What would those farmers have made of the new entrants to the New Zealand processing scene and, with injections of overseas capital, the way in which they’ve been able to differentiate themselves from the competition in a short space of time?
Back onfarm would they ever have dreamed of a milk payout of more than $8/kg milksolids and the growing use of supplements and cow housing, putting this country very much at odds with its pasture-based past?
A key driver for these last two changes is tackled in this issue’s Special Report: Meeting Your Limits. As environmental constraints grow it’s only natural that NZ farmers have looked to some of the solutions that farmers in other, more densely populated countries, tried as they sought to future-proof their businesses.
But it has to be asked whether adoption some of this technology as well as the management techniques to go with them is really the best answer.
There’s always been great store put in the possibility of finding a scientific solution to allow the low cost efficiency of NZ dairying to continue, so it’s timely to take a look at some of that research into reducing nutrient leaching.
Maybe there’s a peculiarly Kiwi solution waiting in the wings but at present following best practice to keep within the plethora of new restrictions seems the best course.
Looking ahead 20 years from now farmers most likely will be confronted with problems those of today can’t begin to imagine.
That’s when the latter group need to be able to gently remind them that, as with Fonterra’s formation, they made the right decision.
