Rural round-up

Fonterra Shareholders’ Fund growth threat to farmer control even if they can’t vote: Chairman’ – Andrea Fox:

The Fonterra Shareholders’ Fund does not have voting rights in New Zealand’s biggest business, but it does have influence, which is a form of control, says chairman Peter McBride.

“The greater the size of the fund, the greater the level of influence it can bring to bear on the co-operative’s leadership.”

Fonterra farmer-shareholders and unitholders had different ideas about risk and value, he said. . . 

Nominations for rural business awards open:

Rural Women New Zealand (RWNZ) and insurance company NZI have launched the NZI Rural Women NZ Business Awards for 2021.

RWNZ national president Gill Naylor says the awards are an opportunity to showcase the creativity and innovation of rural women entrepreneurs and the support they provide rural communities.

“Many small businesses have faced significant challenges as a result of the pandemic. This makes the opportunity to recognise and celebrate the resilience of women-owned and operated rural businesses all the more important. . .

Bit cool at #WaikakaStn fog has burnt off and not a cloud in the sky. #happydays pic.twitter.com/cImMFsmlXq

— Ross Paterson (@waikakagenetics) May 9, 2021

Do animals need a varied diet – Jacqueline Rowarth:

A “varied diet” is in response to food availability and an attempt to restrain our own inclinations to indulge. Imposing this recent and muddled human concept on animals is inappropriate, Dr Jacqueline Rowarth writes.

Children like lollies. Not always, but generally. Sweet-free aisles at the supermarket are in place to avoid trouble.

Watch what happens at a children’s party and the energy foods will be eaten first – icecream, cake, chips. Not always, but generally.

In adulthood, doughnuts are a popular choice to meet the need, and research involving bagels has shown that the most popular choice has the combination of sugar for instant energy and fat for long-term calorie maximisation. . . 

Dedication behind trialling success – Alice Scott:

Next week, Greenvale will come alive as it plays host to the New Zealand Sheep Dog Trials. Alice Scott talked to keen triallist Scott Hunter as he prepares for a big week.

Dog trialling. The keen enthusiast will chew through quite a few diesel kilometres in the ute, consume a few cups of coffee while waiting for their run and sometimes, for those who hang around long enough, may enjoy a cold beverage later on. Just the one.

For those just starting out and with a partner or young family — it will also likely mean preparing said loved ones for the impending days or (God willing) weekends of absence, all the while seasoned wives tend to happily nod as they hatch out their own weekend of matrimonial bliss.

Scott Hunter’s name is often seen up on the leaderboard at many club trials around Otago and Southland. He has competed at 10 Island championships and 10 New Zealand championships. At 2019’s South Island championships in Hanmer Springs, he came away with two third placings. . . 

Farmers discuss the benefits of Southdowns – Shawn McAvinue:

A tour of Southern farms running Southdown sheep featured discussions about hogget lambing and the traits of the breed farmers must “protect at all costs”.

About 40 people from throughout the country attended the Southdown Sheep Society of New Zealand’s national southern tour last week.

Tour stops included Don Murray’s Riverside stud in Waitahuna, about 10km southeast of Lawrence. Southern Southdown Breeders Club member Roger Keach, of Waihola, started proceedings by quizzing the visitors.

“Who played at two test matches — All Blacks and New Zealand Kiwis — on the same day in Auckland in 1946?” Visitors pondered the question as Mr Murray introduced himself and talked about his system breeding Southdowns on his 550ha farm. . . 

 

Works his socks off 🥦 #sheepdog pic.twitter.com/pf2Uxhg9ds

— Jess (@Lillady) May 12, 2021

Essential oil “without peer” offers bright future in spite of production challenges – Jamie Brown:

The quietly performing Aussie native lemon myrtle produces oil and dried leaf suitable for high-end culinary and medicinal purposes. Right now an eager global market is clamouring for more.

Newly formed Myrtle Trading Company purchased a farm at Wyrallah near Lismore with an existing orchard and now is in the process of expanding production and is keen to work with local farmers interested in producing lemon myrtle leaf. This week they hosted a training program, in conjunction with Ballina based North Coast Community College.

Students paid to study – and to plant trees – learning about organic methods of farming that include controlling the troublesome myrtle rust – a fungus that spots the leaves and reduces growth, marking them visually but not affecting the plant’s citronol-rich quality. . . 

Rural round-up

Seed of interest planted at young age – Sally Rae:

In a year marking the 125th anniversary of women’s suffrage in New Zealand, South Pacific Seeds managing director Charlotte Connoley has become the first woman in the New Zealand Grain and Seed Trade Association’s 100-year history to be elected to its executive. She talks to Sally Rae.

Charlotte Connoley likes nothing better than getting back to her rural roots.

As well as catching up with Kurow-based family, it was also an opportunity to share a taste of her own farming upbringing with her two preschool-aged sons.

Whether getting them in a woolshed or shifting sheep, it helped give them an understanding of where their food came from and how it was produced, Mrs Connoley (39) said. . . 

All about taking Southdown ‘to next level’ – Sally Rae:

Southdown sheep might be a breed steeped in history — it is the oldest of the terminal sire breeds in the UK — but a group of breeders in New Zealand is firmly focused on positioning it for the future, as  Sally Rae reports.

Lawrence farmer Don Murray quips he is a novice when it comes to breeding Southdown sheep.

There were stalwart breeders who had been there “forever” and from whom he had learned a lot since establishing his stud in 2006.

Mr Murray said he had always liked breeding sheep and was interested in recording. His father-in-law, who had bred Southdowns, further encouraged his interest to venture into stud breeding. . . 

Spring barley under water…..again. pic.twitter.com/CamMeInmkQ

— Blocka 🧢 (@blairdrysdale77) December 2, 2018

Good health needs to be worked on – Mark Daniel:

Rural life, and agriculture is driven by changing seasons that dictate on-farm tasks and operations and busy times can mean pressure on owners or employees.

The pressure of a high workload over an extended period can create illness or fatigue, often in the form of the “silent killers” such as high blood pressure, diabetes or obesity.

While you wouldn’t baulk at making informed decisions about stock, pastures or crops, it’s sometimes too easy to forget about making good decisions about the overall management of your staff and indeed your own time to keep things on an even keel. . . 

Vet’s life brings variety – Ross Nolly:

Many country kids who grow up on a dairy farm dream of becoming a vet and working with large animals. 

But even though they have probably come in contact with a vet numerous times they often don’t know the realities of the job. 

Cathy Thompson who only recently retired from the Taranaki Veterinary Centre was a large animal vet for well over 30 years. A large proportion of her workload was on the region’s many dairy farms.

When she began her career only 20% of vets were female and it was a novelty for a farmer to have a female vet attend a call-out. 

Now 80% of new vets are women. . . 

Fonterra likely to cut forecast payout to farmer shareholder:

Fonterra Cooperative Group is expected to cut its forecast payout to farmers when it publishes first-quarter results on Thursday.

Record production in New Zealand and weak global dairy prices are seen weighing on the cooperative, which currently predicts a payment of $6.25-to-$6.50 per kilogram of milk solids for the 2019 season, down from a previous forecast of $6.75/kgMS and the $7/kgMS opening prediction in May. Fonterra paid $6.69/kgMS in the 2018 season. . .

Americans have planted so much corn that’s it’s changed the climate – Eric J. Wallace:

CORN FARMERS IN EASTERN NEBRASKA have long claimed weather patterns are changing, but in an unexpected way.

“It’s something I’ve talked about with my dad and grandad many times,” says fifth-generation corn farmer Brandon Giltner. Along with his father and brother, the 45-year-old lives in the 400-person village of Giltner and grows about 2,000 acres of corn each year. From above, the area looks like a blip of homes surrounded by an expansive grid of circular fields. Though Brandon’s grandfather is retired, he takes an active interest in the business. “Contrary to what you’d think should be happening, both him and my dad swear up and down [that] droughts used to come more often and be a lot worse,” says Hunnicutt. “Considering it’s been 30 years since we had a really bad one, I’ve started kind of taking them at their word.” . . 

 

Another crap day. 50km SW winds. Upholds my faith in cover cropping. #cotton. Ground cover is king👍 pic.twitter.com/XTw9VCiTqr

— Alex Ballhausen (@AlexBallhausen) December 2, 2018

More milk please – Saul Morris:

Dairy consumption is a much debated topic among nutritionists. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends reducing saturated fats to less than 10 percent of total energy intake and reducing trans-fats to less than 1 percent of total energy intake.

This recommendation is translated into “practical advice” to “replace” butter with oils rich in polyunsaturated fats and eat reduced-fat dairy foods, among other suggestions. But is this advice in line with the latest evidence, and is it appropriate for populations in Africa and Asia that currently have very low consumption of dairy products and may not find it easy to access to reduced-fat products?

A study published this month in the leading medical journal The Lancet casts doubt on the epidemiological evidence base for discouraging dairy consumption. The authors followed up, for an average of nine years, more than 136,000 individuals aged 35-70 years from 21 countries from five continents. They measured their diets using locally appropriate food frequency questionnaires and tracked their subsequent rates of serious heart disease and death from all causes. They found that dairy consumption was protective against both serious heart disease and death from all causes, and that this protective effect was particularly marked for whole-fat dairy. Milk and yoghurt both showed the same protective effect when analysed separately; cheese and butter did not show statistically significant effects. . .

 

July 31 in history

On July 31:

30 BC  Battle of Alexandria: Mark Antony achieved a minor victory over Octavian’s forces, but most of his army subsequently deserted, leading to his suicide.

781 The oldest recorded eruption of Mt. Fuji.

904 Thessalonica fell to the Arabs, who destroyed the city.

1009  Pope Sergius IV became the 142nd pope, succeeding Pope John XVIII.

1200 Attempted usurpation of John Komnenos the Fat.

1423  Hundred Years’ War: Battle of Cravant – the French army was defeated at Cravant.

1451  Jacques Cœur was arrested by order of Charles VII of France.

 

1492 Jews were expelled from Spain when the Alhambra Decree took effect.

 

1498 On his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus became the first European to discover the island of Trinidad.

 

1658 Aurangzeb was proclaimed Moghul emperor of India.

1667   Treaty of Breda ended the second Anglo-Dutch War.

 

1703  Daniel Defoe was placed in a pillory for the crime of seditious libel after publishing a politically satirical pamphlet, but was pelted with flowers.

 

1741  Charles Albert of Bavaria invaded Upper Austria and Bohemia.

1777 Pedro Ignacio de Castro Barros, Argentine statesman and priest, was born (d. 1849).

1777 The U.S. Second Continental Congress passed a resolution that the services of Marquis de Lafayette “be accepted, and that, in consideration of his zeal, illustrious family and connexions, he have the rank and commission of major-general of the United States.”

1790  First U.S. patent was issued to inventor Samuel Hopkins for a potash process.

 

1800 Friedrich Wöhler, German chemist and founder of organic chemistry, was born.

1803 John Ericsson, Swedish inventor and engineer, was born (d. 1889).

1856  Christchurch, New Zealand, was chartered as a city.

1860 Mary Vaux Walcott,  American artist and naturalist, was born (d. 1940).

1865 The first narrow gauge mainline railway in the world opened at Grandchester, Australia.

1895  The Basque Nationalist Party (Euzko Alderdi Jeltzalea-Partido Nacionalista Vasco) was founded by Basque nationalist leader Sabino Arana.

1909  Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, Austrian writer and polyglot, was born (d. 1999).

1912  Milton Friedman, American economist, Nobel laureate (d. 2006).

1913 The Balkan States signed an armistice at Bucharest.

 

1919 German national assembly adopted the Weimar constitution.

1921 Peter Benenson, British founder of Amnesty International, was born (d. 2005).

1930  The radio mystery programme The Shadow  aired for the first time.

1932  The NSDAP won more than 38% of the vote in German elections.

1936  The International Olympic Committee announced that the 1940 Summer Olympics would be held in Tokyo. However, the games were given back to the IOC after the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out, and are eventually cancelled altogether because of World War II.

 

1938 Bulgaria signed a non-aggression pact with Greece and other states of Balkan Antanti (Turkey, Romania, Yugoslavia).

1938 Archaeologists discovered engraved gold and silver plates from King Darius in Persepolis.

1940 A doodlebug train in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio collided with a multi-car freight train heading in the opposite direction, killing 43 people.

1941  Holocaust: under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring, ordered SS General Reinhard Heydrich to “submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired final solution of the Jewish question.”

 

1943 Lobo, American singer and songwriter, was born.

 1944  Geraldine Chaplin, American actress.

1944 – Jonathan Dimbleby, British journalist and television presenter.

1945  Pierre Laval, the fugitive former leader of Vichy France, surrendered to Allied soldiers in Austria.

 

1945  John K. Giles attempted to escape from Alcatraz prison.

1948  New York International Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) was dedicated.

1951  Japan Airlines was established.

1954 First ascent of K2, by an Italian expedition led by Ardito Desio.

1959  The Basque separatist organisation ETA was founded.

1964 Jim Corr, Irish singer and musician (The Corrs), was born.

1964  Ranger 7 sent back the first close-up photographs of the moon, with images 1,000 times clearer than anything ever seen from earth-bound telescopes.

1970 Black Tot Day: The last day of the officially sanctioned rum ration in the Royal Navy.

1972 – Operation Motorman: British troops moved into the no-go areas of Belfast and Derry. End of Free Derry.

1972 – Three car bombs detonated in Claudy, Northern Ireland, killing nine.

1973 A Delta Air Lines jetliner crashed while landing in fog at Logan Airport, Boston, Massachusetts killing 89.

1976 John Walker won gold in the 1500 metres at the Montreal Olympics.

1976 NASA released the  Face on Mars photo.

 

1978 Will Champion, English musician (Coldplay), was born.

1980 Mils Muliaina, New Zealand rugby union player, was born.

1980 Mikko Hirvonen, Finnish rally driver, was born.

1981 – General Omar Torrijos of Panama died in a plane crash.

 

1981 A total solar eclipse occured.

 

1987  A rare, class F4 tornado ripped through Edmonton, Alberta, killing 27 people and causing $330 million in damage.

1988  32 people died and 1,674 injured when a bridge at the Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal collapsed in Butterworth, Malaysia.

1991  The Medininkai Massacre in Lithuania. Soviet OMON attacked Lithuanian customs post in Medininkai, killing 7 officers and severely wounding one other.

1992  A Thai Airways Airbus A300-310 crashed into a mountain north of Kathmandu, Nepal killing 113.

1999  Lunar Prospector – NASA intentionally crashed the spacecraft into the Moon, ending its mission to detect frozen water on the moon’s surface.

2002  Hebrew University of Jerusalem was attacked when a bomb exploded in a cafeteria, killing 9.

2006  Fidel Castro handed over power temporarily to brother Raúl Castro.

2007 Operation Banner, the presence of the British Army in Northern Ireland, and the longest-running British Army operation ever, ended.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia