SPECIAL REPORT
Race without an end By Gerald Piddock
Kiwi dairy producers are the world’s most efficient when it comes to greenhouse gas emission, but Climate Change Ambassadors say we can do better.
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ew Zealand dairy farmers cannot afford to rest on their laurels when it comes to improving emissions efficiencies. Instead, they had to keep going and keep improving, Climate Change Ambassadors George Moss and Phil Everest said at the DairyNZ Farmers’ Forum. The two farmers took the stage in Hamilton to discuss the industry’s greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction journey. Everest says while it is great that NZ dairy producers are the world’s most efficient from a GHG perspective, farmers can always do better. “We’re at the top of the heap but the only way we’re going to maintain our competitive advantage is to stay there and we have to work hard to do that,” Everest says.
Moss agreed, saying “this is a race without an end”. George and wife Sharon have two small dairy farms, each milking 175 cows along with a 40ha support block. He says it is run close to a System 2, with the aim of dropping it to a System 1. While Everest farms in Mid Canterbury, milking 750 cows, producing around 15 tonnes of greenhouse gas a hectare and 9kg of GHG per milksolid produced. The farm is an A2 milk supplier. Moss says the marketplace would be more powerful than any government legislation around environmental mitigation. Climate change could potentially become a non-tariff trade barrier with countries NZ does not have trade agreements with. “The other part is that as an industry, we’re targeting top-end consumers
and they want to be able to eat our products guilt free, so we have to be seen both at the consumer level and at the international level as doing the right thing,” he says. It was a view endorsed by Everest. He believes small steps to reaching climate targets are the key, as it shows the country was making progress and kept trade options open. Everest says long-term research into climate mitigation was critical to help farmers reduce their emissions and hit targets outlined in the Climate Change Commission’s report. This would help the industry develop the tools it needed to meet those targets. He also saw potential opportunities to hit those targets if there was a change in rules around allowing GE grasses. Moss supported the work of the
Tokoroa dairy farmer George Moss supports the work of the Climate Change Commission and says there are a lot more business constraints on farmers than there were in the past.
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DAIRY FARMER
June 2021
