Good afternoon foresters, farmers, and tree lovers alike
Kicking off 2025 with plenty of rain here in Canterbury, the grass is still green, not so great for holiday makers, but the soil is humming, and the trees are drinking. Happy days.
Requirement estimates
The main purpose of this email is to ask our clients to give us an estimate of this season’s boron requirements. As always, this is not an obligation to buy, you can increase, decrease, or withdraw completely.
So, as Andy would say “please look into your crystal ball and email me with your estimates. This is purely so we can get our mining underway early and keep our “first up best dressed” priority.
Also I’ll be travelling North and south Islands again this year, reach out if your keen for a catchup.
Test Your Trees
Tis the season for foliar testing, and as many of you know, the best time to take foliar samples is February – March, for the most accurate reading of your tree’s nutrient levels.
A southland forester recently told me their reliable, early summer rain often masks the visual symptoms of boron deficiency. So don’t wait for your trees to show signs of stress, testing now helps you get on top of any issues before they negatively affect your growth. I have attached a PDF from Veritec which gives detailed instruction of how to take samples.
If you haven’t read “45 years of boron” email me and I’ll post you a free copy
Wrapping up 2024 for MFS
In a nutshell, 2024 was a big year for us.
Last year marked 10 years for me at the helm of MFS. It was a good chance for a bit of reflection on a decade of working through new challenges and growth opportunities.
For 9 out of those 10 years we have had year on year growth. This tells me a couple of things
1. Kiwis are fully recognizing the benefits and importance of early boron application, to ensure their trees have all the boron required for a full and healthy rotation.
2. Andebor has stood the test of time and established its place as an important, and reliable fertiliser in New Zealand forestry.
To all our loyal customers who have been along for the ride, thank you for your continued support and I look forward to our ongoing relationship.
Shipping Challenges and solutions
Shipping last year was a bloody headache (to put it nicely!). Our old average 65-day sailing turned into 100 -120 days. Unfortunately, importers know that once your product hits the water, you are at the mercy of the shipping companies. No amount of jumping up and down will improve your ETA.
As a few of you will know this has been a source of great frustration for myself.
So, September saw us heading to South America, to establish a new shipping exporter and reassessing shipping options and working closely with our mine to secure timely requirements of Andebor.
I can confirm that the next shipment landed in NZ to the day of the ETA, and the next 2 landing this month are looking the same. This alone was worth the 26 hours of flying. Long may it last.
The exchange rate has taken a drop against USD. The word Tarriff has scared the market. Current sitting at .56 a 5cent drop from this time last year.
We timed the visit to coincide with the Expomina mining conference in Lima, an opportunity to see the scale of some of the equipment used in SA mining and get some critical contacts.
South America is an absolute wealth of natural resources, and despite the language barrier (though I can confidently order beers in Spanish), it was an incredible opportunity alongside our exporter to see the variety of raw and processed mineral available there.
We have been recently looking at adding new products to our range, if there is any fertilisers or minerals you are having difficulty acquiring or would like a price on, please drop me a line.
Volunteer work in south America
To end the trip, we had planned a few days volunteering and surfing in a small fishing village before fate intervened. Long story short We ended up spearheading the fundraising and building of a small ranch for a wonderful equine-therapy charity offering free therapy for disabled children and adults in the tiny fishing village of Lobitos, for 3 weeks. Tucked in the northern desert and surrounded by oil rigs and derricks. We roped in the community to volunteer, as skills are limited in these villages, we had plenty of people helping, keen to learn how to concrete, and build making use of the local resources, (which is sand and bamboo not the hubby’s expertise, but kiwi ingenuity is now famous in Lobitos). An amazing opportunity and I highly recommend it as a fulfilling way of travelling, and really getting involved in a community. Don’t get me wrong, no power or water on site in the desert heat wasn’t exactly easy labour, but the grateful community came up to site with hugs of thanks, sunset beers, a willingness to learn new skills and share language.
A local bar threw us a party, a fisherman took us to see the humpback whales, musicians played free at our fundraising party, we even had a local donate food, make and sell Quesadillas as a fundraiser. End result money was raised, ranch was built, friends were made, and I finally caught some waves.
To all our clients, thank you, it’s your ongoing support that has kept us going, and as for McCord volunteer projects, I feel this is only the beginning. Thank you and happy growing.
Horses used for therapy were rescues from the desert,(Ozzy, Lilly and her foal fidah. along with 7 rescue dogs, who were usually all on site helping us eat lunch.
To New Clients
A warm welcome, here’s a rundown on MFS, Andebor and how we operate.
McCord forest services has been operating and supplying boron to NZ forestry since the mid-90s. The name Andy McCord and “boron” have gone hand in hand since the 70s. The extensive trials and research paid off once boron fertilization was recognized as valuable in the mid 80’s. Andy and Sammi started McCord Forest Services and set about fixing some issues he had encountered. After extensive travel he found a boron in 2001 that eliminated the issues he was seeing with his sodium borates. Issues being leaching, risk of toxicity due to fast release, and lack of longevity.
Introducing Andebor, a chip that is tailored specifically for forestry, with a unique make up of boron, calcium, and magnesium. Andebor is a citric soluble 4-8mm chip, meaning the acidic PH level in the soil breaks the chip down. This means the release is much slower and more consistent than water soluble borates, ideal for forestry where growth is based on 25-30 years rather than the immediate growing season. Thus, resolving the risk of toxicity, leaching, and lack of longevity.
Andebor can be applied all year round, and is generally applied at rates of 60-80kg/ha
For an in-depth read on MFS, and Andebor pop over to our website www.boron.co.nz or ask for our free booklet “45 years of Boron”
What ordering looks like
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Estimation requirements come in at the start of the year and we get mining underway.
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Foliage sampling is undertaken in Feb/March.
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Once your results are in, quantities and price are confirmed. Our price fluctuates throughout the year with the NZ/USD exchange rate, we chose to do this rather than build in margin to allow for the market fluctuations, this way we can give the best possible price to our clients.
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From time of order to landing at port is roughly 3 months, currently ports and trans-ships are keeping schedules, We will keep you updated as the ship leaves tranships ( 2 weeks from landing).
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We have 6 storage locations throughout NZ. Tauranga, Napier, Auckland, Nelson Christchurch and Dunedin. We will land your boron at the most convenient location to your forest.
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As weather or landing time isn’t always ideal for getting the boron on the trees, we offer 1 month free storage, so collection can be convenient for you.
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Once all your ducks are in a row, email us with the company collecting your boron and we order the release.
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Once applied, send me an email, we organize the bags to be collected for recycling.
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Bag sizes are 1000kg and 25kg.
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We order all year round, so feel free to order at the time of year that suits you.
Looking forward to working with you in 2025
Kind regards
Joanna Woods
Managing director
027 333 7933