18 January 2011

Ballance steps in with more than just fertiliser

Farmers battled through a particularly difficult year of natural disasters in 2010, starting with drought in several regions and climaxing with the Canterbury earthquake and Southland’s severe snowstorm.

As New Zealand’s leading farmer-owned fertiliser co-operative, Ballance Agri-Nutrients was caught up all of these events as its Technical Sales Representatives worked alongside farmers to remedy the situation and to get farms back into full production as quickly as possible.

‘In some cases it was just a matter of providing financial terms that suited the farmer so that the right nutrients could be applied to the land at the right time, regardless of the personal cash flow situation on farm,’ says Larry Bilodeau, Ballance’s Chief Executive.

‘At other times, we did our best to support recovery efforts instigated by Federated Farmers in cash or manpower terms, and during the Southland snow storm our farm reps even mucked in to help farmers save stock.’

The first challenge for farmers was the Northland drought, gazetted as a medium-scale adverse event by the Government in late January 2010. Ballance worked closely with the Northland Rural Support Trust and Federated Farmers, taking part in farmer meetings across the province as the drought worsened.

Within weeks, it was a similar situation in Central Otago, Canterbury, Rodney, Papakura, Manukau, Waikato and inland Bay of Plenty. While farmers in these highly productive areas prayed for rain, torrential rain on the East Coast of the North Island swelled rivers, closed roads and forced some people out of their homes, bringing local hill country farmers some welcome relief.

By April, the official drought status had been extended to the Waikato, Rodney, Papakura and Manukau and within weeks Bay of Plenty (Western Bay of Plenty, Rotorua, Kawerau, Opotiki, Whakatane and Tauranga), South Taranaki, parts of South Canterbury (Mackenzie, Waimate and Waitaki) and Otago (Central Otago and Dunedin City) were added to the official list.

‘By now, almost half of New Zealand’s dairy herd was in regions affected by drought, with production dipping as a consequence,' says Mr Bilodeau. ‘It was down about 30 percent in Northland and almost 7 percent in South Auckland, which includes the Waikato.’

To rub salt in the wound, the heavens opened over Southland in late April, causing widespread flooding, with the Oreti River reaching levels not seen since 1999.

By mid May the rains had returned to Northland, accompanied by warm weather that enabled farmers to get some cover onto paddocks before the winter.

‘They faced the prospect of going into winter with low pasture reserves and coping with significant financial losses. It was pleasing that we were able to help out on an individual basis.’

A series of adverse weather events in September meant farmers could not apply spring fertiliser when they wanted to either because it was too wet in the North Island or too cold, or snowing, in the South Island. Even more dramatically, some Canterbury farmers had their pastures torn up by a massive earthquake. The 7.1 magnitude earthquake that struck early morning to the west of Christchurch on 4 September added a new variable to the mix, knocking power out to rural homes and dairy sheds.

‘This was all new to most of our farmer shareholders in that region,’ says Mr Bilodeau. ‘Farmers are used to handling whatever the weather throws at them, but this was a calamity of unimagined proportions that towered over the best efforts of man.

‘We were able to donate some funds and product to the Federated Farmers appeal and helped with the special earthquake relief meeting at Darfield hosted by the Ballance Farming Show stars Jamie Mackay and Dick Taylor.’

The next week, farmers in the Tararua region had to cope with significant flooding south of Woodville and in the low lying areas around Pahiatua, and within days their neighbours in the Manawatu were under water because of an intense weather system that also brought record snowfalls to Southland.

At least 700,000 new-born lambs perished in the bitter cold that lingered for five days after the worst of the Southland snowstorm, and the snow didn't thaw quickly because of the bitterly cold driving rain.

‘Some of the wild weather made its way into the Bay of Plenty in late September, leaving some avocado growers to cope with crop losses of at least 30 percent. High winds and heavy rain also battered avocado growers and vegetable growers near Pukekohe, smashing greenhouses.

‘By November insurers had received about $47 million in claims relating to the snowstorm that hit Southland, excluding stock losses.’

As a consequence of the unseasonal weather, the busy spring fertiliser application period was compressed severely, placing a strain on everyone involved in the industry, from Ballance’s manufacturing plants to beyond the farm gate.

‘Given such a scenario, we have pulled out all the stops to meet the increased market demands and expect to be able to satisfy all of our customers’ requirements. Once farmers were able to get their fertiliser programmes underway, we have been very busy and have made up much of the lost time,’ Mr Bilodeau said.

To complete a challenging year for those who make their living off the land, MAF Biosecurity New Zealand confirmed in November that a strain of the bacterial kiwifruit vine disease, Pseudomonas syringae pv actinidiae (Psa), was present on some vines in orchards across New Zealand.

‘It’s certainly been a tough year for many sectors of the rural economy. Ballance is proud that it has been able to do its best to help get farmers, horticulturalists and orchardists through the worst of it, and we can look to 2011 with renewed optimism.’

ENDS

© Scoop Media