Friday, March 29, 2024

Excellence essential, not optional

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Westland Milk Products has set the bar higher than local authority requirements by introducing its Farm Excellence Programme (FarmEx).
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FarmEx takes the existing code of practice and expands it to meet the future expectations of customers and regulators, with onfarm assessments carried out to provide detailed analysis of each aspect.

It covers all environmental aspects such as effluent systems and management, land and nutrient management, stock exclusion and water use, and also other factors influencing customers’ demands including animal welfare, farm presentation, and people and risk management.

For each aspect, farms are given feedback on whether they meet the required standard, are well above at a role model level, or fall short of the standard and need to improve.

Milk supply manager Heather McKay said the company was still introducing the programme to its suppliers and carrying out farm assessments to set baselines to work on.

Though there was nervousness and hesitation among some farmers when it was first introduced, others welcomed the company’s proactive approach, she said.

Most realised the improvements centred around recording and ensuring systems were in place, rather than spending big money on infrastructure.

“The code of practice had been in place for three years and FarmEx has just expanded it. In some cases FarmEx will match other legislative rules and in other cases it has additional requirements. It’s industry good practice, like farm presentation.

“It comes back to marketing; meeting customer expectations beyond the farmgate, as well as meeting national and community requirements.”

So far, the company had assessed about three-quarters of its suppliers in West Coast, Canterbury and Tasman and even those farmers achieving “role model” status in some areas still had one or two aspects to improve, she said.

Recording effluent applications and health and safety were typical of areas to be improved on many farms, or fencing more of the smaller waterways as FarmEx took it a step further than West Coast Regional Council’s requirements.

“For many, it’s knowing where to start and so it’s about directing them to a few resources. What we’re getting people to do is look at what they’ve got to do and make plans to do it. In future there will be time requirements to meet, but that hasn’t been set down yet.”

This year was all about setting a baseline and giving farmers feedback so they knew what areas they needed to work on and McKay expected a big jump to meeting more of the FarmEx standards next year.

“There’s no expectation for farmers to meet role model status, but it’s there to recognise farmers doing really good work. The challenge over time is getting every farmer to meet the standard in every category.”

And for those farmers who continually failed to meet FarmEx standards, they faced the same consequences for condition of supply as the former code of practice, but McKay said that was a last resort.

Andrew Robb runs the Greymouth monitor farm and is also West Coast Regional Council chairman, so knows what it is like setting environmental rules for dairy farmers as well as the farmer perspective.

To him, FarmEx was a positive move for the industry that was welcomed by the council.

“We’re really happy, especially with the environmental aspects as it just aids us in our quest to ensure farmers are meeting their environmental requirements,” he said. “It goes beyond our regional council rules which is a good thing, because if industries self-regulate, the regional council doesn’t have to be the big stick.

“I’ve got waterways here that under FarmEx I will have to fence, whereas our council rules don’t require some of the areas to be fenced.”

The West Coast differed from many dairying regions around the country, he explained, because it was such a small imprint on the land, with 85% of the region locked up in conservation land.

FarmEx took it a step further than those council rules in some cases. The 365ha monitor farm and its 885 cows – and increasing – was used as a trial for FarmEx last year before it was rolled out to all suppliers and Robb said it was mainly time required to ensure everything was up to scratch with record keeping, such as health and safety.

“If the company brings a customer to your property, they want to know your health and safety is good and that you’re treating your staff well. Some of it is around visual appearance, so potential customers can come and see what we do.

“There’s room for improvement on this farm for FarmEx whereas most people come on to this farm and think it looks pretty good. FarmEx takes it that extra step.”

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