E-news Number 20 for project teams and all those interested in Sustainable Farming in New Zealand

Dear all                         He mihi nui ki a koutou

In this edition of E-news:

• SFF 2008/09 funding round update
• SFF Climate Change (SFF-CC) funding round
• Changes to the SFF team
• Project reporting due for period ending 28 February
• Environmental Code of Practice for Plantation Forestry on line
• Organic kiwifruit project provides answers
• Does pasture affect ewe flock performance?

SFF 2008/09 funding round update

Applications for the 2008/09 SFF funding round closed on 11 February and are now being assessed.  An independent panel will meet on 26-28 March to determine which applicants will be invited to submit a Phase 2 application, and which of the under $20 000 projects will be recommended for funding. The SFF will advise all applicants of these results in early April. 

We received 126 applications requesting a total of $20 534 042 of SFF grants. The number of applications was down on recent years. However, the funding round is still more than two times over-subscribed for the grants available.

SFF Climate Change (SFF-CC) funding round

A reminder that applications for this new funding close on 10 March. All the information about the Climate Change funding, including applications and guidelines, is available from the SFF website by clicking here.

Changes to the SFF team

As we announced in our December E-news, Diana Mathers, is Acting Fund Manager until a new appointment is made. The position of Fund Manager is currently being advertised (click here for the position description). 

We also farewell two SFF project advisers:

Katherine McCusker has been the Christchurch-based adviser for the past four years.  Katherine has been recently been working with MAF Policy to establish the Climate Change Technology Transfer Programme. She has now been confirmed in the new role of Senior Policy Analyst (Technology Transfer).

Daile Holz, our Wellington-based adviser, is leaving the SFF at the end of March to take up a position of Adviser (Animals) in the Approvals and Agricultural and Veterinary Medicines Group of the NZ Food Safety Authority.

We wish Katherine and Daile all the best and thank them for their great contributions to the SFF.

Here are the relevant contacts until the new appointments can be made: (click on names for email link)

Diana Mathers, acting fund manager and project adviser for Southern North Island (phone 06 974 8816)

Helen Percy, project adviser Northern North Island (phone 07 957 8321)

Janine Alfeld, project adviser South Island (phone 03 943 3802)

Amanda Hall, fund administrator, Wellington (phone 04 894 0612 or 0800 100 087)

Project reporting due for period ending 28 February

Project reports and request for payment forms are due with the SFF by 15 March - this is for all projects (including under $20 000 projects).

Please note:

Our SFF team is currently down on staff and busy with the current funding rounds, therefore, there may be some delays in processing and payments for this reporting period. We will give priority to reporting that is received on time. Please let Amanda Hall know if your project requires urgent processing and payment.

Could all project teams provide us with an estimate of project expenditure for the next reporting period (ending June 30) - this will assist us greatly with our year-end budgeting. If you are unlikely to be drawing down your full SFF grant for this financial year, please let us know as soon as possible.

Environmental Code of Practice for Plantation Forestry on line

The New Zealand Forest Owners Association, with funding from SFF, has produced a new Environmental Code of Practice for Plantation Forestry.  The Code is intended as a key reference tool for forest management by providing information on environmental values and how such values should be assimilated into operational planning, as well as a list of other references and resources.  It includes a section on Environmental Best Management Practices as a tool-kit of management options.

Part One of the code is a suite of Best Environmental Practices for a range of forestry activities.  It is relevant to contractors, log purchasers and sawmillers who don't need a full EMS, but who want to ensure that logs are harvested and delivered in compliance with Best Practice. This is available as a separate field guide.

Interested in finding out more?

The Code of Practice and the Best Practice Field Guide are available to download from the SFF website:

Code of Practice (pdf 3.9 MB) click here

Best Practice Field Guide (pdf 1.28 MB) click here

Hard copies of the Code of Practice including Part One (field guide) can be ordered through the FITEC website www.fitec.org.nz

Organic kiwifruit project provides answers

In 2004, the Certified Organic Kiwifruit Growers (COKA) applied to the SFF for funding to assist with some of the key technical challenges to growing organic kiwifruit - obtaining consistent budbreak and increasing the average fruit size. COKA worked with HortResearch to help answer the following research questions, and to provide some data to support current management practices:

Can organic oils increase bud break on Hayward (Green) kiwifruit?

Can seaweeed sprays increase fruit size on Hayward (Green) kiwifruit?

Can compost tea increase the productivity of kiwifruit?

Three years later, with support from Zespri, packhouse operators and product suppliers, the organic kiwifruit growers have some answers. Yet, like most good research projects, more questions have been generated. For example, organic oils may have promise for increasing budbreak, however, further work is required on adjuvants and spray application technology to increase effectiveness on low vigour wood.

The compost tea results are of interest as this is a relatively new product used by others outside of the kwifruit industry. Compost tea, also known as compost extract or compost leachate, is produced by mixing compost with water and sometimes microbial stimulants before fermenting from one to seven days. The extract is then filtered and applied to crop foliage for disease control, or to the soil for root health and crop growth. Organic kiwifruit growers have been applying compost tea to improve soil health for several years, although prior to this work there was no scientific study done in New Zealand on their effectiveness. In this study, compost tea applications had no effect on the soil, leaf and fruit parameters measured. Several possible reasons have been suggested for these results and these are outlined in the final report. These results have helped the growers evaluate their current management practices.

Application of compost tea to kiwifruit (Photo courtesy Mike Spiers, HortResearch)

As part of the project, nine fact sheets have been produced that pull together information from a wide group of scientists, extension staff and growers into one easily-read resource. These fact sheets cover the following topics: soil systems, basic facts of plant physiology, monitoring soil health, compost and compost tea, chilling and flowering, pollination and organic kiwifruit, site selection, organic pest and disease management, and economics of organic production.

Interested in finding out more?

To read more about this project, including the final report, on the SFF website click here.

Copies of the organic kiwifruit factsheets are available to all registered kiwifruit growers on the Zespri Canopy website. Hard copies are available from COKA and Zespri on request.

Does pasture affect ewe flock performance?

Sheep farmers have been questioning whether heavily nitrogen-fertilised spring feed at lambing can affect ewe performance and survival.

Ginny Dodunski (Totally Vets) has recently completed an SFF-funded project on behalf of the High Fecundity/ High Loss Ewe Flocks Group. The aim was to lamb groups of twinning ewes on paddocks where there were likely to be differences in the nutritional constituents of the pasture being grazed, and to measure any differences in performance and metabolic state of the ewes. 

The results of the study suggest that nitrogen application to hill country pastures is likely to have little or no effect on lambing ewes, both in terms of alternation of pasture components and any deleterious effects on ewe and lamb survival. However, as pointed out in the final report, there were limitations in that the trial was only done over one year and outcomes may have been different if it had been a wet, cold and windy spring.

As summarised in the final report to the SFF, this project has had the following benefits to the community of interest and the wider industry:

It generated a nationwide, quite well publicised debate about the effects of nitrogen fertiliser on lambing ewes at the time it was being conducted.

The results provided some reassurance that the application of nitrogen fertiliser on its own is probably not a major risk factor for increased ewe and lamb losses.

The findings have prompted an increased focus on minimising the percentage of thin ewes in breeding flocks. A proportion of the farmers in this study were surprised at how thin their own sheep were. It also highlighted the value of body condition scoring (by palpation across the back of the sheep) as opposed to eye appraisal of ewe condition.

The answer to what key factors are driving high losses (especially ewe losses) in "bad" years is yet to be well defined and further work is required.

Interested in finding out more?

To read more about this project on the SFF website click here.

Ending

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Kia rongo korero ano matou i a koutou

Kind regards
Amanda, Diana, Daile, Janine and Helen