Friday, March 29, 2024

New goals set

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As well as working to reduce the impact of their own farm on waterways, Suzie and Brendon Bearman told Karen Trebilcock they have encouraged other local farmers to establish a catchment group to benefit the wider area.
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Suzie and Brendon Bearman still consider their farm as a work in progress.

“We can look backwards and pat ourselves on the back but there is so much more we still want to do,” Brendon says.

What they are doing has caught the attention of the judges of the Ballance Farm Environment Awards and earned them the Otago Regional Council Water Quality Award, the LIC Dairy Farm Award, and the PGG Wrightson Land and Life Award this year.

“We were invited to enter and right at the start we told the judges we can do things better and we’re working on them,” Suzie says.

“It’s been a really good experience for us. We needed to refocus on where we were heading. We’ve accomplished so much and we were beginning to think ‘What next?’ Now we have goals for the next 10 years.”

The couple bought Kilkenny Farm, their 245ha property south of Milton, in 1999 after nine years contract milking and 50:50 sharemilking in South Canterbury on border dyke irrigation.

When they arrived there were two other dairy farms on the road. Theirs was milking 200 cows through a 20-aside herringbone producing 58,000kg milksolids.

“There were very few farms on the market at the time but this one fitted our budget and we could see some scope with it,” Suzie says.

Brendon: “It ticked all the boxes.

“It was big enough that it was self-contained, we wouldn’t have to graze the youngstock elsewhere, and there was a lot of potential.”

They’ve increased stock numbers to 400 and several years ago extended the dairy to a 40-aside, built a new effluent pond and a new house, and took on a farm manager so they could start having sleep-ins.

‘We’ve accomplished so much and we were beginning to think ‘What next?’ Now we have goals for the next 10 years.’

Their son Gareth, 24, a qualified greenkeeper, returned home last year and is learning the business. Brendon now spends from Christmas until spring working off-farm for local earthmoving and drainage firm Andrew Haulage, driving a digger or truck.

“Brendon is now my fresh set of eyes on the farm,” Suzie says.

“It’s easier being out of it and stepping back to see what needs to be done.”

From the top of the farm you can glimpse the back of the Rock and Pillars in one direction and all the way to Nugget Point on the coast in the other. The slopes make grazing decisions, especially in winter, crucial.

Gullies are fenced off and two years ago 4ha was planted in pines with natives top and bottom. Suzie has already started spraying a further 15ha for planting this winter. In the paddocks, grazing strips are left when cultivating.

“We grow Caledonia kale which is a shorter kale because we can’t get a tractor on these slopes in the winter to flatten it to move the fence. We feed it off across the slope, with a long face, shifting the fence twice a day, and we leave the last five to 10m at the bottom uneaten until the weather is good so we don’t lose too much run-off into the gully.”

There are three duck ponds on the farm, one created by a gold dredge in the 1950s and 1960s. They are well used once May comes around.

“The duck ponds work as natural sediment traps and they drain into swamps which act as filters,” Suzie says.

The farm’s streams run into the Tokomairiro River which the Otago Regional Council has highlighted as one of the rivers in the province with problems. It has begun working with farmers, forestry owners and the community to improve its water quality.

Suzie’s cows are always ready for a pat.

Suzie has been one of the farmers involved in starting a local catchment group this year to try to do their bit.

“There were lots of public meetings about the river but people often don’t want to talk in a crowded community hall. We decided it was better to have smaller meetings around dining room tables and there we can share ideas but still keep the communication channels open with council,” she says.

Brendon says: “A solution that works for us might not work on another farm. There are lots of different types of farms in the catchment and it’s good to talk to sheep farmers and deer farmers and the cropping guys to see what they are doing.”

The Bearmans say it was frustrating not knowing what was in the water leaving their farm.

“We are going to take water samples and send them off to get tested. It doesn’t cost very much, but it is only a snapshot of that moment when we take the sample. It could start raining the next day and the sample then could be totally different.”

Because of the river and their high rainfall, they are careful with fertiliser applications, using low-soluble RPR and only 80kg N/ha/year. They also factor their effluent – which is spread using K-Lines on 45ha when soil conditions are right – into their nutrient budget.

The herd is Jersey-based because the Bearmans like the lighter cows on the slope, and Suzie says the hills keep them fit.

“We don’t have the vet out very often.”

She does the AI herself, using CRV Ambreed semen and progeny testing. Their cow Iceberg has featured in the company’s catalogues.

“It’s been really interesting seeing the traits other than production assessors work and finding out what they’re looking for. I’ve picked up a lot. We like a good, sound cow. It’s got to have good conformation to walk up and down the paddocks here."

‘The duck ponds work as natural sediment traps and they drain into swamps which act as filters.’

Apart from molasses fed in the dairy and turnips in summer and kale in winter, theirs is a grass-only system. A neighbouring 100ha lease is used for the young stock.

“We bought 28 tonnes of palm kernel last year when it got dry but we hope to make enough pit silage to stop having to do that. The plan this year is to put a concrete pad down for it so we can collect the leachate.”

They make their own hay and balage, which means surpluses can be captured quickly and paddocks returned to the round, but they use a contractor for the pit silage and whole crop silage.

“We always get rain by the end of March so even if it does get dry we know it doesn’t last,” Brendon says.

Suzie: “It was really dry in November and December this season but then it rained all January. We’ve had one of the best growing seasons ever and with the high payout, all the ducks have been in a row.

“I’ve got a note in my office which I put up in the spring that this was the year we were going to pay off debt – and we will.”

Key points

Location: Creighton, near Milton, Otago
Area: 245ha (160ha milking platform) and 100ha neighbouring lease block
Dairy: 40-aside herringbone
Herd: 400 Jersey and crossbred – Breeding Worth (BW) 72/42, Production Worth (PW) 81/73
Production: 2013-14 season on target for 160,000kg milksolids (MS)
Planned start of calving: August 10 for heifers, August 15 for cows
Farm working expenses: $3.80-$3.90/kg MS 2013-14 season
Rainfall: 1100-1250mm
Elevation: 120-160m above sea level.

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