By CountryWide Media
Bringing' you the best of rural New Zealand for nearly 50 years via your mailboxes, now it’s time for our seasonal stories from the magazine to weekly updates straight to your ears.
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The podcast currently has 45 episodes available.
Can we find common ground to solve the challenges facing the primary industries? AGMARDT has launched a thought leadership report with KPMG with the proactive title ‘Are industry good bodies good for industry?’ The report identified 150 different organisations from co-operatives to levy-funded and member organisations that drive forward positive outcomes for farmers, but are they working collaboratively together in a way that will take farming into the future?
In this episode we hear from farmer Phil Weir, who wrote his Nuffield report about how industry bodies can collaborate more effectively to tackle challenges in the sector, and Lee-Ann Marsh the General Manager of AGMARDT, about why they funded this report and what the next steps are for better industry collaboration.
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Waikato Farmer and Director on the board of Beef + Lamb New Zealand, Phil Weir, wrote his 2020 Nuffield report on “Restructuring Industry Good for the Future”, which proposed a new industry body to oversee the challenges facing the farming sector. He says this isn’t about getting rid of the individual groups, but finding ways to work across the sector on common issues, for a more impactful outcome.
General Manager of AGMARDT Lee-Ann Marsh discusses why AGMARDT are funding collaborative partnerships that involve groups from across the sector, including the KPMG report, to bring better solutions to industry challenges. This would tackle issues such as duplicate applications for funding towards solving the same issue, rather than collaboration across the industry bodies for a common outcome.
Read the new Spring issue of Country-Wide Magazine here
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With a goal of Predator Free 2050, it can seem ambitious with only 25 years to go. Is it a fantasy, or can it become our reality? In this episode we catch up with different groups working to tackle pests and weeds across New Zealand, from animals like ferrets, goats and possums, to weeds like wilding conifers.
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Pete Oswald, skier and entrepreneur by trade, and self-titled passionate environmentalist, has been project manager for the Central Otago Wilding Conifer Control Group for 18 months. He discusses the impact of funding issues, and what this means for effectively tackling wild weeds in New Zealand.
Mike Perry has been the Manager of DOC’s new National Wild Animals Management Programme for two years, having spent 10 years with them already, and working in the bush and backcountry for over 20 years. He discusses the National Wild Goat Hunting Competition that is back for 2024, and encourages those who farm and hunt to either enter or sign up to the new landowner category.
Keen to get involved? Find out more here.
Professor James Ross of Lincoln University discusses whether Predator Free 2050 is a reality or a fantasy, and how replicating what has been done on our uninhabited islands to tackle pest problems can be used on the mainland to achieve the same outcome. He discusses the projects he’s worked on, and what technology we need to meet our goals.
Read more in Country-Wide Spring:
Read the new Spring issue of Country-Wide Magazine here
Subscribe to Country-Wide magazine for $59/four magazines plus postage annually: https://country-wide.co.nz/shop/
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We have less than five seasons until overseas 2030 emissions targets begin to impact our overseas exports, and we may still yet need to be able to minimise and measure our own emissions domestically. With this in mind, farmers might be wondering what tools are out there to help them tackle their emissions, in ways they can integrate into their existing systems.
Hear from two agricultural organisations working to develop tools to minimise methane emissions, and a farmer utilising genetics to breed low-methane sheep.
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AgrizeroNZ’s Ruth Leary discusses the various tools they are investing in to provide solutions to lower methane emissions, such as a vaccine for animals. She says this would integrate well into farm systems as farmers are already in the routine of administering vaccines to their livestock.
Ruminant Biotech is a New Zealand start-up that AgriZeroNZ has invested in to develop tools for farmers. CEO Tom Breen discusses the tools they're developing such as slow-release methane inhibitors and boluses which they’re working towards releasing in 2027.
Alastair and Ann Reeves were the Supreme Winners in this year’s Waikato Ballance Farm Environment Awards, and have a history of using genetics to address animal health and environmental challenges, including methane. He discusses why and how he’s included methane in his breeding objectives.
Read more in Country-Wide Spring:
Read the new Spring issue of Country-Wide Magazine here
Listen to the Barenbrug Podcast: Better Pastures Together here.
Subscribe to Country-Wide magazine for $59/four magazines plus postage annually: https://country-wide.co.nz/shop/
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Investing off-farm in property or shares can be a daunting prospect, however it’s an increasingly appealing way to future proof your funds and diversify wealth away from land. Navigating how to start, what to invest in, and how to manage the risks should be top of mind for anyone interested in investing.
Learn more about how managing your wealth can help with farm succession, retirement, and preparing your rainy day fund. We also cover the importance of estate planning and insurance when it comes to key people in your business.
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Rival Wealth Co-Founder Carissa Fairbrother discusses the importance of making sure you are financially organised when self-employed. This will improve stress management for yourself now, but also in the worst case scenario if the key farm worker is unable to work. When it comes to estate planning she says it's especially important to front foot it, and be proactive. Don’t wait until it’s too late - have a well fenced ‘financial’ paddock, do it once and do it well.
CEO & Director of PMG Funds, Scott McKenzie, discusses investing in property, and how to get your foot in the door. He covers where PMG Funds invest and why, and why they favour investing in commercial property for its longevity.
Jarden Wealth Management Advisor Angus Marks discusses whether all your wealth should be held in your land, and how investing could help diversify onfarm income. He talks about understanding your risk, and how investing can actually help reduce risk by spreading your wealth. Diversification also helps when it comes to the succession and retirement process.
Read more in Country-Wide Spring:
Read the new Spring issue of Country-Wide Magazine here
Find out more about how a Trev subscription could work on your farm at mytrev.com
Subscribe to Country-Wide magazine for $59/four magazines plus postage annually: https://country-wide.co.nz/shop/
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When the traditional income streams are not delivering enough to the bottom line, is it time to diversify into activities that don’t rely on the cyclical nature of farm commodities? It can be hard to know what options are out there to diversify onfarm income, and how they can be integrated into your farming system. In this episode we hear about different options for diversifying, from raising goats for cashmere to horticulture and viticulture.
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NZ Cashmere’s Olivia Sanders says the time is now to get into the goat business, and shares some helpful insights for farmers who are interested in integrating goats into their farm system. She also discusses the realistic maintenance required for goats - such as when to shear, when to drench, and how to keep them contained.
Craigmore Sustainables CEO Che Charteris discusses the options for diversifying farm business through horticulture. He talks about how to manage the volatility of horticulture and viticulture, what opportunities there are with both climate change and water consents across the country, and what advice he has for sheep and beef farmers to avoid pitfalls when diversifying their land-use options.
ANZ’s Marcus Bousfield discusses whether it’s a good time for farmers to look at diversifying their income, and what those options might be. This includes solar, agritourism, and tree plantings with a potential ETS in mind. He says the weigh up would be whether you could get more value out of having beef or sheep on that land, or if trees could bring more income in future carbon credits.
Read more in Country-Wide Spring:
Read the new Spring issue of Country-Wide Magazine here
Subscribe to Country-Wide magazine for $59/four magazines plus postage annually: https://country-wide.co.nz/shop/
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Could solar farming be the next value-add option for New Zealand farmers? Agrivoltaics, which results in dual use of farmland between solar farming and traditional farming, is gaining traction as a viable way of diversifying income.
Hear what’s already happening in this space, including the Lincoln University energy farm project, how Lodestone Energy is partnering with farmers to expand their solar farm network, and listen to farmer Hamish Hills, who researched, financed and installed his own solar setup on his Golden Bay dairy farm.
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Lincoln University has unveiled plans for an energy farm project, to demonstrate how productive land can be optimised to produce high value horticulture crops, while also producing high scale solar energy.
Dr Shannon Page of Lincoln University discusses how the project will be able to provide 18% of the power needed for the University annually, as well as providing opportunities for teaching and learning, with both the solar and horticulture elements.
Lodestone Energy is a renewable energy company based in New Zealand, and is developing their agrivoltaics system with farmers to expand their portfolio of solar farms. This would result in farms having dual use of the land for both solar and traditional farming practices.
Chief Operating Officer, Richard Pearce, says solar farming provides the opportunity to repurpose farmland to integrate energy production and farm production more effectively. He discusses the benefits for farmers, and what they’re looking for from farmers.
Golden Bay farmer Hamish Hills started looking at introducing solar to his dairy operation three years ago, going operational at the beginning of last year, and says it complements their dryland operation well.
He took it upon himself to find out how he could implement solar on his farm, and had good support in doing so. He discusses what other farmers should think about if they’d also like to introduce solar on their farm. He says selling the power is the most challenging element. They are currently looking at expanding their solar operation.
Read more about solar farming opportunities in Country-Wide Magazine
Read the new Spring issue of Country-Wide Magazine here
Subscribe to Country-Wide magazine for $59/four magazines plus postage annually: https://country-wide.co.nz/shop/
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Farmers looking to implement a value-add business onfarm might want to consider looking into agritourism - with options such as self-contained holiday homes, glamping, and sunflower fields just to name a few. What you might consider ordinary on your farm, might just be extraordinary to an overseas or domestic customer.
But where do you get started? And does it really bring in enough revenue to make it worth it? Hear from three experts and farmers in both the consultancy and agritourism space, covering where to start, what to consider, and what the rewards are.
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Consultant and Owner of Inside New Zealand Ltd. Renee Hogg discusses ways farmers can look into diversifying their onfarm business, especially in the area of agritourism. She explains what farmers need to consider when getting started, and how to overcome obstacles holding them back.
She says there doesn’t have to be a huge amount of financial investment to get started, but there does need to be a solid plan and marketing. It can also be a good opportunity to extend the brand to the entire farm, which can help the business in other ways.
Abbe Hoare utilises her 90 hectares of farm land to grow sunflowers which has become an important stream of their onfarm income. She explains how they looked at value-add options, but were put off by the idea of maintaining a glamping business - especially when it came to making beds! Instead, they now provide a private picnic business in their sunflower field, and even host elopements too.
Annabel and Hamish Craw are sixth generation sheep and beef farmers near Little Akaloa on the South Island’s Banks Peninsula. They have two accommodation properties on their farm, and have integrated them into areas of regenerating bush, to make the most of showing off the natural biodiversity onfarm.
Annabel discusses how they made the agritourism business fit into their farm business, and how they’ve managed to make it financially rewarding.
Read the new Spring issue of Country-Wide Magazine here
Subscribe to Country-Wide magazine for $59/four magazines plus postage annually: https://country-wide.co.nz/shop/
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Tough times in New Zealand and globally have taken their toll on the luxury goods market, and New Zealand’s merino sector is no exception.
In this episode, we hear from those who know merino best, and how they’re planning to overcome challenges related to financial recession, and overseas regulations, that demand higher quality and processing accountability. We also look at how new technologies in the AI and genetics space could help enhance merino quality.
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Angus Street has been CEO of NZ Merino for almost a year now, and discusses how tough times across the globe have affected the merino and wider sheep market. He says in its 26 year history, this is the first time the company will make a loss.
He says going forward they’re taking a multifaceted approach to regenerating business globally for merino products, with delivering value to their growers at the core of it. He also discusses how the geopolitical landscape overseas is impacting New Zealand trade, including evolving regulations coming out of Europe.
Mark Ferguson discusses new technologies coming into the sheep breeding sector, including how AI technologies are already being integrated into farm systems. This includes tools such as facial recognition, to monitor for issues such as fly-strike.
He also discusses what’s next for the merino world, including utilising breeding genetics that haven’t previously been used, such as breeding out dags, and focussing on reducing cost, rather than increasing production.
Craig Smith is the General Manager of Devold New Zealand, which creates merino wool products that are sold in markets such as Europe. He discusses how they’ve leaned into making sure the whole product is sourced ethically, and where environmental obligations fit into their ethos of providing quality goods.
He discusses how EU regulations have started asking for the whole story behind a garment, including making sure workers are properly paid and looked after across the manufacturing process, and the welfare of the sheep themselves.
He discusses how quality has been a big challenge over the past season, and the impact reduced quality of wool can have on the quality of the end product.
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Protecting our farm businesses for future generations is front of mind for many in the farming world, including when it comes to land use, and freshwater degradation.
Guests Lee Matheson and Tanira Kingi have both been part of Our Land And Water (Toitū te Whenua, Toiora te Wai) research projects, and spoke at the symposium held in May, to discuss ways farmers already are and can continue to protect their greatest asset: the land. Whether this is getting involved in protecting your local catchment, or diversifying land use, the opportunities are out there.
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Perrin Ag’s Managing Director Lee Matheson spoke at the Our Land And Water symposium back in May, and has been part of one of their research streams. He’s been part of a project looking into the Tukituki catchment group, which consulted with farmers about the impact of land use on water quality. He said farmers were actually already doing a lot more than they realised when presented with a list of water quality mitigations.
The farmers they spoke to were interested in more valuable but less impactful land use, but were struggling to get resources, such as water, to do that.
He also discusses what he’d like to see from future research, including making sure research is funded to ensure future-proofed, sustainable food systems for New Zealand to help us maintain our global green reputation.
Dr Tanira Kingi has been involved in the agricultural sector for more than 30 years, and has been part of the Our Land And Water research too, looking at how farmers can increase productivity while decreasing their carbon footprint.
He also discusses the importance of protecting our natural resources, and that farmers can't rely on a temporary relaxing of regulations by a change in government. He says we need to look out how our production systems impact our natural resources going into the future, as we encounter more droughts and harsher environments.
From data Pohewa Pae Tawhiti collected with Whitiwhiti Ora, farmers can find information on alternative ways of using their land, for products such as apples, truffles, asparagus, macadamias and maize. Although the project is now finished, Tanira Kingi says he’s happy with the results and the information now available to farmers on a national and local level.
Articles mentioned in this episode:
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One of the hot topics at the Red Meat Sector Conference this week was the recently enacted EU deforestation regulation, and how this will impact New Zealand meat exporters. Rebecca Greaves talks to farmer and Special Agricultural Trade Envoy for New Zealand, Hamish Marr, and lawyer Sarah Salmond, about this and more - including negotiating the minefield of Non Tariff Barriers (NTBs) and whether we should join forces with the Aussies.
Then hear from McDonald’s New Zealand's Simon Kenny about what they’re doing to get ahead of the game when it comes to sustainability, meeting their climate obligations and goals with their beef suppliers.
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Special Agricultural Trade Envoy and Canterbury Farmer Hamish Marr discusses how EU de-forestration rules will impact our Fair Trade Agreement with them when it comes into effect in December. He says New Zealand is unique in its environmental stewardship and now the challenge is how we leverage that to do the best for our marketability.
He also discusses what else he’s seeing overseas, what challenges other countries are discussing that will impact New Zealand, including climate change, and the perception of New Zealand as a clean green food producer.
Lawyer Sarah Salmond spoke on a panel at the Red Meat Sector Conference on the emerging trade landscape, and works at the coalface of navigating ever-changing overseas regulations, especially coming out of the EU. She discusses how Free Trade Agreements are not the only tool in our toolbox, and can be viewed more as a foot in the door.
Simon Kenny from McDonald’s New Zealand discusses how they are managing climate obligations with the beef they use in their products, and the work they are doing with the NZ Roundtable for Sustainable Beef. He discusses how they are front-footing meeting emissions targets, including from their suppliers, and how this ties into customer expectations.
Check out the Early Bird Podcast here
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The podcast currently has 45 episodes available.