Animal rights group wants government to ban all caged hens

Source: Radio New Zealand

Up to 80 chickens can be placed in colony cages. Supplied

Animal rights charity SAFE is calling on the government to follow the UK, where the government is consulting on banning caged hens.

Battery cages have been banned in New Zealand since 2023, however, larger colony cages – which are much larger but house dozens of hens – are still allowed.

In January, the UK government sought public consultation on its proposal to phase out the caging of layer hens by 2032.

SAFE head of campaigns Jessica Chambers said cages had been recognised to cause harm, frustration and distress for hens, and the government should ban them.

“Overseas dozens of countries and states including the UK and the EU are either in the process of ending cruel cage animal farming or are in the beginning stages of that where they’re consulting with the public,” she said.

“In the meantime, over 1.2 million hens in New Zealand remain confined in colony cages every year because our government has failed to act.”

Cages were cruel, Chambers said.

“One colony cage can house up to 80 birds, where they are given space about the size of an A4 sheet of paper. These birds don’t get outside, they don’t see sunlight, their entire lives are spent in dark, crowded cages,” she said.

“It would be very logical for New Zealand to start assessing why these cages are still in use in New Zealand and begin the process of phasing them out. Unfortunately our government hasn’t reviewed these systems in a very, very long time.”

Associate Minister for Agriculture Andrew Hoggard said the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (NAWAC) was reviewing the poultry code at present.

It would initially focus on enabling contingency planning for a possible incursion of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, he said.

“NAWAC will provide its advice to me in due course but there are already plenty of options for people who want to buy cage-free eggs and can afford it,” Hoggard said.

“At a time when the economic recovery is building and people are still battling with the cost of living I don’t think it’s in the best interests of New Zealanders to heap more costs on food producers which will then just get passed on to consumers.”

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

Elite working dogs fetch more than $300,000 in auction frenzy

Source: Radio New Zealand

Farmers came from far and wide for the the Parapara-Makirikiri Sheep Dog Trial Club auction. supplied

Organisers of a long-standing North Island working dog auction are in disbelief after $320,000 changed hands at their latest sale.

With sheep farming riding a wave of record lamb prices and strong international demand, buyers arrived at the auction near Whanganui last Saturday with extra money in their back pockets.

Hundreds attended the annual Parapara-Makirikiri Sheep Dog Trial Club auction held on a rural property near Whangaehu which featured more than 60 dogs up for sale.

Inclement weather on the day did little to slow the bidding.

Fierce competition pushed heading dog Trix to the top price of $12,200, bettering last year’s best by nearly $3000.

Jonathan Smailes shows his 11-month-old Wedge to the crowd at the Parapara-Makirikiri Sheep Dog Trial Club auction. She sold for $9800. supplied

The top huntaway Mufasa from Taihape’s Peter Wilson sold for $10,500 – with the young farmer selling three more prized working dogs Spud, Shaggy and Queen. This topped last year’s top huntaway of $9800.

And in a strong run of prices, seven huntaways and two heading dogs sold for at least $9000 on Saturday.

Club spokesperson Brenda O’Leary said the scale of the prices had taken organisers by surprise.

“People can’t believe how much money we have turned over at the sale,” she said.

“There’s a shortage of quality farm dogs.”

O’Leary attributed some of the success of the sale to farmers having less time to break dogs in.

And top-priced Twix certainly fitted the bill.

Taihape farmer Peter Wilson said it’s hard to let your best friends go to another home. supplied

She was described in the run down as “honest, good natured, easy to work and have around”.

Mufasa meanwhile was also fully broken in and “a nice powerful dog”.

Wilson conceded it could be hard to let dogs go to a new owner.

The sun came out only briefly on the day of the sale. supplied

“I’m pretty adamant that these dogs have to go to a good home. At the end of the day they’re good mates of mine,” Wilson said.

“They do a lot for you. But when someone’s paying top dollar like they have been, they’ve got to look after them.”

On average huntaways fetched higher prices with an average of $6500.

That pipped the heading dogs average of $4700.

The event is run as a fundraiser for the Parapara-Makirikiri Sheep Dog Trial Club. O’Leary said the auction entry fee of $150 per dog will now help with the club’s running costs. She said most of the funds will be used to host their annual hill country trial held at Parikino which includes the cost of getting sheep to the trial.

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

Farmers frustrated by Canterbury’s recent bad weather

Source: Radio New Zealand

David Birkett

Canterbury arable farmers are facing millions of dollars of losses after a third big hail storm hit parts of the region on Friday.

Crops have been destroyed, while others have gone to seed due to ongoing wet weather making them unusable.

Federated Farmers Arable chair David Birkett who grows crops like wheat, barley and vegetable seeds in Leeston just south of Christchurch said growers should be harvesting but are sitting on their hands.

“We should be in the thick of harvest but we are sitting here waiting for the weather to improve, since Christmas we’ve gone from a typical hot, dry Canterbury summer to really wet weather with plenty of hail storms coming through.

“Normally we’d have three or four a year but we’ve had about 12 so far this year already, three being really hard-hitting ones which have wiped out entire crops.”

Birkett said the hail was very localised – one grower could have lost everything while next door was totally fine.

“Some hail damage has wiped out entire fields, which is devastating for the growers because for some it’s the second or third season where they’ve lost crops, so cash flow is getting tight.

He said the cost of the hail storms this year had totalled $10 million in Canterbury alone.

“The frustrating thing is that the crop was looking really good this season and now some of it’s not usable.”

The point was that growers had already spent all the money on the crop, so when it was ruined they lost all that income, he said.

Another arable farmer RNZ spoke to said the losses were putting a lot of strain on finances.

“It’s not just the hail, the ongoing wet weather means we can’t harvest and the quality of the crop is going down. My milling wheat won’t make the quality grade, so I will have to sell it as feed wheat for the dairy industry, so I’ll lose about $100 a tonne.”

Birkett said there was no rain in the forecast this week, but temperatures remained low, so it could take a week for the crops to dry out enough to be harvested.

“While other parts of the ag sector like dairy and sheep and beef farmers are doing well, arable farmers are really struggling.”

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Country Life: Behind the scenes at the Roy’s berry farm

Source: Radio New Zealand

Mike and Angela Roy in one of their polytunnels RNZ/Sally Round

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There’s a job for even the youngest of the Roy family when the Christmas berry crush is on at their orchard in Piopio.

With queues out the door of their farm shop over the festive season it’s all hands to the pump, according to orchardist and grandmother, Angela Roy.

“Sam’s our little six-year-old. He does the stickers on the punnets, not always as straight as one might expect, but hey…”

Angela and her husband Mike have been growing berries at their 13.5ha King Country orchard for more than three decades and have enjoyed involving the whole family in the operation over the years, along with a team of Piopio locals, up to 100 at the height of the season.

The Roy’s strawberries are picked at their absolute ripeness and only travel 150m to the farmgate for sale RNZ/Sally Round

The Roys’ four children were brought up around the customers who pour in by the carload over the summer for the freshly picked strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries.

Of their produce, 95 percent is sold at the farmgate, about half-way between Hamilton and New Plymouth on State Highway 3.

Not having to worry about exporting or supermarket sales, they can pick the berries at the last possible moment for transport from the polytunnels to the shop, a journey of only 150 metres.

“Then they’re full size and full-flavored. Quality fruit is our main selling point, ” Mike said.

“Unlike some growers, we are a little bit different. We do see everyone that has our fruit. We see them face to face, obviously, in the shop. So, everything about our berries has to be top,” Angela said.

The Roys took on four hectares of blueberries in 1993 and have expanded the orchard, now growing 66,000 strawberry plants under cover, and several varieties of blueberries under nets.

The original blueberry bushes are still producing at 40 years old.

Blueberry bushes in leaf showing their large trunks, aged 40 years-plus RNZ/Sally Round

Angela and Mike netted the blueberry orchard themselves RNZ/Sally Round

“We had a dream of what we could do with the shop, and that required more production to fulfil those dreams.”

Six years ago they made a million dollar investment, installing several large polytunnels and a tiered vertigation system, drip-feeding nutrients and water into the strawberry plants.

A computer balances the water and feed from sensor readings in the tunnels while Mike keeps an eye on pests, especially two-spotted mites.

Predatory insects are brought in to keep them at bay.

“They come in a little plastic bottle, and we just spread them around inside the tunnel houses, and they crawl around, and they will eat the eggs and the immature stages of two-spotted mite.”

Neither birds nor fungi seem to like the environment but the pickers do, the Roys told Country Life on a tour of the tunnel houses.

“It’s a lovely, warm, dry environment in here, and so the pickers love it, because they don’t have to wear raincoats, like they would if they were outside,” Mike said.

“We’ve eliminated a lot of the risk because we’ve eliminated a lot of the weather issues, which, of course, as in all farming, that’s the biggest issue.”

The tunnels also mean they can provide strawberries continuously over six months.

Strawberries are picked when they’re perfectly ripe at Piopio Berry orchard RNZ/Sally Round

Jessie Loomans at the berry ice-cream maker RNZ/Sally Round

The Christmas-New Year period is the busiest time of year and the Roys’ daughter Jessie Loomans describes it as “controlled chaos”.

You’ll find her behind the berry ice-cream machine in the shop’s Berry Cool department.

“These days, the ice creams are just as busy Christmas week, and so it’s such a neat time.

“We probably should be on the ground in a corner, rocking backwards and forwards, but we love it.

“So much laughter.”

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Country Life: Farming trees the Tāmata Hauhā way

Source: Radio New Zealand

Launched in 2021 Tāmata Hauhā works primarily with Māori land owners to provide them with strategies and funding to develop their land holdings and make them more productive, primarily through forestry. Gianina Schwanecke / Country Life

From growing a few Christmas trees “for fun”, to a diverse range of towering exotics and natives – there’s a bit of everything at Tāmata Hauhā’s demonstration farm outside Palmerston North.

“One of the reasons we created this farm is because farmers actually want to come have a look,” founder and chief executive Blair Jamieson told Country Life.

Launched in 2021, Tāmata Hauhā works primarily with Māori land owners to provide strategies and funding to develop their land holdings and make the land more productive, mainly through forestry.

It provides the finance for purchasing trees, preparing the land, planting the trees and managing the forest created, as well as carrying out all the administration.

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They grow about 46 exotic and 30 native species of trees across three farm sites.

“You can come here and see nearly every type of forestry system that can be applied.

“We’ve even got silvopasture agroforestry systems behind us, which show you how you can actually continue to graze and actually run a farm and stock underneath those trees.”

With adequate spacing between the trees, Jamieson said the systems also enable farmers to generate carbon credits which offer extra profit through the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).

They also offer added benefits like shade and shelter for the stock.

Tāmata Hauhā founder and chief executive Blair Jamieson. Gianina Schwanecke / Country Life

Many of the trees on the farm were planted in 2022 and 2023. Gianina Schwanecke / Country Life

Many of the trees on the farm were planted in 2022 and 2023 – already many stand several metres tall.

There are various types of eucalyptus, elm, paulownia, cypress and poplar, along with different types of pine.

Jamieson said seeing the trees next to each other and understanding their growth helps land-owners in decision-making.

“We support them by saying ‘here is how much you get protected for this type of structuring. Here’s the the native integration you can have for this type of species’.

“I mean, ‘here’s the other options if you wanted to go down the alternative timber production route’.”

While there’s a push to move away from pinus radiata, Jamieson is not totally opposed to it.

“There are a number of people out there in this space who are, you know, just carbon-focused – all about the yield, don’t care what they plant.

“They just want the carbon for the coin and that has led to a number of, you know, outcomes which in the long term are not going to be very good. There’s going to be a lot of pine forests.”

His primary concern is how well these pine forests will be managed, particularly when it comes to large monoculture conversions.

They grow about 46 different exotic and 30 different native species of trees across three farm sites. Gianina Schwanecke / Country Life

Here various poplars are being grown to help with erosion control. Gianina Schwanecke / Country Life

While the Government has introduced tweaks to try and address some of these issues, Jamieson said this had also created uncertainty in the sector.

His view was that pine should be removed from the permanent category in the ETS.

“Encouraging the right type of forestry regimes is all that is needed to actually fix the underlying problem to stop mass farm conversions into pine.

“But that being said […] you can see some of the trees over across the river here are three to four times taller than pine planted at the same age and when you equate that I can actually go into those areas and plant 75 percent native trees, that will stratify and become the dominant canopy over time, I’ll get you there and you’ll make more money than pine and you won’t have the problems and you got more jobs.”

Jamieson said some of their systems, on a per-hectare basis, could create more jobs than farming.

He said it was about using “the right exotic to perform a job for a period of time to enable native growth”.

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

Country Life: On the job with Whanganui River’s rural postie

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Whanganui River road features an interesting array of letterboxes. Gianina Schwanecke / Country Life

Tracy Marshall makes the same 150-kilometre round trip up the Whanganui River and back five times a week.

“I’ve got one of the longest mail runs in our region in terms of distances, but I’ve probably got less letter boxes,” she told Country Life.

One might imagine she’d be sick of travelling the same road day after day, but she loves it and jumped at the chance to take over the rural delivery, or RD6, route five years ago.

As one of the more scenic routes travelling up towards National Park, it’s one she also often shares with travellers who join her as part of the Original Mail Tour.

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Her day starts at 6:30am when she picks up the mail from the depot. There are 65 letter boxes on her route, each unique.

“They’re a creative bunch.”

Her favourite is an old microwave, also the “driest” letterbox on the route.

There are others too – one in the shape of a wharenui, another that looks like a hanging lantern and one an old fuel tank.

There’s also a lawn-mower catcher and a canoe said to have once been used to help rescue someone from the river.

Tracy’s favourite mailbox – made out of an old microwave. Gianina Schwanecke / Country Life

Marshall delivers a mix of mail and parcels. She also collects letters and parcels to take back to the depot from the mailboxes – the signal for her to do so is the flag being raised.

“I don’t do a lot of parcels up here – although today looks like I do but I’m doing some Chrisco’s because you know it’s Christmas time.

“They tend not to buy a lot of junk up here. I think the biggest thing I do is dog biscuits.”

For the past few years Tracy Marshall, who grew up on the Whanganui River, has been sharing her postal route with tourists as part of the Original Mail Tour. Gianina Schwanecke / Country Life

She said the weeks before Christmas are usually some of the busiest, although this year has been quieter than expected.

The view of the Whanganui River from the top of the Whanganui River Road. Gianina Schwanecke / Country Life

More recently she has noticed an increase in mail, which seems to be coming back into fashion after a period of decline.

Koriniti Marae, along the Whanganui River. Gianina Schwanecke / Country Life

Koriniti Marae includes its own Anglican church. Gianina Schwanecke / Country Life

The route is also popular with walkers and cyclists making their way along Te Araroa Trail.

Born and bred in Koroniti – a marae settlement with its own Anglican church – Marshall ( Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi, Ngāti Pamoana) knew the riverside road well before taking on the mail run.

She understands how much has changed, and yet how many things stay the same.

“[The river] was used for their main form of transport, their wellbeing. They used to travel up and down.

“I don’t know anyone that has paddled up the awa in my lifetime. I think everything changed once the road was put in – which was a good thing, you know, access.”

A home on the other side of the river which residents access via flying fox. Gianina Schwanecke / Country Life

An old kayak now serves as a mailbox. Gianina Schwanecke / Country Life

A mailbox made from an old fuel pump. Gianina Schwanecke / Country Life

Before Marshall and her van, the mail used to be delivered by canoe – a trip taking about two weeks.

The development of the road and new transport made it easier for people to travel down the river to Whanganui with increased job opportunities there luring many from the rural community.

Along the tour she points out where the river trade markets were once held and historic sites like the Kāwana flour mill and the convent in Jerusalem – Hiruharama.

“The riverboats changed all of that for them.”

Her favourite part of the tour is near the heart of the National Park where kiwi can be heard at night in the surrounding bush.

A letterbox shaped like a whare. Gianina Schwanecke / Country Life

One of the cheekier postboxes on the run. The flag up means there’s mail for Tracy to pick up and take back to base. Gianina Schwanecke / Country Life

The small Whanganui settlement of Jerusalem, where the St Joseph’s Convent still operates, appears above the river near the end of the tour. Gianina Schwanecke / Country Life

Learn more:

    You can learn more about the tour, here.

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Privatised meat inspections could increase costs, reduce flexibility – report

Source: Radio New Zealand

A protest against the plan for meat inspection privatisation took place outside Parliament. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone

A proposal to partially privatise meat inspections will actually increase costs, reduce flexibility and create capability and equity challenges within the sector, according to a leaked report funded by the government’s meat inspection service.

The Ministry for Primary Industries is currently seeking feedback on letting processing companies do more meat inspection work themselves, with reduced oversight from AsureQuality.

Completed by BDO for AsureQuality, the report said annual costs for a single chain would increase by more than 20 percent – $861,000 to $1.07 million per plant, with an extra $343,000 in set-up costs.

Public Service Association national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said the report was “explosive”, with meat inspectors gathering at Parliament on Monday to express their concerns about the proposed changes.

“This analysis by the government’s own meat inspection service is a damning indictment of a proposal that puts at risk our $10 billion a year red meat export industry,” she said.

“When even AsureQuality – the state-owned company providing the service – says this will ‘increase costs, reduce flexibility, and create capability challenges,’ you know the government’s proposal is fundamentally flawed.”

RNZ / Samuel Rillstone

Fitzsimons said it would increase costs through new roles and training being required, adding to concerns about independence of inspectors and the expertise developed by AsureQuality over years.

She said the current model was not broken it was “safe, compliant and accepted by trading partners”, adding there was “no evidence the changes are required to meet market access requirements”.

AsureQuality’s chief executive Kim Ballinger said with consultation underway she would not comment or leaked or partial documents or speculate on potential outcomes.

She said she was “incredibly proud” though of its employees, who had provided meat inspection services for 125 years.

“We’re continuing to prioritise collaboration with our people and unions, customers, MPI, industry bodies and our other partners, to support New Zealand’s red meat sector in providing the high quality, safe meat products that it’s renowned for globally.”

RNZ / Samuel Rillstone

New Zealand Food Safety deputy director-general Vincent Arbuckle also would not comment as consultation is ongoing but would review AsureQuality’s submission.

He said the changes would align New Zealand’s requirements for inspecting and verifying exported meat more closely with international guidelines and domestic regulatory rules.

“The consultation tests possible changes to align New Zealand’s requirements for inspecting and verifying exported meat more closely with international guidelines and our own domestic regulatory rules. The programme of work to investigate these changes was developed wit the support of industry and input from AsureQuality.”

Meat Industry Association science and innovation manager Richard McColl said it had yet to see the AsureQuality report and modelling that underpinned it.

“However, it’s disappointing to see the amount of misinformation and scare-mongering circulating about the proposal. It’s important that any discussion is grounded in facts and evidence.”

He said New Zealand’s reputation as a producer of high quality and safe food was paramount and “no processor would risk compromising the safety or reputation of New Zealand red meat, or jeopardising market access by failing to manage these risks”.

McColl said the current meat inspection model was “resource intensive” and had “not evolved along with other parts of the sector”.

“This programme is about giving meat processors and exporters responsibility and ownership of their own risks. Most importantly, final inspections will continue to be undertaken by a government employee to meet market access requirements.”

He said it was an opportunity to explore and consider other meat inspection options to achieve the crucial food safety and market access requirements, as well as build a “more resilient and higher-skilled workforce”.

“Meat processors and exporters are among the largest employers in communities up and down the country and take great pride in the culture and the people who make the industry what it is today.”

Consultation is open until 23 January.

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

Strong agricultural sector boosts PGG Wrightson

Source: Radio New Zealand

PGG Wrightson’s Culverden Store. Supplied

Rural services company PGG Wrightson (PGW) has upgraded its earnings guidance amid continued strength in the agricultural sector.

The company expected operating earnings of about $64 million for the year ending 30 June 2026, compared to its previous forecast of above $60m, and $56.1m the previous year.

PGW said despite softening dairy prices in recent weeks, most farmers would head into the Christmas period with confidence, supported by strong returns in beef and sheep meat.

“Beef schedules are at record highs, lamb prices remain elevated, and wool pricing has also shown positive signs with improved export values,” PGW told the share market.

“This positivity is flowing through into on farm and orchard investment decisions.”

PGW said key horticulture crops were also in demand, and early signs suggested a “promising harvest in the new year”.

“The rural real estate market is buoyant, driven by strong commodity returns, record dairy land values, and robust farmer confidence,” PGW said.

The company said there were some challenges due to dry conditions in eastern regions, but there was hope that the current La Niña pattern could deliver summer rainfall.

PGW said trading for the first half of the financial year was positive and slightly above expectations.

“We are encouraged by the momentum across the sector and the confidence this brings for our customers,” it said.

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Harraways invests $11m into NZ’s only working oat mill

Source: Radio New Zealand

Glyphosate-free oat crops in the South Island for Dunedin company Harraway and Sons. SUPPLIED/HARRAWAYS

Longstanding Otago business Harraways and Sons is investing millions of dollars into its oat mill, the only operational one in Aotearoa, to meet growing demand for the healthy and humble locally-grown oat.

The company, known as Harraways, opened at Dunedin’s Green Island suburb in 1867 and its breakfast range among other products are found in most New Zealand supermarkets.

It also supplies oats to local oat milk producers, and for biscuits and muesli bars producers.

Chief executive Henry Hawkins said it was investing $11 million of capital expenditure into the factory to grow capacity.

“People eating healthier and returning to New Zealand made for some good growth for Harraways,” he said.

“We’ve reached a good point in our business where we are at capacity in terms of volume through our mill particularly, and we just need to plan for the future.

“Therefore, we need to upgrade some of our equipment to cope with that, and that includes new boilers, new grain intakes for all of our oat that we bring in, and also our milling equipment.”

He said each month, the factory employing 60 full-time staff and casual staff (like students from the nearby University of Otago) produced around 1500 metric tonnes of products, like rolled oats.

“We just really need to automate some of our production to be able to keep up with demand and try and reduce some overhead costs that come with manual labour.”

Harraway and Sons chief executive Henry Hawkins with some of its South Island-sourced oats range. SUPPLIED/HARRAWAYS

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Ninety-five percent of the company’s oats and grains were sourced in New Zealand, with the remainder being imported for its organic range.

The business contracted around 50 growers across Central Otago, Queenstown and Southland to process around 16,000 metric tonnes of oats and grains each year.

Growers were subject to the company’s zero-tolerance stance on the use of chemical defoliants and glyphosate on the crops.

New Zealand Food Safety (NZFS) recently reviewed and ultimately maintained the ingredient’s maximum residue limits (MRL) on food at 0.1 milligrams per kilogram for wheat, barlet and oat crops, but increasing it to 6-milligrams per kilo for field peas.

Hawkins said he was “very pleased” to see that NZFS “have seen and made sense” not to increase the MRL for glyphosate on oat crops, following public consultation.

“That has been a particular hot topic and something that we understand and know consumers are very concerned about,” he said.

“The medical information speaks for itself. It’s not the best thing for your health.

“And so we’re very watchful and want to make sure that we are able to keep our position which is no glyphosate in our product.”

It came as the Environmental Protection Authority was facing further court action by the Environmental Law Initiative around the regulator’s decision not to reassess the active ingredient in herbicide Roundup.

Hawkins said the company was well-supported by New Zealand retailers and shoppers, despite continued competition from imports on the shelf.

Harraways exported for several decades to Singapore, and was capitalising on adding oats to the region’s popular rice porridge congee, he said.

He said it “fully intended” to obtain a GrainMark certification by the Foundation for Arable Research to showcase its use of New Zealand oats only in the majority of its range, following the renovations.

Harraways Rolled Oats received the Product Lifetime Achievement Award at the NZ Food Awards in October.

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

Country Life: Cornwall Park, the farm in the heart of a city

Source: Radio New Zealand

Cornwall Park sheep in pens waiting to be shorn RNZ/Liz Garton

Cornwall Park farm is something of a hidden gem in the heart of Auckland city.

Taking up 73 of the 172 hectares of the total park, the farm’s Simmental cattle and Perendale sheep are a much-loved feature for the millions of people that visit Cornwall Park every year.

But being a farm in the city comes with specific challenges.

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The first challenge relates to the history of the park and Auckland’s unique growing conditions.

“Auckland’s the weediest city in the world. Everything grows, so there’s every sort of weed you can think of,” Peter Maxwell, farm manager, told Country Life.

“We spray out an area and crop it and spray it out again.

“We get one crack every few years of trying to drop down the rats tail and the Kikuyu and anything else, Onehunga weed.”

But the historic nature of the park means there are archaeological areas that are not grazed.

“And so that’s a bit of an issue with some of the weeds and the worms,” Maxwell said.

Cornwall Park farm manager Peter Maxwell RNZ/Liz Garton

Maxwell has been managing Cornwall Park farm since 2007 and had a long history of farming before that. He said managing a small city farm is different, but it’s interesting and busy in other ways.

“There’s no neighbours to send stuff off to graze, so it’s all in-house. We buy silage in, but [the stock] have to stay here,” he said.

“So we do a bit of a lamb crop every year – 12 hectares of that – and that goes into new grass in the autumn.”

The lack of farming neighbours is another challenge particular to Cornwall Park farm, which Peter has gotten around by joining the Kaipara Farms Discussion Group and going to industry events.

And then there is the huge number of non-farming neighbours.

“You can tell people have just bought a new house.

“They chuck rubbish over the fence or they have a loose dog, so that takes a bit of training.

“They all like the farm outlook, but we tell them not to stick their rhododendrons and other crap over the fence.”

The shearing gang hard at work at Cornwall Park Farm RNZ/Liz Garton

Cornwall Park is self-funded, leasing out land in the surrounding area, and is overseen by a trust board.

While the farm doesn’t have to make a profit to survive, there are other expectations, such as every ewe needing to have a lamb and every cow a calf.

“Other people may laugh about that, but that’s why we’re working on these ewes to have more twins,” he said.

“They don’t want it to be a petting zoo. They really do want it to be a little bit, a commercial look, commercial feel.”

Cows at Maungakiekie’s Cornwall Park. RNZ / Nick Monro

Maxwell talks in terms of restraining the loss.

“We get as much money for the lambs as we can and as much money for the bulls as we can.

“We spend a little bit more than some other people, perhaps on animal health,” he said.

“We’ve just got to the stage where we’re self-sufficient with our cropping.

“We’ve got old gear, but it’s gear that we’ve been able to put together so we can do all our spraying, cultivating, rolling and seeding. So we have a little pride in that.”

Maxwell said people expect to see cherry blossoms, as well as sheep, cattle and pheasants. supplied –

Cornwall Park farm’s biggest difference from other farms is the huge number of people that come through.

The park is open every day and millions of people visit every year, so there’s a lot of focus on keeping everything looking “reasonable” Maxwell said. “Not perfect, reasonable.”

“We worry a lot about animal welfare. We explain to people that there will be a few lame sheep with a bit of foot rot on this property.

“You might have seen those sheep running out through the trough. Every time they come past these yards, they go through the trough.”

The cattle here are bred with the particular needs of the park in mind too.

“They’re all polled, no horns. They’re very quiet because where we are, they have to be quiet.”

“Simmental’s have trouble calving, but we’ve done a bit of work on that and so this is our first year that we haven’t pulled a calf out of a heifer or a cow, and no dead calves, so we’re actually a little bit thrilled about that.”

The farm has volunteers and cadets coming through too, some of whom have gone on to bigger farming jobs.

“Taking people from the city and going out to other farms, that’s probably one of our KPIs.”

Maxwell sees his role as a “three-pronged attack”; apart from restraining the loss, the farm’s role is also about education and interpretation of the realities of farm life and helping keep the huge swathes of grass in the park under control.

Bust of Sir John Logan Campbell, who gifted Cornwall Park to Auckland City. RNZ/Liz Garton

“People come and expect to see sheep and the cattle and the cherry blossoms and the pheasants now.

“You’ll see older people that say they were here when they were kids and now they’ve brought their grandchildren along.”

Cornwall Park. RNZ/Veronica Schmidt

Learn more:

  • Find out more about Cornwall Park here

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