New Zealand Pt. 6: Cattle & Deer & Food, Oh My!

Friday, November 21, 2014

On Friday, we took off for the hills to see Mike and Sharon Barton.  Mike and Sharon are former educators from Auckland, who left the city for a simpler life in Taupo.  They chose their farm because of Mike’s love of hunting and fishing and the amazing views of Lake Taupo. This was definitely one of the most beautiful farms that I had ever seen.  However, they bought their farm in the middle of the Nitrogen controversy in 2004.  

            The urine of livestock contains high levels of nitrogen, which causes hot spots, or concentrated levels of nitrogen in one small area, when they urinate.  In the Taupo area, they have pumice soils that are free draining, which means that within the next 80 years the nitrogen from an animal that urinates today will eventually leach through the soil into the lake.  Lake Taupo is the biggest lake in the Southern Hemisphere and the fourth cleanest lake in the world, so it is very nitrogen sensitive.  High levels of nitrogen and phosphorus cause algae growth which clouds up the lake.  

            Therefore to prevent a problem, in 2005, the Waikato Regional Council initiated constraints on the amount of nitrogen that can be applied to the ground within the catchment.  A catchment is the entire area of land that eventually drains into the lake, known as a watershed here in Iowa.  The Lake Taupo catchment is about 80% native vegetation with only about 20% of it used for agricultural purposes.   

           One of the solutions was to cap the stocking levels for livestock farmers, which means to put a limit on the number of livestock they can own.  Each farmer is not allowed to own more animals than what they owned when the cap was put in place.  This means that it is impossible for livestock farmers to ever grow or expand, so the Barton’s figured out a way to add value to their beef, by branding their product.  

            They created Taupo Beef, which they market to higher-end restaurants in the Taupo area, as grass-fed, antibiotic free meat.  This allows them to charge a premium for their beef (about $20/kg for prime cuts) and has allowed them to make more money within the same stocking rate.  They also switched to using market heifers that can reach market weight in about 18-22 months, much quicker than the 24 months it takes a grassfed steer to make weight.  They also market their cattle at about 800 pounds, so they can finish them quicker, and give their clients, the gourmet chefs, the smaller cuts that they prefer.

             Mike commented that in Taupo, they were not really in farming to feed the starving million, which I thought was interesting.  They can’t really compete with larger markets, mainly because they will never produce much more beef than they are producing now.  They have to be able to make more money with the resources they currently have.  

The Bartons' farm is located in the hills just above Lake Taupo

             There were also comments made about antibiotics in U.S. agriculture and grass-fed beef versus conventionally raised, that once again made me wonder where these perceptions originated.  I do not necessarily have a problem with someone’s preferences as far as organic or grass-fed, because the way I see it, we all have essentially the same goal, we just have different methods of reaching it. What I have an issue with is the misinformation and the fear mongering that is happening.  The Barton’s believed that grass-fed beef tastes better than grain fed, probably because they are used to it and it is what available to them.  I prefer grain fed, but that is what I was raised on and what is currently in my freezer.  I’m not really sure if one way is healthier than the other, since currently there are no conclusive studies on the issue. It is all a matter of opinion really, and using your resources in the best possible way. 

            Next, we stopped at the Maori-owned Rangiatea Station where they raise deer, milk sheep and harvest their forests on about 1600 hectares, with 1700 more hectares in native brush for conservation purposes.  They are completely family owned with over 900 shareholders that span about 3-4 generations of the family.  They are also in the Taupo catchment so they have to adhere to the capped stocking rates.  Maori actually happen to own about 75% of the Lake Taupo catchment.  

Deer happen to take up less stocking units than beef cattle, however they are also flighty and still not very domesticated so they can be more difficult to wrangle.  They take many safety precautions when handling the deer, because of their tendency to spook easily.  The way their barn is set up, to the methods that they described, it is obvious that every situation has been thought of and prepared for.  Also, because of they are still being domesticated, they selectively breed mostly based on temperament and growth. Most of their venison products, about 50%, are shipped to Europe around Christmas, when venison consumption is on the rise.  

            A trust council made up of 6 members of the family is responsible for most of the decisions made about the land.  They usually have a 3 year rotation, but if the family elders feel as if they are effective at their job, they may be asked to stay on longer.  The way things were set up is very interesting.  Obviously, here in Iowa we have family-owned farms, but I don’t know of any that have 900 family members.  It sounds very complicated to me and I’m not entirely sure how they keep everything straight, especially with how much involvement the government has, since they were legally required to develop this side of the lake, after the government returned the land to their family.  Maoris have a different view of the land, than the average Kiwi, because Kiwis see the land as a stepping stone.  They do not get very attached and will sell if a they have a chance at a better opportunity.  The Maori will never sell the land they own.  I think it stems from their desire to conquer. They want to feel as though they belong somewhere, and the land will always provide an income for their family.
          I am a very opinionated person.  I like to think I have an open mind, but at the same time I'm pretty stubborn so it's usually pretty hard to change my mind.  So I took off for New Zealand, expecting to learn all about their methods, but I went with the mindset that my way was still the best way.  An amazing thing happened though.  I realized that my way might be the best way for my family, but it would not work for New Zealand's farmers, just like raising our cattle entirely on grass would never work for my family.  No one was right, no one was wrong.  Everybody was just doing the best they could for their livestock, and really, what more could you ask from a farmer? 
    

New Zealand Pt. 5: Off to Lake Taupo We Go!

After an very long, extended holiday break, here's part 5!

Thursday, November 20th, 2014

This was the day we left the Waikato for the Bay of Plenty, as we headed for Te Puke, the kiwi fruit capital of New Zealand.  This entailed traveling through: Tamahere, Cambridge, Karapiro, Te Poi, the Kaimai Mountains (which separates the Waikato region from the Bay of Plenty region), Tauranga, and Papmoa.  

Te Puke is the best place in the world to grow kiwifruit, mostly because of its climate.  It  is cold enough in the winter to get rid of most of the pests during their winter.  However, it rarely frosts over and because of the hills, most of the  super cold air funnels into the gullys between orchards that are full of the natural brush.  Fun Fact: Kiwifruit vines are actually considered an invasive species in the Bay of Plenty region, because birds eat the seeds from the bad fruit.  This causes the seeds to be spread where it eventually takes over the native vegetation.

Tauranga was Wayne, our bus driver's hometown.  It is currently home to New Zealand's biggest and busiest port, Mt. Maunganui Port, named for the mountain that sits at the entrance of the port.  In the almost 2 hour drive to Te Puke, I was once again reminded about the Kiwis' love for roundabouts.  You  could not travel more than 5 miles without going through a roundabout.  

Once we were in Te Puke, we headed for Trevalyn's Pack and Cool, where we met Daniel Brinie, Trevalyn's avocado manager.  We arrived just in time to see them pack avocados. Trevalyn's has been around Te Puke for about 35 years.  Back in the beginning most orchards had their own packing houses on site, but as the years progressed packing houses moved to central locations so they could serve several different locations.  Trevalyn's, itself, has its own orchards.
                                    

In New Zealand, all kiwifruit producers are required to supply one marketer, called Zespri.  This means that all of the kiwi fruit produced in New Zealand is shipped to packing houses where it is packed, then Zespri is responsible for shipping it around the country and overseas.  Next time you buy kiwifruit at your local grocery store, check out the little sticker.  If it says Zespri, then it was grown in New Zealand!  As a farmkid, I think it's pretty cool to know where your food was produced.

One of the coolest things we saw at Trevalyn's was the pollen mill.  For one reason or another, kiwifruit does not pollinate as efficiently as some producers would prefer.  Some kiwifruit growers rent beehives to  be placed in their orchards while others spray pollen on their female vines. Trevalyn's picks male flowers just before they open and dries the pollen.  It is then mixed into a solution which is sprayed directly onto the female flowers when they open.  This has been shown to increase the fruit size and their seed number.  It is a very profitable venture for Trevalyn's and can cost up to $2000 per kilogram.
                                 
                          

From Trevalyn's we headed to Kiwi360, a kiwifruit orchard that also serves as a tourist attraction, giving tours of their orchards and educating foreigners on New Zealand's kiwifruit industry.  

New Zealand's average kiwifruit orchard is 4-10 hectares.  Last May, Kiwi360 harvested around 100 million trays producing 350,000 tonnes of kiwi, which roughly translates to about $1.5 billion (about 22% of New Zealand's GDP).  About 75% of the national harvest is of the Hayward Green Flesh variety while about 25% is the fairly new gold flesh variety.  However, a bacteria called Pseudomonas syringae (PSA) was discovered in kiwifruit orchards in Bay of Plenty in November of 2010.  The gold variety happened to be very susceptible to the bacteria, causing most of the vines to be wiped out.  They have just now started to recover and have begun their breeding programs over again.

                                       
                                       

I could write a whole blog post solely about the origins of New Zealand's kiwifruit industry so I should probably keep moving.  

We ate our lunch on Maketu Beach where we made some new friends and took a lot of pictures.
                                                 

We would be spending the next few nights Taupo at the Taupo Urban Retreat (which happened to have its own bar).  Fun Fact: Taupo is the coldest city in New Zealand and is usually the only area that sees snow in the winter.  

We were able to eat our supper at Victoria's Cafe Kitchen Bar where we were served burgers made with beef from LakeTaupo Beef, which is owned by Mike and Sharon Barton.  The Barton's farm would be our first stop the next day.

We spent our night bonding with the other foreigners at our hostel and yes, that bonding included beer.  Alcohol, in my limited experience seems to break the international language barrier.  

Megan and I ended up in a room with 2 other roommates who were not a part of our group.  The best part of my night had to be when I was headed back to the room with an armful of laundry and ended up behind a tall, blonde guy who turnedout to be from the Netherlands on the stairs.  It was just my  luck, that he happened to be going the same direction I was heading so I got to be the creepy girl that seemed to be following him to his room at 2 in the morning, and wouldn't you know he ends up being one of my roommates.  He ended up checking out the next day, hopefully it wasn't because of the weird  girl who stalked him through the hostel (pretty sure that's a horror movie).

Alright, that's it for this one.  If you aren't sick of me yet, stay tuned for Part 6!

New Zealand Pt. 4: Goats for Days

November 19th, 2014

On the 4th day, we spent the afternoon at Lemuel Dairy Goat Farm, where we got to talk to Chris Savage, who has been milking dairy goats for about 19 years now.  Now I know very little about dairy (although at this point I was beginning to feel like an expert) and a tiny bit about goats, but I know nothing about dairy goats.  This was by far one of my favorite places, just because it was something that I would not even think of, when I thought of New Zealand agriculture.

 

                      

Now goat milk is kind of a niche market and once again, most of the dairy goat milk produced in New Zealand (95%) is exported to the Asian market, however most of it is turned into high-end infant formula.  Goat milk formula has become a niche market in Asia, because it contains a protein profile more similar to human milk, than a cow's.  

WE GOT TO MILK THE GOATS!!

Just hanging with some does.

The average dairy goat farm in New Zealand is about 750 goats, and in one milking season each one of those does can make anywhere from $1800-2000, and when Chris told us his kidding rate (a kid is a baby goat) is about 200% per year, I started seriously considering milking dairy goats, myself.  There is a lot of stability in the goat milk market, too.  In the almost 20 years that Chris has been milking, he's only seen 2 or 3 drops in price which at most were 50 cents per kilogram of milk solids.

These are 4 month old, weaned kids.  

Chris will keep about 25% of the doe kids, as replacement does, and sell the rest to other dairy goat farms for replacement does.  He'll keep about 5 replacement bucks, and sell the rest who will then fed out and used for meat.

We started to talk to Chris about what our perception about New Zealand agriculture had been before our visit and we had to admit to him that we had not had a clue, which surprised him.  New Zealand prides itself on its "clean and green" image, which was obvious because just about every farmer we talked to, made sure to mention it.  While no one ever came out and said it, you could tell that their perception of U.S. agriculture was pretty similar to the perception that the typical U.S. consumer has.  Factory farms were brought up more than once, which if you know me, you know that factory farm is a dirty word in my book, but I digress until another day.  

As always, there's so much more to come. . . 

  

New Zealand Pt. 3: Blueberry Ice Cream is Where it's at

   

 On our 3rd day, we traveled to Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC) bright and early to watch them collect semen.  Yep, you read that right.  We watched someone collect semen while in Hamilton and I loved every second of it.  

New Zealand is, currently, the only country that sells fresh, sexed semen, mainly because they are such a small country and LIC has a corner on that market.  LIC is a co-op (you have to own shares in the company to buy their products), owned by over 12,000 of New Zealand's dairy farmers and was established over 50 years ago.

There are 3 main differences between LIC and the genetics side of U.S. agriculture:

 1) Obviously, the marketing of fresh semen is one of them, since most of the U.S. uses frozen semen.  

2) When a farmer buys semen from LIC, they are buying a specific "team" of bulls.  LIC's teams consist of 10 "proven" bulls, meaning these bulls have gone through extensive genetic testing and have sired around 80-100 daughters to show that his progeny can produce the desired amount of milk solids.  You can actually visit LIC's webpage here and check out their stats on their bull teams for this spring.

3) LIC handles everything about the semen from the testicle to the uterus.  Meaning they collect the semen, they process it, they ship it, and they have qualified techs that inseminate the cow with that semen.  This approach is definitely necessary to prevent inbreeding since you purchase a team, rather a specific bull's semen.  The AI techs use a Datamate, which they punch in the information of the cow they are about to inseminate and the information of the semen they are using, to ensure that a cow is not inseminated with her own sire's semen. 

Dave, our tour guide for the morning.

The bull sniffing out the teaser bull.  They use pheromones to encourage the bulls to mount the teaser bull, then they collect the semen.

We spent the rest of our day visiting 2 distinctly different dairy farms.

In New Zealand they use a number system to classify their dairy farms, System 1 being a low input system where the cows are all fed on the farmer's own pasture and System 5 being a high input system where almost half of the feedstuffs are imported year round. 

First, we stopped at Pete Morgan and Ann Bouma's farm which is classified as a System 1 farm.  Pete grew up in South Auckland with no farming background at all.  In New Zealand, no one really inherits a farm.  It is a progression where you start milking for a farmer, then work your way up to sharemilking (just like sharecropping), to eventually buying the farm.  It took Pete and Ann about 8 years to buy Morlands Dairy Farm from her parents.  Now they milk 530 cows once a day, all season long.  

Pete and Ann prefer low input because as Pete put it, they "work to live, not live to work".  It works for them because they want to be able to milk in the morning, then take the rest of the day to spend with their family and do other things that they love like hiking or going to the beach. 

The mentality is very different, because many of us live to farm.  We give up a lot of things to put our farm and livestock first, because it requires most of our time and attention.  I don't know if I could honestly tell you which mentality is the healthier one.  I've seen several men work themselves to death on their farm, but they wouldn't have it any other way, because that is their heart and soul.  While their farm is definitely a priority, Pete and Ann just have other priorities that they put ahead of their farm.  This definitely made me think a little about the mindset that I grew up with and question how my own priorities and goals compared to the lifestyle that I want to live in the future. 

This is the view that Pete and Ann have from their back deck.  I definitely would not complain waking up to this every morning.

Pete and Ann's house and yes, that is a pool.  We found that it was actually pretty common for a Kiwi farmer to have a pool or tennis court in their backyard.

We, then, spent our afternoon with Dave Swney, whose farm is classified as a System 5 dairy farmer.  Dave contract milks with his parents, meaning he milks the cows and does most of the labor for a certain rate per kilograms of milk solids.  New Zealand dairy farmers, unlike American dairy farmers, are not paid based on the amount of milk they produce.  Most of New Zealand's milk is dried into milk powder before it is exported to Asia, which means they get paid on how many milk solids per kilograms they produce.  Milk solids are the protein and fat in the milk.  

Next, we stopped at Monavale Blueberries, an organic blueberry farm outside of Cambridge.  This is where we met Richard, who I am convinced is one of the happiest men alive right now, but if I had his job I think I'd be pretty happy about life too.  Monavale is a family business, that Richard's father-in-law began after immigrating from Holland back in the 1970's.  Monavale grows 22 varieties of blueberries on 100 acres and during harvest they produce over 5 tonnes per day.  Fun Fact: They produce more blueberries a day, than all of New Zealand can eat in a week, so they export a lot of their produce to Australia.

Richard just loving life at Monavale.

By far some of the best blueberries I have ever had.

Had to get some of Monavale's homemade blueberry ice cream on the way out and it was by far one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life.

We ended the night with drinks and pizza at Digger's, then ran across the street to have a few more drinks at Honky-Tonk Bar, which was basically New Zealand's version of an American country bar.  Needless to say, our big group of farm kids from America had a pretty good time, some more than others.

                            

   

Still got about 10 more days to go!

Night y'all!                                      

New Zealand Pt. 2: The One Where We Sing the National Anthem in a Bar

So we basically hit the ground running our second day in New Zealand.  At this point we were all feeling a bit jet-lagged, but by some miracle we all drug ourselves out of bed and made it to AgResearch in Hamilton to get the rundown on New Zealand's agriculture industry.

We met with Dave Clark, who is technically retired after 40+ years in extension, but is now a student at Waikato University working on another degree.  Dave grew up in the Waikato region, which is the primary area for New Zealand's dairy industry because of it's low and rolling hills, but he also spent 20+ years working with farmers in the hill country/highlands who raised a lot of sheep, goats and deer.  

Since I'm a history buff, I'm going to insert a little about New Zealand's history.  New Zealand was settled in 1200 AD by the Maori, who were a warfaring tribe.  They are thought to have originated from one of the surrounding Polynesian islands.  The Maoris call New Zealand, Aotearoa, which means "the land of the long, white cloud".  It is said that when their ancestors were rowing their wakas (a Maori canoe) looking for a place to land, all they kept rowing towards a long, white cloud on the horizon and eventually ended up on the shores of what is now New Zealand.  

Anyway, fast forward to the 21st Century and New Zealand now has a population of about 4.5 million people. (Iowa's current population is just over 3 million.)  As a country, New Zealand mainly focuses on exportation.  As one of the least populated countries in the world, most of New Zealand's land is used for agricultural purposes. Therefore, they produce much more food than the Kiwis could ever eat so they send the surplus elsewhere; mainly to Asia, but also to the U.S. and Europe. 

New Zealand's agriculture is all about low input, low infrastructure.  Most of their animals spend their lives on pasture and many will never see a barn.  This has allowed their farmers the ability to switch sectors fairly easily when one market is better than the others.  

However, there is an intense pressure for farmers to intensify production, which has begun to affect the environment.  We quickly learned that New Zealanders pride themselves on their "Clean and Green" image.  As of right now, waterways must be fenced off in pastures so that livestock cannot urinate in them, creating an excess amount of Nitrogen which feeds the algae.  

New Zealand is kind of on the precipice right now.  They are trying to find a compromise so that their farmers can continue to make a profit and expand production, without negatively affecting New Zealand's environment.  Every. single. farmer that we visited mentioned their environmental concerns.  It quickly became clear that their problems are very similar to ours here in the U.S.

We then spent part of the afternoon with Sheryl Brown, who is a reporter with the New Zealand Dairy Exporter, who gave us an overview of her family's dairy operation and what her role at NZ Dairy Exporter entails.

Sheryl's house.  Apparently it is very common to keep livestock in your front yard.  Everywhere we went. front yards had paddocks that contained anywhere from a pig to a full sized draft horse.  You name it, we saw it in someone's front yard, just hanging out.

Our last stop of the day was to visit with Jess Spatz-Shelgren with Vet Focus in Te Awamatu.  Jess was from Massachusetts, studied at Cornell and had her own veterinary practice in New York before she moved to New Zealand in 2004.  She was able to give us an idea of how different the health and care practices, are from our typical methods, mainly because of the differences in production practices, which I will continue to discuss in future blog posts.

We ran across the street and had dinner at the Redoubt Bar and Eatery.  There is no normal pizza in New Zealand that I could find.  It was all artisan pizza with crazy names and even crazier toppings.  My favorite of the trip was definitely the Redoubt's "Don't Go Bacon My Heart".  I know, typical American.

Needless to say we stuffed our faces.  At first, I think our waitress thought we were a bunch of idiots, but she eventually warmed up to us.  Pretty soon, they were playing Party in the U.S.A and Proud to be an American on their jukebox.  I think she really just wanted to get a reaction out of us, and she eventually did.  When the Star-Spangled Banner came on, all 22 of us stood and sang our national anthem.  I'm sure that the other patrons at the bar weren't very impressed, but it is what it is.  

Don't worry there's plenty more to come!! This was only the 2nd day!

Night y'all!

New Zealand Pt. 1: I'm leavin' on a jet plane. . .

Kia Ora!

So I am officially back on U.S. soil and I have so much to share. . .

We left on Friday, November 14th, flying out of Des Moines to Denver, then to LAX where we boarded our Air New Zealand flight to Auckland.  Fun Fact: It is a 13 HOUR flight from Los Angeles to Auckland.  Fortunately for us though we boarded at about 10:30 PM after we had been traveling for about 12 hours which meant by the time we got on our last plane we were all ready to pass out.  However, I quickly found out that trying to sleep sandwiched between Courtney and Amber would prove to be difficult since I woke up about 5 times during the night, but all in all it could have been much worse.

    

      

We landed in Auckland at 8 AM on Sunday, November 16th, which means we lost an entire day when we crossed the international date line.  Once we got off the plane and through customs, we met our bus driver, Wayne.  Wayne is the type of guy that you instantly like.  He used to be a truck driver, but now works as a tour bus driver and you can tell that this guy has been around.  If you have a question, just ask Wayne; chances are, he knows the answer.

The group with Wayne in front of our Go bus

The first thing we did, was head for Raglan beach to have fish and chips for lunch.  So I'm a picky eater and I can't stand fish, but I promised myself before I left for this trip that I was going to try everything that was put in front of me.  Turns out that if the fish is heavily battered and deep fat fried, it's pretty good.

We kind of demolished the fish and chips

We then spent the afternoon at the beach.  The only issue was, it's the beginning of spring in New Zealand, which means it was sunny but only about 60 degrees F, which also means that the water was freezing.  Most of us opted out of any actual swimming and just admired the scenery instead.

 

Representing State all the way in New Zealand

 

We ended the day at Good George, a brewery/restaurant in Hamilton, a few blocks over from the Microtel we were staying at while in the Waikato Region.  I'm a big fan of hard cider, because it isn't as bitter as beer, but if it's done right it's not overly sweet. The Kiwis (another term for New Zealanders)  have definitely perfected the hard cider, and I loved it.  Once again I decided to be adventurous and try the lamb rump roast.  Yeah, it was definitely not for me.

                       

Stay tuned for more New Zealand blogs! I'm going to try and get at least one up every week for the next month or so!

Night,y'all!