366 days of gratitude

When you live in a drought-prone area you don’t complain about the rain.

But you are allowed to be grateful that when it’s raining, again, you can be warm and dry inside, and I am.

Word of the day

Kakistocracy – government by the least qualified or most unprincipled citizens; government by the worst people.

Hat tip: Not PC

Rural round-up

Capturing excess water a no-brainer – Steve Wyn-Harris:

One of the current Hawke’s Bay regional councillors who has strongly opposed the Ruataniwha Dam and, party to many comments regarding farming, has as his guiding thought when considering council matters: ‘wisdom is old men planting trees under whose shade they will never sit’.

I like it very much and although not claiming to be wise I have planted some 50,000 trees on my own property and continue to plant as I near 60 so certainly won’t be sitting under the shade of these latter trees.

My own guiding principal throughout my farming career has been ‘live life as though you may die tomorrow but farm as though you may live forever’. . .

Southland woman published book on being a woman in a man’s world in the rural sector –  Briar Babington:

Women in the workplace have come a long way in the past 50 years, but it’s those experience that are the framework for one Southland woman’s latest book.

Dawn Andrews was born and bred in Gore and has put her life experience to pen and paper and published a book outlining the challenges of being a working woman in the rural sector.

“It’s a book that I’ve thought about writing for a long, long time,” she said.

The book is an autobiography of sorts, spurred on my Andrews’ passion to make sure history was being well documented, providing something for the future generations to look back on. . .

5000 lambs  ‘click the ticket’ in US supermarkets – Kate Taylor:

A Hawke’s Bay sheep farm is the first in the world to be certified for its pasture-only system. Kate Taylor reports on what makes this Central Hawke’s Bay station stand out from the rest.

Visitors to Mark Warren’s hill country farm get to witness at first-hand the skills of an expert four-wheel driver. A spectacular view from the top of Waipari Station is their reward for taking what seems to be a direct line up to the sky.

Perceived danger aside, Warren is skilled and confident on the side of a hill and doesn’t stop talking about the great advantages New Zealand farming has to offer.

Warren and his partner Julie Holden live on the 1300ha station (1000ha effective) in the Omakere district in coastal Central Hawke’s Bay that is managed for them by Nigel Hanan. . .

Taranaki road transport boss says bobby calf video is positive – Sue O’Dowd:

A video purporting to show poor handling of bobby calves being loaded on to stock trucks has been rubbished by Taranaki road transport boss Tom Cloke. 

Cloke said the footage released by Farmwatch this week failed to show the truck crates contained rubber mats to cushion the calves’ landing when they were rolled aboard. 

He wants the public to realise the bobby calves weren’t being rolled onto a hard grating. . . 

Fonterra assesses impact of big drop in milk production on future sales – Fiona Rotherham

 (BusinessDesk) – Fonterra Cooperative Group is assessing the impact of a big drop in milk production this month on its contract book and future production plans.

In its latest global dairy update, the world’s biggest dairy exporter said daily milk volumes across the central and upper North Island were down significantly in the early part of October due to the impact of wetter than normal spring weather and this has continued, particularly in the key dairying region of Waikato where daily milk volumes are down around 14 percent compared to last year.

Given that milk collections are now at the peak of the season, they are not expected to recover and will flow into the balance of the season, it said. . . 

Differences between Australian and NZ meat industries – Allan Barber:

Information obtained from Sydney based consultancy agInfo shows a very high degree of procurement competition for domestic market supply, especially for beef; this situation has been driven by a tightening of livestock supply combined with aggressive pursuit of retail market share by Woolworths.

It illustrates how the dynamics of the Australian market differ from here, although the structure is quite similar: retail butcheries competing with two major supermarket chains and a larger proportion of stock destined for export. But the Australian domestic market represents more than 30% of total livestock production compared with only 10-15% in New Zealand where mid-winter is the only time of year when domestic production exerts greater influence.

Australian beef producers are receiving what appears to be an unsustainable price at the moment, measured at 69% of the retail price which compares with 56% in October 2015, 44% in 2014 and 36% in 2013. . . 

Farmers need to be vigilant around fixed rate mortgages:

Market commentators are indicating with 80% certainty the Reserve Bank of New Zealand will lower the official cash rate by 25 basis points next month and then it will begin to stabilise. This is leading many rural borrowers to consider if now is the time to be looking at fixing rates. Head of Corporate Agribusiness at Crowe Horwath, Hayden Dillon, cautions that with markets still showing volatility, making hedging decisions simply by following economists’ advice can be fraught with danger.

“Even with another cut appearing to be imminent, the market appears to have little appetite for more, and inevitably talk will begin around when they may start to go up. Many rural borrowers are now looking at an interest rate curve that is still relatively flat, and thinking now could be the time to take some cover. But there are variables that you need to be aware of before you start to consider your options,” warns Dillon. . . 

Young Viticulturist of the Year drives off in brand new Hyundai Santa Fe:

Cameron Price the winner of the Young Viticulturist of the Year competition 2016 is thrilled to receive a Hyundai Santa Fe as part of his prize package. He will have full use of the vehicle for a whole year. It is appropriately “grenache” coloured – one of the more unusual red grape varieties that Price nurtures on the Villa Maria vineyards where he works.

The vehicle was presented to him at the Bayswater Hyundai Dealership. Hyundai have been sponsoring the Young Vit competition for the last three years and in that time the prestigious Bayer Young Viticulturist title has been taken out by a Hawke’s Bay finalist, a genuine hat-trick for the region. Paul Robinson also from Villa Maria won the competition in 2014 and Caleb Dennis from Craggy Range took it out in 2015. It is becoming a familiar sight therefore to see a Young Vit branded Hyundai Santa Fe cruising around The Bay. . . 

Friday’s answers

Andrei and J Bloggs get my thanks for posing yesterday’s questions.

Should they have stumped us all they can claim a virtual bunch of tulips by leaving the answers below.

Quote of the day

Punctuality is the virtue of the bored.  –  Evelyn Waugh who was born on this day in 1903.

He also said:

Art is the symbol of the two noblest human efforts: to construct and to refrain from destruction.

And:

News is what a chap who doesn’t care much about anything wants to read. And it’s only news until he’s read it. After that it’s dead.

And:

Instead of this absurd division into sexes they ought to class people as static and dynamic.

And:

I put the words down and push them a bit.

And:

What is youth except a man or woman before it is ready or fit to be seen?

October 28 in history

306  Maxentius was proclaimed Roman Emperor.

312  Battle of Milvian Bridge: Constantine I defeated Maxentius, becoming the sole Roman Emperor.

1466 Desiderius Erasmus, Dutch humanist and theologian, was born (d. 1536).

1510  Francis Borgia, Spanish duke and Jesuit priest, was born (d. 1572).

1516  Battle of Yaunis Khan: Turkish forces under the Grand Vizier Sinan Pasha defeated the Mameluks near Gaza.

1531  Battle of Amba Sel: Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi again defeated the army of Lebna Dengel, Emperor of Ethiopia.

1538  The first university in the New World, the Universidad Santo Tomás de Aquino, was established.

1628  The 14-month Siege of La Rochelle  ended with the surrender of the Huguenots.

1636  A vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony established the first college in what became the United States, today known as Harvard University.

1664  The Duke of York and Albany’s Maritime Regiment of Foot, later to be known as the Royal Marines, was established.

1707  The 1707 Hōei earthquake caused more than 5,000 deaths in Honshu, Shikoku and Kyūshū.

1776  American Revolutionary War: Battle of White Plains – British Army forces arrived at White Plains, attacked and captured Chatterton Hill from the Americans.

1834  The Battle of Pinjarra  in the Swan River Colony – between 14 and 40 Aborigines were killed by British colonists.

1835 – Thirty-four northern chiefs signed a Declaration of Independence at a hui called by the British Resident, James Busby.

1848  The first railway in Spain – between Barcelona and Mataró – was opened.

1884 – William Douglas Cook, New Zealand horticulturalist, founded Eastwoodhill Arboretum, was born (d. 1967).

1885 Thomas Twyford built the first porcelain toilet.

1886  President Grover Cleveland dedicated the Statue of Liberty.

1890 – New Zealand’s first Labour Day celebrations were held.

1891  The Mino-Owari Earthquake, the largest earthquake in Japan’s history, struck Gifu Prefecture.

1893 Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Pathétique, received its première performance in St. Petersburg, only nine days before the composer’s death.

1903  Evelyn Waugh, English writer, was born (d. 1966)

1914 – Jonas Salk, American biologist and physician, was born (d. 1995).

1918 Czechoslovakia was granted independence from Austria-Hungary marking the beginning of independent Czechoslovak state, after 300 years.

1918 – New Polish government in Western Galicia was established.

1919  The U.S. Congress passed the Volstead Act over President Woodrow Wilson’s veto, paving the way for Prohibition to begin the following January.

1922  March on Rome: Italian fascists led by Benito Mussolini marched on Rome and take over the Italian government.

1927 Dame Cleo Laine, British singer, was born.

1929 – Joan Plowright, English actress, was born.

1929  Black Monday, major stock market upheaval during the Wall Street Crash of 1929.

1936 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt rededicated the Statue of Liberty on its 50th anniversary.

1940  World War II: Greece rejected Italy’s ultimatum. ItalyinvadedGreece through Albania, marking Greece’s entry into World War II.

1941 Hank Marvin, English guitarist (The Shadows) was born.

1942  The Alaska Highway (Alcan Highway) is completed through Canada to Fairbanks.

1948  Swiss chemist Paul Müller was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the insecticidal properties of DDT.

1949 – Caitlyn Jenner, American decathlete and actress, was born.

1951 – Peter Hitchens, English journalist and author, was born.

1954  The modern Kingdom of the Netherlands is re-founded as a federal monarchy.

1955   Bill Gates, American software executive, was born.

1960  Landon Curt Noll, Astronomer, Cryptographer and Mathematician: youngest to hold the world record for the largest known prime 3 times, was born.

1962  Cuban Missile Crisis: Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev announced he had ordered the removal of Soviet missile bases in Cuba.

1965 Nostra Aetate, the “Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions” of the Second Vatican Council, was promulgated by Pope Paul VI; it absolved the Jews of responsibility for the death of Jesus, reversing Innocent III’s 760 year-old declaration.

1965 – Construction on the St. Louis Arch was completed.

1967  Julia Roberts, American actress, was born.

1970   Gary Gabelich set a land speed record in a rocket-powered automobile called the Blue Flame, fueled with natural gas.

1971  Britain launched its first satellite, Prospero, into low Earth orbit atop a Black Arrow carrier rocket.

1982 Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party won elections, leading to first Socialist government in Spain after death of Franco. Felipe Gonzalezbecame Prime Minister-elect.

1985  Sandinista Daniel Ortega became president of Nicaragua.

1995  289 people were killed and 265 injured in Baku Metro fire.

1998  An Air China jetliner was hijacked by disgruntled pilot Yuan Bin and flown to Taiwan.

2006  Funeral service  for those executed at Bykivnia forest, outside Kiev, Ukraine. 817 Ukrainian civilians (out of some 100,000) executed by Bolsheviks at Bykivnia in 1930s – early 1940s were reburied.

2007  Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner became the first woman elected President of Argentina.

2009 The 28 October 2009 Peshawar bombing killed 117 and wounds 213.

2009 – NASA successfully launched the Ares I-X mission, the only rocket launch for its later-cancelled Constellation programme.

2013 – 5 people were killed and 38 injured after a car crashed into barriers just outside the Forbidden City in Tiananmen Square, Beijing.

2014 – An unmanned Antares rocket carrying NASA’s Cygnus CRS Orb-3resupply mission to the International Space Station exploded seconds after taking off from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia