The key to improved environmental outcomes is for farmers to be profitable and efficient so they can afford to make necessary changes, say Canterbury Ballance Farm Environment Supreme Award winners Tony Coltman and Dana Carver.
“It’s not enough to be a good dairy farmer, meaning good with cows and grass, you have to be able to run a profitable business as well. If we, as farmers, don’t learn to be good business managers we’re going to struggle to survive in the world we’re heading into,” Dana says.
“A big part of being resilient is having the margin needed to respond to change.”
The large-scale farmers are equity partners in a farm near Dunsandel where they also operate as 50:50 sharemilkers. They are also equity partners in a nearby property that was converted in 2017, under the same equity arrangement and also sharemilk on a third property. The total area is 841ha, 800ha effective, on which they milk 3300 cows.
Tony and Dana received the Ballance award for their environmental achievements on the Dunsandel property, Canlac Holdings, which they own with Richard and Chrissie Wright. Faced with Environment Canterbury regulations that required them to reduce nitrogen leaching by 30%, they made management changes and as a result cut their nitrogen leaching by 50%.
“When they came out with the 30% reduction requirement, everyone said we’re all going to go out of business, that we’ll have to reduce our stocking rate and so on,” recalls Tony. “But we’ve proved that isn’t true.
“That’s one of the reasons I got into the Forages for Reduced Nitrate Leaching project (FRNL). We said let’s put all the technology that’s available to us now in place along with real numbers and see what we can achieve, and then we’ll look at our stocking rate.”
Getting their N-losses down was achieved with four main changes: replacing roto-rainer irrigators with more efficient centre pivots, reducing nitrogen fertiliser inputs, cutting back on protein-based supplements (using more maize and less grass silage) and increasing the area on which effluent is spread.
They have reduced application of N-fertiliser by about 30% gradually over several years while at the same time maintaining milk production.
“That told us we were being inefficient with our nitrogen before and by maintaining our level of production, that also had the effect of reducing our N-loss because of the level of production going out the farm gate,” Tony said.
Reducing the amount of grass silage fed out and replacing that with more bought-in maize silage and fodder beet also contributed because lower protein feeds also contain less nitrogen.”
They have also slowed the grazing round.
Mark Farrell and Jose Prieto drench the stock.
After a couple of years of juggling life in Canterbury with running her business in Cambridge, Dana was offered a job with DairyNZ and ran their farmer wellness and wellbeing programme until it was wound up in 2018. She is now in charge of Step Change, a sustainable farming project.
Back in NZ Tony was further realising his long-held ambition to be a dairy farmer.
“I was finally in control of my own destiny. I just wish I’d done it earlier,” he said.
“I’ve realised it’s what I’m good at. I’m really interested in it and because of that, I see stuff that perhaps other people don’t see. I pay attention to the details and get really excited by doing the right thing every day in order to achieve results.
“What I like about dairy farming is the numbers. It’s very measured. You muck it up and you see the results. You get it right, you see the results.”
The 3300-cow herd produces about 485kgMS per cow for a total of about 1,600,000kgMS. The farm operates a System 4 and last season, 550kg dry matter per cow supplement of mainly maize silage and fodder beet but also some palm kernel and grass silage, at lower levels than previously, was fed.
“It depends on the season but our supplement use ranges between 550kg and 900kg DM per cow,” Tony said.
Calving starts on July 28 for the cows, probably a few days earlier than most farms in the district, he says. The heifers start calving about July 20.
All calving is done on Canlac for the two equity farms and as numbers grow, the mobs are split between the two properties. Between them the two farms carry 2200 cows and effectively run as one unit using two sheds.
Calves are picked up twice a day with a third pick up sometimes added when calving peaks. They keep all replacement calves – around 500 on Canlac and Quantum – because they’re still building numbers.
To reduce the number of bobby calves they sell four-day-old beef calves as well as rearing some later beef calves to 100kg. After weaning, at between 100kg and 120kg, the replacement calves are sent to Tower Peak Station grazing block in the Te Anau basin.
Mating starts on October 19 and AI is done for five weeks using predominantly Jersey and Kiwicross and some Friesian semen, then the bulls go out for five weeks followed by short-gestation bulls for 10 to 14 days. They use short-gestation Hereford with their low BW cows and also follow up with Red Devon or Changus (Angus-Charolais) bulls.
Tony reckons his background in business and banking and the training he’s received along the way has given him valuable skills to apply to dairy farming, even though he wasn’t brought up on a farm.
“I’m no mechanic, I’m no vet, but I can bring all of it together at a relatively high level. And the cows and grass side of it, well I knew the theory of it but now that we’re going into our ninth season. I’ve had plenty of time to master that along with the other stuff and really, I’m just hitting my straps,” he said.
Dana says Tony was well placed to make the changes needed to reduce the farm’s nitrogen leaching.
“Technically, Tony can tell you the four things we did but I think the reason that he could do those things is more of the story. You can go to any farm and tell them here are the four things you do, but the point is that for five years before Tony tried to improve the farm’s environmental footprint, he got the farm’s foundation right,” she explained.
“If you have stable staff, a strong system, and have enough money to put in the technology needed, anyone can do those four things. But to create that kind of foundation takes business skills.”
They recognise the important role their staff have played in their success and put huge emphasis on the people side of their business. Every winter they have a team building day, bringing together their 19 staff who come from eight different countries and speak five different languages.
They talk about the vision of the farm, how the season has gone and remind their team about their values and culture. They try to make the day fun as well, ending with a dinner at the local pub for all staff and their families.
But while they have a great team, high profits and have exceeded what is required under environmental regulations, they are concerned about upcoming climate change-related rules.
“Reducing nitrogen leaching is only one part of reducing the footprint. There’s also reducing greenhouse gas emissions which the entire country and the world are trying to figure out how you do. That will be our bigger challenge,” Tony said.
Tony would like to be ahead of the game on that too but doesn’t believe there’s enough substantiated science to guide farmers and regulators.
“We just need some time to work through it and actually get some good robust science around it whereas, it seems to me, the Government’s just gone bang let’s do this without thinking about the implications,” he added.
Dana says everybody, not just farmers, has a role to play in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
“What we’re saying is we’re on board, we want to be leaders in reducing footprint but show us the science, show us how we’re going to do this as a country, in a united fashion before you ask us to risk our wider sustainability.
“The bottom line is it’s not dairy’s fault, everybody is responsible for lowering greenhouse gas emissions and water quality.”
In her role with DairyNZ she sees first-hand how difficult it will be for many to meet new environmental regulations while remaining profitable.
“We’ve got farmers who will just do it, others who are completely resistant, farmers who don’t even know the world is changing around them and then we have some who are ready to learn and question but they don’t want to do anything yet,” Dand explained.
She and her team have developed a tool so that farmers can get a handle on their “numbers” and what they mean so they know what changes to make to future-proof their farm.
“There are quadrants where a farmer can plot their N surplus to profit, their debt to profit and their dry matter intake to profit,” she said.
“And then they’ll see. If you’re in quadrant A you’re probably going to be fine, if you’re in quadrant C or D, you need to make some significant changes, if you’re in B, you still need to be moving a bit to the left. So, it’s a tool to help farmers understand how resilient they are and what the smartest levers are right now to create the most future proof system possible.”
She knows that for some farmers making the changes needed will be difficult and says more than ever before, farming has to be treated as a business if it’s to thrive under ever tighter environmental regulation.
“I really worry about farmers. Some don’t want to be a business manager, they never signed up for it,” Dana said.
“They love the cows and grass, are great stockmen and have a natural eye for pasture and love for nature and looking after their soils and environment. But unfortunately, I don’t think that’s enough anymore. We’re all going to have to have a good profit margin to survive, that’s the bottom line, and that means you have to be a good business manager.”
She reckons they have the right mix of skills to survive in what is likely to be an increasingly challenging environment.
“I give Tony credit for what’s happened on the farm. I think from a business standpoint, our paths have brought us here. He has been mostly driven to perform and my past is really social change and morality and what’s the right thing,” she said.
“You can’t be embarrassed or ashamed of being profitable,” Tony added, something Dana has come to agree with.
“I think I used to think if you’re profitable, it means you’re greedy. But if you’re just by the skin of your arse trying to help everyone, that’s not sustainable either,” she says.
“It sounds cheesy, but I think the two of us have changed each other and now we’re this balance of profitable, technical, passionate and making sure we make a difference.”
Farm Facts:
Owners: Datona (Tony Coltman and Dana Carver) and Richard and Chrissy Wright
Location: Dunsandel, Canterbury
Farm Size: 841ha, 800ha effective
Cows: 3300 Kiwicross across three farms
Production: 2019-20: 1,597,744kg MS
Target: 2020-21 1,600,000kg MS
