Attendance has picked up at Fieldays, billed as the biggest agricultural event in the Southern Hemisphere. Photo / NZME
Attendance has picked up at Fieldays, billed as the biggest agricultural event in the Southern Hemisphere. Photo / NZME
Attendance at Fieldays is picking up after a thunderstorm kept people away on the opening day of the four-day event.
Angry scenes of farmers lining up their tractors in convoys to protest against tighter environmental regulations earlier this year were largely absent from the event.
Fieldays chief executive Peter Nationsaid attendance had picked up on day two with an improvement in the weather.
“It’s a hell of a lot stronger than yesterday,” he said, adding daylight saving looked to have encouraged people to come along.
The four-day event near Hamilton, which usually draws around 30,000 people a day, has attracted about 1000 exhibitors – down by about 5 per cent from the norm.
ANZ agriculture economist Susan Kilsby said the event was not as busy as it had been in recent years.
“As far as how farmers are feeling, there is a lot of uncertainty around global economic conditions, interest rates, and regulatory change,” she said.
“There is a lot going on in that space,” she said.
“The long-term trend around agriculture and food pricing is strong,” she said.
“There will be some softening in some sectors this year due to global economic conditions being a bit more challenged.
“But I do think that demand for food will be there because we don’t have a huge number of suppliers across most commodities.”
In terms of regulatory change, Kilsby said farmers were resilient.
“Hopefully there will be some agreement by the end of the year on environmental regulation, because there are some fragmented views at the moment,” she said.
Silver Fern Farms chief executive Simon Limmer said, after travelling across the country recently, the sense of uncertainty that farmers have is “palpable” around new regulatory changes. He said there is a critical need for the technology and tools to make a step change.
Garry Diack, Ravensdown’s chief executive, said the industry owed it to farmers to partner, invest and collaborate to help solve the most significant challenge of the time. “We’re making good progress with advancements in things like precision fertiliser, effluent pond systems and soil science, but there’s much more we can all achieve together.”
In a report timed to coincide with Fieldays, Ministry for Primary Industries’ said it expected food and fibre export revenue to reach a record $55.0 billion in the year to 30 June 2023 - higher than the earlier forecast made in June this year.
The report said dairy export revenue was expected to grow 6 per cent to $23.3b driven by strong global prices and a weakening New Zealand dollar.
Red meat and wool exports continued to shine and were expected to remain steady this year at $12.4b.
Forestry export revenue is set to increase slightly to $6.6b for the year to 30 June 2023 due to the exchange rate offsetting a slowdown in demand.
Horticulture export revenue continued to grow with a forecast 5 per cent increase in the year to 30 June 2023 to $7.1b.
The ministry is forecasting export revenue for the arable sector to grow 5 per cent to $265m, due to increasing seed prices, and processed food and other products to grow 3 per cent to $3.3b on the back of demand for processed foods and cereal products.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern arrives at Fieldays 2022. Photo / Mike Scott
Prime minister Jacinda Ardern on Wednesday formally launched the Centre for Climate Action on Agricultural Emissions and agriculture minister Damien O’Connor outlined the first three projects.
The launch came against a backdrop of the Government also announcing it would bring all scientifically robust forms of sequestration into the emissions trading scheme (ETS), starting in 2025.
The move came after a strong lobby from the sector that argued the government’s initial plan would have significant negative implications, in particular for sheep, beef and deer farmers.
The Centre for Climate Action is a joint venture that included Anzco Foods, Fonterra, the Ministry for Primary Industries, Ravensdown, Silver Fern Farms and Synlait. In the past week, Rabobank also signed on to join the partnership.
The centre was announced as part of Budget 2022 and focused on reducing agriculture emissions through research and development, including a substantial new 50:50 public-private joint venture. According to Ardern, partners in the new joint venture have made an indicative funding commitment that would rise to about $35 million a year by 2025, matched by the government. This would see about $170m invested over the first four years.
The first of the three announced projects was an investment of $7.8m, which would go alongside Ruminant Biotech’s $9.5m contribution, to develop a methane-inhibiting capsule, or bolus, that delivered at least a 70 per cent reduction in methane whilst active, O’Connor said.
The second project would involve an investment of more than $2.2m, alongside a $2m contribution from Beef + Lamb New Zealand and other industry partners, to increase the supply of low-methane rams through genetic selection. The third project would invest about $6m in greenhouse gas measurement equipment and infrastructure. “Making sure that farmers can use these things is what this joint venture is about,” O’Connor said.
On another front, Nestlé NZ and Fonterra said they have teamed up to create the first zero-emissions farm over the next five years. Over the five-year project, the farm, run with co-partner Dairy Trust Taranaki, would examine all aspects of farm operations to reduce carbon with the aim of cutting emissions by 30 per cent by mid-2027, and a 10-year ambition of reaching net-zero carbon emissions.
