Saturday, March 30, 2024

Flying the flag for balance

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The supreme winner of the 2014 Northland Ballance Farm Environment Awards was described by one of the judges, rural banker Bryn Hughes, as a flagship for triple-bottom-line farming.
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“The balance has been found between financial performance and the environmentally and socially sustainable aspects,” the judges said at a field day held on Roger and Jane Hutchings’ Lodore Farm at Okaihau in the Bay of Islands.

“The Hutchings have a very sustainable high-input system which is profitable and is based on strong business practices.”

The original 134ha dairy farm was bought by Roger’s parents Malcolm and Marilyn in 1960, with Roger and Jane starting sharemilking for Lodore Farming shortly after it was formed in 1981. They’ve bought two more properties so the farm now totals 349ha (270ha effective) milking 680 mainly pedigree Ayrshire cows at peak through a 50-bail rotary and targeting 265,000kg milksolids (MS) annually.

It has two support blocks totalling 160ha where drystock are carried and feed supplements made.

The cows are milked in two herds – the heifers once-a-day (OAD) producing about 700kg MS/ha, and the main herd milked twice-a-day producing 1130kg MS/ha. OAD milking keeps body condition and calving rate higher and allows more use of the back of the farm.

For the 2013-14 season the cows were expected to average 390kg MS each or 981kg MS/ha. Once-a-day milking keeps body condition and calving rate higher and allows more use of the back of the farm. rather than per hectare production.

Roger is a third-generation Ayrshire breeder, describing himself as enthusiastic rather than passionate.

“If we weren’t happy with the medium, capacious cows we wouldn’t have stuck to Ayrshires, but we have no figures to say they are holding us back.”

The herd Breeding Worth is 53 and only two or three other Ayrshire herds in the country are higher.

Lodore has a heifer sale each year in April, for which the top third of in-calf heifers are offered in pairs, the successful bidder taking one and Lodore keeping the remaining one. This year the sale generated a $3490 average price for the 27 lots, compared with $2000 last year and $2700 the year before.

The farm is a system 4, with 22% of feed imported, including a meal feeding system in the rotary dairy platform.

The dairy side of Lodore is run by Roger and Jane with help from Malcolm and two full-time staff members. Another staff member is employed on the run-offs.

Since the installation of Protrack the milking can be done by one person, which means everyone can have a sleep in regularly. Roger and Jane plan to step back from milking and bring their staff members up to management and lower-order sharemilker levels.

Up to 10% of the home farm is cropped with maize, turnips or fodder beet each year and renovation of kikuyu-dominant pasture is an objective in that rotation. Total feed eaten on Lodore Farm is 12.5t/ha drymatter, of which pasture and crop is 9.8 tonnes, dry cow grazing 0.6t and imported supplement 2.1t.

Close attention to detail resulted in farm working expenses of $4.22/kg MS in the 2012-13 season, against the Northland benchmark (with a drought) of $4.31 and the Hutchings expect the FWE for the 2013-2014 season to be lower.

Roger believes the current high milk payout needs to be spent in setting up the farm and business to weather the next storm, preferably on infrastructure and compliance.

“You won’t find a new tractor in my shed, but I am wearing new gumboots.”

The Lodore farm water supply has been upgraded with 4km of 63mm pipe and the supply from each of the farm bores interlinked for risk management. A meter has been installed and current dairy waster use is 60 litres a cow each day.

The farm dairy effluent is a hybrid system comprising two ponds, irrigation and a Northland Regional Council consent to discharge treated effluent, but this is kept to an absolute minimum. The ponds have storage for up to 90 days and irrigation is now possible to 45ha with a travelling irrigator delivering rates varying from 5mm to 40mm an hour.

In the most recent nutrient management plan the size of the effluent irrigation area was recognised as being inadequate, so a further extension with K-line pods is planned.

A timer on the effluent pump reduces the risk of over-irrigation and Roger manages all effluent matters, recognising the importance of this role. He empties both ponds in the autumn and de-sludges the first pond every year, spreading the sludge over 40ha, including cropping paddocks.

The yards also have a stormwater diversion, with a very visible status warning, to avoid excessive rain filling the ponds. Washdown water use is minimised by recycling the cooling water and using dung buster while the whole yard is only hosed once a day.

Five years ago SurePave was laid at the entrance and exit to the dairy and this has made a huge difference to wear and tear on the high-traffic areas. A 22Kw solar power system was installed on the farm dairy roof to reduce electricity demand and supply the national grid during low demand.

After careful nutrient planning and management the farm is now in full maintenance for fertiliser, with some paddocks receiving low rates of phosphate in order to bring down the Olsen P readings (30-53 range over the whole farm).

The post-grazing applications of 30kg/ha of nitrogen total 150kg/ha annually, giving a nitrogen use efficiency of 28% and average nitrogen loss of 46kg/ha annually.

Lodore Farm also won the Ballance Agri-Nutrients Soil Management Award, the LIC Dairy Farm Award and the Meridian Energy Excellence Award.

“We are passionate about dairy farming and the environment awards and we are thrilled to win the supreme award and represent Northland,” Roger said.

“We want positive stories about farming.”

Six kiwi in one night

Lodore Farm is a large part of the Puketotara Community Pest Control Area (CPCA), or 30% of the land area of the catchment when one of the run-off blocks is included.

The Hutchings load and service 85 possum and rat bait stations, stoat traps and cat cages and will shortly be trialling kiwi nest boxes to improve the breeding survival rate.

Jane said kiwi have always been present on the farm but the drought of 2009-10 brought them out into the open looking for crickets.

Jane Hutchings with a stoat
caught in a trap.

“After seeing 12 that summer, six in one night, we were spurred to get very protective of this unique feature in our own backyard.”

Lodore has a very attractive farm map on the wall of the smoko room, on which cow movements and site works are recorded for staff information. It also records all kiwi sightings, by date, in the relevant paddocks.

The CPCA covers about 1560ha, or most of the Puketotara River catchment, which flows into the Kerikeri River and inlet, which is an important nursery for aquatic life. More than 2000 possums have been eradicated and along with the drop in rat numbers the bush areas are now providing more food for the noticeable increase in native bird population. More than 40 cats have been caught each year for the past two years.

Lodore has 45ha of native and regenerating bush and 10ha of wetlands, including a 5ha area registered by the regional council as one of the 150 top wetlands in Northland.

The award judges said the Hutchings have very impressive, active long-term biodiversity management, including bush and waterway fencing, weed and pest management, kiwi encouragement and a no-dog policy on the farm.

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