Month: April 2019

One of my favourite visits was to Smedley cadet station. This farm was donated to the crown to train young people to farm. It only takes 11 students each year, and they are there for 2 years, so 22 years in total. I wish we had a place like this in the UK – I would have loved to go there to study!

It is hard work though, so don’t be too easily fooled. It is difficult to get a place to start with, approximately 100 applicants for 11 spaces each year. Once you are there, along with learning the academic side of running a business and keeping updated with farm technology, you also learn the practical side of running a farm.

The students (all boys) each train a dog, and break in a horse, they are also give a second dog. There are no quad bikes at Smedley all stock work is done with the horses and dogs the boys train themselves. This is a nice job on a nice day! While we were there we didn’t see the students as they were busy out fencing. They do have pick up trucks to carry things around the 5000 ha farm, however, when it come to fencing all holes were dug by hand, and posts knocked in by sledge hammer – they even made some of their own fence posts. Safe to say you leave Smedley farm fit!

We have a connection with Smedley as each year one student is awarded a scholarship to travel to the UK and learn more about the supply chain of their lamb. Each year they visit us in Wales for up to a week, they visit farms, factories, research centres and if time allows, the Royal Welsh Show. This years scholar has already been selected so I look forward to meeting him in the summer.

What a fantastic opportunity for these young men, I wish them all well in the future. The good news we heard as we left was that Smedley was purchasing some extra land so there is a possibility they may be able to take and extra student or two in the future.

We managed four farm visits, one in Heriot, one in the Southland and two in the North Island….including Smedley station.

It’s safe to say that farms in NZ in general are quite different to farms in the UK, although they are starting to find they share similar challenges to us, succession for example.

Huge acreages, vast stock numbers and a distinct lack of lame sheep. The approach in NZ is different, because it has to be. Of the four farms we visited, ALL of then had incomes coming from ventures off the farm. They are driven by efficiency and profit. There were discussions where They mentioned they are paid to fence, so in some cases they are receiving support.

New Zealand has signed up to the Paris agreement and as such is required to reduce its carbon. As so much of the country is reliant on agriculture, the reduction of carbon must be from this industry. We visited Agresearch at Dunedin where they have looked at an EBV for carbon in sheep.

I was asked about diversification before I went away so I made a point of trying to find out. There is diversification in NZ, there is some tourism but not as much as the UK, or Wales in particular. There has been changes from sheep to dairy, alot of you will already know about this as it has been talked about a lot in recent years. This is looking likely to change, the rate of farms converting to dairy has reduced and the current drive is forestry.

Succession and diversification are coming together somewhat. The next generation cannot afford, or don’t want the debt of a large farm. Although cost per acre is lower in NZ, farm size is huge so the cost is as high or higher. What is happening in some cases is that the children of farms are buying part of the farm and selling the rest. They are looking then at kiwi growing, cherry trees, manuka honey farms as an income for themselves from that land. This means potentially an increase in small farms.

They had a nice phrase in NZ to describe people who are moving out of the city, or working full time and buying a field, keeping alpacas a cow a sheep or two. They call then life-stylers. There is an increasing amount of life-stylers too, I was quite surprised as to how many alpacas we saw on our travels!

Some land is being sold or rented for forestry too. As part of the carbon targets the NZ Government have a 1 billion trees programme in place to encourage tree planting. The fear for sheep producers and lamb processors is that sheep have been pushed up the hills by dairy and are likely to be pushed down by forestry, with little room left in the middle.

So maybe we can take some solace in that we aren’t alone with challenges we face, and maybe the grass isn’t always greener the other side of the world.

Farm visit to Heriot, North Island

Farm visit in the Southland

Farm visit Hawkes Bay, South Island

Other…

The food we have eaten while travelling NZ has been tremendous, and as such warrants a post completely to itself!

You may have gathered by now, but I love food. I like trying new food, good traditional food, and I like to (try) to recreate meals I try when I am away or just out. It is why I am a little bit too fat. I don’t however eat lots of bad food, I just eat too much good stuff 🙈. I can leave crisps and chocolate no problem, I eat meat, fish, vegetables, fruit. Ice cream is always too much of a temptation for me, and my biggest downfall (although not a food as such) is wine.

For me, I like to learn about a country or culture through their food (its true, but its also an excuse to try everything!). So eating was always on the agenda for this trip.

I enjoy knowing where my food is from, maybe this is because I have grown up on a farm and I have the privilege of knowing how a lot of food is produced.  For me, this is how I know welfare is good, and care is given to animals during their life on the farm. In the UK there is an increase in campaigns for vegetarian,vegan and even factory made food.  The vegetarian and vegan diets are personal choice, and I respect that everybody has a choice, however i believe that all the facts should be ready before making that decision.  As far as factory made food goes, not for me thank you.  I like the natural production of food and I don’t wish to have burgers that look, taste and even bleed like meat made in a factory.  Processed food in its purest form.  Although UK are quite far ahead with these campaigns, the same issues are also facing NZ, but in general they do seem to be more aware of their food sources.

Food prices in restaurants are near the same as home here, even McDonalds (yes, we did sneak there for breakfast a couple of times).  Food in the supermarkets however was different, it was more expensive in general – this makes me feel that they value food more than we do.  We have such a huge choice of food, across everything, and we can get anything almost any time of the year.  Tomatoes were double the price they are here in UK, as were most fruits and vegetables.  Meat was slightly dearer than the UK, but not presented as well and with less shelf life to the consumer.  I shopped a bit and it was all packed in a paper bag for me.  I am a bit sad maybe as I do like to visit a supermarket whenever I visit another country.

There was so much good food, locally sourced and great pride taken in that fact.  I tried meat, fish, fruit, vegetables and cake and loved it all. Thank you NZ!

Now I am home again, there is nothing like the shock of getting back on the bathroom scales to see what damage has been done to kick you back into action of the diet you started….after Christmas….again!

Thank you for calling by to read x

The main factor I have picked up during my short time travelling in NZ is the Kiwi attitude to life.

At home, everybody is busy, so many commitments and things to do, peoples work lives are frantic and a lot of people are under a lot of pressure. Long term, this cannot be good for us, and to me there is a correlation between this way of life and the increased need for support. It is fantastic how aware we are becoming as a nation of mental health. Are we pro-actively working to avoid mental health problems at all? I do some meditation and yoga (I’m not bendy enough!), not a lot, but enough to allow me to switch off from everything else for a short time. Even these short snippits are a benefit to me, so I highly recommend you all give something a go.

Apologies, I got distracted there for a minute, the purpose of this post is to highlight how different NZ are at this. Their attitude to life is very different and as a result their work life balance is better. We have created this lifestyle for ourselves whilst striving for materialistic items, higher pay, stature, whatever the driver it is there and engrained into us.

I feel the balance is a bit far the wrong way back home. When I am back I need to plan how I can change the balance a bit, it wont be easy as that is how we work now, but I think it is important that I try. I don’t intend to reduce my level of work, but perhaps I can be smarter about it. While I have been away there has been a fatal car accident involving a young man. This puts everything into perspective. Life is too short, we must appreciate the people around us and make more time for family, friends and ourselves. ❤️.

This is a positive learning I will be bringing home from NZ. xxx.

What a week we have had in the South Island, met alot of people and had some very interesting discussions about agriculture, new technology and innovation, changing consumer habits, food and wine.

I like farmers, I respect them for being independent businesses, their ability to adapt and their ingenuity, and most of all for producing food for us. It doesn’t matter which diet you seek to find, you do need a farmer. Some will disagree with me as products are now being made in laboratories and factories, but to me it is so against nature and processed, that it isn’t real food in my mind.

While we have been here I have been part of discussions with farmers where they are committing to improve their wenvironment. In the UK I think we are very good at caring for our environment. A difference I have noticed though is that farmers here are not embarrassed to talk about making a profit and the phrase ‘you must be in the black to be in the green’ has been quoted many times. It is true, if you are a profitable business and able to pay bills, care for your family then you can invest in your business, in a green way. Perhaps we could learn from this attitude.

It doesn’t matter what your job is, you need training, and farming is no different. New technology and regulation is common, so we should be trained so we know what is what and how to adapt our businesses. Learning about the environment should be included in this.

Of course government influence behaviour depending on what they want to achieve. Having been a here a week I can see this quite clearly. Subsidies is a topic of discussion everywhere, farmers I have met here firmly believe the removal of subsidies in NZ has resulted in farms improving efficiencies and becoming better businesses. I don’t disagree as elements of the subsidy systems in the UK do limit innovation and a drive for productivity, however I feel there is a much wider benefit to the UK system as it maintains our communities in rural areas, and in Wales there is no doubt that it supports the Welsh language. So I am torn. I want to see farmers be respected by our public and become more professional businesses. I also want our communities to survive and for the next generations to have the option of having an upbringing ad I had. Perhaps we should pull the plaster off quickly in order to achieve both? I am not convinced that is the answer.

Our time in Invercargill was short and sweet, while there we attended the Ballance Farming environmental awards where NZ farmers were awarded for the foresight and contribution to the environment through practices they had implemented on farm. Just a small example of their future here.

When in Invercargill, it is a must to have some blue cod, and oh my word, it was soo delicious!

We head to Wellington next, for the weekend. We have had full, busy days and my little brain needs some time to consider what it has taken in this week!

Catch up in Wellington!!

We left Christchurch on Monday morning, but it has taken me a while to know how to write about the city.

As I said in my previous post about a friendly and sporting welcome, people really are very friendly and helpful. Now we only had two nights there, so first impressions must count for something on this occasion.

The city has obviously been damaged long term by the Earthquake it suffered, walking around you see buildings still in a state of disrepair and in some cases completely abandoned. Yet around the corner there are brand new modern buildings like conference centers, the development is rather impressive and the combination of the two parts is rather beautiful.

On Sunday, we took advantage of the e-scooters in the area. Coming from rural West Wales this was a very new concept to me. A bit like the idea of a Boris bike I guess. You download the app, scan the scooter and off you go! A very cheap, and fun way to get around, we even went to and from meetings on the scooters on Monday as well, brilliant fun and you definitely arrive at the office smiling!

As part of our scooter tour we passed the park where people have left flowers following the recent shooting. I felt the atmosphere in the area change, there was a very somber feel, not surprising I know, but the emotions I felt took me by surprise. I fully understand how this horrific event was such a shock to everybody here, people are trusting, friendly and so welcoming, For somebody to come and try to ruin that is just beyond words. The fight back that NZ have risen to is fantastic and I admire their attitude. It isn’t okay for this to happen here and the nation have come together on this.

Still struggling bit with jet lag….nothing better than waking up at 2am and so hungry – refraining from raiding the mini bar of any snacks! An adrenaline moment was needed. Now, I am no fan of heights, and I had been warned by my husband and family members not to bungy, so we managed to get a jet boat trip up the river just out of the city. This gave me a very fresh face, brilliant fun and a chance to travel up a massive river – I had actually photographed it on the way into Christchurch from the plane.

Having initially thought there wasn’t much in Christchurch (how arrogant) I have grown to like Christchurch alot, but as always it was time to move on to the next. The next stop is Dunedin, I will update you sooner about this stop.

Thank you for reading x

When you have an English man, an Irish man and a Welsh woman in a taxi in New Zeland? Sounds like the start of a joke doesn’t it 😂but the answer is, rugby chat. I kept quiet really as the discussions were going, well I didn’t want to rub salt into the wounds after the 6 nations result this (I mean how awesome was it for the Welsh?!).

What struck me though is how sports brings people together, it doesn’t matter about race or religion or anything, team sports are about working together but also about bringing nations and countries together. Arriving yesterday morning having travelled to the other side of the world, and rugby chat was an instant welcome to New Zealand.

After such a friendly welcome I am really looking forward to the rest of our stay here.

Now this has to be one of the best celebrations of the year (along with Fathers Day, and my birthday!). What I don’t understand about Mothers Day is why the date has to change, and why is it now? It is very unfair on my Mam, and other farming Mams, that it was slap bang in the middle of lambing, so leaving the farm just isn’t an option.

I see many people taking Mams and Grandmams out for lunches and walks, but my lucky Mam had a lunch at home.

I made a duck and candied pecan salad with a blue cheese dressing(James Martin recipe) although tweaked slightly as I didn’t have all the ingredients! This salad was quite a lot of work but very tasty!

After filling up on salad we had a main course of Osso Bucco with a risotto Milanese, now I don’t usually eat veal so quite a change, I do believe it is important to try new things. I know how, where and by who the animal was reared and all about its life so I know it was all good. The meal was delicious! The best bit for Mam was that I had made so much she didn’t need to cook the next day either as there was plenty left…bonus!

We enjoyed our lunch together and I gave a couple of small gifts, just to say thank you for everything Mam does for me (yes, eventhough I am 37!).

I do think about a couple of my friends who no longer have their Mam in their lives, it must be very difficult, thankfully I cannot imagine what it is like. I think of them especially on Mothers Day.

I also think about my friends and my sister, as they are Mams themselves. I don’t know how they do it but they do! I am really proud if my little sister for being such a great Mam ti my nephew.

It really shows that we should appreciate our Mams and this day is the perfect day to do so.

Thank you Mam, Happy Mothers Day!