Resilient farming in New Zealand

While dairying is a phenomenal industry to work in, it's also an industry in a state of flux, evident in the volatility of input costs and the fluctuation of milk prices. In addition, and critically, there are significant unknowns for farming from skill shortages, increased taxation to new legislation, and changes to the environment.

Farmers are working exceptionally hard to safeguard and future-proof their operations to combat these challenges such as riparian planting, upgrading effluent systems and steps towards more sustainable working hours.

Halter farmer Pete believes the only way for the industry to continue to thrive is by operating robust farming systems to mitigate challenges. Pete says farmers must become more resilient.

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Waikato farmers Pete and Ann were the winners of this year's Fonterra Responsible Dairying Award. The accolade acknowledges farmers who demonstrate leadership in their approach to sustainability. Halter caught up with Pete to learn more about his award-winning approach to future-forward farming.

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"For us, resilience is critical. We've got challenges coming at us all of the time. We've seen this historically, and we've managed. Right at the core of survival is a robust, sustainable, profitable business.”

Pete says the main components of a robust farming system are high-quality pastures, productive animals looked after exceptionally well, and responsible management of the environment.

"Beyond feed supply, our animals and environment, it's our interaction with consumers, and the wider New Zealand public, to which we have a connection and responsibility."

Historically farmers have been constrained by small, irregular paddock sizes, which present challenges when managing rotation length and consistent feed allocation at different times of the year.

However, with the aid of Halter, Pete’s pasture management practices have evolved by merging paddocks into blocks through leveraging Halter’s highly adaptive virtual fencing system. Integrating multiple paddocks into larger blocks reduces his wastage significantly, enabling a far more efficient system.
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Pete describes his paddocks as one-third with high fertility, one-third sloping with low fertility, and one-third flat, which gets wet and prone to pugging. By merging up to eight paddocks, Pete now has larger areas of these zones to work with.

Using virtual fencing, Pete allocates high fertility first, applying more grazing pressure, then remotely shifts stock to crop. Finally, returning to the less fertile areas where the cows remain for the night, spreading nutrients to other parts of the farm that need it. The same applies to vulnerable regions when it rains; Pete can now completely avoid these. Ultimately he is no longer limited by small paddocks and can manage nitrogen distribution more effectively.  

Halter's technology also means Pete can understand the typical performance of his herd - how they move and behave. And then, he can create benchmarks so that any behavioural changes are alerted and managed accordingly.

“Not only is that how we want to farm, it’s also the way we want to reduce costs, improve animal performance, and efficiency - which is all going to impact profitability.”

Pete also stresses the increasing importance of compliance, and with Halter’s data collection, he can now easily demonstrate and prove the welfare of each individual cow.

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Another pain-point for the industry is addressing skill shortages by attracting, retaining, and progressing the new generation of farmers.

"A lot of the solutions, particularly the technological ones, require us to step back and spend time looking at the business. Also, for my stage in my career, I do want to be able to stand back more and reduce that heavy workload."

Pete says the answer in retaining staff is making it clear for new employees that they are part of the farm's strategic larger vision and that they have the opportunity to progress their careers.

"When we are changing cups in the cowshed, we are discussing management plans for the week, the month, and also reinforcing what the main strategies of the farm are...Not only are they helping us run the farms, but they will also be the ones who will come up with the answers in the future."

The big challenge for farmers is the industry seems to be creating far more questions than answers. However, what is abundantly clear is that technology will play a significant role in helping us solve these questions. Taking a step back from that, Pete believes it's the responsibility of the people to develop creative solutions to help solve the big questions.

"We within our industry need to take responsibility so we can take control of the direction of where all of this goes. And make sure we are achieving not only our personal goals - for us, our business and families - but those of the industry and New Zealand.”