POTATOES AS PART OF A REGENERATIVE FARM Words by Gemma Carroll : Communication & Engagement Officer, Potatoes NZ Inc.
Potatoes NZ made the most of their 2021 Field Walk in the Horowhenua District this March by including a visit to Mingiroa Farm, tucked away in the nearby Rangitikei District
Potatoes NZ made the most of their 2021 Field Walk in the Horowhenua District this March by including a visit to Mingiroa Farm, tucked away in the nearby Rangitikei District. Mingiroa is a small farm on rolling hills with pockets of native bush, the Rangitikei river nearby, a herd of 300 cows, some sheep, paddocks full of grasses and herbs, four hectares of vegetable crops including asparagus, squash, pumpkins, brassicas and potatoes as well as fruit trees like figs, feijoa, and apples. There is also a nursery for retail vegetable seedlings. Mingiroa has a total of 248 hectares of organic farmland, 90 hectares of which is leased. Since 1852, the Hogg family have tended to the land and grown food for their community. Mingiroa Farm is organically certified by BioGro New Zealand and is utilising regenerative methods to build nutrients, life, and carbon in the soil. The organic dairy herd are moved four to five times a day through diverse pasture including cocksfoot, fescue, legumes, forbs, other cover crops and vegetable cropping areas. It is a good life 68
NZGROWER : APRIL 2021
for the cows with a healthy diverse diet. The family fully converted to organics in the early 2000s. Initially they grew and marketed organic vegetable boxes and organic peas for processing. At the time it did not seem like the market was ready and it was a bit of an uphill battle. So they withdrew and grazed heifers and dairy cows before converting to dairy in 2008. Due to the high input, high financial and high environmental cost of conventional dairy farming, Mingiroa returned to farming organically three years ago and are now growing organic vegetables alongside the dairy cows. Sam Hogg reckons spuds are great for dairying and offer a nitrate mitigating crop. Five to ten percent of the potato crop will be seconds but are not wasted as they then become food for the herd. To date Sam has grown his 1.5 hectares of spuds with zero inputs and achieved around 35T/hectare in his Agria crop this season. By way of comparison, a nearby conventional grower with a similar climate may expect to achieve 50T/hectare but uses applied fertiliser to achieve this, pesticides, herbicides and more tillage or cultivation.
