Friday, March 29, 2024

Farmer protecting his own border

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Biosecurity for Mid Canterbury cropping farmer Graeme Bassett is about what enters his property.
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What happens within his farm boundary is also closely monitored.

Protecting his own farm border and farming operations was a priority and something he could manage as opposed to relying on New Zealand’s border protection where there were ongoing issues with biosecurity control.

Bassett’s farm took in 180 hectares of cropping and dairy support with an additional 180ha dairy platform.

Business for both the cropping and dairy systems was kept almost totally in-house and while he did his own harvesting, the baling contractor was a key part of his operations.

Managing biosecurity across all sectors of his farming was not so much about having a formal plan as much as it was about building good business relationships.

“To me biosecurity is any undesirable plant and that can come from anywhere but the best way to keep it under control is to keep as much in-house as possible,” Bassett said.

“After that, building good relationships, particularly with my baling contractor, is key to managing biosecurity on my farm and protecting my border.”

Bassett had a long-standing working relationship with Tim Ridgen of Ellesmere Agricultural Services and when a baler turned up on his property everyone knew what was expected.

“Baling grass seed straw is particularly high risk for seed intrusion to arise but the contractor notifies me when he is coming and he undertakes to clean down his baler and put the first two bales aside. They are isolated and destroyed.

“We have been doing that for at least 15 years so we both well understand each other’s expectation.

“He knows my business, he knows what I expect, I know how he operates, we trust each other – that’s the best biosecurity plan,” Bassett said.

Bassett moved to a preventive spraying programme he was confident covered most other avenues of a biosecurity mistake that might arise from people such as industry representatives going onfarm.

“Looking back, 99% of the weeds I spray in my crops are introduced species, so nothing is new.

“What we are faced with now are more problematic weeds due to the volume of trade, the volume of tourists and the range of host countries they are visiting from.”

Bassett acknowledged the Ministry for Primary Industries’ task in controlling NZ borders was huge and perhaps greater co-operation from the exporting nations was needed. 

“While I can’t stop flying insects, good farm hygiene is going to be the best defence for farmers to protect their own borders,” Bassett said.

Education, communication and relationships were the three key factors for contractors working with farmers, baling contractor and arable farmer Ridgen said.

“Our business has been alongside some long-standing clients like Graeme for 15 years and it’s the relationship you build that earns the respect, trust and understanding so everyone meets expectation.”

Ridgen said one of the biggest downfalls for contractors was clients who chopped and change their contractors for a cheaper price.

“We are more about relationships than cost – 80% of our business is generated from 20% of the client base and we place a lot of emphasis on their businesses.”

Ridgen was this week rolling out a first for the industry in traceability with a tagging system that put a tag in every bale produced.

The tag carried the GPS co-ordinates for each bale off the property and recorded when the bale was delivered to its end user.

“If a bale needs to be traced the tag can be scanned and you will know exactly where the bale came from and where it went to.

“With food security moving the way it is I believe this will be the way of the future. I may be wrong but we will experiment with it this season and essentially go with it in the future,” Ridgen said.

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