Zealand Agriculture Research Articles

Cereal forage breeding for New Zealand agriculture

Cereal forages provide both arable and livestock farmers with high yields of high quality dry matter to use as either standing or conserved strategic forage supplements where deficits occur when animal feed requirements exceed pasture growth. Crop & Food Research has breeding programmes for both single and multigrazing forage oats and triticales, and both green-chop and whole-crop silage forage oats, triticales and barleys. It also has an associated cereal forage management research and tech-transfer programme to ensure cereal forages achieve their potential under New Zealand's variable soil and climatic conditions. This has led to the development of new cereal forage cultivars, an increased understanding of their dry matter and quality development, and management support packages including a cereal silage booklet and maturity predictor for whole-crop cereal silage

Agricultural innovation in East Otago: helping to shape New Zealand's farming industry

The East Otago region has been at the forefront of agricultural advancement in New Zealand with key people leading the way in creating a culture of innovation. Rural technology developments are traced back from the emerging new biotechnology industries, through animal genetics research, improvements in hill country and pasture production, soil and fertiliser research, the introduction of deer farming and sheep breeding, to the frozen meat shipments, agricultural organisation restructuring and land reforms of the early settlers. Keywords: deer, genetics, grazing management, history, innovation, sheep, soil classification, soil fertility, technology

Nitrous Oxide Emissions from New Zealand Agriculture – key Sources and Mitigation Strategies

In most countries, nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions typically contribute less than 10% of the CO2 equivalent greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In New Zealand, however, this gas contributes 17% of the nation’s total GHG emissions due to the dominance of the agricultural sector. New Zealand’s target under the Kyoto Protocol is to reduce GHG emissions to 1990 levels. Currently total GHG emissions are 17% above 1990 levels. The single largest source of N2O emission in New Zealand is animal excreta deposited during grazing (80% of agricultural N2O emissions), while N fertilizer use currently contributes only 14% of agricultural emissions. Nitrogen fertilizer use has, however, increased 4-fold since 1990. Mitigation strategies for reducing N2O emissions in New Zealand focus on (i) reducing the amount of N excreted to pasture, e.g. through diet manipulation; (ii) increasing the N use efficiency of excreta or fertilizer, e.g. through grazing management or use of nitrification inhibitors; or (iii) avoiding soil conditions that favour denitrification e.g. improving drainage and reducing soil compaction. Current estimates suggest that, if fully implemented, these individual measures can reduce agricultural N2O emissions by 7–20%. The highest reduction potentials are obtained from measures that reduce the amount of excreta N, or increase the N use efficiency of excreta or fertilizer. However, New Zealand’s currently used N2O inventory methodology will require refinement to ensure that a reduction in N2O emissions achieved through implementation of any of these mitigation strategies can be fully accounted for. Furthermore, as many of these mitigation strategies also affect other greenhouse gas emissions or other environmental losses, it is crucial that both the economic and total environmental impacts of N2O mitigation strategies are evaluated at a farm system’s level.

The Effect of GST on Farm Management Information Systems and Business Management Skills

In 1989 New Zealand farmers were confronted by the introduction of a GST. Despite the short to medium term difficulties, many farmers have benefited from the experience. The introduction of the GST forced many New Zealand farmers to improve their record systems as they were required to submit more extensive and accurate information to comply with their new GST requirements. This increase in sophistication of their record systems also meant that farmers had a larger store of more accurate information available to support their farm business management decision-making. It is expected that the introduction of GST and PAYG reporting requirements in Australia is also acting as a catalyst in the evolution of dairy farm record systems and increase in dairy farmer’s store of business management skills. This paper reports the results of a survey that describes the characteristics of dairy farm management information systems and indicates the business management skills that dairy farmers perceive they need to acquire in the short term in order to improve their farm management information systems and comply with their GST requirements. Overall, the importance of bookkeeping/ accounting skills is strongly related to BAS. However, the results also show that as the level of sophistication of dairy farm record systems grows the demand for business skills shifts from accounting/ bookkeeping skills to computer and analytical skills.

La Nouvelle-Zélande : Vers une nouvelle insertion dans le système alimentaire mondial

Agricultural products are the source of 75 % of 'New Zealand's export eanings. During the 1970 's, the decline in New Zealand's terms of trade (prices of exports of wool, meat and dairy products having risen more slowly than those of manufactured imports), the loss of access to the British market, the rise of protectionism (notably in the EEC of which Great Britain is a member) have posed serious adjustment problems for New Zealand agriculture. However, the "Marshallien entrepreneur" that is the New Zealand farmer, backed up by the State (which centralises control of exports and credit), has risen to the challenge : as a result, production is being diversified and this has facilitated a re-orientation of exports toward countries outside the OECD area. It is the view of the author that such a policy in conformity with the concept of free-trade, permits a more optimistic outlook for the 1980 's.

Long-term analysis of price, productivity, and profitability trends in New Zealand agriculture

Much has been written and spoken over the years about continually declining inflation adjusted commodity prices, the volatility of the New Zealand dollar, and the difficulties of competing against subsidized agricultural sectors. While NZ agriculture has enjoyed good levels of profitability in recent years these underlying forces still remain and will continue to impact farm profitability. Rising land prices and improved productivity of our competitors are likely to erode NZ agriculture's tr aditional position as a low cost producer in the future. The commonly cited responses to the forces outlined above are 1) adding value to commodities, and 2) increasing productivity. An earlier analysis showed that the NZ sheep and beef sector, in particular, was experiencing decreasing prices in real terms and farm productivity had remained largely unchanged for fifty years. In contrast to the data reviewed earlier, this paper shows that over the last fifteen years the NZ agricultural industry has been exhibiting just those responses required to combat the forces above. New Zealand lamb prices have increased in real terms since the late-1980s and in comparison with international prices. Beef and dairy prices have also fallen substantially less than the comparative international price, however wool and wheat prices have fallen more than the international price. In addition, there have been significant increases in farm pr oductivity, most notably lambing percentage, lamb carcass weights, and milksolids production/ cow. The result has been a 57% increase in dairy Earnings Before Inter est and Tax (EBIT) over the past 5 years, compared with the previous half decade (measured in real terms). Sheep farming has experienced a 79% increase in EBIT over the same period. The challenge and subject of significant debate which is outside the scope of this paper is how NZ agriculture is to remain at the forefront of global pastoral agriculture as a low cost, innovative, and profitable sector. Keywords: agricultural productivity, farm profitability, product prices, New Zealand agriculture.

New Zealand's Agricultural Policy Reform and Farmer Organizations' Role

New Zealand's Agricultural Policy Reform and Farmer Organizations' Role

Attitudes of New Zealand farmers to methods used to control wild rabbits

Four years after the release of Rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV) in New Zealand, we conducted a mail survey of farmers to ascertain their attitudes and practices about rabbit control. A multistage sampling frame (stratified by rabbit-proneness and farm type) was used to select 828 farms in eight geographical regions. The useable response proportion of the survey was 69.3%, and 21% of respondents considered rabbits to be a problem on their farms. Although practices for rabbit control had changed from 1995 to 2001, shooting (practised by 85% of respondents) remained the predominant method used (albeit less frequently than in 1995). Ten percent of farmers used RHDV baiting; of those, 90% released the virus relatively infrequently. Farmers perceived shooting to be the most-humane and environmentally safe method, while RHDV was perceived to be the most effective. Perception of the level of competition for grazing between rabbits and livestock was the factor most-strongly associated with the use of shooting and RHDV. Most (60%) respondents considered the introduction of RHDV to have been beneficial.

Multilateral agricultural trade reform: Potential impacts of current negotiations on New Zealand*

Multilateral agricultural negotiations are a crucial part of the WTO's Doha Development Agenda, the outcome of which may significantly impact New Zealand. In this paper we review progress and key proposals put forward to date in the negotiations. We use a newly available and significantly improved version of a global trade database to model the potential economic effects of trade reforms that might be agreed in the Doha Round. Our results indicate that New Zealand is likely to experience relatively large aggregate gains from reform, with significant benefits arising from terms of trade improvements. In the event of a successful outcome from the Doha Round, New Zealand's farm sector and agricultural exports are likely to become further dominated by dairy products. We find that increased access to the markets of industrial countries and a rapid phase‐out of agricultural export subsidies are likely to be of particular importance. Efforts to negotiate global reductions in domestic farm support appear to offer the least benefit to New Zealand.

The Significance of Mr. Richard Buckley’s Exploding Trousers: Reflections on an Aspect of Technological Change in New Zealand Dairy Farming between the World Wars

Abstract During the early 1930s many New Zealand farmers enthusiastically adopted the highly inflammable chemical sodium chlorate as a weedicide against ragwort. This development reflected many aspects of New Zealand farming at the time. Dairying was expanding rapidly, reducing the control of ragwort by grazing with sheep; large areas of land cleared in the post-war boom were reverting to weeds; farmers tended to look to the state to assist with their problems and the Department of Agriculture promoted the use of sodium chlorate; farmers were generally highly literate and were rapidly aware of new possibilities; and there was a continuing shortage of labor in farming. The latter reflected New Zealand’s generally restrictive immigration policies; higher wages and greater freedom in urban employment; changing demography and attitudes to child labor; attitudes to married women working out on the farm; and, perhaps most importantly, the widespread drive for independence from farm workers and neighbors. Sodium chlorate seemed to promise a solution to the control of ragwort without the high financial and personal cost of finding additional labor.

Revolution or evolution? New Zealand agriculture since 1984

Agriculture was the primary target of moves to deregulate the New Zealand economy in 1984. Within twelve-months all production subsidies had been removed, including those for fertiliser and other inputs, as well as funding for drought relief, floods and other natural weather disasters. Whereas at the start of 1984, subsidies were estimated to represent as much as 33% of farm income, by 2003 this had fallen to less than 2% with most of this spent on agricultural research. The anticipated shift of thousands of people off the land did not appear to occur, and by conventional measures at least New Zealand agriculture in 2003 is a major success story. At the core of the changes imposed on agriculture was a commitment to remove all state or government distortions from the system and to fully expose the agricultural sector to market forces. This included wide-ranging and fundamental changes in the broad institutional context within which agriculture must operate. All this was achieved at great social cost and with a significant impact on the environment. In many respects New Zealand agriculture is now very different from that in 1984. Some sectors, such as dairying, have grown and become increasingly industrialised. On the other hand, sheep farming, particularly for wool has struggled to maintain its market share, while other enterprises have emerged as significant sources of income, including horticulture, viticulture and fruit. It is argued here that the trends evident in New Zealand agriculture since 1984 pre-existed the reform period and that the apparent success of the reforms evident at a national scale have not addressed or removed the fundamental problems which face New Zealand agriculture, just as they do modern agricultural systems elsewhere.

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS HOW SUSTAINABLE IS AGRICULTURE'S PRESENT GROWTH?

In 1996, at the annual grassland conference in Oamaru, I presented a paper that examined the economic and productivity trends in New Zealand agriculture over the previous 50 years. At that time, there had been a steady reduction in the real prices received for our agricultural products for the previous 50 years, our animal productivity on sheep and beef farms had remained relatively static over the same period, while dairy cow productivity had been slowly, but steadily rising. The implication for farmers, and agriculture in general, was to reinforce the message that in order to retain profitability, one had to either: • Get bigger, as in scale • Get more productive, as in increased output per animal, or per hectare (while restraining cost of inputs) • Change to a higher value output (eg. chilled meat vs. frozen meat) In fact, over the past 10 years, our farmers, and the agricultural industry, have simultaneously achieved all three. The price received by New Zealand farmers for their lamb has increased 89% since the late 1980s, or 74% after taking away the benefit from exchange rate movements, at a time when the international price for frozen lamb carcases has dropped 12%. Our price for beef has dropped 5% while the international price has dropped 45%, and dairy prices have remained static during a time when butter prices have dropped 37%, all in real terms (Table 1). Crossbred wool, with a 54% drop, and wheat, with a 42% drop, over the same time period, has not feared so well. This is a remarkable achievement for lamb, because of the scale of the price increase, and also for dairy, because it occurred in tandem with a massive (108%) increase in product volume in the same 1990 to 2003 period. Also, we have experienced productivity gains unsurpassed in the history of New Zealand farming, particularly in sheep farming, with lambing percentage increasing 26% and lamb carcass weights 20%, and wool weight per head by 10% since 1990 (Figures 1 and 2). These increases have resulted in total lamb production increasing 10%, despite a 32% decrease in the national sheep flock since 1990. Milksolids per cow has increased 21% over the same time period, as well as a 9% increase in cow stocking rate. At the same time, farms have continued to decrease in number, and increase in scale. The best example of this is in the dairy industry where the average herd size has increased 70% (Figure 3), and there are numerous examples of multiple unit ownership.

Long-term survival of New Zealand rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus RNA in wild rabbits, revealed by RT-PCR and phylogenetic analysis.

Because Rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV) is highly pathogenic for rabbits, farmers illegally introduced it as a bio-control agent onto New Zealand farms in 1997. The virus was dispersed rapidly, initially causing high fatality rates in rabbits. Nevertheless, many survived and these surviving rabbits have been investigated for evidence of infection by RHDV. Livers from healthy rabbits contained RHDV-specific RNA, as shown by nested RT-PCR sequencing. The sequences of the viral capsids were related closely to the released Czech strain of RHDV, although the sequence from one rabbit was related most closely to a Spanish strain of RHDV. Phylogenetic analysis of the capsid sequences of 38 samples implied that there have been at least two introductions of the Czech virus into New Zealand, probably corresponding firstly to the original illegal introduction by farmers and secondly to the introduction of the same virus under governmental control. Genomic length sequence of two samples was obtained, suggesting that they may have retained the potential to be infectious, although this has not yet been demonstrated. The detection of genomic-length RNA in the liver of healthy rabbits suggests that even though a highly virulent virus was introduced into New Zealand, it rapidly established persistent or latent infections in a proportion of rabbits. This might account for their ability to survive in the face of virulent released virus. Moreover, the co-circulation of other strains of RHDV in the same rabbit population, such as the Spanish strain, might also impact on their susceptibility to the bio-control agent.

Prevalence of antibodies to Neospora caninum in dogs of rural or urban origin in central New Zealand

AIM: To investigate the seroprevalence of Neospora caninum infection in populations of dogs from dairy farms, sheep/beef farms and urban areas in the central part of New Zealand. It was postulated seroprevalence would be higher for farm dogs than urban dogs if the life-cycle of this parasite involves transmission between dogs and cattle. METHODS: Serum samples were obtained from dogs that lived on dairy farms (n=161), sheep/beef farms (n=154) and in urban situations (n=150). The relative risk of detecting antibodies to N. caninum using an immunofluorescent antibody test (IFAT) was compared between farm and urban dogs. RESULTS: The relative risk of having a titre of ≥1:200 to N. caninum was 2.43 (95% CI=1.88-3.14) for dairy-farm dogs and 3.16 (95% CI=2.48–4.02) for sheep/beef-farm dogs, compared with urban dogs. At this titre, which is currently used in New Zealand to indicate seropositivity, seroprevalence of N. caninum infection was 30.7% in urban dogs, 74.5% in dairy-farm dogs and 96.8% in sheep/beef-farm dogs. CONCLUSION: This observation is consistent with a cycling of this disease between cattle and dogs on farms in New Zealand and with higher exposure of dogs to N. caninum on farms than occurs in urban environments. The prevalence of antibodies in all three groups of dogs tested in this study (dairy-farm dogs, sheep/beef-farm dogs and urban dogs) is higher than has generally been reported elsewhere. New Zealand farm dogs have a higher serological prevalence of N. caninum infection than urban dogs. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Management and disease control practices that break the life-cycle of transmission between cattle and dogs should assist in controlling cattle abortion due to N. caninum.

Case studies of the interactions between farm profitability and the use of a farm computer

Farmers are increasingly purchasing and using on-farm computers to provide decision support information and assist in meeting their tax and other reporting commitments. While, having purchased, the farmers clearly believe the investment is justified, there is little before and after data to support this conclusion. This study reports evidence obtained through examining data from a sample of 23 Canterbury, New Zealand farms. The conclusion reached is that, on average, the profit has tended to increase after purchasing a computer. However, the wide variations and involvement of many factors make categorical conclusions difficult. It leaves open the question whether computer technology makes it easier for good managers to make decisions that in the past were of a similar quality but took longer to obtain, perhaps with subconscious observation and intuition, in contrast to the computer based decision systems actually creating valuable new information.

Contingency Revealed: New Zealand Farmers' Experiences of Agricultural Restructuring

New Zealand farmers were affected in significant ways by agricultural restructuring during the mid 1980s. Government, farmers' union, academic and media discourses all describe the ensuing years as a period of financial hardship for farm families. Based on aggregate statistics, the majority of these discourses reflect and ‘naturalise’ the government's neo‐liberal stance, thus conveying an implicit assumption that farmers' experiences were determined by the economic efficiency of the farm enterprise. Drawing upon case study data and a holistic conceptual approach to the family farm, this paper contests such narratives, arguing that farm‐level experiences of agricultural restructuring during (and after) the rural downturn were contingent upon a much greater array of factors. These included: the characteristics of the farm enterprise, household and property; actors' individual attributes; and the local context's biophysical, economic and cultural fabrics. The paper concludes by arguing that a full appreciation of the contingency of farm‐level experiences requires an adequate recognition of the nexus of relations between the family farm, individual actor, and local context.

New Zealand farmers and the Internet

This article describes the experiences, perceptions and attitudes of farmers in Canterbury, New Zealand, towards the use of the Internet for farming purposes. It also illustrates the appropriateness of the qualitative case study method for explaining the underlying research questions: why do farmers use the Internet? How do they find it useful? Thirty semi‐structured interviews were conducted with farmers who were randomly selected from an agricultural co‐operative’s membership database. Seven major themes emerged from the data and have been labeled as the following: why farmers have started using the Internet; how farmers were introduced to the Internet; current uses of the Internet; advantages of using the Internet; problems associated with using the Internet; attitude towards the Internet and future outlook. Many farmers experienced poor phone lines that inhibited the quality of Internet service. Consequently, the interviews uncovered a widespread feeling of disgust and intolerance of the lack of regard for rural people, especially considering that agriculture is an important industry for New Zealand.

Environmental beliefs and farm practices of New Zealand farmers: Contrasting pathways to sustainability

Sustainable farming, and waysto achieve it, are important issues foragricultural policy. New Zealand provides aninteresting case for examining sustainableagriculture options because gene technologieshave not been commercially released and thereis a small but rapidly expanding organicsector. There is no strong governmentsubsidization of agriculture, so while policiesseem to favor both options to some degree,neither has been directly supported. Resultsfrom a survey of 656 farmers are used to revealthe intentions, environmental values, andfarming practices for organic, conventional,and GE intending farmers. The results show thatorganic and conventional farmers are relativelysimilar but contrast to GE intending farmers,especially with respect to perceivedconsequences of each technology. While 75%of farmers have not yet made a commitmentto either technology, one fifth were GEintending and one quarter may become organic.Organic farmers have different attitudes tonature, matched in part by conventionalfarmers. In terms of policy for sustainableagriculture, the results suggest that organicand conventional farmers are incrementallymoving towards agroecological sustainabilitywhile GE intending farmers are committed tointensive production methods of which GEproducts are potentially important. GEintending farmers reject incrementalism infavor of a revolutionary technological fix forsustainability concerns in agriculture.Overall, the results show that there areclearly two different paradigms ofsustainability among farmers. Policies that areseeking to achieve sustainable agriculture needto address the tensions that span the differentparadigms.

Farmer experience with tree fodder

Use of trees for drought feed on New Zealand farms has been practised sporadically for many years, after farmers found that tree prunings were useful as supplementary feed during summer droughts. The Ministry of Agriculture & Forestry (MAF) Sustainable Farming Fund recently funded a farmer-led team to develop the concept of tree fodder use on livestock farms in the southern North Island. Livestock farmers in Hawke's Bay, Rangitikei and Wairarapa who are already using tree fodder were interviewed to generate practical guidelines from their experience. Additional experience from Otago has been included here. Farmers obtain tree fodder by pruning and pollarding soil conservation trees, and by coppicing or grazing livestock on fodder blocks, or by taking advantage of natural leaf fall from poplar trees. The most common practice was pruning willows and poplars originally planted for soil conservation, during summer using a chainsaw. Most farmers found tree fodder feeding a valuable practice and well worthwhile. Over a three-tofour week period, two farmers reported taking 1.5-2 hours per day to feed 1,000 sheep, or cutting five or six trees per day to feed approximately 1,000 ewes. Keywords: tree fodder; poplars; willows; coppicing; pruning.

New Zealand Farmer Narratives of the Benefits of Reduced Human Intervention During Lambing in Extensive Farming Systems

Easy-care or natural lambing pertainsto those sheep able to successfully lamb andrear at least one lamb without human assistancein a difficult environment. Such sheep may havea higher survival rate, lower lamb mortality,and require less shepherding at lambing thanother sheep breeds or strains. The farmer orshepherd account of easy-care lambing revealsseveral themes. Firstly, stock were bred tosurvive or suit local environments orconditions, particularly steep hill country inNew Zealand. This involved extensive culling ofundesirable dams, regardless of how well theymight perform in traits other than the abilityto survive and to produce live lambs atweaning. Sheep that did have problems wereoften assisted, recorded or marked and thenculled at an appropriate time; thus bothartificial (culling) and natural selection wereused. Secondly, natural selection enabled theimportant traits to be identified and they weresubsequently incorporated into artificialselection programs. Thirdly, the practice wasnecessitated by the impracticality ofsupervising lambing in difficult terrain andthe cost of skilled farm labor. Finally, it wasacknowledged that disturbance at lambingcreated problems and most importantly, theeasy-care approach reduced some of the problemstraditionally associated with lambing.Easy-care lambing systems thus aim to minimizesome of the detrimental effects associated withcarefully supervised lambing in someenvironments, by selecting sheep to suit boththat environment and modern farm management.They overcame pervasive influences our culturallegacy was exerting on the way we interact withanimals, and may have produced a system more inkeeping with the biology of the animal in anextensive environment.