Conrad Smith: Farming and sport share similar demands
The challenges of high-performance sport and farming are not as dissimilar as they may first appear.
When establishing a farm, these settlers often found out the hard way that our country’s terrain and climate can be harsh at the best of times.
Not until the advent of refrigerated ships at the end of the nineteenth century did our farmers start selling meat and dairy products to overseas markets. This caused huge growth in sheep and cattle numbers, establishing agriculture as the economic backbone of our economy.
Fast-forward to the modern day farm and, from a global perspective, it’s apparent how different and advanced our agricultural structures are from those in the rest of the world. This is partly due to the large part farming plays in our economic success, but largely to our farmers’ focus on animal health, environmental stewardship and innovation.
The removal of government subsidies in the early and mid-1980s also drove farmers to reduce costs and focus on producing higher value products, where shown to be profitable.
Take dairying, for example: our early ancestors could never imagine cows could be milked robotically and that smartphone apps could be used to manage a farm. Yet this is where we are heading. Traditional farm roles like milking are now a much smaller part of the day-to-day management of farms. This in turn frees up farm staff to concentrate on other farm and business management activities, such as monitoring the performance of individual stock and the whole farming system.
Dairying has embraced innovation and technological advancements. On the animal health front are rapid improvements in understanding the nutrient needs of dairy cows at various stages of lactation, then combining various feed ingredients and remedies to meet those needs cost-effectively. Many dynamic factors influence the health of dairy cows, including the application of the most effective remedy at the right time and nutrient availability from feeds.
Animal health manufacturers are continuously researching new products to assist in maintaining healthy and high performing livestock. As a result the animal health remedy industry in NZ is world class, and many of our competitors envy our high performance.
As farming becomes more innovative and attuned to consumers’ demands, NZ will remain at the forefront. Our farming has entered a new era with greater use of technology, a change in what we produce and more scrutiny on animal health.
• Mark Ross is chief executive of Agcarm.
