Organic NZ – September 2019

Promote • Educate
48 September/October 2019 Promote • Educate

http://www.ef.net.nz

1 Railway Street, Paeroa

0800 867 6737 E: [email protected]

Environmental Fertilisers

We make organic

fertilisers based on

the Reams Soil Test.

Our fertilisers nourish your soil

& feed your microbes, enabling

them to efficiently cycle nutrients.

Helping you grow nutrient dense food.

Talk to us today.

%\Ross Nolly

T

he recent unpredictable fluctuations of the New Zealand

dairy payout price has created a burgeoning interest in grass-

pasture-based dairy farming. Yet for Mark Flipp, an organic

dairy farmer at Oroua Downs (Manawatu) it wasn’t a case of

returning to pasture-based farming; it was a style of farming he’d

never left.

A family affair

Mark’s mother and father, Bill and Anne, bought the Oroua Downs

property in 1980. It was then a 109 ha farm milking 180 cows. They

gradually added onto the farm as surrounding properties came up

for sale.

Mark now operates a 508-hectare (350 effective hectares), 550-

cow Friesian dairy unit. Flipp Farms also operate a 81 ha heifer

support block at Feilding, run by Mark’s brother Darryl who also

manages a 121 ha bull beef block near Halcombe. Since 1983 the

Flipps have planted 80 hectares of pine plantations as shelter and as

a renewable cash crop.

The Flipps also operate a rural trucking business from the

property. They have twenty-five staff in total. The farm is worked by

four of the staff plus Mark and his father. Mark’s sister Deb handles

the administration of the farm and rural trucking business.

The heifer support block is where the young replacement stock

are farmed and the Halcombe block is where the Flipps’ dairy farm

100 kg weaned bull calves are grown on and sold as bull beef. The

two support blocks are farmed organically but the Halcombe Farm

isn’t certified organic yet. Mark’s aim is for both properties to be

certified organic in the future.

A smooth transition to organics

The Flipps became certified organic with AsureQuality in 2008.

They had always operated as low-input conventional ‘system one’

LAND OF

milk and harmony

Above: Mark Flipp in his cowshed. Photos: Ross Nolly