Dairy

Agricom wins Primary Industries NZ Innovation and Collaboration Award

A plantain that’s helping to solve one of New Zealand agriculture’s greatest challenges, nitrogen leaching and its effect on waterways, is winning awards for its developers. Agricom, a New Zealand based seed company, won the Primary Industries New Zealand, Innovation and Collaboration Award this week for its development of Ecotain®. Ecotain environmental plantain is a forage herb that can reduce nitrogen leaching on livestock farms by up to 89 per cent. It was also second in the Primary Industries Science and Research Award. Agricom, New Zealand Sales and Marketing Manager, Mark Brown, said it was extremely satisfying to have the fantastic collaboration around the development of Ecotain recognised. Plantain started life as a common roadside weed, but Agricom discovered specific lines of plantain which reduced nitrogen leaching from the urine patch of cattle. The company spent a decade on research and development and in 2015, with funding from Callaghan Innovation, established the Greener Pastures Project. The project brought together expertise from Agricom, Massey and Lincoln Universities and NZ Plant & Food Research to prove the results scientifically. “We would really like to acknowledge Plant & Food Research and Massey and Lincoln Universities. To find out how effective this product really is for mitigating nitrogen leaching is quite amazing,” Mr Brown said. “New Zealand has more than 6.5 million dairy cows, so managing nitrogen leaching, and the flow-on effect on waterways, is one of New Zealand’s major agricultural challenges,” he said. “Farmers need easy to implement environmental solutions to reduce nitrogen leaching on farms while maintaining productivity. Ecotain allows them to simply make a change to the composition of their pastures,” says Mr Brown As requirements are introduced for farmers to prepare farm environmental plans Mr Brown said Agricom’s next step was getting Ecotain recognised by Overseer, a farm nutrient measuring […]

Wrapping up Fieldays 2019

Fieldays 2019 was officially opened on Wednesday 12 June by the Rt. Hon. Jacinda Ardern and New Zealand National Fieldays Society President Peter Carr with 128,747 visitors coming through the gates over the four event days. During the ribbon cutting ceremony, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern spoke of the strength of our primary industry and its importance to New Zealanders and Society CEO Peter Nation spoke of the role Fieldays plays within it. “We as an event take our role very seriously in staging a platform that educates and supports those within the industry while attracting opportunities for trade with international visitors,” said Nation. Over 180 volunteers help make the event a success, along with hardworking staff, supportive sponsors and partners, and the 1,067 valued exhibitors that spanned across 1,559 sites throughout the event. Around 25,000 people came through the Fieldays Health and Wellbeing hub where some important conversations were had around all aspects of physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and social health and wellbeing. People were encouraged to get moles checked, sugar levels tested, general health inspected and to reach out and touch base with friends, family and neighbours who may be isolated in rural communities and could do with a chat. Northland boy Lewis Nichols won the title of Fieldays Rural Catch from 2019, impressing judges and sponsors with his skills in several of the challenges. While he walked away with over $20K in prizes, his most valued experience was the connections he made with the other contestants throughout the competition. 41 schools attended with over 860 students in their final school years completing the programme within the Fieldays Careers and Education hub. The students were introduced to the plethora of careers on offer in our thriving primary industry. The Fieldays International Business Centre was a hive of activity throughout […]

Cooling tower optimisation

Food and beverage production requires a large range of temperatures. This means that plants must have effective cooling systems to deal with the excess heat. Removing the excess heat from the system requires a cooling tower, however, traditional designs require frequent maintenance. Food and beverage manufacturers understand that the industry is becoming a constant production environment, especially with the expansion of technologies like cold supply chains. Businesses, therefore, require equipment that can work constantly. However, when producing for long periods of time machines tend to overheat, meaning that to become a constantly working operation cooling systems must also work twenty-four hours a day. Heating, cooling and pasteurising are all common steps in food and beverage. Each one of these steps either directly or indirectly produces large quantities of heat. Managing this heat is a priority, because otherwise equipment may be damaged through overheating. As such, it is important to have a cooling system that is reliable, requires minimal maintenance and can extract heat at a sufficient rate. How to optimise cooling Traditional fans generally use 1500 rpm induction motors that connect to a driveshaft that connects to a gearbox, the gearbox then connects to the fan. This makes the system prone to breakdowns as there are many moving parts, also gearbox maintenance is time consuming and, due to the environment, oil leaks are common. To combat this, modern cooling fans need motors that can be mounted directly onto the fan, while being able to resist the conditions within the cooling tower. Many of these traditional motors can be replaced with more efficient permanent magnetic motors that can be directly installed onto the fan. This reduces the amount of parts in the system, limiting the risk of breakdowns. They are also compact compared to traditional cooling tower motors, reducing the space […]

Assisting product development with new mini aseptic solution

In today’s fast moving food and drink industry innovation is king. Everyone is looking for the next product to give their business the edge and food fashions and trends come and go with increasing speed. Food manufacturers often need to use seasonal ingredients, potentially offering limited edition flavours or varieties of key products: from herbal ice creams and summer berry drinks, to fruity condiments and vegetable smoothies. As a result, the life of innovative products is often shorter than has been seen previously and it can be hard for new product developers and marketers to pick which will survive in the market and which will fall away. All of these factors create challenges for operational factories and production lines. No business wants to invest in a fully-scaled line for a product that may have limited (albeit still successful) sales. The new HRS Asepticblock Mini Series allows manufacturers to produce new trial products with the minimum amount of product in a short time, reducing the unnecessary expense or wastage that can accompany full scale trials, and alleviating the need to suspend or interfere with the routine production of regular products. It allows the reproduction of a full scale final pack, but from as little as 20 to 50 kg of product. The Aseptic Mini Block Series was born from the need of many of small- and medium-sized customers to produce relatively small quantities of aseptic products, but who are prevented from doing so by high upfront capital costs and low return on investment. Traditional aseptic processing lines consist of two sections; one section is the steriliser or pasteuriser (based on a suitable heat exchanger according to the product type), and the other is the aseptic filler. The HRS Asepticblock Mini Series is designed for such producers working with a range of […]

Energy efficiency on the land

-Edgar Ludwig, consulting engineer for energy efficiency Efficient use of fossil fuel and electricity will help farmers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the energy bill. While fossil fuel is mainly used for the vehicle fleet, electricity is used for running equipment such as milk processing and feed processing. Each farm is different and there is no general data available to gain sufficient understanding about their specific energy use and emission. This makes it hard for farmers to identify detailed saving opportunities and take actions. Particularly on milk processing where there are a variety of opportunities which should be addressed. Such as: Adequately sizing and locating equipment such as coolers, compressors and condensers. Optimising the operation for equipment such as pumps for vacuum, milk and water. Insulating tanks and recovering the heat from the refrigeration side to generate hot water. Operating the lighting with energy efficient bulbs, natural lighting. Deploying of renewable energy sources such as solar PV. The New Zealand government and the advisory sector provide practical advice and funding to help the agriculture economy to reduce their impact on climate change. The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority EECA provides a wide range of self-assessment tools to map the energy efficiency, the achievable savings and compare against other dairy farms across New Zealand. More details are provided in their web site. https://www.eecabusiness.govt.nz/tools/dairy-farm-energy-efficiency-tool. The Energy Management Association New Zealand EMANZ provides a directory of specialist for conducting detailed energy surveys in accordance to industrial standards. The outcome of such an energy survey will include: Analysis of current energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Analysis of the farming benchmark and tariff structure. A plan to measure and manage the energy users. A business case for each opportunity to make a decision on the investment. An action plan. More details are provided […]

Win a new Isuzu D-Max Ute at Fieldays 2019

Visitors to Fieldays 2019 can boost their experience on site with the improved Fieldays app and the new Fieldays Explorer band and be in the draw to drive away in a brand-new Isuzu D-Max Ute. The Fieldays Explorer band, powered by Vodafone NZ, uses innovative RFID technology in a simple wristband that allows visitors to input their details and scan their band at various participating exhibitors during the event to be in to win. “We believe this will revolutionise the way the visitors and exhibitors connect,” says Fieldays Marketing and Communications Manager Taryn Storey. “We are really excited about the technology that we are introducing and the steps we are taking to enhance our visitor experience,” says Taryn. Visitors can pick up their free band when they come through the gates, register it through the app, online or with a participating exhibitors and head around site to enter competitions and sign up to receive information from their favourite exhibitors. If that’s not incentive enough, visitors will get an entry in the draw to win a brand-new Isuzu D-max Ute thanks to Isuzu Utes New Zealand by registering their band, swiping it at Isuzu New Zealand’s site and returning the band at the end of the day – that’s potentially three entries in the draw! The endless paper forms, mountains of brochures and stacks of business cards, will be dramatically reduced by the Fieldays Explorer band meaning visitors can access everything they need at the tap of a band. Users will be able to access a complete list of all the information that is stored against their wristband at any time. This includes a list of all exhibitors the band has interacted with and any competitions entered or any quotes, brochures and other content shared by the exhibitor. The new explorer […]

Praising NZ’s primary industry

Fieldays 2019 was officially opened on Wednesday 12 June with the Rt. Hon. Jacinda Ardern cutting the ribbon alongside New Zealand National Fieldays Society President Peter Carr to mark the occasion. A common theme from the opening ceremony was the importance of our primary industry and the role Fieldays strives to play within it. Society CEO Peter Nation said, “We as an event take our role very seriously in staging a platform that educates and supports those within the industry while attracting opportunities for trade with international visitors.” “It is always a proud moment for us when we open the gates on opening day and we stroll through the streets to see the various agribusinesses with their finest on display and the large numbers of punters getting some valuable time off farm to keep up with the industry’s latest,” says Nation. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern spoke of the strength of New Zealand’s primary industry and its importance to the people of New Zealand. She spoke of Fieldays being about celebrating and appreciating our primary industry and wished visitors another successful, innovative and inspiring Fieldays. The day started off with visitors piling through the gates as they opened at 8am with the weather holding off leading to a busy first day with over 26,360 visitors piling through the gates. This year’s new Fieldays Explorer band also proved popular with over 10,710 unique visitors making the most of the new initiative. Day two kicks off nice and early for the Innovation Awards presentation followed by another action-packed day celebrating and supporting our primary industry. ABOUT FIELDAYS Fieldays is based on a 114-hectare site at Mystery Creek 10 minutes from Hamilton and is the largest agricultural event in the Southern Hemisphere. Fieldays draws people from around the globe – both as exhibitors and […]

Costs up as farmers reinvest back into the business

DairyNZ’s newly-released Economic Survey 2017-18 shows farmers have taken advantage of increased milk income to catch up on deferred farm maintenance and revisit capital expenditure, previously delayed due to lower milk prices. DairyNZ senior economist Matthew Newman said the annual farmer survey shows the largest increases in spend during 2017-18 (1 June 2017 to 31 May 2018) were on feed, repairs, maintenance and labour. But, it is likely expenditure has increased further in 2018-19. “The 2017-18 season was difficult due to a dry spring/early summer for all regions. That affected pasture growth and peak milk production. It’s also the season that Mycoplasma bovis was discovered,” said Matthew. “Overall, the break-even milk price increased 70 cents to $5.87 per kg milksolids in 2017-18, due to the higher farm working expenses, increased tax payments and increased drawings. “This survey is a good reminder that as a sector, we need to maintain our competitiveness by striving to produce milk at profitable margins and being prepared for fluctuations in milk prices.” DairyNZ farm business developer Angie Fisher said the Economic Survey can help inform planning for the 2019/20 dairy season. “The Economic Survey provides financial data for both owners and herd-owning sharemilkers, along with forecasts for the 2019-20 seasons. This makes it a useful resource for farm budgeting,” said Angie. Along with the Economic Survey, DairyNZ also collates other information that helps farmers plan for the season ahead. DairyNZ analyses financial figures of top-performing dairy farmers nationwide through DairyBase. DairyNZ also provides budgets and results from 17 Budget Case Study farmers nationwide who have opened their books for others to learn from. “Through data analysis and looking more closely at above-average performers, we’ve got a good picture of what influences profitability and returns,” said Angie. “There can be cases when the business owner’s goals […]

Rural communities need mental health focus

DairyNZ chief executive Tim Mackle has welcomed an increase in funding for mental health in yesterday’s Budget, saying he hopes the increased frontline services for mental health will include sufficient support for rural communities. “Dairy farming has always come with some challenges that can impact wellbeing, but the number and scope of these challenges is increasing,” said Dr Mackle. “The agricultural sector, like other sectors, is facing changes to the way it operates, as well as increased regulations. People deal with changes in different ways and there is a growing awareness of the importance of mental health and resilience for those in the rural sector. We need to ensure our rural communities have better access to mental health professionals when additional help is needed. “We know that on the whole our farmers are doing OK, but we have seen a rise in farmers reporting feeling stressed, anxious, fatigued and even depressed from time to time.” Reported stress amongst farmers is often attributed to financial concerns, staffing issues, and increased concerns about the perception of farming, as well as worry over increasing regulation. There are also high rates of reported loneliness amongst farmers, who often live remotely and in isolation from others. Isolation is one of the main factors of mental illness. “The good news is the growing awareness of mental health in the rural sector and we know that many farmers feel comfortable to seek the support they need,” said Dr Mackle. “Almost one in five farmers have contacted someone for help with mental health or addiction problems in the past year. “We look forward to seeing more detail on how this funding will be applied to be accessible and practical for rural communities, and especially for our more isolated farmers.”

Assisting product development with new mini aseptic solution

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