The Extension 350 (E350) project uses the time-honoured farm discussion group approach to improving farm performance, environmental sustainability and farmer well-being.
Project leader Luke Beehre said the award acknowledges the farmers who are already involved and especially those target farmers who opened up their farm businesses.
“We are seeing great results in the three key areas of profitability, environmental sustainability and wellbeing on the farms.
“We are now starting to realise the potential of the project to transform Northland’s agricultural sector.”
E350 is a $4 million to $5m project, including in-kind support for farm environment plans from Northland Regional Council and a great deal of voluntary input from many farmers giving their time.
The biggest category of expenditure is for private consultants.
Beehre told the EDNZ conference the project is farmer-led and farmer-focused, funded for five-and-a-half years and has three years left to run.
It aims to help 350 out of 2000 Northland dairy and sheep and beef farmers develop and achieve their goals and objectives while having open and honest conversations with other farmers.
The partners in the project are Beef + Lamb NZ, DairyNZ, the Ministry for Primary Industries, Northland Inc and Northland Regional Council.
The plan calls for 10 clusters consisting of target farmers and mentor farmers, surrounded by a group of associates participating through regular emails, annual field days and associate meetings.
Each cluster runs for three years in an overlapping timeline – group one (two dairy, one sheep and beef) from 2017 to 2020, group two (two dairy, two sheep and beef) 2018-2021 and group three (three dairy) 2019-2021.
Each cluster has five target farms, each with a mentor, and five associated farmers per target farm.
One professional farm consultant per cluster works with the target farmers, helped by the mentor farmers.
Doing the mathematics over 10 clusters brings the total number of farmers involved to 350, a sizable proportion of the dairy and sheep and beef sectors in Northland.
Target farmers also attend workshops and professional development events, such as the DairyNZ Mark and Measure.
They have a whole farm assessment and a farm environment plan prepared to establish where the farm business is placed and provide a platform for further development.
Personal goals such as financial freedom, more time with the family, taking off-farm breaks and succession planning are incorporated in that development.
Each support team returns to its target farm for up to 20 meetings over the three years to review goals, analyse results, brainstorm challenges and celebrate wins.
Between meetings the target farmers implement the changes on the farm and reporting keeps them accountable and on track.
The E350 team is seeking Northland dairy farmers to be part of the three stage three clusters at target, mentor and associate levels.
They are planned for the mid north or Bay of Islands between Kaikohe and Kerikeri, for Dargaville in the west and in southern Northland around Wellsford/Kaiwaka.
Opportunities remain for a limited number of associate farmers in some of the earlier clusters, which are spread from Awanui/Kaitaia in the Far North (dairy) down to Mangawhai/Kaiwaka in the south (sheep and beef).
Beehre said the numbers of target and mentor farmers is on track but attracting more associates is a slower journey, as the project got better at demonstrating and distributing value to the wider group of participants.
“That needs us understanding their needs and better delivering on them.”
E350 DairyNZ representative Chris Neill said there is growing interest in other regions about the effectiveness of the scheme and he is aware of one other group wanting to adopt it.
“The keys have included what we learned about farmer-to-farmer learning from previous discussion groups and project farms.
“Among the new elements is putting a mentor alongside the target farmer to encourage and support during the changes because it can be a daunting process.
“Target farmers are being asked to rank their wellbeing, one to 10, in their fortnightly reports and that score is a conversation starter – either an opportunity to share some worries or show that everything is going great.
“A simple technique is a powerful way of gauging the personal wellbeing of farmers.”
Neill said the scale of E350 is exciting for Northland, not only in the numbers involved but in the ripple effects.
“We hope we are big enough to get noticed and have effects beyond the life of the project and that relationships between farmers in these ways become accepted practice.”
Looking beyond the E350 lifespan Beehre said a vision for continued development of Northland agriculture will be needed.
The project will have given the regional farm consultants new ways of engaging with farmers and influencing rural communities.
He knows MPI is really encouraged and sees merit in the Northland-developed model.
But part of its success is the prior years of DairyNZ project farms in the Northland environment.
“I would counsel strongly against just dropping the model into another location without the tailoring that would be necessary,” Beehre said.
