Rural round-up

Selling sheep and beef farms to forestry is a threat to food and trade – Stuff Editorial:

His pockets stuffed with millions of dollars for regional development, his mind set on getting unemployed cousins off the couch to plant a billion trees, he stood before a mayoral reception and urged people to get involved.

“If you have an aspiration to turn marginal land into forestry, we are going to do it …” he told his hosts.

The official guide to his One Billion Trees Programme featured the Manawatū sheep and beef farm owned by Justin and Mary Vennell. . . 

Farmer uneasy over farm to forestry conversion plan – Heather Chalmers:

Government incentives to plant trees is leading to a rush of sheep and beef farms being sold for conversion to forests.  

Farmers are worried about the trend, saying that once hill country properties are planted in forests, they will never return to pastoral farming.     

While the Government had banned overseas people, apart from Australians and Singaporeans, from buying existing residential and lifestyle properties, rule changes had made it easier for foreigners to invest in forestry.   . .

In the past 7 years we have gone from 10 hectares of lucerne to over 280, in this time we have increased our farm production by 50% and most importantly built some real resilience and sustainability in our business pic.twitter.com/kPyFeYyjJS

— New Zealand's Farmers (@nz_farmers) May 18, 2019

There’s rarely a day at least one story from New Zealand Farmers Weekly doesn’t feature in my rural-round-up.

It’s also the one give-away paper that is a must read not just in ours but in every other farming house I know.

It deserves its title of Best Trade Publication in the Voyager NZ Media Awards.

We won! Best trade publication at the #VoyagerMediaAwards2019 well done team. pic.twitter.com/yj98qTSkCF

— Farmers Weekly NZ (@FarmersWeeklyNZ) May 17, 2019

Climate policy still clouded – Neal Wallace:

The government is still to decide the mechanics of how and how much farmers will pay for methane emissions and if it will mean inclusion in the Emissions Trading Scheme.

Initially, the point of obligation will be with milk and meat processors but Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor says that is for ease of administration and he has made research on shifting the liability to individual farms a priority.

“I want to see us reward good on-farm behaviour and practice as quickly as we can.” . .

Northland a centre of share farming excellence – Hugh Stringleman:

Share Farmers of the Year Colin and Isabella Beazley have their hands full with winter milking and a herd expansion by 200 cows for next season.

The magnitude of their win on the national stage, carrying more than $50,000 worth of prizes, is slowing sinking in amid the enhanced planning and provisioning alongside usual farm work and family life.

Fortunately, they do not have to move farm or home for the next three contracted years of their dairying careers, milking 530-550 cows and aiming for more than 200,000kg milksolids next season. . .

Team fodder beet pic.twitter.com/wzJXJkqsiS

— El Moaning Farmer (@timgortonz) May 17, 2019

Preventing farmer suicides through helplines and farm visits – Allee Mead:

In 2016, dairy farmers Meg Moynihan and her husband lost the buyer for their organic milk. Because she was working for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) Organic Program at the time, Moynihan thought it’d be easy to find a new buyer, but “all doors were closed,” she said. “It was the beginning of the milk glut.”

 

Rural round-up

Supreme Court issues victory for private land conservation:

The Supreme Court has delivered a historic decision to protect covenanted land against a land developer who bought the property with the intention of carving it up, developing on the beautiful and protected bush and then selling the land for profit.

QEII National Trust Acting CEO, Paul Kirby says “this is a victory for conservation on private land in New Zealand and a blow for those who think that they can overturn QEII legal protection of the land. The Supreme Court has reinforced that QEII covenants protect natural spaces against the people who buy a property to divide and develop the land. We are proud to have lead the fight to protect the land against this kind of development. . .

Foresters fear carbon auction’s implications – Richard Rennie:

Forest Owners Association president Peter Weir is troubled by Government proposals to use an auction system to allocate extra carbon units under a revised Emissions Trading Scheme.

The proposal is for a sealed-bid, single-round auction where bidders submit their bids simultaneously. 

Each bidder can submit multiple bids, ultimately creating a demand curve ranking all bids from highest to lowest. A clearing price is then determined, where supply and demand meet.

But Weir is concerned the proposal is going to cause more problems than it solves.

Fonterra pauses to take stock – Hugh Stringleman:

Fonterra dropped another bombshell with the appointment of an interim chief executive, Miles Hurrell, to take over immediately from departing Dutch dairy industry veteran Theo Spierings.

The internal promotion of Hurrell came as Fonterra’s directors reconsider the company’s direction of travel and its needs in a chief executive.

An external recruitment process, started in November last year, is suspended in the meantime, chairman John Monaghan said.

Hurrell has the right mix of talents and experience needed at this time and he will not be paid what former chairman John Wilson called the eye-watering salary and bonuses that Spierings received. . .

 

Quite a mix of work and weather this week at #MangaRa Station, as we get everything ready for lambing and calving. pic.twitter.com/fqT6xwMPGA

— William Morrison (@MorrisonFarming) August 18, 2018

Sheep wool can help cats’ diet:

Proteins from wool can be added to the diets of animals to improve their health, AgResearch scientists have shown.

Researchers say the positive findings in the diets of domestic cats open up exciting possibilities for new uses of sheep wool to improve digestive health for a broader range of animals, and potentially human beings.

The findings have just been published in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Food & Function journal, and are available here . . 

NZ blister protection company, Walk On, names first CEO:

Walk On, the blister protection company known for its luxuriously soft Hyperfine merino wool product, has appointed Dr. Mark Davey as its first CEO.

Walk On Founder and Chairman Lucas Smith made the announcement as part of a 2018 initiative to carry the momentum of Walk On’s initial domestic success into international markets. Walk On recently secured a national distribution deal with outdoor and adventure sports multi-channel retailer Torpedo 7, and is also available in 10 retail stores nationally.

“Mark Davey’s experience as a New Zealand apparel innovator will be pivotal to the company as we embark on the next steps of the Walk On journey during our capital raise and international market development efforts,” remarked Lucas Smith. “Mark has experience with both, and we are excited to have him on board.”. . .

End of a family dynasty on Gunningbar Creek – Peter Austin:

A useful grazing block in the tightly-held Gunningbar Creek area north of Nyngan will go to auction later this month, ending nearly a century of ownership by the local Green family.

The 2668 hectare (6594ac) “Belarbone” has been listed for sale by Phil Wallace of Landmark Nyngan on behalf of Gavin and Jenny Green, who are selling in their lead-up to retirement.

Gavin took on the management of “Belarbone” in the early 1980s, at which stage it was an undeveloped block with no electricity connection, no buildings and no infrastructure. . .

pic.twitter.com/hhm6wya3kz

— Matthew Herbert (@m_herbert) August 18, 2018

 

Rural round-up

Nitrogen-busting genetics could prevent millions of kilograms of nitrates landing on dairy farms – Pat Deavoll:

Nitrate reducing forage plants and bacteria, denitrification walls and now nitrate-busting bulls are being developed to lower farming’s impact on the environment.

Thanks to an international breakthrough by dairy herd improvement company CRV Ambreed, bulls have been identified that pass lower nitrate levels through their urine onto soils.

The company has selected bulls genetically superior for a trait related to the concentration of urea nitrogen in milk. . .

Sone up, some down, some firm – Nigel Malthus:

Lamb, sheep and deer prices are likely to remain firm, but cow and bull prices could soften, according to the Alliance Group’s projections for the new season.

Heather Stacy, Alliance’s general manager livestock and shareholder services, told a recent meeting of shareholder farmers at Little River, Banks Peninsula, that prime beef prices should remain similar to last year at $5.00 – $5.40/kg early season and $4.80 – $5.20/kg post-Christmas. . . 

Kiwifruit’s bright outlook – Peter Burke:

There’s gold for New Zealand growers in Zespri’s SunGold kiwifruit.
Overseas demand is high for the new Psa-free variety and prices continue to rise.

As a result, Zespri chairman Peter McBride is forecasting a net profit after tax of $96 million to $101m for the year ended March 31, 2018. Profit last year was $73.7m. . .

Science to rule on farming’s role in ETS:

Farmers are relieved that science – rather than politics – will decide whether agriculture should be included in the Emissions Trading Scheme.

Under the coalition agreement unveiled yesterday, a new Climate Commission will make the decision.

Other details made public yesterday include scrapping the controversial water tax, but introducing a royalty on bottled water exports, along with higher water quality standards for everyone.

Labour went into the election promising to make the country carbon neutral by 2050. . . 

Dairy fund takes stake in Lewis Road to support NZ, international expansion – Sophie Boot:

Dairy farming investment fund Southern Pastures has taken an undisclosed but significant stake in Lewis Road Creamery, with executive chairman Prem Maan set to join the Lewis Road board.

The investment “will enable further expansion of Lewis Road’s popular product portfolio in New Zealand, and support the company’s push towards exporting to lucrative overseas markets”, Lewis Road said in a statement. Founder and chief executive Peter Cullinane will remain the company’s largest shareholder. . . 

Increase in illegal seafood sales on Facebook prompts warning:

A significant increase in the number of illegal seafood sales via Facebook has prompted the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) to warn those offending that they will face penalties for violating the Fisheries Act.

Since the beginning of the year, MPI has received more than 160 calls and emails reporting Facebook posts by people selling recreationally caught seafood including crayfish, kina and pāua.That’s up on the previous year where 96 complaints were received and the year before that when 57 complaints were registered. . . 

A reminder: buying & selling recreationally caught seafood on social media is illegal & fines can go up to $250,000 https://t.co/0BCw12tWiV pic.twitter.com/7shnpfHMB7

— Primary Industries (@MPI_NZ) October 24, 2017

The many paradoxes of life on and off farm – Joyce Wylie:

Paradoxes are part of our lives, and they are not skydiving medical teams. Paradox is defined as “a person or thing exhibiting apparently contradictory characteristics” which can make them both humorously absurd and irritating nonsense.

For example 3.57 million New Zealanders enrolled for our recent election. So, 79.8 per cent of us used our democratic privilege meaning 2.63 million votes were cast and counted. But amazingly after this major public participation the final result came down to a small number of candidates who didn’t win a single electorate seat between them. They made a choice behind closed doors about who holds power in the 52nd parliament of our country.

10 things only a farmer’s child would know – Hayley Parrott:

We recently had a chuckle at an article about 10 things anyone marrying a farmer can expect to encounter and it got us thinking. Lots of us in the Farmers Weekly office grew up on farms and here are a few memories we think those of you born and bred on a farm might empathise with.

1. Summer holidays. Or so-called “holidays”. For those six weeks you await with such anticipation, you will spend most of it helping to feed the chickens, walk the dogs and painting fences. You’ll be granted a well-earned break on the day of the county show. . .

Rural round-up

Putting NZ agriculture under the ETS is illogical:

Labour’s announcement that it will move agriculture into the Emissions Trading Scheme in stages will cost the livestock sector at least $83 million in year one, rising to more than $830 million each year when fully implemented.

Federated Farmers agrees that action on climate change is needed. But as New Zealand farmers are among the most efficient producers of food on the planet, it is illogical to put the sector at a competitive disadvantage against export competitors, effectively shifting production to less efficient producers overseas. . .

Farmers should not pay for all water pollution – Basil Sharp:

Water use needs a price, but Labour’s misguided water tax is unfair and would not deter polluters.

We need an efficient, sustainable and fair way of allocating water. From the little detail available, Labour’s proposed water tax does not sound like it offers this. Not only does it fail to target polluters, it risks perverse and distorting effects.

The Labour Party proposes applying a royalty – call it a water tax – of up to 2c per 1000 litres of water. The money collected would be given to councils and iwi to restore local waterways. It is not unusual for governments to charge a royalty on resources they own. Our Government applies royalties to minerals vested in the Crown. . .

Let’s tax this – what are we in for with Labour?

On the cusp of the election, voters are still in the dark about what taxes they might be hit with if Labour is part of the next government.

A tax (“royalty”) on water is confirmed. But Jacinda Ardern has refused to rule out a capital gains tax, a land value tax, and an asset and wealth tax – other than to say the family home is exempt.

“For Labour to say they’re not able to be more explicit about what they have in mind until they have recommendations from the yet-to-be-named members of a tax panel is something of a cop-out, and certainly doesn’t help voters,” Federated Farmers Vice-President Andrew Hoggard says. . .

Mycoplasma bovis – update 8 September 2017:

The Ministry for Primary Industries’ testing programme for Mycoplasma bovis continues at pace with over 15,000 tests now completed by MPI’s Animal Health Laboratory at Wallaceville.

Response Incident Controller Dr Eve Pleydell says the overwhelming majority of the tests have come back negative, with positive results so far only being found on the six known infected properties. . .

Meat and dairy lift manufacturing:

The volume of meat and dairy product manufacturing rose in the June 2017 quarter, Stats NZ said. Sales values also rose, coinciding with high prices.

After adjusting for seasonal effects and removing price changes, the meat and dairy product manufacturing volume rose 8.2 percent in the June 2017 quarter.

“The rise in the meat and dairy sales volume followed falls in the previous two quarters,” manufacturing manager Sue Chapman said. . .

NZ wool market continues to pick up at weekly auction – Tina Morrison:

(BusinessDesk) – New Zealand’s wool market continued to improve at the latest weekly auction, as demand picked up from China, the largest buyer of the fibre, and a decline in the local currency made trading more attractive.

Some 91 percent of the 8,047 wool bales offered at yesterday’s North Island auction were sold, and prices lifted for most styles of wool with the coarse crossbred wool indicator increasing to $3.05 a kilogram, up 6 cents from last week’s South Island auction and 19 cents higher than the previous North Island auction a fortnight ago, AgriHQ said. . .

New Zealand avocado's are well-positioned to enter the #China market due to huge health & nutritional benefits: https://t.co/k7IB2I5HrJ pic.twitter.com/AbLi9gnJER

— NZTE (@NZTEnews) September 7, 2017

No use imposing pain for no gain

Why isn’t farming included in the emissions trading scheme?

Climate Change Minister Paula Bennett nails the answer:

Let me take this opportunity to clearly state the Government’s position: until there is an economically viable way of reducing agricultural emissions through technological advances or otherwise, I will not be bringing agriculture into the Emissions Trading Scheme.

In a Parliamentary debate on the recent Globe New Zealand report into climate change, Labour’s David Parker said “If we are elected, agriculture will be coming into ETS very fast. We have always said it should”.
Here’s my response to Parker.
We fully support our farmers here in NZ.
There is absolutely no point in cutting them off at the knees because more inefficient farmers across the world would pick up the slack and leave us worse off overall.
The greenhouse gas footprint from dairy here is less than half the global average.
We are a nation of four million feeding 40m – the world needs what our farmers produce.

Imposing the ETS on farming now would cause financial pain to farmers and the country.

If there was an environmental gain that cost might be justified but it can’t be when less efficient producers elsewhere would step in to the gap left by lower production in New Zealand.

We should be backing our NZ farmers.
The actions farmers are already taking to improve water quality and reduce nitrogen fertiliser costs have climate change co-benefits.
Farms that are improving efficiency and productivity are also reducing emissions intensity.
Over the past 25 years farmers have improved the emissions efficiency of production by about 1% a year.
Without these gains, agricultural emissions would have increased by 40% to produce the same amount of product, rather than the current 15% increase in emissions.
We need to make sure actions to achieve these efficiency gains become standard practice and that we strive for further improvements that have both on farm economic and climate benefits.
A thriving and productive agricultural sector is pivotal to the health of NZ’s economy and farmers are natural environmentalists.
We’ll be working in partnership with farmers, not against them, to make the changes we need to make to reach our ambitious Paris Agreement emissions reduction target.
We continue to put about $20m a year into agricultural greenhouse gas mitigation and adaptation research.
It includes improving our national forestry and agriculture greenhouse gas inventory and reporting, understanding and adapting to the impacts of climate change, research on reducing methane and nitrous oxide and how soil can be used to store carbon.
The Primary Growth Partnership and the Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre are examples of government industry partnerships to find new technologies and production systems that will make farming more productive and sustainable.
Fonterra has formed a 10-year, $20m partnership programme with the Department of Conservation to reduce predators and improve habitats and water quality.
This project looks at how sustainable dairying can be part of healthy, functioning ecosystems, highlighting the important two-way relationship between environmental health and economic prosperity.
NZ is working with other countries on many projects related to agriculture and recently signed an agreement with China to share technical expertise on carbon trading and agricultural greenhouse gas mitigation.
The Government continues to fund forestry schemes which provide additional income from marginal land, help improve water quality and act as a carbon sink.
We provide start-up support for community irrigation schemes which must meet regional environmental requirements.
NZ has a great opportunity to demonstrate that we have that integrity and to market ourselves as a really superb grower of premium food.
I have never met a farmer who didn’t want to leave the environment in a better state than they found it, for future generations.
We all need to work together to embed and accelerate good management practice and connect better with our consumers, both here and overseas.
A thriving and productive agricultural sector is pivotal to the health of NZ’s economy and farmers are natural environmentalists.

Quite.

Farmers might be a small minority in New Zealand now but farming still makes a large contribution to the economy.

Contrary to the anti-farming rhetoric most farmers are also doing everything they can to repair the environmental damage for poor practices in the past and ensure their current practices leave as small an environmental footprint as possible.

Rural round-up

Agriculture could be included in Emissions Trading Scheme – Kate Gudsell:

The Treasury has raised the possibility of agriculture being included in the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) after years of being exempt from charges.

The move is suggested in a March Treasury briefing to Finance Minister Bill English and his two associates Steven Joyce and Paula Bennett.

The briefing outlines the financial risk the government faces from scrapping the one-for-two scheme – a 50 percent subsidy for polluters which meant they paid half the value of their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. . . 

Local government needs you:

With nominations for this year’s local authority elections opening on Friday, Federated Farmers is calling on farmers and other business-minded people to consider standing for election.

Federated Farmers’ Local Government spokesperson Katie Milne said it’s  vitally important that we get good candidates to put themselves forward.

“Being a councillor is a challenging role but farmers can make a real difference on councils as they can inform and educate their colleagues and staff about what happens on-farm. . .

Battle for our Birds 2016 operations begin:

The largest pest control operation in New Zealand’s history has been launched today by Conservation Minister Maggie Barry.

Battle for our Birds 2016 will protect our nation’s most vulnerable native species from the potentially catastrophic explosion of rats and stoats in New Zealand forests as a result of a beech mast event.

At an event at Bob’s Cove near Queenstown today Ms Barry announced aerial 1080 drops have been confirmed for 19 sites covering more than 720,000 hectares of high value land. . . 

Meat exporters facing foreign exchange headwinds:

Meat Industry Association Chief Executive Tim Ritchie says uncertainty in the EU as a result of Brexit is one of the causes of a higher exchange rate, which will significantly affect prices our exporters receive in the European market. This, in turn, affects the prices meat processors can pay farmers for their livestock. Volatility in exchange rates has already had a significant impact on meat exporters, which led to eroded margins in the last season.

This year, the volatility looks like it will get worse. A year ago, a NZD was worth 0.43 GBP, but is currently 0.53 GBP, with the NZD rising sharply against the GBP since the Brexit referendum.  . . 

Rabobank Global Wine Quarterly Q3: Opportunities for wine supply and trade in South-East Asia:

Markets in South-East Asia are calling out to be explored, as opportunities in the region lie beyond China and Japan. Meanwhile, the short South American harvests and the Brexit are leading developments in global wine supply and trade, according to the Rabobank Global Wine Quarterly Q3 2016.

‘Other’ Asia

Headwinds for wine consumption in South-East Asia still dominate the outlook in the near term, however opportunities are nevertheless apparent, and some positive longer term fundamental drivers are present should the necessary catalysts set them in motion.. . .

LIC full year result 2015-2016:

Farmer-owned co-operative, Livestock Improvement Corporation (NZX: LIC), has announced its result for the year ending 31 May 2016.

The financial result is summarised below with background information attached to NZX, including Chairman Murray King’s letter to LIC shareholders.

Revenue: LIC revenue from ordinary activities was $205 million and including other income from grants, totals $211 million, 9% down on the total $232 million achieved during 2014-2015. Lower milk prices have impacted on-farm buying decisions, as many farmers look to reduce costs and indeed go into survival mode through the difficult financial times facing dairy farmers. . .

How the EU Budget is spent – Common Agricultural Policy – Gianluca Sgueo, Francesco Tropea and Marie-Laure Augere-Granier:

With 52% of the European Union (EU) territory classified as predominantly rural, more than 170 million hectares of agricultural land, and 113 million people (nearly one quarter of the EU population) living in rural areas, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) represents one of the largest shares of expenditure from the EU budget. The CAP pools European Union resources spent on agriculture to protect the viable production of food, the sustainable management of natural resources, and to support rural vitality.

The CAP consists of two ‘pillars’, the first includes direct payments (i.e. annual payments to farmers to help stabilise farm revenues in the face of volatile market prices and weather conditions) and market measures (to tackle specific market situations and to support trade promotion). The second pillar concerns rural development policy and it is aimed at achieving balanced territorial development and sustaining a farming sector that is environmentally sound, as well as promoting competitiveness and innovation. . .  (Hat Tip – Utopia)

Wool Market Steady:

New Zealand Wool Services International Limited’s CEO, Mr John Dawson reports that the North Island Wool Auction received revived support this week with an improved 81 percent of the 5700 bales selling.

The weakening NZ dollar across the board saw the weighted currency indicator fall 4.22 percent. Despite these positive factors, local prices were still below last week’s South Island auction, but only marginally under the last more comparative North Island selection. . .