New Zealand: Day 7

DAY 7
   Started the morning off with three lectures; tourism, deer farming, and NZ Dairy Farms.
L1   Dr. David Fisher shared his insight on the tourism industry. A tourist has to stay for at least one day but no more than a year and that margin is used to assist in counting the number of tourists. Many times domestic tourism is more important than international. A few findings he shared with us is that (1) Most touristic activity is domestic, (2) Most tourists use surface transportation and not air, and (3) Tourism is not just for pleasure. France has the most international visitors with the U.S. ranking second and New Zealand about 50th, but the most international money is spent in the U.S. because most visitors have to fly to the U.S. For NZ, the number of international visitors has continued to increase with the average lenght of stay being 19 nights.

Principles of Tourism
(1) Consumers move to the product - management of tourism behavior and tourist settings
(2) Product is "external to" the tourism industry
(3) Tourism system is an inter-related whole - change in any component necessitates change in all other components
(4) Tourism planning must integrate all components of the tourist system - planning is much more than simply marketing

Leiper's System
People, Business, and Geography which then is put into a model with such factors as economy, socio-cultural, technological, political, legal, etc. that affect the transit between the tourist's generating region (home) and the tourist's destination region. Along with this heritage and culture can both hurt and help tourism and is viewed differently by different people especially between the visitor and locals.

L2   Russell Cameron came back to expand on deer farming since that is his area of focus. NZ is leading the world in deer farming. Deer were the first domesticated species for 6000 years. It was founded on captured feral (noxious) animals from helicopter by weighted nets. The first licensed deer farm was issued in 1969 and the number of farms skyrocketed during the 1970's. NZ then went on to pioneer most aspects of the industry from fencing to handling, husbandry, and harvesting.
   Red Deer are raised for breeding, finishing, and harvesting of velvet. They are bred for the meat, antler growth, and fertility. The finishing process starts with weaners being purchased in autumn and finshed from 12-20 months of age. The best price available is seen in early November for 11-12 month olds.
   It is the only industry that involves the harvest of live, growing tissue called velveting. Spikers (yearlings) and mature sires are harvested annually to avoid hard antlers which are a potential hazard to men and other deer because the antler becomes hard and pointed. The amount of velvet increases with age and holds greater value.
   The products produced include venison, velvet and co-products such as dried tails, pizzles, sinews, teeth, offals, and pharmacuetical extracts. Most is traded through oriental markets such as Hong Kong.
    As and industry, they have their own issues surrounding quality assurance, traceability, animal welfare which heavely effects the velveting aspect.

L3   Dr. Marvin Pangborn, an Oregon native, discussed the dairying industry. There are 11,891 herds making a total of 4.8 million cows in NZ. They produce only 4% of the world's milk, but control 23% of the dairy products traded internationally because 95% of their production is exported.
   Some of the difference compared to our dairy industry include:
- Seasonal - calve in July/Aug and dry off in May instead of year round
- Large herds
- Low production per cow (3,826 kg milk/cow vs. 8,256 in U.S.)
- Emphasis on rotational grazing - rotation ranges from 18-45 days meaning a paddock/day basically
- cows walk down the road to the milk shed and return to paddock after being milked which totals approximately 15 minutes
- bred by bull and/or AI in October/November
- daily requirement = 18 kg/DM
- lactations are short - 250-280 days compared to over 300 days in U.S.
- "wintered" off area milked on which means moving to kale fields

   Some of its strengths:
- Integreated and co-ordinated structure
- Low costs for feeding, housing, and machinery
- High output of MS (milk solids) per labor unit is how they are paid versus our volume per unit
- Seasonal system
- Long distance from other cows = limited disease risk
- share milking options allow young farmers to get in and multiple people to assist with labor and costs
- "attitude" of the industry - people want to be a part of it

   Some weaknesses are due to their dependance on:
- world market
- foreign exchange rate
- weather and pasture growth
- heavy workload for labor units during certain times of the year
- inefficienceies in use of processing factories
- short lactation, low yields
- high land prices
- distance from marketets, higher freight costs

   Some statistics:
27% of the herds are over 500 cows
A 200 hectare dairy farm in Canterbury with 600 cows producing 225,000 kg MS/year has a value of approximately $12.4 million
The dairying industry is predominately on the North Island but dairying has begun to move to the South Island especially near Canterbury because of the development of such water resources as irrigation.
   Fronterra is the largest processing company in NZ controlling 89% fo the industry.

   In the afternoon, we visited Lincoln University's Sheep and Dairy units. Ashley Dene is the sheep unit where we got to see the sheep dogs do their magic herding the sheep. I posted a video of both the dog herding the sheep and a demonstration of sheep shearing. At the Dairy Unit, SIDDC, it is a research based unit which is made up of six different companies. It was so nice to finally see some livestock and take more picutres. I can't wait to upload all of my photos from the trip because I am pretty proud and they really explain the sights we have been seeing!
   Tomorrow is a free day so I am going to Sumner Beach and going to learn how to surf! Yay!! And soak up some lovely sun where it will be sunny and 75+!