SDSU New Zealand Ag Trip

Monday, May 13, 2013

May 13th - Day 7 in New Zealand

Hope all you beautiful mothers had a great mothers day!!

Today we left Palmerston North at 8:45am! We got to sleep in a little bit, thank goodness. We headed to a knitting factory where they had some very nice wool apparel that make great gifts, hint hint. Perfect grift for those of you getting 85 degree weather! It is around 50 degrees here, but the sun feels great because there is little ozone in New Zealand. We took off on the bus for a two hour drive to Wellington. Upon entering Wellington, we were struck by the beauty. We came around a hill and saw the ocean and all of the beach houses. The roads are quite scenic and there are a lot of "wow! Look at that!" comments made. Our tour guide, Ron, knows so much about every aspect of the country and makes comments along the way.

Our first stop was downtown Wellington at Beef + Lamb New Zealand (BLNZ). This was a levy supported extension service because the government doesn't supply extension programs. The levy was 60 cents per head of lamb and sheep and $4.40 per head of cattle at slaughter. This totaled 60 million for this organization. BLNZ is research based, gathering their own data and analyzing it. They also do a little lobbying for farmers. Although, there is no government support they channel their lobbying skills to control tariffs and the exchange rate. We talked a lot about market demand and how they try to contribute to the world market. After this meeting we ate quickly in the town square, with quite a few pigeons that Colton was hand feeding and throwing fries by the girls to scare them.

We then walked to the Ministry for Primary Industries and met with Fiona, a representative of the ministry who deals with international marketing. She talked about a general overview of exports and how the government is involved here. A farmer in New Zealand depends on less than one percent of their income from government help involving everything from food safety to tariffs, while a Switzerland farmer depends on 61 percent of their income from government involvement. The United States was only at 7 percent, surprising a lot of us. The unemployment system here gives a person $293 per week, and must be actively looking for employment. There is not much for crop insurance here, as premiums are very expensive.

The next stop for the day was Mt. Victoria. This was the highest point of Wellington and very scenic. You could see the ocean, the harbor, downtown, and the suburbs of Wellington all in one location. Then we headed to the museum. Some people glossed through the huge variety of exhibits, others attempted to read all the plaques. There were so many choices ranging from a children's exhibit that actually contained a giant squid, currently with one eye, to a maori exhibit entitled Blood, fire, and water. The nature exhibit had buttons that had children speaking about native animals in the display. I learned that kea, the national bird of NZ , is mischievous, basically resembling a large parrot roaming the mountains. There was a giant wooden xylophone and Dana attempted to play 3 blind mice, it was a tragic misadventure. Others got sucked into the children's exhibit fiddling with mind games.

We miss you all, well some of you

Derek St. John

Dana Gadeken

Sunday, May 12, 2013

May 12th - Day 6 in New Zealand

Happy Mothers' Day

We started off the day visiting a local Kiwifruit vineyard. The Kiwifruit is grown on a vine in an umbrella formation to optimize yields. Sadly, the harvest season ends in late April so we did not get to see the fruit growing on the tree. We have had the opportunity to sample some of the varieties of Kiwi and especially enjoyed the golden Kiwifruit that is a bit sweeter to the taste and is not the traditional green hue.

Not only were we able to taste the Kiwifruit, we stopped at the large Hastings Farmers Market. From figs to pasta and vegetables to jams, the farmers market was packed with local produce from the rich agricultural region. This market provided a large look at the variety of products as well as providing us with a bit of home as the live musician played "Sweet Home Alabama." Leaving the market, we soon came across the sight of farmers using their dogs to move their sheep herd along the road into another pasture.

We continued our travels to the much anticipated deer farm. John Spiers is a deer farmer that showed us the many steps to the process of raising deer for meat and velvet. He runs 1,400 total deer in his herd. The velvet that is produced comes from the stags that are in the herd and they reach their growing potential at five to ten years old and can yield up to 15 kg per year. We continued to tour his property by taking a hayride where we got to see his various herds and saw his self-feeding barley silage system. We ended this visit by enjoying some hot tea and Subway sandwiches.

After learning some things about how deer farming works, we were able to change gears and learn about farm businesses in New Zealand by our visit to the Westview Farming Partnership. We have been discovering more about how share farming works in the country but this was a much more elaborate business model. Visiting with Nicola Shadboldt, she shared how the partnership was started in 1986. The farming market dramatically changed with the elimination of farm subsidies in 1984 and some farmers were exiting the market. Nicola and her husband Shane decided that it was time for people to invest in farming. They put an ad in the paper to attract urban investors to begin this partnership.

Once they had a large enough pool of investors, they purchased a farm to get started. Over time, they were able to expand and get more investors and have an active sheep, dairy, beef and deer farms. One thing that really stood out about the sheep farm that they run was the fact that they will shear 1,500 sheep in one day which would be about 300-400 sheep per person or on average one sheep per minute. The sheep and other parts of the farm are operated by managers and workers to do the day to day management but the investors and shareholders are urban families that only meet one time per year to discuss trends and big picture decisions that need to be made.

We ended this discussion and got back on the road just before 6:00 p.m. when we traveled to to hotel. Once checked into our rooms, we went to have dinner with Dr. Patel and his family. Dr. Patel is a new professor at SDSU that lives here in New Zealand. Overall, we had a great day and all want to send our love to our mothers on this special day!

Peace out,
Natasha Laska & Wyatt DeJong

Saturday, May 11, 2013

May 11th - Day 5 in New Zealand

We traveled to Kevin and Jane McDonald's farm where they raise polled Hereford studs. It's a 280 acre family farm that sells around 27 bulls a year. This years sale is the fifth of June. The picture of the Hereford stud is what they believe will be their number one stud bull, because he has the right markings and carcass traits. New Zealand focuses a lot more on the correct white markings and color of Herefords than the United State's does. We got to tour the whole farm in their pickups. One vehicle was a diesel Ford Ranger costing $60,000! However, he receives a 13% discount because he's a part of some group that we didn't quite catch. Because of the drought this year, Kevin had to feed more bales of corn and hay than usual, which cost approximately $120 NZ per bale weighing around 800 kilos.
Kevin is also in a 50:50 partnership with Wrightson Company holding yearly calf sales that run for about 13 weeks. Wrightson deals with more of the financial and paperwork side of things whereas Kevin is involved with marketing and the calves get to the right people at the end of the day. Last year they sold more than 6,000 calves that were between 4 days old and a week old.
Running a tad behind schedule we made a quick stop at Huka Falls which is a major source of hydro power in the North Island. As you can see, the water is very blue. We picked up a quick lunch which was eaten on the bus as we kept moving towards Bruce Willis's farm. Along the way we saw a ton of sheep and trees. The drive reminded Sophie a lot of the Black Hills with the sharp turns and steep hills.
Bruce Willis is the president of the Federated Farmers which represents New Zealand agriculture both locally and nationally. This gave us a chance to learn more about the political side of agriculture in New Zealand. NZ is very environmentally cautious with water quality being a big issue. Bruce said they talk a lot about sustainable agriculture and farming for the future. New Zealand got rid of all farm subsidies in the early 80's and he discusses with other countries how they got through that tough period of time.
We then traveled to Napier where we met horticulturist Win Heuser. We were greeted with about fifty apples of various varieties, including a new smaller apple. This smaller apple is a cross of crab apples and Gala apples. Other varieties didn't even have names as of now, just numbers. It was agreed that the pinova (I'm not sure of that spelling) and a yellow one that wasn't named were the best. We drove through an apple orchard and then stopped at the place where they clean them and pack the apples. One shipment of apples was heading to McDonald's for their apple slices. Win discussed how he continually has to change the type of apples produced to keep up with consumer's demand. He does this by grafting trees instead of wiping out all the trees.
After a long day of traveling in the bus the students are hoping to find some live music in downtown Napier!

Cody Wehner and Sophie Iversen

Friday, May 10, 2013

May 10th - Day 4 in New Zealand

Today we were in the great city of Rotorua and started our day as true tourists. Tourism is their second largest form of revenue. We visited the Agrodome which explains some of the concepts of New Zealand farming. An experienced shearer and shepherd introduced us to the nineteen popular sheep breeds such as the magnificent and huge Merino. He then gave a demonstration of sheep shearing and herding. During the show a few of our group were able to go on stage! Ashley helped milk a cow and Colton and Taylor bottle fed a piglet and baby alpaca.
From there we headed to the Te Puia which is a thermal reserve and the Maori Arts and Crafts Institute. We were lucky enough to see the national bird, which is the Kiwi. It is a nocturnal bird so we ended up entering a enclosed room with no photography so we would not disturb the birds. It pretty much is the size of a jackrabbit covered in hair. We also walked around multiple hot springs which surprisingly smelt worse then a swine barn. Who knew? From there we were allowed to see the Maori carving wood and weaving. It was really interesting to see their skills and how intricate they can be.
For lunch some ate at Macs steakhouse which was owned by a Maori Land Trust Incorporation board member who we would meet with later that afternoon. We however ate at pizza hut which is thankfully similar to the United States. Nice to have some comfort food.
After that we picked up Bob Mcfarlane who was the board member of the Maori Land Trust. He then showed us the region or block that he managed which was over 3204 hectors. This area had three dairy farms, two deer farms and some woodlands. We visited with one of the dairy farmers, David Morell, who had 1500 cows. The agreement between Bob and David is a 50:50 shareholder. This means that Bob provides the land, pays the taxes on the land, and any buildings on the land. David on the other hand provides the stock, up keep and manual labor. In the end, they split the profits evenly. On arrival to his far site we were welcomed with a small American plane that was used to spread fertilizer and seed on to the various pastures. Amazingly, Cody and Sophie were allowed a short ride, after a very long coin toss battle. Congrats to them. We got to play with the puppies.
Our day ended with the Maori Hangi which is a traditional feast that explains some of their sculptural aspects, such as dances and games. Our chief, of course, was Derek who did a great job of not accidentally starting a fight with the tribe. Before the meal we were given the opportunity of participating in some of the tribe games. There was a chief dance, maiden dance, and various agility games. Lots of laughs and pictures. From there we entered their ancestral house where we witnessed their ceremonial and war dances. Very Very cool!!!! Kinda freaky when they stuck out their tongue and made their war faces! The meal was very good and the group enjoyed the green tiki punch and the pavlova which is a new Zealand dessert made of cream and meringue. Will have to get the recipe for that for sure! To finish the night off, our bus driver led us in songs ranging from wheels on the bus to common songs from each person's home country. We represented America with the song "fishing in the dark" by the nitty gritty band. :)

Happily submitted by Taylor Anderson and Lauren Kill

Thursday, May 9, 2013

May 9th - Day 3 in New Zealand

After a lovely nights sleep, we hit the road early. We loaded into the bus then our tour guide Ron led us to an Ag shopping area where we got to see commercial products available to farmers (we even saw some products that were being packaged in the Gallagher factory yesterday!). It was generally agreed that this provided some insight into what products are available in the market.

After yet more driving through winding roads, we visited a dairy and a forestry operation. The first stop was the dairy, owned and operated by Grant Wills and Karen Preston. The dairy consist of 635 cows, most of which are of the Kiwi breed. The rest of the herd is Jersey and Fresian, a cross of these two breeds leads to the Kiwi. These cattle are considerably different from the cattle in the United States. They are smaller, produce less milk, and have to hike across several kilometers each day to be milked! The parlor is outdoors with nothing but a roof on it. One thing that we found cool was how they cleaned the pen; around it was five 55 gallon drums that were elevated and filled with water until they would tip over spilling the water which would rinse the concrete. The pasture which is made up of 235ha which converts to about 580ac, is intensely managed. The manure produced from the parlor and herd homes is spread over the grass to replace the nutrients lost; with the addition of some commercial fertilizers. The pasture is separated into several parcels to increase the production. The creeks running through the property along with steep hillsides are fenced off so the cattle cannot access them. This is done to reduce erosion and create a buffer strip so that runoff doesn't enter the stream as quickly. He also was in the process of adding more trees to the riparian area in order to reduce erosion and add integrity to the stream bank. Grant also provides a critical link between producers and consumers. He does this by encouraging Fonterra, a major milk supplier which he sells his milk to, to reach out to consumers through programs that stress the nutritious benefits of milk in your daily diet. They provide milk to school children as well as low income families several times a week to lessen the divide between urban areas and agricultural regions.

Our next stop for the day was the Ministry for Primary Industries to learn about New Zealand's Forestry Industry. Upon arrival we were enthusiastically greeted by the one dog welcoming party and the staff. Here we listened to a presentation about the forestry industry in New Zealand. The forestry industry is the third largest industry in the country, and is expected to grow considerably in the future. There are only four species of trees grown for the production of lumber. The main commercial species is a non-native breed of pine. One of the questions that was asked was about improvements that will need to be made to the industry in order for it to evolve to a 12 billion dollar industry instead of simply modifying to a 6 billion dollar industry. Our host recommended that the wood industry needed to develop more wood products, especially for construction. He anticipated that these products would be well received, especially in Asian and Indian markets, both wood deficient regions. The trees used for commercial production have been improved over several decades through the use of selective breeding. Now there has been an interest in genetically modifying them to make the trees Roundup resistant so that they can control the volunteer trees in the plantation. The test plot that was grown was destroyed by an anti-GMO activist group. After the presentation we had the privilege of exploring a test plot of Redwoods that was planted over 100 years ago. These trees were very impressive, absolutely massive! Dana and Cody even went for a light jog in the woods through the fresh air.

Dana Gadeken
Colton Grimmius

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

May 8th - Day 2 in New Zealand

Today we visited Hamilton and saw Keith Vallabh who is a chair on the fresh vegetable product group. He took us over to meet a friend of his, Bhart Hir Bhana. He was a producer that grew onions, potatoes, carrots, and Brassicas. The vegetable producer had fifty employees that helped out on the farm. They were all local help. They exported a large majority of their crop, with the rest going to local supermarkets. There are only two supermarket chains here so they pretty much set the price. Also, there are no farm subsidies. This producer sold to the UK, Japan, Europe, Fiji, Hong Kong, and some others. He only had 1500 acres, 1200 of which were owned by him. Here is the kicker, land is worth $100,000 per acre. That means he has $120,000,000 in land!!! That is $108,000,000 in US money! After leaving the vegetable producer, Keith brought us to his farm, a small 50 acre farm that he bought about 25 years ago for $355,000. It is valued today at $5,000,000. It is for sale, by the way! All of the New Zealand farmers have an exit strategy as they believe tough times are in the future because government is starting to control the farmers now. They are actually having a meeting next week with legislators on operating farm machinery on public roads.
We then ate, noticing there is no ketchup in restaurants. It is all tomato paste, which Derek was not a fan of. We then went to the company Gallagher Animal Management Systems. This place was amazing!! This company was the inventor of electric fencers. They are now a $200,000,000 company that makes everything from clothes pins to security systems. They had a molding area where they made everything plastic. Fun fact, all airports in the world have toilet paper holders made by this company. They were contracted by Tork to make them. They made the thing to make the mold, then assembled everything to make a finished product. They even bought cable in bulk, then recoiled it in smaller quantities. There was a sonic welder that welds plastic by sound. We couldn't tour the warehouse because they could send product overseas without going through customs. So they were ultra secure. They make gates for the two major companies in New Zealand. They also did a security system for Buckingham Palace.
Next we went to Milfos. This company made milking systems. The biggest system was the rotary system which puts a cow on a big carousel and milks them in a circle, so some are always coming on and going off for efficiency. We toured the plant which was a warehouse and assembly plant. They had modern CNC machines, many from the US. We then went in to the research and development and saw a prototype that goes in the rotary system that cleans pre and post milking.
After this tour we went to the hotel and out to eat in the lobby. Now it is off to swimming and relaxing after a long and exciting day!

Cheers mate!
Derek St. John
Tasha Laska

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

May 7th - First Day in New Zealand

Welcome to New Zealand!

We arrived after a 12.5 hour flight. The weather here welcomed us with a beautiful day full of sun and green grass! We met our tour guide, Ron McPhail, who will be guiding us throughout our journey.

The first thing on our schedule was to take in the sights in the City of Sails (Auckland). With a quick stroll through the city and a quick stop to enjoy the beach, we took in the view at the Michael Joseph Savage Memorial. We were able to see the scenic view of the entire city from this point.

The adventure continued with a three hour stop at the Auckland War Memorial Museum. From learning the lifestyle and rich history of the native Maori people to seeing the wildlife of the New Zealand land and to understanding the major role that the New Zealand people dutifully contributed to the major wars thought history, this stopped proved to be enlightening, inspiring and emotionally moving. At the museum, we also enjoyed our first meal in this beautiful country.

Once the visit at the museum concluded, we made our way to the hotel to freshen up after the long day. The day's adventure was not over yet however. We walked 15 minutes to the Skytower (this is the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere). What you might be thinking happened next, we took the elevator to the top to truly see the panoramic view of this great city and the bay that surrounds it.

Taking the elevator back down, we went to the restaurant in the lower level of the Skytower. We were in for a great surprise as the Auckland Blues Rugby team walked right by us to enjoy their mid-year celebration of their season. Some of the group were lucky enough to get signatures and pictures with these celebrities.

After the meal, we made our way back to the hotel to get some much needed rest. The excitement for what is to come over the next few days is high. This first day was spent mostly as a welcome to New Zealand and to Auckland. Tomorrow brings the start of the agricultural aspect of this trip. G'day mates!

Ashley Roiger & Wyatt DeJong