A common pasture plant could help foraging ruminants ward off damaging gastrointestinal nematodes, like barber’s pole that can cause illness and death, US Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists report in the Gisborne Herald. Animal scientist Joan Burke at the ARS Dale Bumpers Small Farms Research Centre in Booneville, Arkansas, along with colleagues at several universities, has patented formulations of Sericea lespedeza, commonly referred to as Chinese bush clover.

The plant was introduced in the United States in the 1930s to minimise soil erosion. Adding the patented dry hay and pelleted forms of this plant to animal feed thwarts the reproductive cycles of gastrointestinal nematodes that are in the digestive tracts of goats and sheep. It is particularly effective in controlling the barber’s pole worm (Haemonchus contortus), a nematode that attaches to the animals’ abomasal (true stomach) wall and feeds on their blood. Female worms can produce more than 5,000 eggs per day that are shed in the animal’s manure.

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Marlborough farmer Doug Avery has a revealing story about commercial greed and the perception that farmers are made of money. Don’t pay what you don’t owe. In his case, it is the way the Government will run the emissions trading scheme reports Stuff. In its efforts to keep administration costs down, the Government is proposing to take farmers’ share of the scheme from the companies that process a farmer’s produce.

In the case of Mr Avery, and all other sheep and beef farmers, it will be based on the weight of meat from their slaughtered animals. He thinks that is unfair. It makes no allowance for the way he, and many others like him, farm, which he maintains emits less greenhouse gases than others and stores more carbon. There is another reason why it is unfair. It punishes innovation. Mr Avery has worked out an innovative way to keep farming on drought-prone land.

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Waikato farmers are being urged not to rely on supposed black beetle-resistant ryegrass like AR37 – and to spray their pastures with Round Up to get rid of the pest. Farmers attending a DairyNZ drought management field day at Carian and Sarah Tully’s farm, near Thames, complained about the damage the insect had done to their pastures, which were also suffering from drought damage reports The Waikato Times.

Peter Walters, who farms at Otorohanga, said his trial paddock of AR37 had a level of 60 beetles per square metre.”After two years of growing AR37 it’s destroyed.” DairyNZ scientist Chris Glassey said AR37 was not as resistant as first thought. “The larvae still feed on the roots of AR37, it only protects against adult black beetle,” he said.

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The number of bovine tuberculosis (TB) infected herds dropped below 100 in March for the first time in the history of NZ’s TBfree programme. According to last month’s figures, a total of 91 cattle herds and seven deer herds were infected with bovine TB reports Scoop. “While this is a big step towards becoming TB-free, we are mindful that the number of infected herds traditionally increases over the coming four to six months,” says Dr Paul Livingstone, Animal Health Board (AHB) technical manager.  “The size of this increase, however, will depend on the quality of possum and other pest control over the past two years. Identifying infected stock before they’re moved off the property is another critical factor.

“We certainly can’t afford to rest on our laurels, although this is a considerable improvement on the same time last year, when 119 cattle herds and 10 deer herds were infected with bovine TB. “While possums remain the main source of TB infection in livestock, a smaller but no less significant number of herd breakdowns have been caused through uncontrolled stock movements.

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A group of Waikato farmers who say they received emaciated stock back from a Waikato grazier last season are considering legal action. The group, who complained to Waikato Federated Farmers in November, are taking legal advice on the case, according to Dairy Industry Group chairman James Houghton. Fed Farmers had not taken sides in the case, but provided the group with details of a lawyer experienced in the area, reports The Waikato Times.

Mr Houghton said the case, coupled with the declaration of a medium-level drought, served as a timely reminder to farmers to check stock sent to graziers every 10 days to two weeks. Reputable grazier Richard Strang, who grazes 500 dairy heifers for other farmers on his Putaruru farm, agreed with Mr Houghton. “If I have got someone else’s cattle on my property it’s my responsibility to provide supplementary feed for them,” he said. He said he had no objections to farmers viewing their stock, so long as they contacted him first.

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A PGG Wrightson livestock manager and auctioneer has been fined $11,000 and ordered to pay $9000 in vet and investigations costs for leaving more than 1400 sheep to starve. Stock agent Neville William Clark, 46, pleaded guilty on Monday to leaving 250 sheep, 1100 lambs and 120 in-lamb ewes on a 412ha forest block just south of Gisborne reports Stuff.

Those not already dead were worm- ridden, weak and emaciated. Dozens of the animals were euthanased. Judge Adeane said Clark was a first-time offender, and there was no suggestion he was “willfully cruel for the sake of cruelty. Rather he has fallen short of good [farming] standards”. An Agriculture and Forestry Ministry statement of facts presented to Gisborne District Court this week said the land could not possibly have provided enough feed for the animals.

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The great bunny hunt in Alexandra recorded its second-highest kill but it is unlikely to have made a dent in the overall rabbit population in Central Otago reports Stuff. The highest number of rabbits killed in the competion was in 1997 – 23,948. At the weekend, for the 19th competition, 23,064 rabbits were killed.

Event organiser Dave Ramsay said one hunter returned to a block that yielded a high number of kills during the shoot, only to find rabbits still in abundance the morning after. “We’ve made a good dent in numbers, and rabbits are coming into a dormant breeding season, but there’s no doubt we’ll have plenty again next year,” Mr Ramsay said.

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AgResearch is urging North Island farmers to continue ensuring that their cattle are protected against facial eczema and to monitor their herds for the serious animal health and welfare problem. Facial eczema costs the dairy industry anywhere between $9.6M and $95.2M per year, depending on outbreaks and weather, and the impact on income and animals can be limited by using zinc protection.

“Even with some weather changes now, farmers still need to take facial eczema particularly seriously,” said AgResearch Senior Scientist Dr Chris Morris who is part of a team operating a MAF Sustainable Farming Fund project to monitor zinc protection. “Zinc sulphate is a water-trough treatment which should be effective and easily applied. Facial eczema risk can vary greatly from herd to herd, and even from paddock to paddock, so it is good to be prepared even when the risk in a region appears to be low.”

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Otago farmers are nervously eyeing the approach of winter, with autumn feed stocks depleted by a dry, windy summer reports The ODT. Most of Otago is drier than normal for this time of year, with the hardest-hit areas including North Otago, East Otago, Strath Taieri, Maniototo and Central Otago. “It’s certainly going to be a difficult winter for a lot of people,” Hawea farmer Richard Burdon said.

North Otago Federated Farmers president Ross Ewing agreed, saying while farmers would welcome any rain, cool nights and wind meant it was getting late for vegetation growth to recover. “It’s getting serious. The trouble is, winter is coming and nothing is happening.” Oturehua farmer Ken Gillespie said just 190mm of rain had fallen on his farm since last May, making it one of the driest years he could remember. The long-term annual average was 520mm.

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It is technically autumn, but most of the country is still basking in summer. We are all feeling pretty pleased about that, but sheep and beef farmers’ grins are the widest reports Jon Morgan from the Dom Post. After three years of drought on the North Island’s east coast, its farmers are revelling in the greenness of their hills. And it’s the same all over – except for Northland, which is experiencing a drought for the first time in more than 10 years.

And even in Northland all is not lost. Farmers from further down the island are turning up at stock sales in Wellsford and Kaikohe to buy weaner steers at prices that will help lift sagging spirits. For dairy farmers, the joys of a green summer come mainly from less stress on their cows, although the slightly increased milk they are giving will mean a timely lift in profits in a high payout year. Fonterra reports milk flow is almost 2 per cent up on last year, despite the Northland drought, though a big contributor is the new South Island conversions.

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