In the June 2021 Dairy Exporter, Bruce Thorrold of DairyNZ comments on the regen ag philosophy. He makes the point that parts of the regen ag mantra are aligned with the Dairy Tomorrow strategy – “Let’s farm in ways that make things better, with a spirit of continuous improvement, a spirit of trying new things, a spirit of taking a holistic view of your farm, your community, your business, your people, your animals and your environment”.
I think we can all buy into that.
Innovation and sharing ideas has always been the basis of dairy industry improvement. You can attend any discussion group, conference or field day to confirm this.
In that same article, reference is made to the practices employed in regen ag systems as promoted in the Manaaki Whenua white paper published in February this year, and it is time someone challenged them for being impractical, sometimes nonsensical and generally unprofitable. I will comment on just a few of the practices, from the perspective of having spent 49 years in the dairy industry as a MAF farm advisory officer, dairy company executive and for the past 22 years, as a private farm management consultant based in Waikato. The perspective is based on dairy farming in the Waikato/Central Plateau area.
I don’t have a problem with the Merino farmers using the regen brand – they are already grazing extensively at low stocking rates and mainly on unimproved hill country. Very different to high-fertility dairy farms.
Regen ag advocates make much of ‘diversified’ or ‘multispecies’ permanent pastures, despite the fact that over 95 % of New Zealand’s milk is produced from ryegrass/white clover-based pastures these days, with chicory/plantain added.
I am intrigued by the assertion that these multispecies pastures will establish and produce milk at our current levels.
In the late 90s, I was chair of the More Summer Milk project, which evaluated the management options for reducing the decline in Waikato’s post-peak milk production from 14% a month to 7%. Fortunately, I have kept all the files.
This was a science-based trial carried out on 12 farms using randomised paddocks, randomised cows and two milk vats, each with their own supply number, so that a ‘control’ and ‘treatment’ herd could be compared. It ran for four years. The funding participants were NZ Dairy Group, DRC, LIC and AgResearch Grasslands. The plan was to provide an additional 4kg DM/cow/day for 60 days, evaluating four treatments. These were feeding maize silage, growing Barkant turnips, using N-boosted pasture-grazing for a longer (30-40 days) summer round and grassline pastures.
The grassline pastures, sown under the supervision of DSIR Grasslands, were 22kg/ha of Advance tall fescue, 1.5kg of Kara cocksfoot, 3kg of Maru phillaris, 1.5kg of Kopu white clover, 1.5/kg of Prestige white clover and 3kg of Colenso red clover.
What happened?
There was much interest in this work and the N-boosted pasture/longer summer rotation treatment proved the most economic and practical for Waikato dairy farmers. It is now universally practiced on dairy farms south of Auckland and north of Taupō. The trial results were published in a total of five papers – two Ruakura farmers conference papers, two Grasslands Association papers and one Society of Animal Production paper. I suspect the regen ag advocates have read none of them.
Of the treatments, the alternative pastures option was the most disappointing. Of the three farms who were in the trial, two did not last a year and pulled out. The pastures were slow to establish, lacked vigour and were difficult to manage. They failed. The third farmer was determined to make the fescue-based pastures work and soldiered on. Eventually, he gave up and went back to perennial ryegrass.
Based on this, it seems the odds of multispecies pastures competing with ryegrass/white clover are remote, and it is irresponsible to recommend them for Waikato, and possibly other environments. The other point is that the availability of the AR 37 endophyte has improved ryegrass persistence and use of deeper-rooting chicory/plantain has provided economic summer feed.
I have some other major concerns on several other points.
Virtually all their pasture management practices are unsupported by science and practice. They fly in the face of the ‘Pasture Plus’ approach used by the majority, which is grazing from 3000kg DM/ha to residuals of 1500kg DM/ha during the milking season to maximise the intake of ME and pasture growth rates. Their bale feeding technique involves deliberately ‘wasting’ 30% of hay bales on the premise that it is good for the soil. I know of no farmer who would go to the trouble and expense of making hay, then deliberately waste a third of it.
And then there are the facial eczema implications of the recommended pasture management systems.
The high pre-entry pasture covers and residuals will provide the ideal substrate for the fungus, which could lead to significant stock damage and losses. I wouldn’t want that on my conscience.
In an attempt to ‘open my mind’, I attended a regen ag field day in autumn on a Miraka dairy farm at Atiamuri, and have also read about the farm at Norsewood visited by the PM and sponsored by Calm the Farm. The two farms seem to be similar; both once-a-day milking, with low stocking rate operations. While they may have a low carbon footprint, I reckon production per cow and per ha places them in the bottom quartile. In the Norsewood operation, there were no financials supplied. I note that our own jointly-owned 500-cow dairy farm at Marotiri near Taupō, with similar contour to the Atiamuri farm, produced 90% more milksolids per ha (almost double) and 42% more per cow using System 3. The financial comparisons would be graphic.
It is evident that moving to regen ag will have a huge effect on milk production. In my opinion, wholesale adoption of regen ag amongst it’s suppliers could drop the dairy company’s milk intake by a third.
So the dairy companies need the milk, the country needs the revenue and the farmers need the profits.
And I think the Authors (about 70 of them ) have misinterpreted the iwi position on regen farming. I have been heavily involved for 21 years with iwi farming businesses; most of them large and in the Tainui, Te Arawa, Tauaiti, Raukawa, Pouakani and Tūwharetoa areas. For these businesses there is an outstanding KPI, emphasised at all of the AGMs. And that is the financial return to the owners. It dwarfs everything else, and is expected to be delivered while respecting the kaitiakitanga of the whenua. Nothing else comes close.
Just last month, I was asked by a Tūwharetoa Trust to speak at their board meeting on what they should do about regen ag. I told them that they were already managing high soil carbon levels and that they needed to respect and not abandon the science that got them to their current profitable and sustainable position.
I think that advice applies to all farmers.
Respect the science, respect your experience, know what works. Beware of people, especially those with no skin in the game, advocating unvalidated practices.
Who am I? John Dawson is a registered farm management consultant.
