New Zealand’s traditional pasture-based farming system faces a conundrum, a leading scientist has warned. Pastoral Genomics scientist Michael Dunbier said we were no longer the world’s lowest-cost food producer, our pastoral system was a major contributor of greenhouse gases, and customers demanded proof that slogans such as clean and green had some validity reports The ODT.

The reality was the our farming systems were contributing methane and nitrous oxide into the atmosphere and nitrate pollution of the soil and waterways. “They are not satisfied with slogans such as free-range or pasture-fed. We need to look carefully at our systems overall,” he said. In addition, resources such as phosphate were being depleted and questions were being asked about the efficiency and sustainability of fertiliser use in general.

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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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Textiles New Zealand has entered discussions with the Department of Conservation (DoC) and Animal Health Board to boost the number of possums commercially harvested for use in clothing manufacturing. The fur industry has criticised the departments in the past for limiting access to harvesting areas and poisoning animals, leaving them to die in the bush reports The NZ Herald.

Textiles New Zealand chief executive Elizabeth Tennet said there was the potential to increase the annual harvest from 1.7 million animals to more than 3 million – a move that would double the industry’s annual revenue to $200 million. The fur market was growing, both domestically and overseas, where possum fur was becoming more popular, she said.

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A team from AgResearch, led by Dr Neels Botha, reported “shocking” levels of stress after interviews with 60 North Island farmers. “We fear there could be quite a bit of depression in the farming community in the coming years,” said Botha. The 2007 study involved farmers in the Manawatu, Taupo and Rotorua areas, who were all facing new policies from regional authorities reports The NZ Herald.

“In our conversations it became clear that these people are concerned and stressed about potential regulation and changes in policy,” Botha said. Farmers worried for their livelihood experienced shock, denial, anger and fear, he said, which could lead to drinking, increasing isolation and aggression. Unchecked, it could also lead to depression and, in a worst-case scenario, suicide.

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Young farm forester of the year Dean Martin shades his eyes and points up the gully to where a mob of sheep are sheltering from the Hawke’s Bay sun under a grove of kanuka trees reports The Dom Post. “Those trees have got to come out,” he says, uttering words that would make ardent conservationists weep. “The sheep stay under the kanuka for too long, creating a bare patch and piling up the manure, which then gets washed down into streams and ponds.”

His solution is to replace the kanuka with red alder, oak and plane trees. They will still provide shade, but with pruning it will be dappled to let sun in to keep grass growing and the sheep shifting throughout the day. In winter, they will lose their leaves and allow sunlight onto the pasture beneath.

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The UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FOA) wants a global livestock tax to reduce the contribution their flatulence makes to greenhouse gas emissions reports Rural News.

The FAO says urgent investments, major agricultural research efforts and robust governance are required to ensure the world’s livestock sector responds to a growing demand for animal products and at the same time contributes to poverty reduction, food security, environmental sustainability and human health. “The sector is consuming a large share of the world’s resources and is contributing a significant portion of global greenhouse gases emissions,” the FAO’s State of Food and Agriculture report says.

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The battle to vanquish bovine tuberculosis (TB) from New Zealand is in top gear as infected herd numbers fell for the fifteenth consecutive year. Dr Paul Livingstone, Technical Manager for the Animal Health Board (AHB), says the drop in infection rates will allow for movement control boundary changes and a reduction in TB testing reports Scoop.

“Farmers throughout New Zealand will certainly reap the rewards from falling TB levels in cattle and deer,” says Dr Livingstone. “The success of the AHB’s vector control programme and the resulting drop in infected herd numbers means changes will be made to several special testing areas (STA). This in turn will lead to a reduction in TB testing schedules on more than 2,045 farms across New Zealand.

“What’s more, another 1,500 farmers no longer need to pre-movement test their animals before they sell or shift them The boundary reduction of four movement control areas will also generate significant benefits for farmers and farm managers in those areas. “The AHB is very proud to deliver some direct benefits to some of the 75,000 cattle and deer herds registered with the organisation.

“We have achieved this through proactive possum control, TB testing and stock movement monitoring. Yet none of it would have been possible without the help and cooperation of farmers. “While there is much good news to shout about, farmers and the AHB must remain vigilant as history has taught us some valuable lessons. Particularly when you consider TB infection rates peaked at more than 1,700 in the early 1990s.

A new product unveiled in Hanmer last week will make bulls less aggressive and destructive, according to The Vet Centre’s Pete Anderson. BOPRIVA, a vaccine which reduces testosterone in bulls for about three months, was released last Thursday after trials throughout NZreports The Marlborough Express.

Mr Anderson said one property in Marlborough had experimented with the product early last year with good results. “Everyone who we’ve talked to has been really excited,” he said. The vaccine temporarily knocked out a pituitary hormone that stimulated testosterone production, he said. It was developed because farmers and vets needed a way to calm bulls down.

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High-country farmers are disputing claims they have made almost $150 million by selling land acquired cheaply through the tenure-review process reports Stuff. Sales figures from the past 15 years show farmers have made $146.6m from selling the land in freehold titles, says Lincoln University tenure-review specialist and public policy senior lecturer Ann Brower.

They showed tenure review had been “a rip-off” for the public, with land sold to farmers on the cheap, allowing some to subdivide it and sell it to developers for millions of dollars, she said. “It has been a pretty good deal for the farmers.” Under tenure review, farmers with pastoral leases allow unproductive farmland to become Department of Conservation (DOC) estate in exchange for freehold rights to higher-value farmland.

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After eight years searching, Kiwi scientists have finally made a discovery which will likely lead to a breakthrough in mitigating livestock gas emissions. One of the most vexing issues facing agriculture’s inclusion in an emissions trading scheme – and the cost to farmers – has been that to date few mitigation technologies are at hand reports Rural News.

However, the latest findings by a team of AgResearch scientists – funded by the Pastoral Greenhouse gas Research Consortium (PGgRSC) – are expected to lead to the development of tools that ease the emissions burden of farmed animals. They have successfully mapped the genetic information of one of the microbes found in the digestive tracts of ruminant animals responsible for methane production. This is expected to accelerate work altering methane generation through vaccinations or other pharmaceutical interventions.

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