Lifestyle blocks offer path to biodiversity

from The Farmlander - October 2021 North

Mating’s trifecta: bulls, heat and AI

The vision for tomorrow of celebrated naturalist Sir David Attenborough sees food-producing areas becoming more efficient and productive while wild areas are allowed to regenerate. Lifestyle blocks in New Zealand could become a microcosm of this utopia by interspersing efficient food production with areas for native birds, insects, animals and plants.

Rather than being a Jack of all trades and master of none, the modern lifestyler has Google at their fingertips and can hope to be pretty good at lots of things without having served a long apprenticeship in each. For those who have chosen a lifestyle block over an inner-city apartment, they could be tapping into stock husbandry and cropping skills buried in their DNA and easily rekindled to deliver great outcomes. So far, small blocks have escaped attention from land and water reforms. There are clouds on this horizon though. Freshwater reforms are likely to affect every water user right down to domestic consumption. Also, He Waka Eke Noa – Primary Sector Climate Action Partnership, set up between the Government, representatives of the food and fibre industries and a cross-section of businesses represented by the Federation of Māori Authorities, is developing a pricing system for on-farm emissions.

Lifestylers can feed their whānau – and perhaps a few more – without turning their entire block into an intensive market garden or paddy field.”

This will apply from January 2025 and may encompass smaller farms. These examples and more make preparing for the future worthwhile. Anyone with their own block of land or power of use for a block of land has an exciting opportunity to make positive changes to secure the health and productivity of their block for generations to come. Monoculture and continuous cropping are known to have disadvantages for soil health and sustainability. Carbon farming forestry with no intention of harvesting the wood seems as bad for rural communities as it is for the soil ecosystem. which does not flourish under radiata pine. Lifestylers can feed their whānau – and perhaps a few more – without turning their entire block into an intensive market garden or paddy field. The term Golden Hoof recognises the value of sheep in the crop rotations of the 17th century both for the value of their produce and their effects on soil fertility. They could have as big a role in the carbon-sequestrating, selfsufficient block of the future as they did before artificial fertilisers and chemical pesticides came along. Pasture can be sown with complex mixes that provide variety for grazing stock and a range of tolerances to increasingly extreme weather. Some hardwood trees and native planting can provide shade and shelter for stock, birds and insects without the hassle they present to a centre pivot or modern combine harvester. Such spaces need not be large to provide refuge for native species such as skinks – we don’t have elephants so we don’t need spaces the size of the African savannah.

Any conversation about sustainability increasingly includes regeneration and biodiversity as desirable attributes. None of the farmed livestock or poultry in New Zealand got here by accident and they represent a huge pool of genetic diversity. The modern and traditional breeds and strains we have available are testimony to the passion and enthusiasm of people that imported stock, semen or embryos over long distances and established and developed bloodlines. Just a few years ago, shedding sheep breeds such as the Wiltshire were seen as an easy-care option for lifestyle farmers. Now they are gaining popularity on commercial farms, where the cost of shearing can exceed

KNOW YOUR NUMBERS

If you have a farm over 80ha, a dairy farm with a milk supply number or a cattle feedlot, you will need to meet the following requirements: • By December 2022, you will need to know your farm’s annual methane and nitrous oxide emissions.

• By January 2025, you will need to have a written plan for measuring and managing those emissions.

the value of the fleece. Conversely, commercial sheepmilk operations have been busy importing milking sheep genetics from the Lacaune, East Friesian and Awassi breeds. These could one day filter onto lifestyle blocks, where milk production is often considered the peak of self-sufficiency. The lifestyle block of the future could include an insect house to supplement the diet of poultry, a pond of fish that turn vegetable material into animal protein, some well-fed, grazing ruminants and perhaps even a pig or two.

Article supplied by Dr Rob Derrick, Farmlands Head of Nutrition and Animal Health

| Native planting can provide shade and shelter for stock, birds and insects.