Rewarding farmers who embrace sustainability
Winners of DairyNZ’s Sustainability and Stewardship awards in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards have their eyes firmly fixed on progressing a positive future for New Zealand dairy.
It looks good physically on farm but below the surface things are far from ideal.
That's the view of DairyNZ's farm performance manager, Sarah Speight, who says in general if one looks at pasture covers, cow condition and milk production, things aren't too bad.
She says this is amazing given the season has been all over the place with adverse weather events which have made it hard for farmers to manage their operations.
Sarah Speight says most of the maize silage has now been harvested, although yields are below last year's levels.
"But it's not as bad as originally thought," she told Dairy News.
"There have been problems with pests and the weather has delayed the planting of maize. In one case, a farmer told me he had to plant his crop three times because the weather wiped out the first two plantings," she says.
Speight says in the upper North Island the cyclones which brought heavy rainfall had a bizarre positive effect by enhancing grass growth, meaning some extra grass silage could be harvested.
She says there will be challenges in Otago, which has been hit by a drought and there may be a shortage of grass for the cows, but the South Island is pretty big and there are options to bring in feed and take other steps to mitigate the problems.
In Northland, Hawke's Bay and the East Coast of the North Island, infrastructure remains a problem with some farms still without road access. She says the bridge at Patoka in Hawke's Bay has been replaced, enabling stock access and milk collection, but other places are still cut off.
"Farmers in Northland are getting back on track with regrassing taking place and autumn calving progressing well.
"It's much the same on the West Coast of the South Island where things are looking up in terms of the farm, but it's financial issues and concern about rising costs that are causing the angst," she says.
The Ministry for the Environment (MfE) has found itself in a stoush with NZPork over the controversial National Policy Statement for Highly Productive Land (NPS-HPL).
Fonterra says the sale of its global consumer business and its Oceania and Sri Lankan operations could take 18 months to complete.
The lobby group the Methane Science Accord (MSA) says it welcomes a recent government move to seek outside advice on reducing biological methane targets, rather than relying on recommendations made by the Climate Change Commission.
Well-known scientist Jock Allison has passed away.
After a decade of consultation and court battles, Environment Southland has officially adopted a plan to prevent further decline in the region's water quality.
Farmers are throwing down the gauntlet to politicians - hold an independent inquiry into rural bank lending or face tough questions from the farming sector.