. ROCK MUSIC Captions by Shrutika Gunanayagam. Edited by Ingrid Lauder. Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2016 Hello, and welcome to Rural Delivery. This week, we're taking a look at different aspects of primary-sector innovation, from one end of the production line to the other. In Manawatu, Jill Martin has adjusted management practices on her mixed-use farm to get higher returns for lambs. In Southland, dairy famer Lindsay Lewis has designed a low-flow effluent distribution system that does away with the need for large storage ponds. And in Canterbury, at the far end of the consumer chain, Green Fuels' biodiesel collects waste cooking oils for reuse as a fuel. For decades now, Jill Martin has been managing her flock to produce early lambs and take advantage of the early season premiums on offer. She and partner Nigel Lintott own two blocks and lease another of flat-to-rolling land in Northern Manawatu. This system is flexible and includes extensive calf-rearing, which fits well with the seasonal pasture growth pattern in the region. Over the three farms, we've got 800 acres. We run about 1500 breeding ewes, 50 nurse cows, which I mother the calves on to, and I rear 800 spring calves, and last season, 300 autumn calves. Originally, I was from Southland, where we lambed in August down there, beginning of August, which is early, and then I came up here, and I started breeding black Romney ewes, lambing reasonably early, beginning of July, and I soon picked up on those that they could cycle quite early, and when we` uh, my partner, Nigel Lintott, shifted up to here, we went on larger scale and started lambing earlier ` June ` up here. We were chasing that niche market, the chilled market, which was the old Marks & Spencer market, earlier on through AFFCO, when it first started, which you had to have your lambs the, um, beginning of the first week of October and end in virtually the first week of November for that chilled market so they could catch the boat to go to England for Christmas. We just go on 20 kilos, say, at $6.50 or $6.30 or whatever it is, you get $129 a lamb. Later on, by Christmastime, the price will be back to 5 bucks, which is 100, so you're making 20 or 30 bucks a lamb earlier on. And it was just like last week ` the schedule dropped 30c, so that's $6 a lamb. Over a thousand lambs, that's $6000. And if you're looking at, you know` at just $1 a drop, that's 10,000. That's your profit, you know? Realistically, everybody's chasing the big money for those lambs in August, September, October and that, and for early lambing, it takes me four to five months to get a lamb to 20 kilos, whereas the traditional farmer that farms and lambs in September ` kills them in September ` lately he's taken 12 months to hang on to get the same weight. So to me, it's easier. It makes sense to kill a lamb in four to five months, and then I've got plenty of feed in the summertime, we trade lambs. The best season we've ever had trading here has been 10,000 lambs, you know. I cull on constitution and teeth. Doesn't worry me if they're 6-, 7- or 8-year-old ewes. Providing they've got good teeth and good frame, then I'll keep them for the following year, cos that's where your breeding production is. Basically, they're a mixture of all sorts. A lot of those ewes were bought in. I had my black Romney hoggets, mixed up Tutus in amongst them. And so, yeah, they were just the mob of the later lambing ones that had everything in 'em. Genetics-wise, good deep, big lamb, good big ewe, and I prefer all the rams I` I buy have to be twins. I believe the ram has something to do with it as well, although Massey and them will contradict that, but I still maintain if you've got twins in the rams and twins in the ewes, you got a better chance of getting a twin. The blacks are the ones that actually cycle early and bring the, um, ewes into season. There's no two ways about that, and the other thing is in those blacks, some of those black ewes will actually lamb twice a year. Um, it's probably a fallacy that they say they can't get in lamb when they're actually suckling lambs, but that's incorrect, because I've done a bit of an experiment of leaving rams out with the earlier lambing ewes ` they've lambed ` with a couple of rams in there, and outta 60 ewes, you might have eight or 10 get back in lamb again, and the` and traditionally, most of those have been the black ewes. I've actually... I know it's the same ewe every year, and it's the same black ewe that lambs early every year. You can guarantee her. CLANGING Get away. Get up. Get over. DOG BARKS Here, Rowdy. Here, Rowdy. Here, Rowdy. 'Anything between 121% is the worst year and 141% is the best year. This year we did 136%.' And the beauty about the early lambing, like, the drought, the ewes` there's normally plenty of feed around before December to get your ewes back up to good condition, so they're tupping on good feed, and then when it comes dry in the summertime, these ewes at home here get fed baleage. I don't believe in getting hoggets into lambs. I'm all terminal sire, so I have to buy in all my replacement stock. As far as I'm concerned, if you lamb a hogget, you lose it at the other end. Like, I'd sooner keep an older ewe, uh, as I said, up to 8-, 9-year-old. Some of those ewes there have got brassed ear tags on them of '07, '08. DOGS BARK, SHOUTING, COWS MOO The lambing's finished, the docking's done by then, and I'm into calf-rearing season. We rear calves both in the spring and the autumn. In the autumn, we do about 300, and in the spring, I do 800 on the calfeterias and another hundred on the cows. I source a lot out of local farmers locally, and I also get them at the sales, and we've brought them out of the Waikato too this year to get the early white-faced calves. The market for the white-faced ones, the beef ones and that, uh, sheep and beef farmers buy them and that` like, you've got two` with the white-faces you can ei` for a bull, you can either steer it or leave it as a bull, so you've got two options there, depending on what the bull` beef is doing, and the heifers, a lot of the white-faced heifers are actually` some of them are actually bought for, um, breeding cows. Traditionally, some of them are going back to those in the high-country farms after the cows all got killed. The early market also allows us cash flow too. The outlay for doing 800 calves is virtually $250,000 by the time you add the cost of your calf, your feed bill and your stuff like that, so if you're, uh, traditionally lambing later, your money wouldn't be coming in till December, whereas I'm get` cash flow's coming in in October, when you need to pay some of your calf bills and stuff like that. Can always improve. It's just a matter of (CHUCKLES) working out why, and it's just reading your markets, actually, what you're doing. Like, if the beef market drops, we'll probably do less calves and go more back into sheep, you know. It's just where you... not have all your eggs in one basket, and it's just, like, in the calf market, I do both Friesian bulls, Charolais, Simmentals, white-heads and a few Jersey bulls. We'll be back soon in Southland to meet Lindsay Lewis, who's designed a new and award-winning system for dairy-effluent management. . ROCK MUSIC Welcome back. Lindsay Lewis is a Southland dairy farmer who was never keen on existing methods or capturing, storing and using dairy effluent, so he designed a low-flow effluent distribution system that does away with the need for large storage ponds. The system is fully automated and designed to deliver effluent water back to the land at very low application rates. I'm off a dairy farm, third-generation dairying. I couldn't stand driving up the road and the smell of effluent every time you went round another corner from travelling irrigators. The huge amount of flak that dairy farmers were getting, some of it was deserved, some of it wasn't. At the end of the day, if there's only one system to put it out with, then that's what you use, and if that's all you can use, well, what else can they really do? Um, and that was the big problem. There was nothing out there that was really a low-application system. The business is basically a dairy-effluent system that doesn't require big ponds. That is a major point of difference. Because we can put effluent out at such a low rate, we can apply it 360-odd days of the year, so we don't need that storage requirement that we need for standard systems. Pretty much, the system was developed out in the paddock first. That was what I developed first. And the simplicity of it is unless you put in massive pumps and massive pipes, you can only run about 20 to 24 K-Line sprinklers at any one time, so to actually put out a super low application, you're shifting them every five minutes, and that was just not gonna happen. Um, so what I developed is a control box that basically switches from different groups of 24 pods so that the time you actually group through them, we run them for seven minutes and then they turn off, and you run the next lot for seven minutes, turns off, and so on. You can basically clean up all your effluent for the day and only put out 0.25mm of application. The cost of this is a full-turn kit unit. You know, you're getting your pumps, you're getting your control gear, you're getting your irrigators, you're getting your pond, you're getting your tanks, you're getting the green wash, you're getting the whole lot for about two-thirds of the price of actually just digging a hole in the ground. Normally, we have the weeping wall so that it's actually gravity-fed into it. Unfortunately, here, because these guys are actually on a bit of a flood plane ` don't get too much, but we decided we'd build it up a wee bit ` so we actually pump it in. It runs from the bunker to the weeping wall. The weeping wall then filters out the solids, and once the solids are filtered out through into the middle of the wall, cos the wall is actually two-sided, and then it's pumped from the centre of the wall up into these tanks. The first tank is what we call our green wash tank, and it's got extra filters in it, before it goes it into effluent distribution tanks, but the green wash tank will then pump up to our flood wash tank or that'll be used for a backing gate, um, and pumped across the backing gate. That's how we recycle. We're actually recycling fresh green water, which I think is very important, because a lot of, uh, green wash is actually done on old effluent that's out of storage ponds, so it's gone from aerobic to anaerobic, and once you start putting anaerobic stuff on the yard, you're actually putting different bacteria on your yard. What's going on the yard here, being fresh, is actually the same as what's coming outta the cow, so it doesn't smell. You need to put in a weeping wall to clean it up so it's actually fit to go out through your irrigators, so what we're actually putting out, as far as the liquid, is a lot safer than what you'd standard put out, but the solids are now full of organic nitrogen, so therefore it's a slow-release fertiliser, so where before it was just a waste product, now it is a very valuable product, especially for crop paddocks and stuff like that, where you want a long, slow release over that year, where your swedes are growing or kale's growing or something like that. The whole system's designed around a 12-ton digger. Um, it'll take... an hour to empty this. The biggest cost, basically, is the chuck wagons going out to actually spread it out across the land. Um, what we try and get people to do is actually fill one side completely, roll the pipe over to the other side, give it a couple of months to dry out so it comes out very very dry, um, and get it emptied out, so you've always got plenty of storage in that wall. In terms of the pond size, they're always the same width, and we make them a different length for your herd size, so if you're looking at a thousand cows, we look at about 40m in length. The nitrate levels are actually quite low in the liquid, because we're holding back all the sludges. Now, it was always thought that nitrogen flowed with liquid, but what we've actually proven with this system is it actually can be locked up in the sludges. Because we're holding back all the sludges, our nitrogen levels are actually extremely low going to the paddock. This really is the system. The fact that we can run different zones for a set length of time gives us our super low application, our 0.25mm. I mean, this is what I designed for starters, and then everything back at the shed with the weeping wall was to give me a clean enough product to actually guarantee this system was actually gonna keep operating. This is a standard K-Line pod made by RX Plastics. This one's a green one cos they make green ones for me. We've also developed a non-drip valve with Anchor products and through RX as well to actually stop dripping once the pump's stopped. If you got a ground that's, um` is different heights from one pod to the next, you'll actually get everything to drain out, so these actually hold that liquid in the pipe, so they're a fail-safe within themselves. I would hope so. 'We just sorta looked round one or two different farms, and we liked the Clean Green system with Lindsay. 'It's got no smell, we haven't got travelling irrigators that we have to shift all the time. 'We approached Lindsay, and he's very helpful and got us on the right track.' A friend of ours had water-quality testing system installed, and using the Clean Green system, the water quality was better running out of his farm than what it was running into his farm above him. Definitely a bit timesaver, because when we're on the mini pods on the fringes and when we're busy, we don't have to go near them. We've got to clean three brushes every day in the tanks, and it's a five-minute job. It saves us at least three-quarters of an hour a day hosing down with fresh water hoses when we just use the green water wash-down system. 80%, 90% of our work has been existing sheds come up for consent, needed to renew. Council's saying, 'Well, you must do a big pond,' and they've come to us and say, 'We'd like your system. Can you do this instead?' It's taken a long time, but hopefully, that'll all come together very shortly when, um, Pastoral 21, which is a report from AgResearch, comes out to actually prove what we're doing is 100% safe. Some people say I'm stubborn. An auntie of mine was saying the other day, 'Everyone else would've given up. I don't know why Lindsay hasn't,' but when you've got a baby like this that you believe is actually uniquely doing something for the world, because there's nothing else out there that's actually environmentally friendly like this is, so I still believe I'm actually doing something for the world. And, I mean, there's not many people who can say when they finally finish up that, 'I have actually made a difference.' Lindsay won the environmental Gold Standard Award for his system at the National Fieldays in 2009. We'll return soon to find out about a business that grew out of a desire to add value to waste oil streams in the food service industry. . ROCK MUSIC Hello again. Green Fuels NZ makes biodiesel from waste cooking oil collected in the greater Christchurch area. The company produces around 500,000 litres annually, which it blends with ordinary diesel and sells to environmentally conscious users. We're a biodiesel manufacturer. We make biodiesel from recycled vegetable oil, so oil that has been cooked in, effectively, so fish and chip shops, restaurants, big, large commercial users that use vegetable oil ` canola oil mostly ` and we turn that into an environmentally friendly biodiesel. What we're doing is giving it another life here in NZ and, uh, turning it into a fuel that can be used in any diesel application. Solid Energy originally owned this business back when it was called Biodiesel NZ. Solid Energy got into the biodiesel industry when there was a biofuel sales obligation back in 2007, I think it was, where every litre of diesel that was gonna be sold in NZ was gonna have to have 3.5% biodiesel in it, so instantly, there was a massive biodiesel industry and a market available, and Solid Energy wanted to be a part of that. 2011, Solid Energy were going through some issues with the coal prices, as is well documented, and wanted to get out of some of the businesses that weren't core to what they're doing, and, uh, as a former manager in the business, um, I applied to take over the business, to buy it, along with another manager here, one of our bigger customers, and another guy who's involved in the used cooking oil industry. Got together, we purchased it, renamed it as Green Fuels NZ Ltd. We kept the Biogold product brand, cos that's reasonably well known. Effectively, we're a diesel distributor. We sell a lot more ordinary diesel than we do biodiesel. The biodiesel is effectively our point of difference, so we're exactly the same as most other diesel distributors. We deliver it. Uh, our pricing's fairly similar to ordinary diesel, but we have the biodiesel as our point of difference. Cos it's been made from recycled vegetable oil, it's renewable, it's got a carbon footprint of, uh, upwards of 90% lower than ordinary diesel, the omissions are significantly lower, there's less smoke, and, of course, it's made in NZ, and the lubricity of the biodiesel is better than ordinary diesel, so it's less wearing on engines as well. We only sell a 5% biodiesel blend, so that's 5% biodiesel, 95% ordinary diesel, and at that blend, we keep it around the same price, if not better in some circumstances, than what you'd buy ordinary diesel. So our customers can get` give themselves a green tick, so to speak. Um, they can say that they're using a biodiesel blend ` even though it is a small amount, it is still environmentally friendlier ` and effectively give their business a green tick without any additional cost. The higher the blend, unfortunately, the cost is a little bit more expensive, but we do have customers that do want higher blends and often take 20%. We do have customers that buy it in its 100% biodiesel form, which they then blend themselves as well. ...big change, which indicate a free fatty acid level. There is a canola-growing industry in NZ. The oil is grown, but it goes straight into the cooking oil market as a feedstock there for cooking oil. We do get it back once it's been used in that industry, but unless there is a subsidy or some real market change in the cost of ordinary diesel, I still see` I don't see canola oil being used as a direct feedstock for biodiesel, primarily cos it's very expensive to then turn` to get` to purchase it and then turn it into biodiesel. This is a particularly bad sample of some of the oil that we get, that comes in. As you can see, it's got a lot of food product and a lot of chip crumb still in it. We then` We go through our process of filtering and taking the water out, and you get a clear, very nice oil after that. Once it's gone through the biodiesel manufacturing process, this is what we get at the end. So a very nice, clear liquid ` 100% biodiesel, hence the name Biogold. Well, we've got a commercial laundry here. We built it up doing industrial garments, food industry garments, and we're currently getting into the hospitality and linen market, with the hotels on the rise here in Christchurch. We use a blend of biofuel and diesel that we get from Green Fuels NZ. Uh, we went down that track, uh, because we were very keen on the sustainability angle, about six or seven years ago. We see people are... putting more and more emphasis on the sustainability of their suppliers, especially in the hospitality industry, and big companies like Air NZ and Toyota, uh, have publicly said they're seeking, uh, sustainable partnerships, as is central government and, uh, local government. So, we probably use 25,000 litres to 30,000 litres a month. We run all our diesel vehicle fleet on biofuel, including the Land Cruisers and sales vehicles. Our main delivery vehicles are all biodiesel. The boiler runs as concentrated biofuel blend as we, uh, obtain for it, and it works extremely well. It's probably a decision from both the head and the heart. As a family, we've always been interested in the greener aspects of it, without being, you know, involved with the green movement. We see sustainability and environmental management by business as being very important. Uh, business-wise, I believe it will pay off in the future. Uh, there's still a lot of, uh, talk being talked about, uh, sustainability but no real action being taken, uh, but in the future, I believe, with our track record, uh, we'll be moving up the front of the list. For more information on these and other stories we've covered, as well as other information about rural events useful links, visit our website. Get there via tvnz.co.nz. You can also catch this and previous episodes on TVNZ OnDemand. Next time on Rural Delivery ` an export-orientated, intensive lamb-breeding and finishing farm in the Waikaka Valley, a cropping farmer in South Canterbury who attempted a Guinness World Record for his barley yield, and why research behind providing quality meals for treasured pets could be an opportunity to add value to the red meat sector. Thanks for watching. Please join us again next time. Bye for now. CHILLED MUSIC Captions by Shrutika Gunanayagam. Edited by Ingrid Lauder. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. 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