Category: Rural

Source: Radio New Zealand

South Island farmers are working to keep farms running amid power outages, road closures and damaging winds – with all eyes on rising rivers.

Follow updates on RNZ’s blog

Severe gale northwesterlies are lashing parts of the east coast on Thursday, particularly Canterbury, while MetService has issued heavy rain warnings for already-sodden areas Fiorldland and Westland.

Slips and surface flooding have hit the roading network, with multiple road closures across the West Coast and inland into upper South Island state highways including SH6 and SH8.

State-owned farming enterprise Pāmu Farms has 130 staff working in 24 largely dairy farms in the upper South Island across Canterbury, West Coast and Marlborough.

The area’s general manager, Cam Walker said teams had been busy preparing for today’s weather by moving stock out of high risk areas in advance and giving them extra feed.

He said fortunately they were still able to get milk tankers in, despite many road closures.

“It’s definitely a wild ol’ spring at the moment,” he said.

“Luckily yeah there have been some road closures, but there has been a path to get through to all the farms, so there have been a few detours in place and things, but luckily no disruptions to milk.

“We have had a few power outages, but the team’s done a good job preparing for that with generators and things to keep milking going.”

All eyes on rising rivers

Walker said staff were watching rising rivers closely, particularly in Canterbury and Marlborough.

“Well, everyone’s got concerns at the moment. Definitely the gale force winds across the Canterbury region’s a big focus for us today. The rivers are up through there with the West Coast rain spilling into the headwaters,” he said.

“Teams are managing infrastructure like pivots downwind… and watch out for any flying debris and stay away from trees and all of that sort of stuff.”

He said Molesworth Station got 40 millimetres of rainfall yesterday with more forecast, and the area’s rivers were very high.

“They’re keeping a close eye on [river] levels up there. Hanmer, the Waiau is bank to bank, so flood protection is doing a good job across our farms there, but there is a little bit spilling over into paddocks there, nothing too major.

“It’s sort of everywhere at the moment to be honest in our region.”

‘Trying’ conditions on the wet West Coast

Walker, based on the West Coast, said it was a wet spring there already, ahead of today’s forecast rain.

“It’s been a wet ol’ time across the coast over spring, and we’ve had 500-odd millimetres over the last month already, and with more rain over the last 24 hours and obviously more on the forecast, it’s been pretty trying conditions,” he said.

“But the team’s doing a good job and the focus is obviously on safety first for our people and they’re out there looking after the animals at the moment.”

Bad weather came at an already busy time for the dairy farms in the midst of mating.

Walker said mating was in full swing, so farmers were ensuring stock were well fed after a tough few weeks from the rain.

“I guess it’s just around making good decisions around what jobs can wait for better weather conditions, but things like mating are absolutely still happening and the teams are just making sure cows are in sheltered paddocks and feeding a little bit more feed just to get the cows through.

“But luckily it’s a norwest flow with this rain so it is relatively warm out there, but certainly the animals are feeling it from a month of pretty wet conditions across the coast, that’s for sure.”

Walker said fortunately feed levels were good due to the warm weather that had come with the storms.

Pāmu Farms has hundreds of farms scattered across Aotearoa.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Alliance Group farmer-shareholders have voted in favour of a proposed $270 million investment from Irish meat processor Dawn Meats.

Under the agreement, Dawn Meats will acquire a 65 percent stake in Alliance Group, with farmer-shareholders retaining 35 percent ownership.

More than 2600 shareholders took part in the vote, representing 92.5 million shares – more than 88 percent of all shares on issue.

Of those, more than 87 percent supported the proposal.

Alliance chair Mark Wynne said the result showed strong confidence from the company’s farmer-owners in its direction and leadership.

“Our farmer-shareholders have given a clear mandate for Alliance to move forward in partnership with Dawn Meats. This is a vote of trust in our people, our operations and our vision.”

Wynne said the partnership followed a two-year process to reset and recapitalise the business after challenging years for the meat sector.

“The Board explored every option to secure Alliance’s future. The Dawn Meats proposal stood out as the best strategic and financial path forward, a view confirmed by independent adviser Northington Partners.”

He said the investment would strengthen Alliance’s balance sheet, reduce debt, and enable greater capital investment in technology and efficiency.

Wynne had previously said the bank had made it clear the company’s $188 million in debt had to be paid back in full by the end of the year.

Around $200 million from the investment will be used to reduce the company’s short-term working capital facility, with the rest directed toward strategic projects.

Alliance planned to distribute up to $20 million in both the 2026 and 2027 financial years to farmer and shareholders through a mix of dividends and supply-based rebates, alongside a further $25 million dividend from the joint venture’s stronger-than-expected performance.

Dawn Meats chief executive Niall Browne said the Irish company was “pleased and excited” by the vote outcome.

“We look forward to maximising the potential of the new opportunities this strategic partnership will unlock,” he said.

“Having the ability to now grow in partnership with some of New Zealand’s leading farmers, and create a year-round supply for our customers between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, is a fantastic opportunity – and one our customers are already responding to.”

Alliance is New Zealand’s largest processor and exporter of sheep meat and a major producer of grass-fed beef, operating six plants nationwide and exporting to more than 65 countries.

Dawn Meats, established in 1980 in Ireland, is one of Europe’s largest red meat companies, processing about one million cattle and 3.5 million sheep annually through its Irish and UK facilities.

Wynne said the deal marked “a turning point” for the co-operative.

“The future looks much brighter than it did 12 months ago,” he said.

“We’re now well positioned to thrive alongside a complementary partner like Dawn Meats and deliver enduring profitability and greater value for our farmer-shareholders.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

This story has been updated to clarify the blueberries will not be genetically modified

The world’s largest variety of blueberry will soon be grown and sold in New Zealand.

Described as “up to the size of a ping-pong ball”, the blueberries are being planted in the Kerikeri and Waikato regions.

The Fresh Berry Company, which grows and markets berries, said it had partnered with international berry producer Driscoll’s.

General manager Simon Tallon said one of the monster Eterna variety berries, that was grown in Australia, is offically the largest blueberry in the world.

Tallon described the Eterna berry that made it into the Guiness Book of World Records as a good large blueberry that weighed 20.4 grams.

He said the imported blueberry stock was tested for pests and diseases by the Ministry for Primary Industries before being released to growers.

“Those then get taken through to tissue culture and our commercial nurseries where we grow them into commercial plants for our farms and external growers. The big push is always how do you get better berries, firmer berries, better shelf life and ultimately they have to be good tasting fruit.”

Simon Tallon expected a limited number of the monster-sized blueberies to be on some supermarket shelves later next year .

Meanwhile, he said The Fresh Berry Company was also starting its first berry farm in the South Island next year, in Nelson.

“All of our production is covered – in plastic tunnel houses apart from some of the blueberries that are exported.”

Tallon said there was likely to be a bumper crop of strawberries leading up to Christmas from its growers and farms in Hawke’s Bay, Waikato and Northland.

“We are expecting to have a pretty good volume this year so consumers can enjoy strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries.”

He said $120 million of berries were sold in the country last year.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

There have been calls for a review of the warnings issued ahead of last week’s weather event which brought down hundreds of slips, closed dozens of central North Island roads, inundated farms and flooded homes.

An orange warning was issued, but the mayor of the Waitomo District and the Minister for Rural Communities are questioning whether that should have been upgraded.

Marokopa sheep and beef farmer Chris Lovell was docking lambs with his family and trying to get on with life when RNZ visited after near record rains swamped his property, leaving its best paddocks caked with suffocating silt.

“The river just came over the banks and just kept coming up and we were in the house which is on a hill and had to watch in dismay as it started to go over everything, over fences, over gateways.

“We’d moved the stock to safety the night before because we’re sort of used to heavy rain on the west coast but this was exceptional. It’s muddy water, it’s not nice, there’s lot’s of debris and as the water recedes it just gets worse and worse as you see the damage.”

He was afraid to leave the house to check on his stock at the height of the storm.

“I thought I should be doing something but I couldn’t get out. I wanted to check, you know like, the sheep. I wanted to check there was nothing stuck on islands, but I couldn’t get out myself.

“Several times I started to wade out to see in the driveway and I decided it would be silly to even try.”

Minister concerned

Minister for Rural Communities Mark Patterson was visiting the Waitomo District with mayor John Roberston and Taranaki-King Country MP Barbara Kuriger.

He wanted to gauge the scale of the damage caused by a weather event he believed had flown under the radar.

“What’s happened is there’s widespread isolated pockets where it’s really badly impacted and I think where we are here you can see some fairly widespread damage, $50,000 to $60,000 worth according to the farmers, and if you replicate that around the rest of the province it mounts up.”

Patterson said he would be reporting to his colleagues in Wellington about whether a Mayoral Relief Fund was necessary and he was expecting NZ Transport Agency to step up in terms of repairing the ruined roads.

A farmer himself, the minister was not convinced farmers had enough warning about how severe the weather was likely to be.

“There will be some questions asked of MetService. How they missed this 50mm to 70mm forecast over 200mm delivered in some places, so we’re going to have a pretty thorough review about why they missed this.

“You know, is it a systematic problem, do we need better rain radars like we have invested in Tasman subsequently, so those questions need to be asked.”

It should have been red – mayor

Waitomo mayor John Robertson was on the same page as the Minister.

“Yes, so it was an orange warning and it should’ve been a red warning. Clearly they were severe storms. When we get 150mm in 24 hours of rain, for this district that is huge, that is a month’s worth of rain in 24 hours.”

Chris Lovell was a bit more forgiving.

“The warning system was on yellow, which is just a warning, and it wasn’t raised to orange until the morning when we already had water going over our fences by then, but the radar and the forecast, the three-day forecast, didn’t look good and living here we like to sleep at night, so we take our stock off the flats if there’s a chance.”

He said as long as the three-day forecast map was available and the rain radar was working farmers could see if they were going to be in the red zone.

MetService chief meteorologist Chris Noble said it was was standard practice for all severe weather warnings it issued to be recorded and reviewed through an internal post-event verification process.

“This process includes an assessment of the model forecasts that were available prior to the event (that informed the pre-event warnings), reviews the Watches and Warnings that were issued, and assesses the rainfall that occurred against what was forecast (timings, amounts etc.).

“Where relevant it also includes working with affected councils and/or Civil Defence groups.”

Noble said the review would take time to complete, “but any lessons learned would contribute to, and improve where relevant, MetService’s processes and the severe weather warning system and its outputs”.

Meanwhile, the rural community was rallying around helping farmers get back on their feet.

Adrian Marsh was with a group of shearers clearing fences on the Marokopa to Awakino road.

“Well, we’ve got the fence line for the farms, for their paddocks and it’s covered in, you know, logs, sticks, grass, you name it, and we’ve just come out to clean up and tidy it up a bit.”

He said it was a quiet time for shearers so he and his mates were happy to help out the farmers with the unexpected and unwanted extra work.

Beyond the fence line the paddock was caked in mud and silt.

‘Pretty scary’

Barbara Kuriger, also a farmer, knew that was bad news for Lovell and his neighbours.

“The grass just rots, so you can see that’s setting and it’s going to go completely hard and it’s going to need to be reploughed up and planted again because that’s never going to grow again. It won’t come through the silt, weeds might, but the grass is going to need resowing.

“There were lots of slips along the road but out here you can see it’s taken the brunt of it. When you look at what’s been pulled off the fences here you can just imagine how high that water was. It would’ve been pretty scary the other day.”

She would be working with Robertson and Patterson to see what help they could get the farmers.

Robertson said, while here had been a lot of focus on the five state highways closed during the weather event and its aftermath, 30 local Waitomo roads had been closed at one stage and were severely damaged.

He was hoping for a helping had from NZTA to repair those including the Marokopa to Awakino road which had been reduced to rubble in places.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

A rural land agent has allayed fears a significant Hawke’s Bay farm will be planted in pine trees.

The Riverbank Station owned by former All Blacks captain Sam Whitelock and his wife Hannah is on the market.

The flat, rolling and steep 833 hectare sheep and beef farm at Rissington is northwest of Napier, near the rural village of Puketapu.

The sale has attracted plenty of attention with many on social media raising concerns it may be targeted as a forestry conversion for carbon credits.

Bayleys agent Tony Rasmussen said it was likely rising red meat returns will keep the property in productive farmland.

“Largely, the numbers should stack up better for sheep and beef farming with the current returns we’re getting,” Rasmussen said.

The government has introduced legislation to restrict farms going to forestry.

The recent Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) amendment bill restricts large-scale conversions of high and medium rated productive farmland (Land Use Capability classes 1-6) to exotic forestry.

“The carbon price has been the main driver of farm conversions,” Rasmussen said.

“Now effectively the party can only get 25 percent of the land area registered in the ETS and that changes the equation significantly.”

Rasmussen isn’t expecting an international buyer to take the Whitelocks’ farm out of New Zealand hands either.

“It’s received a good level of interest, not necessarily from the overseas space.

“It’s highly likely it will be a New Zealand purchaser.”

Enquiries have been been strong from local buyers and from outside the region.

“It’s 27km from the Napier Airport with a lovely easy contour and the nice climate we have here in Hawke’s Bay,” Rasmussen said.

“This is truly a trophy farm that has seen significant capital investment.”

Tenders close on 12 November. The farm on five titles was purchased for $8.5 million eight years ago. It has an RV of $15.3m.

The property includes three dwellings and shearers’ quarters with over 40km of new fencing, steel cattle yards and new sheep yards.

It’s bound by the Mangaone River which is known for its excellent trout fishing.

Whitelock who was capped in more than 150 test matches is returning to his farming roots in Manawatū.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Tens of millions of dollars worth of irrigation equipment is thought to have been damaged by strong winds in North Canterbury.

Thursday’s gales tossed and twisted hundreds of massive pivot irrigators, leaving Amuri Basin farmers with weeks or months-long waits for replacement parts from overseas.

Federated Farmers North Canterbury president Bex Green said she understood more than 700 pivot spans had been damaged in the region.

“At $30,000 a span, that’s quite a lot of money, as you can imagine – over $20 million – getting parts could take a lengthy amount of time. I’ve heard November at the earliest, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re waiting until next year,” she said.

“Our big pivot is 13 spans, our first seven are fine then we have three down after that. The final three are fine but we can’t use those, so we’ve essentially lost half of our pivot and could be waiting ages to water that part of the farm.”

Some of the costly equipment would be uninsured, Green said.

“Some people actually can’t get insurance, they’ve had their pivots turn over too many times and companies won’t insure them anymore.”

Green said there were no alternatives for watering in most cases, and the situation was particularly grave heading into the dry season.

“For us, that’s 80 to 100 hectares that won’t get watered and won’t grow any grass. We’ll have no option but to bring in bought feed.

“It’s a huge concern coming into the summer period when it gets really dry up here and obviously with the winds that we get, it dries out really fast.”

She said some farmers had lost 10 span pivots, affecting huge areas, and farmers were facing difficult choices that were complicated by uncertainties about repair timeframes.

“Do you reduce your cows, send them off to another farm that can feed them and compromise your production? Or do you try and put other feed in so they can do somewhat better, and put them on once-a-day [milking]?” she said.

“We’re all trying to figure it out, but don’t have a timespan for when those pivots are going to get here. We’re all just waiting for information.”

Green had heard from a lot of stressed, exhausted farmers and expected there would be a significant impact on production, with some already going to once a day milking, which would normally start in the new year.

“Farmers are going to be quite stressed worrying about feed input then not being able to water those parts of the farm. It’s going to be a long summer,” she said.

Other priorities were ensuring farms were stockproofed, getting stock water, clearing trees from fences and getting reliable power back on.

Insurance claims from last week’s wild weather had already topped $10 million and were expected to climb even further.

FMG, the country’s largest rural insurer, had received more than 900 weather-related claims by the weekend, half of which were from Southland and Otago.

Spokesperson Jacqui McIntosh said farmers had made claims for damaged roofs, farm buildings, fencing and irrigators.

“We’re still in the early days of this and expect those numbers to rise once the state of emergencies lift and utilities are restored,” she said.

McIntosh said the company was working closely with irrigation repair companies and expected a fairly lengthy repair and recovery process.

“Obviously it’s been a large event from an irrigator perspective, so there will be a tail on the time it will take to get those up and running again,” she said.

Federated Farmers was working with the Rural Support Trust, Irrigation NZ, Dairy NZ, Fonterra, and the Ministry for Primary Industries as part of the Canterbury Rural Advisory Group, which was sharing information from the ground and providing updates Green could take back to farmers.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

A first responder and local farmer believes it’s a miracle no one was hurt in the devastating storm that hit Clutha, but he’s warning there will be injuries in the clean up.

At its peak, communications, power and water were off across Southland and Clutha creating a nightmare situation for farmers.

One of those living in the nightmare is Clutha Valley Volunteer Fire Brigade chief Richard Hunter.

While driving round the property he points out the powerlines that lead to nowhere, just laying like a dead snake in the grass.

It’s snapped off from the transformer that is now crushed beneath the 100 year old trees.

Hunter has hundreds of trees like this around his property.

When he looks at the mountain of work those downed trees mean for him… “Overwhelmed. Daunting, yeah, wondering where to start.”

He’s just one of the local farmers staring down the barrel of months of work. The scale of destruction in this area means you can’t drive 100 metres without seeing a giant tree down.

The first step for most of them is stock proofing – or reinstalling the fences – for Hunter, kilometres needing replacing.

“Yeah, so there’s big holes in all the tree blocks. Really, it’s the tree devastation that’s the main thing for me now, and the fencing,”

“It’s amazing what a digger can do in a day, though… move the trees, you know. Tidy up the old fence and so you got somewhere to work with.”

But as he drives around the hilly property covered in carnage, the thing he kept saying was it was a miracle that no one got hurt on Thursday.

Although he said the recovery might be a different story.

“That’s the other thing. It’s, you know, there’s all those, we call them widowmakers, hanging up in the trees.”

Many of the trees have snapped halfway up, and are now caught in the tall branches waiting to come down.

Richard Hunter was also concerned for the ‘chainsaw cowboys’ who try and do it themselves and will end up hurt.

The other worry, he said, is mental health.

“It’s going to be quite a major it’s going to be ongoing, like we were shaping up to have be having quite a good season…prices are quite good, weather conditions were quite good, yeah, but this is a bit of a game changer, but we’ll get over it. Yeah, it’s not, it’s not going to be the end of the world.”

But the community through Clutha Valley is a tight network, in the immediate aftermath held together largely by the local sparky company.

Jared Cowley and his team worked for more than 20 hours straight getting generators between the dairy farms to ensure they could all get their milking done.

“I actually counted the phone calls just on the Thursday, and it was over 300 so yeah.”

His team would bring the generator into the farm, wire it into the switchboard, wait for the milking to be done, before unwiring it and moving to the next desperate farmer.

“The boys have been going from stupid o’clock, four o’clock in the morning, till after midnight.”

“Obviously people would like to keep the generator there for more, because when we take it away, it means there’s no stock water. But they’ve known that their neighbors was in the same or worse boat.

“Everyone’s been great.”

One of those very grateful dairy farmers was Greg Foster.

He’s got 600 hectares in Rongohere … or as he calls it “out in the boonies in the back of Clydevale”.

He also went on a mission to get generators.

“Basically one of the cobbers down the road. He needed a generator… We basically got together, met down the road…he took a tractor so we could push all the trees off the way… we took three chainsaws.

“The guys up in Cromwell met us halfway with them… we swapped the generators over halfway and headed back.

“So I think we’re up and running on the first cow shed by midnight.

“It’s bloody good.”

He said it was a desperate time for farmers, but comparing horror stories over a pint and a good old stew helped ease the pain.

“[We talked about] just the carnage, basically, who’s worse off and who needed a hand still and stuff like that… and just probably the first hot meal for about four days.”

Most of Clutha Valley were still without power on Tuesday but aside from some stock losses and sleepless nights they had committed to continue as they started – riding out the long tail of this storm together.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Rural nurses are on a mission to try and lift measle vaccination rates in hard to reach areas, as health experts expect the outbreak to grow.

There are currently 11 known measles cases throughout the country, and the number of close contacts is about 2000.

Central Hawke’s Bay registered nurse Michelle Reinhardt works for Te Ara Waiora in Waipukurau, a free nurse-led kaupapa Māori hauora clinic.

She told RNZ the current outbreak was concerning, and they were trying hard to lift vaccine rates.

“There is hesitancy still, but it’s just about getting the word out there to people and it slowly starts to grow.

“Just make sure you’re vaccinated – it’s really important,” she said.

Only 72 percent of Māori under five years old are vaccinated, compared with 82 percent across the general population.

Reinhardt and her nursing colleagues drive all over the rural district providing mobile vaccination clinics and even house visits for people who can’t travel or don’t have a car.

“It’s something we are trying really hard to educate people on, to let people make educated decisions on being vaccinated.

“It’s important to talk to your health professionals… and make that decision for yourself so that information is all correct and not based on hearsay, or what we see on social media,” she said.

Reinhardt was working as a paediatric nurse during the previous measles outbreak in 2019.

“That last wave of measles was scary and I did see parents saying they wish they’d known earlier.. that they were susceptible.. and they wish they’d done something about it earlier,” she said.

Vaccine mistrust

Māori GP Doctor Nina Bevin said she was worried about the low vaccination rates

Dr Bevin said despite years of hard mahi from the health sector, there was still some mistrust in pockets of communities.

“I’m really concerned about the current measles outbreak because it’s coming at a time when we’ve got our lowest coverage of immunisation for our tamariki.

“It means we are very vulnerable to a large outbreak,” she said.

Dr Bevin is encouraging people to not only get immunised, but also consider a ‘top up’ measles vaccine, because public health records “haven’t always been perfect”.

“The measles vaccine is highly safe and it’s highly effective. If you’re not sure of your vaccination status check the Te Whatu Ora website, call your GP and check in.

“Sometimes the best thing is to go and get the top up because it’s really safe to have 3 or 4 doses of MMR, it won’t cause any harmful effects,” she said.

Thousands of vunerable children

Measles is so infectious, it requires an immunity rate of at least 95 percent in the community to prevent spread. This is driving concerns about its spread, because of New Zealand’s lower vaccination rate.

Professor Michael Baker said he was worried because measles transmission was occurring and some cases weren’t linked to overseas visits, and this situation was combined with low immunisation rates.

“Those two situations in combination means we are looking at the beginning of a measles epidemic unless we act very rapidly.”

He said there were tens of thousands of children vulnerable to the highly infectious virus.

It comes as parents and caregivers of Wellington high school students are worried by the current outbreak, with thousands of close contacts identified and students in isolation.

One case is linked to overseas travel, and seven are linked to a Bluebridge ferry crossing on 3 October.

There are four cases in Wellington, one in Northland, two in Auckland, one in Taranaki, two in Manawatū and one in Nelson.

Wellington’s locations of interest include Metlink bus 736 journeys on the mornings of 13 and 15 October, VTNZ Thorndon on those same afternoons, and a Thai restaurant in Karori on the evening of 15 Wednesday.

Incoming mayor urges ‘ basic precautions’

Wellington’s incoming mayor Andrew Little is urging residents to take “basic precautions” against measles, with hundreds of people already exposed to the virus.

Little, a former Health minister, said mask-wearing could help stop transmission of the virus, which is spread by droplets from coughing and sneezing, and can linger in the air for up to two hours.

“People have to be really careful,” he said. “People in big public spaces or on buses, wear masks. This is contagious.”

New Zealand’s low immunisation rates had been “an issue” for the health system and successive governments for some time, he said.

“And that effort is going to be needed for some time to get a new generation vaccinated.

“But meanwhile, the contagion is out there and people just need to take those basic precautions.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

They used to be a regular sight on New Zealand’s roads and paddocks – the plodding, but magnificent Clydesdales.

The horses with the hobbit hooves helped tame the land in earlier times, ploughing wheatfields, carting lumber and carving out New Zealand’s infrastructure, but these dignified animals are now becoming a rare breed.

While they may have passed their ‘use-by’ date for some, their charm, ability and legacy have inspired others to save the breed from extinction – people like Susie Izard and daughter Cate Smith of Silverstream Clydesdales in Kimbell, South Canterbury.

It all started when Cate worked at historic Erewhon Station, where she discovered these gentle giants and fell for them.

The station has a large Clydesdale stud and they often still use ‘Clydies’ instead of machines to do the cultivating work and to tow wagons.

Suzie and Cate decided they would learn how to breed, with the one proviso – the horses had to pay for themselves, including vet bills and feed.

“I was the horsey one, not mum or dad, and I had normal horses, which now are the not normal ones,” Cate told Country Life.

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The Clydesdale Horse Society of New Zealand notes there are 750 registered Clydesdales in New Zealand and they are regarded as an “at risk” breed.

Cate said Clydesdales were the labradors of the horse world, because of their love of food, but she said their personalities made them most endearing.

According to their farrier, you have to keep an eye on Clydesdales, as they’re not sleeping – “they’re plotting”.

To illustrate, Susie told the story of Billy, who spent three years planning a raid on the food barrel.

“He had to wait until there was an open gate,” she said. “Race up the driveway round a corner, through the other side of the shed, through a man door, and tipped one of the food bins over and started eating.”

He had thought about it, made a plan and executed that plan over three years, and no doubt savoured every mouthful, she said.

Twenty-one year old Billy was quite the character and Cate described him as her mother’s one true love.

“Sorry, dad! He’s incredibly cheeky, loves whiskey, loves going into high country huts. He’s had about five shepherds lined up along his back and he’s hilarious.

“He’s not really a horse, he’s a person. He’s brilliant.”

One job that was a constant with six horses was picking up their poo.

“That’s a full-time job in itself,” Cate said. “Mum grew 150 pumpkins on it, just put them in the poo pile and away we went.”

They were also great to ride, something most people didn’t realise.

“It’s a bit like a lazy boy recliner chair, comfort wise, and they are beautiful pacers, because they’re very expressive,” Susie said.

“They have beautiful drops and canters, and they can cover the ground too, if you don’t let them be lazy, they can – they can really go. “

Basil was the first horse they bred and, at 18 hands, he was huge and had just turned four.

“He is like having a puppy around, such a darling, but very large,” Cate said.

She said she almost needed scaffolding to climb on him.

“I had to bail off him the other day on a ride and I couldn’t get back on, so I had to walk all the way home, get on, on the big mounting block and then carry on the ride.”

Susie appreciated the way Clydesdales were responsible for “breaking in” land by towing the sledges and wagons that picked up all the stones on the Canterbury Plains, and logging.

Clydesdales would carry children to school and pull the milk carts.

Their demise began between the world wars. Numbers dropped, because of mechanisation and the loss of so many in World War I, towing guns into warzones.

“They mean so much to us,” Susie said. “We really enjoy working for them, with them, even when it’s difficult.

“You still look at them and the things that we do and the adventures we have and the people we meet. I think it’s a lot about the people and the Clydesdale community.

“We love watching what goes on in the paddock. The dynamics are brilliant, the game playing the dysfunctional marriages, the whole thing.”

Susie said. at night, they had “parties”.

“We can hear them crashing around in the paddock, galloping and fighting, and carrying on. You know, you can see the slashes of footprints down the end of the paddock.

“At the end of the day, I love them to pieces. They are so special and I am very proud to have them.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

The New Zealand economy is set to benefit from an estimated $4.5 billion increase in spending, should the sale of Fonterra’s consumer businesses go ahead.

ASB economists said the proposed sale of Fonterra’s Anchor and Mainland brands to France’s Lactalis was expected to deliver a tax-free capital return of about $3.2b to 8000 shareholding farms throughout New Zealand.

“The average return (to shareholders) would be around $392,000 if the sale goes ahead, and we estimate around 60 percent of shareholding farms could receive at least $200,000,” ASB chief economist Nick Tuffley said.

“Some of that money will flow out into broader communities. It will help support on farm investment and all the contractors who are involved in that.”

However, there would also be a trickle-down effect of an estimated $4.5b of direct and indirect spending, once farmers set aside money to pay down debt and for long-term savings.

“This capital return would be a welcome tailwind for farmers, offering a timely boost to confidence and investment.

While it may not single-handedly drive a broader economic recovery, it strengthens the foundation for growth in key sectors.”

Rural communities as well as manufacturing, retail, accommodation, and real estate sectors were likely to directly benefit.

“While many farmers are likely to save or pay down debt to some extent, their investment in cost-saving upgrades and equipment is expected to indirectly lift demand in these sectors,” Tuffley said.

However, the sale was not a done deal, and had been strongly criticised by New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters.

The sale was still subject to shareholder farmer approval in a vote to be held later this month, as well as regulatory approval.

Tuffley said the sale offered opportunities and risks, including greater vulnerability to global trade shifts and changing consumer preferences, particularly in developed markets.

However, he said the timing of the sale coincided with a strong dairy sector with robust incomes.

Strong global demand and resilient commodity prices were expected to keep dairy farm profitability high in the year ahead, with rural areas generally outperforming urban centres.

The proposed sale also aligned with Fonterra’s strategy to shift back to a commodity focus.

“One key thing for everybody to bear in mind is we rely quite heavily on our export incomes,” Tuffley said adding the $4.22b sale price reflected the value of the consumer business built up over time.

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