Category: Rural

Source: Radio New Zealand

Don’t hide your light under a bushel, open the gate and share New Zealand farming with the world, New Zealand’s agritourism body says.

Agritourism NZ’s founder and chief executive Marijke Dunselman said there was growing global demand for farm experiences, and substantial extra income to be made by welcoming international tourists onto the farm.

“New Zealand is really seen as one of the most beautiful countries in the world.

“All our farms are, you know, in the most spectacular areas, no matter where they are. I think something that farmers underestimate a bit is what they actually have […] the space that we have and the diversity of our scenery is something that people really love.”

Even simple every day experiences on farm are special, she said.

“I’ve worked, for example, with farms that generate their own energy through hydro […] with a big waterfall coming down, for example.

“How they work the sheep and the food that they grow themselves and they drink rain water, you know, all those little things that people take for granted are actually really interesting for visitors.”

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The multi-billion dollar global agritourism market is projected to at least double in the next five years according to various research, although both global and domestic data on the trend is sparse.

Dunselman points to an increase in the international visitor spend in New Zealand generally though – from $3.8 billion the year ending November 2024 to $4.1b a year later.

If farmers want to benefit from the growth, they need to learn how international tourism works, she said.

“What do people want? How do you price your product? What’s involved with the health and safety, the customer experience, and most of all, the marketing as well.

“You need to really diversify that distribution, tapping into all these different distribution channels and then developing, perhaps different types of experiences for the different markets.”

She said international tourists were prepared to pay extra for a guided on-farm walk and added luxury in a simple setting.

“Really comfortable beds, amazing food, an outside bath. You know, little things that suddenly make a rustic hut, a luxury hut.”

The extra income for farmers could be substantial, paying for their children’s education and offsetting other farm costs, she said. Other benefits include allowing families to remain on the farm, with the next generation taking on the running of a lodge or guided walks.

Profit-share arrangements with other operators were also possible, she said.

On-farm retreats for visitors to learn and practice skills like food growing and photography also have growing appeal.

“You work in with other people that come in to provide services in that retreat, whether it’s a yoga teacher or whether it’s someone who knows a lot about nutrition or photography.”

Agritourism NZ launched its first regional network for agritourism operators in Otago-Southland at the end of last year and plans to launch in more regions, offering agritourism operators support and shared experiences, Dunselman 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

New Zealand’s only dung beetle rearing facility says it may have to close if there’s not more support.

Dung Beetle Innovations was launched in 2014, following a successful application to import exotic dung beetles into Aotearoa to help reduce the impacts of farming on soil and water quality, and reduce drench resistance.

Co-founder Dr Shaun Forgie said while livestock had been brought in to establish New Zealand’s agriculture sector, a “suitable clean-up crew” had not been.

He said dung beetles helped rid paddocks of the manure left behind by stock, which would otherwise cause “major problems” with runoff and contaminants going into waterways.

“It is one of the greatest opportunities for utilising poop on farm paddocks as a free, sustainable fertiliser, and effectively halve your fertiliser bill. It’s one of those great things for improving soil productivity and productivity on your farm.”

The Auckland-based company bred and reared eight species of exotic dung beetles at its facility – the only such kind in New Zealand.

Forgie estimated they had since released millions of beetles onto farms through direct to farm sales as well as initiatives undertaken by regional councils and local catchment groups.

However, with sales declining in recent years, the future of the facility seemed uncertain.

“Sales are really dwindling to a point where we’re critically underfunded now, and there’s a high likelihood we’re not going to survive unless either the government jumps in and uses it as one of its mitigation tools for improving water quality, or farmers get on with ordering beetles.”

Forgie said there were like a variety of factors behind the slowdown in sales, including potentially the cost.

“These beetles may be expensive upfront, but for the long-term gain for your farm, you’re saving vast amounts of money and productivity and reduced chemical costs, reduced fertiliser costs.

“New Zealand’s a small country, it’s a small economy. We know statistically 15 percent of our farmers are the innovative early adopters that will get on with things like this. There’s another 15 percent we know that will see what they’re doing, the first 15 percent, and then they will think, ‘Well, it’s a good idea, we’ll get on board.’

“So really, I think we’re probably catering for probably 30 percent of the farming community.”

Forgie wondered if the market was now at saturation point, with the self-sustaining beetle colonies taking about 10 years to fully establish themselves on farm.

He said if the government were to invest $60 million in supplying farms with beetles over 10 years it would have massive benefits for the primary sector.

Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) director of investment programmes and operations Steve Penno said it had invested more than $800,000 in dung beetle research to date.

“On balance, the evidence suggests that dung beetles provide positive benefits to pasture, soil quality, and nutrient loss. However, they don’t offer a ‘quick fix’ solution to address water quality given the time they take to establish. Their effectiveness also very much depends upon the individual farm situation.”

He said MPI was open to receiving more dung beetle applications to the Primary Sector Growth Fund.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Major wool broker PGG Wrightson will no longer hold wool auctions in Napier, after more than 140 years.

The Hawke’s Bay city has hosted the firm’s wool auctions since the late 1800s, as a hub for the North Island supply.

In the shadow of historic booms for wool – once considered the backbone of the New Zealand economy – the major broker will consolidate its auctions to a single national auction system in Christchurch, from May.

PGG head of wool Rachel Shearer said the difficult decision was about improving the resilience and sustainability of the wool sector.

“The amount of shearable sheep in the world and in New Zealand is at a record low, which also means the volumes of wool that are coming forward to be traded are also at a record low.”

Shearer said the company’s previous owner, Williams and Kettle, held its first Napier auction in 1880.

“It’s a long heritage which we’re very proud of, but the industry is changing significantly, and we recognise that we need to change with it.”

She said the team of 20 in Napier would not be subject to job losses, but they were disappointed.

“We are ready for the challenge and wanting to do what’s best for our loyal sheep farmers and so understanding the bigger picture of the industry changing and us needing to change is the overarching thought.

“But understandably, some people are disappointed to see the end of an era up in Napier.”

Further wool industry consolidation

High shearing costs, low profitability and challenging market conditions were driving a decline in the number of sheep in New Zealand.

StatsNZ figures showed there were 6 million fewer sheep in the decade to June last year, falling 21 percent to 23.6m sheep.

Last year, there were a number of structural changes within the sector too.

In September, the new Wool Alliance was established between groups Campaign for Wool NZ, Wool Impact, Wool Research Organisation of New Zealand and Beef and Lamb.

It aimed to collaborate and develop a long-term strategy for the viability of the sector.

Then in October, major carpet manufacturer Bremworth announced it entered into a new ownership [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/574771/bremworth-seals-deal-with-world-s-biggest-flooring-company-mohawk-industries

agreement with Floorscape], a wholly owned subsidiary of Mohawk Industries, the world’s largest flooring company.

The deal with the United States-based company – that already owned brands Godfrey Hirst and Feltex – would consolidate carpet manufacturing into a single owner, but it was still subject to regulatory approvals.

In the months prior, under new leadership, the listed company abandoned its commitment from 2020 to using only woollen fibres over synthetic fibres.

Christchurch to host PGG auctions from May

Rachel Shearer said Christchurch was selected as it could attract the greatest number of buyers, including international buyers with access to the airport.

“We want to get growers’ wool in front of the most possible buyers to look at the wool and to get as many buyers as we can in the room to compete for the wool.

“We believe it’s in the best interests of our growers.”

She said its North Island wool would continue to be scoured and stored in Napier, but samples would be shipped down to Ōtautahi for the sales.

PGG’s new system will begin in May.

Wools of NZ to follow suit

Another broker, farmer-owned co-operative Wools of New Zealand also held auctions in Napier and Christchurch on behalf of its growers.

It annnounced this week it will also move to a single national auction system, as PGG was set to do.

Chief executive John McWhirter said structural change was necessary for the sector to remain viable.

“Our growers also expect us to be proactive and to help lead changes that support a strong and sustainable future for New Zealand wool,” he said.

It will discuss the changes with wool growers in the coming weeks.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

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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Source: Radio New Zealand

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.

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.

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.

“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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Source: Radio New Zealand

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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Source: Radio New Zealand

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.

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.”

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

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

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.”

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.

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You can learn more about the tour, here.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

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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 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.

“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.

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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Source: Radio New Zealand

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.

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.

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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Source: Radio New Zealand

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.”

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.”

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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