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DeerIndustryNewsRaincliff Station

EnvironmentFARMERS FACE OFF OVER NITROGEN

Velvet competitionsTOP OF THE SOUTH AND RISING STARS PREVIEW

Branch Chairs’ MeetingINDUSTRY REPORTS, FRESHWATER PLANNING, NEW ANGLE ON PARASITES

DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016

DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016 3 3 DEER INDUSTRY NEWS

Editorial

New DINZ director right behind P2PI’m pleased to have the opportunity to join the DINZ Board. As the largest processor and marketer of venison in New Zealand, we felt that it was important Silver Fern Farms committed a senior person to contribute to the governance of the industry body.

AT SILVER FERN Farms we’re excited by the prospects for venison as a premium red meat. We’re committed to our venison business. We see real value in talking to customers and consumers around the world about our range of high-quality, grass-fed, sustainably farmed, red meat, which is 100% Made of New Zealand. I’m proud to walk into a restaurant to see Silver Fern Farms beef, venison and lamb on the menu.

The venison industry is at a critical juncture. Herd size is declining and processing numbers in recent years have been inflated as capital stock has been depleted. Farm ownership is also transitioning. For every herd I hear is being sold, I hear of a large deer farm building its herd. To rebuild the overall herd, we will have to see processing numbers temporarily decline. The question becomes where does it end up in, say, five years’ time. What is the scale of the industry? Is it sufficient to support the marketing spend and big enough to remain relevant for chefs and consumers? Are there fewer but larger deer farms? Have processors got the right capacity in the right places?

For it to be sustainable, we need to deliver a red meat offering that consumers value and, in the process, farmers and processors generate sufficient returns on capital to warrant reinvestment.

That’s a lot more achievable with the New Zealand dollar at 0.55 euro rather than 0.70, but we can focus only on things we can influence.

Our industry must extend global market options for venison. At the same time, it is crucial that we continue to drive up the value chain to extract greater margins. In doing so, we will grow profitability and reduce reliance on a small number of markets.

The seven-year Passion2Profit (P2P) programme is a positive initiative. It is looking behind the farm gate with programmes such as Advance Parties and at opportunities in existing and new markets. On the latter, P2P is looking to support the extension of venison consumption in Europe to “out of season” and to research and provide insights as to how we can gain traction in China over time. We support P2P.

There is a benefit in working collaboratively across the industry where there is common ground, and this is one example.

Already there has been headway on expanding seasonal demand. Through P2P, Firstlight and Silver Fern Farms targeted the Belgium, Netherlands and Luxemburg foodservice market to promote chilled venison as a summer restaurant menu option.

We have Silver Fern Farms branded retail venison on supermarket shelves in New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong and, in the new year, Germany.

Initiatives like these helped increase chilled venison sales (at a 20–30% premium to frozen), which underpinned our spring venison supply contract this season.

Sales channels are evolving as well. We have launched online in the United States, with partner Fresh Direct now offering Silver Fern Farms venison as part of its range.

As a Director of DINZ, I look forward to making a positive contribution and to seeing more examples of effective collaboration where it makes sense, product innovation, diversification of markets and, ultimately, greater profitability. Exciting times lie ahead.

—Dean Hamilton, DINZ Board

Contents

Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

On FarmRaincliff Station: “Feed to profit” . . . . . 4Mendip Hills – drought preparedness . 34

Research Johne’s disease genetic work . . . . . 11

EnvironmentDeer farmers face off over nitrogen . . 12Taihape hill country . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Velvet CompetitionsRising Stars preview . . . . . . . . . . . 14Top of the South . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

MarketsVelvet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Venison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Branch Chairs’ MeetingVenison company presentations . . . . 18Velvet: Positives outweigh negatives . 20Board Q+A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22The numbers game . . . . . . . . . . . 23Water plans: Coming ready or not . . . 24Good science: Velvet research, DEEResearch, Hitting Targets, Parasitism . . . . . . . . . . . 26Fed Farmers concerns . . . . . . . . . . 30OSPRI update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Environment planning . . . . . . . . . . 32Health and safety . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Cover: Stags in velvet enjoying spring rain at Raincliff Station. See page 4. Photo: Phil Stewart

Deer Industry News is published by Deer Industry New Zealand in February, April, June, August, October and December. It is circulated to all known deer farmers, processors, exporters and others with an interest in the deer industry. The opinions expressed in Deer Industry News do not necessarily reflect the views of Deer Industry New Zealand or the New Zealand Deer Farmers’ Association.EDITOR Phil Stewart, Words & PicturesEDITORIAL AND ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES Deer Industry News, PO Box 27-221, Wellington, Ph 04 384 4688, 021 620 399, email [email protected] ENQUIRIES Deer Industry New Zealand, PO Box 10-702, Wellington, Ph 04 471 6114, email [email protected]

DeerIndustryNewsOFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF DEER INDUSTRY NEW ZEALAND AND THE NEW ZEALAND DEER FARMERS’ ASSOCIATION

ISSUE 75 | DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016 ISSN 1176-0753

Dean Hamilton

4 DEER INDUSTRY NEWS

On Farm

“Feed to profi t” focus at RaincliffIf you wanted to create a giant laboratory for trying new things to make deer farming more profi table, it would be hard to go past Raincliff Station. David and Jan Morgan’s South Canterbury property is teaming up with the Rupert family’s Peel Forest operation as part of the South Canterbury/North Otago Deer Industry Focus Farm programme.

RAINCLIFF, WHICH FEATURED in Deer Industry News four years ago after a post-conference field day ( June 2011 issue), is a mixed enterprise with a range of stock classes, land types, challenges and opportunities. At the heart of the business is a family who are not afraid to take expert advice and risk, while being acutely conscious of the business, physical and community environment they work in.

About 75 people attended a field day at Raincliff on 29 October to launch the programme, which is being facilitated by Justin Geary, New Zealand Farm Management consultancy group.

Introducing the day, DINZ Producer Manager, Tony Pearse, said South Canterbury was the “beating heart” of the New Zealand deer industry and had previously hosted two highly successful Focus Farm programmes (Whiterock Station and Downlands–Clayton Station). This latest programme is being funded with assistance from DEEResearch, Rabobank, FARMAX and Mountain River Venison, with expert support from AgResearch and others such as local veterinarians.

Justin Geary explained that there would be three field days a year at each of the properties. While Raincliff Station is a mixed venison, velvet, cropping and cattle grazing enterprise with both red and elk/wapiti herds, the Ruperts’ business at Mount Peel is mainly velvet focused, carrying 600 stags, 400 heifers and 400 dairy weaners to provide pasture quality control. Martin Rupert said the Focus Farm programme would help the family analyse the business with the help of outside experts and identify opportunities for improvements. Both the Morgans and

the Ruperts have adult children, some of whom are involved in the family business, with succession planning identified as an important issue for each family.

For each farm, five key components will feed into the overall “feed to profit” mission:• feed• environment• genetics• succession• stock class integration.

Key performance indicators identified so far from within these categories include:• feed grown per hectare (pasture and crops)• product per hectare (velvet, venison, dairy support liveweight)• environment enhancement• farm working expenses as a percentage of gross farm income• earnings before tax and interest (EBIT) per hectare• increasing the gross margin from the current $0.21c/kg dry

matter (DM) to $0.30c/kgDM

Raincliff: Morgan family involvementThe Morgans came to Raincliff in 2001, backed by a Danish investment company. The ownership structure changed to an equity partnership in 2005/6 and three years ago the Morgans sold a 300 hectare block of irrigated flats, which enabled them to buy out the equity partners and farm in their own right. David Morgan said losing this irrigated block was initially a shock to the system, but they now use a 150 hectare lease block, which is not deer fenced but is partially irrigated, providing some additional security for growing winter feed.

The family’s business vision is to farm in a way that’s “profitable, sustainable and enjoyable”, which highlights that the values are not entirely business driven – there is also a strong environmental and people focus.

Succession planning looms large in the Morgans’ thinking. Their son Brychan is directly involved in the operation and is cutting his teeth looking after the machinery and running a contracting business as part of the enterprise. They also have two daughters, Ellie and Millie. Morgan said it was not always easy to plan succession fairly and equitably, but “if your children share your passion for the business, you can overcome most obstacles”. He added that succession is about more than just numbers. “You have to take a holistic view.”

Farm factsThe total area of the home farm is 890 hectares (775 hectares effective), of which 580 hectares is deer fenced. Morgan said

Brothers in farms: David Morgan (left) and Martin Rupert are taking part in a joint three-year Focus Farm programme.

continued on page 6

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On Farm

they are “chipping away” at further fencing and subdivision on the home block, some of this being for environmental mitigation purposes.

Raincliff is still having a “shakedown” regarding the right integration of stock classes following the sale of the irrigated block and a drought last summer.

Heavy clay downs on the property can cut up when it is wet and dry out in summer, creating some challenges. Pad feeding of some stags during the winter, on a mix of fodder beet and baleage with some palm kernel has been successful and may be repeated.

Overall there is a good mix of land classes from river flats to less developed high downs, with a good programme of pasture renewal and fertiliser application.

Crops and feedingRaincliff Station has good spring pasture surpluses, which allows them to finish venison early to catch the spring schedule. A FARMAX graph shows a pronounced deficit in January and February with a milder pinch in April.

Because trading stock don’t feature much, and the dairy grazers have to be treated like capital stock, there is not as much flexibility to manage supply and demand as you might find in other operations. (They do trade a few bulls when conditions allow, however.) Morgan said the dairy grazers are given “all they can eat” up until Christmas. “If we get them 50kg ahead of their target weights by then it gives us some flexibility later on when it gets tighter.” The dairy grazers are also useful for maintaining pasture quality during the spring flush.

They can also run the lighter heifers with the hinds to help them catch up and remove the peer pressure from their better-performing herd mates.

He also uses the velvetting stags as a lever in feed management, tightening them up after velvetting if necessary.

Fodder beet is an important crop at Raincliff. By late October about 55 hectares had been planted and a further 10 hectares was due to go in. Half of it is lifted and used for pad feeding in winter and some is sold as a cash crop.

Morgan is considering putting lactating hinds onto fodder beet around February if needed, but is conscious that yields can be knocked back if crops are grazed too hard in autumn.

He has tried many varieties including Rivage, Suga, Lifta, Enermax and Troya. With a recently planted crop of Rivage, the fertiliser had been applied “down the spout” with the seed. Morgan said the rows were fairly widely spaced and the beets were not good scavengers. The targeted application was likely to cut fertiliser costs by a third to a half. The crops also receive some lime and about 100kg/ha of urea.

Maize is grown to be grazed by the dairy heifers to keep their liveweight gains up to speed during summer and barley is grown to help fill a feed deficit February to April.

Plantain with chicory had also been successful as a short- term winter feed crop and they were also trying some lucerne on the flats.

Poppy Frater of FARMAX explained that the program models pasture covers and growth rates and provides a range of tools to manipulate the options, such as strategic use of nitrogen and supplements. She said it is there to support your decisions rather than make decisions for you. The important thing was to act early, because options became increasingly limited in the event of a drought taking hold.

FARMAX was useful for supporting short-term decisions and also gave useful context for long-term strategies – whether or not to increase irrigation, for example. She said some farmers use it through their consultants while others use it directly. “It only takes about half a day to set up.”

BreedingRaincliff Station had mixed results with breeding this year. While the wapiti hinds scanned an impressive 96 or 97 percent, the reds were closer to 80 percent. This was possibly an outcome of last summer’s drought and the fact that the wapiti hinds had been

MA hinds (red) 424

MA hinds (wapiti) 189

R2 hinds 245

R1 deer 600

R2 stags 420

R3 stags 263

MA stags 720

Sire stags 26

Total deer 2,887

R2 heifers 550

R1 heifers 550

R2 steers 25

Total cattle 1,125

Lambs and hoggets 100

Total sheep 100

Table 1: Current stock numbers at Raincliff Station

Stags at Raincliff Station – mobs are rotated closer to the shed as their time for velvetting approaches.

Raincliff station: continued


prioritised; Morgan also said he had given a number of dry R2 red hinds with good genetics a reprieve when it was found a stag had been “firing blanks”.

He had taken the stags out on 19 April this year and aimed to bring that date back to 10 April in future. “We just want to get on with it for the fawning season.”

Hinds are kept in the quieter centre parts of the farm for fawning. Morgan acknowledged that continuing pasture

improvement had also meant removing some cover in the form of scattered gorse in fawning paddocks, but he was happy there were still enough nooks and crannies available.

Environmental workMorgan said it was important to be in the black if you wanted to be green, but regardless the family have been progressively

Olsen P map produced using Ravensdown Smart Map for Raincliff Station – offers a quick reference to farm soil fertility status. (Imagery provided by CoreLogic NZ Ltd under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 NZ.)

Hinds on the flats at Raincliff Station.

continued on page 8


On Farm

enhancing the environmental performance and aesthetics of Raincliff Station.

It is in a scenic part of South Canterbury and the Station has a proud history. It’s very visible from the road and the Morgans

are conscious of the heritage they are protecting. On the back boundary is a 250-acre block (Pioneer Park) that was donated by a former owner as a memorial to the region’s pioneers and planted with English and European trees.

Some of the trees on the home block are near the end of their lives and will need to be removed and replaced with some sensitivity. There are also features such as a prominent limestone bluff that need protecting.

Morgan said older macrocarpas will go, and it’s unlikely more radiata pine will be planted following the harvesting of some on the property. “They leave a real mess.”

He had been a bit hasty with fencing off some river flats and was chagrined to find he could have applied for financial assistance from Environment Canterbury and the Department of Conservation after this work had been done. “I’ll ask first, next time.”

They are planning to plant manuka in some of the retired or sensitive areas. “These will eventually grow to five or six metres and could provide another income stream with manuka honey later on.”

There is still work to be done fencing off wetlands and creating sediment traps to help improve the quality of water flowing off the station.

Attendees at the field day nut out the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats at Raincliff Station.

SWOT analysisAfter a farm tour in welcome gentle rain, attendees were put to work developing a SWOT analysis from what they had seen and heard. Interestingly, some features such as velvet production, family/succession issues and climate were listed under all four headings. This is what else the groups came up with.

Strengths ThreatsLocation – close to service town and only two hours from international airport

Debt loading if interest rates rise

Farm size Internal parasite resistance

Soil fertility High input costs

Clear vision by owners, flat management structure, staff buy-in to vision

Forested area on boundary – bovine Tb risk

Good planning and proactiveness Exposure to too few overseas markets and market variability (although there is diversity within the stock classes)

Multiple income streams: venison, velvet, dairy grazing, bulls, contracting

Opportunities

Pride in the station’s history and heritage More use of trading stock to fill gaps in the feed curve

Climate More use of palm kernel to boost production

Pasture renewal programme Lift velvet production per stag (current yields average 4.5–5.0kg)

Good farm infrastructure Use velvet stags for pasture improvement

Good genetic base More use of lucerne and red clover

Use of FARMAX Expand irrigation on the flats

Weaknesses Further genetic improvement

High percentage of capital stock reduces flexibility Greater use of feed pads or mixer wagon

Low rainfall at times Selling surplus fodder beet

Over-enthusiasm for machinery Manuka honey

Not as diverse as some farm operations Use lease land to run more hinds

Soil types – a lot of heavy soils prone to pugging Greater use of FARMAX.

Need to protect many waterways


continued on page 10


On Farm

Mountain River Venison reportJohn Sadler, Marketing Manager for field day sponsor Mountain River Venison, said the spectacular environment at Raincliff Station “is what chefs love”.

He said chefs in the top one percent of the market in the United States – a target for New Zealand venison – are very clear about what they want, including price ranges for different cuts. “They have plenty of choice and they want something special as a source for their product – like the farm we are visiting today.”

The US market is an important one for Mountain River, which supplies about 50:50 chilled and frozen venison there. The frozen product tends to go to the inland states where distance from ports dictates how it travels.

Work was still needed to educate some chefs that New Zealand farmed venison was not tough and gamey, and was nothing like shot local venison.

There had been recent growth in US demand for manufacturing grade venison and the stronger US dollar had meant some product had been diverted from Europe.

Sadler said the cool spring had slowed production and shortened up what was available for the chilled market and they would be using some airfreight through to December to catch up. It cost about $4.50/kg to ship by air to Europe. Only the loin and leg are sent this way and the additional cost works out at 50 cents/kg over the whole carcass.

The frozen market for later in the season was hard to predict at this stage, but by the end of October things were looking better than they had for the previous two or three years. There had been a healthy number of enquiries, Sadler said.

He added that New Zealand deer farmers are still killing too many hinds, but noted that the venison market and confidence were improving overall.

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JML: A great resource for you to useSolis Norton, Project Manager, Johne’s Management Ltd ( JML), reminded deer farmers that there is a lot more to JML’s database than disease information. “There is a lot of good information about productivity in young deer.”

On the disease side, he said JML can provide reports that show Johne’s disease lesion rates among your slaughter animals and benchmark that against other farms. “We can also show you the weights of young deer with lesions versus those without, so you can see the impact of the disease in carcass weight terms.”

Beyond that, the reports show your average carcass weights overall and the total weight of product coming off your property – a great way to monitor performance. “We can give you your growth rates in grams per day going back to 2006 if you want. With one of the focus farms we were able to show an improvement in their growth rates over the three-year project, driven by their earlier finishing dates.”

Other data easily called up includes total numbers of deer slaughtered and average carcass weights benchmarked against regional and national averages. JML also picks up kill dates so can provide hard data on when you are getting your finishing stock away, he said. By creating a mob profile with weights and dates, the data can be used to show how well you are matching your aims of meeting the peak spring schedule.

Norton reminded farmers that there is no up-front cost for the JML deer reports which are funded as part of the programme’s 70c/head voluntary levy.

In answer to a question about Johne’s infection in dairy cattle, he said resistance to the disease in young deer starts to improve after about six months of age. If there was any likelihood that cattle were shedding the MAP organism, young deer should be kept well clear, he added. “Dairy heifers are unlikely to be shedding unless they are under stress.”

Contact: [email protected], free phone 0800 456 453

John Sadler.



Johne’s disease work moving to next stageWork carried out by Otago University’s Disease Research Laboratory (DRL) in collaboration with Peel Forest Estate has identifi ed several biomarkers in deer that indicate if an animal is particularly susceptible (S) or resistant (R) to Johne’s disease (JD).

RORY O’BRIEN, WHO works at the DRL with Professor Frank Griffin, told the recent meeting of NZDFA branch chairs that any animal population will show a range of responses to challenge from a disease. He said the biomarkers for JD susceptibility or resistance have been found by looking at the RNA (the “messenger” molecule that expresses genes) of notably S and R animals.

He said S animals shed hugely more MAP (the organism that causes JD) than R animals. Some of the S animals in their trials got so sick with JD that they had to be euthanised before the trial finished. Another way the animal’s immune system expressed its susceptibility or resistance was found in the amount of two antibodies they produced. S animals produced Johnin and protoplasmic antigen in far greater quantities than R animals, O’Brien explained.

“It doesn’t matter when you measure the biomarkers – before, during or after in Johne’s infection – the results are the same.”

O’Brien said the team had so far been looking at the genetic markers in an artificial research situation and was now planning to look at other sires and their progeny in a commercial setting. They want to see whether the response to disease challenge works the same way in the field with R and S animals that are naturally infected.• We will have further coverage on Johne’s work from the DRL

presentation in the next Deer Industry News.

Rory O’Brien.

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Research


Deer farmers face off over nitrogen rulesby Sharon Love, Bay of Plenty Branch, NZDFA

The local subcommittee of Sharon Love, Don Love, Bryce Heard, Linden Hunt, Lindsay Moore and John Paterson have been working in the last 10 years with the more recent help of Lindsay Fung from DINZ on the nitrogen rules for the Rotorua catchment.

MEMBERS OF THE current subcommittee have been doing their best to make sure we get the information we need to know what the rules mean and to get the fairest deal we can for the catchment landowners. The process has been difficult and despite our best efforts we are still not in the position to have the information we need to adequately discuss our options as farmers.

The branch has contributed $10,000 from its reserve fund and local deer farmers have contributed $17,000 to support other catchment farmers and the group Protect Rotorua, together contributing $50,000 in total to have Mai Chen represent us. We have done this because it is very costly to challenge notified rules in the Environment Court and the deer farmers and small block owners and other farmers are asking for fair process. As landowners we are entitled to know what the rules mean and having OVERSEER® as the measuring tool and a complicated system of allocation of nitrogen has made it hard for people to understand. When the RMA process seeks public consultation, they have to have an open mind and listen to feedback. There are many issues with the current draft rules.

Part of this process has a lot more to do with politics and Bryce Heard has taken that lead and suggested an accord.

An accord is an alternative way forward and I have done two of these before in the forest industry, one local and one national.

An accord is very high level and specifies two things only:1. The goal or objective.2. The (small number of) things we are going to do to achieve

the goal.Accords are not signed by individual land owners as land

changes hands frequently in European title. The signatories are the industry associations (in this case it would be the regional branches of Federated Farmers, NZDFA, Beef + Lamb and so on. It is not clear how lifestyle block owners would be represented. Maori title is different and the Trusts could easily become signatories.

There is little regulatory policing required – we police one another because we have come in as equal partners to achieve a common goal.

It is more about monitoring progress, for example, towards meeting a lake water quality goal and what more can be collectively done if the goals are not being met.

The rules are going to affect all catchments at some point so we need to keep informed and, if in doubt, ask questions. We need to help each other as farmers, but we also don’t need to worry unnecessarily.

If you have any questions, would like a copy of the draft accord, have any other concerns or would like to contribute to the legal fund please email Sharon Love at [email protected]

NAIT and health and safety courses plannedThe NZDFA Bay of Plenty branch committee wants to help remove some of the stress from jobs that get left in the “to do” pile, and is running a trial NAIT course for deer farmers. The committee worked with NAIT to tailor the workshop to cater for everyone from people who know little about NAIT to those who want to give feedback on how the system can improve.

It is being run by NAIT and also involves RFID scanners and EID farm equipment suppliers. If this goes well, the plan is to tackle health and safety in the New Year.

Working with Waiariki Institute of Technology Agriculture department, the branch was recently asked to help with deer content for one of its Primary ITO courses. Although we don’t have industry course material, we were able to contribute deer-specific information from the deer fact sheets and participate in two days of a three-day course held at Rangitaiki Station. In the New Year we hope to develop a course on deer on small blocks (under 40 ha) that supports the water quality rules for the catchment.

Environment


Getting on with it in Taihape hill countryAfter 23 years of cutting scrub on his deer farm just west of Taihape, Andrew Peters is starting to see native species like manuka through fresh eyes.

PETERS RUNS 500 hinds plus replacements to breed store weaners, 1,600 ewes plus replacements and 100 or more steers.

He’s been steadily fencing off waterways, retiring some erosion-prone areas and planting poplar poles as budgets and climatic conditions allow. It’s not an overnight project and he says there is still plenty to do, but he’s already seeing the benefits starting to flow as plantings mature and birdlife flourishes.

An important part his success with this work has been financial assistance from Horizons Regional Council and development of a Whole Farm Plan with the council. Peters says that once the plan is drawn up with the council, they will contribute up to 50 percent of the cost of fencing and plantings depending on the work to be done. “There are no problems with paperwork – they come out and take care of that side. We just have to keep the financial records. The plan is fairly comprehensive but is straightforward. It covers areas such as soil type, fertiliser and land use and makes suggestions for areas where you could do more environmental enhancement work while increasing production where appropriate.”

He says Horizons is driven especially by water quality. His farm is in the Hautapu River catchment and that drains into the Rangitikei River.

Waterways are being fenced off with margins of anywhere from five to 20 metres depending on topography. To enable this to happen he’s had to reticulate stock water into some paddocks.

He’s had the occasional setback with plants killed by frost and slips taking out new fences, but as time passes “you learn what not to do”.

In addition to the flaxes that are widely used in environmental plantings, Peters uses some manuka and putaputaweta, a native shrub that’s common in the area. While the plantings offer some shelter, he favours lower-growing species that don’t overly shade the pastures. He’s noticed that retired areas soon become

a nursery for other native species, including tree ferns, pittosporums and totara.

They are fortunate not to suffer from any significant weed problems other than old man’s beard. “We are talking to Horizons about that. A lot of public land is a nursery for this weed.”

Andrew Peters is enjoying the results from the environmental work he’s been doing, not only on the farm but in the extensive garden wife Pam and he have developed.

“I believe in optimising potential; this is an important part of the process.”

Andrew Peters: Expanding environmental mitigation work in partnership with Horizons Regional Council.

Plantings on Andrew Peters’ property.


Rising Stars heads northby Sharon Love, Bay of Plenty Branch, NZDFA

Rotorua will host the 10th National Rising Stars Hard Antler and Velvet competition on Saturday 20 February 2016 at Te Arawa Racecourse.

MEMBERS OF THE former Rotorua and Coastal Bay of Plenty branches of the NZDFA have supported the competition over the past nine years, when it has been held in Cambridge, Te Awamutu and Geraldine, but this is the first year we will take it on as a branch and host the event.

With our expanded committee of the newly merged Bay of Plenty branch, we have a great pool of talent and the subcommittee of Sharon Love, Rex Vincent, Kevin Morley and Bryce Heard will be working with sponsors, judges and the national committee. Help is required, so if you are interested in learning more about measuring hard antler or having a more active role in the competition, all are welcome.

This year we are fortunate to have the collection networks of all the velvet buyers, with the South Island entries leaving Christchurch on Monday 15 February and all entries due in Cambridge for measuring to start on Wednesday 17 February. The competition has a core group of measurers and helpers but there is always room for more. If you are interested in coming up early to help out, local branch members are willing to host you. All hard antler measuring will be under the guidance of Master Measurer, Hub Hall, and the three velvet judges will come from PGG Wrightson, Provelco and CK Import Export Ltd.

Greg Mckay from Xcell Breeding Services is the major sponsor of the competition and with all the foundation sponsors and others who have joined the competition it’s going to make an exciting celebration for the 10th awards dinner.

The classes in the competition are:• 1, 2 and 3 year red hard antler• 2 year fallow and wapiti hard antler• 2 year red velvet• open super heavy weight 10kg+ velvet.

Even if you are not into breeding velvet and hard antler, the competition is a great night and a fantastic display of genetics from all over the country. Viewing of the entries is at 5.30pm on 20 February and dinner and awards from 7pm. Bookings for dinner will be essential and tickets will be $40 per person with cash bar.

Rotorua is a popular tourist destination and accommodation can be hard to get in late February so early bookings are essential. The Te Arawa Racecourse is on Fenton St in Rotorua and many hotels are within easy walking distance.

NZ Supreme Natural Foods has its processing plant in Rotorua and we will be offering a tour of the plant in the afternoon for those interested. They have a full range of dried velvet and deer products on display.

After all past sponsors have been contacted and final details confirmed, entry forms will be available in early January.

Bookings for the awards dinner can be taken now. All bookings before 31 January will go in the draw to win a spa package at the Polynesian thermal spa.

Contact: Competition administrator Sharon Love 07 332 3647 or email [email protected] for bookings and all enquiries.

Visitors view the entries at the 2015 Rising Stars competition held in Geraldine.

Rising Stars comes to the Bay of Plenty for its 10th year of competition.

Velvet Competitions


Top of the South Velvet CompetitionAs the last 365 days between competitions were much dryer than usual or expected, competition convenor Grant Hasse was understanding and thankful for the support given to the 2nd Annual Top of the South Velvet and Hard Antler Competition.

THE 2015 EVENT was hosted at the Darfield Community Centre on 2 December and attracted 23 entries, with some outstanding heads among them. Hasse used the MasterChef analogy, commenting that some entries were under cooked and some a little over cooked, but on the whole most entries were cooked perfectly.

This year’s judging panel comprised, DINZ Producer Manager, Tony Pearse, Charlie Ford of PGG Wrightson and Keith Hood of Mt Hutt Station. Commercial classes were judged and graded by Ed Noonan of Provelco.

The event started with Ed Noonan and Tony Pearse each running half hour velvet education sessions about grading and the thought that goes into judging. These were warmly received and well attended, confirming the committee’s idea of running a “junior judging” class in 2016.

Attendees were stunned to see first and second places in both red commercial classes separated by only $0.50 per stick, over multiple grades. Entrants were pleased to see the support for commercial velvet harvesters in these classes tailored for them.

The influence of non-traditional grades in the mixed-aged animals with spectacular weights dominated. However, the heavy weighted cleaner entries were the topics of discussion.

Competition Champion was awarded to John and Suzanne Bartholomew’s Elk bull, Henry, with a 15.81kg Elk Supreme head that was outstanding in terms of style and impact. It just edged out the 13.9kg Clinton head from Bill and Jill Oliver.

The committee and all NZDFA branches involved in the Top of the South Velvet and Hard Antler Competition once again thank the following sponsors for their support and understanding with our fledgling event.

A summary of results from the competition is available on the DINZ website and is also enclosed with this issue of Deer Industry News.

Judges, from left: Warwick Wright (observer), Tony Pearse, Keith Hood and Charlie Forde.

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Velvet market reportThere was a tense start to the new velvet season, the New Zealand–Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA) has been ratified by both governments and promotional work continues in South Korea.

Market conditionsTHIS VELVET SEASON’S market started off slightly more tensely than initially expected. Despite positive indicators in New Zealand’s key velvet market of South Korea, some of the prominent Chinese traders reportedly held off buying in an effort to drive prices down. This in turn caused hesitation by some Korean buyers who needed to see where the market for velvet settled. This year in particular, Chinese traders presented a range of arguments as to why prices would be back for New Zealand velvet. However, by looking at what is happening in the market, the following is clear:• China’s government crackdown on excessive gift-giving

behaviour by government officials has had an effect on velvet destined for this category. This will affect the highly valued Regrowth and Spiker grades as well as the “jelly tip” (the very top of velvet), which could have some trickle-down effect on main beam prices.

• Various reports from China and South Korea support the continued growing of “everyday” consumption of velvet. This should support continued stable prices for Korean Grade velvet.

• Prices remained firm for competing countries’ velvet this year.• Market access into Korea is improving with the FTA and

potential (at time of writing) removal of the special excise tax. These actions will have a positive effect on velvet over the medium term.

• The Kiwi dollar is weaker (by around 15%) compared with the same time last year.It appears from early reports that the above factors are helping

to keep prices around the levels achieved last year, when prices rose by about 20%.

Market promotionDINZ undertook several marketing activities with Korean companies as the season started. Notably, DINZ entered a joint promotion with Korean Ginseng Corporation (KGC) to celebrate the success of their new Cheongnuksam product. The timing of the promotion was focused on Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving), the most significant gift-giving period in South Korea. Cheongnuksam is the most recent product KGC has launched (in January), which takes their total to 19 products that contain New Zealand velvet. It is on track to become the company’s fastest-growing product. KGC invested significant resource to achieve a well-integrated Chuseok campaign that involved point-of-sale promotion, television commercials, newspaper advertising, product placement (in a well-regarded Korean drama series) and sponsorship of a national sports team. DINZ teamed up with KGC’s velvet supplier, Provelco Cooperative Ltd, to show the top 15 KGC sales people where the velvet ingredient for this successful product is raised.

DINZ has also helped PGG Wrightson with one of its innovative Korean customers, keen to do a promotional video that will profile New Zealand velvet over velvet produced in other countries. Other

KCG’s top 15 Cheongnuksam sales staff with Warwick Wright and Ross Chambers.

Mr Kim from KGC stands next to a Cheongnuksam point of sale display during the promotional period.

Markets



Venison market reportProduction and exports: Year ending September THE NATIONAL KILL in the 12 months to the end of September 2015 was 391,179, a 6.9% decrease on the corresponding period for the previous year, when the kill was 420,392.

Production for the year at 30 September was 21,799 tonnes (carcass weight equivalent), 6% down on the season before.

The total number of hinds killed in the past year was 212,676 or 54% of the total – the same proportion as in the 2013/2014 season.

Total venison exports for the 12 months to the end of September are recorded as 14,869 tonnes (product weight), down 8% year on year. The value of these exports was $174m, down 4% year on year. The average FOB sales price per kg for the 2014/15 year increased 5% on 2013/14.

While product mix influences average FOB returns, it is pleasing to see an increase in full year average sales values of New Zealand venison after several years of declines, due to improved currency and market conditions.

Market overview Sales to the United States remain above previous years as prices prove more attractive than traditional European markets. Positive results are being seen from targeted business development opportunities with larger volume customers such as SpaceX and Royal Caribbean cruises. Both organisations placed strong orders

following on from account development activity. Germany dropped to the third-most valuable chilled market in

2014/15, having been overtaken by Benelux nations. This reflects improved prices for middle cuts which are sold at proportionally higher quantities in the Benelux nations. Dutch firms are also handling a greater proportion of imports on the general European trade. France was the only European market to record a small increase in volume in both chilled and frozen venison.

Generally exporters indicate the game season has progressed well to date, with good sales of chilled venison. Some exporters have seen air freight consignments needed as a top up. However there have been some incidents of cancelled orders following the Paris terrorist attacks as importers react with caution around consumer confidence in eating out.

Schedule The national average published schedule (Agrifax) reached a high of $8.63/kg for most of October (Figure 1, page 19). The schedule was $7.72/kg in the last week of November. This decrease is in line with the last container vessel leaving with chilled venison at the end of October for delivery in Europe before Christmas. The schedule was 9% ($0.69) above the same week in 2014. At $8.63, the seasonal peak was the highest for four years, 11% above the year earlier and achieved despite the euro remaining only 3% lower than the past year.

Volume (tonnes) Value (NZD FOB 000s) Average $/kg

2014 2015 Change 2014 2015 Change 2014 2015 Change

Germany 5316 4582 -14% $55,641 $52,613 -5% $10.47 $11.48 10%

United States 2112 2410 14% $21,273 $24,982 17% $10.07 $10.37 3%

Belgium 1553 1354 -13% $22,780 $19,795 -13% $14.67 $14.62 0%

Netherlands 1508 1059 -30% $23,514 $19,515 -17% $15.59 $18.42 18%

Switzerland 1031 925 -10% $16,221 $14,757 -9% $15.73 $15.95 1%

Volume (tonnes) Value (NZD FOB 000s) Average $/kg

2014 2015 Change 2014 2015 Change 2014 2015 Change

United States 680 575 -15% $12,226 $11,885 -3% $17.98 $20.68 15%

Netherlands 445 442 -1% $9,445 $1,069 8% $21.23 $23.01 8%

Germany 486 452 -7% $9,587 $9,469 -1% $19.74 $20.93 6%

Belgium 495 400 -19% $10,956 $8,448 -23% $22.12 $21.11 -5%

Switzerland 167 165 -7% $4,431 $4,376 -1% $26.32 $28.04 7%

Table 1: Top five New Zealand venison export markets by volume and value

Table 2: Total New Zealand chilled venison exports by volume and value

Source: Statistics New Zealand

Source: Statistics New Zealand



Branch Chairs’ Meeting

Venison company presentationsWhen Silver Fern Farms Chief Executive, Dean Hamilton, addressed branch chairs in October, the results of the shareholder vote on the 50/50 partnership with Shanghai Maling was still a few days away – ultimately the support was overwhelming.

HAMILTON HAS JOINED the DINZ Board and said it was important for Silver Fern Farms (SFF) to be represented at senior level within the deer industry. SFF processes about 40 percent of New Zealand’s venison production and it accounts for about $110 million of the company’s $2.3 billion business.

He said SFF was committed to creating value with red meat products and sharing that with producers. The retail consumer packs were an example of this, with one million of them sold in the past year. The first of these featured venison, with lamb and then beef included subsequently. Although the concept worked well, the retail pack initiative had lacked the critical mass in New Zealand alone that was needed to pass much additional value back to farmers. He said SFF is targeting five markets with its premium products: Germany, China, Hong Kong/Singapore, the United States as well as New Zealand.

One of the biggest constraints had been the company’s capital structure. The business needed $100 million of new equity and it was clear this wasn’t going to come from suppliers. SFF cast the net very wide and looked at a range of proposals but the Shanghai Maling offer stood out from the others. The $261 million offer secures half of the business and provides the best balance sheet since 1948 when the company started. It will be debt free and have $50–$70 million of cash on hand.

Hamilton said the deal will provide access to 6,000 Chinese supermarkets but there will be no obligation to sell through Shanghai Maling, so current markets in more than 60 countries will not be disrupted. SFF currently sells about $350 million worth of red meat into China (only about 15 percent of its revenue). While the partnership with Shanghai Maling presents a terrific

opportunity, the supermarkets owned by its parent Bright Foods will have to compete on a level playing field with other buyers globally to provide the best possible value for New Zealand producers.

There were a couple of non-negotiable points with the partnership proposal, Hamilton added: Shanghai Maling required the businesses to be consolidated for accounting purposes and SFF required the ability to continue to determine who they sold to in China.

The new board will have 10 directors, with five each from the two partners. Two of the five Shanghai Maling directors will be New Zealanders.

“For the largest red meat business [in New Zealand] to be well capitalised with a strategy focused on adding value to your red meat has to be a good thing – for Silver Fern Farms and ultimately for the industry.”

Hamilton said SFF’s global strategy, and the importance of venison as part of that, would remain unchanged, as would its commitment to the Passion 2 Profit programme. “Venison punches well above its weight in our business and is positioned as a premium red meat. We always talk to consumers about all three products – and at the same time more than 50 percent of our suppliers supply multiple species.”

He said being part of China’s largest food company could only be a good thing long-term for Cervena.

Alliance Group looks at cooperative modelAlliance Group’s Danny Hailes told branch chairs that they had been taking a close look at the principles behind the cooperative,

general in-market activity continues in the lead up to the key consumption period.

DINZ’s Country of Origin Programme proof of concept introduced last year gained significant interest by Korean oriental

medicine doctors and marketers keen to differentiate premium New Zealand velvet. DINZ has approved a couple of new velvet marketers in the traditional channel and is currently working with a couple of significant food companies keen to trial the concept within this channel. One major component of the Country of Origin Programme is DINZ’s requirement for line-of-sight of documentation that proves direct and transparent trade between New Zealand and Korea. New Zealand velvet sold to China for processing and then re-exported to Korea is not eligible to be part of the programme.

Korean velvet company filming a promotional video in Canterbury.Original Country of Origin trial sticker.

Velvet market report: continued


with feedback sought from shareholders and suppliers among others.

Key amongst the principles being unveiled this year is that “farmers are at the heart of every decision we make”.

Also highlighted was that shareholders’ investment in the cooperative needs to match livestock supply and will change over time in line with supply.

Hailes said Alliance was working hard to reduce costs and was also investing in new technology, including $15 million on robotics at two of its South Island plants. He said this was not meant primarily to replace people; the key saving was through providing better carcass yields and more value to suppliers.

There were also structural changes under way with an injection of new talent into the business and investment into markets and distribution channels.

In answer to a question on progress with Alliance’s Viascan® technology for objectively measuring carcass yields, Hailes said the leanness of deer presented special challenges and the system’s algorithms needed further developing. This was a work in progress and he noted that while the technology for use in deer was being pioneered by Alliance in New Zealand, it had been successfully applied to other species in New Zealand and overseas.

Firstlight perspective on P2PP2P involves in-market work as well as work to improve on-farm productivity. Gerard Hickey, Managing Director of Firstlight Venison, gave a company perspective on the programme.

As part of the deer industry’s Primary Growth Partnership (PGP), Firstlight had been involved in the Hanos Cervena trial from April to August in Europe (see Deer Industry News, June/July 2015 page 8). The company was also in the fourth year of its own separate PGP exploring potential for grass-fed Wagyu beef, so had insight into how the partnerships worked.

Hickey identified four significant benefits from the deer industry PGP:1. Increased chilled Cervena sales outside the traditional season.2. Reduced reliance on frozen venison (as a consequence of [1]

above) and therefore better prices because of reduced supply.3. Better coordination through the five major exporters working

and planning together.4. Increased on-farm productivity.

The target for the chilled market under the Passion 2 Profit PGP is 1,200 tonnes of additional chilled sales in six markets. For example, the April–August trial in the Netherlands had taken 36 tonnes of chilled product that would otherwise have been frozen. The target for the current year (three companies) was to double this volume and by year three it was hoped to sell 200 tonnes into this sector.

Hickey said the margin of chilled over frozen was $4/kg. The six markets would ultimately require a total of 72,000 deer by the end of the seven years of the Passion 2 Profit programme. This would remove about 30 percent of current volumes from frozen production, Hickey calculated.

“That will lift prices, especially for frozen legs and shoulders.”Having the five companies all committing to supplying part of

this new out-of-season chilled market is the key, he added. “It will avoid individual companies jumping back into the frozen market and taking advantage of any price spikes – that would kill this thing.”

He reminded that the Government was supporting the deer industry because of its history of innovation and because they were prepared to collaborate.

Looking at on-farm productivity, Hickey said that from his experience, the big range in performance between farms shows there is room for improvement.

“The P2P programme is a great thing to do. We should be very optimistic about where this is headed.”

Figure 1: National published schedule – 55–60kg AP stag

$-‐

$2.00

$4.00

$6.00

$8.00

$10.00

7-‐Jan 4-‐Feb

4-‐Mar 1-‐Apr

29-‐Apr 27-‐May

24-‐Jun 22-‐Jul

19-‐Aug 16-‐Sep

14-‐Oct 11-‐Nov

9-‐Dec

$/KG

Gross

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

Venison market report: continued


Velvet: Positives outweigh negativesThe 2015/16 velvet season was only just getting underway when DINZ Market Manager – Asia, Rhys Griffiths, and velvet exporters briefed branch chairs on prospects for the coming months. With the usual caveats, the signs were positive on balance, however. The following are highlights from their presentations.

Rhys Griffiths: DINZ Market Manager – Asia • Production is increasing in New Zealand and could grow again

this year, but production in other territories is down (especially Canada) or stable (Russia).

• Our strategy of diversifying into the healthy food market and away from traders appears to be working.

• The market in Korea is accepting new products and is eight to 10 years ahead of the China market, which is still dominated by traders

• While there is some velvet reported to be in China (from last season), this is normal due to the slight mis-alignment of velvet production and consumption as well as new velvet from Northern hemisphere territories. The is no evidence of more velvet stocks than previous years.

• A complex regulatory regime is still a barrier to the China market.

• While economic growth in China slowed this year, it is still an annual rate of 6.9 percent – impressive in global terms. A big anti-corruption crackdown in China could see the prices of some top-end luxury items reduced.

• Work to have velvet achieving official healthy food classification in China is continuing – we’re not there yet.

• The economy in Korea is looking reasonable at present.• A combination of reduction in the Korean Special Excise Tax

and the implementation of the Korean–New Zealand free trade agreement (FTA) will see the cost of getting processed velvet into Korea reduced by as much as 13 percent from early 2016. (Under the FTA, the 20 percent tax on processed velvet into Korea reduces by 1.33 percent each year for 15 years until it is zero.)

• DINZ estimates a total of about 150 tonnes of New Zealand velvet is consumed in the Korea healthy food market. Cheongnuksam (CNS), an award-winning luxury gift product containing 40 percent New Zealand deer velvet by Korea Ginseng Corporation is one of KGC’s fastest-growing products sells for $NZ580 for the gift pack. CNS promotes New Zealand velvet more prominently than other over-the-counter velvet products on the market.

• During the 2015 Chuseok, the Korean Thanksgiving holiday held in late September, the total sales target for CNS was exceeded by half-way through the period.

• Another company using New Zealand velvet for its products in Korea grew its demand from 8 tonnes to 27 tonnes last year.

• As the demand for New Zealand velvet in Korea grows, more

work is needed to protect its integrity and authenticity. A proof of origin project featuring a QR code will link Korean consumers direct to the product origins in New Zealand.

• A new generation of velvet marketers in Korea is using good branding and good manufacturing practice to underpin the integrity of the health products they are selling.

• The new Velvet Status Declaration, introduced last year, is having a positive effect by giving one-up, one-down traceability.

• Velvet growers are encouraged to beware of opportunistic-type traders entering the market and stick with their long-standing buyers.

• DINZ is also investigating the potential of Japan as a market for New Zealand velvet. The second-largest ex-pat Korean population is in Japan.

Rhys Griffiths with KGC’s special ginseng and velvet-based Cheongnuksam gift pack, one of the company’s fastest-growing product lines. The product is packaged into two containers so it can be consumed at home and at the office. The graphics signify its priceless value and are symbolic of a royal court. The lids of the containers use the shape of the traditional Chinese medicinal implements that kings are said to have once used as their motif.



Ross Chambers: ProvelcoProvelco has been working with KGC for four years. Chambers said KGC was attracted by the idea of a farmer-owned cooperative.

He said Provelco conforms to comprehensive quality guidelines and KGC uses only A or Super A grades with traceback to individual farms available. The company prefers velvet to have been dried in New Zealand.

Last season Provelco supplied KGC with 15 tonnes of frozen product and about 5–6 tonnes of dried velvet. KGC’s initial sales target for the luxury Cheon-Nok-Sam gift packs was initially $US1.5 million, but that has been revised 10-fold to $US15 million.

Provelco is looking for 50 tonnes of frozen velvet to supply KGC in 2016, which Chambers admitted may be a challenge. With prices having gone up by 50 percent over the past four seasons, and volumes into KGC growing, the company was beginning to exert price pressure on its New Zealand suppliers, Chambers noted.

Although Provelco was the lead supplier, selling 50 tonnes into one customer was arguably more than one company could manage, he said. KGC is also talking to other potential New Zealand suppliers as was their right, but Chambers said it would be a pity if competition between different New Zealand companies to supply this customer was driving prices down.

Chambers noted that Chinese buyers were keen on New Zealand velvet but were not so keen to pay a premium for the best quality product.

Tony Cochrane: PGG WrightsonCochrane observed that the number of suppliers to PGGW had shrunk from 3,000 to 1,000 over the years, but overall volumes had remained the same. He was optimistic that the weakening New Zealand dollar would help boost returns this season.

Production from Canada was now very low (about 40 tonnes) and Korean production had also fallen to about 80 tonnes, in part because of problems caused by foot and mouth disease.

He agreed that Chinese commodity traders had too much influence and discounted product going into Korea.

He also agrees that New Zealand production could feasibly lift to 600–650 tonnes, but work would need to continue on creating demand.

Selling straight off farm to road buyers fragments the market, he warned, noting that PGGW runs a regular payment schedule to take care of cash flow requirements for sellers. “We can also sell your product under your own brand if you prefer.”

Cochrane reminded velvet growers to take care with hygiene and presentation. “The market wants a traditional rounded stick. Once the bottom tynes start to taper, the tops will flatten off – that’s time to cut!”

The use of trophy genetics had affected velvet presentation and the amount of non-traditional velvet being sold. “It will take a while to breed out.”

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“Chinese buyers were keen on NZ velvet but were not so keen to pay a premium.”


Board Q+AMembers of the DINZ Board made themselves available to answer questions from the branch chairs. The following are highlights from the conversation.

VelvetOTAGO BRANCH EXPRESSED concerns about the impact on prices of increased velvet volumes.

Andy Macfarlane, DINZ Chair, noted that both prices and volumes are rising at present. Rhys Griffiths (DINZ Executive) said the healthy food strategy was helping create additional demand and that the focus should be world consumption, not the arbitrary 500-tonne limit that was traditionally seen as a trigger for falling prices. World consumption is 1,400 tonnes and there is scope for New Zealand exports to grow to 600 tonnes and beyond, Griffiths said. “Consumption is growing. Things are OK at the moment but we do need to be careful not to outpace this,” he added. “We could come unstuck long term if we produce too much.”

Macfarlane said there was inherent risk in becoming too dependent on one product stream, combined with high debt. In an interesting metaphor he advised farmers that “if the tide goes out [on velvet] make sure you are wearing your undies”.

Steven Borland commented that putting more velvet into the healthy food market, which carried a premium, took product out of the more volatile and risky traditional markets. “Good on DINZ for working on this.” Griffiths said about 25 percent of our production now goes into that health food sector, up from nearly nothing 10 years ago.

Passion 2 Profit Primary Growth PartnershipQuestions were raised about funding for this programme.

DINZ Chair, Andy Macfarlane, said initial funding for this from the DINZ side was to be provided from reserves. The important question was when levies might need to be increased to provide the balance of the industry’s commitment to the programme. This is why projections of herd numbers and production are so important. “We need to show government that we can put up our half. We don’t know exactly what we’re going to be looking for, and when we do, we’ll need to consult with farmers and industry, but at this stage it looks as though the [venison] levy increase for producers and processors will each be about 1.5 cents/kg – three cents in total, possibly four. The next issue is timing. We need to decide what size of reserve we need by 2020. There’s no point in having a load of reserves by 2020 but no industry.”

Macfarlane suggested that a velvet levy increase may also be necessary. Unlike venison, where there would be a balance between on-farm and in-market investment, the bulk of the velvet investment would be in developing new markets such as the healthy food sector.

Stephen Borland (Waikato) claimed that it was unfair that levy should be paid on velvet throughout as stag’s productive life, as well as on the venison from the stag once it was culled as a 10-year-old. He said it would be fairer for levy to be paid on venison only. He felt the levy collected from velvet throughout a stag’s productive life was being used to benefit the venison, rather than the velvet sector. “When a breeding hind is culled after 10 years, levy is only paid in her once.” Dan Coup pointed out that the velvet levy is invested to the considerable benefit of the velvet industry, including work on quality assurance systems.

Leith Chick said he would be happy to see the increase in levy once a return on the investment in the P2P programme had been demonstrated. Andrew Peters (Taihape) said farmers were keen to see a return on the levy money they had invested over a long period. “Extending the [venison selling] season is not enough. It has to pay.”

DINZ CEO, Dan Coup, said the general preference for a levy increase would be an “earlier but gentler” increase in the levy rather than waiting until reserves had been depleted before putting up the levy to fund the programme.

Borland quizzed the processor/exporters about their 1.5 cent contribution and whether this might in fact come out of the schedule price received by the farmer. Speaking for Silver Fern Farms, CEO and DINZ Board member, Dean Hamilton, said the company was committed to supporting the programme.

Borland commented that the reserves existed because of the numbers exiting the industry, but added that being under-funded should be avoided.

Coup said the 40 tonnes of venison sold in the Netherlands in the off season at a premium of $4 was a great result, but it took considerable investment by the industry to make it happen. “Money won’t just magically appear in the schedule. It will take investment to get the results we want, but hopefully that example gives us the confidence that further investment is warranted.”

Danny Hailes (Alliance Group and DINZ Board member), said

Clarification: Abortion ratesIn the article Improving survival from scanning to weaning on page 6 of the October/November 2015 Deer Industry News, it was suggested that farmers in the Advance Parties found abortion uncommon.

A few farmers had double-scanned their hinds in early and late pregnancy and found very few losses, indicating that abortion

was not a significant problem on their properties at that time. The knowledge that abortion was not a major problem on these individual farms allowed them to focus on the period between calving and weaning.

Other properties may experience losses due to abortion that should be determined on an individual farm basis.

The article reflected farmer perceptions within some Advance Party groups and was not a scientific report.




The numbers gameDINZ Chair, Andy Macfarlane, told branch chairs the organisation was budgeting conservatively for a continuing slow decline in the national deer herd from the current 925,000 to about 750,000 before it stabilises.

ALSO BEING FACTORED in is a predicted increase in average carcass weights, with a target of 58kg by 2020.

A kill of 300,000 per year at current herd levels would allow for some herd rebuilding, 325,000 a year would keep herd numbers stable, but a kill of 375,000 deer would keep the national herd going backwards.

Discussion around the room revealed several factors at play. Some building of herds was reported, but reductions were also happening. In the North Island it had been hard to get realistic prices for weaners and this was driving some out of deer, while the current good returns for velvet were also driving people’s decisions about the balance of stags and hinds. It was also noted that use of velvet sires in favour of venison sires might be holding back

potential increases in growth rates and carcass weights.It was generally agreed that smaller enterprises were

disappearing as some changed to other livestock classes or older farmers retired, but some bigger deer operations were expanding. There was also a trend in some places for people to finish their own animals rather than selling to specialist finishers.

There were differing views on how realistic it was to get average carcass weights up to 58kg. A Hawke’s Bay farmer said he had been routinely supplying animals a touch under 60kg while a South Canterbury farmers said they couldn’t get to those weights without an extra boost from a supplement like palm kernel. Meanwhile an elk/wapiti breeder pointed out there are other, much easier ways to achieve higher carcass weights.

the company was also taking the initiative to sell more venison in Europe in the March–September period next year.

William Oliver, DINZ Board, said the tangible targets for better returns had been documented and that the results of improved on-farm productivity combined with the in-market work by exporter/processors should provide that. Collier Isaacs, DINZ Board, said government funding for the P2P programme was predicated on value being added to the sector, but conceded that gains such as improved fawning percentages and growth rates were hard to monitor and measure. “If we can’t see runs on the board and things happening, we’ll need a very good reason [to continue the programme].” He said the results from within Advance Party

groups would help draw a picture of industry progress. Paddy Boyd said it was fairly easy to monitor improved

productivity, simply through measures of kilograms of venison per hectare.

TradeIn brief discussion on international trade agreements such as the Trans Pacific Partnership and the Government’s stated aim of a free trade agreement with the European Union, it was noted that these were good for the deer industry although the benefits may take a while to flow through.

about the balance of stags and hinds. It was also noted that use of velvet sires in favour of venison sires might be holding back

elk/wapiti breeder pointed out there are other, much easier ways to achieve higher carcass weights.

Photo: Richard Hilson.

Board Q+A: continued


Water plans: Coming ready or notThe deer industry might be small in the total scheme of things, but when it comes to protecting your right to farm it’s essential you get involved in the regional councils’ regional policy statements and freshwater plans and make your voices heard.

THIS WAS THE strong message to come through when environmental matters were discussed by branch chairs. To recap, regional councils are required to develop regional policy statements that are guided by the Government’s National Policy Statement on Freshwater Management. Under these regional policy statements, which set out environmental objectives in broad terms, the councils are developing regional plans with specific sets of rules that will help them achieve their objectives. Improved water quality is central to this process and the rules being developed by councils to make this happen should have the attention of all farmers, the deer industry included.1

Branch chairs were pleased that DINZ had appointed Dr Lindsay Fung to monitor environmental regulatory issues for the industry although there was some concern that the deer industry’s resources might be too limited to make much impact on the councils’ rule making. It was agreed that the deer industry could learn from each other’s experiences in fighting local battles and that there could be benefits from several branches joining forces to tackle a regional issue.

Sharon Love (Rotorua) has been in the thick of the action with

the Bay of Plenty Regional Council’s draft rules for Lake Rotorua and said the local industry had raised $50,000 to put top law firm Chen Palmer in to bat on behalf of the deer industry. Lindsay Fung said the Bay of Plenty Branch was a great example of the power of local action by the NZDFA (see also page 12).

Janet Gregory (Landcare Trust) said it was vital that deer farmers are represented at local level so that the needs and interests of the industry aren’t forgotten.

The deer industry, through the NZDFA, is fortunate to have a number of committed people who have taken on the responsibility of engaging directly with their council. People such as Tim Aitken, Edmund Noonan, Sharon Love, Richard Currie, Tony Pearse, John Somerville, David Stevens, Leith Chick and Steve Borland are able to provide council staff with some reality checks on what can and can’t be done on deer farms.

Fung said the details of the regional water plans are “where it can bite you”. He said the regional councils’ consultation can start to get expensive for stakeholders like deer farmers once they “lawyer up” and begin to lodge formal challenges near the end of the process. Love noted one farmer challenging the Manawatu/

1 Dr Lindsay Fung developed a region-by-region stocktake of water plans for DINZ and NZDFA; these and more recent summary updates can be seen on the DINZ website at http://bit.ly/1TfWbkH

Photo: Jamie Ward.



Whanganui “One Plan” had spent $80,000 of his own money but had helped achieve a better outcome in the process.

Fung said regional policies are reviewed every 10 years but no timeframes are set for reviewing the plans. The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment’s 2013 report, Water quality in New Zealand: Land use and nutrient pollution, clearly linked the growth in dairying with the increase in nitrogen (N) loadings, but drystock farming was not off the hook, Fung warned.

He said deer were not high emitters of N, but were implicated in high runoff levels for phosphorus and sediments due mainly to wallows and fence pacing. In catchments with high levels of N in water bodies, industries that were already low N emitters (sheep, beef and deer) would be required to stay at these low levels, while high emitters such as dairying would be allowed to continue at current levels (“grandparented”) with a view to reducing to lower levels over time.

“Targeting better management of wallows and fence pacing might have a good environmental benefit, but this won’t necessarily be understood by the councils,” he said.

Wallows are better managed by being fenced off, although deer would likely go and establish a new one, he conceded. Another strategy was to establish a filtering wetland at the exit point(s) for the runoff from a farm.

The important thing was to show councils that the deer industry was taking positive action and to make sure they understood the industry.

Looking at the regional council progress on water plans to date, Fung said they could be put into three broad groups: onerous for deer farmers, relatively benign, or “uncertain”.

The regions with the most onerous-looking water plans included Hawke’s Bay (restrictions or stock exclusions in parts of the Tukituki catchment), Rotorua (intensive dairying around lake catchments affects all farming), Canterbury (divided into catchment-based subregional plans; problems with over-allocation of nutrient limits), Marlborough (stock exclusion could become an issue) and Southland (stock exclusion, nutrient limits).

More benign regimes were being established in Manawatu/Whanganui (the main issue there is point-source pollution and dairying), Tarawera (part of the Bay of Plenty region), Gisborne and Taranaki (where land use has remained quite constant for a long time and the councils have long-running policies and activities to address known environmental issues).

Regions where the water plan outcomes for deer farming were not so clear included Otago (farmers are initially being given some autonomy for monitoring water quality and mitigating nutrient losses, but council compliance officer attitudes will be important), Auckland and Greater Wellington. There are also likely to be significant challenges for all land users in Waikato.

Fung reminded branch chairs that although constant vigilance was needed to deal with threats from regulation at regional level the deer industry was already doing plenty of proactive work, including the following:• The New Zealand Deer Farmers’ Landcare Manual (2003,

updated in 2012, downloadable from http://bit.ly/1lLjSpL). • A Landcare Trust/Sustainable Farming Fund project on

environmental best practice for deer farming is also underway (see http://bit.ly/1XsmyV2 for a series of informative short videos)

• DINZ has endorsed the Beef + Lamb New Zealand (B+L NZ) Land and Environment Plan (LEP) toolkit. B+L NZ has invited deer farmers to attend its LEP extension activities. The web-based step-by-step LEP toolkit (available on http://beeflambnz.com/lep/) has three levels. The Canterbury Regional Council had adapted the level 2 programme from the toolkit and the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council was looking to do the same.

• DFA branches carry out their own environmentally focused activities and the original Focus Farm programme had been a great source of advice on environmental matters (for good tips from the Otago/Southland programme visit http://bit.ly/1OhyF6J).

• Since 2001, the Deer Farmers’ Environmental Awards have been a shop window for the deer industry’s environmental management initiatives (see http://bit.ly/1SlDVpl for 2015 results).

• DINZ has collaborated with other primary industry groups to produce industry-agreed good management practices relating to water quality, which are relevant nation-wide (see http://bit.ly/1lH1dLz). In conclusion, Fung said regional councils usually have good

intent but didn’t always engage well with stakeholders such as the deer industry. “Often they don’t have good rural connections and are working to achieve good environmental outcomes but having to balance many different and conflicting community interests. It’s up to our industry to make sure our voice is heard and deer farming is treated fairly and in a way that is sensible and relevant to deer farming when the rules are being made.”

Your regional contactsDeer farmers are encouraged to contact DINZ if they are aware of any new council plans that may affect them. However it will be important to also contact the relevant NZDFA branch chair as there may already be branch activity underway.

The following table lists regions where regional plans are in development, with NZDFA contacts for these regions.

Region Contact Phone

Southland John SomervilleDavid Stevens

027 447 5437027 433 1383

Canterbury Kelly Bennett (SC/NO)Edmund Noonan (all of Canterbury)

027 432 4215

027 288 6925

Marlborough Justin Stevens 027 403 7131

Greater Wellington Adrian MoodyQuentin Connell

06 372 374406 377 1154

Gisborne Dean Orsler 06 867 4298

Bay of Plenty Sharon Love 027 486 4341

Waikato Leith Chick (Waipa)Steve Borland (Waikato)

07 872 5551027 666 4269

National Lindsay Fung 04 471 6115 or 027 669 0141


Good scienceBranch chairs were given a comprehensive update on the industry’s investment in research, ending with a new twist in the tale of finding an effective anthelmintic treatment for deer.

Velvet researchWILLIAM ROLLESTON, IN his capacity as Chair of Velvet Antler Research New Zealand (VARNZ), reported on science being carried out to support product development, the claims of efficacy for velvet and maintenance of the velvet industry’s freedom to operate.

Rolleston explained that when VARNZ was established, the Government was heavily involved in trying to identify and analyse the active components in deer velvet, with AgResearch doing most of the research heavy lifting. Government priorities have since moved on, so much of this work is now commissioned through other organisations.RepaiRxTurning to VARNZ’s long-running project to investigate velvet’s wound-healing properties through the velvet extract RepaiRx, for which VARNZ has international patent rights, Rolleston offered a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.

He said the strategic decision had been made some time ago to seek a therapeutic claim on the pharmaceutical track, rather than simply promoting it as a natural product with not much science behind it. The chosen path ultimately offers a much greater reward but is a far more difficult one, he said.

After a false start getting human trials underway in West Australia, a human trial is now ready to go at Middlemore Hospital. “There were a lot of regulatory hurdles to negotiate to get to this point,” Rolleston said. These included issues such as obtaining manufacturing licences, determining how best to apply it in theatre, working up patient eligibility criteria and designing a double-blind trial so neither the patient nor the investigators assessing the rate of wound healing knew which of the patient’s two sites the active ingredient and the placebo had been applied to.

The product will be used on donor sites for skin graft patients, with objective assessments used to measure the rates of healing. (Measurement of moisture loss from the wound sites will be one of the techniques used to do this.)

The trial is now open for business, waiting for suitable subjects. It was an “exciting and uncertain stage” on the road to commercialisation, Rolleston said. The human trial was expected to be carried out and evaluated over the next 18 months or so.

“We’re looking to find a biological signal from humans in response to RepaiRx. The product is likely to be best suited for treatment of chronic wounds such as ulcers in the elderly or diabetics,” he said. “Ulcer sites have poor blood supply and are full of enzymes that degrade proteins that typically promote repair and regrowth that do manage to get there, but we’ve found in pigs and rats that RepaiRx not only promotes growth of new blood vessels but is very resistant to being degraded by these enzymes, hence will work for some time promoting healing at wound sites.”

New Zealand’s freedom from significant animal diseases such as chronic wasting disease meant that our velvet industry had a strategic advantage in terms of quality assurance. In return for a price premium associated with the supply of clinical grade velvet, suppliers for these markets might have to do a bit more to help promote the animals’ health status, however.

Rolleston mentioned that VARNZ would keep an open mind as to commercialisation models that would enable velvet industry participants to derive returns from RepaiRx over and above benefits they could reasonably expect as velvet levy payers or clinical grade velvet suppliers.Generic functionality researchRegistration of velvet products as a Healthy Functional Food in China and Korea would be an important step for the industry and, given the importance of cognition and memory-enhancing products in these markets, VARNZ was looking to start work on these areas, aided by a significant grant from the Warnham and Woburn Deer Society (see Deer Industry News, October/November 2015, page 12).

VARNZ was also continuing its promising research into velvet’s immune function at a molecular level. Albeit recognising that velvet’s immune functionality was not likely to reside in a single active ingredient, Rolleston suggested that VARNZ “might need to replicate what the manuka honey industry is doing with its ‘unique manuka factor’, so we can provide some assurances that our product is better than some others”.WelfareAnimal welfare was always on the radar for the velvet industry and VARNZ was aggressively front-footing this, for example investigating the role of analgesia following velvet removal. “Velvetting needs to be quick and efficient but also pain free. We are now looking into the existence and magnitude of post-operative pain.”

Arrangements are now in place for RepaiRx human trials at Middlemore hospital.



ResiduesAnother line of work was residue detection for chemicals such as lignocaine or anthelmintics. Limits of detection were getting increasingly low, and even if a residue was well within maximum residue limits, its very existence could disadvantage you in the market, so a zero level was always preferable. “It’s a regulatory, not a food safety issue,” he said.

Rolleston said it was possible that using palm kernel might affect product of origin testing for velvet. It was theoretically possible that if a velvet stag had eaten palm kernel from southeast Asia, then radio-isotope testing of its velvet could indicate the animal came from that region too.Intellectual propertyIn response to a question from the floor, Rolleston said every possible step was taken to protect the industry’s intellectual property for velvet products. DINZ Science and Policy Manager, Catharine Sayer, added that publicly disclosing active ingredients in further patents would not pose a risk to the industry. It would be very difficult to mimic the action of velvet through synthetic products because it is a multi-functional product with several active ingredients at play. “It’s unlikely we could identify a single factor that is responsible for everything.”

DEEResearch updateCollier Isaacs, Chair of the DEEResearch board, said more effort was needed to get the results of research out to the people who could use it.

While a lot of good information was available on the Deer Hub (www.deernz.org/deerhub), not many farmers visited the website. Isaacs said greater use would be made of farmer-based initiatives such as Advance Parties to help get faster uptake of some of the science the industry was funding.

DEEResearch was also tasked with leveraging the industry’s

modest resources (its 2015/16 budget is $545,667) as effectively as possible through partnerships with universities, AgResearch and so on. It must also make sure its objectives stay in alignment with those of the deer industry and the Government.

The investment is research was driven by DEEResearch’s five-year science strategy, with proposals needing to support the industry’s need to improve profitability, protect its freedom to operate and ensure market access. The highest priorities were genetics (a permanent gain for the industry), animal health (especially parasites and disease resistance) and efficient land use, Isaacs said.

The deer industry is continuing to invest in the Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium (the current cycle ends in 2019). The Johne’s Disease Research Consortium wraps up next year, but Johne’s work is still continuing in other spheres. Isaacs said the investment in the Pastoral Genomics consortium was ending, partly for prioritisation reasons, but he noted the industry still has rights to the intellectual property from the consortium’s work. The main benefits will come through the arrival of new cultivars on the markets from commercial seed producers.

Hitting TargetsGeoff Asher, AgResearch, introduced “Hitting Targets”, DEEResearch’s flagship five-year research programme being carried out by AgResearch (see brochure downloadable from http://bit.ly/21nSnDg).

Asher said genetics offered “huge” permanent and cumulative gains for the deer industry over the long term and accounted for by far the biggest investment over the next five years. Animal health research would concentrate a lot of effort on internal parasites and would build on the basic work that’s been done in this area recently.

Asher said priorities for the next five years might shift as

VARNZ is front-footing welfare issues for the velvet sector. Photo: Tony Cochrane.



new discoveries were made or issues emerged. The nature of the programme affords some flexibility over time.

He endorsed DEERSelect as an excellent tool for mapping and analysing genetic gains in the industry.

A new project, “Tomorrow’s Deer” provides a resource of animals for myriad but connected sub-projects looking for a whole variety of traits. The well-phenotyped 500-hind herd at Invermay is the core of this resource. “We’ll be measuring everything on their progeny,” Asher said. One example is the CARLA test, which indicates an animal’s ability to respond to parasites. “It may be a tool for breeding animals with more resistance to parasitism.”

Asher said the use of genetic biomarkers for improving deer health would represent a paradigm shift in animal health. Rather than focusing on treatment of individual diseases, biomarkers would be used to identify animals that were best able to cope with a range of disease challenges. Genotyping tools had recently become much more affordable, which opened up more possibilities, Asher said.

“He said the use of genomics and biomarkers allows researchers to select for very specific disease resistance traits without having to “wipe out half our herds” by challenging them with disease to see which animals were resistant.

“CARLA is a biomarker specifically for resistance to parasites. What if it were related to other biomarkers for resistance to other diseases? There’s a big opportunity there but this is discovery science and it can take a few years to get a result.”

Asher said he expects to see results coming through in five or six years coming from developments in immunology and genomics.

[ Jamie Ward, AgResearch Invermay followed with an update on the Deer Progeny Test. This project was covered in the October/November 2015 Deer Industry News, pages 23–25.]

Parasitism: Could a bolus deliver the killer blow?AgResearch scientist Dave Leathwick described plans to look at the feasibility of using a small bolus to deliver the right anthelmintics to deer at the right dose rate for the right length of time and in the right place – a concept that comes out of left field but interested deer farmers nonetheless. More on that in a moment.

First, he catalogued some of the challenges involved in finding effective parasite treatments in deer that won’t trigger resistance. Some of the issues were:• Macrocyclic lactone (ML) pour-ons don’t work and shouldn’t be

used.• Injectable and oral moxidectin (an ML) can work reasonably

well, but efficacy results can vary widely – route of administration seems to make a difference.

• The 95 percent kill rate used as a threshold for efficacy doesn’t apply equally to all drench families.

• We don’t really know what the best dose rates are for deer, because they haven’t been tested. Dose rate advice to date is merely based on the general observation that deer metabolise drugs faster than both sheep and cattle.

• It’s hard to say for sure if resistance is happening because a poor result might be an issue of dose rate. What’s known for sure is that the sheep dose rate is probably not appropriate for deer, although many deer trials have been done using sheep dose rates.

• Resistance reported in a herd can’t always be detected when the same parasites are tested in the laboratory. Lab assays seem to work in cattle, but not in deer.

• High levels of anthelmintic in the blood plasma are important for control of lungworm, but not so much for gastrointestinal parasites – the amount of drug reaching worms in the gut is not always indicated by blood levels.

• In deer, injection of ML actives can give a better result than

Dave Leathwick: AgResearch looking into feasibility of using a mini-bolus for administering drenches in deer.


The “Hitting Targets” five-year research project has a balanced portfolio of research types.

Good science: continued

an oral dose but it has a longer “tail” effect, which can help encourage resistance if resistance genes are present in the parasite population. It’s not known why the injection can work better in deer.

• AgResearch is going to analyse parasite populations on a farm to check for levels of resistance using a lab assay. They will then treat the deer with a pour-on and then an oral drench and collect any parasites that have survived to repeat the assay and see if levels in the parasite populations have shifted. This will help determine whether resistance is present at a farm level and if so, quantify the extent.

• For drenches that are unregistered for use in deer, a major disadvantage is the 91-day default withholding period.

• AgResearch is planning some dose rate studies for ML and benzimidazole (white) drenches – they will also compare oxfendazole and albendazole at one dose rate. These have now started (December 2015).

• As part of its research, AgResearch is going to look at lower doses using extended periods of treatment.But back to that bolus idea. DEEResearch wants to develop

an effective registered deer drench with a reasonable meat withholding period and as Leathwick sees it, there are two possible ways to do this:1. Take an existing combination sheep or cattle oral product and

register it for deer.2. Develop and register a new product – developed from an

AgResearch “mini-bolus” to deliver the right anthelmintics.He said a mini-bolus can deliver a combination of BZ (white)

and ML (mectin) drenches over a sustained period. “The best way to make these [anthelmintics] work better is to increase the exposure over time. That works better than increasing the dose rate. If you want a BZ to work better in deer, don’t increase the dose rate but treat them twice over two days at the normal dose rate.”

AgResearch has developed a “pill” that raises the blood profile for an anthelmintic over a sustained period of five days, providing an increase in efficacy even over resistant worms. Proof of concept has been undertaken in sheep and cattle using both albendazole and abamectin; the results show increased efficacy even over some resistant parasites that other drenches can’t kill.

The bolus is heavy and sits in the rumen while it decays (it is based on iron sand).

A combination albendazole/abamectin drench delivered in sheep with the prototype mini-bolus against resistant parasites “pushed efficacy through the roof ” Leathwick said. He is hopeful this approach would also work in deer. “If this doesn’t kill the parasites in deer, then nothing will. Unless you could find a new active ingredient, you’d be in trouble.”

AgResearch will do a proof of concept with the mini-bolus in deer, comparing the efficacy of spreading a single treatment over five days (using the bolus) with giving the whole lot in one go – for both abamectin and albendazole.

“A mini-bolus has to be better than an off-the-shelf sheep or cattle oral drench. If not, we won’t proceed.”

Leathwick said farmers didn’t like using boluses, however, and vastly preferred the convenience of pour-ons (unfortunately pour-ons don’t work very well). He said AgResearch was looking to make the bolus as small as possible and develop a special gun to deliver

it. A possibility was to use something like cooking oil (maybe with added molasses) as a lubricant to improve delivery (swallowing).

He said the mini-bolus would be no bigger than a copper bullet and perhaps smaller. It would be possible to add selenium or cobalt with them, although copper might be more of a challenge because of the risk of the dose being toxic.

Use of a copper wire for slow release might be a way around this, Leathwick speculated, although having copper as part of the registered formulation would mean all of them needed this to be added whether it was needed or not.

Leathwick said proof of concept was to be completed this year and they were having talks with engineers on gun design, and a potential investor. “By next June, if the proof of concept works, we’ll need your OK to start the registration process. We would need vets and deer farmers to be part of the registration process.”

Dan Coup said the industry was very keen for the most efficacious deer drench to be registered for use in deer and would provide support through DEEResearch.

Leathwick said that, being conservative, he expected the meat withholding period to be only about 21–28 days.


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Science, environment concern Federated FarmersThe degradation of New Zealand’s science capability and defending agriculture against pressure to reduce carbon emissions were among the concerns highlighted by Federated Farmers President William Rolleston when he spoke to branch chairs.

HE SAID FEDERATED Farmers had changed its former hard line on climate change and now accepted that it’s happening and agriculture is contributing to the problem.

That said, he argued that New Zealand is one of the world’s most carbon-efficient food producers, adding that an emissions trading scheme is a trade-distorting mechanism in the same way that subsidies are.

At this stage all New Zealand farmers could do to cut their emissions was to cut production; this would have the effect of increasing net emissions by forcing production to other, less carbon-efficient countries. “No-one overseas penalises farmers,” he noted.

He said the best way to get farmers to reduce emissions without cutting production would be to work more efficiently. “If we can grow food more productively, we all win.” Rolleston said 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference being held in Paris in December would be very important for agriculture.

Water quality was also an important focus for Federated Farmers through the Land and Water Forum. Green organisations had been well organised and cohesive and so had been better heard than farming interests, he said. That was changing, however. Farming groups were now speaking with a common voice on water quality issues and in Canterbury, for example, that was aligned with Ngai Tahu.

As a scientist himself, Rolleston appreciates the importance of science-based evidence to support arguments by farming interests on issues such as the environment.

He said New Zealand’s science system was seriously degraded and Federated Farmers had set up a group to monitor science funding and how effectively it was used.

Science was over-governed and micro-managed from Wellington and he urged the Government to allow more bulk funding of Crown research institutes so they could take more responsibility for their outputs.

The fundamental work that used to be done in universities and government science institutions was no longer being done and

there was an over-emphasis on commercialisation, he said. “We are still riding on research that was done 30 years ago.”

Rolleston has long been an advocate of new genetic technologies and clashed with the late Sir Peter Elworthy on the subject 12 years ago at the 2003 Deer Industry Conference in Timaru. He said farmers need access to modern biotechnology tools such as gene editing, which are not genetic modification in the traditional (transgenic) sense. He had looked at grasses developed by AgResearch which had the potential to improve productivity by billions of dollars.

“They have lower nitrogen and water requirements than currently available pasture grasses, and better lipid content than palm kernel,” he said.

He argued for better regulation so that new technologies could coexist with other systems such as organics. He said organic farmers would only lose their status if they took an extreme view about the effects of even a single grain of pollen from a genetically

modified plant getting onto their properties.

Rolleston said Federated Farmers’ membership was holding up reasonably well considering the hit being taken by dairying at present. There appeared to be no appetite within the organisation to absorb the NZDFA or set up a deer section. “That would probably be uneconomic for us.” (DINZ Producer Manager, Tony Pearse, noted that when this was last investigated, about 25 percent of DFA members also belonged to Federated Farmers.)

William Rolleston: Concerned about the degradation of New Zealand’s science infrastructure.


Korea–New Zealand FTA fully ratifiedAt just after 5pm (local time) on 30 November, Korea’s National Assembly ratified that country’s free trade agreements (FTAs) with New Zealand, China, and Vietnam. The voting for the Korea–New Zealand FTA was overwhelmingly in support. This completes the political process required in Korea to bring the FTA into force. The parallel process in New Zealand was completed in late September.

Now that both countries’ Parliaments have completed their FTA-related work, the New Zealand Government will be seeking an

agreement with Korean officials on a target Entry Into Force (EIF) commencement date to be in mid-December. If this is achieved as expected, then a second tariff reduction will occur in only a few weeks, with 1 January being the agreed anniversary date.

For processed velvet, that means a tariff reduction of 1.3% at EIF and another 1.3% on 1 January 2016. For venison, that means a tariff reduction of 2.7% at EIF and another 2.7% on 1 January 2016.


OSPRI updateA planned reduction in the amount of Tb testing for deer herds by at least 50 percent over the next two-to-three years was a piece of welcome news during a presentation by OSPRI’s Stu Hutchings, Group Manager Programme Development and Michelle Edge, OSPRI Chief Executive.

HUTCHINGS SAID A decision on how funding the new National Pest Management Plan (NPMP) for bovine Tb would be shared was covered in the recent review of the plan. The funding partners had settled on proportionality and an index to determine this in future involved farmgate values among other factors. This would give assurances about future funding and mean constant reviews are not needed. Under the current legislation reviews can now be every 10 years.

Regional councils are withdrawing from funding the NPMP – the cost will now be shared between the Crown and industry.

He said this most recent review was robust and took only 10 months compared with the previous review, which lasted two years.

The current NPMP provides for:• freedom from bovine Tb in livestock by 2026• freedom in possums by 2040• freedom in all other vectors (complete biological eradication)

by 2055.A secondary objective was to maintain period prevalence for

the disease in cattle and deer herds at less than 0.2 percent (it is currently below this figure, at 0.15 percent).

Achieving these objectives would involve targeting areas that have not previously had vector control and areas where there had been recent vector-related herd infections.

Another feature of the NPMP was risk-based testing, based on three core variables: herd location, herd history and the nature of movements. Hutchings said disease control and movement control areas would be lifted as eradication covered new geographic areas.

In response to a question, Hutchings said it was possible that

testing might be restricted to a percentage of a herd rather than the whole herd in some circumstances, “but we need to be sure we see disease if it is there”. Overall the objective was to reduce the amount of testing needed for deer and the closed herd policy was one way this was happening.

Given there were only two infected deer herds in the whole country by September, he said there was scope to start reducing levels of testing in very low-risk areas.

He added that the current Tb plan that aimed to eradicate the disease in wildlife and livestock over a 2.5 million hectare area by 2026 was making good progress, with 1.2 million hectares already clear. He added that because the total original vector risk area of 10 million hectares for eventual eradication of the disease included some alpine areas (where vectors weren’t present) the actual area to be cleared from now on was more like 8 million hectares.

In response to a question about the ongoing testing of herds that had been C10 for many years, Hutchings agreed that there was scope to consider reducing testing on a herd-by-herd basis rather than just within certain geographic areas. “If your herd and your behaviours are low risk, then there could be a case for reducing testing.”

OSPRI Chief Executive Michelle Edge, who came into the role in May this year, said her initial focus at OSPRI was on the NAIT programme and issues such as the Impractical to Tag (ITT) levy. (A graph of the percentage of untagged deer going to slaughter showed the initially high figure dropped to less than 2 percent by late 2013, but had since bounced around between about 1.5 and 4 percent.)

She said NAIT was not quite at the point where it could support

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Putting environment planning into actionIf you want to be proactive about getting your farm operation lined up with regional council freshwater plans, putting a Land and Environment Plan (LEP)1 in place would be a great start.

THAT WAS THE advice of Landcare Trust Regional Coordinator, Janet Gregory. She said the non-regulatory approach of the LEPs, was being picked up by regional councils. The Canterbury Regional Council had adapted LEPs to its own Farm Environment Plan and Beef + Lamb New Zealand has helped the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council adapt LEPs to fit its own freshwater management plans.

Gregory is working on and environmental best practice programme for deer farming, supported by the Sustainable Farming Fund, NZDFA, DINZ, Balance, Beef + Lamb NZ and several regional councils.

She said the first step to creating your own LEP was to do a nutrient budget using OVERSEER® and then a nutrient management plan. That becomes a central part of your LEP, which is created to fit within your own farm system and budget. The LEP system has three levels, with Level 2 being suitable for most farm situations.

Gregory has been running seminars and field days on environmental best practice and fits in with existing events such as the Focused Farm programme, Advance Parties and Next Generation workshop. Events such as the sediment trap workshop at Kelly Bennett’s property (see Deer Industry News, April/May 2015, page 23) had generated good discussion and a fact sheet had been developed from that.

The most powerful way to encourage uptake of environmental best practice was to let farmers tell their own stories, Gregory said, and the Landcare Trust has developed a series of short videos to do just that (http://bit.ly/1XsmyV2).

Another channel for good news stories about environmental best practice was the biennial Deer Farmers’ Environmental Awards. Rural mentoring was another good way to pass on information like this, she added.

exporters’ brands in overseas markets by validating a range of attributes such as disease freedom or food safety. The scheme still had a way to go to do this consistently.

Edge said New Zealand undoubtedly needed a traceability system, but the key was to make sure it was fit for purpose and delivered what was needed in the event of an exotic disease outbreak, for example.

“Do you want to promote life-time traceability? What attributes do you want to promote? What do you need to be able to deliver that? Those are the sorts of things we need to know from you.”

Andrew Peters (Taihape) commented that while it was good to see NAIT having some purpose being aligned with Tbfree New Zealand, the lack of decent broadband in much of rural New Zealand was still a constraint for farmers.

Edge commented that OSPRI was at the point of looking at ways to remove some of the “pain” from farmers administering NAIT, for example, seeing whether a single transaction could be recorded rather than the current two-legged transactions (ie, when the animal leaves a farm and when it arrives at a processor).

Paddy Boyd noted that NAIT was accepted as useful, but a technical breakdown such as a broken scanner could make life very difficult if you’re in a remote area. Stephen Borland, a noted

technophobe, said he had recently purchased his first computer and was fully compliant with NAIT, “and even an old fellow like me can pick it up on a wet day in a couple of hours. It was just a case of getting that vital piece of technology – a computer – and the internet”.

Stu Hutchings commented that it is possible for rural schools with good internet access to act as a hub for NAIT data transfers.

DFA Executive Committee Chair, Kris Orange said the issue of missing tags at slaughter was an ongoing source of frustration for farmers, “especially when we know we are doing it well – there are also dud tags or lazy staff at plants who won’t try again if the scanner hasn’t read the tag.”

Edge said the exemptions from the ITT levy are needed for some circumstances such as these. “The problem is that other excuses are getting through. We’re about to consult on ITT – OSPRI is collecting data now on tag efficacy. We need to look at all the factors. We don’t believe a lot of tags are lost on trucks but we need to quantify the factors so we can push on the right levers. If we don’t do this properly there’s a risk of making an arbitrary rule that’s no better than the old rule. We’ll be looking at real ITT figures based on actual retentions and losses.”

Janet Gregory: Developing environmental best practice programme for deer farming.

1 http://bit.ly/1TlGZT0


OSPRI: continued


It’s all about managing riskYou have more chance of being killed on your farm than you do of being prosecuted for a health and safety offence.

THAT FOOD FOR thought was presented to branch chairs by Gordon MacDonald, Chief Executive of Worksafe New Zealand, who was backgrounding the introduction of the Health and Safety at Work Act, which comes into force on 1 April 2016 (it replaces the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992).

And there are plenty more sobering statistics where that came from. • In 2013, 24 people were killed in farm accidents. • In 2014, 40 percent of New Zealand workplace deaths occurred

on farms. • Seven out of the 15 deaths recorded on farms by October 2015

were on quad bikes.Fatalities are only the tip of the health and safety iceberg, of

course. MacDonald said there were 32,000 injury ACC claims from the agriculture sector in 2013, with 312 serious harm notifications recorded.

A Worksafe New Zealand survey carried out across the four riskiest sectors – forestry, farming, construction and manufacturing – showed that attitudes within the farming sector sometimes lagged behind others. For example:• Health and safety is given a relatively low priority in farming.• Workers see themselves as more responsible for their own

health and safety than management are.• Staff training is given a low priority.• While people understand they are working in a high-risk

environment, they don’t feel personally at risk.• Incident and near-miss reporting in farming is lower than in

the other three high-risk sectors, and so is awareness of and

responsiveness to hazards.• Bosses usually rank themselves more highly in terms of good

health and safety management than their workers do.MacDonald said the basic principles of the health and safety

legislation – that you must identify hazards and manage the risk1 – is essentially unchanged since 1992. The new Act introduces the responsibility of a Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking, or PCBU (often a company), to have a duty of care for the health and safety of employees or those affected by your activities.

He said the ultimate responsibility for a worker’s safety was shared by management and the worker themselves. The measures taken needed to be reasonably practicable, and the higher the risk the more mitigation that might be needed, he explained.

A significant change in the legislation is the concept of overlapping duties. “If I’m on a worksite with another PCBU, we need to coordinate our activities and work out how we will

Worksafe New Zealand Chief Executive, Gordon MacDonald, announced the recent publication of guidelines for safe deer handling.

Safe Deer Handling from Worksafe New Zealand is now available.1 The terms “hazard” and “risk” are sometimes used interchangeably, but they have different meanings. A hazard is something that intrinsically has the capacity to cause harm (eg, a quad bike or high tension power lines). Risk is the probability of harm occurring. When you are mitigating risk you are reducing the chances of a hazard causing harm.


Mendip Hills: Getting through summerby Phil Stewart, Deer Industry News Editor

It’s four years since the Mendip Hills Focus Farm programme finished, but gains have been locked in with potential further improvements being explored.

WHEN THE CANTERBURY/WEST COAST branch of NZDFA hosted a return visit to Mendip Hills on 24 November, the farm was looking good but bracing for a continuation of the drought that has beset North Canterbury for over a year.

First, a brief recap on Mendip Hills:

Area: 6,091 hectares (4,600 effective, plus 150ha effective finishing unit)

Sheep: 14,200 stock units (SU)

Cattle: 8,450 SU

Deer: 3,200 SU

Deer fenced: 842 haThe ongoing drought has forced a total reduction in stocking

from 33,000 SU to 25,850 SU, brought about mainly through reduced winter trading lambs and trading cattle, but also a small reduction in ewes, cows and hinds.

Manager, Simon Lee, said the biggest gains from the Focus Farm programme had come about through:• Johne’s disease control: This was a huge challenge during the

Focus Farm programme, which saw half of his replacement hinds culled in a single year, when the disease was at its peak around the country. Testing and culling saw infection rates fall quickly and, combined with careful management (eg, avoiding stress or exposure of young stock to MAP infection), clinical cases are now rare and infection rates generally below 5 percent.

• Monitoring and measuring: Lee said the more they measured (eg, weights as well as financial KPIs) the more they learnt.

• Better nutrition using crops like fodder beet to maintain body condition on hinds through the crucial late summer/autumn period and to grow heavier weaners.Enhancing farm water supply to the east-facing deer blocks

through a $189,000 investment in a stock water system five years ago was the “best money that’s ever been spent”, Lee said.

One bad summer can have flow-on effects for the next two seasons, and attendees broke into groups to brainstorm the top priorities for getting hinds and fawns through a challenging El Niño summer to prevent this happening at Mendip Hills.

They explored the balance between increasing feed supply (eg, more feed through irrigation and nitrogen, more supplementary feed, grazing feed crops and rough areas) and reducing demand (eg, prioritising stock, rationing, selling stock or grazing off farm). By acting early, it was easier to avoid a crisis situation where stock condition and pasture covers were being “mined”, eating into future profits.

These are the key points to come out of the discussion:• Maintaining body condition on a hind comes at only about a

quarter of the cost of replacing it once it’s lost. • A hind can buffer her fawn in early lactation, but as lactation

slows, pasture quality drops and the fawn feed requirements increase, good growth and rumen development depends much more on availability of good pasture or forage.

• Grazing on chicory during February to April can help weaners maintain good growth rates when pasture quality is falling. Lucerne and red clover or grain can also help.

• Feed of over of 9 megajoules of metabolisable energy per kg dry


On Farm

Replacement hinds at Mendip Hills.


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matter (MJME/kgDM) is needed to promote weaner growth. Every 1 MJME/kgDM boosts growth by around 100g/d.

• If hind BCS is dropping too fast in later lactation, consider weaning early and getting stock onto crops or additional supplement.

• Key trigger points for management decisions are:– pasture quality from mid December to weaning– hind BCS in mid January– pasture covers in January and February– fawn liveweights and growth rates.

• Get fawns accustomed to supplements at least a month before weaning. You should not wean straight onto hard feed they are unfamiliar with.

• Providing there is soil moisture, using a strategic burst of

nitrogen to promote pasture growth is always cheaper than bought supplement – but there is a lag waiting for the response.

• If feed is getting short, don’t be afraid to introduce supplements via Advantage feeders before fawning is finished. Hinds appreciate the feeders are a food source and it is not as disruptive as you’d think. Even if they don’t all use the feeder, you are reducing pressure on remaining pasture.

• Parasites are less of a risk in a drought (larvae don’t survive so well in dry pasture) but stress-induced diseases like yersiniosis and Johne’s disease are more of a risk.

• Get stressful jobs like tagging, drenching and vaccination done before or after weaning but not during – and prepare weaning paddocks early, with shelter and shade are available.

mutually protect each other from harm,” MacDonald explained.Another change was the requirement to link all points in the

safety chain. For example, if a principal is subcontracting a job, they need to be satisfied that the subcontractor has the necessary health and safety procedures in place. “I don’t have to manage their risk for them, but I need to exercise my influence to be sure they are taking the necessary steps to do this.”

Likewise, where there is a multi-step process involving different teams responsible, say for design, manufacture and installation, they each need to coordinate their health and safety protocols to make sure the chain of protection is complete.

MacDonald said good leadership and due diligence by senior members of an organisation will be important aspects of the new regime. “You need the necessary information to tell you whether you’re delivering on [health and safety] policy objectives and you need to be thinking about health and safety.”

Also important, and this is something new in the legislation, is worker participation. “They are the eyes and ears of a health and safety system. They can tell you what’s working and what is not.”

He said the new legislation isn’t about zero risk – it’s about focusing on the most significant risk. “It’s not just about providing a safe work environment – it’s also about providing systems that work.”

Federated Farmers’ viewIn a separate presentation to branch chairs, Federated Farmers President, William Rolleston, said his organisation agrees that farming health and safety needs to improve but “you need to take farmers with you” when changing the law. “You don’t do that by imposing $40,000 fines for not wearing a helmet.”

He noted that Worksafe New Zealand had pulled back from its strong position on wearing of helmets on quad bikes, although the law was still being enforced.

The health and safety culture in agriculture needed to change, Rolleston conceded, but not at the expense of the rural lifestyle. “Hunters and other visitors still need to be able to come onto your property without form filling.”• Worksafe New Zealand’s October 2015 publication, Safe Deer

Handling is available online at: http://bit.ly/1lkEuEM

Managing risk: continued


Animal Health

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