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.
Leading a discussion after the Groves and Lincoln presentations, DairyNZ consulting officer Caleb Strowger asked what is being retained, reduced, deferred or removed from budgets this season.
After an initial silence, looking at ‘retain’, the audience suggested animal health and staff – plus, flippantly, “oxygen and alcohol!” ‘Reduce’ prompted more answers, including replacements, regrassing and feed: “lower cost and quantity,” commented one farmer.
Regrassing reappeared in the ‘defer’ list, alongside capital expenditure and machinery replacements, including vehicles.
‘Remove’ included cow numbers – “we removed ten in one day on fodder beet,” quipped one delegate dryly – herd testing and a couple of the ‘retain’ items from earlier: labour and animal health.
“Get rid of vets from the farm… I’m serious!” For example, vet metrichecking could be replaced by DIY observation and testing, someone suggested.
Speaking to Dairy News afterwards, SIDDC director Ron Pellow acknowledged a danger that knee-jerk reductions in feed, without appropriate cuts elsewhere, will likely see some farms worse off than if feed had been maintained this season. “Across New Zealand I don’t think we feed our cows adequately on pasture,” he stressed.
Dairy NZ project leader large business Adrian van Bysterveldt urged extra vigilance on pasture management, particularly coming out of deficits. “People are great at spotting the beginning of a deficit but the real difficulty is spotting where the deficit is going to end…. If you think it’s going to be gone in a week, then the supplement should have been taken out yesterday.”
Modern high genetic merit cows are much more capable of “bouncing back” when feed quantity and quality is increased after a brief deficit, he added. “But older-style cows, the cows of the 1980s or 1990s, will just go fat on you.”
Another tip Van Bysterveldt shared with Dairy News and farmers after the focus day was to “offer contractors a discounted cash price as they leave the paddock”.
In a season where some farms might struggle or choose not to pay bills on time, those that can pay on the spot should be able to negotiate useful discounts, he explained.
To see where Lincoln University Demonstration Farm is cutting its costs or spending more this season, and how it compared with the half dozen top farms it benchmarks against, go to www.siddc.org.nz and download ‘focus day handout’ from the ‘latest news’ area.
New Zealand dairy processors are welcoming the Government’s commitment to continuing to push for Canada to honour its trade commitments.
An educational programme, set up by Beef + Land New Zealand, to connect farmers virtually with primary and intermediate school students has reported the successful completion of its second year.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) has welcomed a resolution adopted by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly to declare 2026 International Year of the Woman Farmer.
Waikato herd health veterinarian Katrina Roberts is the 2024 Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year.
Trade Minister Todd McClay says New Zealand has no intention of backing down in a trade dispute with Canada over dairy products.
Horticulture NZ chief executive Nadine Tunley will step down in August.
OPINION: Canterbury milk processor Synlait is showing no sign of bouncing back from its financial doldrums.
OPINION: It seems every bugger in this country can get an award these days.