UPBEAT MUSIC Captions by Imogen Staines www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2016 Hello, and welcome to Rural Delivery. Willow trees on farms are often used to protect steep slopes and stream banks from erosion as well as provide shelter and fodder for livestock. But in 2013 there were reports about the arrival of a new threat to these useful plants. This week we find out about efforts to combat the invasive tree pest known as the giant willow aphid, that's causing concern around NZ for farmers and beekeepers. We visit Broadlands Station in Manawatu, described as an excellent example of multi-generational farming for environmental stability and success. And we find out about NZ's largest commercial lavender farm, exporting to over 18 countries from the Canterbury Plains. The giant willow aphid has become a widespread problem throughout NZ since its arrival here in 2013. It causes damage through feeding, inflicting wounds to willow trees. In addition to weakening trees, the feeding aphids produce a substance called honeydew, which attracts wasps and creates further problems for the bee industry. Back in December 2013 we became aware of a new aphid that was giving our willow trees a bit of grief. We'd never seen it in the country before, so it was very early days. It was a bit over two years ago now, and subsequently it has exploded ` uh, spread throughout NZ within 12 months. Very large populations, uh, on willows from one end of the country to the other, so, uh, it was a biosecurity breach. We, uh` We've subsequently found these aphids in other parts of the world. We simply don't know what part or how it got here, but it's a problem. There are literally millions of willow trees planted throughout NZ, Many of them for specific purposes, particularly along our river berms and our banks ` for stability and keeping rivers flowing on course where they need to. We have again millions of them planted on our hillsides for slope stability, shade, shelter, for stock. We have a significant requirement for more willows to be planted. This aphid that's turned up, uh, uninvited is presenting difficulties, because it's now hampering the, uh` the growth of these trees. It's, um, damaging the stems and the trunk, which is releasing sap, which we call honeydew, which is attracting very large populations of wasps. So we now simply have willow trees effectively turning into wasp nests. So it's a` it's a serious issue. Where I farm here in northern Hawke's Bay, I simply turn off my` my quad bike metres and metres away from these trees, and I'll know by the` the loud hum, uh... I can quickly tell how many the` Well, a) if the aphids are alive and well and b) how many there are. But effectively now ` and this obviously didn't used to be the problem prior to the` the biosecurity breach in 2013 ` but I simply can't go anywhere near and do any maintenance work around my willows for two, three, four months every year, uh, otherwise I'd just get chased off by, uh, swarms of wasps. We're still learning, and I guess at the moment we're not seeing evidence of trees being killed. I certainly see with some of my trees ` they wilt significantly, particularly if they're under stress from drought or dry periods, so the leaves sort of hang down. These things are, um` I can scrape my hand down the trunk and get two handfuls full of them on` on every single tree that I have on the property, so they're there in enormous numbers. I've never seen any insect pest, uh, on any of my` I guess the operations around the farming business I run that are as numerous as these. So, um, yeah, just their numbers and` But where we are here with this nursery, uh, they're having to spray throughout the nurseries where we grow these poles in NZ, because young trees obviously are more vulnerable. They've got various little spikes on their back and bits and pieces. Not all of them have got wings. Only a few of them have wings, so they, sort of, travel. But they have` Again the science we're trying to learn about, but what I'm led to believe at this stage, to be proven by science, is that these things ` there's no female or male in the species; they all reproduce, and they reproduce about 10 young per aphid per day. So it's an absolutely exponential explosion in numbers, and that's what's sort of, I guess, got us concerned. We know the only natural predator is ladybird. Uh, anecdotally I'm seeing ladybird populations increase, but again anecdotally the, uh` these giant willow aphids are there in such numbers that the aph` the ladybirds, I don't think, are having much noticeable impact at all. So we're starting to do some work about, um` We are finding and we're continuing to work on whether some willow varieties are more tolerant than others, and that` that will be an important part of our science. Another important part that we want to look at ` and we're looking all around the world on this one ` is there some known, uh, biological control predators on` that we can bring in that` that target specifically these aphids, because it's simply not economic for hill country farmers like me to spray 20-, 30-, 40-, 50-year-old willow trees. It just doesn't make sense, so we've gotta find another way. We have got an application in with the Sustainable Farming Fund, through MPI. We're confident, because it is, uh, such a significant issue, this one, that it will be successful, but we're yet to have that fully ticked off. It was a couple of years ago we first noticed it here. We actually` It was a really hot day, and we went for a swim down on the river, and there were some rocks underneath these willow trees, and you couldn't walk on 'em. They were sticky. So we had a look round, and, oh, there's these giant willow aphids, so looked it up on the net, and, oh, yeah, people are seeing these things. And then next thing, see the bees are collecting it, and it's a` a bit of a menace. It` It gives the bees some feed, but it sets like concrete in the combs, and it's not a particularly good winter feed. It, um... Yeah, it's` And we're really worried about how much effect it's gonna have on the willows in the spring, cos it's` the willow's our main source of nectar and pollen in the spring. It's just vital for the bees. The by-product of the aphids feeding on the willows is a sticky sap which the bees collect, and it's called honeydew. You get it off beech trees in the South Island. It's` Actually in some areas, it's quite a sought-after honey ` different honeydews. We even get blackberry honeydew off passion vine hoppers occasionally, so it's not that unusual, but this one is unusual in that it sets like concrete. It granulates very quickly. Wasps are one of our biggest problems round` Actually, just round here they can be very bad. Just over the back there, last year I got four nests. Farm just down the road, I got 27 nests. All within 200m of the hives. The wasp numbers are just starting to build up this time of year, and the honeydew gives them extra feed. It just supercharges them, and then come late April, early May, when the willow aphids disappear, or the` you get a lot of rain. It washes all the honeydew away. You've got 50 million wasps, and they're all looking for something to eat, and they'll take to the hives. And they can kill the hives dead. You know, wasps cost NZ beekeepers millions and millions and millions of dollars a year. And they don't help the farmers either. They're really unpleasant. Doesn't matter what you're doing. If you're out duck shooting or something and you stick your foot in a blimmin' wasp nest, it gets really nasty. When we return, we go to Broadlands Station in Manawatu, where a new team is about to continue the work of previous generations. UPBEAT MUSIC Welcome back. The Akers family of Broadlands Station won the Supreme Award from the Horizons region in the 2015 Ballance Farm Environment Awards. When we visited in November 2015, William Akers and fiancee Laura Oughton were in the process of taking over the reins on Broadlands from William's parents, Hugh and Judy. Family moved to NZ in 1875 and then bought up farms here in the 1880s, with another farm down at Opiki. This is our family museum. By building this, we were able to get all our machinery that was taking space up in the older farm buildings and sheds and put it all together in one place, including both my brother and sisters. So it's all family only, and, uh, we don't take in anyone else's stuff. This is completely to preserve what we have and make sure it's kept in going order. Luckily I've got a son, William, who's keen to carry on farming ` family tradition ` uh, which is very pleasing. It makes it easy for` for us to be able to move on and let them have a fair go, uh, in running the place. CATTLE LOW We run pure Herefords ` 3000 breeding cows. Run a Hereford bull with them. Perendale ewes ` 6000 ewes, 200 hoggets. We don't mate the hoggets. Uh, we only bring in 20 rams a year and about two or three bulls a year, so that's all the stock we buy. We don't buy any of the lambs, uh, and we don't have any deer or grazers or anything else like that. It seems to be working with what we've got with our country of 70% hard hill country, 15% medium rolling and 15% flat. It works quite well with what we're doing. No vaccinating of the ewes. We don't drench the ewes. We give the lambs 5-in-1 at docking time. Uh, cattle ` cows don't get drenched. The R2s get BVD'd then coppered. CATTLE LOW Back in the '04 floods, we had major problems, and we've learnt from there the processes what we can do to help eliminate that. Well, we aren't with the one plan, but we have a Sustainable Land Use Initiative ` SLUI plan ` and that's` We've just received the plan back from there. We` We can make some major steps to help improve that erosion and leaching and things like that. You're given your recommendations, and from there we get to go through, and we can pick what's most suitable for us and what's gonna work in our environment. Uh, at the moment I'm looking, for next year, to put some poles in some er` major erosion areas. I've been brought up next to a river all my life, somewhere along the way. And we know what, sort of, works in the way of trying to hold the banks, and I've found that, uh, macrocarpa trees, which I've planted probably a thousand a year, first and foremost for river protection, and if I get a few, um` a bit of timber out of it in the finish, well and good. That's a bonus. But first and foremost for the river protection, the macrocarpas are here. I can grow them. These are probably about 30 years old. I will cut them down and lay willows underneath first, and then these trees will have a wire rope ` probably at least 16-mil wire rope ` with a dead man, which is a block of timber tied to the wire rope, going back under the fence here, back through to the trees, and that will go` lead on to two or three trees ` maybe four. And then I'll do another dead man. So we've got several dead men well away from the water's edge, and that will give the willows a chance to shoot up, take hold and get a good root system in amongst the macrocarpas. We've finished everything here. Very few go to the sales. We supply to ANZCO Foods on a Waitrose contract ` about 1300 to 1400 of our lambs. So they're on that strict criteria, and the rest just go on a non-contract to them as well. Herefords are ideal in our country here up on the hills. They're not a big animal, to help reduce erosion. You get ideas going to see other people on other farms. You get a lot of great ideas, and you just gotta look at what we've got here and if it's gonna work. There's a lot of times I've been, 'Oh, that'd be great,' but it's just... Yeah, uh, it... We're probably better off how we're going. This is one of our really good up-and-coming lines there. This is one that's coming out next year, so that's a nice sheep and beef one. I work for Agriseeds as the agronomist for the lower North Island. I run a lot of trials, from Taranaki to Gisborne to Wellington, basically. I'm engaged to Willie. We're getting married next year, and sort of help him out a bit with his cropping and pasture. No. Looks good. Imagine if it all looked like this. (LAUGHS) Yeah, but that'd... This year's a trial, and, um, basically we're proving some of our cultivars that are looking good, um, so post our breeding trials. So we bring them out on to commercial farms and make sure they're doing the job. So, that's 771... Yep. ...excess. This is my favourite. What have you got in here? 592. 'The main part of this paddock's Shogun, a hybrid ryegrass, and we've got also Tuscan Red Clover 'and some white clovers in there as well. We're aiming on our flats for high-quality finishing pastures.' We've got a couple of lines in here that are outstanding, but, um, you know, this is just one of the steps in the whole thing. It, sort of, takes about at least 12 years to get them commercial, and I think we're at about year 10 now. I've got these kind of trials all over the country, and what we're looking for is to make sure that they work, um, all across the country so they basically pick up any issues pre-release. And, um, we look at the different yields across the seasons ` um, what they do under grazing pressure and, um, yeah, eventually persistence as well. DISTANT BIRDCALL Someone approached me over a year ago now about entering the Ballance Farm Environmental Awards. Before that I was very ignorant, and I didn't know a lot about it until I started getting more involved with it, understanding, uh, how important it is in the farming environment ` what it actually means and how useful it is. It just opened our eyes what sort of job we're doing here, and without that knowledge of that to show that we are heading in the right track and what we're doing in erosion and nitrate leaching. And, I mean, the motto ` what they say ` is ` 'What we're doing now, can we still do it in a hundred years?' And that's a great way to look at it. You gotta think ahead ` 'Are we heading in the right direction?' We'll be back soon in mid-Canterbury to visit a business growing and harvesting lavender for high-quality oil. UPBEAT MUSIC Hello again. Owen Dexter is an ex-dairy farmer, and Philip Simms a retired vet. The skills developed in their previous careers served them well when it came to setting up a business on the Canterbury Plains. After a great deal of research, they decided to create a lavender farm. They purchased land and plants and had their first harvest and production of what turned out to be very high-quality oil in 2007. This is lavandula angustifolia, or a true lavender. It's a very good producer, and the whole field is planted in it ` 110,000 plants. They'll come out of their winter sleep end of September, and, uh, then again, as you see, this is about our first, uh, growth ` about the first inch. And now the little flower buds are starting to come through here, and this is what we're frost-protecting. We don't winter frost-protect; It's just for the flower buds. They will start to purple up in about mid-December, and then they'll be harvested in the first week of January. Uh, that's dependent on the weather situation ` you know, how cold it's ben or how dry it's been. We don't use any herbicide across the field at all ` only around the peripheries of the field, and that's just to keep weed seeds from getting into the field. We hand-weed while we cultivate the field. In January, when we harvest, we'll collect about 160 tons of flowers, uh, with the harvester ` only the flowers we take ` and we'll produce about 1000 litres of oil. There can be late frosts, we can lose our crop, so through frost-fighting measures, we're able to cope with that. We did a lot of research into windmills and other types of machines, and we came up with this one, mainly because it was not needing consents, it was mobile, and we could just leave it in the shed whether we used it or not. This is a prototype machine that came from Agrofrost in Belgium. It's proven to be very good, and it's LPG gas, which is ignited, and it blows through this big central fan, and it blows 50m each side of the machine. It's our fourth season with it, and it's proven to be just the thing we needed. Sometimes we selectively do certain parts of the field and not others, because we have probes in the field that's monitored by Harvest Electronics at Masterton, and we can watch that on the computer, and that's updated every minute when it's under 4 degrees. We usually turn the alarms on just after October the 1st, and we're vulnerable right up to about, uh, December the 1st. Uh, we'll not leave the property at night. We're here on frost alert at all times, and the machine's always set up and ready to run at night. Each year in January, when the lavender ripens, the lavender is harvested with a French harvesting machine attached to our tractor. It cuts the lavender, chops it so that it's easily packed into the containers, and then it's brought into the distillery shed. We have a large boiler, which produces steam to run the distillery, and it then heats the water up, produces steam, which is pumped through the lavender. The steam carries the oil off the lavender plants into a condenser. The condenser then cools down the steam and the oil into water and oil, and the oil then floats on the surface of the water. And then off the top of that, we extract the oil and collect that in containers. Each step of the way, we try and add as much attention to detail as we can. Owen will go out each morning, uh, to assess the lavender ` assessing the aroma of the plants, the state of the flowers ` uh, and we try and make sure that we are here, available, the whole of January, and we start cutting at the absolute prime time. We had advice from Crop and Food Research, who helped us design the distillery. They were advising us that we needed to make sure that the lavender was heated as quickly as possible and that the distillation time was as short as possible so that in no way the lavender was being damaged. So we have a very large boiler, uh, which delivers an awful lot of steam, so we can actually heat up almost a ton of lavender in under five minutes, and then we distil it for about 20 minutes to extract the oil. The oil is then stored in a cool store at 4 degrees centigrade to keep it in as prime condition as possible. It's allowed to mature for quite a few months, and its smell then becomes more balanced, uh, and the high notes develop during that period of time. And the slight hay-like, green-like smell that you get when it's fresh, uh, it disappears. Owen and I have spent an awful lot of time developing the farm. We now feel that the agricultural side of it is established ` the field is established, the distillation is established. We're now trying to value-add to the product. We've designed our own packaging, and we distribute that to America, Australia, China are now selling our own NZ Lavender oil, so we actually go under our own trade name now, and that's shipped all over the world. And in NZ, uh, we have a wonderful distributor, Integria Healthcare, uh, who distribute our product to health` to chemists and pharmacies around the` the country. We only supply shops with a 5ml bottle. Obviously a larger one would be more economical, but the problem is once you open a bottle of lavender oil, it then just starts to oxidise, and it's far better to have a small bottle that you use fairly quickly rather than having a large one that you keep for a long period of time. It's been very well received round the world. Cosmetic companies have been attracted by it, and we actually supply Russia with oil to make toothpaste, uh, and we send shipments over there several times a year. But as a crop it's enjoyable to do, and we've had so much respect given to us by the world ` top people, like Chanel, L'Oreal. Uh, Shiseido have just tested it in Japan and said it's the best oil they've ever seen, uh, through their factory. Um, so that's quite good. And knowing that it's safe for elderly and babies, children and that, it's quite a nice feeling. For more information on these and other stories, you can visit our website, which you'll find via tvnz.co.nz. You can also watch this and previous episodes you might have missed on TVNZ ondemand. Next week ` we learn about Aerospread, an innovative business developing topdressing plane components and software; we see what efforts have been made at Spy Valley Wines to reduce power and water consumption; and we visit Cloudy Bay Clams, pioneering the harvesting of native surf clams in Marlborough. Thanks for joining us. We hope to see you again next time. Captions by Imogen Staines www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2016