to meet the opportunities and challenges of the global markets.”

Clark says by 2050, 70% of the world population may be living in cities with more than one million people. “That will have big implications on what people will be eating. It will also have an enormous impact on how coun-tries provide for growing populations in cities. Particularly in Asia they will eat more protein which New Zealand is well placed to provide.”

But New Zealand will face chal-lenges from lower cost producers in the developing world as they become more productive and competitive. New Zea-land will also face constraints on land and water and will be subject to more environmental controls.

Since the 1980s, the agricultural sector’s growth has been three times higher than the economy. But we can’t take it for granted that will continue without investment in people, trans-

port, communications, science and genetics, he says.

“One of the areas with a lot of poten-tial is agricultural services – particularly for export. We’ve a got huge expertise developed over many years in agricul-ture, behind the farm gate and in front of it. There’s a massive market out there for our expertise with the potential to provide an opportunity for a new sector of farming.”

The report says by 2040 farming will be a high-tech industry.

PAM TIPA

[email protected]

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NEWS 13

‘Chain-dragger’ sullys all dairy farmers

A DAIRY farmer ‘drag-ging the chain’ on effluent management has let the team down, says Feder-ated Farmers Dairy chair-man Andrew Hoggard, commenting on a recid-ivist polluter who has copped a record fine for environment non-compli-ance in Taranaki.

Rahotu dairy farmer Francis John Mullan, 64, was fined $66,000 in the Environment Court for two charges of discharging effluent into groundwater and a stream on one of his eight farms.

Mullen has two previ-ous convictions for simi-lar offences. The $66,000 Environment Court fine is the largest ever for a farmer in Taranaki.

Hoggard says most farmers are doing a great job protecting the envi-ronment; they are let down by a small group. “A few of them are drag-ging the chain and let-ting others down,” he told Rural News.

He points out cases of non-compliance in farm effluent management are dropping. In Hoggard’s home patch of Manawatu, monitored by Horizons Regional Council, non-

compliance has dropped from 16% three years ago to 3% last season.

“We are moving in the right direction and farmers are making huge investments in effluent management,” he says.

Mullan pleaded not guilty to the two charges but a jury returned a guilty verdict after a two and a half day trial in December.

Judge Colin Thomp-son said Mullan viewed himself “too important to be part of the rules and responsibilities that apply to the rest of the farming world”.

Thompson said the cumulative effect of the pollution on the land and waterways was significant. He ordered 90% of the fine to go to the Taranaki Regional Council.

In March 2013 a TRC officer on a routine inspection of Mullan’s Upper Kina Rd farm found a broken pump causing effluent to overflow onto land. It flooded 80m2 and entered a drain to a tribu-tary of the Oanui Stream.

The prosecu-tor described Mullan’s offending as wilful, blind and his attitude negligent in the extreme. Mullan had a history of non-com-pliance with four previ-ous convictions under the

SUDESH KISSUN

[email protected]

Resource Management Act.

Mullan’s lawyer Patrick Mooney argued he was not wilfully blind because he repaired the broken pump as soon as he was aware of it.

He says responsibil-ity for day-to-day work-ings of the farm lay with Mullan’s farm manager

Jeremy Auld.“It defeats the purpose

of employing a manager if you go on the farm every day. There must come a point where you pass the level of responsibil-ity onto the farm worker and that was passed to Mr Auld.”

However the judge said Mullan’s system of com-

munication with his farm manager was “woefully insufficient”.

Mullan has a history of non compliance on all eight of his dairy farms. His offending dates back to 1999, including effluent flowing into a stream and ponding on pasture, and effluent ponds not man-aged properly.

Feds Andrew Hoggard says most farmers do a great job, but are let down by a few ‘chain-draggers’.

AGROCHEMICAL COMPANY Bayer CropScience is applying to beef up its herbicide offering.

The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has been taking submissions on Bayer’s application to have herbicide Firebird (flufenacet + diflufenican) reassessed with a view to use at up to 0.7L/ha, com-pared to 0.3L/ha currently.

Bayer told Rural News that where weed pressure is high or there are difficult-to-control grassweeds in either wheat or barley it has found 0.5L/ha of Firebird gives higher and more consistent control.

“It is likely the main target for the higher rate will be Vulpia Hair Grass,” marketing manager New Zea-land Neil Waddingham says.

The EPA says Bayer has also applied to import her-bicide Sakura 850WG, containing 850g/kg of pyroxas-ulfone, for use against various weeds in wheat.

Waddingham says the product has been in FAR herbicide screening trials under the code 1101 and has been effective on a range of grass weeds.

Meanwhile, Rural News understands Bayer’s belt-and-braces beet herbicide, Betanal Quattro, (phenmedipham, desmedipham, ethofumesate + metamitron) could have a label rate of up to 5L/ha next spring – compared to the current maximum 3L/ha.

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14 NEWS

Masters’ class attracts all typesTALK ABOUT opposite ends of the spectrum.

One is a Kiwi, born and bred on a sheep and beef farm and has gone back to the farm after 20 years. The other is a Chinese woman who had never been near a farm before a New Zealand visit and thinks cows and calves are “so cute”.

They are two of five students studying for the new Master of Pro-fessional Management (Agribusiness) at Waikato University. The course started in November last year and, according to Professor Jacqueline Row-arth, is a similar degree to an MBA – except that in the new course the stu-dents must already hold a degree.

Keith Ikin grew up on a sheep and beef farm,

went away from farm-ing for 20 years and went back to support his family on the King Country farm last year. He also does work with the Ministry for Primary Industries and Maori trust incorpo-rations, supporting them to work together, create scale and look at ways to support the productivity of Maori on land.

He decided to take the new agribusiness masters degree course to be up to date with where agricul-ture is heading. “I grew up on a farm but the world has changed and farming is very different from even 10 years ago. I was keen to upskill and get up to date, both for the farming side of what I do and for the MPI side.

“The course is fantas-tic – I have learnt a huge amount in a short time particularly in under-standing the bigger pic-

ture of agribusiness in New Zealand and what’s happening internationally.

“I have international experience in my work-ing life and have worked in China, India and South East Asia, yet to have an understanding of those international markets through the agribusiness lens has been helpful for me.”

He says the student mix is diverse, adding much to the course. “We spend a lot of time talking about the international scene and exports and markets. So it has been great to have international students in the group who can talk about the Chi-nese or the Taiwan per-spective. It has added to the learning.

“It’s a great course and I have been recommend-ing it in my network as well. It’s full-on, intense and a lot of work so you

need to make sure you have the time to commit to do it well.”

Zewei Chen, from China, studied for her bachelor degree in busi-ness administration in Malaysia. After graduating she went back to China but decided her degree was too generalised and she needed to do a mas-ters in a more specific field.

She was an exchange student in New Zealand in 2012 and fell in love with the country. “At that time

PAM TIPA

[email protected]

we were taken for a farm trip – the calves, the cattle were so cute.” She did not know what a livestock farm looked like before that and there’s no farm-ing background in her family. But she thought

of the “cute cattle” and decided to come here to do her masters with some advice from a former pro-fessor.

She admits to find-ing it hard with no agri-cultural background. She and another student from Taiwan can struggle to understand what the others are talking about in onfarm sense. However the professors and other students are helpful and she is learning daily.

She believes it will lead to a career choice as students will be helped to define their strength at the end of the course.

Chen says she is more interested in the financial side such as analysing the financials of farm performance, than, for instance, the scientific side. It fits with her commercial academic studies. However she says she made her mother proud recently by grasping some aspects of soil science.

She is unsure whether she will look at staying in New Zealand or return to China at the end of the programme; she just wants to make the best of the opportunity she has right now.

AGRICULTURE NEEDS the new Masters of Professional Management (Agribusiness) course which is similar to an MBA but specific to the industry, says programme director Jacqueline Rowarth.

A difference between the new masters at Waikato and MBA degrees in general is that students in the new course must first have a degree so they build on that academic understanding and apply it to the ag sector. An MBA does not necessarily require a degree, as work experience is taken into account.

Rowarth says people ask why agriculture needs its own management masters.

“Agribusiness is different…. We are often dealing with, in New Zealand, a perishable product that has huge swings in production and a long investment and harvest cycle. Calves born this year will be two years before they come back into the herd. That’s an investment cycle that’s not like anything else.”

She says it is also a business where we can kill people if we get it wrong in

the food aspect. “It really is different. It is fascinating to me coming in from science to see where the differences are.

“On the marketing side of things… the techniques you apply, price positions, etc, are not hugely different but unless you understand the product you are not going to do it well.”

Some students in the first intake have done commerce degrees and some have business experience.

“They have realised they need to know something about agribusiness, from farm management including feed budgeting and cashflows, through to marketing internationally, the importance of free trade agreements and innovation, value chain and things in between such as human resource management, governance, leadership and risk and resilience.”

Students will also do their own extensive research projects. She says they’ve got five dedicated and committed students to kick off the one-year programme and she knows they have more lined up for the next intake in November.

AGRICULTURE’S MBA

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NEWS 15

Zespri not exposed by arrestZESPRI HAS no financial expo-sure to Dalian Yidu, the north-east Chinese importer who reportedly has had nine staff arrested by Chi-nese customs.

“Dalian Yidu imports many New Zealand and global agricul-tural products. It is one of Zes-pri’s importers into China, dealing with less than 5% of Zespri’s China

volume,” a Zespri spokesman told Rural News.

“Zespri’s NZ supply season to our markets, including China, fin-ished quite a while ago and Zespri has no financial exposure to Yidu. There is nothing to indicate this investigation involves Zespri kiwi-fruit.”

Dalian Yidu is one of four of Zespri’s importers in China, a spokesman confirmed.

The Ministry for Primary Industries is aware of the issue and is monitoring the situation as a part of our normal market access work.

“Regarding any other compa-nies using this importer, the com-mercial arrangements between New Zealand exporters and over-seas importers are confidential to the parties involved,” a spokes-man says.

“MPI has been told, however, that the importer concerned does import other New Zealand com-modities from other primary pro-duction sectors. The ministry does not hold information on the spe-cific exporting companies.”

Nine staff at Dalian Yidu are understood to have been arrested in relation to importing prohib-ited fruit and alleged under-dec-laration of customs duties.

PAM TIPA

[email protected]

It’s a new world record!molybdate, applied with the Sep 5 fungicide. “It’s to make sure we’ve got the boron for flowering and pol-lination - it’s standard practice for brassica seed crops here – and it’s just a good place in the rotation to get the molybdenum on.”

All spreading and spraying was on 24m tramlines with the farm’s own machines, a Bog Balle spreader and Sands self-propelled sprayer, except for the final pass, 3L/ha of 540g/L glyphosate which was applied by heli-copter on Jan 5. “We spray it off to toughen up the pods and reduce shatter, and even up the ripening.”

The helicopter was necessary because with the crop nearing 2m tall, even his high clearance sprayer would have pushed down quite a bit of crop, probably robbing some yield and making for harvesting headaches. “It was taller than I’d have liked and we did get a bit lodge.”

The crop was irrigated three times between Oct 20 and Dec 6 with 35mm applied each time. “Oilseed rape normally only needs one drink, or maybe two, and we’ve had a couple of years where it hasn’t needed any water at all, so you can tell how dry this year’s been,” he points out.

The headlands were harvested Jan 21 which con-firmed the crop could be a record breaker. “At that point I got the surveyor in to check the area left and lined up two independent witnesses to verify the weights. It’s not an official Guinness record but we have got the paper trail to prove what we harvested.”

The precedent for removing the headland was set by previous record holder Lamyman, Dennison points out.

“I’d applied to Guinness two years ago when we had some very good oilseed crops to see if we could establish a record for canola yield, but they said there wasn’t wide enough public interest despite what I thought was quite a compelling argument given the world area of the crop. Perhaps now two of us have had a go at it, on opposite sides of the world, Guinness will reconsider.”

Having landed the official Guinness World Record for wheat in 2003, only to lose it four years later to fellow New Zealander Mike Solari, Southland, Denni-son’s familiar with the Guinness process.

“I’ve had a few cracks at claiming that wheat record back and I was beginning to wonder if I should retire from world record attempts because they’re quite nerve wracking but this has given me renewed enthusiasm.”

He reckons he could raise the bar with oilseed rape / canola too.

“I know we’ve had better crops of it before and have had 6.85t/ha over the weighbridge but it wasn’t off a surveyed area or with the witnesses present so talking about it’s a bit like a fisherman telling you about ‘the one that got away’, so I’d rather you didn’t print that.”

Sorry Chris, but it was too good a way to finish the story! – Ed.

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16 NEWS

Heat-seeking drone to fight rural fires

WITH THE hot dry weather and fire bans in many regions, a new, high-tech tool is being welcomed by rural

firefighters.The Crown Research

Institute Scion, Tait Communications and the Engineering School at Canterbury University are collaborating on a project to quickly and

cost-effectively identify the underground ‘hot spots’ that often remain long after a fire seems to be out. Detecting hot spots is labour intensive, expensive and dangerous at present.

Researchers have turned to drones (UAVs) to see what possibilities they offer for detecting hotspots. Final year students at the University of Canterbury have been working on the project

PETER BURKE

[email protected]

for two years and the results of their efforts were on display at the recent air show Wings Over Wairarapa as part of a feature on the use of drones.

Ben Litchfield, a final year engineering student working on the project, says the objective is to produce a UAV with a payload that can ‘geolocate’ any hotspots, capture their GPS co-ordinates and make it easier for rural firefighters to put them out.

“Firefighters have to walk around a fire that looks to be out and physically touch the

ground with the backs of their hands to detect underground hot spots,” says Litchfield. “The alternative is a helicopter with special equipment that can cost thousands of dollars.

“The UAV should be able to fly relatively low – about thirty metres – and cover large strips of ground. We hope the drone, with its camera and other equipment, will be able to quickly and safely mark these underground hot spot areas and produce a map of an area for the firefighters. The technology is still not proven but if it’s successful it will save hours of hard work by rural firefighters.”

The project was started last year by another group of students working on the project for Scion and Tait Communications. Litchfield says he is carrying on from where

they left off and fine tuning their work.

“I’d like to see all rural fire people have access to one of these because I think it will save them an enormous amount of time.”

Scion fire research scientist Richard Parker says, “Scion has always been involved in fire research as part of its mandate to research forestry protection and opportunities. Part of Scion’s role is to develop software and tools that help fire managers put out fires.

“Dealing with hot spots has always been a

challenge. Drones could be a unique solution. There is no other technology of this nature available anywhere in the world as far as we know.

“As well as being used in grass and tussock country, UAVs would have advantages in steep and scrubby terrain, swamps and riverbeds – anywhere where access for firefighters is difficult.

Parker says drones could also monitor fire perimeters – critical areas where there is unburnt material with a risk of ‘flare-ups’ that could get the blaze going again.“The UAV project has a way to go yet. Issues to be addressed include performance in windy conditions, the overall stability of the platform and battery life. But if it works the benefits would be enormous.”

Canterbury University engineering student Ben Litchfield and drone.

“Dealing with hot spots has always been a challenge. Drones could be a unique solution. There is no other technology of this nature available anywhere in the world as far as we know.”

@rural_news


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MARKET SNAPSHOT LAMB MARKET TRENDSBEEF MARKET TRENDS


www.ruralnews.co.nz

BREAKING NEWS MANAGEMENT STORIES MARKETS & TRENDS MACHINERY REVIEWS COMPETITIONS AND MUCH MORE...

Check out our websites

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

BEEF PRICES

c/kgCWT Change Last Week

2 Wks Ago

Last Year

NI P2 Steer - 300kg -5 5.25 5.30 4.50M2 Bull - 300kg -5 5.35 5.40 4.43P2 Cow - 230kg -5 4.35 4.40 3.50M Cow - 200kg -5 4.15 4.20 3.35

Local Trade - 230kg -5 5.15 5.20 4.40SI P2 Steer - 300kg n/c 4.95 4.95 4.30

M2 Bull - 300kg n/c 4.95 4.95 4.15P2 Cow - 230kg n/c 3.80 3.80 3.05M Cow - 200kg n/c 3.80 3.80 2.85

Local Trade - 230kg -5 4.95 5.00 4.30

Slaughter

Export Market DemandChange Last Week 2 Wks

Ago Last Year 5yr Ave

95CL US$/lb n/c 2.63 2.63 2.04 1.98NZ$/kg +29 7.71 7.42 5.43 5.51

Procurement IndicatorChange 2Wks Ago 3 Wks


% Returned NI -4% 70.0% 74.1% 81.56% 74.7%% Returned SI -3% 64.2% 67.4% 76.4% 70.4%

LAMB PRICES

c/kgCWTChange Last

Week2 Wks

AgoLast Year

NI Lamb YM - 13.5kg -5 5.31 5.36 5.53PM - 16.0kg -5 5.33 5.38 5.55PX - 19.0kg -5 5.35 5.40 5.57PH - 22.0kg -5 5.36 5.41 5.58

Mutton MX1 - 21kg -5 3.20 3.25 3.50SI Lamb YM - 13.5kg -5 5.08 5.13 5.38

PM - 16.0kg -5 5.08 5.13 5.40PX - 19.0kg -5 5.08 5.13 5.42PH - 22.0kg -5 5.08 5.13 5.43

Mutton MX1 - 21kg -5 2.78 2.83 3.28

Slaughter

Export Market DemandChange Last

Week2 Wks


UK Leg £/lb n/c 1.95 1.95 2.10 1.90NZ$/kg n/c 8.40 8.40 8.12 8.50

Procurement IndicatorChange 2Wks

Ago3 Wks


% Returned NI -1% 65.5% 66.3% 69.2% 67.0%% Returned SI -1% 61.3% 61.9% 67.4% 67.0%

Venison PricesChange Last

Week2 Wks


NI Stag - 60kg n/c 6.35 6.35 6.30 6.81SI Stag - 60kg n/c 6.25 6.25 6.30 6.94

NEWS PRICE WATCH

www.ruralnews.co.nz

BREAKING NEWS MANAGEMENT STORIES MARKETS & TRENDS MACHINERY REVIEWS COMPETITIONS AND MUCH MORE...

Check out our websites

BEEF

North Island schedules continue to slide

With market returns making bull and cow more profitable; prime cattle slaughter in the North Island is not a high priority and waiting times are up to 4 weeks. 300kg steers averaged $5.30/kg last week, with a 300kg bull at $5.40/kg. The range for cow is wide at $4.00-

$4.50/kgReports from the South Island suggest that the cattle kill is starting to ease off – led by the cow and bull kills. This may act to underpin schedule prices in coming weeks if the trend continues. A good supply of cattle to local trade operators is resulting in 2-3 week delays, and this is keeping pressure on local trade prices. The range is $4.95/kg for local trade, export bull and export steer, with cows at $3.80/kg.

US imported prices remain stable

US imported prices were steady to firm last week, with 95CL steady on the previous week and 90CL recording a 4c/lb increase. Demand fundamentals are solid, with US kill continually easing and the large spread between domestic and imported making imported more attractive. The imminent slow down in Australian slaughter is very much on the minds of US importers, and will continue to be a dominant driver of imported prices. While surging prices in Australia are flushing large numbers of catttle to slaughter now, it is believed this is only short-term and that supply will settle to a more consistent but slower rate through March/April.

LAMB

No let up in price slide for export lamb

Frustration is starting to kick in in the North Island as delays of up to 3 weeks for lamb slaughter continue. The combination of dry conditions and a plummeting schedule is making every day of the delay count for some farmers. Prices last week were largely between $5.40-$5.55/kg gross. In the South Island schedules also continued to edge lower and averaged $5.15/kg gross last week. Mutton space remains almost non-existant in both islands as companies concentrate on the lamb kill with Easter trade commitments. If you are lucky enough to be killing ewes the price in the North Island is $3.10-$3.30/kg gross and $2.80-$3.00/kg in the South Island.

New levels being found in store lamb market

Paddock prices in the North Island found a balance last week at $2.00-$2.20/kg as vendors refused anything less and purchasers wouldn’t pay anything more. Numbers traded last week were low, both in the yards and in the paddock on the back of the large drop off in price the previous week. Some isolated rain on the East Coast last week may boost a bit more life into this market. The South Island store lamb market found a level last week. Reports from on-farm sales in Nth Canterbury had prices for 28kg males selling at around $2.10-2.20/kg which is 10-20c/kg above recent market prices. Numbers yarded at the saleyards were well back on previous weeks. Prices at auction ranged between $1.85/kg- $2.15/kg. Reports suggest that numbers of store lambs coming forward to market are starting to dry up which should act to help hold prices in the short term

DAIRY

Dry conditions resulting in declining production

NZ milk production is declining sharply due to a combination of dry conditions and a low payout. Seasonal forecasts for production have been revised to similar levels to last season; down from the forecast 4-5% growth expected at the beginning of the season. The decline in milk production is resulting in falling WMP production, and this combined with a reduced offering of WMP at the last GDT auction underpinned prices to see a 3.8% lift in the average price. WMP prices are expected to recover slowly through the first half of 2015 as demand from China continues to be weak on the back of good domestic production.

WOOL PRICE WATCH DAIRY PRICE WATCH

Indicators in NZ$ Change 22-Jan 15-Jan Last Year Indicators in NZ$/T Change Last 2

WksPrev. 2

WksLast Year

Coarse Xbred Indic. +6 4.78 4.72 5.03 Butter -39 4449 4488 5288

Fine Xbred Indicator +8 5.26 5.18 5.22 Skim Milk Powder +11 3089 3078 5889

Lamb Indicator +7 6.25 6.18 5.45 Whole Milk Powder +59 3201 3142 6175

Mid Micron Indic. - - - 7.28 Cheddar -7 4738 4745 5889

Overseas Price Indicators Overseas Price Indicators

Indicators in US$/kg Change 22-Jan 15-Jan Last Year Indicators in US$/T Change Last 2

WksPrev. 2

WksLast Year

Coarse Xbred Indicator -3 3.61 3.64 4.17 Butter -25 3475 3500 4400Fine Xbred Indicator -2 3.98 4.00 4.32 Skim Milk Powder +13 2413 2400 4900Lamb Indicator -4 4.73 4.77 4.51 Whole Milk Powder +50 2500 2450 5138Mid Micron Indicator - - - 6.03 Cheddar n/c 3700 3700 4900

CURRENCY WATCH

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

US dollar 0.752 0.781 0.775 0.828Euro 0.661 0.672 0.635 0.605UK pound 0.501 0.514 0.499 0.498Aus dollar 0.937 0.951 0.956 0.945Japan yen 88.98 90.78 93.10 85.77

Euro

Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr

UK Pound

US Dollar


20 AGRIBUSINESS

AUSTRALIAN FARMERS have joined health groups in opposing suggestions to apply GST to the sale of fresh food.

The National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) chief executive Simon Talbot believes the GST exemption for fresh foods should be retained. He says a sug-gestion by Liberal backbencher Dan Tehan to extend GST to fresh food will harm farmers and families.

Whereas most processed food is subject to GST, fresh fruit and vegeta-bles, meat, eggs, bread some dairy prod-ucts and other basic items were exempt under a 2000 deal between the John Howard government and the Australian Democrats.

The cash-strapped Federal Govern-ment would raise an extra A$6bn a year from GST on fresh food.

Talbot says no one understands better than farmers the importance of fresh food.

“The NFF understands budget pres-sure. But we also understand the reality of family budgets. We want Australians to eat more fresh food, not less. Increasing the cost of food could mean consumers demand less fresh fruit, vegetables and protein, leading to a decrease in overall sales and poorer health.

“Retailers aren’t going to forego profit, so farmers are likely to be forced to absorb the increase in costs. They are not able to pass on their costs.

“Unhealthy eating is the greatest factor affecting [health] in Australia. Obesity, diabetes and nutritional defi-ciencies are increasing problems, and they are costly. It makes no sense to increase the cost of fresh food.”

Health groups in Australia are also rejecting GST on fresh food, warning such a change would worsen already alarming rates of obesity and chronic disease.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott, whose first-term government is trailing in opin-ion polls, says there will be no changes to the GST this term. “I don’t mind people debating the GST and MPs discussing it, but the GST can’t change unless all states and territories agree and there is a politi-cal consensus in the Parliament.”

The tax will be looked at as part of the government’s taxation white paper, due to be launched this month.

Arguing his case to extend GST, Tehan said the Abbott government should begin the new year “by broadening the GST” to cover exempted items such as fresh food, health and education.

No way, mate! MPI looks to increase fees to industryTHE MINISTRY for Primary Industries (MPI) is proposing to raise its charges for food safety and biosecurity services.

“Without these systems, New Zealand’s $38.3 billion primary sector exports would never get past importing countries’ borders,” says spokesman Dan Bolger. “And our primary industries would be exposed to a much greater risk of pests and diseases.”

This is MPI’s first fee increase since the ministry’s formation in 2011 and the first review of food safety fees since 2008.

“Since that time demand for MPI’s services has increased, driven by increasing

imports and exports and a greater number of food businesses,” Bolger says. “Also, inflation pressure has meant that the real cost of delivering services is also increasing.

“The different systems for recovering costs

from industry were not developed at the same time. Over time this has led to potential inequities in current charges. The proposals are designed to address these inequities and ensure all industry – large and small

– is treated fairly.”Bolger says the

ministry needs to strike a balance between fair costs and earning enough to do its job. “The increase [would be] $12.8 million for the food and biosecurity systems.

“Feedback from industry and the public is an important part of getting these updates to fee rates right. I encourage you to take part in consultation.”

MPI is running presentations nationwide to explain its fee increased proposals. The deadline for submissions is 20 February 2015.

For details, visit: https://mpi.govt.nz/news-and-resources/consultations/

FEE INCREASES❱❱ Update to over 250 biosecurity and food

safety fees, charges and levies

❱❱ Changes to regulations which ensure fair-ness, clarify intent and reduce red tape

❱❱ Increase the amount recovered from industry for biosecurity by $6.0m to $36.4m

❱❱ Increase the amount recovered from industry for food safety by $6.8m to $62.1m. @rural_news


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AGRIBUSINESS 21

RABOBANK OPENS DARGAVILLE BRANCHRABOBANK IS to open a second branch in Northland, at Dar-gaville. It has had a branch at Whangarei for 10 years.

Rabobank Northland branch manager Tessa Sutherland said the office is convenient and cen-trally located, allowing clients easy access.

“It has been a vision for some time and we are thrilled to be opening our new branch in Dargaville next week, start-ing off 2015 with a bang,” Suther-land says.

“The township is witnessing a new building taking shape and we are happy with the modern look and feel, as well as the state-of-the-art facilities our cli-ents and staff will have.”

Sutherland, who has worked 11 years with Rabobank, previ-ously managed the Whanga-rei branch. She will continue to operate from both branches, like other staff.

She claims the new branch

firmly “cements” the commit-ment the bank is making to the region long-term.

“Our Northland team will continue to work together in both branches which will allow us to fully support our clients and to share knowl-edge of the overlapping agri-cultural areas.

“We will make the most of having the two offices to work from – it will be a flexible and welcoming arrangement.”

The new branch has room for eight staff.

“It’s a tricky time we are going into, regarding dairy prices, but we know the fun-damentals are strong and we remain positive about dairy. Conversely, the sheep and beef sector is in excellent shape and prices are swinging in the right direction.

“We are here to help people through these agricultural cycles. That’s what we do.”

Fertiliser price falls unlikelyPLUMMETING OIL prices haven’t trans-lated into much cheaper fertiliser yet and it’s unlikely they will any time soon, says Ravensdown.

“What we’ve seen from a fertiliser price point of view is that nothing has gone down,” says the cooperative’s supply chain general manager, Mike Witty. “It all comes down to supply and demand.”

Prices of ammonia, a key ingredient, actually rose 40% to peak at the end of last year and while they have started to ease, Witty predicts it will only be to where values were a year ago.

The reason is gas supply is “decoupled” from oil and the Middle East, where much

of the world’s fertiliser is made, “always has cheap gas” so the low oil price makes little difference, Witty explains.

Other factors are the unrest in Ukraine which has limited its urea output, and con-tinued high demand from India where nitrogen fertiliser is subsidised to encour-age food production.

Urea prices have eased from a peak of over US$400/t FOB China to US$320-340/t but the NZ dollar’s 15% drop against the greenback has more or less wiped that out so with shipping, distribution, rebates and overhead costs there’s no room to cut Ravensdown’s current ex-store list price of NZ$580/t, says Witty.

However, Ravensdown’s policy is always to be competitive so if rival Bal-

lance Agri-Nutrtients cut its prices, so would Ravensdown, he adds.

Sulphur supplies, another key com-ponent of products such as DAP, ammo-nium sulphate and superphosphate, are also tight, so Witty says he doesn’t see any likelihood of the price of super dropping.

Demand in New Zealand has been “pretty steady” despite the South Island dry, he says, but the lower dairy payout forecast means he expects “a bit of a pull back” on autumn capital fertiliser applica-tions from that sector.

“They tend to reduce potash and phos-phate inputs but nitrogen’s seen as the most economic way to produce extra feed if required.”

Consequently, he says he doesn’t expect demand for urea to drop much, unless the dry reaches the point where farms have to destock.

Potash prices have come off their peak and are now at their lowest levels since before 2008 but with some production issues emerging – a flooded mine in Russia and extreme cold in Canada causing logis-tical difficulties – Witty says he doesn’t expect them to ease further.

“The supply of granular potash has been very tight. Prices will probably flat line.”

NO RETURN OF ECO-N SOONWITTY SAYS Ravensdown’s withdrawn denitrification inhibitor, eco-n, isn’t likely to return to the market in the near future.

“The processes and registrations required are very long-term,” he told Rural News. The dicyandiamide [DCD] pasture spray was withdrawn two years ago as a precaution following occa-

sional detection of residues in milk and because there is no internation-ally accepted maximum residue limit for DCD.

DCD’s structure is closely related to melamine which was illegally used in China to boost apparent protein content of milk and caused the infant formula contamination crisis in 2008.

ANDREW SWALLOW

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22 OPINION

EDITORIAL

THE HOUNDWant to share your opinion or

gossip with the Hound? Send your emails to:

[email protected]

EDNA

22 OPINION

What slump?YOUR OLD mate reckons there is no fool like a farmer when buying land. This was confirmed late last year when a Morrins-ville dairy farm sale broke through the $100,000/ha barrier. Despite the $4.70 forecast payout, buyers were in ‘boots and all’, according to real estate agent Bayleys’ Mark Dawe. “We are seeing ‘old money’ buying these farms with well-established families looking at growing their Waikato presence,” the land shark was quoted as saying. The Hound trem-bles to think of what land prices will do when the dairy payout starts rising again.

Stern stuffA MATE from the south was talking about “the dry” the other day and how they’ve had less than half their normal rainfall for the past six months. In anyone else’s books it would be a drought, but down in the mainland appar-ently they’re avoiding that dreaded ‘D-word’ for fear of skittling stock prices and inflating feed values. Besides, having been through worse in the 1980s, most of the region’s farmers are made of stern stuff, and quite a few now have some irriga-tion. The Hound reckons it’s only when that starts to run out that the prover-bial will truly hit the fan.

Whining winosTHE HOUND reckons the wine industry is being somewhat disingenuous in opposing moves by MPI to recover $2.9 million a year from the sector to meet the costs of its wine regu-latory programme. MPI’s proposal for wine is part of a wider review of the fees MPI charges to primary industries for its services and activities as part of New Zealand’s biosecurity and food safety systems. Your old mate suggests the $1.3 billion sector should suck it up and pay the small increase; they would be first to whinge if an imported biosecurity scare shut down their exports.

STFU!YOUR OLD mate is not the first political observer to note that since former Feds spin doctor David Broome signed up as Winston First’s taxpayer-funded mouthpiece late last year, the number of media releases put out by NZ First MPs has gone through the roof. Unfortu-nately – rather like when Broome was running the Feds PR – it seems the missives from Winston’s lot are all quantity with bugger-all quality. The Hound reckons Winston should take Broome aside and tell him Abe Lincoln’s adage: ‘It’s better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt’.

Ignore herIT APPEARS that a tree-hugging, soap-dodging columnist – whose scrib-blings appear in the Australian-owned Fairfax dailies in Manawatu and Taranaki – has gone running to police after another of her deliber-ately puerile, ill-informed and anti-farming rants was recently published. Hound’s advice to those who may be upset by what this supposed colum-nist has to say should just ignore it – as her opin-ions are about as sound and informed on farming as ISIS extremists are in practising tolerance, acceptance and diversity.

“I see you’ve been fishing again!”

FEDERATED FARMERS has undergone a major transition during the past four-five years.

Gone are the days when the Feds would fire out deliberately antagonistic statements chas-tising government or industry critics for some perceived action – or lack of it. The days of being a screaming skull and demanding atten-tion are thankfully behind it.

For Federated Farmers to be credible, with its members and the wider community, it has to be credible.

Like it or not, the reality is that Feds is the only organisation that can nationally represent the farmer’s view.

National president William Rolleston and chief executive Graham Smith are fairly new in their roles, but both have a similar attitude to what the organisation should be saying and how it should say it. They are firm believers in a ‘quality not quantity’ message.

The move by the organisation’s former chief spin doctor to work for Winston Peters, late last year, has also been timely for Feds. The bombas-tic style of his messaging is far better suited to an outdated, antiquated, one-trick pony, polit-ical dinosaur like NZ First than a modern-day farmer lobby.

However, Fed Farmers remains an advocacy lobby for farmers and so at times it will have to be unabashedly pro-farmer and even controver-sial. But this approach soon loses impact and effect when it is the lobby’s only modus ope-randi.

A key challenge for the farmer lobby is how to the repair the reputation of the agricultural sector with the general populace. Too often farmers are portrayed in the mainstream media as moaners, environmental vandals, money hungry bludgers, uneducated oafs and/or any combination of these descriptors.

These kinds of narratives have gone unchal-lenged for too long – meaning the relationship and understanding between town and country is no longer a small gap but a yawning divide.

Federated Farmers has an important role in helping close this divide. It has a far better chance of winning the hearts and minds of detractors when it is acting with credibility and facts.

It is a big job and will take a huge effort, but the work needs to start now!

Credibility the key

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OPINION 23

Water restrictions hurt everybodyDURING DRY spells irri-gating farmers come under the spotlight.

Many people ask why irrigation can continue when water restrictions are imposed on town-ies – especially irriga-tion on hot, windy days. Critics ask whether irri-gation threatens the via-bility of their domestic water supply and they take issue with the type of irri-gators in use, particularly the centre pivot models or ‘large sprinklers’ com-monly seen.

Let’s address these concerns one by one.

Irrigating farmers face the same scenario as townsfolk – i.e. limited water during extended dry periods such as this summer. But resource management law gives priority to households – meaning commercial users such as farmers will always face restricted water supply before domestic households do.

District councils reg-ulate for domestic water supply during dry spells. The restrictions are a com-bination of water scarcity and infrastructure capac-ity and no system is built to cope with absolute peak demand as the cost would be prohibitive.

The same applies on farms. Irrigating farmers are subject to restrictions imposed by regional coun-cils, which base their deci-sions on monitoring the health and flows of local rivers and streams. But, note that the source of water for irrigation is not related to the intake and infrastructure that sup-ports a domestic supply.

So in a town, city or vil-lage facing water restric-tions, it’s quite likely the water supply intake is under pressure and the local council’s distribution system can’t cope; whereas irrigating farmers are put on restriction by regional councils to preserve the

water resource they tap into. The two processes are quite separate and han-dled by different councils for different reasons.

Regarding the ‘timing’ of irrigation: farmers irri-gate according to a sched-ule so they can’t always stop when high evapo-ration conditions occur. Irrigation schedules take into account the farm’s soil moisture (how dry the land is), weather fore-casts (whether rain is on the horizon) and when they have access to water. If they are on a roster from a community irriga-tion scheme they will need to use the water on the day it’s allocated to them regardless of weather – wind or rain.

Water losses can occur during irrigating on a windy day, but research has shown they are mini-mal (less than 5%). The main side effect of irri-gating on a windy day is a change in the water distribution pattern. In this situation, the irriga-tion system, the wind’s strength and the weather can create challenges for plant growth.

Well-designed irriga-tion systems and smart management by farmers and farm staff in charge of irrigation can drasti-cally reduce water losses (in some cases to less than 10%). If we restricted farmers to only operating irrigation at night to fur-ther minimise evaporative losses caused by the sun, we’d need to double the amount of irrigators and water supply New Zealand currently uses.

Some people ques-tion the move to centre pivot irrigators, perceiving them to waste water. We often hear people speak fondly of the old ‘border dyke’ systems, arguing that these open race canals are more efficient at distribut-ing water.

But it’s a misconcep-tion that evaporation from centre pivots is higher

ANDREW CURTIS than border dyke and open race systems. Border dyke systems are far less effi-cient and lose more water than the modern spray systems, both through evaporation and leakage. The combination of larger surface areas (open races and flooded borders) for evaporation and through

ground drainage (because of the large volume of water being applied) means water losses of 40 - 50% are common. This is why most irrigation schemes in New Zealand are upgrading away from border dyke systems at their own substantial cost to improve water use effi-

ciency and reduce water losses.

Moving to highly effi-cient modern irrigation systems like centre pivots is a responsible move by the irrigation industry.

Water is always an emotive topic and this summer we’re being reminded that we all need

to be careful with this pre-cious resource.

The drought two sum-mers back cost New Zea-land at least $1bn. Farmers in many areas could suffer losses in the millions this year. • Andrew Curtis is the chief executive of Irrigation New Zealand.

Irrigation NZ chief executive Andrew Curtis

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24 OPINIONRURAL NEWS // JANUARY 20, 2015

4 NEWS

MORE FIRE BANS LIKELY

AN AWARD winning

Waikato sharemilker who

copped a $16,875 fine for

mistakes made in an envi-

ronmental farm clean-

up should never have

been taken to court, says

a Waikato Regional coun-

cillor.Te Aroha dairy farmer

and councillor Stu Hus-

band plans community

meetings to try to change

Waikato Regional Council

enforcement policy.

Bas Nelis, 2010

Waikato Sharemilker of

the Year and winner of

an environmental award,

is reeling after being hit

with the fine in the Envi-

ronment Court in Decem-

ber for authorising work

to dig out what he thought

was classed a drain on

the Okoroire farm. The

work removed pest plants

and replaced them with

natives. Nelis was prosecuted

for illegally disturbing

1.5km of riverbed and

doing earthworks without

PAM TIPA

[email protected]

THE ENVIRONMENT Court judgment shows

the regional council recommended that Nelis be

convicted and discharged.

But Judge Melanie Harland decided to fine Nelis’

company Hold the Gold for various reasons including

Nelis ignoring an ecologist report advising against

bulldozing. She accepted he did not intend to cause

environmental harm but says he should have known

better given his environmental credentials.

Judge Harland gained the impression the inves-

tigation officers at the regional council have been

unfairly criticised for their actions in relation to the

prosecution.

“I recognise that this decision in all likelihood will

not be welcomed by all those in the dairy farming

industry,” Judge Harland says about fining Nelis.

But this needed to be balanced against community

interest and fairness in these cases.

COURT FOLLOW

COUNCIL’S CALL

Conservation – minded farmer whacked

THE HOT dry weather

has seen total fire bans

imposed on many parts

of the South Island and

Wairarapa will soon have

one, says Federated Farm-

ers national vice president

Anders Crofoot.

Permits are now

required for fires in the

open in Wairarapa.

Crofoot is the chief rural fire officer at Castle-

point, where he farms, and he says Wairarapa is

having a typical dry summer. Many farmers moved

early to de-stock.

Fire is a real risk for farmers and when things

ignite it doesn’t take long for a fire to take off. “In

normal circumstances you might have a grass fire

which goes on until it hits grazed pasture then it

peters out. But when things get this dry it carries on a

helluva lot further,” he told Rural News.

“When we have really dry conditions – low humid-

ity and hot temperatures – that creates huge fire

risks. So the bans are just trying to eliminate initial

ignition. We have already seen a couple of fires by the

side of the road, where someone was having prob-

lems and pulled off into long grass and the hot muf-

fler started things.”

Getting adequate water is the biggest problem for

rural firefighters. Crofoot says the difficulties occur

when a fire starts spreading across big areas and it’s

hard to get people and water to them.

“So well maintained pastures are a good firebreak.

I’ve seen situations where the fire just came up to the

grazed fence and stopped.”

But once a fire spreads into trees or bush the only

effective way of putting it out is to use a helicopter

with a monsoon bucket or a fixed wing aircraft with a

fire retardant.

PETER BURKE

[email protected]

adequate erosion and sedi-

ment controls. The ‘farm

drain’ was a direct tribu-

tary of the upper Waihou

River described by Fish

and Game as one of New

Zealand’s best spring-fed

rivers. Nelis told Rural News

the council knew about

his plans and didn’t tell

him he needed resource

consent. There’s a fine line

between what needs

consent and what

doesn’t onfarm. He can’t

understand the heavy

handed treatment –

including a search warrant

and police – when they

were cooperating. “They

were pretty nasty about

it all.”Nelis, who pleaded

guilty but did not expect

to cop such a big fine, says

he hopes other farmers

learn from his experience.

He offered to hold edu-

cational meetings at the

site for other farmers to

understand their respon-

sibilities under the RMA

but this was rejected by

the council.“The whole process

was extremely wasteful

and there could be a far

more productive way. We

are substantially out of

pocket now and the water-

way hasn’t benefitted. We

could have spent all that

money we spent on legal

fees and fines on planting.

We are out of pocket as

well with the low payout,

so it will cut back on our

planting for the next

season.”Nelis put his own

money into the environ-

mental project although

there was no financial gain

for him, and farm owner

Woodstock invested

$84,000 in the restoration

work but now also has

legal bills, although he was

not prosecuted.Waikato Regional

Council chief executive

Vaughan Payne plans to

meet with an Okoroire

farming leader to discuss

setting up a working party.

“I’m keen for the group

to come up with sugges-

tions for what the regional

council needs to do to

help build a positive and

constructive relation-

ship with farmers within

the context of our role as

a regulatory agency,” he

told Rural News.

“We are the only

organisation with

responsibility for

sustainable management

of natural resources.

This means we can’t, and

won’t, ignore actions that

significantly damage our

environment. Our aim is

to work with farmers to

make sure they know the

rules and get the support

and advice they need to

look after land and water.”

Meanwhile Cr Hus-

band soon independently

plans community meet-

ings to get a change in

approach. “I am not com-

fortable with the policies

we have in place, but this

action is not pointed at

individual staff.”

He wants a more user

friendly approach. “That

doesn’t mean letting

people pour anything

into the drains or doing

what they like, but having

clearer policy so we can

actually work with people.

The way the policies are

written up they can be

interpreted in a million

different ways.”

Anders Crofoot

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WAIKATO FARMER WRONGLY PROSECUTED

REFERRING TO the article on the prosecution of Waikato sharemilker Bas Helis (Rural News Jan 20): how can the Waikato Regional Council justify taking Mr Helis or anyone else to court when one of Waikato Regional Council’s own councillors admits that “the way the policies are written up they can be interpreted in a million different ways”?

According to the article, Mr Helis thought the water feature on his land to be a drain.

Essentially, any water feature less than 3m wide is defined as a drain. The Land Drainage Act 1908 – which was helpfully reprinted in 2013 – informs all of us exactly what is and is not a drain.

I’m not familiar with the part of the country where Mr Helis farms;

I live elsewhere. But according to the above definition, if the water feature on Mr Helis’s land is less than 3m wide it is a drain. If not, it is a river or stream, but not a river bed.

Mr Helis joins an ever increasing number of people who have been wrongfully prosecuted.Alan JefferiesMoeraki RoadUpper Hutt

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

Top Bleats view all

thatguynathanminister: Ok so tell me @MPI just how dry does it actually have to get before I can officially declare it a drought? #justasking

MPI: @thatguynathanminister: Officially it has to be very, very, very dry before you can officially declare a drought. Currently it is only very, very dry and therefore not officially a drought. #spokenlikeatruebureaucrat

damienoconnormp: It’s clear that this do-nothing National-led government is to blame for the current non-drought declaration. What we clearly need is more MPI bureaucrats mak-ing very, very stupid decisions. #morepublic-servantsmeansmorelabourvoters

@littleandrewlabour: I promise under a government I lead that NZ will have the high-est employment in the OECD, the lowest dollar in the country, the fastest gun in the west and the strongest peppermints on sale at corner dairies. #meaninglesspromises

johnkeypm: I’d rather be a neo-liberal, profit-obsessed, shallow, money-hungry politi-cian than a sanctimonious, novelist living off taxpayer handouts and writing dreary tomes only pompous, arty-farty types pretend to read. #getoveryourself #whoareyou

@drbillfeds: Gosh really upset to hear about the nasty threats made against @RFStew. Imagine that: a peddler of pure, unadulterated effluent is getting some verbal effluent thrown back at her. #betshewrotethenoteherself

jwilsonfonterra: Ok it is a new year and I am instigating a new policy for 2015: I’m go-ing to say and do absolutely nothing and just hope dairy prices go up again. #geniusstrategy

johnmcarthymie: What did I tell you? Did I not say that unless you all listen to what I had to say then lamb prices would plummet, farm-ing would become extinct and the Berlin Wall would come crashing down? #itoldyouso

mtaggartalliance: Fantastic, another year begins and John McCarthy and the rest of ISIL (MIE extremists) are hoeing into me again faster than a drought-hungry ewe into a bale of silage. #somethingsneverchange

deanhamiltonsilverfernfarms: Gee and I thought doing an ironman was the most pain-ful and toughest thing I had ever done – and then I took on this job! #comebackkeith


OPINION 25

Concern over proposed rural subdivision rulesTHROUGHOUT NEW Zealand, right now, various district councils are busy developing new rules to restrict all subdivision of our better quality rural land.

While I agree that all sizeable parcels of our best soil types should be preserved for future farming, it is too late to turn many smaller holdings back into large scale farms. Therefore these proposed rules should not be applied to holdings of less than 20-30ha.

My partner and I own one such smallholding (16ha) and were happy with this until we learned of the proposed new rules. I know of many other lifestyle block owners who are unhappy with the proposed rules and I would like the rest of you see it from our point of view.

Firstly, in my case, we are of a low income family and have worked hard over many years to buy our lifestyle block. We come from farming backgrounds and longed to live the rural life again.

We deliberately bought a bigger block with the intention of subdividing it when we retire.

This will give our siblings the opportunity to live here and maybe one or two others, who will be able to enjoy country life.

It would also give me and my

partner some financial freedom in our twilight years to travel or treat medical conditions. Is this too much to ask?

I estimate the proposed change will cost us personally a lot of money. I cashed in our life insurances and used this money and all our savings to buy this place 12 years ago, telling my partner we had no worries as the land would look after us in the future.

We are gutted. Our son who always wanted to build a house here is gutted. My sister who wished to live here is also gutted. All we can do is hope that submissions we have presented to the council will see some of the heavy-handedness of these proposed rules not applied to smaller farms or farmlets.

In almost all my observations of lifestyle blocks, farming activities, e.g. livestock and poultry, are reared.

Councils are not taking into consideration that often these blocks are only partially class 1 or class 2 soils, with the balance in hill, gully or poorer soil types, so they should not come under a blanket zoning, but should be individually assessed.

We don’t have the same financial backup as large scale farmers, but we all have the same family and life issues. • Keith Hay owns a lifestyle block near Wanganui.

KEITH HAY

@rural_news


Would-be trustees need to weigh their liabilitiesWOULD-BE TRUSTEES must carefully weigh the risks versus rewards of accepting a role on a trust.

New Zealand has about 500,000 trusts, meaning many people – especially in farming where asset preservation is a key issue – are trustees either personally or as directors of trustee companies.

Often a trust is suggested as a way of protecting assets from creditor claims, reducing income tax obligations or gaining access to rest home subsidies.

However, the

effectiveness of a trust in those circumstances is lessened when documentation has not been correctly prepared and decisions of the trustees have not been properly documented and supported. Recent court decisions highlight this point.

Trustees needed to be aware that statutes including the Resource Management Act, Goods and Services Tax Act and the Health and Safety in Employment Act impose potential liabilities. Even when indemnified from the assets of the trust, the trustee could face a personal liability if there

were insufficient assets to meet the liability.

In fact, the health and safety aspect is one example where liabilities were often forgotten, particularly when a trust is only acting in the capacity of landlord in relation to farmland that it owns. The trustees need to ensure that sufficient steps have been taken to mitigate the risks that might arise on the land and that the tenant is also taking appropriate steps to mitigate those risks via a health and safety management plan.

The duties a trustee has in relation to the beneficiaries of a trust

are also expected to increase as a result of the Law Commission’s review of trusts and the recommendations it has made for reform.

Many professional firms are reconsidering whether they want to continue offering trustee services to their clients.

People who remain as trustees must understand the activities the trust is going to undertake, what risks and liabilities they may face as trustees, and take steps to mitigate those risks by taking professional advice.• Tony Marshall is tax advisory principal, Crowe Horwarth, Dunedin.

TONY MARSHALL

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26 MANAGEMENT

PROFESSOR KENYON says farmers using alternative herb-ages shouldn’t expect them necessarily to look clean like a well-grazed ryegrass and white clover sward.

It’s not what they look like that counts, it’s what they achieve in nourishing the animals.

“Animal performance is what counts. There will be times of the year when these herbage pastures will look scruffy, but you have to manage these for the benefit of the plant.

“Even when it goes mature and is a bit rank looking it still has quality better than ryegrass. So you can still get high perfor-mance on this stuff when it looks messy.”

Kenyon says farmers need to manage herb mixes differently and not worry about how beau-tiful their paddocks may look for townies and the tourists, but focus on plant and animal perfor-mance.

NOT PRETTY, JUST GOOD

Measuring herb mix performanceWith herbage mixtures being increasingly used on farm, Massey University has come up with a measuring stick that gives farmers an accurate assessment of how much of this type of feed they have. Peter Burke reports.

FOR SEVERAL years Lincoln and Massey Universities, and private researchers and individuals, have pro-moted plantain, chicory, lucerne and red clover as an alternative to tradi-tional rye grass and white clover.

Massey, for example, has trials showing that from spring to autumn these herbs can give sheep and cattle a boost when they most need it.

The

result is faster growth rates in spring and early summer that allow animals to be moved off farm before the tradi-tional summer drought starts to bite.

These trials and the increased use of herb pastures by farmers

prompted Massey Univer-sity to go the next step and create a ‘measuring stick’ for farmers to accu-

rately assess the quantity of herb

species in their paddocks.Professor Paul Kenyon says without

a device to measure the feed farmers have found it difficult to do accurate feed budgets and to know exactly how much feed they have in their paddocks. He says for the traditional ryegrass and white clover there are plenty of devices available – but not for the herb species.

The development of the device is a collaboration between professors Paul Kenyon, Steve Morris, Peter Kemp and Patrick Morel, but the task of collecting the data on which the herbage pasture measuring stick is based fell to PhD student Sharini Somasiri.

“She took 600 or so herbage cuts and measured their height, allowing her to get calibration equations. So we now know for each centimetre on average for different seasons of the year how much mass there is,” Profes-sor Kenyon explains.

“Farmers can use that information to get an idea of how much feed is in their paddock. We don’t expect farm-ers to use this stick in the paddock and

go around plonking it in the ground. The way we’d like to see it used is for farmers to pick a few key heights and know that at about 15cm there is 3000 or so cover, etc.”

The other aspect of the stick is the different values for the seasons of the year farmers should be grazing the herbage. Kenyon says they purposely don’t have one for winter because in winter heavy grazing of chicory and plantain could kill plants.

“So we are not encouraging grazing then and that’s why it’s not there. Also from animal productivity and plant consistency points of view you want to graze when it’s above 15cm, but stop grazing when it gets below 7cm. This has been clearly labelled on the stick because often farmers see these herb-ages as high octane and overgraze them below 7cm.

“Their stock might do well on herbages grazed below 7 cm, but then after two years farmers say ‘this herbage is no good, as it has all gone

TO PAGE 29

Paul Kenyon says response to the measuring device has been great.

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Advantages of a connected community New information and communications technologies (ICT) can assist a country’s economic growth, improve health care, facilitate online educational opportunities and enhance social capabilities. And broadband is key to taking advantage of these technologies. Fast, easy internet access delivers vital information for both career and business development. The ability to

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With fast broadband connections also comes the ability to check real-time market prices to know when and how much to sell for. It means being able to engage in a continuous conversation via instant messaging, telecommuting and videoconferencing. Digital communications break down the distance between business owners and their clients to facilitate better working relationships – and that’s got to be good for business.

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28 MANAGEMENT

Growing bull calves fasterAN EXPERIMENT at Massey Univer-sity is investigating the best way to get Friesian bulls to grow faster during the summer. So far, it looks like grazing them on an herb mix is proving to be the winner.

The trial, funded by the Bake Family Foundation, is managed by Dr Rebecca Hickson, a senior lecturer in animal breeding and genetics at Massey.

She says that traditionally Friesian bull calves have a “bit of a problem” in that when they are weaned at 100kg in December they are generally put out onto pasture which is starting to dete-riorate because of the hot, dry weather.

“So they often grow 0.3 or 0.4kg/day through the summer and they might do that for two or three months, but in reality they could be growing a kilogram a day. In the end they are way behind

where they could be if they were fed high-quality feed through that time.

“So this project is looking at what sort of options we have to get accel-erated growth in those bulls over the summer period.”

On one of the Massey farms, an experiment using three different ‘treat-ments’ or options has been underway now for three years. It hasn’t been the easiest of trials, so far, with the devas-tating 2013 drought causing grief and last year’s dry summer not helping mat-ters either.

But Hickson is hopeful that this will see the trial take place in a ‘typical’ summer dry period.

“For this experiment we have a group of bulls on unlimited pasture and receiving a supplement of 2kg of calf meal each day,” she told Rural News. “That is the simplest way to supple-ment them, but it’s not cheap because they are eating 2kg of commercial meal

per calf per day— but it’s got the advan-tages that you feed anywhere and it is very drought resilient.

“Over the fence we have bulls eating just pasture. This is second year pas-ture so it’s about as good as can be pro-vided.

“We are topping it and doing our best to keep up the quality. This is about as good as it gets on non-irri-gated pasture over summer.”

On another part of the farm there are the bulls on chicory, plantain, and red and white clover mix. These bulls are grazed on this ad-lib and Hickson says the difference is obvious.

“The quality of the crop is really marked. It is still fresh and green and it’s much better quality and we are seeing what you’d expect in growth rates. The calves on the crop are out-performing the calves on the pasture plus meal and also the ones on just pasture.

“They get roughly weekly breaks, but they are shifted as soon as pas-ture covers drop below 1500 which is the level at which intakes are seen as restricted, so they are never hungry.”

Hickson says they are hoping that on the herbs they can produce a 300kg bull by May 1, which will set it up nicely for killing about Christmas. She adds that, in many respects, the calves on pasture and meal may not be too far behind the calves on the herb pasture. However, a major part of the experiment is doing a cost analysis of the various ‘treat-ments’.

Vet student Amanda Donald is working with Rebecca Hickson on the project.

“Her summer job is to calculate what it is costing for establishing the crop verses feeding the meal,” Hick-son explains. “My expectation is that the meal option is going to be a fairly expensive way of getting bulls up to weight,”

She says while the herbage crop can’t be grazed in winter, it fills a nice hole in growing the Friesian bulls during the dry summer/early autumn period when they are going to struggle.

PETER BURKE

[email protected]

Massey University’s Rebecca Hickson (left) and vet student Amanda Donald are running a trial to see if bulls can be grown faster.

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MANAGEMENT 29

Velvet looks good, but venison poorTHE YEAR has started tough for many non-vel-vet deer farmers as the dry and a soggy venison schedule pressures pas-tures and budgets, says Deer Industry New Zea-land (DINZ).

Chair and Mid Canter-bury farm advisor Andy Macfarlane is urging deer farmers to work at manag-ing feed and budgets.

“I’ve been revising feed budgets over the last couple of weeks and many deer farmers will be doing the same. While high velvet prices have velvet producers smiling, we’ve also been keeping a close eye on the venison sched-ules and they don’t make pretty reading. It’s disap-pointing to be in the $6.20 – $6.45/kg range again, as we were last year.”

Macfarlane sees no market supply or demand issues and says it is fun-damentally sounder than a year ago when a supply backlog had to be cleared.

But the venison indus-try is unique in New

Zealand with its heavy exposure to European markets.

“About 70% of New Zealand venison is sold in euros so the latest unfore-seen round of European economic jitters and asso-ciated currency weakness has flowed through into venison schedules.”

Meanwhile, the NZ dollar is buying around 67 euro cents – up from about 60 cents this time last year and up about 5 cents in the last four weeks.

“The impact of this on the schedule over the past year is about 55 cents per kilo and over the past month about 32 cents, but this will vary depending on each company’s Euro-pean market exposure.

“The underlying market improvement is shown by schedules being on par with last year despite the [drag] of a weak euro…. The exchange rate move-ment over December also accounts for the differ-

ence between the current schedule and what several exporters had predicted in November last year.”

Macfarlane sees under-lying firm demand in Europe – with a satisfac-tory chilled sales season just completed – but the impact of the euro weak-ness shows that the industry must find other

markets.“Our marketing com-

panies have been selling increasing volumes out-side of the continent and DINZ is supporting that [with its] Passion2Profit strategy.”

Macfarlane believes this work will begin to bear fruit over the year ahead.

HERB MIXESFROM PAGE 26

from the paddock’. Often it’s gone because they have either grazed too heavily in the winter or secondly they have grazed too hard.

“Plants like chicory and plantain are much like lucerne; they need to be replenishing their reserves below the ground. If you keep grazing them they don’t do that and so the plant dies. If you manage the herb mix for the ben-efit of the plan, animal performance will follow.”

Kenyon says another trap that farmers fall into with these herbages is they don’t plant sufficient area to allow for a good rotation of the paddocks.

“You can’t put animals on herbage for a week or two and then put them back on ryegrass and clover the next week.”

He says under such a regime animals don’t perform. “You want enough area so you can be rotating around your stock. It can take an animal rumen between a few days and over a week to adjust. If they are not given time to adjust they get the wrong proportions of bacteria in their rumen.”

Kenyon says the response to the measuring device has been great. He says they produced 1000 and already 700 have gone out to farmers and consultants.

Farmers and consultants had been saying it was hard to get an accurate calibration for herbage mixes.

“The problem is it takes a lot of work to do this prop-erly. Six hundred herbage cuts across the year is a lot of work; most people just take 10-12 and draw a straight line and say that’s it,” Kenyon explains. “But to have confidence in the device there needs to be lots of cuts. We now have a device as good as those for ryegrass and white clover.”

Kenyon says when they started their herbage mix trial they offered different herbages to animals – chicory, plan-tain, high- and low-sugar ryegrasses, clovers and lucerne – and let them choose what they wanted.

“You could argue that the way we farm sheep, cattle and deer in New Zealand is that we just offer them ryegrass and white clover – especially ryegrass because that the easiest thing to grow. But that’s not necessarily what they want to eat. That’s why we looked at creating something the ani-mals wanted to eat.”

It’s been a tough start to the year for non-velvet deer farmers.

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30 MANAGEMENT

When it comes to training young dogs Anna’s advice is to: “start as you mean to go on”!

Teaching young dogs new tricksIT IS very important when you rear a pup to start as you mean to go on.

You may inadvertently teach

the pup something that will be annoying further down the track, so think carefully about everything you do.

I made the mistake

years ago of walking too carefully in a pup’s presence; I didn’t want to trip over the pup nor did I want to stand on it. Without realising the

outcome, I would either sidestep or step over the pup.

This resulted in young dogs wandering along casually, oblivious to

anything behind them. And here lies the danger: being stepped on by a horse, run over by a vehicle or maybe sending you head over heels.

Since realising my mistake I regularly, purposefully, gently step on or nudge a pup from behind when it least expects it.

This teaches pups to be alert and aware of what’s going on in the rear, however bear in mind that when actually working, dogs are focused on the stock. Blame the driver if there is an accident.

I was training someone’s young dog that had been taught a dangerous command at an early age. As soon as he went through a gate he immediately lay down, facing the direction he was heading, he stayed until released.

He was so well trained that he didn’t move a muscle.

Imagine if a horse was following, or a vehicle of any description – a dead dog or at least bruised, possibly broken. My cure: at every gate opportunity I stepped on the tip of his tail. Before long he would walk through the gate and turn to face me but on the odd occasion he would forget – hopefully not to his demise one day.

Something I hate is a working dog that sits on its buttocks every time it comes to me or I go to it. Why? Because I prefer a dog to stay on its feet when I handle it or when it is working stock.

A lot of pups will automatically sit or lie at your feet, and when they do I go to great lengths to avoid this

habit forming (it is ok occasionally but not all the time).

I gently lift up its bottom and stroke its back, stroking only when it is standing.

I will say its stop command so that it associates the word with standing upright and still. If it moves, the stroking stops and I still the pup as I say the stop command – only stroking its back

when it stands stationary.

I don’t want the pup gazing up at me all the time either. When it starts going to work it needs to know where I am but be

taking in what is going on near and far.

Almost all my training is done with a pup standing upright but not necessarily always facing away. A lot of people make the mistake of taking ‘facing away’ to the extreme. That causes its own set of problems.

I once saw a young Huntaway being trained and it had been forced to face away ‘or else’. This day it was on a harness hunting sheep standing in a corner.

When the pup was within 3-4m, all the sheep took off past it.

The pup didn’t try to block them, in fact he didn’t turn a hair; he just kept walking towards the post in the corner, hunting the hell out of it. The sheep were at the opposite end of the yard. I could have wept – another young dog being ruined. • Anna Holland is teaching people dog training. For more information www.annaholland.co.nz or tel. (06) 212 4848 or [email protected]

@rural_news



ANIMAL HEALTH 31

Next year’s lamb crop starts now!WITH MATING only weeks away for earlier lambing flocks, around the country vets are reminding breeders of the perennial risk of toxo-plasmosis and campylo-bacter, and relaying tips to boost fertility in the face of the dry.

“In years like this it’s not so much about maximising profit but minimising losses,” Vetlife’s Fairlie-based vet Andrew McLaugh-lan told a seminar in the drought-stricken South Canterbury town last week.

“A sheep farm’s prof-itability is determined

by its lambing percent-age and lambing percent-age is determined by body weight and condition, breed and the ability to flush feed ewes.”

With feed short for most, “there is an alterna-tive to flushing and that’s to use drugs,” he sug-gested, alluding to prod-ucts such as Androvax, which needs to be injected 8-10 weeks pre-mating and boosted four weeks before the rams go in the first time it’s used on a flock.

“You can reliably increase your lambing percentage by 20% with these products and they are cost effective so I’d advise you to investigate

the option. It may mean you can use the feed you would have used to flush ewes for your twin bear-ing ewes at the other end of the gestation.”

A single shot four weeks out from mating is the label recommen-dation where Androvax has been used in previous years.

“Among the other things you can do is try to decrease losses in your pregnant ewes and there are two tools to do that which have been avail-able for a long time and are well proven,” he con-tinued.

Those tools are vac-cines for campylobacter and toxoplasmosis. They

help prevent abortions, stillbirths and/or weak lambs down the track but they need to be adminis-tered before mating.

“It takes four weeks for [toxoplasmosis] immu-

nity to develop so you’ve got to be vaccinating four weeks before you put the ram out,” he stressed.

Research has shown every sheep farm in New Zealand has toxoplas-mosis present. Mice, rats and cats are co-hosts, the latter generally posing the threat to sheep.

“Young cats or sick cats have the ability to crap out huge numbers of oocysts,” he warned. Those oocysts contam-inate pasture and con-served feeds such as hay or baleage and when ingested by a ewe not pre-viously exposed or vacci-nated, cause abortion.

“The good news is you only need to vacci-

nate once for life but if you are going to vacci-nate hoggets they need to be well grown, over that 35-40kg mark,” advised McLaughlan.

As a live vaccine it needs to be ordered in advance and used promptly following pur-chase.

Campylobacter vac-cines aren’t subject to the same order requirement, but ewes need a sensi-tiser ideally eight weeks pre-mating and a booster four weeks out first time they’re vaccinated.

“An annual booster’s really required to get that last 2-3% of lambs tailed.”

Despite widespread vaccination, the disease

“hasn’t gone away”; flock tests show 88% of farms have been exposed and on those farms half the sheep, McLaughlan said.

“As ewes get older there’s more chance they’ve been exposed to disease antigens so there’s an increasing chance of immunity.”

However, there are lots of strains of the dis-ease and it is highly infec-tious, so if one ewe aborts in a mob, it can spread and cause substantial losses.

“Abortions occur one-four weeks after infec-tion. Basically foetal death is what causes the abor-tion and it’s most likely in the last six weeks of preg-nancy.”

SPEAKING AT the same Vetlife seminar, Bayer vet Peter Pulford covered a couple of key trace minerals to consider coming into mating: iodine and sele-nium.

“Lack of iodine has a severe effect on the ovaries,” warned Pulford.

Deficiency may be due to low levels in feed, or goitrogens in feed which prevent uptake of the mineral by the animal.

Extreme deficiency will be seen as goitre – grossly enlarged thyroid glands causing swelling at the top of the neck – but Pulford warned “there

may be no obvious signs of defi-ciency in a flock.

“The first indication may be weak or dead lambs and by that time it’s too late.”

Diagnosis is difficult and often only achieved after a poor lambing when post-mortem comparison of thyroid gland weight to lamb weight finds there’s more than 0.8g of thyroid per kg of lamb weight, he added.

Death is typically due to hypothermia caused by a low metabolic rate due to lack of iodine and consequent poor heat generation.

Critical times to supplement ewes’ supply are mating, and mid-late pregnancy, Pulford explained.

That can be achieved with three well-timed drenches but each will only boost ewes’ iodine levels for about six weeks, whereas a Flexidine injection provides 200 days cover from a single treatment.

Injected into muscle, the iodine is slowly released so needs to be given four weeks pre-mating to allow levels to build up for maximum benefit, he advised, but one jab would be enough to boost

ewes’ and hence unborn lambs’ iodine supply all the way to lambing.

Selenium deficiency also impacts fertility and, if present, needs addressing at least four weeks prior to mating, Pulford said.

However, toxicity from over-supply is a risk so levels should be checked, which is easily done by blood test.

“Unusually for a trace element blood tests are a fairly clear cut indication of whether there’s a problem and usually only three or four samples [from a flock] are required.”

TRACE MINERALS HELPFUL

With feed short for flushing ewe fertility enhancers are worth considering, says Vetlife's Andrew McLaughlan.

ANDREW SWALLOW

With lamb prices strong, major losses of lambs to abortions from Campylobacter and Toxoplasmosis is simply a risk not worth taking.Both diseases are prevalent on New Zealand farms – and potentially on yours. Protect against disease and protect your profi ts with Toxovax® and Campyvax4® this season.Ordering Campyvax from your vet at the same time as you’re ordering Toxovax can help protect your fl ock against the two major causes of sheep abortion.

Your vet will help tailor a vaccination plan that’s right for your farm.

To fi nd out more, check out sheepvax.co.nz

AVAILABLE ONLY UNDER VETERINARY AUTHORISATION. ACVM No: A4769, A9535 . ®Registered trademark. Schering-Plough Animal Health Ltd. Phone: 0800 800 543. www.msd-animal-health.co.nz. NZ/SPV/0914/0003

CONTROL THE RISK OF CAMPYLOBACTER

CONTROL THE RISK OF TOXOPLASMOSIS

CONTROL THE RISK OF ABORTION STORMS, AND MAKE THE MOST OF HIGH DEMAND FOR LAMBS.

With lamb prices strong, major losses of lambs to abortions from Campylobacter and Toxoplasmosis is simply a risk not and Toxoplasmosis is simply a risk not and Toxoplasmosisworth taking.Both diseases are prevalent on New Zealand farms – and potentially on yours. Protect against disease and protect your profi ts with Toxovax® and Campyvax4®

this season.Ordering Campyvax from your vet at the same time as you’re ordering Toxovax can help protect your fl ock against the two major causes of sheep abortion.

Your vet will help tailor a vaccination plan that’s right for your farm.

To fi nd out more, check out sheepvax.co.nz

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FARM TO farm move-ments are being moni-tored and if you’re not recording them on NAIT expect a call, says Stu Hutchings of NAIT parent body Ospri.

His comments come as NAIT embarks on a pub-licity campaign of “strong

reminders” why all cattle and deer movements must be recorded on the NAIT (National Animal Iden-tification & Traceability) database within 48 hours.

“We’re going to be doing quite a big media campaign to make farm-ers aware of their obliga-tions,” he told Dairy News last week.

NAIT estimates 75% of all cattle and deer are now registered but by the end of June it wants 100% compliance. It is also wants to see a dramatic improvement in record-ing of farm to farm move-ments: audits of transport company records cross-referenced with NAIT’s database show only about 40% are recorded on NAIT, compared to near

32 ANIMAL HEALTH ANIMAL HEALTH 33

NAIT wants all cattle tagged by June 30.

Nait embarks on compliance campaign100% for movement to saleyards or processors.

Hutchings says the initial aim is to get that to 80% of farm to farm movements recorded. While NAIT doesn’t have a breakdown of com-pliance by sector, he acknowledges dairy is likely to account for many farm to farm movements. “There are a whole lot of benefits of recording movements on NAIT. For dairy, scanning cows or heifers going off to graz-ing, or coming back, gives a really good stock take of the animals you’re send-ing and getting back, and making sure you’re send-ing the ones you want to.”

At an industry level, if all movements are recorded lifetime trace-ability means trade and market assurances can be made, and up-to-date records of what animals are where, and where they have been, will be invalu-able in the event of a seri-ous disease outbreak, he adds.

“We’ve been using it to a huge extent with TB breakdowns. There have been some signifi-cant ones in dairy herds recently which have been related to stock move-ments.”

In the event of an out-break of a highly infec-tious disease such as foot and mouth, time is of the essence which is why there’s a requirement to log movements within 48 hours.

“If we get a serious dis-ease outbreak we need to know where all the stock are in the country and

where they’ve been. That data needs to be really cur-rent.”

At present, of the movements that are recorded, “a lot are in the first week, then it tails off,” says Hutchings. “It’s something we do want to increase awareness of. It has to become part of their day to day management.”

Even movements to and from shows must be logged.

“Those events are quite critical when you think about it in a disease out-break situation.”

Farm to farm move-ment records are only mandatory if more than 20km or the animals are moving to the manage-ment of a PICA (Person In Charge of Animals) with a different NAIT number.

Hutchings says if NAIT finds such movements haven’t been recorded the PICA’s concerned will get a phone call in the first instance.

“It’s about educa-tion and training. We’ll be asking them how can we help get it done.”

Ongoing or blatant non-compliance will trig-ger further action which could result in referral to MPI which has the power to issue infringement fines of up to $150/animal.

“So it can become fairly significant for large mobs of cattle but by the time it reaches that stage [the farmer] would have had plenty of opportunity to sort it out.”

But Hutchings says the focus should be on the benefits using NAIT can bring.

ANDREW SWALLOW

By June 30 all cattle and deer must be tagged with

NAIT compliant tags and registered on the NAIT

database. Currently it estimates 75% are, though

Hutchings says he expects dairy is better than some

sectors.

“A key message is that they don’t just need to be

tagged: they need to be tagged and activated. That

means the animal needs to be registered on the NAIT

system.”

Hutchings says he’s satisfied with the accuracy

NAIT’s current data.

The option of sending untagged animals direct

to slaughter and paying an impractical-to-tag levy

also ends June 30 but will likely be replaced with a

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Yes, you have to, but spare a moment to think about why. When your

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To learn more, visit nait.co.nzAn OSPRI programme


ANIMAL HEALTH 33NZ scientist awarded top Chinese gong

AGCARM – THE industry associ-ation which represents crop pro-tection, animal health and rural supplier businesses – has appointed Mark Ross as its new chief execu-tive.

“Mark has a great understand-ing of industry issues, strong lead-ership ability, as well as advocacy and policy development experi-ence,” says Agcarm president Mark Christie.

Ross has an Executive MBA from Massey and agricultural qualifica-tions from Lincoln University. He comes to Agcarm after seven years as general manager of policy and advocacy at Federated Farmers and prior to that worked for the Minis-

try for Primary Industries (MPI) for 12 years.

“Mark has an understanding of relevant legislation such as the Agricultural Compounds and Vet-erinary Medicines Act, Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act, and extensive knowledge of the machinery of government.

“He is also adept at developing policy and regulations, influenc-ing decision makers and problem solving.”

Ross has experience of orchard spray programmes and aerial spray-ing – having helped manage suc-cessful eradication programmes against the Asian gypsy moth and white-spotted tussock moth in the

Waikato and Auckland regions.Meanwhile, his involvement

with animal health issues include Federated Farmer’s oversight of New Zealand cases of the blood-borne Theileria parasite and Cys-tericercus bovis, the larval stage of a species of tapeworm.

He also contributes to the dis-ease eradication programme, TBfree New Zealand, is involved in foot and mouth simulation exer-cises and is a member of the MPI-led Livestock Sector Biosecurity Group.

Ross starts his new role on Feb-ruary 9, replacing Graeme Peters who stepped down after seven years in the job.

New AgCarm chief

AGRESEARCH SCIEN-TIST Dr Phil Rolston was recently awarded the Chi-nese government’s top science award for his con-tributions to agriculture in China.

Rolston, a senior forage breeding scientist at AgResearch Lincoln, received the International Science and Technol-ogy Co-operation Award of the People’s Repub-lic of China in Beijing last month.

The award, China’s highest for foreign scien-tists, has gone to only 94 individuals and two inter-national organisations since its inception in 1995.

Rolston is widely known for his work in forage seed production, grassland farming systems and pastoral agronomy. He has worked on 30 R&D projects on grassland and livestock production in China since the early 1980s. And he has helped introduce New Zealand-style grassland farming systems and techniques to western China.

New Zealand’s out-going ambassador to China, Carl Worker, says Rolston’s work in China has made a big difference. “Huge areas that used to be desert now resemble New Zealand green pas-ture, improving produc-tivity and farmer incomes. This is as a result of Phil’s work.”

Rolston has worked with Lanzhou University, the Guizhou Agriculture Commission and other

organisations to improve soil fertility through plant selection, pasture estab-lishment and manage-ment. He also assisted Lanzhou University and other institutions to develop forage seed sci-ence research and has trained many Chinese technical staff, enhanc-ing research capacity and raising grassland agricul-ture production.

Rolston led the setup of the first grazed dairy farm in Karst region, a model still successful 20 years later.

The award was rec-ommended and spon-sored by the Embassy of the People’s Repub-lic of China in New Zea-land, College of Pastoral Agriculture Science & Technology, Lanzhou University supported by the Guizhou Agriculture Commission.

“This is a tremendous honour for Dr Rolston, and a great acknowledge-ment of New Zealand’s long and significant sci-ence linkages with China. It is comparable to receiv-ing a knighthood in a for-eign country,” says Al Ross, science & innova-tion counsellor at the New Zealand Embassy in Beijing.

Rolston is delighted by the award.

“My involvement in China began in 1983 in the southwest province of Guizhou where a group of New Zealanders were contracted by the Chinese government to establish a

model farm at Dushan. “I was with DSIR

grasslands division and the director, Dr Ray Brougham, was involved in the project and got me involved.

“Thirty years and 60 visits later, it was hum-bling and exciting to par-ticipate in a ceremony run by the Premier and with so many partici-pants in the Great Hall of the People in Tiananmen Square.”

Science and Innova-tion Minister Steven Joyce has welcomed the news of

Rolston’s prize.“China is an important

science and innovation partner for New Zealand. Research collaboration between the two coun-tries is growing rapidly, and President Xi Jinping’s visit to New Zealand in November highlighted our deepening partner-ships,” Joyce said.

“This award is a tre-mendous honour for Dr Rolston and a great example of how our best and brightest are forging strong and enduring link-ages with China.”

Phil Rolston

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34 ANIMAL HEALTH

Act now to minimise drought losses

Drought-affected farmers are being advised to look at reduc-ing stock numbers to their winter stocking rate as fast as possible.

FARMERS MUST act now if they are to cope with the effects of a predicted drought, Lincoln Univer-sity experts say.

But they also need to be thinking long-term, with more dry spells look-

ing likely.Chris Logan, animal

programmes manager at Lincoln, says it seems the Canterbury region may be in for a hard drought of a kind not seen for decades.

‘’If they don’t have

other contingencies in place, farmers must look at reducing stock num-bers to their winter stock-ing rate as fast as they can. That probably means taking a lower price than they would have liked, but

at this point there is not much option. ‘’

He says the alternative is that farmers will have lower lambing percent-ages next year – which means this year’s prob-lems simply compound

next year.“Getting space in the

works is going to be an issue. If you have a good relationship with your meat company that is going to help,” Logan adds.

“If you’ve shopped around over the last few years and have not built up that relationship, then you will probably need extra feed just to hold your animals until you can get them away. So look to get feed now if you can.”

He says sourcing off-farm grazing is another option, but it comes at a cost: in grazing and trans-port charges per head, and greater animal health risks when grazed-off ani-mals return, as well as reduced management and nutritional control. ‘’Whichever way you look at it, we are in a loss mini-misation situation now.’’

Meanwhile, Profes-sor Tony Bywater, of Lincoln’s faculty of agri-culture and life sciences, says long-term planning is needed.

“The pundits tell us climate change is likely to increase the frequency of dry periods so farmers need to be thinking about how their system is set up to cope with variability in weather patterns.’’

Bywater says the start of a drought is not the best time to start think-ing about how to cope with a dry spell. “By the time we realise we are in a drought, it’s usually too late to do anything about it without it costing an arm and a leg.’’

He says farmers need to have flexibility built into their farming systems and know their ‘trigger points’. “Know what your policies are when it gets dry – and when it’s a good year, then monitor the situation every week and react when you have to.”

He says farmers have to ask themselves how

risk averse you are.“If you don’t like risk,

react sooner when it’s getting dry, maybe when soil moisture reaches 15% by volume – even though at that level pastures will still be growing. If you can take a bit more risk, wait until it reaches 10% but that’s pretty much on the edge. Whatever your trigger is, when you reach it, act. Don’t wait.

“Our research shows us that if farmers react to their moisture triggers instead of hanging on in the hope of rain, they will reduce the variability of performance year to year and maintain higher prof-its.”

Bywater says this depends on having the ability to react. “There are only two choices: stock you can get off the prop-erty quickly, or feed for them. Older cattle are about the most flexible stock you can have so we recommend a reasonable proportion of stock units in older cattle.’’

Farmers must look at systems that perform at a high level and have the flexibility to adjust to a dry year without a signifi-cant loss in profit — ‘’sys-tems which are ‘resilient’ if you like’’.

He says one of the best ways of handling summer dry periods is to grow lambs quickly so that many, or most, are gone before the risk of dry weather gets too high.

‘’That means high quality feed, which is what you need for high performance anyway. One way of improving feed quality is to increase your stocking rate so that you can control pastures better and keep them in an actively growing state. It also gives you options in good years. But that of course increases the risk when it gets dry. So you have to have the abil-ity to react when you need to.”

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MACHINERY & PRODUCTS 35New Magnum lineup celebrates 28 yearsSOME 150,000 Magnum tractors have rolled off the production line since its introduction way back in 1987.

To commemorate this milestone, Case IH will launch a revised new model line-up in 2015, fea-turing powershift and CVT versions up to 380hp (435hp boosted).

Here’s an overview of some of the changes:Engine

The award winning Cursor 9 8.7L engine from FPT gets further improved performance charac-teristics and boosted power curves in the 2015 models. The boosted and unboosted power curves are now parallel through-out the engine rpm range. A flatter torque curve at a wider and lower range of engine speeds has also been achieved by raising the cylinder pressure and using a higher rail pres-sure compared to earlier models. The Magnum 340 also now employs an elec-tronically controlled vari-able geometry turbo to the same effect. Engine oil change interval is 600 hours.Transmission

The new Magnum range offers a wide range of transmission options including full power-shift and CVT in 40km/h eco and 50km/h versions. With efficiency in mind the Magnum CVT trans-mission has four mechani-cal ranges, providing more mechanical efficiency than other transmissions with fewer ranges; this design allows for 50km/h at 1400 rpm, reducing costs

during transport opera-tions.

The Magnum includes automatic productiv-ity management (APM) used on other Case IH CVT tractors, and the dual hand throttle enables the operator to independently set minimum and maxi-mum engine speeds.

The Magnum CVT transmission is easy to use with seamless power transfer from 0 – 50km/h without the need for a lever or switch. The opera-tor can also pre-set three adjustable target speeds within this speed range to set the optimum speed for a given operation.

Active hold control prevents the tractor from rolling back when stop-ping on a hill, and which allows for pulling away again without having to use clutch or brakes.

To reduce operator fatigue, headland man-agement control (HMC) allows the operator to record headland func-tions, thus making repeti-tive field applications as efficient as possible. For added convenience, the end of row button on the Multicontroller can now be used to engage auto guidance.

In 2015 the CVT trans-mission also receives an upgrade to software that allows for faster and smoother shuttling between forward and reverse. This also allows the operator to keep the tractor in first range when reversing, allowing a quicker shuttle back to the forward gear. This will be a big advantage in appli-

cations such as pushing silage.Styling

The new Magnum looks different from the previous generation with a new roof design includ-ing an increased number of working lights making the biggest visual change.

More subtle changes will also be noted on the right hand side, as steps have been moulded into the now higher capac-ity fuel tank for ease of access to clean cab win-dows. Integrated hand-rails aid in ascending the steps and provide sup-port and stability once the top of the sturdy platform covering the right tank has been reached.Comfort

Operator comfort and efficiency have not been forgotten either. New fea-tures include an improved 360-degree lighting pack-age with 14 LED and three HID working lights which increase the lighting capacity by 60% and allow for comfortable and safe night-time operations.

An improved high-end leather seating option with both heated and ventilation options are coupled to an updated Multicontroller with improved comfort and larger backlit buttons.

The latest Surveyor cab provides a space of 3.1m3, roomy and comfortable with 6.4m2 of glass pro-viding 360-degree visibil-ity and an industry-leading 67 dBA cab noise level, allowing the operator to make any phones calls via the fully integrated Blue-tooth radio.

New split wide angle power mirrors are also now available to further assist with rearward vis-ibility. Suspension

The Magnum has a five point suspension pack-age. Front axle suspen-sion with 100mm of travel for keeping all tyres on the

ground is crucial for sta-bility and efficient perfor-mance of a tractor. The cab suspension reduces vibration and stabilises the cab front-to-back as well as up-and-down. A semi active seat automati-cally controls the damping of the seat inside the cab. Suspension is provided

when carrying imple-ments on the road by a ride accumulator for the front linkage and auto-matically on the rear link-age.Advanced farming systems (AFS)

Case IH recognises that precision farming is a very important consid-

eration for a tractor of this size, and this aspect has not been forgotten. Under the AFS banner the Magnum is available with the integrated AccuGuide automated guidance solu-tion. This takes the cor-rection information from the 372 antenna compat-ible with both GLONASS/GPS satellite systems. The 372 antenna includes xFill technology which improves reliability with an automatic backup for up to 20 minutes if the RTK signal is lost. AFS Connect Telematics is available as an optional kit and uses a combination of global positioning system and cellular technology to send and receive machine, agronomic and job-site information.

Case IH is imported by C B Norwood Distribu-tors Ltd.Tel. 0800 CASE IHwww.caseih.co.nz

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36 MACHINERY & PRODUCTS

Southern field days readies for more exhibitors and visitorsSETUP FOR the South Island Agricultural Field Days (SIAFD) in March 25-27 is underway, and the organisers expect a rise in exhibitor and visi-tor numbers. The new site at Kirwee is seen as a big draw.

The 40ha Kirwee site was bought by SIAFD

after it outgrew its leased site near Lincoln Univer-sity, its home for 32 years.

Committee chair Alastair Robinson says while there is still a lot to do but they’ll get it done on time.

He says the new, rect-angular block at Kirwee is a better shape than the

Lincoln site and should be easier for exhibitors to work with. The previ-ous site was a triangle, so exhibitors in the far cor-ners were sometimes overlooked by visitors.

Entry into the event will also be easier and more logical.

SIAFD usually attracts

about 25,000 visitors over the three days; the com-mittee is hoping the larger site and new location will result in even more, Rob-inson says.

“We have registered 450 exhibitors, about 150 more than our previous event. There’s been heaps of positive feedback from

exhibitors and they’re all looking forward to the new site. They’re happy with the layout.”

A feature of this year’s event is a half-circle centre-pivot irrigator at the front of the site. The irrigator is now running to ensure a good crop of grass for harvest equipment demonstrations.

Think Water Leeston has made a commit-ment to supply, install and maintain the irri-gator for 20 years. The

family-owned water ser-vices business has been in pumping and irrigation equipment in Canterbury for 25 years.

Committee member Daniel Schat says crops for demonstrations have been drilled and sites allo-cated.

“We have more room and the shape is a lot more conducive to filling up the space. The half-circle centre-pivot irrigator is located at the front, close to the big demonstrating exhibitors.”

He believes the increase in exhibitor num-bers this year shows the community is continuing to support the event.

“It’s only a $15 entry fee,” Schat says. “South Island Field Days is great for checking out equip-ment you’re interested in buying and seeing it work-ing.”

About 100 pieces of machinery –including tractors, headers, mowers and seed drills will be seen working.

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MACHINERY & PRODUCTS 37

New balers ideal for contractorsTHE NEW L Series Balers from John Deere are designed to maximise performance, increase uptime, and lower the overall cost of operation.

John Deere has intro-duced two new L series square balers – the L330 and the L340 – expanding its range of commercial hay equipment.

The machines are designed to maximise performance, increase ‘uptime’, and lower the overall cost of operation for commercial hay equip-ment owners and opera-tors, a spokesman said.

“We’ve been working for years to develop a large square baler that will meet the demands of our com-mercial hay customers.”

The balers are designed with two pickup widths – 2.1m for the L330 and 2.3m for the L340. The heavy-duty drivetrain has a 45 stroke-per-minute gear-box. The L330 produces a large square bale 900mm high and 900mm wide and the 340 model produces a 900mm high and 1200mm wide square bale.

“The L series square balers use a dependable gear and shaft drive for the main components includ-ing the stuffer system and knotter drive system. The high-capacity rotor is driven with a cam clutch

protected chain. These new balers redefine large square baler performance with added capacity and durability.”

A heavy-duty single-fork system compresses the crop tightly before transferring the hay into the bale case, creating dense well-shaped bales in the most difficult conditions, JD says. A new on-board hydraulic density control allows the in-cab monitor to control hydraulic pressure on the cylinders against the bale case. Even when the moisture content changes, the pre-set density for the bales does not.

“We’ve designed the L330 with three hydrau-lic cylinders and the L340 with four hydraulic cyl-inders to adjust bale case tension. This durable density control system ensures the production of consistent, well-shaped large bales regardless of changing field conditions.”

The L series square balers also have double-tie knotters with an integrated lubrication system. They are designed with a replaceable billhook and wiper plate for easier knotter repair and servicing. Also, hydraulically operated knotter cleaning fans keep trash and debris out of the

knotter system. This helps to improve overall knotter performance with very few misses throughout an entire harvest season, the company says.

“Another feature is the hydraulic roller chute, last bale ejection system. This allows an operator who needs to clean out the last bale for each job, to wrap

and eject the final bale regardless of size.”

Other features include an optional pre-cutter with 10 knives on the L330 and 23 knives on the L340. The 23 knife pre-cutter has a slide out knife tray for easy access and service-ability. Knife removal does not require tools.Tel 0800 303 100

The new L series balers are designed to maximise perormance and lower cost of operation.

NEW TECHNOLOGIES like drones, robotics and auto-mation are changing what can be done out on a farm, orchard or forest.

Drones are monitoring farm conditions in real time and feedback precise data to improve productivity. They can also access hard to reach areas, cover large distances quickly and be used for special tasks.

Automated harvesters are using GPS and localised sensor monitoring to plot directions and operate without a driver. Robotic milking systems have also been designed to automate the whole process and increase productivity.

A recent report by Research and Markets forecasts global precision agriculture to become a US$6.34 billion industry by 2022.

Last month, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise released a report showing New Zealand’s agritechnology exports are already hitting $1.2 billion annually and have room to expand. While New Zealand is a leader in agri-cultural technology, Israel, a small desert country, exports nearly 10 times more agritechnology than New Zealand.

In April, MobileTech 2015, a New Zealand and Austra-lian technology seminar series, will showcase the latest drones, robotics and automation technologies for the pri-mary sector. Local and international experts will discuss where the technology is taking us and how to best inte-grate this to boost productivity.

Farm drones will be demonstrated at both venues. MobileTECH 2015 will be held on April 21-22 on the

Gold Coast and in Auckland on April 29-30. www.mobiletech.events

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Pink bales colour the heartlandCROP PACKAGING company Agpac says its use of coloured silage and hay bales to raise awareness of breast cancer in rural communities is catching on in other countries.

The bales (pink for silage, pink and black for hay) are intended to get people talking about women’s health, especially breast cancer prevention.

Agpac general manager Chris Dawson says his company worked with its overseas suppliers to develop the

packaging.The company donates

a percentage of sales of the pink products to Sweet Louise, which supports Kiwi women with secondary breast cancer, and their families.

“The limited supply of the pink silage wrap and pink and black netwrap we had this year sold well,” Dawson says. “Farmers, contractors and rural newspapers have picked up the story. [It’s] been very gratifying. Thanks to this positive response we will expand the

programme next year.”Agpac asked

contractors buying the pink wrap to supply it to farms near major roads so the pink bales would stand out.

Te Awamutu contractor Maurice Forkert says the pink was popular with his dairy farmer clients and

especially their wives. “It was all sold by word of mouth. One farmer wasn’t so keen at first, but his daughter insisted and he came around.”

Sweet Louise, a charitable trust, offers counselling and emotional support, haircuts, wigs and hats, and helpers who do chores around the home.

Chief executive Fiona Hatton says she is thrilled

at Agpac’s help, especially in regions otherwise hard to reach.

An Israeli company Tama Plastic Industry, supplied the pink and black striped netwrap, and Swedish company Trioplast supplied the pink bale wrap.

“Agpac’s Australian parent company Tapex

has picked up the idea and is promoting breast cancer awareness in rural communities there,” Dawson says. “Tama is rolling out its pink and black netwrap in Europe and Israel.”

The company says it intends to add a blue bale wrap to raise awareness of men’s health and prostate cancer in support of Prostate Cancer Foundation NZ.

A percentage of the sales from pink silage wrap will go to Sweet Louise, which supports women.

“The limited supply of the pink silage wrap and pink and black netwrap we had this year sold well.”

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McKee Plastics Mahinui Street, Feilding

Ph 06 323 4181 Fax 06 323 [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.

TWO WAYS TO ORDER/PAY: 1) POST: cheque to N. Keating telling us the

product(s) you want, plus your name, address and telephone number.

2) INTERNET: direct credit ASB 12 3039 0893559 00 (your surname as reference) PLUS telephone or email us, saying which product(s) you want.

BUY WITH confidence from authorised rural sales agent N + J Keating, 70 Rimu Street, New Lynn, Auckland 0600. Tel. 09 833 1931 (cell 021 230 1863); email [email protected]

•PestFreeputs50Hzpulsealongpowercables•Ratsandmicestress,dehydrate,exit•Noharmtohumans,pets,computers,etc.•Modelstosuitbuildings/plant200sq.mto1000sq.m•NSW-made,patented,scienceproven•Usedintencountries•2-yearwarranty

Drive Rats Out!Electromagnetic Plug-In Pest Free Expellers Drive Out Rats and Mice. They Won’t Return.

100% 60-DAY MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE

Or Just Buy Pest Free domestic at $159.90

(RRP)

including GST and post

Buy One Pest Free PROFor your large home, office or factory (400m2) $399.90 incl. GST and post

And get a domestic model FREEThe original Pest Free domestic has thousands of satisfied owners throughout New Zealand.

NEW OFFER

TOP DOG BOX

Phone 0800 625 826www.mckeeplastics.co.nz

❱❱ Accommodates up to 4 dogs❱❱ 6 individual air vents❱❱ Removable centre board❱❱ 2 lockable galvanised gates❱❱ In-house drainage❱❱ Tie down lugs on each side❱❱ Fits all wellside &

flatdeck utes (2 models)❱❱ Raised floor for insulation

$745 inclGST

$525 inclGST

SINGLE DOG BOX

Minimal SweatingPOLY SILOS

No RustLonger Lasting

Fast Easy AssemblyNo BlockagesPolyethylene

Call: 0800 668 534 Rangiora

www.advantageplastics.co.nz

Full Rangeof SizesAvailable

Phone: 04 384 7683 • Fax: 04 384 7689Email: [email protected] Dixon St, Te Aro WellingtonPO Box 9254, Wellington 6141www.metshop.co.nz

Weatherstations, unusual gifts and science support for over 40 years...

The Met Shop

WE’RE ONLINE!

• 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 OR LICE PROBLEM?

Phone 07 573 8512 • www.electrodip.com

Unique self adjusting

sides

FLYSTRIKE AND LICE❖ Fantastic Penetration❖

NO ONE BEATS OUR PRICE• Make a big job quick & easy• Total body coverage,

2.5 litres/sheep

PPP Super Jetter

GORDY’S FLYTRAP FITTINGAvailable from PGG Wrightson & Farmlands• UV protected polycarbonate. • Fits on any container with a flat surface.• Instructions supplied with the fitting

$20GORDY’S FLYTRAP FITTING21 Litchfield St, Blenheimemail: [email protected] • www.gordys-flytrap-fitting.com

Patented in New Zealand

& Australiaplus p&p

LIMOUSINFEMALE

SALE NOW ONKivlean Limousins ❍ 2 Heifers ❍

www.limousinnz.co.nzMuscle • Meat

and Profit

LIMOUSINFEMALE SALE NEXT WEEK

Phoenix Limousins ❍ 4 Heifers ❍

www.limousinnz.co.nzMuscle • Meat

and Profit

DOLOMITENZ’s fi nest BioGro certifi ed

Mg fertiliserFor a delivered price call...

0800 436 566 www.ruralnews.co.nz

DRIVE AWAY FACIAL ECZEMA RISK THIS SEASON.Treat early & regularly.

www.nzagritrade.co.nz/timecapsulepromoTime Capsule is registered pursuant to the ACVM Act 1997, A7600, A7763, A7931, A6275 and A10857. For registrationdetails see www.foodsafety.govt.nz. Terms & conditions apply. See www.nzagritrade.co.nz/timecapsulepromo

FREE $10 MTA Gift Card with every TimeCapsule box purchased!

rural news 3 february 2015

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