The proposed merger between Lincoln University and Telford Rural Polytechnic has moved a step closer to reality. Lincoln University Vice-Chancellor Professor Roger Field says the primary driver for the proposed merger is to protect and develop land-based education and vocational training for the benefit of New Zealand.
 
“Both institutions recognise that an industry-based workforce of highly educated, skilled and technology-literate individuals is required to maintain and grow New Zealand’s global competitiveness in the land-based sectors,” he says.Telford Rural Polytechnic CEO Jonathan Walmisley agrees. “Together, it is possible we have the potential to generate more co-ordinated and integrated land-based education, in keeping with national education strategies and goals.”
 
(more…)

Seven recipients of $35,000 Nuffield farming scholarships will present their findings at a four-day conference to be staged in Gisborne from May 13 reports The ODT. Nuffield trust chairman Stuart Wright said the biennial conference will mark the 60th year of the scholarships. “A thirst for knowledge and absolute enthusiasm for the agricultural industry are … driving NZ’s Nuffield scholars,” he said.

The research papers will be delivered for the first time at a marae, Rukupo, the Maori Battalion marae at Manutuke, on the outskirts of Gisborne. The marae is in the home town of one of the scholars, Gregg Pardoe, operations manager for Maori farming incorporation Arai Matawai in Gisborne, who studied how indigenous peoples in the United States have adapted to modern farming practices.

(more…)

University of Otago researchers analysing quad bike driver behaviour have found vital new information that could help reduce the continuing high rate of accidents and deaths on the vehicles. In a study involving 30 farm workers using quad bikes in South Otago, researchers at the University’s School of Physiotherapy found that those with a tendency to steer uphill, instead of downhill while traversing a left-facing slope, had the most accidents reports voxy.co.

Study co-author Dr Stephan Milosavljevic says in examining the ergonomics, the problem of retaining stability on the quad bike in this up-hill, left-slope situation was compounded because the driver had to use their right hand to operate the bike’s throttle on the right of the bike. “In that situation, it is much more difficult for the person to turn uphill while holding the throttle,” he says. “Farmers who instinctively already know about this problem will say if you are on a left-facing slope and you have to turn, turn downhill. It is much safer.”

(more…)

• The global economic recovery is continuing, with better US jobs data which is positive for consumption ahead. In NZ the recovery remains fragile, with signs of slowing momentum in the housing sector and a weak labour market, lowering expectations for rises in the official cash rate reports Scoop. The outlook for the Australian economy continues to improve, with upward revisions to GDP and inflation forecasts. As a result, the official cash rate rose again by 25 basis points in April.

• The NZ and Australian dollars continue to reflect the growth differences between the two countries. Rabobank still expect both currencies to weaken against the US dollar in the second half of the year, although they will remain at elevated levels.

• Global dairy prices surprised on the upside in recent weeks, due to ongoing improvements in the global economy, a weak end to the NZ  production season and a slow start to the EU season. As a result, optimism is building for the 2010/11 season, particularly in Australia with soft feed grain prices and improved irrigation water availability.

(more…)

Yellow bristle grass, a highly invasive pasture weed with no effective controls and a major financial impact, is appearing in Taranaki dairy paddocks. It’s a pest plant horror story and so far there’s little anyone can do about it, other than try intensive pasture renovation over three seasons reports the Taranaki Daily.

Farmers in the Waikato, where YBG is now rampant, say it’s costing them $1100 a hectare in lost production and it just keeps getting worse. Setaria pumila is a common roadside grass that has jumped the fence and gone berserk. It may also have come in with imported hay, silage, or balage. It’s widespread in Northland and the Bay of Plenty. Now Taranaki farmers are seeing it in their pastures. Some finding it on their farms are scared to talk about it because they are worried it will discourage potential sharemilkers.

(more…)

Beef and Lamb NZ, wants to use the farm, and half a dozen like it, for its demonstration farm programme. Richard Wakelin, general manager of the organisation’s farm section, said the new programme would sit alongside the existing monitor farm programme. Mr Wakelin said he hoped the new programme would be in place by October 1 after the Beef & Lamb NZboard had decided what should be included reports Stuff. The board would be asking “what are the key big hits that we need to strategy look at?”.

Mr Wakelin said he didn’t want to wait until October 1 if there were options worth immediately exploring. “If there was something already running and could be brought to the board sooner we need to be looking at that,” he said. Dr Gavin Sheath, AgResearch’s commercial team leader for agriculture and the environment at the Ruakura campus in Hamilton, told a dozen farmers attending a rare field day at Whatawhata in November that the laboratory-equipped station was under-utilised.

(more…)

With many changes in the farming business, Gisborne/Wairoa’s Meat & Wool New Zealand monitor farmers Ken and Kirsty Shaw are right on track to achieve their original goals reports The Gisborne Herald.  Around 100 people were on hand to hear about and see the improvements to their Matawai farm Elmore Station at the annual field day.

Now in the third year of the monitor farm programme, the Shaws have made more than 20 changes to their farming operation and only four have not worked out with other changes making a huge difference on the farm and to the bottom line. The vision for Elmore at the start of the programme was to have an economic farm surplus that was up with the top 10 in the district; to have a farm that was aesthetically pleasing; to repay $100,000 of debt, and to generate enough cash for debt repayment and for the Shaws to have the ability to do what they wanted when they wanted to.
(more…)

Women know more about the dynamics of dairy farm finances than most of them realise, says Rebecca Rowe, a former rural banking manager and ex-farm consultant. She was talking to about 30 women who were at Woodville’s Dairy Women’s Network day that aimed at empowering dairy women by giving them budgeting tools to take charge of their farm financial planning.

 It means they become empowered, rather than have financial incomings and outgoings just happening to them, Ms Rowe explained in the Manawatu Standard. About half of the women said they had done farm budgets, but many were uninitiated and she estimated less than half were doing farm budgets every year – let alone updating them every two months to keep them valid, as advised.

(more…)

The benefits of a good winter feeding schedule that leads to ewes having better body conditions scores (BCS) at the start of lambing was highlighted at a field day last week reports The Southland Times. More than 200 farmers attended the Meat & Wool New Zealand Southern South Island sheep and beef council field day at the Woodlands research farm on Wednesday.

Dr David Stevens, of AgResearch, said it was clear poor winter feeding affected several aspects of production before, during and after lambing, and it was essential for good lamb growth, particularly multiples, to have ewes in good condition. “You’re no longer expecting one lamb and 5 kilograms of wool.”

(more…)

The Councils of Lincoln University and Telford Rural Polytechnic are exploring a future relationship that includes a proposal to merge the two institutions next year. This relationship supports a direction signalled by the Lincoln University Council to develop a model of strong collaboration in education and research to support land-based industries.

Lincoln University, New Zealand’s specialist land-based university, is shaping this model in line with two governmental intentions; to drive productivity growth and investment in the export sector and to give young people wider choices in education. This model is one of vertical integration to encompass all aspects of the agricultural and land-based sector provision and supply chain, from secondary school, sub-degree teaching to post-doctoral research, commercialisation and extension activities with industry.

(more…)