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The latest round of Primary Growth Partnership (PGP) funding has been spread across forestry, merino wool and arable farming organisations.

Agriculture and Forestry Minister David Carter said today $20 million would be split between the New Zealand Forest Owners Association, the Foundation for Arable Research and the New Zealand Merino Company (NZMC) reports The ODT. At slightly over $15m, NZMC will get the lion’s share of the funding, and with their own funding input included, the three government-industry partnerships will be worth over $45m.The government funds will be received over five to seven years and Mr Carter said the economic spin-offs could amount to billions of dollars “if the proposals’ scientific and market research and product development are brought to fruition”.

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Estimated breeding values (EBVs) remain a “black box” for farmers, but scientists are working to find out more about beef and sheep genetics, said Mike Goddard, from Australia’s University of Melbourne and Victoria.

He talked to about 100 stud and commercial farmers, as well as beef industry stalwarts, at a Beef Expo celebratory breakfast, in Feilding, last week reports The Manawatu Standard.Professor Goddard said EBVs work, but there are unknown factors.”We know how EBVs work. But the genes that contribute to them – we don’t know.”He said there were many genes that contribute to factors such as growth rate, meat yield, and fertility, for example, but only one for colour.As if that is not enough of a problem, when it comes to beef breeds, markers need to be relevant across many breeds.

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The economy is in for a $2 billion transfusion from Fonterra’s forecast of a potential record 2010-11 season payout of “well over $8″ – but the patient is being warned not to party up large again.

 Yesterday Fonterra startled the industry and financial circles by following up a respectable opening forecast payout of $6.90-$7.10/kg milksolids for the season, which begins next week, with a longer range forecast of a possible $8-plus final season payout – if international dairy prices and foreign exchange rates hold at current levels.The opening forecast, which combines a milk price of $6.60 and a forecast distributable profit of 30-50c/kg, means around $650m more for the economy in the 2010-2011 year – but an $8-plus payout would mean a $2b economic bonanza, says Bank of New Zealand head of research Stephen Toplis.The $8 payout would mean a close to $1m income for a farmer producing the industry average of 120,000kg in the season. Out of this has to come the farm’s running costs, tax, labour, family costs and new Emissions Trading Scheme taxes reports Stuff.

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The Animal Health Board (AHB) has successfully prosecuted a Waiuku farmer for the illegal sale of cattle from a bovine tuberculosis (TB) infected herd. Geoffrey William Muir pleaded guilty at the Pukekohe District Court today to moving and selling cattle in breach of a restricted place notice imposed by the AHB in June 2008.Muir was fined $30,000 and $140 court costs. The AHB was awarded $10,454 in costs and $2,500 in legal costs. Muir was convicted on four charges of failing to notify the movement of an infected herd, making a false and misleading declaration, moving cattle to a third party’s farm and knowingly selling 157 cattle from a herd that was suspected of harbouring TB reports Scoop.

AHB chief executive William McCook said the prosecution showed the AHB would take action against farmers who fail to abide by livestock movement regulations. “It is clearly unacceptable that one man put his fellow farmers at risk for his own pecuniary gain. Selling cattle from a herd that is suspected or known to harbour bovine TB could have serious consequences for the national TB control programme. “We know a vast majority of the 73,000 cattle and deer farmers in New Zealand willingly comply with movement control restrictions and expect us to come down hard on those farmers who do not.

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About a year ago, three Southland families ended their three-year stint as monitor farmers .Kaiwera farmer Robert Young is effusive in his praise of the monitor farm program that he was involved with for three years, reports The Southland Times.

“When it finished, there was a big sigh of relief of not being in the fish bowl and we were quite happy to not have any of that stuff happen for a little bit.” But with the benefit of time, he and wife Stacey realised they had got a “huge amount” out of the Meat & Wool New Zealand scheme, Mr Young said. “It improved our farming out of sight and was worth a lot of money to us.” Their profit more than doubled, he said.

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Big black angus bulls dominated the national cattle stud sales at Beef Expo this week. More than $750,000 changed hands at the sales with almost half of that being paid for angus bulls. The two top sales of $26,000 and $25,000 were angus bulls and, to round the expo off, the breed featured in the steak of origin contest to find the nation’s tastiest beef steaks.

A steak from a limousin-angus heifer raised by sisters Kathy Child and Yvonne Hill, of Whangarei, was judged the overall winner while an angus steak from Chef’s Choice, Whanganui, won the overall best of brand section for retail and wholesale butcheries. Angus also took out the first three places in the best of British breeds section. The four-day expo in Feilding is a shop window for many breeders who will be hoping to lure breeders and commercial farmers to their on- farm sales over the next two months reports The Dom Post.

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Hill country farmers are changing their attitudes to their erosion-prone country, says Agriculture and Forestry Minister David Carter. He was flown in a helicopter by Horizons Regional Council to check out flood protection in the lowland area and hill country. Mr Carter went to stopbanks on the lower Manawatu, Moutoa floodgates, Kopane Bridge and Pohangina and Turakina Valley hill country.

He said two hill country farmers he spoke to said there seemed to be a greater awareness of the erosion problem coming from the hills reports The Manawatu Standard. The sustainable land use initiative (SLUI) programme was developed around voluntary whole-farm plans which assess the farms’ physical, environmental and business resources in a structured way. They are funded by Horizons in partnership with the Government on a dollar-for-dollar deal, through MAF’s hill country erosion fund.

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A Manawatu dairy farmer believes he is the only farmer in NZ leaving heifer calves on cows reports The Manawatu Standard. Jeff Williams and his wife Janice have a farm on No1 Line, near Longburn. They recently hosted a field day looking at the biological farming system they use. Mr Williams said biological agriculture works on organic principles but uses modern science and technology as well. It aims to have healthy soil, which is the basis from which all plants grow, and provide for the wellbeing and sustenance for the cows.

About 50 people attended the field day, including dairy farmers, biological agriculture staff and Massey University staff. Mr Williams said he and his wife have 400 cows, of which half calve in spring and half in autumn. This autumn is the first season the Williams’ have kept their replacement heifers, and a few calves being raised for beef, on their mothers.

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Mr Kemp, who uses about 200 bales of silage a year on his 115-hectare farm, has been recyling wrap for about three years, and is surprised that more farmers don’t do it reports the Taranaki Daily.”I thought more farmers would have taken it up. It’s such a hassle to get rid of it. .” He said he recycled the wrap because it meant he no longer had to deal with the mess it made, and because it saved him time. ”The greenies mightn’t like it, but 80 per cent of the reason is the mess.”

Before buying his Agpac bin, he used to throw the wrap in a heap, hoping it wouldn’t blow away. When he went to clean it up six months later, the stinking pile was always full of water. He burned the wrap because he had no other way of getting rid of it.”It didn’t matter what you did, you would still have piles of silage wrap. It’d take a whole  day in spring or summer to clean up. It’s dirty, wet, s….y stuff and it blows all over the place.”

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