Mi español está muy oxidado

New Zealanders don’t have a good reputation for speaking  languages other than English.

In our defence, if you don’t speak English as a first language it is a logical one to pick up as a second, but if you already speak English it’s difficult to know which of the many others to choose for a second.

That said, learning another language not only enables  you to communicate with native speakers, it helps you understand their culture and it’s also good intellectual exercise.

I had a year of Latin and three of French at school – without distinction –  but was prompted to learn Spanish after hosting an AFS student from Argentina.

A couple of years at university and three months at language school in Spain was enough to make me confident with the basics and, with the help of a Uruguayan friend, I taught night classes for a few years.

But I’ve had little opportunity to speak Spanish recently and language like any other skill requires practice. Without it, I’ve gone backwards and the phrase I employ most often is lo siento, mi español está muy oxidado – I’m sorry my Spanish is very rusty.

I have good intentions of listening to Spanish radio and music but  International Languages Week has reminded me that I haven’t acted on the intent.

I could say a lo mejor manaña,  maybe tomorrow, except someone who lived in Spain told me that manaña in that context doesn’t mean tomorrow, it just means not today.

Text for a winner

Good Morning is running a contest to Find A Star.

One of today’s semi-finalists is Libby Hamilton.

She’s a delightful young woman, has a stunning voice and would be a very worthy winner.

If you have 99 cents to spare please text A to 8687.

Organic milk not sustainable

Fonterra’s organic milk operation is another casualty of the GFC:

Fonterra’s Group Director Supplier and External Relations Kelvin Wickham says the co-operative remains committed to the organics market but as growth in this market has significantly slowed since the global financial crisis, Fonterra needs to make changes to its organic operations.

Organic milk attracted a premium for producers but enough consumers aren’t willing to pay extra for it.

Mr Wickham says the organics market was hit hard by the global financial crisis and market indications are it will not recover to previous levels.

“All categories felt the effects but particularly the category in which we sell – packaged dairy foods – where prices and volumes are still below 2008 levels.

“Research shows people are now less willing to pay the premium for organic products. In addition, consumers are gaining more confidence that everyday products are being produced more sustainably and are more acceptable so they no longer see the need to pay the premium for most organic products.

When budgets tighten luxury products are the first to go and organic milk is in that category.

A lot of the support for organic products is based on emotion rather than science and if consumers think or feel that ordinary food they buy is being produced in a safe and sustainable way they don’t need to spend more on speciality organic produce.

Fonterra is meeting suppliers this week to tell them its plan which includes:

Concentrating Fonterra’s North Island organic suppliers in one hub around its key certified organic processing site – Hautapu. This will reduce the number of Fonterra’s organic suppliers.
Reducing the amount of product processed at Fonterra’s other two certified organic sites – Waitoa and Morrinsville.
Prioritising the organic product range to focus on cheese which provides the best returns.
Focusing on emerging Asian and Australasian organics markets where there are stronger returns and growth potential.

Mr Wickham says the first two points will mean considerable transport and manufacturing cost savings for Fonterra’s organic business.

“Our organic farmers are currently spread right across the North Island. This means substantial transport costs for the business.

“In addition, focusing most of our organic product through a single site will mean we are able to create efficiencies of scale in processing the milk.

Carting milk the length and breadth of the North Island hardly fits the sustainable model. It’s a waste of fuel and adds substantially to costs.

“We understand the big commitment many of our farmers have made to the organics programme and that this transition will not be an easy one to make. The decision to reduce our organics operation was not taken lightly but we need to get the business back into a break-even situation.

“We will honour all of our organic contracts through to their formal termination dates, which in some cases are four-five years away and we will work with our farmers as they make the transition out of the organics programme.”

This decision will be hard for the farmers who’ve gone to the trouble and cost of changing to organic production but it will be better for the co-operative if the organic operation stops losing money.

It could also provide opportunities for boutique dairy producers who might be able to buy the organic milk and use it as a point of difference in markets which are less price sensitive.

 

 

iPredict adds Fonterra payout forecasts

The online predictions marketiPredict is launching stocks for five year forecasts of Fonterra payouts:

Draft stocks are currently available at https://www.ipredict.co.nz/forum/read.php?4,13546,13546#msg-13546 to enable traders to review and comment on their fine-print prior to the formal launch.  Dairy farmers and other dairy industry experts are also encouraged to comment and trade.

“Fonterra is New Zealand’s most important company, responsible for around a quarter of our exports and around 7% of GDP,” iPredict CEO Matt Burgess said today.

“Until now, the only source of rigorous data about the company’s future payout to farmers has been the company itself, and then usually with only a two-year horizon.

There’s a very good reason for that – an open market for primary produce is very volatile. 

There are so many variables which affect supply and demand it is extremely difficult to predict very far into the future with any degree of certainty.

Who knows what the exchange rate will do, what the weather will be like here and where our competitors are, how much fuel and fertiliser will cost, what decisions politicians might make which affect production and price . . .?

“With iPredict’s new stocks, dairy farmers, the wider industry, economists, banks, the government and everyone with an interest in New Zealand’s medium-term economic prospects, will be able to obtain free snapshot information on how the company is likely to perform, in terms of payout, for the next five years.”

Mr Burgess said the stocks would be based on Fonterra’s final payout, per kilogram of milk solids, to a 100 percent share-backed farmer (before retentions), for the five financial years from and including 2010/11.

“Currently, Fonterra is forecasting a payout in the range of $8.00 to $8.10 for 2010/11 and $7.15 to $7.25 for 2011/12.  The iPredict stocks will provide farmers and everyone else with an independent assessment of the forecast payout.”

Mr Burgess said the iPredict forecasts for the three further out-years would be more indicative but would give a general indication of the likely performance of the company.

“iPredict produces consensus views on the likelihood of future events, based on the theory of the ‘wisdom of crowds’.  This holds that where people pool their perspectives and knowledge about a future event, their opinion is likely to be accurate,” he said.

iPredict’s binary contracts of political and economic events had an accuracy rate of 88%, he said.

Predictions markets like iPredict are mainstream throughout the world, with the most prominent being www.Intrade.com in the United States.  iPredict operates in New Zealand with authorisation of the New Zealand Financial Markets Authority.  The company is owned by Victoria University of Wellington.

It will be very interesting to follow this but I suspect most punters will be from outside the industry.

Insiders find farming itself is enough of a gamble, without the added excitement of prediction markets.

SMOG pollutes campaign clear-air

National Party MPs’ blogs have been labelled boring.

As an active member even I will admit there is some truth in that accusation but there is a very good reason for that. Exciting posts usually generate publicity of the wrong kind.

There is no better example of that than the SMOG (Social Media Own Goal) over at Red Alert which Keeping Stock details:

We’ve blogged a bit about SMOG’s lately; Social Media Own Goals. Well, Clare Curran has scored an absolute beauty today. Over at Red Alert, and under the heading The importance of being Labour, she blogged:

    Have had a gutsful of the white-anting of Labour from both the right and the left of politics.

White-anting is an Australian expression. It means undermining . .

Now Clare, as she proudly points out is a “public relations professional”. So what was she thinking when she followed he first post up with one entitled The importance of being Labour #2? There she blogged:

 And on another note, re white-anting; the attempts by the Greens to encroach on Labour territory . . .

Comments in response from the left aren’t impressed with this born-to-rule attitude and include:

• Greens white-anting Labour?

  Surely you mean, contesting the same constituency rather than ‘encroaching’, right?

  You seriously think you have the unquestioning allegiance of my vote as a worker?

  I don’t think you need to look to far to see why mobilising labour in NZ is facing a few hurdles with this kind of thinking.

Discussion also raged on Twitter, prompting Dim Post to post on why the left should vote strategically.

 And Imperator Fish asks if Red Alert is damaging Labour.

The answer to that is yes.

There are only so many column inches in papers or minutes of air time available for politics and the last thing any party needs is to have them covering this sort of spat.

It would be better to be accused of being boring than producing SMOG that pollutes the clear air needed to run a positive campaign.

August 23 in history

79  Mount Vesuvius began stirring, on the feast day of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire.

 

1305  William Wallace, Scottish patriot, was executed for high treason.

1328  Battle of Cassel: French troops stopped an uprising of Flemish farmers.

 

1514  Battle of Chaldiran ended with a decisive victory for the Sultan Selim I, Ottoman Empire, over the Shah Ismail I, Safavids founder. 

1555  Calvinists were granted rights in the Netherlands.

1572   St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre - Mob violence against Huguenots in Paris. 

1595  Michael the Brave confronted the Ottoman army in the Battle of Calugareni.

1708  Meidingnu Pamheiba was crowned King of Manipur.

1775 King George III declared that the American colonies existed in a state of open and avowed rebellion.

1793 French Revolution: a levée en masse was decreed by the National Convention.

1799  Napoleon left Egypt for France en route to seize power.

1813  Battle of Grossbeeren, the Prussians under Von Bülow repulsed the French army.

1839  The United Kingdom captured Hong Kong as a base as it prepared for war with Qing China.

1858  The Round Oak rail accident in Brierley Hill, England.

1866  Austro-Prussian War ended with the Treaty of Prague.

1873  Albert Bridge in Chelsea, London opened.

 

1875 William Eccles, English radio pioneer, was born (d. 1966).

 

1896 First Cry of the Philippine Revolution was made in Pugad Lawin (Quezon City), in the province of Manila.

1900 Malvina Reynolds, American folk singer/songwriter, was born (d. 1978). 

1904 The automobile tyre chain was patented.

1912 Gene Kelly, American dancer and actor, was born (d. 1996).

 

1914 World War I: Japan declared war on Germany and bombed Qingdao, China.

1914 – World War I: the Battle of Mons; the British Army began withdrawal. 

1921  British airship R-38 experienced structural failure over Hull in England and crashed in the Humber estuary.  Only 4 of her 49 British and American training crew survived. 

1923  Capt. Lowell Smith and Lt. John P. Richter performed the first mid-air refueling on De Havilland DH-4B, setting an endurance flight record of 37 hours.

 

1929  Hebron Massacre during the 1929 Palestine riots: Arab attack on the Jewish community in Hebron in the British Mandate of Palestine, continuing until the next day, resulted in the death of 65-68 Jews and the remaining Jews being forced to leave the city. 

1934 Barbara Eden, American actress and singer, was born.

 

1938 English cricketer Sir Len Hutton set a world record for the highest individual Test innings of 364, during a Test match against Australia. 

1939 New Zealand writer Robin Hyde died in London.

1939  World War II: Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression treaty, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. In a secret addition to the pact, the Baltic states, Finland, Romania, and Poland were divided between the two nations.

 

1942  Beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad.

 

1942  The last cavalry charge in history took place at Izbushensky.

1943 Nelson DeMille, American novelist, was born.

1943   Kharkov was liberated.

1944   Marseille was liberated.

1944   King Michael of Romania dismissed the pro-Nazi government of General Antonescu, who was arrested. Romania switched sides from the Axis to the Allies.

 

1944  Freckleton Air Disaster – A United States Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator bomber crashed into a school in Freckleton, England killing 61 people.

1946 Keith Moon, English musician (The Who), was born (d. 1978).

 

1946  Ordinance No. 46 of the British Military Government constitutes the German Land (state) of Schleswig-Holstein.

1947 Assisted immigration to New Zealand for British people resumed after WWII.

1947 – Willy Russell, British playwright, was born.

 

1948  World Council of Churches was formed.

1949 Rick Springfield, Australian singer and actor, was born.

 

1951 Queen Noor of Jordan, was born.

 

1954 First flight of the C-130 Hercules transport aircraft. 

1958  Chinese Civil War: The Second Taiwan Strait crisis began with the People’s Liberation Army’s bombardment of Quemoy.

1966  Lunar Orbiter 1 took the first photograph of Earth from orbit around the Moon.

1975 Successful Communist coup in Laos.

1977  The Gossamer Condor won the Kremer prize for human powered flight.

 

1979  Soviet dancer Alexander Godunov defected to the United States.

 

1982 Bachir Gemayel was elected Lebanese President amidst the raging civil war.

1985  Hans Tiedge, top counter-spy of West Germany, defected to East Germany.

1989  Hungary: the last communist government opened the Iron curtain and caused the exodus of thousands of Eastern Germans to West Germany via Hungary.

1989  Singing Revolution: two million people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania stoodon the Vilnius-Tallinn road, holding hands (Baltic Way). 

1989 – 1,645 Australian domestic airline pilots resigned after the airlines threaten to fire them and sue them over a dispute.

1990  Saddam Hussein appeared on Iraqi state television with a number of Western “guests” ( hostages) to try to prevent the Gulf War.

1990  Armenia declared its independence from the Soviet Union.

1990  West and East Germany announced that they would unite on October 3.

1994  Eugene Bullard, The only black pilot in World War I, was posthumously commissioned as Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force.

 

1996 Osama bin Laden issued message entitled ‘A declaration of war against the Americans occupying the land of the two holy places.’

2000  Gulf Air Flight 072 crashed into the Persian Gulf near Manama, Bahrain, killing 143.

2006 – Natascha Kampusch, who was abducted at the age of 10, managed to escape from her captor Wolfgang Priklopil, after 8 years of captivity.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

UF candidates announced

United Future has announced  what it calls its first wave of candidates:

Hon Peter Dunne – Ohariu;  Jackie Douglas – West Coast/Tasma n; Peter George – Dunedin North; Martin Gibson – East Coast;  Andrew McMillan – Rangitata; Doug Stevens – Nelson; Monique Watson – Wellington Central; Ram Parkash – Botany; Bryan Mockridge – Mt Roskill.

The chances of any of them getting into parliament are slight.

Peter Dunne’s majority was less than the Green party vote in his electorate last time. He will probably hang on but it is very unlikely the UF party vote will enable any other of its candidates to become an MP.

 

Word of the day

Witzelsucht –  excessive facetiousness, feeble, inappropriate or pointless humor.

Do people vote for what they want?

Supporters of MMP say One of the benefits of that electoral system is that people get what they vote for.

Providing the party they vote for wins a seat or reaches the 5% threshold that’s correct, but that doesn’t mean people vote for what they want or want what they vote for.

In 2002 for example, some people who prererred National decided it wasn’t going to win and voted Labour in the hope it then wouldn’t need the Green Party.

Others voted for Act, United Future (or whatever it was called then) or New Zealand First to limit Labour’s influence.

They got what they voted for but the decrease in votes for the wee parties in 2005 showed they didn’t want what they got.

People vote for all sorts of reasons, sometimes their votes aren’t so much as for a party as against the others.

If there was the option to vote for a plague on all their houses I suspect that might attract good support, possibly even more than for some of the wee parties which get into parliament.

Will the good prices last?

Last season was the best in a generation for farmers, but there is reasonable confidence that bust won’t follow the boom.

Prices aren’t likely to stay at this year’s highs but Alliance Group expects protein markets to stay strong:

Speaking in Oamaru during the company’s annual series of shareholder/supplier meetings, chief executive Grant Cuff said it was expected 2012 prices to shareholders would remain high for lamb, sheep, cattle and deer.

Indicative pricing was that lamb would remain at $100 plus and sheep at $85 plus, with cattle prices down slightly.

Sheep and beef numbers were stable worldwide, consumption of meat was increasing and there were growing sales in the East.

Uncertainty in Britain, Europe and the USA is concerning but our two most important trading partners, Australia and China, are more stronger.

A free trade deal with India would provide more opportunities.

One of the benefits of new markets in Asia is that they are interested in the cheaper cuts which aren’t popular in our traditional markets.

Water tax wrong approach

The Green Party’s water policy has some good points.

Sustainable use makes sense, so does ensuring water is clean and safe.

But taxing irrigation to provide funds to clean up waterways does not.

Irrigation NZ points out this would cost the average irrigated farm in Canterbury and North Otago $40,000 – $50,000 a year.

The idea of imposing the cost is to provide a financial incentive for conservation. But we already have that, we pay about 30 cents a cubic metre for our irrigation.

We are also required to have an environmental farm plan to prevent waste and protect soil and water.

Irrigation NZ CEO Andrew Curtis points out an irrigation tax would unfairly target a relatively small number of farmers:

He says the concept is badly thought out and unfair because it would mean irrigation users, most of whom are in Canterbury, would be paying to clean up polluted waterways in other parts of the country.

Farmers have a direct interest in the sustainable use and cleanliness of water. We drink it and swim in it.

Taxing irrigation, which would impose an added cost on a relatively small number of users, isn’t the best way to protect and enhance it.

More to success than leader

There’s no doubt that John Key’s popularity is an important component in National’s popularity.

But there is more to political success than a party leader.

This is a lesson Act must be learning. Don Brash led National close to winning the 2005 election but he’s made no impact on Act’s support.

It is something Labour don’t appear to understand.

Trans Tasman says:

Meanwhile Goff questioned his front bench colleagues last week as to whether he should resign as leader. The questioning took place at a pre-caucus meeting of the front bench group. It followed publication of at least three opinion polls showing Labour slipping heavily in electoral popularity.

Caucus sources says the response to the question was muted, with one senior MP saying “it’s up to you Phil.” There was no disagreement. The catalyst for a leadership discussion is the realisation if Labour slips further respected list MPs like Kelvin Davis and Stuart Nash may lose their places.

Phil Goff and some of his colleagues denied this but Tracy Watkins reports a senior MP confirmed the story.

What happened, or didn’t, doesn’t matter as much as the picture the story paints of an unstable and divided caucus.

They could change leaders but until they have loyalty, cohesion and policy the public support it won’t make much difference.

John Key is part of National’s success and Phil Goff is part of his party’s failure. But it will take a lot more than a leadership change to solve Labour’s problems.

August 22 in history

565  St. Columba reported seeing a monster in Loch Ness.

1138 Battle of the Standard between Scotland and England. 

1485  The Battle of Bosworth Field, the death of Richard III and the end of the House of Plantagenet.

 

1559 Bartolomé Carranza, Spanish archbishop, was arrested for heresy. 

1642 Charles I called the English Parliament traitors. The English Civil War began. 

1654 Jacob Barsimson arrives in New Amsterdam - the first known Jewish immigrant to America.

1770  James Cook‘s expedition landed on the east coast of Australia.

1780 James Cook‘s ship HMS Resolution returned to England after Cook was killed in Hawaii. 

1791  Beginning of the Haitian Slave Revolution in Saint-Domingue.

 

1798 French troops landed in Kilcummin harbour, County Mayo to aid Wolfe Tone’s United Irishmen’s Irish Rebellion.

1827 José de La Mar became President of Peru.

 

1831  Nat Turner’s slave rebellion commenced leading to the deaths of more than 50 whites and several hundred African Americans who are killed in retaliation for the uprising. 

1849 The first air raid in history. Austria launched pilotless balloons against the Italian city of Venice.

1851 The first America’s Cup was won by the yacht America.

 

1862 Claude Debussy, French composer, was born (d. 1918). 

1864  Twelve nations signed the First Geneva Convention. The Red Cross was formed.

 

1875 The Treaty of Saint Petersburg between Japan and Russia was ratified, providing for the exchange of Sakhalin for the Kuril Islands.

1893 Dorothy Parker, American writer, was born (d. 1967).

1901 Cadillac Motor Company was founded.

 

1902  Theodore Roosevelt became the first President of the United States to ride in an automobile.

1909 Julius J. Epstein, American screenwriter, was born (d. 2000).

1915 James Hillier, Co-inventor of the electron microscope, was born (d. 2007).

 

1922  Michael Collins, Commander-in-Chief of the Irish Free State Army was shot dead during an Anti-Treaty ambush at Béal na mBláth, County Cork, during the Irish Civil War.

 

1925 Honor Blackman, English actress, was born.

 

1926  Gold was discovered in Johannesburg.

1932 The BBC first experimented with television broadcasting.

1934  Bill Woodfull of Australia became the only cricket captain to twice regain The Ashes.

 

 1934 – Norman Schwarzkopf, U.S. general, was born.

 

1934 – Sir Donald McIntyre, English bass-baritone, was born.

1935 E. Annie Proulx, American author, was born. 

 

1939  Valerie Harper, American actress, was born.

 

1941 World War II: German troops reached Leningrad, leading to the siege of Leningrad.

 

1942  World War II: Brazil declared war on Germany and Italy.

1944 World War II: Romania wascaptured by the Soviet Union.

1949  Queen Charlotte earthquake: Canada’s largest earthquake since 1700.

1950  Althea Gibson became the first black competitor in international tennis.

 

1952 The penal colony on Devil’s Island was permanently closed.

 

1961  Roland Orzabal, British musician (Tears for Fears), was born.

 

1962 An attempt to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle failed.

 

196  The NS Savannah, the world’s first nuclear-powered cargo ship, completed its maiden voyage.

 

1963  Joe Walker in an X-15 test plane reached an altitude of 106 km (66 mi). 

1968 Pope Paul VI arrived in Bogotá -  the first visit of a pope to Latin America.

 

1969 The first Young Farmer of the Year contest was won by Gary Frazer.

1972 Rhodesia was expelled by the IOC for its racist policies.

1973 Howie Dorough, American singer (Backstreet Boys), was born.

1978 The Frente Sandinista de Liberacion – FSLN - occupied national palace in Nicaragua.

 

1989 The first ring of Neptune was discovered. 

1996  Bill Clinton signed welfare reform into law, representing major shift in US welfare policy

2003  Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore was suspended after refusing to comply with a federal court order to remove a rock inscribed with the Ten Commandments from the lobby of the Alabama Supreme Court building.

 

2004   The Scream and Madonna, two paintings by Edvard Munch, were stolen at gunpoint from a museum in Oslo.

 

2007 – The Storm botnet, a botnet created by the Storm Worm, sent out a record 57 million e-mails in one day. 

Sourced from NZ History Online & WIkipedia

Word of the day

Tetrapyloctomy – the act of splitting a hair four ways; super pedantry.

Last place wins hearts

Every now and then a heartwarming story circulates by email telling how a young boy with disabilities lost a race but won hearts.

I’ve no idea if it’s true, but the last placing winner is:

Yesterday I went to watch my five year-old son run the cross-country at school. On the way home in the car I was shuddering and wiping tears from my eyes. I’m going to tell you what happened.

My son attends a mainstream school, as far as the school grounds and school uniform go. But his class is a “satellite class;” all the students in that single classroom have special needs, and the classroom resources and teachers are from a special needs school based at a different location. The whole mainstream school – including the classroom my son attends – took part in the cross-country during the school day. Parents were invited to attend.

The children run by age group, so my son’s grouping was early on in the day. He was in the second “heat” (basically, the second rather large grouping of children for that age group). The group included only a few children from the special needs class, the rest of the many children were all mainstream.

As the starting gun fired he set off, me on the side-lines watching on proudly. Proud because he understood what was required of him on this occasion, and proud because he was able and willing to do it . .

.

You can read the rest at Autism and Oughtisms.

Rural round up

NZ farmer wins prestigious 2011 Australasian award:

New Zealand farmer Lance Gillespie has been awarded the 2011 Rabobank Business Development Prize for a management project undertaken to enhance human resources management at his dairy operation, Table Flat Holdings, in the central North Island.

The prize – which is awarded annually as part of the Rabobank Executive Development Program – was presented to Mr Gillespie at the graduation of a group of leading primary producers from around New Zealand and Australia who recently completed the program, a business development course for Australasia‟s leading agricultural producers.

Mr Gillespie‟s winning project focused on improving human resource management tools in his farm business, through the creation of a comprehensive Farm Operations Manual . . .

Trickle of apples to Australia at first:

New Zealand won’t be swamping Australia with apples just yet following the relaxing of a 90-year ban.   

Australian officials yesterday gave the green light to importing our NZ apples, despite local fears they could carry diseases such as fire blight, European canker and apple leaf curling midge . . . 

Project to gauge demand for local food – Sally Rae:

An innovative project is under way to quantify demand for ways of buying local meat in Dunedin and Wanaka.   

It is being driven by Wanaka farmer John McRae, from Glendhu      Station, and consultant Rhys Millar from Forest Environments Ltd.   

Mr McRae, who farms organically, has been seeking a transparent food system to supply his local community.   

Scientist pursues passionf or deer – Sally Rae:

Dr Colin Mackintosh finds deer fascinating. The AgResearch veterinary scientist has spent 30 years working at Invermay, where his primary focus has been deer.   

When he started, it was “more or less” the beginning of the deer industry in New Zealand and very little was known about deer diseases.   

He likened it to being presented with a blank piece of paper and then spending the last three decades trying to fill in that piece of paper . . .   

Consultant forging a career on land - Sally Rae:

Nicola Kelland enjoys helping farmers achieve their financial  and business goals.   

Miss Kelland (24) is based in Alexandra, where she works as      an agricultural business consultant for AgFirst Consultants  Otago Ltd.   

Brought up on Glenbrook Station, a high country property between Omarama and Twizel, she completed a bachelor of agricultural science degree, with honours, at Lincoln University . . . 

Suppliers put their products on the line - Jon Morgan:

My favourite spot in a supermarket is where the food and wine tastings are. They
are not hard to find – just follow your nose. Usually, someone has a griller
going and tasty morsels are being handed out.

Imagine my joy last week when I encountered three stadiums full of such
delights.

It was the annual trade show for Foodstuffs’ food suppliers, held in Arena
Manawatu, Palmerston North . . .

Psyllid wreaks havoc in vege industry – Jon Morgan:

Zebra-striped spuds in your frypan are a sign you have a devastating new pest
in the garden. It is the psyllid, a tiny flying insect that also attacks
tomatoes, capsicums, eggplants and tamarillos.

In America it is known as the jumping plant louse and has laid waste to
tomatoes and potatoes outdoors and in greenhouses in Mexico, Texas and
California.

New Zealand is the only other country to be attacked so far and the rest of
the world is anxiously watching our efforts to deal with it . . .

Foreign buyers see value in New Zealand farms:

In the hunt for farmland investments, New Zealand has not been
overlooked.

As well as well-heeled foreigners pursuing Southern Hemisphere trophy
properties, serious investors are chasing more tangible returns.

For example, since late last year one German group has received Overseas
Investment Office (OIO) approvals to buy a total of 3300ha of dairy land, mostly
in Southland, for a total of $91.5 million.

According to the OIO, the Germans – the Aquila Group – are looking for farms
that are below peak market prices, not being well farmed, or able to be
expanded. . . .

Back to the land: putting faith in farms:

Perry Vieth baled hay on a neighbour’s farm in Wisconsin for two summers
during high school in 1972 and 1973.

The gruelling labour left him in no doubt about getting a degree so he’d
never again have to work so hard for a pay cheque. Thirty-eight years later, and
after a career as a securities lawyer and fixed-income trader, Vieth is back on
the farm.

Except, he now owns it. As co-founder of Ceres Partners, an Indiana-based
investment firm, Vieth oversees 61 farms valued at US$63.3 million ($76 million)
in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Tennessee. He’s so enthusiastic about the
investments that he quit a job in 2008 overseeing US$7 billion in fixed-income
assets to focus full time on farming.

“When I told people I was leaving to start an investment fund in farmland,
they said, ‘You’re doing what?”‘ says Vieth. “It will always be difficult for
Wall Street firms to understand. It’s not like buying stocks on a computer.” . . .

Field of dreams for embattled flyers – Tim Fulton:

Build it and they will come, John Maber reckons, knowing he’s about to test
every bit of that conviction.

After stepping down from the lead role in the NZ Agricultural Aviation
Association, Maber is putting himself on the line again in setting up a training
centre at Rangiora airfield.

Apart from a business case for the project he has experience and belief.
“Most of it comes from my gut, not my head”, he says, eyeing up his partly built
shed . . .

HB weather bomb rebuild -

THE APRIL storm blew farm manager Nigel Bicknell’s carefully laid out system to pieces and he had to adopt a new approach to steer Landcorp’s Te Apiti Station, literally, out of the mud.  

As one of the worst hit farms along the coastal strip between Ocean Beach and Blackhead Beach in Hawkes Bay, the 2000ha property took a hammering and is likely to take years to fully recover. . .

Parkinsons prompts rector’s early retirement

Waitaki Boys’ High was regarded as one of the country’s best schools under the leadership of legendary rector Frank Milner.

Its fortunes have varied in the decades since then, but under the current rector, Dr Paul Baker, Waitaki has regained its reputation as a leading educator of young men.

It is sad for the school and him that the onset of Parkinson’s disease has forced his early retirement.

I haven’t had a close association with Waitaki recently but have noticed the improvement in the performance of its pupils during Dr Baker’s tenure.

The school always had a good reputation for sport,  thanks to his leadership academic and cultural pursuits now have equal prominence.

Change is nothing new for Dr Baker, who has overseen a period of rapid transformation at Waitaki Boys’, and in the education sector, since he took over the helm in 1999.   

 ”I’ve always been a big believer in starting things off to see how they will develop. Planting seeds and seeing how they grow, adapting, amending as time goes on,” he said.   

“I’ve never been a big believer in five-year plans, or three-year plans and knowing exactly where and how something is going to develop. You can’t predict that because you’re      working with human nature.”   

He said boys’ schools had essentially reinvented themselves,  with spectacular success, as places “where a whole variety of  different models of masculinity are promoted”.   

The model student is now academic, cultural and a sportsman, ”but the hope always is that they are one and the same person”.   

Dr Baker is passionate about education and an advocate for boys’ schools.

He was a member of the Ministerial Reference Group on boys’ education. The NZ Herald published his views part 1, part 2 and part 3 .

Real job creation preserve of private sector

Quote of the week from John Scandrett, Otago Southland Employers Association CEO:

“If a job gets created by the public sector, or by a charity,  then it’s funded either by tax dollars or donations that were both initially created by the private sector.”   

This doesn’t mean there aren’t necessary and meaningful jobs in the public service and charities. It does mean that funding for them comes directly or indirectly from the private sector.

To ensure the private sector created the maximum number of jobs, everyone had to do their part to ensure barriers were not inadvertently put in the way.   

Barriers could include things like unnecessarily high taxes, too much regulation and difficulties getting consents.   

Those were all things the Government could do something about in a job creating supporting capacity, he said.   

“The Government should concentrate on removing the barriers that get in the way of the private sector creating jobs.”  

More flexible employment law, lower tax rates and a start on reducing the burden of the state under National have removed some of the barriers to job creation in the private sector and there is still work to be done.

But the effort shold be on improving the enviroment which helps the private sector create jobs rather than the government creating jobs itself.

Whale’s a winner regardless of who comes first

Who knows what possessed Trevor Mallard when he challenged Whaleoil, aka Cameron Slater, to a cycle race which takes place this afternoon.

But challenge him he did and to Whaleoil’s credit he not only accepted, he took the challenge seriously and trained hard.

In the process he gave up anti-depressants and lost 15kg.

Regardless of who finishes the 60 kilometre race first, Whale is already a winner for that – and for distracting Labour’s campaign director.

Tragedy not an excuse

The death of a New Zealand SAS soldier in Afghanistan is a tragedy but it should not be used as an excuse for withdrawing our troops from that troubled country.

Mr Key said he was “deeply saddened” by the death. But he stood firm on his
decision to have a New Zealand presence in Afghanistan.

“I believe passionately in the work that they are doing. They are ensuring
that the innocent lives of thousands in Afghanistan are preserved, and giving
Afghanistan hope for their country.

“They are working to make the world a safer place from global terrorism. It
is not my view that due to the death of our soldier, we should reconsider our
position in Afghanistan. We stay absolutely committed to continuing our work in
Afghanistan.

“It would be the completely wrong thing for us to consider cutting and
running. I don’t think it would honour the death of this soldier and I don’t
think it would actually be what New Zealanders would expect us to do in this
situation.”

There are strong arguments for and against New Zealand’s service in Afghanistan, but this soldier’s death should not be used to justify either position.

The death of this young man is against the natural order of things and it would be dishonouring him, the reasons he served and what he fought for if it was exploited for political ends.

His family, friends and colleagues should be left to grieve without his service, and ultimate sacrifice, being belittled by debate on New Zealand’s role in the on-going war.