Harvest 2016

30 May 2016

Speech by Guy Wigley, Chairman of Federated Farmers Arable Industry Group at the Arable Industry Conference in Ashburton

The past 12 months have been a rollercoaster.  The year started quietly with no biosecurity incursions - life seemed to be dominated by the price of milk - then along came velvetleaf.  

This is not specifically an arable industry weed as it is across all farming types and the arable industry will be able to manage this weed better than most.  However, it highlights how crucial biosecurity is to the wellbeing of our industry and the country as a whole.  

The Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) has done an outstanding job in its response to the velvetleaf incursion mobilising large numbers of staff from its networks with the aim of eradicating velvetleaf from New Zealand.

As more reports came in, it became clear that an even wider response than any of us could have contemplated needed to be mounted.  The Regional Councils have done an outstanding job in carrying out the “seek and destroy mission” initiated by MPI under urgent measures.  

The incursion was overseen by a stakeholders group which included Federated Farmers, FAR, DairyNZ, Beef+Lamb, DeerNZ and regional councils, and in particular the Waikato Regional Council who has had considerable success in managing this weed in the past.  

It has been very disappointing to see five lines of fodder beet seed contaminated with velvetleaf all originating from Italy via one company.  This will be debated at length elsewhere in the conference.  

To date there are 250 known incursion sites throughout New Zealand, however all these fields have been visited and the velvetleaf removed. MPI is moving to long-term management of this weed. The long term management plan is yet to be established and Federated Farmers and other stakeholder groups are working with MPI on this. Federated Farmers policy advisor Philippa Rawlinson and I have been fully engaged with MPI throughout this process and believe we have a good working relationship with them.

There is a second velvetleaf incursion in the Waikato in maize crops. It has been very damaging for farmers and crops involved, and particularly stressful for individuals who were reliant on the income from those crops.  We are very grateful for the sterling work that John Hodge, Hew Dalrymple and Colin Mackinnon have been doing in dealing with this incursion and trying to track down the origins of the velvetleaf. 

Other incursions include blackgrass 2016, which I am pleased to report has been isolated to two seed lines of Nui and all trace backs from these lines have been explored including straw, offal and other paddocks sown with the parent seed line.  No further blackgrass has been found at this stage.  

Noogoora burr is a legacy issue that the Arable Industry Group was dealing with before I took over as chairman and we have serious concerns about how the unprocessed corn originating from Bulgaria was transported around the middle of the North Island.  As a result of our persistent focus on this issue, MPI is working on revised transport protocols for the movement of imported grain to New Zealand.  We are working with MPI to get answers to our remaining questions related to the shipment and the auditing of the processes involved in its importation from the pre-border space through to the end milled product.  

On more cheery note, Harvest 2016 has turned out to be average or better in most cases even though we suffered a particularly dry October/November 2015.  Cereal crops received rain just in time to finish well, the rain of late January was a problem in some grass seed and other high value crops however has done a lot of good when it came to establishing this seasons crops and along with small rains has seen a lot of arable ground in very good order for planting.

The flow-on effect of the dairy downturn has seen prices falling to a point now that they are more than competitive with imported grain for the feed milling industry whom will be well placed to use more New Zealand grain moving forward.

Grazing contracts for those farmers who are doing dairy support as part of their operations have also fallen in price to meet the market. However, many farmers have opted for store stock options which has in-directly helped North Canterbury farmers with their on-going feed crisis.  We encourage farmers to maintain long term relationships with dairy farmers where possible as their fortunes will inevitably return.

Even though our margins have been trimmed, the arable industry is well placed to tread water during these more challenging times.  

I would like to thank my vice-chairman Colin Hurst (Seeds), Hew Dalrymple (Maize/Forage) and Brian Leadley (Grains), for their sterling work through the year and to David Birkett for coming onto the executive and enabling us to build on the close relationship between Federated Farmers  Arable and the Foundation for Arable Research (FAR) which has been very helpful.  

I would like to also thank my Arable Council (Colin Mackinnon, John Hodge, Rob Foley, David Lee-Jones, Alan Harvey, Joanne Burke, Michael Porter, Doug Simpson, Hugh Wigley, Jim Sim and Steve Wilkins), for the contribution they have made throughout the year to the group and their provinces.  

I thank Alan Harvey for his contribution over the past 12 months and welcome aboard Rueben Carter who is stepping in to fill his boots.  This group works very well together and we look forward to the year ahead.  Federated Farmers Arable Industry Group has been very well served by the energetic Philippa Rawlinson who has good connections throughout the industry and has been a great support for all the office bearers, thank you Philippa. 

I look forward to talking with you all at the cocktail function this evening.  I want to publically acknowledge Jim Sim and the financial contribution of United Wheat Growers Ltd (UWG) towards the cocktail drinks and dinner.  We have a close working relationship with United Wheatgrowers Ltd as we share common goals.  I would like thank Jim Sim who has been chairman of UWG for as long as I can remember and has seen UWG run a very sound insurance scheme for wheatgrowers in New Zealand, thank you Jim.