Gladfield Malt Celebrates 100% NZ-Grown Barley Success
A central Canterbury business which turns malting barley into a key ingredient in beer making has celebrated its 100% New Zealand-grown status with a special event.
That's the message South Auckland farmers Shirley-Ann and Rick Mannering had for Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and a team of National Ministers and MPs on their farm this month.
The Mannerings run a productive sheep, beef and dairy operation at Paparimu.
Paparimu Farmers Showcase Conservation Success
Luxon visited their sheep and beef farm where, including two other dairy blocks, 148 hectares have been placed in covenants with about 5,000 plants planted annually.
He was there to announce that National is doubling the permanent, baseline funding for the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust for the first time since 2015.
Luxon described it as "another win for the agriculture and rural sector".
If National was re-elected it would mean funding for the trust, which formed partnerships with landowners to create protected pockets of land under covenants, would increase from about $4.2m to about $8.5m per year.
The trust did get a temporary funding uplift to $5.8m this year, but National's policy would increase funding from its previous level.
Farmers Say Investment Delivers Significant Returns
Rick Mannering told the PM that without the help of the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust, Auckland Council and the Government, farmers wouldn't be able to put in fences and tackle pest animals and plants.
"We just couldn't be doing what we're doing. The value of the money that you guys get by investing in the farmers and investing through the trust pays off in a huge amount," Mannering says.
He says budget constraints are holding back the QEII Trust work on farms.
"There are so many farmers who are doing great things in New Zealand, and they would really like to do more.
"Constraints around budgets have been strong for the last few years.
"There's a little more money now in the system. But there's a real need out there to help those guys a lot and encourage them on their journey to improve their farms."
How QEII Covenants Help Protect Native Habitats
The QEII Trust provides the covenant legal paperwork and expertise on how best to protect native bush, wetlands and other special habitats.
Farmers voluntarily commit the land and their hard work putting in fences and tackling pest animals and plants.
A Waikato University study found for every dollar of QEII money, farmers and other landowners put in $6 to $7 in foregone production from the land, and ongoing work to protect the habitat.
More than 5,400 QEII covenants now protect almost 190,000 hectares of privately-owned land across New Zealand with the vast majority located on farms.
If all QEII covenants were combined, it would be New Zealand's fourth-largest national park-sized protected area.
Funding Pressures Are Limiting New Conservation Opportunities
With government base funding static since 2015, and other one-off funding streams drying up, QEII Trust chief executive Dan Coup says this year's new covenant target is just a quarter of what was achieved in 2024.
"It's the first time we've had to ration what we're doing really tightly.
"That means some covenant opportunities will be lost forever as people stuck on our waiting list pass away, lose faith or sell their property."
Coup says the funding shortfall doesn't just hit new covenant rates.
"These farmers and landowners are facing increasing challenges looking after their native bush and wetlands with more extreme weather events, more feral animals and more weeds, including wilding pines.
"We want to be able to provide a bit more advice and support for those 5,400 property owners who are already doing this good work."
Coup says the trust is very grateful to the National Party for its leadership and acknowledgement of what the trust does.
"This is not a politically contentious cause so we hope other parties will take a similar view."
Political Support
Federated Farmers president Wayne Langford is urging other parties to get behind National's plan to double baseline funding for the Queen Elizabeth II Trust.
"I can't see any reason why all political parties wouldn't support this," he told Rural News.
"This is an absolute no-brainer for conservation, a no-brainer for agriculture, and a no-brainer for restoring nature like what we want it."
Federated Farmers has been pushing for more funding for QEII Trust.
Langford says doubling the trust's funding has been a long-standing priority for Federated Farmers because it's a model that is well-proven.
Demand for new covenants has been growing rapidly but government base funding has remained largely unchanged for more than a decade.
Langford says the extra funding would allow more areas to be "properly protected".
"It is the fourth largest national park in New Zealand, if you combine all the areas together, there's no reason why it couldn't go to the largest because it is a very good project that they're running."
A Unique Model
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says the Queen Elizabeth II Trust is a unique conservation model.
He says its voluntary, practical, landowner-led, and offers some of the best-value conservation in the country.
"Every dollar the Government puts in, farmers match many times over. It's great bang for buck for both the taxpayer and nature.
"More funding will support landowners with costs like fencing, surveying and legal work - costs that can often stop good projects from going ahead.
"We back farmers to know what is best for their land, they choose to protect important conservation areas, rather than having rules forced on them."
Luxon announced the funding boost on a South Auckland farm with National MPs including Agriculture Minister Todd McClay and Conservation Minister Tama Potaka.
Potaka noted that farmers are at the forefront of environmental stewardship and that the Government is here to partner with them.
