Young Britons don’t eat Sunday lamb roasts like their parents do, and Alliance Group is finding ways to connect to that younger generation.

Those young people do, however, eat koftas, pies and nibbles. They go to pubs, football games, concerts, a percentage enjoy white-tablecloth fine dining and they buy food online.

Alliance Group’s UK and Europe manager Helen Scott said retail remains an extremely important market for lamb, but consumer trends are shifting and exporters like Alliance have to adapt, which it is trying to do by adding value.

“Retail is very important to us as it is to all red meat companies, but we are also looking to create value by targeting food service, hospitality and online sales.”

Alliance has employed Matt Owens as head of culinary, and it is his job to create new products from Alliance’s Pure South, Lumina lamb and Handpicked aged beef ranges and to also work with chefs, hospitality and food service outlets.

This involves finding flavours for pie fillings, burgers and koftas and, potentially, creating new lamb or beef dishes, such as in tortellini pasta, dim sims, pizza topping or lamb and prawns in an Asian broth.

“I’m lucky I know a lot of people who have a lot of ideas and we are close to London City and some of the best restaurants in the world,” said Owens.

Scott said this new product focus and Owens’s culinary skills contributed to Alliance supplying meat and meat products to the New Zealand team and supporters at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games and at NZ House during the recent Paris Olympics.

Alliance lamb and beef products are also supplied to corporate fans at Premier League football side Tottenham Hotspur’s newly owned 62,000-seat Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

A typical game will see 8000 burgers and 6000 koftas eaten.

Scott said the stadium is also hosting an American Football League match and a concert by Beyoncé at which Alliance products will be sold.

The company that runs hospitality at Tottenham operates a further five stadiums that now serve Alliance products.

Scott said the new range also features on menus, from pubs to high-end hotels in the UK, Europe and the Gulf States, where it is served alongside beverages, room service and at conferences.

Scott said Alliance is also targeting high-end restaurants with its Lumina lamb, which is now on the menus of Michelin star-rated restaurants in the UK and Dubai.

These are small but important steps that Alliance needs to take.

“This is the future for NZ farmers, creating value,” she said.

“We are a sheep, beef and venison red meat co-operative and we’re proud of it, but we are also a culinary food supplier and that is how we are attracting younger consumers.”

Scott said Owens’s extensive contact network from a career work in the culinary industry and as a former chair of the 139-year-old Craft Guild of Chefs, has been crucial in getting a foot in the door of potential clients, but also getting them to try new or existing products.

A commercial kitchen has been built at Alliance’s appropriately named Shepherdess Walk  offices in central London, at which Owens can experiment with products, network with other chefs or brainstorm new ideas, and where the company can host potential customers.

Once a product has been developed it still needs to satisfy commercial and market criteria.

For example, the super yacht industry is a new potential market but will have to satisfy logistic as well as financial criteria.

“We’re very specific – we have to be – and that means we won’t be seen everywhere,” said Scott.

Nearly a third of UK transactions are conducted online and Scott said its Silere lamb range is resonating with young consumers and has an exceptionally high five-star satisfaction rating lodged by customers.

She said consumers relish the story behind Silere lamb, which is told in online marketing.

“It’s the high-spend consumer that is buying Silere. It targets a new consumer.”

The NZ-UK free trade agreement has opened access for NZ beef. Scott said products have been successfully received, in part due to NZ’s existing reputation for lamb but also due to its quality.

The first shipment sold out within a week, she said, with Alliance’s hand-picked, aged product proving especially popular.

Scott acknowledges NZ sheep farmers are having a tough time but has some encouraging words.

“We are very optimistic with lamb and beef here in the UK. Protein consumption is high and it is growing.”

More: Wallace is visiting seven countries in six weeks to report on market sentiment, a trip made possible with grants from Fonterra, Silver Fern Farms, Alliance, Beef + Lamb NZ, NZ Meat Industry Association and Rabobank.  Read more about his findings here. 

Uniting farmers from across dairy, meat and wool, and arable to present one strong and united voice is no easy feat at the best of times. 

To have done it consistently for 125 years is something Federated Farmers are incredibly proud of, the organisation’s president Wayne Langford says. 

“Since the day we were founded, we’ve been standing up for farmers and rural communities, giving them a strong voice, and advocating for what’s fair. 

“We’ve been there through it all: the booms and busts of farming, significant land use change, market downturns, and the removal of subsidies,” Langford says. 

The Federation’s roots go back to 18 September 1899, when the first properly constituted Farmers’ Union branch was formed in Kaitaia by Northland dairy farmer Thomas Portland Smith. 

Langford says, since that day, the organisation has played a significant role in New Zealand’s history that even detractors or critics find difficult to dismiss. 

“Federated Farmers has one of the most recognisable, trusted and respected brands in the country – and that’s taken time to build over the years. 

“I look back at some of the respected names that have gone through Federated Farmers’ leadership since the organisation began in 1899.

“Those are the names the organisation’s reputation has been built upon, and that’s a legacy I’m very, very proud to be a part of.” 

While Federated Farmers’ core mandate has always been championing farmers’ interests, that brief has grown over time to include the rest of rural New Zealand too, Langford says. 

“Whenever there’s an issue that’s important to rural communities – whether that be roading, education, or health – Federated Farmers has been there as an advocate.

“That’s still the case today, where we engage on everything from banking issues and council rates through to digital connectivity and pest control.”  

Langford says the organisation has to navigate differences between various sectors and provinces, but that’s where the organisation’s strength comes from. 

“We’re an incredibly democratic and diverse grassroots organisation, and there’s always plenty of robust debate on the big issues affecting farming.

“That’s what really sets us apart from other organisations. We can’t just take a position that works for dairy, meat and wool, or arable farmers.

“We have to really confront those tough discussions as a collective group and find a pan-sector position that will work for all farmers – not just one sector.” 

None of the work Federated Farmers do would be possible without the support of loyal members who choose to pay a sub each year, Langford says. 

“It might feel good to have a rant on Facebook, and sure you might get a few likes, but does that really make a difference when it comes to Government regulation?

“I don’t think it does. What makes a real difference for farming families is having a strong team of policy experts behind you who are really across the detail.

“Having those people working on the big issues, engaging with politicians, and providing evidence to change decision-makers’ minds is what secures the wins.”

If you support Federated Farmers’ work for New Zealand’s rural communities, call 0800 327 646 and become a member today.

A few Federated Farmers milestones:

1922 – Meat Export Control Act initiated by NZ Farmers’ Union president Sir William Polson to ensure a fair share of export meat profits for farmers.
1925 – Women’s Division of the NZ Farmers Union was founded by Florence Polson, Sir William’s wife. It grew to become today’s Rural Women NZ.
1969 – first Fieldays held at Te Rapa racecourse. The idea of John Kneebone, later a Federated Farmers president, it was a success and grew to become a multi-billion-dollar event.
1977 – Farming leaders worked with the Government to establish the QEII National Trust. Now more than 5000 covenants protect 200,000ha of special natural areas, most of it on farms.
The Outdoors Access Commission was sparked by Federated Farmers’ 2005 orange ribbon campaign, pushing back on a government proposal for mandated access across farmland to rivers and lakes.
2019 – Federated Farmers helped stop the Government bringing in a capital gains tax, saving an estimated $3-6K per farm.
2024 – Federated Farmers led the charge to see He Waka Eke Noa and unscientific methane target dumped.
2024 – Federated Farmers secures inquiry into rural banking competition and interest rates.

Federated Farmers, New Zealand’s leading independent rural advocacy organisation, has established a news and insights partnership with AgriHQ, the country’s leading rural publisher, to give the farmers of New Zealand a more informed, united and stronger voice. Federated Farmers news and commentary appears each week in its own section of the Farmers Weekly print edition and online.

Goats, pigs, deer and other wild animals are costing farmers huge sums and taking a significant toll on indigenous biodiversity, Federated Farmers say. 

“This is a very serious problem that’s costing Kiwi farmers almost a quarter of a billion dollars every year,” Federated Farmers pest management spokesperson Richard McIntyre says.

“These pests aren’t just chewing into farmers’ bottom lines; they’re also chewing into our native bush and completely undermining conservation efforts.”

A recent survey of more than 700 Federated Farmers members from across the country shows feral animals are costing farmers at least $213 million a year.

That figure includes a direct spend of $5.45 per hectare on pest control ($74 million per year) and $10.22 per hectare in lost production ($139 million per year).

“That is a huge cost for rural communities to be carrying at a time when many farming families are already struggling to turn a profit,” McIntyre says.

“It’s also a very conservative estimate and doesn’t include things such as the cost of restoring damaged pasture, fixing broken fences or the loss of trees.”

McIntyre says goat, pig and deer populations are booming in most parts of the country, but things are particularly bad on farms bordering Department of Conservation (DOC) land.

“DOC are widely regarded by farmers as the neighbour you really don’t want to have because they don’t fulfil their obligations to control wild animals and weeds,” McIntyre says.

“Farmers are spending huge sums of money trying to get wild animal populations under control, but until we see more investment on public land, nothing is going to change.

“Unfortunately, DOC are spending just $13 million a year managing large browsing animals like goats, pigs and deer.

“This simply isn’t addressing the problem, with DOC monitoring showing deer and goat prevalence increasing 28% in just the last 10 years.”

McIntyre says DOC’s efforts are a drop in the bucket, with the annual cost to farming families being more than 15 times the Government spend. 

“Farmers could spend all the money in the world on pest control, but if we don’t see similar efforts on public land, we’re never going to make a dent in these populations.

“Hordes of wild animals will simply keep walking out of the bush, where they’re breeding like rabbits and destroying forest understories, and onto our farms.”

National parks comprise about one-third of New Zealand, but a quarter of the country’s indigenous biodiversity is located on farmland.

“If the Government continues to under-invest in pest control, we’re all going to pay the price of declining biodiversity, lost production and reduced exports,” McIntyre says.

“We need to get on top of this problem now. If we allow these animals to keep breeding, their populations, and the cost to control them, will only continue to grow.

“We appreciate the Government is under huge financial pressures, but this isn’t something New Zealand can afford to scrimp and save on.”

McIntyre says it isn’t necessarily about the Government having to spend more money; it could simply be a case of reprioritising existing spending to deliver better outcomes.

“DOC should be performing exceptionally well given their budget has increased from $402 million in 2017 to $710 million in the last financial year.

“Perhaps they should be spending more of that money on hunters and trappers on the ground controlling pests, and less on back-office staff and expensive Environment Court lawyers.”

The Federated Farmers survey found just on half of farmers reported pest populations expanding in the last five years, and 28% said numbers are ‘significantly higher’.

More than 30% of those surveyed said their shooting, trapping and poisoning efforts are making no inroads into reducing feral pest numbers.

“Farmers just don’t have the resources to keep rabbits, deer, wallabies, Canadian geese, feral cats and all the other pest populations at sustainable levels,” McIntyre says.

“Recreational hunters are doing a great job of supporting farmers, but things are now nearing crisis point and will only continue to get worse.

“It’s time for a serious intervention.”

The full results of Federated Farmers’ pest survey can be found at fedfarm.org.nz/PestSurvey 

Federated Farmers, New Zealand’s leading independent rural advocacy organisation, has established a news and insights partnership with AgriHQ, the country’s leading rural publisher, to give the farmers of New Zealand a more informed, united and stronger voice. Federated Farmers news and commentary appears each week in its own section of the Farmers Weekly print edition and online.

United States consumers have discovered the wonders of dairy protein.

Elisa Giusti, Fonterra’s vice-president of marketing, strategy and innovation for Fonterra Global Ingredients, said food fortified with dairy protein is increasingly seen as a crucial element in people’s health and wellbeing.

It is a trend she said is being reflected in new products and new uses.

Chicago-based Giusti said it is part of a movement to natural products – away from plant-based proteins and margarine to dairy products such as butter, natural cheeses and fats.

Fortified protein is being used in new beverages, baked goods, snacks and pasta and even potato chips and candy bars.

“Americans understand that protein is good for them,” she said.

“There are hundreds of ways that milk products find their way onto shelves.”

She said consumers have lost interest in plant-based alternatives as awareness of health and wellbeing has increased.

They are asking themselves which is better for them, a natural dairy product or a plant-based alternative that has a lengthy, complex ingredient panel.

“Natural grass-fed dairy, they see that as real food and real food is better for me.

“They have a better understanding of the nutrient reality of dairy.”

Trends come and go but Giusti can see only upside in interest in fortified dairy protein as consumers make this shift using their own research but also encouraged by influencers who pique their curiosity.

At the heart of this shift is the perception that if it is good for the planet, it must good for the consumer.

The global market for fortified protein is expected to grow by US$10 billion ($16bn) in the next four years and is one of reasons Fonterra is investing $75m expanding its Studholme plant in South Canterbury. 

Giusti said her role is to connect dairy with users and applications, and increasingly those consumers want proof those products were sustainably produced.

Consistently the top four considerations are environment, climate change, animal welfare and regenerative agriculture.

“Targets were one step, now it’s action. They want us to show them the progress.

“It’s gone beyond the ‘we would like you to’ to ‘this is what we expect you to do’.” 

New Zealand dairy is acknowledged as being world leading in sustainability and is seen as providing customers with carbon-reduction solutions.

But farmers cannot afford to relax.

“So long as we continue to commit to being leaders in sustainability – which we are and all credit to farmers – it gives the co-operative the ability to differentiate, it’s a value proposition.”

For Giusti, who was raised in Chicago and who has worked for over a decade in the commercial food industry, working for a dairy co-operative differs from her previous roles.

“It gives me a sense of purpose and obligation to the thousands of farmers who get up every day to feed and nurture the world.”

More: Wallace is visiting seven countries in six weeks to report on market sentiment, a trip made possible with grants from Fonterra, Silver Fern Farms, Alliance, Beef + Lamb NZ, NZ Meat Industry Association and Rabobank.  Read more about his findings here.

In Focus Podcast | Meeting the market in the US and EU

Roving reporter Neal Wallace calls in from Brussels to update Bryan on the first week of his Meeting the Market tour. He’s been in the United States where some of our biggest customers are, including Mars and McDonald’s. Neal says they love NZ food but there are a couple of things we need to improve if we’re to remain as a supplier of first-choice.

Alexander and Rebecca Hunink say Akitio Station has always had a deer problem, but recently numbers have gone through the roof. 

“We can look out over the paddocks here and spot 30 or 40 wild deer,” Alexander says.

“At night, when we get out thermal gear, there might be 200. 

“One night this month I shot 24 deer in three hours.”

Alexander, who helps Rebecca’s parents on the Tararua coast station, says the damage being caused is immense – and costly. 

The station’s annual bill for pest control, loss of production and damage from wild deer and pigs, including in the forestry blocks, would top $75,000. 

Meanwhile, at Pārengarenga Station on Aupōuri Peninsula, Northland, Canada geese and wild pigs are stretching the annual pest control budget to $30,000.

“Trying to get on top of geese is frustrating,” farm manager Julian Peters says.

“On the peninsula there’s so much water, lakes and Crown land that if there’s any disturbance, the geese just fly off and hide out.”

They’re facing different challenges, but these farmers – among the 700 others who responded to Federated Farmers’ pest survey – say better cooperation is needed between landowners, the Crown, councils and recreational hunters.

Peters attended a recent hui with local iwi Te Aupōuri, who are keen to tackle Lake Wahakari’s water quality.

“I said you’re not going to get on top of water quality when there’s 600 to 1000 Canada geese dumping potentially a tonne of poo in the lake every day.

“They were 100% open to cooperation with landowners.”

Peters says the Crown and councils also need to front up with more funding for pest control programmes if they’re serious about biodiversity.

“We’re fencing our waterways, we’re cautious about spreading fertiliser and we do a lot of work to protect native bush on the station. 

“But where are the government bodies regulating us? They’re doing next to nothing.”

Akitio Station is also trying to co-ordinate with their neighbours. 

“Rebecca is on the local catchment board and pest control is on their priority list,” Alexander says.

“People are realising just how much damage is being done.”  

He says he’s glad Federated Farmers has done its pest survey. 

“We need more data about how big this problem is. 

“We also need to make a bigger noise about these challenges and get coordinated action and better resourcing going.”

Federated Farmers, New Zealand’s leading independent rural advocacy organisation, has established a news and insights partnership with AgriHQ, the country’s leading rural publisher, to give the farmers of New Zealand a more informed, united and stronger voice. Federated Farmers news and commentary appears each week in its own section of the Farmers Weekly print edition and online.

Forget importing fossil fuels to meet our growing electricity needs – farmers have all the power they need right now, Mike Casey says.

The cherry farmer is chief executive of Rewiring Aotearoa, a group formed to help electrify New Zealand.

Casey installed a solar power system on his orchard and has been replacing the farm equipment with electric options where he can.

He told the Farmers Weekly In Focus podcast it was simply a sound business decision.

“The system generates about 150 megawatt hours, which at the average wholesale rate over the past five years, means it will generate $22,000 for the farm. The panels cost me just over $100,000 to install. So they’ve got a five-year complete capital payback period, which I think is super exciting.”

He said going solar is not just good for the business, but also the community and the country.

“That’s a really exciting narrative for farmers. Not only can we make money and make a different revenue stream and potentially just become more resilient business people, but we also have a new opportunity to lower the price of electricity and the price of energy for everyone in New Zealand, which is something that I think is something that we should be embracing and figuring out how to achieve as a sector.”

However, there are some infrastructure challenges that need to be addressed for this to happen.

“When you think about our national grid at the moment, it’s kind of like a national braided river, where everything flows from one thing and it’s split up over and over again until it reaches your farm. And now what we’re essentially doing is saying to that braided river, hey, we can push water upstream. It doesn’t really work. And so there needs to be a bunch of regulation and market design changes to not only allow, but actively encourage, the customers of New Zealand to become part of the infrastructure.”

Rewiring Aotearoa is running a survey at the moment in an effort to get an inventory of the machinery that’s on farm in New Zealand.

But Casey said focusing on barriers to electrification, such as the scarcity of options for large tractors and harvesters, misses the point.

“I wouldn’t be too caught up on the fact that we don’t have a 200 horsepower electric tractor yet. Focus on the technology that is available. The next time you come to making a machine purchase, you’ll be interested to see what new electric production is available. It doesn’t make much sense to buy a machine where the energy essentially comes from Saudi Arabia, when it could actually come from energy that you’ve generated yourself.”

A major report about the increasing and rapid conversion from farms to forestry should serve as a major wake-up call for the Government, Federated Farmers say. 

The study found that, under current policy settings, New Zealand will continue to see millions of hectares of productive farmland plastered in plantation pine trees.

“It may have been published as a report, but it reads more like a horror story for Kiwi farmers and rural communities,” says Federated Farmers meat and wool chair Toby Williams.

“Planting pine trees as far as the eye can see may help to reduce emissions or improve water quality, but somebody has to ask the question: at what cost?

“It will come at the expense of rural communities, food production, the economy, and our native biodiversity. There simply has to be a better way.”

The ‘Why Pines?’ report, released by the Our Land and Water National Science Challenge, shows meeting current freshwater bottom lines will require widespread land use change from farming to forestry.

“One of the studies found that, even if there was no carbon price, one-fifth of sheep and beef country would still need to be converted to pine forest to meet freshwater goals,” Williams says.

“This must be of huge concern to the Government, who scrapped the failed He Waka Eke Noa pricing programme because it was going to have the exact same effect.”

Fixing New Zealand’s freshwater rules and rethinking ETS forestry settings were in Federated Farmers’ list of policy priorities for the new Government to restore farmer confidence.

“While the Government has done lots of good things to restore farmer confidence, unfortunately, the Labour Government’s unworkable freshwater bottom lines remain on the books,” Williams says.

“Federated Farmers have consistently called for those rules to be scrapped, with a new focus to go on replacing the broken RMA system.

“Under the current system, every time a farmer tries to do something different on their land they’re met with red tape and expensive consenting costs.

“Our current environmental policy framework is completely broken. The Government needs to work at pace to urgently repeal unworkable freshwater bottom lines and replace the RMA.”

Federated Farmers, New Zealand’s leading independent rural advocacy organisation, has established a news and insights partnership with AgriHQ, the country’s leading rural publisher, to give the farmers of New Zealand a more informed, united and stronger voice. Federated Farmers news and commentary appears each week in its own section of the Farmers Weekly print edition and online.

North Canterbury farmers who have been facing drought conditions for months will have to continue to carefully manage their feed stocks, but there is hope for improvement on the horizon.

In March Farmers Weekly reported drought conditions. A medium-scale adverse event was declared for the top of the South Island.

By June some farmers had received only had 40mm of rain for the year. Drought, poor returns and high transport costs left Hurunui farmers scraping the barrel for feed, with animal welfare becoming a major concern. 

North Canterbury Federated Farmers president Karl Dean said at the time that, apart from a lack of rain, the biggest challenge at that stage was the cost of bringing in supplementary feed.

Earlier in August, Rural Communities Minister Mark Patterson announced the government is providing $20,000 towards specialist veterinary care for farmers in the district.

But now there is hope on the horizon as normal rainfall and normal soil moisture levels are predicted for September and October.

General manager catchment implementation at Environment Canterbury Judith Earl-Goulet said in the past month soil moisture levels have improved.

In all, “65mm to 130mm of rainfall was recorded at our monitoring sites across the region. However, groundwater levels are still low,”  Earl-Goulet said.

“Following dry conditions, any rainfall will improve soil moisture first. If there is excess, it will add to groundwater and river levels.   

“The recent rains, coupled with warmer temperatures, are resulting in some pasture growth, which is expected this time of year,” she said.

“Rain over the next few weeks will be vital for predicting how the region will fare in the summer ahead.

“Without sufficient rainfall for recharge in coming weeks, it may be necessary for irrigation restrictions to be put in place earlier than usual.”    

Irrigation restrictions are determined by the source of irrigation water,  groundwater availability and the conditions that apply to the irrigator’s consent, Earl-Goulet said.   

She said NIWA’s drought index shows conditions are easing.

Head weather analyst and owner of WeatherWatch.co.nz Phil Duncan said the country is in a neutral weather pattern. 

“We don’t have El Niño and we don’t have La Niña. This means our weather pattern is highly chaotic.” 

This tends to suggest that Canterbury may lean warmer than average and slightly windier than previous years, Duncan said.

“Heavy rain on the West Coast will to some degree spill over into Canterbury waterways and potentially to farms in lower foothills. For those nearer to the eastern coastline, we expected it to be dry and milder,” Duncan said.

“Because of the extremely stormy nature of the Southern Ocean weather pattern this year we have an elevated risk for a brief-lived snowstorm or frost event this September and October.  

“Soil moisture levels in Canterbury will be lower the further east you are, unless there’s a surprise easterly rain event,” he said.

North Canterbury meat and wool chair for Federated Farmers Sara Black said most farmers are not out of the woods yet.

However, she said, there was a glimmer of hope at a Hurunui Adverse Events Committee meeting held on Tuesday night.

“We had a little bit of rain and snow last week.  Any moisture is gratefully received. Totals from around the district show 30mm to 50mm of rain,” Black said.

Farmers were still under a lot of feed pressure, especially as lambing approaches.

“We’re very much in a holding pattern at this stage.”

She said many farmers have been feeding out since January and are under financial pressure as a result.

“There’s no money coming in, especially for sheep farmers until they get lambs grown out. Even though there’s been a recent spike in the sheepmeat price it’s hard to see where the lamb price will be, especially for store lambs,” she said.

“People are still stressed. We haven’t got to the end of anything. We’ve had a little bit of rain, but there’s still that uncertainty. It’s long haul now”.

Sheep entered the next season leaner than they should have been, she said.

Black said more funding for the North Canterbury Rural Support Trust could help support farmers through “this tricky period”.

Tired of reading about the problems faced by young farmers looking to get into farm ownership, Sarah How decided to do something about it.

The Mid Canterbury arable farmer teamed up with friend Tara Dwyer to launch Landify – an online space that brings together farmers looking to sell, investors and those hoping to buy a farm of their own.

“We have an ageing population of owner-operators on farm in New Zealand and we know that many of them are looking at ways to step back,” How told the Farmers Weekly In Focus podcast.

“At the same time, we know that our communities are full of really engaged, really capable young people who want to have a crack, but whether they’re from farming backgrounds or not, these guys are in no position to front up with meaningful amounts of capital to compete in the open market.”

Landify provides the platform where stakeholders on both sides of the transaction can discuss ways to make it work, whether it be through equity partnerships, leasing agreements or by finding other investors.

“We think that many of these arrangements are under-explored, because how do families explore them in a really safe and discreet way that meets their needs before making any major decisions? 

“We see Landify being New Zealand’s first modern, open access yet discrete way for people to explore a range of farming partnership possibilities.”

The site was launched this month and interest has been strong, with thousands of people watching the launch video and exploring the site.

Vendors can post listings there as a way to kick off a conversation with interested buyers.

How said there are many young, eager people willing to take on the challenge of farming but often that first hurdle is too high.

“It’s my generation that’s going to be the ones who are given the responsibility to stand up to all of the sustainability challenges that our industry is facing, and I don’t just mean environmental sustainability; I always talk about financial sustainability and social sustainability.

“What we’ve seen in New Zealand’s history is that where our farmers have had their own autonomy and their opportunity to innovate behind the farm gate and find solutions to the latest market challenges, that’s where we come to the fore and this is why New Zealand farmers are among the best in the world. 

“We want to make sure that we’re future-proofing our ownership models to allow for the next generation to have that autonomy and that ability to craft the future for themselves.”

Those interested in being involved should visit landify.co.nz

Changes to drinking water rules are a major win for farmers, rural communities and common sense, Federated Farmers say. 

The Government has announced that those supplying fewer than 25 people with drinking water will no longer be required to comply with onerous new rules or register the details of their water supply arrangements.

Federated Farmers local government spokesperson Sandra Faulkner says farming families across the country will be breathing a sigh of relief at the news. 

“The drinking water rules introduced by the previous Government were a massive regulatory overreach that would have made life incredibly difficult for 80,000 rural and remote households.

“The process of registering, testing and reporting on their water supply would have added significant cost, risk and hassle for absolutely no gain.”

Faulkner says the rules would have also applied to milking sheds, wool sheds or anywhere else drinking water is supplied on a farm.

“When the regulator arrives, the goodwill leaves,” she says.

“It never made any sense to try and capture thousands of very small shared domestic supplies of fewer than 25 people under these regulations.

“People would have been forced to turn the tap off, quite literally, on their staff, neighbours and communities to avoid unnecessary cost and the risk attached to penalties within these rules.”

Faulkner says rural families have been supplying safe drinking water for generations and that protections are already in place through processor quality assurance programmes.

“There is no practical or realistic way these obligations could have been enforced.

“It would have just created a situation where very small suppliers were reluctant to make use of services such as information and guidance provided by Taumata Arowai.”

Faulkner says these changes show the power of grassroots advocacy.

“Federated Farmers have been calling for these changes for a number of years and we’ve worked collaboratively with local iwi and primary processors to achieve this result.

“That detailed, comprehensive and persistent work has paid off.”

Federated Farmers, New Zealand’s leading independent rural advocacy organisation, has established a news and insights partnership with AgriHQ, the country’s leading rural publisher, to give the farmers of New Zealand a more informed, united and stronger voice. Federated Farmers news and commentary appears each week in its own section of the Farmers Weekly print edition and online.