dairy news 6 december 2011

inspiration for dairy womenNew board memberpage 24

tagging along with naitSplit levy proposed page 15

National’s win puts TAF on track for 2012 launch. page 3

december 6, 2011 issue 260 // www.dairynews.co.nz

naki’s brightest spark

New Fonterra director David MacLeod interview.

PAGE 5

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news // 3

the re-eleCtion of a National-led Government has boosted Fonter-ra’s chances of sewing up the TAF (trading among farmers) proposal by the end of next year.

Fonterra chairman Henry van der Heyden hopes to “push the button” on TAF before he steps down at the 2012 annual meeting in November.

“Capital structure and developing TAF will be one of my last acts before I leave,” he told Dairy News.

He points out TAF has been a long process. Farmers voted overwhelm-ingly to move from share redemption to TAF to bolster the co-op’s balance sheet. TAF requires a review of the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act by Parliament.

Van der Heyden and the Fon-terra board had initially hoped to launch TAF this year. But uncer-tainty among farmers and the pre-vious Government’s preoccupation with the Christchurch earthquake

recovery prevented the legislation from reaching Parliament. Several inquiries over milk pricing also com-pounded the situation.

Van der Heyden agrees TAF could never go ahead with “milk price ques-tions hanging over us.”

“Now the new Government is confirmed and all milk inquiries have been dealt with, we have clean air to move on with TAF,” he says.

Fonterra had been briefing Prime Minister John Key, Finance Minister Bill English and Agriculture Minister David Carter in the previous Govern-ment. With Key and English back at the helm, and Carter almost certain to continue in his old job, progress-ing TAF will be easier.

Van der Heyden says it had also briefed other political parties and TAF would still have been achievable

if Labour had won power.On farmer concerns about TAF,

particularly relinquishing share titles to a custodian, van der Heyden point out it has “quite a big mandate” from farmers to proceed with TAF. How-ever, new chief executive Theo Spier-ings also announced at Fonterra’s recent annual meeting that manage-ment is looking at the possibility of farmers owning legal titles to shares held in the proposed Fonterra Share-holders Fund.

“We are listening to farmer con-cerns and we will brief them before Christmas as Theo told the meet-ing,” says van der Heyden.

Fonterra expects the new Gov-ernment to release a discussion doc-ument on changes to DIRA early next year. A round of shareholder meet-ings is also being planned in early 2012.

Van der Heyden says his decision to stand down has nothing to do with farmer concerns on TAF. Success planning has been underway by the board for the last two years.

news ��3-21

opinion ��22-23

agribusiness �� 26

management ��29-34

animal health �� 36-40

maChinery & produCts �� 41-42

traCtors & maChinery ��43-45

Dairy shed water limits loom. pg.7

Good soil health leads to good grass. pg.29

Pasture quality takes a hit as dry sets in. pg.9

news // 3

fonterra has given its suppli-ers two years to fence all farm water-ways, the dictate of a new clause in its supply agreement. Farmers must comply at most 18 months from the start of the 2012-13 season.

The move is to protect water qual-ity in dairying regions.

Fonterra general manager milk supply Steve Murphy says since sign-ing the Clean Streams Accord eight

years ago, the cooperative has made measurable progress on protecting waterways.

“In addition, our Every Farm Every Year programme introduced last year has achieved improvements in effluent compliance.

“We are heading in the right direc-tion and are now taking the next step by introducing a clause [to require all] 10,500 suppliers to fence all

Accord waterways on their farms.“Fonterra is committed to doing

its bit to look after our environment. Ensuring stock stay out of lakes, rivers and streams is fundamental to maintaining water quality and this clause sets a clear Fonterra standard for all our farmers.”

A lot of good work has been done with the cooperative’s farmers vol-untarily fencing all waterways on

their properties, Murphy says. Now is the time to set a cooperative, wide standard that ensures those lagging behind do what’s expected. While many farmers already exclude 100% of stock, others must do more to fully comply.

“The co-op is going to work with those that need to catch up by put-ting environmental improvement plans in place.”

Co-op lowers boom on fenCes

National’s win brings TAF closer to fruitionsudesh kissun

Fonterra chairman Henry van der Heyden with chief executive Theo Spierings.

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4 // news

in brief

ahuwhenua trophy up for grabs again

THe cHAIrmAN of the Ahuwhenua Trust, Kingi Smiler, says there’s been a lift in the performance of maori farms which he attributes to the Ahuwhenua Trophy competition.

This contest runs annually, designed to show excellence in maori farming. It features dairy and sheep and beefs farms alternate years. Next year it’s the turn of dairy farms.

Smiler says the winners of the trophy compare well with the best in the entire agriculture sector. He says maori dairy farming operations are generally larger than most family farms – in some cases ten times the size of the average farm

Smiler says the Ahuwhenua Trophy allows maori farms to benchmark themselves against others, to the benefit of maori agriculture.

“One of the biggest factors is to show shareholders in maori trusts and incorporations how well they are doing and give them a sense of pride in seeing their farms doing well in a national competition.”

Though senior people in agriculture and some top farming enterprises recognise the contribution maori are making, by and large their achievement fly under the radar of most farmers, he says.

entries close on January 27 and the winner will be announced at a gala dinner in Auckland in June.

Westland forecast payout staysandrew swallow

hokitika Co-op Westland Milk Products has reiterated its $6.60-$7/kgMS forecast for 2011-12.

The announcement, made last week at its annual meeting in Shan-tytown, contrasts with Fonterra’s late October 45c/kgMS cut to its open-ing forecast of $7.15-7.25/kgMS including dividends. Fonterra blamed softer commodity prices and a stronger New Zealand dollar.

At Westland’s meet-ing chief executive Rod Quin said the new reverse osmosis plant at Roll-eston, Canterbury, and dryer modifications at Hokitika will generate an extra 10-15c/kgMS for shareholders this season.

Further dryer modi-fications at Hokitika and

batch blending equip-ment – stage two in the firm’s strategic devel-opment programme – should be commissioned for the start of the 2012-13 season.

“This plant will develop our capabil-ity to deliver beyond the seven thousand tonnes of Growing Up Milk Powder (GUMP) we manufacture today,” says Quin.

Stage three, involv-ing further investment in Westland’s nutritional product capability, is still in the planning phase. Quin has previously acknowledged a process-ing plant at Rolleston is being considered.

Westland chairman Matt O’Regan told the meeting 2010-11 was a season of “difficult cli-matic conditions.”

However, use of DIRA milk for the first time, and processing milk for other

companies, increased throughput 14%. This extra milk diluted fixed costs 5c/kgMS and made an overall contribution of more than 20c/kgMS to the 2010-11 final payout of $7.70/kgMS.

Sales volume increased from 78,000t to 90,000t, which, with increased prices, took revenue to a record $525m.

“Our customers appre-ciated the additional vol-umes produced and our ability to keep pace with their growth rates.... West-

land is now working with selected customers to deliver the highest returns from a product portfo-lio which is changing to a range of nutritional prod-ucts with higher margins,” said O’Regan.

Speaking to Dairy News after the meeting, O’Regan said a good start to this season had kicked supply at least 10% ahead of last year but a wet November on the Coast reduced feed quality and production. “Now we’re 6-7% ahead.”

Westland is again taking its full allocation of DIRA milk, and so far has four farms supplying it from Canterbury. Fon-terra has been scoping the possibility of recruit-ing supply from the West Coast.

O’Regan says the dairy landscape continues to evolve, with new dairy processors and more

expected to attempt to enter the industry. Mean-while he points to changes in Europe influencing international markets.

“We know agricul-tural policy in Europe has undergone reform. A key result is the removal of country specific milk quotas in 2015. As a con-sequence we can expect a huge surge in milk which is likely to end up as skim milk powder and butter produced for the interna-tional markets.”

Prices could suffer and action between now and 2015 to shift dependence on these products “will be the key to providing sus-tainable competitive pay-outs,” he says.

Shareholders can take comfort in a positive long-term outlook for dairy and demand for innova-tive products continues to match population growth, O’Regan adds.

mG joins fonterra’s online auctionandrew swallow

australia’s largest dairy producer, Murray Goulburn, will from April 2012 be offering dairy product on the Fonterra initiated online auction GlobalDairyTrade.

A critic of the sales platform when it was launched in 2008, MG says it will be offering lactose from Trading Event 65 on April 3.

“Lactose is a product growing in importance in the marketplace,” says MG managing director Gary

Helou. “Offering lactose on GDT will further develop the market for this product and has the potential to reduce volatility and provide more reliable price discovery for buyers and sellers. Accordingly we are confident MG’s involvement will provide benefits to MG share-holders and customers.”

Lactose demand is being driven by use in infant formula and other nutritionals.

A spokesman for MG told Dairy News it represents “a toe in the water” on GDT for MG. It has no

plans to add other commodities. “We’ll see how this goes first.”

GDT general manager Paul Grave says MG’s participation is “a further significant step for GDT” and “demonstrates GDT’s increas-ing role as a key platform for inter-national trade in a broad range of dairy commodities.”

Lactose is not currently offered by existing sellers Fonterra and Dairy America.

“We are delighted that a com-pany of MG’s standing and impor-tance in world dairy markets has

decided to participate in GDT and play a part in shaping its future,” adds Grave.

GlobalDairyTrade sales to date total at least $US5 billion: about 700,000t/year the current volume, with about 500 qualified bidders from at least 80 countries.

MG processes about a third of Australia’s milk, taking in about 2.9 billion L/year from 2500 sup-plier shareholders. It has strong presence in the Australian domes-tic market with sales of $A1.12m last year.

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news // 5

Fonterra’s new director david macLeod.naki’s brightest spark

peter burke

fonterra’s new director David MacLeod, South Taranaki, has been wired into the dairy indus-try for over two decades.

When he left school he took up an appren-ticeship as an electrician and much of his work as a tradesman involved wiring dairy sheds and electrical contracting work in dairy factories around South Taranaki.

But as well, MacLeod comes from a dairy farm-ing family and is now involved in helping to manage Fonterra’s larg-est single milk supplier in the region – Parininihi Ki Waitotara – a large Maori incorporation. To top it off he’s also the chairman of the Taranaki Regional Council (TRC) and a director of Port Taranaki.

MacLeod’s background is unusual in that he’s seen the dairy industry from many perspectives and is a highly successful busi-nessman and professional director.

“I established a huge amount of understanding about the process side of things in those early days working as an electrician on farms and at some of the big dairy factories such as Kiwi in Hawera.

“At about the same time I gained an insight into the governance of the dairy industry. I knew the chairman of Kiwi Dairy at the time. That’s when I got my appetite for gov-ernance – looking at those guys and thinking, gee wouldn’t it be won-derful to be at the deci-sion making table of a

great company like Kiwi. You could say I started in the boardroom of the dairy industry at a young age when I was replacing lamps and fixing air con-ditioning and that sort of stuff.”

Dairying is in MacLeod’s DNA and he has a passion for it and everything else he’s ever done. His extended family have been dairy farm-ers in the Manaia area of Taranaki for at least 130 years. He was raised on the dairy farm his folks have owned since 1904 and which his brother still farms.

When MacLeod left school he took his father’s advice to learn a trade then perhaps return one day to the farm. At age 23 he had opportunity to buy a share in the electrical company he was working for – Greaves Electrical. That effectively ruled out returning to the farm, con-firmed in 1999 when he bought the remainder of the business.

The company now has about 80 staff and is the largest in South Taranaki, with dairying is main cus-tomer. It handles a full spectrum of electrical work – lights and plugs, domestic installations, high voltage transformers and power poles in subdi-visions.

With his company doing well, MacLeod looked for another chal-lenge, finding it in local government when the TRC chairman died sud-denly in 2000. MacLeod won the by-election and is now in his fifth term on the TRC and second term as chairman.

“At that stage I was truly at a decision making table…. A year later I was elected to go onto the Port Taranaki board and that’s when my corporate gover-nance skills really started to develop, ” he says.

MacLeod admits his background as a Fonterra director is unusual and believes it helped him get elected. “I have a thorough understanding of envi-ronmental sustainability issues and a good under-standing of how to reach goals in society by getting a wide variety of interests around a table to discuss these matters. I can be at a table with Fish and Game, Forest and Bird, Feder-ated Farmers and Fonterra

and get them to reach common ground.”

Macleod admits the challenge in balancing eco-nomic and environmen-tal matters, achievable

by convincing environ-mentalists that only when dairy farmers are profit-able can they deal effec-tively with environmental matters. Farmers also want a good environment; pragmatism is needed for good outcomes.

Nationally, environ-mental sustainability is the number one issue, MacLeod says. “It’s our license to operate. Envi-ronmental performance is our greatest risk.”

While campaigning for the Fonterra director-ship MacLeod toured the country gaining insights into regions. He picked up farmers’ frustration with regional councils. He finds farmers willing to do

a good job in the environ-ment, but grumpy about councils’ inconsistency and rule changes.

“Regional coun-cils must do a good job;

everyone has to lift their game. We are not per-fect in Taranaki and we have issues to deal with

in certain areas. But not by going out there like a big bad cop and punishing everybody.”

MacLeod concedes the dairy industry suffers from

the ‘tall poppy syndrome’. The notion all dairy farm-ers are mega-rich is a load of bollocks. Fonterra must

continue telling New Zea-land society that at least 50 % of the revenue going into a dairy farming busi-ness is returned to the community.

Farmers too must con-nect better with their communities and show the gap between urban

and rural is not as wide as it may appear. “Dairy farmers need to partake in society to close those gaps and I know a lot of farmers already doing that.”

THOUGH HIS personal business inter-ests are not directly in dairy farming, Da-vid MacLeod’s links to the land couldn’t be closer. He’s on the management committee of Parininihi ki Waitotara (PKW) with 8500 beneficiaries or shareholders.

Parininihi is the name of the white cliffs in North Taranaki; Waitotara is the township in the south so the name de-fines the Taranaki boundary. PKW was set up in the mid 1970s to administer a large chunk of Maori land in Taranaki.

Macleod’s particular role in the trust is as a director of PKW Farms (13 dairy farms and two support blocks). About 7000 cows are run on 2160ha, produc-ing 2.3 million kgMS/year, making PKW Fonterra’s single biggest milk supplier in Taranaki. All the farms have 60 bail rotary sheds capable of milking 500 cows an hour.

MacLeod has been a management committee member and a director for just over a year. He takes a great per-sonal interest in the farms. Two are man-aged, two have lower order sharemilk-ers and the rest are covered by 50/50

agreements. Though only recently involved in PKW management, he has been a trust beneficiary a long time.

“My mother has always been a share-holder of PKW so I’ve been observing. My mother and father were keen for me to take an interest in what PKW was doing and they spoke to me prior to me putting my hat in the ring. It’s an elected position and you have to get voted onto the board.”

PKW gave Macleod an excellent launching pad for his Fonterra director-ship. Maori incorporations such as PKW, and others in the North Island, are major players in the dairy industry.

PKW has good farming credentials. In 2006, it won the prestigious Ahuwhenua Trophy for Maori Dairy Farming Excel-lence. It plans to convert more of its land to dairy farms and prides itself in its commitment to environmental issues.

family ConneCtion with dairying

david macLeod with PKW sharemilker robert van der Frits.

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news // 7

water restrictions loomabout 3500 Waikato farmers will soon require resource consent to take extra water for dairy shed use.

A recent Environment Court ruling has paved the way for the Waikato Regional Council to implement its Variation 6 to the Waikato Regional Plan. This allows the council to pro-gressively introduce new policies and rules for allocating and using water in the region. Developed in response to growing demand for water from vari-ous sectors, it sets allocation limits for all rivers and streams, and their mini-mum flows.

After agreements with the agricul-tural sector, dairy farms will be allowed to take 15m3/ day/certificate of title for dairy shed use. Takes above this will require a resource consent.

The resource consenting process will be staged over the next few years. Farmers will have till January 1, 2015 at the latest to apply for consents. The council estimates 3500 farmers will need consent.

WRC catchment management pro-gramme manager David Speirs says con-firmation of the final shape of Variation 6 means the council can now get on with

implementing the policies and rules.“Now we have the court decision,

we plan a resource consent implemen-tation strategy with agriculture indus-try stakeholders. We will tell farmers the details of when they need to apply for resource consent to take more than 15m3/day.”

Existing ‘extra’ takes above 15m3/day will generally be ‘grandparented’ as at October 2008 levels, Speirs says. Under this provision of Variation 6, farmers will generally get the grandparented ‘extra’ amount requested provided they apply for a consent and meet the condi-tions, including riparian management plans to prevent sediment, effluent and nutrients from getting into waterways.

The court has also allowed for more water takes between Taupo and Kara-piro than were originally proposed.

Variation 6’s requirements will com-plement a broader regional strategy now being developed, aimed at better protecting Waikato waterways.

Surface water demand in Waikato is 1.36 million m3/day; ground water demand is 430,000m3/day. All water flowing to the sea from the Waikato River is said to have been removed from

the natural river channel and used at least seven times before it reaches the ocean.

Pressure on water resources has increased markedly in recent years, says Spiers.

“For example, the area of land being

irrigated has nearly doubled in the last ten years. Water is a finite resource and, in some places, is already fully allocated. Variation 6 seeks to strike a balance between managing the adverse environ-mental effects of taking and using water and [allowing people] to use water in an

environmentally sustainable way.”The new rules are to ensure enough

water remains in waterways to protect aquatic life and provide for recreation, and to meet domestic, municipal, agri-cultural and industrial needs as far as possible, Spiers says.

A new approach for Hawke’s BayViVienne haldane

a new land and water management strategy for Hawke’s Bay was unveiled last week at a sympo-sium at Napier. The strat-egy developed out of a regional water symposium the regional council held in November last year.

Working through the dialogue and getting con-census was “a challenge,” says Helen Codlin, man-ager strategic devel-opment, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council.

“But that was the only

way forward. The docu-ment was created by 23 people representing vari-ous business and primary sector groups, plus local and government author-ities. It is important to understand the strategy is not the end of the conver-sation, it is just the start.

“The MAF Acceler-ation Fund recognises smart irrigation infra-structure will increase New Zealand’s economic prosperity but it says any successful project must demonstrate and be com-mitted to good industry practice that promotes

efficient use of sustainable land management.”

Councils will use the resource planning and ini-

tiatives; so will farmers, growers, fishermen and environmentalists.

Graham Sevicke-Jones, manager environmental science, HBRC, says differ-ent systems needed to be managed in different ways. “Our region has sheep and beef and dairying, DOC, forestry and cropping and orchards.”

Sheep and beef farms still dominate the region. Dairy farms are mostly concentrated in Central Hawke’s Bay but dairying was minor here compared to the Waikato or South-land.

“There will be impli-cations for any intensifi-cation of farming and the challenge is to manage that within the landscape to achieve an objective. Each catchment in the community will have cer-tain values associated with it,” says Sevicke-Jones.

Central Hawke’s Bay farmer Hugh Ritchie, member of the reference group, says, “This and the land-water forum are great examples of how, if you front-row the system and have discussions, you work the issues through before you put a plan in

place. Consequently I think we’ll have a more enduring plan.

“We learned that everyone has to make some moves, includ-ing agriculture. How we allocate water limits and what that means for farm-ing is going to be a big pill to swallow. But at least having a process that iden-tifies the catchment limits is logical and sensible. Whether it’s cropping or dairying, it comes back to managing the land within the sustainable limits of that environment and the catchment,” he says.

Helen codlin

Additional water usage in Waikato dairy sheds will soon require consent.

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8 // news

Dairy prices tipped to swingsudesh kissun

dairy priCes will continue to fluctuate as economic uncertainty grips the EU and the US, says Fonterra chairman Henry van der Heyden.

“I think we will see prices up and down, there is no trend emerging,” he told Dairy News.

He says there is more milk in the market and demand remains strong. But the situation remains volatile. While not as bad as the global economic crisis of 2008, things

remain uncertain. Last week, an econo-

mist warned slow global growth could harm the export sector. New Zea-land Institute for Eco-nomic Research principal economist Shamubeel Eaqub says the fall-out from the European sov-ereign debt mess will depress export growth.

It will weigh on exports and tourism, which had been a buffer. Investment will remain depressed because banks will find it harder to raise capital overseas.

“New Zealand’s fledg-

ling recovery will be severely hampered by the rapidly worsening global economy,” Eaqub says. “If the Euro area splits, New Zealand firms should pre-pare for another global crisis. This would restrict access to capital and push up global borrowing costs, in addition to an even weaker export outlook. New Zealand would likely experience another reces-sion and the Reserve Bank would need to cut interest rates. We place the odds of such a scenario at about 25%”, says Eaqub.

He also believes inter-

est rate rises are off the table until mid-2013. “Faced with the darken-ing global outlook and weak domestic activity, the Reserve Bank will not raise the official cash rate (OCR) until mid-2013.

“Inflation will be con-tained as excess labour market capacity keeps a lid on wage growth and firms hold prices low to remain competitive. If the global situation worsens, the RBNZ will have to cut the OCR.”

But the ASB says despite the economic uncertainty, New Zea-

land’s is in a good space. “New Zealand’s agricul-tural sector is enjoying some of the best condi-tions for many years.” The bank expects the 2011-12 dairy payout to be the third highest on record.

In October Fonterra dropped its milk payout forecast for the 2011-12 season by 45c, blam-ing a continued softness in commodity prices and a stronger New Zealand dollar. It announced a revised payout forecast of $6.70-$6.80/kgMS, com-prising a lower farmgate milk price of $6.30/kgMS,

down from $6.75. The sea-son’s distributable profit range forecast of 40c-50c per share remained unchanged.

Fonterra’s 2010-11 payout of $8.25/kgMS before retentions is the highest in the co-op’s 10-year history.

The fall-out from the eU debt crisis is expected to affect New Zealand exports.

Worry clouds gather in Taranakipeter burke

dull weather is challenging dairy farmers in Taranaki. A lack of rain and sunshine is a concern, says DairyNZ consulting officer Jo Bishell.

It’s starting to dry out quite a bit in the region, prompting most farmers to say this is the lowest November rainfall for years. The region needs a dump of rain to get moisture levels up, she says.

“We’ve had frequent rain, but we haven’t had a lot of it, especially in the coastal areas. The guys there have com-plained about the lack of rain, more so than those inland and higher up. Lots of miserable days, but not a lot of rain.”

Despite the lack of rain, Bishell says there’s plenty of grass around, but pas-ture quality is the issue at the moment. “With the good growth we’ve had and

the weather not playing ball, it’s been difficult to get silage off. Also with the pasture quality going down, obviously milk solids have gone down and we are finding most farmers are 20% to 25% off

their peak production.”Bishell says cow condition in the

region is looking pretty good because the animals are being well fed. Most are putting on condition. “Most farmers we’ve been around in discussion groups say their cows are in good condition for this time of the year. A lot of herds will be sitting at between condition score 4.0 and 4.3,” she says.

Mating is going well with cows in good condition from last year. She says the cows appear to be holding well to AB and the non-return rates are quite high.

Bishell notices a slight reduction in herd sizes. Farmers are starting to drop their stocking rates and are feeding their cows better, she says. “Cows are geneti-cally superior and to reach their poten-tial they really need more feed to get there,” she says.

Coming into summer, Bishell says farmers should start pushing their rota-tion out – especially those coastal and mid-altitude farmers.

She says they should be getting close to a 30 day round and should also be thinking of putting on some urea to try and get some leaf into pasture which is starting to go to stalk. But she says this should not be done if it means not pinch feeding cows.

“Lots of miserable days, but not a lot of rain.”

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news // 9

Poor pasture cover threatens cow condition on some farms

A LACK of rain in Waikato is starting to cause problems, says DairyNZ scientist Dave Clark. He says the region has had only 35mm of rain in November and the prospects of more in the immediate future is limited.

These conditions have effectively halved pasture

growth rates. “Because of the higher temperatures we’ve had, that’s affected the metabolisable energy of the leaf and stem. So cows are getting hit by a double wammy: there’s not enough grass there and the grass that is there is of too low quality,” he says.

Clark says farmers are

feeding out supplements such as PKE and grain to hold up production.

He says he heard stories of farmer making silage two weeks ago and feeding it out now.

He says despite the present problems cow condition is holding up well.

waikato looking dry

peter burke

lower north Island farmers are struggling to find pasture to maintain their cows’ condition.

Tim Scotland, South-ern Rangitikei Veterinary Services (SRVS) blames this on poor weather, pas-ture quality going off and getting stalky. He says those farmers trying to do an all grass system are struggling to get enough feed into their cows and these physically can’t eat enough to meet require-ments.

Scotland says in the past month he’s had calls from farmers saying cows

were ‘crashing’ and what should they do. “They should be giving them as much grass as possible and adding in whatever sup-plements they have and try and keep up the feed

intakes. We know some farmers are running out of supplements, a problem for some,” he says.

Many farmers are using PKE because it’s readily

available;

others are using maize silage or whatever supple-ments they have including meal. Topping paddocks will help improve pasture quality, but a lot of farmers haven’t been able to get

out and do this because of sodden pastures. Farm-ers have also had problems getting in crops such as maize silage because of the wet ground.

Meanwhile the head of pasture science at Massey University, Professor Peter Kemp, says ryegrass

Farmers trying to do an all grass system are struggling to get enough feed into their cows.

is starting to mature and unless it’s grazed hard, the quality starts to drop away. He says farmers should be looking closely at their pastures to see what can be turned into silage. Feeding supplements may also be necessary.

Kemp says the rain may have caused a nitrogen deficiency in their soil and they should look at the option of applying urea, although there will be a lag before this takes effect.

“These conditions, especially the waterlog-ging on heavier soils, depletes oxygen in the soil. Roots don’t grow as well, so the plant doesn’t grow as well and you par-ticularly notice that when you get more tap rooted plants or crops. The water-logged conditions affect root growth.

“Also, wet soil is colder so the temperature drops a bit which slows the growth at this time of the year.” But on freer drain-ing soils, plants are grow-

ing better, he says.According to Kemp,

cloudiness or lack of sun-light can limit pasture growth. “Typically on a on a nice sunny day the sugar

levels in plants increase as they photosynthesise through the day, but when it’s cloudy the plant is struggling more to grow,” he says.

Pasture quality is going off in some areas.

dry weather is setting in.

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10 // news

Synlait’s Chinese link paying off

From left: david carter, Tim Groser, John Penno and Graeme milne with Synlait’s new baby formula.

milking the Value Chain

THE NEW factory will produce $1 million of product every 24 hours. It will consume 500m L of milk a year – 110 tanker-loads a day.

John Penno says the move from commodities to higher value products is significant for Synlait. “We’re starting to earn more from the same in-puts, from the same farms, the same fertiliser, the same labour

and it’s important for us to do that. “We’re aiming to put as much

as we can into finished cans because we can capture the most value for ourselves and for the country the further along the value chain we get.

“For us the strategy is about building volumes of this product because it’s so

much more valuable than the other products we can make.”

Canterbury dairy processor Synlait Milk has opened a $100 million baby formula plant and any day soon its Pure Can-terbury cans will appear on supermarket shelves in Shanghai – not bad for a company that a couple of years ago couldn’t raise the capital needed for expansion.

There’s already 200 tonnes of the new for-mula in China awaiting the product launch. The cans will retail for $80 each.

Synlait’s first infant for-mula customer is Chinese company Bright Dairies,

tony benny

ner earlier but the global financial crisis completely dried up any deals for a period and by the time it became clear listing the company wasn’t the right thing to do, that market was springing up again.

“We found our current partner Bright Dairy who as it happened were in the market looking for a com-pany who were going to make infant formula.”

The new Dunsandel factory is the largest infant formula plant in the south-ern hemisphere and Penno says it’s the most sophisti-cated. “It’s a state-of-the-art, world class plant that is getting the engagement of some of the best cus-tomers around the world,” he says.

Penno says the devel-opment is driven by surg-ing world demand for infant formula and that New Zealand is increas-ingly being recognised as

a source of quality dairy products.

“The plant we’ve built is large and it will be sup-plying lots of different cus-tomers; we would expect to be supplying up to ten customers in five coun-tries within 12 months. Bright is one of our cus-tomers but they’ll be one of many.”

The Pure Canterbury brand is owned by Bright and the cans feature green dairy pastures and a snow capped Southern Alps backdrop. “Actually the Chinese [wording] under Pure Canterbury is all about raising your family, investing in your family and the return you’ll get from that if you do it well,” Penno says.

Twenty eight new staff have been employed to run the plant which gen-eral manager Neil Bet-teridge says has hygiene standards the equivalent

of an operating theatre.“We do treat it like a

surgery,” he says. “From the moment the milk leaves the farm doesn’t touch a human hand. The New Zealand dairy indus-try is highly automated so it goes from the chilled tanker through process-ing... even sampling is automatic, packing’s auto-matic, so the powder and nutritional products are in their premium form when they get to the customer.

“The mix kitchen end we think is world leading,” says Betteridge. “We’re mixing up batches to the customers’ specification for their cans so every can has to be consistent and identical.

“It’s paramount we get it correct every time so we’ve invested a lot of money in automation and checking all those compo-sitional systems are accu-rate.”

also a 51% shareholder in Synlait. Bright acquired its stake after Synlait’s efforts to attract local investors and a New Zealand share-market float flopped.

“Things have a way of working themselves out don’t they,” says Synlait Milk chief executive John Penno. “We turned away from the New Zealand

market when it became clear they were signifi-cantly underpricing the company.

“We’d been in the market for a trade part-

“We turned away from the New Zealand market when it became clear listing the company wasn’t the right thing to do.” – John Penno

Synlait general manager Neil betteridge

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news // 13

SIDE pushed north by snowthe south Island Dairy Event (SIDE) is going to Otago for the first time in its 14-year history.

SIDE chairman and Southland farmer David Holdaway says the annual event, which normally alternates between Canterbury and Southland each June, was scheduled for Stadium Southland in 2012.

“But the rebuild of Stadium South-land following snow damage in 2010 is

taking longer than anticipated and we decided to shift the event to the Uni-versity of Otago, Dunedin. This is a great opportunity for SIDE in the Otago region and makes it easy for local dairy farmers to experience the three day event without travelling to Canterbury or Southland,” says Holdaway.

The theme for the 2012 event is ‘People, perception, pride’. Milton dairy farmer Brangka Munan is leading

the event committee for 2012 and says these recurring themes kept cropping up as the committee brainstormed the workshops programme.

“People are such an important part of the dairy industry. Ask any dairy farmer what the toughest part of the business is to get right and the answer most times will be ‘managing people’. Cows and grass is the easy part,” says Munan.

“And perception: is dairying the job

of last resort or the preferred career choice for our young school leavers? Perception really is reality and as dairy farmers we need to understand what practical things we can do to address the sometimes less-than-positive per-ceptions of dairying in the wider com-munity.”

He says the third aspect of the theme – pride – is something dairy farmers feel is in short supply in dairying today.

“Maybe it’s just a part of the Kiwi psyche, but we’re not good at broadcasting our successes. Dairying is a Kiwi success story but it seems if it doesn’t involve a ball of some sort, we don’t like making a big deal about it. We need to tell our fellow New Zealanders about our All Blacks in gumboots!”

SIDE 2012 will be held in the St David Complex, Otago University, Dunedin, June 25 – 27.

AnimAl welfAre review set for 2012

MAF’S STRATEGY and law amendment advisory group has been busy since July 2011.

Key partners and stakeholders in ani-mal welfare in New Zealand are also being contacted for their views about the system and its gaps.

In the group are people with a range of animal welfare perspectives, includ-ing on farm; pro-cessing; consumer; science; veterinarian; animal advocacy; and marketing and trade.

adVisory group

a maf-led animal wel-fare review goes out for public scrutiny early next year, after which a final strategy and proposal for law changes will go to the Minister of Agriculture.

MAF policy manager

Colin Holden says while New Zealand’s animal welfare system is among the best in the world, the boundary between accept-able and unacceptable treatment of animals is always evolving.

The strategy will help ensure New Zealand’s animal welfare system can respond to these changing expectations and endure long term, he says.

“This strategy devel-opment is also an oppor-tunity to strengthen and formalise animal wel-fare systems already in place, look at the roles and responsibilities of Govern-ment and other organisa-tions with animal welfare

interests, and develop a shared ‘NZ Inc’ view of animal welfare across all sectors, organisations and people.”

The public and animal health and welfare organ-isations – such as vets, animal industry groups, and advocacy groups – will be heard on the develop-ment of the strategy and the Act review.

Holden says recom-mendations to the Gov-ernment will reflect the views of the public and an advisory group drawn from key animal welfare organisations.

colin Holden

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news // 15

Jersey breeders are recognising animal evaluation expert Bill Montgomerie’s service to the industry.

Jersey New Zealand last month made him a life member and presented him with a special award.

Montgomerie has for 10 years been DairyNZ’s animal evaluation unit manager. He is also well-known nation-ally and internationally and considered an expert in animal evaluation.

In February 2011, Montgomerie was a guest speaker at the 19th World Jersey Conference hosted in New Zealand, speaking about milk production and jerseys. The presen-tation is used by Jersey Associations around the world in education programmes.

Jersey New Zealand president Brian Carter acknowl-edged Montgomerie’s 15-year role in herd improvement in New Zealand, saying his role in educating a wider audi-ence has had lasting effects on the industry.

Jersey honour

Jersey New Zealand president brian carter (left) presents the award to bill montgomerie.

NAIT split levy ‘a good compromise’andrew swallow

nait’s proposed split levy on tags and slaughter is probably the best compromise for the dairy sector, says Feder-ated Farmers.

The industry-owned company responsible for setting up the National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) scheme last week released a con-sultation document on how it intends to recover the anticipated $8.6m ini-tial cost of operating the scheme.

$1.6m will come from the Crown but the balance will be recouped by levy – 53.5% from dairy, 44.5% from beef, and 2% from deer.

The consultation doc-ument (see www.NAIT.co.nz) says these ratios have been discussed with industry leaders and “reflect the best under-standing of the rela-tive benefits and risks that each of the sectors

receives from the NAIT scheme.”

Feds dairy chairperson Willy Leferink, Ashbur-ton, says it remains to be seen what the benefits of the scheme will be. “Per-sonally I think it is more of a marketing advantage, and it might lead to some production increases for some people. We’ve had electronic animal identifi-cation on farm for 10 years and it’s been a huge ben-efit.”

As for the split between beef, dairy and deer, he says “it’s never fair but we’ve had a good look and it’s probably as fair to dairy farmers as it can be.”

NAIT’s proposal is an initial levy of $1.10/tag and $1.35/animal slaughtered in 2012-13, rising to $1.30/tag and $2.15/animal by 2014-15. A maximum total levy ceiling of $3.60 is sug-gested.

Subject to the NAIT Bill, expected to be passed in Parliament early next year, all animals leav-ing a farm from July 1,

2012, must have a NAIT-approved RFID tag and all farms grazing cattle must be registered.

For dairy farmers graz-ing cattle on arable prop-

erties over the winter that means their grazier needs to be registered with NAIT, and the movement on and off the farms will need recording, points

out Leferink.“We went through

the exercise last year and found it was no bad thing. We found some culls that were still there!”

NAIT has released a new discussion document on industry funding.

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16 // news

AFL, agents launch livestock venture

direCtor re-eleCted

ALIED FARMERS shareholders have re-elected director Andrew McDouall, whose advisory firm helped broker its acquisition of the Hanover and United loan books. At Allied’s annual meeting last week McDouall won the support of 73.5% of shareholders who voted.

The acquisition of the Hanover and United financial assets proved disas-trous for Allied, which was forced to slash the value of the loans, paid for by issuing new Allied shares, from their initial valuation of $394 million.

McDouall is an independent director.

liVestoCk agents are lending a hand to res-urrect Allied Farmers Ltd.

Backed by ANZ National Bank, a joint ven-ture was launched last week between AFL and its livestock agents. The new company, New Zea-land Farmers Livestock Ltd (NZFL) will be 70% owned by AFL and 30% by agents.

It will trade in all live-stock including the bobby calves, as previously traded by AFL. It also plans to grow the online sales platform MyLive-stock. Allied’s interests in its saleyards will not be transferred to NZFL, which will provide clear-ing and administrative ser-vices to AFL for livestock sales transactions at those saleyards.

NZFLA’s newly

appointed general man-ager livestock Bill Sweeney says it will be a business “that works with farmers, for farmers.”

“We hope farmers will support this opportunity to build a New Zealand business that will be rein-vesting here and totally committed to ensuring New Zealand farmers’ suc-cess.”

AFL chairman Garry Bluett says the agents’ investment in the live-stock business reflects their loyalty and the con-fidence the board and the agents have in the future of the livestock business.

“This will bring renewed focus on the needs of livestock clients, and a stable financial and business platform for the growth and development of our service to farmers”. A new banking arrange-ment with ANZ/National Bank will provide a solid

financial footing for the livestock business, he says.

As part of these new standalone arrange-ments, NZFL’s assets and trading accounts will be excluded from AFL’s existing security arrange-ments with AFL’s secured lender, Allied Nation-wide Finance, which is in receivership.

AFL will use the major-ity of the proceeds it receives from the trans-fer of assets into NZFL to reduce its secured loan from Allied Nationwide Finance.

AFL Rural chief execu-tive Steve Morrison notes NZFL will be the country’s largest 100% local-owned livestock agency.

“It will operate with significant agent own-ership, with its existing livestock staff and man-agement, and under the governance of a board bringing a wealth of farm-

sudesh kissun

ing, livestock and related business experience.

“NZFL will focus on maximising client out-comes and on improving livestock marketing sys-tems and options.... This

foundation, with farmer support, can continue and grow our contribution to farmers, and continue to improve farmer outcomes with the help of the NZ-wide network of similarly

focused livestock agents NZFL will work with.”

The parties are finalising the JV paperwork, and the market will be informed as documentation and

settlement is completed, AFL has told the Stock Exchange.

Allied Farmers heavy losses contributed to a decision this year to sell its merchandise stores. It reported a $41 million loss in the year ending June 30 2011, a $78m loss in the year to June 30 2010 and a $35m loss in the year ending June 30 2009.

Last month shares in the listed company were consolidated 1-100 bring-ing the total number of shares on issue to 90.8 million.

fArm trAininG for rookiesa new agricultural train-ing partnership begins next year in Northland to train people in general farm skills.

Launched by Tara-tahi Agriculture Train-ing Centre and NorthTec, the course has already accepted the first stu-dent for full-time study. This will include the Level 3 National Certificate in Farming Skills (Work Ready) and General Farm Skills Certificate.

NorthTec chief exec-utive Paul Binney says accepting the first enrol-ment was exciting. “We are busy assessing appli-

cations from students in Northland who want a career in agricul-ture. We have had a

positive response from regional farmers and the agricultural industry. –

skilled graduates with the right aptitude and attitude are vital to farming in the region.”

Taratahi, a Wairarapa farming education pro-vider, has campuses in Taranaki and Hawke’s Bay. It promises ‘real training on real farms’.

Students can now apply for a place on one of two Level 3 courses starting in January and through the year. The full-time course, in Whangarei during 2012, will teach students about sheep, cattle or dairy farm-ing.

Students will graduate with the skills needed for their first job. The Gen-eral Farm Skills Certifi-cate will provide those without any previous farm experience, or those seek-ing formal qualifications, an extensive range of options including health and safety, agri-chemicals, ATV use, fencing, feed budgeting, relief milking, calf rearing, animal health, soils and fertilisers, trac-tors and chainsaw use.

The tuition will be dif-ferent farms and venues in Northland.

Allied Farmers’ joint venture with livestock agents will develop it’s online trade.

Paul binney, chief executive NorthTec, and donovan Wearing, chief executive Taratahi Agricultural Training centre, shake on the partnership, which will see agricultural training for students in Northland for 2012.

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news // 17

rewards elude nZfsusudesh kissun

struggling farm operator New Zealand Farming Systems Uruguay (NZFSU) is a long way from profitability, chair-man Vivek Verma says.

Speaking at its annual meeting last month in Auckland, Verma, who rep-resents Singapore-based majority shareholder Olam International, says high operation costs are the biggest challenge.

NZFSU, developing and running dairy farms in Uruguay, posted a $US8.7 million loss for year ending June 30 2011. Last year it lost $US8m.

Verma describes 2010-11 as “a fairly tumultuous year” for the listed com-pany with big challenges for management, includ-ing changes in senior man-agement and operating strategy.

In Olam’s first take-over attempt it increased its stake from 18% to 78%. A second bid took its stake to 86%. A small group of minority shareholders, led by New Zealand inves-tors, are holding out and refusing to allow Olam to buy the remaining shares. Verma says consideration of a rights issue has also

distracted the NSFSU management.

Nevertheless the com-pany increased revenue by 90.8% to $US43m in 2011, chiefly by increas-ing milk production from 68m L to 105m L, and via an increase in average milk price from US28.3c/L to 38.1c/L.

But Verma says the company is not yet fulfill-ing its potential. “While I am confident the com-pany is now progressing well towards implement-

ing a profitable pasture-based dairy farming model in Uruguay, there is still a long way to go. Challenges remain in executing the business plan and crystal-lising the value of the com-pany.”

Challenges include completing development to raise the number of dairies from 38 to 50; real-ising plans for infrastruc-ture such as electricity, irrigation and housing; increasing milk produc-tion and the number of cows, and raising per-cow production. Training senior managers also is a challenge.

Most challenging is cutting the cost of pro-duction. In the last finan-cial year, the average cost of production was close to

US48c/L and the current year’s budget is US30c/L. Current cost of produc-tion is way above budget. The business plan shows cost of production at under US25c/L at maturity in 2014-15.

At the annual meet-ing, minority shareholders approved a loan exten-sion without which the company’s expansion

plans would have come to a halt. The credit limit under the Olam loan will increase from $US85m to $US110m, and the term will be extended by 12 months to become repay-able by December 31 next year. This funding is required for continued development; capital rais-ing will again be reviewed in 2012.

in brief

three new directorsNeW ZeALANd Farming Systems Uruguay

has appointed three independent directors. They join majority shareholder Olam’s four rep-resentatives on the board.

The independents are Taranaki dairy farmer rob Poole, lawyer Tim Storey and professional company director Peter Wilson. They replace John roadley and Graeme Wong, who retired at the annual meeting.

NZFSU chairman Vivek Verma thanked road-ley, a former Fonterra chairman, and Wong for their contribution. NZFSU has benefited from roadley’s governance experience and farming knowledge, he says.

“John has huge enthusiasm for the opportu-nity in Uruguay, and in three and a half years he has personally visited Uruguay eight times on behalf of the company. With his contributions John has gained tremendous respect within the board and among managers and staff in Uruguay.

“Graeme has expertly chaired the audit com-mittee. In the last year alone, he has worked hard during the two takeover offers, capital raising discussions and Olam loan negotiations with professionalism, willingness and untiring patience.”

New Zealand Farming Systems Uruguay is a long way from profitability, shareholders have been told.

“Challenges remain in executing the business plan and crystallising the value of the company.”

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18 // world

in briefs

uk farmers seek better pricesuk DAiry farmers want milk buy-ers to come forward with a price rise this month.

Speaking after a meeting of the national dairy board recently, NFU dairy chairman mansel raymond says price rises are needed to en-sure farmers have the confidence and cash to stay in business.

This summer the UK sat at the bottom of the eU price league table – 4p/L below the average, he says.

“Today, despite farm gate price rises between 1p/L and 2p/L this autumn, the average UK farmer is still only seventh from the bottom of the league table and 3.25p/L below the average price.

“What’s more, prices remain below the value of milk accord-ing to key UK market indicators for milk, cheese equivalent and actual milk price equivalent.

“There is some good news. Some farmer confidence has been built over the past six months re-sulting from recent price rises and a strong demand for dairy.

parmalat says sorryITALIAN dAIrY processor Parma-lat has apologised to Venezuelan President Hugo chavez after a public spat over alleged milk hoarding by the dairy company’s local unit.

“We respectfully offer our sincere apologies,” Parmalat said in a letter to chavez published by local media, saying it had failed to communicate its position clearly over authorities’ confiscation of some milk.

With the high cost of living a sensitive electoral issue, the Ven-ezuelan government is examining the food sector and has legislated new price caps and checks for speculation.

In the Parmalat case, authori-ties last week confiscated some of its milk products and accused the company of hoarding. It responded by saying the govern-ment was shooting itself in the foot because some products were for state bodies.

That prompted a furious reac-tion from chavez, and he ordered an official probe.

Bank tips dairy prices to falla leading Australian bank predicts dairy prices will weaken in the medium term as a large exportable surplus builds in key pro-ducing countries.

The 2011-12 Austra-lian dairy season is off to a strong start with solid output in Australia. But combined with surpluses in New Zealand and north-ern hemisphere coun-tries, this boost to Oceania supply is likely to lead to further price falls for dairy.

NAB says Austra-lian milk production is expected to rise another 2.2% in 2011-12 and New Zealand’s by 5%. This is forecast to lead to a 7% fall in prices from 2010-11 levels.

NAB agribusiness gen-eral manager Khan Horne says milk production to date in 2011 is 2% higher than the same time last year, driven by strong sea-sonal conditions in many dairy regions, falling feed costs and favourable pric-ing.

“Much of the increase has been coming from northern and western Vic-torian, where produc-

tion is up 11.4% and 5.5% respectively. We’ve also seen a 10% jump in Tas-mania.” Meanwhile, a strong season in the northern hemisphere has resulted

in a considerable export-able surplus.

Global demand has not kept pace with supply, and the key question is who is going to absorb this sur-plus? says Horne.

“Looking ahead, these market fundamentals point to further falls in the world dairy price during the year, but it’s important to note that prices are still 48.5% above their average over the past decade,” says Horne.

Much of the increase in Australian production is coming from northern and western Victoria, where year-to-date production is up 11.4% and 5.5%, respec-

tively. Similarly, Tasma-nian dairy has looked solid so far this year, with year-to-date production up 10.2% while New South Wales is up 2.9%.

In contrast, Queensland and Western Australia are down at least 8% while South Austra-lia is down 3.1%. Overall, Horne expects Australian dairy production to reach 9.3 billion L in 2011-12 as a result of favourable con-ditions coming into the spring flush while water storage levels remain healthy for key producers along the east coast. This represents an increase of 2.2% on 2010-11 levels.

THE PEAK in the recent cycle in dairy prices has well and truly passed, with prices having now declined for seven consecutive months, says NAB.

On a product weighted basis, average Australian dairy prices in October were down 1.3% in US dollars and are down 10.4% since peaking in March.

Driving price falls through the

month were largely falls in anhy-drous milkfat, casein and butter. In contrast, prices for milk powders and cheese have been relatively flat in recent weeks.

A steady production response has been the catalyst to falling prices. In the northern hemisphere, a fairly solid season in the EU and US resulted in solid gains on last years’ production.

market CorreCtion Continues

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A2 milk flows to ukbritain’s biggest fresh milk company, Robert Wiseman Dairies, is teaming up with A2 Corporation to introduce a range of A2 Milk products next year.

A2 Milk is milk from cows selected to produce only A2 beta-casein protein, the ‘original milk protein’ all dairy cows produced prior to natural genetic variation said to have occurred several thousand years ago, leading to the appearance of A1 beta-casein protein in dairy herds.

Milk containing A1 and A2 beta-casein is a “nutritious and healthy food” and in Britain most fresh milk for sale contains both types of beta-casein protein, says a Robert Wiseman statement.

“In Australia, where A2 Milk has been available for a number of years, many people who have self-diagnosed intolerance of milk but are not medically diagnosed as being lactose intolerant, are finding their symptoms are improved or alleviated by drinking A2 Milk.

“That’s because they are likely to be reacting to the impact of the beta-casein

protein in milk as opposed to the lactose.“Studies have shown that as many as

one in five people in western countries believe they are intolerant to dairy and

find it hard to digest milk.”But according to the UK National

Health Service only one in 20 people in Britain is lactose intolerant.

Robert Wiseman Dairies managing director Billy Keane says introducing A2 Milk alongside existing fresh milk products can bring people back to dairy and grow the market for fresh milk in Britain. “We look forward to working with customers and suppliers to introduce A2 Milk in the UK.”

A2 Corporation managing director Geoffrey Babidge believes the UK fresh milk market could gain a new following of consumers seeking the benefits of A2 Milk.

“A2 Corporation is delighted to partner with Robert Wiseman

Dairies in introducing this dairy product into this market.”

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world // 21

Big R&D spend by Oz dairymendairy austra-lia spent $A51 million on industry-good activi-ties in the 2010-11 year. In a year of contrasting for-tunes across the nation’s dairy regions, the national research and service body spent $A33.8m on R&D and $A17.2m on indus-try services. The Dairy Services Levy provided $A33.1m of income, with $A18.8m of matching Aus-tralian Federal Govern-ment funds.

Dairy Australia chair-man Max Roberts told its annual meeting recently the figures were not too dissimilar to when Dairy Australia was formed in 2003, when spending was $A52m,

“Then, industry con-tributed 60% to Dairy Aus-tralia’s operating funds; now it is 55% of funds,” says Roberts.

“While the dollar fig-ures may be the same, the programmes we invest in have come a long way. Our projects are more targeted, resulting in

research and extension which has helped drive profitability and deliv-ered value back to farm-ers and their businesses, whether through feed con-version efficiency or natu-ral resource management, ensuring dairy has a voice in the health and nutrition debate, protecting indus-try reputation or keeping the door open to key inter-national markets.”

Dairy Australia manag-ing director Ian Halliday

says under the organi-sation’s new strategic plan for 2012-16, 45% of funds would continue to go towards improving farm margins and growth opportunities, while 25% would be poured into pro-moting and protecting dairy’s value and integrity and close to 20% would go to growing skills and capa-bility.

“Looking ahead to the next five years, and with the difficulties of recent events in mind, our plan aims to accommodate the regional diversity of our

industry and acknowl-edges the need to acceler-ate adoption of research to sustain profitable farm and manufacturing busi-nesses,” says Halliday.

Halliday acknowledged the floods, cyclones and drought affecting dairying regions around the nation in the past 12 months.

“Dairy Australia pro-vided strong support to levy payers and the broader industry to cope with these challenges during the past year through practical solu-tions, direct action and on-the ground support.

“However, many parts of south east Austra-lia experienced the most favourable conditions in a decade coupled with strong export demand and competition. Thus the medium term outlook for dairy is positive for these dairy regions based on population and income growth and changes in diet of emerging economies in Asia and the Middle East and continued consump-tion growth per capita in Asia.

“And predictions also indicate national dairy consumption will increase at about 2% per annum.”

Throughout 2010-11 Dairy Australia also sup-ported the Australian Dairy Industry Council (ADIC) in analysing and understanding the potential impacts of domestic policy and market initiatives such as the proposed carbon pricing mechanism, the Murray Darling Basin Plan, supermarket milk price cuts, changes to animal welfare standards, the National Food Plan, food labelling and the Austra-lian Dietary Guidelines.

■ Implementing the Dairy Moving Forward pre-farm gate investment in research, devel-opment and extension, which covers animals, feed base management, natural resource management, people and farm management.

■ Developing a dairy and sports performance project in part-nership with the Australian Institute of Sport which aims to increase awareness of milk’s

unique role in exercise and sport performance;

■ Launching the new automatic milking rotary with key investors at Camden in NSW, which has led to the first commercial AMR being installed in Tasmania.

■ Establishing the dairy industry People Development Council, which will further help address the challenge of attracting, retaining and developing people.

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22 // opinion

ruminating

editorial

milking it...

22 // opinion

Head Office: Top Floor,29 Northcroft St, Takapuna,Auckland 0622 Phone 09-307 0399. Fax 09-307 0122

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Dairy News is published by Rural News Group Limited. All editorial copy and photographs are subject to copyright and may not be reproduced without prior written permission of the publisher. Opinions or comments expressed within this publication are not necessarily those of the staff, management or directors of Rural News Group Limited.

ABC audited circulation 27,326 as at 30.6.2011 ISSN 1175-463X

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blue all the way

milking dairy’s plightONE QUEENSLAND farmer is not sitting and watching his business sink�

Fed up with impos-sible competition from the supermarket giants, Coast dairy farmer Graham MacIntyre created his own brand to enter the fray� Demand for Queensland Milk has doubled since the operation started in late September�

He is blown away by the support locally and across the state�

“I can’t believe the sup-port we’ve received� I think it’s because consumers are sympathetic to the plight of dairy farmers and under-stand Queensland Milk is a small outfit trying to keep dairy farmers in business,” says MacIntyre�

The brand could be sustaining 20 dairy farmers by July next year, he says�

“My family have been dairy farmers for 100 years and I didn’t want to stop dairy farming, but I couldn’t get a decent price at the farm gate – a price that made it worth my while to keep farming�”

green tideTHE GREEN Party is a big winner: at least 13 MPs in the new Parliament� Some are wasting no time in signalling they will fight for water quality�

The dairy sector is all for clean, quality water� But our humble plea to the Greens is not to forget giving credit to the major-ity of dairy farmers, who champion sustainability and keep their rivers and streams clean�

don undoneTHE ONE high-profile farmer candidate who didn’t make the grade was former Federated Farmers president Don Nicolson who stood for ACT in Clutha Southland�

While he probably never expected to beat Bill English, he might have hoped for a better show-ing than being pipped by ‘candidate’ informal votes and being 1567 votes behind the Green Party candidate�

Incidentally English got nearly 19,000 votes more than Nicolson�

political karmaMILKING IT was bemused at claims by commenta-tors at what a great loss Stuart Nash will be to New Zealand politics with his – and others – demise in the Labour Party’s rout in the general election�

While those in Wel-lington’s out-of-touch beltway and the Labour Party may be mourn-ing Nash’s loss, it’s a fair bet most dairy farmers are enjoying the political up-and-comer getting his political come-uppance!

Only a few months ago, the smarmy Nash released ‘figures’ claiming the average dairy farmer was paying less tax than a couple on the pension and he questioned whether agriculture is paying its way� Most savvy com-mentators rejected his comparison saying the figures were based on turnover rather than profit, which all businesses were taxed on�

With this attitude about farming it’s no surprise Labour again took a drubbing in the rural booths� There won’t be too much sympathy in the countryside for Nash after his nasty tirade�

JOHN KEY has the mandate to run the country for another three years.

Though agonisingly short of an absolute majority, he has sup-port of ACT and United Future to govern. Again he has extended a hand to the Maori Party, which has seen its numbers slashed from five to three. But that is our MMP electoral system at its best.

With market volatility gripping the EU and the US, it’s imper-ative we have a stable government.

And Key is the man to deliver it. The election results haven’t been officially ratified – counting of special votes is still going on – but it’s clear the rural sector has again put its trust in Key and National.

Except West-Coast Tasman, which Damien O’Connor has wrested back from National’s Chris Auchinvole, all rural elec-torate seats remain blue.

Interestingly, West Coast-Tasman, a large area geographi-cally, is one of the best represented in the country.

Not only does it have O’Connor as its electorate MP, Auch-invole is back because of his position on the list and so is Kevin Hague, Greens.

Last week National’s David Carter was keen to continue as Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Biosecurity.

There’s a lot of unfinished business over water, and making sure we get a sensible emissions trading policy, he says. There is also a push by National for more irrigation of farmland, and a priority to keep New Zealand’s biosecurity arrangements on top of the game.

Like Carter, Labour’s agriculture spokesperson O’Connor is waiting to see if he retains his shadow portfolios. He expects asset sales and foreign ownership of farms to be high on the list of issues he’ll be battling the Government on. Fonterra’s share trading plan is another issue where the debate isn’t over for O’Connor.

But farmers need not worry about Labour for three years. National’s rural broadband plan will continue its roll out. And agriculture will not be forced into the emissions trading scheme (ETS).

National will only consider agriculture for the ETS when practical technologies are available to enable farmers to reduce their emissions and more progress is made by our trading part-ners to reduce their emissions.

The incoming Government faces a tough task. But it can be assured the rural sector will put its shoulder to the wheel to keep the country growing.


opinion // 23

Councils have got it wrong

I REFER to an effluent article (Dairy News November 22) report-ing regional councils are penalising farms for pollution� It is not farmers’ fault; it is the result of the toxic chemical fertilisers they use�

Somewhere in every farming magazine is mention of phos-phates and nitrates being the two main causes of soil erosion and water pollution� The toxicity of these products is such that it destroys the life of the soil, the biology and the micro-organisms� These little creatures are part and parcel of

the recycling system, taking all waste falling upon the soil and turn-ing it back into soil�

Once you destroy this life your soil becomes compacted and lifeless� There is no life to process the animal waste or effluent, so given suf-ficient water it runs off into our waterways and lakes, along with the phosphates and nitrates�

Councils don’t like that but they have it all wrong� Their greedy little eyes can only see the problem� They refuse to look at the cause: syn-thetic phosphates and

FONTERRA SUPPLIERS who keep breaching effluent management rules should face a milk collection ban, say respondents to Rural News Group’s weekly online poll.

According to 99% of respondents, Fonterra should not collect milk from farms where effluent management breaches are common.

Regional councils say basic errors by dairy farmers are hindering 100% ef-fluent management compliance. A small number of farm-ers repeatedly flout effluent rules, the councils says. They

want Fonterra to take a harder line on these farmers.

Fonterra has doubled its team of sustainable dairy specialists. And it has launched ‘Every Farm Every Year’ to help farmer share-holders improve compliance with council effluent rules.

Since its launch in August 2010, assessors from AsureQuality have visited all 10,500 supplying farms, checking if efflu-ent infrastructure is compliant, non-compliant or at risk of non-compliance.Visit www.ruralnews.co.nz for this week’s poll.

support for milk ban

nitrates� They refuse to recognise the cause because it may upset the chemical fertiliser industry and they wouldn’t want that� It’s easier to let the pollution continue and penalise and fine the farmers� That’s good revenue – yeah right�

New Zealand needs its farmers� These are

hard-working people and agriculture is our biggest export earner� There is a better way, where we can keep improving our agricul-tural production and improve our environ-ment at the same time� All you need is a live soil to make it happen�John k morrisAgrissentials

ONLINE POLLWho should control the industry-good dairy core database?● LIC/DairyNZ joint venture● Independent body● LIC● DairyNZ

Have your say at: www.dairynews.co.nz


influential business leader Sue Lindsay has joined the board of the Dairy Women’s Network (DWN), replacing founding member Christina Baldwin, who retired last month.

Her presence on the board cements DWN as a force in rural women’s lead-ership, and is a personal commitment to see more women move into leader-ship in the industry, says DWN chair Michelle Wilson.

“Sue’s high level of energy and inspirational vision for female lead-ership will be familiar to anyone who has attended some of our conferences in recent years,”

Lindsay brings an affinity for the rural sector, having grown up on a farm near Winton and running it for three years following her father’s death.

She was head of rural supplies com-pany CRT in Southland for nine years, doubling revenues for the Top 200 company and instilling commitment and passion for service in staff. She has since worked closely with rural women, developing and running BNZ’s Women

in Agribusiness leadership courses and collaborating with international busi-ness consultant Tom Peters.

“Over the years I have seen DWN develop a strong nurturing environ-

ment, helping women develop on a personal and professional level. There is a wealth of confidence and compe-tence in the group and many members are ready to step up within the agribusi-ness industry,” Lindsay says.

She believes it was far sighted and visionary work by DWN founding mem-bers to establish a strongly internet-driven forum for dairying women. This structure helped women get together on line and has helped network num-bers build quickly.

“Women need to be able to connect

easily given the busy lives so many have. The internet-based network has helped dairying women collaborate well and has made the network a body highly regarded, reflected in the calibre of its

sponsors and respect it is given.”Lindsay’s latest research work helps

her identify and promote potential leaders from within DWN ranks. She is about to release The Feminine Perspec-tive – the role of women in the New Zea-land economy.

“Global research indicates women are involved in 64% of all buying deci-sions, but our work indicates it is nearer 70% in New Zealand. I suspect it is even higher for women involved in dairying businesses.”

Despite this level of influence, she

is concerned at the low level of involvement women have beyond the farm gate in New Zealand agribusiness.

“Only 11.8% of positions on New Zealand agribusiness boards are filled by females, and that figure needs to be at least 30% to generate the critical mass to have meaningful impact.”

She sees DWN as the ideal incuba-tor to push the talent there onto those boards, given the number of women already key partners in dairy businesses rivalling many corporates for turnover and staff levels.

In seeking great leaders for inspira-tion, Lindsay cites Air New Zealand’s chief executive Rob Fyfe and Howard Schultz of Starbucks as two leaders who understand the need to engage their people at all levels of the business to achieve the organisation’s full poten-tial sustainably.

“The level of engagement of staff in many businesses is low, and there is a

need for us to re-examine how we get generation Y engaged with companies. It is time for a new leadership story and without a commitment to that change a leadership crisis looms.

“There are many studies that show a balance of male and female leaders is beneficial to a company in all respects. We are simply not seeing that in New Zealand agribusiness.

“DWN has created a critical mass of like minds and will be a key driver for dairying women wanting to advance to leadership positions in the agri sector in coming years, it’s great to be part of that from the inside now.”

24 // agribusiness

Lindsay joins women’s network board

Sue Lindsay

“The internet-based network has helped dairying women collaborate well and has made the network a highly regarded body.”

– Sue Lindsay

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fonterra has paid its farmer shareholders a whopping $65 billion over the last 10 years.

The co-op, which celebrated its 10th birthday in October, paid out a record $10.6b to farmers in the 2010-11 season ending July 31 this year. The record payout is $1.5b more than its previous best year 2007-08.

Fonterra chairman Henry van der Heyden says as a cooperative 100% con-trolled and owned by Kiwi farmers that money flows back into the local econ-omy as farmers reinvest in businesses and buy more farm supplies and equip-ment.

“Most definitely, what’s good for Fonterra is great for New Zealand,” he

told Fonterra’s recent annual meeting in Whangarei.

But he cautioned farmers that while dairy brought economic benefits, people were concerned about its effect on the environment.

“At the same time, we must recognise many people worry the eco-nomic benefits of dairying are at risk of being eroded by envi-ronmental costs. We must demonstrate to all our stakeholders that we embrace sustainabil-ity across our entire business.”

Van der Heyden says Fonterra’s 2011

results show dairy’s in a sweet spot. “In all our key markets, economic and lifestyle trends are fuelling consumer

demand for quality dairy products and opening

new opportunities for Fonterra. In the past

year, these trends underpinned record returns for share-holders.”

High commod-ity prices flowed

into a farmgate milk price of $7.60/kgMS

despite a high Kiwi dollar.

Fonterra’s cur-rency hedg-

ing shielded it from the full

brunt of a stronger Kiwi dollar.Earnings were also strong,

distributable profit hitting a new record of 65c/share, from which it paid 30c as dividend.

Van der Heyden says some farmers questioned the need for high retentions given its strong balance sheet – one of the co-op’s most important defences in volatile times. “And that’s what we are facing in the world right now.”

Fonterra’s total revenues for the 2010-11 year reached $19.9b, $60 million more than its previous record earnings of 2007-08.

At the top end of the earning scale, anhydrous milk fat (AMF) prices were up 56% on the previous year and butter

milkpowder (BMP) nearly 46% up. Prices for whole milkpowder (WMP) and skim milkpowder (SMP) combined rose nearly 25% on the previous year.

26 // agribusiness

Fonterra’s $65b economy boosterrecord exports

FONTERRA’S Asia/Africa, Middle East business was the best per-former of its consumer segments.

Underlying earnings were up 12% on the previous year in a chal-lenging operating environment. The co-op enjoyed double digit growth in most of the key markets in Sri Lanka, Middle East, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Expansion into China led to consumer revenues in that market increasing 77%. Vietnam revenues were up 39%.

Chief financial officer Jona-than Mason says with continuing

economic strength in many Asian and Middle East mar-kets, especially relative to many other parts of the world, these areas look good for Fonterra.

But it was a tough year in the Australia/New Zealand (ANZ) business. Underlying earnings were down 17%.

ANZ is nevertheless a suc-cess story for Fonterra, says Mason. “Our cumulative av-erage growth rate over the last three years shows an EBIT of 11.5%.

“We have one of the largest

dairy consumer businesses in Australia and New Zealand with leading market shares in its target

product categories. ANZ has done well against some of its peers in both countries and our sales volumes actually grew slightly, by 0.7%, despite the difficult market con-ditions.

“Overall, our ANZ business remains in sol-id shape and we have a great portfolio of dairy brands and a strong base

of consumer loyalty. We hold lead-ing spots with cheese, spreads, yo-ghurts and dairy desserts in New

Zealand and Australia. In New Zea-land specifically we lead in milk, flavoured milk and ice cream.”

Latin America remains a key part of the Fonterra structure and its business in Chile, Soprole, was the star of the show.

Soprole, the largest business under Latam, grew its consumer business in Chile where it already has a strong market position. It’s been posting strong growth in lo-cal currency terms over recent years and 2011 was no exception with a 12.5% increase in revenue, says Mason.

stars line up in asia

MARCH 2011 saw the Fonterra’s biggest ever month for exports – 229,000 tonnes was sent overseas.

At that point the co-op was closing an export container every 2.6 minutes – 560 containers a day.

That month alone it injected about $1.2 billion into the New Zealand economy, says chief financial officer Jonathan Mason.

Henry van der Heyden

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management // 29

it’s all in the soil

“The basis of everything as far as organic farming is concerned is the soil.”

Ian and Anne cumming.

Good soil health (left) reduces animal health worries (right) on the cummings’ farm.

peter burke

feed the soil and pas-ture will look after itself. That message from Wood-ville organic dairy farmers Ian and Anne Cumming on whose property a recent field day was held to explain the success of their philosophy.

Ian Cumming’s family has farmed this prop-erty for three generations. Sheep, beef and deer until 1995 when they bought a neighbouring dairy farm and moved into cows.

The organic ‘spark’ came in 2004 when, in an unscientific and unplanned event, urea went on one paddock but not the next. Both pad-docks produced the same milk solids even though milk volume increased on the urea paddock. So the Cummings and their sharemilkers Graeme and Cynthia Lett started down the organic

path and have never looked back. They began organic farming in 2009.

The farm just out-side Woodville, Tararua, is 250ha (170ha milk-ing). A further 58ha is used as a run-off, 22ha is in trees, wetlands and util-ity areas. The property is

flat/rolling river terrace due to its proximity to the Manawatu River.

430 Friesian/Jersey cross cows are milked on the farm and usually pro-duce 130,000kg/MS per year. Last year was a blip due to terrible weather; production was down to 112,000kgMS.

Currently their stock-ing

rate is 2.5/ha. But there is more to the Cummings’ farming than just num-bers. Their philosophy of farming and land cus-tody is to leave the land in a better state than before they took over.

“The basis of organic farming is the soil. Get the

soil right and you get the health of the pasture right, and the crops and the live-stock. Also you get right the health of the people working on the farm and the people eating the product. It’s an ongoing process.”

Cumming has spent a lot of time reading

books and surfing the internet to learn more about ways to get the soil biology right. Much has been written and he fil-ters information to sort what will work on their farm from what works in the UK or the US. Ian and Anne and their sharemilk-ing partners attend dis-cussion groups run by Bill Quinn, OrganicsAg, where the learning process is ongoing.

A surprise to the Cum-mings is reduced animal health problems. “One of our big concerns when we started was how to deal with animal health prob-lems. But these have faded away. I’m not saying they are gone, but we don’t seem to have ‘downer cow’ problems and at this stage mating looks like it’s improving.”

Use of Agrisea animal health tonic and homeo-

pathic remedies from Homeopathy Farm Ser-vices is credited for keeping the stock in

good shape.

The biggest problem facing Cumming is butter-cup – pretty to some but a headache to get rid of. Again Cumming believes the answer lies in the soil and his approach is quite different to that of a con-ventional farmer. “It’s about getting the soil right and adding grass species that will do the same job. When you see a weed in a conventional system you see it as a plant you don’t want, but in an organic

system you look at a plant and ask why is it growing.”

He has looked at vari-ous ways of controlling the buttercup, including cut-ting it and making changes to the fertility of the soil, but there is still a prob-lem, although it’s less. The biologically active effluent and Agrisea pasture and soil nutrition on the whole farm, as their organic fer-tiliser, helps feed the biol-ogy of the soil.

“With a conventional system you put on fer-tiliser that feeds the plant, and the ground is really just a medium. But in a biological system you feed the biololgy and then let it do the job. It’s a case of feeding the soil not the plant, because the soil will do that for you.”

Cumming feels they have turned the corner in development of their farm and are starting to get rewards for their hard

work. They remain com-mitted to improving the property for the next gen-eration and also are con-fident about the future of organic farming.

While Fonterra is phas-ing out the premium on organic milk, the Cum-mings have another four years to run on their con-tract. They are philosophi-cal about this and believe in organics.

“Someone in the UK did a report recently that highlighted the need for more food to be pro-duced in the world. Con-ventional systems are one way but there is still a big demand for organics and natural farming practices that work with the planet and not against it. There may not always be the pre-mium but there is cer-tainly the demand. People want to know where food is coming from and that it’s safe.”

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MINDA PUTS YOU IN CONTROL

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management // 31

Science enters grass debate

a Comparison trial on the NSW north coast this summer will assess the nutritional values of popular summer grasses and forages and add more sci-ence to the debate on which species is most valuable for milk production.

Supported by Dairy Australia’s pro-gramme ‘Subtropical Dairy,’ the trial will compare four perennial grasses – kikuyu, setaria, paspalum and Rhodes – and the forage crops millet and sor-ghums.

These are all C4 forages, more adapted to warm or hot seasonal conditions under moist or dry environments; all have only moderate nutrient quality, generally well below that of temperate species like ryegrass and prairie grass.

But, says project leader Bill Fulker-son, an authority on tropical pastures and now a field officer with the Norco milk processing co-op, well managed kikuyu, and probably setaria, are good for 14 L/day for a Holstein-Friesian cow. That should rise to 18 L/cow with 4-5kg of grain, plus minerals deficient in these

grasses, and that would be “cheap milk”. Fulkerson says the trials will manage

the four grasses to optimise qual-ity, based on regional experience with kikuyu, and with best management of the millet and sorghums.

“A good deal of research has been undertaken on management require-ments for kikuyu, the main objective being to optimise nutrient quality.

“But the persistence of kikuyu is often poor because of the fungal disease kikuyu yellows and this, and subsequent difficulty in re-establishing kikuyu, has created interest in growing one of the three other summer grasses or in millet or sorghum to provide summer feed.

“NSW north coast dairy farmers have widely differing views on the ben-efits of the six forages, based mainly on anecdotal evidence.

“But recent analysis of setaria indi-cates its nutrient quality can be as good as kikuyu if managed in a similar way. That includes an appropriate grazing interval, mulching to encourage higher quality new leaf and adequate fertilis-ing.”

Fulkerson says a major issue for the trial is the problem in growing the for-

ages under conditions that would allow for a valid comparison but still within a dairy context.

The slow and unreliable establish-ment of the four grasses – perhaps up to three years to grow uniform swards – made it impossible to start the study at this point.

“We needed to compare perfor-mance over a number of on-farm sites where two or more grass species were already established, allowing inter-rela-tion of data.

“Paddocks chosen on a particu-lar farm would need to have had simi-lar paddock histories, with similar soil nutrient levels, confirmed in the spring and remedied by application of appro-priate fertilisers.”

For the grasses, appropriate manage-ment would be to graze at 4-4 ½ leaves per tiller – about every two weeks in mid-summer – and mulch back after grazing several times during summer to promote leaf growth. Every second grazing would be followed by applica-tion of about 50kg/ha of nitrogen fer-tiliser.

Fulkerson discussed “management of summer grasses for optimum milk

production” at a Subtropical Dairy field day in Casino.

He says kikuyu is the dominant summer pasture on coastal dairy farms and, while it is capable of high summer growth, milk pro-duction could be limited by the grass’s relatively low quality.

Cows grazing kikuyu could produce up to 14 L milk/day – still much less than the 18-20 L expected from ryegrass – as long as the kikuyu was well managed and the cows were supplemented with high, energy-dense, cereal based feed as well as minerals to address deficiencies in the grass.

Cereal based con-centrates could be fed to achieve higher milk production and the response to the first 3-4kg/cow/day was excellent.

On the pasture side, grazing inter-vals had to be managed to maximise the amount of kikuyu leaf available to cows and reduce the development of stems.

Grazing at the 4 ½ leaf stage provided the highest proportion of leaf and the highest quality grass for cow consump-tion, he says.

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32 // management

non-stop milking with batch joininginCreasing num-bers of Australian dairy farmers in hot regions are using batch joining to achieve year round milk supply while avoid-ing joining over the hot, humid months when cows are at risk of heat stress and pregnancy rates are lower.

Heat stress is caused by either high tempera-tures or a combination of heat and humidity.

Heat stress compli-cates reproductive man-agement: cows in the first three weeks of preg-nancy may abort; cows are more likely to have silent heats, shortened heats or reduced in-calf rates.

Stewart Scott, a vet with Barn Veterinary Ser-vices at Muswellbrook, NSW, says while batch joining has very good ben-efits for the herd and the farming system, the life-style benefits were also

attractive.“Farmers can achieve

year round milk supply by joining the herd to calve in one, two or more batches. Regardless of the number of batches, managers avoid joining over the hot humid months, say from new year’s day to Anzac Day,” says Scott.

A typical approach would be joining in three batches a year, with each joining period lasting about six weeks; eg May-mid June; August-mid September and Novem-ber-mid December.

“Most of the herds in our area have 500 cows or more and each comes up with a slightly different joining pattern. There’s flexibility to adapt batch joining to the individual situation and still achieve the benefits,” he says.

In terms of labour and lifestyle, the batch joining system with a break over

the summer makes Janu-ary a fairly easy month.

The last calves are born by mid September and weaned by Christmas. So there’s no calving, calf rearing or joining to be done in January.

“You can arrange your system so January is a family-friendly month to match the school holidays while still achieving year round milk supply, and

winter price incentives.”Re-starting joining at

Anzac Day means calving starts in February, setting up milk production for winter price incentives.

There are also benefits for the herd. Calf health and welfare is improved by having them weaned before they are at risk of heat stress.

Scott’s experience sug-gests that avoiding joining

over heat stress months reduces the barren rate, or the number of cows exit-ing the herd because they are empty. This is because pregnancy rates improve and there is the option to move cows that are not in calf by the end of joining to the next batch.

“A herd that’s joined all year round typically has about 10% empty cows each year. We usually see

that fall to about 5% with the move to batch joining.

Batch joining also allows for more focussed management and stream-lined labour demands.

“With a true year round calving herd, man-agers juggle a wide range of tasks on any given day – heat detection, calving, calf rearing, transition feeding and joining – on top of the daily routine of milking and feeding the herd. It creates a busy, complex management system,” he says.

A batch system involves periods where the daily activities are more focussed, eg blocks of heat detection and joining, and later in the season, blocks of calving and calf rearing.

“Managers often find the more focussed batch system easier, espe-cially with larger herds. It streamlines labour

requirements and makes it easier to plan.”

Barry Zimmermann, who manages Dairy Aus-tralia’s InCalf project, says the trend to avoid joining over the hot/humid months is grow-ing in the typical year-round milk supply regions of Queensland and New South Wales.

“If you are concerned about the impact of heat stress on herd fertility, compare conception rates between seasons,” says Zimmermann.

A difference in con-ception rate of more than 10-12% indicates poorer performance in the hot months if at least 100 inseminations were per-formed in each period.

Visit Dairy Austra-lia’s Cool Cows resources (www.coolcows.com.au) to find ways to reduce the impact of heat stress on herd fertility.

Farmers can achieve year round milk supply by joining the herd to calve in one, two or more batches.

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34 // management

better forages lift nsw summer yieldsbernie reppel

suCCess on a dairy farm depends 20% on genetics, 30% on nutrition and 50% on management,

where its biggest effect is in forage quality. That’s the message spelled out to Australian producers gath-ered at Casino to hear how to manage and feed their dairy herds through the

hot and humid summer typical of the NSW north coast.

It came from David Barber, a senior research scientist in dairy nutri-tion with Agri-Science

Queensland. His second message

to producers attending the field day – supported by Dairy Australia’s ‘Sub-tropical Dairy’ programme – was that most farmers don’t look after their cows as well as they might.

Barber linked nutri-tion and management when he told farmers they had to get from “where the system manages you to where you manage the system.”

He says the high tem-peratures and humidity typical of summers on the NSW north coast has a two-fold impact on dairy cow nutrition:

Directly, via cows vol-untarily reducing feed intake through factors such as panting, which reduced cud chewing, slowed the breakdown of feed and reduced the amount of water and buf-fers from saliva reaching the rumen.

Cows standing in the shade to keep cool restricted grazing time and decreased feed intake; any form of stress, includ-ing heat stress, could slow rumen contractions, which in turn slowed digestion.

“NSW north coast pas-tures mostly comprise C4 grasses, with more fibre in their cell walls, which is good for increased growth, and helps the grasses stand up, but the extra lignin in the cell wall reduces digestibility,” Barber says.

Humidity and high temperatures increase plant growth rates, which increase the neutral deter-gent fibre (NDF) con-tent of plants and reduces potential intake.

“Walking to feed increases a cow’s heat load, so farmers should reduce the time cows spent walking during the hottest time of the day and increase night grazing. Cows will do up to 70% of their daily grazing at night

in hot weather.”Barber says high-fibre

forages generate more heat through digestion than low fibre diets so improving forage qual-ity would have a positive effect on managing heat stress.

As cows would volun-tarily limit forage intake during hot weather good quality forages should be available at these times. And increasing the energy content of the diet with

good quality forages and concentrates would make up for the shortfall in reduced intake, and help reduce the metabolic heat load.

Similarly, increasing the concentration of min-erals and vitamins in the diet – particularly sodium, potassium, magnesium and niacin – would com-pensate for the reduction in feed intake.

Improvement in milk yield has also been reported by feeding cows sodium bicarbonate at 150-200 g/cow/day during hot weather to help buffer the rumen. Barber said other ways to reduce the impact of heat included:

Providing cool, clean water and ample trough space close to cows at all times. In hot weather, lactating cows have the capacity to drink at least 100 L/ day.

Allowing access to shade – in feed-out areas, grazing areas and over the milking yards – all day; shade could reduce a cow’s heat load from the envi-ronment by up to 50%.

Cooling cows at the dairy with shade, sprin-klers and/or fans before and after milking would improve their comfort and enhance their capac-ity to eat.

“Let cows wander home and stand under sprinklers before the after-noon milking. Lower-ing body temperature will encourage higher feed intake during milking.”

“Walking to feed increases a cow’s heat load, so farmers should reduce the time cows spent walking during the hottest time of the day.”

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36 // animal health

Choosing the right liquid feedeVery week yet another liquid byproduct feed for dairy cows seems to appear on the market.

Not only is it hard to keep up with what’s new, now we also have to figure out just what’s best for the cows and the bank balance. Wading through the glossy brochures: where do we start? With so many claims by so many com-panies, what questions do we need to ask?What feed is most likely going to work within your existing feed system?

• In shed feeding system. If your system drops liquid feeds onto grain or other dry feeds, or into bins / lickballs in front of cows, you’re well set up for most liquid feed types.

A key benefit of liquid on top of dry feeds is to encourage intake of dry feeds. Do take care with liquid feeds that aren’t particularly tasty.

If you’re considering a new liquid feed that your cows haven’t seen before, check with other people already using the new feed, or simply stick with a liquid feed you know your cows like.

It is also important to be careful

changing to novel/new feed types at critical times of the year, particularly through calving and mating. There’s no point backing cows off feed at crit-ical times of the year.

Liquid feeds of low pH may limit intake by cows and/or may be corro-sive on fittings.

• Open-trough feeding in exit lane-ways. Cheap and cheerful, this is a good way to get extra feed into cows as they arrive at or leave the shed. Care is needed to prevent overconsumption of liquid feeds by dominant cows.

Feeds containing high concentra-tions of water soluble carbohydrate con-tents (WSC) and/or those with low pH can create rumen health issues if cows over-consume. You may need to inno-vate to restrict access to open troughs. Keeping liquid feed troughs away from stock water troughs can help limit over-consumption too.

Liquid feeds that contain additives such as Rumensin are not designed for open-trough feeding.

Adding liquid feeds to partial or total mixed rations with silages, hay and other feeds. Almost any liquid feeds can be mixed in with silages – provided the price is right.

On the matter of price, though it’s not ideal to compare liquid feeds simply on price (we ignore the nutritional and practical issues of getting the feed into cows), it’s a handy start point for com-paring feeds.

We can compare the value of liquid feeds in several different ways. One is dry matter (DM) basis. Not all liquid feeds are created equal. Some can be watery and contain only a low content of DM. Others are surprisingly high in DM and represent better value. This is the single most important start point when comparing the value of liquid feeds. Don’t accept a quote for a liquid feed unless it’s accompanied by docu-mentation that states the DM% for that feed. Prices for liquid feeds are not com-monly quoted on a DM basis, with the

exception of some de-lactosed whey by-products.

It’s up to us to get a quote for a liquid feed then calculate back to price on a DM basis. Here’s how: if a high DM liquid feed such as molasses lands at $400/wet tonne and it’s 74.5% DM, divide $400 by 0.745 = $537/t of DM, or 53.7c/ kgDM.

If another type of liquid feed lands on farm at e.g. $280/wet tonne and it’s 40% dry matter, divide $280 by 0.4 = $700 per tonne of dry matter, or 70c/kgDM.

Just because one liquid feed lands on farm cheaper on a wet weight basis doesn’t mean it is the best value.

A wide range of liquid feed types is now available in New Zealand, each often characterised by different nutri-

tional profiles. Selection of a product will depend on what your cows need, as influenced by stage of lactation, cur-rent production levels and what else is in the diet.

For most pasture and pasture plus silage fed diets, we’re typically after extra energy usually as extra WSC. Occasionally we may be looking for extra protein.• Charlotte Westwood is a veterinarian and animal nutritionist who consults to Agri-feeds Ltd.

Charlotte westwood

charlotte Westwood

“A wide range of liquid feed types is now available in New Zealand, each often characterised by different nutritional profiles. Selection of a product will depend on what your cows need, as influenced by stage of lactation, current production levels and what else is in the diet.”

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animal health / nutrition // 37

better nitroGen uptAke this summerdairy farmers look-ing to boost their maize and pasture growth this summer while minimis-ing nitrogen losses can do so by using urea treated with a urease inhibitor, as shown by research by AgResearch, reports Bal-lance Agri-Nutrients.

The research is said to have shown Ballance’s product SustaiN Green (urea treated with the urease inhibitor Agrotain nitrogen stabiliser) offers farmers more flexibility to apply nitrogen when it’s needed most or when it suits them better, even if the weather or soil condi-tions are not optimal.

Ballance head of research and environment Warwick Catto says urea tends to convert rapidly to ammonium, which raises the soil pH near the gran-ule. Without rain, this gives off ammonia gas (a process known as ammo-nia volatilisation) which can reduce the effective-ness of urea.

“SustaiN Green has shown increased yields compared with standard urea. And because the treated urea is less vola-tile, it gives farmers more

flexibility,” Catto says. “Years of research

show many factors influ-ence nitrogen loss. The rate of application, level and timing of rainfall and low soil moisture are all such factors that contrib-ute to ammonia volatili-sation.”

Catto says typical ammonia volatilisation losses under normal pas-toral use of nitrogen appli-cation – 30-50kg/ha – are 10-15% of the total applied. However, losses through ammonia volatilisation can be as high as 50%.

“Side dressings for maize crops are one area where the use of SustaiN Green over urea could deliver savings to farmers this summer.

“The demands of grow-ing maize mean urea is often applied under less-than-optimal conditions. Also, for surface-applied urea, the higher nitrogen application rates typically required for maize crops are associated with greater ammonia volatilisation losses.

“This is where we start to see some benefits for farmers, through addi-tional yield grown from

urea retained using Sus-taiN Green. It’s the same for pasture – with the increased pasture produc-tion leading to more milk in the vat.”

Ballance sales and marketing manager Graeme Smith says

co-op’s technical sales reps are available to model different farming circumstances with land and weather variables to show the actual cost benefits of using SustaiN Green, which can be many thousands of dollars.

Waikato’s top pastures namedthe pastures grown by Gordonton dairy farm-ers Wayne and Raewyn Reynolds and Cambridge farmer Andrew Myers have been judged the best in the Waikato/Bay of Plenty.

The farms were entered into the Pasture Renewal Per-sistence Competition, run by the DairyNZ-led Pasture Renewal Leadership Group which includes researchers, the seed industry, farmers and agricultural contractors.

The judges, Chris Glassey and Errol Thom, DairyNZ, Bay of Plenty farmer Stuart McHardy and last year’s winner of the competition, Paul Vossen, were impressed with the quality of the entries.

“All the finalists showed excellent pasture management skills and had an eye for the detail of grazing management, endophyte selection, weed control and nitrogen usage,” says Glassey.

The Reynolds won the best pasture sown more than three years ago, while Andrew won for best first-year pas-ture. The winners each receive $1000 of pasture renewal products, including seed from Agriseeds and Agricom, and herbicide from Gavin Grain.

The judges say it was Myer’s preparation and planning that was the key to his success.

“To date everything has been done correctly and you won’t see a much better result,” says Glassey. “Andrew identified that the process of pasture renewal is costly and time consuming so you may as well look after it to get a return on your investment.”

For Thom it was the Reynolds’ exceptional record keep-ing that made them stand out.

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38 // animal health/welfare

row over bobby calves treatment flares in ozaustralian dairy farmers say they care deeply about the welfare of calves and commit many hours each day to looking after them.

“Caring for our cows and calves is a big part of life on a dairy farm. We

make sure everyone does the right thing by our ani-mals,” Dairy Australia says. “We ensure calves have a safe, healthy envi-ronment all their lives.

“We share commu-nity concern about calves’ wellbeing after they leave

our farms. We don’t con-done cruelty to our ani-mals. This is why dairy farmers make certain calves are fit and ready for transport.”

All this in response to publicity by welfarists Ani-mals Australia (AA) on the

dairy’s industry treatment of bobby calves. Quarter-page ads in city newspa-pers quoted AA saying “the questionable ethics behind milk production had been a long-held secret”.

The emotion-driven ads said 700,000 calves die each year, the male calf considered a ‘waste prod-uct’.

“We want the com-munity to be aware of the practices of the dairy industry,” Animals Aus-tralia executive officer Glenys Oogjes says.

But Dairy Australia rejects the claims, saying a national industry stan-dard for “time-off-feed” for bobby calves will now be implemented after gov-ernment ministers failed to agree at a recent Pri-mary Industries Minister Council (PIMC) meeting.

Representatives from the dairy industry, transporters, calf buyers and meat processors met after the PIMC meeting and agreed to the stan-dard for trucking calves from farm to processing. The industry standard for time-off-feed will comple-ment national standards that limit transport time and require calves to be fed before transport from a farm.

Dairy Australia says it will seek to ensure all people handling and trans-porting calves follow stan-dards for transport to protect calves from dis-ease and maintain their health and wellbeing.

“Calves are the foun-dation of our industry and enable us to continue pro-viding you with safe, high-quality dairy foods.”

COWS GIVE birth to a calf every year to produce milk.Calves should be removed from the cow within 12 hours of birth to:

■ Reduce the risk of getting diseases from adult cattle

■ Lower the stress for cow and calf

Australian animal welfare requirements apply to all calves born on farm, whether they are:

■ destined for the milking herd

■ reared elsewhere for beef, or

■ marketed as bobby calves.

rearing CalVes

DAIRY FARMERS must ensure bobby calves being transported for sale or slaughter are:

■ at least five days old (unless consigned direct to a calf rearer)

■ fit and healthy

■ have been adequately fed within six hours of transport.

Transporters must ensure bobby calves are:

■ fit for the journey

■ protected from cold and heat

■ handled appropriately during loading and unloading

■ transported for the minimum time possible with no more than 12 hours spent on transport

■ have a record of when calves were picked up.

Meat processors must ensure calves are:

■ given access to water

■ slaughtered as soon as possible upon arrival

■ protected from cold and heat and taken care of in cases of delay or emergency.

transport Code

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animal health // 39

Jv suCCess in sire mArkettwo Joint ventures between CRV AmBreed and Jersey New Zealand – JerseyGenome and Jersey Genes – are stacking success on success to bring elite sires to the market.

Established in 2008, JerseyGenome set out with extensive goals for the breeder, partners and ultimately the Jersey breed in New Zealand. 42% of the shortlisted young bull candidates for the 2012 Jersey Genes team are products of the JerseyGenome programme. Three years on these goals are being met and look like surpass-ing expectations.

The JerseyGenome scheme is intended to create wider opportunities for the breed, breeders behind the scheme and, ultimately, Jersey Genes.

The first crop of JerseyGenome bred bull calves have filtered through as nominations for the 2012 Jersey Genes team, adding a new dimension to the selection process.

Internationally recognised, Jersey Genes is a joint venture success story, supplying 26 proven Jersey bulls over a period of 19 years, making it one of the country’s most successful young sire testing programmes.

Currently the scheme has three sires: Canaan Nevvy Pioneer, Pukeroa TGM Manzello and Okura Manhatten ET SJ3 in the top 30 Jersey bull list (10% of the ranked graduates) and two (Pioneer and Manzello) in the top 30 All Breeds list (as at 12th November 2011). The most recognised of these sires, Okura Manhatten ET SJ3, has been exported to over nine countries and has sired at least 32,500 daughters in New Zealand.

In total, 150 bull nominations came in for the Jersey Genes 2012 bull team. 17% of nominations originated from the JerseyGenome scheme and 12 bulls have been selected to advance to the genomic testing phase. Five of the shortlist originates from JerseyGenome with the bal-ance stemming directly via nominations from the Jersey New Zealand membership.

CRV marketing manager Peter Berney is unsurprised by the success of the venture.

“The combination of CRV AmBreed’s capabilities with the passion, experience and commitment of Jersey New Zealand members was always going to be a good one,” he says.

Spreading the love aroundhate the cow that kicks? And the slow milker? And what about those cows that are a delight to have in the dairy?

Whether she’s a wonder cow or a work-ability nightmare, the Australian Dairy Herd Improvement Scheme (ADHIS) wants to know about her.

Michelle Axford, from ADHIS, says spring workability data collection is now underway.

“Now is the time that dairy farmers who herd record tell us about the cows they like and the ones they don’t,” Axford says.

All dairy farmers benefit from the work-ability data supplied by those who herd record.

“We all want animals that are easy to have in the dairy.

“That’s why workability traits such as milking speed and temperament are directly included in the Australian Profit Ranking (APR) and likeability is included as a predic-tor of survival,” she says.

Farmers contribute workability data on this season’s two-year-old heifers through their on-farm software or directly to their

herd recording centre.“Dairy farmers are good at scoring work-

ability traits. Australian Breeding Values – ABVs – provide a reliable comparison between bulls for milking speed, temperament and lik-ability. So much so that bulls with high like-ability ABVs have been found to produce daughters that are more likely to stay in the herd for longer.”• ADHIS is an initiative of Australian Dairy Farmers’, and is partially funded by dairy farmer levies via Dairy Australia.

New cow infertility focusCow infertility is a big prob-lem on some south-west Victoria dairy farms in Australia and the Port Camp-bell property of John and Leeanne Whitehead is no exception. Over each of the past two years about 40 of the Whiteheads’ 230 cows have failed to get into calf.

“That’s far too high and it would help to know what things we could do to ease the problem,” Whitehead says.

He raised the issue of fertility at a kitchen forum conducted by WestVic Dairy, and is pleased that levy money will be allocated in 2011-12 to investi-gate the problem.

WestVic Dairy is planning a project that aims to improve cow health and fertility on 100 dairy farms in Western Victoria through an extension program.

The project will start early 2012 to guide farmers towards best practice for good fertility performance. Whitehead hopes it will contribute to better knowl-edge for farmers.

“A lot of farmers have the same prob-lem and we’d like to know the reasons why,” he says. “It might be that we drive

them too hard in production.“If there was an investigation and we

could find out why it’s happening then we might be able to improve things.”

Whitehead says that low fertility rates are common on district farms and were seen by farmers as a major prob-lem.

“We’re forced to do two calving sea-sons now, which is far from ideal. We’d get a better selection of choppers if fer-tility was better.”

He says farmers at the kitchen forums ware interested to hear about how the levy was being invested. “It’s good to know where the money is going.

It’s all right as long as it’s for something that will result in gains for farmers.”

The forum discussed artificial insemination issues and, like many around the district, also touched on labour force problems. “I know of at least four farms around here looking to hire people, but there aren’t many good

workers around,” he says.After farming in the area for about 25

years, Whitehead is one of those farm-ers after some support. “It’s busy work, taking care of 230 cows on a 200ha property. It’s 24-7 at the moment.

“It would be good to employ some-one to take a bit of the load. We’ve had a relief milker in the past but we’re look-ing for someone a bit more permanent now.

“It would be good to get away for a week or a fortnight. It’s been a few years since we’ve had a holiday.

“Our son lives up the road on another farm and he comes and helps out but we need something more per-manent so we can take a break.”

The Whiteheads’ other children have taken up teaching and accounting.

He welcomes WestVic Dairy’s con-tinued support for the In2Dairy pro-gram which aims to create job-ready assistant farm hands.

The pilot phase of the program resulted in 18 people finding work on local farms.

Fifteen are still employed.

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40 // animal health

Cow heat stress not a black-and-white issuean australian sci-entific study has shown heat stress in dairy cattle is not a black-and-white issue.

Prize winning research by University of

Queensland (UQ) applied science graduate Angela Lees, which measured heat tolerance of Friesian cows with varying amounts of black in their coat, proved inconclusive.

Lees is surprised by the result with no corre-lation found between the amount of black colour and performance under the Queensland sun. In fact, a cow mostly black

was one of the best at han-dling the summer heat, leading Lees to conclude there are likely genetic fac-tors at play.

The student from the South Burnett district has won the prestigious Bryan Medal for 2011 for her hon-ours thesis looking at per-formance data from the milking herd at the univer-sity’s Gatton campus.

The medal was pre-sented by Ag Institute Australia, formerly the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology.

It was inaugurated in 1976 to honour the work of distinguished pasture sci-entist and maize breeder Dr Wilf Bryan.

Lees received the medal from the Institute’s Queensland division pres-ident David Lloyd after selection from three final-ists. The others were Mat-thew Lloyd (poll gene test on cattle embryos) and Reece Tollenaere (genes which trigger black-leg fungus resistance in canola).

In her heat tolerance

research, Lees divided the Gatton milking herd into 10 colour groups from almost white to mostly black.

Over the hot months October 2010 to March 2011 lots of data were col-lected, including body sur-face temperatures and respiration and panting scores three times daily. Vaginal temperature was logged at 10 minute inter-vals in small batches of cows over 5 to 7 day peri-ods. Milk production and composition was also monitored.

Lees says the Gatton campus dairy is well served with natural and artificial shade and had fans and sprays in the milking yards. She plans further analysis of the data.

Her husband Jarrod will also use it in his PhD research at UQ where he is studying wider aspects of heat stress on dairy cattle.

A future research option could be to test the performance of cattle without access to shade and yard cooling.

ConCeption rates via artificial insemination (AI) could be lifted as much as 10% if insemination of dairy cows was better timed to ovulation, says Queensland vet Carl Hockey.

There is currently no practical way to directly iden-tify when a cow was about to ovulate, he says. “Farmers depend on observing standing heat, a behaviour often associated with ovulation.”

Observing standing heat has become increasingly dif-ficult as herd sizes get bigger. There is a greater demand on farm labour and cows show fewer signs of heat.

Hockey worked with two commercial dairy herds to better understand the ideal insemination time relative to ovulation: a year-round calving herd in Queensland which inseminated twice a day, and a seasonal calv-ing herd in Victoria which inseminated once a day. The research was funded by Dairy Australia.

To identify cows for joining, the managers of each herd used heat detection based on standing heat and pedometers. During the study, cows in both herds were monitored for milk progesterone levels and were ultra-sounded to pin-point when ovulation occurred.

The best pregnancy results were when insemination took place close to, but before, ovulation. The highest pregnancy rate (51%) was when cows were inseminated between 0 and 16 hours before ovulation.

However, only a modest proportion of all AI (31%) took place in this time period.

InCalf project leader Barry Zimmermann says sub-mission rate and conception rate are two important fac-tors influencing the in-calf rate in a herd.

lifting Ai conception rates

Ag Institute Australia Queensland division president david Lloyd presents the bryan medal to University of Queensland honours student Angela Lees at the St Lucia campus last month.

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maChinery & produCts // 41

tracker helps lift cows’ Dm intakeneil keating

an inCrease in dry-mat-ter intake of 2kg/cow has been consistently and reli-ably recorded by a UK agri-college farm using a Digi-Star TMR Tracker, reports the New Zealand Digi-star distribu-tor Schouten Machines Ltd, Southland.

New in New Zealand, the Digi-Star feed system com-prises two components: the TMR Tracker computer soft-ware used to create, cost and manage the ration mix, and a cab control system fitted to the diet feeder.

Bridgewater College, Som-erset in early 2009 installed the ration feeding system, discov-ering the 2kgDM/cow to be “an important number,” says farm manager Steve Jones.

“The more DM consumed by the cow, the more milk she can produce. The higher DM intake increased the milk yield by 2L/cow/day and improved

body condition of the animals.”Several months experi-

ence of the system is said to have satisfied Jones that the hardware and software work together. Feeding is more efficient and the returns are better, he says.

The Digi-Star system was chosen in the course of a search for a new feed mixer. Crucial to this choice was that the cows should not be able to “sort out” the components of their feed in the bunker, Jones says.

“We tested the delivered ration and noted that the ratio of ration ingredients in the feed bunker remained the same several hours after delivery. The mixer was also required to

need less mixing time and to consume less power.”

The Digi-Star’s chief appeal lies in its ability to show the farmer all important data about feeding in one Win-dows-based program and then to allow easy change of ration

mixes.The farmer enters the

ration in his office computer then transfers the data with a ‘datakey’ to the indicator on the feed mixer. With Datalink, the data exchange between PC and mixer is wireless.

Once the data is in the indi-cator, the feeder need only select the recipe and load-ing can begin. Having cre-ated the mix, the component information and quantities are

managed using the Cab Con-trol system fitted to the feed wagon. This comprises two components: a weighing indi-cator, and a scale system fitted

to the mixer wagon itself, which is wirelessly linked to a second control box fitted in the cab of the loading vehicle. After the animals are fed, the data on loading and delivery can be retrieved for further analysis in the TMR Tracker program.

This analysed data can also be transferred across into more

general farm management pro-grams. www.tmrtracker.com also provides access to online support or an international help desk.Tel. 03 208 8059 or 027 711 7270www.schoutenmachines.co.nz

The Digi-Star’s chief appeal lies in its ability to show the farmer all important data about feeding in one Windows-based program and then to allow easy change of ration mixes.

MULTICUTR T A R Y M U L C H E R


42 // maChinery & produCts

Effluent surge prompts ‘gamble’surging growth in dairy effluent handling prompted Carterton con-tractors Shane and Sonya Gray (t/a Grays Contract-ing) to “take a bit of a gamble” and buy an Abbey slurry tanker from Farm-gard Equipment.

Four generations of his family have been contract-ing in Wairarapa. “But if I was starting now I don’t think I’d bother. The leg-islation facing us now is mind boggling.”

Bureaucracy gone mad, he says. New rules con-stantly on road travel with implements, and on driv-ers and staff.

“Not that contractors have a bad safety record; we’ve been responsi-ble and safe. But these new rules are costs to be passed on to our farmer clients.”

Gray bought his Irish-made Abbey slurry tanker (model 2250R, capacity 10,000L) from Wairarapa Machinery Services, Mas-terton.

It has an auto fill which goes next to the pond with a suction hose going into the liquid. The hydrau-lic arm is lowered and the tank begins filling. A double trap prevents over-filling. Two relief valves prevent the tank over-pressurising during emp-tying.

“I like to have the pond stirred for at least two hours so the mate-rial flows better and it only takes about five minutes to fill the tank.”

An innovation by Abbey is an inverted splash plate which, during emptying reduces spray drift. The material is evenly spread 8m from the tanker.

Gray likes the unit’s big flotation tyres. They make

the full tank easier to tow and “hardly leave any marks.”

He tows the tanker with a JD 160hp trac-tor. The axle is placed for lowest centre of gravity and the draw bar is sprung to minimise stress on the tractor.

Their business is based as a separate entity on their dairy farm from where they work up to 30km north to Masterton and to Cape Palliser 65km to the south.

They do silage, bale-age, straw and hay with two self-propelled Claas harvesters doing 3000ha annually. For the baleage, straw and hay they have two Welger round balers and two New Holland for baling medium squares, processing about 30,000 bales a season.

The region’s many life-style blocks demand a lot of hay – 20,000 conven-tional bales per season.

Gray does a full culti-vation, plough, disc and

drill service for 400ha in the spring and the same in the autumn. He also does 200ha of direct drilling.

“We have 12 John Deere and two Claas tractors a JCB loader and five trucks with five permanent staff with numbers rising to about 20 as needed.”

The area is not a large in dairying (40% milk cows) but 95% of his cus-tomers are dairy farmers.Tel. 09 275 5555www.abbeymachinery.com

Shane Gray, carteron: mind boggled by rules invading business.

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CULTIVATION


traCtors & maChinery // 43

Grass, forage sowing versatilitysow grass into exist-ing pasture, or sow grass or forage crops into culti-vated ground, or over-sow and fix pugged paddocks – it’s over to you, says Orgin Agroup of its new Hatzen-bichler tine harrow with broadcast air seeder.

Versatility is the main thing about these Austrian machines, Origin says.

“The 6m working width at 10-15km/h gives high productivity. Weight (before seed) of only 550kg, and three point-linkage mounting with a hydraulic folding frame to 3m, makes it suitable for smaller tractors and easy to use on hills.”

The harrows is made up of three flexible sections that “float and flex” with changes in the ground contour for even pressure on each tine.

The spring tines are made from 8mm thick x 450mm long, oil-hardened spring steel said to give three times the service life of a normal spring steel

tine. They suit ripping or “gentle cultivation.”

The harrows can be fitted with an 8-outlet or 16-outlet air seeder capa-ble of sowing small seeds at 1kg/ha or grass seeds at up to 40kg/ha. Seed dis-tribution is via distributor plates across the full width of the machine, giving even overlapping spread via twin fans driven by 12V motors. An optional hydraulic fan is avail-able for heavier seeds or greater working widths.

Hopper capacity is 400L. Calibration is quick and simple, Origin says, with seeding application rates being maintained via a ground driven wheel.

An optional computer controller allows the oper-ator to know the amount of seed being applied during operation and the amount of seed remain-ing in the seed box. It allows up to 19 separate seed varieties to be stored in its memory, eliminating the need to calibrate the

machine each time.Broadcast air seeders

are also available sepa-rately, allowing them to be fitted to Cambridge roll-ers, discs, power harrows, etc.

Other features: powder coat finish, central tine-angle lever adjustment, and a platform for easy fill-ing of the seed box.Tel. 07 823 7582 www.originagroup.co.nz

the world’s biggest telehandler, boasts Manitou, the French company that launched the rough terrain forklift in 1958.

Its new beauty, the MHT 10225, lifts 22,500kg to 10m. And it is safer than a crane or forklift, the company says.

‘Tele-lifting’ a big load – instead of suspending it under a crane – makes for greater stability. And compared with a forklift, greater safety is achieved by the telehandler’s load management system and pre-programmed load charts for each attachment.

The MHT range can handle freely suspended loads either with a single hook system, or it can be ordered with an integrated winch system.

Other attachments offered include work platforms up to 1000kg,

compliant with AS1418.10.Manitou Australia

managing director Stuart Walker says the MHT telehandlers are designed to operate on “very rough terrain, handling very heavy and bulky loads.”

“The machine and accessories’ torque is cru-cial to tasks demanding versatility and capacity.

“Far from being ‘just another loader’, the MHT is manoeuvrable, precise and versatile.”Tel. 0800 303 090www.abequipment.co.nz

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44 // traCtors & maChinery

LELY’S TRAILED forage harvester, the Lely Storm 130 P, has proven reli-ability and long life. High trade-in values prove its quality, Lely says.

A notable feature is the machine’s large flywheel, a

HEAVY-DUTY loaders from John Deere equally suit many sizes of the company’s new and older model trac-tors.

The new H Series loaders, which replace the previ-ous loader models, have more cast-steel connecting points and better visibility, and they have integrated components that make installation and removal easier.

The H Series loaders, compatible with many John Deere tractor models, have different levelling options, non-self levelling (NSL) or mechanical self-levelling (MSL), depending on customer needs and legal/safety requirements.

More cast-steel components in high-stress, high-load areas of the loaders helps them handle big jobs with ease and extend working life, a JD spokesman says.

“All major boom pin connection points are cast-steel for better pin alignment and reduced load stress which is an improvement over traditional bushing-type joints.

“We’ve also designed the H Series with a lower torque tube and concealed oil lines within the loader boom to give it a cleaner look, improve over-the-hood visibility for the operator and to reduce potential for damage to oil lines during use.”

In addition, John Deere has added integrated park-ing stands and pins into the loader which, combined with a single-point hydraulic connection system, allows the loader to be quickly removed or reinstalled with vir-tually no oil loss. To give customers access to a wide variety of John Deere loader attachments, the company uses a common global carrier.Tel. 0800 303 100www.johndeere.com.au

Chopper takes allfuel saver the maker says.

The Lely Storm works efficiently, saves energy and gives a maximum output. Capacity is high but maintenance is low, making the machine ideal for contractors and large farmers.

The 1800mm pick-up leaves no grass behind thanks to five tine bars with tine spacing of 54mm.

“Even wide, bulky or

uneven swaths with short crop are easily managed by these properties,” Lely says. “The pick-up accu-rately follows the ground contours giving a smooth lifting action without breaking the flow of the swath.”

Four intake rollers create maximum com-pression and a reliable and even in-feed of the crop.

The Profi model is equipped with an elec-tronic metal detector on one of the intake roll-

ers to shut down the in-feed immediately a metal object is detected.

The 1300 mm flywheel with 10 knives and 5 blowing paddles maximises chopping quality. Low power requirement for chopping and transporting saves fuel – thanks to the huge flywheel.

Onboard hydraulics make its oil flow independent. A built-in oil pump with its own oil reservoir supplies

the hydraulic power for raising the pick-up and reversing the drive and

spout rotation. All parts of the system are fully integrated with electro-

hydraulic in-cab controls.Tel. 0800 535 969 www.lely.com

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traCtors & maChinery // 45

A TOW AND Fert Multi 800 liquid fertiliser spreader is a highly regarded item of equipment on a North Island dairy farm.

The owner uses it to spread coarse material such as magnesium, liquid fertiliser and weed spray, combined or singly.

The maker, Metalform, points out that Tow and Fert allows a farmer to spread small areas (eg 8ha) that a con-tractor may be reluctant to take on.

The patented Tow and Fert keeps coarse material in suspension by constant circulation in the tank and deliv-ery lines. This and large spray nozzles prevent virtually all blockages.

The spreader is powered by a Honda engine. The tank

holds 1200 L total, of which 800 L is usable. Spreading width is 14-18 m and it can cover 12-16 ha depending on product and application rate. Ideal towing vehicle is a ute or a tractor.

In operation, the tank is first filled with water and prod-ucts such as bio-fertiliser, dissolved urea, magnesium oxide, lime flour, RPR and trace elements are added from one tonne or 25 kg bags through a grate to avoid lumps. Within a few moments the material is totally in solution, no material getting a chance to settle. The machine has built in weigh scales with a large display, easily read.

The booms are extended and spraying started with a remote operated by the driver.

The Tow and Fert comes with five sets of nozzles 14-18 mm, kept on the machine with snap couplings, saving time if different rates are to be sprayed. These nozzles can apply 15-50 L/minute.

A diagram on the tank shows which nozzles to use and the correct towing vehicle speed to give the required spreading rate. All mixes in solution immediately begin to be absorbed by the plants.

The tank can be filled from a trough or stream using an extra hose supplied, also suitable for fire fighting. The pump has a 5 m lift.Tel. 06 374 7043 www.towandfarm.com

Farewell contractor for small spreads

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

They’re Above and Beyond.

Built with an all-new chassis, all-new engine, all-new transmission options, and an all-new suspended cab. All so you can ride in comfort while getting more done every day thanks to their unprecedented versatility plus increased horsepower, hydraulic fl ow, and hitch-lift capacity. Then there’s the ability to go with Group 49 tyres, a sixth rear SCV, and a front PTO and hitch. Yes, their impressive design sets them above all others. And their intelligent performance can help you grow beyond all expectations.

The all-new 7R Series Tractors with 147-206 kW of engine power (200-280 hp*) and 123-173 kW PTO power (165-232 hp).

Get to know the all-new 7R Series Tractors at our website or see your local John Deere dealer today.

Nothing Runs Like A Deere.™

Presenting the all-new John Deere 7R Series Tractors.

*Rated engine hp (ISO) per 97/68/EC. JohnDeere.co.nz/new


46 // motoring

Anyone for tennis?

marina eracovic with a Kia Soul.

Coast to coast on a diesel rag

Jaguar XF: a hot performer notwithstanding its extreme fuel

economy, the maker says.

a british team has crossed North America from New York to Los Angeles in a Jaguar XF 2.2 diesel averaging 4.49L/100km over 4480km. This makes it the most efficient Jaguar ever built, the New Zealand distributor says.

Finishing in Los Angeles, the journey – the equivalent of London to the Sahara – required only four stops for fuel. Peak economy of 4.21L/100km was achieved on the penultimate day of the trip.

Paul Alcock, XF proj-ect manager Jaguar Cars, who made the trip, said: “This project was designed primarily to test the potential economy of the XF 2.2D. The figures were achieved by making every element of the XF as efficient as possible – aerodynamics, 4-cyl. 2.2L diesel engine, eight-speed gearbox. The XF team is proud of what’s been achieved – graphic

demonstration of the strength, engineering integrity and efficiency of the car.”

Driven by independent testers David and Alexander Madgwick, the XF 2.2D was a scrupulously standard UK registered, right-hand drive vehicle.

In the course of the adventure the car maintained an average speed of 85.2km/h in lots of spots including busy roads out of New York and, towards the end, entering Los Angeles, road works, high winds and a climb to 2217m altitude.

Despite such efficiency, the XF 2.2D maintains the levels of performance and efficiency expected of a Jaguar.

Capable of seating five adults in comfort, it’s equipped with leather trim as standard as well as a touchscreen display and climate control. The XF is capable of accelerating from rest to 96 km/h

kia motors will again sponsor the ASB Classic tennis in early January and will be the official vehicle sponsor for the men’s Heineken Open the following week.

Todd McDonald, general manager of Kia Motors New Zealand describes the tennis association as a partnership “sup-porting a popular sport and lifestyle of many New Zealanders”.

“We have strong ties with active life-styles and offer to support the endeavours of New Zealanders locally and at a world-class international level.”

The two local events link with Kia’s involvement with the Australian Open, the Davis Cup Tennis and the brand’s global

tennis ambassador Rafael Nadal. The Auckland women’s event has one

of the best fields in the tournament’s his-tory, now the top 20 players are confirmed. The top eight seeds for the tournament will be ranked among the best 30 players in the world, with the unseeded world No.1 and seven time Grand Slam winner Venus Wil-liams adding superstar element.

Local star Marina Erakovic will also compete. Her semi-final in the Wimbledon doubles this year and a WTA doubles win in Linz, Austria, in October, has seen her doubles ranking rise to 48, and with a 51-to-17 win/loss ratio in singles this year she is now up to 61, after starting the year at 350.

in 8.0-seconds before reaching a top speed of 225 km/h.

The car will be launched in New Zealand early in 2012.

Summer BlendsTo help you choose, we have tailored four summer blends options (detailed below). These specifically aim to provide your herd with the balanced energy and protein mix required to maintain milk production over the dryer months.

MineralBoostRD1 Nutrition also offer a full range of MineralBoost products – which you can add to your blend or PKE. With Facial Eczema season closing in, we recommend MineralBoost + Zinc. Used at the recommended rate, this formula provides the milking cow with its daily requirements of zinc through the risk period.

This summer, choose a supplier that delivers on promises — RD1 Nutrition will guarantee contracted tonnage, no matter what.

Contact your local store, Technical Sales Representative (TSR), or your Animal Nutrition Sales Representative (ANSR) for pricing information.

In summer the quality of your grass will change. It’s time to start looking for alternative feed options that will provide your herd with energy and protein to maximise milk production and maintain body condition.

Product standard specifications

Energy 12.42MJ/kgDM

Crude Protein 15.11%

Fat 8.0%

NDF level 47.5%

Starch 17.2%


Energy 12.9MJ/kgDM

Crude Protein 13.9%

Fat 7.5%

NDF level 36.5%

Starch 28%


Energy 12.2MJ/kgDM

Crude Protein 21%

Fat 7.2%

NDF level 43.6%

Starch 12.6%


Energy 12.2MJ/kgDM

Crude Protein 18.3%

Fat 7.8%

NDF level 48.3%

Starch 12.2%

OPTION 1

•70% Palm Kernel Expeller (PKE)

•30% Biscuit Cereal Meal (BCM)

A well-balanced feed, which can be

fed in-shed or ad lib in troughs.

The addition of BCM adds palatability

to the feed, increased digestibility and

added energy through the addition of

starch and sugar.

An overall cost-effective solution to

increasing dry matter and energy

intake.

OPTION 2


•50% Biscuit Cereal Meal (BCM)*

A well-balanced feed that should only

be fed via in-shed feeding systems

where intake is controlled.

The addition of BCM adds palatability

for cows, increased digestibility and

added energy through the addition of

starch and sugar.

*It is not recommended to feed BCM ad lib unless it is

mixed 70% PKE / 30% BCM. Due to high palatability

and grain levels there is a risk cows will gorge and

overfeed. This could lead to acute rumen acidosis.

OPTION 3



•20% Cottonseed Meal (CSM)

This blend aims to provide a

well-balanced feed with additional

protein by way of CSM – helpful

when pasture quality drops, and

you’re looking for a way to maintain

milk production and cow condition.

The BCM content provides additional

energy to compliment the increase in

protein provided by the CSM.

Ideal for in-shed feeding systems and

troughs.

OPTION 4



•10% Cottonseed Meal (CSM)

This blend is similar to Option 3

with slightly less protein and higher

energy levels. It aims to provide a

cost-effective, well-balanced feed

with additional protein by way of CSM

for summer use.

Ideal for in-shed feeding systems and

troughs.

With RD1 Nutrition, you can effectively blend any product in our range, at rates that you want. Our blending service is available out of Tauranga (Tauriko) or New Plymouth.

www.rd1

.com

CONSISTENT QUALITY, SUPPLY* AND PRICE

RD1 Nutrition 0800 731 333 Visit WWW.RD1.COM/nutrition

*RD

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Jennifer MairNorthland, North Waikato027 509 7463

Animal Nutrition Sales Representatives (ANSR)Phil HarrisonWaikato027 509 7462

Jason FinnertyBay of Plenty027 509 7461

Stu BruceTaranaki, Manawatu, Wairarapa 027 509 7464

Exclusive to Fonterra suppliers

your

dealApex Acetyl or BrAss Full Flow trough VAlVes 20mm or 25mm # 245106 / 245103 / 245105 / 245104

Acetyl • Armless, reducing risk of

stock damage • Abovewaterfloat

adjustment • 25mm water level differential

from open to closed, reducing pump motor overload

• Patented self-cleaning valve mechanism to minimise blockage

• Fullflow,diaphragmactivated

• Cord cleat for shutting off valve

Brass• New Zealand's favourite fullflowtroughvalve

• Working pressure 0-1,000kpa (150PSI)

• Full range of spare parts available

December 6-8

Price includes GST and may be subject to change. Terms and conditions apply.

the deAl:• Limited to 1 pack of 2 valves per Fonterra supplier RD1 Account

• Limited stock available

• No rainchecks, holds, phone orders, on farm deliveries or cash sales

• Offer valid 6, 7 and 8 December, 2011 or while stocks last

get 2 For the price oF 1sAVe up to $44.99

customer support centre 0800 731 266 email [email protected]

nAtionwide network oF stores – All welcoMe, no Joining Fee

proudly owned By FonterrA FAMers

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dairy news 6 december 2011

Documents

puts taf

taf trading

progressing taf

fonterra chairman henry

farmers proposal

possibility of farmers

milk inquiries

proposed page