Those at the Southland Demonstration Farm focus day on May 15 at the Wallacetown farm were told three stakeholders were ready to contribute $5 million each and it was up to southern dairy farmers to front up with another $5m to have an “equal share and so an equal voice”.
“These three stakeholders need to be convinced that you guys want this to happen before they sign the dotted line,” Southern Dairy Hub working group member Chris Withy said.
He would not reveal who the three stakeholders were.
Southland Demonstration Farm’s chairman Maurice Hardy, also a member of the working group, said they needed the money from farmers “yesterday” but at the latest by the end of July.
Of the $5m required, half would come from the annual profits from the demonstration farm.
“At the end of May, in early June, all southern dairy farmers will be sent a donation pack. We’re asking you to either write out a cheque or tick a box that says the proceeds from your cull cows at the works will go to the hub up to $2000,” Withy said.
A road show by the working party, starting the week of June 16, will visit areas as far north as Henley on the Taieri to give out information about the proposal.
“It’s important that everyone comes to the roadshow so we can gauge support. We need the money soon or it won’t happen.”
The demonstration farm’s lease ends on June 1, 2016, and by then the working party hope to have converted a 300-380ha farm to milk more than 850 cows near Invercargill.
“It will be the only dairy farm in New Zealand where research can be done on commercial sized herds. We can split the farm into two to have 400-cow herds or four into 200-cow herds. Nowhere else in NZ is this possible.
“We want to make sure the science works and prove it on this farm before you guys have to figure it out on your own on your farms.”
Researching environmental impacts of farming practices, gaining community acceptance and understanding of dairying and commercial comparisons of whole farm systems are just some of the aims of the working party.
Southland Federated Farmers president Russell MacPherson, a Winton dairy farmer, said he thought personally the hub was a worthwhile project but it was up to farmers to make up their own minds whether they should contribute financially.
“We already pay a lot through the DairyNZ levy plus Fonterra is involved in many industry-good projects as well as school milk that we are ultimately paying for. This is just one more thing,” he said.
“I’m going to sit on the fence about it and I know it’s a barbed wire fence, but farmers have to decide themselves of its merits.”
