Hello again readers.
This my 2 nd attempt at this, spent all afternoon yesterday on this only to push the wrong button and presto, all gone.
Well I wonder how many of you managed to get hold of the science report I wrote about last month. A Dons. I found my copy. I do not know how I missed it, there write in front of my face whilst looking for other stuff.
Sorry guys did not get it quite right ,Mr Dons cut the pasture catchment in 1/2, the reasoning I cannot quite get my head around. Something to do with a hole in the middle of it? But the rest of it is all good stuff. Certainly can understand why somebody would want cleanse the files of it. The study was from 1981 to 1984, inclusive maybe abit short, but never mind.
Average infiltration rates were 52mm per hr for the pasture catchment, 225mm/hr for the pine, and a whopping 600mm/hr for the native . This is important. think on .This is the guts of my submission to the Regional Council Ann plan last May 2015. Flooding intensities. What happens when soils under such conditions become saturated. yes, they let go and look out. It all comes rushing down and that is when the damage occurs.
Pasture mean while has let it go straight up.
I see that one District Council hopeful has used the above as his campaign platform using pictures of timber stacked up in a water way.
Of course when I pointed this out to council, and people sympathetic to trees, I got the “it is slash from logging operations”, and completely ignored my given observations of what is lying in the Whanganui river gorge section. Yes native ,with clearly visible root structures still in place. In fact had you been watching country calendar recently which featured the young chap Neeson, from Tokorima, did you noticed what was lying-in the river bed whilst filming the jet boat bit, but the very same.
Back to the science.
But what had also captured my attention, and is something that council refused to accept during my term, was that rain fall in native catchments are higher than pasture or pine. The report talks about estimated water balance and refers the reader to a table (2) which identifies native 1484 mm, and pine ,the least, 1398mm per ann. And the duration period in minutes, as per table 3 native catchment as having 3 times the length of time experiencing rain as pasture ,and 2x’s the pine catchment.
The report also identifies low flows from native catchment as being higher than either the pasture and pine catchments, referring the higher net rainfall in the native as being the reason for the greater base flows.
This is a really good bit of science. Mr Dons, to his credit, also reports on Storm flow in the catchments, and refers to work in other catchments through out NZ carried out by Pearce & Mc Kercher (1979). These guys found that storm flow averaged between 7-40% of gross rainfall, for tree’d BUT the pasture catchments averaged only 0.4%.??
Strange you know, I went to quite abit of effort to find more science/ study’s on this subject only to be told at every door I knocked on that there is none. No not even this. bet you cannot find it on the MfE webb sight. I have looked. Be quick before somebody reads this and posts it.
Now the good science that really helps me is the sediment regime. is the report on sediment flow recorded in a storm October 1983.
The average concentration (sediments) from the pasture catchment was midway between the pine and the native catchments. The reason is the stabilising effect of luxurious channel grass growth.
Whilst I will say that the report in subjective and confusing in many ways,(my view of course), never the less pasture has the least effect on infrastructure in storm/ high rainfall events, because the flow went straight away, where as pine and native soaked it up only to let it go later in catastrophic amounts. full of sediment and timber. And you cannot deny that as being fact.
Well my mate Don Coles from up the Waikato has his hair in a twist. It seems Waikato Regional Council is notifying their new Regional Plan any day, and ,yes N Caps. it will hit sheep and beef harder, as it limits the ability to change land use, with N being grand parented. 2006-2016 average.
Bad , bad. A death of a thousand months as costs slowly wear you down.
Something Mike Barton of Lake Taupo is prattling on about in this weeks Farmers Weekly. Yep and he was one of the greatest supporters of the N limits. Costs up 40% and Profit back 30%. He talks of the need for consumers to pay more for their environmental demands. And this is from a guy who got a gong for services to the environment. Changed his tune abit .
I am really annoyed with this constant nonsense coming out of the MPI. Govt wants to double agricultural production by 2025. Now it has been modified to doubling the $ return of exports by 2025.
2 mornings ago John Key was interviewed on TV1 Breakfast. Water quality. The interviewer persisted with this anti farming dirty farming theme that is now deeply engrained in the media. John Key had the perfect opportunity to state, “well actually it is you and I that are the problem. Yes that is right. Our urban sewage and waste water plants including land fills. Point source discharges. Nick Smith Minister for the environment is in plenty of farm mags saying nearly the above, but no where to be seen in the main stream media.
I see in a recent news release that good old Winny Winston Peters recons that the rural electorates are ripe for the plucking. Apparently NZ First is snapping up candidates through out rural NZ. He has not bothered to give me a ring yet, but then he more than likely only wants team players. My view is that he is all blow and no go, having written to him with my concerns and as has my lawyer on my behalf, regarding the subject matter I have referred to in previous posts.
Incidentally. I found the Chief Ombudsmen’s determination to my Official Info requests for Waitangi Tribunal documents on the international Google sight, under Mike Plowman. Good reading. Do not know how many people from NZ would have found it there. I was informed by the Ombudsmen that it was posted on her Webb page.
Be quick guy’s it will disappear as soon as those in the wrong places get wind of this post.
Recently my good friend and colleague John fronted via email. We are working on a couple of projects at the moment. Mike you are so bloody minded. It is your way or not at all. many doors have closed because of it.
I replied John. It is because only you want to be on my side.
Key was being interviewed on the Havelock North water supply debacle. I have taken abit of interest in this namely as a consequence of my blogg ,bit of good reading, and that I know people in the Taurarua District Council, and have a relation in Napier. A Earth moving contractor. So I found out the good goss. it seems it has been really dry for months and months, nothing unusual about that, and big cracks have opened up in the ground. Some sought of animal pathogen has entered via these cracks into the aquifer, which is very shallow, 20 meters down. The public via the media are saying farming is responsible, but the sight is surrounded for 10,s km by horticulture of every description.
The contacts in the Taurarua , say they have been told it is sabotage. To tighten security on their water takes. Sure enough just in the last 2 days, Paihiatua has had a scare.
There you go. The prize up for grabs. The Ruataniwha irrigation scheme.
There was a chap in last weeks Farmers Weekly, NZ Farmers Weekly, Rural News, I cannot find the paper, prattling on about farming as the problem, but then stated , to my amazement. “Do not start me on the Central Hawkes Bay sewage ponds which regularly over flow, up stream” You decide.
Well a person who is a regular columnist in the NZ farmers Weekly is moving on. Yes Professor Jacqueline Rowarth has taken up the sword and is leaving the University of Waikato, and her role as professor of Agribusiness to move in with the Environmental Protection Authority. .She says she has been teaching for 30 years and “I” will still be teaching. Good luck to her. Does this signal a change of heart by those responsible for the garbage that is going on in the real world or is somebody trying to shut her up???.
Jacqueline has a really good column in the Rural News August the 23rd, and probably one of the last ones we may read.
Titled. The threat of Zombie Towns, and lost opportunities.
She is commenting on the cost of implementing the NPS Fresh Water and the healthy Rivers Wia-Ora project. i.e. the Proposed Waikato Regional Plan. as described above.
Beyond the opportunity cost of restricting primary sector activity is the threat of losing employment in general and young people in particular. A report to the technical leaders group, by NIWA, describes the direct economic impact totaling $7.8 billion. 5000 jobs lost.
I ask you. Who’s side do you think I am on?
This week in the NZ Farmers Weekly ,pg 23 Minister Nathen Guy, MPI, prattling on about Horizons Region and in particular the Sheep and Beef industry, stating it is the power house of NZ sheep meats industry. Over 1/2 NZ exports come from with 2 hrs of Fielding. We have Horizons Regional Plan review next yr 2017, and another in 2022. As the previous Frustrated Feds president Mr Wills stated, “It is not a matter of if, but when” The plan is already primed and ready to go. A sec 32, cost v benefit analysis I did back in 2010 at $200 million for sheep and beef, and if you include the dairy guys ,add another $500 million.
Expo late these sought’s of figures across NZ and we have a major problem, one that Parliament seems unable to recognise, seemingly of the opinion that less, but environmentally sustainable will achieve a higher premium in the Market. Codswobble.
2 weeks ago in the Waikato Farming Weekly ,a unlikely paper for such a article, there was article on a European farmer, lamenting the cost of environmental initiatives on his business stating that it is if the consumer demanded such ,then it is time they paid the price. Mike Barton said the same, as above.
In the Rural News Sept 6th, pg 24, Clean and Green not so important- Expert. A Agricultural marketing expert employed by Rabo bank, Cindy van Rijswick states. Consumers buy on taste, price and convenience. The clean green image, not so much a factor.
I reported on a Silver Fern Farms meeting that was held in Taumarunui a yr or so ago. Out going CEO Keith Cooper was speaking and the question I put to him is, where is this mythical market that you refer to that will deliver a premium for good environmental out comes. None. it is about protecting what markets we have. I note that the only advertising SFF did at that time and probably still does is on NZ TV. The rest is super market brands.
Chap I have got know, and I do not buy many rams off him , is Robin Hilson. One Stop Ram Shop. Now this guy could sell a ram to a Egyptian olive grower. And probably has. In his last news letter he states, adding value will not work. Just ask Nestles. Now I do not know what Nestles tried, but here is plentiful evidence we are being done for a dogs dinner.
Mike Peterson , that past Biff and Lamb chair says the opposite, but does point out a political mine field in selling our products. Why does this need to be.
I reckon I know, and there is plenty of comment in previous posts that point the finger.
You decide. But the nonsense is really ramping up and Agriculture is taking a real hammering. despite the Govts assertions that the industry is NZ’s biggest income earner and we will look after you, all is well . I do not believe a word. Agriculture is surely being chucked to the wolves, and there is only carbon and tourism to take its place. Granted horticultural exports are up.
The other day I was thinking about carbon, having read a article about the European Carbon Market. A investor was lamenting the poor state or lack of value in carbon on the European market. 4 euros per tonne. $8 NZ. So I rang up a broker I know, and said. Hi Tim. I want to buy carbon. Sure Mike how many tonne do you want. Well I want to speculate, can I do that? Sure can. Well what about a couple 1000 tonne. Yep open a account and I will sought it for you. There you go. Currently sitting at $18.70c. Who’s buying it? But more importantly why.
Bye
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