- 7.1 FRM 490: Riparian attenuation of faecal microbes
- 7.2 FRM 491: Developing silvicultural guidelines for the sustainable management of indigenous forests on private land
- 7.3 FRM 492: Low impact eco-silviculture
- 7.4 FRM 493: Welfare impacts of vertebrate poisons
- 7.5 FRM 494: Assessment of welfare performance (humaneness) of commercially available kill traps
- 7.6 FRM 495: Animal health and welfare on lifestyle blocks and hobby farms
- 7.7 FRM 496: Analgesic best practice for use of animals in research and testing - an interpretive international literature review
- 7.8 FRM 497: Implications of intensive cattle grazing systems on rolling and hill country
- 7.9 FRM 498: Developing management guidelines for pinhole borer in beech forests
7 Facilitating Resource Management
This category provides information that will assist in developing and implementing policies on biophysical factors that influence sustainable agricultural practices namely food safety, environmental effects due to agriculture and horticulture, and animal welfare issues driven by domestic concerns. A key driver for all three issues has been the urbanisation of the population that has isolated the majority of New Zealanders from contact with agriculture and forestry. Negative aspects of land-based production are open to exploitation by the media. Increasingly, the public is demanding assurances from farmers and processors about the manner in which food and fibre is produced. "Quality products from a quality environment" encapsulates these concerns.
7.1 FRM 490
| Programme Title: | Riparian attenuation of faecal microbes |
| Programme Leader: | Rob Collins |
| Institution: | NIWA |
Programme Goal: To assess the effectiveness of riparian buffer strips in attenuating faecal microbes, including Campylobactor, within overland flow.
Rationale: New Zealand has a high rate of infectious diseases caused by microorganisms that are shed in faeces, and can be transferred from animals to humans. One of these microorganisms, Campylobacter jejuni, accounts for more than half of all the infectious diseases reported to the NZ Department of Health. Recent NZ research has demonstrated a high prevalence rate of C. jejuni in pastoral animals and shown that C.jejuni is frequently found in rivers and streams draining farmland. C. jejuni, and other faecal microorganisms shed by grazing animals can be transferred to waterways by direct stock access and overland flow. One potential means to reduce contamination of waterways by overland flow is through the use of riparian buffer strips (RBS). The dense vegetation associated with RBS acts to reduce the momentum of overland flow causing entrapment of constituents within it. Although numerous studies of sediment entrapment in RBS have been undertaken, findings from these studies are not likely to be directly applicable to faecal microbes. The objective of this proposed research is to undertake an initial assessment of the ability of RBS to trap faecal microorganisms washed in by overland flow. In addition, a preliminary assessment of the efficiency of retention during subsequent overland flow events (without further addition of faecal material) will be made. This project will be complemented by an AgResearch FRST funded study investigating movement/survival of Campylobacter in soil.
Objective 1
Objective Title: Riparian attenuation of faecal microbes.
Research Leader: Rob Collins.
Description:
Plot-scale experiments to determine the efficiency of long grass (used to simulate a riparian buffer strip) in trapping faecal microbes.
7.2 FRM 491
| Programme Title: | Developing silvicultural guidelines for the sustainable management of indigenous forests on private land |
| Programme Leader: | Dr Rob Allen |
| Institution: | Landcare Research |
Programme Goal: Assessing landscapes to develop silvicultural systems, consistent with the principles of ecosystem management, which allow high-value timber production from indigenous species under the Forests Act and so support rural communities and development.
Rationale: As of March 2001, 24 plans covering 25 157 ha, and 269 permits covering 33 212 ha, have been approved by MAF in terms of their sustainability compliance under the Forests Act Part IIIA, 1993, with more under consideration. These plans and permits cover very different types of forest and include considerable variability in forest structure, composition, and productivity even within one type of forest on an individual property, for example;
Silvicultural systems are needed that work in harmony with this natural variation in structure, species composition, growth, and site conditions (Benecke 1996, James & Norton 2001). This requires techniques for assessing landscapes from an ecological perspective, and that also provide a basis for assessing likely impacts on a range of forest management values. For example, we need to know more about the patterns of tree growth on individual properties and how this determines silvicultural systems that work in harmony with that variability. For example, individual tree growth can be markedly higher on fertile and moist sites, than on nearby ridge crests, so within any property a range of harvest intervals and silvicultural systems (e.g., group selection, shelterwood, small coupes) may be appropriate. Optimal planning requires that stand- (or site-) specific management prescriptions be incorporated into a property-level plan. This proposal is to continue our efforts on ecological site classification as a basis for developing sustainable indigenous forest management.
This research adds information vital for policy (Government advisors and Ministers), stakeholders (who require guidelines), and as input to international reporting requirements (e.g., Montreal Process criteria 2 and 6).
Objective 1
Objective Title: Ecological site classification of forests.
Research Leader: Dr Rob Allen.
Description:
The maintenance of as full a range of forest values as possible will be through silvicultural systems designed to take account of variation in structure, composition and growth of natural forest stands. This requires data analysis and synthesis of earlier research and will be achieved through:
- Analysing further existing data on tree growth, forest structure and composition.
- Contrasting these analyses with the three properties studied so far under MAF funding.
- Determining a set of general principles that can be used for ecological site classification of individual properties, and presenting these as a set of guidelines for forest managers.
In future years, the knowledge gained from this research can be used to implement more flexible silvicultural systems by forest managers and design experimental treatments testing management options.
7.3 FRM 492
| Programme Title: | Low impact eco-silviculture: |
| Programme Leader: | Dr Susan Wiser |
| Institution: | Landcare Research |
Programme Goal: To monitor the effects of silvicultural manipulations utilising small (<0.2 ha) coupe, group-selection harvesting and single-tree harvesting in existing trials, so that MAF can refine prescriptions for management set out in Part IIIA of the Forests Act.
Objective 1
Objective Title: Assessing existing silvicultural trials.
Research Leader: Dr Susan Wiser.
Description:
Developing ecologically sustainable silvicultural systems that maintain forest structure, composition and health in native forests requires use of a range of types of low-impact silvicultural and harvesting systems. In beech forests, trials have been established using variable group-selection silviculture as small coupe (<0.2 ha), low-impact harvesting and small-group (fewer than 10 trees) harvesting. In podocarp-tawa forests, trials have been established using single tree and small-group selection. Evaluating such techniques for developing the practice of continuous-cover forestry requires ongoing monitoring consisting of:
- quantifying the status of forest structure and regeneration;
- determining health, Platypus damage, mortality and growth in continuous-cover forest stands; and
- quantifying changes in biodiversity and invasive weeds.
7.4 FRM 493
| Programme Title: | Welfare impacts of vertebrate poisons: |
| Programme Leader: | Dr Cheryl O'Connor |
| Institution: | Landcare Research |
Programme Goal: To ensure the use of humane methods for vertebrate pest control.
Rationale: To eradicate Tb and to protect our native fauna and flora, poisons and traps will remain essential for vertebrate pest control in New Zealand. We have an ethical duty, however, to minimise the suffering animals experience during control operations. Public awareness about animal welfare, including pest control issues, is growing nationally and internationally. This is an additional stimulus for us to use the most humane control methods available and continue to develop more humane methods. The development of draft NAWAC guidelines (based on the ISO standard) has provided an objective process for assessing traps using pathological (e.g. physical injuries) and physiological (e.g. brain stem reflexes) measures. There are, however, no such guidelines for the assessment of poisons. As part of our research on the humaneness of possum poisons we have measured behavioural, biochemical, and pathological changes in possums following poisoning with cyanide, 1080, phosphorus, cholecalciferol or brodifacoum. We will develop a guideline for assessing vertebrate poisons based on our knowledge and experience with possums, rats, stoats, and ferrets.
Objective 1
Objective Title: Welfare assessment of poisons.
Research Leader: Cheryl O'Connor and Kate Littin.
Description:
In order to meet our goal of developing and using more humane vertebrate poisons, we must be able to assess poisons using a standardised method. We will develop a protocol describing the essential behavioural, physiological and pathological measures required to assess the welfare impact of vertebrate poisons. We will validate the protocol using our data previously collected for the humaneness assessment of possum poisons. The validation will determine the minimum essential measures required to rank the possum poisons, in order to provide the information needed to assess the acceptability of specific toxic agents. The criteria for acceptability of different agents will also be outlined.
7.5 FRM 494
| Programme Title: | Assessment of welfare performance (humaneness) of commercially available kill traps. |
| Programme Leader: | Bruce Warburton |
| Institution: | Landcare Research |
Programme Goal: To assess the welfare performance of commercially available kill traps and provide MAF and NAWAC with recommendations on which traps should be prohibited or restricted.
Rationale: There is continuing concern expressed both nationally and internationally about the use of traps that are perceived to be unacceptably cruel. The Animal Welfare Act 1999 enables NAWAC to make recommendations to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry on which traps should either be prohibited or restricted in their use if there is evidence that they cause unreasonable pain or distress. To enable the welfare performance of kill traps to be assessed objectively, the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) developed draft international standards for testing and evaluating traps (Warburton 1995), and these standards have been modified in New Zealand and submitted to NAWAC as draft trap-testing guidelines. These guidelines provide a testing protocol as well as criteria for deciding whether a trap performs acceptably or whether the traps should be recommended for prohibition. A range of commercially available kill traps will be tested for their killing effectiveness, and recommends made as to whether they are acceptable or not.
Objective 1
Objective Title: Assessing kill trap humaneness.
Research Leader: Bruce Warburton.
Description:
This project will pen test a selected number of kill traps for their ability to kill target animals quickly, and provide recommendations to MAF and NAWAC on which traps should be considered for prohibition or restricted use.
The draft NAWAC guidelines require all test traps to pass through four tests: (1) Mechanical evaluation; (2) kill test on anaesthetised animals; (3) pen test on free-moving animals, and (4) field test. Because there is some uncertainty on whether anaesthetised animals are good surrogates for fully alert animals to assess a traps' ability to render an animal unconscious, and the need to reduce the total number of animals used, step 2 will not be carried out in this study. Additionally, because of the expense of carrying out field tests, these will also be omitted. This will allow more traps to be screened through to the pen stage. This stage is more important as it is the pen test that critically assesses the welfare performance of the trap.
7.6 FRM 495
| Programme Title: | Animal health and welfare on lifestyle blocks and hobby farms: |
| Programme Leader: | Jeremy Neild |
| Institution: | Agriculture NZ |
Programme Goal: To identify the factors that lead to reduced animal welfare and health on lifestyle blocks and to recommend strategies that will promote animal health and welfare and result in fewer animal welfare concerns and complaints.
Objective 1
Objective Title: Review of the Current Animal Welfare Issues.
Research Leader: Jeremy Neild.
Description:
This component of the project will involve a background study of the issues behind the rationale for the project, and will identify factors to be incorporated in the subsequent survey and focus group work.
It will include:
- review of the codes of practice and how they are provided to assist lifestyle block holders and hobby farmers and their relevance as a source of information;
- a review of the growth in complaints about animal welfare violations and the nature of those complaints, the degree of abuse of animals and the nature of subsequent investigations;
- interviews with members of the MAF Enforcement Unit and RNZSPCA to gather anecdotal information to support the evidence from b).
The output of this study will form the basis of the survey of block owners and focus group.
Objective 2
Objective Title: Survey of Lifestyle Block Owners and Hobby Farmers.
Research Leader: John Greer.
Description:
This survey is designed to gather information from lifestyle farmers and hobby farmers about their sources of information and information needs, their prior experience in caring for animals, and explore their knowledge and understanding about the codes of welfare.
Objective 3
Objective Title: Focus Groups.
Research Leader: Sue Cumberworth.
Description:
This component will involve two focus groups to explore in-depth those issues that are identified in Objectives 1 and 2 and to understand small block holders' attitudes to animal welfare and to identify potential solutions to this problem.
7.7 FRM 496
| Programme Title: | Analgesic best practice for use of animals in research and testing - an interpretive international literature review |
| Programme Leader: | John Schofield |
| Institution: | Otago University |
Programme Goal: To review current literature on analgesic options for live animals (with emphasis on rodents, rabbits and ruminants) used in research and testing, identifying major advances, so as to be able to recommend to MAF and NAEAC changes in present guidelines for good practice as appropriate.
Rationale: The new Animal Welfare Act 1999 specifically identifies pain management as a key feature of animal welfare programmes. Appropriate pain medication is now a legal requirement for all animals used in research, testing and teaching, unless specifically contraindicated and an Animal Ethics Committee approves the withholding of pain medication. NAEAC seeks to encourage best practice in terms of the use of analgesia in research, testing and teaching.
Objective 1
Objective Title: Literature Search and Database Creation.
Research Leader: John Schofield.
Description:
Papers written in the last ten years on the research topic will be identified, and abstracts printed. Papers of particular relevance to the research topic will be identified from the abstract information, and will be photocopied locally or outsourced A database of the relevant papers will be created.
Objective 2
Objective Title: Review of identified material.
Research Leader: John Schofield
Description:
This objective will aim to identify analgesic practices that are seen as advancing the standards currently recommended in New Zealand research and testing, as well as confirming present practice where that is appropriate.
Objective 3
Objective Title: Summarising of research findings.
Research Leader: John Schofield.
Description:
The outcome of this objective is to produce a summary of the findings of the literature search, with recommendations for changes in present practice as appropriate.
7.8 FRM 497
| Programme Title: | Implications of intensive cattle grazing systems on rolling and hill country: |
| Programme Leader: | Alec MacKay |
| Institution: | AgResearch |
Programme Goal: Estimate the potential environmental implications resulting from landuse change towards more intensive cattle grazing systems on rolling and hill landscapes.
Rationale: There is currently a significant trend of land use change on rolling and hill country soils throughout regions in New Zealand, to intensive cattle grazing systems. This includes, bull technosystems, intensive dairy heifer grazing systems and wintering of dairy cows, in addition to the trend towards both heavier weights and a higher percentage of cattle on sheep and beef enterprises. It is considered by many that intensive cattle grazing systems have the potential to degrade these less versatile, and hence more sensitive environments, and affect their long-term productive capabilities.
Leading farmers, farm advisors and regional councils have expressed concern on the sustainability of this land use change. However, there is a large gap of information on the rate and extent of change in cattle policies on rolling and hill land over recent years. Data on the actual or potential environmental effects that result from intensive cattle grazing systems on rolling and hill landscapes is also lacking. The lack of information results in mixed messages from all those that provide advice and uncertainty amongst those that use the advice for making investment decisions.
This project will engage two agricultural consultancy businesses in two regions to assist in the collection of data on historical and current cattle policies on rolling and hill land and likely future trends. Two producer groups will be formed, and with technical assistance, information on the impacts their cattle policy has on both the soil and pasture resource will be collected in the winter and early spring of 2001. This will be used to comment on the potential off-site impacts of cattle treading. The data will also be used to extrapolate to a larger scale and to predict the likely future potential environmental impacts if current changes in cattle policies continue. Outcomes from the proposed research will be an improved understanding of the extent and rate of land use change towards intensive cattle grazing systems on rolling and hill country and estimates of the actual and potential sustainability issues arising from this and continuing land use change.
Objective 1
Objective Title: Impacts of cattle treading.
Research Leader: Dr Alec Mackay.
Description:
The aims of the study are to:
- Collect information on the rate and extent of change in cattle policies on rolling and hill land over the last 10 years and likely future trends.
- Determine the impact that intensive cattle systems have on the soil and pasture resource on rolling and hill land and comment on off-site effects
- Extrapolate from the data collect under 1 and 2 the potential impacts at a larger scale and predict the likely future potential environmental impacts if current trends in cattle policies continue.
The project will provide information on the extent and rate of land use change towards intensive cattle grazing systems on rolling and hill country and estimates of the actual and potential sustainability issues arising from this and continuing land use change.
7.9 FRM 498
| Programme Title: | Developing management guidelines for pinhole borer in beech forests: |
| Programme Leader: | Eckehard Brockerhoff |
| Institution: | Forest Research |
Programme Goal: To continue research for the development of guidelines for minimising the incidence and effects of pinhole borer following harvesting, to underpin policy advice on Part IIIa of the Forests Act.
The sustainable management of New Zealand's beech forests requires attention to the native pinhole borer beetles, Platypus spp. Harvesting or natural forest disturbance can lead to outbreaks of these beetles, which may result in widespread mortality of healthy beech trees (Milligan 1979). To avoid such outbreaks, management prescriptions recommend the cutting of harvesting slash into 1-m pieces and the treatment of stumps with urea. This is thought to accelerate drying or decomposition processes, which would reduce the survival of pinhole borer brood. However, the effectiveness of slash and stump treatments has not previously been assessed under the now practised sustainable forest management with low-impact harvesting. Furthermore, little information was available on the potential impact of pinhole borer in these conditions. Initial results indicate that slash treatments have no effect during the first three seasons after harvesting, but a lower number of active tunnels was noticed last year, suggesting the possibility these treatments may be valuable in the longer term. One more year of research will enable an assessment of the effects of slash treatments on the first generation of pinhole borer.
It is being proposed to continue a study designed to increase our understanding of these important issues in the sustainable management of beech forests, especially forests under private ownership where harvesting occurs, and to provide better management guidelines and policy advice. A broad approach is being taken, including the assessment of edge and control trees, and forest growth, to determine site-specific pinhole borer impact and management recommendations. It is further proposed to continue an assessment of the compartment-wide mortality as a result of harvesting.
This work builds on research funded since 1998 by MAF. The pinhole borer research is closely linked with the Landcare studies by sharing the same or adjoining forest sites with ongoing common vegetation monitoring.
Objective 1
Objective Title: Pinhole borer ecology, impact and management.
Research Leader: Eckehard Brockerhoff.
Description:
Research will be conducted to improve our understanding of the ecology and management of pinhole borer, the primary forest health issue in the sustainable management of beech. Guidelines will be developed to enhance the sustainable management of privately owned beech forests and to support policy development.
Contact for Enquiries
Farm Monitoring Programme Manager
Monitoring and Evaluation
MAF Policy
PO Box 2526
Wellington
NEW ZEALAND
Phone: +64 4 894 0623
Fax: +64 4 894 0741
Contact this person
