Rural News 5 May 2015

RURALNEWSTO ALL FARMERS, FOR ALL FARMERS

NEWSTrucking firms under scrutiny for animal welfare. PAGE 15

MACHINERYSide-by-side easy, safe and comfortable. PAGE 39 ANIMAL HEALTH

NZ scientists make breakthrough

on animal methane emissions.PAGE 33

MAY 5, 2015: ISSUE 583 www.ruralnews.co.nz

PLOUGHING ROYALTYJim Brooker (83), of Darfield, was an interested spectator at this year’s NZ Ploughing Champion-ship at Palmerston, east Otago, last month.

Booker won the first NZ Ploughing Champion-ship at Oamaru in 1956, aged only 23. His prize was a round-the-world air ticket, including flights to Hawaii and Vancouver, a train trip through the Rockies to Toronto, then a flight on to Shilling-ford near Oxford, UK to attend the World Plough-ing contest.

He finished 11th out of 25 ploughmen from 13 countries and was farewelled from New Zealand by then Prime Minister Sid Holland and his Minis-ter of Agriculture Keith Holyoake.

Brooker started ploughing after he left school at 15 and still retains a keen interest in the sport today, hence his attendance at this year’s event. More on Jim Brooker and the NZ Ploughing Championships pp 18-19

Bounce-back expectedDESPITE LAST week’s drop in this sea-son’s expected milk payout by both Fon-terra and Westland there are positive – albeit slow – signs about the future out-look for dairy prices.

Rabobank dairy expert Hayley Moyni-han says the recovery in global wholemilk powder prices may be 12 months away.

The global market is rebalancing in response to lower prices but it’s slow.

Analysis shows that imports decline when prices are above US$3800/t for whole milk powder. Buyers are turned off; it happened in 2007-08 and again 2013-14. Below that price import demand and trade grows. (This analysis excludes China which has so many variables it dis-torts the figures.)

Combined with other factors includ-ing increased cost of production, Rabo-bank estimates a price point the market can handle is between US$3500/t and $4000/t. (The early April WMP price on Global Dairy Trade was US$2450/t.)

Moynihan told the DairyNZ Farmers Forum in Kerikeri that Rabobank fore-casts it will take until March or April next year to reach the bottom of that trading range ($3500/t). “So it’s a prolonged recovery but medium to long term it will average somewhere in the $3500 to $4000 range,” she said.

Only unforeseen events such as Rus-sian President Vladimir Putin deciding to take European product again or the situ-ation changing in China, would quicken the recovery.

“A greater number of variables are

affecting the global market milk price, virtually all of which are uncontrollable. We will see those prices move back up again; currently they are not sustainable for anybody, for any export producers around the world. But it will take some time to get there.”

Moynihan said one major scenario will be significantly less imports into China in 2015 versus 2014.

“We expect to see exports down by about 50% versus last year. So people who are expecting a very sharp increase in pricing because China is going to come back into the market – we don’t think so.”

China’s consumption will grow long term but it will not be the primary and almost sole driver of trade growth as

seen in the last

four-five years. Growth will be broader based, in regions like South East Asia, North Africa and other African regions.

On the supply side, Moynihan said the quotas coming off in Europe would see about 4 billion litres growth annually until 2020. Earlier modelling had put that growth at 10 billion litres, but growth had come earlier. Now milk prices are low, some countries have penalties on the last

PAM TIPA

[email protected]

12 months increased production and the spring flush hasn’t been good yet. Rabo-bank is picking volumes from Europe similar to last year.

After difficulties from 2008-12, the American industry is hitting its straps with lower grain prices, more investment and a reorientation towards export mar-kets. They are getting 2-3% increases in milk production.

“The mega dairies in the US are our main source of competition. They are moving to the areas of the US which are less heavily regulated and getting effi-ciencies that way. They are more of a threat than the production coming out of Europe in a post quota environment.”– Forecasts drop - page 4

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RURAL NEWS // MAY 5, 2015

NEWS 3

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FONTERRA PLANS HUGE EXPANSIONFONTERRA IS planning a tenfold expansion in production capacity at its Studholme factory in South Canterbury.

The dairy co-op is soon set to lodge con-sents for a major upgrade at the former Rus-sian-owned plant, which it bought three years ago from the receivers and which many feared would be put out of commission at the time.

However, far from ceasing work, the factory is at the centre of Fonterra’s growth plans in the South Canterbury and North Otago regions that will see its production capacity grow from the current 900,000 litres a day to closer to 10 million litres a day – when the two-stage dryer development is completed. In addition, a large drystore and two new boilers – for each new dryer – are also proposed.

The planned Studholme factory expansion will require a million hours’ work. Site manager Alan Maitland emphasises plans for expansion remain a proposal at this stage and will require resource consent approval and Fonterra board sign-off. “Once we get consent; we will take it to the board.”

If approved, the factory extension would take up to 18 months to build, requiring up to 500 workers working from 6am until 10pm during this period.

The completed factory would require two extra trains daily taking the factory’s products north to Timaru’s port, and another supplying coal, probably from the south.

The cost of the Studholme upgrade is reported to be about $600 million, cover-ing the two stages, with each phase expected to commence construction in 2020 and 2025 respectively. Once up and running each stage is expected to create an extra 125 new perma-nent jobs.

The proposed upgrade of Fonterra’s Stud-holme plant, along with growth capacity at its Clandeboye site north of Timaru and the recent development of the Chinese-owned Oceania plant at Glenavy shows the huge growth poten-tial of dairy production in the South Canter-bury/North Otago region.

‘Rockstar’ lambs woolLAMB WOOL has been the ‘rock star’ this season, with values about $1 above last year, according to Wool Services International’s Malcolm Ching.

Lamb wool averaged about $6.45 clean, he says. The demand was mainly driven by strong interest from China for inclusion in clothing and upholstery products, says Ching. They weren’t so interested last year but it is back in fashion this year.

Otherwise, the season is winding up and everything else just “pottered along”.

Meanwhile New Zealand Merino Company (NZM) has secured a new NZ$8 million fibre supply contract with United States sock and apparel manufacturer SmartWool. The one-

year deal means 600 tonnes of New Zealand fine and medium micron wool will be shipped to the US for use in production of SmartWool’s performance and lifestyle socks and clothing.

NZM chief executive John Brakenridge says the deal with SmartWool continued an 18-year partnership worth NZ$150 million to NZM’s growers.

“The SmartWool contract is testament that a new way of doing business can work in our commod-ity-based primary sector,” he says. “When we first introduced the idea it was hugely disruptive, so it’s satis-fying to see that the model has lon-gevity. This new contract reinforces that.”

SmartWool president Mark Sat-kiewicz says the company’s focus on new product innovation had

required more complex fibre micron and volume analysis in advance of the contract.

“We’re excited about this innova-tion and opening new supply oppor-tunities for New Zealand growers. We value our loyal grower partners in New Zealand who understand and produce what we need here in the market.”

In addition, SmartWool’s cus-tomers were increasingly interested in the company’s “brand story” – particularly ZQ accredited fibre from NZM growers.

“Consumers, especially younger ones, are taking a much stronger interest in the origin and integrity of products. New Zealand farming has one of the strongest brand sto-ries available.”

PAM TIPA

[email protected]

Record confirmedTIMARU FARMERS Warren and Joy Darling are now the Guin-ness World Record (GWR) hold-ers for the highest barley yield.

As first reported in Rural News February 3, the world record attempt took place in January this year and was rati-fied by GWR on April 15 with a yield of 13.8t/ha from the Black-man Agriculture bred variety 776.

“It was like being back in school knowing you had done really well on a test, but until you receive the final mark, it is an anxious time,” Warren Dar-ling commented.

He says all three genera-tions of the Darling family came together on the day of the record

attempt: it was a family affair and a momentous day for the Poplar Grove team.

“The satisfaction from achieving world record status is incredible,” Darling adds. “It is outstanding that the South Canterbury region of New Zea-land is recognised on the global stage for growing world record breaking crops.”

Participating companies in the Guinness World Record attempt include the Exclu-sive Grain Group (Blackman Agriculture UK and Canter-bury Seed), Agronomy Solu-tions, Ballance Agri-Nutrients, Bayer CropScience, Claas Har-vest Centre Canterbury, Power Farming Timaru and Rabobank. Warren Darling.

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4 NEWSWestland drops payout to $5A CONTINUING decline in interna-tional milk prices has led Westland Milk Products to again drop its pre-dicted payout for the 2014-15 season.

Westland’s board says its pre-dicted payout is now $4.90 - $5.10/kgMS before retentions – down from the previously announced range of $5 to $5.40/kgMS.

Chief executive Rod Quin says prices were such that a $5.20 pay-out seemed possible before the recent auctions, as buyers looked to New Zealand to secure supply ahead of the dry conditions during January and February.

“However, customer sentiment has now changed significantly. Skim milk powder out of Europe is being offered at US$2100 – US$2200 per tonne which, for larger global buyers, is very attractive and well below offers from New Zealand of $2600 - $2800/t and the dairy auction itself, which has seen prices of $2300 – $2400/t.”

Quin says the high value of the NZ

dollar also continues to play a part in the ability of NZ to get good returns for its farmers in international mar-kets.

“The New Zealand dollar remains strong at 76-77c against the US dollar, reflecting our official cash rate of 3.5%, our very low inflation and rel-atively stable political environment.”

Quin claims that Westland, NZ’s second-biggest dairy co-operative, is well placed due to sales decisions made earlier in the season. But he admits the co-op, in having some exposure to the market, will suffer the effect of lower prices for the remainder of the season.

“I expect the next three months to be very tough, with European pro-cessors aggressively selling their peak milk,” he says. “Not all Euro-pean markets are producing more milk than last year, but enough are to drive an oversupplied situation.”

Quin acknowledges that current prices are unsustainable in respect of farm economics. However he is

optimistic that this could help turn the market around through a reduc-tion in production and he predicts that milk supply in Europe and the US will slow, as it has in NZ.

“Westland’s milk flows are now tracking down and we do not expect them to recover, given the lower payout forecast for this season.”

Quin says the low commodity prices show the importance of having a range of product options; more of Westland’s sales are of value-added products. The value in the co-opera-tive’s infant nutrition business is sig-nificantly higher than that received for its more traditional bulk milk power products. The company’s new nutritionals dryer (D7) at Hokitika, due to start for the 2015-16 season, is expected to increase returns further compared with milk powders.

Westland has also begun building its new UHT plant at its Rolleston site, near Christchurch. The plant is expected to be in production by about April 2016.

Fonterra follows suit – again

FONTERRA HAS slashed its forecast farmgate milk price for the 2014-15 season to $4.50/kgMS – down from the record $8.40/kgMS last year.

The dairy co-op says that, taking into account the previously announced esti-mated dividend range of 20-30 cents per share, Fonterra suppliers are facing a forecast cash payout of $4.70 - $4.80 for the current season.

Chairman John Wilson said the reduc-tion reflects the con-tinuing and significant volatility in interna-tional dairy commodity prices caused by over-supply in the market.

“We have confidence in the long-term fun-damentals of interna-tional dairy demand, however the market has not yet rebalanced and GDT prices for products that inform our farmgate milk price have fallen 23% since February.

Wilson concedes the forecast cut will impact farmers’ cashflows, and they will need to continue exercising caution with onfarm budgets.

“Our farmers are already manag-ing very tight cashflows. Although this reduction is not the news anyone wants, it is important we keep our farm-ers updated given the significant market uncertainty.

“Given the reduced milk price fore-cast we are also lowering the advance

rate of scheduled monthly payments to our farmers.

“We will continue to keep farm-ers updated as the season progresses,” Wilson adds.

Chief executive Theo Spierings said

geopolitical unrest in places such as Russia, the Middle East and North Africa is impacting global dairy demand.

“Remote as they are, events such as the flow of refugees from Libya to Europe come together with factors like lower oil prices to soften dairy demand,” Spierings says.

Meanwhile, Fonterra’s latest esti-mate of milk production for the current season is 1607 million kgMS. But this is based on recent growth conditions onfarm and will depend on conditions for the rest of the season.

Fonterra chair John Wilson.

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NEWS 5

HUNTER DOWNS Irrigation chairman Andrew

Fraser says it’s mainly cropping farmers who haven’t

provided the further funding (see main story), typi-

cally those with 100-200ha operations.

Farm budgets provided by Macfarlane Rural

Business posted on HDI’s website possibly explain.

Based on all types of farming requiring an additional

$16,611/ha capital investment to irrigate through

HDI, plus 6% interest rates, mixed cropping makes

the lowest margin on investment in irrigation at

2.6%. Mixed livestock is only slightly better at 3.5%,

dairy grazers 4.2%, and intensive arable 6.8%.

Meanwhile dairy’s marginal return on irrigation

investment comes out at 3.7%, 8.6% or 13.5% at

payouts of $5.50/kgMS, $6.50/kgMS or $7.50/

kgMS respectively.

See www.hunterdownsirrigation.co.nz for more.

MARGINAL RETURNSIrrigation scheme

support faltersA MAJOR South Island irrigation scheme, Hunter Downs, is struggling to get all-farmer support for the second instalment on its shares.

However, the scheme’s chairman, deer and dairy farmer Andrew Fraser, says it will go ahead in one form or another regardless of the reticence of about 60 shareholding farmers to pay $87.50/ha for further planning, consent and land access work.

The scheme is pivotal to the region’s environ-mental plan which relies on HDI coming to frui-tion to augment rivers and streams to enhance the Wainono coastal lagoon. Fonterra is also planning a two-dryer expansion of its Studholme plant in the scheme’s command area.

Without naming names, Fraser says alterna-tive funders are now being sought to progress the scheme. “We are looking at several big companies that may have a long-term requirement for irrigation in the region.”

Meanwhile there is a possibility farmers who haven’t paid will forfeit their shares. “We will have to look at it but it certainly won’t be our top priority.”

HDI’s initial share issue saw 27,390ha signed, sub-scribers paying $25/ha share as the first instal-ment on $200 shares to fund the design phase of the scheme. Second pay-ments of $87.50 were origi-nally due March 31 but the deadline was extended to May 1.

“We’re still talking to a couple of shareholders. There were 151 originally and I think we’ll have over 90 paid up [on May 1],” Foster told Rural News last week.

HDI’s design could water 32,000ha between Waimate and Timaru. It already has consent to take water from the Wait-aki River which means the scheme would be near 100% reliable. A total cost of $9700 to $11,500/ha is anticipated, partly by debt funding, partly by share-holders. Total annual water charges, based on 70% debt funding and 6% interest, are estimated at $930 to $1185/ha.

Waimate District Coun-cil and Timaru District Council are sharehold-ers in the scheme, with plans to use HDI water to improve reliability of town and rural water supply schemes. Both have paid the second instalment, says Foster, but there have

been comments in local media questioning further council support.

Some farmers are also questioning how HDI will achieve the environmen-tal outcomes written into a variation of Waimate Dis-trict’s plan now out for consultation.

Irrigation New Zealand chief executive Andrew Curtiss says farmers and those in the wider commu-nity not supporting HDI need “a reality check”.

“Without it the whole Waimate District Varia-tion 3 Plan Change is com-pletely unviable,” he says. “If you don’t augment the lakes and rivers it means you’re then into an envi-ronment like the Hinds or Selwyn catchments and talking about how far you’ve got to cut back and it becomes very fractious.”

Those who say they’re not supporting the scheme because they can’t make it stack up financially are probably failing to account for the environmental mit-

ANDREW SWALLOW

igation measures they’ll be forced to take if the scheme doesn’t go ahead, he maintains. “You can’t compare it to the status quo.”

Those who argue they’re not farming inten-sively so shouldn’t bear the cost of mitigation mea-sures should consider “how much they want to

be curtailed in their land use in future,” adds Cur-tiss. “Essentially you’ll be locked into what you have been doing.”

The economic bene-fit of irrigation across the region – not just on the farms that buy in – is well documented in districts such as Timaru or Ashbur-ton, he points out.

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6 NEWS: SPECIAL REPORT

Bureaucrats out of hand – claimsLast Issue Rural News reported on how Beef + Lamb NZ and WorkSafe NZ were at odds over farm safety and quad bike use. This garnered plenty of feedback – with many farmers fearful, confused and even angry at WorkSafe’s approach to the issue. We take look at the pros and cons of this thorny issue…

THE BAN on passen-gers on quads is inhibit-ing farmers getting good professional advice, says a Gisborne farmer, Mark Gemmell.

Rural News has been inundated with calls and letters from farmers con-cerned about WorkSafe New Zealand’s ban on carrying passengers on quads. They complain chiefly that the new rules are impractical, made by bureaucrats who don’t understand what life is like onfarm and that the rules will harm farm busi-nesses.

Mark Gemmell, who runs a 720ha sheep and beef farm 50km from Gis-

borne, told Rural News the issue of pillion pas-sengers on quads has got “completely out of hand”. The people making the rules fail to recognise the absurdity of some of them, he says.

“I have a couple of big Labrador dogs that weigh 40kg each and an old huntaway bitch that’s about 30kg. I willingly cart

them around on my quad and I have never tipped it over.”

Gemmell, who works off farm for Ballance Agri-Nutrients, believes the best way of developing relationships with farmer clients is by sitting on the back of a bike – looking at the stock, sticking to the tracks, being sensible, doing soil testing and

giving advice on their stock policy.

And another Gisborne farmer, James Brown-lie, applauds WorkSafe’s attempts and encour-agement of the culture and safety – because “it’s well needed and there has to be some change of attitudes”. But, he says, unfortunately he cannot support the stance Work-Safe has taken on passen-gers on quads.

“Passengers on quads are an integral part of normal, everyday farm life and we can’t do without it,” Brownlie told Rural News. “It’s not at all dangerous, but is perceived as being dangerous because of the raising of the centre of gravity on a quad, based

on static loads. “But the

human load can get off quickly when there is a problem, whereas it’s impossible to jettison a bag of fertiliser or any-thing else which might be on the back. I often have up to six dogs on the back of my quad and they are all trained so that in any tricky situation they jump off when they are told to.”

Brownlie is bothered that WorkSafe has been unable to provide any evidence that more than one person on a quad has a causative effect in an accident. He travels about 1000 hours a year on his

quad and his staff do even more. He says given the kilometres these vehicles are driven, the accident rate is extremely low.

Brownlie believes the reaction of large farm-ing enterprises, such as Landcorp, in banning pas-sengers is a ‘knee-jerk’. He claims WorkSafe has taken on the corporate

farms and the boards of these organisations are not prepared to stand up to the government safety body for fear of prosecu-tion.

“I can see where the boards are coming from because they have had the gun pointed at them,” he says. “But I think they have got it wrong on this particular one.

“Farmers know their quads better than bureau-crats in Wellington. A farm consultant told me there is nothing safer than a farmer on his own tracks on his own quad. That consultant says he’d rather ride with that farmer than on his own quad. The safest thing is to be a passenger with an experienced person.”

PETER BURKE

[email protected]

Mark Gemmell

James Brownlie

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NEWS: SPECIAL REPORT 7

It’s all about safety – WorkSafe NZ says

WorkSafe says its Safer Farms Programme is about helping farmers meet their current and future legal obligations.

IN APRIL two people died on farms in ‘workplace’ deaths – one was a boy aged 14.

And in Waikato in April a toddler nearly drowned in dairy farm effluent.

Incidents such as these are all too common. They are devastating for farm-ers, their families and the wider farming commu-nity. They will affect them for life. But they are only one piece of a much larger story.

That story tells of the 283 people who have died in workplace accidents on farms since 2000 and the 50-plus people a day who have to see a doctor because of farming work-place injuries. Then there is the impact of this on

families and communities and productivity. That is why WorkSafe New Zea-land is working with rural communities and the ACC to roll out the Safer Farms programme.

Safer Farms is to improve the awareness of and approach to safety onfarm. Despite what you may have read or heard, this is not new rules or laws. Yes, there is new health and safety legisla-tion in the pipeline, but Safer Farms comes under current and future law.

Some farmers are unaware of their respon-sibilities under current law and are seeing Safer Farms as an imposition of new law, rather than an attempt to bring them up to date.

Simply put, Safer

Farms is designed to help farmers better understand how to make their farms safer – including how to meet their current and future legal obligations.

WorkSafe has a critical role in ensuring farmers understand their respon-sibilities, rather than having them rely on unin-formed comment. That’s why WorkSafe is sitting down with organisations such as Federated Farm-ers to develop practical health and safety tools for farmers. That’s why we’re going to field days and talking with farmers, and ensuring rural retailers get the correct health and safety messages to their customers.

That’s why we will work with schools to edu-cate children living on

farms about how to stay safe on farms.

Unfortunately, some people wish to concen-trate on single issues at the expense of the total picture. No matter the cold, hard facts relating to deaths and injuries, some people will not accept that helmets are a reason-able precaution to take on motorbikes and quads.

Quad manufacturers are explicit about which vehicles are appropri-ate for single and multi-ple riders and highlight the dangers of ignor-ing those guidelines. Yet some people choose to ignore that clear guidance. And that is why regula-tory breaches will be met with appropriate regula-tory action.

There have been ref-

erences to ‘ways of life’ being threatened. No-one denies that the rural lifestyle is part of New Zealand’s DNA. It is something we as a country want to protect. That pro-tection includes protect-ing the wellbeing of the people living and working on our farms.

The rural lifestyle, with families a part of that, can be maintained, but with better risk management.

WorkSafe knows that people don’t just work on farms, they live on them. We respect and under-stand that. But on these

workplaces farmers have a responsibility to manage the risk they create.

Of course you cannot eradicate all risk – much of day-to-day farming has inherent and unavoidable risk. Good safety man-agement means under-standing those risks and knowing the best and safest way to manage them.

Many farmers are expert at managing the risks of stock, pasture and business. Managing risk for day-to-day safety is well within their skills. Yet, for some reason,

taking the time to sit down and plan to save lives and livelihood isn’t seen as important by some. This is not managing risk because it’s the law, but doing it because it’s good for business, family, and community.

Since 2008 over 120 people have died work-ing on farms. The only way we can change these sad statistics is by working together. • Al McCone is programme manager for agriculture at WorkSafe New Zealand. www.saferfarms.org.nz. – Farmer reaction pg8

AL MCCONE

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8 NEWS: SPECIAL REPORT

Are quad bike rules needed: NO! YES!

COULD SOMEBODY please answer some questions and give some reasons?

The reasons WorkSafe NZ gives for farmers not carrying passengers on quads can also be applied to carrying a load on a truck or on a front loader. If it is ok to load a truck and use a front loader, why are quads different?

There are quads on the market designed to carry a 150kg load. It’s ok to use a 100L straddle tank sprayer that restricts your ability to actively ride the quad, and to carry fencing gear and four dogs. So what makes a passenger different?

One of the great things about carrying dogs or a passenger is that when things start going pear-shaped you can tell them to get off until the going gets better.

As for the threat of a $600,000 fine if I break one of ‘their’ rules, I am glad I am close to retirement age. Mike Davies Darfield

WELL DONE Beef + Lamb NZ (Rural News April 21). It is high time somebody told WorkSafe or FarmSafe NZ to fob off and leave farmers to be farmers.

I am bloody sure BLNZ’s sentiment is shared by just about every decent farmer throughout New Zealand.

Fonterra, Federated Farmers etc, where the hell are you guys in this fiasco? Sure as hell not supporting the vast majority of your members, but rather playing poli-tics.

I am tired of hearing the cry, ‘one death a year is one death too many’. More people die per year in just about every other occupation or hobby in NZ than farmers on farms.

I head out to work each day and if I f**k up on my quad that’s my problem and nobody else’s. I am not going to become a bloody poster boy for WorkSafe or FarmSafe.

Now I’m reading in every farm magazine that even sheep are a danger to my health. Each and every one of them is out to get me.

Unite Kiwi farmers and put a stop to this nonsense. It has nothing to do with safety and sure as hell has no practicability – except to reduce productivity and create yet another avenue for us to be taxed.Dave BlackleyWhangarei

I DRIVE a heavy truck-and-trailer unit around Coro-

mandel and I see farmers at their work every day.

I was disappointed to read your April 21 report

from Fed Farmer’s Gisborne president Peter Jex-

Blake who thinks carrying passengers on quads is in

order – even after having had an accident himself

In all industries WorkSafe NZ restrictions are

generally a bit over the top, but in the quad issue I

think they are right on the button. I used to be a fork-

hoist instructor and one of the golden rules is ‘no

seat, no ride’. Many a person has slipped off a fork-

hoist while catching a ride back to the office or base.

This equally would apply to quads. The excuse of

taking the bank manager out to pick mushrooms is

very poor, especially as you can now purchase two

seat models, which would stop all this discussion.

Last year, while driving a 45 tonne truck/trailer

unit around a corner I encountered a farmer on

a quad with two 12-year-old girls (one on each

mudguard). When the farmer saw me he panicked

and swerved and both passengers fell onto the road.

Fortunately, I was able to miss them….

Come on you guys, buy a two-seater.

Laurie Johnston

Whitianga

LIKE THE entire industry, Landcorp

is going through some significant

-- and at times difficult -- cultural

changes regarding safety.

But it is not fear of regulation

that is driving these changes. It is a

deeply held belief that providing the

safest possible workplace for our

people is a vitally important aspect

of our business.

Our most productive farms

also happen to be our safest. And

increasingly we are finding more

and more people wanting to work

at Landcorp, precisely because

we have made safety our highest

priority.

Regarding passengers on quads,

the quads on our farms are designed

for only one rider, and we also

respect the manufacturer’s recom-

mended load weight limits.

Traci Houpapa

Landcorp director and board chair


NEWS 9Hamish Gates (R) in action during the horti-sports section of the 2015 Young Vegetable Grower of the Year Contest .

Hunting trip leads to hort careerYOUNG VEGETA-BLE Grower of the Year, Hamish Gates, may never have joined the horticul-tural industry if it wasn’t for the global financial crisis.

The 24-year-old, who won the 2015 title as a first-time entrant, was a plumber when he left high school. But one year into his apprenticeship he lost his job during the eco-nomic downturn.

“Working to make ends meet I went on a hunting trip and drove through a cherry orchard in Central Otago,” he told Rural News. “I thought that was pretty fun and a few weeks later I had moved out of home, moved down to work on that orchard and enrolled in the next semester at Lincoln University.”

Gates, currently a carrot washline supervi-sor at AS Wilcox and Sons in Pukekohe, enrolled back then in a diploma in hor-ticulture for his first year, did a diploma in horticul-tural management in his second and then in his third started a bachelor in agricultural commerce which he has completed. He worked on orchards or other horticultural ven-tures in university summer breaks.

That included working at AS Wilcox in Matamata for three seasons, moving up from out in the field to training and running a small irrigation team. He also went back to Central Otago and worked in qual-ity control of export cher-ries. After graduating he got a permanent job with AS Wilcox, starting in qual-ity control and progressing through the business to his current position.

He aims to climb the management ladder within the horticulture indus-try. But he did not expect to take the Young Vege-table Grower title on his first year of entry, and was “absolutely stunned” when his name was called. “I didn’t think my expe-rience would have me in a good position to win. I was hoping to at least get a place; second or third I would have been thrilled

with. But I won!”The day-long competi-

tion in Pukekohe on April 16, supported by Horti-culture NZ, involved four business and four practical modules including finan-cial analysis of buying a new tractor, to irrigation, rebuilding a pump, trac-tor driving, fertiliser and soil science exercises, mar-keting, HR and health and safety.

“It was all aimed at being a well-rounded hor-ticulturalist in terms of running your own busi-ness,” Gates explained. His experience working in the university holidays helped him in the tractor driving – but it was his first two diplomas at university that mainly helped him in the practical aspects of the competition.

Gates is now build-ing up to the national 2015 Young Grower of the Year competition in August in Christchurch. Although he didn’t expect to be going, he “absolutely” will pre-pare for it.

“I will be calling on as many people within the business as I can, to upskill to be as prepared as pos-sible. I will do everything I can to get the win. Fingers crossed, but I expect there will be pretty tough com-petition from all the other growers.”

Gates also won a one-day media and presenta-tion course in Wellington and a travel grant for pro-fessional development valued at $2500.

He has a few ideas for his travel grant. He would love to travel to a manda-rin company in California which uses optical grading technology. He would like to see how that technology could be used in the veg-etable industry and, given his packhouse experience, he is interested in ways to increase efficiency and reduce costs.

He is also interested in some Texan water man-agement systems and their different philosophy on watering crops. Gates also recently became interested in hydroponics for vege-table growing, especially a Netherlands company which, in an old steel mill, is using multi-level layers of hydroponic growing

PAM TIPA

[email protected]

equipment to create the equivalent of 30ha of grow-ing space. But Gates says it depends on whether those industries are interested him letting him visit and he hasn’t organised any-thing yet.

After celebrating the win, it was straight back into work.

Michael Anderson (29) from Canterbury was placed second and third place went to Lance Pratt (29) from Pukekohe.

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10 NEWS

Stopbank cuts costs farmers plenty

Northland farmer Steve Brown copped a $67,500 fine for cutting a stopbank during last year’s flood.

TWO Northland farmers who dug through a stop-bank during Northland’s biggest floods in July 2014 have been fined a com-bined $112,000, with one

farmer copping most of the penalty.

Steve Brown faced a fine of $67,500 for cut-ting through stopbanks in the Waiotu and Hikurangi rivers; Clim Lammers was fined $45,000 for cutting

through the Hikurangi River stopbanks.

Over 1000mm of rain fell on the Hikurangi Plains last July transform-ing it into a 500ha lake. The water remained for at least a week, fatally chok-

ing grasses which can only live underwater for six days before dying and, in Browns case, leaving his workers and neigh-bours house sitting in 1m of water.

After a week of river

GARETH GILLATT

levels not dropping enough to allow flood-gates to work, the two farmers took separate decisions to cut into the bank, then called the Northland Regional Coun-cil to let them know about the action they had taken.

The council then issued infringement notices to both farmers for cutting the stopbanks in August, telling them they were putting the overloaded river system under more pressure and potentially compounding the problems of flooded property owners down-stream.

While the fine imposed was well short of the maximum allowable $300,000, Brown says it was nevertheless disap-pointing, given he had pleaded guilty and had taken steps to fix the stop-bank after the flood had passed.

“Its sad that you’re not legally allowed to do what’s good for the envi-ronment, like letting heathy water out rather than letting it stagnate.”

Brown says, at the time, he needed to put 300 cows onto State High-way 1 to keep them safe.

“We are raised to treat human life first, then animal welfare next, then to look the after environ-ment as caretakers of the land. What else were we

supposed to do?”Brown hired a contrac-

tor to fix the Waiotu River breach in mid-July, pro-viding Whangarei Dis-trict Council staff a digger and a tractor to fix the Hikurangi breach.

In a way, the fine comes as a relief for Brown who says waiting for trial was a very drawn-out process.

The farmers weren’t asked for a plea till December, four months after the initial notice was issued and sentenc-ing didn’t happen till April 13, seven months and four trips to the Whangarei District Court after the incident that resulted in the fine.

“The first time we appeared for sentencing on January 16; they told us they wouldn’t be able to deal with the case because they didn’t have a judge present with enough back-ground in environmen-tal law.”

Brown won’t get any help to pay the fine as public liability insurance isn’t able to be used for fines.

“I don’t even think I will be able to use it to pay for legal costs because the insurance isn’t able to cover acts that are deliber-ate. I don’t want to think about the case I just want to get back to the farm and focus on that.”

CALLING ALL FARMERS WITH (GOLF) BALLSFARMERS IN the lower half of the North Island are being urged to take a rest day off their farms and go on a course – the Rangitikei golf course, near Bulls, for the annual farmers’ golf tourna-ment.

The event has proved extremely popular with farmers and sponsors (including Rural News). It’s a great fun day out with some excellent prizes at stake.

The tournament will be held on Tuesday May 19, registrations at 10am. Contact Geoff on 06 3231277.

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12 NEWS

Jogging collective memory about wool

INITIATIVES ARE under-way in New Zealand and overseas to highlight the benefits of wool and to increase its use in build-

ings and homes.Hawkes Bay wool

broker Philippa Wright, chair of the NZ Campaign for Wool Trust, says a long absence of wool promo-tion in NZ means it is now ‘off the radar’ of young

people. Wool’s story is undersold.

The NZ Campaign for Wool, part of a larger international campaign headed by Prince Charles, is working on three proj-ects to raise awareness of

wool. The first of these, says

Wright, is called ‘Wool in Schools’ sponsored by PGG Wrightson. It involves outfitting a ship-ping container with vari-ous interactive projects

PETER BURKE

[email protected]

that will enable young people (11-12) to “dis-cover” wool.

“We want them to be a part of wool, be excited about it and go home, tell their parents about it and spread the word that way. We need the younger generation to be inspired by wool,” Wright told Rural News. “We are trying to teach them the history of wool because there is a real heritage of wool in NZ. Some of us were wrapped in wool as babies. We were all told to have a wool blanket at the bottom of the bed because it was the first thing you grabbed and wrapped around you if there was a fire.

“We all had wool car-pets because we knew that it kept us warm. You still hear people say, ‘I have to get my woollies on’ – so it’s still part of our lan-guage.”

Wright says they want the young kids into dis-cover wool and make them feel excited and proud about it. She hopes, in time, they will look at labels and make sure a product is wool. This will just be a pilot project, which will be trialed in four North Island schools. But if it is successful, it will be extended to others over time.

The other project the

Campaign for Wool is hoping to run – if they get a sponsor – is called a ‘weekend in a wool-shed’. This is being run by Wellington architect and wool ambassador Stephen McDougall. Wright says they want to get four top, young design students onto a farm for mentoring by leading architects and wool experts.

“They will come to a farm for a whole weekend, be totally immersed in wool and be told about its attributes and what it can do. As a result, the stu-dents will be tasked with developing something new to do with wool. The benefit of this is these are the people who create the ideas and the fashion, and all consumers are follow-ers of fashion.”

The final project involves hiring a specialist in the United Sates who will speak to architects in 13 states about the attri-butes of wool and why they should include it in specifications for build-ings and houses.

“It’s to create awareness of why wool is so good. It ticks all the boxes environmentally, sustainably and health wise,” Wright adds. “So it’s an easy sell, but we have to get out there and remind people about that.”

Chair of NZ Campaign for Wool Trust Philippa Wright.

CO-OP FINANCE COURSECOOPERATIVE BUSINESS NZ, with the Institute of Directors, is hosting a course titled ‘Finance for Co-operatives’ in Wellington on June 8.

CBNZ’s Ian Macintosh says an impressive line-up of speakers will cover the key financial aspects of the co-operative business model.

“We have a chief executive, two chief financial officers and a senior financial analyst confirmed. This course is tailor-made for co-operative direc-tors and executives and builds on our ‘Leading Co-operative Essentials’ programme developed in partnership with the Institute of Directors,” he says.www.nz.coop

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14 NEWS

Mill opens cafe to showcase its waresOVERWHELMING RETAIL demand has prompted South Can-terbury start-up flour miller Farmers Mill to

open a café to showcase its Homebake range and other products.

It’s the latest move in a busy year for the farmer-owned operation which only started processing

in 2013.“Retail demand has

been overwhelming, backed by enquiries as to where and how people could try the product [so] we have opted to explore

the likes of the cafe,” chief executive Grant Bunting told Rural News.

Earlier this year it opened a warehouse in Auckland and it recently won its first export orders

with shipments to Malay-sia and Vietnam.

Bunting was in Malay-sia last week and said the export side of the busi-ness is going “great”. Competition in the

ANDREW SWALLOW

domestic market remains intense since incumbents Western, a subsidiary of British-owned multina-tional Associated British Foods, and Asian-owned Goodman Fielder raised their game in response to Farmers Mill’s arrival in the market (Rural News August 19, 2014).

Bunting says it’s inter-esting that there had been little reference to flour origin prior to Farmers Mill’s arrival in the market with both incumbents “content to support the Australian economy”.

Now several retail flour lines from Farmers Mill’s competitors cite use of domestic wheat with branding similar to Farm-ers Mill’s 100% NZ Grain logo.

“I guess we should be happy that we’ve had some impact,” Bunting said ruefully.

Marketing co-ordi-nator Rebecca Biggs says the café is largely to build brand recognition for Farmers Mill and its Homebake range.

Café customers can buy 5kg bulk bags of flour or the Homebake range of mixes such as Choco-late Mudcake, Pizza, or Muffin. Meanwhile the cakes, sandwiches and pastries offered with the coffee, tea or hot choc-

olate in the café are all baked with Farmers Mill product. “It’s so you can try before you buy,” says café manager Nikki Smith.

The paddock to plate providence of the product is reinforced with pictures of wheat, combine har-vesters and the mill itself on the café walls.

One customer at the café opening last month said the mixes had even got her partner baking. “I made muffins this morn-ing; he’s been using the scone mix,” said Mel Guerin as she picked up a sack of the mill’s Baker’s Flour.

Bunting says at this stage it’s “unlikely” the café concept will be rolled out nationally but the Homebake brand of mixes is available nationwide through supermarkets.

“It’s been a great feeling to see our retail range stocked in supermarkets across the country and the reception at the likes of the gluten free shows would suggest our product development activity is well placed,” he said in recent customer newsletter which also hinted at an imminent launch of products “for those concerned with the sugar content of traditional bread and cake mixes.”

FARMERS MILL’S plant in Washdyke, on Timaru’s northern edge, could get close to operating at full capacity this year with a third shift starting this month, says chief executive Grant Bunting.

Grain quality from the 2015 harvest is “really good” and investment in gluten analysis is paying dividends in product quality.

“We believe we are even closer to dismissing many of the myths that exist about the quality of NZ grain.”

Subject to quality and yields, about 5000ha of wheat will be needed by the mill from next summer’s harvest, about half coming from the firm’s 12 farmer shareholders. That compares to about 2000ha required in the mill’s first year, notes Bunting.

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Farmers Mill chief executive Grant Bunting.

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NEWS 15

Close eye on animal truckersTRUCKING FIRMS are coming under particular scrutiny about transport-ing cows that aren’t fit to travel, says Chris Leach, DairyNZ senior developer - animal husbandry and welfare.

He adds that farmers should not be surprised if transporters refuse to take animals that are not up to scratch, as MPI has been giving transporters a strong message.

“It really is the farmer’s responsibil-ity to make sure those cows are fit and healthy before transport,” Leach told Rural News.

“They should not be surprised, if they are presenting animals that aren’t fit, that the carrier may say they are sorry, they are not able to transport those ani-mals.”

MPI has just completed a roadshow around the country talking to transport-ers about their responsibility for animals they are transporting. “They are clearly telling transporters it is their responsi-bility as much as farmers’ to refuse to take cows if, in the mind of transport-ers, they are unfit to be transported,”

Leach says. “It is important for farmers to under-

stand the responsibility for the owner-ship of animals is still with the farmers. If the animals are going to slaughter, for example, the farmer still owns the ani-mals right up until the point of slaugh-ter and still has a responsibility for those animals.

“It is quite understandable that when farmers see the culls going up the load ramp onto the truck and off the farm, that from their perspective that animal is no longer their concern. The reality of it is they are still legally responsible for that animal.”

Leach says the key message to farm-ers this year is that they must communi-cate well with the transporters and make sure they plan ahead so the cows are pre-pared for transport. Those animals need to be fit and healthy.

That involves the supplementation of magnesium three days before. “Particu-larly for journeys longer than four hours we recommend supplementation of magnesium before and after transport.

“Cows which have been dried off just before transport are at particular risk of metabolic diseases. Some prior planning

is needed to dry those cows off. Either dry them off early or milk immediately prior to transport. The likelihood of having metabolic issues is then greatly reduced.”

Cows need to have sufficient body condition score, be fit and healthy, able to stand and bear weight on all four limbs

and have no health issues that will com-promise them through the added stress of transport.

DairyNZ is seeing cows maintain condition this year. “We are on track to see some good condition animals around,” says Leach. “This last rain and a flush of grass is maintaining condition.

Farmers generally are more proactive in trying to aim for those condition scores so they are hitting those targets of con-dition score 5.0 for calving.

“So, generally, farmers are doing a great job keeping animals in good con-dition.”– Get transport sorted early – pg 36

PAM TIPA

[email protected]

Transport firms are coming under increasing scrutiny over carting livestock not fit for travel.

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16 NEWS

Costly fight too much for HortNZ

AN “UNWORKABLE and economically” damaging recent Environment Court decision will not be challenged by Horticulture New Zealand because of the cost and time involved.

The court’s decision to uphold an appeal by Ngati Kahungunu in Hawke’s Bay was based on the interpre-tation of the words “maintenance and enhancement” of freshwater bodies. The court says those words mean the water quality within every single water body must be man-aged in a way that water quality is maintained or enhanced.

HortNZ believes this interpretation will cause huge problems because it goes against the direction the Gov-ernment has taken in its national policy for freshwater, which allows local communities to decide how their water bodies are maintained.

HortNZ says the decision could be used to challenge the development of land across the country for any pur-pose.

“This is simply unworkable. Land use is always chang-ing, to meet the needs of communities. This can’t always happen with nil effect,” HortNZ natural resources man-ager Chris Keenan says.

HortNZ says appeal costs could be $100,000 plus, and with the considerable and increasing grower com-mitments to farm planning, environmental research and water quality tools it cannot justify the expense.

“We are deeply concerned about the effect of this deci-sion across the country, but growers can’t afford to fight it alone, and the issue is not ours alone.”

Activities such as urbanisation, farming, development of roads and other infrastructure can all have adverse effects on freshwater.

“Central government will need to take a long, hard look at this decision and the words used in it. Because the way it reads now, activities like regional development, green-fields subdivision and infrastructure development can all be challenged if they have impacts on water quality,” Keenan says.

CANTERBURY DAIRY company Synlait Milk has begun selling a milk powder ingredient it claims is clinically proven to enhance sleep.

An independent clinical trial of its ingredient iNdream3 is said to have proven its efficacy as a sleep promoting ingredient.

The product is made from melatonin-rich milk, collected in the hours of darkness when cows naturally produce increased con-

centrations of melatonin in their milk. Melatonin is a sleep-pro-moting hormone that plays a key role in helping humans to regulate their day/night cycle.

“We’ve been developing this product for several years and this clinical trial is a major milestone in proving the ability of iNdream3 to improve sleep,” says Dr Simon Causer, Synlait’s R&D manager.

The product uses melatonin in its natural form, whereas in

almost all other products it is syn-thetically produced or extracted from source materials with lower levels of melatonin, Synlait says.

The milk powder has been sold in Korea by a Synlait customer since January 2015. Its retail prod-uct, Sleepiz, is sold as a powder in a sachet that consumers reconsti-tute as a drink.

“iNdream3 is an exciting opportunity. It demonstrates our capability as a nutritional

business to create and add value for the long term,” says Synlait’s managing director John Penno. “This is a high value product. Synlait and its milk suppliers who provide night milk will ben-efit, with suppliers receiving a payment above the market milk price.”

Development of the product was funded by Synlait with the help of DairyNZ via the Primary Growth Partnership scheme.

Sleep inducer goes to market

PAM TIPA

[email protected]

Check out the latest market data atwww.ruralnewsgroup.co.nz/markets

Market Data Every Week

HortNZ’s Chris Keenan: “We are deeply concerned about this decision across the country.”


NEWS 17

Science coming second in water decisions

EMOTIONS AND values now come first in water quality assessment and science comes second, says a water quality spe-cialist with DairyNZ, Tom Stephens.

But that is not nec-essarily bad for farmers: under changes to water quality assessment that quality is based on what the community wants. Farmers are part of that community and can have a say, he told the DairyNZ Farmers Forum in North-land.

“In the past, science came first and it has been disconnected from what the community wants,” says Stephens. “So the Government has flipped it on its head and said com-munities are now driving limit setting.”

Councils are setting up stakeholder groups and it is a “once in a life-time” opportunity to have a say. “You guys get to set the rules. If you sit out-side, you get what you are given,” Stephens told the forum.

Under the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management, released last year, water

quality is now defined on the basis of community values. Regional councils must set precise environ-mental limits to at least two values nationwide – ecosystem and human health.

“All the values aside, it is whether that waterway is fit for you (the commu-nity) to do what you want to do with it,” Stephens explains.

“If you are a farmer that is to farm, if you are local iwi that might be mihinga kai, if you are a hydro-electric plant it might the generation of power. All these things are balanced and you as a businessman or you as an individual have a range of values that need to be pro-tected.

“Provided it is good enough to do what you want to do with it – its quality is good.

“What it means is the science is second-ary because [an equal] number of, say, E.coli in that water may be bad in terms of swimming or fine in terms of hydro-electric-ity generation.”

The National Policy Statement is the direc-tive from the Government to set water quality limits in each community. The

plans must be in place by 2025. “The limits don’t have to be met by 2025 but you have to have a plan in place that will say by a set date that water qual-ity will be good enough for the community.”

You need limits if your water quality is already good enough. If it is not you need targets to get back to the accepted qual-ity within that commu-nity.

“If the water qual-ity isn’t good enough for you to pursue your prac-tices now but the commu-nity want them to be on the balance of consider-ation and consensus, then you need to put in place some framework by which you can claw back… to make that waterway good enough.”

Nutrients are one of the principle inadvertent outputs of a dairy system, particularly nitrogen but also phosphorus. There are also E.coli and sedi-ments.

The core values in the National Policy Statement are ecosystem health and human health. But other values come in: for hydro-electricity you need flow; for gathering food on waterways you have to take into account E.coli.

PAM TIPA

[email protected]

Under the National Objectives Framework there is a score card for values – A, B, C and D. The guidelines show the com-munity what can be mea-sured, whether a value is being met and what grade can be assigned to those attributes.

For instance, A grade is good enough for swim-ming – 1:100 users might get ill from swimming; B grade, 1:20 users might get ill. C grade, it is not good enough to swim, but it is good enough for wading, fishing or boating. D grade is unacceptable: there is a minimum that must be met.

Swimming in New Zea-land is in a clearly defined period from about Novem-ber to April. So test results from this period or during heavy rainfalls could be presented by environmen-tal lobbyists which could distort the picture.

DairyNZ water specialist Tom Stephens says emotions and values now dominate decisions on water quality.

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18 NEWS

Champion ploughman does it again

2014 CHAMPION plough-man Ian Woolley, of Blen-heim, has again won the Silver Plough, sponsored by Case IH, and will rep-resent New Zealand at the World Ploughing Champi-onships in Denmark this September.

The 60th New Zealand Ploughing Champion-ships were held at Palmer-ston, East Otago, in April, organised by the East Otago Vintage Committee chaired by Ronald Sheat.

Second was Mark Dillon and third Scott McKenzie.

Woolley’s latest win means he will also rep-

resent NZ at the World Championships in UK 2016.

He is now arranging to freight his John Deere tractor, plough and parts to Denmark for this year’s event and will leave his gear there for the 2016 event in the UK.

Winner of the revers-ible plough class, spon-

sored by Farmland Fuel, was Malcolm Taylor from Putaruru. Second was Bob Mehrtens and third Ashley Seaton.

Taylor, who has com-peted at NZ finals for 11 years, has won this class for the last seven. He will represent NZ in Denmark and in the UK in 2016. He has a tractor in the

UK stored with a family member, which is set up the same as his NZ trac-tor.

Winner of the vintage trophy was Paul Hough-ton of Gordonton, north of Hamilton. Second was John Stalker and third Alastair Rutherford. Houghton previously won in 2012 when the event

TONY HOPKINSON

was held at Cambridge.Winner of the horse

ploughing, sponsored by Rural News Group, was Fred Pilling of Hamilton. Second was Sean Leslie and third were Snow Cleaver and Doc Wilson.

Pilling won this event for the first time in 2014. He was also the winner of the Vern Bishell Trophy for the best presented horse team, including

horses, equipment and contestant.

The Wiganwood Trophy was won by Lyle Parnham, the Fairh-all trophy by Tryphena Carter and the WG Miller Trophy by Ashley Seaton.

The weather was cool, but fine, and there were trade displays, vintage machinery and craft stalls. Big crowds attended on both days.

JIM BROOKER (83), of Darfield, recalls winning the first NZ Ploughing Championship at Oamaru in 1956 when he was 23 years old.

The sponsor was the Atlantic Oil Company, the NZ division of the Esso Oils and Fuel Company. The first prize was a round-the-world air ticket with Cana-dian Pacific Airlines, including flights to Hawaii and Vancouver, a train trip through the Rockies to Toronto, then a flight to Shillingford near Oxford, UK.

There a tractor and plough were provided by Inter-national Harvester Company – a B250 tractor and an Ace 8 plough.

“At 83 years old I remember the details probably easier than things that happen today,” says Brooker.

He finished 11th out of 25 ploughmen from 13 coun-tries. He was farewelled from NZ by Prime Minister Sid Holland and his Minister of Agriculture Keith Holyoake.

“When I arrived to plough in UK, I was the only contestant who did not have a manager, judge or coach.”

Brooker started ploughing after he left school at 15 and worked on the family farm at Hawarden, North Canterbury, also doing shearing. He first competed using a plough borrowed from the neighbours – a TEA 24 and a two-furrow, Fergusson plough. All ploughing events were then run by Young Farmers clubs.

He qualified at an YFC event at Amuri, North Canterbury, and at 23 won the first New Zealand Ploughing Association final, using his dad’s IH W4 and an IH Ace plough. “That was a three-furrow plough that I changed to a two furrow.”

He recalls 26 competitors in a one-day event ploughing only grass.

Brooker bought his first 80ha farm at Lowburn, “covered in gorse” and over 13 years built it up to 324ha. It was flat, rolling to steep. He sold this and moved to 300ha at Kirwee, since built up to 567ha.

A BIG WAVE FROM KIWI KEITH

Ian Woolley with wife Jenni winner of the 2015 Silver Plough Trophy.


NEWS 19

Veteran keeps stoking the ploughing ‘Furniss’ALEX FURNISS has only ploughed at one New Zealand final – Gore in 1966.

But he has since given a lot back to the sport, as a contestant and a regular judge or steward, since 1991 at regional events and NZ finals.

Furniss is also an authority on the rules and regulations on ploughing and recently updated the manual for organising and running a NZ final. He has been an executive member of the NZ Ploughing Association since 1999

“I have also been a member of the Waikato, Rotorua-Reporoa, Manawatu and Wairarapa Ploughing Match Associations, chairing organising committees or acting as secretary in the background making things run smoothly.”

During those years, Furniss was supported by his late wife Pam who was a newsletter editor and executive minutes secretary until 2005.

He started farming on the family farm at Huntly, then moved to 525ha at Reporoa, of which 400ha was covered in ti-tree. He then returned to Huntly, fattening sheep and beef and breaking in more land.

Furniss had a dairy farm at Galatea for 10 years, then farmed 405ha of wet hill country in the Pohongina Valley, breeding Romneys

and Angus.His last property shift was to buy the

southernmost farm in the North Island – Kawakawa Station at Cape Palliser. “We could see Wellington Heads and we were actually further south than Blenheim on an east west line.”

The farm was 2025ha plus a further 400ha of leased land. However, only a third of it was able to be farmed and it was divided into seven paddocks.

The land was steep going from sea level to 616m and was very dry, so no chance to fatten any stock, he says. “Winds of 100km/h were just a gentle breeze.”

In those days the Furniss’s started farmstays, B&B and two-day farm walks – out and back with accommodation and meals supplied and luggage transported.

“We got up to 150 trampers per season, mainly New Zealanders. Our son and daughter-in-law, who now run the farm, have expanded it to a three day tramp.”

Furniss, now 70, has remarried and with wife Christine lives in Masterton. Both are still active in the New Zealand Ploughing Association. Alex Furniss

A LOVE affair that started with driving Clydesdale horses

towing the milk cart, when he was 12 years old in his

native Manchester, England, culminated in Fred Pilling winning – for the second

successive year – the horse ploughing class at the 60th New Zealand Ploughing Association

at Palmerston last month. This contest is sponsored by

Rural News Group.On his 22ha property near

Hamilton, Pilling has had as many as 30 Clydesdale horses. His current team of Bonnie and

Janet have been competing regularly for some years.

He also won the Vern Bishell trophy for the best presented

team – including horses, equipment and ploughman.

No horsing around for Fred

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original tyres. This is because Cooper Tires make tyres that last without compromising on high quality tyre components.

Cooper Tires are only sold through appointed local tyre professionals, so they know your conditions and can advise the right tyre for the job.

TyreLAND are one of the leading independent tyre specialists in New Zealand with 9 stores in the south Island and a store newly opened in

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If you’re looking for decent tyres for your 4WD call 0800 4 tread for your local TyreLand store. If there isn’t one in your area, call 0800 mileage (0800 645 243) or visit www.coopertires.co.nz to find your nearest Cooper retailer and request your free info pack.

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20 MARKETS & TRENDSRURAL NEWS // MAY 5, 2015

Beef & venison prices are reported as gross (before normal levies & charges are deducted). Lamb & mutton prices are reported nett (after levies & charges are deducted).

BEEF PRICES

c/kgCWT Change Last Week

2 Wks Ago

Last Year

NI P2 Steer - 300kg -10 5.50 5.60 4.45M2 Bull - 300kg -10 5.50 5.60 4.35P2 Cow - 230kg -15 4.60 4.75 3.60M Cow - 200kg -15 4.45 4.60 3.50

Local Trade - 230kg n/c 5.50 5.50 4.45SI P2 Steer - 300kg n/c 5.10 5.10 4.05

M2 Bull - 300kg n/c 5.00 5.00 3.80P2 Cow - 230kg n/c 3.95 3.95 2.90M Cow - 200kg n/c 3.85 3.85 2.83

Local Trade - 230kg n/c 5.10 5.10 4.10

Slaughter

Export Market DemandChange Last Week 2 Wks

Ago Last Year 5yr Ave

95CL US$/lb -4 2.50 2.54 2.16 2.08NZ$/kg -3 7.29 7.32 5.52 5.65

Procurement IndicatorChange 2Wks Ago 3 Wks


% Returned NI +0% 76.8% 76.5% 78.74% 72.6%% Returned SI +2% 68.6% 66.9% 68.8% 66.0%

LAMB PRICES

c/kgCWTChange Last

Week2 Wks

AgoLast Year

NI Lamb YM - 13.5kg n/c 5.11 5.11 5.66PM - 16.0kg n/c 5.13 5.13 5.68PX - 19.0kg n/c 5.15 5.15 5.70PH - 22.0kg n/c 5.16 5.16 5.71

Mutton MX1 - 21kg n/c 3.15 3.15 3.50SI Lamb YM - 13.5kg n/c 5.03 5.03 5.41

PM - 16.0kg n/c 5.03 5.03 5.43PX - 19.0kg n/c 5.03 5.03 5.45PH - 22.0kg n/c 5.03 5.03 5.46

Mutton MX1 - 21kg n/c 2.73 2.73 3.15

Slaughter

Export Market DemandChange Last

Week2 Wks


UK Leg £/lb n/c 1.80 1.80 2.09 1.92NZ$/kg -4 7.84 7.88 7.72 8.00

Procurement IndicatorChange 2Wks

Ago3 Wks


% Returned NI +0% 67.0% 66.6% 75.1% 69.2%% Returned SI -0% 64.4% 64.7% 71.9% 65.0%

Venison PricesChange Last

Week2 Wks


NI Stag - 60kg +5 6.40 6.35 6.15 6.70SI Stag - 60kg n/c 6.23 6.23 6.20 6.92

Beef & venison prices are reported as gross (before normal levies & charges are deducted). Lamb & mutton prices are reported nett (after levies & charges are deducted).

NEWS PRICE WATCH

MARKETS & TRENDS 21RURAL NEWS // MAY 5, 2015

BEEF: Cattle slaughter numbers in

both islands have lifted in recent weeks as a spell of cold weather has many minds turning towards winter. Cows, both beef and dairy, are coming out in good numbers and keeping plants full. Bull numbers in the North Island are up as some 18mnth types hit the processor, and prime numbers in both islands are also reportedly up. While operating prices had consistently lifted for about 5 weeks in a row in response to procurement competition, last week saw the first adjustment downwards in the North Island as processors try to manage margins in light of an unfavourable exchange rate and declining US market. South Island prices held steady. Operating prices are expected to be tightly managed in the short term.

US BEEF MARKET: US imported

beef prices took another hit last week on the back of large imported volumes as weekly kills from Australia and NZ have ramped back up. This is not a new problem and it is apparent that the US market, while needing more than just one of us, cannot handle the full volumes of both. While the writing is apparently on the wall for Australian slaughter, by the time the kill falls over, there will be limited

supplies coming out of NZ also. It is now looking more likely that US imported prices will be depressed in the short term. Hopefully by the time our spring kill comes on stream, Australia will be well and truly out of the picture, and we can reap the much anticipated benefits of being the major supplier in the market.

SHEEP: Sheep slaughter numbers

continue to be signficantly less than last season in both islands. Capacity is being reduced across the country as processors try to manage the shortage of numbers. Processors have proven very reluctant to lift schedules and prices remain steady. Winter contract prices that have been released have not installed much confidence in farmers to date, and have had minimal uptake. Processors are picking very tight supplies through May and June. Market conditions and unfavourable currency movements are keeping the lid on lamb schedules. China is still suffering from an overload of NZ and Australian product, a weakening economy and subsequent consumption, and cheaper domestic production. Importers are short of money and this is has vastly increased the risk to anyone doing business there. This market is

expected to be depressed for at least six months, however the tightening of supplies from both NZ and Australia should help this market clear inventories. Reports do suggest, however, that demand from the UK and EU is pickng up, and while prices have been slow to

follow, most expect they will eventually do so. Demand for chilled product has been encouraging from UK supermakets and France, and this is important in keeping our export receipts up. Unfortunately the NZD/EUR has wiped away any price gains seen in this market.

WOOL PRICE WATCH Overseas Wool Price Indicators

Indicators in NZ$ Change 23-Apr 16-Apr Last Year Indicators in US$/kg Change 23-Apr 16-Apr Last

YearCoarse Xbred +10 5.03 4.93 4.84 Coarse Xbred +9 3.85 3.76 4.18

Fine Xbred +10 5.70 5.60 5.07 Fine Xbred +9 4.36 4.27 4.38

Lamb +11 6.54 6.43 4.99 Lamb +10 5.00 4.90 4.31

Mid Micron - - - - Mid Micron - - - -

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22 AGRIBUSINESS

Kiwis not as smart dairy marketers as we think – expert

NEW ZEALAND lacks any strong dairy brands, according to KPMG’s interna-tional head of agri Ian Proudfoot.

He believes the best and strongest brand in the primary sector is Zespri.

Proudfoot says some people hold up Fonterra brands such as Anchor and Anlene as ‘blockbuster’ brands, but he says they are only known in a handful of markets at best.

“New Zealand is not recognised globally as the home of dairy products in same way as France and the Nether-lands.”

In fact, Proudfoot claims NZ has few, high-profile, internationally rec-ognised brands.

“The All Blacks are a strong brand internationally, so is Air New Zealand, but I doubt we have many primary sector brands, apart from Zespri, that are globally recognised. Villa Maria may be heading in that direction.”

Proudfoot says a big issue for NZ is

the removal of quota regimes on EU dairy farmers, which came off at the beginning of April. He believes this to be a highly disruptive event for the global premium food markets New Zea-land supplies.

Proudfoot reckons NZ has had a laissez faire approach to this issue and has had its ‘head in the sand’ over the

potential of the European dairy indus-try.

“I have heard many comments about limited expectations of produc-tion growth and the majority of any increase being consumed within the European domestic market,” he told Rural News.

“While these views may prove cor-

rect over time, they will only describe the average outcomes for the European industry. We miss opportunities and overlook risks by allowing our focus to be on the average outcome. We need to recognise that our production in New Zealand is not average: we produce a tiny percentage of the total food pro-duced globally and our product is sold mostly to premium, high value mar-kets.”

Proudfoot says the Europeans have spent a lot of money on market capa-bility and increasing production capac-ity. The term ‘average’ is naïve, he says. NZ doesn’t play in an average market; instead it works in specific parts of the market.

“We are only a relatively small player in the total global picture. Therefore the niches we play in are the same niches the increases in production out of Europe are going to be sent to. We could end up finding ourselves chal-lenged in our key markets far faster than we believed would happen.”

Proudfoot also believes a huge

market will be unlocked in Asia, with India likely to be a big mover. He also notes the Europeans are ahead of NZ in gaining new, lucrative markets in places such as Africa. He says more niches will open up, but there will be strong com-petition from Europe.

“There are probably four countries most likely to realise potential quickly – Ireland, Denmark, Netherlands and France. Ireland has an unusually small farm structure and an unusually long tenure of farms and the one thing they won’t do is sell out to their neighbours because that is seen as admission of defeat. So consolidation of farms will take time and to get up to New Zea-land’s level of productivity, but it is inconceivable that this could be done.

“The Dutch and Danish have much more intensive farming systems, so for them to increase production is just a [matter] of how much feed they put into the animals. Therefore it’s quite easy for them to scale up quite quickly.”

• See Farmer Browne Not Optimistic on page 23

PETER BURKE

[email protected]

Ian Proudfoot

KEEPING RURAL MOVING.

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AGRIBUSINESS 23

FARMER BROWNE NOT OPTIMISTIC ABOUT CAP

Beef prices to stay high – MoynihanBEEF PRICES have entered a “struc-tural change” and are likely to stay 20-30% above historical averages, Rabobank’s Hayley Moynihan says.

“The US beef cycle is dead. I am not a big believer in cycles anymore in terms of agricultural markets. I don’t think we have cycles anymore and certainly the US beef cycle has been dead for about 10 years,” Moynihan, director of dairy research for NZ & Asia, said in answer to a question on beef prices at the DairyNZ Farmers Forum in Kerikeri.

“They have been in a state of constant decline with their cattle numbers. That said, grain prices are so low that there is a rebuilding phase starting to happen. That will happen for the next two to three years. But we are not going to see a huge lift in numbers. That market will remain very, very tight.”

Moynihan said beef prices have entered a structural change similar to that seen in dairy in 2006-2007. “We are now in a new price bracket because

there is just not enough cattle around. To cover costs of production and incen-tivise production of beef we will have to stay at high levels historically. Not at

the peaks we saw last year but certainly at 20-30% above historic averages.”

She said dairy beef doesn’t influence the market in the US to quite the same

extent as here. “US dairy farmers are

a bit more opportunistic about cows and beef prices and certainly took advan-tage of it late last year. I met with a dairy farmer who was out here earlier this year and they were saying they could actually bring heifers into the dairy herd and make a cash gain on what they were selling the cull cows for.

“They were getting about US$2000 for a cull cow and with the cost of rearing and bringing the heifers in they were getting about US$300 a head cash gain which is

extraordinary.”That won’t last forever but it illus-

trates how opportunistic they are about replacements, she said.

NOT ALL Irish farmers see the lifting of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) subsidies as a panacea.

Tom Browne, one of Ireland’s big-gest dairy farmers, is not celebrating, according to a website report.

Browne, milking 850 cows in County Cork, is urging caution among dairy farmers, saying he does not believe predictions that demand will match rocketing supply.

He says the end of milk quotas presents an opportunity for young, ambitious farmers with the right land, but adds he’s nervous about such optimism. Browne says there is a risk of underestimating what the rest of Europe is going to do. He believes Europe’s milk production is going to soar.

“We have been told the end of milk quotas will create thousands of Irish jobs, but at farm level it is a very different story. Nobody has trained in farming in the last five years, so there is a huge skills gap. There are way too many co-ops. We have 20 management teams when we ought

to have two – and farmers are paying for that.”

Another Irish dairy farmer, Tom Clinton – who also has a major dairy operation in NZ – says Ireland’s small farms will have to grow to stay competitive. The average farm there milks around 65 cows, compared to 400 in NZ.

“Scale must go up. When you look at global standards, 90% of Irish dairy farmers would be classed as small. The dairy farm of the future is going to have to be bigger.”

Clinton believes the lifting of the CAP quotas themselves will not help Irish dairy farmers.

“There are too many stars in everyone’s eyes. Dairy farming is not about getting rich quick, it is about working harder. Don’t complain about unsociable hours. Be diligent about your business. Dairy farming is all about keeping the cows alive and milking – not lame – with little or no mastitis, rearing all the heifer calves and not needing too many for replacements.” – Peter Burke

Rabobank’s Hayley Moynihan

KEEPING RURAL MOVING.

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24 OPINION

THE HOUNDWant to share your opinion or

gossip with the Hound? Send your emails to:

[email protected]


EDITORIAL EDNA

Deafening silenceYOUR OLD mate would like to know what happened to all the vocal critics of the new owners of Crafar Farms and where have they all disappeared to? Remember all the hoo-ha raised about how bad new Chinese-based owners Shanghai Pengxin were going to be for the farms, New Zealand and world peace etc, etc? The Hound notes recent reports show the farms are booming, producing way higher, employing more people and have had a lot of money spent on environmental and infrastructure improvements. It is good to see those screaming skulls’ protests – hidden behind a thin veil of racism – have been proven utterly wrong and their silence on the Crafar Farms now is rather deafening.

More honeyYOUR CANINE crusader hears that the proponents behind the Meat Industry Excellence (MIE) Group – which published its long-awaited red meat sector reform paper a month or so back – are getting tetchier and tetchier as the days tick by and little momentum or action is taken over its suggested reforms. This mutt has heard that the group’s frus-trations are growing as its report is read and then is filed in the ‘too hard basket’ by farmers, meat companies and Government alike. It seems that support for MIE is going MIA and this has led to the group getting itself further wound-up over any sort of criti-cism or comments. The Hound suggests MIE should heed the old saying that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

Record verifiedTHEY SAY good things take time, and that is certainly the case for South Canterbury arable farmers Warren and Joy Darling who were aiming to better the world record for a barley crop – which was 12.2t/ha – at harvest time this year. Back in January the Darlings harvested their barley crop (as then reported in Rural News) and recorded 13.8t/ha. Despite this measurement being checked, veri-fied and okayed in NZ by a plethora of officials, this was not good enough for the folk at the Guinness Book of Records. However, some three months later, the good folk at Guinness have at last accepted the achievement as a record and verified it at the 13.8t. The Hound extends his congratulations to the new world record holders for a barley crop. As Captain Blackadder would say, “Well done, Darling.”

PushbackTHE HOUND understands that more than a few farmers are feeling uncomfortable about the new work health and safety regime onfarm being promoted by Work-Safe NZ. In fact, one correspon-dent took time to write to this old mutt’s editor expressing these concerns after our story on these in the last issue. The frustrated farmer was reluctant to publish his letter stating, “It is probably a waste of time publishing... as the Worksafe gestapo are deter-mined to have us all wearing nappies regardless…. Unfortu-nately the rules they are forcing upon us are insulting, highly incon-venient and time wasting.” Your old mate suggests that Work-Safe NZ still has a fair bit of work to do convincing farmers about the merits of its new onfarm health and safety regulations.

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RURALNEWS

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“You’re right – John Key shouldn’t have pulled that pony tail!”

Little useNO WONDER they say, ‘Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach’.

Massey University academic and vehement dairy farming critic Mike Joy, with a couple of colleagues, has authored a paper emotively titled, ‘NZ Dairy Farming – Milking Our Environment for All Its Worth’. His claim is that in a worst-case scenario, costs to society from environ-mental harm caused by farming could equal the economic benefits of the dairy industry.

Unfortunately, Joy and his colleagues – aptly named Death and Foote – have produced a sloppy piece of work with more holes in it than a lifetime university lecturer’s sandals.

Federated Farmers has accused Massey Uni-versity of “supporting attempts to use academia to tarnish the dairy industry by pretending a stu-dent’s academic hypothesis is established fact”.

Feds dairy chair Andrew Hoggard says the farmer lobby supports the authors’ desire for accurate reporting of real costs. “But the thesis only looks at the negative externalities – under very poor and inaccurate assumptions – of the dairy industry while ignoring the positives. Therefore it could not possibly arrive at an accu-rate conclusion,” Hoggard says.

“Some of these inaccuracies are blaringly obvi-ous, such as the value of the dairy industry – cited as $16.6 billion, when it is well known it is $18.1 billion – but there are other inaccurate facts and figures that if you weren’t in the field you would have to take their word for.”

The Feds have also discovered inaccuracies in the ‘report’s’ claims about drinking water stan-dards in Taranaki and its calculations of nitrate level clean-up costs.

But it is not just farmers who have issues with this paper. Fellow academic Professor Jacqueline Rowarth, Waikato University, has questioned the methodology and accuracy of the paper’s conclu-sions. “We need our academics to produce mate-rial that helps us move forward and this paper is damaging,” Rowarth says.

Meanwhile Professor Frank Scrimgeour, director of the Institute for Business Research at Waikato University, says while the paper may have raised awareness of environmental clean-up costs, he has criticised its conclusions. “The indi-vidual components… cannot be added together credibly in the way they’ve done to say this is the outcome. It’s sloppy research.”

Joy and his colleagues do their cause, and Massey University, more damage than good by producing such a flawed piece of work. We all agree water quality is an important issue and any negative impacts – environmental and eco-nomic – need to be closely looked at. But sloppy work like this only adds to the growing reputation of certain ‘academics’ and their personal biases.


OPINION 25

ag twitsRural News’ irreverent and hypothetical look at what’s happening in the farming world

Top Bleats view all@jwilsonfonterra: Great feedback from shareholders at our supplier meetings around the country. What I am hearing is they think I am a great, big tanker leading Fonterra and farmers to nirvana! #stayingpositive #leading-fromthefront

@ibrownshc@jwilsonfontera: Ahhh Mr Chairman, I hate to tell you this – because you’re a wonderful man – but the message I’m hearing is: farmers think you are a great, big – a word that rhymes with tanker – and leading them and the co-op into oblivion! #actualmes-sage #sosorry #forgiveme

@winstonfirstandlast: I am outraged! I demand an enquiry. This is bigger than my whisky cellar. You can’t pull the wool over my eyes or the ponytail of a waitress. Speaking of hair, Northlanders have demanded I appoint an Invercargill hairdresser as their new MP. #hairherehear

@littleandrewlabour: One of my ex-colleagues tried drunkenly to violate a student while living under my deputy’s roof a couple of years back. We said nothing, swept it under the carpet and moved on. But John Key’s disgusting, ghastly, sickening ponytail pulling is an outrage and he must immediately resign! #thingsthatmatter

@johnkeypm: I am casual. I am relaxed. I like pulling people’s legs and waitress’s hair. Weird? Yes. Kinda creepy? Yup. Worthy of dominating the news headlines for a week? Really! #hairtodaygonetomorrow

@johnmcarthymie: It’s appropriate, as we commemorate the centennial of Gallipoli, that we take time to reflect on the fruitless slaugh-ter, naïve and gullible foot soldiers, arrogant and heartless commanders and senseless destruction of good men. This nicely sums up the current state of the NZ meat industry! #masscare #completewipeout

@mtaggartalliance: I guess I see myself as the Churchill of NZ in the meat sector. Not the WW1 version, sending helpless men to slaugh-ter in the hopeless Dardanelles campaign. But the WW2 version, bravely leading our industry against and standing up to a dangerous foe – MIE! #weshallfightthemonthebeaches #neverneversurrender

@fbartonworksafenz: The knowledgeable and friendly team at WorkSafe have decreed that carrying passengers on quads is not a safe practice on farms. And we should know as we practice this idea in a nice warm office in Wellington. #bureaucratsknowbest #ourjobis-makingyoursdifficult

@jparsonsbeef+lambnz@fbartonwork-safenz: Hey François here’s a message from farmers around the country to your WorkSafe team re your no passengers on quads on farm rule: get stuffed! #understandthat #stickit

IT’S NOT THAT SIMPLE!I AM a self-employed sheep and beef farmer, a mother and one-time shepherd on steep hill country.

It is not news to me that quads can cause injuries or death. It is not surprising, given the vast array of their uses and the extreme hours spent on these vehicles, that inev-itably there will be acci-dents. I have seen them and can even admit to having rolled the quad on two occasions – both of which left the machine in a mess and me fine, but shaken.

So firstly I don’t dispute the possible risks. However, I would like to see someone take on the task of compiling real infor-mation and applying it in context.

I don’t think many people (particularly Work-Safe NZ) appreciate how many of these vehicles are out there and how many hours in a working day are spent on them. I suspect that relative to these (largely omitted) pieces of information, our record might not be as bad as is being touted.

Secondly, I take

issue with anyone who says passengers can be blanket-banned in any reasonable or feasible way. The result of this stance is merely that people needing to carry passen-gers will be required to do so in breach of the law, without the poten-tial support that could be offered if a more versatile approach was adopted.

By taking a hard line, WorkSafe fails to support people with training in this area and to promote infor-mation that might save lives – e.g. it’s ok for people to get off and walk the rough bits of a track.

There is no getting around it, a quad will be ferrying people out to docking yards all over the country in spring whether

WorkSafe permits it or not because we have no choice.

Side-by-sides are only as safe as the operator on steep terrain – much the same as quads – so they are a moot point.

We can’t ask our ‘untrained’ docking crew to drive these machines. We can’t carry them as passengers. Do we start

using helicopters?Thirdly, no one is

mentioning Landcorp’s recent well publicised front-footing on quad matters…. I know of two families in our imme-diate vicinity who have recently left Landcorp for a farming job where they are permitted to involve their families.

Taking the kids out

hunting – often the only hobby when you live an hour from the nearest town – was banned by Landcorp as a result of the ‘no kids on bikes’ policy.

I hope someone some-where gets up the courage to call these guys out on what is essentially bullying behaviour. Kerry PhillipsRere, Gisborne


26 OPINION

New season, new hope, new challengesTHE SOUTHERLY blast in April was a reminder to much of the coun-try that winter is not far away. Let’s hope we get a bit more mild autumn weather before winter kicks in.

As the harvest and forage season draws to a close for another year, it is timely to preview what the new season will bring for us. Apart from looking forward to higher dairy prices, stronger meat schedules and good and timely rains we can also

plan on new workplace health and safety regula-tions.

While these have now been in the pipeline for at least a year, D-day is fast approaching when the new Health and Safety at Work Act will be in place. Already the government agency charged with overseeing these new reg-ulations – WorkSafe NZ – is set up and doing the business.

Rural Contractors NZ has for some time been advocating that contrac-

tors get themselves and their staff up to speed on new health and safety laws. Ignorance is no longer an excuse. Unfor-tunately, the agricultural sector is a prime target

and with something like 124 deaths and count-less serious accidents in the sector since 2008 it is obvious why.

In mid 2014, Work-Safe NZ came into being to take more action over health and safety prac-tices on farms. It had built a taskforce of 200 by the start of 2015 for a ‘safer farms’ campaign to reduce farm accidents, predicted to be 21,000 this year – 10,000 severe enough to require time off work.

Whether you agree or not with the new health and safety regulations, the fact is these will affect your business. This is best summed up by the following clause in the new Health and Safety at Work Act:Duty to manage risk:

A duty imposed on a person under this act to ensure health and safety requires the person: to eliminate risks to health and safety, so far as is reason-ably practicable; and, If it is not rea-sonably practicable to eliminate risks to health and safety, those risks should be minimised as far as is reasonably prac-ticable.

This makes it that clear everyone involved with your business – yourself, farmer clients and employees – needs to take responsibility for keeping people safe from harm at work and reduc-ing the risk of an acci-dent.

It is important that employers and employ-ees know their rights and responsibilities for health and safety issues in the work place.

If you require more information or details about your health and safety obligations con-tact: [email protected]

Meanwhile, with the early southerly blast reminding us of winter, it is worth looking at some

of the events Rural Con-tractors NZ has coming up.

First, in May will be the annual round of nationwide roadshows highlighting issues such as work safety, immigra-tion and employment. Many of these events will be followed by an ‘Agrichemical After-noon’ offering attend-ees a chance to update themselves on agrichem-ical issues and earn pro-fessional development points.

You need to register for these events; go to

the RCNZ website www.ruralcontractors.org.nz for more information on registration details and dates.

Second, in late June the RCNZ will hold its annual conference, this year in Blenheim. The theme is ‘Doing it

Smarter’, with a great array of guest speakers and workshops.

If you have never been to a conference I can strongly recom-mend you attend. It is a fantastic way to learn new stuff, network

with other contractors and ag sector people and at the same time get away from the day-to-day grind of the business for a few days. You won’t regret it.

Again, for more infor-mation on the annual conference, accommo-dation options and regis-tration details go to the RCNZ website [email protected]• Wellsford agricultural contractor Steve Levet is the president of the Rural Contractors New Zealand (RCNZ).

It is important that employers and employees know their rights and responsibilities for health and safety issues in the work place.

@rural_news


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MANAGEMENT 27

Ahuwhenua field day draws the crowdsAT LEAST 170 people turned out for the field day at Mangaroa Station, about an hour’s drive inland from Wairoa, on the North Island East Coast in mid-April.

Field days are held on the prop-erties of each of the three finalists in the competition and are the second part of the judging process. The judges meet with the finalists the day before, and on the following day farm-ers and others in agribusiness attend the onfarm field days to see first-hand the nature of the properties and why they are selected as finalists.

Mangaroa Station is a 1506ha (1250 effective ) sheep and beef property in the Ruakituri Valley, owned by Nuku and Bart Hadfield. The land is roll-ing to steep hill country with no flat area, rising to 620m above sea level. The property winters 12,665 SU, with

a 62/38 sheep to cattle ratio. The field day started with a pow-

hiri at the nearby Erepeti marae and then visitors drove a couple of kilo-metres up to the main woolshed on the property; for a presentation by the owners, Nuku and Bart Hadfield. Their impressive story on how they and their whanau acquired Mangaroa Station and used this as a stepping stone for other members to buy their own properties drew much praise from the attendees.

After lunch came a tour of the property and a first-hand look at how the Hadfields and their family have developed this hill country property.

The judges who selected Mangaroa as a finalist said they were impressed with the clear vision and core planning the Hadfields displayed to achieve their costs. They were also impressed

by Mangaroa performing above aver-age for this type of hill country farm and that its lambing percentage – 141% – is high for a property of this type.

Bart Hadfield says the field day exceeded expectations. He admitted to being nervous at the start. “But Nuku came out and got our story across brilliantly and we were well received by the crowd. That made us feel much more comfortable and it turned out to be an enjoyable day.”

She admits, initially, that the idea of speaking to a large group was quite daunting. “But once you get up and start speaking for a minute or two – and you clear your throat and stuff like that – it started rolling along nicely and I felt quite comfortable.”

Bart says it was a mind blowing experience and they learned a lot and enjoyed the process. They

are attending the field days of the other finalists and all will gather in Whanganui for the announcement of

the winner on May 29.– More from Mangaroa field day page 29.

A big crowd turned out for the first of the field days for the Ahuwhenua Trophy competition for the top Maori sheep and beef farm. Peter Burke was among them.

Bart and Nuku Hadfield.

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28 MANAGEMENTFrom winner to judge shows how

THE BACKDROP to the 850ha property is spectac-ular, including the partly snow-covered Mt Rua-pehu.

The farm is 650-690m above sea level, so low temperatures are the order of the day in winter when there is little grass growth and supplements are fed to stock.

Dana Blackburn has handed over management of the farm to his son Hamish and by his own admission is now the farm worker. While Blackburn and his family success-fully manage the prop-erty, it’s his role with the Atihau-Whanganui Maori Incorporation that has been a huge success story for this quiet, intelligent and smart farmer.

Atihau-Whanganui is a huge operation: seven sheep and beef units and one dairy farm. The farms run some 104,589 sheep stock units, 90,000 of which are breeding ewes. They also run 4500 beef cows and 750 dairy cows.

Today, Atihau is chaired by Mavis Mull-ins. The farms are in the Ohakune Raetihi area and run south to Whanganui, the location of its head-quarters.

In 1994, just after Blackburn had taken over running his own family farm, he was asked to join the board of Atihau-Whanganui. His big focus was on governance and it was here that he rang the changes.

“Initially each board

member had a farm to supervise. Over a two year period, I observed what happened and then told the board that this culture had to change. I said they needed to appoint one individual to be in charge of the farms, who was in turn responsible to the board, otherwise you’d get a major conflict within the board.”

The board accepted the concept and appointed Blackburn as their first operations manager, a role he held for four years before being appointed general man-ager to take on wider tasks and responsibilities and later chairman. It was a busy time managing the huge and developing Ati-hau-Whanganui Incorpo-

ration business, while at the same time keeping a watchful eye on his own property.

The hard work at Ati-hau-Whanganui paid off when in 2007 Pah Hill Station, one of the farms under Blackburn’s man-agement, won the Ahu-whenua Trophy for the top Maori sheep and beef farm.

After 20 years of full time commitment to the Atihau-Whanganui Incorporation, Black-burn decided it was time to step down. He retired and now works with his son Hamish on the family farm. But his extensive knowledge of farming is now being further uti-lised with his role as chief judge for the Ahuwhenua

Trophy’s sheep and beef award. For Blackburn the learning process contin-ues.

“It’s amazing what you see even when you are going out judging prop-erties. You see things you’d never thought of and sometimes what you see confirms your own views,” he told Rural News.

“My focus is in the governance area. I am assisted by three other judges – all specialists themselves. If I were to try to cover all areas as required by the judging process it would become confusing.

“My focus on gover-nance involves asking individuals or trusts how they make their decisions,

where they are going with their strategy, what’s their objective and how are they getting there. It doesn’t matter whether they are family farms or properties owned by large incorporations, as a judge you still need to figure out how the decisions are made and the rationale for these.”

Blackburn is now judg-ing the competition for the third time and says it’s a pity more people aren’t entering the competition. It’s widely accepted that people won’t enter unless they think they have a good chance of win-

ning, but there are other excuses as well.

“They say cost and I say success comes at a cost. You can’t get there for nothing; it’s about understanding what you can achieve rather than the cost of entering and it opens the door to new ideas. It’s worth the jour-ney.”

Blackburn believes Ahuwhenua could be even more successful if more people entered the com-petition. He says sadly many Maori don’t realise how successful some of their farming operations are.

The final stage of judging in the Ahuwhenua Trophy competition to find the top Maori sheep and beef farm is well underway. All three finalists have been staging field days at their properties. The chief judge, Dana Blackburn, is a past winner of the trophy and a highly successful farmer. Reporter Peter Burke met him at his farm, near Ohakune.

Dana Blackburn: It’s amazing what you see when you go to judge properties”.

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MANAGEMENT 29

TIAKI HUNIA, deputy Maori trustee and member of the Ahuwhenua Trophy management committee, says it was pleasing to see that two of the three final-ists this year were owner operators.

He says this shows how there is still a place for the owner operator in the Ahuwhenua competition.

Hunia says part of the feedback Ahuwhenua has received over the last few years was the domination of the larger iwi operations, trusts and incorpora-tions. This year’s competition shows it is critical to celebrate the success of the owner operators, he says. And he praised the Hadfields’ farming operation

“In benchmarking, they are in many cases out-performing similar hill country farms,” Hunia told Rural News. “The other amazing aspect of the Had-field whanau was their ability to pull the resources together as a family, set clear goals and apply strong discipline to the management of the whole farming business.”

Hunia believes as more Maori land comes back into ownership, they are seeing a broader approach to governance. “The challenge we see at Te Tumu Paeroa (the Maori trustee) for all farming enterprises – not just Maori – is how to get more young people into the industry. It needs a lot more skilled, young people with passion and enthusiasm for farming.

OWNER-OPERATORS GOOD NEWS

PETER BURKE

[email protected]

First the work – then the rugbyDANA BLACKBURN is an Ohakune local – born and bred in nearby Raetihi.

His father worked on farms and as a youngster Blackburn was expected to help at weekends and school holidays.

“We used to go out and help him put breaks in swedes and other winter crops. We also helped to batten fences or you had to pick potatoes and car-rots,” he told Rural News. “We were hauled out on a Saturday morning, because if you wanted to go to play rugby you had to go and work first. I have no regrets about that type of learning.”

Blackburn moved to help run the family farm in 1980, when wool prices were high and lamb prices low. That was the era of $15 and $20 lambs, a situ-ation so bad some farmers in the region contem-plated not putting the ram out.

Today, the farm runs 4000 Romney-based breeding ewes and 200 Angus breeding cows. About 10% of the heifer calves are retained as replacements and the rest are sold from Octo-ber onwards. He says they

did consider running drys-tock, but the country suits the Angus breeding cows. Lambing is quite late.

“We begin lambing in the last week of August and run through to Sep-tember with the two-tooths. While we are quite late, we still aim to have our lambs off their mothers by December 1 onwards when the prices are good. This is the time when we become involved in dairy support and we run heifers through until the end of April.”

Not unexpectedly the climate in this area is a challenge, but according to Blackburn it’s changed.

“When I first came, in 1980, it was considered summer-safe, with good grass growth through the summer. Since 2008, we’ve seen a dramatic change: January, Febru-ary and March are critical dry periods and it seems to alternate in terms of months.

“In 2014, it was Febru-ary/March. This year the dry came in January and when the dry comes in January you think, ‘well we’ve February and March to come yet’. But fortu-nately it wasn’t as dry in

February and March as it had been in the past.”

During the winter months the cattle are fed

mainly hay and baleage and the ewes are given a winter crop such as swedes and kale.

In the last ten years, Blackburn and son Hamish have focused on improving the infrastruc-

ture of the farm – “fences, fences, fences”.

They have also increased their fertiliser use and improved stock water reticulation. All this has made the farm easier to manage and run.

The other area of focus is re-grassing and this happens automatically because they lease about

50ha a year to a neigh-bour who is a commer-cial vegetable grower. Once used by the grower the land is returned to grass. They have used a variety of grass species and have also planted out some paddocks in lucerne which Blackburn says has helped them through the drier months.

“We were hauled out on a Saturday morning, because if you wanted to go to play rugby you had to go and work first. I have no regrets about that type of learning.”

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30 MANAGEMENT

$20K AVAILABLE FOR RURAL SCHOOLSHP NEW ZEALAND recently announced its second Rural Schools Competition, which gives rural New Zealand primary schools the chance to win a share of $20,000 worth of HP products and support.

As well as products the winning schools get help to make the most of their technology.

HP category manager Victoria Mahan says last year’s entrants put forward a strong case for how their school would benefit from winning.

“The five winning schools were focused on how their prize could transform students’ learning,” says Mahan. “It was an easy decision to run this competi-tion again.

“Children all over New Zealand must be equipped to live, play and work in an online world… engaged and achieving at school, and preparing for the workforce of tomorrow.

“This is such an exciting competition and a fantastic opportunity for rural schools to have the chance to tap into the expertise of a global company like HP,” Rural Women NZ education spokesperson, Kerry Maw says.

Lisa Malones, ex-principal of Tuturumuri School, says being one of the winning schools in the HP Rural Schools competition changed the dynamic in her class-room. Tuturumuri School has just one classroom which must cater for the diverse requirements of pupils on multiple levels and students with special needs.

“There was something powerful about our stu-dents winning the competition. They weren’t given it, they won it and it meant that as soon as the tech-nology arrived the students took ownership of it and started using it.

“I was able to set students up with their own devices to do individual learning and get parents involved at home because we suddenly had access to tools like Google docs,” says Ms Malones.

HP will work with the winning schools to deter-mine their unique technology requirements, rather than a pre-determined package of devices. Prizes might include HP notebooks, chromebooks, slates, printers and support to set up the devices for the school.

From April 22, rural primary schools nationwide with fewer than 300 students have been eligible to enter the competition.

Entrants must submit an entry form downloaded from www.hp.co.nz/ruralcompetition.

Keep your best mates safe!MANY A time I have wished I was driving a police car.

I’d love to turn on a siren and pull over the drivers whose dogs are travelling loose and unpro-tected on the back of vehi-cles. Often people don’t consider what can go wrong, therefore precau-tions aren’t taken. Then the inevitable happens; it is the human’s fault, not the dog’s.

It doesn’t matter whether you are going down the road 100m or you have a lengthy journey ahead; if your dog falls off the vehicle a broken limb is quite likely, and if he’s hit by another vehicle, death is pretty much guaranteed. At the very least, you may not know he has fallen off until you get to your desti-nation. Your poor dog tried in vain to keep up as you sped into the distance. Will

you ever find him again?“My dog wouldn’t jump

off,” you may say. But it doesn’t take much for him to lose his balance, espe-cially the way some of you drive, or his kennel mate may knock into him caus-ing ‘dog overboard’. Dogs seem to love standing with their front paws on the side of the deck and leaning pre-cariously out so they can get a good view; little do they know of the death trap below.

I have seen some dogs whose owners have made an attempt to secure them on vehicles but it is just as dangerous. The rope or chain is too long. If the dog jumps or falls he will hang himself; if you were zoom-

ing along with the radio blaring and away with your thoughts, would you notice your dog hanging over the side? Trust me, he won’t last long.

Perhaps his collar is loose enough for it to slide off in that situation and your dog would drop to

safety, but a split second later he is mangled by another vehicle.

The problem is easily solved by clipping him to a short chain intelligently placed to avoid any mishaps.

If you are the type of person who doesn’t give a damn because money grows on trees or insur-ance will cover mishaps, think for a moment how you will cope without a dog until you can find a replacement; good dogs

are scarce and even if you are lucky enough to find one, it can understand-ably take anything from a couple of days to a couple of months before it will work for you.

Whilst we are on the subject I want to draw attention to the steel decks some of you have on your utes. One day when you have a moment or two, and your ute has been parked in the searing summer sun, take your shoes off and stand barefoot on the deck. If you are silly enough to do it you will probably fry

the soles of your feet, yet you think nothing of your dogs forced to travel there.

I know their feet are tougher than ours but they do have their limitations; there is also the matter of the high temperatures rising from the piping hot deck.

Winter is just as miserable for unprotected dogs on the back of vehicles. Temperatures plummet, the rain beats down and wet muddy dogs are often subjected to many uncomfortable hours on the back of vehicles. Would you care to swap places?

Invest in your valuable assets – your work mates. Protect them with a canopy or dog box; park your vehi-cle with consideration in either the cooling shade or warming sun, whichever the season dictates.

Remember, the better you look after your dogs, the better and longer they will perform.• Anna Holland is teaching people dog training. For more information www.annahol-land.co.nz or Ph 06) 212 4848 or [email protected]

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MANAGEMENT 31

Higher priority need for mental wellnessTHE RURAL sector needs to focus more on mental wellness and look at developing simple self-diagnostic tools, says a South Island professional development coach, Loshni Manikam.

Stress-triggered depression has been a growing problem in rural New Zealand for 10-20 years. Department of Cor-rections research for the coroner’s court found that between 2008 and 2011 the number of rural sui-cides had tripled, averag-ing 25 a year – a rate 50% higher than the national average.

Manikam told a meet-ing of the Northland branch of the New Zea-land Institute of Primary Industry Management in Whangarei last month that things could get worse over the next year.

She says the growing pressure of dry summers, increasing environmental compliance requirements, employment and health and safety issues, and fall-ing prices for New Zea-land’s export products are making farming more and more stressful. “When you’re carrying around so much stress all the time, something has to give. Farming has changed in the last 50 years from a very physical enterprise into one where owners, managers, sharemilkers and contractors need to be on the ball about what is happening in their busi-ness to succeed, she says. “We are not designed to live with that level of stress. We’re like a bal-loon: you can’t keep blow-ing it up or it will pop.” While farming has changed, the commu-nity and mindset around it is slow to catch up, says Manikam. People in the rural community are largely not fully aware of the physical and mental impacts of prolonged excessive stress. As a result, mental wellness is not rated as strongly as it should be. That changed seven years ago, partly due to former All Black John Kirwan publicly saying he had

struggled with depression, and partly due to the rural community losing 23-25 people to suicide a year for three years – many more than from quad and tractor crashes combined. “Now it’s not so much ‘is there a problem?’ or ‘should we do something about it?’ It is more ‘how do we deal with it?’ “ Over 10 organisations have worked on the issue including Farmers Mutual Group, Rural Women, Federated Farmers and Worksafe. “The aware-ness is out there in the rural sector but it’s hard to know when [we will reach] a tipping point at which stress-related issues are normalised and everybody knows the symptoms and how to treat them without having any stigma attached.” Work by a group of con-cerned Southland rural advocates (The Elephant In The Room – TATE) reasoned that one way to do that was by approach-ing farmers who had pre-viously had depression, had successfully worked through it and were pre-pared to talk about their experiences publicly.

“All the research shows that the best way to reach farmers is through their peers. It would be great if farmers of every region who have had stress-related issues includ-ing depression could tell their story in local news-papers to help remove the stigma.”

Farmers have a cul-ture of being self-reliant and that culture combined with the belief that they should grit their teeth and ‘get on with the farmwork’ even in the face of grow-ing stress are among the biggest hurdles to combat-ing depression in the rural sector, Manikam says.

Those suffering were likely to isolate them-selves from friends and family, focusing more effort on their problems which are often difficult, if not impossible, to control. “Negative thoughts tend to feed on themselves.” Sufferers were also likely to not want to do things they previously enjoyed, feel guilty for things they had no control over, forget

GARETH GILLATTthings or have difficulty making decisions or con-stantly worry about little things.

Manikam says changes in sleep patterns, mood-iness, headaches and exhaustion were also

common.”Family members and

friends could be likely to spot a sufferer before that person comes forward and it is important that signs aren’t discounted if things go on too long.

She would like a simple checklist made available to farmers to allow them to monitor their stress levels, as well as practical wellbeing tools that farm-ers can use to manage their stress levels. Loshni Manikam

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This year marks 40 years of Honda supporting the ANZ Young Farmer Contest.



ANIMAL HEALTH 33

Breakthrough on animal methane emissionsNEW ZEALAND scientists have identified animal-safe compounds that can reduce methane emis-sions from sheep and cattle by up to 90%.

The announcement came from Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium (PGgRc) chairman and NZ Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre (NZAGRC) steering group member Dr Rick Pridmore.

He said the successful test of methane inhibitors was news NZ farmers could get excited about.

“The results are significant for two reasons. First, because they work on livestock consuming a grass-based diet and, second, because the short-term trials showed such dramatic results,” Pridmore explained.

“It must be stressed that these are early days. Further trials are needed to confirm these com-pounds can reduce emissions in the long term, have no adverse effects on productivity and leave no residues in meat or milk.”

He added that the group was already looking to engage with a commercial partner and, all going well, could possibly see a commer-cial product within five years.

More than 100,000 compounds had been screened, and many thou-sands tested in laboratory experi-ments over the past several years. To date five compounds, selected as the most promising options, have been tested on sheep and resulted in reductions of meth-ane emissions from 30% to more than 90%.

“This is an exciting develop-ment and it is pleasing that funds

made available by the NZ Gov-ernment to support international co-operation in agricultural GHG (greenhouse gas) research have played a role,” the Ministry for Primary Industries’ international policy director and representative to the Global Research Alliance, Chris Carson, said.

Methane inhibitors were only one of several options NZ scien-tists were pursuing to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, Pridmore said.

Other approaches included

breeding, developing a vaccine and specific feeds to reduce meth-ane emissions, exploiting natural plant properties to reduce nitrous oxide emissions and increasing the amount of carbon stored in pasto-ral soils.

“Breeding for reduced methane emission is progressing very well. We have shown that the trait is her-itable and indications to date show no negative production impacts. The difference between high and low emitters currently is about 6%,” Pridmore said.

“This means sheep farmers should have access to breeding value information in about two years that allows them to select for animals with lower methane emis-sions than the average sheep.

“Work on cattle is only start-ing but based on lessons we have learnt from sheep, we hope that cattle breeding values will follow within five years.”

Results from animal trials were presented at the NZAGRC-PGgRc Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Con-ference last week.

Rick Pridmore stresses it is early days, but the research is encouraging.

www.ruralnews.co.nz

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34 ANIMAL HEALTH

Dry cow treatment cuts trickyTHERE MAY be savings to be made in dry-off treat-ments on some dairy farms, but care is needed to avoid cuts costing you dearly down the track, warns Dairy NZ’s masti-tis specialist, Jane Lacy-Hulbert.

With a low payout

looming, and possibly another to follow, she acknowledges every cost will be under scrutiny and at $10 or more per cow, dry cow treatments will be no exception.

However, experience and trials show antibi-otic dry cow treatments (DCTs) and internal teat sealants (ITSs) are effec-

tive tools in managing mastitis and somatic cell count (SCC) so those who decide to cut do so at their peril.

“We recommend all cows get something at drying off so you don’t have to deal with so many problems at calving,” she told Rural News.

“It’s a question of how

much clinical mastitis you’re prepared to toler-ate, both post drying off, and at calving. Do you really want a bigger anti-biotic bill next spring, not to mention the extra work and lost production more mastitis cases mean.”

The first step for any-body looking for savings at drying off should be to

consult their vet and con-sider if sufficient infor-mation is available to take a targeted approach to treatments.

“Even if you’re not looking to make cuts, liaising with your vet on the best treatments should be your starting point.”

If it’s known which

ANDREW SWALLOWcows are high cell count cows and/or have clinical mastitis, but overall herd SCC is low, then DCT may be tar-geted at these, with an ITS treat-

ment in support, while the rest of the herd just get ITS.

As for which DCT to use, Lacy-Hulbert says the range of cure rates is not hugely different so it may be that a middle of the range product is more cost effective than the top of the range.

Getting culture tests done on milk samples to identify which bacteria are responsible for high SCCs or clinical cases will help inform decisions. “But a lot of farms don’t culture so they don’t know what they’re deal-ing with.”

Freezing samples from mastitis cases at calving saves time at a busy time of year so if such sam-ples were taken, there’s no time to lose in getting them analysed now if it’s not already been done, says Lacy-Hulbert.

Similarly, current high SCC cows or even clini-cal mastitis cases should be tested without delay. “It typically takes about a week to get results back so it may still be possi-ble to get results before drying off.”

Once a cow is dried off, if no treatment’s used it typically takes about a fortnight for the teat canal to seal so extra vigi-lance for mastitis cases is needed during this period.

Where cows are sent away for

grazing shortly after drying

off this may not be possible, another

good reason for

blanket treatment, she points out.

However, treatment itself carries a risk of introducing bugs to the teat canal so even where ITS is used a close eye should be kept on the herd for the next 5-7 days.

“There have been a fair few instances where unhygienic practice has caused some very sick cows and some die. When it does go wrong, it goes spectacularly wrong because the types of mas-titis you get are not easy to treat with antibiotics.”

Another factor in the decision about if and what to treat cows with at drying off is the wintering system.

Muddy grazing conditions, particularly with high amounts of faecal matter mixed in, heighten infection risk. Feed pads or wintering barns where cows can’t find somewhere dry to lie also appear to heighten risk.

“There do seem to be more and different sorts of mastitis from these sys-tems; typically more coli-forms, though there’s still a lot of strep’ uberis even with these.”

A scientific study is needed to get a clearer picture of what impact such wintering systems are having, she adds.

DRY-OFF TREATMENT TIPS❱❱ Teat-seal all cows.

❱❱ Strong case for dry cow too.

❱❱ Seek vet advice, especially if selectively treating.

❱❱ Pay now or later: cuts could prove costly come spring.

Jane Lacy-Hulbert


ANIMAL HEALTH 35

Aussie sheep industry hits back at extremistsEXTREMIST ANIMAL wel-fare group PETA’s campaign (Rural News, April 21) against the Australian wool industry has led to a number of advo-cacy groups in the sector taking action against its mis-leading promotion.

The furore surrounds an advertisement featuring Aus-tralian musician Jona Wein-hofen clutching what appears to be the fake, bleeding body of a violently sheared sheep, carrying the slogan: “Here’s the rest of your wool coat.”

The advertisement was released in conjunction with video footage of sheep being treated poorly in shearing sheds.

PETA claimed the adver-tisement represented the “realities of the Australian wool industry” and that “25% of the world’s wool comes from Australia and it’s made from 100% cruelty”.

The advertisement, which aired earlier this month, has been met with outrage from many who believe the campaign is misleading.

“It’s a false image, backed by false and insulting claims,” Victo-rian Farmers Federation Livestock Group president Ian Feldtmann says.

“It’s in our own interest to treat our animals humanely, given good

treatment means healthy animals and good productivity. All Austra-lians should realise that PETA is all about portraying extreme behav-iour as the norm.”

Leading wool industry group WoolProducers Australia has also condemned the advertisement and refuted the animal welfare activit-ists’ claims.

“Australian wool growers pro-tect the health and welfare of their sheep through a variety of animal husbandry practices that are suited

to the sheep type and the environ-ment,” WoolProducers Australia said in a statement.

“Sheep producers are continu-ally investing in sheep health and welfare. Over the last five years, more than $50 million has been spent on research and develop-ment, biosecurity, health and wel-fare programmes.

“Wool growers tend to their sheep every day, using appropriate and often world leading husbandry and management practices.”

The campaign has prompted the VFF to lodge a complaint with the Advertis-ing Standards Bureau, with its complaint focusing on the fake representation of the lamb as “misleading and offensive”.

But while some farming groups are pushing for the ad to be removed by bureaucratic means, the Western Australian Farmers Federation is instead campaigning to educate Wein-hofen and PETA through a crowd-funding campaign.

WAFarmers launched its campaign to send Weinhofen to shearing school by aiming to raise $4500.

If it meets the mark, then WA Farmers president Dale Park says he would extend the invitation to the staff at PETA – including the chief executive and the marketing department

– to clarify any misconceptions they may have.

“No one that I know would shear a lamb that size – it looks a day old – and certainly they wouldn’t tolerate such a low stan-dard of shearing,” Park says.

He says the PETA campaign preys on people who have no knowledge of shearing prac-tices. “Shearers are trained in best practice technique and any shearer that did that to a sheep would be out of a job.”

Australia wool sector has hit back at PETA’s fake shearing campaign.

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36 ANIMAL HEALTH

Thousands of sharemilkers will be on the move with their stock and equipment on June 1.

JUST ADD WATER!RE YOUR April 21 article (p40) on the Theileria problem: I lost a RY2 heifer to Theileria in October 2014. The veterinary bills amounted to $468.08 in an effort to save the animal.

When the vet initially explained the implications for our other live-stock – particularly the weaners – I contacted Homeopathic Farm Support and learnt they had a

nosode that covers not only the Ikeda strain of the Theileria Orien-talis parasite, but also the endemic strain.

They also recommended using Ferrum Phos which boosts the blood – particularly for anaemia which, of course, is the cause of death from Theileria.

The remedies arrived the next day and I commenced treating all

the animals via the troughs. That was in October 2014 and I have not experienced another sick animal. The cost amounted to $128.60.

There is also a homeopathic programme for parasites, which includes a tick nosode. This remedy supports the animal’s natural response to ticks.Jill RobinsonHamilton

Get animal transport plans sorted earlyARE YOU ready for trans-porting your stock ahead of Gypsy Day?

Here are some guide-lines for preparation and the journey, courtesy of DairyNZ.

Plan ahead: determine the length of travel and prepare stock accordingly. Ideally choose the nearest processor for cull cows.

Pregnant cows: must not be transported if they are likely to give birth during the journey.

Travel time guide: last three months of preg-nancy – less than two hours travel time.

Biosecurity: develop a plan with your veteri-narian to avoid spread of disease during trans-

port such as Theileria and BVD.

Healthy: cattle must be fit, healthy and able to bear weight on all four legs. No open wounds, no signs of clinical masti-tis, free from disease, and exhibiting normal behav-iour. If in doubt, have examined by a veterinar-ian and get a vet certifi-cate.

Body condition: cows of condition score 2.5 to 3.0 may only be trans-ported to remedial feed or directly to processor (not saleyards). Any cow with BCS less than 2.5 must have a vet certificate.

Horns: horned cows should be transported separately. Cows with

horns in firm contact with their skin should have them shortened seven days before transport.

Water: clean fresh water must be available to all cows before and after transport and a water break is needed during journeys over eight hours.

Magnesium: provide extra magnesium for four days before and after transport to reduce the risk of transport tetany to cattle, especially for late pregnant, thin or lacta-tion cows or if the journey is expected to be longer than four hours.

Standing off: no green feed for 4-12 hours before transport. Provide dry feed, silage/baleage, hay

or straw, on a grazed-out paddock or stand-off pad. Cows should not be stood off on concrete for any more than four hours at a time. Any longer is likely to lead to sore feet and legs, potential lame-ness problems and a more stressful journey.

Loading: if possible help load stock to mini-mise stress.

Post arrival: check stock health and if nec-essary manage the tran-sition of diet to avoid rumen acidosis. Check for bloat two hours after arrival on-farm.Information supplied by DairyNZ

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MACHINERY & PRODUCTS 37

The unwieldy trike start of something bigHONDA’S STRANGE yet wonderful ATC 90 ‘trike’, launched in 1970, was the catalyst for an indus-try segment that grew and grew, to evolve into a sector where the technol-ogy rivals the car industry in its sophistication.

The ATC 90 was offered to the US public at $595. It was crude to say the least: an 87cc engine, a rigid rear axle, and sus-pension effected only by huge balloon tyres.

Interestingly, Honda had the market to itself for many years, with Yamaha taking until 1979 to launch the YT 125, Kawasaki in 1981 with the KTL 200, and Suzuki bringing up the rear with the ALT 125 in 1982.

About then it dawned on farmers that here was a style of vehicle that might have a place on the farm, particularly in the winter where it could travel over the wet ground and create much less damage than a conventional farm tractor.

With this discovery the manufacturers were quick to add a fourth wheel, and so began the birth of the quad.

With this birth the industry ballooned, and as well as the Big Four, a number of new names such as Polaris Industries and Artic Cat joined the fray. Over the years the chase seemed to be for larger engine capacities, better suspension, and the introduction of better racks and accessories to extend the range of tasks these machines could carry out

In 1988 the position of the “quad” became con-solidated when the man-ufacturers of the iconic three wheelers voluntarily ceased production due to the increasing concerns over the rising number of serious injuries, and indeed fatalities that these types of machines seemed to be causing. Quad type machines also had a major flaw in that they required,

and still do today, a large degree of operator input. Whilst it appears that you can throw a leg over, hit the throttle and go, the problem occurs with cor-nering, where body weight needs to be shifted left to right or front to rear to help change direc-tion. Hence the large seat found on quads- not for passengers and definitely not for the three grand-children!

As the quad became the Swiss Army Knife on the farm it was inevita-ble that what was initially crafted as a recreational vehicle would be asked to do just too much. As the loads on the bikes racks increased someone at Kawasaki spotted a need for a proper load platform, and the Mule (multi-use light equipment) was born in 1988, and a fol-lowed by the Yamaha Pro-Hauler in 1989.

Over the ensuing years production rocketed, driven by recreational

sales in the US, but with sales to agriculture also becoming more impor-tant. In the 2003 season sales in the US alone hit the 1,000,000 mark

And some the evolu-tion rolled on to the pres-ent where we see farmers and landowners offered an amazing choice of potential vehicles for their operation. Certainly,

the rise in sales of side-by-side vehicles over the last five years has been dramatic with all man-ufacturers in the game .There rise in popularity has probably been at the expense of the traditional “quad” type machine.

So it’s important to make the right choice to find the best vehi-cle for the job. Consid-erations will need to be safety, where legislation is becoming more prevalent, the number of people to be carried, and the load or task to be undertaken.The choices2 wheeled farm bikes

Good for moving easily for inspecting the farm and livestock- good for mustering cattle or sheep

and maintenance work- limited ability to carry any loads-suits most ground conditions-requires an experienced operator-low capital investmentQuad bikes

Good for inspecting farm and livestock-good for mustering stock , but care needed for rapid changes of direction as prone to rollover-needs high operator input and skill- able to carry small loads on dedicated racks- tow small trailers suit-able for quads- not good for sealed roads and care should be taken in diffi-cult terrain- should not be used to carry passengers-medium to high capital investmentSide-by-Side Utility

VehiclesSuitable for most types

of farm work- ROPS pro-tection and set belts offer greater levels of safety- ability to fit accessories for weather protection-ability to carry larger loads and tow heavier trailers-suitable for most surfaces, but care should be taken on steep uneven terrain-ability to carry passengers- high capital investment.

So the choice is great, the companies are many, but ensure that you are not dazzled by chrome and fancy paint jobs, and pick the correct vehicle, or indeed vehicles for your operation.

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38 MACHINERY & PRODUCTS

More beet means bigger harvesters

FODDER BEET’S steady march in the South Island is obvious, with bigger areas planted.

Industry estimates suggest that plantings have increased from about 10,000ha in 2010 to a best estimate of about 45,000ha in 2015.

It all points to a need for bigger har-vesters.

One such machine, fresh off the wharf, was the Grimme Rexor 620 which packs a lot of superlatives into its spec sheet. Length 13.3m, height 6.4m,

weight empty 26.5 tonnes , loaded 48.5 tonnes, and a fuel tank of 1300L.

Probably better known for its equip-ment in the world of potatoes, Grimme has nevertheless had an involvement with beet harvesters since 2003.

The Rexor 620 is a twin axle bunker style machine with a six row harvesting system and a bunker capacity of around 22 tonnes. Given that its fully loaded weight is approaching 50 tonnes, it has a unique dog-leg wheel layout that during harvesting enables the wheels follow separate tracks across the full width of the machine to minimise soil damage; tight turns are taken care of via

an articulated joint in the centre of the machine.

Power is generated by a straight Mercedes engine developing 490hp in an engine rev range of 1150-1600 rpm to produce efficient fuel consumption figures.

At the heart of the machine, the har-vesting elements, sees a topping unit up front, clearing 6 rows with spacing 45-50cm, with in-line delivery. Follow-ing on the scalping unit uses a par-allel guidance system to remove the crowns of the beet with minimum wastage. Next stage is the Oppel lifting wheels, working in pairs and individu-ally hydraulically driven which ‘pluck’ the roots from the ground, rather than rely on a more typical digging share. This lifting wheel design ensures less stones and dirt being lifted, as the crop is presented to the cleaning segment of the machine.

Traditionally the transition from harvesting to cleaning on self- propelled harvesters can be a bottleneck, and this is addressed on the Rexor by a 90cm wide web that is hydraulically driven, and thereby offers about 20cm more clearance between the table and the chassis because there are no

driveshafts. Second stage cleaning is via three

rotary turbines, which have steplessly variable speed and hydraulic guide bar adjustment to ensure a clean sample is delivered to the bunker in all types of conditions. From the cleaning tur-bines crop is delivered to the 33m3 (22 tonne) capacity bunker by a ring ele-vator, before being unloaded by a com-bination of moving floor and 1800mm wide unloading elevator.

As one would expect of a machine of this size, tyres are extremely important, and the unit is shod with 1050-50 R32 rears and 800-70 R38 fronts, the latter used to ensure maximum clearance in the harvesting section in difficult con-

ditions. Hydraulics are taken care of by a closed circuit load sensing system with split circuits to ensure a plentiful supply to all areas at all times.

The driver is cosseted in a cabin provided by Claas, with auto-steering, touch screen control and three cameras to ensure the machine performs at its optimum for long harvest days.

As for the age-old question “what’ll she do mister”… depending on condi-tions and the ability of the support crew to get the crop away from the harvester, 1-2ha/hour. So taking into account a wet yield of around 120 tonnes/ha (22-25 tonnes DM) you could end up with a large pile at the end of the day.www.landpower.co.nz

MARK DANIEL

[email protected]

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See your local Kubota dealer for full terms and conditions

KUBOTA WORKS FOR YOU. ALL DAY, EVERY DAY.

Offer valid 20th April to 31st August 2015 and is available on Kubota tractors over 50hp. *Finance is based on 30% deposit and 36 month total term. Lending criteria apply. **1 year free servicing is based on a maximum of 500 hours.

1 YEAR SERVICING**

365YEAR

WARRANTY

DEFERRED PAYMENT

MONTHSFINANCE*%

FREE

kubota.co.nz 0800 KUBOTAFacebook.com/kubotanz



www.kawasaki.co.nz0800-4 KAWASAKI (0800-5292 7292)

FARM UTILITY VEHICLES

MULE Pro-FXT 4X4RRP $25,995

$22,604*+GST

MULE 600 2X4RRP $11,995

$10,430*+GST

MULE 610 4X4RRP $13,450

$11,696*+GST

MULE 610 XC4X4 (Bigfoot) RRP $14,995

$13,039*+GST

MULE 4010 4X4 RRP $17,825

$15,500*+GST

MULE 4010 Diesel 4X4RRP $19,750

$17,381*+GST

TICKINGALL THEBOXESSINCE ‘88

DEPENDABILITY

STRENGTHSTABILITY

SAFETY

*Limited time. While

current stock lasts.

KAWASAKIUTILITIES

STREAMLINEOat Roller Crusher

Senior All GrainRoller Crusher

STREAMLINEJunior All Grain Crusher/Roller

STREAMLINEHayway Chaff

Cutter

Easy, safe and comfortableHONDA WAS a late starter in the side-by-side market when it launched the Big Red MUV in 2009.

Since then it has released the capable Pioneer 700 and more recently the Pioneer 500, a side-by-side that sits closer to the large quad market in terms of size and price. With the heat coming down on quads from the nanny state, Honda’s timing couldn’t be better.

The Pioneer 500 shares the mechanical heart of its stable-mate, the TRX500. The bulletproof 475cc, liq-

uid-cooled, fuel injected single-cylinder puts a useful amount of grunt through the manual gear-box – also from the quad. It’s a willing unit, if a little noisy when pushed.

This is a well-proven drivetrain suited to farm use, especially with the vehicle control and engine braking afforded by the manual transmis-sion. Safety down hills is a weakness with some side-by-sides due to the lack of engine braking.

The low range first gear in the Pioneer is the perfect ‘crawl’ ratio for off-road driving – it’ll go most places you point it –

and for bringing the cows in at a calm, leisurely rate.

Performance up through the gears is good rather than startling, but this is not a racing vehi-cle despite the aggressive styling. In typical Honda fashion, it feels like it’ll take its punishment on the farm without fanfare and without complaint.

While sharing its drive-train with the TRX500 quad, the Pioneer has a full chassis in which all the heavy bits are set low for stability, and the wheel track is wider.

Because it is not a huge vehicle, the full roll cage can give the impression

ADAM FRICKER that it is tall and narrow, an optical illusion dis-pelled once you’re under-way. You can chuck the small Pioneer around and feel secure. Similarly on inclines it felt stable. As with all vehicles there’s a limit but we didn’t find it.

Would you buy one of these instead of a quad? Depends what you need it for, but with the cur-rent special price of $15,995 the Pioneer 500 is slightly cheaper than many +500cc quads, offers two seats, the safety of seatbelts and full roll-over protection plus doors and door nets to keep body parts inside the vehicle if you do roll it.

A big plus in our minds though is comfort. Easy to get in and out of, and with a cushy ride from the fully independent suspension with 150mm travel shocks,

the Pioneer 500 makes farm transport easy. Our tester was fitted with some of the many factory accessories available for

this model; in particular, a roof and a windscreen with a single wiper, added to the comfort.

It also had an optional

cargo tray fitted. Not the biggest tray in the world but still useable and far more practical than the standard carrier.


40 MACHINERY & PRODUCTS

POLARIS CONTINUES to grow its brand in New Zealand, its first quarter result exceeding that of 2014 by at least 38%, the company reports.

This places Polaris second in the off-road sector in New Zealand with a market share of 19.8%. The company says this was largely achieved by increasing sales of quads and side-x-sides by nearly 50% over the same period last year. In fact, in the side-x-side market Polaris says it has cap-tured a booming 43% of all sales.

“This outstanding growth is driven in no small means by product development, not just for new models, but by vari-ants specifically designed for NZ conditions,” says

country manager Alan Collins.

“Models like the 2015 Ranger 570 HD and the 1000 Diesel HD have had a significant impact, with features such as engine braking, 4-wheel descent control and electronic power steering.”

He says that with safety always a major consideration, the com-pany leads the way with 15 models offering ROPS protection, seat belt inter-locks and speed key sys-tems to limit top speeds.

“Polaris’ innova-tion is further [seen in]

unique models such as the Sportsman ACE, the UTE 570 HD and the new flat-bed M1400,” Collins says.

He attributes the rise in sales to the ser-vice and after-sales sup-port offered by the dealers nationwide.www.polaris.co.nz

MARK DANIEL

[email protected]

Brand grows in NZ

Discs show how to mix it upNZ TRACTORS at the recent South Island Agricultural Field Days exhibited the Sumo Mixidisc from the UK. Rural News machinery editor mark Daniel reports on how they went.

Aimed primarily at high speed stub-ble cultivation, for incorporating large volumes of crop residue and to encour-age germination of volunteer and weed seeds, the Sumo Mixidisc can also be used for secondary cultivation on previ-ously worked ground.

From the front the unit has a parallel drawbar for easy hook-up and reduction in tractor hitch wear, through to an over-dimensioned main frame whose weight should give it good penetration in tough conditions, and a long service life.

Under the frame are two gangs of 500mm scalloped discs mounted on independent rubber suspended arms with optimum spacing and cutting

angles. The discs are followed by a row of hydraulically adjusted levelling pad-dles to ensure a good finish across the width of the machine.

Bringing up the rear is a 609mm pat-ented Multipacka, whose shouldered rings and high weight result in optimal firming of the soil and a weatherproof finish.

Working depth is adjustable from 20-140 mm and effected by the rear roller assembly. Power requirement of the 6m unit is about 220hp.

With a working width of 6m and a transport width less than 3m, the machine should offer high output but be easy to move around; with this in mind all units have hydraulic brakes and lighting kits as standard.

Options available include rear draw-bars and wheel track eradicators.Tel. 03 308 7910

MUCK SPREADER TAKES PRIZE FOR BEST IMPORTFARMERS WANTING to shift solid or liquid manures should note Toplink Machinery’s UK-made Powerspread.

Launched at last month’s South Island Agricultural Field Days, it won first place in the imported machine cat-egory.

Made in the UK and imported by Toplink Machinery, the Power-spread is offered in a range from 7.5-15 tonnes capacity.

It comprises a tank through which runs a cen-tral rotor with a paddle design. Material is fed via a watertight guillo-tine style door onto a 1.4m wide overshot discharge impellor.

A simple, reversible driveline of two main chains ensures keeps maintenance to a mini-

mum. Depending on the consistency of the mate-rial a uniform spread pat-tern up to 26m can be achieved.

In the event of a block-age the impellor can be lowered away from the main body to clear obstructions.

Targeted at contrac-

tors or large scale farmers, the Powerspread Pro 2300 holds about 10.5m3 and weighs 11.5 tonnes all-up.

It can easily be pulled by a tractor of 140hp and its low loading height ensures easy filling by tractor frontloaders or telehandlers.www.toplink.co.nz

TOW AND FARMby metalform

TF

The Tow and Fert allows you to dissolve your own urea to reduce your

enabling you to apply multiple fertilisers or animal health products or herbicides in one application.

Talk to us about the cost reduction you can achieve right now.

REDUCE YOUR FERTILISER BILL AND GROW MORE GRASS

Call us for your FREE demo now:WWW.TOWANDFARM.CO.NZ

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Multi 4000ulti1200 Multi 1000M



NO STRAIN FOR WINNERSTHE FIRST South Island, national-style fencing com-petition reportedly held since the 1980s was run at this year’s South Island Agricultural Field Days.

It was organised and run by New Zealand Fencing Competitions with eight two man teams from South Island contractors competing.

They had to erect a railed corner, hang a steel gate, put up 45m of netting with an electric top wire; and fit two horizontal assemblies. A a Strainrite irrigator crossing was installed as a separate exercise.

When the first team finished, time penalties accu-mulated at one point per minute, so there was a playoff between time and meeting the judging specifications.

Winners: first, Ben Haugh, Ben Haugh Fencing and Nathan Monk, Monk Fencing; second, Tony Brady and James Ewing, Tony Brady Fencing; third, Nick Terry and Chris Scurr, Custom Fencing.

The competition was sponsored by Wiremark, FCANZ, Cyclone, Steel and Tube/Hurricane, Strain-rite, Goldpine, Stockade and Husqvarna.

New roof shining example

CALDER STEWART Roofing’s new product Solar-Rib precludes many of the problems inherent in the early use of solar panels for power generation.

This steel roofing system, with its modern wide-valley profile, would not look out of place on any modern design.

If renewable energy is not your

thing right now, no problem, it’s good roofing material. But if you do want to go down the RE route it lends itself to be used with photo-voltaic (PV) laminates, either from new or as an upgrade in the future.

PV laminates supplied by Calder Stewart are manufactured by Marcegaglia in Italy, who claim to be market leaders in this technol-ogy with 50 factories worldwide. The laminate panels are only 5mm thick and less noticeable than con-

ventional glass solar units, and as such should fit in well where plan-ning regulations require low impact on the surrounding environment.

The product comes with a 25

year warranty, and has the poten-tial to generate 1kW of electricity for each 20m2 of laminate installed, so an average sized house has the potential to deliver 3-5kW of power.

Other points to consider are laminates need a much shallower roof angle to generate the same power as conventional systems, they are resistant to rain, hail, snow and a tradesman’s size 11 safety boot. www.roofer.co.nz

MARK DANIEL

[email protected]

Punch added to postdriver

FAIRBROTHER INDUSTRIES has introduced a new rock spike attachment for the Kinghitter series of postdrivers.

With a novel feature that moves the attachment into work hydraulically, this makes for safe and easy use and increases the versatility of these robust machines.

With spikes available from 65mm diameter, the new rock spike attachment is available on new units or as a retro-fit item for all previous machines, with the addi-tion of a hydraulic control valve. www.fairbrother.co.nz

FAIRBROTHER FACTS ❱❱ Jim Fairbrother invented the world’s first

hydraulic post driver in 1997

❱❱ All units are designed and manufactured in NZ

❱❱ 32 years at current Beachhaven factory

❱❱ Exported throughout the world.

MARK DANIEL

[email protected]

5110

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Includes a European TRIMA x56 self levelling loader with multi dock, 3rd service and soft ride standard.

The new 5 Series 5110 Vista combines all the features of a high horsepower tractor with a comfort package we guarantee will exceed your expectations.

110hp Deutz-TCD 3.6L tier 4 Engine

30x30, 3 speed Powershift Transmission

Easy to operate ‘stop and go’ function

Large air conditioned cab with high-vis roof

True 4 wheel brakes 100% front and rear diff lock – push button

4 speed PTO (auto PTO) 60 ECO L/min hydro pump, 3 rear remote valves

4855kg lift capacity

110hp High-tech European Powerhouse


42 RURAL TRADER

TUNNELHOUSES• Ideal addition to your lifestyle block• Grow vegetables all year round and reduce your

grocery bill• Very affordable and easy to install• Totally NZ made by family business making

tunnelhouses for 30 years• Range of models from 2m to 8m long

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•PestFreeputs50Hzpulsealongpowercables•Ratsandmicestress,dehydrate,exit•Noharmtohumans,pets,computers,etc.•Modelstosuitbuildings/plant200sq.mto1000sq.m•Australiandeveloped,patented,scienceproven•Usedintencountries•Two-yearwarranty

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(your surname as reference) PLUS telephone or email us, saying which product(s) you want.

Pest Free Domesticforhomes,garages,etcto200sq,m–$159.90 incl. GST & post.

Pest Free PROforlargehomes,smalloffices&factories,etcto400sq.m–$299.95 incl. GST & post.Pest Free CommercialNew,improved,fordairysheds,grainmills,etc.$1250 incl. GST & post.

STOP RATS with Pest FreeBuywithconfidencefromauthorisedruralsalesagentN+J Keating, 70 Rimu Street, New Lynn, Auckland 0600.Tel. 09 833 1931, cell 021 230 1863;[email protected]

• ATV Carrier Mats • Exit/Entry Areas• Calf Trailers • Horse Floats & Trucks

• Weigh Platforms • Bale Mats • Comfort Mats for Wet & Dry Areas

• Utility Deck Matting

Phone: 0800 80 8570www.burgessmatting.co.nz

Rubber Safety Matting

ZETOR DIRECTGenuine

PartsPh 0061 35482 3277Fax 0061 35482 3288

or [email protected]

0800 379 247see it now

DIESELHEATER

www.avonheating.co.nz

Happy BirthdayTo mark a birthday, retirement or any

milestone, give that special someone, something special - a personal cartoon portrait by

Edna cartoonist Malcolm Evans - $200 plus GSTSend no money - just email a few up-to-date photos of subject, with a note of details you’d like included, to; [email protected]

Or post your inquiries to; M. Evans, 39J Cape Horn Road, Hillsborough, Auckland 1041 . .

and don’t forget to include your return address.

DOLOMITENZ’s fi nest BioGro certifi ed

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BREAKING NEWS

MANAGEMENT STORIES

MARKETS & TRENDS

MACHINERY REVIEWS

COMPETITIONS

AND MUCH MORE...

LATEST STORIES ONwww.ruralnews.co.nz

Please add $12 Freight per order

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RAINWEAR CLEARANCE SALE! 50-60% OFF!PRICES SLASHED!!! WATERPROOF, BREATHABLE RAINWEAR!!! BUFFALO BOOTS from $120!

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10 HALL ROAD, RD5, WHANGAREIPhone 09 438 8907

FOOTWEAR LTD NZ MADE BOOTS

HUNTER BOOTS Comfortable, durable and stylish. The heavy duty sole construction makes this a robust boot

designed for climbing over rugged ground. This boot has a soft toe and is made from a thick Mad Dog Nubuck Leather, stitched and screwed construction with a rubber, replaceable sole, that is glued and screwed. Soft padding for ankle support

and D-Rings for your laces are an added advantage. Great fitting boots full of comfort, ideal for those long hunting

and tramping trips.

TUSSOCK SOFT TOE TRIPLE/SINGLE HOB NAIL, HEAVY DUTY LEATHER This boot is designed

for heavy duty use on high country farms and over alpine terrain. This boot will handle tough environments. With an upper

constructed from heavy duty leather, a tough heel counter for better ankle support and a full bellows tongue for

greater water tightness. A leather insole and triple bend leather runners, with a stitched and

screwed construction and heel and toe plates. Triple or single Hob nails. Tricounis available with tungsten tipped teeth.

Tussock made to order only. Sizes 4-15 including half sizes.

Just order your Dual Axle or Tandem Trailer NOW to avoid disappointment for June / July / August Delivery

~~Specialists in ATV Trailers ~~

NEW! 3600 x 1800 Dual Axle Calf Trailer

Also 3000 x 1500 Available

see Farmlands or ph 0508 805 801 working with farmers for 40 years

NEW! “Fence Mate” Fence Standard & Reel Carrier


RURAL TRADER 43

ONE STOP WATER SHOP

Culvert Pipes Phone 0800 625 826

for your nearest stockistNew Zealand’s CHEAPEST Culvert Pipes!

FREE joiners supplied on request.

•Lightweight,easytoinstall

•Madefrompolyethylene

McKee Plastics Mahinui Street, Feilding

Ph 06 323 4181 Fax 06 323 [email protected] | www.mckeeplastics.co.nz

300mm x 6 metre ................................ $410

400mm x 6 metre ................................ $515500mm x 6 metre ................................ $690

600mm x 6 metre ................................ $925

800mm x 6 metre .............................. $1399

1000mm x 6 metre ............................ $2175

1200mm x 6 metre ............................ $3475

Joinerssupplied FREE with culvert

pipes

ALL PRICES INCLUDE G.S.T.

McKee Plastics, Mahinui Street, Feilding | Phone 06 323 4181 | Fax 06 323 [email protected] | www.mckeeplastics.co.nz

MOBILE FEED TROUGHS4.5M (3 Wheel) Jumbo Culvert

PK Feeder$3695.00 inc

4M - 800L Budget Drawbar

$2150.00 inc

6.0M (6 Wheel) Jumbo Culvert

PK Feeder$5250.00 inc

6M Culvert (mobile)

$1450.00 inc

2400 Litres

1700 Litres

ANOTHER MAN SAVED BY LIFEGUARD

How much is a life worth - it’s a small price to pay

DON’T BE TOLD QUADS DON’T NEED CRUSH PROTECTION!It’s the unxpected that causes rollovers. Lifeguard is proving it saves lives. It is the only fl exible CPD and the safest in the world. You can buy one today for $1,200 +GSTContact us on 0800 782 [email protected]

Guy Scullin attributes his lucky escape to getting a Lifeguard. “Without it” he says “it was potentially a life ending accident.”

FLYSTRIKE AND LICE❖ Fantastic Penetration❖

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❱❱ Accommodates up to 4 dogs❱❱ 6 individual air vents❱❱ Removable centre board❱❱ 2 lockable galvanised gates❱❱ In-house drainage❱❱ Tie down lugs on each side❱❱ Fits all wellside &

flatdeck utes (2 models)❱❱ Raised floor for insulation

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Cretex™ TR

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Epotread™ SL250 EPOXY SCREED FOR ERODED FLOORS Non Toxic, Solvent Free Chemical Resistant Self smoothing, easy to spread Covers eroded & pitted floors

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Zinc alloy coating offers twice the life of traditional heavy galvanised wire

Complies with New Zealand Standard AS/NZS 4534

4.0 MM SOFT WIRE 253 M 25 KG AVAILABLE FOR $109

Terms and Conditions: All off ers and prices are valid 1 April 2015 to 30 June 2015 unless stated otherwise, or while stocks last. Prices include GST and are subject to change. Some products may not be available in all stores but may be ordered on request. Prices do not include delivery, delivery costs are additional. Images are for illustrative purposes only.

Energizer area recommendations are a guide only and in multiple wire terms. Performance will be aff ected by the condition of your fence. †Visit www.pggwrightson.co.nz/rewards for terms and conditions.

PER COIL

Cyclone®Wire 2.5 mm High Tensile 2 Life 650 m25 kg

$7499

SHEDS & BARNS I CATTLE YARDS I FARM BRIDGES

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Speedrite™ 3:1 Gear RatioGeared Reel Prewound with Premium Super 8 Tape 200 mINCLUDES ZAMMR HANDLE

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Speedrite™ Solar Energizer S150Normally $319Valid 1/5/2015 - 31/5/2015

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Documents

Rural News 5 May 2015