Word of the day

Exsibilate – to hiss off the stage; to reject with a hissing sound.

Sowell says

The worst kind of people to have in government are those who see it as a golden opportunity to impose their own superior wisdom and virtue on others.

— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) January 12, 2021

Rural round-up

Covenanters queue up for Trust action – Hugh Stringleman:

The QE11 National Trust is getting close to 5000 approved and registered covenants over nearly 200,000 hectares at the beginning of its fifth decade in existence.

The trust also has a new chair, former Federated Farmers president Bruce Wills, and three new directors appointed by Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage towards the end of an eventful year.

The 2020 annual report to June 30 disclosed a total of 4761 registered and formalised covenants, up 110 during the financial year, with a further 342 underway. . . 

Jerseys fit the environmental bill :

Jersey cows have featured prominently over the years among the four generations on John Totty’s 465ha property at Staveley.

The Jersey stud on farm was founded by Mr Totty’s grandfather — a passionate Jersey breeder — in the early 1960s. Back then the farm milked 150 cows and ran dairy replacements, sheep, beef and crop.

When Mr Totty’s parents took over the business the farm was expanded. They bought a neighbouring property in 1995 which was converted the following year.

A Friesian herd was bought and for 20 years the property supported a 750-cow herd while continuing to run young stock. . . 

Japan warns it will block NZ honey shipments if glyphosate limits breached – Charlie Dreaver:

Japan is warning it will stop importing New Zealand honey if it continues to find the weed killer glyphosate during border testing.

New Zealand’s global honey exports totalled $490 million last year, with almost $68m of that sent to Japan.

Japan is now testing all honey from New Zealand at the border, after it detected glyphosate for the second time through random testing.

Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has told the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) that if 5 percent of imported honey exceeds its glyphosate limit, it will stop the honey coming into Japan. . . 

Great to be back at #Mangara Station today for some quality #mustering. pic.twitter.com/wr2IZ1wuB4

— William Morrison (@MorrisonFarming) January 19, 2021

Gulls take to new life on the farm – Toni Williams:

Thousands of endangered black-billed gulls that usually nest at Ashburton’s State Highway One bridge have found a new home on a dairy farm at Lauriston — or at least some of them have.

The land-locked site is nowhere near the Ashburton River, their former home, and its risky riverbed, where flooding, human or canine activity disrupts nests.

Rather the birds are happily tucked in between an effluent pond and the dairy shed.

Sharemilkers Ali van Polanen and Andrew Black said the birds were first noticed on November 14. . . 

Fewer possums on Mt Pironga following 1080 drop – Doc :

A successful 1080 operation has led to fewer possums on Mount Pironga near Te Awamutu, the Department of Conservation (DOC) says.

DOC dropped 1080 over 14,000 hectares of land in September.

The work was part of long-term conservation efforts at the site, an important home to forest birds, insects, lizards and plants. . . 

Early positive start to onion season:

The 2021 New Zealand export onion season is off to an early and positive start.

‘Amongst all the turmoil created by Covid and the weather, it’s great to be able to report that exports of New Zealand onions to Indonesia are underway, two months earlier than last year,’ says Onions New Zealand Chief Executive, James Kuperus.

‘This is thanks to New Zealand government trade officials’ efforts to keep trade open and a decision by Indonesian officials to release quota early.

’78 tonnes of onions harvested earlier in January left for Indonesia last week. While this is small, it signals the season is underway early, and prices reflect the additional costs of growing and exporting during a pandemic.’ . . 

#sunriserainbow & #doublerainbow was an impressive start to our Sunday.. Just after 6am@Fonterra @MetService pic.twitter.com/mhSkbMy4a5

— Katy Button (@katy_button) January 16, 2021

Autogrow announces spin-out of AI farming company WayBeyond to accelerate growth:

Autogrow has unveiled a corporate reorganization as part of a long-term business strategy which will see the organization split into two separate entities with the launch of digital farming company WayBeyond.

WayBeyond Limited (WayBeyond) led by CEO and Founder Darryn Keiller, will focus on the global expansion of digital farm solutions for large scale, multi-site farms to optimize farming productivity. Autogrow, now under the management of Acting General Manager Rod Britton, will focus on continuing the global growth of the automation and control business for small to medium growers.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity and one I’m proud to have brought to fruition – the growth of an existing business in Autogrow and the creation of a new and transformational one in WayBeyond. A journey like this is a team sport, with a highly talented team, committed investors, and government and industry collaborators; the dream has become a reality,” explains Mr. Keiller. . . 

Petition launched to get more vets into NZ

A critical shortage of vets has prompted a petition to let more into the country:

Right now, New Zealand is facing a dire veterinarian shortage. We urgently need vets from overseas, but the closure of our borders to safeguard New Zealand from COVID-19 – while of course necessary – has meant they haven’t been able to arrive.

As we enter the busy summer season, without enough vets: 

• Animal welfare will suffer; 

• The wellbeing of our extremely busy, stressed and burnt-out vets will only continue to be hit, at a time they should be able to enjoy some rest with loved ones; and

• Our production animal sectors could face economic harm if animals can’t be treated.

The Government has made some promising noises, but far more still needs to be done.

So far, of the 30 border exceptions the Government promised back in September, only 19 or so vets have been allowed into the country – despite many more (who meet the Government’s stated criteria) requesting exceptions to enter and being declined. 

The Government’s latest decision only reconfirms its existing and public-stated policy: that only vets earning over $106,080 pa will be eligible for border exceptions.

We desperately need vets of all skill levels, salary levels, experience levels and disciplines, and we only need a small number. Only a few vets would be entering NZ at any one time – because it takes a while to find them jobs and get them registered to practise as a veterinarian here in New Zealand.  

They’ll arrive in a safe and controlled manner, and not all at once like the Netflix actors or Russian fishermen. They’ll arrive a few at a time and won’t clog up MIQ facilities.

Designating vets as critical workers would reflect our crucial need for them as skilled professionals to care for our animals – in the same way that we recognise our human doctors who care for you and me.

Please sign and share this petition to urge the Government to reclassify vets as critical workers. Thank you.

You can sign the petition here.

You can read a media release here.

Yes Sir Humphrey

The first rule of politics: never believe anything until it's been officially denied.

— Sir Humphrey Appleby (@YesSirHumphrey) January 9, 2021

Sign could have stopped sticker stoush

Someone has laid a complaint with the Commerce Commission over New World’s Smeg knife promotion.

A frustrated New World customer who cannot get one of the supermarket chain’s promotional knife blocks has lodged a Commerce Commission complaint alleging a breach of the Fair Trading Act.

New World’s owner Foodstuffs has run a highly-successful giveaway of Smeg knives and knifeblocks over summer. But the company has all but run out of the blocks and says it cannot get any more.

The customer, an Auckland businessman who didn’t want to be named, said he believed continuing the promotion when New World knew the star attraction was unavailable amounted to misleading conduct under the Act.

Foodstuffs says it is confident it hasn’t breached the law, but Consumer New Zealand say the man may have a case – and says New World stores that have run out of stock should be posting signs to warn customers before they buy groceries in the hope of securing a knife block. . . 

They are very good knives.

We usually shop at New World and with catering for a couple of Christmas parties, buying ingredients to make 21 Christmas cakes and some other reasonably big shops it wasn’t hard for my farmer and me to collect enough stickers to get all the knives we wanted.

Others have been slower to collect the stickers you get with every $20 spend and are finding they can’t redeem them.

The booklet in which you stick the stickers makes it quite clear the promotion is only while stocks last. However, shoppers probably don’t know that stocks are low or, in many cases, no more until they try to redeem their stickers.

It has probably been a very good promotion for the supermarkets if people have, as I did a few times, added something extra to their trolleys to ensure they got another sticker and I am sure I’m not the only one to be grateful to have a new supply of good, sharp knives in my kitchen.

But at least some of the good will have been undone by the disgruntled who haven’t been able to get the knives they wanted as stocks ran out.

The staff at my local warned me when stocks were running low and it’s very much a first world problem but Consumer is right. A sign could have stopped the sticker stoush by warning people before they shopped that supplies of the knives and knife blocks had run out.