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Bay of Plenty and Waikato Farm, Orchard and Rural Lifestyle News PH (07) 578 0030

Both sides of the fence

Cracking the market

Tropical armyworm

Launching rural driver

May 2011 Issue No. 129

The wildlife haven on Maungatautari is under threat as a dispute continues over a change in the governance structure of the Maungatautari Ecological Island

Trust board. Landowners have locked their gates and they say an ultimatum to take the fence off their land is imminent.

The full story, inside.

Coast & Country Page 2 COAST & COUNTRY

027 205 3862027 281 7427

I am on a one man crusade to export white wine to China.

At present I am talking to four different Chinese importers and devoting the rest of my life to getting the Chinese to drink

our white wine, says 66-year-old Roy Johnson of Tolaga Bay

Wines in Gisborne.Roy and Sue Johnson are owners of

Sunrise Estate of which Tolaga Bay Wines are a subsidiary and are already exporting to the United Kingdom, United States and the south of France.

Wine imports into China have grown signifi cantly over the last few years and with a growing middle class with higher incomes, several wine producing countries are trying to get their wines accepted there.

France has the major share of the market with their red wines, which the Chinese are more familiar with.

The French colonised China about 200 years ago so the Chinese think that red wine is the only wine to buy, but what would you rather have with your chicken chow mein or prawns and shrimps, a quality New Zealand white wine, says Roy.

The white wines Roy wants to export to China are muscat, unoaked char-donnay and lightly oaked chardonnay.

The recently released Rabobank Quarterly report states the growth in wine consumption in China is phenomenal. Wine imports into China totalled almost 150 million litres in 2010 and now represent about 10 per cent of the Chinese grape wine market.

For the New Zealand market to catch up with the French wine market in China there will have to be a sig-nifi cant investment in consumer and trade education to drive changes in long-term consumer behaviour and a concerted effort to strengthen relation-ships with Chinese distributors, says Rabobank senior analyst Marc Soccio.

The New Zealand vintage currently underway is running ahead of sched-ule and fruit quality looks very good. Reports indicate the crop should well exceed last years 265,000 tonnes with the possibility of passing the 300,000 tonne mark.

It would be very hard for the Chinese wine consumers to resist a quality Gisborne white wine produced by a vineyard which is the fi rst place in the world to see the sun, says Roy.

Im pretty confi dent.

Wine devotion to China

By Helen Wilson

Roy Johnson of Tolaga

Bay Wines is devoting his life to getting the Chinese to drink our white wine.

The agricultural industry is booming according to Prime

Minister John Key, who told dairy farmers at the large herd conference in Rotorua he expected them to start

spending again very soon.

It will be a welcome statement for exhibitors at the National Agricultural Fieldays which is just around the corner. Read more from the PM in our Fieldays preview.

This month, I grabbed the opportunity to sample some feijoas and fi nd out about the feijoa industry, which has just sent its fi rst trays of fruit to be sampled on the Singapore market.

Writer Sue Edmonds travelled to Rotorua to learn about the latest plans to improve the water quality of lakes and was one of 500 who turned up to an effl uent fi eld day in Hamilton.

This month we are launching a new feature Hunt, Fish, Eat. Read about the Polaris Big Four competition a team effort to bag the biggest stag, boar, trout and pheasant.

Until next month, happy duck shooting and get your teams entered in the Big Four comp.

Agriculture industry booming says John Key

PH 07 578 0030 Page 3COAST & COUNTRY

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Calls of the kiwi, kaka, and takahe are being drowned

out by arguments over the governance of the

Maungatautari reserve and the pest proof fence that

protects it is at risk.The fence, which boundaries the

3400ha wildlife haven, is under threat owing to a disagreement over the governance structure of the Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust.

Landowners are on the verge of giving an ultimatum in the argument, with their penalty for non-compliance the pulling down of the fence.

The dispute started when the governance structure of the trust was changed to a two-tiered model made up of a guardian group of stakeholder representatives evenly split between landowners, iwi and volunteers with an operational board of six; three iwi and three non-iwi.

The heart of the Maungatautari project has always been the goodwill and the partnership of landowners, iwi and the community something which is now fast deteriorating, along with the fence, putting the wildlife at risk to pests.

The landowners, trustees and iwi (Ngati Koroki Kahuhura), all unani-mously pronounce their support for the project, yet negotiations on how to proceed are not forthcoming.

Several landowners, who on a handshake, gifted land to the other side of the fence to be part of the reserve, have locked their gates and cut off surveillance videos to stop access onto their properties. They are now saying the fence must be taken down or shifted if the govern-ance does not go back to a three-tier structure.

Shifting the fence is an uneco-nomical and impractical solution, however, says landowner Peter Holmes.

The tough thing is I dont know where they are going to put it.

The fence couldnt be put in a lot of places because of the terrain or water supply thats why it was put where it is, over our land, says Peter.

We said to put it through our land and we expected to be treated with respect.

Ngati Koroki Kahuhura is saying they had 50-50 in the fi rst place, theyve never had that. Land owners like us would never have agreed to the fence on that basis, says Peter.

Tao Tauroa said at the meeting its our way or no way I heard him say that. Everyone was bull-rushed into making that decision that night.

Peter and neighbour Warren Charleston are now warning other landowners across New Zealand about their property rights.

Its a frightening thing to land-owners. Dont go near it to start with unless its in concrete. There is no respect for landowners, says Warren.

Gifted landPeter says he gifted land to the

project where his grandfather built a dam in 1927.

Its my grandfathers land. Its very sentimental to me its hard to give it away.

I would possibly give it to New Zealand, but not to a polarised group like Ngati Koroki Kahuhura because I dont trust them I dont trust what they would do with the land.

Maungatautari is also the subject of a Treaty of Waitangi claim which is expected to see more land in the reserve gifted to Maori.

Karaitiana Tamatea and Tony Wilding, co-chairs of the MEIT interim executive board have writ-ten to the Landowners Council assuring them that on advice that MEIT has received to date is that, while title may be vested in Tangata Whenua, Maungatautari will retain its reserve status.

They have asked the landown-ers to meet with them to discuss an independent review of the processes used to change the governance processes, purchase of their land, or giving MEIT the time to erect a replacement fence on reserve land.

We fi nd your threat to remove surveillance monitoring from the fence crossing four properties astounding and extremely sad given that doing so will destroy a decade of hard work from hundreds of volunteers, includ-ing work done by the other 24 landowners who do not share your views.

MEIT acknowledges and fully accepts your right to do as you please on your private prop-erty, however, having previously agreed to have the fence on your property, we respectfully suggest that you have voluntarily entered into a commitment not just with MEIT, but with all those people who have given so much to the project.

Lance Hodsen, trustee from the outset on the Maungatautari Trust Board, says the trust would love to sit down with Peter Holmes and Warren Charleston to come to an agreement on how to move forward.

This is an interim structure at the moment, which is not set in stone and we are happy to negoti-ate.

The trust has sent out invita-tions to come to meetings and have attempted to negotiate with Warren and Peter to no avail.

Lance says the trust has options which they believe would resolve the issues.

There has to be some give and take on both parts and we are well aware of that.

The Maungatautari Landowners Council has met with Minister of Conservation Kate Wilkinson on the issue.

Peter says Ngati Koroki Kahuhura has to back off and go back to a tri-part agreement.

We have to thrash out the own-ership of the mountain, which can only be done by central govern-ment and then we will unlock our gates.

The Muru family, who own the land that the main southern entrance walkway goes through, are also trying to restrict access.

Temporary injunctionThey have a temporary injunc-

tion against Willie Te Aho from going on the property and say they will be fi ling an injunction against MEIT.

Rick Muru says he welded the gates shut only to have Ngati Koroki Kahuhura smash it open.

Rick says he has shut off public access because of concerns his whanau could be held liable if anyone gets injured.

Family advisor Graham Cullen says the liability issue for the

Muru family is huge and they want the right compliance set in place.

Former MEIT trustee and landowner Selwyn Mackinder is selling his farm because he is fed up with the politics and doesnt want to watch the demise of such a great project.

Weve seen the fence go up and weve seen the difference, says Selwyn.

It would be a tragedy if anything

was to happen. I would like to believe that it will be solved with good will on both sides because I can show you takahe who dont give a stuff (about the politics).

Fears for Maungatautari reserve fence


awn a e

KW & Julia

New Zealand feijoa growers are trying to crack the Singapore market with Whakatane growers Rob and Mary Jessop providing one third of the

fi rst 150 trays sent there.They were sent to boutique-style shops, where

free sampling was set up for people to try the fruit.

An Australian buyer, based in Singapore, approached the growers to sample feijoas on the Asian market.

The versatility of the feijoa is going to push demand up and expand other export market potential for the unique fruit says Rob.

There are currently about 200 feijoa growers in New Zealand producing between 500 and 1000 tonnes annually, with 400-500 tonnes going to pulp.

There are fi ve main growers who export from New Zealand who collec-tively export 25-50 tonnes of feijoas 80 per cent of exports go to Australia.

We feel the market for feijoas is just starting to come into its own, says Rob.

We think its going to surpass the kiwifruit.

The antioxidents are really high and you can do so much with them.

The export market is starting to grow again; for every carton we have sent there is sale for it the demand is there.

New Zealand Feijoa Growers Association president Tim Harper says they are promot-ing feijoas in the United States and Australia, which are the two main export markets. Exports are limited because of air freight prices as the fruit would spoil if it was shipped.

Growing the export market is the main thing we are working on at the moment, says Tim.

We are working on marketing strategies, fl yers, in-store tasting.

Tim says New Zealanders dont know how lucky they are.

Feijoas are only grown in abun-dance in New Zealand and South America, with Brazil being the main export competitor to New Zealand.

Because of the limitations else-

where, other countries have to be shown and taught how to eat the fruit.

The populations havent got a taste for them, says Tim.

We have to teach people to scoop and eat them thats the fi rst thing.

Then its teaching them all the things you can do with the fruit, although Tim says they are working on educating New Zealanders more too.They are as versatile as apples and

bananas they can be used in any dish bananas are used in. People use them to make wines, ciders, fruit juices, ice creams there are a few

really nice schnapps. There is even feijoa beer.

Tim says he hopes the export market grows

more and if their marketing works they are going to

need growers.Its made a lot

of people look a lot harder at

feijoas. He says with subur-

ban growth, New Zealanders dont tend to have the traditional feijoa tree in

their backyard anymore.Traditionally a lot of people had

their own feijoa tree but housing and subdivisions have wiped out a lot of trees.

Youre going to have to pay for them now.

Feijoas reach Singapore shores

Rob and Mary Jessop grow 45

tonnes of feijoas a year on their

1800 trees.

Rob says if growers can market the fruit better overseas it will push the local price up.

He says the New Zealand market has probably reached its peak for the moment with prices for the growers without the export market growing further.

Unfortunately the price is no di erent to what it was 10 years ago.

We are probably like what the kiwifruit indus-try was 20 years ago.

e price in New Zealand supermarkets varies between $6-10/kg.

Rob says it is uneconomical to take the fruit o their property for less than $1/kg.

e feijoa season lasts from mid-March through until the end of May in a good season, says Tim.

A strong frost will make the fruit go brown early. Two months every year and thats

all we get. ere are no feijoas imported.Brazil, the only other country who does any-

thing of volume, has the same season as us.A lot of people, I certainly did, underestimate

how labour intensive it is in pruning and picking. We have to pick for six weeks not like kiwifruit, who harvest in two days.

So that is more expensive, having to pay for that labour. ats why its always reasonably pricy in supermarkets. Its the nature of the fruit.


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Kaimai Cheese Company has closed its production

facility and cafe at Te Mata near Havelock North

and the company is ceasing all South Island

and export sales. In a letter to sharehold-

ers, chairman Wyatt Creech says while Kaimai, set up at Waharoa in the Waikato in 2005, had a high sales growth rate, the rise in costs includ-

ing milk, were forever eroding the gross margin in the specialty cheese sector for all competitors.Six staff at the Te Mata

plant have lost their jobs and two at the Waharoa

dairy factory and cafe, includ-ing general manager Sheryn

Cook. More redundancies are possible.

Wyatt says production ton-nage doubled last year to meet orders, however, manufacturers like Kaimai, which buy milk from Fonterra, do not know the price of that milk until the end of Fonterras season.

He says milk prices during the last year had leapt, which meant the company had made incorrect assumptions about the milk price when entering retail contracts.

The effect of the milk price rise on the bottomline had been mate-rial.

He says Kaimai will become an artisan $4.5m business with a materially larger portion of its cus-tomers in Waikato and Auckland.

The cheese company won medals at the Cuisine New Zealand Cham-pions of Cheese Awards this year, including a silver medal for their bocconcini in the Langham Cham-pion Fresh Unripened Cheese category.

Cheese maker Jason Trevelyan says it was great to improve on their bronze medal from last year.

It shows weve maintained what weve been doing and adding value to it, says Jason.

Its not an easy product to make, but weve had a few Italians say that they are impressed with what weve come up with and to have it so fresh.

A popular cheese in Italy the Kaimai recipe differs because of the taste of New Zealand milk says Jason.

It is made with whole cows milk and is made in a machine which caters for 2000 litres of milk which converts the milk into half a tonne of bocconcini.

If differs to mozzarella in taste because there is no salt.

Thats why it has a limited shelf life of 35 days. Its quite a subtle, mild taste it has a really unique fl avour to it. It is not a heavy prod-uct like feta.

A good bocconcini should be able to stretch out to a full arms width without breaking.

What you can expect to fi nd with bocconcini is that you can peel it it has a kind of chicken-like texture, say Jason.

Its breakable. Its stretched and pulled like Mozzarella, then made into little balls.

I think people are expanding and developing their culinary outlook and are looking for good quality products that arent mass produced.

Cheese company over stretched

JD

Kaimai Cheese maker Jason Trevelyan.


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Because our aim is to see our clients grow better quality crops and a healthier bottom line.

The high cost of rates continues to trouble farmers, while the

overall fi nancial sustainability of what councils are doing remains

in the spotlight.Federated Farmers is presently in the thick

of submitting on district and regional council annual plans. Everywhere, as usual, farm rates are going up. We get from many farmers a jaded and disillusioned silence. From others, there are outraged calls as general rates on the family farm blow out.

An article in the February 2011 New Zea-land Local Government magazine points to the

parlous state of local governments fi nances. The article maintains 15 to 20 per cent of local authorities are hitting the wall fi nancially, as a result of debt being beyond sustainable maximums, with rates and charges becoming increasingly unaffordable for ratepayers and businesses.

The article points to an alarming fi nancial dete-rioration in the last ten years, which has arisen from the profl igacy of councils, combined with a lack of emphasis on improved performance and fi nancial prudence.

This is disturbing news for farmers reliant on land as their primary production input, as the principle revenue mechanisms of councils are rates on land and capital value. Only property

owners pay this tax called rates and of them, the owners of higher value properties face the real music when hitting the wall time comes.

Councils in the Bay of Plenty are not at all immune from this potential train wreck. Farmers are feeling it in Whakatane where, in response to the rates affordability problem, the district coun-cil has moved to cut road resealing and hike farm rates. Western Bay of Plenty District Council has proposed cuts to capital expenditure and a new bond bank a debt partnership with eight other councils in an attempt to reduce interest costs.

The refrain I hear from many farmers is when, or whether, the trend of ballooning farm rates will ever end. Farmers cut spending when things

are tight, yet councils seem bent on rearranging the proverbial deck chairs and we continue to pay the price for that.

Government had a go at the problem back in 2007 with a rates inquiry, which found that, under current practices, rates will not be sustainable in 10 years time. Were well on the way. Another review, this time initiated by the Minister of Local Government Rodney Hide, is just around the corner.

The cabinet papers underpinning this review, called smarter government, stronger communi-ties were publicly released in April and include some astounding debt fi gures for councils. Be assured, Federated Farmers will be in the thick of that review too.

Rates problem just gets bigger

JD

Acting Economic Development Minister David Carter has announced an $850,000 contestable fund to drive further growth of New Zealands second-largest export earner,

the red meat industry. The Red Meat Market Development Contestable

Fund is a joint initiative between New Zealand Trade and Enterprise and Beef and Lamb, with funding allocated to successful applicants on a 50-50 basis.

The success of the 2009 Aquaculture Market Development Contestable Fund, which has driven signifi cant innovation and market development in that industry, demonstrates the potential scope for our important red meat sector, says David.

Red meat generated around $5 billion in export revenue last year and the government believes a more concerted approach by the industry could considera-bly lift this fi gure. He says the new contestable fund aims to encourage innovative industry-led projects to lift the profi tability, competitiveness and sustainable growth of the meat sector.

This new fund further enhances the governments Primary Growth Partnership which has so far pledged more than $60 million towards a joint $150 million red meat programme.

It also fl ags the importance of the Red Meat Sector Strategy Report to be released next week.

I encourage applications to this contestable fund from businesses that are keen to drive further growth of our important meat sector, says David.

Applications for the fund, which will be adminis-tered by NZTE, close on May 20.

New fund for meat sectormeat sector


Where would the environment be without

Landcare groups and their assiduous volunteers?

The Department of Conserva-tion is doing its best, albeit with what seems a constantly shrink-ing budget, but there are large areas of bush, wetland, peat lakes and regenerating scrub which rely on landowners and groups of volunteers to weed, plant natives and catch predators, so the areas in question and the indigenous plants and birdlife get a chance to continue.

When members of these groups get together for a networking day

and explain just how much is involved in their activities, it fair makes ones eyes pop. There are 42 Landcare Groups operating in the Waikato, alongside 90 other groups working on single focus projects, assisted and sometimes funded, by both regional and district councils.

NegotiationsThe QEII National Trust has

been negotiating covenants on private land for more than 25 years now, with a total of 3,458 areas, totalling 111,000ha either signed up or in preparation. The Waikato region has 69 signed up out of 583 being worked on in the region. With stock excluded from such a huge area and each piece surrounded by nice neat fences, the bits inside are fi nally getting a chance to grow and regenerate.

The Whakaupoko West Franklin

Landcare Group has been going for six years and has spent most of its energies on pest control of possums and rats, as well as monitoring native bird populations such as tui, kereru and fantails. Its efforts have resulted in 70 monitored sites reporting increasing tui, a good population of kereru, but the fan-tail population seems to be going down. Monitoring is done by use of chew cards using peanut butter as bait. The teeth marks made on these direct which pests should be focused on in an area.

The Waikato peat lakes continue to be a focus, with increasingly well-designed sediment traps col-lecting huge tonnage of silt from surrounding farmlands. There was a lot of talk at the networking day about the need to get all surround-ing landowners in agreement and behind each project. Just one

renegade owner who ploughs right up to fences along drains and waterways, fol-lowed by heavy rain, can undo months of work. Andrew Hayes says that at Lake Kaituna theyve not only had to do a lot of weed work, but the sediment trap there has so far been replaced three times. At Lake Cameron they are con-tinuing the planting programme round the lake and planning more signage for visitors.

Vegetation and wildlifeOn the Awhitu Peninsula the area is

large, 34,000ha. The main problem is blowing sand which can bury nearby vegetation. The group has focused on creating a mainland island which gives vegetation and wildlife a chance. With a large number of properties involved, individual owners are encouraged to set possum bait stations and trap lines.

Hamilton Fish and Game is focuss-ing its efforts on three lakes, Kainui, Serpentine and Koromatua, all of which have their share of maimais along the shorelines.

Up in the Coromandel they still have kiwi in the bush and the Moehau Envi-ronment Group, which has been going for ten years, is focused on stoat control

as well as possums and rats. A sharing system among its members sees monthly checks on 900 baits. Against a national decline in kiwi numbers, the area is getting more kiwi chicks surviving over six months and the group consider they are now seeing 68 per cent of chicks hatched survive past this time. Their area covers more than 1300ha, with 400 landowners involved.

InvestigationsTo explore what works and what

doesnt for Landcare groups and to record the huge variety of activi-ties being carried out on land under different management regimes, the Waikato Regional Council has con-tracted Dr Helen Ritchie to investigate and report. After numerous interviews, she is already coming up with many ideas which can be incorporated into guidelines.

A fi eld session at Lake Kainui dem-onstrated the complexity of building a successful sediment trap. Apparently, if you know the right people to ask, the earthmoving and planting can be cun-ningly cheap, (around one fi fth of the normal contractor cost) demonstrating just how canny volunteers can be.

Ben Wolf of WDC explains the workings of a sediment trap.

Environment relying on landownersEnvironment relying on landowners

JD

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A new concept to assist farmers to benefi t more

from the Emissions Trading Scheme was

outlined by John Simmons, Waikato Regional Council Biosecurity and Heritgage

group manager at the Waikato Executive of Federated Farmers.

Throughout the Waikato region there are many farms which have small patches of reverting scrub or areas which are unsuited or unprofi table for pasture. Plant-ing trees or allowing the scrub to grow on these areas for individual carbon credits is probably not economically feasible and may not be considered worthwhile by farm-ers. Aggregation of such blocks of probably mainly post-1989 forest,

however, would bring economies of scale to the assessment and registra-tion process, making it simpler and overall cheaper for each farmer and more attractive to be included in such an ETS scheme.

The proposal put forward by John is if a non-commercial body such as the WRC were to facilitate group-ings of these small areas so the total area of each group was suffi cient to produce economic numbers of credits, then they could be accrued to interest local large emitters to purchase the credits, rather than purchasing credits offshore.

Benefi ts to farmersHaving big emitters purchas-

ing credits locally has a double whammy effect in that it benefi ts farmers incomes and the funds remain within the region, rather than being spent elsewhere. Local carbon trading platforms are now being created, including one by Westpac.

There is expertise within the WRC to advise farmers on how best to treat unprofi table land

and also the potential infl uence to attract investors to assist with the costs of planting new forest areas. The concept is aimed at giving farmers confi dence to make decisions on land use change and manage risk in a group situation. There is no intent to push farm-ers into tree planting, unless they choose to do so.

Flood controlWith the plethora of waterways

in the Waikato and the multiplicity of small catchment areas, get-ting more trees and bush into the tops of these catchments can have amazing effects on fl ood control further down. An example is the Wairoa catchment, where much riparian planting had been done along the banks, only to be washed away in a big fl ood. A much later potential fl ood, however, was largely absorbed by the increased amount of forest at the top of the catchment and no damage ensued further down. The proposal could thus be seen as having a bob each way for farmers.


Joint option for carbon credits

JD

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Two-year-old Jess, a NZ heading dog from

Taumarunui, is amongst the top 10 fi nalists in

New Zealands Next Tux Dog competition.

The chosen dog will star in the new 2011 Tux TV commercial to follow the pawprints of the previ-ous fi t as a fi ddle, sharp as a knife dogs from Tux advertisements.

David Wards, 13, was given Jess as a pup two years ago.

Her tricks include riding in a wheelbarrow, jumping on drums, jumping over sheep yard rails, stand-ing on her hind legs with her paws on the top rail, sitting, staying and mustering sheep.

Her best features are her loyalty, good looks and energy. When the farm car door is open, she likes to race David to the front seat to get the best position and she always wins.

Davids mum Julie says Jess is very much Davids dog.

He spends a lot of time with her and has done all the training himself.

The judges toured the length of New Zealand visiting and audition-ing each dog at its home.

From May 9-29 the public can watch the audition videos and vote at www.tux.co.nz for the fi nalist they think should be the New Zealands Next Tux Dog.

The ultimate winner is revealed on June 13.

Coast & Country has three prize packs to give away thanks to Tux for our readers. To go in the draw, send us your name and

details along with a photo of your best friend to [email protected] or PO Box 240,

Tauranga. Please include a name, address and phone number with every entry.

Taumarunui dog TV finalist

The10 fi nalists were chosen from more than 500 entries::Amazon, a huntaway from Ohakune, Brodie, a border collie from Palmerston NorthDixie, a yorkshire terrier from Lower HuttHarley, a staffordshire bull terrier from Kumeu, AucklandJay, a collie cross from Tuatapere, Western Southland

Jess, an NZ heading dog from TaumarunuiPatrick, a bearded collie from ChristchurchPesh, a jack russell from Beachlands, AucklandSniper, a boxer from Browns Bay, AucklandSonny, a golden retriever/border collie cross from New

Lynn, Auckland

Coast & Country Page 10 DAIRY

The Lakes Water Quality Society of Rotorua is

determined the twelve lakes it cares about are restored and sustained for future generations.

There must be many others who agree with them if the 250 scien-tists, planners, environmentalists and farmers who turned up to their last meeting is anything to go by.

While much is being achieved by

various means in the smaller lakes, the one on the doorstep of the city, Lake Rotorua, has still got a long way to go. So the focus this year was on not only lake restoration, but also on how farsighted regional planning can successfully promote growth for the city and the region.

The guest speaker on day one had come all the way from Sweden. Mayor Bo Frank from the city of Vaxjo proudly talked about it being The Greenest City in Europe and what had been done to make

it so. Vaxjo has 85,000 people, is surrounded by 200 small lakes and it used to have a serious pollution problem. The Swedes apparently measure everything and the people are used to accepting regulation and curbs on activities, which has probably helped, but theyve cer-tainly achieved an amazing amount.

Bo was elected as mayor in 1991 and has been thus ever since. Sweden operates a decentralised government, with each city being more or less self-contained in gov-

ernance. Running Vaxjo is greatly assisted by the fact that 30 per cent of all income tax generated locally is paid to run local government.

Vaxjo set out to attract creative people, who would offer lateral thinking on how to make a green city work well. They now have 8000 SME companies and a small university known as the Linnaeus University with a focus on sustainability. All of those 200 lakes and rivers have their own water protection associations caring for them. They recycle everything, with organic waste being collected to run a biogas plant which supplies fuel for the public transport system in the city. There are clear rules on housing, with passive heating and triple glazing to cope with cold Swedish winter weather.

Vaxjo now attracts scientists and eco-tourists from everywhere and makes part of its income from selling the knowledge it has accumulated.

Bill Bayfi eld, the soon to depart CEO of the Bay of Plenty Regional Council,

was forthright in his views on what would be needed for the Rotorua Lakes to be restored. He considers setting targets and creating action plans for each lake to be vital and that each lake needs to be worked on differently, according to its current state and surroundings. The council is trying a number of different systems. These include capping lake beds, such as has been done at Lake Okare, building onshore and fl oating wetlands, weed harvesting, creating buffer zones and reducing nutrients. The diversion wall built to divert water from Lake Rotorua from reaching Lake Rotoiti is working well, with noticeable reduction in nitrate levels now in Rotoiti. With Lake Rotorua, the problem is still huge. There are 2000 rural landowners and 50,000ha involved. Bill says he foresees the restoration process taking decades and was adamant land use change, enforced by regulation, would be needed.

This was a commonly expressed view at a Rotorua Lakes symposium by the attending bureaucrats, retired judges and scientists.

Rotorua District Council chief executive Peter Guerin talked about the reorganisation within the council to ensure that lean thinking prevailed in order to carry out its roles better, faster, cheaper and easier.

The council long-term planning now includes spatial planning, similar to what is being done for Auckland. Council is working towards activity rules, which would be used to target land use change using concept plans which would then make for controlled activities. Consents would be required for high nutrient output activities. Overall Peter says he foresees big changes for the region. Frank Boffa of Wellington fi rm Boffa Mis-kell has been working with the Rotorua District Council for some time on land use planning. It is now consid-ered about 30 per cent of pasture land, 6,750ha, round Lake Rotorua needs to be retired. While initial thoughts had been for much of this to be turned into some forest and lifestyle blocks, Frank says the sheer amount of land would make this impractical.

The 2ha blocks envisaged have proven to be uneco-nomic and he sees better usage by creating a variety of block sizes, say from 1ha to 5ha, grouped in small clusters and surrounded by other activities such as a golf course, wellness spas and high quality tourism accom-modation, coupled with forest areas. Franks overall view was growing the region to fi x the lake might be a more economically successful system. The Hon Sir Edward Durie, retired head of the Maori Land Court, produced some fairly heretical views on land use for the huge areas of Maori land in the region.

With Maori ownership having been changed from tribal to individual by the government in 1860, the proliferation of individual owners had always been something of a problem, in that profi ts from use of the land had too many shareholders to be paid each year. Edward says this is now hugely exacerbated by the fact that a hefty proportion of Maori owners now live in Australia. So, unlike most Pacifi c people who came to New Zealand to earn money and then repatriated it to their own people, Maori were now required to send much of their profi ts offshore.

Fix a lake and grow a city

Or grow region to fix the lakeVoluntarism wont

work to clean up the lakes in Rotorua and farming and other

activities are going to need regulation.

DB

DoloZest and CalciZest 0800 843 809 Bio-Gro certified # 5146 or visit www.esi.org.nz

E S I programmes consistently out-perform fertiliser N driven programmes with more total DM grown containing more energy resulting in higher levels of animal production.

DoloZest/CalciZest based fertiliser programmes deliver higher energy levels in every mouthful. This means:-

more rapid weight gain over winter

less weight loss after calving.

By Sue Edmonds

By Sue Edmonds

He says land owner-ship should revert to a tribal base, so profi ts could be ploughed back into the land for the benefi t of the tribe as a whole. This would help to fund land use change. He also added he felt the era of the Maori Land Court and the Maori Trustee had run their course. His thinking may well coincide with the recent govern-ment announcement of support and training for Maori incorporations in their farming activities.

Judge Peter Skelton, now one of the commissioners for Environ-ment Canterbury, was part of the decision making process on Lake Taupo restrictions. Based on that experience he says it had taken fi ve years of consultation and while the Lake Taupo plans were generally collaborative, there would always be free riders who chose to ride on the backs of those who complied. The

costs which could be incurred by individuals in some schemes would be too great for voluntary compli-ance to work. Peter says regulation would be necessary for such schemes in the future.

An update on the science and modelling of nutrient movement given by Kit Rutherford of NIWA showed despite there being huge differences in lag times of under-ground waters reaching the lakes, an immediate reduction in nutrient inputs had an overall faster than expected reduction in lake nitrate and phosphorus levels.

William Oliver, a Taupo farmer who saw opportunities in profi t-able farming under the nitrogen cap, described how he has adapted 10,000ha of land adjacent to the lake for best land use, using carbon forestry planting, bush retirement and nutrient reductions. The system

has also preserved local jobs and worked to keep the various compo-nents of local community viable and active.

Alison Dewes, Agribusiness consultant, talked about the ageing demographic of farmers and the need to realign farm businesses to cope with shifts in global repric-ing of risk in the last three years. A process of whole farm plan-ning which allows farmers to look at where they are, how they want to farm and where they want to be in future years, is already allowing those who have worked with the system to adjust stock-ing rates, nutrient effi ciency, farm management systems, improve environmental sustainability and still increase profi tability.

The overall atmosphere of the conference was upbeat and positive about future changes and results.

PH 07 578 0030 Page 11DAIRY

Tropical armyworm influx the Bay

Putting profits back into the land

JD

The tropical armyworm is causing damage to crops and

pasture in the Bay of Plenty, says Bill Webb.

The contractor was made aware of the pest by an orchardist and has since noticed it attacking turnip and chicory crops as well as pasture.

There is a lot around there are up to 14 caterpillars every square metre, says Bill.

They are doing a lot of damage the pasture looks like it has been grazed.

Bill says the caterpillars didnt go after the maize crop this year as they have some-times in the past, but have instead turned to brassica plants, including rye grass and some lucerne crops.

Ive never had to spray for armyworm in my turnip or grass pastures before.

We had a fl ood in one of our paddocks and they were all clinging onto the fence posts.

One orchardist told me he saw them march-ing along the ground and it looked like the ground was moving.

Bill Webb Contracting sent out a warning

fl yer to clients that had done new pasture renovation and crops when it fi rst noticed the infl ux.

Checking for pests in pasture is part of a pasture renovation programme farmers should be following anyway, says Bill.

Not many people spray for weeds or pests in new pastures.

It is essential that you spray all new peren-nial pastures for weeds, be they cultivated or sprayed and direct drilled.

But it is important to spend the money and

do it properly otherwise you will end up losing money in the long run.

Bill is still getting enquires after a pasture renewal fi eld day he hosted earlier this year.

He said with the money farmers are spending on pasture renewal, they dont want it to be

riddled with weeds in two years time.At the moment the new pastures are compet-

ing with the weeds for nutrients and moisture.People need to get us in and we can monitor

the new grass for you.Bill says the benefi ts far outweigh the costs.

He noted that contractor costs are having to be increased as they can no longer absorb the 44 per cent increase in the cost of diesel.

Diesel has gone up from $1.18 to $1.69 since last year, with some Bay of Plenty service sta-tions are selling it over $1.70.

Thats a 51 cent rise since I set my prices at the start of the maize season, says Bill.

That makes quite a bit of difference to the cost of running our machinery.

It cuts into our margins, and it takes it directly off our bottom line.

For the 150,000 plus litres of diesel the contracting machines go through in a season, Bill says the higher diesel price is costing him an extra $76,000.

Thats what Ive got to cover.Its an additional $76,000 we hadnt

budgeted on. You can see how easily it would be to get blown out.

The 51 cent increase in diesel means the harvester is costing an extra $25 per hectare or $30 an hour to run, says Bill.

That is about a fi ve per cent increase in the hourly rate just for fuel.

The two maize harvesters both go through 800 litres of diesel each in a day, while the 13 tractors combined take 1500 litres.

By Sheryl Brown

CO

NTRAC

TING IN THE BAY

BI

LL WE

BB - EST 1976

FOR QUALITY & SERVICE YOU CAN RELY ON


C O N T R A C T I N G L T DFOR QUALITY & SERVICE YOU CAN RELY ON

YOU CAN RELY ON


The Lakes Water Quality Society of Rotorua is

determined the twelve lakes it cares about are restored and sustained for future generations.

There must be many others who agree with them if the 250 scien-tists, planners, environmentalists and farmers who turned up to their last meeting is anything to go by.

While much is being achieved by

various means in the smaller lakes, the one on the doorstep of the city, Lake Rotorua, has still got a long way to go. So the focus this year was on not only lake restoration, but also on how farsighted regional planning can successfully promote growth for the city and the region.

The guest speaker on day one had come all the way from Sweden. Mayor Bo Frank from the city of Vaxjo proudly talked about it being The Greenest City in Europe and what had been done to make

it so. Vaxjo has 85,000 people, is surrounded by 200 small lakes and it used to have a serious pollution problem. The Swedes apparently measure everything and the people are used to accepting regulation and curbs on activities, which has probably helped, but theyve cer-tainly achieved an amazing amount.

Bo was elected as mayor in 1991 and has been thus ever since. Sweden operates a decentralised government, with each city being more or less self-contained in gov-

ernance. Running Vaxjo is greatly assisted by the fact that 30 per cent of all income tax generated locally is paid to run local government.

Vaxjo set out to attract creative people, who would offer lateral thinking on how to make a green city work well. They now have 8000 SME companies and a small university known as the Linnaeus University with a focus on sustainability. All of those 200 lakes and rivers have their own water protection associations caring for them. They recycle everything, with organic waste being collected to run a biogas plant which supplies fuel for the public transport system in the city. There are clear rules on housing, with passive heating and triple glazing to cope with cold Swedish winter weather.

Vaxjo now attracts scientists and eco-tourists from everywhere and makes part of its income from selling the knowledge it has accumulated.

Bill Bayfi eld, the soon to depart CEO of the Bay of Plenty Regional Council,

was forthright in his views on what would be needed for the Rotorua Lakes to be restored. He considers setting targets and creating action plans for each lake to be vital and that each lake needs to be worked on differently, according to its current state and surroundings. The council is trying a number of different systems. These include capping lake beds, such as has been done at Lake Okare, building onshore and fl oating wetlands, weed harvesting, creating buffer zones and reducing nutrients. The diversion wall built to divert water from Lake Rotorua from reaching Lake Rotoiti is working well, with noticeable reduction in nitrate levels now in Rotoiti. With Lake Rotorua, the problem is still huge. There are 2000 rural landowners and 50,000ha involved. Bill says he foresees the restoration process taking decades and was adamant land use change, enforced by regulation, would be needed.

This was a commonly expressed view at a Rotorua Lakes symposium by the attending bureaucrats, retired judges and scientists.

Rotorua District Council chief executive Peter Guerin talked about the reorganisation within the council to ensure that lean thinking prevailed in order to carry out its roles better, faster, cheaper and easier.

The council long-term planning now includes spatial planning, similar to what is being done for Auckland. Council is working towards activity rules, which would be used to target land use change using concept plans which would then make for controlled activities. Consents would be required for high nutrient output activities. Overall Peter says he foresees big changes for the region. Frank Boffa of Wellington fi rm Boffa Mis-kell has been working with the Rotorua District Council for some time on land use planning. It is now consid-ered about 30 per cent of pasture land, 6,750ha, round Lake Rotorua needs to be retired. While initial thoughts had been for much of this to be turned into some forest and lifestyle blocks, Frank says the sheer amount of land would make this impractical.

The 2ha blocks envisaged have proven to be uneco-nomic and he sees better usage by creating a variety of block sizes, say from 1ha to 5ha, grouped in small clusters and surrounded by other activities such as a golf course, wellness spas and high quality tourism accom-modation, coupled with forest areas. Franks overall view was growing the region to fi x the lake might be a more economically successful system. The Hon Sir Edward Durie, retired head of the Maori Land Court, produced some fairly heretical views on land use for the huge areas of Maori land in the region.

With Maori ownership having been changed from tribal to individual by the government in 1860, the proliferation of individual owners had always been something of a problem, in that profi ts from use of the land had too many shareholders to be paid each year. Edward says this is now hugely exacerbated by the fact that a hefty proportion of Maori owners now live in Australia. So, unlike most Pacifi c people who came to New Zealand to earn money and then repatriated it to their own people, Maori were now required to send much of their profi ts offshore.

Fix a lake and grow a city

Or grow region to fix the lakeVoluntarism wont

work to clean up the lakes in Rotorua and farming and other

activities are going to need regulation.

DB

DoloZest and CalciZest 0800 843 809 Bio-Gro certified # 5146 or visit www.esi.org.nz

E S I programmes consistently out-perform fertiliser N driven programmes with more total DM grown containing more energy resulting in higher levels of animal production.

DoloZest/CalciZest based fertiliser programmes deliver higher energy levels in every mouthful. This means:-

more rapid weight gain over winter

less weight loss after calving.

By Sue Edmonds

By Sue Edmonds

He says land owner-ship should revert to a tribal base, so profi ts could be ploughed back into the land for the benefi t of the tribe as a whole. This would help to fund land use change. He also added he felt the era of the Maori Land Court and the Maori Trustee had run their course. His thinking may well coincide with the recent govern-ment announcement of support and training for Maori incorporations in their farming activities.

Judge Peter Skelton, now one of the commissioners for Environ-ment Canterbury, was part of the decision making process on Lake Taupo restrictions. Based on that experience he says it had taken fi ve years of consultation and while the Lake Taupo plans were generally collaborative, there would always be free riders who chose to ride on the backs of those who complied. The

costs which could be incurred by individuals in some schemes would be too great for voluntary compli-ance to work. Peter says regulation would be necessary for such schemes in the future.

An update on the science and modelling of nutrient movement given by Kit Rutherford of NIWA showed despite there being huge differences in lag times of under-ground waters reaching the lakes, an immediate reduction in nutrient inputs had an overall faster than expected reduction in lake nitrate and phosphorus levels.

William Oliver, a Taupo farmer who saw opportunities in profi t-able farming under the nitrogen cap, described how he has adapted 10,000ha of land adjacent to the lake for best land use, using carbon forestry planting, bush retirement and nutrient reductions. The system

has also preserved local jobs and worked to keep the various compo-nents of local community viable and active.

Alison Dewes, Agribusiness consultant, talked about the ageing demographic of farmers and the need to realign farm businesses to cope with shifts in global repric-ing of risk in the last three years. A process of whole farm plan-ning which allows farmers to look at where they are, how they want to farm and where they want to be in future years, is already allowing those who have worked with the system to adjust stock-ing rates, nutrient effi ciency, farm management systems, improve environmental sustainability and still increase profi tability.

The overall atmosphere of the conference was upbeat and positive about future changes and results.

PH 07 578 0030 Page 11DAIRY

Tropical armyworm influx the Bay

Putting profits back into the land

JD

The tropical armyworm is causing damage to crops and

pasture in the Bay of Plenty, says Bill Webb.

The contractor was made aware of the pest by an orchardist and has since noticed it attacking turnip and chicory crops as well as pasture.

There is a lot around there are up to 14 caterpillars every square metre, says Bill.

They are doing a lot of damage the pasture looks like it has been grazed.

Bill says the caterpillars didnt go after the maize crop this year as they have some-times in the past, but have instead turned to brassica plants, including rye grass and some lucerne crops.

Ive never had to spray for armyworm in my turnip or grass pastures before.

We had a fl ood in one of our paddocks and they were all clinging onto the fence posts.

One orchardist told me he saw them march-ing along the ground and it looked like the ground was moving.

Bill Webb Contracting sent out a warning

fl yer to clients that had done new pasture renovation and crops when it fi rst noticed the infl ux.

Checking for pests in pasture is part of a pasture renovation programme farmers should be following anyway, says Bill.

Not many people spray for weeds or pests in new pastures.

It is essential that you spray all new peren-nial pastures for weeds, be they cultivated or sprayed and direct drilled.

But it is important to spend the money and

do it properly otherwise you will end up losing money in the long run.

Bill is still getting enquires after a pasture renewal fi eld day he hosted earlier this year.

He said with the money farmers are spending on pasture renewal, they dont want it to be

riddled with weeds in two years time.At the moment the new pastures are compet-

ing with the weeds for nutrients and moisture.People need to get us in and we can monitor

the new grass for you.Bill says the benefi ts far outweigh the costs.

He noted that contractor costs are having to be increased as they can no longer absorb the 44 per cent increase in the cost of diesel.

Diesel has gone up from $1.18 to $1.69 since last year, with some Bay of Plenty service sta-tions are selling it over $1.70.

Thats a 51 cent rise since I set my prices at the start of the maize season, says Bill.

That makes quite a bit of difference to the cost of running our machinery.

It cuts into our margins, and it takes it directly off our bottom line.

For the 150,000 plus litres of diesel the contracting machines go through in a season, Bill says the higher diesel price is costing him an extra $76,000.

Thats what Ive got to cover.Its an additional $76,000 we hadnt

budgeted on. You can see how easily it would be to get blown out.

The 51 cent increase in diesel means the harvester is costing an extra $25 per hectare or $30 an hour to run, says Bill.

That is about a fi ve per cent increase in the hourly rate just for fuel.

The two maize harvesters both go through 800 litres of diesel each in a day, while the 13 tractors combined take 1500 litres.

By Sheryl BrownCO

NTRAC

TING IN THE BAY

BI

LL WE

BB - EST 1976



C O N T R A C T I N G L T DFOR QUALITY & SERVICE YOU CAN RELY ON

YOU CAN RELY ON


Proven Designs, Proven ProfitsWaikato Dairy Builders are specialists in the design and construction of herringbone dairy sheds.A Waikato Dairy Builders shed is designed to maximise milking efficiency and provide better profitability.

Ph Jim 07-850 5971 Mob. 0274 936 693Ph Chris 07-849 3630 Mob. 0274 936 692P.O. Box 10 188, Te Rapa, Hamiltonwww.dairybuilders.co.nz

We have built hundreds of high producing sheds Completed to your requirements and budget Innovation, workmanship and experience

WAIKATODAIRY BUILDERS

0800 2269742COWSHED

Tom DickieSales Manager Central North Island

021 800 548

Jane MayoAccount Manager South Waikato

021 900 237

Paul ConveryStore ManagerTirau

07 883 1364

Talk to us about Soil testing Nutrient budgets Fertiliser Applied pricing Aglime RPR Agrochemicals Animal health Travel Dollars Nutrition

Terry RobertsAccount Manager Taupo / Rotorua South

021 900 235

Now with a new urea silo in the Whakatane area.

Peter OSheaAccount Manager Bay of Plenty / Opotiki

021 900 325

Accelerate grass growth

The Environment Waikato team fi nally woken up to the idea, if they held an expo on what is available and threw in a few seminars to boot, they could offer help without fear or favour. Around 500 turned up to the effl uent fi eld day to learn.

The basic requirement these days is storage, so those who displayed their wares had to be graduates of the effl uent storage calculator seminars which EW has been running in recent months.

Held in the big hall at Mystery Creek, the layout had pond liner products all in a row, squirters, jets, travellers and pods in a second row and the scientifi c measuring experts in a third. Knowing when your soil can cope with irrigation and when it must be stored is just as important as how you store it or apply it.

Thus, visitors could compare textures, welding sys-tems, guarantees and prices for pond liners and stirrers without having to walk miles to discover each brand at multipurpose events.

Farmers need accurate knowledge of how far, how fast and how deep their applicators put effl uent on pasture in a measured time. So getting the right sort of whirler or squirter for your soil, your landforms and the acreage to be covered is an important decision and requires quite some knowledge to get right.

The newly released Design Code of Practice and Design Standards for effl uent are going to present some

homework for those offering integrated packages of equipment. Even a system of accreditation for those who know is being worked on.

This should quickly sort out the snake oil purveyors who have, up to now, often managed to sell systems to farmers more fi xated on the price tags than on comply-ing with the varying effl uent rules in different regions, leaving farmers with something which probably wasnt going to comply, whatever the weather.

The seminars were all well attended, with standing room only for some of the morning sessions on the stor-age calculator. Its not only how much storage you need, depending on cow numbers, soil types, climate and regional rules, but also being aware of what that effl u-ent contains. Depending on where its collected from, whether from a feed pad, milking shed or stormwater and whether it contains all the solids or just some of them, the amount of nitrogen, potassium and phospho-rus will vary hugely.

With annual application limitations, such as 150kg/ha/year for nitrogen, just fl inging it on to a limited acreage, even when the soil is dry enough, could result in being non-compliant and produce health proble

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