UPBEAT MUSIC Captions by June Yeow. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2016 Hello, and welcome to Rural Delivery. Charlie Mitchell was a freshwater scientist who devoted many years of his life to freshwater fisheries research. Now there are others developing innovative farm systems based on his work. This week, we go to the Bay of Plenty to find out about trials being run by NIWA and the Raglan EELS company on conversion of nutrient-rich farm drainage to fish food. We visit Longbush Pork in Wairarapa, raising and finishing free-range heritage-bred pigs. And we travel to Mahinga Oranga, an organic garden and horticultural training ground in Northland. Trials carried out in Raglan converting dairy effluent into algae then to zooplankton for fish food caught the attention of the Bay of Plenty Regional Council. There are a number of low-lying areas in the Bay of Plenty with dairy units where nutrient run-off is an issue, as Bruce Crabbe explains. The background from the Bay of Plenty Regional Council's largely around trying to improve water quality. We've been working with Charles Mitchell as a follow-on from his work in Raglan and his aquaculture project over there. There's been two stages to the project. Back in about 2012, Charles and I got together, and we applied to the Bay of Plenty Regional Council's innovation fund for the first stage of it, which was a batch or tank trials. Once we proved that that was successful, we applied to the innovation fund again, and we got this project underway. As we know, most of the nutrient run-off from dairy properties is actually diffuse run-off from the paddocks. So the aim is very much around getting the water quality improvement happening in the farm waterway. An example, I think, that could work really well, where you have the farmer and an eel farmer who work together in some sort of a joint agreement, and the farmer's producing the algae and the eel farmer might be managing the waterway and harvesting the eels from the waterway. And I could see that that could be quite a good synergy between the land owner and horticulturist. We have information on the Bay of Plenty Regional Council website, so if people are interested in that, they're most welcome to get on to the website and look for the dairy effluent page. 'It's often asked, actually, why is NIWA in this space? 'NIWA's done a lot of study of the impacts of pollution 'from towns and agriculture in our lakes and rivers.' And we understand the natural processes of purification that go on in those lakes and rivers. And a large part of those processes are due to the algae and pyrophyte that live in those waterways. So it's just a natural extension to say, 'Well, if we understand how to either use those, 'um, algae to beneficially treat waste, 'then we can encapsulate that in an actual system of treatment.' Well, the main thing we wanted to test here was what type of algae would we grow on this dairy waste and is it suitable for invertebrates that the fish are going to eat? And to combine, I guess, the two parts of the system, so on one hand the algae have a role up here in removing nutrients from the waste water, or the effluent before it's irrigated back on land, and then what's the value of those algae in terms of food source to enhance the native stocks of fish in the farm grains? What we found when we were initially looking at growth of planktonic algae in lakes and in traditional oxidation ponds or dairy effluent ponds is the algae only grow in the top layer. So these ponds are quite shallow. They're only, uh, maybe 200ml to 300ml deep. The paddle wheel doesn't aerate or provide any oxygen. All it does is provide the mixing. It's the algae that are` they're plants, so they photosynthesise, they produce oxygen, and that's the main source of, uh, oxygen for` There's still aerobic treatment, so there's bacteria in the ponds that break down the organic waste, and then that releases the nutrients that` as the algae are plants, and they take it up. And so it gives us the opportunity to not only treat the organic portion of the waste but then recover those nutrients into algal biomass. How the system works is the waste water effluent gets treated in the first dairy pond, and that's where all the solids drop out. And then the effluent from that, which doesn't have many solids, comes into these ponds, and essentially what we're doing is we're growing algae on those nutrients. And then we have these algal harvest ponds, and that's where the algae can settle out, and we captured that algae biomass and can collect that and pump it down to the fish ponds. Right, there's a few there. Charles was always interested in operating his work and his business based on having as money. And that lack of funding and government funding and support and actual` his own money involved always looked for innovation in the ways of 'where can I find food for my fish 'that maybe somebody else is looking at as a waste product?' Charles developed his own little sluice system that involves managing the water behind him to create enough depth and width in water to hold fish. So we're just trying to replicate an aquaculture pond. And this sluice then will discharge water from that pond behind it, and as it's going through the sluice system, it gets reoxygenated, and so the water coming even out of it is supersaturated in oxygen, therefore it's more liveable for fish. We're attracting them from all the way down from the river, and they're coming up through now through the farm drains. And so we're getting extended habitat, and that's what the whole project's about, also, and so it has many streams. So we need more habitat to get more fish. What we're trying to do is actually give farmers a commercial pathway for doing restoration projects. And if we can include a commercial component to it, people will be more inclined to look at installing these systems. So it's like the carrot and the stick ` they're getting enough stick, but can we put the carrot into the mix where they're incentivised for putting it in because there actually may be a profit to be had of using their farm drains as aquaculture systems. So can we get crops of whitebait grown in them? Can we get crops of eel grown in them and harvested? So this is the way forward that we'd like to take it. When we return, we learn how a hobby farm became a vertically integrated pig-breeding operation. 1 Welcome back. In 2008, Naya Brangenberg and Jeremy Wilhelm bought a pair of kunekune pigs to keep as pets. They moved to Longbush in Wairarapa and began what they described as a hobby farm, breeding other breeds of pigs for eating. Their pig-production business eventually grew into a free-range breeding and finishing operation of heritage pork. The movement from being a non-commercial hobby farm into a commercial farm has taken probably about three or four years, really, to make that transition. Because the market for our pork had to be small because our supply was small, it actually took us quite a bit of time to really build that up. So it's been a long process and one where we've had to find new ways of doing things. I've used my experience as a veterinarian, but I've also accessed information from overseas pig farmers that have done a similar transition, and even to commercial farmers themselves. We've come from a background of owing pigs first as pets, liking them as an animal in and of themselves. So we come from a different perspective about the values we put upon those pigs, and we knew from valuing them as animals, as sentient beings, we knew we had to farm them true free-range ` 100% pastured. The pigs that we have, the breeds we have are special. They are heritage breeds that have been developed for living out on pastures. So it's very key. It all interplays. We typically wean from 8 weeks to 10 weeks, and then we transition the mothers first into their paddocks and run them with the boar immediately. And then we wait a few days ` we leave the piglets ` actually, growers, at that stage, we leave them in the paddock where their mother was, and then in a couple of days, we'd come and pick them up, and we'd move them into what we call our 'grower paddocks'. And they stay in the grower paddocks for up until they get about 70 kg live weight. And then from that point, we then transition them to 'finisher paddocks', so the pigs are always in motion, uh, depending on their various stages of life. When we wean, it's quite late compared to commercial standards, but because we are free-range, we want to have our pigs just hitting the ground running. We wean 8 weeks to 10 weeks. They're well used to their grower ration, there's really no check in their growth, and they just transition beautifully. The group housing is typically these half water tanks that we get from various places, and basically I just get them, move them into the paddocks and cut them in half, and voila ` you've got two huts. They're absolutely brilliant for retaining heat. A layperson who'd come here would say this paddock's a mess, but we have a system of linear paddocks that we rotate the pigs on. And so these pigs will stay in here for a period of time. This particular paddock was one of the original paddocks that we settled, so consequently a lot of weeds came up in late winter. And I have these guys tearing up the paddock. I want them to tear this up so that I can reseed it properly. So they're going to move the weeds for me. I don't have to spray or anything like that. And, um, they'll probably be in here another three to four weeks, and then I'll move them on to a new pasture. (GRUNTS) We imported 35 flat-top farrowing huts from Booth Pig Equipment in the UK. We selected them based on the size of the actual hut so it gives a good amount of space for an 8- to 10-week-old piglet, you know, the whole litter and the mom. They're fully insulated, they're great for our colder winters as well as the hotter summers. Also, the angle of the hut. Piglets ` they can go off to the sides. The mothers can't go right up to the edge, so that allows a little bit of space. Right now we're able to achieve pre-weaning mortalities of around 6%. PIGS GRUNT The other key feature of these huts ` you can see they've got these antenna-looking things. They're handy for me to then come along with the tractor, hook it on to the front loader of the tractor and then move it around and just completely clear this area out in no time flat, really. Our sows are on a commercial grower ration. The sows can eat ad lib, meaning they can eat as much feed as they can consume in one day. And you get a lactating sow like this one here ` she can consume up to 14kg of feed a day. It also has the benefit, as the piglets get older, that they can then go to the hopper here and get feed, and that also helps, you know, obviously, with their growth as well. We started off with a Large Black. It's a heritage breed from England. But once we went commercial, we recognised that we had to get an improvement in our feed conversions and growing rates, so then we introduced the Durocs into our herd. So not only do you get the improved growth rates from the Duroc themselves, But you also get that hybrid vigour when you cross them over with the Large Blacks and what we call Black Rocks. Heritage breeds are the breeds that have been bred for generations to, uh, withstand harsher conditions, uh, compared to commercial breeds which are` you know, they're in really wonderful conditions, climate control etc, so you don't have to focus on those particular attributes. You don't stick a white pig out in these conditions and hope to do well. You might notice that our pigs don't have nose rings. We like to have our pigs root in the ground. Actually, you can use their noses as a tool to help with your pasture management. They aerate the soil, they turn it up, they fertilise it as they go along, so as long as you incorporate those factors into your pasture-management plans, it's actually going to enhance the soil. Because we farm the way we do, it's a much more labour-intensive farming system. And also the breeds we've selected, they are not as quick growing and as high a feed conversion ratio as the commercial bloodlines. So what we have to do is we have to target our market specifically for people that are looking for a higher value-add, higher welfare standard pork. So not only do we choose our market more specifically, so we're not just supplying everyone, but we also have to supply at a higher price. The thing we've been most fortunate about is during this time when we've been building the farm up itself, the pork supply, there's been a movement among chefs and among people who go to restaurants to understand where their food comes from. It's been complete fluke. People have tried to do this 20 years ago, 30 years ago, 10 years ago, and the market wasn't there. There's been a sea change about how people about how people view the food they eat, and they want to know the provenance; they want to know how it was raised. And chefs have now come on board to understand that you need to use all of an animal, not just one single cut. So we've had this luck that as we're coming with our idea of a zero-waste 'make sure we use every bit of the pig and value it', so has customers ` the potential customer base. So it's evolved together, and because of that, the past five years, it's just exploded. So even now an Auckland market, not just Wellington market, there's that ethos. We'll be back soon to meet Rob Downing, who's inspiring his Northland community through organic gardening. 1 Hello, again. Robert Downing was looking for a project in Northland with a horticulture focus when he discovered what he describes as a paddock with a couple of trees. Years later, his organic garden has become something of a community asset, and, Rob believes many years of martial arts training has helped him get to this point. This property is called Mahinga Oranga, which is translated into 'garden of well-being'. I went on a search about 17, 18 years ago to try and find a piece of land. I was living in Auckland at the time with my partner, and we both wanted a change. My martial arts background told me that because I used to live up in this area, I really wanted to do something here that was going to contribute in a really big way. We didn't have a local market here then, so anything I sold had to be taken to Whangarei to the growers' market down there. So I started` It was a real learning curve, just understanding the commercial aspects of big production, rather than just enough for your friends and yourself. We grew salad mix ` you know, the mesclun salad mixes. And that's pretty much what we became popular for, uh, in the north here. So we'd supply cafes, hotels and markets. There aren't a lot of organic providers in the north. Um, mainstream seems to be the way they go here. My initial reason why we chose organic was more philosophical to go organic, but as we got into it, we could see there was quite a good premium on what other people were selling. Um, generally between 40% to 60% ahead of the normal prices. At the moment, I've cut all the comfrey. And this little strip that I've got here in front of me, for example, has received` All the comfrey that you see in this little part here has gone on there twice. So it's had time to decompose, the earthworms to come up, eat through it, and, uh, return back in vermicastings back into the soil to make it as nutrient-rich as it is now. I make it as a solid fertiliser, and I'll just put several cartloads on here, on this particular strip or whatever strip I'm working on. Or during the summer I use it as a liquid fertiliser. And I put it into the thousand-litre tanks. It's a one in three ratio, with water, and if I'm lucky enough to score some fish, they go in there too. Uh, and over a period of time, it comes out very smelly but very powerful. So it feeds all my plants here. As you can see, it's lovely and soft and friable. It's had a lot of the comfrey in it, it's had the mulch on top, so there's a lot of good organic matter in there now. The biggest problem is walking on it. That's why I have all these walkways. Yeah, so I don't end up compressing, uh, the soils. ENGINE RUMBLES When I came here, one of the things that` once I get it all set up, I got wiped out with weather extremes three times. And so I learnt and discovered this material here ` this Bahama grass, which grows really fast and will provide some wind buffer around your growing areas. So I said, 'Well, I'll give it a go.' And I've been surprised. So it's my biomass for making mulch. Once I've cut it, and because there's a good nutrient base in my soil, This will rebound from the parts that I've just cut there to where it is now in six months through the summer. One of the things in organics is making sure that you always have good nutrient base in your soil. So what I do here is once I've finished using it for growing in, which was garlic ` there and there were both garlics last year ` and so the first thing I do is take all the garlic out, and then I plant mustard. Once that's finished, I cut it, leave it lying on the ground, and then I grow lupin and oats. So the lupin fixes nitrogen from the atmosphere, and the oats nip back the soil. And then the last part, from mustard to lupin and oats, the last part is buckwheat. Having finished that, I then put` I do all the comfrey cutting and put the comfrey on top. And then I mulch it with the Bahama grass that you see in the background here. And then, um, and then put the plastic sheet over it so that it will be ready for me to use next year. so I've spent 30 years to 40 years in martial arts, and I'm a fourth-degree black belt. And, uh, a very aged one now. (LAUGHS) And all I can say about that is the martial arts prepared me for this. Because this was much harder than any training I've done ever. When I started, the whole idea of this place was to provide local food for local people. Uh, but as I've gone down this track for quite some time now, what I find is there's a high level of interest, so I wanted to start teaching, coaching and training people they can do something similar to what I'm doing. One of the things I did was, uh, when I came up here, was I worked in the prison when they opened it, as a horticultural instructor. And while I was there, I met a lot of the sons and grandchildren of the students I used to have up here when I was teaching karate. So I felt a bit sad about that, so, um, I really wanted to do and find out more about what's happening to Maori in this, uh, in the region ` in the north Tai Tokerau region. And what I discovered was that even though people might go on a course or something like that, there were no jobs at the end of it. You know, it was basically, 'Oh, that was interesting,' and that was it. So I've been working with Maori, the local people who ` Ngati Rangi ` who lease the land to the Corrections department at Ngawha. And they approached me and said, 'Look, with your background in horticulture and within organics 'and that type of thing, would you be interested in leading and project-managing 'the opening of several horticultural events in the northern area?' So we started. The funding's been approved, and we'll start teaching and training people to get them ready for putting out on to the fields. For more information on these and other stories we've covered, visit our website. Get there via tvnz.co.nz Or if you've missed an episode, you can watch it on TVNZ on Demand, using the keyword 'rural delivery'. Next week ` find out about a seven-year-long fertility and productivity study undertaken by DairyNZ, AgResearch and other organisations. We meet Ike Williams of Waidale Rams, one of the pioneers of online auctions for his ram sales. And we spend time with Matthew and Rachel Thomson, who are building a uniquely NZ brand of whisky. Thanks for joining us. We hope to see you again next time. Captions by June Yeow. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2016