rural news 3 july 2012

july 3, 2012: Issue 518 www.ruralnews.co.nz

RuRalNEWS

high prices good for the environmentPaying more for food makes a lot of sense for planet. page 24

treating grass like dollarsFarming hill country is never easy but it looks that way at Opouahi station. page 26

india not the answerPeople who believe

India is the answer to NZ’s

growing dairy exports need to think

again.page 12

to all farmers, for all farmers

all eyes on taf

NaIT now operative

IT’S CRUNCH time for farmers this week with NAIT.

If farmers want to send animals to a sale, a meat processing plant or another farm they must be NAIT registered and the animals must have NAIT tags otherwise they will face problems and additional costs.

NAIT chief executive Russell Burnard told Rural News at least 30,000 farmers have registered and he’s pleased with this result during what he describes as the “interim period”. About 60% of these are commercial farmers and about 40% lifestylers.

“From 1 July it was manda-tory to register and so we are still encouraging people to register. They must do it before the first movement of any stock otherwise it may make that movement dif-ficult. The response is more posi-tive than expected but it’s human nature to delay to the last minute.”

Burnard says as of now it is a legal requirement that animals going to a sale, a meat processor or another farm must be NAIT tagged. The only exceptions are bobby calves or ‘dangerous’ animals.

“They can still send their stock to the sale yard without tags, but they will probably face a fee at the saleyards before the animals are moved on.”

In farm-to-farm movement it is up to the honesty of farmers to act within the law.

peter burke

time to move on

Fonterra directors Sir Ralph Norris and John Waller chat with shareholder, King Country/Taranaki MP and Primary Production Select Committee chair Shane Ardern at the TAF meeting at the Claudelands Events Centre, Hamilton last week.

TIME TO move on: that’s the message from dairy industry leaders after last week’s Fonterra TAF (trading among farmers) vote.

Primary Industries Minister David Carter says Fonterra and its farmers must shift focus from the co-op’s cap-ital structure.

“After many years of debate and focus, the majority have spoken and hopefully all shareholders will accept the outcome,” he told Rural News.

“I implore shareholders to move for-ward and concentrate on other issues. Fonterra has huge opportunities in New Zealand and overseas. Now capi-tal structure has been sorted out, Fon-terra should be allowed to pursue those opportunities.”

The resolution on TAF was passed with 66.45% support of milksolids pro-ducers. Farmers supplying 85% of the co-op’s milksolids voted – a record turn-out. Voting in the dairy industry is based on milksolids production.

Carter believes there is a clear man-

date for TAF to proceed. “As a politician if I receive 66% of the votes, I will regard that as a very clear mandate.”

He played down reports of a possible legal challenge against TAF. “I haven’t heard of possible legal challenge.... That would be an unfortunate development.”

Former Federated Farmers Dairy chairman Lachlan McKenzie says people are looking at the legal ramifica-tions of last week’s vote. No legal chal-lenge is planned yet but McKenzie says “evidence” is being collected.

“We will present our evidence to

SuDeSH kISSuN lawyers who will decide whether it’s worth a shot. No one is yet talking about a legal challenge but if I were a Fonterra director I would be very worried.”

However, Feds Dairy chairman Willy Leferink believes the time for fighting is over. Although Leferink says you could make a case on the milksolids vote, everyone had a chance to vote. He is unhappy some farmers did not vote.

“I think it’s time to accept we had a decision and to move on. I think there are bigger fish to fry and far more impor-tant issues.”

Fonterra chairman Henry van der Heyden says voting has always been on a milksolids basis. Farmers supply-ing two-thirds of the milksolids have agreed to move forward with TAF and that must be accepted. But he’s will-ing to reach out to farmers who voted against TAF. “I’m willing to meet them and get everyone behind TAF.”

Van der Heyden was pleased with the record voter turnout. “Now we can move forward with this important evo-lution in our capital structure.”

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rural News // july 3, 2012

news 3

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issue 518www.ruralnews.co.nz

THE SURPRISE failure of a motion tightening limits on the Fonterra Share-holders Fund (FSF) will not affect TAF’s launch, says chairman Henry van der Heyden.

The board will later this year take the resolution back to the co-op’s annual meeting for another vote.

Because of shareholder concerns the board proposed to decrease the thresh-old on the size of the FSF from 25% to 20% of total shares and decrease the number of dry shares on issue from 25% to 15%. Units in the FSF would be issued to members of the public in response to a farmer placing shares with the fund. The resolution garnered 72.8% of the vote, just shy of the 75% necessary for a constitutional change.

Explaining the rejection, van der Heyden says some farmers voted ‘no’ against all TAF resolutions while some,

who supported ‘resolution one’ on TAF, voted against to give the board “flexibil-ity” on the fund size. In 2010 sharehold-ers had voted to keep the FSF at 25% of total shares.

He says further planning on TAF will proceed within the parameters outlined in resolution two. It’s in the best inter-ests of the co-op, he says.

Federated Farmers Dairy chairman Willy Leferink says safeguards need to be in place for TAF to be fully opera-tional. The safeguards can either be in legislation or through Fonterra – no problem, he says.

Leferink says Fonterra disclosed to him there were two elements to the second resolution not reaching the 75% threshold. “Some voted ‘no’ on both resolutions. There was also an element of a handful of voters that voted towards the original proposal in 2010 and they didn’t want the limitations.”

Fonterra is still working towards a

November launch for TAF but this will depend on market conditions. The pre-conditions in the constitution still need to be finally satisfied, including the sup-port of the Shareholders Council. Nec-essary changes to the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act are before Parlia-ment.

Primary Industries Minister David Carter says the Government has under-taken to pass legislation for TAF to occur. The decision to proceed with TAF was up to Fonterra and its share-holders, he says.

“Now they have made a decision, we will complete the process,” he told Rural News.

The DIRA Bill needs to pass through the committee stage and third reading in Parliament. Carter says it will be done after Parliament returns from a two-week recess this month.

Fonterra will determine an exact TAF launch date closer to the time.

SuDeSH kISSuNTHE APPEAL on Crafar Farms by Michael Fay will go to an appeal court hearing on July 2.

Landcorp chief executive Chris Kelly told the Federated Farmers conference the judge will either give a decision immediately or reserve the decision, in which case it will be out by about mid-July.

Fay could appeal to the Supreme Court but it is doubtful he will as he can only appeal on points of law and that would be the third time.

Kelly said after that hopefully Shanghai Pengxin will settle and go unconditional. “I am hoping it will all be over by the end of July.”

He said it was a terrible situa-tion as the receivers weren’t spend-ing any money. “They thought Shanghai Pengxin would be put-ting money in, but they can’t yet.”

Crafar decision

tAF vote surprise

Another bid for wool supportIN A bid to emulate the success of the merino industry, Wools of New Zealand is inviting 12,000 growers to invest in it as a revamped strong wool sales and marketing company.

A total of 12,000 wool growers were sent letters last week outlining the pro-posal and a prospectus will be released in September, director, Mark Shadbolt told the Federated Farmers Meat and Fibre conference.

“We don’t like the word capital rais-ing in the wool industry, but it is impor-tant that as growers we finally get into our pockets and invest in own industry and have some form of ownership and influence in where our wool goes.”

This is “investing in our future and committing to a long-term strategy”, he said.

“If you think we are going to change

the wool industry overnight, forget it. It hasn’t changed for 100 years; it is going to take an evolutionary shift of not only mentality but the method of how we take wool to the market.

“So the business case is for an evolutionary improvement in wool returns. We won’t shift the price – it is like a jagged saw tooth – and unless we change the way we relate with the market and stabilise prices, we will always experience those fluctuating prices.”

Since the highs of last year, the aver-age grower had lost $40,000 or 10% of their income from softening wool prices.

Shadbolt said when Wools of New Zealand was taken over from PGW he and another trustee spent weeks talk-ing to industry people. A key to their success will be industry engagement, he said.

“We have joint venture projects in place which will be talked about in the prospectus. They are something we have never had before and they will be commercial arrangements.”

Wools of NZ had just spent three months putting together a strategic plan, a business plan; the financials were being completed and the prospec-tus was in the pipeline, he said. He was

limited in what he could say because of legalities about the prospectus.

The strategy was to work with all industry participants including moving wool direct to scour where possible.

“It’s not just about carpets, it’s about quality rugs, designer rugs, inte-rior furnishings and bedding.”

He said this was different from any other proposition. “It is a similar model to merino which has been very, very successful. It is a strong wool market-ing and sales company.”

Every grower would be given the opportunity to get involved, but they were prepared to start with a “very low threshold”.

“This industry has to change and we are committed to making it work. That is how merino started and it took 15 years. This is not a quick fix; the strat-egy is a five year strategy, that is a third of what it will take to get there.

pAm tIpA

wools of NZ director mark shadbolt.

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4 news

‘meating’ of minds on advancing sectorINDUSTRY ORGANISATIONS and commercial companies will work much more closely together in future, says Beef + Lamb NZ chairman Mike Petersen.

“There has been a bit of discus-sion certainly since Keith Cooper’s resignation from our board around election time – about the value of industry organisations,” Petersen said at the Federated Farmers con-ference in Auckland.

“Our view is we are a farmers’ organisation.... It should be up to the farmers to decide whether they want to invest in research programmes, extension work, economic anaylysis, skills and trade programme or market access.

“Equally this should not be a debate about industry-good or com-mercial investment. We actually need everyone to put their [shoulders to] the wheel to make this industry move forward.

“It is not about industry-good or commercial, it is about us all collec-tively working together to advance the sector.”

Petersen said there was no doubt

the way industry-good functioned in future would continue to evolve.

“You’ve seen the changes we’ve made since 2009. We’re getting much closer to farmers in the regions [via] the extension programmes run by farmers... through our farmer coun-cils, the directors getting closely involved in [regional] events to get feedback and engagement on a regional basis.

“Increasingly we’re going to see the industry-good organisations working alongside commercial com-panies much more to help the com-mercial companies achieve their aims.

“Meat companies now know they cannot meet their commercial and market obligations without bringing farmers on board with their vision and aspirations and also helping farmers with the sorts of things they need to satisfy what the markets are looking for.

“We’re starting to see some changes in the promotional work we’re doing. The meat companies are getting involved in that aspect of our work. It’s an ongoing discussion as we speak, but we’re certainly talking to them about the value of that pro-

gramme and how we can communi-cate that to farmers.”

A “game changer” for the role of industry-good organisations and how they work with commercial com-panies and farmers is our Primary Growth Partnership applications, Petersen says.

The red meat sector partnership aims to add $3.4 billion to the sector. A big part is leveraging investment from Meat Board funds and farmer levies alongside government funds to accelerate efforts to get those pro-ductivity gains.

“The Primary Growth Partner-ship is not yet approved; it has only been approved as a concept to allow us to develop a business case with our partners. We hope to go for final approval from the Primary Growth Partnership panel towards the end of this year.”

Now they had reached concept stage they had just about been over-run by commercial partners wanting to be involved, Petersen said.

“We now have Silver Fern farms coming to us and saying they want to be involved.... This is a good news story. We have banks coming to us and saying ‘how can we be a part of it?’

pAm tIpA

Enviro rules unstoppable

REGULATION TO pro-tect the environment is going to hit your farm like a truck and if you try to shut the gate on it, it’s just going to keep coming and bust through anyway.

That was the graphic analogy given last week’s South Island Dairy Event from a farmer who’s already been on the receiv-ing end.

“If you think this isn’t happening to you, then you’re wrong,” sheep and beef farmer and Lake Taupo Protection Trust deputy chair Sue Yerex told delegates at last week’s South Island Dairy Event (SIDE) in Dunedin.

“It’s going to happen and you’re going to be left with regulation you might not be able to live with. It might put you out of busi-ness.”

What’s more, the truck is coming fast to every region owing to the requirements of the Gov-ernment’s National Water Policy Statement. In Otago, for example, pro-posed nutrient loss limits, as calculated by Overseer, are 30kg/ha for most of the region and 10kg/ha in sen-sitive areas. Hearings are in September.

Yerex says many farms will not be able to oper-ate as they are under those limits, even with best practice.

“Best practice isn’t going to be good enough. We’re going to have to decide which catchments we want to preserve and which we let decline.”

Average nitrogen loss from sheep and beef farms in the Taupo catchment is 17kg N/ha. From dairy it’s 55kg N/ha or more.

After a long, highly stressful negotiation with

ANDreW SWALLOW

yeReX WAsN’T the only sIDe speaker to warn of impending environmental constraints on farming.

“This green thing is coming at you like a freight train and it’s coming at you from all over the world,” sheep and beef farmer and tourism operator Dan steele told a panel discussion audience. “you can’t beat it. you’ve got to join it.”

More from steele and other sIDe speakers on page 5.

singing same song

Waikato Regional Coun-cil, which went to the Environment Court over some points, farms were allocated nitrogen cred-its based on use in the best years between 2001 and 2005.

The aim is a 20% reduc-tion in nitrogen loss across the catchment to a total of 153,000kg.

”For a small-scale farm enterprise this is slow strangulation and death,” Yerex told SIDE delegates.

Most farms in the catchment, except the Landcorp and Maori hold-ings, are ex-ballot blocks

of 280-300ha. There are only five dairy farms, and only 20% of the catchment is farmland. Losses from native tussock and forest were ruled to be 3kg N/ha.

Tough as the regime may be that Taupo catch-ment farmers find them-selves under, it might have been much worse if they hadn’t united to ensure their interests were heard, says Yerex. Her advice to other regions is to do the same.

“We got involved because we had to influ-ence the outcome. The question is, will you?”

sheep and beef farmer and lake taupo Protection trust deputy chair sue Yerex.

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news 5

Call for all farmers to be conservationists

“I AM a conservation-ist.” If there’s one line del-egates from last week’s South Island Dairy Event I went home repeating, that was probably it.

Central North Island sheep and beef farmer, tourism operator and con-servationist Dan Steele had the audience of 500 repeat the phrase, then told them that’s how quickly attitudes can change.

“Everything we do, sell, trade, relies on our envi-ronment and we need to look after it. It’s our home, our brand, it’s who we are.... The world sees New Zealand as a beauti-ful place and one of the friendliest places. That’s something we’ve got to protect with every drop of

our blood.”While nearly

one third of the country is in the conservation estate, only about 12% of that – effec-tively just 4% of the national land-mass – is man-aged, said Steele. Consequently rats, stoats, cats and other undesirable species are rampant.

Farmers, with nearly 70% of the land in their control, “can turn that around.”

“Kiwis are nearly gone from the wild. Once they’re gone what are we going to call ourselves? Stoats? Rats? It’s not quite got the same ring to it.... This isn’t just DOC’s

responsibility, it’s all of ours. Every business ben-efits from our environ-ment.... Every farmer is part of the solution.”

Steele told the audi-ence they needed to sort out “the worst 10% of farmers and I’ll look after the 10% of extremists”. The latter will never be happy and their protests impede even sustainable

business, he explained.Steele was speaking

during a panel discus-sion headed ‘Perception is your reality’, along-side Dairy NZ chief exec-utive Tim Mackle, Fish & Game Nelson region manager Neil Deans and local award winning dairy farmer Stephen Korteweg.

“People are perceiving your gain is at their pain,”

A capacity South Island Dairy Event – aka SIDE – last week in Dunedin heard some inspiring keynote presentations, as usual wrapped around a packed programme of practical workshops and business sessions. andrew swallow reports.

ORGANIsING COMMITTee chair Brangka Munan told Rural News the switch to Dunedin due to stadium southland not having been rebuilt in time proved a success.

“We had 500 here. That was pretty much capacity. TAF (Monday) took a lot away but we’ve got about 200 newbies here and we couldn’t have got in many more.”

Whether Dunedin would become a regular sIDe venue is still to be decided but it had “put a very strong case,” he said.

sIDe returns to lincoln next year. Dunedin could either slot in to make it a three-year roster with Inver-cargill, or perhaps alternate with Invercargill, effec-tively giving each of the southern venues the event every fourth year.

dunedin a success

BANKeR TuRNeD motivational speaker David Todd’s opening keynote speech set the tone for the sIDe conference.

“People, perception, pride – I love it; what a great theme,” he enthused.

Focussing on the people aspect, he noted most motivational speakers are former Olympians or everest-conquering mountain-eers, but he’s not. “I’m just like most of you.... But the life you lead is your own Olympics. Win your own medal!”

Todd cleverly worked an ABC

theme – ‘attitude, balance and commitment’ – using balloons to engage his audience and as an analogy to many things in life: it’s hard to start blowing it up; if you blow too hard it will burst; tie it off and over time it will go flat.

“And if you put the wrong stuff in it, it will disappear off into the stratosphere.”

Todd was due to wrap up the conference but opened it owing to fellow keynote speaker Olympic and transatlantic rower Rob Hamill being delayed in the us.

Hamill duly closed the confer-

ence with a gripping narrative of his rowing exploits, brothers’ deaths and recently released film Brother Number One.

“I see my role now as getting others to row their ocean, climb everest, or a tree or whatever.”

winning your own medal

Deans said. “It doesn’t have to be like that... Best practice is what is required from all of you.”

Most farms have “moved on” in environ-mental performance, he acknowledged, but some haven’t. “The question is ‘do you want these people to be part of your indus-try?’

“Deans said while Fish & Game had coined the term ‘dirty dairy’, it had only used it twice. To get past the label the indus-try needs to show groups such as Fish & Game it has “addressed the issue”.

“You actually need people to be saying ‘I think dairy is doing quite a good

job in this space’.”Deans warned there’s

a limit to production increases and said he has “very real concerns” about intensification of agricul-ture in general.

“The irony about stock in streams is that most of it now is drystock, beef cattle, but most of the townies wouldn’t know the difference between a Hereford and a Friesian.”

Dairy shouldn’t “try to defend the indefensible,” he added.

While the panel mem-bers were more or less on the same page, Korteweg sounded a note of cau-tion to keep things in per-spective on drystock in streams, and said the industry shouldn’t aban-don the bottom 10%. “Go talk to them, keep them involved, rather than seg-regating them more than they probably feel segre-gated already.”

More from SIDE on p32 and 33, and in Dairy News next week.

david todd

side conference-goers were urged to embrace the concept of being conservationists.

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6 news

NZKGi’s Neil trebilco has welcomed moves by Government to look at finan-cially assisting growers affected by Psa.

kiwifruit compensation on the cardsTHE GOVERNMENT is considering financial help for stricken kiwi-fruit growers in the Bay of Plenty.

Primary Industries

Minister David Carter is working with the kiwi-fruit industry on the issue and a decision is pending, he says.

“We are closely moni-toring the effects of Psa but more work needs to

be done before we make a decision,” Carter told Rural News.

New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Incorporated (NZKGI) says about 46% of New Zealand’s kiwifruit orchards are identified

with Psa, and many other growers face increased prevention costs. While Psa is tough for all affected growers, it’s expected about 120 growers will qualify for state assistance.

The Government said

last week that help in recovering from biose-curity incursions would go on a similar foot-ing to adverse events. A new biosecurity recovery framework will sit along-side existing support mea-

SuDeSH kISSuN

sures for farmers and growers affected by major climate events such as droughts and floods.

Carter says there’s “a well-tested framework in place” and the same approach would now apply to a biosecurity incursion.

“The new framework will make recovery mea-sures available to people seriously impacted by a disease or pest incursion. It will include most of the measures available under the existing adverse events framework.”

Kiwifruit growers have been pushing the Govern-ment to get biosecurity incursions, such as Psa, included in the definition of adverse events.

NZKGI president Neil Trebilco says growers wel-come the change as a first step towards making relief measures available for growers hardest hit by Psa.

“The next step is for NZKGI to continue to work with Government to communicate the hard-ship some growers are facing so relief measures can be made available. At least now there is a frame-work to work with.”

Federated Farmers vice president William Roll-

eston says as seen with the Psa outbreak, the impact of a biosecurity incursion is as debilitating as a snow storm well into spring. “This is not just logical but is genuinely welcomed by us.

“This is very much about the impact upon individual farms and their ability to cope during times of extreme stress. We operate in unpredict-able and varied environ-ments that are anything but linear.”

Federated Farmers is a key player in Rural Sup-port Trusts, which helps farmers and rural com-munities hit by adverse events.

“It must also be remembered that biose-curity incursions impact the wider economy. That is why government and industry must continue to work together to respond to any incursion.”

Three categories of incursion would apply: localised, medium-scale and large-scale. To be eligible for help, those affected would need to show they have taken all reasonable steps to miti-gate and manage biosecu-rity risks, Carter says.

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news 7

Water next hurdle for dairy – FedsTHE TAF issue is nothing compared to the next hurdle for farmers: the imple-mentation of national policy statements for freshwater management, says Fed-erated Farmers Dairy chairperson Willy Leferink.

The farming industry will have to deal with the “schizophrenic” nature of government and local government policies, Leferink said.

“Believe it or not, a current starting point for water quality benchmarks is pre-human New Zealand – say 900AD,” he said.

The National Policy Standards (NPS) for water require regional coun-cils to set limits on fresh water by 2030. They are meant to engage with commu-nities to establish robust and durable solutions.

But Leferink said some councils saw the item about limits in the NPS and skipped past working with the com-munity. There were tensions in South-land, Otago, Canterbury, Horizons, Bay of Plenty and other regions were at vari-ous stages of setting limits

“We seem to have schizophrenic policies from our government and the

opposition. On one hand they want lots and lots of export earnings from us.... On the other hand, they’ve put in place policies that give over eager regional council staff a blank cheque guaran-teeing their wages as crusaders for the environment.”

He said it felt like “we’ve given the keys of our Caterpillar D8s to the bureaucrats”.

In Holland, home to the tallest people in Europe, the nitrogen content per hectare is about 229kg, in Belgium it is 184 and in Germany, it is 113. Here in New Zealand, it is 46kg/ha. Feder-ated Farmers and other industry part-ners wanted to pull council planners back to reality.

A limit set by the Otago Regional Council of 10kg nitrogen/ha “puts farm-ers out of business”.

“Sustainability is balancing the needs of the environment with our eco-nomic, social and cultural needs. It is in the RMA and all four need to be in bal-ance to achieve sustainability. I get that.

“My question to government, some regional councils and sections of the media is, do you [get it]?”

Leferink said the way environmental problems in New Zealand were handled

was not helpful. “It sets up community group against community group until a commissioner makes a decision, which, in general, is challenged until the money runs out in the Environment Court,” he said.

Canterbury was showing promise with the Canterbury Water Manage-ment Strategy, Leferink said. Those communities were truly negotiating

outcomes. Leferink gave two possible future

scenarios: first, some Fonterra share-holders remained in New Zealand but most lived on Australia’s east coast. Some 80% of Fonterra’s milk came from offshore, as the Fonterra farms closer to the end consumer.

All this was dairying had become too difficult in New Zealand. Rural com-

munities had dropped below the pov-erty line, “and if you want to see what that looks like go to heartland America; some of the largest farms sit among dirt poor communities.”

The second scenario “is where we get on the front foot as I mentioned before and really engage with other community groups who understand our roadmap. More importantly, they back us to deliver sustainable, high value agriculture with real outcomes for all.

“In this scenario, a big part of Fon-terra’s milk is still produced onshore, and most Fonterra shareholders still live here in thriving rural communities generating tax revenues the cities need for their sustainable transport.”

But Leferink said there needed to be big shifts in how we farm – para-digm shifts in fact. “We can and will do more because agriculture has done that for thousands of years.

“In the meantime, let us grab low hanging fruit without ending up in an environmental or economic pickle barrel. To get to where we want to go, we need a lot of science and new leader-ship to form smart consensus solutions, as opposed to compromising on com-plex problems.”

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of the undulating nature of our country compared with the ‘flatter’ landscape of the UK.”

But with changes in technology it’s amazing the new tools available to weather forecasters. Sitting in the MetService office in Kelburn, Wellington, forecasters can get a good idea of the weather in just about any ‘nook and cranny’ in New Zealand.

“The satellites and radars are just amazing,” he says. “They can see the wind inside a storm.”

But for all the tech-nology, Daniel Corbett says farmers should not discount their own local knowledge in predicting weather. This local knowl-edge can be overlayed with

information from MetService.

“There are lots of tools for farmers: live radar, planning tools such as seven- and three-day rainfalls, and the actual computer-modelled rainfall that could be in their area at a given time.

“It’s good to get out and talk to farmers at shows such as field days to let them know about the information available to them.”

While Corbett con-cedes they don’t always get it right, they believe it’s important to put out warnings about major

8 news

A man who takes the weather with himTHE NEW public face of weather in New Zea-land says it’s too hard to say what pattern is head-ing our way in the coming months.

Former BBC weather presenter Daniel Cor-bett has taken over from the legendary Bob McDa-vitt as MetService weather ambassador.

He told Rural News the weather is at a cross-roads and it’s too early to say if we’ll have La Nina or El Nino. Parts of an El Nino system are start-ing to develop in the east-

ern areas of the equatorial Pacific.

“We may head in that direction in the next few months, but that’s not guaranteed and that’s why we meteorologists need to watch this space over the next few weeks to see what are some of the other major global centres for climate.”

As with an economist or a lawyer, it’s hard to pin down a weather forecaster to giving an exact predic-tion and to be fair we all know how unpredictable the weather in New Zea-land can be. Put simply there are no guarantees.

“It’s very hard to pin it down and say if you go El Nino it’s going to do this. It’s more for NIWA to make such predictions.’

Corbett is a fast talker – literally – in com-plete contrast to McDa-vitt. He admits predicting the weather in New Zea-land is not easy because of the country’s loca-tion between the equa-tor and the south pole. We have a unique topography and subtle wind changes can make the difference between rain and no rain.

“New Zealand has more micro-climates than the UK simply because

peter burke

daniel corbett

impending weather events so farmers can plan. “We

know their livelihood depends on the weather.”

High wire risk to ag pilots

ELECTRIC WIRES are becoming an increasing danger to topdressing pilots, the New Zealand Agricultural Aviation Association told the Feder-ated Farmers conference.

A pilot recently came across a wire at 400ft.

One company is making a green wire which is impossible to see against pasture.

Executive officer John Sinclair told farmers if there was one mes-sage he wanted them to take from his session is the danger to pilots from electric wires.

The association had written to Federated Farmers saying if elec-tric wires cross a gully or any open area it must be tied to the fence and follow the fence contour.

If this is not possible it should

be tied to a pole which must be no higher than normal pole height.

“What this is saying very clearly is the next time a pilot gets hurt by running into one of these wires the farmer is going to be in trouble, because he is not providing a safe workplace.”

Sinclair told Rural News the pop-ularity of electric fences meant the problem was getting worse.

But pilots also faced other ongo-ing problems with poor buy-in to fenceline and airstrip guidelines, leaking bins, bins too small, no bins at all, access tracks only suitable for dry weather, substandard airfields and airfields pugged by cattle in winter.

Sinclair said pilots also face the heightened possibility of prosecu-tion for fertiliser in waterways but the physical properties of fertiliser

was a big contributing problem.He said if you dropped (granu-

lar-type) fertiliser you would know exactly where it was going to go,; but if you dropped dust it could go any-where.

Three pilots had been prose-cuted recently by Environment Bay of Plenty for dropping fertiliser into water. Sinclair said pilots face fines of up to $650,000 for putting con-taminants into water.

“You guys have to ask yourself whether you want aerial topdress-ing; the only reason we can do it at the moment is because councils don’t have the resources to get out and prosecute.”

The fertiliser itself was a big problem.

“Fertiliser isn’t going to change until the shareholders demand it,” Sinclair says.

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10 news

NZ dairy Goat cooperative chief executive dave stanley.

Demand for NZ goat milk swells

A SPIKE in demand for goat milk infant formula is behind New Zealand Dairy Goat Cooperative’s growth plans.

The Hamilton cooper-ative is this month sign-ing eight new suppliers and hopes to double milk intake within three years. A new spray dryer is also

being planned.Chief executive Dave

Stanley says demand for grass-fed goat milk infant formula is growing world-wide. The co-op exports to 20 countries including China, a growing market.

The co-op is the first company in the world to produce goat milk infant formula. Other coun-tries have since joined the

trade, Stanley told Rural News. “When you have a good idea, others get on quickly.”

Stanley says New Zea-land goat milk products are renowned globally as safe and high quality.

After lying low for 10 years, the co-op is expand-ing. To process extra milk it has booked Innovation Waikato’s new spray dryer

officially opened last week by Science and Innovation Minister Stephen Joyce.

Stanley says the new dryer provides the co-op with valuable extra pro-cessing capacity when milk flow is at its peak.

The dairy goat industry follows a similar pattern to the dairy cow indus-try – a ‘bell-curve’ shaped milk supply peaking late

autumn and early summer.The co-op is owned by

50 suppliers with 500-600 animals each – 30,000 in total – located in Waikato, Taranaki and Northland. The goats are milked in herringbone and rotary sheds. Milk is collected by tankers. At the season’s peak, the co-op collects 90,000L daily, processing about 25mL annually.

SuDeSH kISSuN

The co-op will use the NZ Food Innovation Waikato spray dryer for about six months every year until its new facility is completed in two years. Eight co-op staff will work on the site.

Plant manager David Shute says the DGC’s commitment was critical in creating the commercial case, plus Government funding and approval to build the plant as a true private public partnership.

Stanley says the project

is a win-win-win for those involved. “Not only did our backing help the Inno-vation Waikato Park get the project off the ground, it also provides Dairy Goat Cooperative with valuable extra processing capacity when our milk flow is at its peak.

“And finally, there are many smaller producers out there – in milk pro-cessing industries and others – who will also experience a win through this project.”

AN uNPReCeDeNTeD increase in demand for goat milk formula is causing a shortage in local supermar-kets here.

New Zealand-based infant formula manufac-turer Nutricia says it is unable to source high quality product in quantities for its Karicare goat formula products.

A notice posted on its website says meeting the needs of Australian and New Zealand mothers and babies is its number-one supply priority.

For New Zealand mothers it has a limited supply of goat infant formula and goat follow-on formula available online.

DGC chief executive Dave stanley says the situ-ation is difficult for mothers whose babies depend on goat milk formula and cannot tolerate cow milk formula.

Nutricia, owned by French dairy company Danone, says there has been a three-fold demand increase in recent years.

We are working closely with our goat milk formula supplier, the Dairy Goat Corporation (DGC), in an effort to source more high quality goat milk product, Danone says.

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news 11Dump ‘direct exit’ from airports – Hort NZQUEENSLAND FRUIT fly is “the real biggie” in terms of threats to New Zealand’s $4 billion hor-ticultural industry, says HortNZ president Andrew Fenton.

And plant material on tourists was a likely path into New Zealand of the single male fruit fly found in Auckland in May, Fenton told Rural News.

The two-week response following the find is expected to cost about $1.5 million. That does not include the possibility of compensation payments under the Biosecurity Act.

“That’s a lot of money to spend on one fly,” says Fenton. “And we had to spend it, considering what we would have lost in export trade if more flies

had been found.”HortNZ is calling on

the Government to aban-don its ‘direct exit’ policy at airports and re-intro-duce 100% x-ray at the border.

‘Direct exit’ involves using ‘profiling’ to tell if passengers are likely to be carrying plant material, rather than using an x-ray machine to find it.

Fenton told Rural News the fruit fly could have come into the coun-try with tourists, on con-tainers or even on the skin of an aircraft – although every aircraft is certified every three months for insecticide treatment.

“There are plenty of biosecurity issues such as psyllids that infected the potato and tamarillo industries, the bee varroa mite…. “But the biggie in

the game – that will cost the country billions and billions of dollars – is the Queensland fruit fly.

“The list of host mate-rial for the fruit fly is enor-mous. But from an export point of view the biggies

are kiwifruit and apples. Apples and kiwifruit are being harvested in that January-May period which

is the fruit fly time of high-est risk.

“They are the big value crops; if the fly stops them,

the problems really hit the fan.”

Fenton says Australia spends $150 million a year controlling Queensland fruit fly, with checks between state borders, yet Australia is far less exposed to loss of export earnings than New Zea-land as 80% of its produce is sold on the domestic market. In contrast New Zealand exports 80% of its produce.

Fortunately, Fenton says finding one male fruit fly caused no market reac-tion. “MPI [Ministry of Primary Industries] went through all the protocols correctly and swiftly so there was no impact on any market anywhere….

“Obviously importing countries had confidence in our MPI and biosecu-rity.”

pAm tIpAHort NZ is calling on the Government to abandon its ‘direct exit’ at airports.

No return to full x-rays – mPiA ReTuRN to full x-ray screening at the borders has been counted out by the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI).

And compliance with its ‘direct exit’ strategy is 99.2%, a january/February 2011 survey showed, says steve Gilbert, MPI director border clearance services.

He was responding to calls by HortNZ president Andrew Fenton to return to full x-ray screening following revelations that the Queensland fruit fly scare in Auck-land cost MPI about $1.5m.

But Gilbert told Rural News compli-ance with all our border interventions was 98.6%, exceeding the Govern-ment’s expectation of 98.5% compli-ance. “That does not mean we won’t consider changes to ‘direct exit’ in the

future. We undertake surveys to review the effectiveness of our border inter-ventions and to identify any aspects we can improve. We have just undertaken another survey and hope to finalise the results shortly.

“We consider x-ray screening to be a useful intervention, but not perfect. For example, the fruit fly found in Auckland was tiny, making it unlikely to be picked up by x-ray.

“MPI is committed to maintaining and improving our biosecurity systems. For example, we are currently in the process of recruiting 40 quarantine inspectors and are expecting a new batch of detector dogs to be ready for duty later this year. “

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12 newsIndia not the panacea for NZ’s dairy exportsNEW ZEALAND must avoid high expectations of India as a major market for dairy products, says Rabo-bank senior dairy analyst Hayley Moynihan.

She told a Smaller

Milk and Supply Herds (SMASH) seminar that India is a great place but difficult to do business with, particularly in dairy products. Dairying is a sensitive issue for Indians because it’s a part of every-day life in their villages.

peter burke

Vets trustedDELEGATES AT last month’s New Zea-land Veterinary Association Conference were encouraged to become ‘trusted advisors’ as well as animal care experts.

Keynote speaker Frances Cheyne, a self-confessed ‘people junkie’ as well as business facilitator and coach, said becoming a trusted advisor to clients is invaluable, especially in tough eco-nomic times.

With greater competition from other practices, businesses and online sup-

pliers, developing a trust-based rela-tionship with clients will help make veterinarians the clients’ first port of call when a problem arises.

Cheyne says knowing how to build trust requires an additional skill-set to those gained during most practitioners’ technical training. Being honest, proac-tive and always listening first are key.

“If the client is unwilling to listen you’ll know you’ve ‘jumped the gun’ even if your advice is right.”

“There are people involved in the dairy industry who are living on the poverty line and it’s very sensitive politically. For that reason trade with India is difficult and it is controlled by their gov-ernment.

“That makes it more difficult than some other markets.”

India is the single larg-est dairy producer in the world, producing some 108.5 million tonnes in 2008/09. It has 11 million dairy farmers and 100 mil-lion people work in the industry, three quarters of them women.

It’s production is small scale with about half its milk produced by cows

and the remainder by buf-falo. There are 111.5 million animals producing milk.

Dairy products are pop-ular in India but just on half the production is con-sumed at ‘village’ level.

But like many Asian coun-tries the rise of a wealthy middle class is starting to change consumption pat-terns.

India is described as an “elastic” market. Moyni-han says sometimes India has surplus milk and is an exporter and some-times is in deficit and has to import milk products to meet consumer demand. But the country is trying to be self-sufficient in milk, she says.

“Certainly demand is growing in India – demand for high quality milk products and more pro-cessed milk products – and that’s what makes it so exciting, especially the fact that even small shifts make quite a difference in

the amount of milk they require.

“They also consume different fat products such as ghee instead of butter and have a lot of differ-ent cultured product we wouldn’t recognise or nec-essarily like consuming, which again makes it dif-ficult from a market entry point of view.

“They have very dif-ferent tastes and prefer-ences.”

But Moynihan says the Indian market has poten-tial for New Zealand as the demand for high quality consumer products grows. But it will likely be a spo-radic market and market-ers need caution when thinking about its poten-tial.

DAIRy FARMeRs in countries such as Ireland, uK, Germany and Holland are counting the days and possible the hours to the end of european union regu-lations that restrict the amount of milk they can produce – commonly called ‘the cap’ .

The lifting of the restrictions is about three years away, but Rabobank dairy analyst Hayley Moynihan says already many of these countries are gearing up for this and are starting to build up their dairy herds. This will disrupt the inter-national dairy market and will have some effect on New Zealand’s exports of dairy products.

The world market needs more milk and europe will be in a position to supply it, Moynihan says.

“When the cap on dairy products is lifted there will be an initial surge then there will be a re-balancing. In fact some european countries which are less efficient milk producers may exit the market altogether.

“But in other regions such as Ireland it will grow and there are signs they’re gearing up for this. If they do grow it will require new investment in processing capacity which means there are challenges for the Irish, but it’s within their capability.”

Moynihan says New Zealand should also remember it’s no longer the cheapest producer of dairy products. New Zealand is efficient at scale.

europe in waitingHayley moynihan

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news 13

beef + Lamb plans to tap into pGp funding

Beef + lamb NZ director James Parsons.

BEEF + LAMB NZ will consult farmers in Octo-ber on a new business plan for its part in unlock-ing $35 million of Pri-mary Growth Partnership (PGP) funding for the red meat sector.

The industry-good body proposes to apply for $20 million from Meat Board reserves towards the $70 million required for the PGP. Another $15 million will come from industry partners and the Government will match this collective investment dollar for dollar.

Beef+Lamb NZ director James Parsons told a field day in Northland that the disparity between the top-earning farms and the bot-tom-earning had widened markedly for 20 years.

“From a Beef + Lamb perspective we say ‘we are here to invest in growing farm profitability; our role is to help farmers make profitable decisions’,” he said. “So part of the ‘red meat sector strategy’ (RMSS) released in May of last year is about improv-ing this.”

The objective is to grow the sector from its export contribution of $8 billion per annum this year to $11.4 billion by 2025, or by $420/ha.

Parsons said a lot of people had been asking what had happened to the strategy. “I can assure you although we haven’t been talking much about it, there’s been a lot of activ-ity going on.”

The strategy had three

key units: in-market coor-dination, procurement and behind the farm-gate. “We have joined with industry partners to access Primary Growth Partnership funding to put some wheels under initia-tives for the behind-the-farmgate aspect of the ‘red meat sector strategy’,” he said.

Industry partners to date are Alliance, ANZCO Foods, Blue Sky Meats, Progressive Meats, Deloitte, ANZ and Silver Fern Farms.

“If we carve out the prize identified in the ‘red meat sector strategy’ behind the farmgate area it comes to a GDP increase of $2.3 billion more, a sector growth of 18% and extra farmgate revenue of $2.7 billion or $333/ha by 2025.”

In a nutshell the PGP application was to strengthen the four pil-lars of a farm business: financial, production, people, and compli-ance/risk/environment, he said. The means of doing this: improved sys-tems and data capture; tools, skills and capabil-ity; understanding behav-iour change; and better communicating the pro-duction story to New Zea-land’s public.

In terms of skills and capability it was important to find out what was stop-ping technology transfer and “why farmers don’t come to events like this”.

He said the PGP was a “capital investment behind the farm gate to take the industry forward,

pAm tIpA

FARMeRs sTAND to lose potentially $115 per cattle beast due to tariffs and $2.52 per sheep. The tariffs paid on exports of New Zealand fresh and frozen beef amount to $239m, more than our total beef exports to japan.

B + lNZ works closely with government trade negotiators to ensure the meat sector’s trade priori-ties are looked after, says director james Parson.

Market access and development are among four programmes B + lNZ talks a lot about, he says. The others are farm (extension, research and develop-ment), people and information.

Parsons says many farmers did not realise much of B + lNZ’s work and levy expenditure was about just maintaining the sector’s profitability, just as farmers must maintain their farms.

Only leftover money could go to capital expendi-ture projects, he said.

tariffs cost big

not maintain it”.Parsons said Beef +

Lamb will present much more detail on the busi-

ness plan before consult-ing farmers.

The Meat Board reserves stand at $80

million and B + LNZ will apply for $20 million of capital over the next seven years.

“from a Beef + lamb perspective we say ‘we are here to invest in growing farm profitability.”

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TARANAKI REGIONAL Council and Fonterra director David MacLeod says in his region some urban waterways have potentially greater pollution problems than those in rural areas.

His comments follow daily media carping about ‘dirty dairying’. He concedes there are problems in rural areas and the daily media tend to focus on the dairy industry.

“It’s a bit of a tall poppy syndrome because the dairy industry has been so successful.”

MacLeod believes society is becoming more aware of environmental issues and are ‘green’ in their outlook.

“This has heightened over the last couple of decades so people are much more vigilant over what’s happening in the environment. There’s a heck of a lot of land in dairy-ing that people can see, hence more people are vigilant of what’s happening in the environment and in particular on the dairy landscape.”

But MacLeod concedes the dairy industry has a few farmers who have to lift their game. “It’s a huge industry and by far the majority of dairy farmers are excellent cus-todians of the environment. Within any industry you can some find who don’t comply with the rules and the chal-lenge is to get all… to lift the game of the few to produce better environmental outcomes.”

The time has come to get tough with the “10% of lag-gards” not complying with the rules, he says.

Federated Farmers Dairy Group Chairman, Willy Lefer-ink says some of the stories about farmers breaching envi-ronmental standards is “historic stuff ”. It’s easy for the mainstream media to target a group such as dairy farm-ers; they are easy to identify because their animals are big, he says.

“Nobody talks about the raw sewage running over the highway in Shannon in the Horowhenua onto a dairy farm. Nobody talks about the effluent coming out of the sewer-age pipes in Palmerston North and going straight into the Manawatu River, or what goes into the stormwater drains in Waitakere.”

But Leferink acknowledges there are some ‘ratbags’ in the dairy industry letting the side down.

Dirty dairying media beat-up

Farmers will benefit from local govt reforms – Carter

THE MINISTER of Local Government David Carter believes farmers pay con-siderably more rates than urban people and don’t

receive a large number of services.

His comments to Rural News follow the introduc-tion of the Local Gov-ernment Reform Bill into parliament last week. The bill is aimed at getting

councils to focus on being more fiscally responsible, strengthening their gover-nance and concentrating on core activities such as water supply and wastewa-ter treatment.

“It’s for a council to

determine its rating base and most go on a capital value system. I don’t see that changing, but if we can focus local govern-ment to get back to doing core functions that will be a benefit to rural ratepay-

ers,” says Carter.The reforms could see

changes in local council electoral boundaries with a focus on ‘communities of interest’ rather than boundaries based purely on numbers. There is also

peter burkea provision to make it easier for regions to form uni-tary author-ities which may see the demise of some regional councils.

The focus in the reforms is on making local government ‘sim-pler’ rather than creating larger units of local gov-ernment, Carter says. The ‘statement of purpose’ for local government will be to emphasise a desire for them to focus on core business, he adds.

“We’re simply saying to councils when they undertake any activity we want them to do far more stringent cost benefit analysis of that activity to make sure it is a function that brings benefit to the

ratepayers.” Carter says there are

huge fiscal restraints on central government bud-gets and he wants local government to do the same.

“The average rate increase for the last 10 years has been 7% each year local council debt has risen by 250% over that decade.”

Carter says he also plans to investigate claims from local government that it has to put up rates because of decisions thrust on councils by cen-tral government.

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www.nait.co.nz | [email protected] | 0800 624 843

NAIT now mandatory for cattle - how to complyThe National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) scheme became mandatory for beef and dairy farmers, including lifestylers, on 1 July 2012.

This means if you are in charge of cattle but have not got a NAIT number, you will not be able to move stock off-farm.

To meet your NAIT obligations you need to:

• Get a NAIT number • Tag your animals• Register your animals with NAIT

Once you’ve done this you’ll be able to record movements of cattle in the NAIT system. This is now legally required if you are moving stock off-farm.

Deer join the NAIT scheme on 1 March next year. Deer farmers can also get ready and are encouraged to check what they need to do on the NAIT website www.nait.co.nz.

Get a NAIT numberNow the NAIT scheme is mandatory for cattle every person in charge of cattle at a given location must register with NAIT and get a NAIT number. A NAIT number is in addition to an Animal Health Board (AHB) number or dairy participant code.

The quickest way to get a NAIT number is via the NAIT website at www.nait.co.nz. It’s a straightforward process and takes less than 10 minutes.

Remember, any properties within 20km of each other where the same person is in charge of animals can be registered under the same NAIT number.

Also, have your AHB herd number or dairy participant code handy, as doing so will mean you can electronically view the tag numbers associated with your NAIT number in the NAIT system. This makes it easier to register animals and to record animal movements.

Tag your cattle and deerNow the NAIT scheme is mandatory for cattle, newborn animals must be tagged with NAIT-approved tags within 180 days of birth or before their first movement off-farm.

There is a three-year grace period for existing stock to be tagged with NAIT-approved tags unless they are being moved off-farm.

Calves born from 1 July onwards should be tagged with a birth tag. Use a traka tag for all existing animals to make them compliant to move.

The mandatory requirement for an official Animal Health Board bar-coded secondary tag ceased on from 1 July 2012, but you should not remove these tags from existing animals.

You still need to use your AHB herd number or dairy participant code when ordering NAIT tags from your usual rural supplier.

Tagging exemptionsThere are two main exemptions for tagging animals.

1. Calves less than 30 days old and going directly to a meat processor do not require NAIT tags as they are considered a low biosecurity risk and are not included in the NAIT scheme. For these calves continue to use the direct-to-slaughter tags currently issued by meat processing companies.

2. Animals which are considered by a farmer to be impractical to tag are also exempt from NAIT tagging requirements. This exemption only applies if the animal is tagged with an official AHB bar-coded primary tag and is being transported directly to a meat processor. For 2012/13 these animals will incur a levy of $13 per head (excluding GST) which will be deducted by the meat processor.

Registering animalsAnimals now need to be registered with NAIT within one week of being tagged. Animals born after 1 July 2012 should be tagged within 180 days of birth. The registration process links animals to tags in the NAIT system so they can be traced.

If you’ve got a NAIT number you can register animals online now at www.nait.co.nz.

Recording cattle movementsNAIT legislation requires that when animals are sent to a location which has a different NAIT number linked to it, or the person in charge of the animals changes, this needs to be recorded in the NAIT system. For example, when an animal is bought, sold, sent for grazing or sent to a meat processor or saleyard.

Animal movements to NAIT-accredited meat processors and saleyards are recorded for you. For information about NAIT-accredited organisations which carry out some or all NAIT obligations on behalf of people in charge of animals, including animal movement recording, go to www.nait.co.nz. When an animal is received from a NAIT-accredited saleyard a movement still needs to be recorded.

Getting helpNAIT-accredited information providers can handle many of your NAIT obligations for you. For a list of accredited information providers visit the NAIT website www.nait.co.nz.

Purpose of NAIT schemeThe scheme will provide lifetime traceability of individual cattle and deer, enhancing New Zealand’s ability to respond more quickly if there’s a food safety event or a biosecurity threat such as a disease outbreak. In a situation like this NAIT’s capacity to provide a rapid containment response would enable trade to resume more quickly with less economic impact for farmers and New Zealand.

How the NAIT scheme worksThe NAIT scheme is about who is responsible for stock on a day-to-day basis rather than who owns the animals. The NAIT scheme will link individual animals to the person responsible for them, and their current location. This is done via the radio frequency identification device (RFID) ear tag in

each animal’s ear and a central database which links each tagged animal to information about the person registered as responsible for it, and the location where the animal is kept. NAIT tags can be purchased from your local rural supplies company.

Recording each time an animal moves from one location to another, and/or when the person responsible for it changes is how the NAIT scheme maintains lifetime traceability of animals. It’s necessary for this information to be kept up to date so the NAIT system can quickly provide details of where individual animals are and who is responsible for them.

Benefits of RFID technologyThe RFID technology used by the NAIT system is an enabler for on-farm benefits for farmers who make a further investment in RFID systems in

addition to NAIT-approved RFID tags. Potential benefits include:• automated drafting of animals

that meet pre-defined conditions

• accurate recording of production details about individual animals so it can be used to support management decisions, for example: {{ regularly weighing animals

to sell at optimum individual weight

{{ tracking treatments{{ recording breeding information{{ measuring milk production

This additional investment is not mandatory under the NAIT scheme, but can potentially have significant benefits. High performance HDX tags will be more suitable for these on- farm activities.

The quickest way to get a NAIT number is via the NAIT website at www.nait.co.nz


16 world

Deadly bee disease hits Scotland

AMERICAN FAST food chain McDonald’s says it will begin a 10-year phase-out, with its pork sup-pliers, of gestation stalls (sow crates) in the US.

The Humane Soci-ety welcomes the news, though says it prefers a shorter time frame. Sup-pliers, pork producers and animal welfare experts have contributed to the plan to source all pork for McDonald’s US business from producers that do not house pregnant sows in gestation stalls by the end of 2022.

The move comes as campaigns for more humane livestock pro-duction continue to grow. Eight states have passed laws to ban the crates and other states have bills pending to do the same.

The Kroger Co., the largest US supermarket operator with 2435 stores in 31 states, says it believes a gestation crate-free envi-ronment is more humane and that the pork industry should work toward this. It is encouraging suppliers to accelerate the transi-tion, but sets no deadline.

As an interim step, by 2017, McDonald’s will seek to source pork for its US business only from pro-ducers willing to phase out gestation stalls.

The chain will work with producers and suppliers to develop traceability systems to verify pork sourced from non-gestation stall supply chains and assess how to best support producers moving away from gestation stalls.

“Our approach seeks to build on the work

already in place, and we are also sensitive to the needs of the smaller, inde-pendent pork producers in phasing out of gesta-tion stalls,” McDonald’s North America supply chain management senior vice president Dan Gorsky says.

Temple Grandin, animal welfare scientist at Colorado State University and a member of McDon-ald’s animal welfare coun-cil, says the change is complex and will require extra resources.

“The 10-year time-line that McDonald’s has outlined is necessary to research and identify better housing alternatives and ensure proper train-ing of employees,” Gran-din says.

US Humane Society farm animal protection vice president Paul Shap-

iro welcomed the definite timeline.

In the pork industry, most female pigs are con-fined day and night during their four-month preg-nancy in gestation crates – 600mm by 2100mm cages (roughly the size of the animals’ bodies) prevent-ing them from even turn-ing around.

They are then placed in another crate to give birth, re-impregnated, and put back into a gestation crate. This happens preg-nancy after pregnancy for their entire lives, adding up to years of virtual immobilisation.

“These cages are so cramped, the animals are unable even to turn around, essentially immo-bilised and lined up like parked cars for virtually their entire lives,” Shap-iro says.

SCOTTISH BEEKEEPERS are on alert as authorities deal with a single case of the deadly American foul-brood (AFB) disease.The Scottish Government confirmed AFB has this month been found in an apiary in Inverness-shire, follow-ing laboratory diagnosis by Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA). Outbreaks of AFB over the last three years have been reported and dealt with in the region.

The AFB-infected hive will be destroyed as there is no permitted

treatment for the disease in the UK. The disease affects bee larvae and destroys apiaries within days of infec-tion.

The Scottish Government says there are no risks to public health from AFB and no implications for the quality and safety of honey.

“The affected apiary is located near Inverness and the movement of bees and related equipment into or out of the affected apiary is prohib-ited,” it says.

The Government wants bee farm-

ers and beekeepers to be vigilant for signs of the disease. They are also urging good husbandry practices and notification of any suspicion of dis-ease to authorities.

To help Scottish Government bee inspectors control this and other dis-eases beekeepers are urged to register on BeeBase, the national bee data-base, for access to up-to-date infor-mation on the control of AFB and bee related issues.

AFB is a notifiable disease under Scottish law.

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rural News // july 3, 2012rural News // july 3, 2012

world 17

Australian farmers want coal mining veto on their landVICTORIAN FARMERS have called for a right of veto of any proposed mining activity on their land.

Victoria is the latest state in Australia – after Queensland and NSW – to attract interest from mining and fuel compa-nies searching for gas trapped in coal seams.

Coal seam gas (CSG) exploration has united the farming community in the two northern states as mining companies have had unfettered access to privately held land. Some of this has been prime farm land, prompt-ing claims that the federal and state governments are selling the country’s long-term food security and export potential for short-term gains in the form of royalties from mining companies.

ExxonMobil has taken an initial 10% stake in a joint venture to explore and potentially develop reserves of methane gas in brown goal in the Gippsland Basin in eastern Victoria.

At least $20 billion was spent in 2008 on coal seam gas deals in Australia by multinational corpora-tions such as ExxonMo-bil. But leaks at wells in Queensland, potential contamination of ground-water supply and wor-ries over new drilling techniques are causing a backlash from the wider community and govern-ments are starting to respond.

The Victorian Govern-ment has established a new Earth Resources Min-isterial Advisory Council to tackle coal seam gas and other mining issues.

Gerald Leach of the Victorian Farmers Federa-tion said an independent committee would be good for farmers, but landhold-ers’ rights could always be stronger.

“The Victorian Gov-

ernment must be com-mitted to protecting landholders’ rights in the face of increased con-cerns about the impact of coal seam gas and brown coal mining. The VFF has already called for farm-ers to have a right of veto of any mining activity on their land.”

Currently, 100% of NSW is covered cumula-tively by mining and CSG titles and applications, causing great uncertainty for farm families, the $8.4 billion agriculture indus-try and the 74,000 people it employs.

In NSW, at present, not one hectare has been set aside for food production. NSW Farmers is asking the Government to declare some agricultural land off limits to exploration and to strengthen proposed land and water protections for mining and CSG.

About 20 groups from across the state rallied on May 1 outside Parliament House in NSW to demon-strate concern about the NSW Government’s stra-tegic regional land use policy and its approach to exploration and mining in this state.

During the recent con-sultation process on the policy, the Government received at least 1400 sub-missions, a vast majority favouring stronger pro-tection of the state’s land and water resources. The policy will be finalised later this year.

New surveys show NSW city and country residents think the state government is going too hard at mining and coal seam gas development. A recent Newspoll survey found 58% of respondents thought the NSW Gov-ernment was too keen on satisfying the interests of extractive industries com-pared with about 1% who saw too much emphasis on farmers.

The survey also revealed 88% either strongly favoured or

StepHeN COOke somewhat favoured parts of NSW’s agricultural land being reserved from mining and coal seam gas. About 50% thought at least half the state’s food producing land should be reserved for agriculture,

and one in four believed at least 90% should be set aside solely for agricul-ture.

Under proposed new land use policies, the NSW Government has not ear-marked any farm land to

be excluded from mining or coal seam gas activities.

NSW Farmers’ Presi-dent, Fiona Simson, said she was genuinely sur-prised by the depth of feeling across the state. “People talk about the

country and city divide but it’s not there on this issue and I think that is very encouraging.

“It is also great to see an awareness and appre-ciation of agricultural land and its value and the

need for it to be reserved to ensure sustainability of food production.

“NSW country and city dwellers want to see areas of agricultural land in NSW off limits to mining and exploration.”

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18 agribusiness

Steady as she goes for sheepmeat – rabobankSHEEPMEAT PRICES have tumbled from record highs but should stabilise soon and keep holding, says Christchurch Rabo-bank analyst Rebecca Red-mond.

After a global look at prices, markets and pro-duction forecasts, Red-mond told Rural News she expects the sheepmeat price to settle about the mid NZ$6/kg. She gave a market update to a Beef + Lamb NZ monitor farm

field day on the Kaipara coast, north of Auckland.

Redmond is one of a global team of researchers with a “broad overview” of the world market, asking various countries around the world if they were lift-ing sheepmeat prices. The

researchers’ task is to look at what impact produc-tion forecasts would have on prices.

“Sheepmeat pricing has been through a roll-ercoaster in the last 12-24 months; one driver of this has been the global tight-

pAm tIpAness of sheepmeat that’s occurred over the last couple of seasons.”

New Zealand exports sheepmeat to about 70 countries. Redmond said figures showed that, despite prices lifting 20-30% in Europe during the past couple of years, demand has remained stable. It was obvious some Europeans would still pay for lamb whatever the economic situation.

Ten years ago China was just a “blip” in terms of our sheepmeat export. They were big sheepmeat producers but stocks have declined and “they have come looking for security of supply”.

In the past five years the exports to China have increased in value, they are moving to more expen-sive cuts and they are also taking offal exports. “So there’s a good broadness of market,” Redmond says.

Demand for our leg roasts in the UK is soften-ing with “dramatic” price rises, but there hasn’t been

price destruction. Percent-age margins for retailers have come under pressure but they are still comfort-able.

On production fore-casts, Redmond said Ireland’s sheepmeat pro-duction is buoyant with great prices, but they don’t have a large flock to build on. In the US land is being given over to corn and soy. Government interven-tion can be a constraint in South America. Australia has 74 million sheep but is focused on wool produc-tion and half of its sheep-meat goes to the domestic market. Australian farm-ers are more reluctant to improve pasture because of drought.

The UK has a large sheep flock but produc-

tion will stay flat. About 80% (90% in Scotland) of the EU flock is farmed on ‘least favoured areas’, but producers get a pay-out

for farming on that land. This demotivates farm-ers to increase production. “When they stopped get-ting paid per head we saw their flock decline.”

French sheep farmers get top dollar – 5.50 euros/kg, their consumers are loyal to local product but their land and production is expensive.

The Rabobank study predicts “by 2015 we will have only the volumes of sheepmeat to trade glob-ally that we had in 2010,” Redmond says. “New Zea-land is positioned in a good place for sheepmeat production.”

BeeF WIll lift towards the end of this year, and will be at the $4 mark next year, says Rebecca Redmond.

With 30% of the us beef production area affected last year by drought, they now have lightweight heifers and breeding cows, with 15% of feedlot production needed to rebuild the herd.

Brazil used to be a big, cheap beef producer but land and resource consent costs had gone up, animal welfare requirements had increased, including vacci-nations, and they had a booming domestic economy.

Their beef exports last year fell 6% in volume.

Beef looking good

“New Zealand is positioned in a good place for sheepmeat production.” – Redmondrabobank’s rebecca

redmond.

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THE OUTLOOK for New Zealand’s main commodi-ties is mixed for the 2012-13 season. Some are set to improve, but largely due to a poor growing season (i.e. viticulture, kiwifruit and apples) and they are coming off levels often below the cost of produc-tion. Others are set to decline, but off all-time highs (i.e. lamb and wool).

Despite recent price falls the 2011-12 finan-cial year will be one to remember for the live-stock sectors. A mix of solid farm-gate prices, controlled costs, excellent seasonal conditions and lower interest rates ensure profit-and-loss statements will be solid.

We still maintain that the medium–term trend in soft commodities is up. However, this needs to be at a rate affordable to emerging countries. Vola-tility in this upward trend looks set to continue due to the wobbly global scene and other structural shifts in food markets.

The wobbly global scene, especially in Europe, is feeding through to demand from the middle class for high qual-ity protein and foodstuffs. Those sectors that sell a large proportion of their product to Europe face a number of challenges from government belt-tightening, lower con-sumer confidence and high unemployment.

The offset is that any extra slack is being redi-rected to China and the wider Asian/Middle East region. Slow growth in the US is also provid-ing another avenue for product. In particular, confidence levels in the foodservice trade in the US have picked up, lead-ing to another avenue for higher value products tra-ditionally sold in Europe.

Softer dairy prices have been a function of increased supply, not reduced demand. Milk supply has increased from all the major exporters over the last 12 months

and some of the minor players. Things turned bearish in April and May as the long tail to the New Zealand season over-lapped with peak pro-duction in the northern hemisphere.

Nonetheless, farm-gate prices in the north-ern hemisphere countries have started to adjust downwards and their inputs costs, such as feed, remain at historically high levels. This implies the tap will be turned off as the marginal incentive to produce extra milk is not as great. At this stage we would concur with Fon-terra’s milk price of $5.50/kgMS for 2012–13. Longer-term a milk price range of $6.00-$6.50/kgMS still

looks prudent.Lamb prices face a

number of challenges. These include weaker retail prices, higher whole-sale and processor mar-gins, a modest increase in the supply of trade-able lamb and a continued strong NZD/EUR.

Beef prices remain pos-itive. Venison demand is robust and supply stable. The only downside to farmgate prices is a strong NZD/EUR.

Key levels for strong wool prices look like NZ$3.00/kg, back some 30% on last year. End demand is under pres-sure in Europe and Japan. Substitute fibres such as cotton have dropped in price also.

An abundance of local grain, softer live-stock demand and lower international prices are expected to weigh on domestic grain prices.

Sauvignon blanc grape prices are expected to increase courtesy of a smaller 2012 vintage.

agribusiness 19

mixed outlook for the year aheadNZ Commodity Price Indices (world currency terms)

Index (Jan 1986 = 100)

Dairy

Total

Non-Dairy

Sources: ANZ, National Bank

400

350

300

250

200

150

100

50

090 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12

Prices for other white vari-eties are expected to lift, but not so much, and red varieties are forecast to be stable.

Gold kiwifruit prices are expected lift to above $9/tray due to lower vol-umes because of Psa. Green prices increased,

but not to the same extent, up 8% to $4 per tray.• Con Williams is an economist with ANZ/National Bank.

Chance to sharpen upTHE FIRST ‘pilot’ work-shop in a new agribusi-ness training scheme organised by Beef + Lamb New Zealand kicks off next week at Inver-may, Otago; similar pro-grammes will start soon in Hawkes Bay and North-land.

Inspired by the ‘red meat sector strategy’ (RMSS), it gives sheep and beef farm owner-

operators access to gov-ernment supported training through the Open Polytechnic and AgITO. The scheme will run for 12-18 months with six one-day workshops based on BLNZ tools and services: pasture produc-tion, animal production, animal health and welfare, whole farm planning, and risk and market forces.

BLNZ people and

capability advisor Sarah Deans told Rural News the same facilitator is being used across the three regions to ensure consis-tency.

“Our target for the programme is for 10 attendees in each region. At this stage, as long as the attendees are farm-ers – this is aimed solely at employers, not employ-ees – the first people reg-

istered will secure a spot on the programme.”

Government funding and BLNZ’s contribution means attendees pay only a nominal fee of $250, spread over workshops 3-6 of the scheme.

As Rural News went to press a few places were available. Contact: [email protected] tel. 04 474 0808


Lamb Market Trends Beef Market Trends

Last Year

This Year

60%

70%

80%

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Beef

NAIT draws cattle out The prime cattle keep rolling into the works which is keeping a lid on export prices in the North Island. Many farmers have done a last minute dash to kill cattle before NAIT came onto play on July 1st. Last week, 300kg prime steer was $4.15/kg on average, although up to $4.20/kg has been paid on larger lines. Bulls are few and far between and prices are strong on $4.25/kg. Local trade prices are flat, largely due to plentiful supply. In the South Island, cattle prices are holding with almost everyone being paid $4.00/kg for prime steer and local trade cattle last week. 300kg cwt bull is slightly less on $3.95/kg however up to $4.00/kg can be achieved for larger lines. The only thing going for export prices at the moment is the seasonal decline in supplies. The NZ dollar continues to bounce around causing concern, while the overseas markets have taken a dive in recent weeks.

US imported beef prices dive US imported beef prices have taken a slide over the past month. 95CL dropped to US$2.04/lb a fortnight ago, when a month ago it was about US10c/lb higher. The main driver for the recent fall is the seasonal drop in US domestic prices following Memorial Day. Looking at past seasonal trends, Steiner Consulting Group suggests that US domestic prices could fall another US10c/lb between now and the end of August. Despite the short term outlook being average, the long term outlook remains positive. US domestic supplies continue to shrink so there will be a greater reliance on imports going forward.

Lamb

Export lamb prices creeping up The lamb kill is seasonally coming back but supply is still fairly good for this time of year. Farmers are realising lambs are growing faster than expected and are opting to slaughter before weights get too heavy. Last week, 16kg cwt lambs in the North Island increased to $5.61/kg on average (net). Some processors are paying the same money for a wide weight range, however ‘all weights and grades’ is unlikely to happen this year, as meat processors have made it clear they don’t want heavy lambs. There was a large variance in prices paid for 16kg cwt lambs in the South Island last week, so it continues to be difficult to put a peg in the sand. On average, 16kg cwt lambs were $5.73/kg (net). Once lamb contracts come into play in July, it will be interesting to see if this drives spot prices higher like it has done in the past.

Too much lamb in freezers Farmgate prices have begun to seasonally lift albeit at a slow rate. Meat processors are reluctant to raise schedules as market conditions remain tough. The overseas lamb market is weak and the kiwi dollar is strong which is impacting returns. Large stocks of frozen lamb in New Zealand will continue to hold back prices until these stocks are cleared and we can start fresh. Some farmers are hopeful of $7.00/kg (gross) peak season due to limited lamb numbers, but this appears optimistic as there would be too much ground to be made from today’s farmgate price. Meat processors will unlikely make the same mistake they did last year, get caught up in chasing lambs. Many have emphasised they’ll focus on managing capacity.

Dairy

Dairy market stabilising There are signs the dairy market could be stabilising. At the recent global dairy trade auction, prices maintained the sharp gains made in the prior auction. Longer term contract prices are climbing while shorter term contracts have been moving down, due to the increased supply after a strong milk production season in 2011-12. Fonterra believes that global supply and demand may start to rebalance later this year.

Euro

Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep

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US Dollar

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22 opinion

editorial

the hound

edna

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22 opinion

ego deflationTHe HOuND was impressed by the efforts of Fonterra’s PR machine to get the dairy industry glitterati to come out in public support of TAF prior to the big vote. However, he is not sure whether former dairy industry stalwart sir Dryden spring was feeling too well-loved when he contacted one journalist to convey his opinion on why TAF was a good thing. Apparently the white knight discov-ered just how long he’s been out of the dairy industry limelight when the said reporter told sir Dryden he’d have to Google him to find out who he was.

Core business?yOuR CANINe crusader reckons farmers, the Feds and others have a point about local government and its on-going costs increases. However, he’s not surprised due to some of the funding requests made to different councils around the country. One that caught the Hound’s attention was a request for the Timaru District Council to save dolphins. Among the less tradi-tional submissions to the council’s long term plan were about 20 asking the council to take steps to help protect maui and hector’s dolphins.

Dirty businessyOuR OlD mate felt somewhat uncomfortable recently when the Domi-onion Post ran a story about Fonterra director and possible chairman-in-waiting Colin Armer being convicted of unlawful effluent discharge. At face value this looked like a great ‘gotcha’ story, but look a little deeper and you could question both the timing and the motive for this story. The Hound hopes this story was not fed to the Dom Post by an Armer board rival to dent his chances of taking over as Fonterra chair when Henry van der Heyden steps down later in the year.

traffic jamyOuR OlD mate reckons the ‘green-jackets’ at National Fieldays really need to sort out the issues about traffic getting in and out of the event, or they may well start putting people off attending. The Hound suggests the organisers need to get a traffic management plan in place and arrange for arterial routes in and out to be one-way at peak entry and exit times.And how about park-and-ride options, with shuttle buses ferrying visitors to and from the event and leaving exhibitors to use the nearest on-site carparks?

tacky!THe HOuND thought Federated Farmers was supposed to be the lobby group that promotes farming in a positive light and debunks silly myths about the rural sector to the wider New Zealand community. so he was surprised and disap-pointed at the humour attempt – a very poor one – by Feds’ communica-tions team in the heading used in a media advisory to announce this year’s Feds annual conference being held late last month in Auckland. “lock up your livestock Auckland, Federated Farmers is coming to town”, read the heading. Not smart, not clever – just tacky!

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CHAMPAGNE CORKS were not popping when Fonterra chairman Henry van der Heyden last week announced TAF (trading among farmers) had passed with a 66.5% majority.

The mood among the co-op’s top brass was relief rather than elation at the executive lounge of the Claudelands Event Centre, Hamilton, where they released the results to the media. It was clear the second vote on TAF had failed to deliver a winner.

Fonterra can argue that a 66.5% majority in any democratically held election is a good result. And it is a solid endorsement for TAF to proceed. But the sizeable ‘no’ vote (33.5%) could become a constant irritation for the co-op.

Interestingly the vote was based on milksol-ids, as is the norm in the dairy industry. With cor-porate farmers and state-owned Landcorp likely on its side, Fonterra never doubted it would gain the 50.1% majority. But small family farms, still a key part of the cooperative’s milk supply base, have never been on the same page with TAF. So, TAF would have sunk if each farmer had been allowed one vote irrespective of his milksolids production.

That’s the dilemma over TAF: Fonterra cannot claim a ‘clear mandate’ yet the opposition has been outvoted two-to-one. But though TAF may not be the only answer to Fonterra’s redemption risk, it’s the one preferred by a clear majority of shareholders. Therefore, the time to debate TAF is over. Now the strategy refresh spearheaded by management outlines exciting global growth opportunities and all Fonterra shareholders must put their shoulders to the wheel and help it tap into those opportunities.

The co-op says it had no ‘Plan B’. In fact, TAF is Fonterra’s ‘Plan B’. Remember shareholders four years ago roundly rejected the co-op’s pre-ferred option of a partial float. The co-op cannot spend more time dilly-dallying over its capital structure. Talks of a legal challenge to TAF will further debilitate the co-op.

The onus is now on the board and manage-ment to unite the shareholder base. They must reach out to the small farmers, who have cham-pioned the cooperative model through genera-tions.

Fonterra stands a great chance of cementing its name as one of the biggest players in global dairying as the TAF journey begins. But every shareholder must be on the journey. Leaving behind the 33.5% who voted against TAF is not an option.

time to move forward from tAF debate

“i wonder what the neigbour will trade me not to tell anyone he bought a new tractor at fieldays”


WELL, CUT off my legs and call me shorty; my long-held prejudice about organic enthusiasts being smug, superior types has been all but confirmed by research.

According to a paper in the Journal of Social Psy-chological & Personality Science, people exposed to organic foods ‘’judged moral transgressions sig-nificantly harsher’’ than the control group. They also volunteered signifi-cantly less time to help a needy stranger.

Lead author Dr Ken-dall J Eskine says about the study: “There’s some-thing about being exposed to organic food that made them feel better about themselves. And that made them kind of jerks a little bit, I guess.”

Erskine’s researchers called it ‘’moral licensing’’ – whereby because you do good deeds in one area of life, you feel you’ve paid your dues and can give up on being good in other areas.

So, according to this study, people who eat organic food are more likely to be judgmental about their fellow man.

Which surely now gives us free rein to judge all those ‘I’m better than you because I only eat organic’ types; who tend to infest the suburbs of Grey Lynn in Auckland, Wellington’s central city region, Lyttel-ton in Christchurch, plus the rank-and-file of the Green Party of Aoteoroa/New Zealand.

I’ve felt the judgemental wrath of the outraged organic lobby when some 18-months or so ago, after I penned a tongue-in-cheek column for this paper, suggesting organics may not be as pure or as good for the planet as its exponents have claimed.

The genesis of the column was a couple of presentations to an Australian Farm Institute conference, which suggested organic production was not as sustainable as claimed by its proponents.

In my offending article I wrote how the country’s agricultural produc-tive sector had suffered the disdain of eco-war-rior-types who regularly derided the environmental merits of their products

and/or systems. I pointed out this was somewhat moot now that research had shown organics was not as environmentally or economically viable as it proponents believed.

Though I was being deliberately provocative, I figured most reason-able people would take the piece for what it was – comment. However, I’d forgotten that organic types – like all evangelists – are rarely reasoned or reasonable. They practise a strange form of democ-racy that says it is only acceptable if the outcome agrees with what they believe.

So as sure as God made little green apples – Biogro certified organic, of course – came the obliga-tory indignant letter to the editor from the organic lobby accusing me of being bought off by Monsanto

opinion 23

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Organic types smug – researchand the rest.

Yada, yada, yada as George (1990s TV show Seinfeld) would say.

Sydney Morning Herald writer Jacqueline Maley, commenting on this latest research, wrote: “One of the more insidi-ous trends of the modern era… is the moral sanc-tity people attach to their food choices. Eating is no longer something we do for taste and energy con-

sumption; it is a political act. The ability to select and consume biodynamic, macrobiotic, locally sourced and fully organic food is surely the greatest middle-class indulgence of our time.”

It is hard to disagree with these sentiments when, as a friend recently experienced, being accosted by one of these environmental evange-listic types in the super-

market when buying some meat. Apparently the sanc-timonious lady lectured my friend how he must feel awful because the beef he was buying had at some point in its lifetime been drenched.

His question, to the holder of this particular moral licence, was that humans actually worm themselves too, so does that mean we are harm-ing the planet as well? He

then invited her, ever so politely, to take her smug views, crocheted shop-ping bag and go and climb a tree.

What’s the bet the smug one is the type who breaks the speed limit on the way home, with my friend’s flea ringing in her ear. No doubt, the holier-than-thou crusader will have justified her actions as being okay because she drives a Toyota Prius!

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

Top Bleats view all

henryfonterra: Wow 66% support by farmers for TAF – what a thumping endorsement. To those 34% of shareholders who voted against it can I just say: na-na-na! #wewonyoulosteatthat

ianbrownshc: @henryfonterra my Shareholders’ Council unreservedly and overwhelmingly would like to join in your gloating over the opponents of TAF . #suckonthatsimoncouper

leonieguineyantitaf: How dare you even think about implementing TAF @henryfonterra when you only have 66% support. We believe our minority opposition is more of a majority than your majority support. #wedidnot-losewejustgotlessvotes

damienoconnormp: I don’t think I’m being overly histrionic when I say a 66% vote in favour of TAF is indeed a black day for democratic decision-making in the New Zealand dairy industry! #darkdayfordemocracy

dcarterminforprimaryindustries: Bloody hell, the 66% vote in support of TAF shows the kind of majority a Government in our MMP environment can only ever dream about! #bringbackfpp

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24 opinionHigh food prices good for the environmentFOOD PRICES have dropped in the course of the past year. Supermarket shoppers might question the evidence, but the mid-June data from Statistics NZ was clear: since last May the cost of the over-all shopping basket has dropped by 0.2%.

Yet most people believe food is becoming more expensive, particularly in New Zealand.

Concerns about food

security (quantity of food available globally) do have an effect on price, as does the health of the global economy. Food safety also impacts on prices and costs – an Escherichia coli outbreak or melamine scare creates a demand for safe products and prices increase.

The range of items now in supermarkets accounts for some of the chal-lenges in comparing ‘food

spend’ in different coun-tries, and what constitutes the ‘average’ food basket also changes: last year the

basic food basket in New Zealand included frozen berries, chicken nuggets, dried apricots and flat bread.

The biggest confusion, however, is in such factors as GST (or VAT) and on how much tax payers are indirectly giving to farm-ers directly through sub-sidies.

In the OECD countries an average 18% of gross farm receipts are from subsidies. In New Zealand there are no farm subsi-dies, hence consumers are not paying an unknown extra for their food via taxes on their wages and salaries.

True, food prices have increased over the last 20 years, but production costs have increased by far more: 45% for food and over 60% for costs. MPI calculates many farmers are now losing money, but keep farming in the hope they will achieve capital gains.

The reality in the market is that SOE Land-corp, New Zealand’s larg-est farmer, estimates a 2-3% return for sheep and beef enterprises and a

4-5% return for dairy. In contrast, Standard and Poor estimates return on capital invested in super-markets is about 16%. Supermarkets can afford to play with prices.

Over the year to May 2012, cheddar cheese decreased in price 15%, butter 25%, potatoes 13% and chicken 5.3%. Milk also decreased in price (by 7.2%) despite the fact Fonterra froze the price for the domestic market in February 2011 when the global price escalated. Supermarkets have been challenged by smaller out-lets using milk as a loss leader, relying on the increased effect of impulse buying to boost sales over-all.

In a Westpac survey

released last year, people aged 18 and over were found to spend on impulse about $5/day ($16 million for the country) mostly at supermarkets, cafes, petrol stations and fast food outlets. This is 50% of the cost of the daily basic-diet food for an adult (University of Otago research).

The argument that food should be cheaper in New Zealand because we are a food-producing country overlooks the fact much food is imported, and the return to the farmer is decreasing.

As society imposes increased environmental and animal welfare regula-tions, and power, fuel and labour costs escalate, farm returns will decrease even

further. Only if food prices

increase will primary pro-duction be sustainable. More money on-farm means greater capabil-ity to implement the new technologies that increase productivity while main-taining or improving envi-ronmental protection.

In Europe at least part of the subsidies are directed at supporting the environment; New Zea-land farmers pay their costs from returns from selling their milk, meat and wool.

Paying more for high quality, sustainably-pro-duced food makes a lot of sense for the environment. • Jacqueline Rowarth is a professor of agribusiness at the University of Waikato.

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management 25

Lessons in soil structure studyYOUR COWS might not be pugging your pad-docks, but are they caus-ing unseen compaction and consequent produc-tion losses?

Scientists at Agresearch’s Invermay campus are seeing this on

some dairy farms in North Otago.

Their work is part of the Land Use Change and Intensification Proj-ect, a ten-year project AgResearch is running, now in its eighth year, looking at changes to soil structure on farms as pro-duction increases with

newly installed irrigation.In North Otago, most

have converted from sheep and beef, and maybe a bit of crop, to dairying as the water’s come online.

“What’s happened is that with irrigation there’s been an increase in pro-duction and there are a whole lot of pressures

ANDreW SWALLOW on the soil that were not there before,” explains Seth Laurenson.

The project has three phases. The first was a series of experiments to assess soil structure changes between dryland and irrigated farmland under cattle and sheep grazing.

The combination of irrigation and increased grazing intensity is chang-ing soil structure, gener-ally for the worse. How much worse depends on management.

“Where there’s been high stock density on wet soils we’ve seen a huge impact on structure.”

On the plus side, despite naturally quite vulnerable soils in the area, the extent of severe damage is limited.

However, unlike pug-ging where damage and consequent production loss is obvious, compac-tion can easily go unno-ticed causing lesser, but more persistent losses in production, Laurenson points out.

The second phase of the work has been to look at what to do where soil structure has deteriorated.

Trials compared natu-ral recovery with mechan-

ical aeration. While the latter saw soil biology reinvigorated, it did little for structure, the research-ers found. “It’s good, but it must be done in combi-nation with good manage-ment of livestock.”

Done at the wrong time, mechanical inter-vention can also do more harm than good, so check soil is dry enough to avoid

smearing at depth, and to ensure compacted layers are fractured, adds Lau-renson.

But the best approach is to prevent the damage happening in the first place, he stresses.

“On a cost benefit basis it’s better to avoid doing the damage, than try to recover it. You should only need to aerate soil

if you’ve made a mis-take. You can speed up the recovery process with aeration but you need to change the management practice that caused it.”

Avoiding compaction in the first place means little or no lost production, and the risk of run-off and con-sequent environmental damage is reduced.

is your farm’s soil like the left, or the right, asks agresearch’s seth laurenson.

tO pAGe 27

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26 management

lessons in soil structure study

“If the soil’s com-pacted, two things happen: there’s a lot more move-ment of water horizon-tally due to a reduction in soil infiltration rate and secondly, because of the reduction in airspaces, there’s less water held in the soil; so you get greater frequency of saturation excess.

“Furthermore as the air space decreases with compaction, soils remain wetter for longer, thereby enhancing the likelihood of subsequent grazing when soils are still wet – thereby compounding the risk of compaction.”

The third phase of the project is looking at ways to assess soil moisture and make grazing deci-sions accordingly. The aim is to produce guide-lines for farmers that will help determine when to remove cows from pad-docks.

Trigger values will be determined by soil type and soil moisture deficit.

That may be measured by meters such as Aquaf-lex, though such meters only measure where they’re positioned, por-table TDR probe-type meters, water balance sheet calculations and visual assessment.

Soils likely to have the longest ‘do not graze’ peri-ods post irrigation or rain are those with high clay content and low organic matter.

“The organic matter is what holds everything together. The North Otago soils are quite low in organic matter, and they have a high clay content, so they’re vulnerable to being compacted.”

Adjusting irrigation schedules and/or grazing rotations to avoid putting cattle onto freshly watered paddocks will help reduce the risk of compaction.

If stock must be put onto a wetter-than-ideal pad-dock, take them off as soon as they’ve had their feed, suggests Laurenson.

“Density of stocking, and duration, both affect the amount of compac-tion. Give them three or four hours on the pad-dock, then stand them off on less vulnerable soils or standoff facilities.”

As for production losses due to compaction, previous work has shown typically a 2% reduction in pasture growth for every 1% drop in porosity.

A healthy porosity for soil under pasture is 15-18%, but in extreme cases of compaction Agresearch has found it down to 6%.

“Below 10% is where real problems begin as soil biological activity is severely reduced, organic matter is lost, and with it the ability for the soil to recover naturally.”

FrOm pAGe 25

treating grass like

ohouapi station manager sam Bunny uses cows to groom pasture for sheep.

FARMING HILL hill coun-try is never easy but at Landcorp’s Opouahi Sta-tion, Hawkes Bay, manager Sam Bunny has succeeded in lifting performance sub-stantially, not that he’s making life easy for the stock, especially cattle.

Grass is money in his eyes and he won’t let it go into any animal unless he can see a sufficient return in the offering.

The station is 2,500ha of “steep, rolling hill coun-try,” as Bunny puts it, run-ning from 300m to 1200m with 1900ha effective car-rying 17,000 stock units. Landcorp Romney ewes and hoggets make up 60% of the stock; the rest are Angus breeding cows and

Landcorp’s Opouahi Station, inland of Tutira, Hawkes Bay, has been chosen as an inhouse monitor farm to focus on beef herd performance, as Rural News reporter Peter Burke found out on a recent trip up the East Coast.

steers, the beef animal of choice on the east coast.

Sam, four permanent staff and two casuals run the station. He became manager of Opouahi in

2010 after stints as a shep-herd on several farms, including Smedley Sta-tion, a 31,000 stock unit property that incorporates a Cadet Training Farm

which Bunny was once a student of, prior to doing a Bcom Ag at Lincoln.

Communication is a big part of his management style and he makes sure

Th

e g

en

u i ne w e e d w

i pe

r -

s

ince 1987

JFM


management 27

dollars in Hawkes bay

a key challenge, and focus, is having pastures ‘ready at the right time’ for ewes and lambs.

his staff understand the ‘big picture’ goals on the property as well as their own individual tasks. He encourages them to share their ideas on the farm and to enjoy their work.

His arrival at Opouahi sort of coincided with the station being designated as one of Landcorps beef monitor farms. The pro-gramme is designed to work out how to make more money out of beef cows.

“Beef cow performance has been pretty much stagnant over the last 20 years [while] sheep per-formance has skyrock-eted so we were asked to be the monitor farm,” he explains.

Three or four times a year the station hosts Landcorp managers and staff from across the east-ern and central north island region. “Plus some staff from Wellington.”

NAIT technology is being used to monitor cattle and find out what is affecting their perfor-mance, then see what can be done to change things.

“One main area is the poor calving percentage, with North Island farm-ers managing about 88% which means that they’re losing 12 calves in every 100. We’re trying to find out where we’re losing these calves – second scanning’s part of this.

“We’re also monitor-ing the animals post calv-ing where we tend to lose them to misadventure, such as falling over banks.”

Good grazing man-agement and modest mob-sizes are his answer: shifting big mobs increases the risk of mis-adventure and having feed readily available means cows don’t have to forage very steep country.

That said, he believes in giving the beef cows a hard time, and believes some farms feed too well. Opouahi’s herd is ‘high

performing’ given it does very well on minimal tucker. He says the objec-tive with beef cattle is to limit losses and to use them to groom the pas-tures for ewes and lambs.

“The reason is that sheep are financially more viable than cattle. Because of that you have to get the best possible performance out of them on the mini-

mum and poorest qual-ity feed available. We work our cows very hard during the winter with the idea of having feed for them at the time they need it, which is calving and when the bull is going out.”

Steers are grown to 18 months then trucked to another Landcorp farm for finishing.

If it wasn’t for the beef cows, sheep performance would not be what it is, says Bunny.

The station winters 8,200 Landcorp Romney ewes and 2,500 hoggets. Ewes did 142% last spring, and hoggets 50% in what was the first time that class of stock had been mated on the property.

The improved lambing percentage, plus hogget contribution, produced 2000 more lambs.

Summers on the sta-tion are generally good, with plenty of rain, but winters can be harsh with snow on the tops. Grass doesn’t really get grow-ing until well into October. Lambing is late Septem-ber – probably not late

Who:

sam Bunny Where:

Northern Hawkes Bay What:

Ohouapi station

enough, says Bunny – with weaning first week Janu-ary. The problem is having enough feed in winter and enough stock to eat it in summer, hence the move to hogget mating. It’s an all grass system and very little supplement is fed, even in winter.

A key challenge, and focus, is having pastures

“ready at the right time” for ewes and lambs. Wean-ing weights have lifted 4kg. Over 11,000 lambs that’s huge, notes Bunny.

Another strategic focus is improved lamb survival scanning to tailing. Given the nature of the property it’s possible to lose 30% to 40%, notes Bunny. Some-thing below 20% is good.

“We do this by setting up pasture on the lower country to lamb on and virtually jamming the ewes in there to lamb. We select the best sheltered pad-docks and don’t lamb on the high country. Once the ewes have lambed and are pretty comfortable, then we bring them up to the higher country.”

They also finish lambs well, getting breeding hoggets to weight quickly

with a surplus of ewe lambs that can go to other Landcorp farms.


flock performance fur-ther into the future. “It’s not just about the infor-mation; it’s what you do with it.”

For example, besides using scan data to deter-mine stocking rate for set stocking singles and mul-tiples, for about 20c/ewe

extra scanners can age foetuses, allowing timing of set stocking to be fine-tuned.

“If you set stock them all at the same date and some aren’t due to lamb until four weeks after that date, there’s the poten-tial for problems there,” Young warns.

While it’s well known a ewe’s feed demand increases rapidly towards her due date, especially for those carrying twins, understanding the detail of that (see table) is key.

Having foetal age data is particularly advanta-geous on farms with a range of country – hill, flat, different soils, aspects and altitudes – so lambing dates can be matched to

28 management/animal health

making more from

Genetic progress and ram harnesses

Peter Young

HOW DO you use your scanning data? Do you even scan?Judging by presentations at one of a recent series of Beef + Lamb New Zealand

workshops, making more and smarter management decisions based on scan-ning data can dramatically cut losses, raising profits.

Speaker Peter Young,

a farm adviser from Alex-andra, says typically scan-ning results are used to identify dries and split flocks into multiple and single-carrying mobs. “But

that’s about the extent it.”In many cases more

management decisions could be made from the data, helping reduce losses in that year, and drive

Scanning is widely used on sheep farms but do we get full value out of the information available? andrew swallow reports from a Beef + Lamb New Zealand Farming For Profit workshop.

FellOW sPeAKeR errol Holgate showed how split scanning-age classes helps monitor genetic prog-ress, with 4-tooth results being “the most accurate group in the flock to tell where you are going with your genetics”.

Analysing them separately will also help show if 2-tooths are particularly “off the pace”, and if so, allow something to be done about it.

Answering a question from the floor about what’s an acceptable difference between 2-tooth and 4-tooth performance, Agresearch’s David stevens’ answer was blunt. “There isn’t an acceptable difference.”

Holgate suggests first-time lambers should be run as a separate mob post weaning “for six weeks or even through to mating” before they go back with the mixed-age ewes.

However, that weaning to mating window is a period when ewes should manage on minimal feed without it affecting performance, he stresses. “There’s no room for a high performance animal if she can only perform if she’s got fruit salad. One of the most important periods from an efficiency point of view is what a ewe can handle weaning to mating.”

At mating, using ram harnesses can give an even earlier indication of lambing dates than scanning, and allow prioritisation of feed at mating.

“If you’ve got a tight feed situation at mating there’s an opportunity 10 days after the ram went out to take out those ewes that are marked, so are presumably in lamb, and give feed priority to those ewes that are not marked.”

Harnesses also give an earlier indication of what’s going to happen come lambing. “Is all hell going to break loose on the due date or will there be not much happening for the first week?”

On his own farm as scanning % started hitting the 200s, with ever more triplets, weekly harness changes helped minimise triplet losses through mis-mothering, with ewes drafted into mobs all due within one week.

“The oldest a triplet lamb [on a lambing paddock] would get was seven days.”Freephone 0800 500 275 www.fieldmaster.co.nz

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management/animal health 29

scanning

foetal aging at scanning can help fine-tune set stocking dates, cutting lamb losses.

when spring growth starts across different blocks of the farm.

Set stocking too early not only wastes feed, it risks ewes putting on too much condition, being less fit and having more lamb-ing difficulties, he warns. It can also hit pasture pro-duction throughout the spring.

“Once you’re on top of the pasture cover early, you stay on top of it for a long-time.”

As a guide, Young sug-gests comparing covers at tailing to what ewes were put onto at set stocking. “If it’s about the same, you’ve got it [stocking rate and date] about right. If it’s lower, perhaps you need to lower your stock-ing rate.”

Tailing should coincide with peak milk production for the ewe and if feed has

been restricted lambing to tailing, milk production, and lamb growth, is lost – irreparably.

“If at tailing time your covers are low the damage is done.”

Young suggests using foetal aging to split ewes into those due in the first ten days, second ten days and last fortnight of mating. Typically 65-70% of ewes should be due in that first period, with 25-30% in the second and 5-15% in that last fortnight.

Delaying set stocking those second and third groups by ten days can have “quite a dramatic” effect on pasture cover. “There’s the potential for 250kgDM/ha growth in that 10 days.”

Lambing paddocks will also be growing that much faster if ewes are put on to them later.

Work by Massey Uni-versity shows cover length at lambing is a key factor in mis-mothering, he notes.

Below-optimal covers mean ewes have to forage further and longer to eat their fill resulting in more lambs being mis-moth-ered.

“At 1200kgDM/ha the ewe can eat her require-ment but she takes longer than if the cover was 1500-1700kgDM/ha. At that she’s getting more per mouthful. Any less and she’s spending more time away eating, and less time being a stay-at-home mum, which means there’s more time for the young-sters to get into trouble.”

Set stocking as late as possible also minimises the risk of overfat ewes that take too long to lamb. That’s particularly a prob-

lem with multiple births when the firstborn may wander off while its sib-lings arrive, notes Young.

In his own case, before chronic back and knee problems prompted him to sell his farm a few years

ago, he found giving ewes a 1km/day walk and “not allowing them to dawdle” worked wonders, slash-ing birthing problems and mis-mothering.

“It also helped us iden-tify any ewes that were

on the edge of being a bit staggery earlier. We’d put them straight out on to ad-lib grass. It had a big effect on reducing our ewe deaths.”

At 20c/ewe, Young reckons foetal aging is a

no-brainer, assuming the data is acted on. “The cost of it just isn’t an issue. If you can’t save three lambs/1000 ewes with that sort of information then you shouldn’t be in farm-ing, I reckon.”

ewe feed demand (mJme/day)

ewe carrying 6 weeks pre-lamb 4 weeks pre-lamb 2 weeks pre-lamb lambing day

2x 5kg twins 5 7 10 14

6kg single 3 4.5 6 8.5


30 animal health

rural dog registration fees a rort?EACH YEAR, at this time, my blood boils: dog registration! My letter arrived last week: $35 per dog and $53 if paid after July 31.

It never bothered me years ago when we were eliminat-ing Hydatids as it paid for the samples taken at the dosing strip annu-ally, and a visit adminis-tering worm tablets every 6 weeks. The costs would have been high; I can see where our money went; but now, $35 gets you a plastic tag that cost a few cents to produce. If ques-tioned council officials would say that it pays for dog control.

Most farmers and farm workers keep their dogs confined when not in work, and when you think of the thousands of farm dogs throughout New Zealand, how many of them are impounded or cause problems to anyone other than the farmer who owns them? They cer-tainly don’t fowl the pavements and ter-rorise postmen.

Why should farmers pay for the urban dog problem? New Zealand would not be where it is today with-

out the working farm dog, and we would have a meagre future indeed if they all suddenly van-ished. I suppose there would always be fruit and veg.

It seems totally unreasonable to have to register our farm dogs, after all, aren’t they really just a tool to do a job? We don’t regis-ter station-hacks, farm-bikes or chainsaws.

I would like to see everyone who owns a working farm dog, unite and not pay. They can’t take all of us to court. They can’t throw us all in jail. They can’t impound all our dogs.

Incidentally, one of the objectives of the Dog Control Act is “to make better provisions for the care and control of dogs”. Part of this act is on the registra-tion form. Please read it. It’s item 54: Obligations of dog owner.

I would happily sign my cheque for dog registration, in fact be prepared to

pay a higher fee, if there were ‘farm dog officers’ visiting unannounced, each and every farm annually, checking the welfare of our working farm and sta-tion dogs.

Sadly there is no one looking out for them. The owners answer only to their conscience. Too many don’t have a con-science, or are they in fact, stupid?

I have been witness to much cruelty

over the years. Many dogs are skin and bone. You wouldn’t believe the water, for want of a better word, some dogs have to drink, usually out of containers that are never cleaned, often fouled with faeces and urine. One idiot said to me “he shits in it, he can drink it”.

We confine our farm dogs, we give them no choice as to where they relieve themselves, and as a dog’s mind doesn’t

think like us, he may acciden-tally foul the water. He doesn’t think “if I cock my leg here, or squat there, it is going to land in my water container”. If this happens, and the dog isn’t let out for several days (many aren’t) that is all he has to drink. No dog should live like this.

I have seen horrendous living conditions. Once, I saw a line of dog motels where sev-eral of the dogs had chewed the front of the kennels so badly the rain used to drive in; on this occasion the dogs were huddled inside, stand-ing in an inch of water. They couldn’t lie down, they had nowhere to go. The owner knew and did nothing, when

questioned he shrugged and said “they chewed it”.

Please, if you see dogs being treated like this, report the owner – speak for the dogs.• Anna Holland is teaching people dog training. For more information www.annaholland.co.nz or Ph 06) 388 1318 or [email protected]

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animal health 31

teat spray revamp cuts mastitisBETTER PENETRA-TION of muck and mud plus more active ingre-dient in a new formula-tion of a teat spray can dramatically cut mastitis infection, says its manu-facturer.

Deosan has boosted chlorhexidine content of its old Teat-Ex formula-tion from 0.45% to 0.6% and rebranded it as TeatX. Emollient (glycerine) con-tent is up 10% for better teat conditioning and multiple surfactants mean it gives good coverage of the teat.

“The job of a good teat spray is to penetrate the soil loading and get into the cracks and grooves to get at the microscopic bugs,” Doesan managing director Kip Bodle told Rural News.

“We’ve assessed ours at all dilutions and it achieves penetration in less than two seconds. A couple of products took three days... You want the teat protected before the cow leaves the shed.”

Rising prices for iodine mean chlorhexidine is now more or less on a par price-wise, with superior performance, he adds.

“Iodine is acidic and harsh on a cow’s skin whereas TeatX has a neutral pH which helps prevent teat damage

occurring in the first place. Less teat damage means fewer infections and more profit.... Our research indicates 30% of farmers now prefer to use chlorhexidine teat spray.

“We know that teat condition is one of the key issues in the preven-tion of mastitis. Chlorhex-idine is just as effective at killing bugs as iodine and TeatX has been proven to outperform every other chlorhexidine teat spray on the market.”

Bodle says most of the test work was “at lab level” with the new prod-uct piloted on “probably four farms”.

A farm study of the old Teat-Ex formulation on a large corporate South Island farm that had pre-viously used iodine teat sprays found clinical cases of mastitis down by a third in the 2011/12 season, saving the farm almost $200,000 or $21/cow across 9459 animals.

“While mastitis is multi-factorial, in this case there was a substantial improvement in teat condition which resulted in decreased BMSCC (bulk milk somatic cell count) from 201,000 to 167,000 and 248 less clinical cases,” says Bodle.

“This improvement was largely attributable to

ANDreW SWALLOW the swap from iodine to Teat-Ex and our new for-mulation... will deliver even better results.”

A week’s free trial of up to $250 of TeatX is

being offered in the North Island this month, and in the South Island in August. See www.teatx.co.nz

A wider range of

approved dilutions - 1:4, 1:7 and 1:9 - mean savings on product cost can be made later in the season when mastitis pressure is reduced.

in brief

dairY NZ has put a revised version of its mastitis management tool samm Plan online.

dubbed smartsamm, it will give farmers and advisors easy access to comprehensive, industry-agreed knowledge about mastitis and milk quality, says dairy NZ’s Jane lacy-Hulbert.

“for farmers, smartsamm provides key tools and resources to help establish whether a problem exists, and if so what to do next and how to prevent it in future. there are guide-lines and key recommendations for managing mastitis during calving, lactation, drying off and the dry period.

“for advisors, the corresponding tech-notes provide more of the science detail that sits behind the recommendations; we’ve tried to make this an all-you-need-to-know resource,” says lacy-Hulbert.

see www.smartsamm.co.nz

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32 animal health

background bVD costs add upIF YOU think you might be better off living with bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) in the herd rather than risk an outbreak in a naive herd, then numbers presented last week at the South Island Dairy Event in Dunedin might make you think again.

For a herd of 582 cows – the South Island average – with high BVD antibodies and a $6/kgMS payout the annual cost/year of living with the disease in a herd is $102,000, Andrew Weir of Eltham Veterinary Ser-vices and the national BVD steering group told del-egates.

That cost is based

on typical losses in such herds compared to BVD-free of 5% lower pro-duction, 2.4% lower conception, 2% higher abortion, and losses due to death or culling of persis-

tent infectors, aka PIs.“And that cost is just

based on this [milk pro-duction] part of the equa-tion. Obviously there are other parts to look at such as losses of calves.”

While work on calf losses here is limited, studies elsewhere – nota-bly Europe where some countries have man-aged to eradicate the dis-ease – show increased growth rate of calves and improved calf health in its absence. US work found even BVD-vaccinated calves had a 20% lower

growth rate when con-stantly exposed to infec-tion due to a PI cow being nearby.

Weir showed several images of BVD-infected calves here, including two 19-month-old, suppos-edly in-calf Friesian cross heifers little bigger than a 7-month-old Jersey.

Such small, weak calves, if they survive, typi-cally have poor fertility so either won’t make it into the milking herd or won’t last.

For most PIs that’s also true, however some manage to make it into herds where they con-stantly “shed massive amounts of virus, through every hole and every fluid” without obviously being carriers, warns Weir.

PIs originate when a cow is infected with BVD in the first four months of pregnancy. While she will probably mount an immune response and overcome the disease, if the foetus isn’t aborted, it will also be infected and carry that infection for life as a PI.

Mortality of PIs is 17% higher between birth and two years. “So it’s a signifi-cant cost but not enough to do our job [of culling PIs] for us.”

PIs also, on average, are 18% slower growing, have a 6% higher abortion rate, and have 49% lower milk production. What milk they produce is laden with virus – so highly infectious if fed to a calf - and typi-cally has a high cell count.

Testing and culling is the only way to deal with PIs. “If you vaccinate it does nothing at all for the PIs.”

Bought-in stock, including calves born to bought-in cows, should also be tested.

Vaccination will protect cows from infection, but comes at a cost of about $6/shot with a second booster shot needed to achieve anything more than a few weeks’ protec-tion, stresses Weir.

AB bulls are BVD-tested so they present no risk, but bought-in bulls do.

Tests have shown one or two in every 200 to be a PI. “So the longer you go without testing the bigger the risk you are going to hit one.”

In a naive herd, bring-ing in infection with a bull, or otherwise, will cause immediate and serious

losses due to scours, milk loss, abortions and cow deaths. Even in a herd with high antibodies, hence immunity, they’re a prob-lem as they’re likely to create PIs.

Other sources of infec-tion are animal-to-ani-mal across fence lines, or on vectors such as service industry personnel, equip-ment and vehicles.

“Testing replacement calves covers the major-ity of risks and vaccinating the herd does a lot too. But whichever of these you do, you have to test bulls and replacement cows.”

• Antibodies in 90% of herds – indicates exposure at some point.

• In those herds 60% of cows have antibodies.• Initial infection in naive herd causes disease storm.• Ongoing milk, conception, abortion, calf and cow

losses if infection allowed to persist.• Combination of testing, vaccination, and on-farm

biosecurity required.• Complex disease so consult vet on strategy.

BVd

andrew weir

ANDreW SWALLOW “testing replacement calves covers the majority of risks and vaccinating the herd does a lot too.”


animal health 33

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Dehydration kills calves, not scoursHOW MUCH milk and electrolyte do you give a scouring calf? Too often the answer is not enough, judging by independent calf rearing expert Bas Schouten’s workshop at

last week’s South Island Dairy Event, Dunedin.

“It’s most important to remember a calf needs to drink at least 10% of its bodyweight in fluids every day. That means a 40kg calf needs at least 4L and it will comfortably take

6L,” he told delegates.If a calf has been scour-

ing for a day before it is detected, as is quite likely, it will already be 5% dehy-drated so needs an extra 2L of electrolyte just to get it back to normal. “So it needs a minimum of 6L of electrolyte.”

Whether scours are nutritional – white faeces due to protein (casein) escaping from the aboma-sum and passing straight through the small intes-tine – or infectious, “treat-ment is exactly the same,” he stressed. “The calf will die of dehydration and lack of energy, not due to the bugs. Get as much milk and electrolyte in as you can.”

Many vets still say don’t give milk to scour-ing calves, based on the theory the fat and lactose in the milk feed the bac-teria or virus causing the scours. But the calves des-perately need the energy the milk provides and it will not exacerbate the scours, he said. “The

sCHOuTeN’s INTeRACTIVe session dealt with about a dozen points raised by delegates at the outset. Home-made electrolytes and meals were shot down in flames, as were auto-mated feeders.

“They come around every five-six years but two years later most of them are sitting in the corner of the shed doing nothing. There’s no substi-tute for going in there and seeing your calves.”

As for homemade electrolytes, “don’t do it,” was schouten’s advice. “you’ll never get enough energy in there.”

One trick to boost the energy content of bought electrolytes is to add a tablespoon of dextrose per litre

of electrolyte. “so buy your electrolyte and a sack of dextrose.”

Bought meals are “very safe” and typically contain “a beautiful balance of three grains, molasses, rumen buffers, sodium bentonite and minerals.”

Palatability is a key requirement and a point where some of the fibre-based meals fall down, he added.

such meals, due to lower dry matter content, also provide less energy per dollar.

“If you want to buy a bag that’s half water, that’s up to you!”

Probiotics on the other hand are “very good value” and at 5c/day, adding one to a calf’s feed for the first ten days “is a good investment”.

Housing, meals and automation

Bas schouten

SPEAKERS AT last month’s New Zea-land Veterinary Association Confer-ence in Hamilton lambasted lifestyle block owners’ animal husbandry skills.

Mark Anderson, Helensville Vet-erinary Services, told delegates to expect more after-hours callouts from small block owners because they often have strong emotional con-

nections with their animals but lack knowledge or resources to deal with animal health or welfare situations.

Vets should check if livestock on a lifestyle block are considered com-mercial or a pet, and be upfront about costs, he said.

Fellow conference presenter Francine Shields, SPCA Whangarei, said bony and/or ailing stock are too

common a sight on lifestyle blocks, where overstocking and lack of basic husbandry skills can lead to problems.

People new to rural living often do not understand feed quantity and quality needs for different stock either, and are not usually able to rotate and rest paddocks. Poor pas-ture quality and lack of parasite and disease controls exacerbate problems.

lifestylers’ animal care under fire

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whole thing is basically a myth.”

Electrolytes typi-cally contain only half the energy of milk and a calf needs 3L of milk just for maintenance.

“Six litres of any elec-trolyte is only half the energy requirement of a calf... you cannot get enough [energy] in.”

Schouten’s regime for treating a scouring calf is electrolyte in the morn-ing, milk at midday, elec-

trolyte again at teatime, and then ad lib electrolyte overnight. “Do that and tomorrow it’s going to be bouncing.”

Shifting scouring calves to separate pens only serves to spread infection and Schouten’s preference is to isolate the casualty for ease of man-agement by putting it in a corner with a hurdle across it to form a small pen within the main one.

If more than half a pen of calves is scouring start them all on treatment for scours as it’s a near certainty they all will be scouring soon, he adds.

If treatment is right, calves won’t scour for more than three-four days. Research work has shown even with rotovirus and calves that received little colostrum, and con-sequently have low-levels of immune-globulins, only 14% die.

“With good immunity you’ve got a 97% chance of recovery. You do not need any veterinary help at all. All you’ve got to do is keep that milk and elec-trolyte going.... I want you to understand calf rearing can be stress free.”

ANDreW SWALLOW


34 machinery & products

Saves water, less effluent

COW HOUSING pioneer Herd Homes reckons it can save water and cut efflu-ent volumes on dairy yards, and is look-ing for a North Island farmer to test its ideas by trialling its new Dairyard.

Crucial to the development is a roofed-over yard and more “strategic” use of yard-wash water from plant and pit area.

Herd Homes chief exec-utive Hamish McMillan told Rural News the company needs a farmer building a new shed or dramatically remodelling an old shed to test the theory.

“You can reduce the amount of effluent going into a pond by one and a half times just by putting a roof over the yard,” says McMil-lan. “All of a sudden you’ve got a valuable resource instead of something just going into the effluent pond.” The company estimates a cut in water use of 11L/cow/day.

The company will build a roof over the trial farm’s yard, then install a system using scrapers and wash water from the dairy plant and pit area to dis-pose of effluent.

Effluent is moved off the yard by a backing gate fitted with hoses sup-plied with waste water collected during other steps of the washdown process. Effluent is then pushed by another mechanical scraper from the yard via channels to silos.

McMillan sees scope to cut the water content of effluent to about half that occurring in traditional systems. “It is easier to handle and spread. Drier effluent keeps its nutrient value better.”

The Dairyard concept is a revi-

sion of a system trialled since 2005 by the company but shelved due to New Zealand Food And Safety Authority (NZFSA) requirements.

The previous concept had stock walking on a grated surface through which effluent fell on to dry matter below, but this did not comply with NZFSA regulations which stipulate effluent must be stored at least 45m from milk harvesting equipment.

“With the new system, effluent is carried a long way away from that 45m so it shouldn’t be a problem,” says McMillan.

He cannot say when a commercial version of the Dairyard will be on sale.

A story last week in Dairy News yielded about a dozen phone calls from interested farmers but the com-plex nature of the project complicated things, McMillan says. “There’s a lim-ited build window. “We’re ideally look-ing for someone building a new shed.”

Preferred region is Waikato or Bay Of Plenty, but given the right condi-tions they may look further.

“We have experts all over the coun-try and it would be easier to bring them to a central location such as Waikato or Bay of Plenty. That’s where the regula-tors are and where we are.”tel. 021 706 [email protected]

GAretH GILLAtt

Irish eyes smile on FieldaysWE’LL BE back, the Irish say, after gaining good impressions of National Fieldays.

Ireland’s ambassa-dor to New Zealand and Australia, Noel White, is vowing to return to National Fieldays next year.

It was his first visit to Fieldays since recently taking up his post in Can-berra.

White told Rural News being at Fieldays is a prior-ity for Enterprise Ireland which handles day-to-day trade issues with New Zea-land.

Fieldays is a top-class event and a good business platform highly regarded by Irish companies, he says. Ireland this year had a large site with 14 compa-nies exhibiting.

“We’re beginning to see benefits, over time, of being involved and we need to give it more time. The fact 14 Irish exhibitors were there shows the people in the farm machinery busi-ness believe in Fieldays as a worthwhile exercise coming all the way here for.

“It was interest-ing to note a number of Irish exhibitors actu-

ally brought product with them and I must admit it was nice to see Irish trail-ers on the ground in Ham-ilton.”

White says he’s been told first-time Irish exhibi-tors made good contacts to help set up partnerships and distributorships in New Zealand. And compa-nies well-established here, such as Keenans, were able to build on excellent relationships they already have.

“We’re producing rugged machinery needed in a rugged marketplace – New Zealand – and this is being put to good use. This is fantastic to see good results because it proves the quality of the prod-uct we are selling. We have products which clearly appeal to the New Zealand market.”

White says the export of farm machinery from Ireland is a priority trade and with the growth of the New Zealand market Fiel-days is the preferred plat-form to spearhead this growth.

“People often think the tyranny of distance between our two coun-tries makes it hard to build good connections. But it’s clear to me that if you have good products and can link that into a market in a sensible way then people will be interested.”

New Zealand and Ire-land have a lot in common, being small nations with similar political, cul-tural and historical back-grounds, White says. He notes the huge number of family connections between the two coun-tries, supporting the wider

trading relationship. Thirty years ago New

Zealand and Ireland were competing for lamb market access to Europe. Nowadays there is a high level of cooperation in these markets to grow the market and to comple-ment each other’s prod-ucts.

“We appreciate the opportunity to come down and do business. Our two counties go back a long way and we tend to view the world in the same way. The relationship is work-ing well in both direc-tions.”

peter burke

DeNIs MADAGAN was pleased with his four days at Fieldays and says he’ll be back again. He manages a company called HsNZ and is the local distributor for an Irish company called Hi-spec.

The company has for nearly 25 years made auger feeders, mix feeders, muck spreaders and effluent tankers, the company being regarded as a leading maker of this type of equipment in europe.

Madigan worked in New Zealand

some years ago, saw opportunity for these products and set up a company distributing the brand, helped by Fiel-days.

“Irish companies have a good stan-dard of product and our machines are well engineered and heavily built. There is a place for certain brands of Irish machines in New Zealand but we have to compete with local engineering compa-nies especially on price which is not always easy,” he says.

effluent firm aims for top end

Noel white

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machinery & products 35

Indian cab tractor is good valueA NEW farm-utility cab tractor (70hp) from Indian giant Mahindra is designed in Germany. Fit and finish are second to none, says the company, from its Australasian base in Brisbane.

Sagar Bhadkamkar, national manager says, “The new 7060 cab tractor represents the best value on the market with the highest operating weight and lift capacities, at this price point.

“With decent wheel equipment standard, it is a serious, hardworking util-ity tractor. It has all-steel construction, large 16.9 x 30 ag rear wheels and 11.2 x 24 fronts. This tractor will push more, pull more, and lift more.

“Combined with our 3-year limited war-ranty plan, this represents the most power-ful value pack-age available to tractor buyers today.”

The launch of the new 7060 Cab trac-tor comple-

ments the earlier released 8560 4WD Cab tractor in the 60 series range.

Both tractors have rubber isolators on the cab floor insulating the opera-tor from the chassis, and a comfortable air suspen-sion seat.

This has electric-pneu-matic operation of seat height adjustment, adjust-ability of the seat fore and aft, along with fore and aft movement of the steering wheel for “supreme” oper-ator comfort.

The cab floor is fully flat with solid rubber mat-ting for grip.

Other comfort features are “numerous” air-con-dition/heating vents, stan-dard DIN size radio slot,

and large sun visors. There is also a hook

for the driver’s jacket and storage area for bits and pieces. Both cab doors are lockable and the rear window opens for greater air flow and visibility when heating/cooling is not required.

The 7060 weighs 3425kg – in the 60-70hp cab market this is a “sub-stantial platform from which to safely and stably feed out bales,” avoiding the cost of a larger, more expensive tractor.

It will especially suit dairy farmers with at least 2.3 t lift capacity at the ball ends of the hitch and a 900kg safe working load on the loader.

With two sets of remote standard, also fea-turing float, detent and kick out, orchard farm-ers will appreciate the lift-

ing capacity for spraying applications.

Optional carbon filters for the cabin are also avail-able.

Mahindra Ag and Auto Australia is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mahindra & Mahindra Limited based in Brisbane.

The company has dealer network of 70 in ag and auto segments in Australia and New Zealand.www.mahindra.co.nz

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36 machinery & productstru-test product manager shane dooley says the stick allows more accurate and easier measurement of animals.

Design and function earns prizeTRU-TEST GROUP has won an NZ Agri-business Product award for its Tru-Test XRS EID stick reader, launched late last year. Product manager Shane Dooley says the device addresses a key issue: how do you measure more animals in a day, easily and accurately?

The XRS enables readings of stock through yards at a rate of at least 800 reads/minute, claimed higher than has previously been achievable using other readers, the company says. It is said to have best-in-class battery life and ergonomics.

“The agritech industry’s focus to date has been largely on ‘read range’ – the max-imum distance between the reader and the animal,” Dooley says.

“While range is important and a key fea-ture of the XRS, the number-one require-ment of a portable reader is the ability to put large numbers of animals through

quickly, and to measure accurately.”The XRS reads up to 500,000 tags on

one battery charge, equivalent to about 20 hours continuous use, reckoned at least twice the continuous operating time between re-charges of any such device.

The company says it worked hard on the XRS ergonomics and ease of set up.

“We took sports equipment such as tennis rackets and cricket bats as inspira-tion,” Dooley says. “We’ve added weight to the XRS to move the centre of gravity to where the farmer’s hand sits. It can be used all day in the yard and is one of the lightest readers on the market.”

The XRS links with any Bluetooth enabled Tru-Test weigh scale.

It is said to have made a “major splash” in North America, where 12 months sales targets were achieved in 12 weeks.www.tru-test.co.nz

easy-move wool press

PASSAGE THROUGH woolshed standard door-ways is no problem for ICS Manufacturing’s Dominator wool press, says company director Ian Cowan, displaying it at National Fieldays.

Mounted on a three-wheel trolley, the press can be shifted on the wool floor, and through stan-dard doorways, with-out dismantling, ideal for baling various piles of wool.

Lowering the towing handle activates the built-in weigh scales so all bales can be packed to a uni-form legal weight.

The Dominator has automatic corner pinning which does not pierce the wool pack, averting the risk of contaminat-ing the wool. It has front and rear loading and two sides open for easy bale

removal with no need for mechanical ejection.

Says Cowan,“The Dominator is without doubt the best wool press on the market and is built

to make hard work easier. With all the noise asso-ciated with shearing and shearing sheds the Domi-nator is whisper quiet in its operation.”

He says the three stage hydraulic pump can exert a pressure of 13.5t, the most powerful in New Zealand.

“The press has a fully integrated safety system which ensures all doors are closed before oper-ating and the selected loading door opens auto-matically at the end of each cycle.”

The Dominator comes in two models with single phase power; the 4hp and the 5hp which is a rein-forced commercial model for average sheds.

There are two models with three phase power both with 5.5hp motors. One is a reinforced com-mercial type for larger sheds and commercial sit-uations

Prices from $17,600.00+GST to $19,200+GST for the larg-est.tel. 0800 641 146

tONY HOpkINSON

ian cowan, director ics farm machinery the maker of the dominator Nfd wool press.

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machinery & products 37

Guardian angel prevents bad milk grades

Gea farm technologies says the Halo milk monitoring tool gives farmers an opportunity to fix problems before they occur.

KNOWING EXACTLY what’s going on in the milking shed is now made easier thanks to the Halo milk monitoring tool new from GEA Farm Technologies.

The Halo system, developed by TagIT, utilises probes, traps and sensors at strategic spots in the milking plant to measure the volume, temperature and flow of milk and wash water going through the plant.

Measurements are taken at 10-minute intervals and uploaded to a cloud server through mobile data, with information compiled into reports then either sent back to the farmer as a text message or email or posted to the internet.

Technical development manager Russell Gibbs says it gives opportunity to fix problems before they turn into grades.

“All farmers know they lose milk either through mis-takes or by accident,” says Gibbs. “We’re trying to let them know what’s happening close to the source so they don’t have to deal with grades.”

Some of the things the Halo mik monitoring system can detect include thermodurics and warm milk says Gibb. Messages are passed to farmers for whatever action they deem fit.

“We’re not prescriptive in what we do; we just give them the information,” Gibbs explains. “We don’t ask the farmer to change what he’s doing, we just say ‘do what you normally do and we’ll give them the data’.”

While the system has been available for just nine months and is on about nine farms now, Gibbs says it has been in development for the last two and a half years and is bringing good results. Farmers are very happy with the technology,” he says.tel. 07 823 3660www.gea-farmtechnologies.co.nz

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38 motoring/rural trader

kia flying high with new technology

turn on the engine and air conditioning by smartphone.

The K9 has all-LED headlamps that auto-matically shift the angle and breadth of the units according to the direc-tion and speed of the car, reducing blind spots.

Power comes from a normally aspirated V6 petrol engine with direct injection, giving the power of a V8 with the fuel effi-ciency of a mid-size sedan, the company says.

The top version of the 3.8 litre engine delivers 334hp.

Kia has released a technological tour de force in the new K9 flagship.

SMOOTHER GEAR shift-ing on the new Kia K9 luxury ‘flagship’ model is one result of aviation tech-nology adopted by this South Korean car maker.

The K9 is now on sale in South Korea and will be launched globally later this year.

Shift-by-wire technol-ogy activates the auto-matic transmission, instead of a mechanical shift. This is similar to fly-by-wire systems used by

aircraft makers on their latest passenger planes.

Kia says the K9’s gear shifting is “much smoother and we could see it used on other models in the near future”.

Other aviation tech-nology on the K9 is a high-tech ‘heads-up dis-play’ (HUD). Used on advanced

fighter jets, this projects vital data on to the wind-screen of a vehicle, tell-ing the driver the vehicle’s speed, navigational data, danger signals, and rear and side obstacles. And it warns when the vehicle veers off track.

Also new, Flex Steer

enables the driver to select driving mode (normal, eco, snow and sport), each regulating the engine, transmission, steering and suspension to balance between driving com-fort, performance and fuel economy. This gear is likely on other Kia vehi-

cles, especially the SUV and

Crossover, making them safer on dangerous sur-faces, the company says.

Adaptive cruise control automatically adjusts the car’s distance from other vehicles.

The K9 will be one of the first cars outside Europe to offer this.

The K9 has Kia’s first-ever telematics system that enables drivers to

Gilmour’s best finish in Rally NZEMMA GILMOUR battled through major problems on the final day of Rally New Zea-land to claim 14th place overall. It was her best finish in a world championship event.

Along with the overall finish – two places better than her previous best on a WRC round – Gilmour was the third Kiwi home and second amongst the national rally championship contenders for the three-day event.

The Dunedin-based Vantage Team Subaru driver began Rally NZ aiming to match the pace of defending national champion Richard Mason. The pair quickly broke clear of the rest of the national cham-pionship field as well as running strongly in the overall order for the rally, which counts as round seven of this year’s world series.

However, with her car struggling for rear-end grip in the slippery leg one con-ditions, Gilmour gradually lost ground to Mason, finishing the day some 50 seconds down. The contest was much more even on Saturday’s second leg: the pair traded times all day and the margin between them at the end of the leg was just 12 seconds.

Come Sunday’s third and final day, Gilmour set out determined to take the leg win from Mason. However a severe brake problem intervened on the opening stages of the day.

She eventually nursed her Subaru Impreza to the finish in 14th place overall, one place behind Mason, and one place ahead of the third national championship finisher Matt Jansen.

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Some years ago,Quad Bike manufacturers were unhappy about roll bars being fitted to their bikes. Fitting them insinuated that their quads were unsafe without them. So they produced a computer generated video featuring a dummy riding a quad with a roll bar. Being a dummy, it couldn’t hold on, lean, stand or think. Consequently, the dummy was tossed around like a rag doll, hitting everything. From this flawed test, it was reasoned that roll bars were dangerous and should be taken off! Go figure! They didn’t mention bull bars, brush bars, handle bars or the bikes bulk. Amazingly, nobody questioned them.Meanwhile, in Australia, a clever little Aussie engineer was taking a fresh look at the problem of being crushed under a quad. Many models later and exhaustive safety tests by the Queensland University and the Quadbar was born. It was small,light,fitted all quads and even in a backflip, tended to land on its side. Better still, ACC and OSH were in the loop.Since 2011, over 150 farms in NZ have begun using Quadbars and manufacturing is now done in Orewa. The best part is that lives have been saved in that time and I feel pretty good about that. I recently learnt that when you are crushed for some time, toxins build up in your blood and can cause a heart attack and possible death. Keeping that bike off you seems a good idea.

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rural trader 39

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The facts about transmission line buffer corridors.I am writing this letter directly for landowners who have transmission lines across their properties.

I am concerned that the information in the public arena around transmission line buffer corridors has been confusing and misleading and would like to set the facts straight.

Why are transmission line buffer corridors needed?One requirement of the Government’s National Policy Statement on Electricity Transmission 2008 (NPSET) is that all district councils include transmission line buffer corridors in their district plans, notionally by this year. NPSET recognises the national importance of the existing transmission grid.

Unfortunately, our transmission lines have been compromised over the years, particularly (but not solely) by new developments directly underneath them. We are supportive of development around transmission lines as long as it is planned appropriately – incompatible development limits our ability to use and maintain existing lines (ultimately resulting in the need to build new lines) and this comes at a cost to all electricity users.

Transmission line buffer corridors address this issue. They ensure that activities that may be incompatible with the safe and efficient operation of the transmission line, or the safety of the landowner and the public, are subject to controls. Buffer corridors do not provide Transpower with any new rights.

No landowner wants additional controls on their land. I am totally sympathetic to that, particularly as an East Coast farmer myself who is as concerned about the environment as most, but doesn’t appreciate being told where to plant conservation trees or how to control kanuka regrowth! I know that applying for resource consent has a real cost.

So I’m not supportive of any more restrictions around transmission lines than are absolutely necessary. Yes, we do want to protect the national infrastructure and the safety of those working on, and living around our assets. But no, we don’t want landowners’ farming operations and agricultural activity to be unnecessarily restricted by the introduction of buffer corridors.

So is it a 64 metre wide corridor we’re seeking?Let’s set the facts straight. There is a lot of talk about the 64 metre corridor – the rugby field or ‘land grab’ as I have heard it described – where apparently Transpower wants to restrict all activity. This is just not true. We are primarily concerned about the area directly below the wires and immediately next to the tower foundations. We describe this as the red zone: it is typically about 12 metres either side of the transmission line.

We are solely concerned with activities that may be inappropriate in this zone. Principally, these are new buildings and structures, substantial extensions to existing buildings, and major earthworks (those that could undermine the towers or materially reduce clearances to live wires). We’re suggesting that these types of activities require a resource consent.

Almost all farming activity (for example, cropping, harvesting, grazing, ploughing, tracks, etc), is not impacted in any way. Nor are existing buildings in the red zone impacted – if they burn down, for example, they can be replaced with a similar structure. Most farmers I talk to understand that it is not wise to build structures within 12 metres of a high voltage line, and aren’t of a mind to do so.

If you want to subdivide, you will need a resource consent – but subdivision already requires this.

So what about the area outside of the red zone? We are also proposing to councils that they include a “green zone” – typically around 20 metres either side of the red zone – where development activity does not require resource consent as long as it complies with the New Zealand Electrical Code of Practice for Electrical Safe Distances 2001 (NZECP34), which is a legal requirement already.

Compliance with NZECP34 is not a new requirement (it’s been in place for nearly 20 years). All structures near any power lines - distribution or transmission - are required to be compliant with it today, whether they are in the red or green zone, or beyond. The NZECP34 simply defines how close parts of a structure can be to the power line, so that there are no safety issues for a landowner or the public.

Unfortunately, NZECP34 is not widely understood and many structures have been built that infringe it. Providing the landowner shows that NZECP34 clearances have been checked (which is already a requirement), there are no additional restrictions in the green zone, and no need for resource consent.

So what’s next?We know that you have concerns that your activities may be restricted, or that you will incur additional costs because of the need to go through the consent process. We understand this concern.

We are working closely with landowners and councils around the country to minimise any impact. This includes asking that the corridor be as narrow as possible.

But ultimately, this is not our decision. The statutory obligation is on the individual council, not Transpower, to determine an appropriate buffer corridor width (councils may decide on a wider corridor than we are proposing for other concerns they may have) and what activities may require resource consent. Requirements may differ between councils, but we are all trying to make it as simple as possible.

Our landowner relationships are vitally important to us, and we encourage you to contact us with questions or concerns. While we need to ensure that the National Grid is protected, we are more than happy to talk with landowners and try to find an appropriate, workable solution.

Yours sincerely

Patrick StrangeChief Executive

Further information on transmission line buffer corridors is available at www.transpower.co.nz

rural news 3 july 2012

Documents

commercial farmers

honesty of farmers

nait tags

farm movement

taf meeting

dangerous animals

legal requirement

possible legal challenge