tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71212658485288735332024-03-13T17:50:36.962+13:00waionesheep beef thoroughbred breeding -
wanganui
new zealandjohn@waionehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07352864956135955675noreply@blogger.comBlogger86125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7121265848528873533.post-5182573638053490452023-11-02T15:04:00.002+13:002023-11-04T16:56:24.276+13:00<p><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>PRACTICAL EVALUATION of HANDHELD GAS
DETECTOR for MEASURING SHEEP METHANE EMISSION</u></b><span style="mso-tab-count: 6;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Jinan
Nova NS400 Handheld Multi Gas (CO2 and CH4) Detector<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">NZ$1000
landed direct from China.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">I first posted this in 2020, but as AgResearch's PAC offering was being floated, I thought it better to pull my head in. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Since then I've shifted my approach to looking at emitted CH4 relative to liveweight on day of measurement, which includes fleece weight, yielding production per emission, or as I assume, a form of feed conversion efficiency around kg's production per unit emission.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The index so derived has good correlation with growth+meat (DPG+DPM), wool (DPW), and dag-score (DPG). To a lesser extent FE (DPX) and FEC (DPF) may be involved, but mainly I think through their association with health and well-being, emission being worse in animals with health problems. High DPF dosen't necessarily mean poorer health in my experience, and DPX only counts in a bad challenge year.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">My position is; if you combine DPG+DPM+DPW+DPG into a single aggregated index, you've got the best animal for low emission.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">I've got a definite type of sheep evolving, muscled bigger frame, finer woolled (for Coopworth 48/50 while retaining HFW), and bare triangle bum. I think Perendale, and to a lesser extent, Texel breeders should be rejoicing at this comment.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">One other observation; these sheep invariably are the progeny of ewes with a long productive lambing career, 5 years or more at 150%.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">To my critics... if this is a questionable process, why are my results consistent with previously researched and documented waypoints.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">More to come in future posts... meantime read the background following... </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">“Read
some instructions first”… is always a good idea…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">A wise
man once told me, “there’s nothing new under the sun, whatever you’re doing,
there’ll be someone, somewhere…..”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">This
isn’t a scientific discourse, so I’m allowed to put my citations, and resultant
comment up front, which I hope will go some way to explaining the course/s of
action I took in setting about this evaluation. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">If you
want to delve deeper, Google “pubmed.gov” then in the search box, type in the
citation code. There’s a little box to the right of the paper subject header
that says “PMC Full Text” which in some instances you might need to click on to
get the full paper.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p>/PMC7341254/</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">A Review of
Enteric Methane Emission Measurement Techniques in Ruminants</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Zhao et al <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">RC (Respiration Chamber)</span></b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"> – Animal in container
full-time, regarded as ultimate because it collects total flux, (dung, farts, urine
etc as well as respired), disadvantage said to be, its un-natural, not reliably
reflecting animals emitting differently to what they might when outside. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Green Feed</span></b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"> – Similar to above but outdoors with a bait station to lure the animal
in, has high between day and animal variations, depending how long the cow
stays in station.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Sniffer </span></b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">– Utilised on dairy cows feeding while milking, when they put their head
into the feed-bin. Same infra-red CH4 detection as above two systems, but dosent
measure total flux, only respiration, and is less accurate between animals because
no control where cows head is relative to sensor. However, authors mention,
respiration does provide <b>PREDICTION values</b>, so keep that in mind for
NS400 implementation. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Ventilation hood or Face Mask</span></b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"> – Both have a
time/logistics problem as do RC and GF, either a hood/mask for every animal, or
one you have to change from animal to animal, which would carry an additional problem
of vacating the hood of gas residue from the previous subject.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">LMD (Laser Methane Detector)</span></b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"> – State of art laser
beam from hand-held instrument measuring CH4 concentration via infra-red
spectroscopy, again only measuring respired/eructed concentration.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Cheapest one I’ve seen, cost
approx. $6000 USD, quote here in NZ, $10,000.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">PAC (Portable Accumulation Chamber)</span></b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"> – What we’re being
offered locally by AgResearch for 84 animal x 3 week repeat survey service. PAC
has advantage over RC in that animal confined for shorter time, up to one hour,
but for the still not inconsiderable logistics involved, dosen’t include flux
as comprehensively. Zhao et al further say the results don’t correlate at all
well with RC, possibly due they say, “different aspects of genetic traits”. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 10pt;">Values obtained by RC said
to have the highest h2 of all systems.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">IPCC, for GHG ruminant
emission mitigation considerations, prefers the RC method, maintaining CH4
measurements are of little value without knowledge of feed intake, which can be
best controlled in the RC system.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">The authors conclude LMD
and PAC have low cost simplicity, short term measurement in individuals under
practical production conditions, offering potential opportunity for breeding
lower emitting animals.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 10pt;">/29741677/</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-outline-level: 1;"><b><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Genetic parameters of methane emissions determined
using portable accumulation chambers in lambs and ewes grazing pasture and
genetic correlations with emissions determined in respiration chambers</span></b><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Included here for
interest, Jonkers et al, including among the et al, Shackell, Dodds, Knowler,
McEwan, this work likely contributing to the MO of the methane testing service
currently offered local breeding industry. They put h2 at around 0.16 for PAC
and 0.20 for RC.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">NS400</span></b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">- type handhelds offering a “breathalyser” approach, not included in the
above survey, but following points pertain:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">- Utilises the same
infra-red technology, passing an inducted air stream via suction pump, past an
infra-red sensor.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">- Same tech as used by Transport authorities here in NZ in the 6000 odd roadside tests done each year.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">- Same small size utility
as LMD, but better directional capability, intake nozzle can be held within
30mm of nostrils easily enough, with less background intrusion.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">- Faster animal throughput
at lower time and capital cost.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">- With animals fresh off
natural environment/pasture, given the above Sniffer comment, I've assumed the
<b>predictive snapshot</b>. This comment also supported in the following citation:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">PMC7191252/<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Assessment of
methane emission traits in ewes using a laser methane detector: genetic
parameters and impact on lamb weaning performance<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Reintke et al<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 10pt;">CH4 readings partitioned
into respired and eructed (belched), (see their Fig 1 graph for yourself,
copyright prevents me from inclusion here).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Authors maintain a <b>factor
derived from either (respired or eructed), </b>correlated well with ewe body wt
(EBW), back fat thickness (BFT), body condition score (BCS), and lamb body wt (LBW).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Interestingly, this paper
was not about GHG emissions, but focussed on feed conversion efficiency.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">High levels of ewe CH4
emissions (representing energy losses) were significantly associated with lower
LBW, EBW and BFT.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">They say h2’s were small,
(0.1), and not sure, but I think established via LBW on one generation of
progeny. However, they say breeding on reduced CH4 emissions, (especially
eructated), contributes to genetic improvement in that trait. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">They used mini-peaks of respired and eructed CH4</span></b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">, and maintain such
separation is reasonable physiologically.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Ewes with low CH4 <b>during
respiration</b> reared heavier lambs, and simultaneously, were associated with
higher EBW.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">CH4 eructation represents
larger CH4 emission than does respiration, but respired CH4 influences LBW and
EBW significantly enough.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">NS400</span></b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">- I read this stuff after we’d done the first trial runs with the
detector, carried out on our 200 ram hgts.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">The NS400 allows setting
for recording interval and I had elected for average CH4 over 10 and 20 second intervals,
instead of the 3 minutes as in the above trial, and assuming that an average of
ppm values might suffice.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">As the Reintke Fig1 graph
shows, respiration CH4 levels are quite constant, and I found this to be so also,
even given the shorter time interval I used. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Importantly, I did find
significant difference in average respired CH4 levels between sheep with these
shorter intervals, and such difference would be emphasised if the <b>peak values
</b>as indicated by Reintke were used instead of average. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">We struck a frequency of
somewhere around 5% of the ram hgts where eructation occurred during the 20
seconds, which shot CH4 well over 1000 ppm, at times up to 3000 ppm.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Switch-off and re-boot of
the detector was needed to clear the residual CH4, the 60 second boot-up
process includes a 45 second pump activation while holding the instrument in
“fresh” air.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt;">Consequently, I favour a
shorter read interval (10 seconds) for the following reasons:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">- faster throughput<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">- the longer the read
time the greater risk of an eructation interruption<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">- the NS400 attains a
steady “read” within the first few seconds<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">- WYS in a 10 second respiration
pattern is fairly indicative of WYG subsequent<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">- sufficient between
sheep difference achievable within this time <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">- shorter restraint time,
better all round for both sheep and handler.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Incidentally, the 2 hour
200 sheep session only used 1/5 of battery life indicator. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Pictured here an NS400 sample
60 second CH4 graph, the 10 second peak to the left of the 15 sec vertical approx
127 ppm, and closing ppm 105.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">We thought we might
encounter some taper off in CH4 with standing time in the yard, higher CH4
values were obtained in first hour.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">So here are the scatters
for the pasture and clover sessions: ppm CH4 up the side, and time across the
bottom, in number of sheep, corresponding to 100=1 hour.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">I suppose unsurprisingly,
the CH4 settled fairly quickly for the clover, consistent with it being a
better quality, more highly utilisable fodder, while off the rye pasture there
was a longer tail.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">The trend lines were more
consistent than I thought they were going to be, but looking at both scatters,
a half hour stand-time (=50) might be appropriate.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Couple more citations
worth a read:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">/25149329/ <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Genetic and
environmental variation in methane emissions of sheep at pasture<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">/26055577/ <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-outline-level: 1;"><b><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Animal board invited review: genetic possibilities
to reduce enteric methane emissions from ruminants</span></b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><u><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">RESULTS USING THE NS400<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt;">The attached spreadsheets
detail actual measurements, summarised below.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">200 ram hgts run through
the Racewell squeeze, 100 per hour.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Holding sheep head with
left hand, detector in right, assistant punching data to XR5000 indicator.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">NS400 interface has 3
selectable modes, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Dual - showing both CO2
and CH4<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Single – showing either
or as pic below<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Graph – as Page3. tracks
readings over whatever gas and time period set. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt; mso-no-proof: yes;"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="Picture_x0020_2"
o:spid="_x0000_i1025" type="#_x0000_t75" style='width:451pt;height:254pt;
rotation:90;visibility:visible;mso-wrap-style:square'>
<v:imagedata src="file:///C:\Users\john\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image007.jpg"
o:title="20200731_142417[1]-1"/>
</v:shape><![endif]--></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgulII_wOB-Q97pXBEuOW-pwZpppxkQnfG6q4EkGrxnBuHK2DbtOa7fnkg-eRmHIz6mnIPD3-_YkLpPMqsOx9XYmENIg2cdVxlvIPsfW1yUyQ7KJMkUhbUtna41xBEvgq2CbP-CLFNkbBicl9XqIE-8XwPNV94mMskww6fhiO1okfGH0UiqkdJvHPrfnWNH" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img data-original-height="940" data-original-width="529" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgulII_wOB-Q97pXBEuOW-pwZpppxkQnfG6q4EkGrxnBuHK2DbtOa7fnkg-eRmHIz6mnIPD3-_YkLpPMqsOx9XYmENIg2cdVxlvIPsfW1yUyQ7KJMkUhbUtna41xBEvgq2CbP-CLFNkbBicl9XqIE-8XwPNV94mMskww6fhiO1okfGH0UiqkdJvHPrfnWNH=w225-h400" width="225" /></a></div><br /><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">I tried 5, 10, and 20
second timing periods, and used the final ppm indicated at period end. After
some long-hand calculation I established this number was the ppm read at close
of scan, not an average over the time period.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Any reading over 500ppm regarded
as an eructation, and excluded from the summary. Readings I felt were
influenced by an eructation in the previous sheep also excluded. While taking
readings it is easy enough to tell if this is happening, and in future, will shut
down/re-boot to clear the pump, if necessary.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">However, would expect in
future to avoid this with a short 10 sec read time.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt;">To arrive at a usable CH4
factor for each sheep, I averaged the CH4 readings taken per sheep off both the
rye pasture and the red clover, and rather than use a deviation from the total
mean, I calculated a CH4 ratio based on the mean of each hour, a sort of cheap
and dirty regression to account for standing time, </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt;">(don’t laugh, it worked!)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt;">Update, late 2022, now have an Excel spreadsheet calculating a moving average from which to deviate each animal's recording, as CH4 declines with time off feed.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">I then compared CH4:
between the top 25% LWT and HFW, and the bottom 25%.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody><tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="106">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="91">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">LWT<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="91">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">LWT CH4:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="92">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">HFW<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.2pt;" valign="top" width="92">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">HFW CH4:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="106">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Top 25%<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="91">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">53.7<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="91">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">.96<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="92">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">2.7<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.2pt;" valign="top" width="92">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">.99<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 2;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="106">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Bottom 25%<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="91">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">37.9<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="91">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">1.02<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="92">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">1.6<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.2pt;" valign="top" width="92">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">1.03<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 3; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="106">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Difference<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="91">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">15.8<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="91">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">6%<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="92">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">1.1<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.2pt;" valign="top" width="92">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">4%<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">There’s no adjustment in
here for birth rank which might show lower emitters in better light, but I
think the best I can say at this stage is, higher performing sheep are kinder
on the environment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>High production,
lower emission is a useful association, but limited by how big do we want our
sheep to ultimately be. Efficiency at a fixed weight is a more ‘noble’
aspiration. My own genetic trend graphs, approx. 5kg LW12 and 0.2 kg FW12 in
the last 8-year generation turn-over, equate a 1-2% per generation improvement
in CH4 emission, based on production gain alone.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt;">Looking at Dag Score, the
small proportion of dirty sheep was hardly sufficient for robust comparison,
but we noted a 4% CH4: advantage no dags vs any dags, (1.00 vs 1.04), and that
the really daggy handful of score 4 and 5 were 1.51,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">ie. approx. 50% worse
emitters/inefficient feed utilisers. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt;">Sire Summary</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt;">CH4:</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt;">LWT</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt;">HFW</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt;">Dag</span></p>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody><tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="90">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">1<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="97">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">.73<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="97">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">44.1<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">2.1<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.2pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">.17<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="90">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">2<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="97">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">.76<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="97">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">50.2<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">2.7<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.2pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">.00<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 2;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="90">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">3<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="97">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">.99<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="97">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">42.6<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">1.7<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.2pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">.15<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 3;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="90">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">4<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="97">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">1.01<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="97">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">48.7<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">2.1<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.2pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">.03<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 4;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="90">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">5<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="97">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">1.01<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="97">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">46.6<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">2.1<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.2pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">.16<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 5;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="90">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">6<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="97">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">1.04<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="97">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">50.0<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">2.5<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.2pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">.04<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 6;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="90">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">7<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="97">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">1.06<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="97">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">44.6<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">2.1<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.2pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">.48<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">8<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="97">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">1.13<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="97">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">44.5<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.15pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">2.1<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.2pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">.15<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt;">Quite a difference
between sires, but not necessarily production related except for Sire 2. When
all factors affecting trait inheritance considered, individual intake or gut
biome for instance, one can only speculate at this stage on heritability via
this method of measurement. More data, over more time needed.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><b><u><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">CONCLUDING OPINION</span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt;">The NS400 can make a
reliable contribution to the breeding tool-kit, given that all ways I’ve looked
at the scenario, in what should be regarded as quite a small snapshot, still gave
results consistent with themes in relevant literature.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">This applicable also when
considering the effect of different feed species illustrated here with the
difference in emission profile between rye mix pasture and clover, and which could,
by extrapolation, exist with feed crops like chickory, plantain, and brassicas, 10-20% lower emissions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt;">Incorporation of methane
measurement into a breeding program would demonstrate a will to positively
engage in GHG mitigation, and the contribution should ultimately be measurable.
However, given the positive relationship between higher production and lower
CH4 emission, performance driven flocks and herds have indirectly been doing
the “right thing” by livestock GHG mitigation for at least 50 years, (here in
NZ).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt;">In a scenario where h2 is
so low, 0.1 to 0.2, culling lower performers can lift the population mean
quickly. Removing the bottom 10% of this trial sample improves the top-line mean
CH4: by 8%.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">For myself I’ll implement
a worst CH4 performing 10% cull to my sale ram and replacement ewe hgts, in
line with what I apply to all traits, and will be looking for the best male to
retain as a stud keeper. I’ll be basing emission performance on two or more
observations in the first 18 months of age.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt;">It’s a moot point whether
NS400 data like this derived outside of the PAC offering will be acceptable to
SIL recording system and BV’s so derived.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt;">As with all new
technologies, the more you use them, the more uses become apparent, you can’t
beat measuring stuff.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt;">I think the NS400 fits
that task for the practical breeder pretty well.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjaB-9XOpuxTsH4u1npPZwvB-wXIlzebZOTweDFfinVVTBbveJbx7kqAlqe563UBonAyd2i3WQgBiZtXiPhiX-euHphnUGfCNxTGHgln-IP1MrnCn1VmSRH9WSZ2ck7pmvDT3c_JUi1C4O32mV1VlXzdjqIoIVh6mONhETDHm_-DCCf3dP1a1tbth366Axi" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img data-original-height="608" data-original-width="862" height="453" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjaB-9XOpuxTsH4u1npPZwvB-wXIlzebZOTweDFfinVVTBbveJbx7kqAlqe563UBonAyd2i3WQgBiZtXiPhiX-euHphnUGfCNxTGHgln-IP1MrnCn1VmSRH9WSZ2ck7pmvDT3c_JUi1C4O32mV1VlXzdjqIoIVh6mONhETDHm_-DCCf3dP1a1tbth366Axi=w640-h453" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><br /><p></p>john@waionehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07352864956135955675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7121265848528873533.post-86574015706335912712020-07-09T12:13:00.000+12:002020-07-09T12:13:37.330+12:00Winter Shear<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdIqli-LBEMRUSmXi3hyJ1T6eqXB0Bcq0uRW6OxsrUEvWCtvdRL14EFq9yEOBI-zvvrgCTkxRZK8JoKRG2SH0-cWaDFFkXp-H02eUrnaqjvlSXSB6FhkfPaHTldNd-Y3a6C_Af6EHzYi_H/s1600/20200626_102428.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdIqli-LBEMRUSmXi3hyJ1T6eqXB0Bcq0uRW6OxsrUEvWCtvdRL14EFq9yEOBI-zvvrgCTkxRZK8JoKRG2SH0-cWaDFFkXp-H02eUrnaqjvlSXSB6FhkfPaHTldNd-Y3a6C_Af6EHzYi_H/s320/20200626_102428.jpg" width="180" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A fortuitous patch of warm weather for late June, too good a chance to miss for early winter shear.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cover combs leave the sheep with a bit of wool left on so they can withstand any sort of adverse local weather after just a few days, plus we still have over 10 weeks till lambing starts. Due the drought we delayed putting the rams out by 2 weeks.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Got the wool weights back from the broker yesterday, the 2ths did 4.2kg for 11 months since last shear, the MA's did 2.8kg for 6 months.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lot of dismay about current poor per kg returns for crossbred wool not being enough to cover cost of shearing. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can give up and say you're shearing sheep just for reason of their health, but we think we're keeping ahead of the costs by an extended time between shears, 8 monthly (3 times in 2 years, we got a bit out of phase this time due the lock-down), and keeping tabs on the genetics for fleece weight.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Waione sires continue to inhabit the national upper percentile for SIL's wool index. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Airline and hospitality industry upholstery and carpeting have been the chief users of crossbred wool, but they've taken a hammering in these covid times, delaying any recovery in prices, for who knows how long.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Its a shame a natural, bio-friendly product should so languish.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">NZ exports over 40,000 tons of this class of wool annually, we need an end product that captures the consumers imagination in a big enough way, and that is either competitive with synthetic materials, or inhabits an entirely separate market.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuSSrn6JpTHsxUHgG3L-IlG0oMK4EuFmB_H1vY1VHzSG-gIjo9oAyMgLaQBu-h7zSikVOIyWJhTBCfrzdeG_nVa9qQdhx-WUcpb34szT5DHCrILKR1ab24-cm6sFLlHVHxW0GX5XLqYbqD/s1600/20200626_081524.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuSSrn6JpTHsxUHgG3L-IlG0oMK4EuFmB_H1vY1VHzSG-gIjo9oAyMgLaQBu-h7zSikVOIyWJhTBCfrzdeG_nVa9qQdhx-WUcpb34szT5DHCrILKR1ab24-cm6sFLlHVHxW0GX5XLqYbqD/s320/20200626_081524.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>john@waionehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07352864956135955675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7121265848528873533.post-48224578740964511032017-01-03T14:26:00.000+13:002017-01-03T14:26:58.565+13:00Book: Protecting Paradise<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcaP2MnhjXMHT4EfK2lszuUA50gvweBAK-dzFyizvc_V7exld6vodrgpypeF6wwjjo9-tacFAxefGXPu23yMh8npDb5yVhuoOpitrC_0ey3MUKV3hDP7sJAyOK9Km3shwWaGZZ1PSsv1eZ/s1600/hansford.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcaP2MnhjXMHT4EfK2lszuUA50gvweBAK-dzFyizvc_V7exld6vodrgpypeF6wwjjo9-tacFAxefGXPu23yMh8npDb5yVhuoOpitrC_0ey3MUKV3hDP7sJAyOK9Km3shwWaGZZ1PSsv1eZ/s320/hansford.JPG" width="180" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Real surprise here.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fed Farmers promoted this book a while back on the weekly RamBull newsletter. Its a late 2016 print, so the Feds were right out of the blocks on it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I got it because I thought, as a farmer, I had a responsibility to be as boned up on pest control as I could, seeing as we've had a career long involvement in keeping our cattle herds free of Tb, and introduced possum pest being cited as the chief disease vector. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What I thought was going to be a rather dry dissertation on the pros and cons of 1080 use turned out to be more..., much, much more, in fact one of my most interesting reads of the last 12 months.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The author devotes the first chapters to a run-down on the state, or better described as, plight, of NZ's wildlife. We usually give cursory recognition to this state of affairs when mentioned in the Press, but here's page after page quietly ramming the point home. I couldn't say I'd do a definite number on my opinion and where it might have been swayed to, more it left me with a sadness about where we are right now.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, what are we going to do about it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then there's a big section on 1080, the history of its use, about the extraordinary lengths DOC and researchers have had to go to satisfy a hostile public about its efficacy, and comparative toxicity, and the development of safest forms of deployment.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And here's where the book got really interesting, discussing the philosphy of disposition, argument, dissent, discontent... whatever, Hansford's done a great job of presenting how an argument looks from both sides, all sides actually, but really how difficult it is, with the best science behind your argument, how the opposition can use it against you without a shred of scientific research data of their own.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The proposition that we all argue an issue from the basis of our own perspective is well travelled in the book, and I have to say my own bias was tested when Hansford likened the 1080 debate to that of climate change. Like with disease and pest control, as a farmer I have to keep a weather eye on most things, climate change included. I'm probably classifiable in the "denier" side of fence-sitter on that, but I'd strongly disagree from my position of all-sectors polling rural realism, that climate deniers were as vociferous as the 1080 dissenters, in fact I'd give the climate bad-mouthing award to the climate activists.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However, Hansford should be pleased I'll henceforth side with DOC's use of aerial 1080 plans, and will join the plea for better funding for DOC by Govt.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqyq4nxnWfy_ql-g7VCgen8hnjivkZp2H0DSrY0VcoMSMjX5hYU3-CAsjJieM2Zst_vSMB87MtNv9h7mc14s4D_oS-BU-38_mDATVJqvhey6btNZx5qYpweTXU-CsFNof1H_3AnTYRH26M/s1600/plovers.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqyq4nxnWfy_ql-g7VCgen8hnjivkZp2H0DSrY0VcoMSMjX5hYU3-CAsjJieM2Zst_vSMB87MtNv9h7mc14s4D_oS-BU-38_mDATVJqvhey6btNZx5qYpweTXU-CsFNof1H_3AnTYRH26M/s400/plovers.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For the last 5 years or so this farm has been part of a much larger district wide brodifacoum bait station program run by the regional council. Initially, I didnt like the signage at the gate that went with it, like the place was under quarantine, but I've relented big time.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Scenes like the plover family on the right are regular now. Year before last we had a family of 13 quail hatch, grow and disperse from under a hedge. Haven't seen a possum for 3 years, haven't had rats in my garage, stable, or around the dog kennels for a couple years either. Found a skink from under my front deck, haven't seen one since I was a kid. Tui's regularly gong away in the trees round the house.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don't think the Predator Free NZ vision is at all nuts, even if only part achieved we'll see a big difference.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dave Hansford's book is an extraordinarily well written exposition on what could have been a difficult subject. Heck, there's even a 30 page bibliography/citations.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think its a triumph in the use of modern English.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thankyou Dave, and thanks Fed Farmers for putting it on the reader list</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>john@waionehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07352864956135955675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7121265848528873533.post-4167069538744219932016-12-07T15:31:00.000+13:002017-01-03T15:43:29.971+13:001418 reporting for duty<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Time for the bulls to go out, early Dec mating gives us an early Sep start to calving.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I've drifted off calving earlier, an extra month just gives that bit extra breathing space around the seasonal grass growth pattern. Having calves a month live-weight behind is a small price to pay for better herd well-being, and less stress on the Management.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The winter-saved calving paddocks, closed from Jun 1st till Sep 1st, give me time to finish a few more lambs beforehand, the block grows 5-6000 dm by Sep to put the cows on for calving. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Meanwhile they've run out on the hills till end Jun, come off them before they do too much pug damage into the sidling wintering block, where they'll get balage if they need it, 2 months there, then into the calving block.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So here's 1418, home bred 2yo bull, introduced to his yearling consort. You'll see a flash of white on the heifers, that comes from a Hereford I used over 10 years ago, the odd white head and foot lingers. Apart from the Hereford, haven't used an outside blood bull in over 20 years.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The herd isn't on an official recording system, I keep my own records, and I think things are ticking along quite well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here's why.....</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Nessa Carey's <i>Junk DNA </i>and <i>The Epigenetics Revolution</i> move one to the view that "what you see is what you get" performance, unadulterated by correction and heritability equations could in fact be the best thing for breeders to be chasing. That outlier corrected out of the hunt by BLUP, could in fact be the individual with the epigenetic modulation of RNA expression to take the flock or herd to the next level of production.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I've devised my own system of cow lifetime production measure, based on mean annual ratio of weight of calf weaned, with penalty of zero for barren, 0.5 for wet/dry, and 0.75 for calf died.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One thing sticks out like the proverbial....</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If there's one selection criterion a commercial breeder can hang his hat on, I think its early calving. These cows inevitably have the heaviest calves, and will be the most likely to do it again next year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I have a selection index for young stock that adds this dam performance to the mean weaning and yearling wt ratio.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Works great......</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1418 was 124% for his wng/yrlg ratio, and his dam 114% lifetime calf prod, 238% index.</span></div>
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john@waionehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07352864956135955675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7121265848528873533.post-7652969224447584722016-11-20T20:10:00.000+13:002016-11-20T20:10:57.569+13:00Crops Away, and the new Walco Allspread 6.75 spreader<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Direct drilled last Monday, the pasja's struck really well, only been six days!</span><div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvcvHmaEYQde_8YekF_HBg2ILwRu_L4gtXeTdSarguXIen-OImwFn0jWXIBEyKyAW1sseAjVL1A5jADdmU4YtqKG2YhOwxvQ4F3Hs5eXlSuCdOs_65iki2-Zaj8pGZL6hh9lH0rTSSkfWm/s1600/passtrike16_1680x945.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvcvHmaEYQde_8YekF_HBg2ILwRu_L4gtXeTdSarguXIen-OImwFn0jWXIBEyKyAW1sseAjVL1A5jADdmU4YtqKG2YhOwxvQ4F3Hs5eXlSuCdOs_65iki2-Zaj8pGZL6hh9lH0rTSSkfWm/s320/passtrike16_1680x945.JPG" width="180" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First run with the new Walco 6.75 spreader.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pleased to report it spread as accurately as the handbook settings said...., I was doing 40kg/ac DAP, 12 metre swath at 15 kmph.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A walk around the paddocks after showed distribution was happily satisfactory.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Got the same good result putting some urea on the paddock closed for Jan hay.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The bin will hold 1/2 ton no problem, but I had to work out a suitable driving technique, its not really wise to be doing turns at 15 kph with a load on the back, specially when I get up on the hills later on. Using the foot throttle solved the problem, slow down for the turns.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The handbook said work round and round for best spread, but with the GPS set on A to B, I prefer working in lands with a single run 12 metre headland across each end of the paddock.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrlr6_KkNQkPyGlTCKcvXWjYpDP5fTk7-hDIiUx3VOTUdQBWSXbbGkQ7KeeNS-cN0X4LWuEKzAw-Jeqe07azQQa_mpbzghddWLFpjTRBQJe57zTzH0nrEZ87wBL1XCLis9dZGOz4ytd_AB/s1600/walco_1680x945.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrlr6_KkNQkPyGlTCKcvXWjYpDP5fTk7-hDIiUx3VOTUdQBWSXbbGkQ7KeeNS-cN0X4LWuEKzAw-Jeqe07azQQa_mpbzghddWLFpjTRBQJe57zTzH0nrEZ87wBL1XCLis9dZGOz4ytd_AB/s400/walco_1680x945.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wasn't all sweetness and light however.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Real mission to mount on the tractor. I had to use outside extension pins to match the TYM's CatII linkage arms, and even then the width dosent match all my other CatII gear, so I'm going to have to frig round adjusting the shackles swapping between machinery, all this made worse by bugger all space between spreader bin and tractor, a frustrating squeeze for a bloke my size.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bit of a bounce on my OD to fit the capital purchase in, but I got this idea, instead of one humungous annual fert bill, I'd do smaller one to three monthly bites of the cherry, as finances allow.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The 1/2 ton capacity allows for getting fert in Ravensdown's 1/2 ton bags, or, I can get bigger amounts in bulk, and load it with the old Same and bucket.</span></div>
john@waionehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07352864956135955675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7121265848528873533.post-4158230858344623732016-11-08T13:26:00.000+13:002016-11-20T19:36:49.507+13:00Movie: Rams<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Worth a look by all livestock breeders, cattle or sheep.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This movie, set in Iceland, tells the story of how a farm animal disease epidemic can affect us on a personal level.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There's a few bloopers in here that'll go right over the head of the average townie, but by and large its a close enough to the bone depiction of what we might have to face if border protection systems fail us, and....., how some of us might react.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">She's a pretty tough environment to farm in up there, magnificent landscape nevertheless.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So were the sheep, must look up the breed, sort of like a long-woolled Texel with horns.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">(Actually, they're Icelandic Sheep!)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Salute to the sheep-breeders of Iceland!</span>john@waionehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07352864956135955675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7121265848528873533.post-1455839205930553582016-09-01T13:48:00.000+12:002016-09-01T13:52:41.752+12:00Ready for Calving<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5HQYotOtxQS5bwXtabDYkOPIBrok8Ns5PggW4d5HJjHBpEJrCVpp7siUuGHw3BDnSo-QR9dYAIa6SL2ODJ_NgmhSU1ifqviuf41XrIZGvtGCw8UI88IrdGspD0PhP0V-1CQ_JS6CkuSJN/s1600/mac608.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5HQYotOtxQS5bwXtabDYkOPIBrok8Ns5PggW4d5HJjHBpEJrCVpp7siUuGHw3BDnSo-QR9dYAIa6SL2ODJ_NgmhSU1ifqviuf41XrIZGvtGCw8UI88IrdGspD0PhP0V-1CQ_JS6CkuSJN/s400/mac608.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Well........ we made it</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Due calving date just round the corner, and the cows onto saved pasture yesterday.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">They've come off the wintering block in good order, actually put good amount of condition on, and have only fed balage last couple of weeks.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Major cost has been one old duck broke the tractor door as she brushed past when the mob thought it might have been a shift day rather than the start of silage feeding. The door literally exploded in a shower of glass, I know who the culprit is, #605, she's still got a layer of glass chips stuck to the poron patch. $1800 for a replacement door. After drumming into Rob, keep the effing door shut, this one happens under the Boss's watch.....</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Had an early morning tractor drive into town this morning, 18km, had Central Glass fit the new door for me, all done in 20 odd mins, lot warmer drive on the way home.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Closed 1st June, the calving block's sitting at about 5-6000 kg dm/ha, with a prior dusting of causmag applied day before.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Nothing elaborate about the management, 2 mobs of 30 cows on 12 acres each, fed off in 3 acre breaks will get through to end Oct, urea applied as they move off the earlier breaks if needed.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hard to believe things are normalising, after all the disruption since the flood.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sleeping much better at nights.....</span>john@waionehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07352864956135955675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7121265848528873533.post-7956166846549335842015-07-14T21:09:00.000+12:002015-07-14T21:09:00.370+12:00First Post-Flood Sheep Muster<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Its now been 3 weeks since the flood, finally the silt has dried out enough to contemplate bringing some ewes in, bit of pressure involved, the Vet Club say they can fit in a half days scanning tomorrow.</span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I want to identify the empty ewe hgts, so they can go off the place as part of the de-stock program. The older 5 and 6 yr ewes came in with them, and the lower conditioned of that class can go as well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We took a punt the mob wouldn't get bogged, particularly where Rob had bull-dozed the wet silt off the main track, into a windrow.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With all the gates opened for the mob to string its way in, they all very sensibly followed the well known path, we didn't push them and it couldn't have gone better.</span></div>
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john@waionehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07352864956135955675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7121265848528873533.post-45227676122021481292015-06-21T21:39:00.000+12:002015-07-14T21:40:12.989+12:00FLOOD!!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiohkNilHSPcC2oaDP3fF5PO7jiATCo1RBt36Y6kemqy_gB8d68-K6UZG1ZhuDn1QTRXbApDldxhZDR3wG7J6IZDTt_gVEVu4EeaCb0viXCC3QWB_E7waLg9K2t4fmmuIH3DiaNkfzpaNjd/s1600/flood15m2_800x600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiohkNilHSPcC2oaDP3fF5PO7jiATCo1RBt36Y6kemqy_gB8d68-K6UZG1ZhuDn1QTRXbApDldxhZDR3wG7J6IZDTt_gVEVu4EeaCb0viXCC3QWB_E7waLg9K2t4fmmuIH3DiaNkfzpaNjd/s400/flood15m2_800x600.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here we go again......</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is the view at daybreak, Jun 21st, from the upstairs window.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The valley road follows the line of trees running left to right, and the river's supposed to be in the trees at the back.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is 2-3' below flood peak we reckon, down in front of us the water's 6' deep, and over at the road, about a foot. It'll need to go down another couple feet before we can get out, that'll be in the 6 ton 4wd truck.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All the vehicles are up here, except for the tractor and bulldozer, which should be high enough not to get covered.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I left 4 horses in the paddock behind the poplars, left background, they would have spent the night up to their bellies. About mid-day I saw them paddling out, relieved to see they were still there. Plus my two herd bulls which must have swum in from two paddocks away.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Subsequent to this, we've confirmed the flood height's about a foot lower than 2004.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Every flood's different, this one roared all night. The whole district including the up-country hills had 150mm in 48 hours, on top of 150mm already recorded since the beginning of the month.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is the 4th in 10 years, shifting stock and equipment followed the plan, we had a days warning from Horizons very good river level forecast system.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When the water recedes there's going to be another foot of wet silt over probably 3/4's of the flats, pretty disheartening after all the pasture restoration since the 2013 go.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My sister and her family's been chased out of their house again, they'll be up here with me a turn till their house dries out.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Several homes in the valley, same situation.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I guess if you live in a flood plain you have to expect some trauma, I know my father only had one like this around 1938, and its incredible I farmed 40 years flood free, to get to this.</span>john@waionehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07352864956135955675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7121265848528873533.post-10734820934508878832014-12-31T11:43:00.000+13:002015-07-14T21:10:32.347+12:00Sign of the Times<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6vG1WMhLD2s78ghLnAZo-NtQMPx494SgQPuVM2nnEzlUYMGxm3X_zEr4DPgAiNaqSuWPN64SZ3YOSZXK8IFsvAuZ7P5BLw6TMIQ8SkOzZ9ipGTTSiFmdA8bCClNYi3d6TK0Q0uxQ3nn5X/s1600/signofthetimes1412+002_1024x577.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6vG1WMhLD2s78ghLnAZo-NtQMPx494SgQPuVM2nnEzlUYMGxm3X_zEr4DPgAiNaqSuWPN64SZ3YOSZXK8IFsvAuZ7P5BLw6TMIQ8SkOzZ9ipGTTSiFmdA8bCClNYi3d6TK0Q0uxQ3nn5X/s1600/signofthetimes1412+002_1024x577.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Metrosideros excelsa</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the great things about farm life is getting an array of seasonal signals, the pohutukawa tree annual blossoming is one of them, putting on a deep red display right on Christmas.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This year's arrival was actually a week late, maybe the rain we got through the three months right up to end Dec put the brakes on its clock, but certainly a great show of colour.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Its known in some quarters as the NZ Christmas Tree for this flowering characteristic, and its said to be found from the top of the North Island down to a line level with Mt Taranaki through to East Cape.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here at 40th parallel Whangaehu we're actually below this line but this tree's doing fine in our 900mm annual rainfall flood silt plain, and has withstood three major floods in the last 10 years. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm trying to plant one a year to make an avenue along my driveway, you can just make out junior in front.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pohutukawa is a Maori word derived from <i>hutukawa, </i>a red feather headress.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Latin name, <i>metrosideros</i>, refers to the iron-like properties of the hard timber, used in early times for weapons, paddles, digging sticks and spades.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A tea made from the bark or leaves was used as a cure for dysentery and diarrhoea, and the nectar from the flowers for food and treatment for sore throat.</span></div>
john@waionehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07352864956135955675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7121265848528873533.post-58477768351625567202014-06-15T16:42:00.001+12:002014-06-27T19:43:21.241+12:00Yamaha Viking vs Honda Big RedHave quite often looked up various ATV comparisons and reviews, mostly YouTube posts, and have been highly entertained by the comment, mostly American in origin and some pretty vehement, about performance and reliability of the different makes. Manufacturers, amusingly, aren't past slagging each others product either.<br />
The old Taska Colt here has put in a creditable trouble-free year, but I have to admit, we could do with a better representative in the particular work-slot it occupies on the farm. Main problem, its an NZ put-together of Chinese manufacture origin, and although I thought any reliability problems could be negated by cheaper cost of replacement parts, this theory got blown out of the water when the parts supply dried up.<br />
For a while, local 4WD supremo's Cowper Trucks matched parts, or made them up from scratch, but theyve run out of enthusiasm, understandably because of the dead time involved.<br />
So, I resolved to return to the name manufacturers where servicing and repairs would be assured, and ironically, driving past the local Yamaha dealer's yard, I'd often spotted a Big Red Honda on the used lot.<br />
On going in for a more detailed look I got presented with the new Viking with its attractive finance no deposit/2 yrs to pay package, and a weeks trial offer, one I couldn't refuse.<br />
Well, the Viking was great, a real man's machine, looked good, felt good...<br />
<ul>
<li>ton of grunt </li>
<li>fast</li>
<li>superb suspension over the mogul section of our farm access race</li>
<li>excellent over rough ground, (longer wheelbase big help here)</li>
<li>great hill climbing</li>
<li>without peer down-hill engine braking</li>
<li>loved the controls, dial up drive, dash-mounted handbrake, passenger grab bar</li>
<li>comfortable seat and driver position</li>
<li>stack of room in the cockpit</li>
</ul>
But I didnt buy it.........<br />
Thought I might as well try the Honda, and finished up deciding to take it instead for the following reasons...<br />
<ul>
<li>beside the Viking its a bloody ugly duckling, and its harder to get in and out of, but its closer to the "motorised wheel-barrow" job description required here</li>
<li>its 4 wheels are the same size, for the life of me I cant see why Yamaha put smaller wheels on front of the Viking</li>
<li>I like the Honda's bar-treaded Maxxis 25/10/12 Big Horns all round</li>
<li>consequently its good in the mud and climbs hills real good, albeit you have to attack them a bit because of seeming higher geared</li>
<li>and isnt so good downhill, poor engine braking by comparison, dont know whether its because of low engine compression, or the auto gearbox/clutch not handling the task, or the gearing referred above</li>
<li>Dunno about the auto gearbox, thought it would be better than a CVT belt, but the mind of its own on this installation dosent seem quite with it. The old Taska had a manually controllable 3 speed auto hooked up to a 600cc twin, a much sweeter match.</li>
<li>and while on the negatives, the short wheelbase and suspension give you a bumpy ride by comparison</li>
<li>however.... the Honda's much quieter, I need to be able to potter round the lambing paddocks, tagging newborn lambs etc, without startling the natives. </li>
<li>I also contemplate pasture spraying which needs to be done at a constant 17-20 kph, the Honda will do this without an accompanying noise factor, the Viking will require earmuffs</li>
<li>and the Honda can sweetly follow at a slow crawl a mob of sheep in from the back of the farm. The Viking just couldnt do this, its either stopped or going, snatch/grab like a snarling caged tiger, and just as bad in low gear</li>
<li>the Honda's cargo bed is all plastic, an advantage over the Vikings tin bed inviting rust under the optional bed-liner which you have to buy as an extra. The dogs handle the jump-on over the rounded back and sides better, and I dont hear any scratching and scrabbling around, so they're keeping their footing pretty well on the plastic too.</li>
<li>I've been feeding hay off it for nearly a month now, and am pleased to note the headboard's high enough hay isnt falling down the front of the deck, and there's no potential fire hazard build up. The engine's well shrouded as well. </li>
<li>the Honda's only a 2 seater, the Viking 3, but honestly, when would I be carting 2 other passengers around. Cant carry as much gear on the floor as in the Viking either</li>
<li>the handbrake's under the seat, despite the dash warning light and the best will in the world, I still now and again forget to release it, cant beat the Viking's up on the dash</li>
<li>both vehicles thoughtfully provide drain holes in any areas that catch water, except the Honda has handy little trays behind the seats that dont, neither has it got a dash pocket with a lid</li>
</ul>
So that's about the extent of the issues that concern me on both vehicles. Nothing much between them 700cc engine wise.<br />
If I had 1000 acres or more and wanted something capable of getting to all corners of the estancia including the least accessible, and back, with grunt and power, then its the Viking, specially if other personnel to be carried.<br />
The Big Red suits my more laid back requirements.<br />
You might ask why I didnt try the new Honda Pioneer, well I did. <br />
Didnt get off square one..., its designed by someone with a 34" waistline, I just didnt fit behind the wheel!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Viking - sexy good looks<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bread and butter Honda cockpit<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">All plastic cargo deck an advantage<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Like those 25.10x12 Maxxis BigHorns all round</td></tr>
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john@waionehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07352864956135955675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7121265848528873533.post-21592430708148932762014-06-03T20:00:00.000+12:002015-03-03T13:50:25.998+13:00Farewell and Godspeed Little Friends<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Its not just us humans that get to have big adventures, these two guys (Waione Coopworth ram lambs) are off to Nepal, but unlike us, they've no idea whats next in store.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They're going to an international aid project there. At first you'd think, too high, too cold, but have been informed Nepal has substantial tracts of flat land, and summers can be pretty warm.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In addition, the project facility housing they're destined for would be the envy of many Nepalese so I'm told.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the ram lambs was from a small AI get of Lincoln 201/10, who was the top meat quality index sire of our NZOSR sire reference 2012, so apart from my concern for their future, I'm also conscious of losing some good genetic material. But the supply specs stipulated no duplications in a 5 generation pedigree, and only a handful of my sheep fitted spec.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The purchasers obviously want as diverse a gene spread as possible, given that the females in the shipment mostly came from one single source. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I felt for them as I dropped them off at the Feilding transit yard on a chilly grey winter evening for the first leg of their journey. If you've worked animals long enough you'll appreciate what company of mates means to them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Travel well little friends. I hope you're well cared for in your new home, and you get to do us proud.</span>john@waionehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07352864956135955675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7121265848528873533.post-35675676320063038622014-05-24T15:11:00.000+12:002014-05-24T15:12:14.660+12:00Distinguished Neigh-bour<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Looking over the boundary fence at the moment is O'Leary brother's Who Shot theBarman, with all the bearing and circumspection of a character who's been somewhere/done something, coming up to the fence to check out having his photo taken.</div>
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All with some justification, as he's recently returned and spelling, after a trip to Randwick chasing the Sydney Cup. Not to be this trip, but his dozen or so lifetime starts to date having yielded the G1 Avondale and Auckland Cups. Plenty of time for more, he's only four.</div>
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Along with my father's Ruato win in the Auckland Cup in 1961, some mileage has been got out of a second one coming to this little part of the Whangaehu valley, but in fact there's a third slightly tenuous connection in the winning of that race by Neil Connor's Bodie in 2003, ridden by ace Noel Harris.</div>
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Neil moved from the valley some years ago, but the Connors family name is synonomous with racing in these parts, as our generation stem from a quadratic of racing fathers, Stan and Bill Connors, Humphrey O'Leary, and my father Don.</div>
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There's a bit of a mention in Noel Harris' book, "Harry, The Ride of My Life", which I've just finished.</div>
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For anyone involved in racing over a number of years, its a sometimes hilarious walk down memory lane, racing folk being the comedians they are.</div>
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But there's also a good examination of the life of dedicated racing people, and in Noel's case the demands on a jockey to keep peace with family, trainer, and owner connections, not to mention making correct weight and all the other self-management that comes with the game.</div>
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He laments the loss from the scene of the farmer/owner with 2 or 3 horses in work, loyal supporters of their chosen trainer and jockey.</div>
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Me too......</div>
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For some reason the economics of sheep and beef farming have switched over the years to being a benefit for the rest of NZ rather than one for us owners of farms, and small communities and their trainers have suffered decline as a result, as Noel refers, Woodville, Marton, Waverley, Feilding, Levin, Otaki.</div>
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Sigh...., those were the days!</div>
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Dad and I mostly had 2-3 in work at one time with Don Grubb at Feilding, Malcolm Smith also trained there.</div>
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The track's gone now, and I can hardly afford one in work.</div>
john@waionehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07352864956135955675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7121265848528873533.post-46777348784446894782014-05-08T08:42:00.000+12:002014-05-24T15:13:37.037+12:00Labour's Monetary PolicyThe general election's only a few months away, last week the Opposition Labour Party announced some of its plans for control of the economy (inflation, house prices, etc), main part of policy being, universal compulsory superannuation, with a sliding % contribution determined according to inflationary pressure.<br />
Up till now that's been handled by the Reserve Bank adjusting from time to time, the OCR (Official Cash Rate), which flows through to the trading banks adjusting their interest rates, thereby suppressing or easing spending pressures.<br />
Labour claim it would be better for us to be paying the equivalent of an interest rate rise into our own super funds than to the banks as higher interest, and in turn the Reserve Bank would leave the OCR alone, therefore making our NZD less attractive and keeping the exchange rate down, to the benefit of exporters.<br />
Most comment in the press has been favorable so far with the main argument against being that the major reason for those not in a super scheme already is that they cant afford to, and being required to would be a hardship.<br />
My initial reaction was that it'd be a shots eye employers would be mugged into making up the shortfall in any case, on top of, and including, the employers contribution, when already we're facing the minimum living wage argument.<br />
Really, the economy's all about confidence, or otherwise, in spending/investment patterns.<br />
I dont know how other employers feel about the current situation, but I'm tentatively moving back into employing after five or so years working the farm solo. Any rocking of the economic boat now is depressing, just when I'm starting to see the benefits of having another good pair of hands around the place.<br />
Other misgivings I've got about moves around super schemes:<br />
- Australia's often touted as a shining example with its compulsory super, but you couldnt say its been any benefit to that country's balance of payments or house prices, even with their capital gains tax, which incidentally Labour include (a move into capital gains taxing here) as part of this latest package<br />
- Generally, I dont believe in anything other than own choice for investment decisions, lessons after the investment house decisions of the last recession are easily forgotten, and futhermore, I wouldnt entrust any investment of mine to government control. I opted not to be in Kiwi-Saver. The best investment any of us could make is into debt reduction, and trying saving while you run any debt is plain nuts.<br />
- Neither do I think any policy wonks are capable of pulling the economy's levers at the right time, and for right reason<br />
- Every action has a counter-effect. Taking a few dollars out of wage packets will probably increase demand for welfare expenditure. Keeping interest rates down depressess returns for those who have saved in, and rely some on bank deposits for their fixed income<br />
- Just who's going to benefit here? People on benefits dont have an "employer", so they wont get an employers contribution, but I guess us general taxpayers will stump that up somehow. The government tops up contributions to those who are making $20 weekly Kiwi-savings by a further $500, so much like Working for Families, its a middle class tax grab/benefit. Just the effect the left-wing want I guess.<br />
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Give Labour points for trying I guess......<br />
but I dont think it'll cut it.<br />
One letter to the editor in yesterday's Dom suggested it would be better for the super surcharge to be directed into the saver's own mortgage principal, rather than into Kiwi-Saver, where it will only be fueling share-market prices.<br />
The NZ share-market does suffer from being too small, and again the Labour/Greens opposition to the Govt floats of 49% of power generators defies logic.<br />
And lastly, we've had a low OCR for a few years now but its done nothing to lower our exchange rate, there are other forces at play outside of the range of our internal economy, mainly the stability of the NZD's appeal to international investors.<br />
<br />
Robust economies are all about "confidence".<br />
The further governments keep their hands off the levers the better, far as I'm concerned.john@waionehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07352864956135955675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7121265848528873533.post-13023340270000549592014-03-30T12:28:00.000+13:002014-06-15T12:30:02.487+12:00Zuk - The gremlin returns...After rejoicing over the faulty distributor discovery and the subsequent fix, 6 months down the track the engine splutter and miss returns.<br />
Rob reports the engine shuts down completely if you turn on the wipers or lights.<br />
I give up, so its out with the tow rope, and in to Dion at Wanganui Auto Electrical, with instructions to submit it to Auto Electrics 101.<br />
Didnt take them long at all.<br />
The main earth cable, (multi-strand copper is it?), has corroded away and the strands a brittle mess.<br />
New earth cable, and we're on the way home and back to work.<br />
Hasnt looked back since, and the engine temp's behaving itself even better.<br />
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john@waionehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07352864956135955675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7121265848528873533.post-59209876075325820242014-03-20T11:06:00.000+13:002014-03-23T09:56:57.339+13:00Massey University 50th Anniversary<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tiritea House, the old VC's residence</td></tr>
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Nostalgia day today. This year marks 50 since Massey changed from an agricultural college, to a university, celebrations have been going a week, and my decade went through today.<br />
Just a couple of my old class-mates turned up, but a distinct collegial familiarity with all the other faces, ancient recognition from the old campus, hostel, or rugby field, or careers in tandem crossing years and fields of endeavour.<br />
Naturally, conversations lubricated broached with the more infamous and hilarious exploits of university student-hood. Pre-varsity at the time, I had the view held by wider society of uni students looked on with some disdain, long-haired protesters, but I quickly came to admire the absolute creativity and sheer audacity of some of the pranks and pranksters here.<br />
I guess to open reflection at this level might seem hardly appropriate, but its this immersion in the creative melting pot that is a university that made me, and the critical thinking path I think, or hope, I've taken in the business of life and living. And my contribution to humanity a pretty humble one compared with those of the shoulders rubbed today.<br />
It was great to catch up with farm management lecturer, Peter MacGillivray, naming me in one, with his fantastic memory recall. No one lecturer made so big an impression on critical thinking with so few notes, all our dip-ag class agreed. He's been a great lifetime servant of Massey.<br />
TS Chang provided the other trigger, sheep performance research, that launched my sheep and beef breeding interest and career.<br />
Less than 1000 students back then, 30,000 today.<br />
Very pleased to hear that university planning includes restoration to original of Tiritea House, the Main Science building and the Refectory as part of earthquake upgrading. A couple of dippies drove a mini and a fiat round the ground floor corridor of Main, passing at the front vestibule, and the Refec was the scene of many a Sunday bun-fight and table run.<br />
But I do remember my lecturers with just as great finity as I do the hallowed halls, MacGillivray, Small, Chang, Bowler, Jacques, Rees, Meek, Regnault, Baker, and sadly, the face but not the name, of the economics/accountancy man, (Ward?), who put me on the path to vital cashflow/budgetry skill.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looking across the Common to the Refectory and Pink on the right</td></tr>
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Old Hostel, where I lived for the year, (125 quid for the year it cost), is gone now, used to be to the left of this pic. Its reputed one student went a whole year without underpants, every week or so he'd flog another pair off the clothesline. Another character rolled his station-wagon on the access road with the hostel beer order aboard, 18 flagons-worth running in a stream down the hill to the hostel entrance. And when the Mog girls hi-jacked and apple-pied our laundry basket, my pillow slip got a nice lip-stick kiss mark on it, I day-dreamt it was that pretty little Johnson blondie did it, lol.john@waionehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07352864956135955675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7121265848528873533.post-10849452496056465522014-01-25T15:30:00.000+13:002014-01-25T15:30:24.519+13:00Good start to the lamb seasonSo far so good, certainly a better start to the season than last year when the three months leading up to New Year were so dry. This Jan have had nearly 90mm rain and the place is hanging on pretty good despite a heap of drying wind the last week.<br />
We're 100 lamb sales ahead of same time last year, and at a bit over $93 gross per, nearly $20 ahead on price as well.<br />
Even so, to be really comfortable over here, you need to achieve at least $100 per head.<br />
Our annual draft of 15 month heifers made a couple of dollars less than last year, at last weeks local store female cattle sale, and were actually about 5kg lower av lwt as well, so the market's pretty consistent, $753 av gross for 336kg lwt.<br />
Have been seriously comparing the merits of the commercial ewe flock vs same su's in beef cows, and although the annual gross with a beef herd is a lot lower, the net profit is nearly double.<br />
Will be keeping these surplus heifers next year and putting them to the bull with the others, with a view to at very least, increase the beef herd size.<br />
Past experience has shown they'll get in calf here at 250kg and up, at yearling stage, and this years 2 yo's calved 100%, with no assistance necessary, a really good achievement coming out of last summer's drought.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Draft muster, New Year 2014<br />
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john@waionehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07352864956135955675noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7121265848528873533.post-50445668465027929952014-01-19T11:03:00.000+13:002014-01-21T09:34:11.973+13:00More on the Quad Bike IssueAnother child's lost it's life in a quad accident, 6 year old, rolled into a ditch and pinned under the machine, had a helmet on but that's no protection against water, and the weight of a quad on a small body.<br />
Public reaction's reached a crescendo with one recent letter to the editor of the DomPost stridently advocating policing and fining of farmers not obeying OSH recommendations, that should be made into law, and policed whatsmore.<br />
Just how he thinks that's going to happen worries me as a land-owner. Are police going to run spy drones over farmland or what?<br />
If this is an indication of Wellington sentiment, then Prime Minister John Key only got it half right when he said, in a misquoted context, Wellington was dying. I'd say its already brain-dead, particularly when you add into account the ongoing NIMBY saga's of resistance to any change, the Basin Over-pass, the Kapiti Expressway, and the preference to impose on one farmer's life with the Transmission Gully project instead of the cheaper re-location option of the 75 or so householders to upgrade the existing highway route.<br />
Fortunately, a voice of reason appeared on Friday in another letter to the editor, from none other than the Operations General Manager, Work Safe NZ, who reiterated the four principles; always wear a helmet, choose the right vehicle for the job, be trained and experienced enough for the task, and no kids allowed.<br />
Although it conflicts statistically with a coroner investigating 5 quad related deaths, she also said there was only one quad related workplace death in 2013, and the message was getting through.<br />
Alleluia.....<br />
People like Gerry Cuneen who advocate getting tough on farmers need to realise just how severely bureaucratic attitudes affect employment, I won't employ people, full-stop, if I'm to be responsible for every foible of their character.<br />
And as for kids on quads, I got sick to death years ago, of visiting townies turning up here with undisciplined kids whose ingrained belief was that they could have a burn around on somebody else's $15,000 machine, then look at me like I'm some sort of shit when I wouldn't refill the fuel tank for them.<br />
Those days are long past.<br />
I saw a statistic some time ago, that 45% of farm related bike accidents were actually ocurred by visitors.<br />
Thankyou for your comment Work Safe Ona de Rooy.<br />
I've had bikes on this place since 1965, I dont wear a helmet all the time, but I always do if the task might eventually include risk.<br />
I do service and maintain my machinery regularly, and generally look after them, always have.<br />
I have a range of machines to select for different jobs.<br />
I rarely let anyone else drive or passenger on them.<br />
My father was an ag contractor/farmer, an artisan at his ag work, and a stickler for looking after machinery.<br />
That's my grounding, he put me in control of a tractor in my early teens after riding with him since primary school age. I got severely reprimanded for the few minor accidents I had, and touch wood, have never had an incident of import since, mainly due to never exceeding around 20kph, I think.<br />
I've noted recently, OSH personnel saying theyre targeting older farmers for their arrogance on this point, and that we're just as likely to be involved in serious incidents.<br />
I'd say that's more a quirk of the farmer demographic being loaded to the over 50's age group end.<br />
I'm just waiting for the day OSH turn up here to give me the once over, probably female, half my age, getting paid twice what I make off my humble "square", and telling me how to suck eggs.<br />
But I hope its Ona de Rooy, or someone she's trained to be as realistic.<br />
Just read that 8 people died last year in bicycle accidents on the road. I wonder if the Wellington PC police are going to start preventative surveillance on townies.<br />
So far as us rural folk are concerned it would be far simpler to deny ACC payout on any claim where breach of the 4 quad safety rules was evident.<br />
In the meantime, we should do a lot better at being safe on quads, not so much to avoid personal injury, but simply to avoid the attention getting focussed on us by, and any further growth of, the PC police.<br />
<br />john@waionehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07352864956135955675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7121265848528873533.post-65242403619589373212013-10-18T10:45:00.000+13:002013-11-23T23:09:35.173+13:00Flood UpdateWell, some good soul did come and re-join the boundary fence where it was cut to allow up-valley traffic around a flood-blocked section of road, nice professional job too, so thanks whoever.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another 50 acres increased 6" asl</td></tr>
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Now the water's gone, I see there's about 50 acres out of action, covered in muddy silt. I figure it'll take till end November to dry out, half of it will crack and let the grass through, and depending if it gets dry enough, will probably drill a summer brassica into whatever the grass dosent get its way through.<br />
Once again, the village 2 km down the road suffered. Main part of the problem there is the on ramp to the new highway bridge across the river built in the 60's, now dams the free passage of water in a way it never did. That's engineers again for you, every time something substantial gets built, there's always a consequence down the line.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">SH3 traffic waiting to negotiate the one-way dam-bank</td></tr>
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What the Whangaehu/SH3 intersection really needs is a 2 lane underpass under SH3, which will allow the water to keep going on its way. <br />
Also, the intersection will be safer for cross and inter-valley traffic with appropriate on and off-ramps.<br />
But what's the opinion of a humble resident farmer worth in the face of a qualified engineer?<br />
In the words of our famous beer, Yeah right.......john@waionehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07352864956135955675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7121265848528873533.post-31869790471440526322013-10-16T12:48:00.000+13:002013-10-16T23:16:59.886+13:00Flood<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wont be mustering to the yards from that direction for a while</td></tr>
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Here we go again......<br />
I'd put this flood at about a 1 in 10 year level in terms of effect, and its timing in that frame is consistent. <br />
Checking Horizon's river level forecasting yesterday, after only 22mm rain overnight, the gauge about 10-15km upriver from here was showing a peak of 11.5 metres to occur at 8pm last night.<br />
The really devastating 2004 flood was 13 metres, and the 2006 one, 10 metres, but we were still a bit unsure how much we could tempt fate so far as leaving stock out.<br />
Even though the local rainfall wasn't great, you cant tell what the effect of the huge catchment upstream from here will have, and I have to say, Horizons monitoring system, rainfall, soil saturation, expected run-off etc, works pretty good.<br />
At 6 metres and rising at the upstream gauge, we know we have 6-7 hours before the river breaks banks down here.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Scot doing a bit of aqua-mustering</td></tr>
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The stud lambs are only a month old, but all the mobs got boxed and taken up onto the hill faces I spoke so glowingly of assisting the cow wintering.<br />
The beef herd's right in the middle of calving, and one of those mobs we shifted, as it turned out, un-necessarily, and the dogs spent the night well above ground-level in the woolshed.<br />
A visiting mare I was foaling for a friend, we arranged to go to Letham Stud up on the hill from here, and the yearling I was boxing turned out with a paddock mate.<br />
After the 2004 flood, I dunno who it was, Min of Works I think, decided that there wasnt enough of a water-table along the road outside the farm, so they rebuilt the road 18" higher. I tried to talk them out of it, explaining if they they just cleaned up the road verge I'd be happy for the flood water to run free across the road into paddocks following its old natural course downstream.<br />
But no...... it has to be one of the stupidest bits of engineering I've ever seen, the water stays dammed on the river side of the road, and runs through the family homestead that's been dry in every flood since it was built around 1920, and also through the horse stable.<br />
The horses spent the night paddling ankle deep, but I'm confident they're safe around the stable paddocks, its just this infernal 4-6" that the road works is damming up that's really consigning the home I grew up in to be an elaborate hayshed.<br />
Citizens of Wanganui ought to be careful about Horizons spending millions on city stop-bank works, in my opinion, engineers dont always get it right.<br />
The best way to handle flood water is to watch what it wants to do, and let it do it un-impeded.<br />
Keeping out of its way is the best strategy.<br />
Now I wait for the flood water to recede so I can sort these mobs of sheep and cattle back out where they belong.<br />
I'm grateful for the help of neighbours Malcolm and Cameron, shifting stock.<br />
Not so for the young gawkers who farted up and down the road in their tractors this morning for no apparent reason other than the thrill of seeing if it could be done, and who helped themselves to a drive around my paddocks seeking an alternative to the impassible bits of valley road.<br />
In the end I let them cut the boundary fence so they could get round, but I bet no bastard offers to rejoin the fence for me.<br />
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john@waionehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07352864956135955675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7121265848528873533.post-36659177119207587522013-10-06T13:36:00.002+13:002013-10-06T13:36:40.831+13:00Motorcycle Helmet<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzvlhqlQmr443uXe_49csuVNdKkKs4ORylSu5EnuGRxhpYQKbc_deWV4LzPRw6kmlxpB77yWdhlPa3A91yY3rKC6RGkBLrAtsbXzWlZXmLGhsi78QH1n6i5VMP3J_RGnkFPRAEXrDvHVua/s1600/exo100_1600x902.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" closure_lm_953271="null" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzvlhqlQmr443uXe_49csuVNdKkKs4ORylSu5EnuGRxhpYQKbc_deWV4LzPRw6kmlxpB77yWdhlPa3A91yY3rKC6RGkBLrAtsbXzWlZXmLGhsi78QH1n6i5VMP3J_RGnkFPRAEXrDvHVua/s320/exo100_1600x902.jpg" width="320" xsa="true" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Scorpion EXO100</td></tr>
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When in PN yesterday I bought a bike helmet on special from ANZA Motors Harley Demo Day, a Scorpion EXO100. <br />
Open face model which will earn me criticism from the full-face brigade. Such critics argue there's no protection if you fall face first, but ignore that lack of a visor riding into the sun is pretty imperilling with full-face, this one has a visor. Its also got a flip down sun lens, and have to comment its one of the best shaded lens I've looked through, excellent definition and very little dimming of the vision, and lovely range of sight through to the peripheral. Easily removable, and a clear one comes with it. The visor clips off too.<br />
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Riding home from PN, I didn't have a face scarf, but wind wasn't unpleasant. The wind noise is a bit distracting however.<br />
At the sale price, $149 incl, it would make an excellent round-town lid, but I had farm use in mind if I wasn't bowled away with on-road suitability.<br />Bugger the full-face critics, most cops round the world wear this model, and as far as looks go, its a stunner. OSH have a real problem getting farm people to wear helmets on bikes and quads, and I think the main drawback is the models available are so, so, plain DAWKY.<br />
A model like this, boys will be boys couldn't help wanting to put this one on!<br />
Its really comfortable on, maybe a little on the heavy side.<br />
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john@waionehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07352864956135955675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7121265848528873533.post-30178892735340398522013-09-02T10:24:00.000+12:002013-09-27T09:54:05.688+12:00Lambing Kicks Off<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5O9AqZCtOXhCkJlgK6DZlQRbSJSaRkjeOOVEGTkOzJk_jjIGQfwusblImaHvSybtpYh5hWLcLhx1hFGeM3OePqEIWC-MHuyThhFmpplTtBFlPxZHC1t9JyqJiwmj61YRP6PsqbHX9UUV8/s1600/atrixdump1309+461_676x1200.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" closure_lm_188848="null" height="320" isa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5O9AqZCtOXhCkJlgK6DZlQRbSJSaRkjeOOVEGTkOzJk_jjIGQfwusblImaHvSybtpYh5hWLcLhx1hFGeM3OePqEIWC-MHuyThhFmpplTtBFlPxZHC1t9JyqJiwmj61YRP6PsqbHX9UUV8/s320/atrixdump1309+461_676x1200.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another good Waione mother</td></tr>
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1st September, right on the button.<br />
This year I'm starting using RFID tags on the lambs, working on the principle that jumping in's the way to useful incorporation and new systems will evolve therefrom.<br />
I did envisage entering lambing data directly into a dash mounted TruTest XR3000, but found it just too hard to leave my pocket notebook.<br />
I've had experience in the past..., several seasons with a Psion Workabout, great in the paddock, but the major problem was during the interface with and upload to the desktop PC, you never knew what was matching the receiving file, or not, and there's also the ever present danger you could lose data before upload or backup, which was the final straw for me.<br />
Not the same problem with the pocket book, provided you're careful in the rain, and keep it away from the missus and the washing machine, plus when you do a manual upload to the PC, you have the opportunity to spot anomalies, make corrections, or notes for check back in the paddock on tag numbers next tagging round.<br />
The best electronic solution I can see is the latest model Psion Workabout Pro3, which can run Excel, take it to the paddock loaded with an SIL upload compatible animal data file, and input the lambing data direct, save to onboard backup, and file swap back and forth to PC when you get home. <br />
Problem is, with an RFID reader, those babies run about $3000.<br />
I've tried a 7" tablet, but just too big to be practical, and input too slow and cumbersome.<br />
I thought maybe a Galaxy Note 2 might be able to do it, 5.3" screen, I think it probably could but for Samsung's proprietary interface software prohibiting simple USB hookup to PC. I've looked for solutions to this on Google, none of which work. Why on earth manufacturing companies think consumers are going to be happy using internet based Dropbox, SkyDrive or their own stifling proprietary sync systems is beyond me, whats wrong with Androids simple plugging in the USB and seeing the phone as Drive:E? <br />
Absolutely nothing if you're in a poor reception area, where cloud based computing's dodgy, if available at all.<br />
Actually, I have got the Note II communicating through MTP and can copy Excel files seamlessly back and forth to QuickOffice on the phone. Will experiment the season's calving with this, smaller numbers to parallel track manually<br />
The Psion would work nice on the shearing board, read tags, and follow the fleece to the scales, maybe even get the weight returned via bluetooth, but with a read range under 3" you'd be losing the use of one hand feeding the sheep through a live-weight weigher. I see some UK liveweight systems with the Psion mounted beside a panel reader, but now you're talking another $2500 at least for one of them, and the complication of another bit of obsolescing electronics.<br />
If all the RFID tags are going to achieve is making live-weight taking easier, I'm not so sure the investment is worth it. It might be better to keep the money in the bank, and make your weigh-day easier by getting a casual assistant in for a few hours work.<br />
More on this as time goes.<br />
Meanwhile, back in the lambing paddock, focus as usual on survival, already pretty good at under 8% of total lambs born, but I want to get it better than that.<br />
I've found a high relationship between lamb deaths and lower FE index, the simple solution being to quit ewes that lose lambs.john@waionehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07352864956135955675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7121265848528873533.post-59889123997987916092013-08-25T08:00:00.000+12:002013-08-25T10:07:47.736+12:00WHS 1st XV Score Premier Trophy<br />
Having a couple of nephews do their secondary education through Wanganui High School, family involvement with college rugby has been a Saturday morning regular. Both have gone on to university but Waione.co has continued a small sponsorship of the team.<br />
Today the team pulled a thriller of a final match against Palmerston North Boys High to gain the Premier Trophy, a sort of 2nd division college comp, behind the Top 10, for the Manawatu area. Trailing at half time the supporters group were starting to get a bit anxious, but this is a well drilled and very fit group of young men and a couple of late tries equalised the scores 25-all at full time. Comp rules negate going to extra time and the boys won on number of tries count-back, 4 to 3!<br />
A major contributor to Wanganui High's climb up the ranks of competition over the last few years has been Darryl's skilful and focussed coaching, the PGGW stock agent is also handles Waione farm's livestock trading.<br />
Most of the teams sponsors are local oufits all doing business with each other in some way.<br />
Well done Team!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Team and Coach embrace the Cup</td></tr>
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The AB's securing the Bledisloe Cup after a second win over Australia topped off a great day.<br />
john@waionehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07352864956135955675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7121265848528873533.post-52112457138473662992013-08-11T09:25:00.000+12:002013-08-11T09:41:51.582+12:00Drought Aftermath - Back on Track<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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For many hill breeding farms the aftermath of last summer's extended dry has been a long climb out of, both physically and financially, and for many, the effects will linger for some time still.<br />
Am personally pleased to see our ewes, now just a month off lambing, have regained a respectable liveweight, the 2ths, 48kg at mating April 1 are now 61kg, having gained 13kg in 4 months. Similarly, the MA ewes pictured are upward of 65kg.<br />
Normally, they'd be shorn before lambing, but we had to can it halfway through after a couple went down in the yards with grass staggers, but a bit of quick thinking and a 50ml dose each of calmag avoided any losses.<br />
The hills pastures, shaved bare of rough top and now rejuvenating with a fresh short young sward, are a prime candidate for mineral imbalance. The associated grass staggers, (hypomagnesaemia), is a problem you see more with cattle than sheep, so I'm a bit chuffed at having made the connection with the ewes off pasture for the short time in the yards and after a walk in from the hills.<br />
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As luck would have it, or rather by 6th sense, I felt back in Mar/Apr I'd need to make some extended provision for cattle feed should the drought extend right into and even maybe through winter, so I kept 30 acres of hill sidling in reserve. The cows are on this now, munching their way through 6000kg dm/ha nice mature feed, in their 6 week build-up to calving where they'll come down onto the flats to a controlled calving rotation.<br />
Having sold off the hill block the beef herd used to run on 5km up the valley, its taking me some time to work out a suitable management system, but this latest find of summer reserved pasture on sidling country of limited use otherwise, is ace in the hole to get the cows through the critical winter pinch. Theyre not having to compete with the closer grazing ewes, they're not stressing my fences trying to push somewhere the grass might be greener, theyre not eating at the macrocarpa hedging round the place and risking aborting their foetii, and theyre not pugging great footmarks in wet winter ground, plus I dont have to feed out hay.<br />
Bliss......<br />
You never stop learning in this game.john@waionehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07352864956135955675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7121265848528873533.post-40533686393385900762013-07-06T11:15:00.000+12:002013-07-06T11:29:51.742+12:00Zuk - back on track<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Nothing worse than a bit of machinery out of commission, its not so much the cost of repairs that's the bugbear, its the loss of use during the down-time.<br />
For almost 12 months the Zuk has had a mystery miss in the engine. Some days it would run fine, others it would fart right down to a stall, most inconveniently under a bit of going up-hill effort.<br />
I started by replacing the fuel filter, thinking that the intermittancy of the miss-fire suggested fuel blockage rather than electrics, but no go. Other experts, (always plenty of free advice available), suggested water in the fuel, and I thought, oh no, not that please, the tank is mounted behind a crash plate that would need half the rear frame removed to be got at.<br />
My auto-electrician said a faulty coil can cause behaviour like that, so I put in a replacement igniter, still no solution, so while I was at it, I replaced the plugs, leads, and main lead. This created a real problem, one of the bakelite plug caps had stuck itself firmly on the plug, (they're quite long to get down through the overhead cam cover to the plug). I had to smash it to get it off, and mate Gareth tipped me to use the air compressor to blow the bits out before I attempted removing the plug. This was plug No2, and I went into a several month mental seizure before I got the gumption up to tackle the last two, which in Murphy Law tradition literally fell out, they were so easy.<br />
But..... the miss was still there.<br />
I'd checked the compressions while the plugs were out, and they were all OK, which sort of satisfied me that maybe the head gasket wasn't stuffed, but there was still an overheating problem underlying all this carry-on.<br />
I consulted the chat sites, found a heap of threads voicing problems similar to mine. The most likely one was that there was a leak in the ignition advance vacuum line, check that, couldn't see any likely breach, but went over the whole air intake line and made joints as secure as possible.<br />
Still no improvement.<br />
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Time to call in an expert, Dan Cowper, renowned off-road truck builder lives just over the hill from me. He jumps in, fats off up the road and back, and true to Murphy, Zuk behaves herself impeccably, and Dan dryly remarks, "No charge for the fix".<br />
Jesus.... so off I go couple days later out the back of the farm, and Zuk does a complete stall on me. So I'm sitting in the sun cooling my heels, and my temper, doing the odd lap round the Zuk, searching the sky for inspiration, etc.<br />
Gazing round under the bonnet. The distributor cap's bolted on rather than clipped as more usual with distributors, and a glance round the bottom side reveals the bottom fixing bolt's missing. I hadn't bothered to look under the cap before, thinking bolted on, cant be a problem there.<br />
Well, bugger me, when I took the cap off, there's so much rust flake fluffing round inside like you wouldn't believe, the contacts are green with corrosion, and the carbon high tension button is missing completely. Gave it a scratch-up all round with the pocket knife, and scraped as much of the rust out as I could, and voila! Zuk roars into life.<br />
So, back home, good blow out with the compressed air, new cap and rotor, and the engines running like I cant remember.<br />
But, the troubles don't end there!<br />
A clack, clack, clack, starts up somewhere under the front end. Oh no..., CV joint?, universal?, gearbox?, transfer case?...<br />
I check the wheel nuts driver side, they're OK, don't bother about off-side.<br />
Call Dan in again, he walks round the off-side, all the front wheel nuts are loose. "No charge for the fix", says Dan again. Strangely, the steering isn't wandering all over the place now either!<br />
Anyway, happy ending, and to cement that in have tek-screwed on some mudguard flare extensions, so I can drive round with my elbow on the window sill, and not get mud up the side of my face as well.<br />
At the Mystery Creek Field-days noticed at the Suzuki Stand, soft tops on the farm Jimneys, on enquiry have been able to get one from the Wanganui assembly plant. Built for the longer Jimney deck I've had to cut the back end off, but I've got it rolled and bungeyed to the windscreen front edge, for unfurling in the inclement weather.<br />
Tek-screwed a rubber mat to the inside of the tailgate to complete the touch-ups.<br />
And with the engine running as it should, miss-free, the over-heating problem has abated.<br />
Can't help recalling the old rule, if an engine's not running right it'll be 90% ignition the problem.<br />
Anyway. Joy........john@waionehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07352864956135955675noreply@blogger.com0