12 | ARABLE » Steve Bierema We Nurture Our Land We Value Our People Straw Sales Supplementary Feed Potatoes • Onions Wheat • Ryegrass Clover • Kale • Linseed Hybrid Vegetable Seed Logistics (Freight/Transport) We nurture our land to grow pure produce for the New Zealand and export market. P 03 302 2799 E r.hewson@xtra.co.nz E hewsonfarms.co.nz Fully irrigated best practice arable and vegetable farming located in the Pendarves/Chertsey area of the flat Canterbury plains. New FAR chairman brings wealth of A recent all nighter in grass seed as a result of the season at the moment. Hugh de Lacy and seed companies in Mid Canterbury. We’ve been here for nearly 50 years. who we are and how we work with farmers. where we are and the relationships we have built over generations. Call us to discuss how we can be your success partner on 0800 900 308 It was a mid-life crisis and new challenge that brought arable farmer Steve Bierema to Mid-Canterbury from his native Netherlands in 2004, and as newly-appointed chairman of the Foundation for Arable Research (FAR) he’s making a significant contribution to the New Zealand industry. Steve farms 500ha near Rakaia, growing wheat, barley, linseed, spinach, grass and clover seeds and peas, and the lettuce-like brassica pakchoi for export to China and Vietnam. In the Netherlands Steve grew seed potatoes, sugar beet and that iconic Dutch crop tulips, as well as carrots for the local fresh market. This was on a 120ha farm – large by Dutch standards – and he had a further 30ha under lease, but with land prices the way they were, and rising costs, he felt increasing intensification of the operation was not the way to go, and he wanted out. Steve had been an exchange student in Australia in 1980, and this had opened his eyes to the potential Down Under, especially in MidCanterbury where he’d heard such a wide range of arable crops is grown. He had been involved in farming and research groups and directorships in the Netherlands, so it was natural for him to do the same in New Zealand, and that led eventually to his becoming FAR chairman in January this year. FAR is an applied research organisation responsible to and funded under the commodity levy legislation by arable farmers through a 0.9% levy on turnover – a small investment compared to most large industries where spending 2-3% of turnover on research and development is standard, Steve says. FAR has offices in Templeton, south of Christchurch, and an 8ha research plot at Chertsey, south of Rakaia, while larger studies are conducted on members’ farms. The key areas that FAR research is involved in are greenhouse gas emissions, especially nitrogen, the reduced use and increased efficiency of chemicals and fertilisers, and efforts to make arable farming ever more financially and environmentally resilient. “The Government wants us as much as possible to reduce our gas emissions, but the implications are way wider than that because every time you reduce fertiliser use you’re reducing emissions,” Steve says. “The trick is: how do you reduce your fertiliser applications without reducing productivity. “When it comes to chemicals on farms, society demands that we change, and whether we like it nor not, that’s a fact. “Financial resilience is a matter of trying to optimise inputs in a changing world in which the cost of fertilisers and chemicals constantly rising, making it something we have to adjust to.” FAR has demonstrated its value in a succession of scientific advances of which one of the most significant lately has been the use of a straw-shortening proprietary chemical that ensures seeding grass stalks continue to stand erect during the flowering period, rather than folding to the ground under the weight of a lush grass growth. “This has resulted in a 30-to-40% increase in grass seed production,” Steve says. “It’s small changes like this that make arable farming financially more resilient.” “When it comes to chemicals on farms, society demands that we change, and whether we like it nor not, that’s a fact.” Steve Bierema taking a break from roguing thistles in a white clover seed paddock
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=