Category: Public Media

Source: Radio New Zealand

An uptick in the take-up of veterinary and agriculture studies has seen Massey University expand its Large Animal Teaching Unit (LATU) in recent years.

The country’s only veterinary school currently has a cohort of about 650 students across the five-year programme.

With over half coming from non-rural backgrounds, the “outdoor classroom” serves as an important first step on the students’ journey to working with farm animals, LATU’s manager Mike Reilly told Country Life.

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Located on the outskirts of the Palmerston North campus, the teaching farm and facilities were first established 30 years ago. Back then classes comprised about 70 students. These days it’s 175.

It has also expanded significantly in area, to include a neighbouring farm, a lecture room that can accommodate 100 students, a sheep and pig teaching facility, 12 horse stocks, an arena and 13 purpose-built cow stocks for teaching.

The safety and welfare of both people and the animals they’re working with are paramount. That’s increasingly important with so many students now coming from cities with no animal handling experience, Reilly explained.

“We have 50 international students, some of which will have never seen a sheep because there’s no sheep in their home country. We don’t want the students going out onto farm and we’re not confident they know how to behave around an animal.”

He has a herd of 26 “extremely quiet” cows for the students to work with, adding if they were Angus steers “there’d be too much noise … no one would learn”.

Reilly also brings in up to 70 cows to teach the students about pregnancy diagnosis, and the farm is home to 30 horses, a flock of sheep and alpaca, donkeys, and several pigs, which they get in seasonally.

The facilities’ set-up means five classes can run at any one time working with five different species.

“This is where students get to interact with them, learn the basics of handling and learn to do a good clinical exam on a healthy animal.”

Students also learn to how to get cows into stocks. They learn how to put a halter on a horse, to lift their feet and clean them out, and how to move and turn sheep over.

Reilly is conscious of the animal’s welfare too and tries to rotate them around to share the teaching load. Strict ethics also guide their welfare and care.

He said the main challenge is the seasonality of life on farm.

“First semester is in autumn, second semester is winter through to spring. It’s the worst time to have maximum numbers of animals but it’s when I have them.”

To mitigate this he destocks as much as he can over the summer to grow lots of grass which will keep the stock fed over the winter.

“It’s a challenge but that’s what makes it interesting.”

Reilly said LATU is what helps set the school apart from others overseas.

Massey’s veterinary science programme ranked 21st globally in the 2024 QS World University Ranking and is the highest-ranked veterinary school in Australasia.

Learn more:

You can learn more about LATU, here.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

One person has died after a four-wheel drive rolled on Tokerau Beach in the Far North.

Police were called to beach at about 7.30pm Friday.

It was initially indicated that at least one person was critically injured, and Fire and Emergency said at the time crews were still working to free one person from the wreck.

Police have now said one person was found dead at the scene.

The two other occupants of the vehicle were airlifted to hospital, one in critical condition and the other in moderate condition.

There was an ongoing investigation into the crash, police said.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

RNZ reporter Kate Green has a strong focus on environmental issues but more recently her attention has been on the future of food security and lessons from Southeast Asia.

She travelled there last month as part of a Jefferson Fellowship and answered some questions from the Country Life team.

What is the Jefferson Fellowship?

The Jefferson Fellowship is a three-week programme run by the East-West Centre in Hawai’i, giving 12 journalists from all over the world – Mongolia, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, United States and me – access to key groups and players on a particular topic. This year, it was food security.

The three places that best demonstrated issues and solutions for food security in the eyes of the programme’s creators were Honolulu, Indonesia – where we were in Jakarta for a week – before going over to Thailand, where we visited Chiang Rai and Bangkok.

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What were your impressions from our neighbour in the Pacific, Hawai’i? What food security challenges did they have and are they responding to them?

I was so warmed to notice the similarities in the cultures between New Zealand with our Māori indigenous population and that of Hawai’i. Throughout the week I noticed the little ways it was similar or different in terms of language or world view, in terms of being part of the environment instead of using it and that came up quite a lot when we talked about food production.

It’s definitely a problem that Hawai’i only has two weeks of food on-hand at any given time. And it’s very expensive, as everything’s imported. This leaves them vulnerable to natural disasters.

We learned more about how it’s led to many seeing the merit in a swing back to producing native crops locally – crops like taro and breadfruit. One of the stand-outs for me was when we went to a lo’i kalo, which is a taro patch essentially.

It was part of this big non-profit restoration project, Kākoʻo ʻŌiwi.They produce fresh produce, they do educational visits, they run workshops and they have community work days.

Over the past 15 years they’ve restored several acres of this taro patch and they have a focus on “agroecology”. Basically how do we design sustainable food and farm systems that work with the environment rather than taking from it.

We spoke to Dr Kawika Winter there and he had a story that was so emblematic of the problems in conservation.

Essentially, as people started to restore this wetland and planted the taro patch they noticed these beautiful native birds had started to come back. The agency that deals with the wildlife legislation side of things on the island said ‘great you have these birds, let’s protect them – you must keep a 30m distance from these birds and this nest’.

That was the whole taro patch. So they stopped maintaining it and it overgrew with weeds and no longer had its function as a food source, as well as degrading as an environment, and so the birds left. That meant they could restore it again but then the birds came back.

It’s a story about the bureaucracy that puts a stop to what are usually very old ways of doing things – usually indigenous practices – and the tension of how to get around them.

Empowering small-scale local growers and farmers, often using traditional indigenous techniques, seems to be another theme picked up on during your time in Indonesia?

In Jakarta, we visited the flagship store of a company called Javara and it was run by a former lawyer. Her name is Heliante Hillman.

Her MO is to connect farmers to buyers. She was a lawyer and she was being driven around giving advice to farmers that were struggling in the market. The way she tells it, her husband was getting sick of driving her around and said ‘these people don’t need a lawyer, they need access to a market that is respectful and dignified’. So she made them that market.

She told us the story about how she got a panicked late night call from a farmer with tonnes and tonnes of vegetables that were in the path of a volcano which was about to destroy all his crops. In a nearby village there’s a pasta maker – so she connected the two and they made 14 different types of noodles in all different colours.

She told us that the noodles had also been a solution to help one mother get her children to eat vegetables, and Heliante said she knew she was onto a winner after doing a cooking presentation for a group of Italians who were very impressed.

And what did you learn from your time in Thailand?

In Chiang Rai, in the very north of the country – so beautiful – we got to meet a couple of farmers who, when they were kids, their parents were growing opium.

It’s a tough life growing opium. It’s unsafe, you don’t really know who you’re dealing with because it’s an illicit trade. It’s a little bit dangerous, people might be carrying guns.

They’ve switched to growing fresh vegetables in greenhouses and coffee which I can confirm, even by Wellington standards, is great. The security that’s come with that is obviously a big bonus. It also means they get an income year round if they’re growing different crops.

There’s a lot of doors that have opened to them – there’s a lot of community groups and NGOs, and government support to transition those farmers into more effective and sustainable crops.

It’s interesting that everywhere is looking into the issue of land use. And in New Zealand that’s ‘where do we put our housing developments so they’re not using the best land that could be used for growing things’.

It was very similar in Thailand. There’s also the issue of land ownership and indigenous views not always aligning with what the government considers for use and ownership.

It’s really important to make sure those yields are good, make sure they’re producing stuff all year-round and can feed their families. Ultimately that works out better for everyone because the farmers are earning, the government isn’t needing to support so many people and people are healthier because they’re eating locally grown food.

Learn more:

You can learn more about the Jefferson Fellowship, here.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Lotto has jackpotted to a record $55 million prize, which has to be won. But what would you do if you woke up in the morning with a few extra zeros on the end of your bank balance?

Whether you were to win the top prize (a one in 38 million chance, it should be noted), or one of the smaller amounts, one financial adviser who has previously advised winners says there are a few things you should know.

Tim Fairbrother, of Rival Wealth, said people who won were often in a state of disbelief initially.

If you win when you’re playing online, you will be sent a prize claim form.

Winners with a physical ticket can take it to a shop they bought it from and fill out a form, or go to the Lotto head office in Auckland.

In most cases, Lotto staff try to meet in person with winners to talk to them about what will happen (there is champagne offered).

Winners are given a booklet that proclaims on the front “This is not a dream”.

In it, it offers tip on how to handle a life-changing amount of money.

Secure the ticket

Fairbrother said many people spent some time carrying the ticket around before they claimed their win, because they almost could not believe it had happened.

“If you’re telling everyone that you won but you haven’t’ secured your ticket then that can be a bit of a problem – perhaps if the ticket is suddenly not in the place you thought it was going to be.”

If you aren’t going straight to claim, keep the ticket somewhere very safe.

Deposit the money into a savings account

Lotto advises that the money should be paid into an interest-earning account while you work out your next steps.

If you win Powerball, it says, it can give you the details of the person at your bank who can help you with depositing the money.

Some people do not want this to go through their local branch.

Think about who to tell

Lotto said people should carefully consider who they wanted to tell about their win.

Fairbrother agreed. He said if it became common knowledge, the money could change people.

“Especially big amounts of money. It might not be you, it might be the people around you who suddenly have their hands out thinking ‘man, this is going to be good for me’.”

People were likely to encourage winners to invest in various things, or spend their money in certain ways – he said these should be approached with caution.

Have a plan

Lotto advises that people think about what they want to do with their money, have a plan and list of goals and check in on it regularly.

Fairbrother said people could work with an adviser to talk through their ideas and come up with a strategy.

“Make sure you have got the right accountant and lawyer so that you’re getting your structure right for tax and optimising what that looks like.”

He said those discussions would usually involve talking to people about what was important to them.

“What are your overarching goals now you’ve won this money? It might be a million dollars, which is amazing. But it might be $44m, which is epically life-changing, isn’t it?

“If you’re living in a $600,000 home you might want to go and extend the house, build a tennis court and swimming pool, or sell it altogether.

“How much do you want people to know this has happened to you? If you go and sell your $600,000 house and buy a $4m house, people are going to start asking questions.’

An investment portfolio would be structured according to a person’s wishes, he said.

Some might want to invest in commercial property, or a residential development including a number of homes.

“Or it might be saying I don’t want to deal with any of that, I’m just going to put it into a managed portfolio,. It’s going to be a mix of those things and it’s going to be a steep learning curve. You don’t need to go about it quickly, there’s no point rushing and doing things fast.”

Some purchases would be investments and others would depreciate, he said.

Knowing the difference would help to make wealth last.

“I knew of someone many years ago before I was a financial adviser, who a significant amount in Lotto and basically within three years he had got rid of it all by buying expensive cars and not understanding those expensive cars are going to be depreciating assets.

“By the time you drive it off the lot it loses 20 percent or whatever, then two or three years later it is down 60 percent.”

Pay off debt

If you win a smaller amount than $44m, it usually makes sense to use it to pay off debt.

Fairbrother said people with a mortgage would usually want to pay that off. “That puts them in a whole different financial position going forward into the future where they’re now able to save each month as opposed to paying the bank for their mortgage.”

Be careful with gifting

Many people wanted to give money to others, Fairbrother said, particularly to help their kids buy houses.

“If you want to give it, it’s better to do what they call an interest-free loan payable on demand.

“That means if there are problems in the future with their own relationships or whatever they might be, you can ask them to pay the money back. If you give a couple $100,000 then as soon as it goes into their account it becomes relationship property whereas if you loan it to them then you can ask to have to back again in the future.”

Write a will

Fairbrother said as soon as people had that much money to their name, they needed to do some estate planning.

A will would be essential to avoid disputes if something happened to them.

“You’re not going to end up with your children arguing over the fact you promised them more for any particular reason.”

Tax

Lotto winners do not have to pay tax on their prize, as in some other countries.

But they also cannot have it paid as an annual income, it has to be a lump sum.

You don’t have to declare it as income if you’re getting a benefit unless you receive the accommodation supplement, temporary additional support or special benefit.

But any income you make from your money will reduce your eligibility for support.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Simon Williamson’s grandfather was in his late twenties when he rode his horse from St Bathans in Central Otago to Tekapo in South Canterbury.

The lambs he sought were too expensive but a good deed proved life-changing.

He met a man who took a liking to him and offered him the chance of owning a high country station called Birchwood in the Ahuriri Valley.

He bought it and his family and descendants lived there for 64 years.

It was then sold to the Crown and the Williamson family, in turn, bought another station, Glenbrook further east, straddling State Highway 8 south of Twizel.

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At 4000 hectares and carrying 3000 merino sheep and a couple of hundred cattle, the sheep station is a lot smaller than the stations of Grandad Ted’s day.

Back in the late 1800s a sheep station would have up to 60 staff and contract staff.

Nowadays, Simon said, it is a little different.

“Now the boys have gone off to school, just Kirsty and me are full time and one full-time man who’s gold that’s worked for us for quite a long time now.

“And he’s rock solid. So there’s really only three of us.”

But with the stock numbers and a bit of cropping they try and make everything fit, so it is “doable”.

Simon’s wife Kirsty is a vital part of Glenbrook Station with her four dogs.

She works the sheep and cattle and plays an integral part in the daily running of the farm.

She also runs a tourism venture, welcoming cruise ship guests on-farm for a high country station experience.

“The buses come in and we give the guests lunch, with everything grown here,” she said.

“I think they just like the chance to get up a driveway. You know, they often drive down the road, and never really know what’s up here. So they get a chance to experience it.”

Glenbrook Station is in an extreme environment with harsh, cold winters and extremely hot summers.

Simon said, back in the early days, some winters you could lose almost a quarter of your stock and it took a long time to replace them.

“The winter of 1895, Benmore Station had 100,000 sheep shorn that season and … they got an early storm with metres of snow.

“In those days, there was no access out there. You only had a horse, and the snow covered the sheep over out on the flats.”

The shearing numbers were down to 40,000 the next season, so the numbers told it all.

“They lost 60,000 sheep in piles, so pretty devastating, those sort of events and history.”

Simon said when they took over the land there was no irrigation to speak of and it was not well understood at the time.

Six families took a punt and joined forces to pay for a scheme.

“We struck a good winter, and they got the whole canal right through from Lake Ohau.

“The whole canal cost about $4m to build, and it irrigated 4000 hectares of farmland and is still doing so to this day.”

He said modern, efficient pivot irrigators had been game-changers.

“We started with this irrigator here. It is 900 metres long, and it irrigates 275 hectares, pumping 200 litres of water a second to put six millilitres of water on 275 hectares.”

There’s something about the high country, a kind of romance, with books like Mona Anderson’s “A River Rules My Life” in 1963 helping build an image of isolation, adventure and beauty.

But Simon said there are plenty of challenges.

“Wilding pines are a real problem.

“They just need money thrown at them, so that they don’t become a problem forever, but it is solvable at the moment.”

He said when the rabbits disappeared in the late 90s the pine tree problem really exploded, but he’d rather live with killing a pine tree than rabbits destroying everything.

But the main purpose of Glenbrook is to grow fine merino wool for export.

It heads to Vietnam or China to be scoured, spun and woven into outdoor wear and socks, and ends up in stores in the US.

“It’s a wonderful product, and it’s natural, and merinos suit this country.

“It’s cold in the wintertime, hot in the summertime, and I believe that you farm, what your country suits, and I believe that merinos suit this sort of country.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A $55,000 reward for information leading to those responsible for killing endangered sea lions in the Catlins a year ago has been extended to cover the killing of three sea lions at the Waitaki River mouth, north of Ōamaru, in August.

The New Zealand Sea Lion Trust (NZSLT) initially offered a $5000 reward for information leading to the killing of a sea lion pup and its mother, found shot in late 2024, and the death of another young female that had to be euthanised after being found with stab wounds in November last year.

The eight month old pup was shot and left to die in September, and its mother was found dead weeks later 100 metres away from where the pup had died.

A wave of support and donations saw the reward soar to $55,000.

But prosecutions have to be brought within twelve months of the offence due to statutory limitations in the Marine Mammals Protections Act, Sea Lion Trust co-chair Shaun McConkey said.

He said the reward has been extended, and will remain open until the end of August for information leading to those who killed the sea lions in Waitaki.

“Sadly I think the opportunity to prosecute someone for the Catlins killings has passed. But for the Sea Lion Trust one of the positives to come out of it is the number of people who are incensed about it, the number of people who are disgusted by it, and the number of people who are willing to give money towards finding the culprits and preventing it from happening again.

“There is certainly a lot of support out there for sea lions and other wildlife, and there’s enough people who have had enough of this type of thing going on.”

The three young males were found at the Waitaki River mouth, north of Ōamaru on August 10.

The New Zealand or Hooker’s sea lion – one of the rarest sea lions in the world – is nationally endangered.

They were hunted to the point of extinction, eradicated on the mainland for around 200 years, only returning in the 1990s when a sea lion named ‘Mum’ made her way to the Dunedin coast to give birth.

There’s thought to be around 10,000 sea lions left, mostly found on remote sub-Antarctic Auckland and Campbell Islands, though the main breeding colony on the Auckland Islands has halved in size in recent decades.

Sea lions are drawn to isolated sandy beaches, which made it hard to monitor the animals or install cameras in many areas, leaving the Trust reliant on information from the public, McConkey said.

“I’m just hoping that someone’s opened their mouth and boasted about doing this at the pub or something like that, and someone’s been listening and noted it and will be able to tell the police.”

It’s not known what was used to stab the sea lion killed in the Catlins, but McConkey said people would have been able to approach the animal, despite their size.

“If you were to go up and stab a sea lion, they’d most likely try and run away rather than attack you. They’re not especially aggressive animals, but there’s always someone who’s either incensed enough or macho enough to do this and it makes them look big and tough, but I really don’t understand it.”

Locals described the small colony at the Waitaki River Mouth where the dead and wounded animals were found as almost tame.

Under the Wildlife Act, it is illegal to injure or kill protected native wildlife such as sea lions and anyone who does so can face punishments of up to two years imprisonment and/or a fine of up to $250,000.

Mainland populations were doing better than their sub-Antarctic counterparts, where colonies were extremely vulnerable to disease and steep declines in numbers had been seen, likely due to wider ecological issues, including growing competition for dwindling fish stocks and the effects of climate change.

On the mainland, the animals faced threats from dogs, drivers and humans.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand