ARTICLES
Mostly I've written articles on environmental or rural issues. I'm a scientist, remember, and that's where my expertise lies. I've included three of my articles here, all written in NZ. Two of them reflect issues relevant to Kiwis, the third attempting to explain the rather complicated Australian dairy industry to NZ. They were all written several years ago, the Australian Dairy Industry one in 2012 or 13, but they're still relevant.
However the purpose of including them here is to give examples of my writing style and research. Have a read and, if you like it and have anything you'd like researched and written, let me know.
I've spent most of my life in Australia so am very familiar with the environment and rural issues here.
This first article covered a major environmental problem facing NZ.
However the purpose of including them here is to give examples of my writing style and research. Have a read and, if you like it and have anything you'd like researched and written, let me know.
I've spent most of my life in Australia so am very familiar with the environment and rural issues here.
This first article covered a major environmental problem facing NZ.
***
Controlling gorse by planting trees.
By Graeme Dobson
Gorse is not just invasive and has taken over vast tracts of land, it's also a legume that 'fixes' atmospheric nitrogen into the soil. That nitrogen enters the subsurface flow and eventually rivers or lakes as a nutrient where it has attracted the attention of environmental bodies, such as the Bay Of Plenty Regional Council who are charged with cleaning up our waterways. The Regional Council looked at the significant amount of gorse in their district and how to get rid of it. John Paterson, Sustainable Farming Advisor with the Regional Council, said
"The problem is not so much with young plants. They use the nitrogen they produce to grow, but old plants just keep producing and don't use much of it. There is also a lot of nitrogen released from the decomposition of the gorse's leaf litter."
The first step was to commission Guna Mageson, Senior Scientist at the NZ Biological Farming Research Centre in Rotorua. With the help of Masters Student Caleb Male, Guna ran trials and made the rather startling discovery that adult gorse can pump out as much nitrogen as an average dairy farm. Until now gorse control has been by slashing, rolling or spraying, however this is expensive and must be done repeatedly because gorse's great strength lies in its ability to regenerate. It can produce 20,000 seeds/ha, and those seeds can persist in the soil for up to 20 years. The seeds won't germinate while there is adult cover, but as soon as that is removed they're away. Perversely, that's also its greatest (and probably only) weakness—it won't germinate in shade. This is the same response as occurs in rainforests, in nature it prevents seeds being wasted by germinating and then being smothered by the adults.
The Regional Council plans to use this as a means of control. First they physically destroy the adults by conventional means before planting fast-growing plants on the cleared land to outgrow the gorse seedlings and throw shade on them before they can get established. A number of trees could do this, but the selection ultimately comes down to cost, and on that basis pinus radiata is currently the favoured species. Although many people regard pines as little better than weeds, they can out-compete gorse and have a minimal initial cost of only around 25 cents each.
"At that rate land can be cleared and planted for around $2,000/ha," said John. "If we did the same using natives it could be seven times that. The Regional Council couldn't afford that."
The Regional Council is trying to get farmers involved, but even with funding being available so far the uptake is low. It's very early days, research goes on and there are other species under investigation, such as totara or manuka.
Persuading farmers to retire land in the long term for some possible future return is not easy, but anything that will lower the massive amounts of nutrients entering our lakes and rivers is well worth advancing, and quickly.
***
The Australian Dairy Industry
Back to About
The Australian Dairy Industry
By Graeme Dobson
The Australian
industry is complicated, fragmented and faces uncertainties that NZ is
generally free from. Parts of Australia,
especially in the south-east contain excellent dairy country but, with the
exception of north-west Tasmania,
most of it is prone to climatic extremes. For many years Australia's south-east
was in the grip of severe and chronic drought, right up until it was hit by
devastating floods a couple of years ago. When the floods receded rivers (like
the huge Murray-Darling system) that had been mere trickles flowed normally
again and irrigation water was once more available. The grass grew and almost
forgotten good times returned. But with or without global warming the weather
pattern is cyclic and will almost certainly repeat itself—just how soon is
anyone's guess. And the nature of the country with its high summer
temperatures, highly seasonal rainfall and huge catchments mean that it will
always be prone to environmental extremes even in good years.
For now the abundance of feed has pushed national production up from 9.1 billion litres in 2010/11 to about 9.5 billion in 2011/12, the highest in a decade, but growth has come at a price—it created a milk glut that has pushed farm gate prices down.
The Australian dairy industry is quite fragmented and as a result farm gate prices are variable. Overall, the industry is divided into two geographic regions—the south-east which includes Tasmania, South Australia, Victoria and southern NSW; and the north and west which takes in West Australia, Queensland and north and central NSW. Within this division each state governs its own operations, and within each state there are a number of processing companies that offer different prices as they compete for supplies.
But the most important feature of the Australian industry is the regional divide which is increasingly creating a two tier system with very different outlooks. This is because only those in the south-east have access to the export market while those in the rest of the country are limited to selling domestically where recent domestic developments are causing major problems for milk suppliers. This arrangement came about simply because of climate—the warmer northern regions were thought to be better able to sustain production through the winters.
Farmers in the northern and western non-exporting regions are selling into a domestic market dominated by the big supermarket chains Coles and Woolworths. These two brands have been engaged in a price war in basic commodities for the past couple of years that has seen them heavily discounting staples, including milk. This war is spurred by both declining disposable household income that's forcing consumers to look for the lower cost products, and competition from foreign supermarkets such as Aldi and Costco that are making big inroads in the Australian marketplace. Essentially the supermarkets are using cheap milk and bread to lure customers through the door.
But commercial realities being what they are, lower prices are inevitably passed on to the producer. This, combined with competition from cheap imports of processed products such as US 'filled cheese' (made from skim milk with a fatty filling, such as oleomargarine or lard, replacing the fat removed as cream), is driving the producer's income ever downward. Dairy Australia predicts that there will be further price erosion of 15-20% in this financial year, bringing the farm gate price to about A$0.34 (NZ$0.42) per litre.
Not surprisingly, farmers in the domestic sector are not particularly sanguine about their future. On the other hand farmers in the south-east export region are modestly confident despite a predicted fall in the average farm gate price from A$5.30 - $5.40 (NZ$6.60 - $6.75) per kgMS in 2011/12 to A$$4.50 - $4.90 (NZ$5.6 - $6.12) per kgMS in 2012/13. For now this drop is off-set by increased production and a reduction in feed costs (courtesy of the recent rains), but it is yet to be seen what impact the new carbon tax will have.
Overall average dairy farm incomes are declining—the national ABARE (Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics) estimates indicate that the average Australian farm income in 2011/12 averaged A$136,000 (NZ$170,000 ), down from A$141,000 (NZ$176,250 ) in 2010/11. If the export sector is able to mostly off set lower prices, then the domestic suppliers must be in a quite steep decline.
At the moment a large proportion of farmers describe their business as 'steady as she goes', but it is clear that many, particularly the smaller operators and those in the domestic supply regions, are travelling very close to the edge and it won't take much to tip them over. By and large it's the big operations, those that have an economy of scale and possibly some leverage in the market, are the ones expressing the most optimism.
Currently the Australian industry appears to be going through a major shake-up that is likely to see many of the smaller producers forced out and farms amalgamating into large holdings (similar to what's been happening in NZ). Australia's challenge now is to maintain its relevance in the expanding world market place.
Lowering returns will almost certainly force some farmers out of the industry and push land prices down. This may present an opportunity for canny NZ investors with dairy know-how to look across the ditch (in much the same way they looked to the South Island a few years ago), but any investor will need to do a great deal of homework before making the move.
Graeme Dobson travels to Australia frequently and knows the country well—he should, he lived there for more than 35 years. He sourced the information in this article from discussions with Dairy Australia and from their May 2012 'Annual Situation & Outlook Report'.
For the full report go to www.dairy.edu.au.
For now the abundance of feed has pushed national production up from 9.1 billion litres in 2010/11 to about 9.5 billion in 2011/12, the highest in a decade, but growth has come at a price—it created a milk glut that has pushed farm gate prices down.
The Australian dairy industry is quite fragmented and as a result farm gate prices are variable. Overall, the industry is divided into two geographic regions—the south-east which includes Tasmania, South Australia, Victoria and southern NSW; and the north and west which takes in West Australia, Queensland and north and central NSW. Within this division each state governs its own operations, and within each state there are a number of processing companies that offer different prices as they compete for supplies.
But the most important feature of the Australian industry is the regional divide which is increasingly creating a two tier system with very different outlooks. This is because only those in the south-east have access to the export market while those in the rest of the country are limited to selling domestically where recent domestic developments are causing major problems for milk suppliers. This arrangement came about simply because of climate—the warmer northern regions were thought to be better able to sustain production through the winters.
Farmers in the northern and western non-exporting regions are selling into a domestic market dominated by the big supermarket chains Coles and Woolworths. These two brands have been engaged in a price war in basic commodities for the past couple of years that has seen them heavily discounting staples, including milk. This war is spurred by both declining disposable household income that's forcing consumers to look for the lower cost products, and competition from foreign supermarkets such as Aldi and Costco that are making big inroads in the Australian marketplace. Essentially the supermarkets are using cheap milk and bread to lure customers through the door.
But commercial realities being what they are, lower prices are inevitably passed on to the producer. This, combined with competition from cheap imports of processed products such as US 'filled cheese' (made from skim milk with a fatty filling, such as oleomargarine or lard, replacing the fat removed as cream), is driving the producer's income ever downward. Dairy Australia predicts that there will be further price erosion of 15-20% in this financial year, bringing the farm gate price to about A$0.34 (NZ$0.42) per litre.
Not surprisingly, farmers in the domestic sector are not particularly sanguine about their future. On the other hand farmers in the south-east export region are modestly confident despite a predicted fall in the average farm gate price from A$5.30 - $5.40 (NZ$6.60 - $6.75) per kgMS in 2011/12 to A$$4.50 - $4.90 (NZ$5.6 - $6.12) per kgMS in 2012/13. For now this drop is off-set by increased production and a reduction in feed costs (courtesy of the recent rains), but it is yet to be seen what impact the new carbon tax will have.
Overall average dairy farm incomes are declining—the national ABARE (Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics) estimates indicate that the average Australian farm income in 2011/12 averaged A$136,000 (NZ$170,000 ), down from A$141,000 (NZ$176,250 ) in 2010/11. If the export sector is able to mostly off set lower prices, then the domestic suppliers must be in a quite steep decline.
At the moment a large proportion of farmers describe their business as 'steady as she goes', but it is clear that many, particularly the smaller operators and those in the domestic supply regions, are travelling very close to the edge and it won't take much to tip them over. By and large it's the big operations, those that have an economy of scale and possibly some leverage in the market, are the ones expressing the most optimism.
Currently the Australian industry appears to be going through a major shake-up that is likely to see many of the smaller producers forced out and farms amalgamating into large holdings (similar to what's been happening in NZ). Australia's challenge now is to maintain its relevance in the expanding world market place.
Lowering returns will almost certainly force some farmers out of the industry and push land prices down. This may present an opportunity for canny NZ investors with dairy know-how to look across the ditch (in much the same way they looked to the South Island a few years ago), but any investor will need to do a great deal of homework before making the move.
Graeme Dobson travels to Australia frequently and knows the country well—he should, he lived there for more than 35 years. He sourced the information in this article from discussions with Dairy Australia and from their May 2012 'Annual Situation & Outlook Report'.
For the full report go to www.dairy.edu.au.
***
If the style and/or content of these articles interests you, drop me an email and we can discuss your needs.Back to About
The third covers the possibility of turning a problem into an opportunity
It's that time of year again—sea lettuce
season is just around the corner. It'll grow just as prolifically this year,
our harbours and estuaries will turn a lovely shade of green then, when the
lettuce dies, the beaches and sand flats will be covered with a smelly rotting
mess. We know this will happen again because the flow of nutrients into the
waterways has not slowed, nor is it likely to slow much in the foreseeable
future.
Obviously a big negative on our environmental ledger, however there is a way to turn this particular negative into a positive. Nutrients from runoff are, and will remain, a major problem that must be addressed, but the nutrient that grows land plants grows seaweed just as efficiently when it gets into the sea (hence the sea lettuce), and sea weed can be as valuable as land plants.
Seaweeds are plants, but they are algae which are quite different from land plants. They don't have roots, instead they absorb nutrients directly from the water around them. They're very efficient at it and can grow very fast. The more nutrient the faster they absorb it and the faster they grow.
There is not a single seaweed species that isn't edible, although their ability to soak up heavy metals and chemicals from industrial pollution means that those growing near industrial sites should be avoided. Even our problem sea lettuce has been highly valued by people around the world for millennia—it's rich in dietary fibre, protein, vitamins and trace elements. Most New Zealanders are familiar with sushi and its black paper-like wrapping, but how many know that that black wrap is seaweed? It's a product the Japanese call nori and there are huge farms producing it in northern Asia. Here in NZ that same seaweed, Porphyra, grows around the coast where it is a traditional food called karengo and is just as healthy as sea lettuce, but few people, not even modern Maori, know about it.
Despite considerable work being done by NIWA to develop cultivation methods that suit local conditions, NZ is very slow to take up seaweed farming. Apart from a few mussel farms that produce kelp on the side for condiments like kelp salt, all seaweed used here is collected from beaches after it has been washed up by storms.
The problem is twofold—seaweed is comparatively low priced unless it's processed into high value products such as condiments; and legislation is ambiguous about inshore seaweed cultivation. Legislative issues will be resolved if people show an interest, but the low price is a deterrent to interest so it becomes a circular argument.
An increasing interest in the use of seaweeds in the production of cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and bio-fuels is set to change the Kiwi attitude. Seaweeds are already used extensively in manufacturing, including a host of products that most Kiwis use—the next time you clean your teeth, eat an ice cream or drink a beer you're consuming a little bit of a seaweed called Eucheuma cottonii produced from aquaculture in some remote tropical fishing village.
As technology makes the isolation of more and more chemicals possible, big pharmaceutical and energy companies are increasingly turning their eyes toward valuable compounds produced by seaweeds and other marine organisms. This has the potential to open a whole new market that's much higher in value than is presently available, and one that will make cultivating seaweed a very worthwhile business both for the pocket and the environment, not a common combination.
***Seaweed
aquaculture—a simple way to the future
By Graeme Dobson
Seaweed
aquaculture is both environmentally friendly and profitable—not a common
combination. Now new technology
has the potential to open a whole new market that will make cultivating seaweed
a very worthwhile business.
Obviously a big negative on our environmental ledger, however there is a way to turn this particular negative into a positive. Nutrients from runoff are, and will remain, a major problem that must be addressed, but the nutrient that grows land plants grows seaweed just as efficiently when it gets into the sea (hence the sea lettuce), and sea weed can be as valuable as land plants.
Seaweeds are plants, but they are algae which are quite different from land plants. They don't have roots, instead they absorb nutrients directly from the water around them. They're very efficient at it and can grow very fast. The more nutrient the faster they absorb it and the faster they grow.
There is not a single seaweed species that isn't edible, although their ability to soak up heavy metals and chemicals from industrial pollution means that those growing near industrial sites should be avoided. Even our problem sea lettuce has been highly valued by people around the world for millennia—it's rich in dietary fibre, protein, vitamins and trace elements. Most New Zealanders are familiar with sushi and its black paper-like wrapping, but how many know that that black wrap is seaweed? It's a product the Japanese call nori and there are huge farms producing it in northern Asia. Here in NZ that same seaweed, Porphyra, grows around the coast where it is a traditional food called karengo and is just as healthy as sea lettuce, but few people, not even modern Maori, know about it.
Despite considerable work being done by NIWA to develop cultivation methods that suit local conditions, NZ is very slow to take up seaweed farming. Apart from a few mussel farms that produce kelp on the side for condiments like kelp salt, all seaweed used here is collected from beaches after it has been washed up by storms.
The problem is twofold—seaweed is comparatively low priced unless it's processed into high value products such as condiments; and legislation is ambiguous about inshore seaweed cultivation. Legislative issues will be resolved if people show an interest, but the low price is a deterrent to interest so it becomes a circular argument.
An increasing interest in the use of seaweeds in the production of cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and bio-fuels is set to change the Kiwi attitude. Seaweeds are already used extensively in manufacturing, including a host of products that most Kiwis use—the next time you clean your teeth, eat an ice cream or drink a beer you're consuming a little bit of a seaweed called Eucheuma cottonii produced from aquaculture in some remote tropical fishing village.
As technology makes the isolation of more and more chemicals possible, big pharmaceutical and energy companies are increasingly turning their eyes toward valuable compounds produced by seaweeds and other marine organisms. This has the potential to open a whole new market that's much higher in value than is presently available, and one that will make cultivating seaweed a very worthwhile business both for the pocket and the environment, not a common combination.
Back to About