Who’s house?

All Black coach Graham Henry and French coach Marc Lievremont both die and enter the Pearly Gates.

St Peter takes Marc on a tour of heaven and ends up at a little two-bedroom cottage with a faded French rugby banner hanging from the front porch. “This is your house, Marc,” says St Peter, “You’re very lucky. Most people don’t get their own houses up here, you know.”

Marc looks at the house, then turns around and sees the huge mansion on top of the hill. A massive, multi-storey building with marble columns, balconies and attractive gardens.

All Black banners line both sides of the footpath and a huge New Zealand flag hangs between the entrance columns.

“Merci beaucoup, St Peter,” Marc says, ”But let me ask you a question. How come I get this little two-bedroom cottage and Graham Henry gets a huge mansion with all those marble columns.”

St Peter looks up the hill and turns back to Marc: ”That’s not Henry’s house,” he says . “That’s God’s house.”

Happy birthday Fonterra

Fonterra is celebrating its 10th birthday today with the Fonterra Shout.

They’re giving away sausages and ice cream in Invercargill, Ashburton, Palmerston North, Hawera, Hamilton, Auckland and Whangarei.

The company is owned co-operatively by nearly  11,000 dairy farmers and sells dairy products to more than 140 countries.

Assets	NZ$14.1 billion
Annual Turnover	NZ$16 billion
Milk Production – New Zealand	14.76 billion litres
Sales Volumes	2.31 million metric tonnes
Employees	15,600
Shareholders	10,537

Fonterra, and the dairy boom, have changed many communities.

There used to be nine houses on the roads which border our home farm, now there are 15.

It is dairy farms, their owners, staff and the people who service and supply them who keep spending money which means that towns like Oamaru are no longer so badly affected by droughts.

It is possible to have the economic and social gains from dairying without environmental degradation.

In our area good environmental practices on-farm with strict monitoring and action on breaches, has ensured we can still drink from and swim in our rivers.

Happy birthday, Fonterra.

Quote of the day

Failure is the dark underbelly of success; for every outstanding case of the latter, there are many cases of the former. Theodore Dalrymple

He wasn’t talking about rugby but he could have been.

Phew: All Blacks 8 – France 7

We won.

It wasn’t pretty and it certainly wasn’t easy, but we won.

Just.

The French who had lost two games in pool games saved their best for last.

They might not have deserved last week’s semi-final win but they played the final like they deserved to be there.

Maybe the All Blacks had played their best against Australia in the semi-final, because last night didn’t look like their best on attack.

But to hold off such a strong French attack in the last quarter, without conceding a penalties, took the best defence.

And that was enough.

Just.

They were the best team in the tournament though it’s debatable which was the best team in last night’s match..

In the last few minutes I was so scared we were going to lose that I pledged to give up chocolate for the rest of the year.

It was worth it to see the grins on the All Blacks faces.

We won.

October 24 in history

69  Second Battle of Bedriacum, forces under Antonius Primus, the commander of the Danube armies, loyal to Vespasian, defeated the forces of Emperor Vitellius.

1147  After a siege of 4 months crusader knights led by Afonso Henriques, reconquered Lisbon.

1260  The Cathedral of Chartres was dedicated in the presence of King Louis IX of France.

1260  Saif ad-Din Qutuz, Mamluk sultan of Egypt, was assassinated by Baibars, who seized power for himself.

1360  The Treaty of Brétigny was ratified at Calais, marking the end of the first phase of the Hundred Years’ War.

1648  The Peace of Westphalia was signed, marking the end of the Thirty Years’ War.

1795 Partitions of Poland: The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was completely divided among Austria, Prussia, and Russia.

1812 Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Maloyaroslavets.

1857 Sheffield F.C., the world’s first football club, was founded.

1861  The First Transcontinental Telegraph line across the United States was completed, spelling the end for the 18-month-old Pony Express.

1882  Dame Sybil Thorndike, British actress, was born (d. 1976).

1892  Goodison Park, the world’s first association football specific stadium was opened.

1901  Annie Edson Taylor became the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

1911 Orville Wright remained in the air 9 minutes and 45 seconds in a Wright Glider at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.

1912  First Balkan War: The Battle of Kumanovo concluded with the Serbian victory.

1913 Violent clashes between unionised waterside workers and non-union labour erupted two days after Wellington watersiders held a stopwork meeting in support of a small group of striking shipwrights.

1917 Battle of Caporetto; Italy was defeated by the forces of Austria-Hungary and Germany. (Also called Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo).

1917 The day of the October revolution, The Red Revolution.

1919 South Island explorer Donald Sutherland died.

1926  Harry Houdini‘s last performance.

1929  ”Black Thursday” stock market crash on the New York Stock Exchange.

1930 A bloodless coup d’état in Brazil ousted Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa, the last President of the First Republic. Getúlio Dornelles Vargas was then installed as “provisional president.”

1931  The George Washington Bridge opened to traffic.

1936 Bill Wyman, English musician (The Rolling Stones), was born.

1944  The Japanese aircraft carrier Zuikaku, and the battleship Musashi were sunk in the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

1945  Founding of the United Nations.

1946 A camera on board the V-2 No. 13 rocket took the first photograph of earth from outer space.

1947  Walt Disney testified to the House Un-American Activities Committee, naming Disney employees he believes to be communists.

1954  Dwight D. Eisenhower pledged United States support to South Vietnam.

1957  The USAF started the X-20 Dyna-Soar programme.

1960  Nedelin catastrophe: An R-16 ballistic missile exploded on the launch pad at the Soviet Union’s Baikonur Cosmodrome space facility, killing over 100.

1964 Northern Rhodesia gained independence and became the Republic of Zambia.

1973 Jeff Wilson, New Zealand rugby player and cricketer, was born.

1973 Yom Kippur War ended.

1980 Government of Poland legalised Solidarity trade union.

1986  Nezar Hindawi was sentenced to 45 years in prison, the longest sentence handed down by a British court, for the attempted bombing on an El Al flight at Heathrow.

1990  Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti revealed to the Italian parliament the existence of Gladio, the Italian “stay-behind” clandestine paramilitary NATO army.

1998  Launch of Deep Space 1 comet/asteroid mission.

2002  Police arrested spree killers John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, ending the Beltway sniper attacks in the area around Washington, DC.

2003  Concorde made its last commercial flight.

2005  Hurricane Wilma made landfall in Florida resulting in 35 direct 26 indirect fatalities and causing $20.6B USD in damage.

2006  Justice Rutherford of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice struck down the “motive clause”, an important part of the Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act.

2008  ”Bloody Friday“: many of the world’s stock exchanges experienced the worst declines in their history, with drops of around 10% in most indices.

2009  First International Day of Climate Action, organised with 350.org, a global campaign to address a claimed global warming crisis.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

NZ wins first test

New Zealand has won the first of today’s tests - the Silver Ferns beat the Australian Diamonds 49 -48.

Please, All Blacks follow their example – though for the sake of the national blood pressure, it would better if it could be by a greater margin.

Word of the day

Stalworth – stalwart, strong, dependable, firm.

There is another game

There is another international game today.

It might not be in our town, but it is our team: the Silver Ferns are playing the Australian Diamonds in Perth.

Go SILVER FERNS!

5/10

5/10 – two of which were guesses – in the Herald’s entertainment quiz.

Rural round-up

Success stories: how Glowing Sky grew from printing T-Shirts in Stewart Island to makigna nd selling merino clothing through its own chain of stores – Bernard Hickey:

Cath Belworthy still seems surprised at her business success as she tells her story to a business conference in Dunedin.

“We’ve taken it to a level that we would never ever have dreamed of all those years ago,” said Belworthy, who co-founded Stewart Island-based clothing company Glowing Sky Merino with her husband Dil in 1997.

But she is rightly enthusiastic and proud of all the hard work, sacrifice and inspiration that led to that success . . .

The trade environment: Future of WTO, beyond Doha TPP-regional FTAs – Bruce Wills (speech toInstitute of International Affairs:

. . .After talking to Federated Farmers staff about the long running saga that is the Doha trade round, one staff member relayed to me a political joke, if such a thing is possible, which may just hit the Doha nail on the head.

In Moscow, not long after the communist takeover, a factory worker trudging past the city gates noticed a revolutionary guard intensely scanning the horizon.

In mud, snow, sleet and rain, this worker trudged past the same guard above the same gate, year in, year out.

One snowy day, our worker stopped, looked up and summoned up the courage to yell out, ‘comrade, what exactly are you doing up there?’

The guard stood to attention and with snow falling from his tattered greatcoat proclaimed proudly, ‘I am the lookout for the global communist revolution’.

‘Oh’, our factory worker innocently shoots back, ‘it’s a job for life then!’

That possibly sums up where the Doha trade round is right now. Despite much heroic effort by NZ trade officials, ten years on from when it all started; it seems to be where it started. . .

Who should hold the power of prosecution? – James Houghton:

The Auditor-General might be worried about regional councillors’ personal bias when the authority is deciding to undertake prosecutions, but I wonder if the staff can be totally fair either.

Following a recent recommendation by the Auditor-General, Waikato Regional Council is asking its staff to review the role our elected councillors take in deciding what prosecutions it should be pursuing.

At the moment the decision whether to initiate a prosecution or not is made by a regulatory committee of councillors. I guess the worry is they could be tempted to consider their re-election chances when weighing up the options whether or not to prosecute when a person has breached the law . . .

Processing changes may not mean better capacity alignment -  Allan Barber:

The meat industry will see a number of processing initiatives taking effect over the next 12 months, all of them designed to create greater efficiency for their owners. They may not necessarily lead to better alignment of capacity with predicted livestock numbers for which B&LNZ Economic Service forecasts an increase from 2011 of 5.7% to 20.1 million lambs, second lowest in more than 50 years, and 1.8% more cattle, mainly cull cows . . .

Tasty and healthy, venison is set ot tkae over your dinner table -

NEW YORK (WABC) — To indulge your love for red meat without detriment to your health, venison is the meat choice for you.

Grilled, pan seared or smoked, venison is the new “it” food, according to Chef Brad Farmerie and he should know. At his Soho restaurant Public, he prepares and serves about 10 thousand portions of it each year.

“I know for a fact, this is going to be a rockstar meat going forward, next year, the year after and everywhere from then on,” he says.

He cooks with cervena venison. It’s farm raised in New Zealand, grass fed and one of the most popular dishes from his kitchen. . .

How much water do we use? Daniel Collins:

One of the arguments being used at the moment to promote water storage and irrigation schemes is that much of the water that falls on New Zealand flows to the sea, not to the farm. Conor English, CEO of Federated Farmers, wrote in an opinion piece earlier this year:

“It’s not that New Zealand is running out of water, it’s that water is running out of New Zealand.”

As it turns out, about 80% of the water that falls on New Zealand flows out to sea, the rest evaporates back into the atmosphere. . .

Chica the bright red car:

Children expecting a visit from Rainbow Place’s nurses and therapists can now look forward to shorter waiting times, thanks to the gift of a bright red Nissan car to be named ‘Chica’, donated by Rural Women New Zealand (RWNZ) at the weekend.

The therapists and nurses at Rainbow Place – an arm of Hospice Waikato – travel thousands of kilometers each month throughout Waipa, Waikato and Coromandel, supporting children and young people who are coping with serious illness or bereavement . . .

My New Hero Kenyan Farmer Kimani Maruge! It’s never to late to learn – Pasture to Profit:

It’s been an amazing week! What with the Rugby World Cup. I am very proud to be a New Zealander & to see the fantastic rugby the
All Blacks play. A very interesting week on UK pasture based dairy farms too.

This week I watched an amazing DVD called “First Grader” an award winning 2011 film about the Kenyan hero “Kimani
Maruge”. Kimani Maruge (a farmer) was a 1950’s Mau Mau veteran who arrived at a tiny rural primary school as an 84 year old man determined to get an education after the Kenyan government offered “free education for all”. Kimani holds the record as the oldest person ever to start primary school. His determination to get an education was truly
inspirational.

Latest results from Shearing Sports NZ:

New Zealand representative Dion King had to put in one of his better performances of quality shearing to beat a top quality lineup and deny the legendary David Fagan a memorable double in the new season’s first North Island shearing competition in Gisborne on Saturday.

Shearing at the Poverty Bay Show, which attracted almost 100 shearers and woolhandlers, Te Kuiti gun Fagan was trying to add victory in his first show as a 50-year-old to his last at the age of 49 at Waimate a week earlier, and also complete a double he had scored last season. . .

Mortgagee sale of prime Wakatipu land:

A prime piece of land on the shores of Lake Wakatipu is to go to mortgagee sale following the developer going bankrupt.

The 38-hectare Walter Peak Estate is across the lake from Queenstown. It has consent to build a luxury lodge or several homes . . .

Hasn’t it been lover-er-ly?

If Eliza Doolittle was looking back at the last six weeks and the Rugby World Cup, I reckon she’d say it’s been lover-er-ly.

As we wait for tonight’s final it’s timely to look back at some of the people which have made it such a success.

Full credit to:

* The Tongan community who were the first to show their true colours and did it so exuberantly.

* The fans who came from their homelands to follow their teams; the recent immigrants and those who discovered or rediscovered their links to other countries.

* All the supporters who backed a team, their own or not, which added so much to the fun of matches.

* The individuals, businesses and communities who got behind the event to paint the country in the many colours of the 20 teams.

* The volunteers, unfailingly helpful, polite and cheerful, at every venue for every match.

* The people who perservered to build the stadium in Dunedin and had the good sense to put a roof on it.

* Proper choirs singing proper anthems, properly  thanks to the New Zealand Choral Federation choirs, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and Anthony Ritchie who did the arrangements.

* The Real New Zealand Festival which showed the World Cup was about so much more than rugby.

* Good sports, on and off the field, who thankfully were the very large majority.

* The minnows and middling fish who played well and won hearts, if not games.

* The special moments – the opening; Jock Hobbs presenting Richie McCaw and Mils Muliaina with their 100th test caps; the singing by the crowds . . .

* The teams, their coaches and entourages.

* Martin Snedden who wrote in an open letter:

We set out to make people happy and proud. I think we’ve achieved that.

It’s been a really tough last 12 months for New Zealand. The magnitude of the
Christchurch disaster and the complexity of the road to recovery have knocked us
all. Pike River added to our sadness. On top of that, the economic recession has
lasted long and bitten deeper than any of us expected. We’ve grieved for those
directly affected by these events and worried about our country’s future.

Rugby World Cup 2011 hasn’t solved the problems but it has given us some
fantastic relief at a time when we needed some form of escape. Our collective
efforts have given us just cause to be proud of who we are and, most
importantly, to start smiling again. The nation’s morale has lifted.

Our thousands of guests have sensed our mood and responded brilliantly,
adding rich colour and flavour to this celebration of our national game and our
country. We owe them heaps. . .

* The All Blacks.

Whatever happens tonight, I hope we can remember the fun and the excitement, agree the tournament has been a success and accept the result with grace or magnanimity as appropriate.

Oh, and GO THE ALL BLACKS, let’s all have a love-er-ly time tonight!

Winning words

As New Zealand sits on the edge of its collective seat, holding its breath (or not) in nervous anticipation of tonight’s Rugby World Cup final between the All Blacks and Les Blues, Homepaddock brings you exclusive coverage of the considered opinion and advice of  international experts.

Jane Austen: It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a team in possession of a good record, must be in want of a World Cup.

William Wordsworth: Earth has not anything to show more fair, dull would he be of soul who could pass by a team so stirring in its majesty.

Margaret Mahy: When you are playing, someone has done a lot of work on your
behalf, someone has had ideas and has then coached and corrected and improved
them so that they can be shared.

William Shakespeare: What’s in a game? That which we call the Cup won by any other team would not smell as sweet.

Charlotte Bronte: Let your performance do the thinking.

A.A. Milne: When you see someone putting on his Big Boots, you can be pretty sure that an Adventure is going to happen.  

Jenny Shipley: Too often the desire for the World Cup has been expressed by women while the stewardship of the mechanisms which are used to attempt to secure the Cup in the short and medium term are dominated by male decision-making structures and informal arrangements. This must change.

Winston Churchill: I would say to the team . . . I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us 80 long minutes of toil and struggle.

Margaret Thatcher: If you lead a team like the All Blacks, a strong team, a team which has taken a lead in sporting affairs in good times and in bad, a team that is always reliable, then you have to have a touch of iron about you.

William Blake:  We shall not cease from mental fight, nor will the ball rest in our hands until we have won the World Cup in New Zealand’s green and pleasant land.

McCaw Country

The IRB was promised a stadium of 4 million and the country has answered the call.

The way so many people and communities have got behind the Rugby World Cup, turning it into a nationwide celebration has been great.

Flags on vehicles, I even saw a Scottish one flying from the window of the driver’s wagon of a train, fences and buildings; sheep painted in team colours; the giant concrete rugby ball , 40 hours in the making, outside the vets in Oamaru which caught John Key’s eye on Friday . . .

It would be hard to beat this W(h)anganui house for individual effort, and it would be difficult to top Kurow for community contribution to the collective celebration.

This  was Richie McCaw’s home town. He was born in Oamaru, grew up on the family farm in the Hakataramea Valley but it was Kurow where he went to primary school and played his first games of rugby.

The town museum is full of Richie memorabilia, cut-outs of sheep painted black and numbered 1 to 15 line the main street and on the green where the Hay family spend summer, is this tribute to the World Cup and the All Black captain:

For rugby trivia enthusiasts, Richie is Kurow’s second All Black. The first was the late Phil Gard.

The Waitaki Valley has produced another All Black, Ian Hurst, who played for New Zealand in the 1970s.

North Otago’s fourth All Black, Jefff Matheson also played in the early 1970s.

Quote of the day

Leadership is clear in some areas of New Zealand. Richie McCaw is a great example. He is intelligent, he trains, he practises, he listens and he gets on and does  it – he is scanning the field for opportunities and aware of the placing of his team mates. He has an over-arching goal and works with the coaches to reach it. –  Jacqueline Rowarth inwhat rugby can teach business.

October 23 in history

42 BC  Roman Republican civil wars: Second Battle of Philippi – Mark Antony and Octavian decisively defeated Brutus’s army. Brutus committed suicide.

425 Valentinian III became Roman Emperor, at the age of 6.

502 The Synodus Palmaris, called by Gothic king Theodoric the Great, discharged Pope Symmachus of all charges, ending the schism of Antipope Laurentius.

1086 At the Battle of az-Zallaqah, the army of Yusuf ibn Tashfin defeated the forces of Castilian King Alfonso VI.

1157 The Battle of Grathe Heath ended the civil war in Denmark. King Sweyn III was killed and Valdemar I restored the country.

1295 The first treaty forming the Auld Alliance between Scotland and France against England was signed in Paris.

1503  Isabella of Portugal, queen of Spain and empress of Germany (d. 1539)

1641 Outbreak of the Irish Rebellion of 1641.

1642  Battle of Edgehill: First major battle of the First English Civil War.

1694  British/American colonial forces, led by Sir William Phipps, fail to seize Quebec from the French.

1707 The first Parliament of Great Britain met.

1739 War of Jenkins’ Ear started: British Prime Minister, Robert Walpole, reluctantly declared war on Spain.

1812  Claude François de Malet, a French general, began a conspiracy to overthrow Napoleon Bonaparte, claiming that the Emperor died in Russia and that he was now the commandant of Paris.

1844  Robert Bridges, English poet, was born (d. 1930).

1850 The first National Women’s Rights Convention began in Worcester, Massachusetts.

1861  U.S. President Abraham Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus in Washington, D.C., for all military-related cases.

1864  American Civil War: Battle of Westport – Union forced under General Samuel R. Curtis defeated Confederate troops led by General Sterling Price at Westport, near Kansas City.

1867  72 Senators were summoned by Royal Proclamation to serve as the first members of the Canadian Senate.

1870  Franco-Prussian War: the Siege of Metz concluded with a decisive Prussian victory.

1906 Alberto Santos-Dumont fliew a plane in the first heavier-than-air flight in Europe at Champs de Bagatelle, Paris.

1911  First use of aircraft in war: An Italian pilot took off from Libya to observe Turkish army lines during the Turco-Italian War.

1912  First Balkan War: The Battle of Kumanovo between the Serbian and Ottoman armies began.

1915 Among the fatalities when the transport Marquette sank  in the Aegean Sea were 32 New Zealanders, including ten nurses – making 23 October the deadliest day in the history of this country’s military nursing.

<img src="http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/files/images/hmts-marquette-event.preview.jpg" alt="Ten NZ nurses lost in Marquette sinking” />

1915  In New York City, 25,000-33,000 women march on Fifth Avenue to advocate their right to vote.

1917  Lenin called for the October Revolution.

1925 Johnny Carson, American television host, was born (d. 2005)

1929 Great Depression: After a steady decline in stock market prices since a peak in September, the New York Stock Exchange began to show signs of panic.

1929 The first North American transcontinental air service began between New York City and Los Angeles, California.

1931 Diana Dors, British actress was bron (d. 1984).

1935 Dutch Schultz, Abe Landau, Otto Berman, and Bernard “Lulu” Rosencrantz were fatally shot at a saloonin Newark, New Jersey in  The Chophouse Massacre.

1940 Pelé, Brazilian footballer, was born.

1941  Field Marshal Georgy Zhukov took command of Red Army operations to prevent the further advance into Russia of German forces and to prevent the Wehrmacht from capturing Moscow.

1942  World War II: Second Battle of El Alamein began.

1942  All 12 passengers and crewmen aboard an American Airlines DC-3 airliner were killed when it is struck by a U.S. Army Air Forces bomber near Palm Springs, California. Amongst the victims was award-winning composer and songwriter Ralph Rainger (“Thanks for the Memory”, “Love in Bloom”, “Blue Hawaii”).

1942   Michael Crichton, American writer, was born (d. 2008).

1942 – Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, was born (d. 2007).

1942   The Battle for Henderson Field began during the Guadalcanal Campaign.

1944  : Battle of Leyte Gulf – The largest naval battle in history begins in the Philippines.

1946  The United Nations General Assembly convened for the first time.

1948 A plane crash on Mt Ruapehu killed 13 people.

1956  Thousands of Hungarians protest against the government and Soviet occupation.

1958  The Springhill Mine Bump – An earthquake trapped 174 miners in the No. 2 colliery at Springhill, Nova Scotia, the deepest coal mine in North America at the time.

1958  The Smurfs, a fictional race of blue dwarves, appeared for the first time in the story Le flute à six schtroumpfs, a Johan and Peewit adventure by Peyo which was serialized in the weekly comics magazine Spirou.

1972   Operation Linebacker, a US bombing campaign against North Vietnam ended after five months.

1973  A United Nations sanctioned cease-fire officially ended the Yom Kippur War between Israel and Syria.

1983  Lebanon Civil War: The U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut was hit by a truck bomb, killing 241 U.S. Marines. A French army barracks in Lebanon was also hit, killing 58 troops.

1989  The Hungarian Republic was officially declared by president Mátyás Szűrös, replacing the communist Hungarian People’s Republic.

1989  Phillips Disaster in Pasadena, Texas killed 23 and injured 314.

1992  Emperor Akihito became the first Emperor of Japan to stand on Chinese soil.

1993  Shankill Road bombing: A Provisional IRA bomb prematurely detonates in the Shankill area of Belfast, killing the bomber and nine civilians.

1998  Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat reached a “land for peace” agreement.

2001 The Provisional IRA began disarmament after peace talks.

2001  Apple released the iPod.

2002  Moscow Theatre Siege began: Chechen terrorists seized the House of Culture theater in Moscow and took approximately 700 theatre-goers hostage.

2004 A powerful earthquake and its aftershocks hit Niigata prefecture, northern Japan, killing 35 people, injuring 2,200, and leaving 85,000 homeless or evacuated.

2007 A powerful cold front in the Bay of Campeche caused the Usumacinta Jackup rig to collide with Kab 101, leading to the death and drowning of 22 people during rescue operations after evacuation of the rig.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

Black Caviar beats Phar Lap

It’s taken more than 80 years – and a female – to beat the great race horse Phar Lap’s record 14 straight wins.

Five-year-old mare Black Caviar has broken Phar Lap’s record for consecutive  wins in winning the Group 2 Schweppes Stakes at Moonee Valley today.

Black Caviar stormed away to register the victory – her 15th on the trot – and the undefeated horse went one past iconic Phar Lap in the process.

Timaru-born Phar Lap, known as Big Red, won 37 wins from 51 starts and set the record of 14 consecutive wins as a four-year-old.

 

 

Word of the day

Druthers -  choice, preference or way; (contraction of would rather).

And then there were two

Australia claimed the bronze with a 20-18 win over Wales in this Rugby World Cup’s second last match last night.

I’m pleased the Southern Hemisphere team won and I’ll be even happier if the south beats the north tomorrow.

Twenty teams started the tournament six weeks ago, now there are just two left, the All Blacks and Les Bleus, who will play in the final.

On paper the All Blacks are the stronger team but the French are unpredictable.

They’ve beaten us before and could do it again so I’m pleased to read that Rich McCaw and his team understand there are no guarantees for the All Blacks.

While the All Blacks captain knows exactly what rugby’s greatest prize looks like, he has never laid a hand on it.

“I don’t think you should touch it until you’ve earned it,” he said.

On the eve of the big match against France, that may well change for the 30-year-old.

For McCaw, however, Sunday night’s clash at Eden Park is all about the men who wear the All Blacks jersey with him.

“It’s not about personal stuff,” he said. “It’s about this team having an opportunity and not wasting it. Going out and performing, playing the best game we’ve ever played in a World Cup final. That’s the opportunity that’s there and from our point of view we don’t want to let that slip by.”

They’ve got preparation and determination, we’ve all got optimism and hope but there will be no certainty until the final whistle blows.

 

7/10

7/10 in Stuff’s Biz Quiz

Rural round-up

Contamination claims rubbished - Richard Rennie:

Taranaki farmers and their regional council are demanding critics of an oil and gas drilling method show more science to prove claims about damage to their environment.

“Fracking” or deep rock fracturing for extraction of hydrocarbons in under scrutiny in Taranaki following claims by an environmental group the practice is responsible for ground water contamination, water table loss and even earthquakes . . .

Interested in more than rugby - Jackie Harrigan:

Scoping out opportunities in the New Zealand dairy industry was fitted in around rugby fixtures by a handful of Argentinian farmers in the Manawatu for the Argentina vs Georgia pool match.

Taking the opportunity to network with Kiwi agricultural businesses, the Argentinian farmers were hosted by the NZ Agribusiness Roadshow and shown facets of Kiwi pastoral farming which fitted their individual interests.

One Argentinean who visited was Miguel Rohrer, a beef and cropping farmer who grows soybean, corn, rice, peanuts and beans alongside dairy units running 1200 Holstein cows. Cows are generally run at lower stocking rates than New Zealand at around 1.5cows/ha and fed mainly on alfalfa with grain supplements to produce around 26l/cow/day . . .

Lamb docking a community affair – Jill Galloway:

There used to be 70 million sheep in New Zealand. Now there are around 32 million overwintered each year. So, fewer lambs to dock?

Maybe, but it is still a big job on sheep and beef farms.

Jacquetta Ward is just one of the many farmers docking. And she has nearby farmers, mates and people from the district helping her.

Today, they plan to dock 1200 lambs. A goodly number. But some stations dock 6000 a day. They may have 60,000 lambs to get through . . .

Lorraine hangs up the apron – Jill Galloway:

It is the cafe you can wear your working clothes into, and your gumboots.

The Feilding Saleyards Cafe is synonymous with good mugs of tea, great pies and gravy with chips, and the highly sought-after lamb shanks.

Lorraine Pretious left last Friday after 30 years preparing and serving meals to stock agents, truck drivers and farmers . . .

Women get to grips with using guns – Jill Galloway:

Women In Farming is a non-competitive group, and its members wanted to learn about guns and have a go at shooting on a range.

They get a thorough safety lesson from Marton Smallbore Rifle Club member and mountain safety instructor Peter Lissington. He takes people for their firearms licences, so he knows all about guns, the law and safety.

“I want people to know all about firearms, and feel confident about using them,” he says.

Twelve Women in Farming members find out more about rifles, what types there are and how to safely store and use them . . .

Faster internet offers potential for big gains:

Dairy farmer co-operative Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC) believes that not enough attention has been given to how the Government’s rural broadband initiative will affect farmers.

Infrastructure for faster broadband to rural areas, including those in Southland, will be invested over the next six years, at a cost of $285 million.

LIC general manager of farm systems Rob Ford said people had heard about how high-speed broadband in rural areas would help schools and hospitals, but not about the connection between farming, the internet, productivity and profit.

Free website helps global sharing – Collette Devlin:

A former Southland researcher has developed an easy-to-use, free website specifically for farmers.

Gary Hutchinson, originally from Taranaki, was the project manager for Topoclimate South, a successful three-year soil and microclimate mapping programme that finished in October 2001, after mapping 830,000 hectares of Southland’s farmlands . . .

Angus burger demand boosts Southland beef sales - Collette Devlin:

Southern angus beef farms are being boosted by the popularity of McDonald’s angus burgers in the region.

Taramoa angus beef breeder David Marshall said the high sales of angus burgers at the fast-food restaurant has had a direct influence on the market, which has led to a record sales of Southland angus beef and it looked as if they were set to rise further.

Mr Marshall’s family have been breeding angus since the 1940s and his herd can be traced back to the 1860s when the first angus cattle arrived in New Zealand.

The only show in town – Shelley Bridgeman:

A & P Shows – with their prize-winning heifers, farm machinery, highland dancing, wood-chopping, sheep dog trials and carnival atmosphere – are as Kiwi as No. 8 wire and gumboots.

Last season I attended eleven, from as far north as Whangarei right down to Hawke’s Bay . . .

Focus farm is the real thing - Sue O’Dowd:

DairyNZ’s focus farm in Taranaki is being promoted as a real-life farm with challenges ordinary farmers can understand.

The first field day, with a focus on mating, attracted more than 80 people.

Chris and Kathy Prankerd’s Tariki farm was chosen earlier this year as the focus farm after 20 farmers expressed interest in the project . . .

Beef lull then bonanza tipped:

Rabobank is picking United States beef prices to soar to record highs later next year.

But first, the bank says in a new report, New Zealand will have to weather a supply “bulge”.

Escalating exchange rates, global economic uncertainty and climate risks are short-term obstacles for global beef markets, but the longer outlook remains positive, report co-author Rebecca Redmond says.

Breaking lactose down in fresh milk – Collette Devlin:

Diary giant Fonterra is now producing a lactose-free fresh milk, which means it is now in direct competition with a small Southland organic dairy company.

Early last month, Retro Organics released the first lactose-free fresh milk and yoghurt in New Zealand, which company owner Robin Greer said was the solution to a growing need.

Until now, an Australian company, Liddells, dominated the lactose-free milk market here . . .

Druming upsupport for drum use:

Avoiding accidents with agrichemicals is high on the agenda with a new drum recovery programme launched by Agrecovery Rural Recycling.  

The Agrecovery Drum programme offers farmers and growers around the country free on property collection for plastic or steel drums from 61 – 1000L in size. Drums must be empty and triple rinsed . . .

Paediatrict product move at Westland:

WESTLAND SUPPLIERS can look forward to their processor moving more of their milk up the value chain from next season. The Hokitika-based cooperative last week announced a multi-million dollar investment in a state-of-the-art paediatric nutritional product plant.  

“It’s principally about adding more value,” chief executive Rod Quin told Rural News . . .

Havard reports good return form NZ forest investments - Pam Graham:

Harvard Management, the manager of Harvard University’s US$32 billion endowment, made an 18.8 percent annual return on its natural resource portfolio, which includes majority ownership of the cutting rights to the Kaingaroa forest.

Harvard, the oldest and most richly endowed university in the US, has put 10 percent of its portfolio into natural resources, which it says is mostly timberland, and agricultural and other resource-bearing properties on five continents . . .

Ballance dinners demonstrate path to profitability:

Ballance Agri-Nutrients has pulled together a raft of experts to present at its Business Development Dinner series over the next few months.

Ballance Sales and Marketing General Manager Graeme Smith says the business development dinners are held every year as part of the co-operative’s programme to provide more information and tools to farmers.

“We want to be able to seed new ideas and new ways of thinking with our customers as part of our commitment to help them farm more profitability and more sustainably,” Mr Smith says . . .

Claim wool is losing ground to nylon carpets:

A textile industry representative says resurrecting the fortunes of strong wool is going to take more than the wool sector has come up with so far.

Carpet makers say there has been a significant drop in carpet sales, which have been blamed on unsettled world economic conditions and the rapid rise in wool prices over the past year . . .