Dairy farmers spilling cow effluent were seen by the public as more of a threat to society than drink-drivers or murderers, Southland dairy farmer Mike Horgan told a dairy industry conference in Invercargill yesterday. His daughter Bridget, 19, and two friends, Megan Hamilton, 22, of Winton, and Virginia Armstrong, 22, were killed by a drink-driver on Good Friday in 1995.

Mr Horgan told delegates at the NZ Large Herds conference at Stadium Southland about his shift from Taranaki to Southland in 1994, and the challenges he had faced, including criticism from sheep farmers. While he admitted the dairy industry could be let down by mediocrity, Mr Horgan criticised the public and the media’s willingness to condemn dairy farmers reports The Southland Times.

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Dairy farmers needed to make a greater effort to be aware of their neighbours and their concerns, delegates at the Large Herds Conference were told yesterday. Speaking at the opening of the annual conference in Invercargill, NZ Large Herds Association chairman Bryan Beeston said farmers had to make sure the tools and skills they used were up to the job to ensure environmental compliance reports The Southland Times.

“There have been many instances where machinery has failed, people not trained, the suppliers of the gear, the systems we run, are not up to the job.” But he was confident the conference would show the industry was complying with the standards and conditions placed on it by councils and the Government.

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The Government may look at opening some conservation land to livestock grazing as a way for the Department of Conservation to generate income reports The ODT. Agri Minister David Carter told about 300 farmers in Central Otago last week that finding ways to generate income from a conservation estate that grew in size under the previous government was a looming issue, and allowing strictly controlled grazing to licensed farmers could be a solution.

“That, to me, makes perfect sense,” he said at the Fed Farmers high country committee two-yearly field day in the Nevis Valley last Wednesday. Don Clarke, of Carrick Station, told the field day that he had found grazing of the upright-growing invasive weed, Hieracium lepidulum, could control its spread. Mr Carter repeated his support for the greater use of conservation covenants administered through organisations such as the QEII Trust, saying it was “a sensible” way to achieve biodiversity protection and allow economic use of land.

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Two controversial Canterbury irrigation schemes have come out winners in a competition for projects judged to have the potential to make $1 billion each in sales within 20 years reports Business Day. The $150 million Central Plains Water Enhancement Scheme (CPW), now a cut-down irrigation project after widespread community opposition, and the Hurunui Water Project, were judged as having big potential.

Together, the two want to irrigate more than 100,000 hectares of farmland in central and north Canterbury. They involve land acquisition and the construction of canals and a dam. The competition, which drew 18 entries, was the brainchild of University of Canterbury vice- chancellor Dr Rod Carr.

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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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