rural news may 17 2011

may 17, 2011: Issue 492 www.ruralnews.co.nz

RuRalNEWSto all farmers, for all farmers

Auto-rotAryDeLaval’s ground breaking robotic rotary turns heads in Tasmania and sweden. page 11

Power sPortPolaris says its RZR900 is 29% quicker than the competition. page 41 toP fArmer

Waipapa station, one of three ahuwhenua

Trophy finalists, in the spotlight.

page 29

Not to be forgottenViVieNNe HaldaNe

FARMERS DEVASTATED by April’s weather bomb will not be forgotten, local mayor Peter Butler says.

Speaking to a packed recovery meet-ing held in Waipukurau last week the Central Hawkes Bay mayor said coastal farms “have had their hell on earth.”

“What has worried me is that with the disaster area being so far from the public eye, you will be forgotten. But, believe me, you will not be,” he reas-sured the 200 or so people present.

“You have blokes here like Mike Barham from the East Coast Rural Sup-port Trust. He’s like a dog with a bone: he won’t let go.”

The mood of the meeting was sub-dued. Some seemed in shock. Others stoically refused to moan despite half their farms being ripped by slips.

“You could look at it and throw your hands up and say ‘what are we going to do?’ but we’ll plod along,” Bruce D’ath, farm manager at Mangakuri Station told Rural News.

“Some of this meeting was helpful, such as the issues on reseeding, and knowing that there’s help out there makes a difference.”

D’ath says he’s got a plan sorted and has sold stock off already, one of the recommendations made at the meet-ing. “It was going to go. It’s just gone a bit early.”

The meeting was called by councils, Federated Farmers, Rural Trust, Beef and Lamb NZ, MAF and MPs. Waira-rapa MP John Hayes says MAF’s dec-laration of a medium adverse event

toNy beNNy

A BULLISH forecast for lamb prices has been met with a cool response from the head of one of the largest meat com-panies.

“This season’s lamb prices have been strong and all indications are that they will remain so for some time to come, thanks to tight global supplies,” exec-utive director of Beef and Lamb’s Eco-nomic Service, Rob Davison, says.

But Silver Ferns Farms’ chief execu-tive Keith Cooper is more circumspect.

“It’s not so much that it can’t last, but history would say that such spikes don’t last,” he says.

“Ideally you want it to but I’d be awfully wrong to sit back, like Beef and Lamb is doing, saying it’s all good.

wAter in the newsThree major water policy announcements were made last week.Details and how they affect farming pages 4 & 5.

Circumspect response to bullish lamb forecast

to page 3

classification “frees up a lot of money.”“It enables IRD discretion and

makes sure funding is all on track.”The meeting heard more assis-

tance will be available from East Coast Rural Support Trust, District Coun-cils, Hawkes Bay Regional Council and Enhanced Taskforce Green.

A database of those willing to help is being collated. Offers have come in from other farmers, rural supply com-panies, machinery firms: some offering free product or service.

Farmers are encouraged ‘not to feel proud’, but to take all the help

they require. Taking time to assess and define a strategy will aid decision making.

Richard Lee of Waipukurau Vet Ser-vices recommends getting scanning requests in promptly so they can be prioritised. “Use that data to work out which animals are going to produce you the most money.”

Facial eczema is “sneaking in,” so needs watching. Other potential dis-eases are pneumonia and Leptospiro-sis. If stock are sent off farm, work out a quarantine protocol to bring them back. taking stock: Central Hawkes Bay farms at

last week’s recovery meeeting.

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issue 492www.ruralnews.co.nz

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rural news // may 17, 2011

New lamb marketsBecause if it does go wrong farmers are going to say ‘shit, you didn’t tell us’.”

Cooper says the strong prices have been a long time coming and they’re good news for the sector. However, the acid test is whether they can be sus-tained into next year.

“My sense is, having gone through five months of the year, if we get to Christmas and we’ve seen some set-tling down and these prices being maintained through that period, then I think we’re going to have to say ‘well we are in a new place, here’s the new level.

“You may call me slight pessimist, but I’m not: I’m just trying to reflect a bit of pragmatism.”

Cooper says there are some very good signs for the industry with new markets opening up.

“We haven’t seen in our lifetimes the emergence of so many new econo-mies in terms of their desire to buy our products...

“China springs to mind, but there are many markets round the world now that are emerging and have the wherewithal to buy and afford to pay premiums for high quality products.

“We continue to see the growth and forecast growth of demand as the global population continues to grow so per-haps... we are into a new era of a bigger global demand base and perhaps these new levels are the new world.”

The higher prices are all about supply

and demand, Cooper says, and can’t be put down to any industry initiatives.

“I am very self critical and we all need to be honest here. It’s nothing to do with any strategic direction, nothing to do with any better positioning or any marketing strategies. It’s solely supply and demand.”

Cooper says both farmers and indus-try still need to front up to the fact that we don’t necessarily have the correct model to deliver sustainability for the sector.

Beef & Lamb New Zealand’s state-ment follows a review of lamb supply and slaughter this season.

Production is on track to reach the forecast figure of 19.3 million head, 7.7% less than 2009/10 and below the 19.5m forecast in the November 2010 Lamb Crop report.

It will be the lowest lamb kill for fifty years.

Rob Davison says the announcement aims to inform farmers, processors and

the market of the “actual” state of play, dispelling speculation.

The tight global supply, including lower than usual exports out of Austra-lia, has also pushed mutton to record highs.

“But, unlike lamb, mutton export volumes are well up,” notes Davison.

“Based on the provisional half-year slaughter numbers, we still expect at least four million head of mutton to be processed, which is 9.9% more than last season.”

Anecdotal comment suggests farmers are culling the bottom end

of flocks to take advantage of higher prices which could lift the kill a further 0.2m or 5%, he adds.

In turn this may see more lambs kept as replacements, lowering lamb slaugh-ter by a similar number.

“The caveat on this is that dairy con-version rates for the spring of 2011 do not turn out to be higher than previously estimated.”

WITH A week to go until submissions close on the controversial NAIT Bill, Federated Farmers and BLNZ are among those having their say.

John Hartnell says Federated Farm-ers is still working on its submission which will focus on ensuring that the regulations limit the impact on farm-ers and, when implemented, will work.

He acknowledges the farmer lobby was initially opposed to NAIT, but says now Government has determined NAIT will happen, the aim is to ensure resulting regulations are practical and workable.

BLNZ chairman Mike Petersen says he supports NAIT, but his organisation will still be making a submission.

He believes the biggest challenge is making sure farmers clearly under-stand responsibilities under NAIT and are ready for its implementation in November. “We don’t want to be in a situation where farmers have stock turned away from sales because they haven’t complied with the regulations.”

In a recent Rural Bulletin, MAF says it is particularly interested in comments about whether the design of the draft regulations is appropriate, for example, are any of the proposed requirements unnecessary. Also what will be the practical impact, including cost, and possible differences required for deer and cattle regulations.

Submissions close on May 27.

froM page 1

Concerns over plan variationsHeaD OF a huge maori farming consortium in the central North Island has hit out at environment Waikato (eW) for its poor commu-nication to farmers over plans to restrict nitrogen use in the Taupo Catchment.

Kingi smiler says Variation 5 and 6 of eW’s regional plan are effectively two tools for restricting nitrogen use in the area and they will have a huge

impact on maori farming with its large and developing properties.

“I am concerned that not enough research has been done to ensure the policies that are put in place are sensible and sustainable. Right now I don’t believe that to be the case.

“I believe a lot more analysis needs to be done so that sensible regulations can be put in place,” he says.

smiler says he’s had ongoing discussions with environment Waikato, but is still unclear about the policies being proposed.

“We have to ensure that our busi-nesses can remain sustainable and that’s what we are about. But for eW to just arbitrarily make rules that are without foundation doesn’t make any sense to us.”

Big maori farm field day: p28-29

Kingi smiler

Submissions on NaIT to close

new look onlineyOuR FaVOuRITe fortnightly read isn’t the only Rural News product to be sporting a fresh look this week: we’ve given our website a major redesign too. see www.ruralnews.co.nz

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Lamb prices for april averaged $116/head, up 53% on last year’s $76/head for april 2010. similarly mutton prices, averaging $97/head in april, are 63% up on a year ago. more markets and trends p21-22.

4 wAter sPeciAlrural news // may 17, 2011

Water plan a major for farms

peter burke

FARMINGS’ FUTURE across the country will be impacted in one way or another by a suite of water-related announce-ments last week.

These mark the start of a government master plan to improve water quality and allocation. The package consists of a National Policy State-ment (NPS) on water management, extra money to clean up pol-luted lakes and water-ways, and funding to develop irrigation. All three components of the package will impact on farming in one way or another.

Government says the aim of the package is to foster economic growth, improve environmen-tal performance and to provide national direc-tion and greater cer-tainty around fresh water management decision making.

The measures, announced last week by Agriculture Minister David Carter and Envi-ronment Minister Nick Smith, follow up recom-

mendations to Govern-ment in a report by the Land and Water Forum (LAWF). The LAWF report contained 53 rec-ommendations and Gov-ernment has decided to act on just three at this stage. However, Smith had indicated earlier that it may take years to implement the full suite of recommendations.

The NPS is seen as central government’s way of giving regional coun-cils specific directions on how they should manage water resources in their

regions. While it doesn’t set specific national limits or standards, it sets out a framework and objectives which coun-cils must consider when developing their various policy statements.

These objectives pre-dictably relate to water quality and water quan-tity – with the focus on allocation, integrated water management, Tan-gata whenua issues and a progressive implemen-tation programme. The NPS will ultimately lead to changes in the policies

and rules that regional councils adopt for con-sents to allocate or manage water quality.

The clean-up part of the package sees an extra $15m made available in the 2011 Budget to clean up waterways and lakes. At present, $78m has been allocated over five years to clean up lakes Taupo and Rotorua, and also the Waikato river. The new money will be available to new clean-up programmes and is ‘con-testable’.

The third part of the

package will see Gov-ernment put $35m, over five years, into an Irriga-tion Accelerator Fund aimed targeting regional and community groups to develop irrigation schemes to an ‘invest-ment ready’ stage. This proposal replaces the present Community Irri-gation Fund. Govern-ment has also indicated it will consider investing a further $400 million from 2013 in infrastructure.

David Carter says he’s put more time and effort into this water issue than any other project he’s had to deal with since becom-ing Minister of Agricul-ture. He describes the package as one – push-ing economic growth, but acknowledging that the environment is essential to New Zealand’s repu-tation.

“The environment is the basis on which we sell our meat and dairy prod-ucts around the world.”

Carter says water is the greatest strategic asset that New Zealand farmers have over other countries and this pack-age signals how the Gov-

to page 5

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ernment recognises it has a role in delivering more reliable irrigation to New Zealand agriculture.

“However, any pack-age needs to be balanced with environmental con-siderations. Non farm-ers with an interest in the water debate are fearful that as we deliver more irrigation, we will see land intensification and with

that, potentially comes degradation.”

David Carter says the key message in the NPS is for regional councils who need to accept respon-sibility for monitor-ing water quality. “In 20 years time we don’t want to be looking at rivers and lakes requiring clean-ups because we didn’t take note of environmental issues on day one.”

wAter sPeciAl 5rural news // may 17, 2011

rural reaction to plan mainly positive...

...but scientists and NGOs more scepticalNOT ALL reaction to the Government package is favourable. There has been mixed reaction from the scientific community.

“The current situation is really quite grim.

In a recent survey of small waterways on the Canterbury Plains we have found that over 80% are either moderately or severely polluted.

For Canterbury urban waterways the situation is even worse.”

Professor Angus McIntosh – University

of Canterbury

“It’s hard to see how this long overdue freshwater

NPS will make any difference to the state of NZ’s waterways when it contains no national standards and farming intensification is arguably the biggest issue for freshwater quality and quantity is not addressed.”

Dr Mike Joy– Massey University

“Although the simultaneous announcement of incentives for irrigation development may seem to be in direct conflict with the aims of the

NPS, this need not be the case. Releasing the announcements together as a package (with the Fresh Start for Fresh Water Cleanup Fund) suggests that irrigation acceleration must be undertaken in a manner which is consistent with the NPS.”

Professor Jenny Webster-Brown

– Lincoln University

“Over the past decade or so, New Zealanders have witnessed accelerated degradation of many

water bodies in response to diffuse nutrients mostly derived from agricultural sources. We cannot continue to externalize the costs to communities and the New Zealand taxpayer of pollution by private industries.”

Professor David Hamilton, – Waikato

University

“The pro-irrigation package will potentially mean 1 million more cows, and reduced stream flows to deal with the increased pollution. Further, while

the irrigation industry and farming get a huge cash injection, communities across the country will be left to scrap over limited funding to clean up agriculture’s past adverse environmental impacts.”

Bryce Johnson – Fish and Game

“Unfortunately the Government has dropped the ball by missing the opportunity to set clear, national objectives for water quality. This means that we will be left with different standards in the regions around New Zealand.”

Kevin Hackwell – Forest and Bird

REACTION TO the water package, especially the irrigation initiative, has been welcomed by farming groups.

Chris Keenan of Horticulture New Zealand says he’s pretty positive about the proposals.

“The NPS was never going to be a silver bullet and pro-vide all the answers. We are desperate to see a range of tools that can give guidance to regional councils who con-tinue to make poor decisions around resource allocation.

“We are all spending a huge amount of money in the courts and the councils are making very arbitrary decisions about how they are going to allocate the water.”

Keenan hopes the NPS will lead to councils develop-ing standard processes to allocate New Zealand’s most precious resource.

IrrigationNZ chairman, Graeme Sutton says the Gov-ernment’s move to provide leadership and a more con-sistent framework for supporting further development of reliable irrigation is exciting.

“This is not just about water for irrigators – this is about multi-purpose water development projects that will grow the economy with tangible benefits for everyone,” he says.

DairyNZ welcomed the new funding for clean-up of legacy water quality issues and says it’s ready to work with councils to help achieve its aims. Spokesman Dr Rick Prid-more says that during the last couple of years, DairyNZ, together with dairy companies and Federated Farmers, has already put in place a range of initiatives to improve dairy farming’s environmental performance and these are starting to show results.

Fonterra has also indicated support for the package. Group director supplier and external relations, Kelvin Wickham says the irrigation initiative will enhance New Zealand’s competitive advantage and says any investment in infrastructure to store water is a good step.

“it’s hard to see how this long overdue freshwater Nps will make any difference...”

Water planfroM page 4

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6 newsrural news // may 17, 2011

rate people not property – feds

joHN stirliNg

TO GET any semblance of equity, rates must be based on people not property.

This was one of the big issues dis-cussed at the recent Otago Federated Farmers AGM held in Dunedin.

President Mike Lord says rates based on property are not only unfair, but they are too easy to levy. He claims it is inevitable those being penalised will be farmers who make up little more than 5% of the population with the council deciding to look after the other 95% is a too simpler option.

“Federated Farmers has fought rate increases up and down the coun-try aiming to persuade councils to show more fairness.”

On his own property on the Taieri, Lord’s rates were $23,000 in 2002. However, this year coming year (2011), they are expected to be $48,000. While not against paying fully for actual ser-vices, Lord says some costs – such as $1000 a year for the new stadium – are hard to justify. He says this is a cost based on property value; not on the

people who will actually use it. Lord says Federated Farmers had

been impressed with the efforts made by the present Minister of Local Gov-ernment, Rodney Hide – as he under-stood the innate injustice of the present rating system.

“Rodney was invited to address the Otago AGM. We wanted to hear his views on local government because we see him as one of the more effec-tive politicians in Government.”

Hide told the meeting that farm-ers are always going to be seen as a wealthy minority and are inevitably disadvantaged by council rating sys-tems. He is reviewing the Local Gov-ernment Act 2002, with the aim of sorting out inconsistencies between urban and rural ratepayers.

“Hopefully it will encourage greater transparency and bridge the gap between local and central govern-ment. But with local government it’s important to keep decision making close to the people, not those in Wel-lington.”

Federated Farmers president Don

Nicolson paid tribute to the work done by Hide, especially in getting another local government review underway. However he added it is important that it didn’t end up on the shelf ‘gather-ing dust’.

Nicolson told the meeting he cut his teeth in local politics and several decades later is still trying to get the people not property rating message across.

“Where the user of a council service can be identified clearly and charged fully, that is an equitable outcome. However where this cannot be achieved, but the community still asks for the service, ratepayers should pay equally, assuming there is equal access and opportunity to utilize the service.”

Nicolson says his preference is for a residents’ tax, rather than a property tax, for non-property demands. He says Federated Farmers seeks an end to the reliance of local government on property value based rates.

“This system is archaic and inequitable.”

The Red Meat Sector Strategy report is in line with the vision of Silver Ferns Farms, says CEO Keith Cooper.

“We agree with it and if you had a checklist, we’re well on that path... We haven’t delivered yet, but it very much replicates our thinking.”

The report says there needs to be ‘co-ordinated in-mar-ket behaviour’: in other words, more co-operation between meat companies in overseas markets.

Cooper says that’s already happening. “We’re very much down the joint venture cooperation

model. We’ve got one in the US with Alliance and Anzco; we have a joint venture with an international tallow and meat and bone meal operation out of Italy; we have a joint venture with Merino. So we’re doing the joint venture, co-operation, collaboration model in many parts of our busi-ness already.

“I guess they’re saying the industry is guilty of not mar-keting and has been trading meat as opposed to marketing meat. The subtle difference is traders sell to another entity. In marketing you’re dealing with a consumer.”

Cooper identifies improved on-farm practice as one of

the most important messages in the report.“It’s about farmers needing a business plan, about farm-

ers needing to know their costs.“Farm IQ, the [PGP] initiative we have with the Gov-

ernment is very much about that. It’s about how we get inside the farmgate and assist farmers to uptake new tech-nology systems and processes.”

Meat producers need to start thinking more like dairy farmers, maintains Cooper.

“I get told off for saying that. When I started off a year ago, selling the Farm IQ concept, I said there’s nothing new here: all we’ve done is look at the dairy industry.

“The subtle difference is, I would allege, that many farm-ers believe they maximise their value by how they sell their product at the farmgate from time to time, whereas you look at the dairy industry; they commit the product to Fon-terra and it gets picked up.

“All their energy, their focus, is how to produce more of it – not how to sell it but how to produce it – and they focus on what they can influence and that’s their on farm productive capacity.”

RMSS in line with vision says SFF

rating farms on value is archaic and inequitable, says federated farmers.

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peter burke

BLNZ Chairman Mike Petersen says if in two years time there is increased confidence, investment and wealth in the sheep and beef sector – then the Red Meat Sector Strategy can be deemed a success.

The 136 page, $500,000 report was prepared for BLNZ and the Meat Indus-try Association by Alasdair MacLeod Deloittes. Input came from farmers, meat processors and all the major players in the sector. It was launched recently at Parliament by the Prime Minister to an audience of all the major players in the sheep and beef sector.

The report says the sheep and beef sector is facing major competi-tion for land use, given the profitability of the dairy

sector and the renewed interest in forestry. It notes that the recent upsurge in prices will not remain unless all partici-pants change their ‘behav-iour.’

For processors this

means greater collabora-tion in market with other companies. Farmers have been told to focus on improving their financial management skills and becoming more ‘profit’ focused.

Petersen told Rural News that there are still a number of farmers who can’t see the need to do

anything because of good prices this season. But he says unstable pricing in recent years has prevented reinvestment in the sector and land use in relation to dairying needs to be seen in perspective.

“You’ve got to look at the class of land that’s going into dairying. The reality is that even if every-one implements every-thing in this strategy, on certain classes of land dairy will still be the most profitable option.

“It’s not just an eco-nomic argument because you can’t dairy in Hawkes

news 7rural news // may 17, 2011

two years to gauge rMss success

Bay because you haven’t got the rain,” he says.

Chairman of the Meat Industry Association, Bill Falconer says many pro-cessing companies are already doing what the

strategy says they should do.

“Many have done things in the past and failed because of distrust on both sides of the farm-gate. So what this report

might do is encourage them to do things differ-ently.”

He says it’s critical there’s an aligned relation-ship between producer and processor.

Meanwhile, report author Alasdair MacLeod says there’s a degree of indifference to good sci-ence and good practice by farmers and that needs to be challenged.

Labour’s agriculture spokesperson, Damien O’Connor has criticised the strategy, describing it as a ‘major disap-pointment’.

“The report makes little progress on the maF report on the industry. The new strategy accurately identifies and assesses the issues all the players need to address, but fails to even suggest a pathway to implementation and no recommendations are provided.”

O’Connor believes the issues of competition for supply, inefficient plant utilisation and undercutting in the market place will not be addressed by this report and it is just another statement on the industry rather than a new strategy for the industry.

But agriculture minister David Carter is far more positive about the report and says it’s great to see the whole sector

co-operating in its preparation. “I think there is a genuine realisation

by both farmers and processors that the buoyancy that we’ve received in the sheep and beef industry over the last 12-months hasn’t been due to any struc-tural change we’ve made. It’s simply a supply and demand situation. If we think that’ll continue for ever we’re dreaming.”

Carter believes that most people in the meat industry have had a huge wakeup call over the last few years, as they’ve seen harder hill country going to forestry, easy sheep country going to dairying and more and more pressure on the country in between for alternative land use. He says the big challenge is for farmers to lift their game.

“There are many farmers who are doing extremely well and it is now a matter of getting others to do the same.”

the political perspective

“many have done things in the past and failed because of distrust on both sides.”

milestone report: the red meat

sector strategy.

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southland sees surge in overseas sales

sought after: dairy farms in the far south.

Seed treatment use under scrutiny by Greens and beekeepers

toNy beNNy

CALLS BY the Green Party for neonicotinoid insecticide use to be suspended have been rejected by Federated Farm-ers and FAR, but the National Beekeepers Association (NBA) says further investigation is warranted.

Green food spokesperson Sue Kedgley says the honey bee is in a state of crisis internationally and neonicoti-noids – used as seed dressings – are contributing to bee deaths overseas.

Neonicotinoids in use in New Zealand include Gaucho and Poncho seed treatments used to varying extents in maize, brassica and grass crops.

NBA joint CEO Daniel Paul doesn’t want neonicoti-noid use suspended forthwith, but says three overseas reports – in the US, by the UN and the EU – suggest they might be bad for bees.

“Our view is we would be irresponsible to ignore that. We need to at least investigate it and find out, one way or the other, whether these things do create problems for bees,” Paul says.

NBA is working with ERMA to see if there are grounds to reassess the chemical.

“ERMA might say ‘there’s no evidence to suggest these things are a problem so therefore we don’t want to do a reassessment because it costs a lot of money’. That’s fine, we’re just asking them to investigate,” Paul adds

But Federated Farmers Bees chairman John Hartnell says his organisation has been working with Bayer for two years on neonicotinoids and there’s no need for a new investigation.

“We’ve been looking at the reasons the issues happened internationally, particularly in France, and what was dis-covered was the coating integrity on the seeds wasn’t up to scratch,” Hartnell says.

“When they were using the forced air drill system, it was puffing out the coating dust and that was drifting across and landing in areas where bees were foraging and there were bee losses directly related to that. That’s certainly not the case in New Zealand at this stage, there’s been a lot of work making sure the integrity of the coating is right.”

Hartnell accepts the insecticide is dangerous, but says there’s no concrete evidence to link it to widespread bee deaths and like all chemicals it has be used with care, according to instructions.

“There’s got to be some practicality brought into the damn thing – it’s alright saying just ban everything but we’re an agricultural nation, we survive based on agricul-tural and horticultural exports so its unrealistic to just go and put a line through everything.”

FAR CEO Nick Pyke says he’s heard the suggestions neonicotinoids have been linked to bee deaths overseas, but he’s yet to see any real evidence of that.

“Most insecticides are pretty short-lived and unless they actually contact the bees, then they’re not going to do anything to them,” he says.

Pyke agrees chemicals must be treated with care but says farmers recognise the importance of bees.

“They’re employing the bees to do the pollination job and quite often they’re paying for the hives so they’re not going to spray things that kill the bees because they want them.”

She couldn’t say whether Aquila wanted to buy more farms.

“Southland is increasingly recog-nised as one of New Zealand’s leading dairy regions because of its reliable climate and quality land that supports milk (protein) production based on pasture.”

Federated Farmers President Don

Nicholson says while the sentiment of the New Zealand public is quite negative towards overseas investment, people need to understand its significance.

He says most foreign-owned farms are employing New Zealanders and paying taxes.

“If they’re doing that – what’s the issue? They can’t take the land away.”

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Mary Witsey

MORE SOUTHLAND land has been sold to overseas investors in the past year than at any other time during the past six years.

An increasing number of overseas buyers are snapping up farms in the far south, with one German investment company now having interests in over 1500ha in the province.

Overseas Investment Office (OIO) figures show 2744ha sold to 13 appli-cants in the year to March 31, more than twice the average of six appli-cations totalling around 1200ha/year since 2005.

“The OIO does not know whether

the increase in application numbers has any relationship to rural land prices remaining relatively low,” Overseas Investment Office manager Annelies McClure told Rural News.

In March, German investment management company Aquila Agrar-Invest received OIO consent to pur-chase another two farms in Southland. The group has spent $46 million buying eight farms in the province during the past year, which it intends to run as four separate dairy operations.

Ms McClure says because of the size of the group’s investment future purchases will be subject to new con-trols, introduced in January 2011. These include allowing government minis-

ters to consider whether New Zealand’s economic interests are adequately safe-guarded by the investment.

Aquila AgrarInvest manages funds for up to 1000 German inves-tors and uses New Zealand syndicate farm investment company MyFarm to manage its Southland operations. MyFarm spokesperson Sarah McVerry says the purchases will bring substan-tial economic benefits to the province.

“These approvals have resulted in more than $6.4 million in capital devel-opment expenditure this year, including construction of two new dairy sheds, three new houses, plus investment in re-grassing, drainage, lanes, and fenc-ing.”


aerial assurance schemepeter burke

A NEW accreditation system for pilots and gen-eral aviation companies, designed to assure they comply with a range of rules and codes of prac-tice relating to flight safety and environmen-tal best practice, has been unveiled.

AIRCARE was launched at Parliament, last week, by the Associ-ate Minister of Transport, Nathan Guy.

The Government, through the Sustainable Farming Fund, will make a grant of $150,000 – over the next three years – along with industry con-tributions, to further develop the environmen-tal part of AIRCARE.

While there are already rules that pilots have to comply with relating to the environment set by central and local government, the new system will package these and provide a ‘check list’ for companies, which will be independently audited.

The auditor will determine whether a person or company passes the necessary standards to acquire accreditation.

AIRCARE is the brain-child of the agricultural section of the Aviation Industry Association (AIA). The long term aim is to establish an ‘indus-try standard’ of environ-mental best practice for aviation, which will be accepted by both central

and local government. AIA chairman Tony

Michelle says this will benefit everyone.

“We have a lot of vari-ation in the rules with the different councils and this causes issues for the industry.”

Michelle says the objective is to get the accreditation system accepted by all councils.

“Once that happens, people in the aviation industry will realise they have to comply and users of our services will also

know that AIRCARE is a sign of quality.”

Michelle says the beauty of AIRCARE is that the pilots know they can work, but if they transgress the rules there is a programme that out-lines the consequences.

airCare launch: Project lader John sinclaiir, associate min-ister of transport nathan Guy, and ag aviation chairman tony michelle.

Big response to book drawrural news readers just love their hunting – and food – judging by the response to our may 3 book draw.

within a week of announcing the chance to win one of two copies of Darren meates’ new book, Wild About Meat, the mail bag was brim-ming and email inbox inundated.

the lucky winners are Kevin Dodunski, inglewood and Vicki sievers, waipukurau. Congratulations.

in brief

traDe witH india could triple within three years and agribusiness will be one of the winners.

minister tim Groser and his counterpart from the subcontinent had a two day tete-a-tete in auckland last week. Both are targeting an 8-10 month conclusion to bilateral free trade agree-ment (fta) talks.

“the fta will be our single most important bilateral platform for increasing trade,” says Groser. “more open access and investment flows can come from the fta.’’

triple trade to india?

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pasture persistence in the spotlightsue edMoNds

PASTURE PERSISTENCE is a ‘hot topic’ in the farm-ing world at present, as shown by the turnout at a New Zealand Grassland Association symposium on the subject in Hamilton last week.

About 250 scientists, advisers, seed merchants and farmers attended the two day event.

It looked at the topic from every angle, and every batch of presenta-tions was followed by a panel session where pre-senters answered some searching questions.

A scene setting session

looked at financial bene-fits of long term pasture, long term yield variations, farmer practices and cur-rent levels of confidence in the process.

Management and per-sistence covered sowing, managing and the pro-cess of plant persistence in terms of tiller birth and death. It even included some Uruguay experience in plantain management, delivered by Walter Ayala from that country.

What is put on top and what goes on underground followed, covering com-paction, leaching and the 60 years of continuous pasture persistence trial-

ling at Winchmore, some-thing of a New Zealand record for research lon-gevity.

A significant and repeated issue, raised by many speakers, was the rediscovery of work done 15-30 years ago and its rel-evance to the present.

There are many pas-ture pests these days, from black beetle to the humble slug, all of which have their own impacts on pasture persistence. A later work-shop, headed by Alison Popay and Nigel Bell of AgResearch, demonstrated what these look like and how and when they work.

A lot of money has

been spent recently on researching species, cul-tivars and endophytes, and while much has been learned, it emerged there remains a dearth of work on the overall ecological effects of the goodies and baddies on each other.

For some areas of the country, use of different, dryland tolerant grass and clover species was dis-cussed. Managing per-sistence within different farming systems, renew-ing at the right times and with the right processes, as well as judicious use of supplements to preserve persistence filled the final session.

sue edMoNds

HOW MUCH impact will droughts and climate change have on New Zealand’s ryegrass and clover pastures?

Work is underway to determine that, but current cul-tivar testing systems are too short-term to predict how pastures will persist, delegates to last week’s Grassland Association Symposium in Hamilton heard.

“Probably the most significant factor [on plant sur-vival] is the amount of plant available soil water,” Dairy NZ’s Dave Chapman says.

Chapman and his team are working on how ryegrass and clover cope with drought and their recovery, or lack of it, afterwards.

Unlike some grasses, perennial ryegrasses grow best in summer. If roots can get water and there are no other stressors, they’ll happily survive temperatures of up to 30 deg C. As long as clover gets sufficient light, it will also sur-vive raised temperatures.

However, both species are shallow rooted, which means they’re seriously impacted when topsoil dries out. Ryegrass responds by creating fewer new tillers, but can rapidly catch up – within about 60 days - when moisture arrives. Clo-ver’s response is similar, producing fewer stolons during

the dry, and recovering after rain, although full recovery takes some months.

Thus, seemingly brown and dead pasture can be green and ready for grazing again within about three months of drought-breaking rain.

However, when there are multiple resource limitations on the plants, the effect on persistence can be different. Stressors could include severe grazing by livestock, or plant pests, says Chapman.

“Different plants acquire different coping strategies, such as dormancy for grasses such as phalaris, or growth in ryegrass. Therefore their ability to persist should be seen as an ecological issue.

“Pasture experts used to be all ecologists, but now there is more specialisation, which often precludes the neces-sary wide overview in research.”

Recent research has been focused on significant traits, such as yield, maturity date, forage quality and pest/dis-ease resistance. However, there has not been accompany-ing research into the interaction between genotype and environment.

The concern is climate change and extreme weather events could result in unanticipated changes in plant func-tioning and sharp shifts in population structure.

Current research too short-term?FARMERS FIND

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THe DORNauF family in Tasmania are the first amR commercial dairy farmers. Today three generations – Ian and Jenny, Chris and Lynn, and Nick - run three dairy oper-ations and milk more than 1100 cows.

a completely new site has been set up for the DeLaval system. It will be built up over the next 2-3 years to a 500-600 head operation in a voluntary cow traffic system.

“We invested in the amR because we want to manage our farm in a way that allows us to focus on the cows’ perfor-mance rather than on the manual task of milking them,” says Chris Dornauf. “I think this is the system that will help me achieve that goal.”

The Dornauf’s pasture based systems are supple-mented with silage and concentrate. The production level on their sites fluctuates between 520-620kgms per cow per lactation.

“We see this move to large-scale automated milking as a key milestone in our business development.”

He also believes the technology will be vital to the future of the wider dairy industry.

“We are excited about being involved at the start of this revolution.”

New Zealand will get its first glimpse of the amR tech-nology at the National Fieldays next month.


automated rotary milking advances

sudesH kissuN in sweden

THE CONCEPT of combining rotary and robotic milking has been on the industry radar for many years but it is only now coming to fruition with DeLaval’s auto-mated milking rotary (AMR) design.

The first fully robotic trial platform started start spinning in Sweden last year and the first commercial sale will oper-ate later this year in Tasmania.

“The main components are teat prep-aration, attachment and a dedicated teat spray module,” DeLaval’s direc-tor automatic milking systems Jonas Hallman told Rural News.

Two touch screens operate the system and along with the robots it includes automatic cup backflush, automatic floor cleaning and safety systems.

The first commercial AMRs have up to 90 cow/hour capacity, depending on the number of robots installed. As many as five robots can be attached to the rotary.

Hallman says AMR is “a complement” to DeLaval’s voluntary milking systems (VMS).

“We can now offer a wider range of automatic milking solutions to meet our customers’ needs. This means less labour cost and also helps the dairy industry which is facing difficulties attracting people to work on farms.”

However, it’s too early to talk about the cost of AMR.

“It will depend on the size of the farm and whether a farmer opts for a fully automated system or not,” DeLa-val vice president capital goods, Andrew Turner says.

He says the challenge in bringing AMR to market is developing a flexible system that works equally well on all types of farms. Another goal is to offer a modu-lar approach so dairy farmers can scale up, starting with a lower level of automa-tion and then increasing it as their busi-ness grows.

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decades for CHb farms to recoverViVieNNe HaldaNe

“ABSOLUTELY GUT wrenching,” is how Central Hawkes Bay farmer, John McKee describes the havoc wreaked on his farm by the recent weather bomb; where nearly the equivalent of the annual rainfall (600mm) was delivered in one vicious deluge.

On his 650ha hill country property, near Blackhead Beach, about half his pro-ductive land has been lost.

“Some will come away, but about 1/4 of that is down to rock and you can’t grow grass or trees in that.”

The heavy rainfall compounded problems left by four years of droughts. Cracks that had never healed filled quickly. Hillsides collapsed into gullies.

McKee estimates damaged areas of his farm won’t ever regenerate in his lifetime.

The road to recovery looks long and expensive, but work has begun. The first step has been to remove stock.

“That’s my biggest concern - we are getting stock wandering into small slips looking for more grass.”

It’s a job he says only he can do. “I know my property like no-one else

– we’re just puttering along as best we can.”

Napier

Wairoa

Next will come re-grassing; where possible.

“We’ve planned a little bit of over-seeding, but that’s costly on top of the fertiliser that’s only recently been put on. It’s hard to find an extra $25,000 on top of the $40,000 you’ve already spent.

“Fencing is another thing - we don’t have a lot of paddocks at present. Much of the animals’ natural mustering areas have gone.”

Fortunately, plenty of people have offered assistance.

“Local help has been unreal... from friends, family and people I don’t even know have phoned up to offer free graz-

ing for my cows. It’s been a life saver.“I used my own digger to open up

the road, because there were people who needed to get out from nearby campsites and baches.

“Mayor Peter Butler flew in to view the damage and commented ‘You’re not technically allowed to do that; however, we won’t stop you’. I replied, ‘do you

think you could stop me? I’m sitting on my digger!’

“I’m hoping the Government will step up and offer us some assistance – when (Agriculture Minister) David Carter came down here the weekend after it happened he told us it was very small scale and they wouldn’t be doing much.

“I don’t agree – our livelihoods are at stake here.”

Federated Farmers Meat & Fibre chairman for the region, Will Foley, says farmers affected are going to need “plenty of support to get through this crisis.”

“Soils and pastures could take 10

storm affected area

to page 14

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years to recover and then there are some hillsides that will never be farmed again.

“It’s only the start of winter and it’s going to get wetter so a lot of work won’t be able to be carried out until spring. My guess is that a lot of the land will keep moving.”

An added problem is limited access in some areas, due to slips, damaged roads and bridges.

“We are trying to get volunteers to put boundary fences in. The only blessing right now is that farmers will get quite good prices for the stock that they’re selling. They are also trying to get capital stock farmed out and re-grazed in other places, at no cost.”

Kevin Mitchell, Federated Farmers Hawke’s Bay pres-ident says repairing damage to farm infrastructure like fences, races, tracks and even dams is also going to take time.

“But the biggest impact has been to pasture, which is the engine room of any farm.”

Bruce Kitto, emergency management and bylaws officer, CHB District Council was in the Police when Bola struck in 1987.

“I don’t recall as much damage to farms then as this. There’ll be some stressed out people – a lot of land has just disappeared into gullies.

“The anecdotal message that we’re getting is that famers have lost 30-70% of their farms.”

Kitto estimates about 100 farms are affected.So far, Government has offered practical assistance

in the form of Enhanced Taskforce Green, via Work and Income New Zealand, to boost recovery efforts with tem-porary workers.

Decades for CHB farms to recover

froM page 13

AN HISTORIC kauri woolshed, recently restored for environ-mental education use, was among the buildings damaged in the slips and floods.

The 1908-built shed at Aramoana is adjacent to Te Angiangi Marine Reserve and Ouepoto Reserve and had been revamped for $180,000.

Rod Hansen, general manager of the Aramoana Environmental & Educa-tion Charitable Trust, says it has been knocked off its foundations.

“At this stage, we don’t know what is going to happen. We were well up and running, so it’s a huge blow to the educa-tional trust,” he told Rural News.

The marine reserve has been hit by dirt,

rubble and fallen cliff faces, Stingray Bay is “half buried”, and a toilet block was washed away.

“There’s 2km of hill-side along the coast that has collapsed. It’s pretty horrendous.”

A 4.6 magnitude earth-

quake in the middle of the storm contributed to the destruction.

But Hansen remains upbeat.

“We’ll pick ourselves up and move forward out of the dust. Who knows, when it all settles, some-

thing better might come out of it.”

The woolshed orig-inally belonged to the McHardy family of Ara-moana Station, but was last used for shearing in 2007. The kauri was milled in the Coroman-

del and floated to Hawkes Bay. Inside was a belt-driven overhead shearing plant and a water-driven hydraulic wool press, one of only three left in New Zealand. The shed has a Historic Places Trust clas-sification 2.

kauri woolshed among storm casualties

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Clock ticking on cow conditionMary Witsey

IF YOU’RE banking on putting condition on cows during the dry period, you may only have four weeks in which to do it.

That’s one of the take home messages to come out of a paper presented by Dairy NZ regional sci-entist Dawn Dalley at one of the organisation’s recent, ongoing series of Face-to-Face events.

“In a 10-week dry period, cows only have six weeks to gain condi-

tion, as no condition is gained during the last four weeks of pregnancy,” she explains.

Poor transitioning to crops can result in no con-dition gain for the first two weeks too, leaving only four weeks in which to achieve calving BCS targets.

“In reality many herds only maintain body condi-tion during the dry period and need to be dried off in the condition you expect them to calve in,” she stresses.

Dalley suggests grow-ing a forage crop on the milking platform, not only as part of the pasture renewal programme, but as a tool to allow cows to transition onto crop prior to drying off.

Alternatively, pro-vide additional supple-

ment in the first week of crop feeding, or have an adjacent grass paddock to run cows onto during the transition period.

In the southern South Island – Dalley was speak-ing at Invercargill – 20 to 25% of farm working expenses typically relate to winter feeding making it critical to the bottom line.

In recognition of this, Dairy NZ, with MAF’s Sustainable Farming Fund and Environment Southland, is nearly a

year into a four-year pro-gramme investigating how improved winter manage-ment systems can lead to more profitable farms, good outcomes for ani-mals and people, and reduced environmental impacts.

“The project will research how southern farmers manage winter conditions, and will test different approaches to help farmers make the best decisions they can around winter manage-ment,” says Dalley who is heading the study.

Six commercial dairy farms across Southland and South Otago, all with different systems, are par-ticipating.

The cold and wet that’s typical for winter in the region means negligible pasture growth, neces-

sitating an accumulated and stored feed for graz-ing, feeding on a pad, or indoors. Currently 60% of cows are wintered on crop.

Dalley says animal health and welfare are crucial, with the main objective to prepare cows for the subsequent lac-tation.

The target – a critical

key performance indica-tor – is 90% of the herd achieving a body condi-tion score (BCS) at calv-ing of 5 for mature cows and 5.5 for two and three year-olds.

The four key timings for BCS assessment are pre-mating, early autumn, pre- dry-off and late winter.

“By identifying indi-

vidual cows within each of the BCS ranges, groups can be tracked and deci-sions made on appropri-ate action.”

The study has already found management of transitioning animals on and off wintering systems – particularly when win-tered on crop – affects BCS, disease and mortal-ity rate.

the main objective is to prepare cows for the subsequent lactation.

Dawn Dalley

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16 worldrural news // may 17, 2011

eu becomes net exporter again

alaN HarMaN

THE EUROPEAN Union emerged from the global recession in 2010 as a net agricultural exporter for the first time since 2006.

The EU Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development says the NZ$11-billion (€6-billion) agricultural trade surplus is largely due to expansion in the value of exports, driven by stronger demand as key trad-ing partners came out of recession and higher prices for commodities and intermediate goods.

“We estimated 75% of the increase in the value of exports is driven by an increase in volume of sales, reflect-ing stronger demand, while 25% may be attributed to an increase in prices,” the EU report says.

The value of exports of commodi-ties grew by 31%, intermediate products by 24%, final goods by 20% and other products by 13%.

EU exports jumped 21% or NZ$29.4 billion (€16 billion) in 2010.

Wine at NZ$8.4 billion (€4.6 billion)

is still the EU’s highest value export, followed by wheat at NZ$6.2 billion (€3.4 billion), odoriferous substances on NZ$6 billion (€3.3 billion) food prep-arations at NZ$5.8 billion (€3.2 billion) and whiskies on NZ$4.9 billion (€2.7 billion).

EU export growth was widespread across destinations as well as products. The value of exports to the US, the EU’s biggest market, recovered for the first time since 2006. The biggest surge in exports was to Russia, where sales grew by nearly one third. Record-breaking gains were made in China, now among the EU’s fastest growing markets, with exports up by 50%.

Strong increases were recorded in the volume of exports of frozen pig meat (up 30%), barley (up 300%), milk and cream (up 60%), raw sugar (up 44%) and cocoa (up 28%).

Significant price increases were also recorded for milk and cream (+40%), skins (up 60%), cocoa (up 75%) and sugar (up 22%).

Overall, the EU report says 2010 was a year of 19% growth in world agricul-

tural trade, bringing the value of world trade to a record high, at least 12% above the previous mark set in 2008.

For the past three years, the EU and the U.S. have been roughly neck and neck as the world’s leading agri-food exporters. The EU was in the lead from 2003 until 2007. In 2010 U.S. exports reached a record NZ$169.2 billion (€92 billion), just ahead of the EU’s record NZ$167.4 billion (€91 billion).

Brazil is the third largest exporter with 23% growth last year, while China moved ahead of Canada to become the world’s fourth biggest exporter with a 30% surge in exports.

The EU remains by far the world’s biggest importer with imports grow-ing by 9% in 2010, but still 5% below the peak in 2008 of NZ$181.9 billion (€88 billion).

It also remains the biggest buyer of agricultural products from developing countries, importing NZ$108.5 billion (€59 billion) worth of goods in 2008-10. This is far ahead of the US, Japan, Canada, Australia and New Zealand combined.

ameRICaN aGRICuLTuRaL policies focus on the production of a few crops and a minority of farmers while failing to address farming’s contribution to global warming, biodiversity loss, natural resource degradation and public health prob-lems.

That’s the claim made by a group of u.s. scientists, economists and farmers who are calling for a broad shift in federal policies to speed the development of farm practices that are more economically, socially, and environ-mentally sustainable.

“We have the technology and the science right now to grow food in sustainable ways, but we lack the poli-cies and markets to make it happen,” says John Reganold, a Washington state university soil scientist and the lead author of a report published in the journal Science.

starting in the late 1980s, Reganold pioneered several widely cited side-by-side comparisons showing organic farming systems

were more earth-friendly than conven-tional systems. His Science co-authors include more than a dozen other leading soil, plant, and animal scientists, economists, sociologists, agroecol-ogists and farmers.

The paper is partic-ularly critical of the Farm Bill,. While only one-third of farmers receive payments

under the bill, it has an outsized influ-ence on production.

The authors say the bill does little to promote sustainability, while “distorting market incentives and making our food system overly dependent on a few grain crops mainly used for animal feed and highly processed food, with delete-rious effects on the environment and human health.”

Scientists take swipe at uS farm policy

John reganold

RUCWITH*

*road user charges

Make it easy on yourself Keep your road user charges up to date

road user ChargesRoad user charges must be paid for diesel vehicles travelling on public roads. They’re paid as your contribution to the cost of wear and tear on the roads. The scale of fees payable for diesel powered vehicles relates to the type and axle weight of the vehicle (see table below for some typical charges).

Note: Owners of petrol engined vehicles pay their share of the road tax at the pump as a part of the cost of petrol.

PayMent Methods You can pay online by credit card or POLi (internet banking), or at any NZTA agent. For more information or to pay online go to www.nzta.govt.nz and click on ‘do it online’ (maximum purchase $1000).

We Can helPIf you are caught without a current RUC label the penalty amounts to three times what is owing – and you will still need to pay the outstanding amount. So don’t get behind.If you are not able to bring your RUC up to date, please call the RUC contact centre on 0508 UP2DATE (0508 872 3283) as we may be able to assist you.

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world 17rural news // may 17, 2011

alaN HarMaN

US RESEARCHERS have discovered what most of the world already knows – dairy cows living outdoors year-round have a markedly smaller environmental hoof print than those farmed indoors.

An Agricultural Research Service team found total emis-sions for greenhouse gases methane, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide were 8% lower in year-round outdoor pro-duction systems than in high-production confinement systems. The biggest payoff is in 30% lower ammonia emmisions.

Al Rotz led a team of scientists at the ARS Pasture Sys-tems and Watershed Management Research Unit in Uni-versity Park, Pennsylvania, through a modelling study that evaluated different management systems on a typical 100ha Pennsylvania dairy farm affect the environment.

They collected a range of field data on grazing systems and manure management and their effects on nutrient loss to the environment. Then they input this field data into their farm model to evaluate the environmental dynamics of four different dairy farms in all types of weather over 25 years.

Two of the simulations were for indoor systems, another a winter-housed/summer-grazed herd, and one an all out-door farm.

All four systems produced essentially the same amount of milk, adjusted for fat and protein, on the same land.

The model generated estimates for ammonia emissions from manure, soil denitrification rates, nitrate-leaching losses, soil erosion, and phosphorus losses from field runoff. Estimates for emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide from both primary production and second-ary production of pesticides, fuels, electricity, and other

outdoor dairy wins in us work

resources were also considered.“Getting cows out of barns is a key factor in mitigat-

ing ammonia emissions, because it reduces the amount of manure that needs to be handled and stored before it’s used for fertiliser,” Rotz explains.

Keeping cows outdoors also helped reduce fuel use and the resulting carbon dioxide emissions from farm equip-ment, because producers didn’t need to plant and harvest as much feed for their livestock.

aussie floods impact on agribusiness Business conditions for australian farmers dete-riorated further in the march quarter, according to the latest national australia Bank’s (naB) Quarterly agribusiness survey.

“significant supply disruptions from the floods caused a sharp increase in purchase costs for materials and increases in final product prices were not sufficient to prevent sales margins deteriorating,” says naB’s general manager of agribusiness, Khan Horne,

However, long term expectations in the post farm gate sector remain positive.

in brief

Pennsylvania state university agricultural engineer michael Hile (left), ars agricultural engineer al rotz (centre), and ars research associate felipe montes use a dynamic flux chamber to mea-sure the emission rates of gaseous compounds from manure on a dairy barn floor.

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aNdreW sWalloW

BALLANCE AGRI-NUTRIENTS aims to become a national force in farm feed supplies following its purchase of majority stakes in two established players.

The fertiliser co-op announced on Friday (May 13) that it is buying 51% of Morrinsville-based Seales and Canter-bury firm Winslow.

The new joint venture will be called Seales Winslow and currently has about 10% market share, Ballance chief exec-utive Larry Bilodeau told Rural News.

“With Ballance in there obviously we’d like to grow that market share.”

Current combined revenue is about $50 million with about 45 people employed in the two companies. Bilodeau says no job losses are antici-pated and the aim is to grow the busi-

ness by 30% over the next three years.“The growth in the feed market in

the last few years should help support that.”

Some inroads into other compa-nies’ market share is also anticipated, as Ballance uses its nationwide network of depots to expand Seales’ Waikato-Taranaki-Bay of Plenty footprint and Winslow’s South Island distribution.

Bilodeau says pro-ducing New Zealand-made feeds with New Zealand-grown materials is “absolutely” the aim of the business as far as is possible.

“This isn’t a palm kernel business.

This is a compounding business primar-ily based on grain and molasses.”

The only overlap with Ballance’s current feed interests, through subsid-

iary Summit Quinphos, is in the feed block market, but even there Bilodeau believes the market is probably big enough for the Crystalyx and Winslow

Blocks brands to continue.“They’re somewhat different in their

make-up and application. We can see opportunities for both.”

Seales Winslow’s inaugural managing director will be Ross Hyland, current MD of Seales.

Hyland says he’s looking forward to leading a nationwide firm and being able to service the needs of farmers’ right across the country.

“The new venture will provide a great

platform for growth and ensure that we can meet the expanding demand from farmers for a complete animal nutri-tion package.

“Our aim is to enhance the nutrition and therefore performance and wel-fare of individual animals and of whole herds. Doing this improves the profit-ability of a farm and can also reduce its environmental footprint. Everyone wins in this equation.”

Winslow Group’s managing director Craig Carr will be on the board of Seales Winslow, and says the merger is a New Zealand first, creating a firm integrat-ing all aspects of deer, cattle (beef and dairy) and sheep nutrition.

“We will link the four, great genetic engines on these farms in the soils, forage plants, rumen and animals, and we will back this with expert science and technology. This represents the future and the best thing about it is that it is 100% owned by New Zealanders.”

Seales Winslow is expected to begin operations on June 1, 2011.

18 Agribusinessrural news // may 17, 2011

ballance buys into feed market

seales’ ross Hyland (left), Ballance’s larry Bilodeau, and winslow’s Craig Carr sign on the dotted line.

www.ruralnews.co.nz

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jaCkie edkiNs

RURAL WOMEN New Zealand is cele-brating the two finalists in its Enterpris-ing Rural Women Award 2011.

From an impressive number of entries and a wide range of businesses judges – Liz Evans, John Ayling and Tina Symmans – selected North and South Island winners. They now compete for the supreme award at the Rural Women New Zealand national conference in Auckland on Friday, May 20.

The North Island winners are sis-ters Maria-Fe Rohrlach and Bernadine Guilleux who run Nestling Ltd, a busi-ness based in Mamaku, Rotorua. Nest-ling Ltd produces organic merino wool

and cotton baby wraps and slings. “We were particularly impressed by

Nestling’s use of New Zealand materials and their commitment to manufactur-ing onshore,” says RWNZ National Pres-ident, Liz Evans.

As an additional point of difference, Nestling Ltd uses extensive social net-working to build relationships with customers. This goes beyond just fill-ing orders to encompassing a “whole of family” experience. The sisters also ticked the boxes with a strong commit-ment to quality, using Zque-certified merino wool, as well as an environmen-tal awareness that includes packaging made from fabric off-cuts.

Our South Island winner is gourmet

cheese maker Lisa Harper of Sherrington Grange Ltd. She grew up on a remote farm in the Marlborough Sounds where the culinary and butchery skills learned from her mother and grandmother were part of normal family life.

After studying economics in Welling-ton, Lisa returned to the farm in Mahau Sound and seven years ago set up what was originally a tourism business, pro-viding accommodation, meals and activ-ities to European and North American visitors wanting a nostalgic rural experi-ence. But within a year she was offering cheese making classes to the guests who were interested in the traditional cheeses served as part of their meals.

Now cheese is the primary source of

Sherrington Grange’s income and Lisa has developed a range of full-strength European-style cheeses, which appeal to the restaurant and gourmet food trade. She is adamant about the need for rig-orous monitoring of food health safety

standards and adherence to regulations governing such products. “The judges found her passion for authentic and safe food really told a story,” Liz Evans says• Jackie Edkins is a Communications Officer for Rural Women NZ.

Agribusiness 19rural news // may 17, 2011

North & south award winners announced

sisters Bernadine Guilleux (left) and maria-fe rohrlach of award winning business nestling.

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aBC audited circulation 80,488 as at 30.12.2010

lights out, last outWOuLD THe last Kiwi to jump the ditch to Oz please turn out the lights. With our Government cutting Kiwisaver and Working For Families and its australian counterpart creating half a million new jobs, the lure of Waltzing matilda’s higher wages only seems set to grow, especially when you look at the exchange rate. Of course, for those already in australia with money to spend, New Zealand is a cheap place to buy, as a shoal of Rural Real-tors recently realised. But farmers coming back had better be prepared to pay up for good staff, or do the drenching/dagging/cupping themselves.

skype still a pipe dreamsO mICROsOFT values skype at $us8.5billion. shame most of my mates and I can’t use it. The rural broadband connection to my dog box is much too slow to cope with the sound and vision feed. We’ll just have to rely on the good old telephone – electric fence ticks and all. maybe we’d be better off going back to a party line – at least then you didn’t have to pay for a confer-ence call!

‘Wild about Meat’GLee sPRaNG up in the Hound’s heart when he saw the offered prize in the Rural News book draw last issue. There was bush-whacker Darran meates, pig on shoulder, rifle in hand, and what a rifle! every boy’s dream of a firearm: a lever-action saddle carbine, .45 calibre if I’m not mistaken. may things that go bang ever appeal to the imagina-tions of our Kiwi kids. motorbikes, flying foxes, mudslides and mucking about in boats too. some-times we have to accept a bit of risk because the rewards are worth it. Tutor and mentor – yes; wrap in cotton wool – never.

What are they trying to say?yOuR OLD mate is unsure if it was unintentional or not, but the latest issue of the Deer Farmers asso-ciation’s magazine Deer Industry News poses a rather peculiar question about NZDFa chairman Bill Taylor. The maga-zine’s lead editorial page has a headshot of Taylor alongside a big, bold headline asking: ‘Not sexy enough?’ Now the Hound’s no oil painting and mr Taylor’s highly unlikely to make it onto NZ’s Next Top model, but what do they want – Rachel Hunter?

thanks mum!yOuR OLD mate received an e-mail last week asking him to add his paw print to a list of names of people supporting foot-in-mouth mP Hone Harawira. apparently the e-mail had already done around two million people. The list went 1. Titiwhai Harawira; 2.For some reason there

weren’t any more names

on it, Funny that!

want to share your opinion or gossip with the Hound?

send your emails to: [email protected]

Change the challenge

THE LONG awaited Red Meat Strategy has finally been released and it’s attracting a host of warm fuzz-ies throughout the sector.

It’s a nice, glossy document with lots of graphs and case studies and it does set out very well the cur-rent state of the industry and the problems it faces. To all intents and purposes, it’s a very comprehen-sive document and good on BLNZ, MIA and Govern-ment for getting it together.

Trouble is, most of the information is not new. And does it take a $500,000 report, written by an accountancy firm, to tell us the industry’s in trouble and that it has to work together better?

Sorry to sound cynical, but I seem to have read this report in another life, some 30 years ago.

The only fundamental change is that back in the 1980s, when they were writing similar meat industry reports, there wasn’t the competition for land use as there is today. Even MIA’s Bill Falconer’s speech at Parliament at the launch of the strategy had an 80’s ring about it.

For years meat processing companies have engaged in local turf wars and farmers have fuelled these wars by their behaviour.

Back in the 1980s, I distinctly remember MIA members meeting in Wellington and agreeing to strat-egies to sort out the industry. They’d hardly got out the door before they were back to their bad old ways and the agreement was no longer valid.

Some farmers have been no better – playing off one meat company against another. What happened to the word loyalty? Maybe it should be dropped from the dictionary, just like the word jandal!

Some farmers have rested on their laurels for too long and, as the report says, it’s time for them to start focusing on profit and stop farming for life-style. They also need to brush up on their financial management skills.

MIA and BLNZ will say this report is different because the industry is in a state of crisis and their future is on the line.

They say this report is different because it has come from the industry and not from MAF, although – let’s face it – the previous MAF work wasn’t all that different.

The real crunch is this; can meat processors and farmers translate the words of this report into actions? Can they make some fundamental changes to their behaviour? The word is they can and will and that is great – sorry essential – if there’s to be a sheep and beef industry.

Despite current buoyant markets, our meat indus-try is still in a mess. The price rally has bought us a window.

However, unless all parties act quickly and posi-tively, and take on board the recommendations in this report – then they will do NZ Inc a huge disservice.

– Peter Burke

“ednaaa – i’ve decided to let you clear the freezer of all those ducks i shot last year!”

DON’S BACK – the poster boy of the superannui-tants has returned and at 70 he’s looking good.

Sure the comb-over is a little thinner, but this is no aging fossil, this is a fully functioning male ready again to sort out the world; well, maybe that should be the ACT boys and girls.

Seeing Don back in action assuring us he’s ready to put some Rog-ernomic steel into the back-bone of the weak and timid is inspirational.

Sure Don’s had to be a little ruth-less espe-

cially with Rodney, but let’s face it, time is not on his side. Although a fit 70 he’s still got to move a little faster than someone that’s 50 or 60. And he’s never been asked to dance with the stars.

Don’s swept into Wel-lington and realised its high noon, or put it another way – will those with numbers support him? He’s got no choice: it’s now or never; there’s no second chance.

Being a perceptive fellow he knew the camp was divided and Rodney was furiously treading water. This was one that could be sorted out before lunchtime as someone famously said.

Rodney saw it coming and jumped – it wasn’t pretty, but it made Don’s move to the top slot that

much easierThen we had the heart

warming display of some-one being stabbed in the back while professing friendship and total loy-alty. However, Don seized the moment to be seen as compassionate and allowed Rodney a few bau-bles – as long as he went quietly.

We all applauded Rodney as the perk buster, but felt let down

when he took his girl-friend on a Hawai-

ian holiday jaunt at the taxpayers’ expense. He was

probably dog tucker before Don came along.

Remem-ber Don is a former leader

of the Nats. He knows well the

inside workings of a political party. During a cup of tea he found funding support from

lovely people the Exclu-sive Brethrens.

Don is the son of a preacher man, so he understands the culture of these well-heeled folk.

In 2004, at the Orewa Rotary Club, he spoke of ending a perceived drift towards racial sepa-ratism.

Strangely, this speech marked Don as extreme, rightwing Pakeha.

For me and my mates, Don is the epitome of what most of us would like to be. Let’s face it, not too many can pick up a politi-cal leadership role at 70 and look like a winner.

Don has shown there’s no need to toddle off into the sunset with the gold watch at 65. What to do with those entering their golden years is a world-wide worry. And they all have votes.

Increasingly, many of those that have hit the magic number, just keep on working, usually pull-ing the pin about 70. Some still carry on. To them 70 is just another number.

oPinion 25rural news // may 17, 2011

Comb-over comeback inspirational

Don’s not only carrying on; he’s aiming at help-ing John and Bill get the country back on track.

Personally I just love it when some older soul heads off a youngster,

when experience comes in ahead of academia.

Experience is Dr Don’s forte. There’s a doctorate in economics, he’s worked for the World Bank, was managing

director of the Kiwifruit Authority, general manager of Trust Bank, then for 14 years he was Governor of the Reserve Bank of NZ. He entered parliament in 2002,

a year later he became leader of the National Party.

In 2005 he led National into a general election, which was narrowly won by Labour.

In 2007 he left parliament, joined the ANZ National Bank board, chairs Huljich Wealth Management and

lectures in economics at the Auckland University.

I’m trying to think of someone in Parliament that has such a track record.

And being nice doesn’t count!• John Stirling is a South Otago farmer who has also been an agricultural journalist for over 30 years.

eye on the issuesjohn stirling

let’s face it, not too many can pick up a political leadership role at 70 and look like a winner.

26 oPinionrural news // may 17, 2011

Crying over spilt milk (prices)THE COMMERCE Com-mission is expected to release the findings of its investigation into pric-ing of milk on the local market within the next month or so.

Its investigation will not lead to any inquiry into the domestic milk prices and nor should it.

Unfortunately, this whole ‘milk probe’ saga

has been a bit of beat-up from day one. It’s been fanned and promoted by the likes of Consumer NZ

and various media outlets. Consumer NZ backs

calls for an inquiry because 91% of respon-dents to a survey it con-ducted think they are paying a high price for milk. That result is hardly surprising. Any ‘survey’ of consumers asked if they’re paying too much for some-thing is pretty sure to get a similar result. It is no

reason to hold an inquiry.There is little doubt

milk price increases are making life tough for local consumers. But the prob-lem is straight forward – it’s just a reflection of international markets. However, the proponents for a price inquiry have not let too many facts get in the way of their story. They have consistently

either failed – or refused – to accept the rise in domestic retail prices is linked to global markets paying near-record prices.

The reality is milk in New Zealand is actu-ally cheap and represents good value for money. It currently retails from between $2.10 to $2.40 a litre and is packed with vitamins and minerals

including: calcium; phos-phorus; magnesium; zinc; Vitamin A and B12, to name but a few.

All those concerned about milk prices should pay a visit to a health food store or pharmacy and see how much this lot would set them back – before complaining about the value of milk.

A recent MAF report on domestic milk pricing found average household spending on fresh milk in the year to June 2010 was $5/week, compared with $4.60/week in the year ending June 2007.

Meanwhile, “for com-parison”, the same report found that during the same period average expenditure on soft drinks went up from $2.70 to $3.30/week.

Despite the some-what peculiar compari-son of a sugar-laden soda water with mineral-rich milk, the fact is New Zea-land shoppers have hap-pily shelled out more for increases in soft drink than dairy product. Yet we have not heard any con-sumer lobby-led outcry into Coca Cola’s pric-ing policy. Unfortunately, claims about over-priced milk on the domes-tic market were swirling around for a month or two

before Fonterra actually decided to front-foot the issue. This left a vacuum.

Somewhat belatedly, the dairy giant rolled out its outgoing chief exec-utive Andrew Ferrier to fight the good fight. His explanation was simple, but effective.

“Milk prices always track the world market ... the reality is it’s a cycli-cal market. The world is buying dairy products on that market and New Zea-land is no different from anyone else in the world.”

And dairy prod-ucts are very hot right now. So hot, in fact, that during March, Fonterra recorded its highest ever month of exports with 229,000 tonnes shipped around the globe during the month and earning the country $1.2 billion in much-needed export earnings.

That’s something all New Zealanders should be celebrating, especially when the country is bor-rowing $300 million a week to pay its bills.

In the meantime, I note that petrol prices are at record levels. Perhaps the Commerce Commis-sion should carry out an immediate investigation.• David Anderson is a former Rural News editor.

comms commentdavid anderson

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

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dcarterminofag: World’s most effec-tive agriculture minister rules out chances of Fonterra getting TAF up and running before election! See more @http://tinyurl.com/5lh6ct9.

henryfonterra: World’s leading dairy ex-porter’s chairman not happy that his lackies have not convinced Government to approve changes to dairy legislation sooner.

rhidemp: Dear Al Qaeda, I understand you have a vacancy for a new leader of your organisation. I have recent experience in leading a bunch of crazy, fanatical fundamen-talists in NZ. Where do I send my CV?

jgrantwpc: Real excitement around plan B for wool grower co-op which is about ‘a fortnight away’. Working party has approved new name. It will be called – Plan B!

fedfarmersorg: NZ farmer lobby backs NZ Pork’s bid to sue MAF over it relaxing rules on pig meat imports in NZ claiming the disease risk too high for local producers.

fedfarmersorg: NZ farmer lobby critical of Aussie rules on banning apple imports from NZ claiming there is no disease risk for local producers.

johnkeypm: BMWs? Helicopters? Body-guards? Good to see the Labour Party is focussed on the really important issues in election year.

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28 mAnAgementrural news // may 17, 2011

THE WEATHER forecast wasn’t great. And how relevant is Maori farming to New Zea-land’s agricultural industry anyway?

Not very, judging by the turnout of jour-nalists from other publications to a recent field day held on Waipapa 9 Trust’s sheep and beef unit.

But as the day unfolds, the significance and potential of this sector, with its partic-ular perspective on primary production, became clear. As the crowd is called onto the Mokai Marae for the Powhiri for the initial presentations for the day, light rain clinging to the hills at the northern end of Lake Taupo lifts, and sunshine illuminates proceedings. Maybe Rongo, Maori god of agriculture, is backing Waipapa?

The Trust’s 6,537ha are a mix of ances-

tral lands and recent purchases. It has 1,208 shareholders representing seven hapu of Ngati Tuwharetoa and Ngati Raukawa decent. There are three dairy units, all con-versions from the original sheep and beef farms. It’s a multi million dollar business.

The Waipapa Station sheep and beef unit, which is the finalist in the Ahuwhenua Trophy awards, comprises 1,100ha effec-tive of rolling to medium steep hill coun-try on Taupo pumice ash. This land has limited subsoil and needs regular rain to grow grass. It’s not easy country to farm. The property has a terminal sheep breed-ing and finishing operation, a bull finish-ing unit and a winter dairy support block.

The 6000 breeding ewes are Rissing-ton’s Highlander composite, which are mated to Rissington’s Primera terminal sires. Replacements are sourced from another Trust block – Otanepae.

The beef unit runs 1200 cattle, mainly

bulls and is a standalone operation based on a neighbouring farm purchased by the Trust in 2008. Again it’s a Rissington com-posite line based on an Angus Simmental cross. The unit is one of Waipapa’s success stories and farm manager Denys Gayton says it’s one of the top ten in the central North Island. He benchmarks his opera-tion against all farms, not just Maori units.

Gayton has been with the Trust for 30 years and his key phrase is ‘best practice’.

“Farming is not about guess work... If you know the amount of grass stock need and if you feed them properly, you’ll get production out of any stock. Scientists have proved what genetics can do for us and we’ve got to make the best of them.”

A major project is pasture renewal. So

far 200ha have been re-grassed and every year a further 30ha are upgraded through 15ha of rape and 15ha of swedes. Fertiliser is used ‘strategically’ to boost grass growth.

What also sets Waipapa apart is its abil-ity to generate significant economic farm surpluses and annual dividends to share-holders.

This year the surplus is about $400/ha, but there’s a strategy and strong desire to increase this. Unseasonal weather cut dry-matter output from 11,000kg to 8000kg/ha. Animal weights sent to slaughter have been lower than normal. Lambing and calving percentages were also well down. Higher prices will compensate, but Gay-ton’s conscious of the need to keep striv-ing to improve the farm.

“It’s my job to maintain assets – fences, grass, stock and return profits to them. I’m here to make money for the Trust. I’m a professional manager that’s my job.”

On June 3 the winner of the ahuwhenua Trophy for the best maori sheep and beef farm will be announced at a gala function in Rotorua. The three finalists, Otakanini Topu Inc of Helensville, Pakihiroa station on the North Island’s east Coast, Waipapa 9 Trust north west of Taupo have already held field days. peter burke reports from the Waipapa event, where he was the only journalist to show.

ahuwhenua trophy field day

waipapa’s beef unit runs 1200 cattle, mainly bulls.

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mAnAgement 29rural news // may 17, 2011

ANOTHER PERSON who’s had a significant influence on the suc-cessful development of Waipapa is Steve Bignell.

An accountant with the firm Strettons, based in Taupo, he’s the finan-cial advisor for the Trust which he says has total assets of about $100 mil-lion.

Bignell believes a criti-cal success factor for the Trust is governance. He says the present board is

well balanced with each of the trustees having portfolios to focus on.

Bignell travels the country as a farm advi-sor/accountant and says Waipapa Station still has some way to go reach its potential. He points to the need to improve the quality of pasture. This is only possible because the farm is producing good economic returns. He says the sheep and beef units complement each

other, despite the fact that some of the better land has been moved into dairying.

“The challenges are all exciting. The main thing is that you can do things here because of the scale that you couldn’t do as an individual, so it gives you a lot bigger range of enterprises and farm operations that you can undertake.”

Another who’s con-tributed much to the suc-

cess of Waipapa Station is farm supervisor, Bob Cottrell.

He works with the trustees and manager Denys Gayton to drive and manage the strategic direction of all the Trusts’ farming operations.

Cottrell’s a local, retired farmer who was asked some years ago by Trust chairman Dawson Haa to give some advice and he’s been there ever since.

good governance key to success

farm financial advisor steve Bignell

THE AHUWHEUNA Awards have a long, proud history, dating back to the 1930s and are designed promote excel-lence in Maori farming.

Kingi Smiler, chairman of the awards committee, says during the last eight years there’s been a dramatic lift in the participation and in the performance of the finalists. He says the finalists are setting the benchmark not only for the Maori farmers, but also for agribusiness as a whole.

There are two trophies – one for sheep and beef and more

awards value

manager’s backgroundWaIPaPa maNaGeR Denys Gayton started off dairy farming in Taranaki, but soon decided that he wanted to go sheep and beef farming.

“I had an uncle who was on a sheep and beef farm. I advertised in the paper and got a job in Hawkes Bay and started off over there. I then moved to Ngamatea in the central high country and did two years mustering there.”

He then worked as a shepherd in the hill country in the Turikino river valley before working for the then the Department of Lands and survey on Crater Block, near Rotorua. In the early 1980’s this block was taken over by agResearch and some of the first imports of exotic sheep, including the Finnish Landrace, Oxford Down, and east Friesian were quarantined. They were later slaughtered because they were found to have the disease scrapie.

Denys Gayton

“after that I got my first job as a manager for Lands and survey and quickly moved to Otanepae station which is part of the Trust,” Gayton says. “But, at that stage, it was being managed on their behalf by maori affairs. It wasn’t until 1989 that the Trust actually took control of the farm.”

recently one for dairying. These run on alternate years.Maori agriculture makes up 15% of the nation’s sheep

and beef sector. Smiler says the farms in the awards are usually major properties and therefore the level of achieve-ment and intensification they’ve managed to achieve is out-standing. However, Maori farming is more than just profit.

“The Importance of the environment is one of the most fundamental propositions because Maori are never going to sell their land. Therefore it’s important for future gen-erations and so the trustees take these roles seriously and understand that they have to leave the land in a better state,” Smiler explains.

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the whole time hovering round the shed.

“They were doing a good job, but not an excel-lent job. So I told the con-tractor I’d pay him 10% more if he got the job right... The next year I didn’t do a thing and the service was excellent.”

A similar discussion with his vehicle mechanic has seen constant niggles over servicing and repairs solved.

“There was only one case where it didn’t work and that was with a drilling contractor.

“In that case the service didn’t improve so we paid the bill and went our dif-ferent ways.”

When it came to his main customer, Alliance, Gardyne asked his drafter if there was anything he could do, as a supplier, to present his lambs better.

“He said he was pretty happy and turned the question round, asking if there was anything they

could do.”A difficulty sourc-

ing store lambs prior to Christmas – average kill date for his own drop is normally mid December – was identified and a day or two later the drafter called to say he could supply 2500.

“It added $75,000 to our bottom line. Prior to the [Rabobank] course I would never have had the confidence to take that risk and do the deal. He buys all our stores now

30 mAnAgementrural news // may 17, 2011

fired up by farming in southlandTwo�years�ago�when�Neil�Gardyne�enrolled�on�Rabobank’s�executive�development�course,�little�did�he�realise�how�much�it�would�change�his�outlook��andrew swallow�reports

NEIL GARDYNE is a farmer with the bit between his teeth.

His enthusiasm for his business is evident from the moment I set foot in his lounge. On the TV screen is a Power Point-type chart with headings: Succession plan; Vision statement; Family; Par-ents’ goals; Children’s goals.

“We all push our kids

to have goals and achieve them, but we realised a lot of us don’t have goals our-selves,” Gardyne explains. “I think it’s easier to role model good values rather than impose them.”

That realisation came during a Rabobank Exec-utive Development Pro-gramme he completed a year ago.

Now his goals are clear: grow the farm busi-

ness by improving effi-ciency, better production and probably expansion; develop a fertiliser enter-prise he started a couple of years ago (see sidebar); make more time to follow up other interests, includ-ing personal develop-ment; and invest in family, especially their three chil-dren who are 10, nine and four years old.

So how’s he achiev-

ing that? During the programme

he reviewed all his sup-plier relationships to see how things could be done better.

“One of the biggest things I realised was I was running around doing everyone’s job.”

For example, at shear-ing, because he was con-cerned about the quality of the job, he’d spend

fArm fActs• Who: Neil & Philippa Gardyne• Where: Otama, southland• Farm: 466ha rolling country;

850mm rain/year • stock: 4200 Tex/Perendale ewes

put to Poll Dorset. 150 Friesian bulls, bought at 120kg in Dec, finished within 18 months.

• Crop: 80ha cereals, 20ha swedes.

whereas I used to spend eight days going around the sales buying in 100 or 200 here and there.”

Stepping back to allow his wife Philippa to take a greater role in the farm

business has also proven rewarding.

“She’s very much part of the business now. It was a challenging pro-cess for me giving her enough rope, but it’s increased our efficiency and decreased my work-load.”

No labour is employed on the 466ha, 6500 stock unit farm, other than a retired gentleman who does two days a week and acts as caretaker when the family is on holiday.

“He’s been with us 10 years.”

The business is kept lean in other areas: swedes for winter feed are mostly established by “spray and pray” – glypho-sate immediately followed by broadcast seed. Where necessary, a follow-up in-crop herbicide mix of Gallant (for grasses) and Versatil (for thistles) is used – even then the crop cost is still only circa $450/ha.

“Most people are talk-ing about $1200/ha.”

On steeper ground a helicopter has been used, but at $45/ha for the spray and $60/ha to broadcast the seed it’s not much more expensive than his own tractor-mounted sprayer and spreader.

He expects the heli-copter crop to hit 18-20tDM/ha. “But I’ll budget on 14-16t of dry matter.”

Whole crop barley goes in after the swedes and typically yields 12tDM/ha, which is pit stored on a pad ready for in situ feeding to bull beefers over winter.

“My goal with the

WHEN IT comes to drench, Gardyne’s supplier review resulted in a switch to online ordering.

“I now buy it all on the internet. It’s cheaper, saves that trip into town, and arrives within 24 hours of ordering, or I get a phone call if it’s not going to.

“Not that I leave ordering to the day

before I need it. I try to order in bulk at the start of the season to get the maxi-mum discount.”

He says 30% savings can be made simply by good planning. “I try to do that right across everything I’m buying, from fertiliser to drench. It gives the suppliers a chance to plan their businesses better.”

online drenching sourcing

look no lumps: neil Gardyne shows off some of the coal ash he’s marketing as fertiliser.WINTER

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mAnAgement 31rural news // may 17, 2011

fired up by farming in southland

TWO YEARS ago Neil and Philippa Gardyne started a fertiliser busi-ness, Flashfert.

But the inspiration for it came five years earlier when they noticed ash from a newly installed coal-fired central heating system made the grass grow better.

“There were all these lush green strips on the paddock by the house. I’d no idea what had happened,” he recalls.

A couple of years later, having had the ash analysed, he set about signing up rights to the coal ash from every burner producing 500t or more per year.

“Edendale produces about 16,000t and Huntly power station about 170,000t/year.”

The quality of the ash depends

on the source of the coal, but the main nutrient it delivers is sulphur which ranges from 4% to 11%, the latter coming from the Kaitangata mine, near Balclutha.

“There’s also some magnesium and calcium oxide in there. It’s a bit like the old burnt lime. Once it’s spread, the calcium oxide turns to calcium hydroxide and then cal-cium carbonate which is what gives you the shift in pH.

“There’s a bit of boron and some other traces, but no N, P, or K.”

Gardyne says it works best where a lot of super has been used and P levels are good.

“We’re still using some super.”Tests have shown no heavy

metal issues and a drymatter response where Flashfert’s been

used. However, with development work ongoing Gardyne’s reluctant to expand on the detail.

In 2009/10, 5000t was sold across Southland and Otago but this year that was back to 1200t.

“We launched because this stuff was being dumped. It seemed such a waste.

“But we’ve stopped actively marketing it until we get the issue with lumps sorted. This will improve quality of product for application.”

A couple of screens have been purchased to deal with those and lump-free sources identified. It costs $30/t plus cartage and appli-cation.

“We estimate the nutrient value is around $52/t.”

fine-tuning coal ash fertiliser business

swedes and barley is to remove excess nitrogen and potash from these soils. Then, when they go back into grass and clover, we get our best lamb finishing paddocks. Averaged over 10 years we’ve been getting 300g/day with peaks of 4-500g/day growth rates off these.”

The importance of such rapid growth to the busi-ness was another thing the Rabobank programme helped Gardyne crystal-lise.

“The quicker we can get our lambs off the prop-

erty the more money we make. I worked out every day at an extra 100g/day of lamb growth is worth $3000/day to us.”

Average lambing per-centage prior to this year was 144%, but the Septem-ber 2010 storm slashed this year’s figure to 105%. A growthy November then compounded the problem with feed quality going out the window.

“I didn’t manage it as well as I could have,” Gar-dyne admits.

Weight gain of lambs and bulls has suffered ever

since.“Our average [lamb]

kill date for the three years previous to this one is December 20. This year it’s March 18.”

Carcases are barely any heavier either: 18.9kg com-pared to 18.2kg average

previously.But lessons have been

learnt, which he believes will benefit the business in normal years, as well as after any similar extreme events in future.

“In the tough years you learn things which you can put into practice in the good years and improve overall management.

“There’s some good science out there with regard to dry matter growth rates, and moni-toring lamb growth rates. We’ll be using that infor-mation to make more pro-active decisions in future.”

“they were doing a good job, but not an excellent job.” low cost “spray and pray”

established swedes.

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32 AnimAl heAlthrural news // may 17, 2011

beef cattle now worm research focus

CHris Morris

AGRESEARCH’S SPOTLIGHT is now on beef cattle in a quest to reduce the need for drench to kill internal parasites.

Worms threaten beef cattle produc-tivity on a scale similar to that in sheep, as confirmed in the Parasite Survey, 2005, by then Meat & Wool New Zea-land.

So AgResearch is looking at animal-to-animal differences in resistance to parasites, testing a theory beef cattle farmers can reduce the use of drenches.

A MAF Sustainable Farming Fund (SFF) grant is paying for the study.

The usual indicator of internal par-asite levels in live animals is faecal egg count (FEC). In sheep the FEC is a her-itable trait; a service exists in the sheep world called ‘WormFEC’, which tests

and ranks rams in ram-breeding flocks for FEC.

Research findings published by the team at Ruakura on an experimental herd show FEC in calves soon after weaning is also heritable (value of 0.32). This indicates calves can be ranked genetically for FEC and, in bull breed-ing herds, their sires can also be ranked.

Breeding herds from private Angus and Hereford breeders, and from Land-corp, are enrolled in the SFF study, and AgResearch is looking for additional herds to enrol. From SFF results in the first two years, a similar herita-bility was found (0.29) to that in the experimental herd, indicating that the way enrolled herds are managing their calves before faecal sampling for FEC is similar to that found earlier. It also indicates sire-to-sire variation is pres-

ent in industry herds. A useful outcome for each breeder

is information to rank his sires for FEC within-herd, and across-herd if there are common reference-sire links.

With DNA being stored from calves in the study, AgResearch is building up a resource of phenotypes and DNA for eventual use for a DNA-marker search in another project.

The Carla saliva test unit at AgResearch’s Hopkirk Research Insti-tute is also using the opportunity of this parasite study to collect saliva samples from some herds. Carla has been developed by Ovita Ltd (funded by Beef+Lamb NZ and Government) as a means for ram breeders to iden-tify sheep showing enhanced protective immunity to parasite larval challenge.

Hopkirk scientist Richard Shaw

sees this as an opportunity to collect information on Carla in cattle. Given favourable results, Carla could be used as another phenotypic measure of par-asite host resistance in cattle.

MAF needs to see evidence of a contribution from enrolled herds, so there is a charge per FEC sample of

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Young stock can be genetically ranked for feC.

peter burke

THE ANIMAL Health Board is urging farmers who run beef cattle, dairy cows or deer to attend their regional council annual plan hearings.

It has locked horns with three regional councils – Horizons, ECAN and Environment Waikato -- over plans by all three not to fund Tb control pro-grammes to the level it has requested.

The AHB wants ECAN to increase its proposed annual Tb funding from $500,000 to $782,000, Horizons from $550,000 to $750,000 and Environment Waikato from $650,000 to $864,000. However, the councils have set aside the lower amounts of money in their bud-gets and are asking ratepayers to voice their support for any increase.

AHB chairman John Dalziell says a potential shortfall in regional councils’ contribution to Tb control will signif-icantly reduce both government and industry investment as well.

“For every $100,000 invested by a regional council, the farming sector and central government contribute an aver-age of $1 million,” he says.

He says as a result of this matched funding, any cut to the regional coun-cil contribution will seriously compro-mise the AHB’s ability to eradicate Tb in the regions.

“Our work in controlling the disease also has direct biodiversity benefits for our native plants and birds.”

But Environment Waikato chairman and farmer, Peter Buckley, is sticking to his guns over the funding issue.

“If you look at where the Waikato region is in terms of infected herds, we have come down from 20 to two,” he told Rural News.

“You also have to reflect on the fact that the AHB have not used all the fund-ing that we’ve given them over the years.

“They are asking us for an extra $200k, but if they haven’t spent all we gave them last year why should we be giving them any more?”

Buckley’s views are similar to those of the other councils. While he accepts AHB’s point, he says EW has to look at what the ratepayers in the region can afford.

“I realise a lot of the farmers are saying we need to have more money, but we have a responsibility over the whole of the region too.”

aHB keeps up council campaignCHaIRmaN OF Horizons Regional Council, Bruce Gordon has accused the animal Health Board of sending out inaccurate information on Bovine Tb to farmers in his region.

The aHB sent out about 30,000 letters to herd owners in three regional council areas, Waikato, Canterbury and manawatu/Whanganui (Rural News, may 3).But Gordon says in the case of his region, they got the numbers wrong.

“They said we were only prepared to contribute $550,000, whereas it quite clearly states in our Draft annual Plan summary document that we are going to contribute $650,000.

“The other issue that annoyed us is that they claimed we are spending

$3m on our own possum control programme and that we are going to add another $156,000 to it. all these figures are totally incorrect,” he says.

Gordon says he can’t under-stand why aHB got the numbers so wrong because he had two meetings with the chairman and Ce of aHB explaining exactly what Horizons was doing in respect of bovine Tb control.

Horizons pay aHB when it completes each part of a planned possum control programme in the region. But at present, $350,000 worth of possum control work hasn’t been done and aHB only has until the end of June to complete this work.

“We’re questioning its systems and efficiencies,” says Gordon.

Horizons hits back at aHB

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AnimAl heAlth 33rural news // may 17, 2011

ludf makes strides in lamenessaNdreW sWalloW

A SIMPLE adjustment to the backing gate and some minor re-engineer-ing around the yard has helped slash the lame cow count on Lincoln Univer-sity’s Dairy Farm (LUDF).

However, after a stellar start to the season, mas-titis levels are still higher than management would like them to be, a recent focus day on the 670-cow all grass unit heard.

“We’ve made good progress with the number of mastitis cow days, but we’re still keen to get that lower,” consultant George Reveley, part of the man-agement team on the farm, told the 200-plus crowd.

Using teat seal and dry cow therapy on the whole herd for the first time saw early season levels of the disease at record low levels.

“At the end of August we thought we’d abso-lutely nailed it. We’d had nine cases at that stage. We joked the team wouldn’t recognise masti-tis if they saw it – there’d been so little.”

But the September 4

magnitude 7.1 earthquake, centred about 20km away, changed all that.

“The cows were pretty shaken up and the sub-sequent rise in masti-tis and cell count wasn’t really contained very well for the rest of the season for the amount of money we’ve spent on it.”

Two cows that had three flair-ups have been culled, as have two of a group of five that have had two flair-ups. In total, more than 70 clinical cases have been recorded.

Every aspect of shed management has been analysed: vacuum checked, teat spray switched to manual, stray voltage analysed.

“We now turn the fence off when we’re milking.”

A rationalisation of the herd down to 620-645 cows, as part of the new strategy to run a lower stocking rate, offers an opportunity to cull con-sistently high cell count cows, adds Reveley.

As for the lameness, slowing the backing gate to a crawl, some minor re-engineering around the shed and resurfacing a

rotten rock laneway with limerock has seen the best result for footcare ever on the farm.

“We’ve averaged just four cows in the lame mob. We’re pretty thrilled. Lameness is pretty expen-sive and has a lot of other effects on the property besides the nasty effect it has on the cows them-selves.”

Backing gate: slowing it down has helped cut foot problems.

feed dries like milkersWHeRe aRe your dry cows?

Too often they are put on clean-up duties –when really they should be getting as high quality feed as milkers to help them get back to body condition score BCs 5 by calving, says FarmWise consultant George Reveley.

“as soon as possible, after we [Lincoln university Dairy Farm] dry off they’ll be fed like milking cows,” he told a recent focus day on the farm.

The farm has taken “a proactive approach” to getting condition back onto cows, putting 166 mainly young and early calving cows out of the 670-strong herd onto once-a-day (OaD) at the start of march, because they were BCs 4 or below.

Towards the end of that month, another 90 were added to the OaD mob and on april 17 the whole herd went OaD.

“They were doing 1.25-1.3kgms/cow at the time and dropped to 1.15kg. Cell counts were a concern for a while, but it didn’t stay high and we’re back to the same level now.”

He also stresses that keeping a close watch on cow condition during winter is also key.

“It’s very high on our priority list... It’s a real focus for us in June to keep the condition of these cows ticking along.”

not speaking for nZarn

DaIRy BusINess consultant James Hague says his comments regarding grass utilisation in New Zealand (Rural News, may 3, p35) are his own views and not that of the newly formed New Zealand association of Ruminant Nutritionists.

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timely tips to winter crop transition

aNdreW sWalloW

AS LIVESTOCK across the country transition to winter crops, remem-ber to heed manage-ment principles with such feeds, says PGG Wright-son nutritionist Charlotte Westwood.

While brassicas and fodder beet can provide a heap of feed when pas-

ture production is at or near a standstill, there are some potential pitfalls in their utilisation, she explains.

“Probably the key thing, and the number one problem I see, par-ticularly with forage brassica, is under-feed-ing – either because the grazier hasn’t accu-rately calculated what

stock requires in terms of dry matter, protein and energy; or because they have no idea what the dry-matter yield of the crop is,” Westwood told Rural News.

“You’ve got to under-stand the requirements of the stock class you’re carrying and objectively quantify how much crop you have on hand.”

This means getting out in the paddock and taking enough test cuts to get a representative measure of the average yield of the paddock, and the range, from the best to worst areas.

“That’s particularly important in a dry year when crops tend to be more up and down.”

Having taken cuts, get-

ting a sample analysed for dry matter is also advis-able.

“It can vary quite a bit from book values depend-ing on ground conditions and cultivars.”

If sending a sample away for analysis, a nitrate test can also be done to check content isn’t likely to cause poi-soning.

“And it isn’t much more money to get a full feed test done. But drymatter is the most important one.”

Samples should be sent in a watertight bag.

“If leaves are wet do your best to shake off the moisture. Wet crop mea-surements will give you yield indications that are too heavy.”

Having established how much crop is avail-able, allowing for a real-istic level of waste is the next key step.

“Too many people claim they get 100% utili-sation. Whatever the crop there’s going to be some loss through leaf drop and trampling. On stones in Canterbury utilisa-tion might be as good as 85-90%, but in Southland with cows bellied in mud it’s going to be consider-ably less.”

Sheep tend to waste more than cattle.

“Cows are like front end loaders but sheep chew and chew and tend to wander through the crop as they do it.”

However, when it comes to adding fibre to a

brassica ration cattle are more demanding.

“Cattle require a mini-mum of about 35% NDF in the diet, but sheep only need 20-22% which is more or less where the brassicas are. But to be honest I still like to see some other form of feed offered even to sheep,” Westwood explains.

Failure to provide fibre, typically as baleage or straw, puts stock at risk of brassica bloat and rumen acidosis, both of which can be fatal, she warns.

Acidosis is most likely to occur in the first week or two stock go onto bras-sica and is one of the rea-sons such crops should be introduced gradually.

“It takes the rumen seven to 10 days to adapt.”

On-off grazing and ensuring stock aren’t hungry going onto crop is also advisable.

Good access to stock water is required and for high performance stock classes, such as pregnant dairy cows needing to gain weight, constant access to pasture or a better quality feed such as cereal silage is

WITH ITs high water soluble carbohydrate content, lower fibre, and sometimes massive yields per hectare, acidosis is the biggest risk with fodder beet, says Westwood.

“I wouldn’t go to more than 50-60% of the diet being fodder beet. I know there are some that say they’ve gone to 10 [beet] plus two [baleage/straw] and not had a problem, but that probably means they didn’t have any fatalities. There may well have been some subclinical impact.”

With yields of up to 30tDm/ha possible, accurate crop assessment and placement of break fences is key, as is secure fencing to ensure a controlled ration.

There’s also a suggestion of oxalate toxicity if the crop still has a lot of top on it. However, Westwood believes this risk has possibly been overplayed and some cases labelled as oxalate poisoning are more than likely acidosis.

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Charlotte westwood

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AnimAl heAlth 35rural news // may 17, 2011

giving an old dog a new homeI’D LIKE to talk about old dogs in

this article, because I have been trying to find a home for my partner’s old Huntaway bitch.

I’ve had a lot of enquiry even though she is nine-years-old. But I find it incredible how people are expecting her to do a ‘real’ job at nine years of age.

Farmers fattening lambs or cattle are keen to take her – admittedly they are on easy country – but for goodness sake; she hasn’t the agility to do a job like that. No nine-year-old dog has, regardless of its health and appearance.

The problem is she is free. It has nothing to do with her ability and I find it very sad that people would get an old dog, knowing it still has the heart to work, but is well and truly past it. They’re prepared to run it into the ground – because that is what would happen – and the poor old dog would die trying to please a farmer too miser-able to put his hands in his pocket and buy a suitable dog.

Then there are the people with 20 – 30 acres wanting a dog for an easy job.

And it is easy, but not for an old Hunt-away with a ton of noise. The stock will bolt from the barking, but the dog doesn’t have the speed to control the mob if they are sheep or get out of the

way of an ignorant cattle beast.

Older heading dogs are much easier to place with people who run a few sheep or a herd of quiet goats. There is no noise to disturb the stock and the dog can glide around controlling the

settled animals.I must admit, it is sometimes kinder

to put an old dog down rather than to unknowingly place them somewhere to be taken advantage of and abused.

Are young people starting out better with an older dog or a young one to train?

It is often suggested that a novice person should learn how to handle stock and work a dog by learning from an ‘old’ dog. It’s possible, providing that person opens their eyes, studies the dog’s movements and is astute enough to learn from the dog – but how many young people would actually do this?

And how many old dogs are there suitable to learn from? I haven’t seen too many dogs that are naturally clever and always in the right place at the right time. I’ve seen plenty of dogs boring in on stock, biting, cutting animals off from the mob and generally having fun doing their own thing – rather than working in partnership with the han-dler.

If that’s a young person’s introduc-tion to dogs, it is not a good one.

An inexperienced person often works against the dog, not knowing where to position themselves in order to help, and their expectation of a dog’s ability is often unreasonable. This can be hard on an older dog. Rather than being appreciated, the dog may be men-tally and physically abused by a frus-trated and confused handler.

I would like to see all young people starting out in a career with stock, to do it for a period of time without a dog. It doesn’t take long to learn that stock handle better when given space and time, and that the cor-rect position to be in, is often only a few centimetres between right and wrong. I’ll write more on this next month.• Anna Holland is teaching

people dog training. For more informa-tion see www.annaholland.co.nz or tel (06)388 1687 or [email protected]

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A WORLD-first cattle vaccine, based on nano-technology, is set to pro-vide protection from Bovine Viral Diarrhoea Virus (BVD).

The new vaccine, involving a protein from the virus loaded on nanoparticles, produces an immune response against the cattle indus-try’s most devastating virus.

BVD, also known as Bovine Pestivirus, is a viral infection of cattle present in feedlots and beef and dairy herds. Clinical signs exhib-ited by infected animals include diarrhoea, respi-ratory infections, infertil-ity and abortion.

A group of Brisbane scientists have shown that the BVD nanofor-mulation can be suc-cessfully administered to animals without the

need of any additional helping agent making a new “nanovaccine” a real possibility for cattle industries.

Queensland Univer-sity scientists Neena Mitter and Tim Mahony

worked with colleagues and nanotechnology experts Max Lu and Shi-zang Qiao to develop the vaccine.

Mitter says the multi-disciplinary team applied the latest in nanotechnol-


breakthrough in new bVd vaccine?

alaN HarMaN

a THIRD of south australian beef and dairy herds may have animals carrying the Neospora caninum para-site, according to a study conducted by the university of adelaide.

The parasite causes spontaneous abortion in cattle, sometimes leading to “abortion storms” among herds, with sheep and goats also affected.

It is estimated to cause $100m of losses/year in australia and New Zealand, but the toll in some other parts of the world is much higher.

Two adelaide university PhD students, amar Nasir and sasha Lanyon, tested almost 1,000 animals in beef and dairy herds in the state. “The results show that less than 3% of cattle are infected with the N caninum parasite, approximately 38,000 cattle in total,” study supervisor michael Reichel says.

“But the infection is widespread and occurs in about a third of all cattle herds - that’s about 1,400 dairy and beef herds across the state.”

Reichel says the low level of parasite infection may be due to the sunny, dry climate in south australia and

could be good news for primary producers in the state.“However, the widespread nature of the infection

means producers should be aware of the likelihood of abortions and the need to quarantine infected stock to prevent further spread of the parasite.”

Diagnosis of infected cattle, quarantining those cattle, not breeding from them and restricting access of dogs and rodents – that can carry parasite infection to cattle yards – is recommended.

Reichel says parasite infection is much more prev-alent in overseas herds of cattle and buffaloes. For example, Nasir had previously conducted studies in dairy buffalo in Lahore, Pakistan, and found almost 55% N caninum infection in randomly selected blood samples.

“as well as the direct loss of stock from abor-tions, there are also indirect losses such as the cost of rebreeding, reduced yields and the purchase of replacement animals.

“While south australia fares much better than most other dairy and beef producers around the world, it’s important to raise awareness of this parasite and the consequences it can have for cattle herds.”

Neospora found widely in South australian study

ogy to develop a safe and effective vaccine that has the potential to be adminis-tered more readily and cost effectively than traditional vaccines.

“The vaccine is exciting as it could feasibly enable better protection against the virus, can be stored at room temperature and has a long shelf life,” Mitter says.

Mahony says BVD is a concern to the long-term profitability of cattle indus-tries. Cattle producers can experience productivity losses of between 25% and 50% following discovery of BVD in previously unin-fected herds.

Persistently infected (PI) animals are the princi-pal way BVD is spread and

maintained within a herd. Infection of a foetus

with BVD between 0 and 125 days of gestation can result in the birth of a PI animal that carries the virus for life and is responsible for spread of the virus.

PI animals shed and spread the BVD virus through saliva, nasal secre-tions, faeces, urine, tears, milk, semen, vaginal dis-charges, placenta and birth fluid. It can take as little as one hour of direct contact with a PI animal to trans-mit BVD to an uninfected animal.

Further trials of the nanovaccine are being conducted with plans to develop a commercial vet-erinary product in the near future.

BVD losses can hit 25-50%.

Massey backs Manuka honey’s medicinal valueMASSEY UNIVERSITY believes New Zealand’s Manuka honey medicinal market has huge potential for growth and could be worth $1 billion a year.

The university will provide the sci-ence to help develop husbandry tech-niques to support emerging Manuka plantations.

MAF recently announced a Pri-mary Growth Partnership with Manuka Research Partnership (NZ) Ltd and Comvita that will invest more than $1.7 million in research to culti-vate high active Manuka plantations on back country land. The seven-year programme is planned to help grow the country’s medicinal Manuka

honey industry to $1 billion from its current estimated worth of $75 mil-lion.

“Massey has a long tradition of supporting business innovation, par-ticularly with primary industries,” vice chancellor Steve Maharey says. “This project will help develop a high value industry by cultivating Manuka on New Zealand back country where traditional farming has been chal-lenging.”

Comvita chief supply chain offi-cer Nevin Amos says the market demand for medicinal Manuka prod-ucts including dressings and honeys is growing.

“This research will enable us to improve the yield per hive, increase the number of hives per hectare and grow the land area in Manuka plant-ings,” he says.

Manuka Research Partnership chairman Neil Walker says the pro-gramme will develop a science base to ensure the desired quality of honey is produced from the plantations.

“This will provide a new viable alternative for New Zealand’s mar-ginal back country where significant tracts of land are in transition from high-input grazing to forest… the ven-ture will have a significant bearing on marginal land use.

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mAchinery & Products 37rural news // may 17, 2011

TARANAKI GRASS harvesting contrac-tors Andy and Bev Davy are set to buy a fourth new-generation Claas tractor, then they will head for Britain and part-time ‘working retirement’.

The company says Davy sees his

“dream” tractor in the Claas 640/50 Cebis he plans to buy.

The Davys have spent 46 years farm-ing and contracting in the Auroa dis-trict. But with two sons in other careers and two daughters living overseas, the couple have gradually downsized to 3ha and moved some of their contracting business into the hands of two former employees.

“A young fellow, Marc Gopperth, started work for me 11 years ago and ended up buying his own tractor and

getting into cultivation contracting,” Andy says.

“Marc could see I was working flat out and he offered to take over the bulk silage work.

“I sold him one of my silage wagons

and sold the other to Gary Langlands, a dairy farmer who used to help me with bulk silage.”

The three men now run a coopera-tive contracting business.

“Marc does the cultivation, I do the mowing, tedding and baling, and Mark and Gary share silage work,” Andy says.

“There’s a lot of trust involved. We share the same customer base and leave each other alone to do their job. Often we end up helping each other if needed.”

Davy bought his first Claas tractor, an Ares 657ATZ, about five years ago after owning a Renault. Then followed a Claas Arion 640/50 CIS fitted with Disco 3100 front and rear-mounted mowers, and then an Arion 620.

Waving goodbye to ‘dream’ tractor

“i’ve employed lots of tractor drivers from overseas over the years, one of them turned out to be my future son-in-law.”

The Arion 640/50 was the “best trac-tor [he’d] owned – not a moment’s trou-ble with it, or the 620 for that matter. Everything is designed to be as straight forward as possible.”

Davy singled out the four-point cab suspension, which all but absorbs ver-tical and horizontal bumps and jolts, as important.

“My three workers [prefer] Arions because they are so comfortable. I have a bad back but I can drive an Arion for up to 14 hours without any problems arising.”

They also run Claas forage harvest-

ers, trailed and mounted mowers, ted-ders and rakes. “In this job, you’ve got to keep up with current technology,” Andy says.

They are looking forward to spend-ing more time in the UK each year. “I’ve employed lots of tractor drivers from overseas over the years,” Andy says. “One of them turned out to be my future son-in-law.

“The funny thing is that I now work for him as a machinery operator on his farm.

“Between my work here and there, I haven’t seen a winter for 15 years!”

andy Davy will farewell his ‘dream’ tractor briefly before he and wife Bev head to Britain for ‘working retirement’.

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38 mAchinery & Productsrural news // may 17, 2011

Concept rewards developer’s patience

toNy HopkiNsoN

A TRACTOR first shown 25 years ago in con-cept form appeared ‘in the flesh’ two years ago, sowing in contractors’ minds.

Landpower Claas

product manager David Knowles told Rural News the Claas Xerion 3300 Trac VC (330hp) trac-tors now working on New Zealand farms are there because contrac-tors saw the potential of the machine which, when

first unveiled, turned heads.

“Showing the new concept two years ago sowed seeds in contrac-tors minds and now with several throughout the country the benefits are accepted,” Knowles said.

The German machine that can be configured for just about any farm-ing task.

The cab rotates through 180 degrees to convert the tractor from forward- to rear-facing. In this form it presents as

a self-propelled mower, sprayer, mulcher or silage-stack roller.

“It is the only tractor in the New Zealand market on which the cab can rotate 360 degrees, and able to travel at 50km/h in either configuration.”

The Xerion has

constantly variable transmission, six steering modes, GPS guidance and intelligent control systems.

It is also available in fixed and saddle cabin configurations 330-550hp.tel. 021 287 5853www.landpower.co.nz

ag aviator confesses

AUSTRALIA’S MINISTER of defence stood at a 1980s National Fiel-days opening cere-mony watching top-dressing pilot Bernie Haskell fly a spectacular rou-tine.

Turning to Hamilton mayor Russ Rimmington he said “His skills remind me of the RAF pilots of the Battle of Britain in World War II.”

That victory changed the course of the war and later had a parallel in the “guts and determination of New Zealand’s top-dressing pilots who changed the viabil-ity of marginal hill country farms,” Rimmington says.

His comments come in his blurb to Bernie Haskell’s new book about his flying exploits, with “startling insights into the macabre humour and excitement of the ag industry.”

Nowadays Haskell lives on a lifestyle block near Hamilton airport with his wife Liz. His two sons fly as airline pilots.

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mAchinery & Products 39rural news // may 17, 2011

Match performance swayed ploughmanIMPRESSED BY an Overum Xcelsior plough 15 years ago at a ploughing contest at Clinton, South-land, farmer Alistair Alli-son bought one, reports distributor Farmgard.

“I watched several farmers compete in a farmer’s class using many different types of plough, including an Overum.

“Afterwards I walked over the plots and decided the Overum plough had made the best job. That swayed me towards buying one.”

At the time, it was the only reversible plough in the district, says Allison.

“I’ve always liked the concept of the reversible plough as it means less travelling on the head-lands and no finishes in the paddock.

“You end up with a more level finish and the manoeuvrability of the

machine is beneficial in odd-shaped paddocks.”

When he bought the plough Allison was plant-ing 32ha of crop but he’s not growing that volume these days.

“I’ve been happy with the machine over the years, particularly in swede and stubble ground. I wouldn’t mind replacing the trashboard with a set of skimmers for ploughing grassland to enhance the finish but it’s not really necessary for the amount of ground I’m currently working.”

He has worn out only one set of points in 15 years. “I’ve been told three sets of points will last one set of shears, so at that rate it’s going to see me out.”

After attending the recent World Plough-ing Championships and seeing new technology on

offer, Allison says three-furrow reversible ploughs similar to his Overum Xcelsior make “a really good farmer’s plough”.

Farmgard says Overum ploughs ideally suit pas-ture ploughing, achieving perfect furrow and cover with low power require-ment. “The ploughs pull easily with working depth chosen according to the paddock conditions so that wide furrows can

be ploughed shallow or deep with equally good results,” the company says.

The range includes conventional, revers-ible, mounted, semi-mounted, trailed and wagon ploughs, with furrow widths from single to 10 furrow, for tractors 50-350hp.

The latest Overum ploughs have a new, easily adjustable hydrau-

TWO NeW combine heads from New Holland match the capacity of New Holland CR9000 series Twin Rotor and CX8000 series combines.

The new 740CF super Flex auger header has a stronger, lighter frame and smoother feeding than previous auger header models. available in four cutting widths: 6m, 9m, 10.6m.

The 740CF flexible direct cut auger header have a patented, rubber spring-flotation system that allows the header to follow ground contours more closely. The rubber torsion springs on each floor support can be manually adjusted to fine-tune the flotation or to compensate for any unevenness in the cutterbar.

Hydraulic cutterbar flotation adjustment, which allows adjustments from the combine cab, is available as a dealer-installed accessory.

a 660mm diameter auger with 125mm flighting handles heavy crop and feeds it smoothly into the combine. a new,

patented rubber retention system prevents broken auger fingers from entering the combine.

The new 16-row 98D corn head with 760mm spacing suits the producer looking for increased in-field efficiency and capacity, New Holland says.

It’s available with the maker’s four-sensor Terrain Tracer automatic flotation and header height control system.

tel. 06 356 4920. www.newholland.co.nz

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40 mAchinery & Productsrural news // may 17, 2011

sweeper kind to hooves, paving

TRIALLING A Tuchel Eco 1.8 tractor-mounted sweeper six weeks ago convinced dairy farmer Dave Hobday, New Plymouth, he should consider buying one.

His 110ha property has old concrete races that tend to accumulate small stones, hard on cow hooves. Spreading lime on the gateway entrances to paddocks is expected to mitigate the problem, but it recurs when

the fertiliser trucks arrive, Hobday says.“Apart from laying new races there isn’t

much we could do,” he says. “The sweeper has now arrived and we

expect it to help offset the problem.”Agriquip, New Plymouth, supplied the

European-made sweeper.Tel. 06 759 8402www.agriquip.co.nz

Expels cockroaches, rats, mice – no poisons

RATS, MICE and cock-roaches are expelled elec-tromagnetically by a device now operating in at least 5000 New Zealand homes, offices and fac-tories.

Patented Plug In Pest Free technology (not ultrasound) is developed and made in Australia and was launched commer-cially in 1995.

It was proven during 2-year sci-entific trials (1996-97) at The University of New England, Armidale, NSW.

They are endorsed (2007) as a “food safe and effective rodent deterrent process” by the HACCP Australia Pty Ltd under its Food Safety Accreditation System.

Commercial models run in restaurants, retail shops and supermarkets, hospitals, nursing homes, clubs, factories and gov-ernment offices in ten countries. Hundreds of 1000s operate in homes.

Home and commercial models simply plug into a power point, from where they send a pulse through the electromagnetic field that naturally occurs around live electrical wiring. A pulse switches on/off about every 3 min-utes, preventing pests developing immunity. The

pulse stresses rats, mice and cockroaches via their feelers, causing them to lose body moisture. They must exit or dangerously dehydrate.

One domestic Plug In Pest Free suits a home about 100m2 (two are best in two-storey homes). One commercial

unit suits premises 1000m2.

The maker stresses nothing can prevent

pests from entering a building, but electromag-

netic pulsing discourages them from establishing.

Plug In Pest Free comes with a 60-day money-back guarantee, a 2-year warranty, and 10-year life expectancy.

Prices: domestic $159.95 incl. GST and postage; commercial $1800 incl. GST, plus small courier cost.Tel. 09 833 [email protected]

Offer effective 1st April - 31st July 2011, or while stocks last. Available at participating dealers. Available for selected chainsaw models only: 445e,445e TrioBrake™, 450e, 455R & 460

Offer effective 1st April - 31st July 2011, or while stocks last. Available at participating dealers. Available for selected chainsaw

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motoring 41rural news // may 17, 2011

PUMPING ITS success at a ‘power sports’ side-by-side (SXS) event – Thumb Pump 300 – ATV maker Polaris says its RZR lineup “combines the ultimate in power, suspen-sion and agility”.

Subaru Rally champion Cody Crocker drove a Polaris RZR 900 XP in punishing desert terrain, later endorsing the maker’s claim that its stock RZR 900 is 29% quicker than its nearest competitor.

The Polaris ProStar SXS has an 88hp, DOHC engine

with large valves, and a 180-degree crank shaft. New 3-link rear suspension, tyres that lean into the corner via suspen-sion travel, and trailing arms that minimise wheel scrub, improve the drive.

Patented engine-behind-the-seat design is said to give the industry’s lowest seat height and lowest centre of grav-ity. Yet it has 320mm ground clearance. Thumb Pump 300 was the first SXS race sanctioned by Motorcycling Australia.

www.polarisindustries.com.au

sXs pumping in the desert

IT’s NeW and different; it’s the same and unchanged…Volkswagen’s ‘new’ Beetle is finally revealed and “whilst

much has changed, its iconic status indefatigably remains,” the maker says.

The new generation Beetle places driving fun and design at the forefront, but with the latest communication technol-ogies and low environmental impact.

The task of designing a “new original” was put to the people who developed the Golf GTI. Result: a “bolder, more dynamic, more masculine version of the classic Beetle.”

“It has a clean, self-confident and dominant sportiness,

with a lower profile and substantially wider, the front bonnet is longer and the front windscreen is shifted further back and has a much steeper incline.

“The new model has broken free of the old geometry and is more akin to the Ragster concept – a type of hot rod based on the New Beetle, being wider, longer and lower but still retaining the contour of the original Beetle.”

But the new Beetle still follows the Volkswagen design DNa in the horizontal image of the front bumper, front air inlet, straight lines of the bonnet edges, the precisely drawn line etc etc.

some things haven’t changed: round headlights, flared wings, shapes of the bonnet, sides and door sills, and large wheels. and it has a rear spoiler. Peace and love to all.

Beetle off in this one

GISBORNEWilson Farm Services06 837 0095

HASTINGSStortford Machinery Ltd06 876 6012

NEW PLYMOUTHAg Traction Taranaki06 759 8432

WHANGAREIBryant Tractors09 438 1319

SILVERDALEGatmans Mowers & More09 426 5612

HAMILTONAgrilife07 847 2195

TAURANGACapital Tractor Services07 543 0021

WHAKATANEJacks Machinery07 308 7299

ROTORUATruck & Tractor07 349 6528

FEILDINGCentral Tractors & Machinery06 323 4858

BLENHEIMMarlborough Tractor Services03 572 8787

NELSONBrian Millar Truck and Tractor03 544 5723

NORTH CANTERBURYNorthern Tractor Services027 431 3404

CENTRAL SOUTH ISLAND0272 810 042

GOREPeter Thompson Machinery03 208 9179

See your local SAME dealer or call National Product Manager Graeme Rogers on 027 221 1212

Conditions apply

Normal lending criteria & conditions apply.

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ELTHAM MASSEY Ferguson enthu-siast Malcolm Pease puts to good use his hobby of fixing up old tractors and sending them to needy communities overseas.

For 20 years he has reconditioned Fergies, sending 16 overseas, mainly to the Pacific, also as far as Tanzania.

“We work on a basis of anyone who wants one, we’ll help to find it for them, or we’ll research the whole job and follow it through,” Pease says.

“Basically we work with the older Fergie tractors, the less complicated

the better, the less to go wrong; that’s the main thing.”

A semi-retired farmer, Pease has worked with tractors and farm machin-ery all his life.

“I’m a Fergie enthusiast. We tend to collect up the odd one, in anticipa-tion. We pick them up at clearing sales and round about, sometimes on spec.”

Pease and wife Jill don’t make money out of the tractors. They seek sponsorship for each project and work mostly through Anglican Missions.

“I do this as an extra. We’re still

living on the farm and my workshop looks a junk heap but we make do. We can make stuff out of what everyone else is throwing; we just resurrect it.”

They recently sent a Massey Fergu-son 245 to Dogura, a village in Papua New Guinea, after the bishop there put a request to New Zealand Angli-can Missions.

“He wanted to plough up the world – put all Papua New Guinea into crops. He was trying to help this community – it was well-intentioned,” says Pease.

But when Pease went to look in PNG he decided the community didn’t need the big 4WD machine the bishop wanted but something smaller, simpler.

“I found no need for a tractor to cut grass with a rear-mounted slasher. I told him ‘you’ve got 300 [grass cut-ters] in your secondary school.’ I said ‘you give them pocket money to cut the grass, something they can do well, and save diesel that costs $5/L in this little remote area.”

So instead a smaller MF245 was des-patched. It will cart goods up a steep track from the beach to the village and double as an ambulance, using a tray Pease has fitted on the back.

The bishop also wanted to be able

to pull a plough but Pease wasn’t keen on that. “If we sent up a big plough and started doing a lot of ploughing, all these people who’re subsistence living would lose their livelihoods for the little bit of money they’d get from selling peanuts.”

Pease discovered the Dogura water system wasn’t working and that the local hospital had no supply; he decided he should get this fixed.

He came home and raised the funds in his local community. and got a good deal on pipe and fittings from Whan-ganui manufacturer Waters & Farr.

So when the tractor was shipped it

had a load of piping lashed on as well.“We don’t work with containers

because I can’t handle containers here and they’re too costly to ship away so we load it all on and a lash it all down.

“Then we get our local vicar to come down and we have a big blessing of the whole thing so it’s a matter faith it gets there safely. We’ve never lost a nut or a bolt.”

Pease is now working on getting a MF 165 to the Solomon Islands. He’s also trying to raise $8000 to cover costs on the recently completed PNG project.send to anglican Missions, box 12-012 thorndon, Wellington 6144

tractor man on a mission

malcolm Pease (left) loads a tractor for transpor-tation to Dogura, Papua new Guinea.

malcolm Pease at work in the Pacific.

MS1188

42 VintAge

rurAl trAder 43rural news // may 17, 2011

Farmers invest in your farm with a PPP feed system; •Improvedproduction•Improvedanimalhealth•Lessonfarmfeedlabourrequired•Peaceofmind–youcanfeedyour cowsinwetspringsandwintersanddrysummers

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Yardmate Soft Toe This is the boot that is designed forheavy duty uses and is perfect for fencers, high country farmers

and hunters walking through tough, rugged, country. With an upper constructed from thick full grain leather, an insole and mid-sole,

which are brass screwed and stitched, a cleated rubber repairable sole, a tough heel counter for better ankle support

and a full bellows tongue for greater water tightness, this boot will handle the tough environment.

Yardmate also available in Steel toe. Sizes 4-15 including half sizes.

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FLUSH RODENTS and cockroaches electromagnetically from your home, office, store or factory. Plug In Pest Free simply works at a power point. Scientifically proven, patented device. Harmless to people, pets, computers, food. Australian-made, 5000+ NZ users. 60-DAY MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE, 2-year warranty, 10-year+ life.

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EXPEL RATS, MICE, COCKROACHES

OWNERS ENTHUSE: “Rat damage to cabling systems… eliminated,” – NSW prison. “No rat sightings since it was plugged in,” – Solitaire, Akl. “No more field mice,” – Debbie, Wngtn. “Rats and mice no longer staying,” Diana, Otago. “Astounded by the results,” – ASB Showgrounds, Akl.

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WE LISTENED. OUR TIP TRAILERS, FERTILISER AND EFFLUENT EQUIPMENT HAVE GOT SMARTER, TOUGHER AND SIMPLER TO USE – IT JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER…

rural news may 17 2011

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