rural news 4 november 2014

RURALNEWS

NEWSWhittakers chocolate milk takes supermarkets by storm. PAGE 16

MANAGEMENTSorghum-sudan grass a good a summer-safe option. PAGE 28 AGRIBUSINESS

Are you bright enough for a

career in the agribusiness sector?

PAGE 23

TO ALL FARMERS, FOR ALL FARMERS

NOVEMBER 4, 2014: ISSUE 572 www.ruralnews.co.nz

SMALL BUT STANDING TALLSmall is big; that’s Waikato independent dairy processor Tatua Dairy. With 87 farmer shareholders, the 100-year-old co-op topped the 2013-14 payout stakes with a whopping $10.32/kgMS final payout before retentions. A $65 million specialised ingredients dryer under construction will reinforce Tatua’s reputation as a supplier of quality specialised ingredients for global food and nutritional manufacturers. Chairman Stephen Allen (left) and general manager sales and marketing John Powell talk about Tatua’s success story on pages 8-9

Two into one?SITUATIONS VACANT at the top of both big meat processing coopera-tives presents a “huge opportunity” to advance industry reform, claims the Meat Industry Excellence (MIE) group.

At the start of its annual round of shareholder meetings, last week, Silver Fern Farms announced chief executive Keith Cooper was “stepping down” after eight years at the helm. It follows Alliance’s July announcement that its chief executive for the past nine years, Grant Cuff, would be leaving in Decem-ber.

“This represents a huge opportu-nity for the chairs of both cooperatives to get together and genuinely address the problems that beset the industry,” MIE chairman John McCarthy told Rural News.

“They could cut across and appoint one chief executive for both cooper-atives. Sure, have a caretaker in the meantime, but make it clear to the can-didates you are working to merge the businesses.”

Recruiting for a chief executive to see through such a merger and lead the resulting business would attract a much higher-calibre candidate than either co-op is likely to procure on its own, he argues. “This is a massive opportunity to bring in much needed human capital of decent calibre.”

McCarthy paid tribute to Cooper for his term leading Silver Fern Farms – notably for driving through branding

initiatives.“He inherited a poison chalice that

was the legacy of the Richmond take-over and that has brought the whole industry to its knees. It created huge animosity and we’ve paid the price ever since. But we can’t keep looking back. We have to look forward,” he stressed.

MIE’s business plan for industry reform, due later this month, would provide detail on how reform might be achieved. Overcapacity costs the sector $450m/year and that has to be addressed for any investment to yield the returns it should, McCarthy says. “We have to right-size before we can upsize.”

That needs to be a cross-industry approach because companies would be reluctant to go it alone in closing plants because competitors would simply mop up the supply, making vulnerable the firm incurring the closure cost.

Silver Fern Farms signalling a return

to profit (see panel) was welcomed by McCarthy who suggested “all farmers who’ve supported our thrust for change should take a bow” because of it.

“The cooperatives have put their best foot forward and a lot of that is because of the pressure brought to bear by farmers. As a group farmers are the only ones who can effect change.”

ANDREW SWALLOW

[email protected]

Silver Fern Farms outgoing chief executive Keith Cooper.

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RURAL NEWS // NOVEMBER 4, 2014

NEWS 3

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ISSUE 572www.ruralnews.co.nz Call for head’s head

A LEADING sheep farmer is calling for the resignation of AgResearch’s chief executive over the Invermay issue and has taken his concerns to Government.

In a letter to Minister Steven Joyce and copied to numerous other parties last week, Hugh Gardyne, past chair of the Southern Texel Breeders Associa-tion and a past president of Southland Federated Farmers, says Tom Richard-son should be asked for his resignation owing to AgResearch’s “lack of genu-ine consultation” over the relocation of sheep research facilities and scien-tists from Invermay to Lincoln under its Future Footprint Proposal (FFP).

Farmers’ fears that the move would see many scientists leave AgResearch

are proving correct (Rural News, Octo-ber 21) and even if the people were retained, Lincoln would still not be a suitable environment to conduct research that’s relevant to most New Zealand sheep farms, Gardyne argues.

He also says AgResearch has failed to account for the potential of Inver-may which currently carries less than a third of the 3000 stock units it could.

These concerns have been well doc-umented and long since presented to AgResearch with requests for revision, but have been ignored, as have requests for an external review of FFP, says Gar-dyne.

Even recommendations by AgResearch’s own Change Management Team that the genomic and reproduc-tive science teams remain at Invermay

have been overruled.“We’ve been through all the

steps,” Gardyne told Rural News, when asked why Richardson’s resigna-tion is necessary.

Gardyne also crit-icises AgResearch’s board which he says needs to “fully understand the business” and asks the Min-ister to act on a motion passed at a consultation meet-ing in Gore in March that the Min-ister instigates an indepen-dent external review of the FFP and of an enhanced status quo alternative.

“We want the case for the retention of the sheep production unit, scientists and staff at Invermay to be fully reviewed and we supporters heard. Re-thinking the future of Invermay is about delivering the best sheep science to fulfil the gov-ernment’s expectations for primary industry growth in NZ. Aspects of the FFP are commendable but re-locating sheep production science from Inver-may to Lincoln should be deleted.”

Steven Joyce’s involvement is as Minister of Science and Innovation. He told Rural News he would be acting on Gardyne’s letter, but only as far as referring it to AgResearch’s board to get a response and to get the board’s view on the content.

“The real measure is who is prepared to fund their work… I am not going to intervene because a certain stakeholder

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AgResearch respondsAn AgResearch spokesperson told Rural News Tom Richardson “has absolutely no intention of resigning” and that the Change Management Team Gardyne refers to was not a senior management body.

“It was formed during the consultation process to collate and summarise the feedback of staff who made submissions and then disbanded.”

Of 33 CMT recommendations “the vast majority were acted on by senior leadership.”

AgResearch also denies reports of nine research resignations from Invermay since the relocation announcement are incorrect.

“Over the last 12 months four staff involved in sheep research have left and three staff in the same area have been recruited,” spokesman Tom Fraser says.

“Our staff underpin everything we

do. While we are determined to retain our staff, we do have staff turnover – like any other organisation. We continue to monitor, manage and review recruitment, staff retention and succession planning activities to manage and mitigate any risks.”

As for whether relocation of sheep research to Lincoln would be reconsidered; AgResearch says there had been wide consultation and the changes in the FFP are the best solutions and for the sector long term.

“AgResearch’s priority is good science that benefits farmers and the pastoral sector and we remain confident that we will have the best possible solution to meet this. As a ‘stakeholder driven’ organisation we are always responsive to new oppor-tunities which may further influence our plans.”

group thinks that’s what I should do.”AgResearch’s FFP was the result of a

“pretty robust process that was strongly contested and they [AgResearch] have said to me they continue to be open to new initiatives.”

Gardyne’s letter calls for Beef + Lamb New Zealand to “step up” as the principle funding source for sheep research, with processor co-funding.

At the recent Beef + Lamb Genet-ics Sheep Breeders Forum in Dunedin, BLG chairman Chris Kelly said a fund-ing commitment for the research done by the Invermay scientists had been made, but it could not dictate where that research is done.

“I am not saying we have any con-trol over the move from Invermay to Lincoln but we will do our best.”

Minister of Science and Innovation Steven Joyce.

@rural_newsfacebook.com/ruralnews


4 NEWS

ZESPRI SAYS its forecast per hect-are returns have broken $50,000 for the first time, predicting orchard gate returns per hectare of $51,047.

This compares to $42, 659 for the 2013 season.

The October forecast Green return per tray has increased to $5.71 from $5.34 forecast in August, supported by price increases in Europe.

The October forecast for Gold is $9.57 per tray, up from an August forecast of $9.36; Organic Green $6.81, up from $6.35; and Green14 $6.98, up from $6.93.

The total fruit and service pay-ment, across all pools and exclud-ing the loyalty premium, is forecast at $882.46 million, up from $856.2 million in the August 2014 forecast.

The Zespri net profit is fore-cast to be $22 million to $27 mil-lion including recognising $6.3m of Gold licence revenue from prior seasons not yet received.

Record returns forecast

SILVER FERN Farms chairman Rob Hewett says the cooperative expects pre-tax earnings

of $5-7m for the year to September 30, a $40m improvement on net profit before tax in 2013.

The company has paid off $100m debt in the year and is exploring “capital structure initia-

tives” to further reduce bank debt and associated debt servicing costs of $35m/year.

“With an improved capital position there is the potential we can enable industry rational-

isation if the right oppor-tunities arise.”

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SFF signals better results

Northern farmers brace for dry

FARMERS in Northland and Waikato are buckling down for a long hot summer that can only be made worse by the low payout.

Niwa climate scientists foresee slight El Nino conditions that point to dry times. This worries farmers in western Northland and Waikato; they say winter and spring has been mostly dry, result-ing in lower-than-normal soil moisture.

Waikato Rural Support Trust chair Neil Bateup says while Waikato has had a fantastic growing season in spring, with pasture growing at 60-80kgDM/day, things are incredibly dry underfoot.

The cooler, drier winter has delayed the harvesting of silage in the area till the start of November. “We’re two weeks away from getting reasonable crops of silage and we were cutting this time last

year,” Bateup says. “PKE has dropped in price since last year so I expect farmers will use what silage they have on hand and then make some judicious use of PKE.”

Bateup suggests two key moves: con-sider locking in a contract with PKE sup-pliers in late November/early December if silage yields are not what they should be; and go through the herd remov-ing cull cows early and deciding more promptly on dry-off dates to maintain body condition score.

“Lots of people were buying feed and milking right to end of the season last year but this year that won’t happen,” he explains. “The important thing is to have a basic plan in the back of your mind and monitor conditions on a weekly basis.”

Ruawai farmer Peter Flood says while grass growth is tracking well now he is planning cautiously for summer. He

plans to get cull cows out of the herd this year and will turn to once-a-day milking rather than supplementing stock with bought-in feed.

“My philosophy for a low payout is the same as for a drought season, you ringfence it to this season so it doesn’t impact on next season. Once-a-day may

be an option from January to the end of the season, along with wise use of con-served supplements.”

He expects this summer to be better than the last two years, but is prepared to spend a little money on supplements to protect the next season’s perfor-mance.

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NEWS 5

No fallout for arable – yet!

THE CHIEF executive of the Founda-tion for Arable Research, FAR, says to date the drop in the price of milksolids isn’t affecting arable farmers.

Nick Pyke says this is because most of them are contracted at last year’s prices or have for-ward sold crops at good prices. Given the short-age of grain in New Zealand the prices are holding up well, he says.

But Pyke warns that after the 2014-15 season things may change and prices won’t remain the same as now. Towards the end of this season’s harvest in March and April 2015, when there is more grain on the market, the price are likely to drop a bit at that point.

“In maize production, the forecast in July was that the area of maize was

going to be up slightly, but that could have changed quite markedly if farmers had changed their minds on their plant-ings. From what I hear it could be pretty much business as usual in both islands.”

Pyke says farmers have come out of droughts and will be looking to build

up their supplementary feed stocks. Many dairy farmers who run inten-sive systems rely on extra feed and he doesn’t see them cutting this out overnight.

Meanwhile observ-ers say it’s not all doom and gloom in the grain market as a result of the drop in dairy payout. But in their October grain market update, Farm-lands reports there is

little interest from the dairy sector in buying new season wheat and barley.

They say the grain market is very fluid and seems set to remain that way in the short term.

Kiwifruit case on holdTHE KIWIFRUIT Claim had not been lodged with the High Court late last week, but it was under-stood the group was plan-ning a public statement shortly.

The group, taking a

class action against the Government over Psa, had initially said it would lodge the claim with the court earlier last month.

Kiwifruit Claim chair-man John Cameron told Rural News last week it still had not been lodged but further information would be released soon.

The latest statement from the group claims 15% of gold growers had signed up and paid their one-off capped contributions of $500, $1000 or $1500 depending on the size of their orchard.

Green growers were not as badly affected by Psa so signup among them

PETER BURKE

[email protected]

FAR’s Nick Pyke says the drop in milk payout has, so far, not affected arable growers.

PAM TIPA

[email protected]

is lower, at 7% by volume so far, it says.

In addition, post-har-vest operator Seeka has signed up and paid to become a plaintiff.

Cameron says a large number of growers and some post-harvest opera-tors were wanting to take more time to consider the matter.

Others have questions about some clauses of the deed of participation between plaintiffs and the litigation funder.

“We’ve also asked the litigation funder to look at some of the clauses that have been the subject of scaremongering, and that work is in progress.

“While the committee is confident they do not present any risk to growers or post-harvest operators, LPF says they

will look at some of the wording to see if they can be made clearer still.”

Growers and post-har-

vest operators would have until a date to be deter-mined by the High Court to sign up to the claim once it is filed.

The claim will seek directions that growers and post-harvest opera-tors be given an additional six months to opt in.

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6 NEWS

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ATV Rural News Third Third Third Ad.indd 1 7/10/14 10:31 AM

THE FONTERRA Shareholders Council is asking farmers to approve a budget of $3.5 million for this financial year.

Last year farmers approved a budget of $3.6m; the council used $3.1m.There is no change to remuneration paid to the councillors: the council

chairman gets $90,000, deputy chairman $55,000 and councillors $30,000. The council is made up of 35 councillors – 25 in the North Island and 10 in the South Island. Fonterra shareholders will hold their annual meeting in Palmerston North next week.

More bite or a lap-dog?

Watch dog agrees to lower priceFONTERRA FARMERS have accepted the co-op’s decision last season to pay them a lower milk price than that calcu-lated by the manual.

But they have expressed full confi-dence in the manual, set up to deter-mine Fonterra’s farmgate milk payout to suppliers.

The forecast farmgate milk price calculation is based on processing and manufacturing milk powders; the calcu-lation is also based on the costs of pro-duction for an efficient manufacturer of Fonterra’s size and scale.

In its 2013-14 annual report, the Fon-terra Shareholders Council says it ques-tioned the board’s decision in December to pay farmers $8.30/kgMS for milk, rather than $8.93/kgMS as calculated by the manual.

After discussions with the board and management, the council was satisfied with the explanation, says council chair-man Ian Brown.

“The council’s view is that borrow-ing money to distribute revenue that was not earned in order to meet the milk price panel’s recommendation would not have been in the best interest of our farmers.

“However, in the absence of a market for milk in New Zealand the milk price is of such importance to farmers that any movement away from the price out-lined by the manual, positive or nega-tive, must be scrutinised and the board must be clear in their justification of any change.

“The manual and its principles are in place for good reason – to drive the cor-rect behaviours and actions at farm and business level.”

In December last year, Fonterra chairman John Wilson said the co-op was “in an extraordinary position”. Milk powders were fetching record prices due to strong global demand; a huge gap had opened between prices for milk powders compared to cheese and casein.

Fonterra’s asset base includes a number of cheese and casein manufac-

turing plants which means it was not able to maximise profits from these plants.

“In such abnormal circumstances, the board has the discretion to pay a lower farmgate milk price than that specified by the manual, if it is in the best interests of the cooperative,’ Wilson said.

An independent review of the milk price adjustment by PricewaterhouseC-oopers (PwC) found it appropriate under the circumstances.

Brown says the council understands that view. But he points out that the milk price principles in Fonterra’s constitu-tion provide for a competitive milk price to be paid to suppliers.

“The milk price should be the maxi-mum amount which Fonterra – reflect-ing its status as a properly managed, efficiently run and sustainable co-op – could pay for the milk supplied to it in a season.

“The council continues to have full confidence in the manual. The events of the 2014 financial year do not show

issues with the manual, rather they show the transparency now in place because of its existence.

“This transparency provides confi-dence to the council and clarity to farm-

ers in the continued use of the manual; it puts pressure on Fonterra to perform at a farmgate level, to add value above the milk price and to invest in the success of the co-op.”

Shareholders Council chair Ian Brown says Fonterra should pay the maximum amount it can afford.

SUDESH KISSUN

[email protected]


NEWS 7

12 countries are involved: New Zealand, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Peru, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore, Vietnam and the US.

Collectively the 12 TPP economies repre-sent at least US$27 tril-lion in GDP.

Five of New Zealand’s top 10 trading partners (1st – Australia, 3rd – US, 4th – Japan, 6th – Singapore, and 8th – Malaysia) are included in TPP negotiations.

The TPP negotiating parties account for 45% of New Zealand’s total trade.

TPP by the numbers

No dairy, no deal – MinisterTRADE MINISTER Tim

Groser’s insistence on dairy being included in any Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal has received industry backing.

Groser, who returned last week from the latest

round of TPP negotiations

in Sydney, told Rural News that if

dairy is not excluded

“then we

are not part of the deal”.Dairy Companies of New Zea-

land (DCANZ) executive director Kimberly Crewther says DCANZ is “very supportive” of the stance taken by the Government at the TPP talks. He points out TPP leaders agreed to work towards a comprehensive elimination of market access barriers; exclud-ing dairy from TPP would be a breach of this.

New Zealand special agricul-tural trade envoy Mike Petersen says he agrees with Groser. “It’s inconceivable that we have a trade deal with countries that make up 40% of the world’s GDP and no liberalisation of dairy access,” he said.

But Petersen admits not all countries share this view. Canada, one of the 12 countries involved in TPP, opposes opening up its dairy sector. There is also con-

cern at reports that the US and Japan may seek to conclude a deal which leaves dairy trade liberali-sation out in the cold.

DCANZ chairman and Fon-terra director Malcolm Bailey says a comprehensive deal cannot be achieved without addressing access for dairy, one of the most protected sectors amongst the TPP partner countries.

New Zealand, the world’s largest dairy exporter, is shut out of key markets like Japan and Canada because of steep tariffs. The Japanese World Trade Organ-isation (WTO) bound tariffs for skim milk powder and butter are equal to 217% and 360% respec-tively. Canada’s dairy market access regime is characterised by small quotas and large out-of-quota tariffs in the order of 200-300%.

Bailey says DCANZ agrees

now is the time for bold reforms. “Pacific Rim nations must not look back on this agreement and regret they did not push harder and achieve more. Any deal that does not achieve good outcomes for dairy is an unacceptable deal,” says Bailey.

Groser is not surprised at the impasse over dairy. “From my experience in trade deals, dairy is the last issue to come in line. It is the most difficult and most highly protected sector in the world, probably apart from rice.”

However, Groser remains optimistic and believes a deal could be sealed by the middle of next year. “There was clear momentum in negotiations that I have not seen before at ministe-rial level,” he says.

Petersen, who has attended all ministerial meetings in recent years, agrees. “I believe a deal is within reach and there is certainly more momentum in negotiations. But we won’t be doing a deal by the end of this year as some are suggesting.” – Sudesh Kissun

Trade Minister Tim Groser says if dairy is excluded from the TPP then New Zealand will not be part of it.

“There was clear momentum in negotiations that I have not seen before at ministerial level.”

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ATV Rural News Third Third Third Ad.indd 1 7/10/14 10:31 AM


8 NEWS

Phone call rings season’s successEVERY SEPTEMBER the 87 share-holders of Waikato dairy processor Tatua receive a call from one of their six farmer-elected directors.

The phone calls, made after a board meeting, relay the final milk price for the financial year just ended.

This year’s call was special: the co-op, celebrating its 100th birthday, announced a record 2013-14 payout before retention of $10.32/kgMS. Tatua suppliers will get $9/kgMS for milk sup-plied last season; the company retains $1.32/kgMS.

Tatua chairman Stephen Allen says shareholders were “incredibly apprecia-tive” of the result.

“We ring our farmers after the final board meeting for the season and give them the results before anyone pub-licly knew,” Allen told Rural News. “The six farmer directors get on the phones; we’ve always done this.”

Allen says Tatua farmers were “100% supportive” of the decision to retain $1.32/kgMS, most of which will fund a $65m specialised powders dryer under construction. The dryer will not process

milk but produce specialised ingredi-ents for global infant formula manu-facturers.

The record payout puts Tatua at the head of the 2013-14 payout stakes, ahead of other New Zealand proces-sors including Fonterra.

Allen says the co-op was prepared for “a more difficult year” than eventuated; at the start of the season it had budgeted a payout around $7.00/kgMS.

“Every year what we forecast and what actually happens are two differ-

ent things. It’s hard to predict and the start of the year can be a very different world from the end of the year.”

Last season was an exceptional year for all Tatua business units. Unlike most other New Zealand dairy processors Tatua doesn’t produce milk powders, infant formula or UHT milk. Instead, it is a world-renowned supplier of qual-ity specialised ingredients and foods. Tatua’s key markets include Japan, US, China and Australia.

Its specialised added value (SAV)

businesses produce a diverse range of products including hydrolysates, lac-toferrin, mascarpone, crème fraiche, aerosol cream, natural dairy flavour ingredients and bionutrients.

Allen says every part of the business had a good year. “Our hedging policies also worked well to protect us from the high exchange rate.”

Commenting on the current season, Allen says the market remains soft for all dairy products.

Tatua has budgeted an opening fore-cast payout of $6-$6.50/kgMS for its

suppliers this season. This month the board will review results for the first three months of the year.

Allen says it’s still early days and Tatua is asking farmers to budget on the “conservative end” of the forecast. “We are determined to stay above $6,” he says.

Milk supply for the season remains slightly higher than last season, thanks to a mild winter and a good spring. Tatua expects to process 18 million kgMS this season, compared to 17 mil-lion kgMS last season.

SUDESH KISSUN

[email protected]

TATUA HAS stopped receiving milk from Fonterra farms under the DIRA raw milk regulations.

Chairman Steve Allen says the co-op expects a modest lift in supply from its suppliers; it also has a trading arrangement with other independent processors.

Allen says Tatua took “a reduced amount” from Fonterra last season. “We haven’t taken any milk this year,” he says.

But milk growth is not high on

Tatua’s agenda. Allen says while over time its suppliers will expand, it is not looking to grow milk supply rapidly.

Not taking DIRA milk from Fonterra will not impact the co-op, he says.

“It’s fair to say for both our farmers and Fonterra farmers it’s been an uneasy arrangement – more of a perception thing. It has passed its use-by date and we’re comfortable it’s not there.”

No more DIRA milk

Tatua chair Steve Allen (left) and general manager sales and marketing John Powell and the company’s new $65 million specialised dryer under construction in the background.

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NEWS 9

Tatua happy to remain a niche player

INDEPENDENT DAIRY processor Tatua says its decision to invest in value rather than scale is paying off.

Tatua general manager sales and marketing John Powell says the specialised added value business is at the heart of the co-op’s success story. Last season Tatua announced a final payout before retention of $10.32/kgMS, well ahead of other processors.

Powell says last year’s record performance

isn’t something that happens overnight. “It’s a combination of decades of investment and a long term commitment to the business model,” he told Rural News.

“Tatua decided long ago that it would not compete on scale with the whole milk powder big guys; it wasn’t a strategy that was going to work for us. Rather than invest in scale, we had to invest in value; for us it’s about adding more value to milk as opposed to processing more milk.”

Three years ago

Tatua built a new foods plant, and a $65 million specialised ingredients dryer will be commissioned in April next year.

Powell says Tatua’s business model now is unlike most other dairy companies in the world. Comparing it to other dairy companies is now becoming less and less relevant, he says.

For example, in the foodservice business, unlike most other local dairy processors, Tatua doesn’t focus on UHT milk. “We leave that to the

big guys,” says Powell. “We focus on specialised UHT products – thick, viscous products that can’t go through a standard UHT plant.” Such products include mascarpone, crème fraiche and cheese sauces.

Tatua is happy to focus on specialised niche markets, “not markets that the big guys like to chase”.

To achieve this Tatua has committed to many years of investment in customer relationships, R&D, specialised manufacturing capability and developing people.

SUDESH KISSUN

[email protected]

Last season’s payout of $10.32/kgMS was way ahead of any other dairy company.

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NEWS 11Awards night draws crowdTop Ag student destined

for dairy industryMASSEY UNIVERSITY’S top agriculture student is determined to make a career in the dairy industry

Monique Mathis is the first female to win this prestigious award in 13 years. She comes from a dairy farm in the South Waikato and won both the Agriculture Student of the Year award and the academic prize for the best third-year student studying an agricultural-related degree.

She is just completing her Bachelor of Agri-Commerce degree and already has a job as a trainee consulting officer with DairyNZ in Invercargill.

Mathis is the eldest of six children brought up on a 1000 cow, 315ha farm near Tirau.

She had always wanted to make a career in agriculture and even as a young person wanted to help around the farm.

“I tried to do the hard yards in the dairy shed during the summer holidays, but dad wouldn’t let me,” she told Rural News.

“He said I had to go out and get other experiences. One day I sat down and had a big chat to mum and talked about what I wanted to be and what kind of lifestyle I wanted when I grew up. I decided I wanted as balanced a life as you can get in dairy farming in New Zealand and I wanted to have my children on a farm. When I go back to the farm now, it seems feeding the calves is my main job.”

Mathis recently spent a semester learning new farm

systems on an exchange at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada and got 120,000 views of her blog about her experiences on the One Farm Centre of Excellence on Farm Business Management website.

Chair of the applied sciences scholarships committee Dr Kerry Harrington says Mathis was a standout for her excellent communication skills, positive attitude and willingness to help others. He says she is always ready to help classmates with problems and is an enthusiastic member of Massey’s Young Farmers Club, helping organise the ball and professional development functions for agriculture students.

Mathis says while she is looking forward to her role

with DairyNZ, in the long term she hopes to own her own farm by starting off contract milking and then share milking before taking the final step to farm ownership.

“My boyfriend John Dickson is in Taranaki so that

is the place I’ll most likely go, but I am not fazed as to where I go as long as I am part of the industry,” she adds.

Mathis says she won’t move towards share-milking or farm ownership until the payout improves.

THE ANNUAL Massey University Agricultural Awards are a great way of showcasing the talent coming through in the primary sector, says the head of Massey University’s Insti-tute of Agriculture and Environment, Professor Peter Kemp.

Recently the awards dinner, held in Palmerston North, attracted 200 students, Massey staff and leaders from the agribusiness sector.

Kemp says some of the awards reflect academic excellence, rewarding students with the highest grades, while the other awards high-light students who have all-round abil-ities.

“We try to reward students who, for example, put in a lot of extra time supporting Young Farmers Clubs, sporting teams and the professional development events we run.

“The awards give us a chance to showcase the talent in agriculture and… the industry is very supportive of the dinner,” Kemp told Rural News.

“There are plenty of other degrees at Massey with talented people, but they haven’t got industry support behind them to run a dinner like this.”

PETER BURKE

[email protected]

Monique Mathis (left): Massey University’s top Ag student in 2014.

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12 NEWS

Agriculture offers many career options

AGRICULTURE OFFERS many more career oppor-tunities than just farm-ing. That’s the message from 2014 Young Farmer of the Year, David Kidd, the guest speaker at the recent Massey Agricultural Awards dinner.

Kidd, a Massey gradu-ate, manages a large beef breeding and finishing farm in Northland.

He spoke about his career, which included time in banking as an agri-business manager before he made the step into farming.

“I don’t want to talk down the opportunities of farm work. But there is also banking, insurance –

all the research that needs to happen to take New Zealand to the next level,” Kidd said.

“The agriculture indus-try is huge; look at the amount of money the banks have lent to the industry over the last 10 years. They see the fan-tastic opportunities in the industry, and if they don’t I‘d love to know why they have lent it so much money.”

Kidd says New Zealand needs to get away from just exporting commod-ities and focus more on adding value and selling to markets prepared to pay a premium for our primary products.

“There are fantastic opportunities to market and take our product to

the next level overseas,” he said. “There are oppor-tunities abounding in Asia and the Middle East where many people are coming through and starting to generate incomes that allow them to spend more on protein.

“We have to make sure that when we get a chance to sell product we don’t sell it to the lowest bidder, but to the person who rec-ognises its quality.”

Young people need to realise they hold the future of the primary sector in their hands, Kidd says. With farmers getting older it will be young people who will take the sector to the next level.

• See page 24

PETER BURKE

[email protected]

@rural_news


2014 Young Farmer winner and Massey graduate David Kidd says the agri-sector offers huge career opportunities.RURAL ONLINE

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NEWS 13

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NEIGHBORS ARE still the biggest players in the real estate market, say real estate agents and farmer representatives.

Real estate companies’ recent claims that Northland farm prices average $15,000/ha or less have contributed to farmers from other provinces singling out farms in the region as affordable expansion opportunities.

In the past 18 months, seven of the farms sold in Northland by

Bayleys went to farmers outside Northland, fetching $20 million.

Farms featured in a national roadshow by Bayleys North-land rural manager Tony Grindle showed the opportunities, he says.

“We’ve been out in the market-place for a couple of months now on the roadshow…. Northland farmers [wanted] to promote their properties to buyers from tradi-tional dairying areas.”

But Dargaville PGG Wright-

sons sales manager John Duder says locals have mostly fronted the increase in the region’s farm sales in the last three months.

“We sold 35 dairy farms last season, all to the local market. We got 10-15 calls a day from local people and perhaps only a couple of calls a week from out-of-town-ers.”

Not all Northland has seen increased sales, says Northland Federated Farmers president

Roger Ludbrook. The only recent sale he had

seen was in the Bay of Islands: a very competitive auction between local farmers for 39ha suitable for cropping.

“It was at $650,000 and I thought about offering $750,000 but the real estate agent told me I was dreaming. It eventually sold at auction for $905,000 in a bidding war between two Ohaewai farm-ers.” – Gareth Gillatt

Outside interest in Northland overstatedMassey centre for food hub

THE NEW Food Safety Science and Research Centre will be led from the Hopkirk Institute building on Massey University’s Manawatu campus.

Massey was last week named host of the government centre, which will be paid $5m to do food safety research for the country. Collaborating in the venture will be Massey, AgResearch, the Cawthron Institute, Environmental Science and Research, Plant and Food Research, and the universities of Auckland and Otago.

The Hopkirk Institute building from which the centre will be led is now used by AgResearch and already does a lot of food safety research, Mark Ward, FoodHQ programme director, told Rural News.

“A huge effort has gone into preparing the bid for funders to consider, including all FoodHQ partners and the universities of Auckland and Otago,” Ward says. “This collaborative spirit and engagement with the needs of the food industry bodes well for… setting up the centre.

“A board will determine the strategic investment in science and research that needs to occur in establishing the centre, working with the centre’s director to be appointed.”

The centre was a key recommendation from the Government inquiry into Fonterra’s contamination scare and will be managed by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and the Ministry for Primary Industries. It is expected to open in the middle of next year.

Food Safety Minister Jo Goodhew says the centre will benefit from strong links with industry and will be co-funded by government and industry partners.

Massey University vice-chancellor Steve Maharey says the high level of collaboration with other institutions was a key to the bid’s success. New Zealand’s international reputation as a producer of safe food products can only be upheld if the country’s research community works together.

The centre will bring together the country’s best scientific minds and resources, says Maharey, who is also chair of FoodHQ. Five FoodHQ partners working in food innovation will be involved in the food safety centre.

PAM TIPA

[email protected]

@rural_news


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NEWS 15

Wool company calls for supply commitmentWOOLS OF NZ is on track for a maiden profit this year, says chief executive Ross Townshend.

But the need for commitment to wool supply by growers was a key theme reiterated by both Townshend and chair Mark Shadbolt at a roadshow in Wellsford in late October, the first of a national round of grower meetings.

The company had a loss in the financial year to June of $268,664, but Townshend says a $672,000 loss was budgeted for the first two years of operation and had come in under that at $619,000 through frugal management.

Shadbolt says revenue was $11m, up from last year’s $3.4m through “a hell of a lot of effort”. They hope to improve that drastically as they become more involved with shareholders’ wool. They now have 700 shareholders and 300

supporters supplying about 15-20m kilos of wool.

Townshend says it was a year of two halves, only really getting going in December 2013 once the business architecture was in place.

“We are now a quarter a way through the new financial year and what you see is a substantial ramp up on revenue and we are on track for a maiden profit,” he says.

The UK Camira lambswool contract, in its fourth year, was a success story, Shadbolt says. Targeted marketing had reached key influencers such as architects and designers. “We anticipate volumes will increase year on year.”

Laneve carpet wool contracts were also being developed as an option for growers. “You don’t have to support it, but we really want you to,” he said.

Volatility remains a killer in the industry and only a stable price mechanism model will change that, Shadbolt says. He

believes growers should decide on a commitment – either their whole clip or part of it.

“We need to plan what volumes we will get so a commitment programme will be brought out. We can’t go to a customer in the world unless we have the commitment from growers. There’s no point in signing

a contract for one million kilos of wool unless we know the cockies will support that.

“We want to extend contracts, we want more and more of them to cover all of your wool. It doesn’t want to be just lambswool. It’s got to be hogget, your second shear, it’s got to be your full fleece and it’s got to be even your poorer types of wool.

“Blazer (an interior furnishing fabric) is the biggest wool product Camira has, but they have a whole series of others we are keen to pursue that also require reasonably specific wools.”

Townshend says premiums for regular carpet wool such as Wools of NZ brand Laneve are harder to achieve. They are in the 20-30c range but still worth having. They were trying to convince overseas spinners to buy their wool and were being joined by other NZ exporters “keen to join a race to the bottom”.

“We want something significantly smarter so our approach is steady and slow and focused on quality and profits around the Laneve brand.”

The aim is price stability but that relies on willing buyers also seeking price stability and longer term committed supply. They had a trial with one serious spinner and interest from four or five others. “For me to feel confident about going all the way with those guys I’ve got to have committed supply from you and know that there will be, say, 1000 tonnes of wool available for the programme.”

Wools of NZ is looking at priority access to the contracts for committed growers and a 5c loyalty fee. “There are already some guys pretty firmly committed to meat supply programmes, fertiliser programmes… this isn’t stepping out into some great wilderness,” says Townshend.

PAM TIPA

[email protected]

@rural_news


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16 NEWS

Chocolate milk takes supermarkets by stormFOR MOST of us the supermarket aisle is a hunting ground for bargains but for entrepreneur Peter Cullinane it has spawned winning ideas.

Two years ago, while looking for the best butter in a New Zealand super-market, Cullinane was forced to settle for the Danish product Lurpak. He says he found this ridiculous; in a country famed for quality pasture-fed milk he was forced to eat foreign-made butter.

He decided to do something about this: in a quest to create the world’s best butter he set up a little Dutch churn in a converted shipping container at Lewis Road, Bay of Plenty.

Cullinane’s company Lewis Road Creamery started by making ‘artisan’ butter – small quantities hand made with organic milk. Then followed pre-

mium butter with conventional milk and last year organic milk and cream products. All organic milk initially came from Jersey herds but the com-pany switched to mixed-herd produce due to supply constraints.

Four months ago Cullinane was back in the supermarket and saw a few bot-tles of flavoured milk beside the fresh milk range. He decided to introduce fla-voured milk while one day watching the dairy section in a supermarket.

“Next door to fresh milk is flavoured milk packed in 2L bottles but I thought ‘they are not the finest examples of what New Zealand dairy can offer’,” Cul-linane told Rural News.

He floated the idea with Whittakers and within a month the idea of making chocolate flavoured milk was conceived.

Made from organic New Zealand milk and Whittakers chocolate, the four-month old Lewis Road Creamery

product has taken the retail sector by storm. The first week’s production of 1000L sold out within days; today the company makes 40,000L of choco-late milk a week and consumers are clamouring for more.

Cullinane believes the 100% New Zealand product has hit the sweet spot with consumers. “We’re thrilled with the feedback; 99.9% of consumers speak glowingly about it.”

He gives credit to Whittakers, Porirua, for supporting the venture. Lewis Road Creamery chocolate milk is available in 300ml and 750ml bottles.

All Lewis Road Creamery products are made by Green Valley Dairy at its plant at Mangatawhiri, south of Auck-land.

The success of chocolate milk is straining the company’s organic milk supply, causing it to “walk over thin ice”. Demand for organic milk prod-

ucts locally and for export is greater than milk supply.

Cullinane says the company is working with Green Valley to maintain organic milk supply year-round.

“There is no doubt that in the future of New Zealand dairy there is a big role for value powders… but there is also a huge opportunity for quality products. We believe organics is part of the pic-ture; our products have proven that.”

Green Valley general manager Corrie Den Haring says the chocolate milk launch has “gone well beyond expec-

tations”.He confirms the strong demand

is putting more pressure on a limited organic supply base. “Domestically and for export, demand is greater than supply; however price expectations are unrealistic from the supply side.”

He wants more done to promote organic dairying in NZ considering public concern over sustainability and the environment. “Organics could and should be seen and embraced as one of the models that alleviates general con-sumer concerns,” he says.

SUDESH KISSUN

[email protected]

Lewis Road chocolate milk is the ‘in’ product in many supermarkets around New Zealand.

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NEWS 17

Changes at women’s dairy networkMICHELLE WILSON handed over the reins of the Dairy Women’s Net-work (DWN) board to former Dairy Woman of the Year and BEL Group head Justine Kidd at the annual meeting last month.

After holding the chair-woman’s position for four years, Wilson’s new focus will be on increasing her governance knowledge to give back to the rural sector. She has just com-pleted stage one of the Fonterra governance pro-gramme and hopes to be selected as a participant for stage two.

“I have been fortunate to have had a number of mentors, not only within Dairy Women’s Net-work, but also from the wider dairy industry. The increase in the gover-nance skills I have learnt while being on the board has allowed me to have the capability to serve on a number of not-for-profit boards.”

Wilson noted in her annual meeting address the election of 2012 Dairy Woman of the Year Bar-bara Kuriger to Parliament and said she listened to her maiden speech with great pride.

Wilson also noted that DWN had contrib-uted to the dairy industry strategy launch at Parlia-ment in July 2013 along-side DairyNZ, Fed Farmers and DCANZ. The net-work has since aspired to align its strategy with the industry strategy. She said a diverse board with sound strategic skills was required to formulate that strategy and a competent management team with an excellent chief executive to deliver it.

In handing over to Kidd she said the network had evolved over the last couple of years and it is time for someone else to step up.

Wilson will retain her

membership and watch with interest, as will board member Angela Fullerton, Te Awamutu, who also officially stepped down after 12 years on the board.

Wilson and Fuller-ton originally joined the board of the Network for Women in Dairying, as DWN was then known, and cite giving other women opportunities in the governance roles the network offers as a main reason for stepping back.

Wilson has been a member since 2003; she took on the regional con-venor coordinator role in 2004 and first appeared on the board in 2006, at which time the member-ship was 2100. Today it is more like 6000.

Wilson was acknowl-edged for how much she has achieved during that time, some of her high-lights including becom-ing board chair in 2010, seeing the network’s regional groups grow from 12 to 30, and going from a volunteer convenor co-ordinator to having three part-time employees sup-porting the regional con-veners throughout New Zealand.

“The membership growth has been an abso-lute highlight, as was being invited to represent Dairy Women’s Network and the New Zealand dairy indus-try at the APEC Women in Leadership forum in Beijing and managing to continue Dairy Women’s Network business as usual while in the executive chair role.”

She and husband Pete have downsized their farming operation since moving north from the South Island to Waihi, Bay of Plenty. Wilson is more hands-on onfarm which she says she is enjoy-ing. Fullerton said in her address at the annual that it was after attending her first DWN conference in 1998 that she gave herself permission to get involved in the dairy farming busi-ness.

Dairy Womens Network new chairwoman Justine Kidd (left) and outgoing chairwoman Michelle Wilson.

PAM TIPA

[email protected]

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18 NEWS

Rebrand timing not ideal admits boss

DAIRY NZ is concerned some farmers are following cow housing pioneers into such systems, spending millions of dollars, but without thoroughly analysing their options.

The concern has spawned a series of events on the topic where research into some of the assumptions about the benefits of housing will be relayed, and use of financial tools such as internal rate of return (IRR) and net present value (NPV) to assess the investment will be discussed.

“The main reason for holding these events is because some people making these decisions are prob-ably not doing the right analysis and they’ve not got the right information,” Dairy NZ’s regional leader for Canterbury and North Otago, Virginia Serra, told Rural News.

Dairy NZ is doing research to provide data on some of the assumptions people are having to make when assessing the merits of housing, such as how much more grass they’ll grow without cows grazing.

“In some cases there’s not been enough research yet to provide the answers but where there has we are bringing that to the table.”

Farmer-targeted events will be held November 13 and 14 in Waikato and November 17 and 18 in Canter-bury, plus one with the NZ Institute of Primary Indus-try Management for rural professionals. “The NZIPIM one will be run a little differently,” says Serra.

Each event has four specialist Dairy NZ speakers, and concludes with Dairy NZ’s view on what a whole-sale move to housed systems would do for New Zea-land’s competitiveness in international markets.

“I think we’ll lose our competitive advantage very fast,” says Serra. “As one of the speakers, David McCall, puts it having studied high input US systems: ‘we can beat them, but not at their own game’.”

– Andrew Swallow

Crunch the numbers before housing cows

FARM SOURCE/RD1 man-aging director Jason Mink-horst admits you wouldn’t plan to rebrand and repo-sition Fonterra’s RD1 stores to Farm Source when you have a $5/kgMS payout.

“Would you plan to

do this when you have a $5 payout? Of course you wouldn’t,” he told the Dairy Women’s Network annual meeting. “But of course five months ago when we designed this it was $8/kgMS. And that’s when we made the deci-sion to go with it.”

But in other ways he says it was perfect timing

because of the special deals and Farm Source rewards it offers farmers.

“We’re not doing this all overnight; be assured we know what it means with the current payout. But a lot of this would have happened with the store refresh anyway.”

The first RD1 store to switch to Farm Source was

in Methven last month and the next will be Edge-cumbe, Minkhorst told Rural News.

Farm Source is much more than just a rebrand-ing of RD1, he says. “It’s a way to describe all its rela-tionships with the farmer under that one brand.

“When you think about Fonterra – NZ’s big-

gest company – where do you go to visit it? You can’t go to the factory due to biosecurity reasons and health and safety so we don’t have a strong con-nection – there’s no place to go and visit.

Ninety-five percent of Fonterra farmers live within 15km of an RD1 store so it’s a perfect place

to create these hubs.”Minkhorst says within

two weeks of the Methven Farm Source opening the local irrigation trust held its board meeting there and a farmer’s son came to have a job interview there. “With the poor wifi they came to benefit from our better wifi and hopefully they have the job.” Dairy

Women’s Network will host its regional meeting there on November 3.

“It will be available for farming businesses when they want training, farm board meetings; it is your place to use. We are there to help farmers get things done… save them time, save them money; it’s pretty simple.”

PAM TIPA

[email protected]

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WORLD 19

Aussie cattleman to sue GovernmentNORTHERN TERRITORY cattle pro-ducers have launched a class action over the former Federal Government’s ban on live exports to Indonesia in 2011.

It’s been lodged in the Federal Court by lawyers Minter Ellison, and seeks compensation for losses incurred.

Opposition agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon admits Labor could have consulted more widely with the cattle industry prior to imposing a ban on live exports in 2011. He told ABC Rural that in the lead-up to the ban, he “found it difficult to believe” there wasn’t a way of working in partnership with the sector in the first instance.

“At the time there could’ve been more consultation with the sector... the National Farmers Federation and various cattlemen’s groups.”

The class action could run into hun-dreds of millions of dollars and is open to an unlimited number of claimants in the industry.

In 2011 the trade was brought to a

sudden halt after film of cruelty to cattle in Indonesia caused public outrage.

For three years the industry has sought compensation outside court

without success. An indepen-dent evaluation of the case by former judge Roger Gyles QC, commissioned by Minter Ellison, found the decision by the then agriculture minister Joe Ludwig was invalid.

Gyles said it has a mean-ingful prospect of liability being established because the order was an irrational

and unreasonable response to the cir-cumstances and went beyond anything recommended by the department.

Gyles also described the move as ‘reckless’, but Fitzgibbon rejects that suggestion.

He points to the former Labor Gov-ernment’s introduction of the live-stock exporters supply chain assurance scheme (ESCAS) as a benefit that fol-lowed the ban. And he argues that the Howard Government had failed to take appropriate action following the ban on the live sheep trade in 2006.

Irish farmers’ major beefIRISH BEEF farmers are angry about a massive cattle price gap with the UK.

Thousands of Irish farmers last week blocked abattoirs for 24 hours – the first such action in 15 years – pro-testing that they are not seeing the benefit of higher prices paid by UK markets for their produce: there’s a gap of $560 between prices in the UK and Ireland.

Irish Farmers Association pres-ident Eddie Downey says farmers are very angry over the price differ-ence. “Beef farmers have had a tough year, and with our main markets now recovering strongly they are not pre-pared to tolerate loss-making prices any longer.”

However, Meat Industry Ireland said the action was “unnecessary, mis-guided and counterproductive”.

Downey says Britain took at least half of Irish beef exports and they cannot understand how price increases in the UK had not been passed on to Irish farmers who have taken big losses on their animals since last winter.

Nobody can explain why our beef prices are $560 behind those paid to farmers in the main UK market,

Downey says. Prices in the UK have risen in

the past few weeks by $160 but Irish prices have stayed flat and are now below the EU average. “This is unfair and farmers are right to react with protests across the country.”

In the past 12 months farmers have being hammered with loss-making prices and specification cuts that have decimated their incomes, Downey says. “Farmers cannot continue to sell cattle at a loss.”

IFA national livestock chairman Henry Burns says livestock farmers are angry that the Minister of Agricul-

ture Simon Coveney has not tackled the factories on the beef issues that have seriously damaged the sector and farm incomes since last January.

He says farmers feel let down on the beef specification issues and by Coveney not insisting that the fac-tories implement a quality payment system or price grid in a fair way in line with their agreement with sup-pliers.

Burns says IFA has repeatedly asked Coveney to resolve problems over live trade to the North and com-petition and transparency in the trade.

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MARKET SNAPSHOT LAMB MARKET TRENDSBEEF MARKET TRENDS


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

BEEF PRICES

c/kgCWT Change Last Week

2 Wks Ago

Last Year

NI P2 Steer - 300kg +3 5.63 5.60 4.60M2 Bull - 300kg +3 5.68 5.65 4.40P2 Cow - 230kg +3 4.50 4.47 3.50M Cow - 200kg +3 4.50 4.47 3.40

Local Trade - 230kg +3 5.60 5.57 4.50SI P2 Steer - 300kg n/c 5.15 5.15 4.32

M2 Bull - 300kg n/c 5.00 5.00 4.15P2 Cow - 230kg n/c 3.65 3.65 3.10M Cow - 200kg n/c 3.55 3.55 2.95

Local Trade - 230kg n/c 5.08 5.08 4.38

Slaughter

Export Market DemandChange Last Week 2 Wks

Ago Last Year 5yr Ave

95CL US$/lb n/c 3.00 3.00 2.05 1.85NZ$/kg +8 8.41 8.33 5.42 5.14

Procurement IndicatorChange 2Wks Ago 3 Wks


% Returned NI -0% 67.2% 67.6% 81.14% 77.4%% Returned SI -1% 59.5% 60.0% 76.5% 72.2%

LAMB PRICES

c/kgCWTChange Last

Week2 Wks

AgoLast Year

NI Lamb YM - 13.5kg +5 6.61 6.56 5.96PM - 16.0kg +5 6.63 6.58 5.98PX - 19.0kg +5 6.65 6.60 6.00PH - 22.0kg +5 6.66 6.61 6.01

Mutton MX1 - 21kg n/c 3.65 3.65 3.40SI Lamb YM - 13.5kg n/c 6.28 6.28 5.76

PM - 16.0kg n/c 6.28 6.28 5.78PX - 19.0kg n/c 6.28 6.28 5.80PH - 22.0kg n/c 6.28 6.28 5.81

Mutton MX1 - 21kg n/c 3.25 3.25 3.30

Slaughter

Export Market DemandChange Last

Week2 Wks


UK Leg £/lb n/c 2.10 2.10 1.82 1.85NZ$/kg n/c 8.46 8.46 8.38 8.84

Procurement IndicatorChange 2Wks

Ago3 Wks


% Returned NI +1% 79.2% 78.6% 72.8% 70.7%% Returned SI 0% 74.5% 74.5% 70.4% 73.0%

Venison PricesChange Last

Week2 Wks


NI Stag - 60kg n/c 7.60 7.60 7.15 7.92SI Stag - 60kg n/c 8.00 8.00 7.50 8.29

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1 TagRegister animals within 7 days of being tagged to activate their NAIT tag.

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3 Record movements

NEWS PRICE WATCH


BEEF

Possible supply gap looming in the NI

Cows have been holding up the NI cattle kill in recent weeks, and as the supply starts to dry up, it looks like there will be a supply gap before big numbers of steers and bulls are presented to slaughter. The supply gap will be further exasperated by the increase in slaughter capacity that traditionally occurs at the end of Oct. Processors are likely to limit their capacity as much as possible until good numbers appear, in an attempt to keep a lid on prices. There are a few more prime cattle coming forward now, but it is likely to be mid November before the flow really starts. In the SI, high slaughter prices have been a good incentive to offload stock and slaughter rates are reportedly lifting.

Signs of stability in the US market

Imported and domestic prices for 90CL have regained some lost ground in recent weeks as supplies tightened. A reduction in the number of fed cattle slaughtered has renewed interest in 90CL. Previously there has been quantities of fed cattle hitting the grinder and substituting 90CL at cheaper prices, but this supply has dried up. There is still no sign of the much anticipated cull cow slaughter, and it is thought that record lows in feed prices may be keeping these cows from hitting the processor. 95CL continued to ease, however market commentators believe the market has stabilised slightly from the previous weeks declines, suggesting further decline may be limited. Until any large quantities of 95CL become available, it is hard to pick where these prices may go.The overall tone of the market is “not too bad”. However the recent retreat in prices has highlighted the volatility of this market and it is likely that NZ processors will be treading with caution going forward.

LAMB

Later start to new season lambs keep prices firm

Hoggets are filling up the capacity available in the NI at present, and spot prices are largely matched to contract prices at $6.70/kg (gross). The handful of new seasons lambs that have been killed to date are making around the $6.70/kg (gross) level, suggesting prices may just roll over between hoggets and new seasons lambs this season. In the SI as hogget numbers drop off and new seasons are still a way off, supply is limited and prices subsequently continue to firm. Early indicators point to new seasons lambs being around the $6.50/kg (gross) level, a slight premium on the $6.30/kg (gross) hoggets are currently achieving.

2014/15 lamb tally likely to see some upside

Reports of high lamb survivability across the country this spring suggest that there is likely to be some upside in industry estimates for this season’s lamb slaughter numbers. Initial forecasts have lamb slaughter down by 3% on last season and based on what is happening on the ground this is likely to be revised upwards as the season progresses. Combined with the possibility of El Nino conditions this summer and a later start to the processing of new seasons lambs – there is potenital for lamb slaughter to be high through early 2015, and subsequent downside for farmgate prices.

DAIRY

China renewing interest for WMP

Supplies of all dairy products are building as production reaches peak levels. Current production is forecast to be 5% ahead of last year. There are signs of increased interest from China for whole milk powder (WMP) and this combined with a lowering of WMP production as some manufacturers divert milk to other products, has seen some price stabilisation following a period of signficant decline. Skim milk powder prices are suffering from very strong global supply, even though demand is solid, and cheese prices are similarly declining as supplies are increasing in place of WMP. In contrast, good export demand is holding butter prices up, even on the back of strong production.

WOOL PRICE WATCH DAIRY PRICE WATCH

Indicators in NZ$ Change 23-Oct 16-Oct Last Year Indicators in NZ$/T Change Last 2

WksPrev. 2

WksLast Year

Coarse Xbred Indic. +8 5.40 5.32 5.50 Butter +125 3703 3578 4962

Fine Xbred Indicator +9 5.60 5.51 5.71 Skim Milk Powder -82 3385 3467 5428

Lamb Indicator - - - - Whole Milk Powder +93 3465 3372 6164

Mid Micron Indic. - 7.95 - 7.54 Cheddar -67 5022 5089 5292

Overseas Price Indicators Overseas Price Indicators

Indicators in US$/kg Change 23-Oct 16-Oct Last Year Indicators in US$/T Change Last 2

WksPrev. 2

WksLast Year

Coarse Xbred Indicator -1 4.23 4.24 4.58 Butter +100 2913 2813 4125Fine Xbred Indicator -1 4.39 4.40 4.76 Skim Milk Powder -63 2663 2725 4513Lamb Indicator - - - - Whole Milk Powder +75 2725 2650 5125Mid Micron Indicator - 6.23 - 6.28 Cheddar -50 3950 4000 4400

CURRENCY WATCH

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

US dollar 0.787 0.794 0.793 0.831Euro 0.619 0.620 0.622 0.603UK pound 0.489 0.494 0.486 0.513Aus dollar 0.893 0.905 0.903 0.866Japan yen 84.91 84.45 86.35 80.90

Euro

Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan

UK Pound

US Dollar

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www.nait.co.nzTag your cattle and deer before 6 months old, or before they move off farm – whichever comes first.

1 TagRegister animals within 7 days of being tagged to activate their NAIT tag.

2 Register/activateRecord all farm-to-farm movements for animals on and off your property within 2 days.

3 Record movements


22 AGRIBUSINESS

R&D commitmentLIC’S $11M spend on R&D is high by NZ primary industry standards, says chief executive Wayne McNee.

The core business of sire proving and getting the best bulls, the development of new IT products and longer-term R&D took most of the money. Some research is government supported through Primary Growth Partnership and other funding.

Among products launched this year was improved NAIT functionality in Minda. “We are working with NAIT so it becomes a more seamless transfer of information back and forward – necessary as NAIT becomes a compulsory requirement coming into next year and this makes life easier for farmers, so [they] don’t have to dual enter.”

The calving, look-up, pasture covers and mating apps have been good innovations, the uptake has been strong, and more will be added. Many people are carrying smartphones around farms now, McNee says.

Minda Repro in-calf reports are being tested before going live. The EZ Heat In-Race product was launched this year to strong demand. Some farmers had complained they could not get it. LIC had a controlled product launch to ensure it

could be fully supported.Pre-sexed semen for Friesians was

limited to the Genes on Legs programme, and there was some KiwiCross. They were working with Sexing Technologies (US), the only company worldwide which had the technology, to see if supply could be increased, McNee says.

Genomic selection is continuing with a review of selection of young bulls and the wide programme. “It has also been important to identify good and bad variants within the genome so we can focus on removing or improving those.”

Top Kiwicross bull Howie’s Checkpoint has done 632,000 insems since 2012. A Holstien Friesian bull, Morris TF Lamont S1F, has highest BW of all teams.

The Premium Sire Forward pack was changed based on a review of evidence. “We pulled the yearlings out of the team, instead introducing the spring bulls. The Forward Pack is the best of the best of the young spring bulls and the premiere sire team and daughter proven team.”

LIC is bringing in more AV technician and is increasing training. A record number of straws were produced and delivered, reaching 140,000 a day in the peak. – Pam Tipa

PAM TIPA

[email protected]

Bigger business will help farmers more

DAIRY FARM running costs haven’t abated after increasing a lot in 2007-08 and they are now out of kilter with the consumer price index, LIC chairman Murray King says.

“As we all know the milk price is under pres-sure and farmers are looking closely and scru-tinising their costs,” King told the annual meeting.

Farming systems have changed much over the last 10 years with about one million cows moving out of low cost farming systems to feed intense systems.

However breeding and herd improvement is a very small contribu-tion to the overall costs in

most farming businesses. “The value we give you through herd improve-ment is significant,” King said. “Genetic merit in the industry equates to about $400m per year of annu-alised gains. With our market we contribute over $300m of that.”

Lifting in-calf perfor-mance could bring gains of $35m-$40m in the dairy industry. Identifying the poorest cows – impor-tant during a low milk price period so they can be culled – could also bring gains of about $40m.

King said 2013-14 was a great season for dairy with a high demand for LIC’s herd testing and artificial breeding services and an increase in farmers invest-ing in technology which drives efficiency gains

onfarm notwithstanding the drought last summer in Northland and Waikato.

Annual results showed revenue in the finan-cial year to May 31, 2014 was $211m. The dividend was $11.17m, down from $16.75m last year but simi-lar to 2012, with 8.65c per cooperative control share and 35.90c per investment share.

The annual dividend payment over the last few years have averaged $12m per year, King said. “As we are closely linked to the fortunes of the highly volatile dairy industry these payments tend to fluctuate. Nevertheless a respectable dividend yield has been achieved – now coming under pressure as the share price rose signif-icantly over the years and

we invested more heavily in growing the business.”

There were 10,236 shareholders as at May 31 – up 123 from previous years.

“We intend the busi-ness to be significantly bigger. It will involve core products and services in genetics, information and hardware onfarm and more in the international market… because that’s where our competitors potentially come from. We also get the opportunity to learn a lot from what’s happening in the world.”

Some of the growth will be from the current core business, some from inno-vation we are develop-ing now and in the future. Some will be from IT offerings from farm hard-ware, diagnostic testing.

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AGRIBUSINESS 23

Are you bright enough for Ag?Massey University’s head of agriculture Dr Peter Kemp.

IF YOU are bright enough then maybe a career in the agribusiness sector is for you.

Head of Massey Uni-versity’s Institute of Agri-culture and Environment, Professor Peter Kemp, says at long last he is start-ing to see a change in attitudes about channel-ling bright young people towards a career in the wider primary sector.

Kemp says the days when careers advisors told less able students to make a career in agriculture are gradually disappearing.

“The key messages the industry and Massey have been getting out is that doing agriculture doesn’t mean you can only go farming – although some students do,” he told Rural News. “But there’re bank-ing, marketing, advisory, engineering and food jobs, to name a few. This indus-try is really diversified.”

Kemp says for the last six years, the numbers of students studying some type of agriculture degree has been the highest for 30 years. Young people are starting to realise there are

good job prospects in the sector and that it’s a place for talented people.

Many students study-ing agriculture-related degrees come from urban areas. “The demands of the primary sector means the pool of students coming from rural areas will not be sufficient for its needs. To get the numbers they have to come from the cities and provincial towns. Some students… come from central Auck-land, but of course most

still come from farms.”Many others come

from a background that’s given them a taste of the rural experience such as lifestyle blocks or they’ve had a classic holiday with, say, an uncle or aunt who owns a farm.

The agriculture-based degree courses at Massey have changed and kept pace with the changing demands of the primary sector, Kemp says. Degrees today have more science and new science.

“One challenge we have noticed in recent years is keeping students up to speed with some of the software that’s needed – not just spreadsheets, but Overseer and all the nutri-

PETER BURKE

[email protected]

ent management stuff. “Human resource

management is also becoming important. Years ago in the classic ag degree you would have been learning dairying, pasture, soils and farm management. No-one taught human resource management, or foreign exchange,

or understanding environmental issues… but they’re now a part of the overall degree.”

Kemp says the dairy industry is seeing more rapid change than in the past. The papers students take now have a strong emphasis on environmen-tal issues.

“It’s our responsibility

to make sure students are learning that,” he explains. “There are anti-farming types who regard farming as nothing but bad for the environment. But if you are on the inside, you are well aware that the farm-ing industry is investing millions in trying to over-come some of these envi-ronmental problems.”

IRRIGATIONNZ, WITH MPI Sustainable Farming Fund, AgResearch, Landcare Research and Aqualinc, has produced a guide to irrigating steeper slopes.

“Achieving efficient irrigation on hill country is more challenging than on flat land and demands a greater level of skill, as well as design tailored to the property,” says IrrigationNZ project manager Paul Reese.

“The critical challenge is to keep the water in the plant root zone avoiding and minimising run-off. Our guide book offers solutions to these problems, alongside a review of the relative merits of the different methods of irrigation that suit hill slopes in New Zealand.”

Central and North Otago, Canterbury’s foothills and eastern parts the North Island have all seen growth in irrigation on sloping ground covering a wide variety of crops and pasture, he notes.

The ‘Hill Country Irrigation Guidebook’ was launched at IrrigationNZ’s ‘Great Irrigation Challenge’ training and education event in Ashburton in October.

Hill country irrigation guide

The agriculture-based degree courses at Massey have changed and kept pace with the changing demands of the primary sector.

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24 OPINION

EDITORIAL EDNA

THE HOUNDWant to share your opinion or

gossip with the Hound? Send your emails to:

[email protected]

A book in it?A SOUTHERN farming informant of the Hound reckons he smells a rat in Meat Industry Excellence (MIE) group’s constant criticism of the Alliance Group and its board. “It is interesting to note that MIE chair John McCarthy is a former Meat Board director,” he breathlessly confided to yours truly, “given that for many years the Meat Board quite deliberately prevented the formation of the farmer-owned Alliance Freezing Company (Southland) Ltd, which we now know as Alli-ance Group.” This old mutt suggests his southern pal is drawing a rather long bow with his MIE conspiracy theory.

Pushed?YOUR OLD mate notes that perennial meat industry curmudgeon Silver Fern boss Keith Cooper has announced he is standing down after eight years at the helm of country’s largest meat co-op. The news of Cooper’s demise was couched in typical corpo-rate BS, e.g. “significant contribution” and “timely to move on”, so the Hound wonders if old grumps did actually choose to walk or was made to walk the plank. Meanwhile, with SFF under a new broom and the Alli-ance Group also having a new man in charge – after long time chief Grant Cuff announced his departure earlier this year – are the decks being cleared for a mega-merger?

Weeding them outYOUR OLD mate reckons when it comes to picking cabinet ministers the PM would need to be able to sort the weeds from the more productive plants – figuratively speaking. Newly appointed conser-vation minister Maggie Barry during her days as a broadcaster made a monster boo-boo on her TV gardening show, the Hound’s source relates. During a garden visit in the Horizons region, Barry asked, “What are all these lovely miniature Christmas trees on your lawn?” Whoops! It turned out they were the invasive weed field horsetail.

Fat chanceTHE HOUND reckons Marlborough farmer Murray Beach, who wants Fonterra to stop ‘invest-ment’ spending and cut executive salaries until milk prices improve has more chance of flying to the moon than getting this to happen. Unsurpris-ingly Fonterra has recom-mended shareholders vote against Beach’s suggestion, claiming it would mean no invest-ments or development projects could be made until the farmgate milk price, reaches $7. It would also make the co-op’s spend on its new Auck-land waterfront HQ, look even more extravagant and out of touch.

FailSPEAKING OF Fonterra and losers, the Hound had to snigger when hearing about wannabe director Gary Reymer whining to the powers that be that his photo was not included in the latest issue of Rural News in an article about the upcoming dairy co-op board elec-tions. Apparently Reymer claimed his no-show would cost him election to the board. Your old mate suggests it won’t be a lack of a photo that will cost the Waikato dairy farmer a chance of gaining a board seat, but rather a lack of political nous in making such silly claims.

THE TIDE appears to be running in on the num-bers of students choosing studies that may lead to agri sector careers. We may be witnessing the end of schools careers advisors nudging only their less able students towards the industry.

As the head of Massey University’s Institute of Agriculture and Environment, Professor Peter Kemp, says, if you are bright enough perhaps a career in agribusiness is for you. Kemp discerns a change in attitude about channelling bright young people towards a career in the wider pri-mary sector.

The industry’s key message, he says, must be that doing agriculture doesn’t mean just farming: there’s also banking, marketing, advisory, engi-neering and food, to name a few.

Kemp says for six years, student numbers in agriculture degree courses have been at their highest in 30 years. Young people are starting to recognise good job prospects in the sector and to see it as a place for talented people.

These courses at Massey have changed to keep pace with the changing demands of the primary sector, Kemp says. Degrees today have more sci-ence and new science. “Human resource man-agement is also becoming important. Years ago in the classic ag degree you would have learned dairying, pasture, soils and farm management. No-one taught human resource management, or foreign exchange, or understanding environmen-tal issues… but they’re now a part of the overall degree.”

Meanwhile, Lincoln University, also looking at the future, has established a department of infor-matics and enabling technologies. Department head Dr Stuart Charters says too many IT stu-dents are overlooking the technological needs and opportunities of the primary sector.

“While I don’t dismiss the value of IT in fields such as gaming or design, I worry about the possi-bility of an unfavourable distribution of students choosing [studies] in these areas at the expense of advancing IT in the primary sector.”

Charters sees this as an exciting time for pri-mary industry IT and he emphasises the agri sector is bigger than just farming.

“Although there is much scope for technolog-ical advances in farming, it’s also important to realise that the primary sector is much broader than this. It also involves areas such as supply chain management, environmental manage-ment, GIS and even accounting.”

With the huge growth potential of the pri-mary sector, and with this a high demand for skilled and talented people, the industry would do well to intone a new mantra: ‘Only the best and brightest’.

Only the best

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“Edna and I have always split everything right down the middle – sixty-forty!”


OPINION 25

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

Top Bleats view all

sfaulknerwoollevygroup: Woolgrowers have spoken! We’ve witnessed democracy in action! What a fantastic voter turnout! What an absolute crap result!! #bugger #allthat-workfornothing #bastards

rpowerdrellfedfarmers: Wow, such a nar-row loss in the wool commodity levy vote. Just like Custer’s narrow loss at Little Big Horn, and Labour’s narrow loss at the election, and the narrow stretch of water between here and Australia. #deluded #backedthewronghorse #neveradmitdefeat

mshadboltwonz: Now that we’ve put the kybosh on the wool levy it’s time all of us in the wool industry got together, held hands and sang Kumbaya. #threat’sover #makefakeover-tures #jobdone

sfaulknerwoollevygroup@mshadbolt-wonz: I’d rather hold hands with an Ebola victim than get together with you and your lot! #getstuffed

damienoconnormp: Who shall I back as the new Labour leader? A gay? A unionist? An underachieving Maori female? Or Harry Potter? #handmethatgun #spoiltforchoice

johnkeypm: Wearing my hat as merely a casual observer – not as prime minister, National Party leader, husband or #1 All Black fan – I reckon this Labour leadership contest is a bigger joke than Nicky Hager’s last book. #ifthecapfits

thatguynathan: Dear @johnkeypm, thanks so much for giving me another bash as Minister for Primary Industries. I promise no Psa outbreaks, botulism scares or meat export bans on my shift this time. #threemoreyears #cockups

leonieguineyfonterrafan: I may have spent the last two to three years bagging Fonterra, its board, management and everything they have done. But now I want to be a director. So let’s forget all that negative stuff. #voteforme #tafisnaff

greymerdairyfarmer: I’m a big-picture guy. That’s why I was so upset my photo didn’t run in the latest Rural News and why I only read comics. #whereismyphoto

jwilsonfonterra: I thought the dairy sector was only supposed to attract the cream of the industry, something I seriously question every time we hold Fonterra director elections. #dropkicks #shallowtalentpool

WHILE THE decision of wool grow-ers is clear, the wool levy referendum hasn’t put to bed the issues behind why it was held.

So yes, the Wool Levy Referendum was voted down, but you need to under-stand the margins on a per farmer basis. A 57.19% ‘no’ vote to a 42.81% ‘yes’ vote sounds decisive until you realise the numbers behind the percentages. It

boils down to 3295 ‘no’ versus the 2466 growers who voted ‘yes’.

Clear, yes; decisive, no. This highlights how much of New

Zealand’s multi-billion dollar primary industries hinge on very few people. The levy packs were sent to only 12,201 growers.

While the result wasn’t as Feder-ated Farmers preferred, the record voter turnout of 47.22% was. Not only was it up on the 39% who voted in 2009, it was

way up on the 35% these kinds of votes normally attract. It also easily beat the 41.3% turnout to last year’s local elec-tions.

So what conclusions should we draw?

For one, it shows the wool industry is split nearly down the middle. There’s a strong desire, especially among the 2466 growers who said ‘yes’, for an industry-good body. The wool industry needs to work on issues arising from the levy

discussions about how we can promote and grow value.

The past 17 years tells a worry-ing story for wool. Lamb values have climbed some 500%, but wool has gone up only a miserly 10%. The old Wool Board deserved to be put down and the levy which followed it had lost its way come 2009.

The shame is that instead of looking at what a modern farmer-led levy prom-ised, too many of our guys were wrongly

thinking ‘producer board’.Federated Farmers, being the only

non-commercial body representing wool growers, calls on all wool indus-try participants to take stock.

The next step for us will be our meat & fibre council in Wellington this month where we will review the levy outcome, the past four years and, of course, our future strategy.• Rick Powdrell is Federated Farmers meat & fibre chair.

Levy outcome still a bit woollyRICK POWDRELL

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26 OPINION

Changes to overseas worker rules still neededI READ with interest in the last issue of Rural News about John Key’s visit to a large asparagus growing operation in Horowhenua where he commented that his Government is a strong supporter of the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme.

This scheme allows people, mostly from the Pacific Islands, temporary entry to New Zealand to help harvest and pack horticultural crops if there are labour shortages in this country.

The Prime Minister acknowl-edged horticulture is a good industry for regional development because it is labour intensive and provides great job opportunities. He also pointed out how the industry provides work for a range of people, including those who want to live a transient lifestyle, people who are semi-retired and locals who want sea-sonal work.

According to the Ministry of Busi-ness and Employment and Innovation website: “The RSE is a policy that facil-

itates the temporary entry of additional workers from overseas to plant, maintain, harvest and pack crops in the horticulture and viticul-ture industries to meet these labour shortages.”

I hope the PM and his advisors are also aware of the desperate need for a similar scheme for the agricultural contracting sector. Rural Contractors New Zealand (RCNZ) has for years sought changes to the rules on migrant workers in the rural contracting sector. Unfortunately, so far, our calls have fallen on deaf ears.

However, the ongoing shortage of experienced, agricultural machinery operators is compelling rural contractors again to call on the Government for help.

Part of this labour shortfall can be met by bringing in operators from over-seas. But the rules on employing tem-porary, skilled people from overseas prepared to work for six to eight months

each year need to be simpli-fied, as do the regulations restricting people who had previously worked in NZ in past seasons from returning here to work.

RCNZ is urging the Gov-ernment to seriously look at these regulations and how the process can be stream-

lined and simplified. While we agree with the Prime Minster about the need to get more New Zealanders into jobs, in our sector and others, we have seri-ous concerns about the suitability of some unemployed New Zealanders to work in our industry.

Contracting is a seasonal business using sophisticated machinery requir-ing technical skills, and there is a huge gap between rural contractors’ needs for trained, agricultural machinery operators and the unemployed New Zealanders who can and want to do this work. They would need to oper-

ate highly technical and very expensive pieces of machinery. It is unrealistic, unsafe and impractical to expect unem-ployed people to walk off the street and successfully do this work.

I was disappointed to hear some of the debate on this issue during the recent election campaign, showing clearly that many politicians know nothing of the dire shortage of experienced agricultural machinery operators. These politicians – and the bureaucrats – are completely ignorant about this problem: rural con-tractors rely on employing skilled people from overseas on a temporary basis each season and have done so for many years. This is because many applicants Work and Income NZ tries to fill these vacan-cies with do not have the right skills and/or attitude to be successful.

RCNZ does its bit to encourage locals to look at our sector by suggesting a career path young people can take to enter our sector. We have been encour-aging schools to get better at promoting

agricultural careers. We work closely with training organisations to promote industry qualifications up to diploma level – with remuneration above the average in many cases.

Also, after the success of RCNZ induc-tion and training days held in Southland during the past two years we are now looking at establishing a three to four-day training course next winter around the country to enable more people to develop the necessary skills to work in the contracting industry and meet con-tractors’ staffing needs.

RCNZ will continue to work with the Government, other political parties and officials to ensure locals have opportu-nity for employment. And we will con-tinue to lobby for changes to the rules on engaging overseas seasonal workers for the benefit of the rural contracting sector.• Agricultural contractor Steve Levet, of Wellsford, is the president of the Rural Con-tractors New Zealand (RCNZ).


OPINION 27

IT students need herding into primary sectorTOO MANY information technology students are overlooking the technological needs and opportunities of the primary sector, even though career prospects are high and the potential for new discoveries with scientific and commercial value considerable.

While I don’t dismiss the value of IT in fields such as gaming or design, I worry about the possibility of an unfavourable distribution of students choosing educational programmes in these areas at the expense of advancing IT in the primary sector, especially considering the commercial relevance and importance of the land-based industries to New Zealand.

Although there is much scope for technological advances in farming, it’s also important to realise that the primary sector is much broader than this. It also involves areas such as supply chain management, environmental management, geographic information systems (GIS) and even accounting. It’s a multifaceted, multibillion dollar industry. As such, it’s an exciting time for

primary industry IT.As well as setting up the new department to put greater emphasis on IT for the land-based industries, recent qualifications reforms have seen Lincoln introduce an agritech major to its bachelor of science degree, a GIS and environmental informatics major to its bachelor of environment and society, and an information technology major to its bachelor of commerce.

Technological advances include the increasing use of mobile phone apps in precision agriculture, such as through the

optimisation of irrigation systems.

There are many interrelated science and business considerations on the average farm, which means many commercial decisions of consequence have to be made regularly. This translates into opportunities in IT for optimising farm operations and the wider primary sector. More grads are needed to capitalise on the growing potential.• Stuart Charters is head of department at Lincoln University’s newly established department of informatics and enabling technologies.

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28 MANAGEMENT

Pioneer says its sorghum-sudan grass hybrid Bettagraze can help bridge summer feed deficits.

Sorghum-sudan grass summer-safe option

FACED WITH a dry seed-bed in late spring, what are you going to sow?

If it’s feed for cattle you need, with some flex-ibility about when to use it, then a sorghum-sudan grass hybrid such as Pio-neer brand Bettagraze is worth considering, pro-vided you’re in one of the warmer parts of the coun-try.

“It’s a good option if you’ve had a small seed crop fail for whatever reason because the bigger seed means you can drill it at depth where it will find moisture and germinate,” explains Pioneer’s forage and nutrition specialist Raewyn Densley.

Another scenario where

it fits the bill is where a paddock has been taken for silage then cultivated or sprayed out ready for reseeding. Rather than risk sowing a small seed such as a brassica or grass which won’t germinate without rain, Bettagraze drilled into the moisture will bounce out of the ground and be ready for a first cut or graze within a couple of months.

“Depending on the conditions it can be as little as five-six weeks until your first cut, which will give you 3-4tDM/ha, and then you can take another a month later, and another a month after that. Usually you will get three-five cuts depending on the season and the growing environ-ment.”

That flexibility to graze

or ensile is another advan-tage over brassica, Densley points out. “If you don’t need it, you don’t have to feed it. With brassicas, the years they grow best are the years you don’t really need the feed but you’ve got to use them regardless or they go to waste.”

At 10-10.5MJME/kgDM the Bettagraze is only a moderate quality feed so that needs to be taken into account when allocating stock to use it, but what it lacks in quality it should make up in quantity.

However, a key point is not to let it get too tall, stresses Densley. “If you let it get as high as the trac-tor cab then the feed qual-ity is not going to be good at all. For grazing, we say put stock in when it’s thigh height and take them out

when it’s down to gum-boot height. For ensiling don’t let it get taller than 1.2m and cut it at 15cm.”

That residual height is important as the growing tip is above ground. Shav-ing it off as you would for grass silage will kill the plant.

Using a mower condi-

tioner will help get moisture

out of the stems and make for a

better silage and/or shorter wilt.

“How long it needs to wilt will

depend on the crop density and temperature but normally it needs one-three days.”

Sowing at the higher end of the 25-45kg/ha seed rate range will also make for a faster wilt and higher quality silage, as there are more, thinner stems.

More seeds/ha also means quicker canopy

closure helping shut out weeds, a point worth noting given there are no herbicides registered for use in the crop. Good seedbed preparation and rapid establishment means weeds are less likely to be a problem with the crop in any case, she adds.

Overall establishment cost typically comes in at $1100-1200/ha, much less than maize. While the latter can yield up to twice as much, it’s a one-hit crop which won’t solve a feed pinch in summer unless you have forward planned and have maize silage car-

ried over from the previ-ous growing season.

Densley stresses that leaving the Bettagraze to go to seed with a view to taking a maize-type silage isn’t an option. “It would be very poor feed quality and you may never get a decent seed head on it.”

The crop’s been available for over a decade but summer dries are seeing it increase in popularity, mostly north of Taupo and the odd pocket in other areas such as Hawkes Bay, and even some warmer corners of Canterbury.

ANDREW SWALLOW

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30 MANAGEMENT

Sheep industry looking to emulate dairy’s size and success with genetics

THE SHEEP industry’s newest genetics body is revamping the sector’s selection systems to emulate the scale and power of those used in the dairy industry.

“We want bigger, faster, better genetic evaluations and the way we’re going to do that is aim to have a single all SIL evaluation,” Mark Young of Beef + Lamb Genetics told delegates at BLG’s inaugural Sheep Breeders’ Forum in Dunedin.

Currently most SIL analysis is within-flock with a few across-flock comparisons, Young explained. SIL-ACE is the biggest number crunching exercise, including about 350 flocks, which takes about a week to perform. “We want to do an all-SIL analysis in less than a week!”

A problem to overcome is the number of different ways breeding values currently are calculated: within-flock, across flock groups, through to SIL-ACE, with different bodies doing analyses for the same thing in

different ways.The traditional tool of estimated

breeding value (EBV) also needs splicing with increasingly widely used marker breeding values (MBV) and genetic breeding values (GBV).

The move to a single, national flock SIL system will mean New Zealand’s sheep genetic evaluation is more like dairy’s single national system used for decades, Young later told Rural News.

However, to do it a major piece of computer software has to be built and it will likely take two to three years. “In some respects it will not look like we’re changing much but there are some fairly

fundamental things happening under the hood.”

Fellow forum speaker Michael Lee, formerly of Agresearch Invermay and now a senior scientist at the University of Otago, explained where the SIL work fits into the overall BLG work programme.

“SIL’s done a really good job in the last 10-15 years but it does need some attention so there’s a total rebuild planned.”

Getting “stayability and body condition score” data routinely recorded as traits in SIL or its replacement was another goal Lee

stressed.BLG will also fund

phenotyping work, in particular on feed efficiency of ewes, to see if it’s a trait worth developing (see Animal Health, pXX), and developing electronic devices to record animal behaviours and data more effectively.

Work already started on whether breeding needs to be tuned to environment will continue.

“Can we get away with breeding a ram for all environments or do we need to specifically breed for different environments? There’s some evidence in the literature that for some traits we probably do need to breed for environment… but we need to substantiate that.”

Lee stressed a lot of BLG’s work will see scientists working with breeders and commercial farmers. “It’s not about a bunch of scientists working

in isolation. We are all aiming for more profitable animals, in particular ewes in the hill country…. Basically all this work will end up in getting more accurate and unbiased EBVs.”

Ewe productivity and profitability, particularly off hill country, will be a key focus as lowland flocks have dwindled but hill

country numbers are stable. “So the research needs to focus on increasing their profitability in the long-term.”

But North Canterbury breeder John Booker cautioned against too much focus on hill country. “Don’t assume all the flat country is going to be running cows because it’s not,” he said, alluding to the environmental restrictions now being rolled out catchment zone by catchment zone in Canterbury.

ANDREW SWALLOW

[email protected]

AN AMALGAMATION of online tools Breeder Finder and Flock Finder will soon be available as a smartphone app, says Mark Young of Beef + Lamb Genetics.

The tool is being trialled with breeders first, but once it is released

it will allow commercial ram buyers to search for breeders selecting particular traits. Young told Rural News he expects it to be used by rural professionals such as stock agents and vets as much as by farmers.

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MANAGEMENT 31

Northland beet best grown outLET FODDER beet grow out rather than raid it for a summer feed if at all possi-ble, says Agricom’s North-land North Island sales manager Ben Trotter.

Trotter told 60 farmers at a Beef and Lamb field day near Wellsford that more could be gained from letting fodder beet grow to maturity than feeding it in late summer or early autumn.

For the past three sea-sons 10 dairy and beef farmers around Northland have been testing the crop as a summer/autumn feed on behalf of industry good groups and rural profes-sionals.

Trotter says while test results were impressive given the conditions the crops were grown in – one farm harvested 17.3tDM/ha in autumn despite the area’s worst drought in a decade – a better return could be expected if bulbs were given 160-180 days to grow.

“It’s a case of being aware that the crop area will need to be taken out of the rotation for over half a year and making plans to compensate for it.”

Given a full season yields of 20-30tDM/ha are the norm, says Trotter.

Stock need careful transitioning onto the feed over about three weeks and some form of fibrous feed to prevent acidosis should be offered through-out.

Cutting and feeding in a different field or on-off grazing with breakfencing are possible ways to tran-sition.

Most of the plant’s 10% protein is in the leaf which needs to be accounted for if that’s been grazed off and bulbs are being fed separately.

Trotter points out the bulbs have an excellent “shelf-life” so can be used over an extended period.

With two harvesters now in the region lifting, storing, and feeding on a pad or other paddocks is now an option, he adds.

“People get better returns [from lifing] from better use of the crop.”

There are also more precision drills available now so lower seeding rates and better strike rates for crops are being seen.

Typically with a preci-sion drill 80,000 seeds/ha will be sown compared to 100,000/ha used with air-seeders.

But preparation for fodder beet should start in the autumn preceding sowing which is best done September-October.

A fertile paddock with easy contour should be chosen, soil tests taken, and the crop’s high potas-sium, sodium, magne-sium and boron needs addressed with fertiliser ahead of seeding.

The crop is slow to pro-duce a complete canopy so weed control needs extra attention. Trotter says start with glypho-

GARETH GILLATTsate and a contact insecti-cide ahead of cultivating, which in turn should be done at least 4 - 6 weeks before planting. A non-residual herbicide imme-diately before planting can then take out a first flush of weeds.

Poor preparation is likely to result in at least

one, if not more, extra her-bicides or insecticides being needed once the crop’s sown, he points out.

Ballance Helensville/Wellsford Field Consul-tant Ross Neal says the crop may also benefit from an application of a DAP type fertiliser with a fer-tiliser box fitted along a

precision drill/direct drill giving best results.

“By putting the fertil-iser right next to the seed you’re giving it a bit of an extra push to help it get out of the ground.”

Once sown, several more passes to apply her-bicides and nitrogen fertil-iser will be needed.

On the beet: Agricom’s Ben Trotter spoke at a recent Beef + Lamb field day on fodder beet in Northland.

Weeds: thorough seedbed preparation will minimise competition and control costs later.

®


32 MANAGEMENT

Continue to make money in the tougher timesSHEEP AND beef farm-ers may be doing OK at the moment, but what happens when the wind changes?

Farmers wanting to improve their long term wealth and wellbeing will have an opportunity to meet and learn from award-winning Hawkes Bay farmer Steve Wyn-

Harris about how to make more money and continue to make money when times get tough again.

Wyn-Harris is trav-elling around Kerikeri, Whangarei, Dargaville, Te Kauwahta and Te Kuiti during November explain-ing how feed budgeting enabled him to survive the recent droughts and

even to make what he con-siders a reasonable profit each year. This is the latest series of roadshows organ-ised by HR Consultant Ant Lagan; it follows an inau-gural series that featured Marlborough farmer Doug Avery.

After establishing the ‘Beyond Reasonable Drought’ project, Lagan

says he recognised a core group of top farmers had successfully embraced technology, data collec-tion, alternative pasture use and protection of the environment to build resilient businesses.

Working with Cash Manager Rural, Farmax, Ravensdown, Seed-force and Focus Genet-

ics, and teamed up with progres-sive accounting firms, Lagan has developed a series of farming work-shops. These ‘gently’ take not-so-progres-sive farmers into cyber-space where they get to ask questions they are afraid to ask about IT and data collection.

“We know IT is hard for older farmers and we want to help them over-come the stumbling blocks of technological innovation,” Lagan says.

Along with Steve Wyn-Harris’s presentation, the workshops will include Australian resilience spe-

cialist Dennis Hoihberg who will speak about strategies that work.

“A strong support and communication network is a key building block in developing a resilient farm business and maintaining a healthy mindset in rural communities,” Hoihberg explains.

Lagan says sheep and beef farmers may be ok

for a while – with the wind at their backs. “But when that wind changes, what will the not-so-resilient amongst them do?” he asks.

Steve and Dennis’s message to farmers look-ing to improve their long-term wealth and wellbeing is, if we change our think-ing and our behaviour we can change the outcomes.

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ANIMAL HEALTH 33

Tailing trial work continues Trial detail

TWO SEASONS into an investi-gation of the impact of tailing or docking lambs has prompted fur-ther analysis to see if longer tails could increase processing reve-nue by generating extra product for rendering or sale, says Alli-ance Group.

The cooperative last week released its final report on the research by AbacusBio Ltd on four farms – one in Southland, one in Canterbury, and two in Wairarapa. UK supermarket J Sainsbury’s, Beef + Lamb New Zealand and the Ministry for Primary Industries through the Sustainable Farming Fund were partners in the project.

The report concludes docking length or leaving tails intact has no long-term beneficial or det-rimental effect on lamb growth rates, with the caveat that the work was done on farms with a low rate of flystrike.

An increase in dags was seen in lambs with tails docked long

(5-7cm) or left intact which would increase the risk of flys-trike in some environments. The report draws on previous studies to predict the likely incidence of flystrike from the dags recorded (see table).

B+LNZ research manager Geoff Ridley says there is a clear link between dags and flystrike.

“This research shows docking will be of most benefit in warmer, moist areas of New Zealand where blowflies are more prevalent over a longer season. It is something sheep farmers are already aware of, but these findings confirm and support our code of welfare, which permits docking when necessary to reduce the likelihood of

flystrike.”Alliance Group general man-

ager livestock Murray Behrent says many myths surround tail docking and its impact on lamb growth which the trial has helped to dispel.

“It has provided objective scientific information about tail docking practices for our sup-pliers…. This is helpful research, but it does not represent the end of our work in this area. We are always looking at ways to improve the welfare of our livestock including exploring alternatives, practices and new technology to meet the needs of our customers.”

Behrent says Alliance con-tinues to work with customers

“to further consider the wel-fare implications” of docking and whether more research is needed.

In keeping with the dag find-ings, lambs with intact tails or long-docked tails (5-7cm) took longer to crutch than those with

short-docked tails, reflected in a 31c/lamb increase in farmer/con-tractor costs between short and long-docked, and another 44c for intact tails compared to long. However, there was an 88c/lamb saving in not docking those with intact tails.

ANDREW SWALLOW

[email protected]

LAMBS WERE weighed at the time of docking, weaning and all post-wean drafts. Dags and flys-trike incidence were also recorded at these times. The four tail lengths were: flush (1cm); short (3-4cm – common in NZ ); long (5-7cm – common in the UK); intact. Growth rate and yield work was done on one Southland Farm on 491 same sex twin-born lambs with a mix of breeds (maternal Coopworth/Texel; terminal Coopworth/Suffolk/Texel cross or Coopworth/Texel/South Down cross).

The production, welfare and economic impacts were measured on three farms: one in Canterbury with 840 Highlander-based crypt lambs and two in Wairarapa involving 840 Perendale-based mixed sex lambs and 840 Romney-based mixed sex lambs.

The full trial report is at www.alliance.co.nz.Adapted from AbacusBio report to tail docking steering

committee.

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34 ANIMAL HEALTH

Promising feed efficiency findingsFOR ALL the talk about feed efficiency in the sheep industry it’s actually a trait with little science to

support it when it comes to grazing animals, a review of the international literature by AgResearch has found.

“We found there’s no dataset in the world

which can answer our questions,” Dr Tricia Johnson told Rural News at the recent Beef + Lamb Genetics’ Sheep Breeders Forum in Dunedin – where she was presenting a

ANDREW SWALLOW

[email protected]

research poster.That dearth of data

meant research on feed efficiency on pasture had to start from scratch last year with a pilot study of 40 hoggets’ feed efficiency as measured by residual feed intake*.

The hoggets were initially fed cut pasture – it had to be cut so intakes could be accurately measured – and their growth recorded. Then half the mob was put onto a lucerne pellet feed diet to see if the feed efficiency ranking changed.

With the last data from that pilot trial just collected Johnson says preliminary analysis suggests significant variability in animal intake relative to growth exists, indicating eventually the work might lead to scientifically sound criteria to selectively breed for feed efficiency.

“There are a lot of pre-conceived notions in this area,” she notes.

The switch to pellet feed produced more or less the same range and ranking of animals for feed efficiency, so it’s probably not just a case of one diet suiting some animals better than others.

“It’s pretty neat that there’s considerable but consistent variation in

how these individual animals have performed. It shows there’s potential to identify sheep which either produce more from the same amount of feed, or produce the same with less feed.”

A five-year trial using 200hoggets/year from the Central Progeny Test will start in June which will, hopefully, build on the pilot study findings and produce a world-leading data set.

“No-one else in the world is doing this work on this scale and we’ll be looking not only at growth but at reproductive performance and things

like onset of puberty. It will definitely be a unique dataset.”

Long-term the aim is to not only identify more feed efficient lines of sheep, but also how heritable feed efficiency is as a trait and how it correlates with other traits so breeders can make informed decisions about whether to select for efficiency.

Johnson notes breeders in the beef industry are already familiar with the concepts of feed efficiency as measured by residual feed intake, though unfortunately there are some negative correlations

with reproduction, complicating selection criteria. Heritability estimates for feed efficiency in cattle range from 0.07 to 0.62.

“In the sheep world it’s going to take a while get up to speed with this terminology.”

Johnson’s work is being funded by Beef + Lamb New Zealand Genetics.

* Residual Feed Intake: what’s left over after an animal’s needs for maintenance, exercise, growth/liveweight gain, pregnancy and milk production are accounted for. See B+LNZ R&D Brief 122.

Dr Tricia Johnson’s pilot study suggests there is worthwhile variability in ewes’ feed efficiency.

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36 ANIMAL HEALTH

No EID for Aussie sheepAUSTRALIAN FARMERS will not have imposed on them a national electronic ID system for identifying sheep and goats.

Instead, agriculture ministers have opted to improve the mob-based National Livestock Identification System (NLIS) already used to trace animals from property of birth to slaughter for the purpose

of biosecurity, meat safety, product integrity and market access.

State and territory governments will improve NLIS either by enhancing the mob-based system or by introducing electronic identification ear tags.

Federal Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce, who chaired

a forum on the issue, said the NLIS decision will improve traceability with the least possible burden on producers, given EID tags cost A80c to A$1.60/animal.

“These are costs that would need to be met by each state and the industry itself. Forcing electronic identification systems onto the entire

industry can’t be justified in the current environment.”

In opting for enhancing the current mob-based system, Department of Agriculture researchers have recommended the costs and benefits of transitioning from a mob-based system to an EID system be reviewed within five years. – Alan Harman

Consider waste in the cowWITH A low dairy payout forecast don’t just look to eliminate waste in the paddock, think about what might be underutilised in the cow too, says Ballance Agri-Nutrients.

“There is a good amount of forage already grown on the farm that gets wasted,” says consultant nutritionist James Hague who works with Ballance’s animal feed firm SealesWinslow. “The waste isn’t underfoot, it’s within the cow.”

The key to correcting that is getting the balance of nutrition right, Hague says.

“Some purchased feeds do little to improve the utilisation of grass and silage, so we look at balancing the diet to help extract as much feed value as possible from the whole diet, to find the most effective and efficient way of turning feed into milk.”

SealesWinslow has tools which compare potential milk production to actual. The aim, says Hague, is to “identify the gaps and come up with the approach for filling those gaps so that production and profitability are optimised.”

The firm has analysed at least 500 herds using a milk prediction software programme, comparing farm actual production to target production to identify deviations as the season progresses. On average an extra 30,000kgMS/farm could be produced based on the optimum milk curve from their peak production figures.

It’s a figure worth noting, Hague says. “At a $5.00/kgMS payout, that’s an additional $150,000 gross income.”

To ensure diets are profitable SealesWinslow looks at return on dollars invested in feed. Margin is a key measure and needs to be sufficient to add profit and fit with cashflow.

A SIMPLE, practical way to gauge quality of a bought feed is by assessing the herd’s dung, says Hague.

If a purchased feed is not well processed, or the diet is out of balance, there will be runny, bubbly dung. It is an indication feed is passing through the digestive system too fast, with inadequate fermenta-tion and feed value is being lost.

Poorly fermented feed passing out of the rumen into the lower digestive tract can undergo a secondary fermentation known as ‘hind gut fermen-tation’. Such fermentation produces acids which can damage gut linings. This is unpleasant for the cow and energy is used in the repair process – energy that should be used for milk production.

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MACHINERY & PROUCTS 37

From garage to exports in 25 yearsWE ALL know China makes some crap. But we also know China makes quality items – Apple i-Phones, supertankers, Red Bands and Swandris, to name a few.

The trick is knowing which is which.

Cue CF Moto’s invita-tion to Rural News to go on a dealer trip to its fac-tory in Hangzhou, 170km southwest of Shanghai, China. “Don’t listen to us, come and see for your-self,” the company said. So we did.

At the 150,000m2 facil-ity, complete with dor-mitories for workers and their families, we get the company history from Charles Ni, chief sales offi-cer. CF Moto was started by Lai Guogui in 1989, making engine parts in a garage; in 1996 the com-pany started making engines, then motorcy-cles in 2000 and quads in 2004. It has carved out a unique position in China in that it makes larger capacity motorcycles, not scooters, and focuses on export markets rather than the domestic market, which apparently buys 14 million motorcycles each year.

The company has come a long way since that

garage and its most recent achievement is a partner-ship with Austrian motor-cycle company KTM to manufacture the Duke 390 for the Chinese market – a huge tick of approval.

CF Moto is becom-ing more visible on the world stage through par-ticipation in motorsports events, and the develop-ment of a 650cc engine has given the company a cred-ible presence in the world road-bike market with the 650NK naked roadster and the full-fairing tourer, the 650TK.

Its growth has been rapid and exports hit 30,000 units in 2012 then 40,000 this year. It has 1500 dealers worldwide and big market share in

Russia, Sweden and Ger-many. Of interest to us, many of those units are quadss and in Australia they are now ranked fifth in ATV sales.

The focus on export rather than domestic mar-kets seems to be a key to their success.

Exports are critical to CF Moto, in part because of the size of recreational markets in developed countries, and because there are restraints on their domestic growth: the scooter market is huge but the larger-capacity motor-bike market is relatively small and two wheel vehi-cles are banned from free-ways. Also, Charles Ni tells us owning a quad or side-by-side is illegal in China.

With global expansion firmly in its sights, he says quality is a major focus for CF Moto with techni-cal feedback from export markets fed quickly back into product develop-ment. “Engine develop-ment is continuous. R&D investment equals 9% of our sales revenue, high by most standards but impor-tant for a fast growing company like ours.”

Mojo Motorcycles Aus-tralia imports CF Moto motorcycles for the Aus-tralian and now the New Zealand market. Michael Poynton, one of two founding directors of Mojo, has worked with a number of Chinese com-panies since setting up in 2003 and says the cul-

ADAM FRICKERture of CF Moto sets them apart. This includes their focus on overseas markets, their professionalism, strong communication and long-term approach.

“They understand the importance of consistently building equity in their

own brand in export mar-kets, which many Chinese companies don’t get.”

Mojo is the fastest growing motorcycle com-pany in Australia, selling some 5000 units per year through a network of 80 dealers. CF Moto is its big-

gest brand, selling 2500 units in 2014, mostly four-wheeled. CF Moto is now the fifth best-selling quad brand in Australia with 10% market share and Poynter expects to achieve 15% market share in quad/

CF Moto quads roll off the production line. The Chinese brand is now the fifth largest ATV brand in Australia.

TO PAGE 38

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38 MACHINERY & PRODUCTSPicking the good from the bad in Chinaside-by-side sales – about 2000 units – in 2015.

Breaking the Austra-lian quad/side-by-side market into segments, Poynter says CF Moto has 17% of the 450-550cc quad

market, 11% of the over-550cc quad market, 39% of the sports side-by-side market, 18% of the under-650cc utility side-by-side market and 18% of the over-650cc utility side-by-side market.

They are eagerly await-ing a 400cc quad in 2015 to give them an offering in the segment that many farmers shop in – the sub-450cc segment. The new 550 side-by-side will also be important for Australia

and New Zealand where there is a growing trend toward side-by-side sales.

Poynter understands that the quad/side-by-side market downunder is all about agriculture and has impressed this on CF

FROM PAGE 37

A CF Moto factory worker unloads components from one of the many robotic welders that help build the ATVs.

Kiwi dealers sample the wares at the CF Moto factory in Hangzhou, China.

Moto who initially focused on large capacity, long-wheel base quads for the huge Russian recreational market.

Charles Ni says they have learned plenty from Mojo, through regular technical reports from Mojo and bi-annual meet-ings with engineers, about the specific demands placed on their machines by farmers. And about the models and specifications that will best suit our mar-kets. “We don’t do much testing specifically in farm conditions but extensive testing is done in a range of harsh conditions unique to all our markets and all engines are bench-tested for 400 hours.”

With Mojo’s dealer net-work in Australia “90% complete”, they have turned their attention to New Zealand within the last 12 months, enlist-ing the help of sales and marketing manager Dale Schmidtchen to market the brand and build a dealer network in New Zealand.

The emphasis on deal-ers is not accidental. Poyn-ter acknowledges dealers

are critical to building confidence in the CF Moto brand at a grassroots level. Notably, 50 of his Aus-tralian dealers are multi-franchise and the fact that they sell other well-known brands alongside CF Moto has been a big factor in the rapid growth.

Taking dealers and media to the factory is also a key, allowing those in the industry to see for themselves that the fac-tory is operating to a high level of quality control and workmanship and that the bikes are built up to a level of quality, not down to a price. Seeing KTMs rolling off the same line under-scores this confidence in the product, which dealers can then take back to the bike shop and field days.

“The product is well suited to Australia and New Zealand, and the manufacturer offers strong support and good systems to dealers,” says Poynter. “Our deal-ers also believe they are part of something spe-cial in building this brand. Remember the days of ‘Jap Crap’? History is repeating itself in China.”

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MACHINERY & PRODUCTS 39Peugot’s new car more than a pretty facePEUGEOT’S LATEST offering, the 308, is now on sale in New Zealand.

Launched at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2013, the model has won 2014 European Car of the Year and ‘Most Beautiful interior of the Year’ at the 29th International Automobile Festival.

Three trim levels are offered in New Zealand.

The car is available in hatch (petrol and diesel) and wagon (petrol only) versions, positioned as a “strong and different” alternative designed on the themes of efficiency, design, driving experience and quality.

Due to the new EMP2 modular platform, the model is more compact and is lighter (-140kg), the company says.

“Its driving experience

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“A refined interior and innovative instruments and controls (the Peugeot i-cockpit) promise a great driving experience. Its high level of quality and intuitive 9.7” multimedia touch screen are the result of an ambitious initial design brief.

“The wagon has a wide stance – length 4.58m and height 1.47m. … Customers attach great importance to the fundamental values in a station wagon – volume, spaciousness, modularity and practicality.”

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Its modularity is achieved with unparalleled simplicity (seats are folded with a single action from inside the boot) and effectiveness (perfectly flat floor).

Available from launch,

the maker’s Euro 6 PureTech 1.2 e-THP 130hp petrol and 2.0 BlueHDi 150hp diesel engines ensure remarkable levels of performance, the company says. Price: from NZ$30,990.www.peugeot.co.nz

The car comes with a refined interior and innovative instruments.

The Peugot 308 is available in a hatch and wagon.

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40 MACHINERY & PRODUCTS

Total time harvested 8 hours

Amount of wheat harvested 797.656 tonnes

Average tonnes per hour 99.7 tonnes/hour

Peak capacity 135 tonnes/hour

Area harvested 80.2 hectares

Fuel used / tonne grain 1.12 litres

Average moisture 16.2%

Average yield 9.95 tonnes/ha

New Holland reclaims world recordNEW HOLLAND Agricul-ture has reclaimed a Guin-ness World Record title by harvesting 797.656 tonnes of wheat in eight hours with the world’s most powerful combine – the 653hp CR10.90.

“We are extremely proud to have recaptured the title… shattering the previous record by more

than 120 tonnes,” said Hedley Cooper, head of harvesting product man-agement.

“This shows the unsur-passed capacity and pro-ductivity of the CR10.90, especially as the current record of 675.84 tonnes was broken after just six hours and 36 minutes.”

The record was set on

August 15 at HR Bourn and Sons farm in Grange de Lings, Lincolnshire, UK. The field was sown with Santiago wheat in the autumn of 2013 before it was chosen in May 2014.

Harvesting, start-ing at 11:17am, was done in changing weather, the temperature varying from 18-21°C and light showers

from 17:30 onwards. The CR10.90’s aver-

age throughput was 99.7 tonnes/hour and peaked at 135 tonnes/hour in a crop yielding an aver-age 9.95 tonnes/ha and an average moisture con-tent of 16.2%. The record was achieved using 1.12L of fuel per tonne of grain harvested, with the straw

chopper engaged through-out the day.

The day’s activities were overseen and verified by Mr Pravin Patel, the official Guinness World Records adjudicator, helped by Alan Robson, chaplain for agriculture of Lincolnshire as the second independent witness.

The CR10.90 has New Holland’s Twin Rotor technology – twin pitch high performance rotors combined with the mak-er’s Dynamic Feed Roll system (DFR).

Powered by the award-winning Cursor 16 engine (653hp), the CR10.90 is also compliant with the Tier 4B emissions regu-lations, using ECOBlue

HI-eSCR technology. On the turf was the maker’s SmartTrax rubber track system with Terraglide suspension.

The 10m metre unloading auger and 142L/min unloading speed made quick work of the con-stantly filling grain tank. The CR10.90 was also equipped with IntelliSteer integrated auto guid-ance, which ensures accu-racy of 1-2 cm, optimising the effectiveness of the 13.7 metre 840CD draper-header during each pass.

New Holland is imported in New Zealand by C B Norwood Distribu-tors Ltd. Tel. 06 356 4920www.newholland.co.nz

Key record statistics table

A world-record 797.656 tonnes of wheat was harvested in eight hours.

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MACHINERY & PRODUCTS 41

Utility range of tractors to hit the marketNEW HOLLAND’S new TT4 economy utility trac-tor range is set to rede-fine the economy tractor market, the company says.

The new range, for release this month, offers three models: the TT4.55, TT4.65 and TT4.75, with engines from 55 to 75hp. The TT4 is set to replace the original Series TT, released in New Zealand in 2005.

New Holland in New Zealand says the Series TT tractor “delivered proven technology, reliability, simplicity and low cost of

ownership at a very eco-nomical price. Since its introduction, New Hol-land dealers have sold the TT model into many dif-ferent applications nation-wide”.

The new lineup offers farmers, small holders, local government/munic-ipalities and other opera-tors a “highly versatile” tractor, the company says.

“It offers excellent manoeuvrability, ergo-nomic comfort and fuel efficiency…. It suits agri-cultural and non-agricul-

tural tasks, including front

loader

activities, hauling and PTO work. The TT4 series benefits from New Hol-land’s acclaimed ergo-nomic excellence and distinctive styling cues.”

Power will come from FPT Industrial S8000 tur-bocharged mechanical fuel injection engines – 2.9L power plants with two valves per cylinder and maximum torque of up to 300 Nm.

The engine uses Tier 3 technology to meet engine emission standards. A 540 eco PTO speed enables the engine to run at a

lower working speed for lower fuel use.

A new 12x12 transmission offer-ing is standard, as is a dash-mounted synchronised shut-

tle control. Its

lever can be operated without removing the hand from the steering wheel, enhancing safety and loader productivity.

An optional 20x20 creeper transmission is available for all models, with speeds as low as 0.27km/h (270m/hr).

“The transmission controls will be familiar to users of New Holland tractors,” the company says. “Situated either side of the operator, all gear changes can be carried out from the seat without the need to stretch and reach, enabling the opera-tor to easily switch from the steering wheel to the lever.”

The implement pump has flow of 52L/min, good for demanding tasks including front loader and hay and forage work.

A dedicated 28.8L/min independent steer-ing pump assures steer-

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Tel. 0800 667 9663www.newholland.

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New Holland’s new TT4 range.

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Agchemical operators need to have certificationRURAL CONTRACTORS New Zealand (RCNZ) says it endorses recent warnings by Waikato Regional Council (WRC) that agrichemical contractors operating without certification are breaching regulations.

Chief executive Roger Parton says RCNZ shares the concerns of WRC and other regional councils about unqualified and/or unreg-istered chemical applicators not been properly trained or qualified to spray agrichemicals.

“RCNZ has a chemical appli-cator accreditation programme to meet the needs of our members and the industry.”

Parton says the application of agrichemicals has to be done in a competent and professional manner to ensure the enhance-ment of the crop and the safety of the operator, the environment and the public.

There are two levels of agrichemical applicator accred-itation available through Rural Contractors New Zealand: basic chemical applicator and registered chemical applicator.

“Rural Contractors New Zea-

land has a strict policy in regards to any person applying agrichemi-cals in a public place or on private property for hire and reward,” Parton says.

“He or she has either got to be the holder of a registered chem-ical applicator accreditation or have a basic chemical applicator

(or equivalent) accreditation and be operating under the immediate and direct supervision of the holder of a registered chemical applicator accreditation.”

Parton says all agrichemical contractors accredited through RCNZ carry wallet cards to prove their accreditation.

RCNZ supports rules requir-ing that neighbours be notified before any spraying takes place. “However, spraying can only take place when weather conditions are suitable and sometimes this does not permit the notification time-frames required in the rules,” he says.

PROTECTION OF people and the environment is the focus of a new qualifica-tion developed by Agcarm to upskill staff in the rural servicing industry.

The New Zealand Certificate in Agrichemical Supply (level 4), developed jointly by Agcarm and the Primary Industry Training Organisation, will promote safe storage, handling and use of agrichemicals and animal health products.

Agcarm chief executive Graeme Peters says qualified retail staff working in the rural servicing industry will help ensure the safety of people working with agrichemicals.

“Having someone on the shop floor to [decide]… what chemicals to use on their farm, orchard or at home is vital for human and environmental well-being.

“This qualification will also train staff to advise on what to wear when using agrichemicals, or at least know where to find the right information.”

Training also covers standards and regulations on supplying agrichemicals and animal health prod-ucts.

Topics include first aid, environmental concerns, emergency response, transport, storage and disposal.

The qualification was recently approved by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA).

The course programme will be developed with rural retailers to fine tune it for effectiveness and consistency and ensure it is fit for purpose. Pending final NZQA approvals the qualification is expected to be ready by mid-2015.

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RURAL TRADER 43

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NOVEMBER 4, 2014: ISSUE 572 www.ruralnews.co.nz November 12-14

Legal aid for show’s leadershipCHRISTCHURCH LAWYER Rich-ard Parkes is the first non-farmer ever elected president of the Canterbury A&P Association.

“It reflects the progressive nature of the association, awarding the presi-dency not just to a city lawyer, but one with no farming background, born and bred in Otago,” Parkes explains.

“My saving grace is my wife Cath-erine (nee Bradley) who has a rural background, having grown up on her parent’s Canterbury farm, being of huge benefit to me.”

Parkes joined the association gen-eral committee in 2000 and took over the role of chairman of the City Farm-yard in 2003 – one of the show’s most popular attractions. This is an interac-tive children’s petting area with baby

animals, where young show-goers get to interact with animals.

“The City Farmyard is a hugely attractive part of the show and an area where volunteers get the most gratifica-tion. The instant enjoyment you experi-ence watching young children close up with animals is very satisfying,” he says.

“The area has grown in size over the ten years that I have been involved. Its success is due to the volunteer commit-ment at the heart of the association and the show.

“All the animals are hand-reared to ensure they can cope with the show-time atmosphere. That’s six weeks of daily bottle feeds. It’s a huge commit-ment and we sincerely appreciate the support we receive.”

With the size of the task as presi-

dent and Parkes’ ‘day job’ as partner at Christchurch law firm Cavell Leitch it’s been a challenging year.

“Cavell Leitch is an enthusiastic supporter of the community. As one of the oldest law firms in Canterbury (established 1923) we also have a strong rural clientele and this holds me in good stead.”

Parkes admits the show was chal-lenged at the turn of the new millen-nium, but it is now in excellent spirit and financial shape, because of “out-standing efforts over recent years of the various committees, the board and our event management team.”

He is a strong advocate for retaining the rural atmosphere of the show and holding true to the founding principles of the association.

When Parkes’ stint finishes, senior vice president Nicky Hutchinson (Little River) will become the first woman president in the association’s 150 year history.

This year’s Canterbury A&P Show is being held from Wednesday 12 to Friday 14 November at Canterbury Agricultural Park in Christchurch.

Richard Parkes.

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2014 Canterbury A&P Show SponsorsThe Canterbury A&P Association thanks the following organisations

for their generous cash and product support.

Accessman, Acrow Sca�olding, ACTO Agriculture NZ Ltd, All�ex New Zealand Ltd, Angus New Zealand, Blue Star Taxis, BNZ Russley Partners Centre, DairyNZ, Ecolab, Electrolux, Ellesmere Agricultural, Ellesmere Transport Co Ltd, Essential Nutrition, Fahey Fence Hire, Frews Transport, Hawkesbury Road Clothing, Interislander, James Hartnell, Mainland Minerals, National Trade Academy Ltd, Novartis, NZ Agbiz Ltd, NRM NZ Ltd, Primary ITO, Riedel, Silver Fern Farms, Swanndri New Zealand, Synlait, Waipara Hills Wines.

ASB Bank, Canterbury Sheep Exhibitors Club, Clarke McKenzie Ltd, Corianders Indian Restaurant, Dave Hardy @ Peter Walsh & Associates, Davie Lovell Smith Ltd, Elders Primary Wool, Elite Trailers & Floats Ltd, Farmlands, Ford Contracting, Gordon Gilbert, Honda Country, ICS Manufacturing Ltd, Jeremy Lochead, Kelvyn & Jill Scott, Lamb & Hayward, NC James, New Zealand Merino Company, NZ Corriedale Breed Society, Otago Ultrasound Livestock Scanning, Pembrand, Pullin Shearing Ltd, Reefton Engineering, Robertson Farm Machinery, SGS Wool Testing Services, South Canterbury Saddlery, Springfree Trampolines, Stephanie Bullock - P.S. Farm Equestrian, VetEnt, West Acre Farm Ltd, Yaldhurst Wools, Zoetis New Zealand Limited.

Aakland Chemical, Absolute Storage, ANZCO, Apparel & Merchandising Solutions, Caithness Stud - Annabel Read, Canterbury ATV’s Ltd, Canterbury & Districts Regional Appaloosa Club, Canterbury Saddlery, Canterbury Standardbred Breeders, Charles Wi�en Wines, D’arcy Palmer - Farmers for Farm Safety, DJ Webster Shearing, Drummond & Etheridge Ltd, ElGas New Zealand, Embryo Co Ltd, Fiber Fresh Foods Ltd, Five Star Beef Ltd, FMG, Glenmark Shearing, Grigg Family, Hatitude! Greg Watson Showing Canes and Whips, Hatuma Dicalcic Phosphate, Helen Spencer-Bower, H. Dawson Woolbuyers Ltd, JB & M Philip Shearing Contractors, KD Vallance Ltd, Lake Crichton Waterski Park, Lincoln Grain & Produce Ltd, Mavis Harris, Mazline Partsworld, Moores Riding Wear, Moriarty Shearing Ltd, Murray Downs Murray Grey Stud, National Highland Register of NZ Inc., Nesbit Shearing Ltd, Ninja Gnome Farms Ltd (Australia), North Canterbury Vet Clinics Ltd, NZ Horse & Pony Magazine, NZ Pinto Horse Society, NZ Riding Pony Society, NZ Shetland Pony Breeders Society, Norwood Farm Machinery, Partridge Family, Pony Breeders of NZ, Precision Motorbikes, Premier Cattle Co Ltd, Price Shearing Ltd, Proshear, RD Petroleum, Ribbons & Rosettes, Rural Livestock Ltd, Saddlery Warehouse Ltd, Sarah Fitzgerald, Semex, Striding Edge Horse Shoeing Ltd, Talbot Silver, TDM Events, The Flatmates Art Company, The Gums Partnership, William F Ashe Memorial Fund, World Wide Sires, Xcell Breeding Services Ltd, Zilco Products (NZ) Ltd.


2 CANTERBURY A&P SHOW

An opportunity of a lifetimeGEORGIA DAVIES (21), from Oxford, is urging young New Zealanders to get involved in A&P Shows, after winning a Lady Diana Isaac Scholar-ship at last year’s Canter-bury Show.

Davies won the junior herdsperson title at the 2013 Canterbury A&P Show, taking home one of four scholarships. This

enabled her to travel to the Sydney Royal Easter Show earlier this year to watch, learn and compete.

“Attending the show in Sydney was a great expe-rience. I competed in the youth events including the state judging final,” she explains. “Though I couldn’t win a place due to being a Kiwi, I would have placed fifth out of 30

competitors. I had a great time over there and saw some exceptional cattle. I also came home with great ideas for the youth programmes in New Zea-land.”

Davies started show-ing cattle when she was in year 12 at Rangiora High School. Now a third-year BAgSc student at Lincoln University, her passion for

the hobby has grown.“Showing beef cattle

is a different hobby but one I enjoy. Preparation starts long before the show when you break in the cattle and teach them to lead with the halter. We wash, blow dry, clip and prep the cattle before the show and do the final touch-ups at the show.

“I do it because I love it. Cattle are total charac-ters and much like people they have their own per-sonalities. You learn their quirks and they become part of the family. Show-ing also teaches you about stockmanship (where and how they move in rela-tion to yourself ), feeding, animal health and respon-sibility.”

She says showing cattle offers great network-ing opportunities and the chance to make life-long friends. Davies has

also had the opportu-nity to compete at other big events like the World Angus Forum and Future Beef NZ.

She recommends other young people enter the

show and try for the schol-arship. She also advises would-be competitors to make the most of the opportunity.

“It’s one of the best opportunities I’ve had.

Young people coming into the game need to know it’s hard work but not be discouraged. Go talk to people, look at cattle, judge cattle, handle cattle and get your show skills up to speed. Even if you just want to compete for fun, get out there and practise your skills.”

Winning the Lady Diana Isaac Scholar-ship adds to her glowing CV and she hopes ulti-mately to own a sheep and beef property and make a name for herself in the stud cattle industry.

Four Lady Diana Isaac Scholarships are awarded annually at the Canter-bury A&P Show, one for

each of the following sec-tions: junior herdsperson, junior dairy stock judg-ing, junior beef stock judg-ing and the New Zealand Young Judges Champion-ship (sheep).

Georgia Davies

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Pre-purchase Pre-purchase Canterbury A&P Show tickets andavoid the queues at the gate. Visit www.theshow.co.nz. *Booking fees will apply.

→ Adult - $22→ Child (5-12 years) - $8→ Student (12+ years with ID) - $12→ Senior (Wed/Thu only) - $12→ Family (up to 2 adults and 3 school-aged children) - $55→ Under 5’s are FREE

Gate SalesEFTPOS is available at the gate. Cash out is available at the Treasurer’s Hut Information O�ce *$2 charge applies.

→ Adult - $27→ Child (5-12 years) - $10→ Student (12+ years with ID) - $17→ Senior (Wed/Thu only) - $17→ Family (up to 2 adults and 3 school-aged children) - $60→ Under 5’s are FREE

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CANTERBURY A&P SHOW 3

Diesel tank maker innovatesSEBCO DIESEL stations, pop-ular on farmers’ and contrac-tors’ yards, are now being seen in industrial settings.

“Driving around farms you don’t have to go far until you spy a unit sited on a farm somewhere,” says Ed Harrison, owner of the Sebco brand.

In fact, these units have now pumped several hundred thou-sand litres with known quantities

going through a Sebco 4800 of up to 200,000L per year. “The feed-back we are getting from custom-ers is fantastic.”

Fuel Storage Systems Ltd makes tanks at Ashburton and delivers all over the country. The company makes diesel stations, AdBlue stations and waste oil recovery units.

Sebco stations are bunded tanks that house diesel in an insu-

lated clean environment that vir-tually eliminates condensation, as they are not steel so no rotting or rusting occurs.

Harrison says the Sebco sta-tions provide a sterile environ-ment for fuel and are safe and secure to operate.

The stations can help prevent fuel theft as they are totally enclosed with security features.

The tanks are made to an Environmental Protection Authority’s HSNO (Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act) approved code of practice, the only ones on the New Zealand market that comply with these requirements.

The company’s products will be displayed at the Canterbury A&P Show.www.sebco.co.nz

Young auctioneers to battle it outWITH A trip to the Sydney Royal Easter Show up for grabs, the stakes are high for the Heartland Bank Young Auction-eers Competition being held at the Canterbury A&P Show this year.

This will be the third time New Zealand’s top young auctioneers have battled it out at the show, delighting spectators with witty one-liners and impressing judges with their industry knowledge.

Competition convenor Mick Withers says there are many facets to a good auctioneer.

“He must have sound knowledge of the livestock he’s selling, including current market values, and confidence in his own ability and that of the company he represents without appearing arrogant. The auctioneer needs a voice that has clarity and the ability to change tone. He needs to be quick witted and know when humour is appropriate.”

Last year’s winner Chris Hay, from NZ Farmers Live-stock, had been auctioneering for only two years, but impressed judges with his overall knowledge and lines like, ‘one more bid and you back the truck in – I’ll help you load him’.”

Withers says the competition is intended to showcase and develop young auctioneers and improve the standard of auctioneering across the board.

“The saleyards and auction ring are the ‘shop window’ for stock and station firms and it’s here the company’s per-formance is often judged.

“A strong showing on sale day will attract new business and help retain existing clientele. So it’s imperative to nur-ture and develop young auctioneers so they can step up to maintain a company’s reputation.”

The competition will take place on Friday November 14 at the show. The judging includes a test of auction rules and a mock auction where each entrant will be required to sell three lots of heifers/bulls.

Entrants will be given notice of lots to sell and access to the breeder. They will be judged on overall performance including voice, diction, manner and values. The interview component will see entrants evaluated on their commu-nication skills and knowledge of the terms and conditions of livestock auctioneering.

Entrants will be competing for the New Zealand Stock & Station Agents’ Association (NZSSAA) Young Auc-tioneers Trophy, $2000 in travel from Heartland Bank to enable the winner to attend the Young Auctioneers Competition in Australia and a $500 Swanndri clothing voucher.

2013 Young Auctioneer winner Chris Hay. SELL YOUR STOCK

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With grain costing 4c per 100g ($400/t) and live weight gain equalling 20c per 100g live weight, it’s a great return!The key reason this is possible is that the starch and fibre in the supplement balances deficiencies in high performance pastures and helps animals process excessive protein.

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4 CANTERBURY A&P SHOW CANTERBURY A&P SHOW 5

THE

COMMON

SHOW

JUMPING STA

BLES

TRADE &FEATUREPAVILION

MAINSTAGE

TIP TOPSTAGE

FOOD& WINE

ELECTROLUXDEMO

KITCHEN

CONTRACTORSCOMPETITION

AREA

BUS STOP

VINTAGE MACHINERYDISPLAY

FOODCOURT

VILLAGEGREEN

TIPTOPFAMILYLAWN

WASH/MILKING

BAGGAGECHECK

CARNIVALAREA

TUIBAABAABAR (R18)

HOME & GARDEN

COURTYARD

WOODCHOPPING

Horse Marshalling(No public access)

PRESIDENT'S& BAYLEYSMEMBER'SMARQUEE

Disabled Viewing

STABLES

SHEARING

HORSESECRETARY

OFFICEO'Donnell Road

Russell AveDeans Avenue

Royal Avenue

Macfarlane Avenue

Grigg Avenue

Stevenson Avenue

Reid Avenue

Internal Road

Northcote D

rive

Jenkins Lane

Gun

n La

ne

Fincham Lane

Rutherford Ave

MacKenzie D

rive

Abbott Street

Francis Street

Gould Avenue

Robert Wilkin Drive

Robinson Street

COUNTRY TVISAAC ARENA

VERO LIVESTOCK PAVILION

COUNTRY TVISAAC ARENA

THE ANZLAWN

EUKANUBADOG

TRIALS

RAREBREEDSDISPLAY

LLAMAS

HELIPAD

CLYDESDALES

SHEE

PM

ATER

NIT

YW

AR

D

A

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

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N

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P

Q

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B

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ST JOHN

POLICE

WHEEL CHAIR FACILITY TOILETS approx location only

TOILETS approx location only

EFTPOS cash out

LOST CHILD CENTRE& MOTHERS AREA

INFORMATION CENTRE

TAXI (approx location only) Blue Star Taxi Ph

CYCLE PARKSHUTTLE ROUTEFull circuit

SHUTTLE STOPS

SHUTTLE ROUTEFriday reduced circuit

MAIN ENTRANCELAKE TURNSTILES

MAIN ENTRANCE

RIVER TURNSTILES

PUBLICCARPARK

SHOWING

ENTERTAINMENT AREA

TRADE SITES

OTHER

HORSEOFFICE

SHEE

PEX

HIB

ITO

RSC

LUB

MIKE GREER HOMES CITY FARMYARD

CONTINENTALCAFE & BAR

FUTU

RE

CH

RIS

TCH

URC

HPA

VIL

ION

ENTERTAINMENT & PICNIC AREA

MORE FM

AGRICULTURE

FARM MACHINERY

MOTOR VEHICLES

DISABLED PARKING

Dairy Row

BALL

AN

TYN

ES

ENTRANCE

VER

OFA

RMLA

NDS

BLAC

KWEL

LS

MAIN ARENAHORSES AND PARADES

MAIN ARENAHORSES AND PARADES

RICHARD PARKES, Canterbury A&P Association presi-dent and partner at Christchurch law firm Cavell Leitch, is urging farmers to keep assessing and improving their health and safety practices.

Parkes is leading by example by implementing new ini-tiatives and policies for the Canterbury A&P Show.

He points to a renewed focus on health and safety since the Pike River disaster and Canterbury earthquakes, resulting in WorkSafe New Zealand launching as a regula-tor, enforcer and resource for farmers.

“Farmers know they need to consider more carefully good health and safety practices on their farms. There was a ‘she’ll be right’ attitude, but in recent times this has been changing.

“Increased health and safety publicity, new legisla-tion planned and farmers upgrading their practices have resulted in good plans to isolate, understand and prevent onfarm risks.

“Just because certain methods have been used in the past, doesn’t mean farmers should continue using them. Farmers should be encouraged to look for ways to improve and find safer, more effective methods.”

Parkes has seen more engagement through WorkSafe consultation with farmers and employees in the dairy industry over guidelines covering health and safety issues.

“We expect the number of workplace fatalities, seri-ous harm injuries and work-related disease and illness will steadily decline and have confidence the agricultural industry will help achieve a 25% reduction by 2020 of the workplace death and injury toll in New Zealand.”

Health and safety a priority

Ph 07 573 8512Mobile 0274 407 [email protected]

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CANTERBURY A&P SHOW 5

We want you to eat more lamb!NEW ZEALAND’S top lamb for 2014 will again be announced at this year’s Canterbury A&P Show Mint Lamb Competition.

The competition, now in its eighth year, is open to all breeds and celebrates quality and variety. The organisers want Kiwis to eat more lamb.

Hobby farmer Mike Ryan ‘blew away’ his commercial farming coun-terparts when he won the top prize in 2013 with a Coopdale lamb (a Coop-worth Corriedale cross). Ryan breeds his Coopdales on a 16ha block in West Melton. He was encouraged to enter by his livestock agent, Phil Manera of Hazlett Rural Ltd.

Now retired, the former furniture factory manager believed the secret to beating the commercial farmers was the amount of time he was able to spend on his 150 ewes, which are fed on clover-based pasture and

Lucerne baleage.Greg Burgess, competition conve-

nor and general manager of the New Zealand Sheepbreeders’ Association, says that the competition is a chance for farmers to prove their lambs are the best of the best.

“The Mint Lamb Competition is one of the highlights of the show on Wednesday afternoon at the Sheep Exhibitors Club,” Burgess says. “With the spotlight now shining on sheep, this competition is a tremendous opportunity to highlight your farm-ing operation.”

He says stud breeders should also be encouraging their clients to enter competition as it is “a fantastic pro-motion for your particular breed”.

Lambs entered in the competition must be current new season, born after July 1, 2014. They will be judged on the hook at an Alliance plant for best overall yield. The top four lambs

in each of the four classes (dual pur-pose/wool breed, dual purpose/cross terminal, composite/crossbred cross terminal and terminal) are selected as semi-finalists and sent to be ‘tender tested’ at Lincoln University.

Based on the result of the test, the top three lambs in each of the classes are selected as finalists and taste tested at the 2014 Canterbury A&P Show where the overall winner will be announced.

Along with bragging rights, the 2014 overall winner will receive a trophy, show ribbon, $1000 cash, 2.5L of Zolvix, Novartis backpack and spray gun applicator. Winners in each class will receive $300 and a Novartis backpack and spray gun, second place will receive $150 and third place $100.

The Mint Lamb Competition is supported by Alliance, Hazlett Rural Ltd, Novartis, Allflex and Ellesmere Transport.

Mike Ryan won the top prize in 2013 with a Coopdale lamb.

CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITES

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Ballantynes Grand Parade - 3000 Animals On-site - AgriKidsNZ Over 500 trade exhibitors - Food & Wine NZ Pavilion - Lawnmower racing

Rare Breeds Display - Mint Lamb Competition - Carnival Rides & AttractionsBlackwells Buried Treasure Car Giveaway - Shetland Grand National

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6 CANTERBURY A&P SHOWPassionate people make show hum

WHEN I first became president of the Canterbury A & P Association I had no idea how much fantastic work by so many goes into organ-ising and managing the show.

For years, I have been the con-venor of the City Farmyard where we organised baby animals of all shapes, sizes and flavours for intro-duction to young city children. It is extremely rewarding seeing the looks of delight and wonder when small children are able to get up close and pat lambs, calves and piglets.

Like other section heads, how-ever, I have rarely had the oppor-tunity to venture outside the City Farmyard to discover what else is going on at the show.

Becoming president this year has opened my eyes to the enor-mous amount of effort put in by a huge number of volunteers, exhib-itors and competitors who all work so hard to ensure we have a magnif-icent show each year.

As president I get invited to sit in and contribute at all the various livestock committee meetings in the build-up to the show. With-out exception these meetings are attended by an incredibly passion-ate, knowledgeable and committed group of volunteers all working to deliver a great spectacle to the public.

Incredibly, behind these com-mittees are yet even more hun-dreds of volunteers who all play their own important roles in cre-ating a great show. One of the great benefits of being involved to this extent as president is meeting all these passionate show people whom I would otherwise never get to meet.

Fortunately for me as presi-dent, the economic climate and the outstanding winter and spring weather have ensured a reason-ably smooth and positive run-up to the show. All the trade space has sold out, a spectacular success in its own right. It also shows how important the event is to the rural

business community. And with the support of the Christchurch City Council it provides us with a safe financial foundation that allows us to go on and hopefully produce an even better and more fabulous show each year.

This year, for example, we have a top New Zealand band, Salmo-nella Dub, playing all three days. Organising one of our most well-known bands to play is new to the show and we hope the public will enjoy them.

As a rural lawyer, I have used some of my legal skills in the organisation of the show. Assist-ing with committee meetings, reviewing contracts with suppli-ers and reworking many facets of our health and safety plan has been enjoyable and rewarding. Health and safety on farms is an important issue for me so if I can raise aware-

ness in some small way then I will consider that a success.

I also enjoy playing a small part in bridging the gap between the urban and rural communities. In rural law I see the concerns people have from both sides, so if the show can operate in an informa-tive manner to bring the two com-munities together then that will be a great achievement.

Now with only days to go till the show opens, the Canterbury Agri-cultural Park is starting to take shape. Workmen are everywhere erecting food marquees and mani-curing the lawns for the public and competitors to enjoy all the areas the showground has to offer.

It will be a fantastic show and I look forward to seeing everybody there.• Richard Parkes is president of the Canterbury A&P Association.

RICHARD PARKES

Flying high in popular chopperGARDEN CITY Heli-copters and the Westpac Rescue Trust presence at the Canterbury A&P Show is going to bigger and better than ever, says group marketing manager Alison Fleming.

The company will be selling the usual $65 scenic flights, a fantastic, affordable opportunity for anyone who hasn’t experienced a helicopter

flight before. “It’s a great way to get

bird’s eye views of the show and city,” Fleming says.

Also on offer will be helicopter flying train-ing and scenic flight and adventure packages such as a ‘heli-lunch’ at Pegasus Bay or Waipara.

“These are popular with corporate clients looking to impress, or for

staff Christmas parties. This time of the year and through summer is when romance blossoms and our ‘love is in the air’ flight is ideal for special occa-sions and proposals.”

Garden City Helicop-ters will also promote its company in Fiji – Pacific Island Air – which offers helicopter, seaplane and regular plane rides to the Fijian Islands.

Meanwhile, Vanuatu

Helicopters, Port Vila, is offering spectacular scenic flights and transfers.

Fleming says both com-panies also offer medi-cal evacuation services for locals and tourists.

The Westpac Rescue Helicopter will be at the show on all three days, giving people opportu-nity to look at the helicop-ter; pilots and paramedics will be on hand to answer questions.

“The rural community are massive benefactors of the Westpac Rescue Heli-copter,” Fleming says. “A large percentage of call-outs are to the rural com-munity for many different reasons, the most numer-ous being horse and quad accidents.”

Big prizes are on offer this year to people enter-ing the company’s compe-tition.www.helicopters.net.nz

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6 CANTERBURY A&P SHOW CANTERBURY A&P SHOW 7

More PKE begins to flowPERMBRAND REPORTS it has installed five times as many PKE feed systems in dairy sheds over the past 12 months as in the previous year.

Dairy farmers are watching grain prices closely, the company says.

“We see farmers who are grain feeding, back-ing off slightly and adding PKE in the mix as well. Despite all the negativ-ity out there with PKE, dairy farmers are learning more about it and its bene-fits, for cow condition and for budgeting within their feed programme.”

Permbrand says installation requires a special silo, which must have a 60 degree cone to aid the flow of the product

and 4 x 4m footprint is required for the silo. Air fluidisers are also fitted to avoid any ‘bridging’ of the product.

“Our installers run a separate auger line into the shed so the PKE drops at the same point as the

grain. Filling the silo is done via a blow tube fitted to the side and roof of the silo.”

Most transport compa-nies are now equipped for blowing PKE into a silo, 12 to 36 tonnes capacity.

Meanwhile, Permbrand

says if a farm has an irriga-tor going over the shed it offers a tandem silo kit to reduce the height.

The company offers to retrofit its system to any shed that has meal feed-ing.www.permbrand.co.nz

Wool on show!THE NZ Wool Advancement Group (NZWAG) will again be fronting at this year’s Canterbury A&P Show in the Wool and Fibre Pavilion.

WAG says its main aim is to assist woolgrowers with onfarm efficiency and to encourage farmers to continue producing wool as a

viable land use.On display at the WAG stand

will be Watson Multi Shears who will be showing its new invention to replace the century old blade shears with an easier-to-handle system.

Fibrescan will also be demonstrating an onfarm wool measurement service which it

says dramatically increases fibre attributes that can be measured and reduces the cost of traditional wool testing.

Also exhibiting at the WAG stand will be Black Hills natural, undyed yarn, leading a new trend of sustainable wool yarn, free of any chemicals during processing.

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rural news 4 november 2014

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