The cries of ‘bid’ keep coming from livestock agents, as the prices called out by the auctioneer continue to rise.

They carefully watch the crowd of farmers and onlookers for the subtle signs of someone wanting to buy, no matter the cost.

‘Sold’ comes the cry and with a clap of a clipboard, the deal is done and it’s onto the next pen of sheep for sale.

“Good ewes, good lambs, but boy, that’s big money,” Eric Linklater tells Country Life.

He’s given tours of the Feilding saleyards each Friday for more than 20 years, but he hasn’t seen prices like this in a long time.

Follow Country Life on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart or wherever you get your podcasts.

Located in the heart of the Manawatū town, the saleyards have a long history in the district.

They’re also the largest in the country, servicing farmers from all over – Linklater’s seen stock from Hokitika, cattle from D’Urville Island and the former farmer’s even bought sheep from Tokoroa.

“They cover a huge distance.”

It all started back in 1880, he explains, as the tour starts near the entrance to the yards.

“A pen of cattle were sold behind the Denbigh Hotel. Well, the Denbigh Hotel’s still here and still selling cattle.

“They were the second set of saleyards in Feilding and, by 1920 or so, there were 2829 sets of saleyards in the district. Of course, the drover and his dogs were the important method of transport between the yards.

“Nowadays, there are the trucks carrying over 1000 lambs and 400 ewes, we suddenly find that the yards have concentrated more on this area and all the minor yards in the smaller areas have gone.”

The yards have 350 sheep pens, 140 cattle pens and 45 deer pens, and more than 50,000 cattle and 450,000 sheep are sold here each year, through teams from PGG Wrightson and Carrfields.

Prime stock is sold at weekly sales on Mondays and store stock on Fridays, the day Country Life pays a visit.

Linklater says prices at the moment are “very strong”, with the yards turning over more than $2 million dollars each week.

“[PGG Wrightson], for example, used to shout their auctioneers every time they hit the three million mark at one sale, but they don’t do it now, because they hit it too often.”

Linklater started the tours 20 years ago to help foster connections between urban and rural New Zealand. These days. his clients are increasingly international.

Open to the public, the saleyards also attract plenty of local onlookers.

The tour kicks off at the sheep pens just after 11am. By now, most farmers have been through to have a look at what’s on offer.

It’s a social event as much as a business one, Linklater says, as he deftly weaves his way through the crowds of chatting farmers and visitors, wandering dogs and even a few runaway sheep.

“At this time of year, of course, you’re starting to see the tail-end of the sheep, because farmers are flat out lambing and most of the lambs have already been sold.

With so few lambs about, prices are higher – a classic tale of supply and demand, he says. The top lambs at today’s sale will fetch $226 a head.

“Broadly speaking, they’re paying something like $10 a kilo on the hooks and they’d be sort of 4550 kilo lambs, so you’re talking about $250 on the hooks.”

It’s a similar story in the cattle market where prices average about $1700 a head with a maximum price of $3590.

It makes for a tough time being a buyer like local Feilding farmer Alan McLeod who came to the yards looking for rising two-year-old steers and heifers to fatten and finish on his property.

“It’s frightening buying,” he tells Country Life.

“You just got to face the market. Yeah, everybody’s going to have grass. We’re quite dry, Manawatū is dry, and we’re right on the verge of the spring boost.”

The sales have also brought out-of-towners like Vic Caskey from Taranaki, also in the market for two-year-old steers and “something to grow”.

“There’s not much going on at Taranaki at the moment, so [we] have to go further afield.

“[It’s] very expensive, but if you get the right ones, the margins are still there, as long as you work out what you can sell them for, so you know your margins are safe or safe-ish is all you can do.”

Learn more:

• You can learn more about the tours here.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

It’s an early start for the musterers at Molesworth Station. The bulls are out with the cows for the mating season and the stockmen need to beat the heat. Country Life producer Sally Round spent a day with the musterers, the farmer and the cook, peeling back some of the mystique of New Zealand’s most famous farm.

Duncan, Connell, Josh and Liam are up before the birds.

Head torches on, they catch their horses before tucking into a pile of bacon and eggs in the kitchen at Tarndale.

The homestead there is one of Molesworth Station’s far-flung camps where the musterers can have a feed and bed down for the night while working on the furthest reaches of the 180,470-hectare property.

Molesworth, in the backcountry of Marlborough, has a mystique and mana which few other high country farms can match.

It brings out the best in people, according to farm manager Jim Ward.

“It’s land that we all have an empathy with,” he says.

“Since I’ve been here six sets of ashes of stockmen have been spread at Tarndale. It really gets inside your bones, I tell you.”

The engine of a dusty ex-army truck thrums in the dark as Duncan saddles up.

The horses, dogs and men have a lot of ground to cover so they use a Unimog for the hour-long drive to their start point on the western flank of the property.

Steep scree-laden ranges, stony river beds and a climate that can switch from achingly hot and dry to well below freezing in a matter of days mean the horses are purpose-bred on the property.

Duncan leads his horse, Roger, to the truck.

“He’s big, he’s a cruiser … nice, easy-going … yeh, he goes wherever I point him.”

A couple of dozen dogs, yelping with excitement hop in behind.

Duncan and his fellow musterers pile in the front.

A hint of pink in the eastern sky signals another hot dry day to come.

“When I came here, a fella said to me, there’re no other places in New Zealand you can saddle your horse every morning and let your dogs off to go to work,” Duncan says.

Take a look at the gallery of images below for more on the story.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

The ebbs and flows of farming are expected to be exacerbated by future climate change effects, including more volatile weather and strained water resources, a new study has found.

Research consultancy firm Kōmanawa Solutions ran 295 million weather simulations with past weather data on a catchment in North Canterbury to understand how climate change will impact farmers’ bottom lines in the next decade.

It combined climate data, pasture growth models, farm economic models and stream health models to identify where farmers’ resilience was likely to be “overwhelmed” by climate and global volatility.

The purpose of the five-year project – supported by the Ministry for Primary Industries’ Sustainable Land Management and Climate Change Fund – was to help farmers, regional councils, government and banks plan ahead for adaptation support.

The report found farm production and profitability were already affected by climate change, and the risk of financial instability was set to increase over time.

Water resource scientist and Kōmanawa founder Zeb Etheridge, who wrote the report, said water resources will be under greater pressure in a warming climate.

“As our climate continues to become more volatile, we expect the effects to become much more negative, with bad years becoming worse and more frequent,” Etheridge said.

The report found irrigated dairy farms were particularly at risk because water supplies were expected to become less reliable in areas with high usage pressures.

Etheridge said regulators should not look back to historical climate and river flow data to understand climate risks, but forward to understand the changing climate.

“That’s really what we’ve been trying to do with this work is give people an idea of how different things could be and give them the information to make more informed decisions.”

North Canterbury is home to a large irrigation scheme off the Waimakariri River, which is restricted during times of low river flows.

However, a new water storage facility proposal north of the Hurunui River by firm Amuri Irrigation is being considered by the Canterbury Regional Council.

Etheridge said North Canterbury farmers could reduce their stocking rates to better manage climate variability in the next decade.

“Our research says that in a lot of instances, dropping your stock numbers is probably going to make you a bit more resilient and improve your financial performance long term.

“Farmers might not make quite so much money in those good years, but they’ll be much more cushioned from the effects of those bad years.”

He said storing water will provide some resilience to farmers, but was not a silver bullet.

“Putting a water storage system on your farm like a pond to give you some more irrigation reliability, that can cushion you from the effects of climate change, but it can also increase your vulnerability to the broader volatility that we see in commodity prices, interest rates and so on. So you can increase your exposure on a financial side.

“It’s a big investment and I think people should be very wary about making those decisions from looking at past records of hydrology and climate and assuming that things are going to be the same, because they’re going to be different. The question is just how different.”

The research will be presented at the international Adaptation Futures conference in Ōtautahi/Christchurch from October 13-16.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Rows of colourful vegetables line this plot of land just on the outskirts of Hamilton.

For more than 10 years David Ruan has been growing vegetables which he sells at the local farmers’ markets under the name, Suncakes Gardens, a nod to his Chinese heritage.

“In Chinese tradition, there is a Mooncake Festival, usually between late September and early October, that is Spring in New Zealand – a good time for a new growing season,” he told Country Life.

“The colourful fresh product in the garden are like cakes relying on solar energy, and Suncakes is a good analogy to Mooncakes.”

Follow Country Life on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart or wherever you get your podcasts.

Ruan came to New Zealand from China almost 20 years ago, where he studied horticulture at university and later worked helping growers – mostly with rice crops and fruit like oranges.

His university research focussed on different methods for plant protection, including biological controls.

“They introduce beneficial insects, fungi which control the bugs you don’t want.”

Up until last year he was growing certified organic vegetables but found this costly, switching instead to spray-free growing while still following organic principles including making his own compost.

Ruan acknowledged it wasn’t always suitable for larger scale growers but was keen to try it out on his own land when he moved to New Zealand.

He said larger growers tend to focus on just a few crops, but on a smaller plot of just 2.5-hectares, he grows a more diverse mix and rotates them regularly.

“My plan is to introduce more varieties.”

His wife helps with tending the garden, as does his daughter and one of his friends when it comes time to bring in the harvest.

Meanwhile his son helps with packing the vegetables to be sold at the farmers’ markets in Cambridge and Hamilton.

Ruan said he found growing very “peaceful and relaxing” but one of the other highlights was the many market customers who had become friends.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Friday is World Egg Day – and New Zealand has about 1.6 million commercial hens with some now laying larger eggs.

Supermarkets are working towards only stocking eggs that have come from cage free chickens following ongoing hen welfare concerns.

Woolworths said by the end of the year all its cartons of eggs would be cage-free, and Foodstuffs, which owns New World and PaknSave, said it would do the same by 2027.

The founder of eg. Free-Range Eggs, Nathan Williams, said he wanted everyone to be able to afford ethical eggs and as more egg farms transition to free range – eggs would become cheaper.

He currently had 90,000 free range Shaver hens on his farm near Bulls and they laid more than 80,000 eggs a day. He was expanding his colony and said by Christmas the number of hens he farms would be more than 100,000.

“When a chicken first comes into lay around 16 to 20 weeks they lay smaller eggs – popping out what we call piwis which is a size five, and then as they grow their eggs get bigger, the eggs will be sixes and sevens. And then size eight and nine are our jumbo sizes.”

Williams said when the birds went outside and ate bugs and grass, he had more jumbo-sized eggs, which were often double-yolkers.

That meant shoppers may start noticing more Jumbo eggs, and Williams said about fifteen percent of his eggs were potentially-double yolkers.

Williams said contrary to public opinion – chickens had their own personalities and knew where they liked to eat, lay their eggs and sleep.

He said he had been pecked and chased by several of his inquisitive birds from time to time.

The Egg Producers Federation said the welfare of hens was paramount – as the happier the hen, the better the egg.

Its chairman John McKay said eggs were as popular as they had ever been. Over the last year, New Zealanders had eaten on average 229 eggs each, and that was up from last year when people consumed about 216 eggs.

“We are really pleased with that trajectory and as we all know eggs are a highly versatile and nutritious product.”

McKay said bird flu was something the poultry industry took very seriously and the one outbreak of a highly pathogenic avian influenza was well managed late last year.

About 160,000 chickens were culled on a free range egg farm in North Otago after becoming infected with the H7N6 strain they contracted from wild waterfowl.

“That farm is now back in production and eggs are being produced off it. The most important thing is making sure there is strong biosecurity on farms across the country and keeping the egg and poultry supply as resiliant as we can.”

He said there were no safety concerns about eating eggs.

McKay said he would be having a couple of poached eggs on toast for breakfast on Friday morning to celebrate World Egg Day.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Bespoke legislation and more ocean space is needed for the farming of kai moana, says the fisheries minister, so that aquaculture can one day rival New Zealand’s beef sector.

Shane Jones opened the industry’s annual conference in Nelson today, and spoke of the need to create a new global-scale protein-based industry.

“We have an inordinate opportunity for our tamariki and grandchildren to convert the oceanic space into a platform for global-scale protein-based fish farming.”

Regulatory reform and increased capital investment were also needed to help the sector reach the government’s target of $3 billion in exports in the next decade.

Aquaculture products are projected to bring in $650 million in export revenue for the year to June, up 13 percent on last year.

Jones announced the government’s five year Aquaculture Development Plan, in March, which set out the steps to grow the industry to generate $3b a year and double the number of jobs.

He said Ministry for Primary Industry staff were working on further plans for growth in the sector, and change needed to be driven by central government.

“I just don’t think it’s tolerable that anything to do with fisheries that we surrender the authority to local government or regional government.

“As a nationalist-orientated politician, I don’t see another way of cracking this nut unless we take back a lot of the authority.”

Jones said aquaculture was a “risk-riddled industry” that was constantly confronting problems, ones it could solve with government support and without increased regulation.

Science communicator and content creator James Sibley, who is often called a “fishfluencer” due to his social media work, was in New Zealand to speak at the conference and said there were incredible opportunities for aquaculture growth in New Zealand.

“I got into aquaculture because of the potential it has to feed the world, to feed a growing population with potentially healthier proteins than a lot of the population eats today, without doing irreversible damage at the scales that we see with current farming practices around the world, is immense but it has to be stewarded correctly.”

He said New Zealand was at the forefront of change with NZ King Salmon’s open ocean salmon farm in the Cook Strait.

“What they are trying here with the Blue Endeavour project, going offshore with these much larger pens much higher current waters, cleaner waters, highly oxygenated it has really strong potential.”

But Sibley said it came with its own challenges.

“It’s a much more hostile environment out there, they need bigger boats, more people. It has the potential to be great for the economy and coastal communities there that work those farms, but how they can maintain that, and if this trial works, then what? Do we put out another one? Do we try something new? Where do we go from there?”

It has been a tough year for the country’s biggest salmon producer who posted half year net loss of $20.8 million.

NZ King Salmon chief executive Carl Carrington said its fish went through the equivalent of having the flu or a bad cold last summer and went off their feed, forcing the company to reduce harvest volumes for an extended period, which affected earnings.

“It’s not unusual [for fish] to go off feed over the summer period but what happened this time, it was for an extended period of time and it didn’t recover until much later than what we’d usually expect and as a result, we lost a lot of biomass growth.”

Carrington said despite that, the company had $60m in the bank and a balance sheet that was getting stronger and they were “increasingly confident” about the future.

“We’re increasingly confident because we know what we’ve got in the toolkit to deal with these challenges over summer… and we think the growth pathway in front of us is now just starting to look really positive.”

General manager of aquaculture Grant Lovell said changes to its farming model in recent years meant unlike in previous summers, there was not mass mortality, the fish had just stopped growing.

It had done feed trials and other mitigation work to improve feed consumption and growth rates in the past few years.

The company was also making good progress on Blue Endeavour – which it hoped would prove up the model for open ocean aquaculture in order to see major change in export growth.

Lovell said the two pens for the open ocean farm were assembled and launched in Shakespeare Bay in April, and then were towed without nets or fish to Waihinau Bay in the outer Marlborough Sounds.

Juvenile salmon, smolt, were then transferred to adjacent holding pens and would be transferred out to the Blue Endeavour site in November.

The mooring grid was currently being installed, seven kilometres north of Cape Lambert. It was due to have been complete by now but contractors had encountered issues with weather and sea conditions, but were back on track.

Lovell said the new farm’s service vessel Whekenui, which was built in Vietnam, was due to arrive in Port Nelson next week.

The company had also purchased a $8m site at the Cloudy Bay Business Park in Blenheim, with plans to eventually move processing operations there to support the company’s growth, while maintaining the factory in Nelson to produce smoked fish and ready to eat products.

A quayside feed storage warehouse was also under construction in partnership with Port Marlborough, enabling feed to arrive directly into Picton, eliminating the need for it to be trucked over the hill from Nelson.

Lovell said “public enemy number one” was the lack of room for aquaculture to grow.

“In a sea of opportunity, in what feels like oceans of space, finding a home is actually quite hard. We obviously have Blue Endeavour now, but this alone will not grow the industry to the levels required.”

He said long term regulatory improvements were required to ensure growth and expansion in the industry.

“Although we are incredibly grateful for the marine extension bill, all freshwater farmers did not get that same benefit for freshwater salmon farms, all those consents will still expire in the coming years and we need to create the business confidence and certainty for investment.”

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

A new study has found higher concentrations of nectar from native New Zealand plant species in the drier eastern parts of the motu.

Flowers produced high-sugar nectar which fed birds and insects, and was also collected and processed to make honey.

Over two years, researchers measured nectar from more than 4200 flowers off eight native trees in a number of regions nationwide.

The “Nectar traits of New Zealand trees vary across climatic zones” study was published in Frontiers in Plant Science last month.

The plant species studied included karo (Pittosporum crassifolium), kōhūhū (Pittosporum tenuifolium), tarata (Pittosporum eugenioides), kōtukutuku (Fuchsia excorticata), pōhutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa), mānuka (Leptospermum scoparium) and kōwhai (Sophora microphylla) and tī kōuka (cabbage tree).

The regions were Auckland, Taranaki, Hawke’s Bay and Wellington in the North Island and Nelson/Tasman, Marlborough, Canterbury and Dunedin in the South.

Researchers found trees like kōwhai and pōhutakawa produced the highest concentrations of nectar in drier areas, while sunnier sites generally had lower nectar volumes though larger flowers.

Results from mānuka flowers showed substantial regional variation in nectar traits, driven by climate.

University of Waikato researcher Dr Johanna van Delden said the study could benefit conservationists and beekeepers, the latter to help them decide the most optimal locations and nearby trees for their beehives.

“The trees which produced the most sugar of all the species were either found in Dunedin, Canterbury or Hawke’s Bay, which are all on our East Coast,” she said.

“And the nectar volume, so how much nectar each flower produced, was also in 50 percent of the species coming from Dunedin or Hawke’s Bay. So I think that was the clearest and easiest result we could take out of our measurements.”

She said researchers were surprised by how the plants differed across climates.

“We found that every plant is really different. So we could see that some plant traits like nectar or the flower size was climate-linked, but it really varied from species to species between 20 and 80 percent, which is a massive variation.

“It was mostly associated with sunshine hours and rain amounts to really simplify the results.”

Van Delden said farmers could look at the species which performed well in their region to encourage greater biodiversity around farms.

“When they are flowering, attracting butterflies and birds, that could enhance your backyard biodiversity and could be used also on pastures for shelter.”

She said further research should explore how the native plants adapted to local climates across the country.

“If we go one step further, so the next researcher after me, could have a look if it’s actually not the location itself having the influence on the plant, but actually that it’s genetically driven.

“So that the plants over time have evolved in that way, that they are adapted to that local climate and therefore show those adaptations in regards to producing more sugar, for example, in the South Island and East Coast.”

Part of the research was funded by the government’s Endeavour research programme by the Ministry for Business Innovation and Employment entitled, ‘Building Resilience and Provenance into an Authentic Māori Honey Industry’.

It was a joint project with the University of Waikato, Manaaki Whenua/Landcare Research and the Auckland University of Technology.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

The investment arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has purchased a new kiwifruit orchard in Bay of Plenty.

The investment was set to fund the work of its owner, the United States-based church known commonly as the Mormon Church.

Utah-based agricultural investor, Farmland Reserve acquired the Three Roads property near Edgecumbe, with local firm Craigmore Sustainables set to manage it.

The deal went through the Overseas Investment Office in August, resulting from a multi-year relationship between the two firms.

Profits from the export-focussed kiwifruit business will be shared between Craigmore and Farmland Reserve.

Farmland Reserve’s first NZ investment

Farmland Reserve was a commercial, for-profit entity where its profits help fund the church’s religious, humanitarian and charitable work.

Employing thousands globally, it invested in farms and orchards in 29 of 50 US states and 10 countries across the Americas, Europe and most recently Australasia.

Farmland it owned in Australia grew crops like pistachio nuts, potatoes, onions, wheat and soya bean.

President and chief executive, Doug Rose said kiwifruit consumption continued to rise globally, and New Zealand had ideal growing conditions for them.

“What an absolutely wonderful crop we have admired from a distance for some time,” he said.

“And I don’t know that there is a more beautiful country on the Earth than New Zealand with a more beautiful people and culture.”

Rose said it was Farmland Reserve’s first investment in New Zealand.

However, the church held hundreds of millions of dollars in assets like property across the country.

He said it was grateful to fill the need for capital in New Zealand, as a “passive and patient” long-term investor, with Craigmore taking the operational lead.

“I think this need that Craigmore brought to us is showing that there is a capital need in New Zealand to support this very growing industry, because it’s very, very expensive to develop even one hectare of kiwifruit is costly and so most entities can’t do it.

“So we were excited to be able to come in and to fill that need, particularly given I believe some of the destruction that occurred after that Cyclone [Gabrielle] and several years ago, and that really created kind of a capital gap.”

He said Farmland Reserve was not planning to set up as a charity in New Zealand.

Craigmore will manage the new orchard

Around half of the “partially-developed” 45-hectare property was planted in SunGold, and orchard manager Craigmore Sustainables planned to plant a further 17 hectares in the variety.

Chief executive, Che Charteris said it was essential to use offshore investment with partners that shared the same values, in face of limited domestic capital.

“So it will be in the end about 37.5 to 38 hectares of SunGold kiwifruit orchard under canopy with good frost protection, good irrigation and hopefully some very good crops for the year to come.”

Charteris said kiwifruit orchard development was expenditure-heavy and could cost anywhere between $200,000 – $800,000 a hectare.

He said Farmland Reserve understood the long term nature of the asset and the social community aspects that come with land ownership.

“Farmland Reserve are long term in their thinking, so it’s good to have that patient capital, that is willing to to rely on New Zealand expertise.

“It’s a really good example of how New Zealand can utilise the right kind of offshore capital in a way that values local expertise and local influence and control without, limiting ourselves just to domestic capital.”

Charteris said it could be hard to find money to re-invest in farms locally, and relying only on domestic capital would see growth opportunities missed.

“New Zealand unfortunately just has a really small pool of domestic capital.

“As you can see with the latest GDP figures in New Zealand, we’re not really going anywhere at the moment. But the rural sector is humming.

“The scale of the opportunity for rural New Zealand is so great that we need to find ways of working with the right kind of offshore capital to nail these sorts of opportunities.”

Charteris said Craigmore was set up to attract “better equity capital” into the country to harness opportunities, create jobs locally and boost regional economies.

Craigmore managed more than 38,000 hectares of farmland in horticulture, dairy farms and forestry across Aotearoa.

The Church’s NZ footprint

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Trust Board was a registered charity to provide religious services across dozens of sites scattered throughout New Zealand.

Charity register documents showed the Church made a surplus of $23.3 million in the year to 31 December last year, and owned $517.4m in property, plants and equipment and $10m in investment property.

StatsNZ census data showed more than 54,000 people identified as members of the church in 2023.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Steve Evans is a man who just loves old wood and just can’t bear the thought of seeing it end up in landfill or being chucked on a fire.

Much of the stock he sells at Ironbark Re-engineered in North Canterbury came from the Lyttelton wharves which were removed after being damaged in the Christchurch earthquakes. 

He’s not buying any more though, as he says he has enough to last a lifetime -  or two.

“I need another lifetime to get through everything that I’ve got here. And I think that worries my son who’s thinks he’s gonna have to move in here and deal to it.”

Evans has had quite an adventurous life – baking pies, professional hunter and fisherman, jumping out of helicopters for deer recovery, running a helicopter business, working in forestry and firewood, which led to discovering ironbark.

Follow Country Life on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart or wherever you get your podcasts.

So what is ironbark? 

“It’s actually an Australian hardwood,” Evans explained. “Most people don’t really know what it is, but it’s one of the Eucalyptus species. Most people know what jarrah is and ironbark is like it but actually a lot harder than what Jarrah is.”

Ironbark is exceptionally strong, making it suitable for high traffic areas and structures like bridges and wharves.  It ranges from reddish-brown to dark brown and is highly resistant to moisture, insects and decay. The thick bark also protects the trees from fire.

Ironbark is still being imported from Australia and being used for wharves and cladding, flooring, decking, internal beams and rafters.

However, it doesn’t have the aged look of Evans’ wood, which ends up as internal beams and rafters in new holiday homes and is a particular rustic look that suits wineries and more high end stuff. 

So when the tourists arrive, the buildings look like they’ve been there for 100 years even though they may have been there for two.

The Oxford property is on part of a former railway line and is guarded by Evans’ little rough coated Jack Russell, Sue.

“It’s two and a half acres and very long and narrow. It’s part of the old railway corridor and the trains used to come through  Oxford to the sawmills in the foothills. There was a station up the end of this property.”

Evans mills his wood with a New Zealand classic circular saw. The Mahoe super mill is a friction mill which runs up and down on a big beam and is controlled by a friction lever. These mills are renowned for their safety and accuracy.

“The Mahoe saw is built in the North Island – a couple of brothers, the Bergmans, have been building them for years. It’s a marvellous piece of gear and Mahoe is where they’re built.” 

Evans said ironbark was a commodity that’s becoming scarcer by the day, as wharves all over New Zealand and rail bridges get pulled down.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Iconic South Canterbury fruit company Barker Fruit Processors’ $60 million factory expansion will come to fruition later this year, in efforts to “future-proof” the growing business.

The company owned by the Andros Group in France was expanding its Pleasant Valley factory near Geraldine, adding new warehouses and another production line for products like its chutneys, jams, and sauces.

With the new build nearing completion, production was expected to begin there shortly before Christmas.

Operations manager, Bill Pridham said the expansion would help double production there over the next few decades.

“The main point for us is around ensuring that Barker’s is set up and ready for the future in South Canterbury, and to provide security to our current staff,” he said.

“There’ll be a few new job opportunities as well, which is great.”

Pridham said the factory produced hundreds of different products each year mostly for the domestic market, but exports largely to Australia made up about 20 percent of the business.

It employed up to 280 staff during the summer peak across the factory and sales and marketing from Auckland.

Consenting issues in Geraldine

The company held various active resource consents for discharging contaminants onto land and to air, but the Canterbury Regional Council recently investigated the company for wastewater discharge breaches.

The Department of Conservation (DoC) raised environmental concerns about the factory’s discharge onto a nearby conservation reserve near the Hae Hae Te Moana River.

The company spent $1.4 million on a 14-hectare site next door to the factory, according to the Overseas Investment Office.

Pridham said this purchase was about future-proofing its irrigation and wastewater systems.

“Historically, we’ve irrigated onto a block south of the factory, DoC land where historically it was something that had low conservational value that has recently changed, so we’ve looked for an alternative there. So that’s why we’ve looking at this other bit of land,” Pridham said.

He said it was planning to micro-irrigate to match the soil’s ability to absorb and treat the water, a system which would “help future-proof the business as we grow.”

“We’re looking at changing our irrigation system there, allowing us to irrigate all-year round, where historically we’d irrigate only in the drier months.

“We are working through that consent for the wastewater discharge with ECan, and providing them the information they need to give them assurance of our process and how we’re planning to approach it.”

Environment Canterbury’s consents planning manager, Henry Winchester said a new consent application for discharge was on “hold”, while more information was sought from the applicant.

“The new application from Barkers is to discharge factory wastewater to a new area of land which is partly forestry and partly pasture,” Winchester said.

“Barkers isn’t proposing to increase the amount of wastewater generated and we’re following the consent process in the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) to ensure that effects are appropriately managed.

“We continue to work with Barkers to ensure that the regulatory process is being followed.”

Winchester said its audit continued.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Fancy a drop of “kiwi-friendly” wine or a bite of a “kiwi-friendly” kiwifruit?

Branding fruit as “kiwi-friendly” could be a future marketing tool for producers after a study showed the North Island brown kiwi foraging for bugs in Northland vineyards and orchards, scientists say.

Follow Country Life on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart or wherever you get your podcasts.

The study is a collaboration between Massey University and the Bioeconomy Science Institute (BSI).

The brown kiwi increasingly observed in orchards and vineyards and New Zealand’s goal of a predator free environment by 2050 prompted the research, according to BSI scientist Karen Mason.

“With Predator Free 2050, more of our taonga species will be moving into horticultural settings, so we wanted to look at, is that happening? And if it is happening, what are they doing? And are they providing any ecosystem services that will benefit the growers?”

Masters student Wei (Xosha) Gong spent a year conducting field work on four sites in Northland, using camera and acoustic recorders, insect traps and faecal analysis to build a picture of kiwi behaviour, diet and predator presence.

From some 14,000 videos and 1000 audio recordings, and analysis of the bird’s poo, the team were able to gain new insights into the kiwi’s behaviour and diet in horticultural landscapes.

“We did get footage of them actually eating in the orchards, both probing into the ground and taking insects from just above the ground in the ground cover,” Mason told Country Life.

Further research has shown the kiwi, with its long probing beak, were eating a variety of invertebrates including horticultural pests.

“They are consuming some very interesting ones, and where I think they can be really beneficial.

“We found that they were consuming a variety of different cicadas, the whitefringed weevil and grass grub, and all of those species spend time underground.”

Apart from marketing their fruit as “kiwi-friendly”, growers might also be able to reduce pesticide use if more kiwi were encouraged into orchards, Mason said.

“If an insect is subterranean … it’s quite difficult to control because they’re difficult to monitor, they’re difficult to locate.

“If you put sprays and chemicals down, the soil can bind some of those chemicals so it doesn’t reach the insects and a couple of these insects also have a hard casing on them, so again, that makes it harder for the chemicals to reach them.

“Also, you don’t want to broadcast a whole tonne of spray onto your soil and kill all your beneficial insects, like your worms. So I think that’s where kiwi could be very interesting and very beneficial, because they are eating these when they are subterranean, when they’re underground.”

She said one pastoral farmer no longer needed to spray or to put granules down for his grass grub now that he has a high density of kiwi nearby.

Farmers and growers could encourage more kiwi onto their land by enhancing the orchard habitat and better predator control, according to Massey’s Professor in wildlife biology Isabel Castro.

She said the brown kiwi, now numbering around 26,000, lived in a variety of settings.

“They can go into grassy areas, they absolutely love swamps, they also, of course, go into forests, but not only mature forests, but also they use scrub, and they use even very, very low vegetation, so they have no problems going into orchard areas.

“In saying that, most of the kiwi that we have observed, especially in vineyards, are close to small areas, at least, of vegetation. So if, for example, farmers will have a vineyard area and then that area is surrounded by a hedge of other vegetation, the kiwi will love that better than having a completely open area.”

Mason and Castro are excited about the prospect of farmers harnessing the habits of other birds like pīwakawaka which could eat insects in the canopy or tui whose feisty nature might scare off kākā from feasting on the orchard’s fruit.

But more research is needed.

“More different sorts of birds are going to start coming into our horticultural systems. We need to understand, how do we make them attractive? How do we keep the birds safe, and how do we keep the birds out?” Mason said.

– Video reproduced with permission

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

The Coubroughs know their decisions today will determine the years to come.

Brett, whose grandparents originally bought the 76-hectare dairy farm near Tirau in 1907, runs the property with his two children Tim and Linda.

Succession has been relatively straightforward for the family.

“We’re all on the same page – we want robotics to milk the cows for us,” Linda told Country Life. “And that’s always been the plan.”

Follow Country Life on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart or wherever you get your podcasts.

Linda said it was an “honour” coming back to the multi-generational farm, despite not initially planning to come back as a farmer, and she hopes they’re leaving it in a better way for the next generation.

“Everything you do for the land is such a longterm goal,” she said.

“Our input now is changing what’s going to happen down the line which is a whole different way of thinking. And all our different backgrounds help bring up different things and what we want from that.”

Dad Brett always planned on being a farmer but “got sidetracked” with electrical engineering, a qualification which saw him travel all around the world for various projects. It’s come in handy back on the farm too where he is chief innovator and inventor.

He said it was nice to be farming.

“It’s a different style of life.Whereas I had to deal with customers or clients and now my clients are the cows and they’re much easier to deal with.”

Like Linda, it’s also taught him the value of taking a longer view.

“We come to the conclusion that you’re actually planning for over a year ahead all the time. It’s something I’ve never really thought about.

“You’re setting yourself up for the season ahead by what you’re doing now.”

One of the ways the family has tried to prepare for their future is investing in wearable technology and automation on-farm.

“Dad’s an extraordinaire in creating things and adjusting things and automating as much as we can,” Linda said.

“Our shed, it’s push a button and it does everything.”

Automation in the cowshed includes automated drafting gates, cup removers, systems cleaning, and calf feeders.

“It’s set up now for a one person operation – we still milk with two people – but it can be done,” Brett said.

Eight years ago they also invested in AllFlex’s cow collars to help with heat cycling

“We’re quite unique in that we’re one of the few smaller herds that has cow collars on.”

The data they get from the cow collars has helped improve animal welfare and each year the technology gets better.

Some things the father and daughter still prefer to do the old-school way, like shifting stock themselves on foot or in the side-by-side.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

The overseas investment offer to rescue red meat processor Alliance Group has gotten even sweeter.

Irish company Dawn Meats has increased its proposed investment from $250 million to $270m, following stronger-than-expected year-end results from Alliance.

Dawn Meats’ proposed 65 percent stake in Alliance remained unchanged despite the higher investment.

Alliance chair Mark Wynne said as part of negotiations in July, the co-op had to commit to a year-end profit and net debt target.

The co-op’s unaudited profit projection of $18m to $24m was above target prompting the extra cash, which would be distributed through a dividend.

“So we both agreed on $250 million for 65 percent, but agreed a mechanism that said if there’s a variance in favour of Alliance, Dawn will top up.

“And if there’s a variance in favour of Dawn, in other words, we underperform on our target, then Alliance will top up Dawn.”

Over the last two weeks Alliance representatives had travelled the country talking with shareholders about the proposal.

‘Please vote’

Wynne said there had been some honest and tough conversations.

“[I’m] still pretty nervous.

“We’ve got four and a bit days so we have a special general meeting in Invercargill on Monday, on the 20th and the meeting will open at 11am, voting will close 11:45.

“And then Elections NZ and KPMG will go away and count and verify, and announce the result the following day.

“So our key message to everyone is please consider the proposal and the alternative that you see fit, vote accordingly, but the main thing is please vote.”

He said they’d been upfront about Alliance’s finances, with $188m in debt due by 19 December.

Wynne said after exploring all options over the past two years, only Dawn Meats met the scale and timing needed.

Shareholders were making a decision Wynne called a once-in-a-generation choice for farmers.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Wattie’s New Zealand is further reducing fruit and vegetable crops it sources from its home of Hawke’s Bay, citing an ongoing struggle against cheaper imports.

Growers of key crops beetroot, corn and tomatoes will be affected by its recent crop intake review.

Just last month, it announced it would reduce production of its canned peaches.

A spokesperson for the brand, owned by food giant Kraft-Heinz of the United States, said it carried out these reviews each year to respond to market demand, increased competition from imported goods and rising input costs.

“In recent years, Wattie’s has seen a reduction in demand for home-grown canned fruit products and has not been able to recover to the levels it saw prior to the cyclone,” she said.

“Our desire, of course, is for Kiwis to return to the Wattie’s locally grown favourites, but until such time as we see an increase in demand, we are forced to adjust our intake, which has impacted crops such as peaches, beetroot, tomatoes and corn.”

She said it contacted affected growers directly, many of them had been partners for years.

“We recognise this is a difficult time for them and their businesses and are committed to helping them through this transition phase.”

• Are you affected by the change? Let us know monique.steele@rnz.co.nz

The decision to reduce peach production garnered upset among New Zealand consumers online.

However, the company had already warned the government that alleged dumping of cheaper imports from countries like China into the New Zealand market would affect local production.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment confirmed it was investigating these claims after Heinz Wattie’s filed an application in July into alleged product dumping.

“MBIE is currently progressing step 1 of the [trade remedy] investigation in accordance with its standard process, with input from participating stakeholders,” it said.

It was working to compile preliminary findings, essential facts and conclusions report for the applicant by 7 November.

And the findings would be presented to the Minister for Commerce and Consumer Affairs for decision, by 31 January.

“MBIE is also considering a request from [Heinz Watties] for provisional measures during the course of the investigation, in line with statutory provisions.”

It followed an earlier investigation several years prior.

Anti-dumping duties on preserved peaches from China were lifted in 2017.

Newsroom reported that Stats NZ data included in the Heinz application showed Chinese peach import volumes increased from 300,000 kilograms a quarter in 2018, to a peak of just below 831,000 kilograms in the final quarter of 2024.

Read more:

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

On a state-owned farm near Taupō, the first creamy-coloured calves of a new dairy-beef crossbreed are frolicking.

Called the Synergizer, the calves are the result of combining genetics from a Nebraskan breed developed in the 1970s, known as the Stabilizer, with that of the French Charolais from which the calves take their distinctive colouring.

It’s been a collaborative project between Pāmu, formerly Landcorp, and the farmer-owned co-operative Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC) to develop a dairy-beef product that will benefit dairy farmers, calf rearers, beef finishers and processors

LIC chief executive David Chin said it was an exciting partnership with the genetics providing a long term gain and a “better animal all round”.

The breeding programme focussed on key traits including short gestation, ease of calving and rearing, strong growth and meat quality.

“What the diary farmer really looks for in beef animals, or beef bulls putting over their dairy cows, is an easily identifiable animal so the coat colour is very important,” Chin said.

“The coat colour is coming through from the Charolais. But calving easy, easy to rear, good live weight gains that’s coming through from the Stabilizer.”

Chin said the launch of Synergizer marked an important milestone in the co-operative’s dairy-beef journey.

“Backed by world-class science, robust data and rigourous progeny testing, Synergizer has been developed to deliver a reliable, profitable and sustainable option for dairy-beef systems.”

A recent Rabobank report found dairy-beef had a potential value of more than $1.2 billion each year.

Pāmu chief executive Mark Leslie said Synergizer was also excited about the potential of the collaborative project.

“By combining genetics expertise, farming knowledge, and a shared vision, we’re creating a solution that will deliver long-term benefits across the entire dairy-beef value chain and build resilience, productivity and sustainability for future generations of farmers.”

About 350 first-cross beef on dairy calves were born this year.

The first frozen semen inseminations will be available in limited quantities from spring next year, with more available from spring 2027.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Farmers have welcomed the government’s new “science-based” biogenic methane targets for 2050.

It’s dropped the reduction target for biogenic methane from 24 to 47 percent below 2017 levels by 2050, to 14 to 24 percent – saying it reflects the findings of the independent Methane Science Review released in 2024.

Agriculture and Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay said the government had worked closely with industry and accepted a range of advice to determine a “practical target”.

“We’ve accepted a range of advice and worked closely with industry to agree a practical target that protects food production whilst substantially reducing New Zealand’s farm emissions.”

Federated Farmers president Wayne Langford said the new targets were backed by science and had landed in a “solid” place.

He said the targets set under the previous government had felt “political[ly] and ideologically driven”.

“I think what’s important to understand is just how far off the last lot of targets were,” he said.

“So, 24 to 47 percent was going to put well over 20 percent of sheep and beef farms out of business, 6 or 7 percent of dairy farms. It was literally going to destroy rural communities.”

Langford also welcomed confirmation there would be no tax on agricultural emissions like methane.

“This is a major step forward and will be a huge relief for farming families who have had the threat of a massive tax hanging over our heads threatening the viability of our businesses.

“A methane tax would have achieved the opposite of its intent – forcing the closure of Kiwi farms, driving production to less efficient countries, and increasing global emissions.”

However, Langford said the changes don’t mean farmers are being let off the hook – farmers were already working hard to reduce their methane emissions and had made huge improvements in the last decade.

A dairy farmer himself, he said he had faced huge pressure from processors to improve.

However, last week Nestlé, announced it was withdrawing from an international partnership aimed at reducing dairy emissions.

Langford said this was more a reflection of the cost-of-living pressures facing consumers.

He said a growing range of technologies to better calculate and reduce emissions on farm would only help farmers further improve.

Beef and Lamb chairperson Kate Acland also welcomed the new targets which she felt better reflected the science, but said it would still be a stretch for the agriculture sector to achieve.

“The previous targets were arbitrarily based on ranges used in an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report that explicitly stated those ranges should not be used to set national targets.

“The revised targets better reflect the science around the different warming impact of short- and long-lived gases. Methane should only be asked to do what is expected of other gases, which is to achieve no additional warming.”

Acland said New Zealand’s red meat was already among the most climate-efficient in the world.

“While our sector has made significant progress on reducing warming emissions, the revised targets, particularly the upper end of the range, will still be very challenging. This is by no means letting agriculture off the hook.”

It was important to avoid stock number reductions seen in recent years, which Acland said was being driven by afforestation caused by New Zealand’s ETS settings.

She said it was important to work towards reducing methane by investing in efficiencies on-farm, genetic improvements and tools and technologies that could help farmers.

Acland said tax on agricultural methane emissions being ruled out was especially welcome news for the sector

“Emissions from our sector are already coming down – the threat of a price was draining confidence from the rural sector and was just not justified.”

Victoria University of Wellington Professor James Renwick said the government’s decision was “disappointing” as it represented a “major step backwards in ambition and in climate action”, but he was not surprised.

“The climate is currently changing rapidly and we need to be doing all we can to slow the warming and avoid catastrophic impacts from extremes and from tipping points crossed.

“Yes, carbon dioxide emission reductions are the number one target, and we must get to zero as soon as possible.

“But methane emissions are the next most important, and emissions reductions there would quickly translate into reductions in atmospheric concentrations (because of the short lifetime of methane in the atmosphere), providing a cooling effect in the short-medium term.”

Professor Renwick said the idea of ‘no additional warming’ seemed to influenced the scientific advice to Government.

“This approach goes easy on the agriculture sector and in no way does it represent our ‘highest possible ambition’ as laid out in Article 4 of the Paris Agreement, to which New Zealand is a signatory.”

He said this was likely to concern some trading partners.

Others like Canterbury University’s Associate Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry Laura Revell said biogenic methane emissions in New Zealand had “largely stabilised so far this century”.

Revell, who was part of the independent methane science review, said the group had modelled the methane cuts needed to ensure no additional warming relative to 2017 levels.

She said they found the level of cuts needed depends on global methane emissions.

“Because atmospheric methane concentrations are continuing to increase – driven largely by emissions from other countries – steeper cuts to New Zealand’s emissions alone would have little impact on total atmospheric heating.

“If the rest of the world makes steep cuts to methane emissions, then New Zealand would need to make steeper cuts too to ensure the no additional warming target is met. Periodic reviews of the target seem sensible.”

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Many rural communities are clearing away fallen trees, debris and repairing fences in wind battered regions, following yesterday’s storm.

Katie Wyeth, a Federated Farmers spokesperson for Wairarapa, said many farmers hadn’t even had time to clean up the damage from wind and rain earlier in the week, before yesterday’s extreme weather.

Follow updates with RNZ’s blog

Wyeth said the conditions created havoc.

“We lost I think at least five, and these are big old man poplar trees, big trees that came down, and one in particular that’s blocked off our main track accessway to one side of the farm, pulled up half the track and blocked a culvert,” she said.

“And then the main damage after that is just falling branches and things onto all our fence lines, particularly the waterways.

“A tree came down over a power line to our pump shed, so we’ve got no power or water to one side of that farm.”

Wyeth said falling trees killed several of their sheep.

Despite the damage and livestock deaths, she said most farmers will just roll up their sleeves and do what needs to be done.

“Probably be clearing trees, I imagine. There’ll be a lot of chainsaws running red hot over the next few days, week or so,” she said.

“There might be people having to get diggers and stuff in to clean up some damage.

“Generally, most of the people, farmers I’ve spoke to, it’s fairly typical, they’ll say, oh, … we’re not too bad compared to some people, but everyone says that, right? And they just get on with starting to get it cleared up.”

Wyeth said it was one extreme to the other for different parts of the Wairarapa region – with some farmers sloshing around in mud, while others needed more rain.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Ingka Investments, the parent company of furniture giant Ikea, has bought 10,000 hectares of production forestry in Northland from Greenheart Group.

It takes the company’s investment in the country’s forestland to nearly 30,000 hectares, worth about $616 million. This includes nine existing forestry blocks planted in mostly pinus radiata, and an additional 3000ha of indigenous forest, most of which will be dedicated to biodiversity conservation and other environmental purposes.

It comes as Ikea plans to open its first New Zealand store in Auckland in December.

Forestland acquisition manager Simon Honour said its main focus was production forestry as opposed to carbon farming, and had hopes of using the timber for Ikea products.

“Obviously wood is an essential part of the Ikea identity and our ultimate goal is to get that wood into the Ikea supply chain.”

He said it would focus on domestic processing and was working to develop relationships with local sawmills and traders, though he did not rule out looking to develop their own further down the track.

Honour said most of the forestland was not eligible for carbon units.

Where blocks are registered under the Emissions Trading Scheme, or ETS, he said this helped quantify how many units are being sequestered and the carbon units are not traded.

“We have no focus on carbon whatsoever, and we have a pure timber focus.”

Overseas Investment Office figures from last year show Ingka Investments had bought about 19,200ha of farmland to turn into rotational pine forests.

Some of the more prominent sales included Huiarua Station and Matanui Station in the Gisborne region, with a combined area of just over 6000ha.

Honour acknowledged much of the land purchased by Ingka Investments since 2021 was farmland converted to forestry.

“Even from the start, if we could buy forests we would have. Unfortunately they don’t come up for sale that often.

“We wanted to get established in New Zealand and at that time, back in 2021, acquiring farms was a way to do that.”

He said there were “pros and cons” to establishing new forestry blocks.

“Creating forests from the start where you can set your riparian zones, your set back from waterways right from the start does have some benefits.”

He would not rule out purchasing future farms for conversion, but said it was not Ingka’s focus for now.

“We would much rather procure existing forests because it just fits with our values better.”

He said the strategic acquisition underscored Ingka Investments’ long-term commitment to responsible forest management, sustainable land stewardship and regional economic development.

Addressing farmer concerns about the risk of fire and pests on forestland, Honour said management plans were in place for both.

Planned restoration projects focused on indigenous reforestation, and enhancement of existing native vegetation will be complemented by ongoing pest-control programs designed to safeguard biodiversity, improve forest health, and support the long-term success of restoration efforts.

While pinus radiata will remain the dominant commercial species due to its proven performance, future replanting cycles will selectively introduce alternative species where appropriate.

This diversification strategy will strengthen ecosystem resilience, support biodiversity, and improve overall forest health.

The Northland forests were certified by the Forest Stewardship Council and would remain so.

Honour said a commercial production forest contributed to regional employment and he hoped to grow the number of Northland jobs.

Local forestry company, Northland Forest Managers, would continue daily operations. Manager Neil Geerkens said he looked forward to the partnership.

“Together, we will maintain sustainable harvesting practices, enhance biodiversity conservation and ensure continued community access, delivering enduring environmental, social, and economic benefits for the region.”

The acquisition was subject to OIO approval, and shareholder and regulatory approvals by Greenheart Group.

Kelvin Meredith, Ingka Investments’ forestland country manager New Zealand, said it was committed to responsible forest management, including restoring natural landscapes, supporting biodiversity and collaborating with local communities to create meaningful, lasting impact.

“People value recreational access to these forests, and we’re committed to ensuring these opportunities continue.”

The Kauri Coast Mountain Bike Park, located at Baylys Forest and operated by the Kaipara Cycling Club, will continue to be free to access by the public, subject to seasonal safety restrictions.

Seasonal beehives located on parts of the estate, operated in consultation with the landowner, will also remain in place to support local apiarists and contribute to biodiversity across the forest landscape.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Alliance Group farmer-shareholders have voted in favour of a proposed $270 million investment from Irish meat processor Dawn Meats.

Under the agreement, Dawn Meats will acquire a 65 percent stake in Alliance Group, with farmer-shareholders retaining 35 percent ownership.

More than 2600 shareholders took part in the vote, representing 92.5 million shares – more than 88 percent of all shares on issue.

Of those, more than 87 percent supported the proposal.

Alliance chair Mark Wynne said the result showed strong confidence from the company’s farmer-owners in its direction and leadership.

“Our farmer-shareholders have given a clear mandate for Alliance to move forward in partnership with Dawn Meats. This is a vote of trust in our people, our operations and our vision.”

Wynne said the partnership followed a two-year process to reset and recapitalise the business after challenging years for the meat sector.

“The Board explored every option to secure Alliance’s future. The Dawn Meats proposal stood out as the best strategic and financial path forward, a view confirmed by independent adviser Northington Partners.”

He said the investment would strengthen Alliance’s balance sheet, reduce debt, and enable greater capital investment in technology and efficiency.

Wynne had previously said the bank had made it clear the company’s $188 million in debt had to be paid back in full by the end of the year.

Around $200 million from the investment will be used to reduce the company’s short-term working capital facility, with the rest directed toward strategic projects.

Alliance planned to distribute up to $20 million in both the 2026 and 2027 financial years to farmer and shareholders through a mix of dividends and supply-based rebates, alongside a further $25 million dividend from the joint venture’s stronger-than-expected performance.

Dawn Meats chief executive Niall Browne said the Irish company was “pleased and excited” by the vote outcome.

“We look forward to maximising the potential of the new opportunities this strategic partnership will unlock,” he said.

“Having the ability to now grow in partnership with some of New Zealand’s leading farmers, and create a year-round supply for our customers between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, is a fantastic opportunity – and one our customers are already responding to.”

Alliance is New Zealand’s largest processor and exporter of sheep meat and a major producer of grass-fed beef, operating six plants nationwide and exporting to more than 65 countries.

Dawn Meats, established in 1980 in Ireland, is one of Europe’s largest red meat companies, processing about one million cattle and 3.5 million sheep annually through its Irish and UK facilities.

Wynne said the deal marked “a turning point” for the co-operative.

“The future looks much brighter than it did 12 months ago,” he said.

“We’re now well positioned to thrive alongside a complementary partner like Dawn Meats and deliver enduring profitability and greater value for our farmer-shareholders.”

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

South Island farmers are working to keep farms running amid power outages, road closures and damaging winds – with all eyes on rising rivers.

Follow updates on RNZ’s blog

Severe gale northwesterlies are lashing parts of the east coast on Thursday, particularly Canterbury, while MetService has issued heavy rain warnings for already-sodden areas Fiorldland and Westland.

Slips and surface flooding have hit the roading network, with multiple road closures across the West Coast and inland into upper South Island state highways including SH6 and SH8.

State-owned farming enterprise Pāmu Farms has 130 staff working in 24 largely dairy farms in the upper South Island across Canterbury, West Coast and Marlborough.

The area’s general manager, Cam Walker said teams had been busy preparing for today’s weather by moving stock out of high risk areas in advance and giving them extra feed.

He said fortunately they were still able to get milk tankers in, despite many road closures.

“It’s definitely a wild ol’ spring at the moment,” he said.

“Luckily yeah there have been some road closures, but there has been a path to get through to all the farms, so there have been a few detours in place and things, but luckily no disruptions to milk.

“We have had a few power outages, but the team’s done a good job preparing for that with generators and things to keep milking going.”

All eyes on rising rivers

Walker said staff were watching rising rivers closely, particularly in Canterbury and Marlborough.

“Well, everyone’s got concerns at the moment. Definitely the gale force winds across the Canterbury region’s a big focus for us today. The rivers are up through there with the West Coast rain spilling into the headwaters,” he said.

“Teams are managing infrastructure like pivots downwind… and watch out for any flying debris and stay away from trees and all of that sort of stuff.”

He said Molesworth Station got 40 millimetres of rainfall yesterday with more forecast, and the area’s rivers were very high.

“They’re keeping a close eye on [river] levels up there. Hanmer, the Waiau is bank to bank, so flood protection is doing a good job across our farms there, but there is a little bit spilling over into paddocks there, nothing too major.

“It’s sort of everywhere at the moment to be honest in our region.”

‘Trying’ conditions on the wet West Coast

Walker, based on the West Coast, said it was a wet spring there already, ahead of today’s forecast rain.

“It’s been a wet ol’ time across the coast over spring, and we’ve had 500-odd millimetres over the last month already, and with more rain over the last 24 hours and obviously more on the forecast, it’s been pretty trying conditions,” he said.

“But the team’s doing a good job and the focus is obviously on safety first for our people and they’re out there looking after the animals at the moment.”

Bad weather came at an already busy time for the dairy farms in the midst of mating.

Walker said mating was in full swing, so farmers were ensuring stock were well fed after a tough few weeks from the rain.

“I guess it’s just around making good decisions around what jobs can wait for better weather conditions, but things like mating are absolutely still happening and the teams are just making sure cows are in sheltered paddocks and feeding a little bit more feed just to get the cows through.

“But luckily it’s a norwest flow with this rain so it is relatively warm out there, but certainly the animals are feeling it from a month of pretty wet conditions across the coast, that’s for sure.”

Walker said fortunately feed levels were good due to the warm weather that had come with the storms.

Pāmu Farms has hundreds of farms scattered across Aotearoa.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Environmental lawyers say they remain concerned about the risks posed by glyphosate-based products, the most commonly used herbicide in Aotearoa, despite a rejection in the High Court.

Last week, the High Court dismissed the Environmental Law Initiative’s (ELI) challenge of the Environmental Protection Authority’s (EPA) decision not to reassess glyphosate, the main ingredient in weedkillers like Roundup.

The court found the EPA was lawful in its decision, following ELI’s request for a reassessment of the chemical in September 2023.

The herbicidal ingredient was first introduced into Aotearoa in the 1970s, and has been commonly used by councils and others for weed management ever since, featuring in dozens of products sold in stores.

The ELI cited reports in its call for reassessment that showed negative effects of the chemical’s use on human health, including “probable” carcinogenic qualities, and to the environment.

It would be reviewing the judgement that was made on 17 October.

Director of legal and research Dr Matt Hall said it was not seeking a ban, but a full risk reassessment to ensure the proper precautions could be taken to protect people and the environment.

He said the group was still concerned that it had never undergone a comprehensive risk assessment.

“While we didn’t receive the key outcome we sought, we remain concerned that glyphosate and glyphosate-containing herbicides have never undergone a comprehensive risk assessment in Aotearoa New Zealand,” he said.

“Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide in the country, and we are amongst the most permissive regulators of it globally.”

However, the EPA’s manager of hazardous substances re-assessments, Dr Shaun Presow said glyphosate was probably one of the world’s most studied chemicals, but not all pieces of research were up to international standards of reliability and trust.

“Glyphosate is a very old chemical, so it’s not been reassessed under the current legislation, the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms or HSNO [Act],” he said.

“There hasn’t been any need to do a reassessment because we haven’t seen that new compelling information come through that would require us to have a look at those controls and to change them.”

Read more:

No fines or recalls for food with illegal levels of potentially harmful agrichemicals in last five years

Environmental group at odds with regulator over herbicide Roundup

Japan warns it will block NZ honey shipments if glyphosate limits breached

‘Safe to use’

He said the EPA considered glyphosate-based products safe to use, as long as people followed instructions to their use.

“We consider it safe to use as long as people read the label, follow the instructions, that’s the most important thing.

“And if anything new does come down the pipeline, then we’ll act as necessary.”

Since 1990, ACC accepted 395 claims for injuries involving Roundup, paying out $875,000, and a further 20 claims for glyphosate, paying a further $6241, RNZ reported in January.

It was banned in countries like Vietnam or heavily restricted in others, such as the European Union where it was prohibited on crops pre-harvest and banned for consumer use in Germany and France.

A reassessment was carried out in the European Union between 2019-2023, which found there was no scientific or legal justification for a ban.

However, the European Commission wanted more detailed data from authors of a report that suggested carcinogenicity of the chemical in its 2023 decision.

Presow said the EPA did not believe a consumer ban was warranted with the information available on it at this time.

“The finding of the court, the decision that was made stands, and so there’s no plan to look at glyphosate in the near future.”

Presow said users must read the label, wear personal protective gear like gloves and goggles and use it only during calm, dry weather.

EPA guidelines also urged users to keep the chemical away from streams, lakes, ponds, and far away from children and pets when it was being sprayed.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

MPs deliberating controversial changes to pig welfare rules will have less time to scrutinise new rules.

The Animal Welfare Amendment (Regulations of Management of Pigs) Bill proposed to keep farrow crates, but gave pig farmers 10 years to adapt to slightly tougher restrictions.

The bill passed its first reading in the house with the two-week submission process closing at 5pm Thursday.

Farrowing crates -which were used to prevent a sow crushing her piglets, but were so small a sow cannot turn around -were due to be banned from December 18 under changes brought in by the previous Labour government.

The Primary Production Select Committee had originally planned to report back on the bill in February, but had now brought this forward to November 20.

In a statement, the committee said it had decided “by majority” to shorten the process to prevent a “legislative gap” when current regulations expire on December 18.

After this date the pork industry would have been at risk of prosecution if it used farrowing crates.

The Labour Party and Green Party both voted against shortening the time frame.

Greens animal welfare spokesperson Steve Abel, a committee member, said it was likely the bill would have to be passed under urgency.

“This is totally avoidable. This is an example of a minister who has delayed and delayed and delayed, and now is doing the bidding of the pork industry.”

Labour Animal Welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack also had concerns about the truncated process.

“Labour consulted on changes to pig animal welfare rules in 2022 and had put in place a transition process to end the use of farrowing crates in December this year. Instead of supporting the transition process and improved animal welfare for pigs, the Minister has chosen to delay changes to standards for a further 10 years, and then, only make minor improvements to welfare standards.

“Given the significant change in approach to pig welfare from this government and the high public interest, Labour believes the Bill should go through a full select committee process to ensure proper scrutiny before final decisions are made.”

The SPCA, which had said it was left “blindsided” by the reforms after not being consulted, was also unhappy.

“There was only a two week consultation process which is incredibly short for a select committee, so we have grave concerns about this just being rushed through and purely being a tick box exercise,” SPCA chief scientific sdvisor Arnja Dale said.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

A rural land agent has allayed fears a significant Hawke’s Bay farm will be planted in pine trees.

The Riverbank Station owned by former All Blacks captain Sam Whitelock and his wife Hannah is on the market.

The flat, rolling and steep 833 hectare sheep and beef farm at Rissington is northwest of Napier, near the rural village of Puketapu.

The sale has attracted plenty of attention with many on social media raising concerns it may be targeted as a forestry conversion for carbon credits.

Bayleys agent Tony Rasmussen said it was likely rising red meat returns will keep the property in productive farmland.

“Largely, the numbers should stack up better for sheep and beef farming with the current returns we’re getting,” Rasmussen said.

The government has introduced legislation to restrict farms going to forestry.

The recent Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) amendment bill restricts large-scale conversions of high and medium rated productive farmland (Land Use Capability classes 1-6) to exotic forestry.

“The carbon price has been the main driver of farm conversions,” Rasmussen said.

“Now effectively the party can only get 25 percent of the land area registered in the ETS and that changes the equation significantly.”

Rasmussen isn’t expecting an international buyer to take the Whitelocks’ farm out of New Zealand hands either.

“It’s received a good level of interest, not necessarily from the overseas space.

“It’s highly likely it will be a New Zealand purchaser.”

Enquiries have been been strong from local buyers and from outside the region.

“It’s 27km from the Napier Airport with a lovely easy contour and the nice climate we have here in Hawke’s Bay,” Rasmussen said.

“This is truly a trophy farm that has seen significant capital investment.”

Tenders close on 12 November. The farm on five titles was purchased for $8.5 million eight years ago. It has an RV of $15.3m.

The property includes three dwellings and shearers’ quarters with over 40km of new fencing, steel cattle yards and new sheep yards.

It’s bound by the Mangaone River which is known for its excellent trout fishing.

Whitelock who was capped in more than 150 test matches is returning to his farming roots in Manawatū.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

There have been calls for a review of the warnings issued ahead of last week’s weather event which brought down hundreds of slips, closed dozens of central North Island roads, inundated farms and flooded homes.

An orange warning was issued, but the mayor of the Waitomo District and the Minister for Rural Communities are questioning whether that should have been upgraded.

Marokopa sheep and beef farmer Chris Lovell was docking lambs with his family and trying to get on with life when RNZ visited after near record rains swamped his property, leaving its best paddocks caked with suffocating silt.

“The river just came over the banks and just kept coming up and we were in the house which is on a hill and had to watch in dismay as it started to go over everything, over fences, over gateways.

“We’d moved the stock to safety the night before because we’re sort of used to heavy rain on the west coast but this was exceptional. It’s muddy water, it’s not nice, there’s lot’s of debris and as the water recedes it just gets worse and worse as you see the damage.”

He was afraid to leave the house to check on his stock at the height of the storm.

“I thought I should be doing something but I couldn’t get out. I wanted to check, you know like, the sheep. I wanted to check there was nothing stuck on islands, but I couldn’t get out myself.

“Several times I started to wade out to see in the driveway and I decided it would be silly to even try.”

Minister concerned

Minister for Rural Communities Mark Patterson was visiting the Waitomo District with mayor John Roberston and Taranaki-King Country MP Barbara Kuriger.

He wanted to gauge the scale of the damage caused by a weather event he believed had flown under the radar.

“What’s happened is there’s widespread isolated pockets where it’s really badly impacted and I think where we are here you can see some fairly widespread damage, $50,000 to $60,000 worth according to the farmers, and if you replicate that around the rest of the province it mounts up.”

Patterson said he would be reporting to his colleagues in Wellington about whether a Mayoral Relief Fund was necessary and he was expecting NZ Transport Agency to step up in terms of repairing the ruined roads.

A farmer himself, the minister was not convinced farmers had enough warning about how severe the weather was likely to be.

“There will be some questions asked of MetService. How they missed this 50mm to 70mm forecast over 200mm delivered in some places, so we’re going to have a pretty thorough review about why they missed this.

“You know, is it a systematic problem, do we need better rain radars like we have invested in Tasman subsequently, so those questions need to be asked.”

It should have been red – mayor

Waitomo mayor John Robertson was on the same page as the Minister.

“Yes, so it was an orange warning and it should’ve been a red warning. Clearly they were severe storms. When we get 150mm in 24 hours of rain, for this district that is huge, that is a month’s worth of rain in 24 hours.”

Chris Lovell was a bit more forgiving.

“The warning system was on yellow, which is just a warning, and it wasn’t raised to orange until the morning when we already had water going over our fences by then, but the radar and the forecast, the three-day forecast, didn’t look good and living here we like to sleep at night, so we take our stock off the flats if there’s a chance.”

He said as long as the three-day forecast map was available and the rain radar was working farmers could see if they were going to be in the red zone.

MetService chief meteorologist Chris Noble said it was was standard practice for all severe weather warnings it issued to be recorded and reviewed through an internal post-event verification process.

“This process includes an assessment of the model forecasts that were available prior to the event (that informed the pre-event warnings), reviews the Watches and Warnings that were issued, and assesses the rainfall that occurred against what was forecast (timings, amounts etc.).

“Where relevant it also includes working with affected councils and/or Civil Defence groups.”

Noble said the review would take time to complete, “but any lessons learned would contribute to, and improve where relevant, MetService’s processes and the severe weather warning system and its outputs”.

Meanwhile, the rural community was rallying around helping farmers get back on their feet.

Adrian Marsh was with a group of shearers clearing fences on the Marokopa to Awakino road.

“Well, we’ve got the fence line for the farms, for their paddocks and it’s covered in, you know, logs, sticks, grass, you name it, and we’ve just come out to clean up and tidy it up a bit.”

He said it was a quiet time for shearers so he and his mates were happy to help out the farmers with the unexpected and unwanted extra work.

Beyond the fence line the paddock was caked in mud and silt.

‘Pretty scary’

Barbara Kuriger, also a farmer, knew that was bad news for Lovell and his neighbours.

“The grass just rots, so you can see that’s setting and it’s going to go completely hard and it’s going to need to be reploughed up and planted again because that’s never going to grow again. It won’t come through the silt, weeds might, but the grass is going to need resowing.

“There were lots of slips along the road but out here you can see it’s taken the brunt of it. When you look at what’s been pulled off the fences here you can just imagine how high that water was. It would’ve been pretty scary the other day.”

She would be working with Robertson and Patterson to see what help they could get the farmers.

Robertson said, while here had been a lot of focus on the five state highways closed during the weather event and its aftermath, 30 local Waitomo roads had been closed at one stage and were severely damaged.

He was hoping for a helping had from NZTA to repair those including the Marokopa to Awakino road which had been reduced to rubble in places.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

This story has been updated to clarify the blueberries will not be genetically modified

The world’s largest variety of blueberry will soon be grown and sold in New Zealand.

Described as “up to the size of a ping-pong ball”, the blueberries are being planted in the Kerikeri and Waikato regions.

The Fresh Berry Company, which grows and markets berries, said it had partnered with international berry producer Driscoll’s.

General manager Simon Tallon said one of the monster Eterna variety berries, that was grown in Australia, is offically the largest blueberry in the world.

Tallon described the Eterna berry that made it into the Guiness Book of World Records as a good large blueberry that weighed 20.4 grams.

He said the imported blueberry stock was tested for pests and diseases by the Ministry for Primary Industries before being released to growers.

“Those then get taken through to tissue culture and our commercial nurseries where we grow them into commercial plants for our farms and external growers. The big push is always how do you get better berries, firmer berries, better shelf life and ultimately they have to be good tasting fruit.”

Simon Tallon expected a limited number of the monster-sized blueberies to be on some supermarket shelves later next year .

Meanwhile, he said The Fresh Berry Company was also starting its first berry farm in the South Island next year, in Nelson.

“All of our production is covered – in plastic tunnel houses apart from some of the blueberries that are exported.”

Tallon said there was likely to be a bumper crop of strawberries leading up to Christmas from its growers and farms in Hawke’s Bay, Waikato and Northland.

“We are expecting to have a pretty good volume this year so consumers can enjoy strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries.”

He said $120 million of berries were sold in the country last year.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand