Rural round-up

Permits will affect irrigation options – Jono Edwards:

The man who investigated the Otago Regional Council admits a planning overhaul will put deemed permit irrigators in a ‘‘holding pattern’’, but says it is the only way to ultimately improve things.

The council yesterday adopted a raft of recommendations from Environment Minister David Parker regarding its planning framework, which is the outcome of a ministry investigation into the council.

The investigator, Prof Peter Skelton, was questioned by councillors at a meeting in Dunedin yesterday.

The adopted recommendations include a plan change to create short-term up-to-five-year consents for water permits while the council reviews its policy plans.

Farmers have raised concerns these create uncertainty, and are too short to get banks to lend any money for necessary improvements.

When asked yesterday if this would put farmers in a ‘‘holding pattern’’, Prof Skelton said it would.  . . 

Sanford CEO Volker Kuntzsch wins Rabobank leadership award :

New Zealanders scooped the pool in the annual Rabobank Leadership Awards for agribusiness.

Volker Kuntzsch, the chief executive officer of New Zealand’s largest seafood company Sanford, was announced as the winner of 2019 Rabobank Leadership Award.

Mat Hocken, the director of Manawatu dairy company Grassmere Dairy, received the Rabobank Emerging Leader Award.

The awards are held annually recognising the contribution of leaders from across New Zealand and Australia’s food and agribusiness sector. . . 

Multi species pasture starting to fill with flowers, mustard and diakon radish into it and phacilia about to also. Don’t think the sunflowers will before we graze it.
It could definitely do with a drink and may have to graze sooner as bit of spurrey and fathen in places pic.twitter.com/heU7HnfRvl

— Duncan Humm (@duncanyzf20) November 30, 2019

Bay of Islands strawberry farming family seek immigration reprieve – Jenny Ling:

A well-known Bay of Islands family from China with a thriving strawberry business are facing deportation – a plight that has spurred support from the local community.

The Jia family – Peter and Lina and their 10-year-old daughter Cici – have been ordered by Immigration New Zealand to leave the country.

The date of departure was set by Immigration NZ as today and comes after a years-long battle to stay in the country failed.

The Bay of Islands community have put 600 signatures to a petition showing huge support and highlighting the family’s concerns for their wellbeing if they return to China, where they say they suffered religious and economic persecution. . . 

A year on the beat for Middlemarch’s one cop – Shawn McAvinue:

The sole police officer in Middlemarch is enjoying village life after celebrating a year in the job.

Constable Allan Lynch, of Middlemarch, celebrated his first year working in the South in September.

He and wife Kirsty and children Richie (5) and Ollie (3) moved from Feilding in the Manawatu to Middlemarch.

The family welcomed son Fergus about a month ago.

‘‘It’s our first South Island baby — he’ll be rolling his Rs in no time,’’ Const Lynch said.

The family were enjoying being part of the tight-knit community in Middlemarch, he said. . . 

Historic Molesworth Homestead reopens in the heart of NZ’s biggest farm – Sophie Trigger:

The legacy of a historic South Island homestead will live on, as the “heart of the Molesworth” reopened this week. 

Farm manager Jim Ward had lived in the Molesworth Homestead, south of Blenheim, with his wife Tracey for 15 years when the earthquake struck in November 2016. 

“We’re in open country so we heard the thing coming,” he said.  

“We just took a door each and rode it out for a while. We knew there was significant damage but the beauty of it was that no one was hurt on the station.”  . . 

 

Badanloch Battleship sporting this season’s colour on trend – green. pic.twitter.com/7a2DHQOwbF

— Joyce Campbell (@armadalefarm) December 1, 2019

Grazing cattle not causing global warming – report -Hannah Quinn-Mulligan ::

Grazing sheep and cattle systems can play a vital role in combating climate change and have wrongly been labelled as causing global warming.

Researchers working with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) based in Oxford University have discovered that methane from grazing animals in the UK is not to blame for global warming.

“A focus on the emissions themselves is misleading – instead it’s the warming impact of those emissions that actually matters. Currently global warming from UK agricultural methane is less than zero,” the report summarises. . .

Rural round-up

Meat companies must be clear about their purpose – Allan Barber:

When I heard KPMG’s global agribusiness head, Ian Proudfoot, on the radio stating the move away from meat to alternative proteins was happening permanently and quickly and meat companies needed to wake up, I wondered whether I had strayed into the Pop Up Globe to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Surely if meat companies need to wake up to alternative protein, this implies their whole business model is broken and farmers should be sitting in front of their horoscopes looking for a magical answer to the inevitable question “what the hell do I do now?”

Proudfoot’s justification for his opinion is US meat processor Tyson Foods’ announcement it has become protein agnostic and intends investing heavily in alternatives to meat. . . 

Awatere Valley farmers make a dent in “scourge of the high country” – Pat Deavoll:

For over half a century hieracium has been the curse of the high country, engulfing native tussock land and destroying the grazing potential of areas such as the Mackenzie Basin, Central Otago and the Canterbury high country.

Most high country runholders would say the weed continues its spread with little sign of abating, but a small enclave in the Awatere Valley, Marlborough thinks otherwise.

“Yes I think it’s on the decline here,” says Jim Ward, manager of Molesworth Station. . . 

Fonterra launches cutting-Edgar technology taking health and safety into 22nd century:

Fonterra and Beca have partnered to develop a breakthrough virtual reality health and safety training technology. The cutting-edge solution lets employees navigate the Co-operative’s manufacturing and distribution sites without the need to set foot on site and will help substantially reduce onboarding times.

The new technology will place Fonterra at the forefront of global health and safety innovation and is part of a business wide commitment to become a world leader in risk mitigation. . . 

Gotta love Southland one minute your in a drought with a cover 1642 growing 6 kg/dm a day the next your in surplus with a cover of 2581 and growth of 107 kg/dm a day. @NickTempler #431am #southland pic.twitter.com/ehdQNrGhCu

— Anieka Templer (@AniekaNick) March 5, 2018

‘M. bovis’ hurts all down the chain – Sally Brooker:

Mycoplasma bovis is affecting people all along the cattle supply chain.
Oamaru-based Whitestone Livestock Ltd principal John Cheesman said the bacterial disease was ”a real bloody issue”.

M. bovis was identified for the first time in New Zealand in late July on farms near Glenavy owned by the Van Leeuwen Dairy Group.

”It’s not really affecting the Waiareka saleyards as much as farmers’ and everybody else’s confidence to buy animals from this district and any other district,” Mr Cheesman said.

Environmental issues No. 1 focus:

Reducing on-farm environmental footprints is the top priority at Lincoln University.

Speaking at the Lincoln University Dairy Farm’s summer focus day, which was held at the Ashley Dene Research and Development Station on February 22, Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences dean Prof Grant Edwards said managing environmental concerns was the No1 focus.

”How can we progress our farms to maximise production within environmental limits?” . . . 

New study finds more omega 3s in milk from grass-fed cows – Hope Kirwan:

A new study shows milk from grass-fed cows has more of a nutrient linked to heart health than conventional and organic milks.

Organic Valley collected 1,163 samples over three years of their Grassmilk, a product line of milk from 100 percent grass-fed cows, and had their fatty acid content analyzed. The study compared the omega-3 fatty acid levels in the milk from grass-fed cows to conventional and organic milk. Researchers found that milk from grass-fed cows had 147 percent more omega-3s than conventional milk and 52 percent more than organic milk.

Omega-3 fatty acid has been shown to prevent heart disease and help control chronic conditions like arthritis. . .

Today we had a brilliant time meeting the March #MillenniumFarmers!

You could say that their reading habits have helped them become the successful leaders they are today – this is barely a quarter of them.

What ones have you read and what was the key message you took from them? pic.twitter.com/8hlVcK289M

— Millennium Farming (@TheY2KFarmer) March 7, 2018

Rural round-up

Grass-fed meat promises to revive health benefits – Gerald Piddock:

Farming and consuming grass-fed red meat might just save the planet.

This form of farming was completely sustainable, nutritional therapist Nora Gedgaudas told farmers and visitors at the World Angus Forum in Rotorua.

It is also the predominant method of farming livestock in New Zealand.

“Grass-fed meat may just be the most healthy and sustainable food source on Earth,” she said.

Much of the earth’s landmass was unsuitable for agriculture, yet it could support grazing livestock while providing nutritionally dense food, she said. . .

1105kg steer continues tradition– Tim Cronshaw:

A friesian and charolais cross steer tipped the scales at 1105 kilograms to take the heaviest steer title in the Prime Cattle Competition at Canterbury Agricultural Park.

Dunsandel farmer John McDrury added a second title to his collection at the pre-Canterbury A & P Show event this week, after winning in 2010 with a 1250kg steer. His grandson, Jack McDrury, won in 2011 with a 1000kg charolais.

The supreme champion animal was a limousin heifer, which also won the best single heifer title for Jeannette and Ralph Adams from Flaxton, near Rangiora. . .

Bloodthirsty ticks on a quest:

BLOODTHIRSTY ADULT TICKS are on a quest right now and farmers in the North Island in tick-prevalent areas should be checking cattle and talking to their veterinarian, say DairyNZ.

They should be assessing their risk in an effort to limit the spread of a new strain of the blood-borne parasite Theileria, says DairyNZ.

Cases of cattle being affected by the new Ikeda strain of Theileria orientalis, which is carried by ticks and causes anaemia, have been on the increase since late 2012, particularly in the upper half of the North Island. . .

Stock shift sees Molesworth road open earlier  – Tony Benny:

The Molesworth Station road has opened early this year, instead of the usual December 28, thanks to a change in farming practice and continuing efforts to show the historic high country property off.

“Our goal is that over their lifetime, everybody in New Zealand comes and has a look and gets a feel of what they own,” said Molesworth manager Jim Ward.

The public has previously been kept off the 59-kilometre road that links Hanmer with Marlborough’s Awatere Valley until close to New Year, because of fears that they could interfere with farming operations.

This year the road opened two months earlier, at Labour Weekend, thanks to young cattle being sent to finishing blocks in Hanmer rather than being kept on the station. . .

Bush v city: why I won’t be joining the exodus from rural Australia – Gabrielle Chan:

From wide open spaces to a genuine sense of community, country Australia, let me count the ways I love thee.

So the bush is bleeding. No one wants to live here. Just a few of us hardy souls left, it appears.

We were told this month rural Australians are falling in love with the beaches – that coastal strip that rings the country, with all its white sands, clear blue seas, temperate climate, its schools and hospitals, its shopping malls and movie theatres.

Well all I can say is: what a bunch of tossers.

Granted, as a city girl, I could not initially see the attractions that lay beyond the tall dark handsome farmer who lured me westward out of my three-metre-wide Surry Hills terrace and into the great open spaces.

Granted, I did spend a fair bit of time walking through the paddocks carrying a large branch, suffering from some agoraphobic belief that all this space without a single human had to hold some hidden monster that would emerge from the morning fog to attack me.

Ah, but like most affairs, the delights of rural life crept up slowly and now I have fallen in love with the bush. . .

#gigatownoamaru has fallen in love with the goal of being the southern hemisphere’s first gigatown.

Rural round-up

Weather warning saved Molesworth – Tony Benny:

Even as a forecasters this week predicted a short, sharp, cold front bringing snow down to 300 metres in Canterbury and 400m in Marlborough, Molesworth Station manager Jim Ward was counting his blessings after escaping relatively unscathed from June’s big snow and was enjoying an early spring.

“At this stage, it’s like it is in October – we’ve got beautiful days, we’ve got a bit of green coming away, and the moisture levels are up in the soil,” Ward said.

“We’ve noticed the bird life that turns up in the spring, like oyster catchers – they turned up a bit earlier and there’s a lot more of them so I think that’s a pretty good indication. We could still get a dump now but we’re quite chirpy.” . .

Vision for dairying future is explained – Murray Robertson:

AN $18 million investment proposal has been laid out to get the Ata Milk concept up and running in the Wairoa-Gisborne-East Coast region.

The proposal was presented to a group of about 60 interested people on Thursday afternoon in Gisborne.

The man who has spent the past 10 years developing the principles of Caring Dairying and Ata Milk, Dr Hugh Jellie, outlined his vision for the resurgence of dairying in this region.

“I am very humbled by the level of interest and support shown.”

His dream was to take this region “back to the future”, he said. . .

Dairy potential profiled – Murray robertson:

THE Ata Milk and Caring Dairying proposal for Tairawhiti has the potential to produce more than double the returns achieved by dry-stock farming and cropping, initiator Dr Hugh Jellie said in a presentation in Gisborne this week.

Around 60 interested people heard his vision for the resurgence of dairying in this district.

An investment proposal was laid out for consideration, to raise $18 million to establish the first stage of the project. . .

Gaining a good foothold – Murray Robertson:

GISBORNE now has a new “master” farrier trained by long-time master farrier Dick Parsons.

Ben Akuhata-Brown recently passed his final examination.

“Ben has attained the top qualification for equine practice in New Zealand,” Mr Parsons said.

The 28-year-old started work as an apprentice farrier with Mr Parsons when he left school. . .

Pea-fect conditions for crops – Tim Cronshaw:

Pea crops are springing out of the ground because of unseasonably warm Canterbury weather.

Processor and exporter Wattie’s is already 10 per cent through its sowing schedule ending December and at this rate is expected to bring forward harvesting to the last week of November.

Planting is based in Pendarves in the early pea growing Rakaia area and in Southbridge and Leeston and will then move to Aylesbury and Kirwee before advancing further afield.

Wattie’s South Island agricultural manager Mark Daniels said contracted growers had made a fast start to the planting season, and this was always preferred to get a crop established. . .

Sophie happy to swap fame for farm –

She may have travelled the world chasing rowing medals, but for Sophie MacKenzie there’s no place like home. The 21-year-old enjoyed some well-earned time off after picking up a bronze in Austria, checking out the sights of Europe, but she couldn’t wait to return to the top of the valley, her hugely-supportive parents and a menagerie of animals.

As comfortable in gumboots and a farm ute as she is in a double scull, Sophie has found the ideal place to chill out after the high-pressure demands of international sport.

“I’ve never been so excited to come home . . . and see all my animals (I love them), do a bit of farm work, get back to my hills,” she said. . .