Dairy News 29 Jan 2012

january 29, 2013 Issue 283 // www.dairynews.co.nz

Another record seAson?Milk flows tracking ahead of last season’s record production but weather could still have a say . PAGE 5

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bowIng out In styleWestland director Jim Wafelbakker calls it a day

PAges 22-23

Not all directors convinced on CRT/Farmlands merger. PAge 4

Dai ry News january 29, 2013

news // 3

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Pulling the crowd at Central District Field Days. Pg.32

Managing effluent by remote control. Pgs.20-21

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New Speaker to miss farming coalfaceoutgoIng AgrIculture Minister and Speaker-elect David Carter says he will miss the day-to-day contact with farmers and indus-try leaders. He will now have to step into an ‘apolitical’ role.

He praises the efforts of the pre-vious speaker, Lockwood Smith, who he says did a superb job.

Carter’s initial reaction to get-ting the Speaker’s role was excite-ment – a tremendous challenge but a tremendous honour and he is look-ing forward to it. But he concedes he is disappointed that having been involved in farming for so long he will not be able to continue in the primary industry role. But he looks back with

pride on some of his achievements.“The progress we made with

water issues has to be close to the top. I passionately believe the bioseo-curity system in New Zealand is far more ready and effective particularly at the border than before I became the minister,” Carter told Dairy News.

“The primary growth partnership and the science investment we now have in the primary sector is some-thing I am proud of. The final one is animal welfare which was the big issue in the first year of my term.”

Meanwhile Federated Farm-ers praises the contribution Carter made to the primary sector. Presi-dent Bruce Wills says Carter has built up a great working relationship with Federated Farmers and the rest of the agricultural sector in his time.

“We have a great deal of respect

for what he has achieved for our industry over the past four years,” he says.

Wills has also praised the appoint-ment of Nathan Guy as Carter’s suc-cessor saying he has already worked

well with the federation. “We know that as a farmer himself, he will really understand and work well for agricul-ture and all other primary industries in this country.”

Peter burKepeterb@ruralnews�co�nz

NATHAN GUY says he’s over the moon at his new role of Minister for Primary Indus-tries. Farming and politics are in his blood and he sees himself as fortunate to be to leading a significant industry.

“It’s fantastic to have the Prime Minister’s confidence in what is a hugely important ministry and something I am passionate about.”

Guy says the primary industry sector is a key element in the Government’s business growth agenda of increasing exports as a percentage of GDP from 30% to 40% by 2025. He says he will advocate strongly for the primary sector and help foster this

economic growth. He singles out biosecurity and water

as top priorities and says he’ll be working closely with Environment Minister Amy Adams on pushing water and RMA reforms through Parliament.

Guy, a dairy farmer in Horowhenua, says in his opinion the dairy industry is doing a better job of engaging with the wider public.

“The milk in schools initiative Fonterra is launching is fantastic. That’s a good first step in making children understand where milk comes from. Ultimately these youngsters are going to be the consumers

of the future. Every year DairyNZ and Fonterra are doing a better job of helping the public understand what goes on inside the farm gate,” he says.

Guy says he enjoyed working with Carter over the last 12 months and that he did an outstanding job.

guy over the Moon

Outgoing Agriculture Minister, David Carter says his new role as Speaker will be ‘apolitical’.

Nathan Guy

@dairy_news facebook.com/dairynews


4 // news

Not all directors convinced on rural supply merger

one oF two Farmlands directors who resigned over the proposed merger with South Island counter-part CRT says they had no choice.

They needed to get the message across to mem-bers before they voted on the merger that they had concerns, says East Coast director Hugh Ritchie.

Voting papers were about to be mailed last week, says Ritchie, who quit as a director of the North Island cooperative with West Coast director Charlie Pedersen.

Since December they had unsuccessfully through Farmlands chair-man Lachie Johnstone been trying to get their concerns addressed and clarified to members, he

says. “Every time we’ve tried to reach some con-sensus on this or get something to happen or get some changes to be made, the process has been screwed around,” Ritchie says.

Johnstone could not be reached for comment at the time Dairy News went to press.

Ritchie says they feared members would get their voting papers and think “the whole board is behind it, we’ll just sign off on what the board is doing”.

“They need to know it is not clear cut and to read the information – to make up their own minds. Read it carefully, look at the report, read the KPMG stuff and be aware.”

Ritchie says various media releases and state-ments from Farmlands have implied the merger has the unanimous sup-

port of the board. There has never been a vote on whether the board sup-ports the merger. There has only been a vote on December 4 that, subject to conditions, the infor-mation would be put to shareholders to decide.

The following Friday the chairman announced the merger vote was moving forward and the following Tuesday there was a teleconference about wording, but the agreed wording was sub-sequently changed in the document that followed.

“There’s an email trail to show that that word-ing has been changed. By changing the wording it changed the inference and the message we were trying to get across.”

He agrees there has been a process undertaken to try to allay his and Ped-ersen’s concerns but he

says they were never con-sulted as to whether that process had been suc-cessful. Considering their remaining reservation about a number of issues, it had not been successful, he says.

Ritchie, a former Fed-erated Farmers national board member, and Ped-ersen, a former Federated Farmers president, say voters need to take into account four key concerns:

■ The board is not unani-mous and there’s been no formal resolution put to the board on sup-porting the merger.

■ The business case is short on detail and includes $6m deferred expenditure to create the $38m “cumula-tive net merger synergy benefits” over three years.

■ A consultant engaged to assess the merger

stands to receive a sig-nificant success fee.

■ No agreement has been reached on how mem-bers will be represented in the future. Ritchie says they were

meant to meet the pro-posed new chief executive for the merged coopera-tives (CRT’s current chief executive Brent Esler) but this has not happened.

Ritchie says people who voted for him and mem-bers who trusted his judg-ment may have thought he supported the merger. He says he cannot see where the figures have been derived from in the busi-ness case but has been told to accept them as correct.

Yet an “independent consultant” engaged to assess the merger will receive a financial reward if it is successful. “It’s questionable, if anyone has got a pecuniary gain to

PAM tIPApamelat@ruralnews�co�nz be made out of one out-

come or another; it loses the credibility of that information.”

Ritchie says he may be in trouble for making those statements but is prepared to take the risk

“on the basis that it is per-tinent information that shareholders should be aware of before making their vote”.

LACHIE JOHNSTONE would likely be nominated as the founding chairman of an entity estab-lished from the merger of CRT and Farmlands, says a letter sent to CRT shareholders in mid-December.

CRT shareholders will also vote on the pro-posed merger in February.

The information to shareholders says the merged business would have a customer base of at least 54 members and a workforce of at least 1000. It will operate 47 farm merchandise stores in the North Island and 31 in the South Island.

Based on recent trading, it would have a combined sales revenue of at least $2 billion for the last financial year.

CRT chairman Don McFarlane says in the let-ter that key outcomes would include:

■ Minimal disruptions to customers and no store closures.

■ Improved buying terms.

■ Launching of Farmlands horticultural brand (Skeltons) to the South Island.

■ CRT could extend its finance offer in the North Island.

■ CRT feed and seed products could be intro-duced in the North Island.

■ Reduced costs through a consolidated IT system.

■ Streamlining of board, management and support functions.

johnstone set to heAd new entIty

Hugh Ritchie

@dairy_newsfacebook.com/dairynews

Goodhew ready for new rolewhIle new Associate Minister for Primary Industries, Jo Good-hew hasn’t lived on a farm since she left home, she still has fond memo-ries of life on the land. She grew up on a sheep and cropping farm near the mouth of the Rangitata River in South Canterbury. But although she went nursing she retained her interest in the land through Young Farmers.

“I traveled overseas on a couple of Young Farmers exchange trips including a six month one to the UK. I have maintained my interest in agriculture through that time and now I represent many farm-ers in the electorate of Rangitata; agriculture has remained a really important sector for me to keep in touch with.”

Goodhew says when she first

came into Parliament in 2005 she was asked what portfolios inter-ested her. These included health, welfare, education and agricul-ture. “So when the Prime Minister rang me and asked me if I’d become the associate minister I said I’d be delighted.”

Dairying, says Goodhew, has been the victim of some clever use of words and phrases such as dirty

dairying. She says these words have got some trac-tion and are hard to wear down.

“I think that traction has been hard to wear down because in fact whilst there can be degradation of water quality through contamination from dairy-ing, that is not always the case.”

Jo Goodhew

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news // 5

Record production on the cards

the dAIry industry is on track to another record milk production season.

Fonterra has confirmed milk production is slightly ahead of last season. But the weather could still throw a spanner in the works – pasture growth is already easing in parts of the North Island.

While most of the 2011-12 season milk has been processed, an unfavour-able autumn would have a minor impact on this sea-son’s production. How-ever, the main concern will be ensuring cows are in top condition for mating and for milk production next season.

Fonterra’s general manager milk supply Steve Murphy says the season is going well and milk flows are continuing to

track slightly ahead of last season.

“In general, the weather over the Christ-mas and new year period hasn’t had an impact on our operations,” he told Dairy News.

“Most regions have had

good growing conditions so far, but this is always subject to change based on regional weather events.”

The remnants of Cyclone Evan brought rain to parts of the upper and central North Island. This has helped farmers in these locations while isolated rainfall has kept grass growing in other centres, says Murphy.

“The central South

Island has seen hot dry conditions but not unsea-sonal for this time of year, while the lower South Island has continued to see favourable conditions with regular rainfall and good soil moisture levels.”

DairyNZ’s regional

team manager Craig McBeth says while it’s been a good season to date, dry weather is creep-ing into some parts of the country.

Production is falling daily in Northland and Waikato; Bay of Plenty is falling behind this time last year, although over-all the country is slightly ahead.

McBeth says given

these conditions, farm-ers need to start thinking about next season and not milk their lighter cows too aggressively and strip body condition.

“They need to be keep-ing an eye on the individ-ual cows as well as the herd in general for body condition score. Increas-ingly they should make sure they are well set up for next season because they have already got a lot of milk in the vat. Next season should start to enter more into their deci-sion making from here on.”

McBeth says farmers should consider drying off lighter cows and shipping known cull cows to the works early.

BNZ senior economist Doug Steel says milk pro-duction in New Zealand remains strong despite earlier reservations about weather. Steel expects

sudesh KIssunsudeshk@ruralnews�co�nz

2012-13 milk production to be 3% higher than last sea-son’s record production. “The risk of El Nino about six months ago has dissi-pated,” he says.

New Zealand milk production data for November 2012 reveals an extended peak to the season. Milk production

typically reaches its sea-sonal peak in late October. In 2012 production contin-ued strongly through the month of November. This resulted in production for November exceeding the previous season by 17.5 million kgMS.

Last season, dairy com-panies processed 19.1

billion litres of milk con-taining 1.69 billion kgMS, a 11% increase over the pre-vious season.

The milk production increase was the first dou-ble-digit increase since 2000-01.

@dairy_newsfacebook.com/dairynews

Fonterra general manager milk supply Steve Murphy says milk flows are tracking slightly ahead of last year.

“Most regions have had good growing conditions so far, but this is always subject to change based on regional weather events.”

Pasture growth eases as hot weather kicks in

PAsture growth rates are slowing significantly in the drier regions as the hot summer weather kicks in.

Craig McBeth of DairyNZ says in North-land soil moisture deficits have deterio-rated over the last two weeks and that’s pretty much the case over most of the North Island, except Taranaki, where rain has been plentiful and pasture growth excellent.

The South Island has had some good rain, almost too much on the West Coast. But in general soil moisture deficits are quite good for this time of the year and growth rates there are still fairly strong, McBeth says.

Wairarapa and Hawke’s Bay are strug-gling, soil moisture levels there deteriorat-ing with the ongoing dry conditions.

“Production on a daily basis in the upper North Island – North-land, Waikato and Bay of Plenty – is falling behind what they were doing this time last year, although overall the country is slightly ahead. So the basic story is that it’s been a very good season to date, but last year we had those great autumn rains that boosted production through to the end of the season. Whereas right now, for the North Island in particular, we are on the cusp of growth rates slowing right down and pasture cover has been dropping and quality falling a bit as well.”

McBeth says farmers should consider

drying off lighter cows and shipping known cull cows to the works early. Another option is to move to once a day to extend the lactation period without impacting on cow condition. McBeth says they need to watch out for facial eczema as well. Spore counts haven’t started to rise but they

could do so quickly.

Overall McBeth says there appears to be less sup-plements being harvested off farms because of the weather. Some pad-docks that were

closed up for silage have had to be grazed because of the shortage of feed and he notes some yields of silage cut have been lower than last year.

Maize crops have now responded to the hot weather, but some suffered before Christmas because of the cooler weather. McBeth says given the weather conditions during the past couple of months, and a range of other factors, yields from maize crops may be down.


Craig McBeth

“For the North Island in particular, we are on the cusp of growth rates slowing right down and pasture cover has been dropping and quality falling a bit as well.”

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6 // news

Irrigation cash good for dairy

dAIryIng wIll be one of the main beneficiaries of the $80 million irriga-tion initiative announced last week by the Govern-ment.

In one of his last acts as Minister for Primary

Industries, David Carter announced the setting up of a state owned com-pany whose role will be to invest in regional water storage and irrigation schemes and encourage private investors to fund such projects. The money the Government is put-ting up is for infrastruc-ture; schemes applying


must meet the criteria of the fund. It will be up to the new company to allo-cate the cash.

Carter says $80m is being set aside in the budget for 2013-14; over the next three to five years an additional $300 mil-lion will be set aside. It is hoped to set up the com-pany before the new finan-cial year, but no money can be allocated until July 1. The government grants are essentially bridging finance to get schemes up and running.

“Most of the initial $80 million will be available for grants. This company will have low overheads and is being established so it can partner with other inves-tors to get some bigger schemes off the ground as quickly as possible. There is no set ratio of cash input by investors; every project will be different. However the government will be a minority investor, never a majority investor.”

Carter says over time when a particular scheme becomes fully subscribed, the government will exit and get its money back. Having reliable irriga-tion schemes is part of the Government’s growth strategy to lift primary

exports. A study shows 46% of the land that could be irrigated would be for dairying, but excel-lent opportunities exist for horticulture and small seeds.

Carter expects a number of schemes to be ready to apply for fund-ing in the coming year, the most likely being the Ruataniwha scheme in Hawke’s Bay.

“What has driven me to fight for this policy through the cabinet process is that I can find no example anywhere in the world where a large scale irrigation scheme has been successfully launched without the involvement of central government.”

The move has been welcomed by Fonterra. The managing director co-op affairs, Todd Muller, says enabling a mix of public and private funding will give investors the nec-essary confidence to push ahead with schemes at a regional level.

“We will see benefits flow through in increased production and export earning and we will see environmental bene-fits from improved water flows,” Muller says.

FArMers welcoMe govt suPPort

DAIRYNZ SAYS the Government’s cash initiative will speed the delivery of irrigation schemes.

DairyNZ chairman John Luxton says the decision bodes well for the future of dairy farming and its contribution to the economy.

“The dairy industry is committed to sus-tainable use of water and will be releasing a new sustainable dairying water accord as well as a wider sustainable farming strategy. But, for continued development of the industry, we need to have confidence the necessary big regional investments will happen.”

Luxton says the Government is taking a comprehensive and strategic approach to resource use and its investment in water stor-age and irrigation, rather than making one-off, ad hoc decisions.

“This kind of approach will allow the dairy industry to plan for the long term in a com-prehensive and considered manner which will give others the confidence to invest too.

“Investment in water infrastructure will have regional benefits stretching across generations. Farmers are already investing millions of dollars in irrigation systems and upgrading them to ensure efficient water use.”

Luxton says this kind of government support is necessary because of the scale, complexity and capital requirements of regional scale irrigation and it will speed up the delivery of these schemes that will bring a range of community and economic benefits.

The Government is setting aside $80 million to invest in irrigation projects.

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news // 7

A ‘small price’ to pay for protecting the environment

FonterrA’s lArg-est milk supplier in Taranaki, the Maori incor-poration Parininihi ki Waitotara (PKW) has commissioned a big, high-tech effluent disposal system on its newest dairy farm near Hawera.

The $100,000 system can hold one million litres – 30 days storage. It ser-vices a new $1.1 million 60-bail rotary platform milking 570 cows.

PKW chief executive Dion Tuuta told Dairy News it’s a small price to pay for an investment in protecting the environ-ment long-term. “You

have to do it properly. If you are really serious about protecting the envi-ronment and mitigat-ing the negative effects

of dairy farming then you can’t just plant a few ripar-ian margins and say that’s our commitment to the environment fulfilled. You’ve got to go a bit fur-ther than that.”

Tuuta says environmental sustainability is important

to the board, staff and 9000 shareholders of PKW, as well as the eight iwi of Taranaki to which the shareholders

are affiliated. The intergenerational approach PKW takes to business means they don’t plan in short time-frames. The board of PKW, chaired by Hinerangi Raumati, sees the present generation as kaitiaki (guardians) of the land,

responsible for passing the land on to their descendants in a better state than as received.

“As Maori dairy farm-

ers we are also cognisant of other issues. This farm is situated within the tribal boundaries of Nga Rua-hine iwi. Two minutes up the road are two Nga Rua-hine marae. We are dairy farmers but we are also members of iwi and hapu who have an interest in

ensuring our environment is protected. As such we are working hard to ensure our dairy farming opera-tions should as far as pos-sible not adversely impact the environment.

“There are other aspects of our life where we have a relationship with the environment such as gathering kaimo-ana and food from water-ways and the sea. So as Maori we don’t want our dairy farming operation negatively impacting these

other important parts of our lives.”

Tuuta says the new effluent system is an example of the leadership position PKW is aspir-ing to take on environ-mental compliance. “The PKW board has set a high standard for all our farms. This is our newest farm and we have used it to set a high benchmark for our-selves. We would like to develop it as a benchmark for Taranaki in general to follow.”

He also believes the dairy industry is coming under a lot more pressure for environmental com-pliance. “You only have to consider the issues raised in Horizon’s One Plan to see that change is coming, whether you like it or not. So, while this system is primarily about operat-ing in accordance with our own cultural values, it’s also preparing for a future with more regulation.”

PKW’s investment in technology – pp 20-21

Peter burKe

“We are dairy farmers but we are also members of iwi and hapu who have an interest in ensuring our environment is protected. As such we are working hard to ensure our dairy farming operations should as far as possible not adversely impact the environment.”

PKW chief executive Dion Tuuta and farm supervisor Shane Miles at the new effluent pond.

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8 // news

Co-op champion ready to work

blue reAd and his wife Shirley run an arguably small or modest dairy farm near White Cliffs 40km north of New Plymouth. What it lacks

in size it makes up for in natural beauty. The western boundary is the Tasman Sea and only a fence and some careful tree planting over the

years separate the rolling pasture from the steep cliffs that drop down to black iron sands. Just down the road was where the Wesleyan missionary

John Whitely was killed.The son of a Stratford

builder, Read tried his hand at this trade, gave it away and headed over-seas for two years and on

his return was offered a job milking cows by Shir-ley’s father. He liked it, married Shirley and the pair began a lifetime in the dairy industry. After

A MAN who says he had no great ambition to be on the Fonterra Board has suddenly found himself there. Taranaki dairy farmer Blue Read (57), best known as the man who chaired the Fonterra Shareholders Council, was one of three successful candidates from a field of eleven. Peter Burke went to Taranaki to meet him.

just ten years of share-milking Read and Shirley bought their present farm and have had no desire to move on or expand.

The Reads’ own 80ha and lease another 10ha where they milk 220 cows – once a day. They are also involved in two equity partnerships. Their three children long ago left home: one son is studying for a PhD in Norway, their daughter lives in Wel-lington and their young-est son works on a farm in Waikato. They’ve been OAD milkers for ten years and find this system suits them well. The idea of OAD emerged when Blue began to get involved in

the Shareholders Council.“I wanted to have

enough time to do stuff and it allows us to do that and it’s profitable. For us it’s brilliant and I’m sur-prised more people don’t do it. I don’t see that it impacts on our bottom line at all and certainly in the work required it’s far less, so it works,” he says.

Read’s move into the dairy industry began when he joined the Sharemilk-ers Association and within a year or two became the chairman. He was also involved as the chairman of Taranaki Federated Farmers dairy section. But he found the latter demanding and in the end he quit. It was the creation of Fonterra and the set-ting up of the Sharehold-ers Council that saw him move back into the politi-cal arena.

“The neighbours came along and said ‘you need to be on the Sharehold-ers Council’. I said ‘no way’. But two days later there were several more neighbours around and on the third visit I said ‘ok, but you guys are going to help Shirley if I am not here’. Without a word of a lie those guys said ‘not a problem’ and if I was in Auckland or somewhere and Shirley

rang the neighbour they would drop stuff on their farm and come over. It was amazing. That sort of thing happens to this very day; that’s the rural com-munity.”

Read served nine years on the Shareholders Council, four as deputy chair and three as chair-man. “I enjoyed it and learned a lot about Fon-terra and a little bit about the international scene because I got invited to speak at conferences in the US, Ireland and Aus-tralia. That was inspiring stuff and you learn quickly how special Fonterra is in farming business and the world. We’ve got some-

thing unique and people look at it with respect and fear.”

Read had no burn-ing ambition to seek elec-tion to the Fonterra board but recognised he had the experience through his time on the Sharehold-ers Council. One goal was to steer away as much as possible from the politics of the election. He went though the CAP process but didn’t travel the coun-try politicking. Instead he relied on his experi-ence and reputation from his Shareholders Council days to get him through, and it did. “I knew I was taking a risk by not going out politicking, but I wasn’t prepared to com-promise on that.”

Read is unfazed at being a smaller dairy farmer among many on the board with much larger holdings than his. “The fact we haven’t shifted from here and grown bigger doesn’t mean I’m not successful. When I look at the success I look at my involvement in Fonterra and the Share-holders Council. Maybe it hasn’t grown my personal fortune, but by god it’s helped our farmers grow their fortunes. I take a more holistic view of suc-cess above and beyond the

“It’s the threat to cooperative structure that really worries farmers.”

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news // 9

for farmers

personal,” he says.Communication is

an issue Read believes challenges Fonterra. It requires keeping farm-ers engaged and informed and people forming a clear understanding about the role of management and directors. All must accept there are differing views. One of Read’s great pas-sions is the cooperative

concept.“But I am also

passionate about adapting the cooperative to suit the environment. The environment now is a helluva lot different from when Fonterra was first formed so we have to adapt. It’s been called a ‘corporate cooperative’ and that’s one description of it. But the function

of the cooperative as a business has to be single-minded. The structure of the business is cooperative, but the function has to be focused on returns. So if we can get to the point where we say the capital structure – with the introduction of TAF – is where it needs to be for the next few years then let’s put that to one

side for now. We are an ‘adapted’ cooperative, different from any other in the world. But it’s the cooperative in New Zealand that suits us. If we can make it work, and return money to our farmers, then we are away laughing. Let’s face [the fact], it’s the threat to the cooperative structure that really worries farmers.”

BLUE READ agrees the TAF debate has raised issues on the structure of Fonterra but he sees a way forward. “We have to live by the assurances of the words about farmer ownership and control; anything that casts doubt on that needs to be put aside for now. Whenever you bring in something new you are going to disaffect some people, who will remain disaffected until they see it operate successfully. Now we must get back our farmers’ confidence and assure them that farmer ownership and control are sacrosanct.”

The issue of sustainability is dear to Read’s heart. From the day he took over his present farm he began riparian planting and has not stopped. All his streams are fenced and planted and there is shelter for stock. “It’s in my DNA,” he says.

Read says sustainability is farming for the future – being able to continue to

farm without damaging the environment. But sustainability and profit have to go hand-in-hand and farmers and local councils need to work positively together. He cites the work done in Taranaki as a perfect example of this. Most farmers know and meet their environmental obligations.

Read is a strong supporter of Fonterra’s marketing strategy in China, saying it’s essential to maintain market share.

But he worries about the risk of New Zealand being left behind by other countries ramping up their scientific research.

“I know the Irish are spending a lot more on research than we are – especially pasture research. They are making inroads on us and are putting some effort into it and when the milk quotas come off the only problem they are going to have is funding new milk powder

factories. If they do that it will place Fonterra at risk because they have the capacity to ramp production up hugely.”

Read is looking forward to his first board meeting. He’ll bring to the board another set of skills and perspectives which should enhance the decision making of the company. His laid-back approach perhaps disguises his smart business sense and insight into the sector he has worked in for nearly 30 years.

He has one key message for those he represents: “When I was on the Shareholders Council my role was to make sure Fonterra stuck to its purpose, which is to sell our milk at the best possible advantage and return that money to our farmers. That is the ethos of the cooperative and my views haven’t changed. I won’t be there representing farmers, I will be there looking after farmers’ interests.”

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BREAKING NEWS MANAGEMENT STORIES MARKETS & TRENDS MACHINERY REVIEWS


10 // news

the sAle of nitrifica-tion inhibitors contain-ing dicyandiamide (DCD) has been suspended after minor traces of the com-pound were found in New Zealand milk powder. DCD is used to reduce the envi-ronmental footprint by slowing the rate that soil bacteria convert ammo-nia into nitrate and nitrous oxide. Developed 30 years ago the compound is used in a wide range of indus-tries and poses no food safety concerns.

Major fertiliser compa-nies Ballance and Ravens-down have voluntarily suspended sales of their respective nitrate inhibi-tors, which contain DCD.

“The reputation of New Zealand as a quality food producer is as important to us as it is to our farmer owners. So it is reassur-ing that both the MPI’s and our own peer-reviewed

research shows there are no food safety issues with DCD or eco-n,” says Ravensdown chief execu-tive Greg Campbell.

“What’s changed is that last year, organisations like the US Food and Drug Administration added DCD to a list of substances to test for. This, combined with increasingly sophisti-cated scanning technology now presents a possible trade risk.

“Given the risk to NZ’s dairy export reputation, Ravensdown has taken the initiative and is sus-pending the single product which uses DCD for this calendar year.

“As DCD has been used safely around the world for 30 years, there has never been a set of inter-national standards around maximum residue level in food products. Because no standard exists for DCD,

no detectable presence is acceptable. And because zero detection of DCD cannot be guaranteed, Ravensdown has taken the responsible, volun-tary step to suspend its use while the trade issues are resolved.”

In December last year, the Ministry for Primary Industries initiated a work-ing party to assess the use of DCD on farm land. The working group comprises representatives from MPI, Fonterra, the Dairy Com-panies Association of New Zealand and fertiliser com-panies Ravensdown and Ballance.

The working group was set up after testing on whole milk powder detected the occasional presence of low levels of DCD coinciding with the times of the year that the product is applied.

“Though this news

is disappointing for the 500 customers who use eco-n, the potential risk demanded decisive and pre-emptive action ahead of the autumn application season,” says Campbell.

“We’ll be forego-ing sales of eco-n, which makes up about 1% of

Ravensdown’s annual rev-enues, but we are a 100% farmer-owned cooperative concerned with the long-term future of the rural sector.”

“In the long-term, mitigating nitrate leach-ing is vital for sustain-able New Zealand farming.

The effectiveness of nitri-fication inhibitors like DCD is well proven and helps farmers in the face of stricter requirements being imposed on them.

“So we’ll be looking to the Ministry for Pri-mary Industries through the working party to ini-

tiate the potentially-lengthy process of seeking a new international stan-dard to recognise DCD. This would then specify a level or maximum residue which New Zealand dairy exporters and producers could work below,” con-cluded Campbell.

Nitrate inhibitors put on ice

Far

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2166

3

Farmlands & CRT MergerAttention Farmlands Trading Society Limited ShareholdersWhy your Board supports the proposed merger:• Better buying terms and more competitive prices.

• New Zealand wide services and more attractive discounts.

• Cost savings and business improvements to improve year-end rebates.

Independently validated analysis shows estimated cumulative net merger benefits of around $38 million over the next three years.

It’s decision time!Shareholder meetings starting soon – come along to find out more.

Location Where When

Whangarei Barge Park, SH 14, Manu Road Thursday 31st January 2013, 11.00am

Gisborne Quality Emerald Hotel, 13 Gladstone Road Friday 1st February 2013, 10.00am

Waipawa CHB Municipal Theatre, 18 Kenilworth Street Friday 1st February 2013, 3.30pm

Hamilton Airport Inn, Airport Lane, Hamilton Airport Monday 4th February 2013, 10.30am

Te Puke The Orchard, 20 Macloughlin Drive Monday 4th February 2013, 3.00pm

Te Kuiti The Riverside, 1 Riverside Lane Tuesday 5th February 2013, 10.00am

Stratford TET Stadium, 65 Portia Street Tuesday 5th February 2013, 3.00pm

Palmerston North The Coachman Hotel, 140 Fitzherbert Avenue Thursday 7th February 2013, 10.30am

Masterton Masterton Club, 98 Chapel Street Thursday 7th February 2013, 3.00pm

Hastings Elwood Park, 12 Otene Road, Waipatu Friday 8th February 2013, 11.00am

Get informed. Get involved. Have your say!The decision is in your hands www.farmlands.co.nz/vote

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Full information online at

www.farmlands.co.nz/vote

Attend the special meetings, or mail in your proxies, by Monday

11th February 2013, 3pm.

Special meetings to vote on the proposal:

• Waikato Stadium, Hamilton

Tuesday 12th February 2013, 3pm.

• Confirmatory Meeting

Palmerston North Convention Centre

Wednesday 27th February 2013, 10am.

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12 // dAIry woMAn oF the yeAr

Six women eyeing top awardSIX WOMEN are shortlisted for the final round of judging for the 2013 Dairy Woman of the Year Award. Run by the Dairy Women’s Network and sponsored by Fonterra, the award includes a scholarship to the year-long Women in Leadership course run by Global Women, worth $25,000. From grass-roots farmers to chief executives, all the finalists are successful businesswomen, passionate about the dairy industry and each already plays a role in its development and growth.

Juliet MacLeanRakaia, chief executive, Synlait faRmS ltd

AFTER COMPLETING an agricultural degree, Juliet MacLean started her career as a dairy farmer, including sharemilking, farm ownership and co-founding the dairy busi-ness Synlait Ltd, which today owns 49% of Synlait Milk Ltd and 100% of Syn-lait Farms Ltd.

Based at Dunsan-del, MacLean is respon-sible for the leadership, research and innovation and daily operations of 14 farms in the mid-Canter-bury region. With a milk-ing platform of 3942ha, Synlait Farms produces

about 5.5M kgMS from 12,970 cows, and employs 85 people.

MacLean is a member of the Institute of Direc-tors, a Nuffield, Kellogg and Massey scholar and a Nuffield New Zealand trustee. She is involved in the Lincoln Univer-sity dairy farm manage-ment advisory group and other organisations.

MacLean and her part-ner Ben are involved in a small equity partnership in central Waikato which milks 900 cows on two farms. Mountain biking helps her keep fit.

She was nominated for the Dairy Woman of the Year award by colleague Susie Woodward. “Not only does she come from grassroots dairy farming, she also has the charac-teristics of a true leader:

professional, motiva-tional, a good listener, confident and compe-tent.”

MacLean says making a positive dif-ference within the dairy industry and helping other people to “be the best they can be” are values she holds dear.

“I love seeing people learn, develop in their careers and achieve their goals. To be a part of that is very rewarding. Being nominated for the Dairy Woman of the Year is humbling.”

Justine KiddWaipukuRau, buSineSS manageR, bel gRoup

JUSTINE KIDD has influenced many aspects of the dairy industry since graduating Bach-elor of Agricultural Sci-ence (Hons) in 1993.

She started as a con-sulting officer for the Dairy Board, worked for the Dairy Research Cor-poration as a farm pro-duction scientist and has established herself as a trainer/facilitator of lead-ership, people and per-formance, and business strategy programmes.

Kidd was also a founding director of Syn-lait where she led the early strategic planning, team development and human resource struc-tures.

In 2003 Kidd joined Equestrian Sports

NZ and soon became chief executive. At the same time, in partner-ship with family mem-bers, she started Avance Ltd, designed to create a family farming asset by helping other farm businesses achieve their strategic goals. Kidd left Equestrian Sports NZ in 2007 to focus on Avance.

In 2008 the BEL Group contracted Avance to run their Hawke’s Bay dairy farm operations. The group employs 60 people milk-ing 8600 cows on eight dairy farms totaling 2400ha, with a further 960ha in dairy support. Under Kidd’s leadership BEL Group has grown to reach its first goals and won the 2011 HRINZ

HR Initiative of the Year award.

Kidd is also a 33% shareholder in Dairy CHB, buying an 80ha farm being converted from mixed cropping into dairy farming.

Kidd says she feels humbled and privileged to be considered for such an award, and appreci-ates the time and effort her colleague Lynda Clark put into her nomi-nation.

“Being named as a finalist is exciting,” Kidd says.

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dAIry woMAn oF the yeAr // 13

Kath TaylorWinton, dairy veterinarian and mastitis consultant, vetsouth

WHILE SHE would never refer to herself as an expert, Kath Taylor is in fact one of New Zealand’s mastitis experts.

She has been a dairy vet for 19 years, graduat-ing from Massey in 1994, working in mixed prac-tice in Taranaki for seven years then moving to Southland in 2001 where she works for VetSouth Ltd in Winton leading the milk quality team.

VetSouth colleague Mark Bryan nominated Taylor for the award

because of her significant contribution internation-ally, nationally, locally and at a farm level to improve milk quality.

He says she has worked hard to improve her knowledge and to extend it to dairy farm-ers around the world. She has presented exten-sively on her work at the South Island Dairy Event (SIDE), dairy cattle conferences, DairyNZ workshops and Dairy Women’s Network con-ferences and Dairy Days.

Internationally she pre-sented at the first Heifer Mastitis conference in Denton, Belgium, and the World Mastitis Con-ference at The Hague, Holland.

“Farmers understand that working in the dairy shed can some-times be unpleasant and comes with anti-social hours. Kath just gets up and does it – she’s up at all hours of the morn-ing and just wants to help farmers. Kath genuinely enjoys her work and is in

it for love, not money,” says Bryan.

Taylor is primarily concerned with investi-gating grades, monitoring and managing somatic cell counts and outbreaks of clinical mastitis, train-

ing staff and advising on mastitis control. She is also an accredited vet for the Fonterra mastitis support programme.

Taylor lives just out of Winton on a 200ha farm where her partner Ian sharemilks 500 cows.

On being nominated as a finalist, Taylor says, “I am stunned and hum-bled by my nomination…. There are so many amaz-ing women working in the dairy industry, which is part of what I enjoy about my job.”

Kathryn Van den Beukenrakaia, farm oWner/operator and key account manager, agito

KATHRYN VAN den Beuken is an advocate for training in the dairy sector, and has been building a farming business with husband Leo since the early 1990s.

They are in their 11th season 50:50 sharemilk-ing 1150 cows on 331ha in the Bankside area for Max and Adrienne Duncan. They employ five full-time staff and run a 50-bail rotary shed. They also own a 160ha farm milking 530 cows in the Winchmore region, where they employ lower order sharemilkers.

In 2005, the van den Beuken’s won the New Zea-land Dairy Industry Awards (NZDIA) Sharemilker of the Year title. After winning the title they joined the NZDIA national committee, where Kathryn was the coordina-tor for the National Trainee of the Year award. She also convened the Canterbury/North Otago Dairy Industry Awards for two years and is now in her seventh year on the awards committee.

Kathryn is also a key account manager at AgITO which complements her passion for training and devel-oping people. Over the years the van den Beuken’s have employed many dairy farmers, helping them take the next step in their careers, and guiding and mentor-ing them to work their way up through the industry to become farm managers and sharemilkers.

Kathryn was nominated for the Dairy Woman of the Year award by the Ashburton Trading Society and her primary ITO colleague, Lucy Haberfield, who says Kath-ryn is a positive role model by dint of her hard work and determination.

Kathryn says she is passionate about the indus-try that has provided career opportunities and posi-tive challenges, and has enabled her family to grow their farm from 110 to 1700 cows and operate two successful businesses.

“I am honoured and privileged to be nominated as a finalist for the 2013 Dairy Woman of the Year competi-tion because there are so many women who play a role in promoting and working in the dairy industry.”

• Continued and more profiles on page 14

Leonie Guineyfairlie, farm oWner/operator

FAIRLIE FARMER Leonie Guiney juggles a family of six and a farming career which started with a Bachelor of Agricultural Science from Massey Uni-versity. Today she owns and operates five farms, two in equity partner-ships, in the Fairlie basin area with husband Kieran.

Guiney was nominated for the Dairy Woman of the Year award by Inver-cargill farmer Christine McKenzie, even though the two have never met.

“I have not met Leonie but am so impressed with her commitment to the dairy cause that I wish to nominate her for the Dairy Woman of the Year.”

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14 // dAIrywoMAn oF the yeAr

Nearly all Guiney’s work has been in help-ing educate farmers to get more out of their businesses, and she has a passion for what dairy farming, done well and supported by a strong cooperative, can deliver to people’s lives.

She worked as a consulting officer for the Dairy Board, spent five years in Ireland working with dairy farmers on pasture man-agement, lectured on dairy production at Lincoln University, worked with the BNZ on ‘growth courses’ for wealth creation in agri-culture, and ran DairyNZ planning courses for couples. Her training has taken her to Portugal, back to Ireland and she now hosts groups of farming leaders from Europe to promote the synergies between our farming nations.

In 2006, Leonie and Kieran won the Can-terbury Sharemilker of the Year and were placed runners-up in the national final.

Guiney sees the Dairy Woman of the Year award giving dairying women access to a global network of thinking women.

“As a finalist, I am being given an oppor-tunity to access that global network, which would be a privilege.

We have a fantastic industry and the Dairy Women’s Network’s commitment to developing people is just one of its many strengths. I am appreciative of those who nominated me and honoured to be a final-ist.”

Leonie Guineyfairlie, farm oWner/operator

FROM PAGe 13

Sarah WatsonWest melton - farm supervisor canterbury, myfarm

SARAH WATSON’S nom-ination for the Dairy Woman of the Year award revealed she has, among other things, devel-oped a following at the South Island Dairy Event (SIDE), running highly rated workshops since 2004.

“Feedback from conference attend-ees confirms that Sar-ah’s influence in the dairy industry goes way beyond her contact on the day, with many citing Sarah as influencing their careers,” her nomina-tor says.

Watson started her career with an agricul-tural science degree from Lincoln Univer-sity. She went on to milk cows with husband Tony, which led into farm man-agement and HR roles. Watson has held senior HR roles with the Christ-church Casino and an orchardist.

In the dairy indus-

try she helped develop DairyNZ’s PeopleSmart website and Quick-Start recruitment kit – designed to help dairy farmers with recruitment, retention and all aspects of on-farm people manage-ment.

This year Watson takes on a new challenge, joining farm manage-ment company MyFarm as its farm supervisor for the Canterbury region. She’ll be responsible for eight farms, which cover 1800ha, milking about 6800 cows and employ-ing about 35 people. Collectively MyFarm manages 44 dairy farms milking 31,600 cows.

As well as being a presenter and proj-ect manager, Watson’s other business interests include farming Jersey bulls on 40ha near West Melton, where she lives with her family.

Over the past eight

years she has also been providing HR consul-tancy services through her own business, Peo-pleMAD (management and development).

Watson says she had no idea she had been nominated for the award, and her initial reaction was surprise and delight.

“I feel honoured to have been selected as a finalist. There are a lot of passionate, commit-ted women making a difference in our indus-try and this is an award which helps to raise awareness and cele-brate the leadership roles woman play. To be con-sidered in this group is pretty special.”

in brief

cash for tree plantingTaranaKI LanDOWnErS with planting projects planned for winter may be eligible for assistance from the Taranaki Tree Trust, but they need to act now to secure funding.

The trust will accept applications between February 1 and March 1 for its first funding round for the year.

The trust makes grants to support Taranaki projects which protect and restore wetlands, bush remnants, the coast and wildlife habitat. It is also keen to support projects which enhance community areas such as marae, schools and reserves.

Grants of $300 to $5000 will be made. The trust will contribute up to 75% of the total cost of a school or community group project, and upto 50% for a project on private land. Project costs may include cash and the dol-lar value of any ‘in kind’ contributions such as labour.

applicants will be notified of the outcome in april and those who secure funding must use it within two years.

application forms can be downloaded from the trust’s website www.taranakitreetrust.org.nz or obtained from the trust co-ordinator Leigh Honnor, tel. 0800 736 222 or email [email protected]

applicants should discuss their projects with Honnor before submitting an application.

There will be another funding round in august.

What lies beneathThe search for New Zealand’s deepest cave, exclusively in the next issue of New Zealand Geographic.

also in the next issue: ants + orchids + oakley creek + bioelectricit y

coming up in the march/april issue:

subscribe: Freephone: 0800 782 436

or online atwww.nzgeographic.co.nz


world // 15

uK FArMers warn they will “name and shame” milk buyers who don’t implement the voluntary dairy industry code of practice in milk supply con-tracts.

A dairy coalition, made up of farming unions and dairy groups, set up the code in September last year. It was designed to build a fair and functioning mar-ketplace and help secure the long-term future of the UK dairy industry.

Farmers for Action chairman David Handley says despite their efforts, farm gate milk prices for deliv-eries in January are typically only 3c/L higher than in April 2012. Since then, however, costs of produc-tion have risen by 5c/L.

“Farmers need to see improving dairy market conditions translated into farm gate milk price rises,” he says.

NFU dairy board chairman Mansel Raymond says the code applies to all milk buyers, irrespec-tive of size.

“If co-ops, smaller processors or any milk buyer think the code doesn’t apply to them, they are wrong. It is the responsibility of every milk buyer to ensure the voluntary approach to improving milk contracts succeeds. The alternative is legislation and the coalition will not rest until we see better more balanced contracts for dairy farmers.”

NFU Scotland milk committee chairman Gary Mitchell says processors and Dairy UK have sug-gested the end of March is a realistic time by which contracts will be improved.

“While we’d like to see improvements before this date, we certainly will not sanction delays beyond this. We will challenge retailers and food businesses to only buy milk via compliant contracts or from processors who comply with the code and non-compliance will be made public.”

Name and shame warning over milk contracts

Oz milk price war reignitesAustrAlIA’s toP two supermarket chains have renewed their milk price war leaving farmers fuming.

Coles and Wool-worths have cut to A$1 per litre their milk in their battle for suprem-acy. Earlier this month, Coles fired the open-ing salvo by bringing down to A$1 per litre its milk products across over 600 Coles Express. In Response, Wool-worths matched the offer by retailing two litres of milk at A$2.

But farmers says the supermarkets have learnt nothing from the last two years of the price war, and show a disregard for the sustainability of the rest of the milk value chain.

Queensland Dairyfarm-

ers’ Organisation presi-dent Brian Tessmann says it was a shallow marketing tactic from Coles, but one that would continue to wreak havoc on fresh-milk orientated dairying states such as Queensland.

Since January 2011 when the ruthless milk discounting began, the QDO says 55 farmers have exited the Queensland industry.

The impact on farm-ers’ profitability is clear in reduced farm-gate returns, says Tessmann.

“The result has been that Queensland has been short of milk at times of the year, with $1/litre milk simply not giving a fair return to dairy farm-ers and other parts of the supply chain.

“2012 was supposed to

be the Year of the Farmer, but anyone looking at the dairy cabinet in a Coles supermarket would not have known it. With Coles’ profits up 16.3% on the previous year, it is hard to see how Coles and its executives are showing a fair regard for the farmers that supply fresh milk to their stores, every day of the year.”

Australian Dairy Farm-ers president Noel Camp-bell says dairy farmers and

their families are already suffering from the unsus-tainable price cuts by Coles on home brand milk.

“This latest market-ing tactic, that appears to be aimed at driving out the family corner store and removing these small competitors to Coles, will impact on dairy farming families across Austra-lia, particularly those in Queensland, New South Wales and Western Aus-tralia, where most of the

milk produced [for drink-ing].

“Milk priced at $1 per litre is simply unsustain-able and does not give a fair return for dairy farm-ers and others in the supply chain.

“It takes a lot of effort to produce, refrigerate, transport, process, distrib-ute and deliver fresh milk on a daily basis. This is especially the case for con-venience stores such as Coles Express.”

Australian supermarkets have reignited their milk price war.

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16 // oPInIon

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THE ELEVATION of Nathan Guy to Minister for Primary Industries last week was the second worst-kept secret in Wellington.

The worst was the naming of Lockwood Smith to the role of New Zealand High Commissioner to the UK. The third worst-kept secret was David Carter’s move to Speaker of the House.

Guy was the logical choice for the job and in the last year he had been clearly groomed for the role. He’s attended most of the major meetings with Carter in what’s been clearly a succession plan.

Being a farmer, a dairy one at that, has helped him a lot; so has serving an ‘apprenticeship’ in local government before joining the ranks of central government.

He’s well known in his Horowhenua/Manawatu region and comes from a well established farming family. He’s got a good all-round knowledge of the sector and his appointment to this role is seen as positive for the rural sector.

In many ways the agenda for agriculture has been set by Carter and Guy will now have the task of working with other ministers, especially Amy Adams, to bed in the reforms.

Clearly water is the big issue and with that come the RMA and local government reforms.

Biosecurity is another big and ongoing issue that will require ministerial attention.

The primary industry role is bigger than it’s been in past administrations and is a challenging and important one.

It’s very much a part of the government’s economic growth agenda and it’s clear John Key has faith in Guy to deliver the goods.

It’s also interesting to note MPI itself has signalled that it will be taking a greater leadership role in the sector, so the stage is set for Guy to have a high profile.

Interesting also is the appointment of Jo Goodhew as associate minister. She also has a strong farming background and again the sector will be well served by her knowledge and experience.

This quite significant cabinet reshuffle is designed to put in place the team that will contest the next election.

It is an interesting blend of experience and new faces and one that Key is staking his reputation on to be a winning team.

Just the Guy for the job

honestly speakingTHE UNITED Nations last month ran a world-wide survey, by telephone, can-vassing one issue: please give your honest opinion about solutions to the problem of food shortage in the rest of the world?

The survey was a mas-sive failure because:

1� In Eastern Europe they didn’t know what “honest” meant�

2� In Western Europe they didn’t know what “shortage” meant�

3� In Africa they didn’t know what “food” meant�

4� In China they didn’t know what “opinion” meant�

5� In the Middle East they didn’t know what “solution” meant�

6� In South America they didn’t know what “please” meant�

7� In the US they didn’t know what “the rest of the world” meant�

And Australians and New Zealanders hung up as soon as they heard the callers’ Pakistani accents�

cows can help tooTHREE THOUSAND dairy cows from Green Meadows Farm in central Michigan will do their bit to offset greenhouse gas emissions related to Super Bowl XLVII, with the ambitious goal of making this year’s game the “greenest ever.” The offset, which is available for fans to buy through the Super Bowl host committee’s ‘ initia-tive, will be provided by three manure digesters at the farm�

Sustainability related actions are nothing new for the Super Bowl, which by some measures began incorporating green elements into the event since the 1990s� The efforts stepped up in the mid-2000s, when Super Bowl organisers began buying carbon offsets.

drink and winNATIONS WHOSE people consume the most milk and dairy products per capita also win the most Nobel Prizes per capita, according to a new study published in the British journal Practical Neurology.

Take Sweden, the coun-try most associated with the Nobel prizes� For every 10 million Swedes, there are 31�855 Nobel prizes� The Swedes also consume about 350kg of milk each, on average, each year, reported the Los Angeles Times.

At the bottom of the list is China� The country has won 0�06 Nobel prizes per 10 million people – its first one was awarded last year to author Mo Yan – and the average person drinks no more than 50kg of milk per year� The US came in about the median with 10�731 Nobel wins per 10 million people and a milk consumption of about 250kg per person per year�

holy cow!IN INDIA several men volunteer to get trampled on by cows every year to celebrate the abundance of livestock� Over the cen-turies, people have been engaging in this ritual and surprisingly no one has ever been seriously hurt�

People in India believe if they get run over by cows their prayers will be answered�


oPInIon // 17

Time to bone up on realitiesrecent InteMPer-Ate and ill-informed criticism by outgoing Min-ister of Primary Industry David Carter of the recent Environment Court ruling supporting the re-imposi-tion of the original Hori-zons One plan has created a storm of protest from many quarters includ-ing economists Gareth Morgan and Susan Guth-rie.

As a result the min-ister now appears to have backed off sugges-tions that commission-ers should be appointed to run the Horizons Regional Council: he says “we need to allow the court process to continue “.

Given this backdown, it is extraordinary that one academic has congrat-ulated Carter on show-ing leadership in this area. Further extrava-gant claims by some farm-ers that the plan means the end of profitable dairy farming have unfortu-nately been echoed by Federated Farmers who have described the plan as “farmageddon “ and a farce that would bankrupt farmers.

The criticism has been carried on by Minister for the Environment Amy Adams who told Feder-ated Farmers provincial presidents that while she “would not let water qual-ity deteriorate, nor am I going to rip the guts out of the productive sector“. This minister is concerned that farmers had failed to win the “hearts and minds “ of urban people over water quality. That this is simply a public rela-tions failure is a regu-lar complaint by the dairy sector, although regular surveys over a number of years by Lincoln Univer-sity have shown that pol-lution of our waterways and lakes is regarded by most people as the major environmental problem in New Zealand and that 50% regarded the dairy industry as the major cul-prit. This contrasts with an extraordinary claim in a Fonterra submission to the

recent Environment Court hearing that “public per-ception of water quality is generally positive”.

This state of denial about the parlous con-dition of many of our waterways has again been emphasised by a spate of personal attacks on Dr Mike Joy of Massey Uni-versity. His interview with the New York Times ques-tioning our ‘100% pure’ campaign has caused that former champion of rig-orous interviewing Sean Plunkett to call him a ”traitor“. Cameron Slater on his Whale Oil blog says ”Joy should be taken out and shot at dawn for eco-nomic sabotage” and lob-byist Mark Unsworth accuses him of “sabotag-ing tourism“.

Not for the first time these critics take the easy way out by personal attacks slandering the messenger (Joy) rather than confronting the mes-sage. At a time when science is increasingly compromised by political expediency it was refresh-ing to see the NZ Associa-tion of Scientists ,the NZ Ecological Society and the NZ Freshwater Sciences Society all publicly sup-porting Joy.

The good news is that many dairy farmers are not “whining” about the new regulations as suggested in recent letters in the Manawatu Standard, but are starting to use and trial a range of techniques to solve the problems. A trial in Waikato has shown that profitability can be main-tained with a return on assets of close to 6% with reduced nitrogen leaching through reduced applica-tion of nitrogen fertiliser and careful winter man-agement. That this ”good news” trial is funded by the Ministry of Primary Industry and DairyNZ seems to have escaped the notice of David Carter.

There are many other examples of farmer-led innovations such as win-tering barns helping to meet the new require-ments.

The extreme back-lash caused by the minis-ter’s comments appears

to have caused him to modify his views. Given that the exaggerated polit-ical arguments aided and abetted by a ‘rump’ of farming opinion in Feder-ated Farmers do not the match the facts, then the push to modify the RMA becomes less credible. It is even more important that this legislation remains as a bastion against envi-ronmental degradation because it is the stated intention of the dairy

industry and Fonterra to increase production by 3% per annum. This is scary as we are not coping with the current situation and the damage to water-ways caused by the recent large increase in dairy cows in Southland from 170,000 to 418,000 (9% per annum) over 10 years is well known. This pro-posed increase can only come about through large-scale conversions of sheep and beef farms to dairying.

This is extremely expen-sive and will just add more debt to an industry that already owes $30 billion.

Given that the average capital return on dairy-ing in New Zealand over many years has only aver-aged 4.5% and the indus-try has been sustained by extraordinary hikes in land prices, which have now flattened out, the industry strategy given the inevita-ble environmental damage seems flawed. Unfortu-

john lAncAshIre

nately there is huge pres-sure on new conversions to intensify through high stocking rates to maximise production and quickly reduce debt – a recipe for environmental disaster.

Dairy industry spokes-men are on record as saying they will not toler-ate a reduction in stocking rates and appear stuck in grazing philosophies pro-pounded in the 1950s and 1960s by eminent scien-tists such as McMeekan, Levy, Sears and Brougham. But since many farmers now recognise that our dairy cows are fed perhaps as much as 50% below their genetic potential, they can at least maintain production at lower stock-ing rates by better feeding with concomitant reduc-

tions in environmental damage.

What can we learn from this debacle? That politicians will develop better policy if they are more aware of the facts. That Federated Farm-ers need to find out what is going on in the farming communities they purport to represent. And media commentators need to lay off abusing the messen-gers of bad news and actu-ally address the issues.• John Lancashire is past president , NZ Institute of Agricultural and Horticul-tural Science. Scien

John Lancashire

Horizons Regional Council’s One Plan hasn’t gone down well with farmers.

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18 // AgrIbusIness

Fertiliser demand down but may rally later in the year

Reduced demand was a feature of the global fertiliser market late last year.

A lull in global trad-ing activity for fertiliser is expected to continue in the first quarter this year, says Rabobank. But it could rally later in the year depending on the level of optimism in the US over replanting crops which were depleted by the drought.

The lull was a feature of the global fertiliser market through the fourth quarter in 2012, caused by reduced end-user demand and inventory restocking.

The Rabobank report says market fundamentals suggest global fertiliser markets will remain rela-tively balanced through the first quarter. How-ever, a general oversupply, especially of phosphate

and potash, will linger, providing some down-side price risk. As a result, Rabobank has a slightly bearish view on fertiliser through Q1 2013, with urea being an exception.

The lull in global trad-ing activity which envel-oped fertiliser through the fourth quarter 2012 is normal given the state of planting and harvest during this period, Rabo-banks says. As a result of the subdued demand and lacklustre trading, most nutrient prices remained relatively range-bound. Overall, price movements were mixed across the fertiliser complex, but market sentiment has gen-erally been weaker.

“Looking ahead, as

agricultural markets are faced with the challenge of rebuilding global stocks next season, and given the precariously balanced fundamentals, global agri commodity prices are expected to remain at ele-vated levels in 2013.” says Rabobank analyst Dirk Jan Kennes.

Buyers have remained cautious through the clos-ing stages of 2012. Glob-ally, end-user demand is seasonally low at this time of the year. South-ern Hemisphere crops are underway, while the large Northern Hemisphere crops have been har-vested. As a result, many market participants have taken the opportunity to liquidate excess fertiliser

inventories. In the short term, at

least, this means global buyers will continue to defer purchases in antic-ipation of lower prices, given that immediate requirements are covered. Also, as the euro crisis continues, European farm-ers are cautious about locking in fertiliser pur-chases far in advance of the application season.

Global phosphate mar-kets were the most active through the fourth quar-ter last year, with prices falling 12%. Demand for phosphate has been slow, and plentiful supply has put downward pres-sure on prices. Urea and potash prices were mostly unchanged over the quar-

ter. As the year came to a close, by way of compar-ison, prilled urea prices were 17% lower than December 2011, potash prices were 13% higher and phosphate prices were 16% lower.

Over the second half of 2012, the agri com-modity complex has been pushed higher by the grains and oilseeds com-plex, Raboank says. The US drought has had a sig-nificant impact on corn and soybean produc-tion this season. The lack of buffer stocks has left the agri commodity com-

plex exposed to a supply shocks.

Looking ahead in 2013, supply issues could persist in several key exporting regions, and an escalation of these issues would keep global markets tightly bal-anced.

Uncertainty remains as to how depleted nutri-ents in US soils are after last year’s drought and what moisture level will be achieved in the spring. Nitrogen application is required each year for major crops but lower than expected nutri-ent levels could under-

pin higher than expected application of phosphates and potash. Also, suffi-cient rain and snow during the winter season could make farmers more upbeat about their yields in 2013, which would underpin application as well.

Sizeable production cutbacks have been scheduled by potash and phosphate suppliers to help keep markets in balance. “Quicker than expected recovery in demand could fuel a flurry of purchasing activity and lead to a price rally,” Rabobank says.

Awards ‘tip of the iceberg’the sPonsor of a national environment awards scheme says it gone from strength to strength as a showcase for sustain-able farming.

“This is recognised by farmers and more of them are entering the awards each year which is con-tinually raising the bar for other farmers,” says Bal-

lance chief executive Larry Bilodeau.

“What’s impor-tant about the awards is that they do more than acknowledge success. They are creating a grow-ing pool of farmers who demonstrate great envi-ronmental leadership who are happy to share their advice and experience.”

Bilodeau says the Bal-lance Farm Environment Awards are more impor-tant than ever as environ-mental pressures build, so Ballance has confirmed its commitment to them, renewing its principal sponsorship until 2015. Ballance has supported the awards since 1995 and been principal sponsor for

10 years.“The awards help to

demonstrate that good farmers take their respon-sibilities for stewardship of the land seriously. We mustn’t forget that the awards are just the tip of the iceberg, and for every display of great farming we see, there are dozens more every day farmers doing just as much good.”

Bilodeau says some farmers are concerned they are often portrayed negatively, and the awards

provide an opportunity to show some of the world-class farming practices being used in New Zea-land.

“We have seen for our-selves the value of the awards and the benefits of the trust’s work which is promoting sustainable farming practices and rec-ognising industry lead-ership,” says Bilodeau. He says the awards also remind New Zealanders about the large economic contribution agriculture

makes to our economy. “The Ballance Farm

Environment Awards allow us to demonstrate the value of farming to New Zealand along with the leadership and inno-vation which makes New Zealand farmers the best in the world at what they do.”

Bilodeau says while Bal-lance is proud of its com-mitment to sustainable farming, the accolades belong to the farmers who have proven they are com-mitted to ensuring a pro-

ductive and viable pastoral sector.

“We’re committed to continuing to strengthen the backbone of our econ-omy and our vision for the future of farming is shared by the many outstand-ing farmers who enter the awards every year.”

Entries for the 2012 Ballance Farm Environ-ment Awards closed last year, with awards ceremo-nies taking place in nine regions in February, March and April.

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AgrIbusIness // 19

Time for a business health checkA Key to successful busi-ness leadership is the ability to discern which aspects of team perfor-mance require action from those that can be tolerated without compromising achievement of goals.

This is a daily dilemma which demands the wisdom to decide what to act on and what to leave. Such decisions can be complicated by the likeli-hood that addressing them will involve refocusing or, in some cases, confronting the people responsible for underperformance.

Many of the dramas I observe in my clients’ operations are the result of managers failing to take decisive action or avoiding issues over an extended time. They commonly start with relatively minor performance deficits that over time evolve into sig-nificant blocks to prog-ress.

The people component is often the reason for procrastination as deal-ing with people issues can

be so emotionally drain-ing. However this simply allows business ‘cancer’ to flourish and it can become fatal if untreated.

Hesitation and lack of a proactive approach can be driven by the manager’s personality and leadership style.

Some managers place inappropriate priority on maintaining a harmonious, empathetic and collaborative approach and need to push themselves to become more assertive and decisive. Conversely, others with more directing personalities sometimes need to learn restraint to focus on optimising (rather than maximising) business performance.

So why is getting the balance right so impor-tant?

The fundamental prin-ciple is that it is the busi-ness leaders who are responsible for setting the standards in their opera-

tion. Tolerating or turning a blind eye to underper-formance lowers expecta-tions by sending a signal that mediocrity is accept-able.

More significantly, allowing underperfor-mance by one group or individual will invari-ably penalise the remain-der of the team who will be forced to work with the negative attitudes and dys-functionality that results.

There are some useful tactics that can make deal-ing with these situations easier.

The first is to get time on your side – make it an ally rather than an enemy in the resolution process – especially if the outcome of any review includes potential termination. A timely, proactive approach to getting issues on peo-ple’s radar combined with a manageable but clear deadline for a resolution to be reached gives those involved time to make the required behaviour changes.

Alternatively, if it even-tuates that the relation-ship cannot continue everyone will have time to plan and manage the exit.

Procrastination and dithering means other staff will have to put up with inefficiencies day-in day-out. Bringing matters to a head through an effec-tive performance manage-ment process with time on your side has dual ben-efits. Top performers will appreciate their leader taking action while bring-ing a reality check to the perpetrator.

The stakes will be higher when the person involved is a senior team member but the need for action is no less than when more junior staff are involved. Courage is required to engage in diffi-cult conversations as soon as there is evidence of underperformance regard-less of the seniority of per-sonnel responsible.

As a new year com-

mences and the drive for continuous improvement resumes all team mem-bers need to be challenged to play their part. This is a good time to conduct a health check on team per-formance and relation-ships and drive out any negative behaviours or attitudes that bring poten-tial limitations.

No one should be immune from such scru-tiny. Recent assignments have reminded me that such courageous conver-sations can be overdue between business part-ners, senior management personnel or even profes-sionals servicing the busi-ness.

Business owners and

leaders themselves also need to have the maturity and self-awareness to look in the mirror and hold themselves accountable. It is not inconceivable that they are a significant part of the problem!

The wise saying about business management that “what you permit, you promote” offers a day-by-

day challenge to all who are focused on excellence, achieving goals and most of all enhancing job satis-faction.• Kerry Ryan is a New Zealand based agribusiness consultant available for face-to-face or online for advice and ideas. You can contact him at www.kerryryan.co.nz

“This is a good time to conduct a health check on team performance and relationships and drive out any negative behaviours or attitudes that bring potential limitations.”

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20 // MAnAgeMent

Concrete effluent pond for long term protectionthe eFFluent storage pond at Paraninihi ki Wai-totara’s (PKW) farm north of Hawera sits just below the new dairy shed. Unlike most effluent ponds, it’s a huge circular concrete structure partly set into the ground.

PKW chief executive Dion Tuuta says the deci-sion to go with a concrete tank was made to ensure protection for the long term. “We looked at the option of a lined pond but ultimately decided the concrete option would be more robust over the long term.”

In this case size does matter and its million litre capacity enables effluent to be stored when there are days of heavy rain and it’s not possible to spray onto land. Shane Miles,

PKW’s farm supervisor, has been responsible for managing the effluent pond project and for the commissioning the new dairy shed on the farm. Its large storage capacity gives the manager added flexibility and ensures effluent can be sprayed at the appropriate time to gain the maximum benefit.

The pond was built by Hynds; Hunts Farm Ser-vices set up the plant and its infrastructure. The pump and stirrer are proven equipment sup-plied by Williams Engi-neering Ltd. A lot of planning has gone into the way the pipes from the storage pond are set out in the paddocks. Hydrants are positioned so the trav-eling irrigator can be easily hitched up to them. Miles says one big advantage lies in the technology that runs the system, based

in the shed but remotely accessible.

“It’s got the Farm-works effluent manage-ment system which allows us to set when the pump operates and provides for a GPS monitor on the irrigator. This effectively gives us a failsafe system. For instance, if effluent is being pumped but for some reason something happened to the irriga-tor and it’s not actually moving down a paddock, it detects the problem and will shut down the pump so you remove the risk of a ponding event in a pad-dock because an irrigator has stopped.”

The plant has been operating since early December with only minor teething problems, Miles says. The system has allowed ‘exclusion zones’ in parts of the farm using GPS maps – ‘buffer zones’

Peter burKe

PKW chief executive Dion Tuuta.

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MAnAgeMent // 21

Concrete effluent pond for long term protectionaround waterways to ensure no effluent can be sprayed within a defined area.

Monitoring the flow and strength of the effluent is another benefit

of the Farmworks system. “Because you know how much has been pumped out of the pond you can get the effluent tested, including the NPK

levels. We can then get nutrient

application maps

that can

automatically feed into the system so we can easily get an NPK reading of what’s gone on to a particular paddock. Having the ability to provide that information to the regional council in the long term is going to work to our advantage.”

Miles can monitor the system even from his

at a glance ■ PKW shareholders – 9000� ■ Based within a 45km radius of Hawera� ■ Dairy farms: 14 (nine 50/50, two variable order, three

managed)� ■ Support blocks: three� ■ Land: 2353ha (effective)� ■ Cows: 7500 mostly Friesian-cross� ■ Herd size: 150-900� ■ Production in 2012-13: 3 million kgMS (estimate)� Milk solids/

ha: top farms produce 1450kg/per ha�

The business of PKWPKw hAs an asset base of $220 million with interests in busi-nesses including leased land, dairy farming, live-stock, forestry, commer-cial property, and lobster processing and export to China This year PKW’s dairy division is aiming to produce 2.75 million kgMS.

The dairy farming busi-ness operates on 10% of PKW’s land, the remain-der of which is tied up in perpetual leases which they look to buy when the right leases become avail-able. This gives the incor-poration plenty of growth potential.

Dion Tuuta says because PKW doesn’t sell its ancestral land and so can’t indulge in capital gains, they have to look at other strategies to maxi-mise the financial return from their lands while rec-ognising the need to be sustainable. One option is improving the genetics of

their cows to increase pro-duction and profitability.

One challenge with an intergenerational business is finding the right bal-ance – meeting the needs of the current genera-tion of shareholders, while reinvesting in the busi-ness so future generations will also be in a position to benefit . But though PKW is an intergenerational sustainable business, it is also profit focused.

“A lot of people per-ceive Maori as predom-inantly socially focused more than profit driven; PKW is both. We are unashamedly profit driven but our idea of profit is wider than financial return alone. We’ve also got envi-ronmental, cultural and social factors to consider, including investing in our rangatahi (young people) through the provision of educational grants. We also invest in Taranaki Maori community proj-ects through our charita-

ble trust , so profit for us means a number of things. In effect we take a quadru-ple bottom line approach to our business. That said, at the bottom of that hier-archy is a clear under-standing of the need for profitability to achieve our aspirations,” he says.

Tuuta says PKW admires the efforts of the Maori dairy process-ing plant Miraka and its involvement in the global dairy scene. PKW aspires to move further up the value chain. It has a strat-egy of expansion but only if this results in profitable returns. As Tuuta points out, it’s easy to burn a lot of cash if you’re not smart in what you are doing.

At present PKW is focused on consolidat-ing its dairy operation by developing new farms and

upgrading existing ones. It has already been rec-ognised for the quality of dairy operation by win-ning the prestigious Ahu-

whenua Trophy in 2006. It also has strong links to Fonterra: one of its direc-tors, David MacLeod, is on the Fonterra board.

Another PKW director, Taari Nicholas is a direc-tor of Miraka Co, giving it insights into the dairy pro-cessing industry.

Check out our new websiteswww.ruralnews.co.nzwww.dairynews.co.nz

office in New Plymouth. “I can get onto the system from the office and see that morning that the pump’s run for three hours and has pumped X amount of effluent. Having that sort of information at your fingertips is a big advantage and gives me piece of mind.”

PKW’s farm supervisor Shane Miles can monitor the system from his New Plymouth office.



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The farm uses GPS maps to identify irrigation areas.


22 // MAnAgeMent

Early days cast die for farmerJim Wafelbakker stepped down from Westland’s board after a 25-year stint.

jIM wAFelbAKKer had an unusual start to

life: he spent three of his first four years in a pris-oner-of-war camp in

Indonesia. While he has little, if any, rec-

ollection of that

time, he’s convinced it’s influenced his approach to life.

“As you get older you start to think about these things. I’m quite sure it laid the founda-tion for what I was later to become. I’ve always had a policy that you eat what’s put in front of you. There’s

no such thing as ‘I don’t like it’!”

He’s also convinced the tough start accounts for his subsequent good health. “I’ve never been sick in my life. Nor have my three sisters.”

The 72-year-old recently retired from the board of dairy co-op West-

Andrew swAllowland, Hokitika, after 25 years service. Though he keeps good health, there were several reasons why he decided last year’s annual meeting was the time to step down.

“I was elected at the 50th annual meeting, and thought it would be nice to go out at the 75th. There’s also a bit of a gen-tlemen’s agreement that when you’re over 70 you

don’t stand for re-election. The final thing was I was becoming hard-of-hear-ing and it was becoming awkward. When I asked a question and was told ‘Jim, we’ve just discussed that,’ I thought to myself ‘we can’t have that’. I knew it was time to go.”

His dairying career started with agricultural training in the Nether-lands, a stay on a farm in his early teens having sown the seed of what was later to become his vocation. At a time when farming was considered a lower-class occupation, it went against the grain in a family of professionals: his father was a doctor, his uncle a dentist. Nonethe-less, his father accepted his decision.

“The one thing he insisted on was that I had to go to agriculture school.”

On graduating, he came to New Zealand and worked as a herd tester for two years, during which he met his wife-to-be Winnie, and in due course started working for her father, later becoming a 50/50 sharemilker on the farm near Otorohanga.

However, tensions over how the farm should be run developed between him and his father-in-law, with Winnie in the middle. “It was awkward. So we started looking for farms.”

The search took them to Westland, where they bought the farm Wafelbak-ker still lives and works on today. That was in 1974, and the farm was produc-ing 25,000lb of butterfat

from 102 cows, the equiva-lent of about 11,000kgMS. Including 20 dairy-beef cows, two tractors and a baler, it cost $68,000. “We had to borrow 85% of it.”

From the outset he took a keen interest in the dairy company. “I used to go to district meetings and criticise and comment, so everybody knew me. Basi-cally the idea was one day to stand for the board. It

was like a set of dominoes I had laid out to get there.”

He was nominated in 1988 and beat incum-bent Gordon Lemon for the South Westland seat. However, board restruc-tures saw him fighting a two-from-three battle to retain his seat a year later, and then a one-from-two contest three years after that. He then went unchal-lenged until 2009.

Over that time the nature of the board has evolved, from one dom-inated by semi-retired farmer directors to one made up of active farm business people. “It’s com-pletely changed, for the good.”

Wafelbakker says he was “always pushing for more money for suppliers, always that extra 5c.” His own situation of running a small farm with three children away at board-ing school kept that focus strong.

He lists the “tremen-dous” growth of the coop-erative during the early 1990s, at 10-15% a year, staying independent when Fonterra was formed, and the move into Canterbury as three milestones of his time as a director.

The concern about the move into Canterbury among some West Coast suppliers is understand-able, given the history of other industries exploiting the region, and taking the profits elsewhere, he adds. However, it’s still “abso-lutely” right for the coop-erative to be expanding eastwards, he believes.

“We were dealing with

“When I asked a question and was told ‘Jim, we’ve discussed that,’ I thought to myself ‘we can’t have that’. I knew it was time to go.”

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MAnAgeMent // 23

Early days cast die for farmer

many small companies growing at three or four percent a year, but we were only growing at one or two percent.

“They were saying to us if you can’t grow with us we’ll have to look else-where.

“The other reason is with Fonterra building at Darfield, sooner or later they’re going to go into places like Rotomanu and Inchbonnie.”

Wafelbakker sees the tremendous loyalty of Westland’s suppliers as one of the cooperative’s great strengths and even if the Canterbury move and

other events have eroded that a little, the cooper-ative is working hard to restore that confidence and commitment among suppliers.

Improved returns from the strategic move into nutritional products will help.

“For the first three or four years we beat Fon-terra, then all of a sudden, from 2008-09, for three

years we were behind. They got their act together and we were left behind. Then we got a new man-agement team and started down the nutritional path. We should start to see the first results of that this year. We probably won’t beat Fonterra this year, but give us another two years… Of course, Fonterra’s not sitting still either.”

What the future holds

for Westland beyond that, Wafelbakker says is no longer down to him. How-ever, he believes it will remain an independent West Coast-based coop-erative.

“Who knows where the future may take West-land. We may go into the North Island. We might go into Australia. But we will always be Westland Milk Products.”

“Who knows where the future may take Westland. We may go into the North Island. We might go into Australia. But we will always be Westland Milk Products.”

Jim Wafelbakker on his farm.

New sustainability strategy

dAIrynZ wIll in May ramp up its emphasis on sustainability in dairy farming, in association with Feder-ated Farmers, the Dairy Companies Association and the Dairy Women’s Network. Feedback on the strategy is being sought now.

It is also revamping communica-tions to place greater emphasis on understanding farmers, connecting better with them and inspiring them to farm sustainably.

Rick Pridmore of DairyNZ says sustainability is much more impor-tant now than five years ago. But he is quick to point out that sustainability is not just about the environment but also about social and economic issues.

“If you are not financially viable you won’t be sustainable. We con-sider all aspects of sustainability, not

just the environmental perspective. As part of my portfolio I do all the eco-nomic analysis to make sure farmers can be viable with whatever target is set by central and local government for the environment.”

Pridmore says more farmers want to be sustainable but there is still a mentality that “my neighbour is the problem, not me”. “We’ve all got a bit to contribute because we’re not lily white. All have got a bit of way to go, but in a general sense more people now get it than don’t get it.”

Pridmore says the dairy company supply contracts effectively require farmers to keep a ‘tidy farm’. He says everyone wants farmers to be eco-nomically as profitable as they can, but to keep the farm ‘tidy’.

“We don’t want farmers to waste nutrients and we expect them to fence their streams. Even though a lot of the animals seen in streams aren’t dairy cows, every time there is a cow or a

cattle beast in a stream, dairy gets the blame for it. Also such things as applying effluent appropriately and not have serious non-compliance issues are important.”

Pridmore says farmers are not being asked to go an extra mile, simply to do the basics right. And farmers shouldn’t try to ‘second guess’ what sustainability might be in the future. He says there are risks in trying to do this.

“Councils views may change over time. My advice is keep yourself as profitable as you can be, keep your skill level up and be as efficient as you can be. Do that and you can roll with the punches. What I preach to farm-ers is to be resilient; be in a situation where no matter what people throw at you, be it prices changes or new reg-ulations or whatever, you can keep farming. Don’t try and second guess what’s coming because you’ll go down dark alleyways.”


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24 // MAnAgeMent

Nicola Holmes

Prizes to promote pasture renewalhow Much more pro-ductive is the best pad-dock on your farm than the worst?

The Pasture Renewal Charitable Trust is encouraging all produc-

ers to ask themselves that question and do some-thing about it. As an incentive, with the help of sponsors, it’s offering three prize packages of pasture renewal products

and technical advice each worth $8000.

“Most people know from eye and gut instinct which are the best and worst paddocks on their farm,” project manager

Nicola Holmes told Dairy News. “They can see the difference.”

However, while 80% of dairy farmers in a recent nationwide CINTA survey* said they intend to renew run-out pas-tures this season, regard-less of the financial outlook, actions do not always follow intentions. On average dairy farms renew just 6-7% of pasture annually, well behind the 10-12% recommended by the trust.

A limited requirement for crop and/or reluctance to increase cropped area, was stated in the CINTA survey as the biggest bar-rier to renewing a greater area of pasture.

Holmes notes pasture-to-pasture renewals can work with top manage-ment, “but most people don’t want to go beyond that cropping regime.”

Just how big the differ-ence between the best and worst paddocks will be will depend on the farm and there is no national data to quantify such differences, for dairy or any other sector, she maintains.

“It would be good if we could. Some of the highest producing dairy pastures will be doing 15-20t of dry-

matter a year, so if you’re doing 10-12t you’re losing a lot of ground there.”

Statistics New Zea-land has agreed to a trust request to put a couple of questions about pasture management into the agri-culture census every five years. “It will give us spe-cific answers on pasture renewal,” says Holmes.

Entries to the ‘Win a Free Paddock’ cam-paign close February 28 with three winners drawn and announced March 5. Entries must nominate a preferred rural retailer through which, should the entrant’s name be drawn, prizes will be supplied. “The cash doesn’t go to the farmer,” points out Holmes.

Entry forms are at most rural retailers and on www.pasturerenewal.org.nz Winners may under-take their pasture renewal in autumn or spring, but agreement to have the process documented and used in subsequent pro-motional activity is a con-dition of entry.* Survey conducted by market research firm CINTA across a nationwide database of 600 dairy farms. The trust declined to release further details.

Keep it low on farmdAIry FArMers are being urged to lower the levels of farm effluent ponds. The message is part of the Keep It Low campaign, launched by DairyNZ last summer to remind farmers to irrigate in the drier months, when con-ditions allow, and to get effluent ponds as low as possible before winter.

Analysis of significant effluent non-compliance infor-mation from regional councils is helping DairyNZ tailor information for the campaign.

DairyNZ’s sustainability team leader, Theresa Wilson, says last season, for the first time, farmers lowered the level of significant non-compliance to below 10%.

“Dairy farmers have made good progress meeting efflu-ent management requirements and we want to help them improve even further,” says Wilson. “To do this, we are homing in on the main causes of effluent non-compliance nationwide and are tailoring our information accordingly.”

Giving credence to these messages is a DairyNZ-funded report which analyses the reasons for significant non-com-pliance. Regional councils nationwide provided compli-ance data which was then analysed by Nicola Waugh, from AgFirst Waikato, who authored the report.

Ponding, and the causes of ponding, such as lack of suffi-cient storage or over-application of effluent, accounted for half of significant non-compliance cases in many regions.

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AnIMAl heAlth // 25

Vigilance advised after bovine TB discovery

vIgIlAnce In stock movements is advised after two new discover-ies of bovine tuberculosis (TB) in dairy herds – one in Northland and another in Taranaki.

In both these regions wildlife, e.g. possums, is not known to carry the dis-ease, although the Animal Health Board (AHB) will check again, says northern North Island regional co-ordinator Frank Pavitt.

Investigations into sources of the disease may take some time as herd history and movements will be traced back several years. Meanwhile Pavitt advises caution to farmers.

“We have been so suc-cessful in our programme that people think TB is a thing of the past and they don’t consider it in on-farm decisions. We need to bring that back into their consciousness,” Pavitt told Dairy News.

The risk to others from the identified herds is low due to AHB risk man-agement which includes restricting stock move-ments, he says.

“But in gen-eral the best thing for a farmer to do is due diligence on purchases or movements of stock. By that I empha-sise grazing – either their stock going out to graze or if they own support plat-forms.

“In the Waikato there’s probably going to be a shortage of tucker and Northland looks like it might have a surplus. Be careful about where the animals come from that you import into your region, because we don’t want to introduce any more cases of TB.

“Farmers certainly don’t want to put their businesses and their life-style at risk by not doing

due diligence on TB risk. Make use of the informa-tion on the animal status forms you get with stock. For any concerns over where the animals may

have come from or any of the information pro-vided, ring the AHB because we can do that risk assessment for you and make sure you are pro-tected.”

The latest Northland dairy herd is the third diagnosed with TB in the Awanui area north of Kaitaia in the past three years. The Taranaki herd, in the Inglewood area, is an even more recent case, discovered through a combination of slaughter surveillance and on-farm testing. It fol-lows another Taranaki case found in 2009 which should soon get clearance.

Both the new herds will undergo the same risk management includ-ing restrictions on stock

movement, immediate testing of neighbouring herds and annual testing of herds in a 10km radius.

Pavitt says there’s no evidence possum or wild-life was involved in the Northland or Taranaki cases but the AHB will look again. “In North-land with the first two instances, from 2009 to 2012, we did three years of wild life surveys and never found any evidence of TB in possums, ferrets or pigs,” he says. The worst thing would be to find it in wildlife, he says.

In contrast, in vector areas such as Welling-ton, Wairarapa, north Manawatu, Wanganui and the west coast of the South Island, “up to 70% of herd breakdowns in those areas are wildlife related”.

The herd owners can still supply milk with the animals suspected or iden-tified as having TB with-drawn from the herd. Pasteurisation kills the bacteria so there is no food chain risk.

‘SLEEPER’ CATTLE can carry TB for up to five years without testing positive or showing symptoms. That’s one reason TB can show up in cattle in regions where the wildlife is be-lieved to be free of the disease.

“With TB and the way it behaves as a disease it is not uncommon to have herds or regions go some time without obvious infection then a herd or two will turn up,” says Pavitt.

“That is because in scientific terms we have so-called recrudescent animals – they have TB but they don’t respond to the normal testing procedures. The animal has got used to the fact that it’s got TB and its immune response system does not respond to the test.

“When they are sold and go into a new herd or culled or any other stress-inducing event,

the disease will become active again. That’s when they put other animals at risk and when they will become responsive to the test again.

“In lay terms we are talking about ‘sleeper’ animals … that can be for a period of up to five years.”

But Pavitt says the TB scheme gets great supports from farmers, the industry and the Crown.

‘sleePers’ cAn Fool you

Testing for TB on a dairy herd.

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Frank Pavitt

PAH

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0







Pfizer Animal Health New Zealand Limited. Level 3, Pfizer House, 14 Normanby Road, Mt Eden, Auckland 1024, New Zealand. Tel: 0800 650 277, Fax: 0800 628 629. BOVATEC is a registered trade mark of Pfizer Inc. or its subsidiaries. ACVM Registration No’s A6956, A9679, A10829. 1. Data on file. 2. Nussio et al. 2002. Scientia Agricola, 59, 3: 421-426. 3. Erickson PS et al. Ionophore taste test preferences of dairy heifers J Anim Sci. 2004;82:3314-3320.

BOVATEC BIG GIRLS ARE MORE DESIRABLE.

PAH 1100 Bovatec Press Big Girls 390x110_ƒ.indd 1 1/22/13 2:49 PM


26 // AnIMAl heAlth

Anaemia causes under close studyveterInArIAns In Northland have reported an increase in the number of cases of anaemia over recent months, mostly in beef calves, but some in dairy cattle.

DairyNZ says MPI is investigating causes. Some cases have been associated with a blood parasite called Theileria orientalis, recognised in New Zealand since 1984 but not previously associated with significant disease in cattle here.

Veterinarians in Northland have noted an increase in tick numbers, which may cause anaemia in cattle.

The New Zealand cattle tick is also known to spread Theileria orientalis. However, there are no human health or food safety risks associated with Theileria.

Clinical signs of anaemia in cattle include lethargy, exercise intolerance and increased respiratory and heart rates. Stress and movement of affected animals should be minimised as their reduced capacity to transport oxygen around the body can lead to collapse and death.

Animals should be rested, given high quality feed and water, and handled only when necessary. Movement or

yarding should be minimised.Farmers who suspect they have

animals with anaemia should contact a veterinarian for advice. There are a number of causes of anaemia. A veterinary diagnosis is necessary to identify the cause of the problem, so that appropriate advice can be provided on the care and treatment.

The control of ticks is strongly advised. High tick numbers can result in severe anaemia and ticks also carry Theilerias. The Theileria parasite is currently believed to be most common in the upper North Island.

Theileriosis can be spread through cattle movements, when cattle are introduced into areas where infected ticks occur. Cattle with infected ticks can also spread the disease to areas where it has not previously occurred. The disease is not transmitted directly from animal to animal, but is spread by infected ticks feeding on uninfected animals.

In areas where the disease is known to occur calves should be closely inspected for signs of anaemia, especially between the ages of 6-12 weeks. Introduced cattle should be examined closely when they have been

in the area for 3-8 weeks. In areas where Theileria are normally not present, but cattle from Theileria infected areas have been introduced, home-bred cattle should be checked regularly between two and six months after the introductions.

FARMERS SHOULD check the health of source herds for incom-ing animals, and keep newly brought-in animals separate from the rest of the herd for two-three weeks or on pasture that is tick-free or has low tick numbers, says DairyNZ.

Tick treatment on arrival may be advisable. Speak to your veterinarian about a suitable

tick control programme for your property. When using tick treat-ments it is important to observe withholding periods for whatever treatments are used.

Cattle will build up a degree of immunity to Theileria, it says.

“The biggest risk is to animals that have no previous exposure to Theileria – for example ani-mals from outside the area that

enter a herd where Theileria is present.

Cases have also been seen in uninfected herds where animals with infected ticks have been introduced.

“Young stock are particularly susceptible; older animals are usually immune if they have been raised in an area where Theilerias occur.”

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AnIMAl heAlth/Feed // 27

MAIZe sIlAge harvest is fast approaching. Now is the time to ensure you have a management plan in place to ensure you keep your stack energy packed by maximising maize silage energy levels and reducing stor-age and feed-out losses. Best-practice maize silage harvest guidelines are as follows:

Harvest your maize silage crop when the drymatter is 30-38%. Crops which are >38% drymatter are more difficult to compact resulting in a slower fermentation and greater losses when the stack is exposed to the air at feed-out time.

Use a quality silage inoculant. Silage inoculants fall into two gen-eral categories: those which improve fermentation resulting in lower losses in the stack, and those which reduce heating resulting in lower losses when the stack is exposed to the air at feed-out time.

New Zealand research has con-firmed overseas data that shows there are significant differences in the per-formance of silage inoculants. Always ask to see trial data and check there are guaranteed bacteria levels on the label of every bottle.

Chop to 10 – 15mm. This is a the-

oretical chop length and you will find some particles shorter or longer in your silage. Some longer particles are beneficial as they stimulate the rumen of the animal being fed. If your silage is very dry (greater than 38% drymat-ter), decrease the chop length to 5-9 mm. In the case of very wet crops (less than 30% drymatter) chop length may be increased up to 20 mm.

Use a plant processor to ensure 99% (target minimum 80%) of the kernels are broken into at least four pieces. A plant processor will also break down larger pieces of plant material (e.g. the core of the maize cob) assisting the compaction pro-cess and reducing feed-out wastage.

Spread the maize in thin layers and compact it well. Compaction is a function of vehicle weight, roll-

ing time and the depth of the layers of chopped maize being compacted. Thin (100-150mm) layers compact to a higher density than thick layers.

Seal the stack or bunker completely. Compaction removes air from the forage and sealing keeps it out. Ideally the stack should be covered and sealed immediately after harvest as this will speed the fermentation process and reduce losses. Tape holes and joins and weight the cover down using tyres that are touching, sand bags or lime. Sand or limestone should be used to seal around the edges of the bunker or stack.

Control rats and mice. Keep the stack area free of weeds that can pro-vide cover for rats. Place rat baits in bait stations around the stack and ensure they are checked and replen-ished on a regular basis.

Once your maize silage is in the stack collect a representative sample and send it to a commercial labora-tory for a feed quality analysis. This will help you to determine the best time to feed your maize silage and the appropriate feed-out rate. • Ian Williams is a Pioneer forage spe-cialist. Contact him on [email protected]

Keep your maize stack packed with energy

Maize silage harvesting is around the corner.





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Pfizer Animal Health New Zealand Limited. Level 3, Pfizer House, 14 Normanby Road, Mt Eden, Auckland 1024, New Zealand. Tel: 0800 650 277, Fax: 0800 628 629. BOVATEC is a registered trade mark of Pfizer Inc. or its subsidiaries. ACVM Registration No’s A6956, A9679, A10829. 1. Data on file. 2. Nussio et al. 2002. Scientia Agricola, 59, 3: 421-426. 3. Erickson PS et al. Ionophore taste test preferences of dairy heifers J Anim Sci. 2004;82:3314-3320. PA

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AnIMAl heAlth // 29

Fodder shortage could spell trouble for Oz farmers

ALL SITUATIONS are different when it comes to filling the gap between the feed you have and the feed you need, says Dairy Australia.

Farmers have op-tions but they come with a price – time,

money or potential. ■ Home grown pas-

ture or crops are likely to be of higher quality and lower cost than purchased feed, so they should be fully explored first.

■ Feeding more grain/

concentrates is an option, but this may increase your risk of acidosis.

■ High fibre by-products can be purchased to extend your fodder reserves. They are not a substitute for

grain/concentrate.

■ Drying off early and culling cows can reduce the demand on feed but consider the impact on your farm business’s financial position in the short and longer term.

closIng the Feed gAP

AustrAlIAn FArMers are being warned to manage fodder shortage well as the country remains gripped by extreme heat and bush-fires.

Dairy Australia says with extreme heat and lack of rain affecting pasture growth in many dairy regions, manag-ing fodder on farm is critical. It says lack of fibre can cause acidosis, a met-abolic disorder of the rumen.

Fibre is an essential ingredient in the diets of ruminant animals. Fibre is the structural carbohydrate com-ponent of plants – it keeps plants upright. Fibre is found in the plant cell wall. There are three main parts: hemi-cellulose, cellulose and lignin.

A key role of fibre in cattle is to promote chewing, so feeds with fibre length greater than 1.5cm are prefera-ble – they take longer to chew.

Lush, actively growing pasture is high in sugars, says Dairy Australia. More leaf than stem means less fibre.

Grain is plant seed material and not structural plant material – it has high levels of starch, not fibre neu-tral detergent fibre (NDF). This is a chemical laboratory estimate of the amounts of hemi-cellulose, cellulose, lignin and ash in plant material – the digestible and indigestible fibre. Acid detergent fibre (ADF) estimates cel-lulose, lignin and ash only.

NDF is expressed as a percentage of dry matter – the percentages allow feed to be compared, it says.

“Deciding between fibre prod-ucts is easier if you know the NDF % values. NDF intake should ideally be about 40% of total daily dry matter intake, with 75% of the fibre sources having a fibre length greater than 1.5 cm, i.e. you need to work out the fibre percentage of the kilograms of dry matter your cows are eating.

Cows filling up on grain/concen-trate in the dairy or on other low fibre feeds like lush pasture may not eat poor quality fibre like straw offered in the paddock.

Heifers or less-dominant cows may not have equal access to fibre fed in the paddock – these animals may be more at risk of acidosis than others. Not enough long or ‘effec-

tive’ fibre = not enough chewing = not enough saliva = drop in ruminal pH = increased risk of acidosis.

Cows fed diets with adequate long fibre produce at least 180 litres of saliva per day. Feeds with no long fibre like grain do not promote much chewing during eating and ruminat-ing, and less saliva is produced. Chew-ing for about 27 to 36 minutes/kgDM is normal.

Saliva has a pH of about 8.0 (alka-line) and contains bicarbonate and other naturally occurring buffers. At least 2.5 kg of bicarbonate produced each day in saliva helps maintain the cow’s average daily ruminal pH in the optimal range for growth of rumen microbes – 6.2- 6.6.

According to Dairy Australia, in a healthy cow, ruminal pH fluctuates over a 24 hour period. It can drop to 5.5 or lower for several hours after eating large amounts of highly digest-ible feeds such as grain/concentrate, silage or lush pasture, before recov-

ering again.Feeding a slower fermenting long

fibre source such as hay as soon as possible after grain/concentrate or replacing lush pasture with some hay or straw, can help reduce the pH drop. If animals consume sufficient amounts of highly digestible feeds, ruminal pH drops, leading to reduced growth of fibre-utilising bacteria and increased growth of acid producing bacteria such as Strep. bovis, which continue to acidify the rumen.

If the rumen’s natural buffering capacity is overwhelmed, a downward spiral can occur until the rumen shuts down. Animals with ‘sub-clinical aci-dosis’, where the rumen pH is in the range 5.2-5.6, may not appear sick, although feed intake and production are reduced.

Animals with a ruminal pH below 5.2 will be noticeably sick. They will be off their feed, down in their milk, and scouring. This may then progress to ‘downer cow’ syndrome and death.

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30 // MAchInery & Products

Making the most of new milking

when sIMon Belton and his wife Jo were build-ing their new 40-bail rotary dairy in 2009 they built to a performance standard and not to a price.

“Our total build cost us a little more but we have everything we wanted and needed and we have also allowed for improvements in the future, and it was the best decision we ever made,” said Simon.

The Belton’s property, Roscrea Farms, at Te Poi, 10km south of Matamata, is an intensive enterprise. The original farm was 35ha and is now 97ha — 73ha (eff.) milking platform with an adjacent 32ha used for cropping and graz-ing. Nearby is an 8ha block with four chicken sheds where 672,000 chickens are reared annually under

contract to Inghams.The area surrounding

the sheds grows maize for the home property. Imme-diately after harvesting the ground is planted in Ital-ian ryegrass and this yields 3-4 cuts per winter which is also transported to the home property.

“The rotary platform stopped for a month in the first season and has been used twice a day ever since as we have always milked some cows through the winter.”

This year the Belton’s are making a major man-agement decision and will calve 140 cows in the autumn. They will reduce the present herd of 290 cows and have planned ahead with some cows that have already had a 500 day lactation, being dried off 65 days before calving and some cows that are dry now.

“We supply Open

Country Cheese (OCC) and they offer incentives to supply outside the usual lactation schedule.”

Last season the Belton’s supplied 170,000kgMS and are expecting a slight drop in total production as they make the change to split calving but their long-term aim is to exceed 200,000 kgMS annually. “Again OCC are offering real incentives to pass that figure.”

The new dairy shed and feed pads were installed in 2009. The milking machine is a Westfalia Metatron combined with Dematron milk meters and automatic cup remov-ers. All cows wear elec-tronic collars which record information at each milk-ing, all transferred to a computer at the shed running Dairy Plan. This includes activity record-ing to detect heats, milk

yields, conductivity sens-ing for mastitis and with a weighing platform on the exit race monitoring weight loss/gain.

They are about to install an automatic in-shed feeding system. It will have two silos holding two different products and will be able to dispense six different mixtures to parameters set in the computer by Belton. These include altering the protein/carbohydrate ratios to suit stage of lactation or by individual production levels, measured each day so they can be altered immediately.

“It is just mind blow-ing what the computer can do, making our job easier and recording all the infor-mation if I need to review it later.”

The electronic collars enable five way drafting if needed.

tony hoPKInsonThe Beltons have a

rotational cross breeding program to breed healthier cows with hybrid vigour as well as higher protein levels, again attracting a premium from OCC.

The original herd was

Friesian/Jersey cross and their offspring were mated to Swedish Red cattle. As the name says they are from Sweden and were originally bred from Eng-lish Milking Shorthorn dairy cattle and Scottish

Ayrshire. They are classed as a robust and resilient, known for their calving ease, fertility, udder health and longevity.

Their offspring are mated with a Montbe-liarde bull. This breed

Matamata farmer Simon Belton built his new dairy to a performance standard and not to a price.

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technology

GeA Farm Technologies effluent technical specialist Murray Mcewan.

comes from France, noted for their longevity, fertil-ity and lower cell counts in their milk.

“Rotational cross breeding has the advan-tage over only using two breeds as you get the advantages of another breed and still gain 82% of hybrid vigour.”

Belton’s source all their semen from CRV

Ambreed. Their feed pads can

hold 380 cows and stock are supplementary fed twice a day all year round. Feed composition is seasonally altered and includes maize, straw, hay and biproducts such as potatoes, apple pulp, some PKE, canola and tapioca. This all goes through a Keenan mixer before being

placed in troughs.Simon and Jo are

actively involved in running all aspects of the farm with one full time worker Haydon Eales. When visited in December 2012, 270 cows were being milked by one person, in one hour with 20 minutes for hosing down. The milking plant is washed automatically.

THE FEED pads are flood washed and with shed cleanings are all directed to a large sump. There the material is agitated and pumped to a slope screen where solids >0.5mm are separated from the liquid effluent. The resultant green water is pumped to a storage tank and is used to drive the backing gate and to wash the yards and the flood irrigation.

“We are trying to reduce the amount of fresh water we use each milking and only use fresh water to wash the vat, machines and under the roof line the rest is recycled green water.”

Belton says that recycling green water is the way of the future and he believes he is only using up to 4000L/day of fresh water.

GEA Farm Technologies’ effluent technical specialist Murray McEwan says Waikato Regional Council’s ‘Variation 6’ where farmers will have to meter their water usage is mak-ing a lot of them focus on how much water they use for stock as well as

for their dairy sheds and feed pads.“Most farmers are not aware of

how much their daily fresh water usage is and this change will make them more efficient about water use,” said McEwan.

He believes more farmers will install machinery to extract solids for disposal and the resultant green water will be recycled and used at least for washing down yards and feed pads.

McEwan comments that the sys-tem installed at the Belton farm has all the effluent from the dairy yard, the feed pad area as well as fresh wash down water from beneath the roof line, wash water from the milk-ing plant, and from the vat in one large sump, where it is agitated/homogenised to get a consistent product which adds to efficiency of the slope screen. The separated solids are contained to be later spread on the farm, generally on cropping land. The green water is stored along with any leachate from the solids. Tel. 027 206 5121.

cuttIng Fresh wAter use

MOST FARMERS spend a lot of time, effort and money getting the cows to produce milk, yet the last part of the liquid’s trip from cow to vat may waste a lot of that effort. These are the sentiments of Russell Gibbs and Josh White, directors of TagIT Technologies and their Halo program.

“This program protects the milk from the moment the cups go on until the tanker leaves and we refer to it as milk’s guardian angel,” says Gibbs.

When installed, strategic monitors/sensors record any changes in tempera-

ture or actions that could have a detrimen-tal effect on the milk as it travels to the vat. For example, these can check valve positions such as the vat inlet tap being open to the vat before milking commences, or not left open for plant or vat washing. The monitors can also keep watch for milk temperatures going outside pre-set parameters, for adequate water flow through the cooler, and for the correct temperature of that water to ensure the milk is pre-chilled to the specified tempera-ture. The monitors can

also check for risk of the vat milk tempera-ture, vat overflowing, vacuum levels and power outages.

When any signifi-cant changes are noted the farmer is notified within the shed by a siren and strobe light or receives a txt message. “These all seem obvious to farmers but you only have to have even a small loss of milk and the instal-lation justifies the

expense,” says White.Figures supplied by

TagIT show that if a farmer loses the value of a 15000L of milk by downgrading, the next 74000L produced are needed to recoup the loss in profit.

“Even a small loss, say, from leaving the vat tap open, of 500L means one third of the next milking [2500L] is needed to recover the loss.”

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Tractor pulling a way of lifetrActor PullIng is gaining momentum in New Zealand and is proving to be popular with competitors and spectators at Central Districts Field Days. This year the tractor pull event managed by Tractorpull NZ is being sponsored by Norwood Farm Machinery.

Tractorpull NZ Inc was formed in 2009 after Vaughan Croy saw how popular tractor pull events were at Mystery Creek Field Days.

“With a few isolated tractor pull events nation-wide it was decided to form a society to bring tractor pulling into focus and grow the sport.”

Leasing the sled from

the National Fieldays Soci-ety, Tractorpull NZ takes tractor pulling on the road and into places unable to host a tractor pull event.

“It’s huge overseas. Its growth potential is phe-nomenal.”

With a history of driv-ing machinery in his blood Croy has merged manag-ing his own IT company and his love of machin-ery together in the sport of tractor pulling.

From the office built into the club’s 43-foot semi trailer, Croy and team are able to use the computer system that controls the sled. By using mobile internet connec-tions and remote access software he is able to give a running commentary on

what a competitor is pull-ing, speed, distance and more.

The trailer provides a home away from home for Croy and his team while running events around the country complete with running water and elec-tric jug.

Tractorpull NZ attends about six events annually including the Southern Field Days in Waimumu.

“Local shows running on a single day, such as Reporoa, are great events but there is something special about the bigger multiple day events such as CD Field Days.”

CDFD 2013 will see a new format for the com-petition.

“Most contractors are

too busy to commit their machines for two or three days and miss out, so this year we are running the main event over only one day,” Croy says.

“Saturday will see the main competition run so contractors only have to take a day out of their schedules to compete.

“Thursday and Friday will see practise sessions for the main classes along with other competitions, such as the business house competition which was won last year by RD1 and will no doubt be hotly contested again this year, taking place throughout the day.”

When asked why he enjoys running the event Cory says, “Contract-

ing is a lonely job. This gets everyone together – there’s a camaraderie ele-ment, there is nothing better than having some fun, sharing a beer or two and just catching up with like minded people.”

CDFDs event manager Riddell says the organis-ers enjoy catching up with our exhibitors and always make sure we help our new exhibitors out as well.

“We are lucky we have a great crew that continue to return to work for us during the build up, the

event and the break down.“Our Ozzie team which

works on field days all year round in Australia arrive early to start on mark-ing out our sites and over-seeing the logistics. Our ladies in HQ always have a friendly smile with free muffins and coffee while exhibitors are setting up. Then there are our forklift guys and delivery people on ATVs.”

The whole team works to make the event as pleas-ant as possible.

“After our first day of

being open to the public, we have a drink and sau-sage sizzle so exhibitors can catch up with us and each other.

“We realise that our exhibitors work long hours so we try and make things a little easier around the CD Field days,” Riddell says.

This year, the event will be held from Thurs-day, March 7 through to and including Saturday, March 9 at Manfeild Park, Feilding.Tel. 021 222 0482

Tractorpull NZ’s semi tractor trailer can be seen in the background at the 2012 CDFD during competition.

With sand flying this competitor delights the audience.

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Eight ‘cats’ achieve Kiwi record

BROGDEN CONTRACTING has the Euro Star hitch system fitted to its Case IH Puma model tractors and has standardised all implements to utilise it.

It is located almost under the differential drive and is extended, lowered, lifted and re-turned hydraulically. The hook hitch locks into a clevis and no safety chains are needed.

The weight of the implement is brought as close as possible to the rear end of the tractor, increasing stability and traction.

The driver does not have to leave the cab as all controls are at hand.

“There is a sequence to hitch/unhitch the implements so there is no chance of the imple-ment coming off,” said Brogden.

All controls At hAnd

ownIng eIght Case IH Puma tractors is reck-oned to be a New Zea-land record – held by Bay of Plenty contractors Phil and Cheryl Brogden.

Their firm, PJ Brogden Contracting, has worked 38 years in the business, at Awakeri, 15km from Whakatane.

They run a full con-tracting service with silage and hay mowing, raking and harvesting program. This includes square and round bales, two self pro-pelled forage harvest-ers for grass and maize silage, and a full cultiva-tion, planting and harvest-ing service for all crops, including maize. The busi-ness works up to 50km from base.

They also run a truck-ing service mainly for their own bales and bulk grass and maize silage as well as general cartage. “Any contracting work a farmer wants done we can do it,” says Phil.

Cheryl manages the base, organising the staff and work programme and looking after the accounts.

Brogden Contracting has nine full time staff, some with 25 years service. “They all can multi-task so if there are jobs to be done they can all help as well as the tractor driving.”

Why all Case IH Pumas?

“There are good rea-sons to standardise on one model,” says Brogden. “Firstly they are top trac-tors; any driver can drive any tractor as they do

not have to change their thinking at all and all the gear hitches, PTO shafts and the like are all stan-dardised so there is no risk of error.”

Brogden Contracting have fourexisting Case Pumas – 3 210’s and 1 165, and have just taken delivery of their four latest model Case IH Puma 215 with full power shift. They were supplied by Whyteline Limited, Paeroa.

“This is the ‘gold spec-ification’ model, which means it has all the bells and whistles,” said manag-ing director of Whyteline Ltd, John Whyte.

Whyte says there are ‘bronze’ and ‘silver’ models for famers or con-tractors who do not need all the extras.

Brogden, when he ordered the machines, was able to fill in a speci-fications list he wanted to suit his work, and ordered them when they were being assembled at the factory in Austria.

These included ‘Euro hitch’, front suspension, five hydraulic ports, over-sized tyres and multi-con-trol command module.

“I chose the over-sized or ‘super single’ tyre as there was then no need to run duals and they improved our access through gateways, and cause less compaction on cultivated ground but still retain their stability on rolling to steeper coun-try.”

One of the latest deliv-eries also has front linkage and PTO.

The multi-control com-

tony hoPKInsonmand module is at the driver’s right hand and has all functions easily read day and night with back lighting. The motors are all Tier 4 which meet the European strict emission standards with selective

catalyst reduction (SCR) technology.

PJ Brogden Contract-ing and Whyteline have an association going back many years.Tel. 07 304 9471www.whyteline.co.nz

The PJ Brogden contracting team with some of their machines.

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the KIA Optima has been named International Car of the Year at the Detroit Auto Show, which runs to the end of this month.

The award is made by Road & Travel Magazine, which gives 10 ICOTY awards to new or existing model year vehi-cles with significant and/or impressive improvements. These awards are based on the emotional connection between the consumer and vehicle. The winners are chosen by the ICOTY jury, which consists of automotive journalists from publications such as MSN Autos, Car & Driver and Consumer Guide Automotive.

“The Kia Optima rose to the top of the list as the most emotionally compel-ling vehicle above all others,” according to Courtney Caldwell, Road & Travel Magazine editor-in-chief.

“Its functional yet sleek design as well as advanced features intertwines effortlessly with consumer lifestyles on many levels, qualities we look for when considering contenders for the ICOTY

awards.”Completely redesigned for the 2011

model year, the Optima’s design, space, comfort and specification helped make the mid-size sedan the top-selling Kia vehicle in the US market in 2012. It was also launched into the European market last year.

The Optima has earned a number of awards including being named the 2012 ‘Best New Car Value’ award from Kip-linger’s Personal Finance, ‘Sedan of the Year’ by Autobytel.com, one of the ‘Top Drives for 2012’ by the Boston Globe and it also earned a ‘Best Buy’ recommenda-tion by Consumers Digest.

Todd McDonald, general manager of Kia Motors New Zealand, says the naming of the Optima as the Interna-tional Car of the Year makes the Optima “a truly international car.” “Its design and overall appeal has been one of the great success stories for the Kia brand and our chief design officer and newly appointed president, Peter Schreyer.

Top gong for Kia Optima

Alloy decks for tough jobswhIle rIgId steel decks are favoured by farmers for their utes, alloy decks make more sense for road using trades people who may be required to carry heavier loads on a regular basis, says automotive accessory company Best Bars Ltd.

With more utility vehi-cles going onto New Zea-land roads, the challenge is to select the deck best

suited to requirements. “The preference by

many ute owners has been for steel decks because they are per-ceived to be strong – and indeed the steel deck we supply is one of the market leaders in this respect,” says John Frear, manager sales and mar-keting at Best Bars.

“But most people over-look the fact that an alloy

deck is also designed and built strong enough to withstand the tough everyday usage it is likely to be subjected to on con-

struction and other work sites. And due to their light weight they can carry heavier loads.”

Best Bars has designed

a range of alloy decks that suit most 1-tonne ute models and variants from leading manufacturers. The alloy decks from Best

Bars are tough and have a durable, anodised finish; they won’t corrode, so will keep their looks for much longer.

Best Bars’ alloy deck range is constructed

from high-strength

extruded

alloy. Effectively, it means the driver can shift up to 20% more load per trip when required. And when it is not driven fully loaded, the lighter weight has another advantage because it causes less wear and tear on the driveline components and helps cut fuel consumption.

They can be installed as a rigid deck on a vehi-cle’s cab/chassis or may be optioned with a tipping

mechanism. The Best Bars alloy

deck range have hinged drop sides and exte-

rior lash-down rails. A 63mm alloy

headboard tube is standard, as are tail light guards, alloy mudguards , mudflaps and rack pegs.

Alloy decks have been designed for everyday use.

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Dairy News 29 Jan 2012

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