Friday, March 29, 2024

MEATY MATTERS: Trees attractive but do checks

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The Beef + Lamb New Zealand Northland annual showcase field day in April on James Parsons’ steep hill country farm provided a good insight into the benefits and challenges of planting trees.
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Two key speakers on the day were Primary Industries Ministry acting forestry head Julie Collins and Stuart Orme from Wairarapa forestry consultancy Woodnet who gave contrasting and informative presentations on how to integrate tree planting programmes into a working sheep and beef property.

Collins addressed the topic of the Government’s billion trees programme, explaining the objectives, timetable and respective roles of the government and commercial sectors including farmers, as well as the assistance available and where to find it.

There are two main objectives: to help NZ transition to sustainable and resilient land use and support the regeneration of the regions. 

It is a 10-year programme that will scale up over the next three years reaching its peak in 2021. The targets for this year and next will be met by the baseline forecast of existing planting and replanting before the extra planting needed to meet the target kicks in in 2021. 

She emphasised the Government is looking to match the tree with the land: the mantra is “right tree, right place, right time” and it also recognises the importance of planting to provide shade and soil erosion protection in the face of the effects of climate change.

Collins was at pains to point out the commercial sector will be expected to meet only half the annual target by planting 50 million trees a year with the other half being met by Crown forestry ventures, the Conservation Department, regional councils and coalitions between the Government, Maori incorporations and non-government organisations. 

To meet these ambitious projections will require an overall policy framework, seedlings, labour, land and processing infrastructure. 

MPI is also conscious of preserving diversity in the farming landscape and is looking to support hill country farming, not replace it.

Sheep and beef farmers will have several incentives to plant, such as gaining carbon credits, now at $21 a tonne, to retire farmland and generate an income stream from livestock shelter, riparian planting, soil protection and manuka for beehives. 

A significant proportion of the planting programme will comprise wattle, poplar and gum with pine trees expected to make up the balance though that poses a number of challenges, not least the estimated cost of farm road infrastructure for felling at $60,000 to $200,000 a kilometre and the distance to market. 

The goal is to plant 15,000 hectares of new forest by 2020 to offset the decline in new planting over the past 20 years. 

To help achieve the goal MPI has introduced the afforestation grant scheme which offers $1300 a hectare for forestry planting between five and 300-hectare lots with $19.5 million available until 2020 and help from regional councils with fencing and riparian planting. The 2018 grant funding round closes on May 14. To help farmers further with their cashflow MPI intends to look at the ETS settings to replace the peaks and troughs with an average credit over the life of the plantation.

Collins emphasised the sheep and beef sector’s opportunity to enhance the resilience of rural communities through the tree-planting programme, which MPI is keen to assist with, though she acknowledged the challenges of finding enough management capability and labour and developing more domestic wood processing. 

Orme took a very pragmatic approach to the topic, saying land use decisions are about ensuring the right species is being farmed or planted in the right place to achieve the correct combination of sustainability, productivity, economic benefit and emotion. 

A matrix approach works best with internal rate of return calculations being used to compare the different land use options. 

Poplar and willow will produce $433.90 a hectare over five years and pine will increase returns significantly but he noted the infrastructure cost and distance to market or port. 

Manuka offers enormous potential, particularly for medical use, but as well as being able to trust the hive owner he warned of the risks associated with it, notably myrtle rust, uninformed investment and the potential for boom and bust like goats and kiwifruit 30 years ago.

He also warned advance planning is critical to any investment decision, especially where it involves the need for a reduction in stock units to gain carbon credits. 

If there are pre-1990 forestry blocks on the farm the farmer is entitled to claim carbon credits but it is important to realise cutting them down means handing back carbon credits to the Government in compensation within four years while approval for replanting must be gained in advance to avoid penalties.

It would be accurate to say attendees went home with a lot more information and knowledge than they had when they arrived. 

It provided food for thought about potential options for their business but there are likely to be many more questions as the programme progresses. 

The best advice would be first to look at MPI’s website then talk to MPI, the regional council and a forestry adviser before making any long-term decisions about planting programmes and changes of land use. 

But what is certain is that there are plenty of profitable opportunities for incorporating a planting programme into farming systems.

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