The farm was officially certified organic in 2008 but Mark says the switch to organics was an easy transition for more money. The current premium for organic milk sits at $1.75/kg milksolids (MS) but there are discussions about making changes to stabilise the price more in the future, Mark says.
“We have always farmed very low input, we stopped using urea many years before we went organic and we have never been big on other conventional farming practices, so without having the paperwork, we’ve probably been organic for longer than eight years.”
The use of antibiotics, conventional fertilisers and weed sprays are off the list as is the use of bought-in feed. Mark’s philosophy is to work with the ebbs and flows of the land he’s farming and with the seasons, rather than trying to work against them.
Conversion time from conventional to organic takes three years with a paper trail that verifies the farm is operating within organic protocols. Yearly audits are done by the certifying body and are an important part of supplying organic milk to Fonterra, which last year announced the launch of Anchor Organic in response to a growing demand from the public. The launch was held at Mark’s farm. Aside from their annual audit by AsureQuality, they also have Chinese and Korean audits every few years for those markets.
The organic standards outline organically certified products and homeopathic alternatives for everything from treating animal health issues to pasture management. Since moving full swing into organics, Mark says he has seen no difference in animal health, for better or worse.
“We use all these interventions to try and fix problems, but they don’t always work 100% of the time. It’s like when people get a headache, a person will take a Disprin and your headache might go, but if you don’t take a Disprin it will still go away. Does it go away faster because you’ve taken the pill? You can’t know.”
They stopped using penicillin 20 years ago when they were still conventional farmers and get about the same incidence of mastitis as they did while using penicillin. They don’t use homeopathic alternatives.
“The cows that get mastitis are taken out and put in with the colostrum mob and left to come right on their own. We keep a close eye on them and if they don’t improve they get culled. It’s no different to the farmer who uses penicillin, he may still get mastitis and will have a few cows that don’t respond and has to cull.”
Mark admits their somatic cell count (SCC) isn’t one of the best around and it tends to fluctuate from the low 200,000s to 300,000. After trying a few organic remedies he saw no difference.
“I’ve done nothing for coming up three years and it hasn’t changed for the better or worse. We really are farming like they did it 50 years ago and for a lot of farmers, doing nothing is hard when they are so use to fixing things.”
With the property being a hop, skip and a jump from the beach, the sandy soils mean pasture management is important, even more so without the option of bought-in feed. Stocking rate is the key to pasture management.
“Organic farming in a way leaves you more exposed to the elements and fluctuating seasons. So our stocking rate has to reflect what’s going on in terms of pasture growth that season.”
The spring flush isn’t as good as it might be on better soils but they experience a more consistent pasture growth even through the winter months when other farms are struggling, Mark says.
“We make the most of the pasture growth we get in winter by having a split calving in autumn and spring. When we have too much grass we harvest and store it away for tougher times. If you’re getting your stocking rate right then we get through more than okay without bought-in feed.”
The farm doesn’t have a regrassing programme and paddocks are only regrassed when a new development is under way on the farm.
“Regrassing in this country – you can plant whatever you’re advised to plant and over a seven-year period that paddock is back to where it was, in this poorer country anyway, so did we really achieve anything ? I don’t want to turn what I’ve got into something that it isn’t.”
Mark explains that they make use of each paddock’s natural abilities. Some paddocks are drier than others so are used in the winter months to avoid soil damage on the slightly heavier paddocks. When it comes to things like weeding, spraying is off the cards so it’s back to mechanical and manual weeding.
Fertile land is hard to find on Mark’s farm so he doesn’t use crops to help manage pasture deficits either. He says the benefit from them just isn’t there.
“If we had good soils we perhaps would get some benefit from them because they would yield a lot better than what we would get out here.
Mark uses a chicken manure compost fertiliser from Osflo Fertiliser, a blended mix to suit his soil tests. He says it definitely makes a difference.
The farm is also home to a motocross track, radiata pine tree blocks, a trucking operation and a farmstay. The trees are all at different stages of maturity and a harvest happens every few years, followed by replanting.
“It provides another source of income for us and it’s using land that we otherwise couldn’t do a lot with unless we bulldozed it and put in a centre pivot, which isn’t really what we are about.”
Mark opens the motocross track to the public every day for a small fee, and says at the moment it has no effect on his organic status.
“They have been out here and had a look at the track and everything and told us to put up some signs. That may change in the years to come and if it does then we will roll with the changes as they come. For now it’s nice to be able to contribute to the community. There’s always people out there.”
Marks says he operates consistently in second gear and although their method of organic farming might differ from other people’s, he never feels the need to take a holiday, because he loves what he does and it’s very much a lifestyle.
Organic demand grows
Organic Aotearoa New Zealand’s 2016 organic market report identified continuing strong growth in consumer demand for many types of organic goods. Horticulture and wine led the way but the global market for organic milk is projected to continue to grow.
A comparative farm performance study done between 2003 and 2009 by the Agricultural Research Group On Sustainability (ARGOS) looked at the environmental, economic and social impacts of farmers converting to organic production. The study included 12 organic and conventional paired farms throughout the North Island. It showed there was no statistically significant difference in financial performance between the organic and conventional dairy farms despite lower production on the organic farms. On the organic farms, operating expenses were about 79% of conventional farms because of their lower input costs such as fertiliser, feed and animal health inputs.
Key drivers for consumer purchase of organic milk include food safety, animal welfare, human health and environmental benefits. The market for organic milk and dairy products in New Zealand is growing rapidly, with a reported 50% increase in organic sales in 2014 and 72% of NZers saying they would purchase organic milk if it was more affordable.
Although the number of organic milk producers has been on the decline in the past few years despite the demand, the OANZ report noted the future for organic dairy farming looked positive, with a number of encouraging factors including market demand, financial returns and environmental impact.
Farm facts
Location: Himatangi, Manawatu
Owners: The Flipp family
Area: 400ha effective, 100ha runoff, 80ha in trees
Herd: 600 Friesian cows, 300 split-calving in spring and autumn
Production: 370kg MS/cow
