Saturday, March 30, 2024

Keeping green and in the black

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A top-performing Amuri dairy businessman has environmentally future-proofed his two dairy farms by restructuring the irrigation systems. In 2010, John Faulkner became part of the newly formed Hurunui-Waiau Zone Committee. This increased his awareness of the importance that future environmental issues would have on his farm businesses.
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At the time, The Terrace, a 162 hectare farm, was milking about 470 cows and producing 480kg milksolids (MS)/cow or 1500kg MS/ha. In addition, another 122ha, Monowai, further down the road was used as a runoff.

In 2009 his dairy farm won an award category of the 2009 Ballance Farm Environment Awards. The judges said it reflected the passion for managing the farm on a holistic basis – cows, staff and environment. 

John thought the were doing okay with their nitrogen leaching rate, as the judges described it as low at 29kg N/ha.

He says while it looked like The Terrace was heading in the right direction, he still had sleepless nights wondering where to spend money next to improve the farm.

As one of the first dairy conversions in Amuri the farm had a 35-aside herringbone dairy that was 33-years-old and reaching the end of its use-by date. 

John was thinking it might be time to replace the dairy and increase the stocking rate to 650 cows. He was also wondering how to best use the runoff and considered converting it.

Buying neighbouring properties was also considered. 

In 2013, the farm became one of 12 pilot farms in the Amuri area to test the fledgling Amuri Irrigation Farm Environment Plan which was a requirement for the proposed Environment Canterbury (ECan) regulations. During the trial, John was also entering more accurate and up-to-date farm data into Overseer, where he found some flaws in his previous results which assumed best practice.

As part of the trial process, Aqualinc Research compared the farm’s water usage under the annual volume calculator model which showed it was at least 15% too high.

With the proposed regulations, the business could be faced with a hefty bill to meet future environmental standards if it continued at that rate. 

The inefficient use of water in turn led to a higher than acceptable nitrogen leaching rate. 

Since 2009, cow numbers on The Terrace have increased to 535 and production to 1770kg MS/ha.

Centre pivot friendly

Monowai had a traditional border dyke system for irrigation but luckily had no pylons in the way.

Covering 121ha effective, a centre pivot was installed which irrigates 106ha with the remainder covered by K-lines.

Conscious of the future environmental requirements, a spin separator was purchased and the effluent discharged through the centre pivot at a variable rate and K-lines for the remaining areas.

John says the system works well and the whole 121ha is available for effluent discharge. The variable rate means they can plan ahead and only discharge where it is wanted. 

“It means races, buildings and troughs aren’t contaminated.”

At a 4% dilution rate and an irrigated water volume of 6.5 to 7.5mm, the discharge rate is very low and the nutrient loading from effluent is kept to a minimum.

Since 2009, cow numbers on The Terrace have increased to 535 and production to 500kg MS/cow or 1770kg MS/ha.

John puts this down to his sharemilkers Kevin and Alex Thompson and other staff.

At Monowai, which is also sharemilked by Kevin and Alex, the newly established herd of 425 cows produced 1675kg MS/hectare and 480kg MS/cow in its first season.

John says at some point the dairy at The Terrace will need replacing, but for now is just happy that his two businesses are future-proofed for environmental regulations and he can leave both farms safely in the hands of his sharemilkers.

Without having any more sleepless nights, John can turn to new ventures. A keen extreme sports cyclist, he is hoping to travel to Lake Victoria in the New Year, where he will take on a 4000km bike ride. He is also venturing into real estate sales and is hoping his experiences with his farm businesses will help those in the process of buying or selling farm properties.

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