Saturday, March 30, 2024

Programmed for success

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Westland Milk Products’ Farm Excellence programme helps suppliers identify ways to improve all aspects of their farm management. Westport farmers John and Jo-Anne Milne told Anne Hardie the support and advice has been invaluable.
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Every little detail of John and Jo-Anne Milne’s Westport farm has been assessed for Westland Milk Products’ Farm Excellence programme (FarmEx), from the obvious effluent and nutrient management systems to animal welfare, risk management and farm presentation.

It’s all there on record; all the assurances Westland’s customers might ever want about the farm and systems, just as it is for every one of the 430-plus farms supplying the company.

In the past year the company has visited every farm, collecting data, rating every aspect of the programme and discussing recommendations with farmers to improve standards where necessary. The programme expands on its existing Code of Practice to ensure farms meet customers’ expectation for monitoring and measuring onfarm practices. Once the programme is fully implemented, customers should be able to visit any farm and be happy with what they find.

The Milnes recognise the importance of that and have welcomed the FarmEx programme and the advice it brings to their own farm a few kilometres southwest of Westport where they milk 290 Jersey cows on 122 effective hectares.

“Farmers are beginning to realise the importance of customers to us and as shareholders we’re in control of our own marketing,” John says. “Before FarmEx, all they had was the farmer’s word that we were farming with best practices.”

Like most farmers on the West Coast, the Milnes have to manage their soils carefully in the wet. At 2.4m, their annual rainfall is considerably less than some areas in the region, but still has its challenges, especially on the farm’s sandy soils. Normally, sandy soils are associated with drying out – and they will later in summer – but imagine wet sand at the beach and it gives some idea how dense it becomes until it can no longer drain excess water. They also have pakihi which becomes a solid, impervious layer. Most of the farm has had the soils flipped over to break through those layers and bring better soils to the surface that will drain better, while other areas have been humped and hollowed.

They’re lucky they don’t have many streams dissecting their property, compared with a 400ha farm nearby that has fenced off 27km of waterways. It’s typical of the diversity on the West Coast and vastly different to farms in Canterbury supplying the company, which is one of the reasons Westland has opted for its own environmental and farm practice programme that looks at individual farms and decides best practice for each.

“One standard doesn’t suit all on the West Coast,” John says.”The West Coast is spread out from Karamea where it gets about 1.8m of rain to Fox Glacier with 4-5m of rain and you have coastal farms like this one to inland farms right under the Southern Alps. So one set of rules doesn’t fit all for the West Coast.”

The beauty of FarmEx, Jo-Anne says, is being able to identify specific problems or areas of improvement on each farm so plans can be put in place to improve those areas.

On the Milnes’ farm, they plant summer crops to compensate for the lack of grass when the ground dries out and are trialling chicory this year. Cows are fed a small amount of palm kernel every day through the season, and they drop to 16-hour milkings from mid-December and then once-a-day from the beginning of April. The herd is wintered on the farm with balage bought in to supplement the 8ha of winter crop.

The end result on the land, water, stock and staff is reflected in the FarmEx assessment. The Milnes run a pretty tidy operation and most aspects already meet the FarmEx standards. Now they also have a health and safety plan for the farm and their staff – one full-timer and one part-time employee. It’s one of those things that was overlooked as they did day-to-day jobs around the farm, until someone like the local Westland milk supply manager took a close look at management practices for FarmEx and pointed it out.

“We now make a point of talking about health and safety issues at our monthly meetings with staff and everything is documented,” John says. “People make mistakes, but if it’s documented it’s going to be better for everyone. If we have an accident on the farm we can now show those hazards are documented and everyone has been told about them. Whereas we had nothing written down before.

“Just getting someone in for a FarmEx visit makes you sit and talk about it and think about doing things differently.”

It prompted them to join HazardCo for about $500 which provided them with a folder of documents to fill out about every aspect of the farm, plus signage to put up at gates and hazard spots. 

The Milnes run an agricultural contracting business as well, employing two staff, so that also got the health and safety makeover. 

Now both businesses have folders on hand to show staff and are used at the monthly meetings to remind everyone about the seasonal hazards.

“Like at mating time, it’s a good time to remind staff about safety around bulls and have it documented.”

Though farmers are familiar with the regional council checking effluent systems, John says it’s probably the first time some farmers have had someone go on to their farm, look at their management practices and provide advice for improvements if necessary. The FarmEx standards cover effluent systems and management, land and nutrient management, animal welfare, stock exclusion, water use, farm presentation, and people and risk management. 

Each area has detailed lists to meet the FarmEx standard, so animal welfare, for example, looks at calf rearing facilities, management of bobby calves, growth targets, treatment of sick animals, euthanasia and shelter for the adult herd in adverse weather, to name a few.

“Shade and shelter is not something we’ve thought much about before, but with FarmEx we’ve started thinking about what we can do.”

Water use is another area they didn’t have to analyse before FarmEx. High rainfall ensures plenty of water in the area. The downside of that is stormwater diversion so the 2.4m rainfall doesn’t dilute their two-pond system.

Their system is consented for another 10 years, but John expects they will have to update it down the track as rules continue to tighten around effluent management. He’s reluctant to tackle it before he’s forced to though, for fear of spending money on a system that is quickly outdated.

“A lot of people are worried about spending money on a system which can become obsolete pretty fast. I know we’ll have to do something about effluent in a few years but who knows what systems will be available then.”

Many of the FarmEx requirements are logical from a farming point of view and the Milnes had already addressed many issues, such as stock exclusion from waterways.

Animal welfare is part of the FarmEx programme.

“It’s just practical on the coast to fence off all waterways. We’ve fenced off open drains as well and that’s for our own benefit as much as FarmEx because you want to stop cows getting stuck in them.”

Farm presentation is another aspect of FarmEx that John recognises as important for marketing their product.

“The public’s perception of a dairy farm is often based on their first impression. Things like bobby calves – why put bobby calves beside the road when you can have them up by the shed?”

John says younger farmers have accepted the FarmEx programme and recording data more than the older generation.

“The younger ones know it’s the way of the future and understand the importance of recording data, whereas some of the older generation see it as a waste of time. But when you explain it to them, they get the importance of it.

“And FarmEx isn’t being shoved down our throats. They’re not waving the big stick and they understand farm economics and that there’s not a lot of discretionary spending just now.”

His only concern about FarmEx is getting consistency through the region with different officers assessing different areas.

So far, farmers have been visited once by Westland Milk Products’ officers and the next visit will assess whether they are making progress on areas that were not up to standard and ensure plans are in place to meet the standard.

Meeting expectations

One year on, FarmEx has provided Westland Milk Products with baseline data for all its suppliers that recognises many systems and farm practices as role models, while working with each supplier to improve any areas that need attention. 

Regional milk supply manager Tony Watson says the programme is part of Westland’s strategy to protect its licence to trade and also show that its products and production methods meet its customers’ expectations.

“As it moves into added-value markets, Westland needs to be able to demonstrate quality throughout the entire production chain, so milk quality and onfarm audits are taking place every season.”

Customers don’t need to visit farms to judge them either. Watson says smartphones and internet can enable just one bad situation to make news headlines, whether it’s warranted or not.

“Sometimes a tourist or member of the New Zealand public may take a photo for an innocent reason – these can be cropped and zoomed in on something or a farm practice which can be easily taken out of context by people with less understanding and tolerance of some farming practices.”

Generally, FarmEx has been well received by suppliers and the overall findings positive, he says. The standards have been reviewed and there will now be an increased focus on providing evidence – written records or suppliers taking their own photos and recording what they have done. Westland milk supply managers are working with farmers on areas identified as below FarmEx standards to develop plans to help them achieve the standards over time.

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