The Pasture Princess

Moving on to pasture's new!

As some of you may already know, today is my last day working for Innovis. Since graduating from Harper Adams in 2008, I have had a fantastic 3 and a half years based in Aberystwyth working with Innovis. Over that time I have worked with some incredible people; the staff at Innovis, staff at IBERS Aberystwyth University, many fantastic farmers and some really great people working in the industry.

I have learnt so much from working at Innovis, and with Charlie Morgan on all things grassland. It has been a priviledge and an honour working for such a great company with really exciting work going on driving the sheep industry forward. I have been fortunate enought to spend two months working on a farm in New Zealand with Inverdale ewes in 2009, and again to spend another 5 months in New Zealand working with farm consultants Abacus Bio earlier this year. All these opportunities have been given to me thanks to Dewi Jones, MD at Innovis, and to him I am extremely grateful.

So today is my last day, and I am looking forward to a nice Christmas meal with the whole team today before the Christmas break. In the New Year, I will begin a new venture working with the British Grassland Society. I am extremely looking forward to this new exciting chapter and all it will have to offer, but I hope to continue to remain in close contact with Innovis in the future.

I would like to say a big thank you to all of you that I have worked with and got to know over the past few years, it has been a real pleasure. This is not the end of 'The Pasture Princess', I will continue with my blog at the BGS and hope to bring some exciting new things to light in 2012. Thanks once again, and have a very Merry Christmas!

Fantastic two days at the BGS 10th Research Conference

Last week I flew out to Belfast for two days to attend the British Grassland Society 10th Research Conference. Having presented at the event held at Harper Adams two years ago, I was keen to go again this year and was fortunate enough to receive a Stapledon Memorial Trust bursary.

Over 70 papers were presented this year, with topics including grazing management, grass and forage production, nutrients in slurries and soils, knowledge transfer and the environment and renewables. It was also great to see papers from Belgium and Finland, giving a different perspective to what is going on in terms of research in Europe.

An interesting part of this years conference was a debate between delegates on the R&D priorities of BGS going forwards. This gave everyone the opportunity to discuss what they believe should be BGS' priorities, and not surprisingly the main topics were food and water security and climate change. It was great to hear so many saying that communication between researchers and farmers needs to be improved. For me this should be key, as I attend events like this where there are very few farmers attending and hear improvements that grass breeders are making and some fantastic research going on at universities and research institutes. However, I always feel that there is little connection between this work and what farmers think they need, and in my opinion this is one area that really needs to be connected. It was impressive hearing of knowledge transfer to farmers from trials and research work carried out at Teagasc, with events being hosted by Teagasc with attendance of thousands of Irish farmers. This is definitely something that the rest of us should learn from.

One of the highlights of the conference for me was a tour around Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) Hillsborough. This included seeing some of the dairy cows involved in trials looking at how different breeds, age of animal and grass type impact on methane emissions from dairy cows, beef cattle and sheep. We also had a tour of the Biogas plant, where slurry from the dairy cows and grass silage is digested through the Anaerobic Digester to produce energy and digestate to be used as fertiliser on the farm. We also heard how biomass crops such as miscanthus and short rotation coppice willow are being grown, and how carbon savings are being made using these biomass fuels. 

All in all, it was a fantastic conference and a credit to BGS and AFBI for the work involved in organising the event.

Psychic sheep predicts rugby World Cup results

Last year Paul the octopus rose to fame by predicting the outcomes of the football World Cup in South Africa. This year for the rugby World Cup in New Zealand it is the turn of 'psychic sheep' Sonny Wool!

Sonny has kicked-off the tournament by correctly picking New Zealand to beat Tonga in the opening game played this morning (UK time). Sonny was offered two identical feed containers, one carrying the New Zealand flag, the other the Tonga flag. Only time will tell as to whether Sonny Wool's psychic skills extend to predicting the eventual winner of the tournament on 23rd October.

Follow this link to see Sonny Wool picking New Zealand to win the opening game:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/5594761/Sonny-Wool-aims-to-match-Paul-the-octopus

Glad to be home as NZ is hit by it's heaviest snowfall in 15 years

Just three weeks ago I was at Christchurch airport, all set to fly home. Considering it was winter I was surprised at how mild it was, apparently this had been the case so far through the autumn and early winter.

Luckily my flight wasn't three weeks later, as parts of New Zealand have been hit by the heaviest snowfall in 15 years. The coastal regions of the South Island appear to have been worse affected, with Christchurch, Dunedin and Queenstown airport closed, and many roads closed between Dunedin and north of Christchurch to Kaikoura.

When we were hit by the snow early in winter last year, it caused havoc for many farmers. Farmers across the country adopting more of a New Zealand approach were hit hard, with kale, swedes and fodder beet crops that hadn't fully matured rotting in the snow and ice. We experienced this at Peithyll, with a field of swedes in the valley bottom next to the river completely rotting before any stock had even been turned on to graze. I joked with many New Zealand farmers that they may end up with a winter like ours. Despite the heavy snowfall now, it has arrived in mid-winter and most crops started being grazed in late May to June.

With dairy farms in New Zealand not milking cows during the winter months of June and July, many cows and heifers will be due to start calving over the next couple of weeks. The majority of ewes will also be in mid to late pregnancy.  Having not been in New Zealand over winter and seen how hardy the winter crops are, I was interested to hear how the crops are holding up in this cold weather.

This following extract is a reply I had from one of the consultants at AbacusBio in Dunedin when I asked how winter crops would be holding up in this weather:

"It has been a great autumn for most farmers in the south. While unpleasant, farmers are well placed feed-wise to handle the winter. Things were looking as good as they could be going into winter in most of the SI. In my opinion the snow will probably just chew up the surplus in winter feed, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

A lot of the feed is Kale (which would be strip grazed still) which stands up in the snow and isn’t as hard to get to when things freeze. However big snows can cause some strippage of leaves and breakage of stems which can lead to rotting, which in that case can favour the Swedes which will keep for longer (but may be less accessible under ice).

Unless there’s a massive big freeze which keeps the snow for weeks I don’t think the snow will be too much of an issue. Farmers would be prepared for this. It’s those later storms like the South got last year when lambs are at foot which are more of a worry. The snow could help clear a bit of the glut in hay and straw which some cropping farmers had."

 

Glad my student days are over!

The major UK agricultural universities have announced this week that they are to charge tuition fees of £9,000 a year from 2012! Harper Adams University College has become the latest to make the announcement, following the same decision made by the Royal Agricultural College, University of Reading and University of Nottingham last week.

As a former Harper Adams agriculture student, I have seen the huge benefits that you can reap from studying a degree in Agriculture, and being a Harper Adams graduate has set me in a prime position to work within the agricultural industry. It was during my final year at Harper that I made contacts at a conference which led to me working for Innovis, and it was at univeristy that I made life long friends and gained a wealth of experience, in terms of career progression and personal development as well as the academic knowledge that you expect to gain from studying such a degree. It has catapulted me into an exciting sector that is full of possibilities, and into an industry that I love.

But, I am still in debt now from my four years at Harper. Coming from a family on a low income I relied on loans to see me through my time at university, and back then tuition fees were set at around the £3,000 mark, and that's before you even take into consideration any living expenses. So would I still consider choosing to do a degree in Agriculture now, knowing that I would be looking at paying £9,000 a year just in tuition fees?

Harper Adams Principal David Llywellyn has stated that a significant investment will be made in bursaries, scholarships and financial support, and I really hope this is the case. Agriculture faces a tough challenge over the coming decades, with the need to feed a population of 9 billion people by 2050 and that's with huge challenges of land and water resources, environmental considerations and ultimately a need to have people involved in the industry to ensure we overcome the challenges that face us. Succussion in the UK is a big area that needs to be considered; we need young people coming into the industry, and we cannot afford to hamper this by students not being able to afford to study agriculture and other related land management areas.

So in realtion to my above question - yes, I would still choose to study a degree in Agriculture. But having said that, I would need to have significant help to achieve that!

http://www.fwi.co.uk/Articles/2011/04/18/126401/Harper-Adams-to-charge-1639000-tuition-fee.htm

Life without subsidies

As I'm sure most of you are aware, New Zealand farmers have been coping without subsidies for the past 25 years. In the opening session of the IFMA congress in Methven last week, Honorary David Carter, NZ Minister of Agriculture posed the challenge of finding a farmer in New Zealand who would want to rely on Government funded subsidies again. He knew, as we all did that it was a very tough challenge. So just how has farming in New Zealand been able to thrive since the removal of subsidies?

In 1985, Government funded subsidies were removed overnight in New Zealand. It was a very challenging time for farmers, and many didn't survive. The younger generation suffered the most, as they were trying to brake into the industry. Unemployment figures soared, from less than 20,000 in the early 1980's to 153,000 by 1991. It also had a huge impact on manufacturing, with the loss of all 21 car markers in New Zealand. But it made farmers aware of what was happening around the World and what they were competing with in a global market. Farmers had to develop systems to understand their inputs better, to get a handle on fixed costs and depreciation costs where there was machinery.

By today, agriculture in New Zealand accounts for 17% of the GDP and equates to 53% of export revenue. Livestock farming in New Zealand is focused on a pastoral base, with 98% of all livestock raised and finished on pasture. This is achieved through a low cost production system, utilising rotational grazing techniques and integrating breeding and finishing systems. Over the last 20 years there has been a big change in land use, with sheep numbers down 41% to 32 million and dairy cattle up 67% to 6 million. This has been driven by having to rely on profit, and the figures tell the story. Dairy farming can generate a return of $4000/ha compared with $1500/ha for arable farming and only $800/ha for sheep. As a result, the better land has been converted to higher value dairy or arable farming, and sheep and beef have been pushed to the hills. Performance of sheep has had to increase to make it a viable option, with lambing percentage up from an average of 101.6% to 123.4% over the past 20 years, and the average lamb carcass weight up from 14.35kg to 17.65kg in the same time period. Despite the decline in sheep numbers, New Zealand is still responsible for 50% of the world lamb meat trade.

New Zealand is blessed with a natural comparative benefit due to it's temperate climate, which makes pasture based cost efficient production systems possible. They also benefit from economies of scale, with medium to large farming operations. However New Zealand farmers have had to work hard to survive without subsidies; they have had to focus on inputs and increase production to increase efficiency, they have had to think innovatively to create product diversification and they have had to co-operate and share knowledge with each other to create a positive outlook for the agriculture sector in New Zealand. As Hon David Carter addressed the IFMA congress, his words echoed those of New Zealand farmers as he said that the country has become a better place for not having to rely on Government funded subsidies.

Feeding 9 billion by 2050

A big focus at the 18th IFMA congress held in Methven last week was the challenge that lies ahead in feeding a World population that is expected to grow to 9 billion people by 2050, with food demand increasing by 70% by 2050.

Professor Jacqueline Rowath, Director of Agriculture at Massey University stated that an additional 1.5-2 billion hectares of agricultural land would be needed to feed the World by 2050 at the current yields being produced. Nowhere near this much land is available. Progress has been made over the past decade, with an increase in yields of 379% from only 39% more land from 1900-2000. This is mainly due to nitrogen fertiliser, taking wheat yields from 2t to 10t; however the economic optimum of nitrogen fertiliser has been reached and we now need to target use efficiency.

Another key resource under stress is water. Professor Mike Young, Executive Director of the Environmental Institute at the University of Adelaide stressed that there will be a 60% gap in supply and demand of water by 2050. Industry will need 50% more water than currently, which will mean that less water will be available for agriculture; currently responsible for 70% of the World's water withdrawal. We need to improve water effiency at twice the rate of what we have been doing. He however sees water shortage as an opportunity, not a threat. Professor Jacqueline Rowath suggested that we should be considering where we grow certain crops and what system we have in place. I was surprised to hear that New Zealand can grow 1 apple with 6 litres of water, but in California it takes 70 litres of water! Interestingly it has also been proven that more water is used for hill suckler production than intensive indoor beef production.

According to John Allen, CEO for NZ Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 'think local buy local' will not feed the World. He believes that science will play a pivotal role in feeding the World, and that conversation and communication through all stages of the supply chain is needed. On-farm returns need to be improved, and free global trade is crucial for this to happen. Greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprint must also be a top priority. Research by Professor Gareth Edwards Jones (Bangor University) has calculated that Welsh lamb uses 39% more carbon per kg of product than New Zealand lamb, and still 22% more when you compare it with lamb that has been shipped to the UK from New Zealand. We need to follow the examples that New Zealand are setting in relying more on a grass and clover based system that uses less inorganic fertiliser to keep the carbon footprint low.

Hans Johr, Corporate Head of Agriculture at Nestle talked about the new vision for agriculture, where we must feed the World, protect our planet and create prosperity. The question he posed was, are we heading for a perfect storm?

IFMA Congress 2011 - Thriving in a global market

Last week I joined over 300 delegates from 28 countries across the World at the International Farm Management Association (IFMA) congress held in Methven, Canterbury. The focus of the week's congress was 'Thriving in a Global Market' through innovation, co-operation and leadership. The event was hosted by Lincoln University, Massey University and ANZ Bank, with three days of plenary session's and presentations from some of the World's leading speakers within the agricultural sector. A large focus of the week was on tackling the issue of feeding a growing population with reduced land area, and the challenges that face us in terms of global trade, managing resources such as land and water, succession planning to ensure that 'new blood' is coming into the industry, and how we can co-operate globally to meet the challenges that we now face.

The conference opened with a talk from Hon David Carter, NZ Minister of Agriculture who spoke about how New Zealand was transformed when subsidies were removed from agriculture overnight in 1985. He said that it was tough at the time and that some farmers didn't survive, but New Zealand agriculture is far better for it as it has had to focus more on production. His challenge to the delegates at the conference was to find a farmer in New Zealand who would want to go back to relying on Government subsidies. I have not come across one yet!

Two days were spent visiting farms in the Canterbury region, with a choice of six visits each day. To broaden my horizons I opted for a change, with one day focused on dairy farming and the other on arable. I will give a seperate overview on these visits and some key things that I took away from the congress over the coming week.

Do you know your carbon footprint?

The hot topic of discussion over the past few months seems to be carbon. Just this morning I was booking a flight to Sydney, and I was asked by the airline if I would like to pay $5 to offset the carbon that I was using by taking that flight. So when you consider a country like New Zealand, where agriculture equates to 48% of the country's total emissions, you wouldn't be surprised to hear that the Government think it is a good idea to charge farmers for the amount of carbon that their farming enterprises produce.

I have previously mentioned in one of my blog updates the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) scheduled to be introduced in 2015, where the Government do intend on charging farmers for the amount of carbon that they calculate is produced per farming business. They believe that by placing a price on carbon, it gives farmers an incentive to reduce carbon emissions on their farm through improving farming efficiency, more efficient use of fertiliser, better management of animal waste and through off-setting carbon production by planting trees. As you can imagine, the idea of having to pay for something they have always produced is not going down well with New Zealand farmers.

AbacusBio and Alliance Group are due to release a software product that allows sheep and beef farmers to calculate their carbon footprint, or 'Hoofprint' as the programme is called. This will allow farmers to understand how they can improve their carbon footprint, and allows Alliance to communicate with key markets as to what their farm footprints are and how they can improve over time. Over the past few days I have been (along with others at AbacusBio) trying out Hoofprint to make sure the software is working correctly before it is launched. The programme works by asking for farm details such as farm size, livestock numbers, production data, livestock sales and purchases, fertiliser fuel and energy use and any forestry on the farm. A lot of very complicated maths and science used by Abacus Bio in the making of the software then calculates the carbon footprint for the farm.

It is a very interesting product to have a look at, and I will be keen to see how it is used in New Zealand and what farmers make of it. The key to it's success will be how easy-to-use the software is, as it is evident that it has been designed by knowledgable individuals that know and understand farming. I found it very easy to follow, and for most farmers limited data will need to be updated as all sales to Alliance are automatically updated on the software. With a few minor adjustments it is a programme that could well be used in the UK and elsewhere, as it now seems that this is an area of hot topic all over the World. 

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!