Friday, March 29, 2024

Irrigation key for farm environment winners

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Efficient water use was a hot topic for Canterbury dairy farmers Mark and Devon Slee, national winners of the 2014 Ballance Farm Environment supreme award, on their recent tour of the North Island. During the five-day trip in late February the Slees met with key industry stakeholders to promote good environmental practices and swap ideas on how to improve environmental management.
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The tour was organised by the New Zealand Farm Environment (NZFE) Trust and included a question and answer session with the Primary Production Select Committee and meetings with the Minister for Primary Industries and Speaker of the House.

Mark Slee said the trip gave them a great opportunity “to tell our story about irrigated agriculture and its benefits to our community”.

He said he and Devon Slee were surprised by the extent of the drought in the North Island.

“Some places were very dry and farmers in these areas were clearly trying to manage their operations very carefully and use whatever water they have as efficiently as possible.”

Increased water storage and the efficient use of irrigation could be hugely beneficial for the east coast of the North Island, Slee said.

The Slee’s Melrose Dairy business milks more than 2600 cows on three dairy units and uses new technology to ensure the efficient operation of an extensive centre-pivot irrigation system and other farm infrastructure. Soil moisture levels are carefully monitored to achieve optimal results.

“The efficient use of resources drives how we manage the farm.

“To us, farming is proving that profitability and environmental sustainability go hand in hand and that’s a key message we tried to get across as we travelled around the North Island.”

In late March the Slees will travel to the Netherlands and the United Kingdom as ambassadors for NZ agriculture.

Slee said a key focus of the trip will be to study intensive dairy farming systems and assess how farmers in the UK and Netherlands use technology to improve sustainability.

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