Today the Kaharoa farmer and Ballance Agri-Nutrients Soil Management Award winner for the Bay of Plenty hasn’t changed his philosophy as he and wife Heather fine tune their 390ha farm. They also won the LIC Dairy Farm Award, and Meridian Energy Excellence Award. Lachlan is the immediate past chairman of Federated Farmers’ dairy section.
The 120ha of bush remains, while 220ha of farmed country including 50ha of leased land supports 650 cows. The Sherwood Farm operation includes a number of techniques to help preserve the light pumice soils in a region that experiences up to three metres of rainfall a year.
A special Rorisons RMD lime and magnesium mix has helped contribute to building the organic content of the soils from 2% to 12% today. Topsoil preservation has been aided by McKenzie building sediment traps and detention dams around main ephemeral waterways.
“I got the idea from seeing how water ran down a pavement, with the gravel remaining behind where the puddles had been, and figured that would work well on the farm,” he said.
Improved pasture species mean the browntop of 20 years is well gone, replaced with healthy rye and pasture sward that itself plays a big role in soil preservation.
“The browntop would have rainfall run off the thatch it formed, but the pasture absorbs the rainfall, and has a better topsoil profile to absorb the run-off than the original soil.”
The McKenzies are also converting a large block to dairying nearer Tauranga, working with MyFarm on mapping and effluent discharge and constructing a larger effluent pond with a capacity of two million litres.
