My motivation was to try to articulate my feelings as a sheep and beef farmer about to climate change obligations.
Now I want to share the facts about my own farm and my emissions profile that inspired me to write the letter.
Our Rangitikei farm is 617 hectares of mainly hill country that has been in my family since 1901.
Over the years extensive planting of poplars and willows has been done to reduce the impacts of soil erosion and to provide shade. These are mature trees that provide a large canopy and cover 43 hectares. That does not include the 800 poplar trees planted in the last seven years because they do not form a canopy yet or the hundreds of other willows and poplars planted in isolation around the farm.
Areas of native bush totalling 32 hectares have been left in their original state and allowed to regenerate.
We have invested in 5km of fences in the past five years to protect these areas and stock are now totally excluded.
On steeper parts of the farm scrub and natives are allowed to grow on bluffs and along creeks to encourage biodiversity, improve water quality and protect stock. These areas equate to another 12 hectares.
And then there are the pine trees. In my 16 years as a farm owner I have been subjected to two once-in-100 years storms, resulting in extensive damage as bad as my 77-year-old father can remember. As a result of these storms we have also planted 30 hectares of production pine trees on the three worst eroding faces to reduce the impact of soil erosion.
In terms of facts about trees on our farm, of a total area of 617 hectares there are 116 hectares covered with some type of tree. That represents just under 20% of our total farm area and if you factor in the smaller trees and ones planted in isolation the number is much higher.
Our stocking rate is not high and in spring we average about seven ewes or just over one cow a hectare.
With co-operation from our neighbours we have moved fences from at-risk places to ridges to try to minimise future storm damage. We have installed a solar pump to distribute stock water to nearly two-thirds of our farm using only the power of the sun.
We use fine particle applications of fertiliser, which, in my experience, is the most efficient way to grow drymatter on our farm.
Any cropping is done with no tillage methods to minimise any impact on the soil. We do not use any form of winter cropping for my stock or feed out any supplements to our stock. They survive and thrive on the grass and legumes we grow in an environment that I can only describe as clean and green.
I know there are others in our farming sector who have done much more than us on their farms and some who have done less.
But when it comes time to calculate my emissions profile I know if the obligations are bad for me the outlook for many others will be dire.
So, how do you calculate your emissions?
Lincoln University has an online calculator described as a simplified approximation of the greenhouse gas emissions from a farm.
Despite this less than inspiring introduction, this calculator is one of only two that I could find in New Zealand and is widely referred to by industry organisations as a go-to. It has simple to use screens but asks for very crude data inputs for stock, production, fuel, contractors, fertiliser and feed bought.
There is no mention of any type of tree, grass, soil or any other means to offset carbon.
So, I diligently went through the process and ended up with a results screen that told me my total carbon dioxide equivalent emissions are 1,372,100kg. It also helpfully explained that is the same as 5,939,825km driven in a medium sized car, 351.8 flights from Auckland to London in economy class, 49 hectares of growing pines or 214 hectares of permanently planted indigenous forest.
Needless to say, based on this data I was left with a pretty bad taste in my mouth.
Despite 118 years of care, love and attention for the environment that we live in my family are labelled as nothing more than filthy polluters responsible for climate change.
So, these are the facts behind my appeal to our Prime Minister and the farming leaders of NZ.
Though I had a sense I was speaking for others I had no idea the depth of feeling and widespread support within our farming community and also from many in our towns and cities.
Based on Facebook’s own information stating the average person has about 300 friends, this single post has potentially reached 300,000 people.
More importantly it was picked up by the mainstream media and redistributed, which has kicked off a new level of awareness and discussion. The media jumped in to share my message but the one person I was hoping might make contact has managed only an email reply via her office staff. All I asked her was to come and have a look at our beautiful farm for herself so I could help her understand how she has got this all so wrong.
I am still waiting.
