Dairy Farmer November 2019

Breeding & Genetics n Summer Management of Water & Irrigation November 2019

Incl $8.95 GST

Taranaki farmers proud of farm New GM for Dairy Industry Awards Farmers need support not negativity

Farming with faith Invercargill farmers’ Muslim faith at the forefront of everything they do

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November 2019 Editor

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Breeding & Genetics n Summer Management of Water & Irrigation November 2019

Incl $8.95 GST

COVER Southland farmers Reza and Silvia Abdul-Jabbar are leaders in their faith and community.

Photo: Natwick Photography

Taranaki farmers proud of farm New GM for Dairy Industry Awards Farmers need support not negativity

Farming with faith Invercargill farmers’ Muslim faith at the forefront of everything they do

20

www.farmersweekly.co.nz ISSN 2624-0939 (Print) ISSN 2624-0947 (Online)

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DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

Contents NEWS 17 Milk Monitor: Milk price still going up Things look good in the immediate future 18 Waiting game What will UK farming look like under Brexit?

ON FARM STORY

8 Journey of faith Islamic Southland farmers Reza and Silvia Abdul-Jabbar keep the faith

20 Proud farmers Taranaki farmers Daryl and Karyn Johnson take pride in their farm

FARMING CHAMPIONS

7 Guest column John Monaghan

32 Dairy champion Robin Congdon

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THEMES 46 Breeding and genetics 56 Water and irrigation

REGULAR FEATURES 30 Industry good

GlobalHQ is a farming family owned business that donates 1% of all advertising revenue in Farmers Weekly and Dairy Farmer to farmer health and wellbeing initiatives. Thank you for your prompt payment.

38 Research 41 Technology 42 International news

Protect your Profits and lower Greenhouse Gas ATTENTION DAIRY FARMERS

Use our unique, farm specific approach that is: 99 Profit focused 99 Internationally verified 99Global standard 99Independently assessed programme

Phone 0800 ALLTECH for obligation free information newzealand@alltech.com Alltech.com/newzealand | AlltechAP

GUEST COLUMN

Why DIRA needs to change Changes to the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act are needed to help New Zealand achieve its vision for the future of the industry Fonterra chairman John Monaghan says.

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HE Dairy Industry Restructuring Act (DIRA) has been critical to the performance of the dairy industry since it passed into law in 2001.

It enabled the formation of Fonterra and has seen dairy exports grow in value from $7.4 billion 2001 to $18.1b for the year ended June 2019.

The legislation is under review. It’s time it was modernised to reflect the realities of the dairy industry today and into the future.

The purpose of the initial DIRA legislation was to establish a major New Zealand owned dairy co-operative with the scale to compete in the global market.

In doing so, it was recognised some restrictions were required because of the associated domestic market dominance of that new co-operative.

Farmers needed options and protections when deciding who to supply their milk to and domestic consumers needed options when deciding which products to buy.

Eighteen years after the passage of the original legislation there are 10 other competitors operating 15 manufacturing sites across the country.

Fonterra’s market share has reduced from 96% in 2001 to about 82% 2018.

In regions such as Canterbury, Waikato and Southland, farmers have multiple options about which processor they wish to supply.

As planned, DIRA has successfully helped the competition thrive.

From the 2002 to 2019 season, independent processors’ collections increased by about 830% compared to just a 37% increase in Fonterra’s collections.

Last month Fonterra chief executive Miles Hurrell and I were in front of a select committee to put forward Fonterra’s case for changes to DIRA. In a number of ways DIRA is tied into the conversation on fresh water and climate change.

Changes to DIRA will help NZ achieve its vision for the future of the industry.

That includes goals for improving fresh water quality, maintaining our position

DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

Fonterra chairman John Monaghan says DIRA has achieved what it set out to but changes are now needed.

We should not have to carry the risk for overseas processors. as the world’s most emissions-efficient producer of dairy, ethical animal welfare standards and protecting the dairy industry’s significant contribution to the NZ economy.

We’re calling for the end of the open entry and exit provisions that effectively mean Fonterra has to accept any farmer into the co-op, regardless of their standards, and want the right to decline all applications to supply our co-op.

We need greater control over where we invest our capital to ensure we can return the greatest value to our farmers, unit holders and NZ.

We’re also asking that the Bill gives us the right to say no to milk from new conversions.

That will send a message to those who financially support and enable dairy conversions on environmentally sensitive land.

Dairy farming must operate only within recognised environmental limits.

Common sense tells us that we as NZ dairy farmers shouldn’t have to give our milk, effectively at cost, to foreign-backed competitors focused on exports.

The proposed legislation continues to help them into the market by providing regulated milk supply with no offsetting benefit to NZ. We are asking the Government to stop forcing us to give our milk to independent processors who have a capacity to process more than 30 million litres a year and who export more than 20% of their processed volume.

If export-focused companies want to be part of our local industry they should seek their own milk supply.

We should not have to carry the risk for overseas processors.

Finally, like us, all milk processors should be required to publish the average price they pay farmers, the key parameters of their milk price and examples showing the payout farmers would receive for different parameters.

There are no negative outcomes from farmers having clear and consistent information from which to compare processors.

Fonterra is a farmer-owned NZ cooperative, here for generations, and taking the very best of Aotearoa to the world.

However, our industry must continue evolving to remain economically and environmentally sustainable.

Our industry has been built on more than 150 years of hard work, adaptation and innovation.

We’re asking the Government to consider the structure of the dairy industry NZ wants for its children.

NZ farmers are the best in the world and they deserve legislation that ensures they have the best opportunity to remain this way. n

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Reza and Silvia Abdul-Jabbar own two farms plus run-offs and milk 1000 cows at Mokotua near Invercargill, Southland.

Photos: Natwick Photography

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DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

Faith, family and farming Southland farmers are community and spiritual leaders in the Islamic community. They put their faith above everything and answered the call to help after the Christchurch mosque shootings. They talk to Sonita Chandar about their experiences and farming.

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N FRIDAY March 15 Invercargill farmer and imam of the world’s southernmost mosque, Reza Abdul-Jabbar, was delivering his weekly sermon when a worshipper’s phone rang.

Until then it had been super quiet, as it usually is during the service.

He reminded the man it was a time for silence, not to take the call and continued.

But other phones began ringing.

As he wrapped up the sermon he was told tragic news – a gunman had killed and injured dozens of worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch.

It stunned people of all faiths throughout the world and in the days following Reza was in Christchurch supporting the families of victims and visiting the wounded in hospital.

“I was there among the tragedy consoling people and doing what I could as an imam,” he recalls.

Some of the victims’ families asked him to be responsible for their loved ones until they were buried.

“I liaised with the coroners, police and other agencies and organised the funeral Dairy Farmer Ad_86mm x 210mm +5mm copy.pdf 2 services.

“I washed bodies with my own two hands, shrouded them, led a prayer for them, did a eulogy and put the deceased martyr onto the final resting place and then consoled the families again.

“I know the extent of their injuries. I saw it first hand and it is something that will never leave me.”

He was so focused on helping he pushed his own grief aside but it all came to the surface as he was washing one victim.

“They brought in the body of a young boy and laid him next to his father.

“All I could see was my son’s face.

“I knew it wasn’t my boy but at the same time that is what I kept seeing.

“As a father you don’t worry about yourself but think of your children. Even though I knew it was my mind playing tricks on me it was difficult.”

He spent several days in Christchurch and returned home the following week to lead prayers. By then news reports had come in that Dunedin and Southland might have also been targets.

“That didn’t worry me,” he says.

“As a practising Muslim I believe that if it is your 11:41 time it is your time and nothing 20/05/2019 can change that. What will be will be.”

Reza and his wife Silvia believe it is fear of the unknown that creates hate. Because of this they never turn down an invitation to share their beliefs – not so they can convert people but more to educate and raise awareness of Islam.

“Islam is a tolerant and inclusive religion,” he says.

“It is the only non-Christian belief that has an article of faith of believing in Jesus Christ – not many people realise that,” he says.

Continued page 10

FARM FACTS n Owners: Reza and Silvia Abdul-Jabbar n Location: Mokotua, Invercargill, Southland n Farm size: 370ha, run-offs 110ha and 80ha n Cows: 1000 Friesian and crossbreed n Production 2018-19: 397,000kg MS n Target 2019-20: 430,000kg MS

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At a recent dawn service a hollow feeling came over him again as he remembered seeing his 50 brothers and sisters lying on the floor of the mosque.

“It is still with me.

“Yes, the mosques have been repainted and fixed but it happened. The memory S of those days and the images will be going TE A with me to the grave.”

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I knew I wanted to go to New Zealand and the path into farming was to either go to Massey or Lincoln University.

Reza Abdul-Jabbar

are holding an awareness week in early November,” she says.

“The trust is also aimed at engaging social and charity work for the local community. We’re working in a wider community with the women’s group, youth, settlement trust and multi-ethnic community.”

Reza and Silvia say their faith is more important to them than anything.

“Faith, family and then the farm.”

They own two farms and two support blocks milking 1000 cows. It is a far cry from their upbringing.

Reza was born in Pontianak, the capital of the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan, West Borneo. His father, Abdul, was a businessman dealing in pharmaceuticals, textiles and infrastructure construction. They even had an egg business with 15,000 ducklings and grew bananas, guavas and mangoes.

Their household was a colourful and vibrant haven for animals as their dad often brought home various wildlife.

“Dad used to bring home peacocks, deer, roosters, opossums and beautiful,

colourful birds and parrots,” Reza remembers.

“It was bit of a zoo – we were an animalcrazy family. We just loved them all.”

One day their dad walked in with an orphaned female baby orangutan they named Jodi.

“Back then, you were allowed to keep them domestically. We raised Jodi as part of the family. She was amazing.”

A couple of years later Abdul came home with another orphaned orangutan, this time a new brother, Kilwon.

“He also became part of the family and they used to go with us whenever we went out or into town for ice cream.

“We were really lucky actually to have such amazing experiences growing up.”

His love of animals is what led him into farming. At the age of just seven he told his father he wanted to be a farmer though he did not have a rural upbringing.

“We had a good discussion around all of that, what I would need to do to achieve it and set out a plan. One of the things we talked about was my lack of English.”

He went to Pontianak School for his primary and junior high years then in 1990 his father sent him to Singapore.

“Most Indonesian children do not get taught a lot of English and he knew the best way for me to learn was to go to a school where I could practise and develop it.

“I went to Singapore for a year so I could learn the language. Dad was very clever like that. He recognised what was needed.

“He and mum were amazingly supportive and Dad was the best mentor I could have asked for.”

Reza and Silvia describe themselves as a great team who work together and share their love of their faith, family and farm.

Reza and Silvia attend the Southland mosque regularly where Reza is the imam. Their Muslim faith is of huge importance to them.

Reza returned to Jakarta for a year and began to map out his farming career.

“I knew I wanted to go to New Zealand

Continued page 12

ON FARM STORY

Silvia is the daughter of a diplomat and grew up living in embassies around the world. She had never seen a cow till she met Reza.

and the path into farming was to either go to Massey or Lincoln University.

“But to get into university I needed to have University Entrance or Bursary.”

In 1993 he did his final year of high school at Auckland’s Glenfield College then graduated from Massey University in 1997 with an applied science in agriculture degree. In 1998 he went to work for J D Wallace at Templeview near Hamilton, milking 700 cows while he completed his masters degree.

He started out as a herd assistant, was

promoted to 2IC then farm manager.

Silvia was born in Jakarta but growing up led a fairly sheltered life in embassies in various a countries including Holland, Africa and Egypt. In 1992 her father was posted to NZ. “I went to many different schools that were all English-speaking but NZ is where I have lived the longest,” she says.

“I never want to leave. It is beautiful and has a special place in my heart.”

She wanted to be a business owner but never dreamed that business would

Reza and Silvia Abdul-Jabbar are very environmentally focused and have done a great deal of riparian planting.

12

be a dairy farm. She attended Massey University where she graduated with a business information systems degree in 1995. She is now studying for a Primary ITO business diploma.

“Until I met Reza I had never seen a cow.

“When he invited us to the farm I didn’t have gumboots or anything suitable but fell in love with the cute calves straight away.”

Calves still hold a special place for Silvia and each season the first-born calf is usually taken home and kept as a pet.

She met Reza at an international festival and jokes she did not pay him any attention.

“Actually, she took one look at me and was smitten,” he says.

Silvia says she was impressed by Reza’s knowledge and ambition.

“He was a Muslim teenager that lived by his faith and his commitment to Islam really impressed me.”

They married in 2000 and have five children, Aisha, 17, Hafsha, 15, Maryam, 12, Umar, 9, and Talha, 5.

In 2002 Reza became operations manager on Tony and Carla Fleming’s 1600-cow farm at Ngatea. Two years later he got his big break and went 50:50 sharemilking 1000-cows at Rotorua.

That farm was 334ha of hill country and hard work.

They decided to buy a small 200-250-

DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

When he invited us to the farm I didn’t have gumboots or anything suitable but fell in love with the cute calves straight away.

Silvia Abdul-Jabbar

cow farm but realised at that size they would have to work it themselves. Then a friend pointed out they had only ever been on large-herd farms.

“We took that on board and started looking in Canterbury but weren’t too keen on the whole irrigation thing.”

They then heard of a 1000-cow sharemilking job in Southland with John Evans and signed up to milk 1250 cows.

“Then John mentioned adding more land and building another shed. Before I knew it we were up to 1800 cows,” he says.

They eventually bought the farm.

“I rang my mother, my father and even my sister to say we had our first farm. It was a great feeling,” he says.

And they did it all without financial help from their parents – something that was hugely important to them.

They set about converting the sheep and deer farm into dairy though the fences and races were already in place.

Then the farm opposite came up for tender and he thought nothing of it.

“The morning before tenders closed I went and sat on the roadside and looked

Reza and Silvia check the Waituna Creek, which contains eels, crayfish, trout and giant kokopu, runs through the property.

at it, went home and rang Dad who encouraged me to do it. Two weeks later it was ours.”

Last season the herd averaged just under 400 kilograms of milksolids to produce 397,000kg MS and this season they are targeting 430,000kg MS. They spend little on supplementary feed and run a System 2, which is mainly grass-based with a bit of silage, crop and palm kernel in the shoulders.

A 20ha kale crop is planted for winter feed on the run-off and a further 30ha on the platform for when the herd returns before calving and to feed any cows wintered at home from June 1 to spring.

“The best yield we have had from kale is 21 tonnes per hectare,” Reza says.

Proven Product. Best Spread.

“We find it to be half the cost of beets. We don’t have to worry about transitioning the herd and it is easy to feed.”

As part of their regrassing programme a 10ha summer crop of turnips is sown. The expected yield is about 18t/DM/ha. They would normally plant turnips in midOctober but atrocious weather delayed them to the end of the month.

Last year they regrassed about 15% as they were targeting the less-than-perfect pasture and this year they are aiming for 12%.

“We are quite conservative with grazing our pastures because at the end of the

Continued page 14

ON FARM STORY day we want to be the best pasture-based farmers we can be,” he says.

“Paddocks are grazed at about 3300kg/ DM and we aim to leave residuals of 15001600 but if paddocks are more than 3300 then we mow ahead.”

Reza says they are in a relatively summer-safe area though in the last several years they have experienced dry spells. The drought of 2013 was the worst and this autumn was one of the best autumns he has experienced. Though it can get a bit cold and frosty they rarely get a decent dumping of snow because they are almost at sea level. In June and July the farm grew more grass than ever before.

“In June we normally get about 8kg but grew 15kg and in July 10kg instead of 5kg so it was basically double the amount.

“We went into calving with a cover of 2550kg/DM/ha when we would normally have around 2350kg. Then the big wet hit in September.”

In early May they weigh their crops and depending on yield will keep 100 cows at home over winter.

The herd returns before calving, which begins on August 10. The heifers begin calving on August 1. They keep about 300 replacements, which are reared by Silvia with the help of calf rearers.

The springer mob is checked every night and calves are left with their mums as long as possible.

“But we do give them fresh gold colostrum straight away as those first 12 hours are important,” Silvia says.

Calves are given Pro-calf twice a day as well as meal, straw and water. They recently invested in an automatic calf feeder, which, Silvia says, makes things a great deal easier.

14

“We no longer have to measure or bucket milk as it is all automated and recorded,” she says.

“The calves are a lot happier as they are not fighting for their share. The automation tells us if a calf isn’t drinking and we can separate her into a holding pen until she has a bit more confidence.”

Target weaning is 90-100kg depending on the calf as the crossbreed varies. Once weaned the calves are sent to the run-off and return as in-calf heifers.

Actually, she took one look at me and was smitten.

Reza Abdul-Jabbar

Pre-mating heats are done a month out from mating, which begins on November 1. The herd is tail-painted and once they are detected as cycling, painted green then following AI they are painted blue.

Any non-cycling cows are identified and Metrichecked. This season only 3.8% of the herd had to be checked, which is well below the industry standard of 10%.

Reza puts it down to keeping it simple but flexible and their management style.

When it comes to mating they like to keep things simple there too because they rear most animals. In the past they have dabbled with genomics but found there were not a lot of benefits. They do six weeks AI with premier sires and say they always get good stock from it. They then use a small amount of Hereford straws as a marker.

The 1000-cow Friesian and crossbred herd is on track to produce 430,000kg MS this season.

Jersey bulls are run with the herd for a further three or four weeks depending on how the in-calf rate looks. Their six-week in-calf rate has been about 90%.

“We do a quick scan in late December, which allows us to check. If it looks good then we pull the bulls out early January,” Reza says.

The Waituna Creek runs through their property and they are part of the Conversation Department and Fonterra Living Water programme to improve the fish habitat and form an ecological corridor from Waituna Scenic Reserve to the lagoon as well as show farming can exist alongside water improvements.

“The lower part of the lagoon is a reserve and we have retired 10.28ha,” Silvia says.

Wildlife, fish and native trees have regenerated quickly and are flourishing.

“There are eels, crayfish, trout and giant kokopu and a large variety of birds have taken up residence.”

Away from the farm they are community orientated. Reza is on the Gorge Rd School board of trustees while Silvia is on the PTA and both act as translators for police and as consulategeneral for Indonesia.

And, of course, he is the local imam though he is not formally trained.

“Whereas in a lot of centres the imams are trained scholars. I’m more of a Massey-taught imam,” he says.

He often pulls up to the mosque on his fuel-injected, V-twin Harley Davidson wearing a black leather jacket, boots and jeans.

The roar of the motorbike is heard long before he comes into view and as he pulls

Continued page 16

DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

Drive efficiency with GEA Reza Abdul-Jabbar grew up in West Borneo where his family looked after many orphaned animals including two orangutans, Jodi and Kilwon.

“I wanted a modern parlour that would enable one person to comfortably milk 250 cows” – Graeme Edwards, Northland Graeme Edwards installed a 26-milking point iXPRESS in a new milking parlour, designed to be the hub of a farm he’d reconfigured for better efficiency.

He added GEA’s Classic 300E milking clusters, which are light to handle and support efficient cupping techniques.

Graeme says the combined changes have taken half an hour off milking time. And it’s easily a one-man operation.

Want efficiency? Get in touch with GEA. gea.com/drive-dairy-efficiency

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ON FARM STORY

The tight-knit family, from left, Maryam, Hafsha, Aisha, Silvia, Reza and, front, from left, Talha and Umar Abdul-Jabbar are devout Muslims.

They observe Ramadan, eating before sunrise and after sunset.

his helmet off to reveal long, flowing, black locks, there is also a big grin on his face.

“I love it. It is such a neat feeling to get out into the open and feel the wind whistling past,” he says.

He whips off his jacket, changes into his robes and walks inside to lead the prayers.

The Islamic women are a tight-knit group who support and help each other.

They hold Quran classes and do Janaza training in which the women wash and prepare a sister for burial.

During the holy month of Ramadan the family eats breakfast before sunrise then fasts till after sunset. Though young children are not required to fast, some of them take part.

In the evening the family will often go

to the mosque for their evening meal, which is typically provided by one family each day.

“Everyone pitches in. It is a special time,” Silvia says.

They run an open-door policy and welcome all Muslim and non-Muslim brothers and sisters.

“We are living a great dream,” Reza says.

“We have been so lucky. We had great bosses, mentors, friends, consultants and neighbours from the get-go,” Reza says.

“And I have Silvia and the children and our faith. I couldn’t ask for much more.” n Video link: bit.ly/OFSabdul-jabbar

Reza Abdul-Jabbar was leading the Friday sermon at the Southland mosque when he got word of the terror attacks in Christchurch. He spent several days in Christchurch supporting families and preparing victims for burial.

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16

acquabydavey.com DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

MILK MONITOR

Milk price still going up

DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

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Butter

ASB’s forecast is still at $7 but its senior rural economist Nathan Penny is predicting an added bonus for NZ farmers. expensive and will also increase costs for American consumers. Many US airlines, for instance, have orders for Airbus planes. The increased costs of those planes will hit travellers. There are also many American companies with interests in Europe and European companies so any escalating trade war is likely to give a bumpy ride for all concerned, not least the US administration. The EU and US are, after all, supposed to be allies.

Trump’s penchant for tough tactics is however, likely to win the US few friends in trade circles and might make some of those considering protectionist policies to reassess their position and think again about the value of free-trade agreements in turbulent times. Rabobank is warning the global trade environment looks set for a period of heightened volatility and uncertainty.

It could be increasingly isolated as it gets offside with large parts of the world and can expect little support elsewhere as it competes, particularly in agricultural

SMP

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Aug 2018

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Aug 2018

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HINGS are looking good in the immediate future though haze still surrounds what’s on the horizon.

Fonterra has given substance to speculation the milk price is likely to top $7/kg MS this season, by quite a margin in some cases, by lifting its forecast range by 30 cents to put it at $6.55 to $7.55.

After the last Global Dairy Trade auction the NZX boosted its price by 14c to $7.20 while its spot price, based on the calculating the whole season at the latest GDT prices and current exchange rate, is now at $7.65, just outside the top end of Fonterra’s range.

While the GDT price has been stable its overall trend has been a steady if unspectacular rise.

Importantly, the Chinese are still buying despite dire predictions about the flow-on effects of a slowdown in the economy there and the collateral damage from the United States-China trade war.

The US has started imposing tariffs on a range of European goods, particularly those from the four main Airbus partners Britain, France, Germany and Spain though punitive tariffs on some goods such a cheese will apply to most EU countries.

Though politicians have been making placatory noises the dispute has the potential to escalate.

The World Trade Organisation okayed the US tariffs to punish the EU for giving illegal subsidies to Airbus. However, it has also found the US gave illegal subsidies to Boeing and is expected to give the green light to EU tariffs on American goods early next year.

So far in the US-China trade war President Donald Trump has been forced to give American farmers subsidies worth more than $20 billion to make up for lost sales. The European dispute has the potential to be just as if not more

GLOBAL DAIRY PRICES, 2014-19

USD/tonne FOB

Each month the Milk Monitor, Stephen Bell delves into the dairy industry and gives us the low-down on the good, the bad, the ugly and everything inbetween.

Cheese

goods, with countries in South America and non-EU parts of Europe.

Trump’s tendency to turn on his friends and dump allies won’t help the US cause as it comes up against big trading blocs like the EU, the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership and the possibly soon to be ratified Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership that will include the big economies of China, India, Indonesia and much of the rest of Asia.

Factors such as rising costs of production, lower confidence, capacity restrictions and environmental regulations are part of that haze on the horizon but they also present opportunities because supply constraint in the main dairy exporting countries is keeping prices firm. Production across the Big Seven exporters the US, the EU, New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay is expected to increase by just 0.4% in Q4 2019 and 0.8% in early 2020, Rabobank, which has maintained its payout forecast at $7.15, says.

ASB’s forecast is still at $7 but its senior rural economist Nathan Penny is predicting an added bonus for NZ farmers.

He reckons the exchange rate is falling enough to add another 50c/kg to the milk price, putting his price at $7.50/kg, again at the upper end of Fonterra’s range.

So things look good for demand and prices and hopefully Fonterra has now sorted itself out. It’s those outside influences that farmers have no control over that could cause problems. n

17

NEWS

Farmageddon?

D

EPENDING on who you talk to the impact on British agriculture of leaving the European Union is either going to be catastrophic or open up a whole new world of opportunity for farmers free from the confines of European red tape.

A new book, edited by UK agricultural journalist Caroline Stocks looks into the potential impact on farming by examining the issue from multiple perspectives. Each chapter is either an interview Stocks did or an edited essay from various industry leaders, experts and farmers.

“The all-important question mark in the title, Farmageddon? – Brexit and British Agriculture, was to suggest the outcome for farming really is on a knifeedge, depending on how the UK agrees to leave the EU,” Stocks said.

“The idea was to speak to people from different viewpoints to see if I could cut through all of the emotionally-charged rhetoric to find out what the future really could be.”

With just over 50% of the British electorate having voted for Brexit industry polls show farmer sentiment is pretty similar. Those who voted to leave the EU argue they want to take back control of legislation. UK farmers’ relationship with the EU is a complicated one. Many of the UK’s 149,000 farm businesses rely on EU subsidies that amount to around £3

billion a year to keep their business afloat.

Most farming legislation, through the Common Agriculture Policy, is created in Brussels and then is fed back down to member states through national governments. National governments are allowed to interpret that regulation to make it fit their farming industries.

“Creating a one-sizefits all law for 27 very different countries is obviously difficult and the UK is renowned for gold-plating every bit of legislation that has come from Europe. While this has always been the UK governments’ fault, politicians deftly pass blame back to Europe, hence farmers aren’t that fond of Europe.”

Stocks said British farmers hope the rules around pesticide use and genetic modification technologies will become less strict once they quit the EU. Looking at Brexit from a positive viewpoint there will also be opportunities through trade with other countries.

“This is obviously going to be dependent on tariffs and any trade deals the UK is able to secure. At present the proposed tariffs don’t look great for UK farmers hoping to export. In the book, out of eight chapters there are only two who think it’s going to be a good thing. One is

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a minister who is responsible for creating the replacement domestic farm policy and the other is a farmer who is viewing that there could be opportunities to be picked from the rubble of whatever is left after we’ve gone.”

Many farmers hope for a loosening of rules but Stocks suspects they will be waiting a long time.

“If we want to keep trading with the EU in any capacity we are going to have to continue abiding by their rules around things like animal welfare, environmental regulations etc to ensure our produce continues to meet their high standards.

“I can’t imagine many farmers would want to reduce regulations around things like welfare either. Some hoped that Brexit would pave the way for GM to be used in this country but it looks unlikely, at least for now.”

With Brexit being a large and complex beast and changing every day the ins and out of its effects on any industry can be hard to comprehend.

One of the biggest issues for farmers is subsidies. Depending on the sector, particularly beef and sheep, so much of

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November 2019

I think that innovative and entrepreneurial farmers, whatever their age, will have plenty of opportunities in the future.

Caroline Stocks

British agricultural journalist Caroline Stocks says the outcome for farming really is on a knife-edge, depending on how the United Kingdom agrees to leave the European Union.

UK agriculture is dependent on subsidies to make a profit. The UK government has agreed to match the CAP subsidy until 2022 or until the next election, whichever comes first.

“However, there were huge arguments with the Treasury when this was agreed and given the cash-strapped health service in the UK it’s widely felt that as soon as they can reduce subsidies, they will.

“The biggest and immediate change with subsidies is that payments will no longer be based on farm sizes but on a farm’s ability to provide environmental services. Public money for public good is the mantra of the farming department.

This means that while there’ll be money available for farmers they’ll have to do things like flood prevention work, planting trees and so on to be eligible for payments.”

Trade is another impact point with some of the UK sectors, in particular lamb, being entirely built on the export market. If those markets are lost many sheep producers are predicted to go out of business within months. A recent industry report by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board said, in a worst-case

DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

scenario, ie a no-deal Brexit, where they don’t leave with a trade agreement, farm profits will fall from £38,000 to £15,000.

Part of the domestic agricultural policy includes a measure to help older farmers retire with dignity so more young farmers can get into the industry, an industry that will likely be starkly different to the one their parents operated in.

“The idea is older farmers will be offered a lump sum, I think its three years’ worth of their subsidy payment upfront to step down from their business. A lot of younger farmers want to farm without subsidies anyway because they distort the markets so the idea is everyone will be happy in that situation.

“I think that innovative and entrepreneurial farmers, whatever their age, will have plenty of opportunities in the future. The challenge is riding out the short-term challenges created by Brexit and being fast enough to adapt what you’re doing to respond to new conditions.”

As well as subsidies and a ready-made market for food exports, thousands of migrant staff, largely from Eastern Europe, help keep farms running day to day. With the UK stopping the free

movement of people from Europe migrant labour will become an issue.

“Lots of dairy farmers have relied on migrant staff, particularly from Poland, in recent years and since the referendum they have struggled to find good staff as so many Polish have left the UK.” Tightening of regulations around slurry storage and greenhouse gas emissions are likely as the UK looks to tighten environmental laws.

Stocks said the whopping issue in the Brexit debate is the problem with Ireland and Northern Ireland.

“It’s a huge problem from a dairy perspective as there are so many dairy farmers in Ireland who regularly trade between the Irish border and send milk to be processed in different parts of two countries.

“If Ireland leaves the customs union and Northern Ireland doesn’t it makes moving anything over the border a complete nightmare, especially food and agricultural produce.

“At the moment the UK Prime Minister (Boris Johnson) reckons he has come up with a solution by moving the border into the sea but in practice no one knows how it will work.”

Britain and the world are waiting for an outcome but no one has any idea which way it will swing.

“Back in May, when we were first due to leave, people were deciding whether to hold off planting crops or buying cattle to see what happened but repeated delays mean most people have just got on with things “I know some dairy farmers who have decided to reduce their herd sizes as they’re not confident that the milk price is going to hold but I think they’re the minority rather than the norm.” n

19

ON FARM

Taranaki farmers Daryl and Karyn Johnson, by the first lake developed on their property, own a 210 hectare farm at Pukengahu. They have established wetlands and done riparian plantings.

Photos: Ross Nolly

They have sanity, pride and peace Buying your own farm requires a great deal of hard work, financial sacrifice and often lifestyle sacrifices too. It also requires immense fortitude to navigate and tough out the hard, lean times. Ross Nolly reports.

T

HEY have been through some tight times but Taranaki farmers Daryl and Karyn Johnson’s resilience and ability to bounce back comes from their extremely strong and committed working partnership.

The couple operate a 210 hectare farm at Pukengahu, 15 kilometres east of Stratford milking 440 cows. The farm is 171ha effective in dairy pasture, of which 35ha is medium to steep hill and 15ha sidings where young beef cattle are farmed. The rest is in riparian plantings and tracks.

Included in blocks added to the original 53ha were farms with hills and gullies which has given them the opportunity to create wetlands.

“Wetlands add value to the land and wealth to your total capital investment.

They hold water on the farm and prevent it from drying out quickly, which is a more sustainable way of land management.

They look nice and the aesthetics add value,” Daryl says.

“It’s in my nature to do it because I’ve always been on the land and enjoy being in the bush around nature. Eventually we’d like to rear some pheasants and

quail to release into our wetlands.”

“We have a morepork in the tree by the house and feed the tuis, the kereru are over the back and it just feels right. We are privileged to have this land and the ability to do that,” Karyn says.

Getting that first wetland under way was an epic task.

Daryl and Karen planted 700 plants in the first year while milking 300 cows and raising a young family. It took the entire winter and every spare day to complete the plantings around their regular farm work.

“A horrendous amount of weeds came up, mostly broom and ragwort.

We planted another 700 the following year and spent the next five or six-years controlling the weeds.” Karyn says.

“We learnt from that and when we developed the next area we didn’t plant it for three years so we could control the weeds first.”

Last year a further 2200 plants and another 1650 this year were put in.

“Planting is just the start. It took four people a month juggling farm work to plant 2000 plants and that didn’t include the fencing. It took a further three weeks during summer by two staff to free up those plants,” Karyn says.

Though Daryl is a fan of riparian planting and creating wetlands, he says the downside is that it provides habitat for pest species so there is a need to have a pest control plan.

Their environmental work gives them a sense of achievement.

Karyn says it is a feel-good thing, a sense of sanity, pride and peace. But it also resulted in them winning the 2018

Continued page 22

FARM FACTS n Owner: Daryl and Karyn Johnson n Location: Pukengahu, Stratford, Taranaki n Farm size: 210ha, 171ha effective, runoff 40ha n Cows: 440 cows Friesian and Friesian-cross, a few Jerseys and Ayrshires n Production 2018-19: 180,000kg MS n Target 2019-20: 170,000kg MS, first year of 3:2 milking

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Daryl and Karyn Johnson with their dogs, a beagle named Baz and Labrador puppy Angus.

They had four mortgages and four off-farm jobs that required plenty of early morning starts.

A load of manuka seedlings, from left, Daryl Johnson, Hamish Kidd, Sam Johnson and Karyn Johnson are ready to plant were eco-sourced.

22

Taranaki Predator Free Farm Awards.

“I was proud of the predator free award because it represents Daryl. He’s hunted all of his life and most hunters are actually the biggest conservationists,” Karyn says.

Daryl grew up on his parents’ Mangatoki dairy farm. After leaving school he spent 18 months working for wages for his sharemilking brother Ross.

A family friend asked Daryl if he was interested in a 50:50 position. At just 19 he took on a 120-cow, 50:50 sharemilking position. He sharemilked for nine-years on another two properties, which allowed him to increase his herd and buy his first farm.

The next year Karyn moved

onto the farm. She describes herself as then being a townie girl who took to farming like a duck to water. She loved the open land, being able to work on it and with the stock.

She also loved the cute yellow paddocks. Little did she know those cute flowers were ragwort and buttercup.

“I enjoyed the learning and am still learning 20 years later.

I probably use more chemistry and physics in my farming job than in nursing,” she says.

She is a part-time clinical nurse specialist in Hawera. She is now studying for a postgraduate diploma in advanced nursing.

“We were growing and working hard. Nursing helped support our goals but now I’m

DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

ON FARM

The herd produced 180,000kg MS last season milking twice-a-day. This season the Johnsons have shifted to 18-hour milkings and are targeting 170,000kg MS. really pleased to have my own identity and something that is just mine,” Karyn says.

Daryl bought the farm 24 years ago when it was a rough 53ha block. As the years went by they bought neighbouring properties.

When the first nearby farm came up for sale in 1999 they unsuccessfully went HFS ad - Nov2019 - Dairy Farmer - 210x86mm.pdf to their bank for finance but thanks to lawyer, family and vendor finance they

1

bought the property and crawled onto their farm.

They had four mortgages and four off-farm jobs that required plenty of early morning starts.

Daryl sold bull semen and worked as an AI technician and Karyn was nursing and a member of the Health and Disability Ethics Committee.

21/10/19 10:47 AM That experience taught them a valuable lesson and they resolved to never again

go unprepared to a bank. They have now bought three nearby blocks and appreciate those neighbours for giving them the chance to grow their farm.

“We learnt the bank’s parameters and how to do detailed budgeting, which created and strengthened our business.

We now go to the bank knowing their expectations. It comes down to people

Continued page 24

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Daryl and Karyn Johnson milk 440 Friesian cows with a few Jerseys and Ayrshires for colour.

relationships,” Karyn says.

“Originally the farm had a seven-aside herringbone which we extended to 15. Putting nearly 300 cows through a 15-a-side herringbone took us three hours to milk.”

At that time the couple were raising their family, Patrick, now 27, Abbey, 22, and Sam, 19, and lived in a small house where the mice could walk under the closed back door. They toughed it out and knowing they were a strong couple never doubted themselves.

“Those were the steps we knew we had to take to get the farm we wanted,” Karyn says.

“When Fonterra made their first $5 payout we thought let’s do this and built 40-bail rotary in 2001. But the banks

weren’t overly happy about it.” Daryl says.

“We pushed on and made it work. The banks would give us only $150,000 and we had to find the extra $185,000. Literally every cent of that payout went into the shed. Managing cashflow has been a huge tool for us.”

Building that shed changed their lives.

It gave them four hours of extra time a day to put to developing the farm and they have continued to make improvements ever since.

The second block they bought had been a drystock farm and by the time they converted it they were able to milk 340 cows. They bought another block and employed two labour units.

The farm now employs two staff but for nearly 20 years it was just them.

“Our staff turnover has been very low.

They have been incredibly reliable, loyal and honest. They fit in well and we just get on with the job. It’s a privilege to have them,” Daryl says.

In 2005 they won the Fonterra Westpac Dairy Excellence Farm Business Award and visited Chile with a view to buying a farm. Even though the land was excellent and relatively inexpensive they decided it would be easier to buy in New Zealand.

So in 2007 they bought a farm in Southland in a 50:50 equity partnership, which they credit with being a large part of where they are today. As absentee owners living in the North Island they put a sharemilker on to run it.

“We kept it for seven years and had two very capable sharemilkers. Surrounding

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ON FARM

Our staff turnover has been very low. They have been incredibly reliable, loyal and honest.

Daryl Johnson

blocks were purchased so we could be self-contained. We ended up with 500ha including a drystock block milking 600 cows on the platform and running and wintering stock on drystock block,” Karyn says.

“That property did its job. We bought it for equity growth which it provided.”

Selling it enabled them to buy a neighbouring block at home the following year.

Farm improvements have continued with emphasis on water systems, fencing and tracks. They bought a digger to take advantage of their own quarry for track maintenance.

“We have always driven efficiencies and been a low-cost system. We try to do as much as work ourselves to lowers costs,” Daryl says.

The 40ha run-off, which has 6ha planted in pine, is used for their young stock, enabling them to be a selfcontained unit. Bulls are their only incoming stock.

Now all the properties have merged into one unit they are aiming to milk about 480 cows. They have no plans for further expansion but they reckon they never say never.

“This year we milked 440 cows. They are 85% Friesian dominant but there’s a lot of cross over all of the cows. We have a few

Karyn Johnson brings in the calf feeder ready to fill.

The first lake developed on the Johnson property.

Jerseys and Ayrshires just to add a bit of colour and variety,” Daryl says.

The purchase of land with more hilly terrain encouraged them to begin using a mixed farming model to increase their farm’s sustainability.

Any flats with sidings and wet, swampy bottoms have been double-fenced top and bottom. They are small areas often 0.5ha up to about 1ha where they rear 4050 beef cattle.

That approach is gentler for the dairy cows but the Johnsons feel it’s just as important for staff retrieving the dairy cows daily. They continually ask themselves what return they can sustainably harvest from this type of land with less impact on the environment.

“Those little beefies return the equivalent of about 30 cents per kilogram of milksolids extra on what most would class as non-profitable land,” “We have the option of retiring all of our hills to beef cattle if this further destocking and de-intensification is required for environmental sustainability.”

Production has always sat about 400kg milksolids a cow and about 1100kg MS a hectare. Their best result was 187,00kg MS. Last season they did 180,000kg MS from 450 cows and this season they are targeting 170,000kg MS in their first season trialling 18-hour milkings all season as a solution to their 16% empty cow rate and to achieve improved animal welfare, fewer foot problems, less track maintenance and electricity savings in the cowshed.

“We’ve also realised that our staff hours can be reduced by 10-15 hours per week.

So that’s human sustainability. Every second morning they begin work at 8am and usually go home at around 4pm on a short day. On a long day we start cupping at 5am and 4pm. So, hopefully, it will be more sustainable for the cows, environment and people,” Daryl says.

“We were walking the herd 2.2km to the back paddock over some pretty significant

Continued page 26

ON FARM

We also tried some Speckle Park.

They’re a bit of fun, grow out fast and have a strong market.

Karyn Johnson

Daryl Johnson fills the calf feeder for the calves’ breakfast. They rear 80 replacement calves. hills and wanted to take the stress of them. It’s not quite 18-hour milking it’s three milkings over two days. It reduces the cow’s stress by eliminating 25% of their walking and milking time. That should leave energy in the animal for her reproductive cycle and overall general body health.”

They have used 18-hour milking post-Christmas for four seasons and experienced no production loss so hope production will hold through the season on this rate.

“Hopefully, there will be minimal production loss. There’s a lot of knowledge about once-a-day milking versus twice-aday milking and I’m picking that we will

Daryl and Karyn Johnson feed the calves.

The light grey calves are Charolais-cross.

26

be somewhere in the middle, hopefully closer to twice-a-day milking,” Daryl says.

They have budgeted on a 10,000kg MS loss. Five-weeks in they were only 10kg MS a day behind and are now 10% behind for the season to date.

They run a System 2 to 3 and bring in only 170 tonnes of meal consisting of palm kernel mixed with some soya bean, tapioca and minerals.

They take one 20ha cut of silage from their run-off and 20ha at home. If conditions allow they will make a second cut at home.

They try to cut about 25ha of hay on the home platform and, depending on the season, 15ha of hay on the run-off. That

makes 400-415 bales (15s) and 40ha of pit silage.

“We must prove to the world that we’re kind to our animals and environment.

I think that’s leading back to the grass-based systems our parents and grandparents used,” Daryl says.

Before calving, which begins on July 25, the herd is split into early, middle and late calving mobs. They aim to keep 80 replacements and wean at target weight of 100kg.

They collect calves twice a day and give them gold colostrum to enable the best possible start. New calves are fed twice a day and the rest once a day but if they need extra they get more. They start on four litres and go up to six-litres with adlib meal and hay. They are introduced to the outdoors at four weeks old.

Mating begins on October 16 and they do AI for four weeks then run Hereford bulls with the herd and use Jersey bulls over the heifers.

They also use AI beef breeds on the herd to give them the choice of selling the fourday old calves or rearing them, depending on the market.

Last year Karyn decided to mix things up and tried Angus, Charolais, Blonde d’Aquitaine, Romagnola, Highland and Shorthorn.

“We also tried some Speckle Park.

They’re a bit of fun, grow out fast and have a strong market,” she says.

“We now concentrate on Charolais.

They’re different, calve easily and throw strongly to their breed with a good buyer demand. We have 40 of them along with six Speckle Park. We used 100 beef straws and the rest of the herd is tailed off with Herefords.”

The couple are part of their local Rural Support Trust, which was set up to help rural people get guidance, referrals and access to professionals when they are under pressure and need help.

“We work in a triage role. We’re the first point of call if someone needs help,” Karyn says.

DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

“Farmers like talking to other farmers.

We visit them to see where they’re at and what help they need. Sometimes all they need is a chat and a friendly face.

“If they need more than a cup of tea and a yarn we can connect people with professionals who provide further support. We don’t get called out a lot but it’s a way to give back to the community that has supported us.”

Daryl feels that through the life experience of their own careers they can look back and see how different situations might affect other people and it helps them recognise what others might be going through.

“At the start it was a bit overwhelming because we thought we had to be able to fix everything,” Karyn says.

“We’ve learnt that we don’t have to have all of the answers.”

They are well placed to understand the pressures of farming and be able to give advice from experience, having come under pressure themselves at times.

“At times things were tight. And when we say tight, they were really tight. During the global financial crisis we had three times the national average debt for dairy farmers,” Karyn says.

“It would be fair to say that we were under bank pressure but we were prepared to talk to the bank and say how can we get through this?” Daryl says.

“We believed that we were good enough to be bankable but we had to convince the hard-nosed bankers, be up-front, real and honest.

“You can’t disengage. We used those people relationships through that time to talk to other bank managers about how we should be managing.

“It was two very tough years but all of our family were on board and we did what was required to get through. You must be willing to work hard, it doesn’t just come to you,” Karyn says.

Daryl Johnson checking a predator trap at the lake.

“We believe in budgeting and knowing our costs. Any decision had to save us money or time because we had neither.

We’ve been big recyclers and like to repurpose, rehome and reuse. People thought we were nuts but we pulled out fence posts and even the wire and reused them.”

Each year they try to honestly appraise how and what they can improve on and are always looking for a more balanced approach.

“We’re not the best but we keep trying to chip away and go forward. It’s really rewarding to take a moment to reflect on

what you’ve achieved and see that we’ve done okay.

“And we’d like to think it has not been at the expense of anything or anyone,” Karyn says.

“I’ve come up with the 90% Rule,” Daryl says.

“If you can achieve 90% of something, it’s still one hell of a pass mark. It’s not perfect but perfection is different for everyone. By using the 90% Rule you automatically reduce some of the stress load. Everything becomes more achievable when you take some of that pressure off yourself.” n

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AT THE GRASSROOTS

Let’s be nicer to our dairy farmers Canterbury lifestyle block owner Jack van der Sanden says farmers have the important job of producing the food we eat and need our support not negativity.

I

HAVE been on the receiving end of dairy farmers most of my life, well, their product that is because milk processing has been the backbone of my career.

I also grew up in a rural town in the south of the Netherlands where the whiff of pig waste was never far away.

So, it might come as no surprise I feel an affinity with farmers, the workers of the land, those people who take big risks and work all day to produce the food that feeds the planet.

In New Zealand I have also made some good dairy farmer friends and a recent

chat over a beer prompted me to write this article, especially for them.

Because folks our NZ dairy farmers are under the pump.

Looking at the media and my news feeds it doesn’t take long to see farmers are doing it tough with little political and public support in NZ. They are painted as river polluters, animal abusers and the main cause of climate change, which conveniently diverts attention from our own lifestyle contributions, like daily commutes and air travel.

The fact dairy farmers are keeping our rural communities alive and make a

huge contribution to our nation’s income seems to have been forgotten.

According to some commentators, often the non-farming kind, they’re doing it all wrong and they should do it smaller scale, organically, sustainably, with more diversity and without chemicals. I wonder if these people tell their builders and plumbers how to do their jobs as well?

Now, I agree humanity is facing some pretty big challenges and I’m in no doubt most of the suggestions and opinions are coming from a deep concern. However, talking to my farming friends, they’re feeling pretty down about it all. Just

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With more than 30 years’ experience in the global food industry Jack van der Sanden is working as an international food safety consultant. He lives in a small town in Canterbury and grows his own vegetables on a small lifestyle block, which makes him an “almost” farmer.

imagine getting out of bed every morning at 4am and the first thing you see on your phone is some negative feedback about your job – not a good start of the day I think.

When it comes to popular anti-farmer sentiment the farming critics use two tools that stand out to me: generalisation and extrapolation.

It takes only one picture or event to start the media ball rolling and action groups have caught on to this pretty quick. Clearly, if one farmer does it all farming must be implicated. Yeah, right.

It’s so easy to do, give individuals a group label and we lose sight of the individual straight away.

Unfortunately, it’s real people who are affected by these group allegations, says a white middle-aged man being thrown in with white middle-aged men.

You know, the thing with farming is that it’s the most transparent business in the world. While transparency is a real buzz word in the corporate scene, it is the farming sector that’s leading by example.

Every time a tourist or sightseer is cruising in the countryside, it’s Instagram time.

A dairy farmer in NZ must feel like an All Black, being exposed to the public’s critical view 24/7. Does that mean I seek to justify poor farming practice? No. However, it’s a human bias to focus on things that go wrong and forget about all the things that go right. Unfortunately, pointing the finger at all farmers on the

DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

basis of a few incidents is hard to counter because it’s difficult to convince the heart with the head.

What about extrapolation?

Well, I am stumped by some predictions our dairy farming future is under threat because we can now make meat and milk without the cow. While bold statements about the extinction of our traditional farming in the near future make the headlines it certainly does not portray farming as a lucrative career path for the younger generation.

While transparency is a real buzz word in the corporate scene, it is the farming sector that’s leading by example.

I’m sure synthetic meats and milks will find a place in our future diet but my personal view is they will complement rather than replace farming. On my visits to China it’s very clear their demand for real milk is growing and my best guess is that for every person turning vegan in the West there are two people turning to dairy in the East.

As Nils Bohr said “Prediction is very difficult, especially if it is about the future.” Just think back to 1972 when the Club of Rome issued a report called Limits to Growth, predicting we would run out of resources by the year 2000. It was in all the newspapers and made my parents very nervous.

Fortunately, in this case, the scientists were wrong or at least their timing was definitely off because the extrapolations of their computer models were based on existing technology and knowledge.

Essentially, they didn’t take human adaptability, innovation and invention into account.

So what really happened is that today’s agriculture has become much more efficient and fed a world population twice the size. What a remarkable feat.

Personally, I am convinced we will need our farmers for a long time to come and we should think very carefully how we treat and support this community.

When it comes to farming there’s a saying we should all keep in mind: Don’t bite the hand that feeds you. Listening to my farmer friends I can sense their pain and frustration and if I was young I would think twice about becoming a farmer in the current climate.

So, thank you dairy farmers of NZ. I hope you will rise to the challenge and continue to feed us despite the growing headwinds of public and political opinion. You are the most resilient people I know and I hope you’re okay. n

29

INDUSTRY GOOD

DairyNZ fights for farmers David Burger

Strategy and investment leader, dairy

C

ONSULTATION on the Government’s Essential Freshwater package has just closed.

This proposal is of huge significance to

farmers.

Concern about some aspects of it has been clear since the first public meeting in Ashburton where 350 people turned up. We saw similarly strong turnouts at other meetings.

Over the past two months DairyNZ staff have attended more than 40 Essential Freshwater meetings and events from Northland to Southland.

As well as attending Ministry for the Environment and farmer-organised meetings DairyNZ also hosted farmer meetings, held submission dropin sessions to support farmers with submission writing and hosted webinars to explain the proposals and gather feedback.

We have had more than 2000 farmers and rural professionals attend the events we hosted or presented at.

We have received feedback from farmers that they appreciated having our experts on hand to answer questions and provide clear information about how the proposals will affect farms.

Across the country farmers have been busy calving. The busy time of year and tight timeframe saw DairyNZ, along with other primary sector organisations, lobby the Government to extend the submission timeframe.

Though we would all have liked longer we did achieve a two-week extension.

DairyNZ’s water quality scientists, policy experts and economists have spent the past two months working through the

30

Farmers have been very active in adopting practices like fencing and riparian planting to improve water quality.

We need solutions informed by science, as well as by practical experience of what is achievable and effective on the ground. detail to understand the implications of the Essential Freshwater package.

As many farmers and local councils have commented, the Government’s package does not assess the true impact of the proposals on rural communities.

In DairyNZ’s submission our economists have modelled the combined impacts of the freshwater package and the Zero Carbon Bill on rural communities and on farms.

with DairyNZ And our water quality scientists have been analysing the effectiveness of these proposals on water quality.

They have also considered alternative options which could lead to the ecosystem health improvements we all want to see.

Everyone is keen to see healthier waterways and farmers have been very active on their own farms adopting new practices to improve water quality.

Water quality is a complex issue and we need solutions informed by science, as well as by practical experience of what is achievable and effective on the ground in rural and urban areas.

That’s why we have really appreciated so many farmers taking the time to attend Essential Freshwater meetings and make submissions sharing their thoughts on such an important issue. n

MORE:

Read DairyNZ’s submission online at dairynz.co.nz/freshwater DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

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New Dairy Industry Awards general manager Robin Congdon.

New man at the helm The new person at the helm of the Dairy Industry Awards has never milked a cow but has business skills that will serve him well in the role. Jenny Ling reports.

A

SOLID understanding of rural life combined with a high-flying international career in marketing and events has secured Robin Congdon his latest role as Dairy Industry Awards general manager.

Congdon has some big shoes to fill as he took over from long-serving leader Chris Keeping, who had 18 years in the role.

The Palmerston North resident says he has enjoyed his first five months in the position and believes his background in business, event programmes and communication and information technology will let him see new opportunities and efficiencies. “I’m excited to be part of what many consider to be the most prestigious dairy industry programme, a unique opportunity to engage with this generation and the next generation of dairy farmers. It’s an opportunity to create change and also something 32

DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

DAIRY CHAMPION positive for those involved,” Congdon says.

“The New Zealand DIA programme has been built from virtually nothing to a substantial national awards programme over the last 18 years. It is important the NZDIA stays relevant and delivers value to the entrants, sponsors and the trust. I am also proud to be part of NZ’s primary industry, dairy.”

Born and raised in Britain, Congdon grew up in rural Gloucestershire, a pretty village in the English countryside where its cattle are famous for producing milk for both single and double Gloucester cheeses.

He attended school in Gloucestershire and Switzerland but didn’t have any aspirations for a specific industry. He has always thought of himself as a businessman and has always gone down that route.

Congdon didn’t attend university, opting to go straight into the workforce instead.

He had many friends at Cirencester Royal Agricultural College, an internationally renowned agricultural institution established in 1845, which is known as the Oxford of the agricultural world.

Growing up in a rural community rather than a city gives him an understanding of rural life that will serve his new position well, he says.

He has in-depth business management experience and extensive knowledge of managing high-profile awards and events.

His first job was at an audio visual business and over time he bought shares and developed that company and eventually became managing director.

His London-based business Conference Works and Edric Audio Visual, which had offices around the country, saw him work with clients like Lloyds TSB bank, British Steel and Hoover.

The family moved to NZ for a better quality of life.

He and his Kiwi wife Michelle Murdoch, known as Mitch, lived in London with their three children, Fergus, 16, Lottie, 15, and Max, 11, and thought they could give them a better upbringing in NZ. “The kids take up a lot of my spare time and we like to go to Coromandel once a year for a holiday.

“We enjoy skiing, jet skiing and wake-boarding at Foxton Beach and I also coach junior rugby.”

When he moved here 10 years ago he freelanced for six years while running a property development company.

That involved creating a subdivision at Foxton Beach, a small settlement in the Horowhenua District of the ManawatuWanganui region, along with building spec homes to sell there and in Palmerston North.

He was also on the board of the region’s economic development agency, Vision Manawatu, now the Central Economic Development Agency, for five years.

Congdon has worked with local businesses such as Stewarts Electrical Supplies and electrical distributor Globelink providing specialist marketing support developing their websites and CRM systems.

There are still great career prospects and farm ownership opportunities.

“Because my career has been across multiple industries rather than one sector I’m quite used to understanding industry strategy, taking that on board and able to help drive those strategies to completion,” he says.

One of his most recent roles was as the national events sponsorship manager for Massey University.

A big part of this job was managing the NZ Food Awards programme, which has celebrated innovation and excellence in food and beverage for over 30 years.

Congdon says there are significant parallels between the food and dairy awards.

“The food awards are all about innovation and seeking out great NZ products and helping connect them with the various bodies around NZ such as the food innovation network. It’s about driving food technology and innovation in the industry and I feel that there’s a similar opportunity here.”

The Dairy Industry Awards attract farmers from across the country, working in all levels of the dairy industry and providing a learning and growth platform for young and emerging farmers as they progress in their careers.

Continued next page

Robin Congdon is a marketing and events specialist and had a comprehensive career in England spanning a number of different industries.

DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

33

Skiing is another favourite pastime of the Congdon family, from left, Michelle and Robin, Max, Lottie and Fergus.

With three main categories – Share Farmer, Dairy Manager and Dairy Trainee – they also provide a chance for entrants to connect with each other along with regional teams, sponsors and partners, engaging directly with about 7000 people each year.

Next year’s programme is well under way, with entries opening last month and closing on November 16.

Congdon says the DIA adds enormous value to the dairy farming industry, driving education, qualifications and best practice and influencing change in dairy farming.

“There is a lot of change in dairy farming and we are able to help the industry focus on best practice to drive the change required, focus on the environment, water quality and protect the environment for future generations,” he says.

“We are building and educating a good understanding of sustainable farming systems fit for the future.”

He says the dairy industry can stay relevant by focusing on what’s important for dairying in future.

This year the awards and industry partners Primary ITO and DairyNZ will offer Share Farmer entrants the chance to have

the work they prepare for the awards also serve as evidence for recognition of prior learning. That could lead to partial completion of an agribusiness management diploma.

Congdon says that will provide participants another way to receive recognition and learning and promote agribusiness skills training to the industry.

“We’ve been aligning assessments to make sure we assess the same criteria as the diploma. There’s a dual opportunity now for our share farmers to take part in our programme and benefit from it.”

Outgoing chairwoman Rachel Baker says the last awards event was a fitting showcase to farewell Keeping after such a long and dedicated tenure with the organisation.

“It was a special touch having every executive chairman she had worked with present on the night as well as numerous previous winners and volunteers to acknowledge her care and contribution over the past 18 years and to wish her the very best for her next chapter,” Baker says.

“We look forward to seeing where Robin will take the role and our organisation into the future.”

Congdon says Keeping did a fantastic job and left the awards in a great place with fantastic support from sponsors Westpac, DeLaval, Ecolab, Federated Farmers, Fonterra, Honda, LIC, Meridian Energy and Ravensdown and industry partners DairyNZ and Primary ITO. “I believe we can take it to the next level and we can keep growing the programme itself,” he says.

“We are educating, providing qualifications and best practice for the industry.

“It’s important to remain relevant to the industry and what that looks like we develop each year.

“I think that sustainability and environment issues and on-farm animal care are considered as to how they become part of the awards programme. We will continue to develop qualifications within the industry like the recognition of prior learning programme.

More than 80 people including regional managers, team leaders, executive members and sponsors attended the group’s annual conference in Rotorua in September.

All are passionate and dedicated to the dairy industry, he says.

“We had more than 60 people in the room directly involved in dairy farming at various stages of their careers – trainees, managers and share farmers – all who have been through the DIA programme and are committed to the industry.

“Some may have different goals and career aspirations from

Since taking up the reins of the Dairy Industry Awards Robin Condon has been out and about meeting industry people and farmers.

34

DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

Robin Congdon grew up in rural Britain and went to school in Switzerland. Hiking in the Swiss Alps.

the dairy farmers of yesteryear but there are still great career prospects and farm ownership opportunities if that is their business plan.”

The awards are not just about taking part for one year because the benefits of entering and getting involved can be ongoing.

DIA executive chairman Michael Woodward is a great example of a successful journey starting as an entrant taking part for a few years before becoming a national winner.

Woodward went on to become a regional manager, joined the executive team and is now the executive chairman.

He and wife Suzie who sharemilked 1000 cows for TheLand Farm Group-Purata Farms in Canterbury have progressed to farm ownership this year with the purchase of a 170-hectare property milking 340 cows on a once-a-day system in Waikato.

Congdon admits there are big challenges for the dairy industry.

“As bit of an outsider, ie not a dairy farmer, I wondered what the future looked like for a career in dairy farming but having now spent five months in the role I think the future is still very bright for farmers.

“It’s not without challenges and there’s a lot of change needed but in reality the dairy farmers are adaptable.

“I think of it like the Maori kaitiakitanga concept about caring for the land. Dairy farmers want to pass on the land in good stead and they want to be able to keep their businesses going.

This really sums up what the modern dairy farmer is trying to achieve.” n

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35

FARMSTRONG

Look after yourself

F

Over the last four years more than 15,000 farmers have improved their wellbeing as part of Farmstrong. Here’s how.

ARMSTRONG is a nationwide rural wellbeing initiative helping farmers and their families cope with the ups and downs of farming.

It’s all about sharing the things farmers can do to look after themselves and the people in their business so they perform well, live well and farm well.

Farmstrong offers practical tools and resources through its website, workshops and events inviting farmers to find out what works for them and lock it in.

One of the hallmarks of Farmstrong is that it has been shaped by farmers for farmers. Here’s a few of the dairy farmers who have shared their insights.

Sharemilker Nick Bertram says “Farming’s a bloody good gig but you’ve just got to look after yourself. I guess I’ve got more used to dealing with the stress of farming over the years but it was challenging to begin with.

“The thing with farming is that the one little thing that goes wrong can turn into a big thing. But if you’re working too hard and not eating or drinking or getting enough sleep then any problem becomes a lot bigger than it needs to be.”

Contract milker Abbi Ayre learned the hard way that no matter how busy life gets on the farm you still need to look after yourself.

Abbi and her husband Frikkie work on a 900-cow dairy farm at Culverden, North Canterbury.

“I was working very long hours, often with no breakfast and sometimes no

Marc Gascoigne is a big fan of the Five Ways to Wellbeing – staying connected with mates, keeping active, taking notice and appreciating the small things in life, being curious and learning new things on or off the farm and giving back to the community.

36

Abbie Ayre says no matter how busy life is on the farm you have to take care of yourself.

lunch. But it was my first job and I didn’t know any different. I almost didn’t carry on in the industry.

“Once you get tired like that it’s a downward cycle. I’m much more aware now about looking after myself and our staff too. We’re just in the process of altering our roster now so that everyone has more regular time off and they’re not working too long hours.

“You can’t just focus on the problems in farming. You’ve got to stay positive and decide how you’re going to deal with challenges and keep moving forward.

There’s no point dwelling on things that have happened. That’s a real trap.”

Southland contract milker Tangaroa Walker says it’s important to remember to look after yourself so you can actually enjoy the job.

“It’s funny isn’t it? We go to school and do farming courses and learn about all these things but nowhere do you learn about how to look after yourself by eating properly or making sure you call a friend when you’re stressed. No one teaches you that. That’s why I think Farmstrong’s the best thing since sliced bacon.

“So, I always try to make sure my headspace is good, I’m fit and healthy and that I turn up for work every day with yesterday’s stresses gone. And if I’m feeling down I’ll ring my mates straight away and have a yarn. That’ll always lead to us going diving that week or playing rugby. Then, all of a sudden, the little dramas I had on-farm that were really getting to me feel like bugger all and I’m good to go again.”

One of Farmstrong’s key ideas is that if people invest in their wellbeing when times are good they’ll have plenty to draw on when times are more challenging.

Farmstrong ambassador Sam Whitelock says “I know from having grown up on a farm that farmers are great at looking after their stock and pasture but,

DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

sometimes, not so good at looking after themselves.

“A good way to think about building your resilience is to imagine it’s a bank account. What you invest now will benefit you later. You can make regular deposits and build up your wellbeing bank account by learning a few simple habits.

“I call them the Five Ways to Wellbeing.

They are very practical things. If you do them regularly they will become habits that help you to keep things in perspective when the going gets tough.

They are: • Staying connected with mates; • Keeping active; • Taking notice and appreciating the small things in life; • Being curious and learning new things on or off the farm and; • Giving back to the community.

“Whether you’re a rugby player or a farmer there are always going to be things that you can’t control like the weather and prices.

“That’s why investing in your wellbeing on a regular basis is so important.”

Cambridge dairy farmer Marc Gascoigne is a big fan too.

“Why should farmers care about the Big 5? Because that’s the stuff that keeps you physically and mentally healthy. It keeps you sane,” he says.

“You’re often isolated on a farm so if something’s gnawing away at you and you’re working by yourself all day it can fester in your head. The more socialising and talking to people you can do the better.”

Gascoigne reckons he ticks off three of the Big 5 every time he climbs on his bike at the Te Awamutu Cycling Club.

“Cycling’s a big part of my socialising.

I’m getting the exercise, I’m connecting with people meeting up for rides and I’m serving others because I’m president of the club. When you’re giving to others like that it makes you feel a hell of a lot better yourself.” n

MORE:

To find out what else could work for you, check out our farmer-to-farmer videos, stories and tips at farmstrong.co.nz

Southland contract milker Tangaroa Walker says being fit, health and happy will help you enjoy your job.

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RESEARCH

Barns have big footprints The study found barn systems have an 18% higher carbon footprint than pastoral systems because machinery use and feed.

I

N A New Zealand first new research from Lincoln University doctoral researcher Hafiz Muhammad Abrar Ilyas is estimating the carbon footprints of pastoral or grass-based and barn dairy systems based on their energy consumption.

This study was done on 50 conventional dairy farms in Canterbury – 43 pastoral and seven barn systems.

Hafiz said the difference between the two systems indicates the barn system has an 18% higher carbon footprint than the pastoral system per hectare of farm area and 11% higher footprint per tonne of milksolids.

Barn dairy systems have been a relatively recent introduction in New Zealand as a solution to animal welfare, soil structure damage and wider environmental challenges.

“The use of barn facilities, however, requires further intensification of the system in terms of the use of energy inputs to make the system profitable, making it difficult to achieve both financial and environmental benefits simultaneously.”

The greater carbon footprint of the barn system is caused by greater use of imported feed supplements, machinery use and diesel and petrol consumption for on-farm activities.

In the pastoral system fertiliser is a

38

significant contributor to emissions.

He included emissions released during the production of materials used to make indirect energy inputs in fertiliser, machinery and equipment, which are rarely considered.

“What is not accounted for is overseas production and import of these inputs to the agricultural sector.

“As production of imported feed supplements involves fossil energy consumption and releases carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere it is considered as an indirect source of carbon emissions in this study.”

The same is true for fertiliser.

Overall, the carbon footprints of indirect energy inputs are higher than the carbon footprints of direct inputs in both systems.

The use of imported feed supplements is higher in the barn system because of the higher stocking rate and more intensive nature of the system.

And the use of barn facilities increases stocking rate and input consumption to produce more milk per cow. That, in turn, has increased cow weight, increasing methane emissions because bigger cows produce more enteric methane from their higher feed intake.

International studies have recommended the pastoral system as the ultimate solution to environmental challenges such as climate change.

Lincoln University doctoral researcher Hafiz Muhammad Abrar Ilyas has been studying the carbon footprint of barn and pasture systems.

In NZ reducing environmental emissions from farming systems is a critical issue for the dairy industry.

“Although methane emissions from enteric fermentation and nitrous oxide emissions from soils make up the majority of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, energy use within the agricultural sector directly in terms of fuel combustion and indirectly through the increasing use of synthetic fertilisers and other inputs is also of concern.

“It is also an area that is perhaps more easily addressed.

“In this regard, minimising carbon footprints associated with energy consumption will be helpful to achieve NZ’s emission reduction targets and will also help to reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions from dairy systems and move towards more climate friendly or sustainable farming systems,” Hafiz said. n

DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

RESEARCH

Nanotech wins big grant

A

PPLYING nanotechnology to agriculture to increase productivity and reduce environmental impacts has secured a Lincoln University team a $1 million grant from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s Endeavour Fund.

Lincoln University Associate Professor Craig Bunt said his team will develop a groundbreaking nano-coating that can be applied to fertiliser to control its rate of release into soil and to seeds to control the timing of germination.

“Controlling fertiliser rate of release is important because release that is too rapid can result in excessive nitrogen being lost into soil and waterways, causing significant pollution and other negative environmental impacts.

“When nitrogen is lost to the soil, waterways or atmosphere farmers must apply more fertiliser to achieve desired results, which increases farming costs.”

They will initially focus on understanding the science of the new polyester nano-coating and its biodegradation then apply the technology for controlled release fertilisers and delayed seed germination in partnership with companies and organisations such

Lincoln University Associate Professor Craig Bunt and his team have secured a $1 million grant from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s Endeavour Fund for nanotechnology research.

as Ravensdown and the Foundation for Arable Research.

While controlled-release fertilisers are available they have significant limitations, including lack of robustness reducing their effectiveness and a high coating-tofertiliser ratio.

“Our technology, using a novel, revolutionary coating, will solve these limitations.”

It can also be applied to seeds to control the timing of germination.

“The benefits of delayed germination are manifold.

“For example, farmers could sow crops traditionally sown in autumn several months earlier when weather conditions are more conducive to sowing.

“They could also sow two crops at once: one with uncoated seeds and the other with coated seeds to delay germination until after the first crop has matured or been harvested.

“Delayed germination could also allow farmers to control weeds that grow after sowing so that the coated seeds germinate after weeds have been sprayed.

“This will increase crop yields because competition from weeds can be significantly reduced.”

He described the technology as a specific solution that increases sustainability, enhances productivity, and will help improve yield and export revenue.

The project team members include Dr Greg Walker of Otago University and Dr Sally Price and Weiyi (Ivy) Liu, both from Lincoln University. n

A nano-coating on seeds will be used to control the timing of germination.

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RESEARCH

The Waimakariri River in Canterbury provides Pamu with irrigation.

The state-owned enterprise is part of a land use diversification study considering options such as aquaculture.

Best water quality efforts not keeping up TIM FULTON

M

ORE intensive land-use has outweighed efforts to prevent loss of nitrogen and phosphorus, a national science challenge has found.

Stock exclusion and good-practice irrigation and effluent on dairy farms have done most to lower nitrogen and phosphorus levels over the past 20 years, Our Land and Water national science challenge team leader Dr David Houlbrooke said.

Without that mitigation today’s losses would be 45% greater for nitrogen and 98% for phosphorus, Houlbrooke told an Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Science forum at Lincoln.

“That’s a good news story but, unfortunately, during those 20 years that farmers have been adopting a lot of good management practices we’ve also been intensifying and the mitigation hasn’t been enough to keep up with the intensification.”

Looking ahead, Houlbrooke pointed to a heat map showing nitrogen concentrations around the regions now, compared to forecasts for the next 20 years.

“We get a reduction of nearly 20% of nitrogen and if we take a broader view, let’s look at all the mitigations that are being worked on, we get a 34% reduction.”

In many places that sort of reduction would be enough to meet water

40

quality standards but in other cases “we don’t believe that will be enough given the pressure we’re under in some environments”.

It will continue to be important for farmers to match the right enterprise to the right place for the right result, Houlbrooke said.

That’s a good news story but we’ve also been intensifying and the mitigation hasn’t been enough to keep up with the intensification.

Dr David Houlbrooke

Researchers involved in Our Land and Water science had come up with three indicators for the most suitable land use: production potential, relative contribution (measuring loss of nutrients from pasture to land) and impact on downstream water quality.

The information is part of a land-use capability study of high-intensity farming areas, like parts of Southland. A lot of work is being done on a proof of concept

to show how the approach can be used more widely, Houlbrooke said.

Another study, led by Massey University, called Variable Attenuation Capacity, is looking at the flow of nitrogen from farms to rivers and lakes across catchments in Manawatu.

Some areas can be intensified successfully because of high attenuation in gravel but farmers on that land will still need to be sure they offset their losses.

Even those farmers might need to realign the intensity of their land use.

It is clear from social research for the science challenge that farmers weigh up an array of factors before changing land use, from economic and social considerations to environmental and cultural influences. It is generally a question of relative risk, Houlbrooke said.

As an example, scientists are working with state-owned Pamu to potentially diversify land-use at the company’s Eyrewell dairy farm in North Canterbury.

The property irrigates pasture for a relatively conventional milking system.

However, if it is to build an integrated agri-aquaculture system, Pamu could use its clean, reliable water to produce high-value food like salmon then get a secondary use of the water by growing koura (freshwater crayfish). By-products from the new industry could create opportunities for fertigation, either on the existing farm system or as a fertiliser option for arable or horticultural crops.

A feasibility study showed it is possible to use existing water resources to generate heaps of revenue and decrease land-use intensity, Houlbrooke said. n

DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

RESEARCH

Top aerospace innovator

A

CLOUD-BASED, global remote sensing solution for monitoring lake water health designed

by Christchurch-based Seequent has won the New Zealand Aerospace Challenge 2019.

Powered by global aerospace giant Airbus and delivered by ChristchurchNZ and SpaceBase, the challenge recognises one of the biggest issues facing the agricultural sector is sustainability.

Applicants were asked to develop a product or service that detects, monitors or measures water or soil pollution using the latest satellite and unmanned aircraft technology.

With global warming and an increasing world population it is imperative to find sustainable farming methods to increase production while minimising its impact on the environment.

Agritech is a rapidly growing multibillion dollar industry. NZ’s agriculture industry is world renowned for food production but has very little share of the agritech market. Organisers believe NZ, with a rich history of innovation and agriculture, can lead the rest of the world.

Seequent says only 65 of New Zealand’s 3820 lakes are monitored for water quality.

Its solution will enable remote sensing of water quality, with the capacity to monitor an entire region’s lakes all at once.

Seequent civil and environmental general manager Daniel Wallace said the

Seequent developed a cloud-based global remote sensoring system for monitoring lake and water health to win 2019 Aerospace Challenge.

challenge gives a great opportunity to build solutions with technical, business and industry support.

“We jumped at the opportunity to participate in the challenge, which has such huge potential to positively impact sustainability,” Wallace said.

“Organisations can monitor the health of lakes they are responsible for and subsequently visit just the ones showing health degradation.”

He predicts the firm could have a 30% global share of water monitoring within four years.

The team received a cash prize of $30,000, over $15,000 of Airbus data vouchers, $2500 of legal support and six months of support at tech focused incubator Xstart.

Seequent donated the cash prize back to the challenge organisers to be used for future challenges or as seed funding for small businesses in the aerospace industry.

Airbus Australia Pacific managing director Andrew Mathewson said the challenge demonstrates space technology and sustainability are converging in new and exciting ways.

“There is so much opportunity to use satellite data manage agricultural activities and to combat global environmental challenges like climate change.

“Seequent’s solution is a great example of this type of innovative and practical technology to enable better management of our environment,” Mathewson said. n

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Sorry Kiwis, you missed out

A

SUFFOLK dairy farmer and his family are set to become the new and only dairy farmers on a small island in the English Channel following worldwide search for a new dairy farmer on the island of Sark.

Jason Salisbury and his wife Katharine run a herd of pedigree Guernsey cows on Whitegate Farm near Ipswich but will now prepare to move to Sark, just off the northwest coast of France.

The couple have a wealth of experience in producing dairy products as they already make award-winning Suffolk cheeses using milk from their own herd.

A global hunt for a new dairy farmer was launched earlier this year as the resident dairy farmer was retiring and the island’s 500 residents plus thousands of annual visitors needed a new supply of fresh milk and cream.

Interest in taking up the post came from

as far away as the United States, Cyprus and New Zealand.

As the existing dairy farm on Sark needs extensive modernisation a new state-ofthe-art dairy at a new site on the island is planned. Sark, measuring just over two square miles, is one of the Channel Islands.

It relies on tourism and agriculture to support its economy.

It remains one of the few places in the world where cars are banned. There are no paved roads, no street lighting and almost no pollution. More than 50,000 people visit the island each year.

It is anticipated the new dairy will be in operation by early 2021 when the residents will be able to sample home-produced milk, via a vending machine, and cream.

Initial plans will see groundwork started this autumn.

A trust has been set up to project manage the building of the new dairy, which will include an education section where the local and visiting children can

learn about milk production.

In 2017 the previous dairy farmer Chris Nightingale decided to retire and sold his herd, citing difficulties with land tenure and old equipment.

The dairy will be owned and funded by a trust, which will lease it to the new farmers who will operate as tenants.

The Salisbury family plans to import 16 in-calf cows and heifers from Guernsey to Sark in early 2021 to calve around April.

“We will continue to manage our Suffolk farm and cheese-making enterprise from Sark and have hired a farm manager from Northern Ireland to look after the daily running of the farm and the existing staff and customers,” Katharine said.

Plans for the dairy on Sark include the construction of an abattoir to produce meat and a facility to produce cheese.

Half of the £400,000 the trust intends to raise by appeal for the project has already been pledged. n UK Farmers Weekly

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Natural England head Tony Juniper has backed the idea of giving farmers more control and minimising environmental regulation.

Farming by calender won’t work

N

ATURAL England boss Tony Juniper has backed the idea of abolishing closed periods for slurry spreading.

British farmers are going through similar environmental issues as those in New Zealand with debate around how much farm practice should be controlled by regulation and what should be up to farmers to decide.

During a visit to South Acre Farm in York Juniper was told by National Farmers Union dairy board vice-chairman Paul Tompkins that farming by date does not work for the environment and encourages farmers to spread slurry at inappropriate times outside closed periods to ensure their stores do not overflow.

Asked whether he agrees the policy of closed periods needs to change Juniper said “The experience I had last week of visiting farmers in Wensleydale (where a payment-by-results trial is taking place), which was much more about results rather than calendar dates shows me that giving farmers a lot of flexibility is very likely to get better results than putting very specific, almost tick box prescriptions into place.

“They may be easier to measure but, actually, they are not necessarily delivering the value we need so taking that more flexible approach seems logical.”

DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

Juniper’s comments came as the Welsh Government pressed ahead with its plans to introduce new water regulations, which include closed periods for spreading slurry.

NFU Cymru president John Davies said “It is interesting to hear a flexible approach to nutrient application and the outcomes it can achieve are being heralded by the chairman of NE at a time when the Welsh Government is pushing on with a polar opposite approach.

“Just last week, NFU Cymru had to write to ministers to seek an exemption which will allow farmers operating in nitrate vulnerable zones (NVZs) to spread during the closed period.

“This request comes as increasing numbers of farmers in NVZs have contacted the union highly distressed that the prolonged wet weather of recent weeks has prevented them from spreading.”

Farmers Union of Wales policy officer Ceri Davies also said the farming-bycalendar approach taken by the Welsh government could be counterproductive.

An editorial in the UK Farmers Weekly said regulation as a tick-box exercise is unlikely to ever properly work.

Closed periods on slurry spreading is one example and the prospect of such measures can leave many farmers feeling frustrated, with the lingering feeling that policymakers are simply out of touch.

As the draconian approach to water

pollution, NVZs and the looming closed period show in Wales, farmers feel as though they are being prevented from working with the natural environment and instead being made to adhere to some arbitrary calendar.

It called for a more sympathetic form of regulation that enables farmers to adapt to the land and specific conditions at any one time.

“It is encouraging that Juniper has been impressed by the environmental payments-by-results trial in Wensleydale, Yorkshire, and this has shown that, shock horror, it is farmers who are best placed to implement decisions which benefit both the environment and food production.”

Regulations specific to different parts of the United Kingdom and the soil type or particular environmental conditions in those areas would make much more sense than a one-size-fits-all approach.

So, too, would a pragmatic vision that seeks to engage farmers in a proactive manner, something which those in Wales feel has been missing for some time.

“As the climate continues to shift and we face more intense periods of drought or flood, having regulations in place which enable farmers to adapt to changing climatic conditions will become ever more important.” n UK Farmers Weekly 43

Tim Hedderwick and his calf Power-Ban from Bay of Plenty are the winners of the Calf Club NZ social competition. Tim and PowerBan received the most votes during the online voting.

Congratulations to our 2019 Calf Club NZ winners.

Well done.

National Winners

Social winners

Leading and handling champions 1st Gabrielle Scherer, 2nd Jezabelle Boyt, 3rd Kim Simmons, 4th Shaydon Steele, 5th Skye Crossen Dairy type champions 1st Thomas Jeyes, 2nd Charlie Scherer, 3rd Kim Simmons, 4th Haylee Baker, 5th Tayla Jamieson Beef type champions 1st Cody Morris, 2nd Cleo Heiller, 3rd William Earwaker, 4th Jakob Byers, 5th Jezabelle Boyt

1st Tim Hedderwick, 2nd Alexander Crawford, 3rd Charlotte Pedersen, 4th Madison McLean, 5th Blayke Murray, 6th Jack Pedersen, 7th Henry Scherer, 8th Reuben Carey, 9th Ambrocio Turnbull, 10th Michael Edwards

44

Regional Results MANAWATU/WELLINGTON Primary/Intermediate Leading and rearing 1st Chloe Jamieson, 2nd Hannah Lovelock, 3rd Daniela Duckett, 4th

Benjamin Lawrie, 5th Alistair Pedersen Dairy type 1st Haylee Baker, 2nd Tayla Jamieson, 3rd Hannah Lovelock, 4th Hannah McRae, 5th Daniella Duckett Beef type 1st Alistair Pedersen, 2nd Benjamin Lawrie, 3rd Chloe Jamieson, 4th Logan Baker High school Leading and rearing 1st Nikki Baker, 2nd Charlotte Lovelock Dairy type 1st Charlotte Lovelock, 2nd Nikki Baker DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

RESULTS FOR CALF CLUB NZ NELSON AREA Primary/Intermediate Leading and rearing 1st Frankie Price, 2nd Rylee Parkes, 3rd Macey Parkes, 4th Max Templeman, 5th Matty Templeman Dairy type 1st Matty Templeman, 2nd Rylee Parkes, 3rd Hunter O’Donnell, 4th Katie Templeman, 5th Lorna O’Donnell Beef type 1st Franky Price. 2nd Max Templeman, 3rd Matty Templeman, 4th Issac Templeman, 5th Katie Templeman

NORTHLAND/AUCKLAND Primary/Intermediate Leading and rearing 1st Alyssa Bishop, 2nd Janna Paarmann, 3rd Jack Williams, 4th Teaomarama Soutar-Watarau, 5th Siva Horsford Dairy type 1st George Williams, 2nd Evan Browning, 3rd Kenmay Christensen, 4th Alyssa Bishop, 5th Charlie Williams Beef type 1st Siva Horsford, 2nd Henry Heappey, 3rd Carlisle Christensen

CANTERBURY Primary/Intermediate Leading and rearing 1st Skye Crossen, 2nd Cleo Hellier, 3rd Corbin Openshaw, 4th Eloise Openshaw, 5th T J Hayward Dairy type 1st Skye Crossen, 2nd Corbin Openshaw Beef type 1st Cleo Hellier, 2nd T J Hayward, 3rd Eloise Openshaw

High school Leading and rearing 1st Angel Somerville, 2nd Conner Somerville Dairy type 1st Angel Somerville, 2nd Conner Somerville

SOUTHLAND Primary/Intermediate Leading and rearing 1st Annika Buhre Dairy type 1st Annika Buhre High school Leading and rearing 1st Kimberley Simmons, 2nd Lina Buhre Dairy type 1st Kimberley Simmons, 2nd Lina Buhre TARANAKI Primary/Intermediate Leading and rearing 1st Jessica Holmes, 2nd Riley Taylor, 3rd Kelsey Perrett, 4th Sienna Caldwell, 5th Taytan West Dairy type 1st Kelsey Perrett, 2nd Kaylee Lepper, 3rd Guy Perrett, 4th Chloe Taylor, 5th Riley Taylor Beef type 1st Chloe Taylor, 2nd Cary-Maree Barriball High school Leading and rearing 1st Taylah Cooper Dairy type 1st Taylah Cooper

DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

WAIKATO NORTH Primary/Intermediate Leading and rearing 1st, Gabrielle Scherer, 2nd Charlie Scherer, 3rd Holly Fulton, 4th Rylee Murdock, 5th Eijah Gread Dairy type 1st Charlie Scherer, 2nd Gabrielle Scherer, 3rd Henry Scherer, 4th Taylor Murdock, 5th Rylee Murdock Beef type 1st Cody Morris, 2nd Hunter Fulton, 3rd Alexis Hansen, 4th Mitchell Hansen, 5th Cayden Taylor WAIKATO SOUTH Primary/Intermediate Leading and rearing 1st Ambrocia Turnbull, 2nd Lily Murray, 3rd Dylan-Marie Sawford, 4th Blayke Murray, 5th Aria Abrams Dairy type 1st Lily Murray, 2nd Aria Abrams, 3rd Blayke Murray, 4th Ambrocia Turnbull, 5th Dylan-Marie Sawford Waikato senior High school Leading and rearing 1st Jezabelle Boyt, 2nd Thomas Jeyes, 3rd Abi Boyt, 4th Tayla Hansen, 5th Charlise Benson Dairy type 1st Thomas Jeyes, 2nd Bradley Sawford, 3rd Jessica-Rose Young, 4th Jasmine Sawford Beef type 1st Jezabelle Boyt, 2nd Tayla Hansen, 3rd Abi Boyt, 4th Charlise Benson, 5th Taylah Gibbons

WAIPA SURROUNDS Primary/Intermediate Leading and rearing 1st Lucy O’Reilly, 2nd Olivia Ruegger, 3rd Pippa Earwaker, 4th Indianna Richards, 5th Jayden Thurlow Dairy type 1st Indianna Richards, 2nd Ellie-May Riddell, 3rd Lucy O’Reilly, 4th Jack Little, 5th Jack Anderson Beef type 1st William Earwaker, 2nd Olivia Ruegger, 3rd Jayden Thurlow BAY OF PLENTY Primary/Intermediate Leading and rearing 1st Shaydon Steele, 2nd Alexia Gibbon, 3rd Tim Hedderwick, 4th Amber Cleaver, 5th Michael Edwards Dairy type 1st Tim Hedderwick, 2nd Shaydon Steele, 3rd Alexia Gordon Beef type 1st Amber Cleaver, 2nd Athena Reid, 3rd Michael Edward HAURAKI SURROUNDS Primary/Intermediate Leading and rearing 1st Annabelle Jeyes, 2nd Maggie Murdock, 3rd Jakob Byers, 4th Charla Silvester, 5th Haiden Williams Dairy type 1st Mario Partridge, 2nd Annabelle Jeyes, 3rd Charla Silvester, 4th Logan Williams, 5th Noah Gibbs Beef type 1st Jakob Byers, 2nd Haiden Williams, 3rd Maggie Murdock, 4th Rueben Carey

A big thanks to all the children who took part in Calf Club NZ this year. You have done us all proud.

Thanks also go to Joshua Herbes from Real Experience, Waikato dairy farmer Michelle Burgess and all the sponsors for supporting this great venture, the volunteers who got out on farms and judged children with their calves and everyone else who pitched in.

The team at Dairy Farmer has been proud to be the media partner in this initiative. Keep an eye out for Dairy Farmer in the coming months for more stories and photos from Calf Club NZ.

Sonita 45

BREEDING & GENETICS

Busy gets busier An artificial insemination run is just one of many things a West Coast farmer has up her sleeve to generate extra income for the farm. Cheyenne Nicholson reports.

R

UNNING an Airbnb, milking 140 cows and raising two small children keep Hokitika 50:50 sharemilkers Thomas and Hannah

Oats busy.

And if that isn’t enough, Hannah, in a bid expand her skills, to benefit their own business and generate some extra income has trained and qualified to become an artificial insemination technician.

This season she is embarking on her first solo AI run.

It is their second season on the 83.5ha property at Kowhitirangi, owned by Stuart and Adrienne Coleman. The farm might be small but that’s the way they like it because they want to micro-manage every area on-farm and do the best they can for their stock and the environment.

The 23-year-old began training last year along with three friends and says though it was hard to leave the farm and her family for a few weeks she got a lot out of the training courses.

“When I did the course it was in Christchurch and given that we run the farm ourselves with no staff we don’t really get the chance to go off farm so it was a bit tough leaving everything,” Oats says.

“But I enjoyed the course and learning something new. I’m a very practical person so this was perfect.”

Four years ago the couple won Dairy Farm Manager of the Year for the region and this year they took out the Share Farmer of the Year in just their first season on the farm.

“We bought the herd that was already here. Stuart and Adrienne farmed very similarly to us so it has been a really good fit.

“We’ve never really thought that going to a big farm was something we’d do.

“What we have here is enough for us both in terms of time and the financial side and it fits how we want to live our lives.”

Having such a busy schedule that not only includes running the farm by themselves but a thriving Airbnb and

Hannah Oats enjoys the practical side of AI and getting to see other farms systems at work.

46

DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

doing relief milking it’s hard to imagine where she finds the time for her AB run. But she says it is simply a matter of scheduling and team work, which, after 10 years working together, they have down to a fine art.

“I met Thomas when I was 15 and he was a farmer so I used to go out to the farm after school and help out.

“We’ve sort of just worked our way up over the years. We contract milked for his parents for six years before we came here.

“We’ve always worked together and the kids come out with us and get involved in everything. With my run I’m generally only away between milkings and we just alternate jobs and make everything fit. But we do have to start the morning milking about 3am.”

After completing her apprenticeship training Hannah was given her own AI run and while she admits she was pretty nervous during her first solo pre-run of the season, she’s enjoying it. The pre-run is a chance for technicians to meet all the farmers on their run and go through the details of their mating plans including mating start and end date, synchrony plans, what breeds they are using and if anything needs changing from previous plans.

Hannah says being an AI technician is a great chance to meet farmers and learn more about other farm systems as well as getting a glimpse into what farmers are doing in their own breeding programmes.

“Although the job is purely just the actual physical bit of inseminating it’s been interesting talking to other farmers

Ellie, 5, and Charlie, 3, practice their AI technique on a post in the shed while Hannah does the cows.

DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

Hannah and Thomas Oats, with daughter Ellie, won the West Coast Dairy Farm Manager of the Year in 2015 and this year they took out the Share Farmer of the Year in just their first season of 50:50 sharemilking.

and seeing their systems, not just their mating. I often come away and think we could try that at home.”

High fat, fertility, easy calving and good udder conformation are top priorities when selecting bulls for their West Coast system.

“The Colemans had a large focus on Friesians and we’ve more or less stuck to that with a few mixes in there. Since we bought the herd we’ve increased numbers from 90-100 to around 140.

“Our focus is on feeding the cows to their full potential and then breeding comes in. Feeding the cows fully all year round has benefits in other parts, not just milk production.

“Our 16% empty rate wasn’t acceptable for our standards and this year we hope to improve that. There were things we did last year (changing meal type, poor bull power etc) that we think improving will have a good result for this year’s mating.”

As part of the inseminating process technicians use a programme called DataMATE, an app designed to prevent inbreeding and disorders caused by recessive genes. It calculates the risks of each mating and issues a warning if the risks are too high.

“If you can’t use that particular sire then you’ll pick another. For Premier Sires you’ve got day one, day two and day three so if the day one bull is a no go then you just use day two. If for some reason you

We’ve never really thought that going to a big farm was something we’d do.

Hannah Oats

get a lot of inbreeding you’ve got the bank of frozen semen as a back-up. This all used to be done on paper.”

A large drawcard to doing the training was having the ability to inseminate their own herd as a cost-saving measure as well as for the convenience factor.

“We have a semen bank stored at home as we do all nominated sires so if there’s a cow on heat during the morning milking I can just pull her out and do her then. It sounds a bit silly but because I’m the calf rearer as well. I always say I’m the mum and the dad. I’m also able to Metricure cows myself rather than having a vet come out.”

Along with all their farming responsibilities Hannah and Thomas are active in their local community they are volunteers with the local fire brigade and involved in their children’s school. n

47

A sexy industry LIC national AB manager Dave Hale says providing a good service from which both the farmer and the AB technician want the same thing – to get cows successfully in-calf – is paramount.

A loyal seasonal workforce sweeps the country every year, pushing the dairy industry’s artificial breeding logistics to the limit. Tim Fulton delves into semen processing and artificial insemination.

B

EING an artificial breeding technician is an unusual job but many seasonal recruits just keep coming back year after year, LIC’s national artificial breeding manager Dave Hale says.

LIC employs about 1400 seasonal AB staff a year, joining a comparatively tiny permanent staff of just 57.

About 800 of the seasonal crew are AB technicians, with the remaining 600 or so in office jobs, labs, warehouses, courier drivers or directly assisting the techs on farms.

“It’s like rolling out an army actually.

You’ve got to recruit and train then support them once they’re in the field,” Hale says.

Hale has been with LIC for 14 years including 10 years managing the co-op’s bull and dairy farms.

The farms work hand in hand with the AB operations as a source of the semen.

Hale’s team processes, sends, delivers and perform the semen collection and does about 4.6 million inseminations each spring.

The process starts with bulls being

48

taken from the paddock to the collection barn. Once the semen is collected it is passed through a window to a lab team, which begins the processing. The finished product leaves the building in straws, in boxes, for delivery by about 90 courier drivers taking it to AB technicians.

Even after 14 years of watching the logistics unfold Hale still marvels at how the company maintains its unique delivery of fresh semen to technicians every three days.

New Zealand’s geography helps make it possible, Hale says.

“I’ve been lucky enough to go around Europe and America to some of the big AB companies and they don’t do that because of their logistical size.

“In NZ a long and skinny country with a changing climate starting from the top of the North Island to the bottom of the South Island plays a big role in why it actually works so well delivering semen every three days to three different areas of the country.”

Last year Mycoplasma bovis forced LIC to make changes to the system of fresh semen processing that had been mostly unchanged for three decades.

Before the 2018-19 season LIC collected,

It’s like rolling out an army actually. You’ve got to recruit and train then support them once they’re in the field.

Dave Hale

processed and sent semen the same day so technicians could use it the following day.

That changed last year to prevent delivery of semen that hadn’t been tested negative for M bovis. Semen is now collected from the bulls and PCRtested for M. bovis. Only once a sample is confirmed negative can straws be sent to the AB techs.

A PCR test detects whether an M bovis cell is present, whether dead or alive. LIC is the only AB company in the world that

DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

BREEDING & GENETICS

LIC AB technicians and other staff have a revised protocol for entering and leaving farms, including compulsory foot washes.

PCR tests every semen collection and in two years of testing all results have been clear.

The company has also increased biosecurity on farms since the disease was discovered two years ago. All LIC staff, including AB technicians, have a revised protocol for entering and leaving farms, including compulsory foot washes.

LIC aims to train 80-100 technicians every year to replenish the team.

Technicians must complete a two-week training course, run at centres around the country between February and May. You must achieve 85% in the first week to continue to the second week then 95% in the second week to pass. Graduates spend their first year as an apprentice, working alongside an experienced technician who coaches them along with completing and passing three NZQA unit standards before graduating as a first-year technician where they complete a further year under supervision though they are working on their own.

Staff turnover in the seasonal workforce is about 20%. Ten technicians this year alone celebrated 25 years on the run and two clocked up 50 years.

“To have 80% of our workforce come back year after year and to work for us as a seasonal employee is an amazing statistic and one we are very proud of,” Hale says.

The team has a variety of backgrounds and 43% are women.

“Thirty years ago just about all our technicians owned farms or were working on farms, sharemilking or working in the dairy industry.

“Today we have firemen, we have policemen, we have city people that take four to six weeks leave without pay to do an AB run.”

DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

Often the technicians have worked for LIC previously before a change of career but want to stay involved in the industry.

The techs are paid piece rates, which means they’re paid for every insemination and can earn good money over a short time. LIC also supplies them with everything they need to do their job.

Hale says techs have to meet certain performance criteria, which are ultimately about successful insemination and getting cows in calf. Insemination is around day one of a cow’s 21-day cycle.

“From an artificial breeding point of view we measure non return rates.

“So, if the cow doesn’t come back for another insemination we assume its in-calf and if they do return we capture that data and measure against technician performance.”

Hale says the technician’s role,

including cow-in-calf data, is just part of hitting mating targets.

“Getting cows in calf relies on a lot of good practices on farms. You need good heat detection, the farmer to be presenting cows that are truly on heat, good facilities for the technicians to work in to give them the best opportunity to get cows in calf … these are just some of the main contributing factors to actually getting a cow in calf.”

However, there is pressure on techs to get the job done. Their non-return rates are compared with their peers in the same region.

“So, they’re not compared to the herds that they’re doing. They’re compared against all their fellow technicians to see where the variation is.

“Our technicians take a great deal of pride in their work. No matter how experienced they are most will feel a sense of nervousness as they approach day 24 from their start date as the non-return rate data starts becoming available. It is monitored daily throughout the season but from this point on all technicians have a valid non return rate for comparison with their peers and with all herds in their group.

“LIC employs a large team of seasonal staff across its entire operations and service business so we understand the huge value that they provide to our business and farmer shareholders,” Hale says.

“It is about providing a good service from which both the farmer and the AB technician want the same thing – to get cows successfully in-calf.” n

LIC’s AB operations employ about 1400 seasonal staff a year. About 800 of them are AB technicians.

49

BREEDING & GENETICS

Robotics transform herd tests

N

EW, bespoke robotic technology being introduced by agritech and herd improvement co-operative LIC will revolutionise a key part of its herd-testing operations and deliver benefits on and off farms.

Each year LIC collects about 11 million milk samples from dairy farms and takes them to its laboratories to be processed and analysed.

Results from this service, known as a herd test, allow farmers to rank individual cow performance and make informed decisions about breeding, culling, feed and health treatments.

The new machines automate the weighing and sampling process at LIC’s herd test laboratories in Hamilton and Christchurch using a combination of laser light measurement, bar code scanning, mechanical rotation and syringe liquid transfer.

LIC national herd testing manager Brent Wollaston says the machines, which replace a 50-year-old manual process, represent the future of the industry.

“The conventional weigh station process was labour-intensive and highly repetitive.

“On a peak day staff would be handling up to 90,000 flasks, which presented some health and safety risks such as RSI. “The manual nature of the work also resulted in occasional spills and mixing inconsistences.

“It was an opportunity ripe for automation.”

The custom-designed machines were developed over the past three years by LIC staff in conjunction with Intellitech Automation, a New Zealand company specialising in robotic machinery.

Wollaston says the machines showcase kiwi innovation at its best.

“The machines had to achieve accuracy of weight measurement and subsampling volumes, consistent sample mixing, full traceability of samples and no sample contamination.

“Because of these unique challenges we weren’t able to use off-the-shelf automation and set about designing our own, bespoke solution.”

LIC invested $3.2 million developing the five machines and expects they will result in recurring savings within two

50

LIC national herd testing manager Brent Wollaston says the custom designed machines, which replace a 50-year-old manual process, represent the future of the industry.

LIC chief executive Wayne McNee says the new robotic technology reflects agriculture’s high-tech future and the future of work.

years and more importantly, benefits for customers.

“For farmers this automation will result in even more accurate results to guide critical decision-making on-farm,” Wollaston says.

LIC chief executive Wayne McNee says the new robotic technology reflects agriculture’s high-tech future and the future of work.

“Innovation such as this opens up more opportunity for high-skilled, high-value roles in our sector and is likely to attract a new generation to agricultural roles.

“At LIC we are aiming to stay ahead

of the innovation curve so we can maximise value and drive the next wave of productivity gains for New Zealand farmers.

“It’s important our sector takes full advantage of emerging technologies like robotics so we can continue to lead the way and be the disruptor, not the disrupted.”

LIC will be completing the roll-out of the machines in its Christchurch laboratory next month and is continuing to evaluate options to further automate its herd testing operation, including with in-line milk meter technology. n

DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

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November 2019

51

BREEDING & GENETICS

Sires can cut nitrogen CRV Ambreed’s LowN programme is based on breeding dairy cows with lower levels of milk urea concentration.

TIM FULTON

F

ARMERS have been challenged to reduce the amount of nitrogen leaving their properties through subsoils and waterways.

So they are adopting more responsible fertiliser and effluent management and now working on more efficient nitrogen uptake in plants and animals.

One of the harder sources of nitrogen leaching to mitigate is cows’ urine.

The concentration of nitrogen in the urine patch is so high a significant portion cannot be used by plants or retained in the soil root zone.

While reducing urinary nitrogen ideally involves measuring it, that is impractical to do in large numbers of cows directly – and that’s where milk urea (MU) concentration comes in. Many international studies have shown a direct

52

CRV Ambreed head geneticist Phil Beatson with a mob of LowN calves.

relationship between MU and the amount of urinary nitrogen cows produce.

It makes sense to reduce urinary

nitrogen from a farming perspective and to monitor urinary nitrogen from a regulatory perspective.

DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

CRV Ambreed was the first to bring environmental genetics to the market with LowN sires to reduce nitrogen leaching. Ambreed managing director Angus Haslett and head geneticist Phil Beatson at the CRV Bellevue production and logistics centre.

We know we can reduce milk urea through feeding but also through genetics.

Phil Beatson

One strategy to reduce urinary nitrogen is through good feeding practices and to monitor them by keeping an eye on milk urea concentration, A second strategy is where CRV Ambreed’s genetics come in.

The LowN Sires programme is based on breeding dairy cows with lower levels of MU, expected to reduce urinary nitrogen.

“Milk urea tells us a lot,” CRV head geneticist Phil Beatson says.

“We know we can reduce milk urea through feeding but also through genetics.”

Each day farmers get an MU value in their bulk milk.

It makes sense for farmers and regulators to use it to monitor nitrogen loading from urine. Total urinary nitrogen per herd per day can be calculated based on the weighted MU and number of cows.

The weighting factor to convert MU to grams of urinary nitrogen per cow per day is about seven.

DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

“We’re suggesting MU should be used by farmers and by the likes of the environment councils to calculate nitrogen deposition quite accurately.

“This is likely to be a better monitoring tool than using predictive models that are subject to manipulation.”

A dairy cow eats about 180kg of nitrogen a year as plant protein. About 30kg ends up as milk and a little bit goes to body maintenance and growth. Of the remainder about 75-80kg is excreted as urinary nitrogen and the rest is excreted as faeces.

On average about 20% or 16kg of that urinary nitrogen ends up being leached into groundwater.

Importantly, a small amount of the nitrogen in urine is converted to nitrous oxide – a long-lasting greenhouse gas.

Reducing urinary nitrogen is critical to reducing both leaching and greenhouse gas emissions.

“If we feed diets that contain surplus protein we increase nitrogen intake beyond what the cow requires and this is reflected in the milk urea values for the herds.”

The average herd is about 30 units for bulk milk urea.

However, some herds are consistently about 40 while others are about 20.

The average cow in the herd with milk urea 40 is peeing out about 280 grams of nitrogen a day while that in the herd with milk urea 20 is losing about 140 grams a day.

The CRV Ambreed genetics programme involved measuring MU in a million milk samples from 200,000 cows through CRV Ambreed’s herd testing service. The records were analysed to estimate genetic merit for the sires of the cows. The best of the sires are marketed as LowN and CRV Ambreed is already providing farmers with semen from bulls under its LowN brand.

The LowN bulls are desirable for traditional traits as well as being genetically superior in reducing MU in their daughters.

Cows bred for lower levels of MU are expected to excrete less nitrogen in their urine ,which would, in turn, reduce the amount of nitrogen leached. CRV expects LowN sires will reduce nitrogen leaching by 14 million kilograms a year based on the national herd number of five million dairy cows.

Farmers using LowN bulls can maintain all existing management practices so there is minimal extra cost.

However, the combination of good feeding and LowN sires gives farmers a two-pronged attack.

Reducing the national average MU value from 30 to, say, 24 would reduce urinary nitrogen deposition by 20% and have an even greater impact on nitrogen leached. n

53

BREEDING & GENETICS

Three-way cross optimises performance

I

N WAIKATO Richard Waugh has used a three-way cross in his 330-cow, system 4/5 dairy farm for over seven years.

His herd produces a season average of 550kg MS to 560kg MS with the exception of his Viking Red three-way cross animals, which are outperforming his herd average with their own average of 600kg MS. Waugh was happy with the outcome of crossing Friesian to Jersey but quickly found putting Jersey back across his crossbreed animals didn’t give the results he was hoping for. That was caused by the loss of heterosis or hybrid vigour.

He was not interested in crossing back to Friesian because of the live weight so instead decided to introduce a third breed.

Waugh tried a variety of breeds and found the Viking Reds outperformed all others and so has continued to use them as his third breed ever since. He notes his Vikings Reds have incredible health traits.

To date he hasn’t had to treat a single Viking Red for lameness, has treated only one with milk fever and with their correct udders they just don’t seem to get mastitis.

The Viking Reds’ ability to hold their condition in combination with the added benefits of optimising the heterosis through using a three-way cross means he hasn’t had any problems getting the animals in calf.

This year on the spring test the herd averaged 2.4kg MS a day and all bar a few Viking Reds were well above the herd average with the top cows producing more than 3kg MS as three and four-yearolds making the Viking Reds far more efficient than both the Holsteins and the Jerseys.

Waugh plans to continue with his three-way cross herd this season, introducing some Montbeliarde genetics to add a bit of strength and components to his Friesians, using some polled Jersey genetics with a good stature and some high udder score Friesian genetics from Samen NZ. The release last season by Samen NZ of

54

Waikato farmer Richard Waugh with his three-way cross herd.

Waugh tried a variety of breeds and found the Viking Reds outperformed all others. the Viking Defence genetics range offers the dairy industry a crucial component to preparing the national herd for the Veterinary Association’s goal of eliminating antibiotics for animal health and wellness by 2030.

Viking Defence offers dairy farmers a unique opportunity to gain rapid genetic improvement on health traits including mastitis resistance. The programme

has been running successfully in all Scandinavian countries since the 1980s and while Scandinavia has some of the lowest rates of mastitis and antibiotic use in the world its nations are among of the highest-ranking countries for per-cow production.

With many grazing herds operating throughout Scandinavia it makes a perfect fit for New Zealand’s future prosperity.

The launch of a three-way cross breeding programme offers a potential increase in feed efficiency of about 8%, as proved recently in a study by Minnesota University, through optimising heterosis and improving health and fertility.

The benefits of the three-way cross breeding programme coupled with the outstanding mastitis resistance of the Viking Reds enable Samen to offer dairy farmers the fastest access to rapid genetic gain for health traits.

DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

In a paper presented at the World Red Breeds Conference Australian grazing data collected from almost 250 herds showed the three-way cross using Viking Reds is achieving an astonishing empty rate of only 3%.

Samen NZs genetic programme manager Craig McKimmie recently returned from a tour of NZ style grazing herds in seven countries. While overseas he visited some world-leading grazingbased seasonal calving herds of various breeds including many three-way cross herds.

One of the herds he visited in Bjerringbro, Denmark, shows the cows are even with beautiful udders and capacity. The herd of 460 cows grazes 16 hours a day for the nine months of the year possible and produces an average of 9500 litres at 3.7% protein and 4.7% fat.

McKimmie says the most exciting thing to note about the herd is it mates for only eight weeks, has an in-calf rate of 95% with almost no cases of mastitis and no dry cow treatment, teat seal or any other antibiotics on this farm. The farmer had been to NZ and borrowed a few ideas from down under including tail paint, rotational grazing and a tight calving window.

What an exciting future for NZ dairy farmers now being able to use worldleading science and genetics to take their dairy farming operations to the forefront of world dairy production. n

The Viking Red has been outperforming other breeds in the herd.

MORE:

To see Richard Waugh’s full interview about his experiences with a three-way cross herd GO to www.samen.co.nz/richard-waugh

Richard Waugh’s three-way cross cow producing more than 3kg MS a day.

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WATER & IRRIGATION

Cawthron Institute freshwater ecologist Kati Doehring has been studying the functional health of waterways.

The why of water pollution With varying degrees of water quality in streams across the country a study is being done to find out why there are so many differences. Tim Fulton reports.

A

NATIONAL register to log what’s being done to freshwater and where is being set up.

Why water quality is getting better in some places and worse in others, is also being checked.

A project that’s part of the Our Land and Water National Science Challenge will log and report the practices.

Cawthron Institute freshwater ecologist Kati Doehring, the lead author of a new stream health study, says the three-year 56

project has just started and researchers are keen to have industry input and stories.

“At the moment landowners go out and fence and plant alongside waterways but we don’t know how many landowners within a catchment are taking steps to improve river health and how many kilometres of fence have been put up or how wide the average buffer strip is within a catchment,” Doehring says.

In a New Zealand first Doehring and colleagues Joanne Clapcott and Roger Young recently compared the response

of streams to fencing by looking at the functional health of 11 stream sites in Waikato that had been either fenced or unfenced over 30 years.

Functional health is a measure of the microbial activity or metabolism of a waterway.

Stream function measures a group of indicators such as litter decomposition or primary productivity and ecosystem respiration, also known as stream metabolism.

“In general, ecosystem health should be assessed by looking at five components,

DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

In general, ecosystem health should be assessed by looking at five components, rather than focusing just on the water quality component alone.

rather than focusing just on the water quality component alone,” Doehring says.

Stream function assessments should be included in state of the environment monitoring by regional councils alongside measures of flow, physical habitat, stream life and water quality. Councils often focus on indicators of water quality such as nutrients and E coli.

The Waikato study found fencing cools waterways because of the riparian plant growth shading streams more effectively, even if only short stream sections are fenced.

The cooling shade from the trees is valuable because it hinders plant growth.

Plants produce oxygen by day and respired it at night.

Doehring says problems start when there are too many plants in a waterway because dissolved oxygen levels fluctuate from very high during the day to very low at night.

Fish and other marine critters can find it hard to cope with the oxygen-sapping conditions at night.

The study also looked at the effects of fencing short stream sections on the decomposition of organic matter, such as leaves.

Many organisms feed on leaf litter, adding to the nutrient cycle. Sometimes more microbial activity indicates a water body is improving but it can be a finelybalanced humpback scenario in which activity can become too frenetic.

“Over time the microbial activity increases. This is generally desirable as long as it doesn’t increase by too much as this could indicate pollution from nutrients or high amounts in sediment entering the waterway, for example.”

One of the most basic health indicators is the amount of oxygen plants produce during the day through photosynthesis

DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

Kati Doehring looking for freshwater macro-invertebrates (critters), which are one component of a healthy stream.

and the amount they consume, or respire, at night.

“Often if we have lots and lots of aquatic plants in the river at night time they consume more dissolved oxygen than they produce so it means there are huge fluctuations in dissolved oxygen in the river.”

Some fish like trout and many of our native fish species need high oxygen concentrations.

“Otherwise they suffocate. The plants can take up all the oxygen and that’s really bad news for all the critters.”

Scientists and the Government recently agreed there are five key indicators for healthy ecosystems: water quality, quantity (flow), habitat structure (the amount of habitat for fish or bugs to live in), biological health (how many species does the ecosystem support) and the lessfamiliar functional health.

Ecosystem health is a widely recognised measure of stream health around the world but in NZ has only recently become a regular part of council monitoring, she says.

The latest proposed National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management uses dissolved oxygen as a key measure to calculate stream metabolism.

“This is a great move to make stream health assessment more holistic rather than just focusing on water quality components.”

The streams in the Waikato study were spread across the region and included lowland agricultural areas, like Waitomo,

as well as streams running into Lake Taupo.

Some waterways were downstream from forestry plantings and some drained native bush.

The study assessed functional stream health over short stream sections, up to 1.2km, of each waterway. The aim was to learn if functional stream health improves because of fencing?.

They found stream shade is the only variable that significantly improved over 30 years in short stream sections that had been fenced.

“While that is sad, because after 30 years you’d think you would find a range of improvement, it’s not really surprising because you’ve got this whole upper catchment where we don’t know what’s been done.”

It is important to know what pressures happen upstream because a farmer’s fencing can be compromised by sediment from up-country clear felling of trees, for example.

“So we really need to co-ordinate how we restore a catchment. The national register of actions is an important first step towards this.”

Doehring says the delay between data collection in 2011 and publication of the report was purely related to other urgent projects, including her two years living abroad in Fiji and raising two young children. It is not uncommon in large science projects to have such a delay between collections of data and publishing the results, she said. n

57

WATER & IRRIGATION

Change mustn’t ignore humans Changes to land and water use can have an adverse impact on farmers and their practices.

Farmers are facing a wave of regulatory stress from nutrient rules to the Mycoplasma bovis response. A study commissioned as part of land and water plan changes in Canterbury looks at the impact on personal and community wellbeing. Tim Fulton reports.

R

EGIONAL council plan changes often spark debate about economic and environmental consequences but the human factor is sometimes swept aside.

In May researchers Mary Sparrow and Nick Taylor delivered their assessment of the social impact of the proposed land and water Plan Change 7 in Waimakariri.

The changes will make it difficult if not impossible for many farmers to maintain livestock grazing practices and farm nutrient inputs.

The Sparrow/Taylor report for Environment Canterbury predicts farmers will need help to cope with financial and personal stresses.

“Recognition of the potential for New Zealand farmers to face mental health issues has increased in recent years. This is an issue that needs to be kept under review when considering measures likely to place additional pressures on those managing farms,” they said.

They argue a plan change should not be viewed in isolation from other pressures for change being addressed by those most affected. The management of change must look to maximise outcomes for social wellbeing across the population and

58

communities of the district and for all water users.

The researchers cite a recent ACC report indicating farmers in Australia, Britain and northern European countries are more likely to commit suicide than other occupational groups. Those nations all have jurisdictions similar to NZ. They recommend the implementation of the plan change should aim to reduce or mitigate negative impacts and enhance the positive ones.

One of the talking points in policy debate for Plan Change 7 is the extent to which the proposed policy lines up with the intent of the Canterbury Water Management Strategy, created and implemented over the past decade.

A key goal of the strategy is that people feel they are being treated fairly and involved in decision-making, allocation decisions are resolved in most cases without resort to the courts, there is a high level of audited self-management and compliance action is targeted on a minority of non-complying water users.

The report assesses the extent of added benefits that can be achieved through successful implementation of the nonstatutory actions recommended in the Waimakariri Zone Implementation Programme Addendum.

The vision statements in the strategy include: • Primary production and employment will increase and the net

DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

Strategy has social goals THE Canterbury Water Management Strategy sets out a vision for the region’s management.

Stated social outcomes are: • Ecosystems, habitats and landscapes will be protected and progressively restored; • Indigenous biodiversity will show significant improvement; • Water quality will be protected and start to return to within healthy limits for human health and ecosystems; • Opportunities to exercise kaitiakitanga and rangatiratanga will be operative and increasing;

• Opportunities for recreational activities will be returning and improving; • Water users will have access to reliable water, to be used efficiently and productively; • Water management systems will be better able to adapt to climate change in the future; • Efficiency in energy use will improve; • Opportunities for tourism activities based on and around water will be returning and improving and; • The net value to Canterbury’s economy from these activities will increase.

Recognition of the potential for New Zealand farmers to face mental health issues has increased in recent years.

Mary Sparrow & Nick Taylor

value added by irrigation to the Canterbury economy and the national balance of payments will rise; • Rural community viability will improve and community cohesion will be maintained and; • Understanding and empathy between rural and urban dwellers will increase.

Jet

Sparrow and Taylor make it clear it is possible to make useful change without laws.

They also warn against social disruption as a result of rapid, forced changes to farming practice.

“Timing of changes is the most important factor.

“Clearly any forced, rapid changes in land use will have the greatest potential for social disruption,” they say. n

DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

59

Farm water monitoring As water is a key nutrient for dairy cows, livestock water tests can be used to support an animal-health programme.

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60

F

ARMERS across all sectors are now using environmental plans to minimise nutrient losses from their land to waterways.

Most farmers are committed to keeping their environmental footprint as low as possible in a sustainable and productive farm system and many have expressed a keen interest in using data to help reach those goals.

Measurement forms part of any management plan and gathering data over time can help evaluate the effectiveness of any change to farm management practices.

Water is the transport mechanism for loss of nutrients, sediment and pathogens across the farm to waterways. Surface run-off is the main transport path for phosphorus, sediment and pathogens while leaching down through the soil profile is the main avenue for nitrogen loss to waterways.

Regular testing of run-off from critical source areas such as tile drains, open drains or seepage streams can help determine the impact of farming practices on water quality, particularly surface run-off.

Selecting sampling sites is very important and it is recommended to take advice from regional council advisers or an environmental consultant before collecting samples.

Observations such as flow rate, water temperature, recent weather, bank slumping, stock movements and nearby cultivation should always be recorded at the time of sampling to help make sense of the water test values.

Indeed, sampling at normal times, rather than after a weather event is likely be the most beneficial. And taking advice from an experienced adviser can help define the aims of the testing programme and which are the most important tests to get done.

DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

WATER & IRRIGATION

Water is the transport mechanism for loss of nutrients, sediment and pathogens across the farm to waterways.

The catchment farm waterways feed into and the recognised pressures that catchment faces will help define the programme.

Analysis of water from critical source areas feeding streams or rivers in the catchment might help provide some direction for further on-farm mitigations.

To make it easy to gather surface water data Hill Laboratories has created a farm surface water quality profile (FarmSWQual) that includes tests for nitrates, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, dissolved rock phosphate, turbidity and E coli.

A sample kit is available that has the required containers, a sampling guide and a return courier ticket. A scheduled supply of containers for sampling at prescribed times over a year can enable the capture of useful data. Plotting the results of those samplings graphically will provide a picture of trends over time.

It is important to note the standard methods for analysis of E coli in water require the sample to be received at the testing laboratory within 24 hours of collection and below 10C. In some areas the logistics of that will be challenging and it might be advisable to omit that test.

A minimum of two samples a year can provide an understanding of relative nutrient and sediment content.

Suggested periods might be autumn when drains begin to flow as well as late spring or early summer, avoiding any extremes of weather.

One-off, grab sampling yields limited information and will be of less value.

Results are reported in a table without any interpretive comments because any threshold values will be dependent on the catchment or region. Recent environmental or farm management events will also affect results, potentially causing large variability in measurements between samples from the same site. Keeping a sampling diary will be useful to explain variable result data.

An example of how farmers and their consultants use a surface water quality test programme is in monitoring their constructed wetlands. Some recent articles on the DairyNZ website point to significant nitrate, phosphorus, sediment and E coli reduction on measurements taken from water samples entering and exiting the wetland. The capture of this water data can help with management decisions to extend the mitigations around the wetland with fencing for stock exclusion, diversion of preferential surface flow paths and site-specific planting, for example.

It is important to understand surface water tests are not likely

Regular testing of farm water can help farmers determine the impact farming is having on their land.

to be useful for sampling a stream where it enters the farm and again where it leaves the farm unless it flows through some kind of retention structure. Events occurring upstream will affect the samples. Water from deeper springs might carry a legacy nutrient-loading from water carried through the soil aquifer and while it might be of interest to measure that, it might be of limited value to do.

Along with surface water monitoring, useful data for managing nutrients on-farm can be obtained from the analysis of dairy effluent (FDE).

FDE has different nutrient content according to season, cow diet and the effluent type. For instance, solid FDE has more concentrated nutrients than liquids but they are generally in a more slow-release form and only slowly available for crop uptake.

Livestock water tests can be used to support an animal-health programme, something that is often overlooked but given water is a key nutrient for dairy cows it is clearly important that cows and young stock have a clean drinking-water source.

A water-testing programme is one part of the tool kit available to dairy farmers who are making real progress in their commitment to environmental improvement and investment in sustainable systems. n

Fiona Calvert is the agriculture market sector manager for Hill Laboratories.

Selecting sampling sites is important and it is recommended to take advice from regional council advisers or an environmental consultant before collecting samples.

DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

61

WATER & IRRIGATION

Water farmers ahead of curve Mid Canterbury farmers have invested millions of dollars in irrigation and storage networks and many are well ahead of the curve of the Land and Water Regional Plan framework. Annette Scott reports.

MHV Water is a co-operative, farmer-owned infrastructure company delivering water to 206 mid Canterbury farmer shareholders on 50,000 hectares.

Mayfield-Hinds-Valetta Water chief executive Mel Brooks says Canterbury is 10 years into the water journey and achieving improved environmental outcomes and economic returns can be achieved through mutually beneficial support paths.

C

ANTERBURY is blessed with an abundance of water and the community is well down the track of managing that water for the long run sustainability of the region.

But Mayfield-Hinds-Valetta (MHV) Water chief executive Mel Brooks warns the community must not get complacent.

“We need to be mindful this a journey with no silver bullet and we need to continue to make incremental improvements to lead long-term sustainability,” Brooks said.

In her address to the Safeguarding Our Water forum in Ashburton Brooks said Canterbury farmers have been on the journey for the past 10 years.

“The Canterbury Water Management

62

Strategy was published in 2009 to enable present and future generations to gain the greatest social, economic, recreational and cultural benefits from our water resources within an environmentally sustainable framework.

“We have made significant inroads. Our Land and Water regional plan framework is robust and notwithstanding a couple of outliers in the proposed national policy statement on freshwater management our farmers are already well ahead of the curve,” Brooks said.

“We appreciate that one of the best parts of our framework is that it recognises every catchment or zone is different and faces different issues and so they have been separated to allow the community opportunity to solve our own problems.

“We know that we have work to do and importantly we are getting on and doing it.”

MHV Water is a co-operative, farmerowned infrastructure company delivering water on 50,000 hectares to 206 Mid Canterbury farmer shareholders who over the past five years have developed storage to get water delivered on the back of daily orders.

It manages the environmental compliance for its farmers providing advice, education and support and translating theory and high-level expectation into what they need to do in practice.

Most of its water comes from the Rangitata River, which is managed under a water conservation order.

“It’s obvious we can capture water when it is plentiful and distribute it when it is needed. The CWMS recognises that regionally significant storage infrastructure is part of the solution and the importance of it to achieve balanced outcomes.”

From its early beginnings in the 1930s when the Government saw the potential post the depression to distribute water across the trans-Rakaia desert for the benefit of agriculture and future generations, water in the region has evolved from the just-in -case borderdyke irrigation to the just-in-time irrigation under pivot to just enough application of water with storage.

“Storage improves environmental outcomes because in applying just enough water our farmers aren’t washing away valuable nutrient down through the

DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

soil profile and into the aquifer and are reducing the amount of water they are using because of the changed mindset and increased reliability.”

Brooks said reliability also provides confidence to grow high-value crops giving increased surety of water supply for farming businesses.

Piping has added to delivery efficiencies over the past 10 years with MHV Water now managing 100 kilometres of piped infrastructure and 320km of formerly open races.

“Like this investment we have made in piping so too have many other irrigation schemes.

“Across Canterbury and Otago our farmers have collectively invested over half a billion dollars in piping delivery networks to create efficiencies in water delivery using and harnessing the gravity and delivering pressurised water to the farm gate to reduce energy use, evaporation and leakage.”

Brooks said future significant storage infrastructure and piped networks need to include considerations for potable town supplies, not just rural and environmental flows.

“We need to dispense with the silos and facilitate the consenting and funding pathways that address our region as a whole.

“We are often too narrow in our thinking and it stops the think big infrastructure spend to achieve investment allowing for future demand for the benefit of the whole community,” Brooks said.

Meanwhile, Mid Canterbury farmers are leading the way with a project that’s likely to be modelled nationwide to improve groundwater quality and quantity.

Findings of the first three years of the managed aquifer recharge project have

ECan councillor Ian Mackenzie, left, National MP Andrew Falloon, second from left, and Environment Minister David Parker, second from right, at the launch of the second MAR site.

Photo: Annette Scott

been revealed and attracted nationwide attention this year.

MAR governance group chairman Peter Lowe said the pilot, now in its fourth year, has raised groundwater levels in surrounding aquifers and reduced nitrate concentrations.

The MAR site takes water from the Rangitata Diversion (irrigation) Race (RDR) and allows it to filter into groundwater aquifers via a leaky pond close by the site.

The water is diluting nitrate concentrations and raising groundwater levels.

MAR was promoted as a tool to be part of the water quality and quantity solution.

Scientific data taken over the three years shows MAR has diluted nitrate concentrations from 14mg/l down to 4mg and raised well levels up to 18 metres.

Environment Minister David Parker opened a second MAR site in Ashburton.

Parker praised the Hekeao/Hinds Water

Enhancement Trust, the project’s movers and shakers.

“I’m absolutely delighted to see the progress MAR has made here,” Parker said.

Lowe said the ongoing pilot trial has clearly demonstrated that MAR is a viable tool in conjunction with necessary onfarm nutrient reduction to achieve the community agreed water quality goals.

He said Parker’s visit was primarily to showcase the achievements of the MAR trial, which was pioneering for New Zealand.

“We are dealing with a complex, interconnected groundwater-surface system and at the same time pioneering NZ new technology.

“It is very important to stress that from the start of this process the Ashburton and Hekeao/Hinds community has been motivated to engage and take ownership of the water quality challenges and work to find solutions,” Lowe said. n

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One last word …

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ONGRATULATIONS to our contributor Tony Benny (pictured) who took out the Federated Farmers Rural Photography Award at the Guild of Agricultural Journalists and Communicators annual journalism awards.

His award-winning photo appeared appeared in the June issue of Dairy Farmer alongside a story on Daniel and Paula McAtamney. The spread included a photo of their 14-month-old daughter Addilyn sitting among their herd (above).

Congratulations also go to our colleagues at Farmers Weekly, Neal Wallace and Richard Rennie.

Wallace won the Beef + Lamb Hard News Award, which recognises excellence in hard news journalism, focusing on any aspect of the beef and sheep industry and Rennie was joint winner of the Zespri Export Journalism Award, which recognises the vital importance of exports to the economy.

This month we have all the results from Calf Club NZ. You can find them on pages 44-45. Well done to all the winners and to everyone and their calves who took part. You deserve a big pat on the

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back. Thanks also to the wonderful Calf Club organisers who stepped up last year to create an online calf club so our children didn’t miss out on this annual tradition and continued it this year.

Joshua Herbes of Own Real Experience donated his time, knowledge and expertise to run the site along with Waikato dairy farmer Michelle Burgess.

Thanks to all the sponsors Samen, Burgess Farm, CRV Ambreed, DeLaval, Real Experience for supporting this great venture and the volunteers who got out

on farms and judged children with their calves and everyone else who pitched in.

A super exciting change this year was being able to get every formal entry judged nationwide. That was made possible only by the number of volunteer judges and assistants who came forward.

The ability to have all entries judged also meant organisers could roll out a national scorecard so we have a national champion.

Without that support the initiative would not have got off the ground and it has been fantastic to see the industry come together to ensure this iconic event did not disappear.

But most of all, thank you to all the children who took part – you all did a great job.

The team at Dairy Farmer has been proud to be the media partner in this initiative and bring you stories and photos over the past few months. Keep an eye out in upcoming issues for photos and stories. n

Sonita

Like us: farmersweekly.co.nz Follow us: @DairyFarmer15 Read us anywhere: farmersweekly.co.nz DAIRY FARMER

November 2019

Dairy Diary November 2019 November 5 – Dairy Business of the Year Canterbury Regional Optimisation. Free field days on regional winners’ farms. Showcasing resilient, sustainable and innovative dairy farmers.

River Terrace Dairy, joint NZ runner-up, best Canterbury farm performance, people performance and leadership. Registration essential at www.dboy.co.nz November 5 – DairyNZ Facial eczema field day, Shannon and Tokomaru-Linton discussion groups are joining forces for November and focusing on facial eczema, a challenge for many farmers in the area. Info at www.dairyevents.co.nz November – 7 DairyNZ Waikato effluent roadshow, Cambridge. Managing effluent is a vital part of farming. Councils are checking effluent systems for poor management or inadequate storage. Visit two farms with different systems, hear from the farmers, what it cost and how they manage it. Info at www.dairyevents.co.nz November 12 – Dairy Business of the Year BOP/Central Plateau Regional Optimisation Day, Hanze Farms – Best BOP/Central Plateau farm performance. Registration essential at www.dboy.co.nz November 12 and 27 – DairyNZ Extension 350 associate farmer meeting, Northland, expressions of interest. Contact Ryan Baxter if you want to be involved in this project.

Info at www.dairyevents.co.nz November 12 – P3 Dairy Trust P3 speaker series evening. Keynote speake Liam Malone is a gold medalist blade-running Paralympian. Info at www.dairyevents.co.nz November 13 – DairyNZ Milksmart south Waikato. Want to reduce time spent in the milking shed while maintaining production and not causing animal health problems?

Come hear how. Info at www.dairyevents.co.nz.

November 14 – Dairy Business of the Year Regional Optimisation Day Waikato. McCullough Farm Partnership – joint NZ runner-up, best Waikato farm performance, lowest environmental impact. Registration essential at www.dboy.co.nz November 14 – DairyNZ Progression group workshop, gaining finance and stock trading, Northland.

Understand the key components of developing and delivering a good proposal for lending from the bankers perspective. Info at www.dairyevents.co.nz November 19-20 – DairyNZ Effluent roadshow Northland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Taranaki and lower North Island. The one-stop event showcasing effluent design, storage, containment, application and management. Info at www.dairyevents.co.nz

DAIRY FARMER

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November 19 – Dairy Business of the Year Regional Optimisation Day Northland. Okaihau Pastoral Holdings – NZ supreme winner, best Northland farm performance, high input farm with best financials. Registrations essential at www.dboy.co.nz November 21 – SMASH Making the Switch, Wellsford. Once a day milking. Contract milker Kylie Guckert and farm owners Murray and Elaine Shepherd have been OAD for several seasons. Info at https://www.smallerherds.co.nz/ November 26-27 – DairyNZ InCalf Foundations various locations. The InCalf Foundations training course teaches participants how to use InCalf’s innovative resources and tools to help improve the reproductive performance of dairy herds. Aimed at rural professionals and veterinarians but farmers can also attend. Info at www.dairyevents.co.nz November 26 – SMASH Focus on the business, Te Aroha. DBOY finalists Richard and Davina Syme have built a profitable farm business that allows them to achieve their off-farm goals. Making your farm work for you, growing your business and cropping – fitting the puzzle together. Info at https://www.smallerherds.co.nz/ November 27 – Owl Farm Owl Farm Focus Day, Cambridge. Farm update and season review. Info at https://www.owlfarm.nz/ November 28 – SMASH Spotlight on the system, Otorohanga. Find out about Michael and Susie Woodward’s new farm business, which is self-contained, milking A2 cows OAD. Pathway to farm ownership and OAD – the nuts and bolts. Info at https://www.smallerherds.co.nz/ Dairy Women’s Network Take the Wheel - building financial confidence, various dates and locations.

Business by the numbers, various dates and locations. Understanding your financials, various dates and locations. Info at www.dwn.co.nz/events DairyNZ Offload, Reload, Refresh, various dates and locations. Discuss the future of dairying. Get an overview of the latest local and national insights and other breakthroughs that could help the dairy sector meet future challenges. Info at www.dairyevents.co.nz

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