44 | Rural Services » Jon & Birgit Pemberton • from page 42 Sign on the property at Brydone that Birgit made herself a year ago, using the term hof, instead of farm, re ecting her cultural heritage. “We’ve effectively tripled our business in one year. If you can take the system that you know is profitable with the 400 cows and put that into an 800cow farm, which is pretty much what we’ve done, it stacks up pretty good. It has been a nice transition but we’ve learned quite a bit about the Menzies’ farm which behaves differently to Brydone. Between the wet spring and dry summer we now have a good understanding about how the property runs.” In total six staff are employed; two to operate the Brydone property and three to operate Menzies with a maintenance worker oating between the two farms and a nearby support block. Jon visits both dairy units on a daily basis, touching base with all staff and keeps a hand in the milking sheds. Jon says the main environmental issue to address are the soils, which while free draining, leach nitrogen. “What we’re trying to do is nd a system where we can balance the stocking rate with production. The other area we’re working on is fertiliser. We do our own fert so that we can maintain control and avoid fertiliser nding its way into creeks. We have auto steer in our tractor with boundary control so that fert doesn’t get thrown over the fence into the creek. It has sectional control so if I only have a sixmetre strip left out of twenty-eight metres it only lls in the six-metre strip. It also has variable rate so it weighs the fertiliser out and the spread pattern is phenomenal.” Jon refers to new technology around radiometics which measures the minerals in the soil and could replace annual soil testing, enabling fertiliser to be applied at variable rates across the farm. While Jon says regenerative farming has its place, he believes NPKS still has a massive role to play and technology will be the key going forward. “We’re also seeing legislation around biodiversity and freshwater, and it hasn’t actually landed on a point of where it’s clear where to spend your money in the environmental space. We’re doing what we need to do for the industry good but my concern is that burning money for the feel-good factor might not be advantageous.” As a business, the Pemberton’s current focus is animal welfare and Jon says the farm policy is always that the cow comes rst. Great results after massive effort 0800 SGTDAN (748326) Gorton Street, GORE Ph: 208 3965 E: admin@sgtdan.co.nz Proud to support Jon Pemberton For a personal approach to all your business advisory and accoun�ng requirements, contact CEG today p 03 479 0400 e admin@cegnz.co.nz w www.cegnz.co.nz Our team of staff and their partners at start of the season just nished out for or rst team meal.
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