Latest news with #Beef+LambNZ
Scoop
18-06-2025
- Business
- Scoop
Council Connects With Landowners At Planting For Profit Field Day
Council was on the ground on 10 June at Porangahau Station in Te Karaka, sharing practical insights and supporting landowners at Beef + Lamb NZ and Te Uru Rākau's 'Planting for Profit Field Day'. The event brought together farmers, land managers, and forestry advisors for a farm tour and a series of workshops focused on land management. Sessions covered practical topics such as carbon forestry 101, how to navigate the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), strategies for erosion control, riparian planting and building farm resilience through proper planning. Bryce McLoughlin, Senior Land Management Advisor, was a key speaker presenting how Council is working alongside the community to support sustainable land use across Tairāwhiti. 'Every property is different - and that's why we have our land management advisors out there, working directly with landowners to provide tailored support.' 'We're helping farmers, land managers and landowners make informed decisions using the latest science and planning tools.' Mr McLoughlin also shared how Council is using science and powerful technology to better understand the landscape and support long-term change. 'We now have access to technology and modelling we've never had before.' 'It's helping us understand the land in much more detail and that means we can give more precise advice and support to landowners.' This includes access to high-resolution LiDAR data, a landslide susceptibility and connectivity model, gully assessments, and field verification - which are all tools Council is using to guide smarter land use. The farm tour also provided a space for farmers and advisors to share their observations, suggestions and lessons learned from their own properties. There were various discussions ranging from where to focus erosion control to how planting could complement existing land use. Speakers also included forestry advisor Tim Petro, who gave a practical overview of carbon farming, and Danielle Castles from Te Uru Rākau, who led a workshop on the ETS. Mr McLoughlin said events like these are a valuable opportunity to connect with locals and strengthen relationships. 'Having these conversations are incredibly valuable for our team,' he said. 'It helps us ensure Council's work reflects what's happening on the ground and the priorities of the people who work and live here.' For more information on Council's sustainable land use work programme, visit
Irish Examiner
16-06-2025
- Science
- Irish Examiner
Limerick brothers to trial facial recognition software in sheep
If you thought all sheep looked the same, it turns out you would be wrong. In fact, in the world of artificial intelligence and machine learning, the differences are so distinct that two Co Limerick brothers, who are already revolutionising sheep worming, are now hoping to integrate facial recognition into their software, with trials about to begin across the globe, in New Zealand. The Cotter brothers, Nick and Jack from Abbeyfeale, Co Limerick, have already picked up an array of awards for their invention, the Cotter Crate, which significantly reduces the labour involved in drenching lambs. The pair are hoping to begin trials for the facial recognition software for sheep in New Zealand alongside Beef+Lamb NZ in February. Nick and Jack have already picked up an array of awards for their invention, the Cotter Crate, which significantly reduces the labour involved in drenching lambs. Previously, they have also developed software that allows stockkeepers to reduce wormer use on sheep by up to 60% without hampering productivity. The brother's SmartWorm software, which has recently been validated in trials with UCD, QUB, and Beef+LambNZ, uses data on how the animals are growing, local weather conditions, and pasture availability and quality to predict whether stock should be treated for worms with 95% accuracy, with scientific studies on the project expected to be published imminently. Later this month, the pair hope to take it a step further and will be partnering with a US company to launch an automatic drenching gun for sheep in Ireland and the UK — which will work with their software and select doses based on weight — and with that comes huge sustainability benefits. Meanwhile, Nick will be examining the adoption of technology within the sheep sector to improve productivity, profitability and sustainability of the sector as part of his Nuffield scholarship. 'The space we want to be in is technology for sheep farmers — it's a very neglected sector, but it's also a sector we know very well, growing up on a sheep farm,' he said, explaining he was keen to overcome barriers specific to different countries. 'In Australia, some farms are not willing to handle the animals every four weeks [as is currently required by the brothers' technology] — it's too frequent for them,' he said. Ear tags are not mandatory in sheep in Australia and New Zealand. 'These farms are spread across huge expanses of land — it's unimaginable scale. For those types of farms, we are integrating with remote weighing platforms — these are weighing platforms that operate out in the field. They are set in front of an attractant — it could be a mineral bucket or a water trough. We just need to see the animals once over a four-week period.' Farmers can also, through the app, make settings that will draft out the ones that are needed into another paddock. 'It means the weighing is already done, and they are only working with the ones that need to be drenched rather than the whole flock and trying to sort through them manually,' Nick added. 'The reason why we started in New Zealand is that our software depends on seeing the average daily liveweight gain of sheep — we need to see each sheep individually, so what we need at the moment is we need to weigh them and we need to scan the eartag with the weight, so we know that animal No 1 weighed 40kg today, and in four weeks' time animal No 1 is 45kg, so we don't need to treat them. "To do that, we need identification on each animal, so we need eartags.' It's no problem in Europe, where eartags for sheep have been legally mandated for many years, however, in Australia and New Zealand there is no legislative requirement to individually identify sheep, and as a result, most sheep are not tagged. It's set to change in Australia from January this year, when new rules were scheduled to come into effect. However, there is no sign of any similar change on the horizon in New Zealand. It's a problem for farmers who want to be able to reduce their use of wormers there, especially considering resistance has already become a major problem in Australasia. 'At the moment, farmers who want to use our app in New Zealand would have to take on eartagging as an additional cost just to use our software,' Nick explained. 'When you have 10,000 lambs and a set of tags cost roughly €1 each, that's €10,000. We are trying to reduce the barrier to using SmartWorm by using facial recognition technology out in the paddock and on the weigh crates that we use. This is a far lower-cost technology — in fact, it's about a quarter or a fifth of the cost of ear tags.' Sheep at Tawharanui Regional Park, New Zealand. To achieve their aim, the brothers are working on using artificial intelligence to develop a new set of algorithms capable of recognising and identifying individual sheep. 'The machine needs to see the sheep on a regular basis and use machine learning model to analyse videos or pictures of its face,' Nick said. 'We don't use their body because the body is unreliable on sheep — for example, if they are shorn, of course, it will look very different.' Nick explained early progress suggests there are indeed enough differences on their faces that it can identify each sheep individually. However, work is still under way to test the tech with different breeds. But with such huge possibilities for the technology, it's a challenge well worth undertaking. 'The potential goes far beyond just individual identification for weighing, we can go much more expansive with this, with cameras out in paddocks and look at automatic detection of lameness in sheep and automatic detection of things like flystrike and go further again and look at mothering up of lambs, to know which lambs came off which mother,' he said. The trial, which is hoped to begin in February, will also put the Cotter brothers' existing technology to the test and will build on previous research studies. This time, it will include farms in both the North and South Islands and will also cover a longer period of time over the grazing season.
NZ Herald
01-06-2025
- Business
- NZ Herald
Flawed ETS settings hurt NZ beef sector, stud bull breeders struggle
Federated Farmers national meat and wool chairman, Toby Williams. New Zealand's Emissions Trading Scheme settings are flawed, and that's hurting stud bull breeders and the wider beef sector. According to a 2023 report commissioned by Beef + Lamb NZ, New Zealand is the only country, aside from Kazakhstan, to allow 100% offsetting of carbon emissions by forestry within the
NZ Herald
22-05-2025
- Health
- NZ Herald
Livestock facial eczema breakthrough: Scientists discover new fungus species
But new research has revealed there are two species of this fungus in New Zealand pasture, not just one as previously thought. Scientists have named the new fungus species Pseudopithomyces toxicarius, identified as the primary producer of sporidesmin, the toxin produced by spores of the fungus. The new species is in addition to the better-understood non-toxic Pseudopithomyces chartarum. The study's lead author, Dr Bevan Weir, senior scientist at Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research, said the teams extensively studied the organisms, genomes and toxins found in New Zealand pasture and abroad. 'It was amazing when we got the first DNA sequencing data and there was just this incredibly clear split showing that there was definitely these two species on pasture,' Weir said. 'It was a fantastic experience figuring out that we've kind of cracked it, and that in the past there have been reports of non-toxic strains or less toxic ones, and now we know the reason why.' He said the discovery followed years of hard work and dedication by research institutes, the agriculture industry and farmers. AgResearch, Landcare Research, Beef + Lamb NZ and the Livestock Improvement Corporation were involved in the study, led by Beef + Lamb NZ. The seven-year project to eliminate the impacts of facial eczema in livestock was valued at $20.75m, and the Government assigned $8.3m to it in March last year. Weir said identifying the primary cause of facial eczema was a 'critical step forward' in reducing its impact. 'The complicated thing is that although these species are really genetically distinct and have very different genes, under the microscope, they are completely identical. 'So you can't tell them apart at all, even under our really good research microscopes. 'And this is a problem for assessing facial eczema risk, because at the moment the main method of assessing risk is doing spore counts, and it's still a good method, but some of those spores that the vets and farmers are counting under the microscope will be from the non-toxic species.' Weir said the ongoing sheep poo collection work will help them identify where the toxic and non-toxic species were found around New Zealand - but there were generally very little toxic examples found in the South Island, and more in the North Island. AgResearch lead author Christine Voisey said the teams were grateful to the farmers who supported the study by providing samples that were vital to this research. 'Working on this project has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career,' she said. 'There is still much to learn about the biology of Pseudopithomyces, but this research brings us closer to developing tools that will help mitigate the impacts of facial eczema on New Zealand's farmers.' Beef + Lamb NZ general manager of farming excellence, Dan Brier, said the research gave the sector a clearer foundation for developing more accurate diagnostic tools and effective management practices.
