An in-principle free trade agreement with the UK is good news for Southland and positions New Zealand for negotiations with the EU, a sheep and beef farmer says.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced an in-principle agreement with the UK on Thursday, which will entirely remove tariffs on most goods produced in New Zealand.
It is expected to boost exports by 40 per cent, and lift New Zealand’s gross domestic product by $970 million.
Sheep and beef export quota volumes will increase over time, with all tariffs eliminated after 15 years. . .
Canterbury will be home to the first large-scale producer of truffles south of the equator with 37,500 trees expected to produce double the current yield of the entire southern hemisphere.
In a secret four-year operation, the NZ Truffle Company has set up nurseries and greenhouses at a small farm near Rangiora run by the company’s two shareholders, Catherine and Matthew Dwan, before planting a 75-hectare truffle plantation near Darfield.
The entire crop, worth between $2500 and $3000 per kilogram, will be exported to lucrative Asian and European luxury food markets.
In a statement, the company said financial returns per kilogram were expected to be between seven and 86 times that of any other New Zealand crop. . .
From bulls to berries — they are polar opposites but Ben and Rebecca Trotter are hoping they attract.
For the past three years, the couple have farmed 135ha at the junction of State Highways 6 and 8A at Luggate 11km from Wanaka.
Their focus, until now, has been farming Friesian bulls, while working their day jobs — Mr Trotter specialising in grass seed as South Island manager for Agricom, Mrs Trotter as a lower South Island territory agribusiness manager for Genesis Energy.
Added to the mix are the couple’s two children, Florence (2) and Edward (8 months). . .
The Trevathan family has been farming at Lindisvale, near Tarras, since 1914. Marjorie Cook meets fifth-generation Trevathan, Maggie (6 months) and chats with her dad, Jonny, and grandparents Beau and Ann about farming changes over five generations.
Eight years after Jonny Trevathan was sent home from a Masterchef competition for burning a pork chop, the irrepressible Tarras farmer is still confidently farming and cooking for his family.
He was relieved to quit Auckland and return to life on Lindisvale farm in the Ardgour Valley.
‘‘I just did that for s…s and giggles,’’ he confessed. . .
The Smart Agriculture Market research report provides the vital study of the market situation including present facts and data, definitions, SWOT analysis, industry expert opinions, and the recent global developments. The report also evaluated the market size, revenue, price, supply, sales, revenue, gross profit margin and market share, cost structure, and growth rate. The report will help vendors understand the competitive scenario and have details to get a better position in their businesses. MarketResearch. Biz offers a 10-year prediction for the Smart Agriculture market between 2021 and 2030. The analysis includes key trends that are presently influencing the growth of the Smart Agriculture market. This updated research and in-depth report focus on vital dynamics, which are projected to change the future of the Smart Agriculture market, in turn, creating flourishing avenues for prominent companies as well as emerging players related to manufacturing.
The Smart Agriculture market report is a sinuous market intelligence on important revenue growth factors, challenges, market current trends, and opportunities, which will ultimately impact the growth graph of the market. . .
All done bar 4 acres that is a pudding underneath after the 48mm of rain and 1/2 acre of trials to lift Monday when conformation that all the samples have been taken. #spuds#harvest21pic.twitter.com/2eSvXOU16g
Federated Farmers is profoundly disappointed to see the Water Services Bill reported back to the Parliament with the definition of a “water supplier” unchanged.
“The government has now signed itself up for the enormous task of tracking down every single source of drinking water in the land and making them belong to a register if they supply any other household,” Federated Farmers president Andrew Hoggard says.
Despite extensive arguments from Federated Farmers and many others at the select committee hearings, tens of thousands of rural and farm supply arrangements will fall within the scope of the new water regulator Taumata Arowai.
The new agency takes over from the Ministry of Health to take responsibility for the quality and provision of drinking water in New Zealand. . .
New Zealand’s farmers are already well into the emissions reduction journey. Science, innovation and unblocking regulatory bottlenecks by government is needed to hasten progress, Federated Farmers President and climate change spokesperson Andrew Hoggard says.
“The latest IPCC report has been described as code red for humanity, and we need to take that seriously. But for us it’s not just about cows, and it’s not just about New Zealand.
“One reporter asked me ‘when are farmers going to start taking action?’. For a 400m Olympics analogy, we’re leading around the back straight with other nations in our wake. Our emissions per kilogram of meat and milk produced are world leading and New Zealand farmers are committed to further improving on this lead.”
There is no win for global emissions if New Zealand’s highly efficient farmers cut back production and it is replaced by less efficient farmers offshore, Andrew said. . .
Buried in a landmark IPCC report this week is a detailed and important section on the metrics for short-lived gases. We summarise the key findings and what these mean for our sector.
The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report reinforces that climate change is real, it’s already happening and it is contributing to the extreme weather events such as floods, storms and droughts that we are experiencing.
There’s no question that all New Zealanders, including farmers, have to contribute to reducing emissions, if we are to keep global warming in check.
We’re working through the detail in the report, including the latest developments in the science around methane. . .
Buried in a landmark IPCC report this week is a detailed and important section on the metrics for short-lived gases.
WorkSafe is giving farmers a heads up to be mindful of risks on farm this spring.
In spring 2020, fatalities spiked to five during the months of August and September.
Vehicles continue to be the primary source of harm in on farm fatalities. On Monday this week a person was tragically killed in an incident involving a tractor on a farm outside of Oamaru. It is understood the victim was trimming hedges at the time.
WorkSafe Manager for Regulatory Practice Brent Austin strongly urged farmers to consider four key things to avoid a repeat of 2020 as they head into the busier months on farm. . .
Whitney Conder climbs off her hydraladder and gives her spaniel Dash a pat.
It is likely that he has been her only companion on this winter’s day, as she prunes the 6ha cherry block single-handed.
It is the type of resilience that has earned her a seat at the table of the Women in Horticulture executive committee.
Mrs Conder, who manages El Pedregal Orchard in Earnscleugh, was selected from 13 candidates New Zealand-wide for the role, and was one of four new members elected.
She already heads Central Otago Women in Horticulture and has been involved in the industry for 18 years. . .
Australia’s wool growing fraternity has set a target to grow the value of its sector by 2.5 per cent per annum – up to at least the year 2030 – and better promote the fibre’s sustainability credentials.
A key driver to achieving this will be arresting and turning around the decline of the national flock and boosting Merino ewe numbers to about 70 per cent of total sheep on the ground.
It will also require a 15pc increase in sheep and wool values, and growing the national flock from about 64 million to 75 million head.
These are key targets of the industry’s Wool 2030 Strategy, which was released in late 2020. . .
Fonterra may be reformed with farmer-only shares of lower value and a share standard reduced by one-for-four in the preferred new capital structure.
Six months of consultation have begun on options to change the structure to give farmers greater financial flexibility.
If a general agreement emerges, shareholders could vote on a new structure at the November annual meeting where 75% majority approval would be required.
The Fonterra Shareholders’ Fund (FSF), the mirror market which sets the value of supply shares, has been temporarily capped in size and may disappear in the future. . .
The first community water storage and irrigation scheme to be built in Northland for more than 30 years is taking shape on higher ground northeast of Kaikohe.
Diggers and earthmovers are about to begin the footings of an earth dam to define Matawii reservoir, which will be filled by rainfall from streams and drains in the small catchment when the flow rate is above median.
Te Tai Tokerau Water Trust (TTTWT) is building the dam to retain 750,000 cubic metres of water when full on 18ha of former dairy farm off State Highway 12 near Ngāwhā Springs, in the region locals call the Mid-North.
It will then build the infrastructure to distribute the water to private and corporate users in the district, including augmenting the Kaikohe town water supply. . .
Owen Rowland might have just celebrated his retirement after 50 years in the shearing shed — but he’s quick to point out he only did 49 on the handpiece.
Shearing is in the Rowland family blood. His father and uncle both shore their way into farm ownership, buying land at Enfield.
He can recall as a young fellow heading off to sit an exam at school.
“My uncle yelled out to not take too long so I could get back into the shearing shed, so I just went in, signed my name on the sheet and walked out again. And I have been shearing ever since.” . . .
The New Zealand Merino Shears turns 60 in October and front and centre at the celebrations will be one of its founders.
The Alexandra man is the last of three, the late Brent Gow and the late Fred McSkimming, who “started the thing”.
He had, in part, been inspired by the exploits of Godfrey Bowen whom a British newspaper described as “shearing with the grace of [Rudolph] Nureyev’s dancing”.
Now aged 94, Mr Dreckow remembers being less impressed . .
Young farmworkers continue to be disproportionately represented in farm suicide figures despite higher awareness of mental health issues. A Stuff investigation by NADINE PORTER considers whether the isolation of farm life can exacerbate problems in vulnerable young men.
By the time Mark (not his real name) attempted to end his life, his farm job had all but consumed him.
Grafting 15 hours most days on an isolated West Coast property as a dairy farm manager and then as a contract milker, he had little time to deal with the thoughts in his head.
Employing staff, handling costs and organising day to day management of the farm was part of the plan to get ahead financially, but it also led to him becoming self-absorbed and distant from his wife and children. . .
Bill Gates made headlines earlier this year for saying that “all rich countries should move to 100% synthetic beef” in an interview with MIT Technology Review about the release of his new book, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster. Although he recognized the political difficulty of telling Americans they can’t eat any more red meat, Gates said he sees real potential in plant-based alternatives from companies like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods.
Nevertheless, the world is expected to eat more meat in 2021 than ever before. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization projects that global meat consumption will rise by more than 1% this year. The fastest growth will occur in low- and middle-income countries, where incomes are steadily climbing. . .
The lure of a transtasman bubble and a reinvigorated hospitality sector may lead backpackers away from Central Otago orchards and vineyards, industry leaders warn.
For a sector already faced with critical labour shortages, the consequences of that could be dire if the long-awaited travel bubble opens as scheduled on Monday.
With hopes of recognised seasonal employer workers from the Pacific being allowed into New Zealand in time to complete the 2020-21 season evaporating, the loss of backpackers before the season was complete would strike another blow.
Seasonal Solutions chief executive Helen Axby said the loss of backpackers to the warmer climes of Australia was a real possibility. . .
Many experts regard agrichemicals as a lifesaver and they have the facts to back it up. However, this doesn’t stop people’s concern over their use, Dr Jacqueline Rowarth writes.
Chemicals used in agriculture are termed “agrichemicals”. They are also called “agrochemicals” which sounds worse.
But while a few people rant about their existence, many experts regard them as just as much of a lifesaver as, for instance, the development of antibiotics and vaccines.
A series of articles published by geneticliteracyproject.org (a website with the strapline “science not ideology”) presents facts clearly. . .
Re-post from Sam Harmer (Castle Ridge Station in the Ashburton Gorge) – sustainable, majestic, renewable, biodegradable, fire-resistant. One of the best natural fibre on the planet. Get amongst it 🐑 😍 pic.twitter.com/RQ6EsLPtGm
Life is a balancing act for Celia Van Kampen. The Oamaru vet tells Rebecca Ryan how she successfully fits her busy sporting schedule in around her work.
What’s your background? Where are you from?
I grew up in the Hawke’s Bay as one of four kids. I went to school at Taikura Rudolf Steiner School, then studied veterinary science at Massey University in Palmerston North, graduating in 2018, then I moved straight from studying down here. I have been working at the Veterinary Centre Oamaru for just over a year and a half. I started in January 2019.
Had you always wanted to be a vet? I was quite young when I decided that becoming a vet was a good idea. I can’t remember exactly what my reasons were then, but as I got closer to finishing school I liked that being a vet you got to work with lots of different species, the challenge of trying to work out what was wrong and fix it. Now, I really enjoy the variation of getting outside and work with farmers, but also small animals case work-ups and surgery. . .
Rabobank is kicking off the 2021 Pitch programme for FoodBytes!, the bank’s global food and agriculture innovation platform, which drives connections and collaboration between startups, corporate leaders,investors and farmers to implement solutions to food system challenges.
From now until Sunday 16 May, Kiwi agtech, food tech and consumer food and beverage startups are invited to apply for selection to present at the global virtual pitch competition in November.
FoodBytes! Pitch is an annual multi-week programme helping food and agriculture startups from throughout the world validate and grow their businesses, and their impact, through global industry exposure, tailored mentorship sessions, connection with corporates and investors, pitch refinement, industry awareness and recognition. . .
Entries are open for the 2021 Fieldays Innovation Awards, that have been refined to clearly represent the innovation lifecycle, resulting in three award categories: Prototype, Early Stage, and Growth & Scale.
Fieldays Innovations Event Manager, Gail Hendricks, says “ its no surprise that innovation has become a top priority for businesses, especially for primary industries in terms of providing sustainable and productive solutions that drive economic progress.
The Fieldays Innovation Awards entries will be on display in the new and enhanced Fieldays Innovation Hub, where entrants can test their innovation and connect with potential customers, industry professionals, investors, and corporate decision makers. In the Innovation Hub, Fieldays visitors will be able to tangibly experience the phases of innovation lifecycle represented by the three award categories.
Ok but why are they calling it a flock circle when this is clearly a EWE-FOhttps://t.co/friCbeJau3
— The Museum of English Rural Life (@TheMERL) April 13, 2021
WE’VE all heard of crop circles, and the many theories behind them.
Aliens and pranksters are among the explanations given for the intricate patterns which appear in fields and leave farmers scratching their heads.
However, in Sussex, there appears to be a new natural phenomenon – flock circles.
University lecturer Chris Hogg was cycling through the South Downs, behind Rottingdean, when he saw hundreds of sheep arranged into a series of concentric circles on a hillside. . .
It is called the Tecnofruit CF-105 and the fruit-harvesting machine could prove a game changer for Central Otago’s horticulture sector.
The technology, which carries a $155,000 price tag, may be good news for an industry beleaguered by labour shortages and spiralling costs made more acute by the ongoing fallout from Covid-19 and consequent restrictions on the number of recognised seasonal employer (RSE) workers allowed into New Zealand.
The machine was in Central Otago at the 21ha Hollandia Orchard in Earnscleugh, near Alexandra, this last week on a trial basis and after test runs it was unveiled to orchardists and orchard managers on Wednesday.
Hollandia Orchard manager Murray Booth said he was sold on the machine. . .
Hats off to the New Zealand dairy industry for telling its story to the world.
We have a great story to tell. Our farmers are world leaders in animal welfare and climate change. And, unlike producers in many other nations, they do it without direct, free-trade distorting subsidies.
The NZ dairy industry turns milk into more than 1,500 products and product specifications and generates almost $20 billion in annual export returns.
Our cultural characteristics of trust, integrity and ingenuity underpin a strong global reputation for product safety and quality. New Zealand achieved a score of 100 out of 100 for food safety in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Food Security Index. . .
The clocks have changed and the leaves have changed but the sun's still out. We're on the downward slide to winter from now on. pic.twitter.com/aG69sb0ln9
A sharemilker, a Dairy Business of the Year recipient, and a contract milker and farm consultant have been named as this year’s finalists for the Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year award.
Belinda Price, a sharemilker based in Whanganui, joins Ashburton dairy farmer Rebecca Miller and Chevon Horsford, a contract milker, farm consultant and Māori farm advisor in Whangarei, in the running for the respected industry award managed by Dairy Women’s Network.
Already a celebration of leadership inside and outside the farm gate, this year’s award shows a strong focus on people and highlights the work of the three finalists in leading and mentoring others through their farming journeys. . .
It’s notoriously difficult to produce, which is why the vast majority of this pungent condiment isn’t the real deal. So how has a former police officer made a business out of farming wasabi in Lincoln? Olivia Sisson pays a visit.
Even if you think you love wasabi’s signature burn, there’s a high chance you’ve never actually had it. The vast majority of wasabi served with sushi around the world isn’t real – even in its home country, it’s estimated only 5% of the stuff is real, and it’s likely to be less than that outside of Japan.
Real wasabi comes from the rhizome (stem) of Wasabia japonica, a leafy green plant from the same family as broccoli and cabbage. Often called “Japanese horseradish” or “wasabi paste”, the pretenders are usually just a blend of horseradish, mustard, green food colouring and preservatives. . .
Sand flew and the crowds cheered as hooves thundered along Castlepoint Beach for another year.
The horse races started nearly 150 years ago and apart from wartime and stormy years when the beach was too rocky, they’ve been held every year since, marking the end of summer at this small coastal community in Wairarapa.
The races even outpaced Covid-19, unlike many annual fixtures around the country.
Country Life producer Sally Round and RNZ video journalist Dom Thomas went along to capture a slice of the atmosphere. . .
Traditional Easter and Passover lamb-centered meals mark peak season for the often overlooked protein. But one year ago, the arrival of the pandemic sent the U.S. lamb industry into a tailspin.
Lockdowns had an immediate, catastrophic effect as holiday dinners suddenly became sad Zoom calls. The initial drop in demand at lamb’s biggest time of year dealt a body blow to the industry. The second largest U.S. lamb processing plant, Mountain States Rosen in Greeley, Colorado, filed for bankruptcy on March 19, 2020.
At the time, the outlook for the rest of the year—when lamb sales rely heavily on restaurants and cruise ships, two sectors that were summarily crushed by Covid-19—looked equally grim. By April 2020, live lamb prices had dropped by half. . .
It’s time to call New Zealand’s experiment in reduced foreign labour this harvest season a failure.
One of the country’s largest berry farmers has abandoned growing after a season of chronic labour shortage. Applegrowers say they’re so shorthanded that exports will drop some 14 per cent this year, a loss of $95-$100 million. The grape harvest has come off with the help of more machinery, a tradeoff that’s likely to result in less premium wine. And growers estimate they’re still 1400 hires shy of the 4000 workers needed for grape cane pruning in Marlborough next month, the country’s most valuable wine region.
Perhaps the Government’s original idea sounded good in theory: redeploy the rump of seasonal foreign workers who remained stranded in New Zealand from the previous season, update working conditions for the few remaining backpackers, and make up the rest of the workforce from local Kiwis.
But if you add a few numbers, that calculation was always heroic. The need for seasonal hands through New Zealand’s harvest and pruning work approaches 40,000 in the peak summer and early autumn months. Before Covid, Immigration NZ anticipated that 14,500 Pacific workers under the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme and some 50,000 backpackers with working holiday visas would help to make up the labour force. But New Zealand’s closed border changed that. . .
Some workers sent to Central Otago’s orchards and vineyards are not up to standard and the lack of seasonal workers from the Pacific is beginning to bite, an industry leader says.
Continuing labour shortages across both sectors have affected planning for key phases in production cycles such as picking and pruning.
This has led to calls for the Government to open quarantine-free travel bubbles to allow seasonal workers from Covid-free countries to plug labour gaps before it is too late, if not for this season then the next.
Pipfruit industry pioneer Con van der Voort, who operates a major packing facility in Ettrick, said the “come and go” nature of this season’s workforce was affecting orchardists not just in Central Otago but nationally. . .
The impact of Covid-19 on the potato chip industry in the Northern Hemisphere is putting locally grown and processed hot potato chips at the local chippie under threat.
The problem is that quiet streets and empty bars in Covid-ridden Europe have resulted in an estimated 1.7 million tonne surplus of raw potato material.
“People can’t go out, have a beer and buy some chips,” Potatoes NZ chief executive Chris Claridge told Frank Film in a recent interview. “That means there’s a big lump of frozen fries that’s got to go somewhere. Our economy’s working, they are sending it here – it is as simple as that.”
Claridge is looking for government action to protect New Zealand potato farmers from the influx of frozen fries grown and processed in Europe undercutting their locally grown equivalent. . .
South Otago dairy farmers Scott and Ann Henderson were last week crowned Southland-Otago Dairy Industry Awards Share Farmer of the Year winners. They talk to Sally Rae about a career they say is not just about milking cows.
She was from a sheep and beef farm in Scotland, he was a qualified carpenter from Balclutha.
Scott and Ann Henderson might not have grown up in the dairy farming industry, but the pair have made their mark on the sector, winning the 2021 Southland-Otago Dairy Industry Awards Share Farmer of the Year title.
Industry recognition was not new for Mrs Henderson, who won the dairy manager of the year in the Southland-Otago awards in 2017, having finished runner-up the year before. . .
Harvesting is the busiest time of the year for Holmdale Farm’s Cameron Ealam and his extended family.
They work from dawn to dusk picking, cleaning and drying several varieties of aromatic hop cones that grow on long leafy hop vines.
“The machine starts at seven each morning. We’re doing 12-hour days picking at the moment. The drying kiln will run through the night as well, so big days but (it’s) a short window to get a valuable crop in,” Cameron says.
On the floor behind the kilns are large piles of Motueka and Riwaka hop cones, waiting to be pressed and baled. . .
Being a Kiwi, I don’t want to argue with any Aussies reading this, but pavlova is, in fact, a Kiwi invention.
However, if it’s made from grass, like this one, you can have it. Will this trend towards plant-based food alternatives end? Probably not.
In the EU 3.2 per cent of people are vegans, and 30.9 per cent are either vegetarians, pescatarians and flexitarians.
In New Zealand, the number of people eating “meat-free” has doubled from 7 per cent tp 15 per cent in four years. Australia, which ranks in the top five meat eating nations, now ranks second in the world for vegans. . .
To ensure continuity in the supply chain, the road freight industry needs to know when truck drivers will receive the Covid-19 vaccine, says Road Transport Forum (RTF) chief executive Nick Leggett.
Leggett says he wrote to Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins in January to enquire about vaccine prioritisation used by the Government to determine workers in essential industries.
“The trucking industry is keen to understand when its frontline workers, mainly drivers, might be in line for a vaccination and whether they will be given priority over the general population, given their importance in keeping the supply chain running,” says Leggett.
He says there is increasing urgency in getting truck drivers vaccinated because of the current Auckland lockdown. . .
Repost from Mel at Lake Ohau Quarters – Sunset last night was a really awesome colour display!! pic.twitter.com/f1zdtfO8jH
Central Otago’s wine harvest is under way as sparkling varieties are being picked and pressed.
Winemaker Rudi Bauer, of Quartz Reef Bendigo Estate, said lessons learned from last year’s harvest, conducted during lockdown, had proved useful as the harvest began.
At the 30ha vineyard in Bendigo, pinot noir grapes were being harvested yesterday, with chardonnay soon to follow.
The challenges of getting this year’s crop off the vines were still there in terms of labour, but Central Otago had learned a lot from 2020’s lockdown harvest, Mr Bauer said. . .
Cam Henderson is excited about some new projects “closer to home”.
The Oxford farmer has already announced his intention to step down as Federated Farmers North Canterbury president at May’s annual meeting and has already filled the void.
Mr Henderson was recently appointed as one of two new associate directors on DairyNZ’s board of directors and has recently been made a trustee of the newly renamed Waimak Landcare Group.
He also planned to step down from his role as Waimakariri Zone Committee deputy chairman, Mr Henderson said. . .
2021 expected to overtake last year’s record of 157 million trays
Kiwis encouraged to get involved in kiwifruit harvest
New Zealand’s 2021 kiwifruit harvest has kicked off with the first commercial crop being picked this morning in Gisborne and more kiwifruit to be picked across New Zealand over the coming days.
The 2021 season is forecast to be another record-breaking year with more kiwifruit produced than ever before, overtaking last year’s record of 157 million trays of export Green and Gold. On average, each tray has around 30 pieces of kiwifruit.
The Gold variety is usually picked first, followed by Green kiwifruit in late March. Harvest peaks in mid-April and runs through until June. . .
The gap between Australia and New Zealand’s export sheepmeat industry has narrowed, with industry experts anticipating Australia will continue to dominate world sheepmeat export supply for the remainder of the decade.
According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisations (FAO), in 2019 Australia and New Zealand sheep meat exports was 71 per cent of the total sheep meat export volumes.
And recently Australia has eclipsed NZ to become the worlds largest exporter of sheep meat product with 36pc of global trade in 2020, compared to 30pc for NZ. . .
I was once told by someone much smarter than me that the Green Party policy of today will be Labour Party policy in 10 years’ time. Even without that level of insight, nobody who has been paying attention to the political discourse for the past decade will be very surprised at the Climate Change Commission’s recent report, though there do seem to be large numbers of people shaking their heads in dazed bewilderment.
The Commission’s report largely reflects the findings and recommendations of the Royal Society’s 2016 one, Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy for New Zealand. That report was essentially ignored by the government of the day, but it is extremely unlikely the current government will treat the latest version in the same manner.
The report calls for, among other things, an immediate end to the construction of coal fired boilers, an end to the burning of coal for process heat by 2037 and a reduction in the national dairy, beef and sheep numbers of 15% each by 2030.
No matter how climate hesitant you might be or how little New Zealand has contributed to global warming since pre-industrial times, the Commission estimates that figure to be 0.0028 degrees C, the fact remains our share of global warming is 4 times greater than our share of the total population and 1.5 times greater than our share of landmass. . .
A Southland dairy farmer has invested $200,000 over the last 10 years in planting and fencing around a river and creeks on his property – an outcome of a dream he had back in his native Zimbabwe.
Edwin Mabonga, who together with his wife Fungai milk 850 cows on a 270ha farm bordering the Aparima River at Otautau near Invercargill, used to spend time in Zimbabwe reading books about New Zealand.
“It was always a big goal of mine to come to New Zealand because I saw it as being the world benchmark for dairy farming,” he says. “We used to read books to learn as much as we could and eventually decided to move to find out what the big deal was.” . . .
Project to reduce nitrate run-off from farms attracts critical corporate clout.
A key environmental project on lower North Island dairy farms has attracted renewed corporate backing – and a grandmother is helping bring it about.
Two of New Zealand’s biggest business players, Fonterra and Nestle, have joined a DairyNZ-led project in the Tararua district in which a blend of the herb plantain is being sown in pastures with the aim of both reducing nitrate run-off into waterways and lowering on-farm greenhouse gas emissions.
The two companies are bringing their muscle to the project by providing additional funding to enable the 50 farms taking part to increase the amount of plantain they grow. . .
Using lasers to control birds might sound like science fiction but Ewing Stevens hopes the technology will save his grapes from the peckish pests.
At age 94, Mr Stevens believes he is New Zealand’s oldest vintner but his age is no barrier to being at the cutting edge of technology when it comes to managing his crop at Anthony James Vineyard near Alexandra.
This week three lasers were installed at his Hillview Rd vineyard to replace labour intensive and expensive bird netting.
Mr Stevens said the idea was born out of a conversation with Viticultura co-owner Timbo Deaker, whose Cromwell-based company manages Mr Stevens’ grapes through its vineyard management service, about three years ago. . .
Following Auckland’s move to Alert Level 3 and the rest of the country to Alert Level 2, we have made the decision to postpone the Northern FMG Young Farmer of the Year Regional Final based on Government recommendations.
Given the uncertainty around the latest COVID-19 community cases, postponement of the event is the safest and most cautious option despite contingency plans we have in place to run events during an alert level two.
Like other businesses, organisations and events, we need to respond and do our part to limit the potential spread of this virus.
The safety of our competitors, staff, sponsors and spectators is our main priority. It is imperative that we protect our people and do not put anyone at risk. . .
The year ahead for New Zealand’s primary sector is full of promise and opportunity.
Of course, there are challenges and there will be more that haven’t yet been realised. But the very fact that the country is relying on the sector to underpin, enable and drive economic growth means that there will be support. And the goodwill towards the work that the primary sector did during the Covid lockdown is still with us.
Internationally we are highly-respected for what we achieved collectively through Covid. New Zealanders listened to the science, obeyed the instructions and achieved a positive result.
What applied during Covid reflects our general attitude – when the facts are clear, we comply. This is part of why we are trusted as a food supplier. Our food is safe to eat as well as delicious. It is also what people want for health. . .
A home-built gym was the start of Kane Brisco’s journey from milking shed to social media influencer.
Kane’s into his seventh year 50/50 share milking at Ohangai near Hawera, in South Taranaki. His progress in the industry’s been rapid and life’s busy on all fronts.
“We have 215 cows which I pretty much milk myself. My wife helps as much as she can with the calves, but she’s working part time as a nurse too. We’ve also got a 6-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy. The last 2 years have been hectic with my daughter starting school and the younger one becoming more mobile and racing around.”
Juggling these responsibilities would be a challenge for anyone. How does Kane cope? The answer might surprise some people – as busy as he is, Kane dedicates part of each day solely to meeting his own needs. . .
900 lambs with nice clean butts and no additional hanger ons on their way back to the paddock. Heading up the hill until the boss gets home and sorts the shearing. pic.twitter.com/Q5vcvpttsN
A fascination watching shearers as a child has drawn one young woman into having a go herself.
Shepherd Melissa Hamilton took part in the 39th Northern Southland Community Shears held at the Selbie family woolshed, Lowther Downs, near Lumsden yesterday.
Miss Hamilton grew up on a sheep and beef farm near Browns.
“When we were shearing it was the most exciting time of the year — always fascinated watching the shearers.” . .
The New Year’s deluge of torrential rain has been welcomed by winemakers.
Their gain is in stark contrast to the pain caused by the rain to the region’s orchardists, whose cherry crops were all but wiped out by the heaviest rainfall in 40 years.
The epicentre for flooding of orchards and vineyards was the Earnscleugh area between Alexandra and Clyde.
The flooding was caused by the Fraser River breaching its banks and runoff from the Rocky Range; it was the latter that led to the cellar door and the winery at Black Ridge Vineyard being inundated with about 6cm of water and mud. . .
Supermarket shoppers looking for citrus are seeing a sour trend at the moment – some stores are entirely tapped out of lemons. But why?
Batches of homemade lemonade will be taking a hit this summer, with life not giving New Zealand shoppers lemons. Prices are high at supermarkets and grocers that have the citrus fruit, and some stores have completely sold out.
The problem isn’t so much domestic problem – the citrus industry in New Zealand is small, but is largely operating as normal. Rather, import difficulties are making it much harder to stack the shelves. . .
New Zealand has no shortage of stunningly beautiful drives, and one of the best is between Queenstown and Aoraki Mt/Cook. This route weaves through some of our most spectacular mountain scenery, with a few hidden gems in between.
From Queenstown, ascend the Crown Range, as you wind your way into a majestic mountainscape that passes through Cardrona village. After an hour you’ll be in Wānaka, where you can stop for ice cream at Patagonia Chocolates, and a leisurely walk along the waterfront to see That Wānaka Tree.
Next, traverse the stunningly sparse Lindis Pass, before reaching the heartland of hidden gems: Omarama, which has two unmissable stops.
This unworldly landscape has to be one of the most underrated attractions in New Zealand. If it were overseas, there’d be ticket queues, cafes and novelty shops scattered around the place. Here, there’s a hand-painted sign pointing towards the entrance and an honesty box which asks for $5 per car to visit . .
* The cliffs are amazing & they’re on the right side of the Waitaki River so in North Otago not South Canterbury.
Stewart Bull says he loses his mana when he has to tell visitors to hisTakutai o Te Tītī Marae not to eat the kai moana.
“I don’t collect kai moana off the beach any more, at this stage. I know what’s going on, and I advise my children not to go and collect it either.
“It’s not good to stand on your marae and go ‘don’t touch the kai moana’…where is your mana if you have to stand on your own marae and express that to your visitors who are coming in?’’
For Bull, it’s about ki uta ki tai, from the mountains to the sea. . .
The $50 million loss incurred by Central Otago’s cherry growers this season impacts growers, jobs and the New Zealand economy.
Summerfruit NZ chief executive Richard Palmer said the full extent of the damage after four days of persistent and heavy rain was yet to be quantified but it was expected up to 50% of the season’s cherries had been lost due to splitting, resulting in the loss of $50million in export revenue to the country.
In addition to damaged fruit, flooding caused damage to buildings on orchards located around Earnscleugh when the Fraser River broke its banks.
Orchardists in the area said the losses were tempered by the fact flood waters receded, quickly allying fears other crops had been affected. . .
Rumblings of an oat milk shortage first reached Stuff early in the New Year. Trendy café goers reported their local vegan-friendly baristas had run dry on their favourite plant-based milk.
It was a coffee crisis, and the outlook was gloomy. Would they revert to cow’s milk? Drink an overly sweet flat white with coconut milk? Or indulge in the increasingly uncool almond milk latte?
Oat milk is the up and coming among the milk alternatives. Almond remains popular, but has lost fans due to environmental concerns. The demand for almonds has caused honeybee catastrophe in the US, as California summons more than half of the country’s bees to pollinate its almond trees. The journey reportedly costs the lives of a quarter of the bees, due to pesticides and disease.
Oat is The Goat. But due to an unusually elongated supply chain for New Zealand, and unexpected rise in the popularity of oat milk, it has recently proved hard to find. . .
Lessons from how pumas and wolves interact in North America can be applied here in New Zealand, as we strive towards a predator-free 2050.
Dr Heiko Wittmer has looked at what happened when wolves were reintroduced to Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park. The wolves had a negative effect on the pumas in the park and that led to a much more balanced ecosystem.
Heiko tells Summer Times that despite being a large and wild park, it had lost its wolf population due to culling in the early 20th century.
“Since then they have been missing and that has led to some drastic changes in the ecosystem.” . .
Living the green dream. Normally feeding out by now but instead we have 18ha of silage about to be done on the platform cover up to 2515 this week. Cows, yearlings and calves looking great. Oats being mowed for baleage on runoff. pic.twitter.com/1bcitgTba5
INTERNATIONAL scientists have highlighted the urgent need for mitigation to avoid water storage declines and increased droughts and the big role farmers in Australia, particular in the south, stand to play in that.
By the end of this century, the global land area and population living in extreme-to-exceptional drought could more than double, research directed from Michigan State University in the United States has found.
The stark warning emerged from the extensive study, which also points to the largest water declines being in Australia and South America.
The key implication is that climate change mitigation is now critical to avoid adverse water storage impacts and increased droughts, and the need for improved water resource management and adaptation is pressing. . .
Dr Tom Mulholland has made it his mission to look after the heart health of farmers for most of the past decade.
He has a 1988 retro V8 ambulance kitted out for doing blood pressure and cholesterol tests, but also, old fashioned house calls to be what you might call the ambulance at the top of the cliff for farmers under time and financial pressure.
Dr Tom has talked to thousands of people on farmers’ physical mental and social health, and saved and changed more than a few lives. He’s also developed an app called KYND Wellness to help farmers track their own health. . .
Central Otago fruitgrowers are still counting the costs of the New Year deluge that decimated this season’s cherry harvest.
Estimates sit at about 60% on average of cherry crop lost across the region, shaving millions of dollars in value off this season’s harvest.
Other fruit was also affected by four days of torrential rain punctuated by showers throughout the week and a week on from the rain starting growers were assessing how much fruit was still salvageable.
At Ripponvale, near Cromwell, Cheeki Cherries/Dam Good Fruit owner Martin Milne said his losses were a mixed bag. . .
South Hillend contract milker Guillermo Tolentino is a survivor, but he shudders to think what would have happened to him without help from former Wreys Bush dairy farm owners Wayne and Angela Carpenter.
Tolentino remembers arriving in New Zealand in 2003, only to find out the details of the job promised to him on a Canterbury farm were different to what he agreed to and it didn’t work out.
Panic struck and Tolentino didn’t know what to do. The $1000 he had on him was to tide him over until his first pay packet. . .
When I wrote the book ‘Devil in the Milk’ back in 2007, I introduced Bob Elliott in the very first paragraph. Bob was the Auckland paediatrician who first identified A1 beta-casein from milk as a big risk factor for Type 1 diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes is the form of the disease that often strikes in childhood and then requires daily insulin injections throughout life.
In the years since then I have often thought that history will in time regard Bob as one of the great heroes of modern medicine. He sowed the seeds on which others have continued to build, with a particular focus on A1 beta casein but with those findings also having relevance to other food-derived opioids. . .
Shearing legend Sir David Fagan used a crank-powered handpiece to shave former England World championships wool handling representative Natalie Crisp’s head in Te Kuiti on Friday.
This charity event was held during the North Island Speedshear Shearing Championship and is the latest of several fundraising shearing events.
Fagan, who retired from competitive shearing in 2015 with 642 open-class wins, surprised even himself with how clean his job was on the head-shave. . .
Australian scientists and entrepreneurs have begun rolling out a commercial solution to a major source of greenhouse gases with a seaweed feed to block gassy livestock burps, and promising results offering more than a whiff of global potential.
Two Australian companies, CH4 Global and Sea Forest, are kicking off world-first commercial trials with major dairy and beef companies of a feed supplement they say can enable the livestock to become carbon neutral.
They are using intellectual property licensed to FutureFeed, CSIRO’s commercial venture, for a feed additive made from the native asparagopsis seaweed species, which reduces livestock emissions by more than 80 per cent. . .
Central Otago cherry growers have lost millions of dollars of crop after 36 hours of persistent and heavy rain destroyed yet-to-be-picked fruit.
While damage was still being assessed some growers estimate losses at between 30% and 60% and more rain is forecast.
Growers in Earnscleugh, near Clyde, took advantage of a brief reprieve from the rain yesterday morning to assess the damage to what were bumper crops in a season plagued by concerns about labour shortages.
The area was one of the hardest hit by the rain which began on New Year’s Day and did not let up until about 8.30am yesterday, causing the Fraser River to breach its banks coupled with localised runoff from the hills. . .
There could be some new names on your cheeseboards in summers to come if the European Union gets its way. It wants to stop Kiwi cheesemakers from using names like feta and gorgonzola.
This creamy cheese has been in development at Whitestone for the last two years, using a unique mould strain found in North Otago.
“When we talk about it, it’s like that style of a gorgonzola, but we’re calling it Oamaru blue because it’s here from Oamaru,” says Simon Berry, managing director of Whitestone Cheese and spokesperson for New Zealand Specialist Cheesemakers Association.
Developing unique varieties is set to become more important. The European Union wants to ban other countries from using ‘their’ cheese names in local products. . .
For 15-year-old wood-chopper Jack Richards, it is all about not trying to “run before you can crawl’’.
The Eastern Bush resident was one of the youngest contestants to have a crack at this year’s Tuatapere Sports Day wood-chopping competition, an event he has taken part in for the past four years.
Axemen from across the country made their way to the Southland town yesterday for the annual event on the first day of 2021 to go head to head in the challenge.
When Jack was watching his parents take part in the sport when he was just 11 years old he thought, “why not give it a go?”. . .
Former Agriculture Minister and Banks Peninsula farmer David Carter has been elected to the board of rural trader, Ruralco.
Carter took up his directorship at the co-operative’s annual meeting last month, replacing former chairman Alister Body who stepped down after nine years on the board.
Carter, one of National’s longest serving MPs, retired at the last general elections after serving as a parliamentarian for 26 years and in a number of National governments as a cabinet minister, including Agriculture Minister and Speaker of the House.
He says joining the Ruralco Board is a chance to offer his experience to his first passion—New Zealand agriculture. . .
British farming is set to begin a ‘new era’ in 2021 as the UK leaves the Brexit transition period and implements a new agriculture policy for the first time in 70 years.
This is according to NFU President Minette Batters, who said in her new year message that 2020 was a ‘year like no other’ for British food producers.
“While we have all seen significant changes and challenges in the past 12 months, I would like to thank the public for their continued support for British farming and all it delivers; we simply wouldn’t be where we are today without it.”
She added that the successful conclusion of a deal between the UK and EU was a ‘very positive step forward’, and it should ‘provide comfort’ to farmers and the public. . .
The dairy industry wants export tariffs scrapped as it tries to get the best bang for its buck overseas – and doesn’t think the new post-Brexit trade deal will help.
Dairy Companies Association of New Zealand executive director Kimberly Crewther said Kiwi exporters had battled tariffs as they tried to find their way in the market. This even happened when the UK was part of the EU. . .
Hop growers in the Motueka area are counting the costs of the area’s freak Boxing Day hail storm, with estimates that more than half the crop has been destroyed on some farms.
For most of his life, Wakefield sheep and beef farmer Colin Gibbs has been making time to lend a hand to help out his local community.
Gibbs has been awarded the Queen’s Service Medal for services to agriculture and the community, after more than 50 years working across various farming, sporting, and community organisations.
The fourth-generation Wakefield farmer has worn many hats over that time, becoming involved with volunteer work soon after leaving school to work on the family farm.
These included roles at the Waimea and Tapawera Dog Trial Clubs, the Nelson A&P Association, the Wakefield Target Shooting Club, and St John’s Church Wakefield. . .
The annual New Zealand Dairy Statistics publication reveals another record year for the dairy sector, with total milksolids production at a record high.
The DairyNZ and Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC) statistics show that in the 2019-20 season, New Zealand dairy companies processed 21.1 billion litres of milk containing 1.90 billion kgMS, a 0.6% increase from the previous season.
Average milk production per cow also increased from 381kgMS last season to 385kgMS this season, while the latest count showed that New Zealand has 4.921 million milking cows – a decrease of 0.5% from the previous season. . .
A pact made with her late husband has led axewoman Sheree Taylor to the South to compete on the gruelling Christmas woodchopping circuit for the first time.
The Te Aroha woman made good on that agreement at the Cromwell Town and Country Club on Sunday and the Gore Town and Country Club yesterday, competing for the Rotorua Axeman’s club some two years after the death of her husband, axeman Alastair.
His loss left her considering her future in the sport and her grief was still raw, but somehow she had rallied, she said.
“I’m doing it for him and I’m doing it for me. . .
We managed to germinate an acorn and it’s just sprouted its first leaves. We’ll grow it on and plant it out, and hope that one day someone will love swinging from its branches. Just as my daughter does from the oak beneath which she found this little acorn… pic.twitter.com/ZCwgm2gx3T
IT IS Scotland’s most iconic and distinctive horse, a beast which powered industrial and agricultural revolutions and helped to win the First World War.
Now a plan to save the Clydesdale horse in its homeland has been revealed in a new BBC Scotland feature-length documentary to be shown next week.
The film, Clydesdale: Saving the Greatest Horse, reveals how the breed is entering the “vortex of extinction”.
Once exported from Scotland all over the world, the current small size and relative isolation of the population has impacted on its genetic diversity. . . .
Central Otago’s MPs have weighed in on the pending labour shortage in the horticulture and viticulture sectors.
In a joint statement, Southland MP Joseph Mooney and Waitaki MP Jacqui Dean say it does not make sense that people are being allowed into New Zealand to work on movies, fishing boats or to play sport, but not to work in orchards or vineyards at what is a critical time.
Last month, an increase in the number of Covid-19 cases were attributed to Russian and Ukrainian fishers who were recruited to support New Zealand’s beleaguered fishing industry.
That led to a cluster of cases in Christchurch’s Sudima Hotel, managed isolation facility, with cases there still recorded yesterday. . .
“We wanted to improve the farm and do our bit for the environment” is Manawatu farmer Grant Bell’s response when he’s asked why he converted 4ha of his property into an impressive wetland.
Grant and his family farm 525 cows on their 150ha (effective) property on the outskirts of Palmerston North. The farm has been in his family for 25 years and this is his eighth season running the dairy operation.
Farmers like Grant are champions of sustainability and he says creating the wetland made perfect sense.
“It was a wasted area of the farm with wetter, less productive ends of paddocks. Five years ago we developed a 2.5ha area and in the last two years we have extended it so it’s now about 4ha.” . .
R2 Hereford heifers enjoying the gentle rain beside the Kaipara Harbour this evening. 👍 pic.twitter.com/o7mLHKc5Kf
Fonterra has achieved its most encouraging sustainability results since starting its annual reporting four years ago, but the Co-op is staying focused on what still needs to be done to reach its long-term targets.
“The progress we’ve made this year towards our three interconnected goals of healthy people, a healthy environment and a healthy business show that our strategy and customer-led operating model are delivering,” says CEO Miles Hurrell, following the release of Fonterra’s 2020 Sustainability Report today.
“We’re proud of what our people have achieved, especially in the face of COVID-19, and want to thank farmers and employees for their support and hard work.” . .
Move over rock ‘n’ roll, forget hip hop and so long soul.
The new scene emerging out of rural New Zealand is Farm Music – people hitting bits of scrap found in the shed, garage or out in the paddock.
The mental health project debuts on stage at Reset 2020 Arts Festival in Taranaki on Sunday.
Farm Music producer Sally Barnett said the idea for the project came to her while volunteering at the Taranaki Retreat – a suicide prevention initiative set up on a rural property southwest of New Plymouth. . .
From growing up in the city to farming in Tuapeka West; Alice Scott talks to a couple about their own unique journey into farm ownership.
Allan Casse got his first taste for farming as a boy in his school holidays.
He was born and raised in Auckland city and his mother, who grew up on a farm, would take him out to the countryside.
“The outdoors appealed right from the beginning. I just loved it. It’s where I knew I wanted to be.”
He then moved to the South Island as a 17-year-old and worked in a fruit and vegetable market for two years before going to university and qualifying as a teacher. . .
An optimistic climate documentary narrated by Woody Harrelson argues for the healing power of soil, which could offer a solution to the climate crisis.
The actor Woody Harrelson narrates the documentary “Kiss the Ground,” a frenetic but ultimately persuasive and optimistic plan to counter the climate crisis. Streaming on Netflix, the film makes a case for the healing power of soil, arguing that its capacity to sequester carbon could be the key to reversing the effects of climate change.
Directed by Joshua Tickell and Rebecca Harrell Tickell, whose credits include other socially conscious documentaries such as “The Big Fix” and “Pump,” “Kiss the Ground” takes a wide-ranging approach. The film begins by examining how tilling and the use of pesticides have led to soil erosion, and then traces the damage done to our ecology, health and climate. The filmmakers find a solution in regenerative farming, an ethical practice designed to restore degraded lands and facilitate carbon drawdown. . .
Being responsible to their land, animals, people and their community has earned a Hawke’s Bay couple the Fonterra Responsible Dairying Award. Gerald Piddock reports.
Being a responsible dairy farmer means more than just being industry role models to Nick and Nicky Dawson.
It involves working beyond the farm bubble in the wider community and nurturing the health of people, the environment and their animals.
“It’s all interconnected,” Nicky says.
“It’s like a three-legged stool. You can’t have one without the other.” . .
October is looming as a crunch-month for agricultural contractors and dairy farmers as the scramble continues to find staff to drive machinery to plant summer feed crops and cut grass cut for silage.
Waikato Federated Farmers vice-president Ben Moore said there was huge concern that contractors would not have enough staff on the ground to meet demand from dairy farmers as border restrictions continue to prevent overseas farm machinery operators from entering the country to work this spring and summer.
The region was still recovering from last summer’s drought with feed reserves on many farms already low.
Moore feared there could be a potential disaster if farmers are unable to get their summer supplementary feed supply organised and there was another very dry summer. . .
Agricultural contractors are warning about a severe shortage of skilled machinery operators for the upcoming harvest season.
The shortage is due to New Zealand’s closed borders, shutting out staff from overseas. In response, a number of training organisations are offering displaced local workers and jobseekers a basic grounding in the sector.
In the South Island, the Southern Institute of Technology (SIT) is promoting its ‘An Introduction to Agricultural Contracting’ course – based at its Telford Campus, near Balclutha. This initiative was the result of SIT’s discussions with Rural Contractors NZ Ltd (RCNZ) and some key players in the contracting sector in Otago and Southland – who all wanted to do something positive to address the need for trained contracting staff. . .
The world’s best exponents of the art of ploughing are coming to Lake Hawea, but not for quite a while.
An Upper Clutha group of ploughing enthusiasts announced on Saturday they had secured the 2028 world championships.
That means 60 of the best “ploughmen” from farming communities around world will load up their tractors and ploughs, ship them to New Zealand and carve out furrows across the flat paddocks south of the lake.
Organising committee chairman John Osborne said his committee had spent two years preparing Lake Hawea’s case for the event, “basically trying to prove to the New Zealand executive we have facilities up here to have all these world guys here”. . .
Ask hunters where exactly in Central Otago they shot their haul in the annual Manuherikia Boar, Buck and Stag Hunt and they are unlikely to tell you.
They want to protect their turf and believe the results speak for themselves.
Yesterday marked weigh-in day in the annual three-day fundraiser for the Alexandra Scout Group.
It was heartland rural New Zealand at its best if the atmosphere at the weigh-in and prize-giving was anything to go by. . .
Had a full on sheep day & very hot, sweaty & smelly but lucky to be here & not on a crowded beach. Off to cool down in the river … pic.twitter.com/rtkxnuhOM0
ENHANCING the red meat value chain through a greater understanding of efficient use of farm resources, better use of grazing mosaics, and the production of cattle that reach and exceed domestic and export ready standards is the aim of a new four-year partnership for the west.
The University of Western Australia and Meat & Livestock through the MLA Donor Company have joined forces to coordinate and drive an integrated research and practice change program for the West Australian beef Industry.
The partnership, BeefLinks, will provide better knowledge and a range of technologies to support the sustainability credentials of products and interconnectivity between producers, processors and consumers. . .
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