Conference organisers believe the event, on February 20 and 21, will attract more than 200 delegates, representing all aspects of practice from commercial farmers through to product retailers.
Conference organiser Professor Guna Magesan said the movement is starting to gain traction and respect in the agri-sector and that is being helped by a definition that is quite separate from organic farming.
“Although many people may not agree with my definition, for me biological farming is an early stage of organic farming,” he said.
“When conventional farmers move towards sustainable farming, they will start with biological systems because they will be reducing synthetic fertilisers and start using bio-fertilisers.
“Biological farming is less restrictive about what you can and can’t do compared to organic, and that is what most farmers like.”
Biological farming methods offered farmers an option between the two extremes of conventional and organic farming, with the ability to select practices that fit for individual farmers’ situations, Magesan said.
At the inaugural conference Dr Doug Edmeades presented a paper on importance of N-fixation, and at the second conference he will be presenting a challenging paper on biological farming’s claims and value in a session (see Edmeades view, page 15).
Last year DairyNZ chairman John Luxton acted as conference inaugurator and acknowledged the place of biological farming within the dairy sector.
While biological farming practices might not be for all farmers, it was a tribute to the New Zealand dairying industry that such practices could be adopted in part or in whole by farmers where they saw its value.
Federated Farmers Dairy chairman Willy Leferink is counted among the ranks of biological farmers, and has recognised the practice as a means for conventional farmers to scale down their impact on soil and water.
He’s also been approached to speak at the conference.
At least one conference paper will question the validity of the biological farming movement, Magesan said, as a key motivation for the conference is to bring biological farming back to the “centre stage” for healthier discussion and debate on its role in farming systems.
“Essentially I would view any practice that increases the health of the soils as part of biological farming.”
One area he believed farmers would be particularly interested in was the ability of biological farming to lower soluble nitrogen losses.
“My research on nitrogen losses has recorded nitrate levels of less than 5ppm in water off biologically farmed properties, compared to more than 10ppm on conventional.”
Magesan estimates there are more than 100 companies producing products for biological farming systems.
“I wish they would form a co-operative or some sort of consortium. Then their bargaining power would increase, and I am sure they can make an impact and take biological farming forward.”
One area for discussion at the conference would be ways of determining what products could and could not be defined as suitable for biological farming systems.
“There are a lot of companies in NZ making claims they are offering biological fertiliser for example. We need some type of standard so people know what the claims really mean, but the challenge will be getting all those companies to come together.”
A session titled “Biological farming under different land uses” will include the shared experiences of farmers in terms of animal health, soil fertility and pasture production across a range of different farm types.
Magesan said European farmers had been following biological farming for a number of years, but it was Maori interest that looked to push the practice further into the mainstream of NZ farming. He attributed this to the gradual unlocking of Maori land holdings, developing into productive economic units for iwi shareholders, while wanting to maintain a sustainable, successive approach to managing the large land holdings for existing and future generations.
While unable to name them at present, there were also two training institutes considering a move into biological farm system training.
Four Crown Research Institutes will also present papers at the conference.
Email Prof Guna Magesan at biologicalfarming.systems@gmail.com.
