The Pasture Princess

Back on the road again!

After an enjoyable weekend of rugby, house hunting and solo cinema visits, it was back in the office today for a chance to catch up on emails and Innovis going-ons. Tomorrow should be an interesting day joining Simon (who I accompanied with the Brazilian farmers the week before last) with one of the discussion groups that he facilitates in Otago. One thing that I am hoping to gain an insight into while I'm here is how discussion groups are run and facilitated over here, as it's something that I think would really benefit farmers back home if they are run well.

On Wednesday I will be having a change of scenery, accompanying Peter O'Neill to a dairy farm to look at managing pasture and feed wedges. It should be a good change from sheep farming, and expose me to a sector that I have little involvement in. I will fill you in on all that I have exerienced on Thursday!

Triumphant win for the Highlanders!

Being in New Zealand in the year that the World Cup is to be hosted here (but having to be back home before the tournament begins!), I thought it was only right that I see at least one Super 15 game while I am here.

So last night, I joined my host from Abacus Bio and his daughters at Carisbrook stadium in Dunedin to watch the home team the Highlanders take on the Chiefs. It was a fantastic game, and made even better by a home win! It must be the closest thing possible to watching a game of rugby in Scotland, with the bagpipes and drums playing before the game and plenty of kilts being worn as Dunedin has a very strong Scottish heritage (you can tell from the name!).

I'm not up on my All Blacks (other than Dan Carter and Richie McCaw!) but apparently there were 8 or 9 All Blacks playing last night, so that just shows you the type of quality rugby being played. The Red Cross also did a very good job of raising money and collecting non-perishable food items for the people of Christchurch. And on a lighter note, one student must have had an interesting night after streaking the length of the field during the game, much to everyone's amusement!

Silage, silage everywhere!

One thing that sticks in my memory from when I was last in New Zealand two years ago, is that very little silage (or baleage) was being made. When I spoke to farmers, they commented that baleage was made to put in fields with brassica crops for the winter to provide a fibre source, but otherwise very little silage would be made. This came as a big surprise to me, as we are so heavily reliant on silage/ hay to get us through the long, hard winters. Many parts of New Zealand, in particular the South Island where it is colder with 100 day winters, are not too dis-similar from the winters that we experience at home.

But during my visit this time in late summer 2011 (Febraury), the images across the South Island replicate what we saw in the UK in August and September. The early dry summer followed by rain and a higher peak in grass growth than what is usually experienced at this time of year has meant that farmers are struggling to keep on top of pasture and maintain quality. The results of this were obvious last week when the sun came out, with balers out non-stop. Driving through Otago and Southland I saw stack after stack of silage, many of which were for sale in fields next to the roads. Talking to farmers, some of the baleage has been made because they had to make it, but they have also changed their opinion from two years ago, and although they still know it is expensive to make, it sounds as though they are now seeing that they need to have it. So does this mean that farmers in New Zealand may be changing mindsets slightly?! More than likely, it is just as a result of the conversion of sheep farms into dairy farms, and the extra forage is needed to cope with their demands and added pressure on the land during the wet winter months.

And let's face it, if New Zealand end up with the same cold weather as we experienced back in November and Decemember, they will be very glad that they took the opportunity to get the baler out!  

 
A large stack of bales on a beef finishing farm - a new shed has been erected to house cattle over the winter months

Mt Aspiring Station and a visit to old haunts!

After my busy week on the road with the Brazilains, there was no rest for the wicked as I set off on another road trip this week.

On Monday I headed south once again to Southland, back to visit Chris and Sue Adams at Brightview, where I spent 6 weeks working for them back in March and April 2009. I joined Milton, the man in charge of the sheep enterprise at Brightview and over a dozen other farmers from the area on a discussion group trip to Mt Aspiring Station near Wanaka in Otago. Randall Aspinall, the fourth generation at Mt Aspiring and his wife Allison have recently taken over the running of the 10,000 hectare station from Randall's parents, before which Randall was working as a consultant for PGG Wrightson in Invercargill.

The day started with a handout and talk from Randall about the station as it was generations ago, how it currently is and what issues he thinks they face now and in the future. We then had a very interesting tour of the beautiful station to see their pasture, Hereford cattle and Romdale ewes in their low input, easy care system. Following this we returned to the house for a discussion amongst the group about what we had seen. Randall had posed some questions for the group, including our thoughts on whether they should be scanning the ewes (not currently doing so), applying lime (none spread in 20+ years), should they be using crops for wintering and are there any tourism opportunities for them at the station as 80,000 people pass by every year. The general consensus in the group was 'yes' to all the questions posed. A return visit for the group in a few years time would be extremely interesting I'm sure!

Wednesday was spent back with Chris and Milton, in the morning measuring and marking lanes on a sheep farm being converted into a 800 cow self-contained dairy unit, where Chris has been contracted in to do the planning work. In the afternoon, I had a tour of Brightview to see how things have changed over the past to years. In this time the farm has expanded, sheep numbers have dropped from 5,500 to 3,500 and half of the farm has been converted to a dairy unit milking 1,200 Friesian and Jersey cows. The Inverdale ewes are 8 weeks away from tupping, and were seperated into three groups according to body condition five days earlier. The medium group of ewes can be seen in the photo below moving paddocks after a day and a half of grazing good quality pasture at a stocking rate of 100 ewes per acre.

 

Quake shakes New Zealand

You will have all heard about the devastating 6.3 magnitude earthquake that hit Christchurch on Tuesday at 12.51pm New Zealand time. The city of Christchurch and the people of New Zealand have been left in ruins, with the death toll currently standing at 71 and expecting to rise as no-one has been pulled out alive for almost 24 hours.

The country is in shock, nobody would have predicted this devastating natural event after the 7.1 magnitude earthquake that hit Christchurch on 4th September, unbelievably there were no fatalities after that quake. But this time much damage had already been done to the city, and the epicentre was much closer to the surface at only 5km deep.

I have been based in Dunedin since arriving in New Zealand, and the quake was felt here a couple of hours away from the epicentre. I was visiting Mt Aspiring station near Wanaka at the time, and did not hear about the earthquake until we stopped at the Ale House for a meal. The atmosphere in the South Island on that day and since has been surreal. New Zealand Prime Minister John Key was spot on when he called it 'New Zealand's Darkest Day'.

Fonterra have been providing water and milk for people in and around the city, and have already donated $1 million and have confirmed that for every $1 donation made by New Zealand farmers they will match it. What New Zealand needs now is money to help the survivors get through this terrible time, and to help such an amazing country re-build. I would urge any of you back at home to donate generously, and don't forget about the people of this beautiful country.

Awe inspiring NZ, and next choice of destination....... Brazil!!

Well what an action packed, fun filled few days it has been in New Zealand! The past five days have been spent touring Otago and Southland with Simon Glennie (AbacusBio sheep and beef consultant) and 15 Brazilian farmers. The first morning was spent at Abacus Bio hearing about the work that they are doing in New Zealand, Brazil and Ireland on genetics, improvements in animal breeding and calculating the carbon footprint of NZ farms, a good introduction for me on my host company for the next two months. I also had an opportunity to talk to the Brazilian farmers about our work at Innovis, which they were very interested in and now want Inverdale in Brazil.

During the week we visited 9 farms, all varying in scale and farming type, mainly with sheep, sucklers and beef but also a sheep milking enterprise, a beef finishing unit and a sheep and dairy farm. We also had an excellent tour of the Alliance Group meat processing factory at Lorneville; the largest abbatoir in the Southern Hemisphere! In addition we visited Telford Rural Polytechnic, AgResearch centres Invermay and Woodlands and had an insight into Beef and Lamb New Zealand from the groups Director.

The week also provided an excellent opportunity to talk to a varied group of Brazilian farmers, in terms of their age, involevent in farming and the enterprises that they are running. Hearing about the way that farmers in Brazil are still focused on breeding 'show' sheep, for which they can trade stock at huge prices, the sheer scale of farming there and enterprises such as growing sugar cane for sugar and ethanol production has been a real eye opener. Farmers in Brazil are full of enthusiasm to follow the likes of New Zealand farmers, and they have the scale and capability of being the leading country in the world. Meeting them and hearing their experiences means that Brazil has now shot to the top of my list of countries to visit, all there is to do now is learn some Portugese!

Sorry, no blog updates for the next couple of days!

With the Brazilian group arriving in Dunedin tomorrow, I will be out on the road until late Sunday night. This means that I am unlikely to be able to update the blog for a few days, but it should be very interesting after the road trip that Abacus have got planned! Below is a brief itenary for the next few days:

Wednesday - Introduction to Abacus and short presentation from me about work at Innovis. The afternoon will involve a trip to Invermay Agricultural Centre on the outskirts of Dunedin to view the CT scanner facility, and for a talk/ viewing on the legume Lucerne.

Thursday - The day will be focused on the integration of sheep and beef with cereal cropping, including a farm visit at Telford Rural Polytechnic. The afternoon will involve a drive south towards Invercargill for a visit to the Alliance Group to hear about how NZ farmers are paid for what they produce and to understand meat grading and evaluation in NZ.

Friday - The focus of the day is on research, genetics and processing, with a farm visit in the morning to focus on the gross margins of incorportating high performance sheep with cereal crops. A visit to Woodlands research farm in the afternoon should be particularly relevant, looking into high performance sheep farming and sheep genetic technologies.

Saturday - A visit to Mt Linton, one of the largest privately owned stations in New Zealand will give an insight into large scale development programs and sheep genetics with scale. This will be followed by a drive towards Te Anau to visit Leon Black (Blackdale Stud), breeder and Director of Beef and Lamb NZ.

Sunday -  The final day will start with a visit to Mt Nicholas near Queenstown and to visit the Landcorp Mararoa Station for an insight into corporate farming. The afternoon will be spent at Mount Nicholas Station to see how things operate in a high country sheep station, before heading back to Dunedin late that evening.

As you can see, I'm sure  there will be plenty of photos and plenty to talk about next week! 

No farming as yet, but a couple of photos!

Well five days in to being in New Zealand, and no farming to report on as yet! The weekend has been spent trying to find accommodation for the next two months, and some wheels to get me around. No luck on the house front yet, as the students are due back this week from the summer holidays, meaning that short term let is proving difficult. Hopefully a car may be sorted, thanks to Chris Adams, my host when I was in New Zealand in 2009.

Despite quite a few rain showers on Saturday, i did get a chance to go for a long walk along the beach in Dunedin, and came across a viewpoint which overlooked Dunedin's prime location for trotting! See below at a photo of one of the horses out training. From what I have been told so far trotting is a dying sport this far south in New Zealand, with very few going to watch the monthly races. I think I will have to go for a look myself next race day!

In response to my comment about New Zealand having a higher rainfall than average for this time of year, I had an email from a friend of mine in the North Island, where a very different story has been reported. The North Island has had an exceptionally dry summer with drought being a problem .These are his words:

"production is well down on dairies, cows being sold, slaughtered, dried off early etc, rain just before xmas saved the day and recent storms have caused severe flooding. Shows the variation and microclimates around nz and the difference between north and south islands".

 

 

Touch down in Dunedin!

After a very long journey and four flights (including 2 hours queing to clear customs in LAX!), I finally arrived in Dunedin on Wednesday afternoon( NZ time). Peter Amer of Abacus, and my host for the next week or two picked me up from the airport and took me straight to Abacus to meet the team, and for a much needed shower!

In my mission to stay awake for as long as possible on Wednesday, I went for a long walk along St Claire Beach and watched about 50 surfers riding the waves! I'd rather them than me. Unfortunatley for me, New Zealand hasn't had much of a summer this year, so it really is like home from home! The warmest it has been since I arrived is 17C, and there is rain forecast for this weekend. This wet summer has kept the farmers happy though, at this time of year the land is usually very dry and barren but this year everywhere is green and lush.

I am keeping busy here preparing a presentation for the Abacus team on Monday to fill them in on what we do at innovis, what I hope to achieve while I am here and how sheep farming is different at home to here in NZ. That should start some interesting discussions!

Abacus have a group of 15 Brazilian farmers coming over for four days next week, and I will be accompanying them and Simon Glennie (beef and sheep consultant for Abacus) on a tour of farms and research stations across the South Island, from Dunedin to Invercargill, Te Anau and Queenstown, including a tour of the Alliance meat processing factory in Invercargill. That should be a good introduction to farming in Southland and Otago, and I will have a full report from the trip the week after next.

No photos as yet I'm afraid, but I'm sure I will be out with the camera on the weekend and I will be uploading some on here as soon as possible. Bye for now!