Federated Farmers of New Zealand

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New Zealand Arable Farming

Released 01 Sep 2011

MAF Pastoral Monitoring for Arable farming

Key Points:

  • Grain prices began to rise from October 2010 in response to a general lift in commodity prices as well as concerns about limited global cereal supplies due to dry conditions in the main growing regions of the US, Australia and
    Canada.
  • Pasture seed prices also increased during 2010/11 as global stocks cleared. Rising prices assisted with the clearance of grain and seed stocks on hand in New Zealand from the 2009/10 season.
  • Cereal yields in the year ended June 2010/11 in the Canterbury region fell on average by 15 percent due to unfavourable weather conditions; a wet autumn and winter, followed by a cold spring and then a hot dry period in early summer.
  • Grass seed yields were also impacted by unfavourable weather conditions whilst later season crops such as brassica seed yielded well.
  • Cereal and small seed yields are expected to return to average levels in 2011/12, assisted by favourable rainfall and temperatures in autumn 2011.

For more information please click here to go to the Ministry's website.

2011 MAF Arable & Horticulture Overview (1.4MB)
 

Carbon Footprinting

The report below presents a greenhouse gas (GHG) life cycle assessment (LCA) of one tonne of arable product to the farm gate in New Zealand. Sector-specific methodologies and guidance for the measurement of on-farm GHG emissions were developed for arable production. The report is based on the internationally recognised Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 2050 and ISO standards 14040:2006 and 14044:2006 methodologies.

2011 - The Carbon Footprint of New Zealand Arable Production (1.6MB)
 

Get Ahead, get into arable farming

Are you up for a career in arable farming.  Click here to find out how you can Get Ahead as an arable farmer. 

You can also check out Federated Farmers by clicking here.

Another great resource is the Foundation for Arable Research or FAR, that you can visit by clicking here.