Report on the first nine field days
The first nine field days for the Organic Dairy and Pastoral Group throughout New Zealand are now behind us and we can look back on a great turnout for each of the events, a smorgasbord of speakers and a very positive and encouraging response from the farmers present. Farmers commented afterwards that they enjoyed meeting with likeminded people, discussing issues important for organic farmers, and that they would like to see more of this networking happening in the future.
The main aim for these field days was to inform farmers about how the Organic Dairy and Pastoral Group can offer continued support to organic dairy, sheep and beef farmers, through field days, local discussion groups and the email discussion group. Mentoring by experienced organic farmers is also on offer for farmers new to organics.
North Island Field days
The first field day was held in Dargaville at the farm of Barbara and Roger Gillatt. The Gillatts are fully certified organic and biodynamic. Most of the 30 dairy and sheep and beef farmers that came to the field day were not farming organically, but interested to have a look at it. Many farmers commented on how well the farm looked and how healthy the cows were with uncut tails.
The day was facilitated by Russell Simmons and the topics that were covered included soil quality, feed vegetation, marketing farm products and organic certification.
Russell spoke about marketing options for milk and meat and the comparative profitability between organic and conventional farms. He showed how organic farms generally have lower production, but much lower animal health costs, and a price premium, so are more profitable. He showed figures from when he converted his own farm from high urea application to organic management. The animal health costs had dropped dramatically by two years after starting conversion.
Field days at Malcolm and Shirley Campbell’s organic dairy farm in Edgecumbe, Bay of Plenty and Andrew & Dianne Monteith’s organic dairy farm in Putaruru attracted a similar amount of farmers. Both events had the pleasure of Vaughan Jones as speaker. Vaughan shared his wealth of knowledge, which he gained since walking off the boat in Wellington from South Africa in 1954. Vaughan started off with 40 ha of peat, milking 28 cows, and was chosen as the most improved dairy farmer in the Waikato in 1959. He then went on inventing and making farm machinery. Vaughan also was instrumental in the establishment of the Field days at Mystery Creek. At 77 years of age, Vaughan is still helping farmers in New Zealand and around the world and he has produced a very comprehensive website (grazinginfo.com) that is worth checking out.
A variety of speakers entertained farmers at the field day in Taranaki, including nitrogen leaching, BD preparations and farm profitability. The field day was hosted by Jill and Terence Whelan. Their farm near Patea has been organic since 1986, producing a wide variety of crops including Maori potatoes and providing grazing for dairy replacements.
Dr. David Horne from Massey University showed the farmers the differences in nitrogen leaching between the conventional and organic dairy farm trials that Massey conducted. He explained that the difference is in what the farmers feed their cows, and that the highest concentrations of leachable nitrogen were found in the urine and cow pads. He showed that the practices used on organic farms have a lower potential for nitrogen leaching due to low nitrogen inputs, compared to the high nitrogen (urea) inputs used on conventional farms.
Elisabeth Alington gave an introduction about biodynamics, and Peter Floyd concluded the day with an explanation about his company eCOGENT, using daily profit indicators allow farmers to make the most profitable decisions.
More about biodynamic farming practices was on offer at a field day in Gladstone (Wairarapa), hosted by organic sheep and beef farmers Mark and Colett Clarkson and their manager Andrew Brown. The Clarksons are in their first year of conversion and farm over 2700 mixed age ewes, 800 hoggets and 100 cows on 455 Ha.
Adrian White, an old-time kiwi farmer and Olympic equestrian, was the main speaker. He shared his experiences with the group, starting from when he owned and ran an extensive sheep and beef farm in the Hawkes Bay. Later on he ran an organic and biodynamic farm of 500+ ewes, 40 cattle and grain cropping. He admitted that he started to look into biodynamic practices when he was low on cash, but after trying it he never looked back.
The Gisborne field day at Steve and Carol Ring’s farm concluded the series for the North Island. Steve and Carol are certified with Organic Farm New Zealand (OFNZ) and breed Dexter cattle. Again, a great turnout of farmers listened to a presentation by Gisborne Wairoa Federated Farmers president Hamish Cave, who spoke about the future of farming in the region. Hamish spoke about the importance of all aspects (economic, environmental and social) of sustainability for farmers and he could see a market for organic sheep and beef.
Jill Bradley of Agrisea spoke about the importance of soil nutrition for animal health. Local farmer Jack Wanklyn shared his experiences on farming using biodynamics. Like Jill, he spoke about the importance of looking after the soil, and how biodynamics for him was a way to improve animal health. Over the years he gained a lot of practical knowledge on how to use biodynamics on large hill country farms.
South Island field days
For the first time the Organic Dairy & Pastoral Group sponsored three events on the South Island as well. At all three events the audiences included a variety of sheep and beef farmers: some experienced organic farmers, some newly converting ones, and others just exploring organics for the first time. (At this time there is not yet a major dairy company sourcing organic milk on the South Island, but many meat producers have been converting to organics recently.)
The events took place in Gore indoors on a stormy Southern evening; at David Musgrave’s farm in Geraldine, South Canterbury; and at Phil and Viv Gray’s farm at Waiau, North Canterbury. The two Canterbury events included walks around the farms, and plenty of discussion with the farmers about their management.
At all three South Island events, David Musgrave was the featured speaker, on the topic of mixed-species pastures. These days David is well known as the founder of Functional Whole Foods, makers of Waihi Bush organic linseed oil, but in fact David’s background includes a career as an agronomist where he developed expertise on pastures. He made a thought-provoking presentation giving farmers a variety of reasons to plant mixed-species pastures instead of ryegrass-based pastures. These include higher productivity, more balanced nutrition for animals, and resistance to grass grub. He recommends planting deep-rooted species such as tall fescue, chicory, and lucerne, to outcompete Cali thistles and to tolerate drought. However a pasture mix needs to be tailored to each region and soil type.
We would like to thank all speakers for sharing their information, all field day hosts for their hospitality, Organics Aotearoa New Zealand for the funding through the Organic Advisory Programme, and our sponsors BioAg for contributing to advertising costs and AgriSea for proving lunch at the Gisborne field day.
