Advocate • Connect September/October 2019 49
Farming and horticulture
Advocate • Connect
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farm so the transition to organic wasn’t too difficult. (A system
one farm produces all feed on the farm – see the ‘Five Production
Systems’ as described by Dairy NZ: http://www.dairynz.co.nz/business/
the-5-production-systems.) It was mostly a case of undertaking
extra administrative work to verify their organic practices.
“We converted due to our concern for the environment and our
grandchildren’s future; but the extra 20% that Fonterra were paying
us for our milk was also an attraction,” said Mark. “We’d never
followed any farming trends, which made it easier to convert. We
didn’t have to make any drastic changes from high-input farming.”
“We farm for what we believe in rather than solely chasing
the dollars. But most farmers don’t farm for the profits; they love
farming. Sure you need to make a profit but it’s usually the payout
rather than production that makes the significant difference.”
Calving in spring and autumn
The first major change to the Flipps’ farming practice was to begin
split calving (autumn and spring). Once it had been successfully
accomplished for a number of years they made the change to
organic. Autumn calving allows Mark to milk during winter. He has
been winter milking for 15 years which enabled him to become the
sole supplier to Fonterra’s Kapiti ‘Single Source’ organic milk.
“Our milk has always gone to Fonterra, but during the middle
of winter there was only one place that the organic milk came from,
and that was here,” Mark said.
Quality over quantity
Mark once milked 600 cows. He has reduced the number to 550, but
feels that he should now drop back to 500.
“I’ve struggled with cow numbers. Our numbers are low
compared to many others; but I feel that they aren’t low enough.
Going from 600 to 550 wasn’t enough of a change to make a
significant difference,” Mark said.
For Mark the introduction of the crossbred cow (often called
the Kiwi Cross) was just another farming trend – not a bad trend,
just one he didn’t want to follow. Why did he not want to move to a
more productive animal? Simply because he didn’t like the way they
looked.
“Once again it was a monetary trend that we didn’t follow.
Farming has become very fashion-based and that can become a
trend. There was a time when every farm was a system one farm,
and then the high-input trend in farming began, initially urea, and
then high-input feeding regimes,” Mark says.
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“If you went back 40 years hardly anyone grew maize, and the ones
that did usually break-fed the cows on it, or chopped it and fed it
green to them. Of course you need money to pay bills, but I’ve never
been driven by it. I try to do things to a high standard, that’s what
drives me.”
Pasture-based farming requires a great deal of supplementary
feed to be cropped on the farm, rather than brought in from
elsewhere. Mark makes 1700 bales (10 traditional bale equivalents)
of silage, and 300 bales of hay. But there is scope to do more if
needed.
In 2018 Fonterra introduced a Fat Evaluation Index (FEI)
grading system, which penalises farmers who use large amounts
of palm kernel expeller (PKE) as a feed. This has prompted more
interest in pasture-based dairying. The introduction of the FEI
was because milk from cows fed higher levels of PKE can be more
difficult to process into certain dairy products. Organic certification
standards, however, do not allow the feeding of PKE to cattle.
When the dairy payout was at its peak practically any cow
that produced milk made money. That changed when the payout
dropped drastically. That’s when the renewed interest in pasture-
based farming began.
Fertilising naturally
Farmers once again looked at using their cowshed effluent to
grow pasture and often maize for their silage. This allowed them
to cut back on nitrogenous fertilisers by going back to using what
is actually a very valuable resource: the cow’s effluent. What was
thought of as a waste is now saving farmers tens of thousands of
dollars in fertiliser bills, and modern sophisticated soil testing
allows them to know exactly how much needs to be applied and to
monitor any run-off.
Above: Cows in the spring calving herd