He says farming in a part of Canterbury regarded by many as too challenging environmentally Tony Dodunski has achieved an A rating for his farm environment plan audit and is achieving his production goals as well.
Tony and wife Clare farm 190ha next to Lake Ellesmere, which is rated the most at-risk in New Zealand with agriculture having a significant impact so farmers in the area are in the environmental spotlight.
Under the Canterbury Land and Water Regional Plan Dodunski’s farm is in the Selwyn Te Waihora Cultural Landscape Values Management Area’s phosphorus and sediment risk zone.
Dairy farms in the zone have to have a nitrogen budget and those leaching more than 15kg of nitrogen a hectare a year are required to cut their leaching by 30% by 2022.
After less than a year on the farm Dodunski’s farm environment plan (FEP) came up for auditing by an Environment Canterbury-approved auditor.
“I was really nervous, absolutely, because of the environmental stigma this area has and because I’d put so much emphasis on the environmental side of things when I was talking to the bank and the other shareholders so to get an A was choice,” Dodunski says.
Auditors rate farms from A to D depending on how closely farmers achieve the targets and objectives set in their FEP, their conformation with good management practice guidelines, achievement of nitrogen loss limits and their record-keeping.
“Part of the reason why we got an A is because we’ve been accumulating those records the whole way through,” Dodunski says.
“When the auditor came round I had my computer and she had the template she went through. She said ‘Show me the evidence,’ so I just brought it up on my computer. It’s about being organised and having all the information recorded.”
He is a My Milk supplier, for Fonterra farmers who can’t yet afford to buy shares, which in his case would cost $1.5 million.
But if he supplied Synlait Milk, an option that doesn’t require him to buy shares, he’s starting to wonder what the best option is, especially with the premiums on offer.
“I have always wanted to be a Fonterra farmer. It’s just in the last couple years that I’ve really had to think about it.
“With a co-operative we all get paid the same amount. If I get an A in my environmental audit and the neighbour gets a D, I still get the same amount even though I’ve spent a lot of money on a concrete feed pad, plantings and moisture probes.”
Either way though, he is committed to looking after the environment.
“I like to make money like most dairy farmers and we have to make money to be able to fund all the environmental costs.
“The public don’t think highly of the dairy industry at the moment so what can we do to help with that, to show that dairy farmers are actually doing their fair share and really making a difference?
“At the end of the day it’s all about the consumer isn’t it? That’s why we’re farmers.
“Throughout the course of history farmers have done what the consumer tells them, albeit sometimes slowly, and at the moment NZ consumers are saying that environmentally it’s not good enough and they want to see action, actual physical change and not just words.”
Farm Facts:
Owners: Dodunski Group 70%, Tony Dodunski 27% and his sister Crystal Dodunski 3%
Location: Lake Ellsemere, Canterbury
Size: 190ha, runoff 16ha lease
Cows: 660 Jerseys and Kiwicross
Production: 2017-18 251,830kg MS
Target: 2018-19 280,000kg MS
