Mulinder said the pigs are coming primarily from forestry blocks and Department of Conservation (DoC) land in the area.<\/p>\n
Running breeding ewes, she is also concerned that the pigs can prey on lambs.<\/p>\n
Control is in the hands of the private landowner at present, but Mulinder believed a \u201cTaup\u014d catchment strategy\u201d was needed, involving Waikato Regional Council, DoC, forestry owners, farmers and Federated Farmers.<\/p>\n
She said this issue would be commonplace throughout the country as large-scale conversions to forestry create breeding grounds for pests.<\/p>\n
\u201cBlanket afforestation has also become a predator to the [sheep and beef] sector.\u201d<\/p>\n
Legislation introduced by the Government last month limited how much farmland was converted to exotic forest and registered in the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). <\/p>\n
However, Mulinder believes this was too little too late.<\/p>\n
Damage done<\/p>\n
The wild pig population has exploded in the region, Rotorua-Taup\u014d Federated Farmers\u2019 meat and wool chairwoman Ruby Mulinder says. Photo \/ 123rf<\/p>\n
\u201cThe damage is done. Quality breeding land has already gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mulinder said landowners were swayed by ETS incentives, which created an \u201cartificially inflated market\u201d.<\/p>\n
Those converting to full farm forestry have \u201csold out\u201d and effectively limited farm ownership and growth opportunities for the next generation.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of our best and most keen farmers can\u2019t get their foot in the door,\u201d said Mulinder. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a pretty scary picture in 20 to 30 years\u2019 time.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said in the past two years, a huge amount of land has been planted as forestry.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a sector, we risk losing our critical mass, which in future could see it reach breaking point.<\/p>\n
\u201cFarmers get squeezed before anyone else. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s ironic, as they are the most vital part of the equation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mulinder was thankful that she and Sean ran a \u201cflexible operation\u201d \u2013 predominantly sheep, for meat and milk, plus a small herd of breeding and beef cattle.<\/p>\n
A mix of activities on their relatively small holding has been vital in sustaining the operation, along with the couple\u2019s off-farm careers as dairy professionals.<\/p>\n
With Mulinder being a farm consultant and Sean a dairy processing design engineer, they set up Agri Concepts in 2018.<\/p>\n
Mulinder\u2019s work takes her as far afield as the Chatham Islands \u2013 her mother used to nurse there \u2013 where she is now leading a freshwater project with local sheep and beef farmers.<\/p>\n
She grew up on a dry-stock farm in Central Hawke\u2019s Bay, which her father managed.<\/p>\n
Obtaining an agricultural science degree, Mulinder worked for Landcorp for five years, supporting dairy farm conversions, before she and Sean moved to the United Kingdom. <\/p>\n
She found employment as a senior farm business manager overseeing 170 farmer supply contracts for cheddar cheesemakers in Devon, while Sean played rugby and worked for Tetra Pak. <\/p>\n
On their return to New Zealand, Mulinder spent four years as a consultant with FarmWise.<\/p>\n
Provincial chair <\/p>\n
Mulinder has been involved with Rotorua-Taup\u014d Federated Farmers for three years, taking on the provincial meat and wool chair role and sitting on the national executive for the last two years. <\/p>\n
In 2024, Mulinder was named Federated Farmers\u2019 Meat and Wool Advocate of the Year.<\/p>\n
Now in their fifth season on the edge of Lake Taup\u014d, Mulinder and Sean milk 1000 sheep in a 30-a-side shed.<\/p>\n
If returns hold, Mulinder said there are huge opportunities in the sheep-milking sector.<\/p>\n
\u201cLeaving the lambs on the ewe to rear and running a low-cost system has lots of potential compared to the high-cost, artificial rearing systems.\u201d <\/p>\n
Mulinder said they are still recovering from last summer\u2019s devastating drought, which \u201ctoasted\u201d the farm and put pressure on their finances.<\/p>\n
\u201cInput costs [buying in feed] went through the roof.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spring rain has helped rebuild the water table, but a cold August was tough on the flock, she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt made lambing busy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mulinder said 25-30% of the lambs are kept for replacements in the milking shed, with the balance sent directly to the freezing works or sold to other farmers to fatten before processing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t want to see lambs as a byproduct of the operation. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe always wanted our business to value the lambs as well as milk.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said they would never be able to afford a large enough dry-stock block to be profitable, so they needed something highly productive on a small holding.<\/p>\n
They are in just their first season, also running breeding cattle, aiming to build from 20 to 50 cows in the near future.<\/p>\n
Heifers are kept for breeding stock, with \u201cprime beef\u201d heading to the dining table.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mulinder said the pigs are coming primarily from forestry blocks and Department of Conservation (DoC) land in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[432,95,3043,1853,12967,2082,3238,13800,50278,8482,111,43,139,69,90,13136,99375,99376,34387,1555,15391],"class_list":["post-148484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-action","tag-and","tag-call","tag-central","tag-farmers","tag-for","tag-forestry","tag-giving","tag-headaches","tag-huge","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-pig","tag-pigs","tag-pines","tag-plateau","tag-threat","tag-wild"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}