42 | MEAT & WOOL » Berridale Ltd Environmental protection drives production Ange Davidson Smart land class use is the thinking behind a thriving lamb, beef and forestry operation at Berridale, a 1100 hectare holding north of Milton in South Otago. The desire to promote positive improvements on farm and to combat the negative chat around change, Byron Vollweiler and his wife, Amanda Snow, entered the Ballance Farm Environmental Awards in 2022 and took home the Regional Supreme award for Otago. “Farmers engage better when talking about animal production rather than environmental issues. People associate environmental change with cost or production loss, but it doesn’t have to be that way, in fact there are often gains, especially so in this world of rising costs,” he says. Sheep cash flow the business so maximising their production is important. The farm runs 6000 breeding ewes tailing 160% to the ram and have a flexible finishing policy. The farm also runs 1800 hogget with the aim to have no dry sheep kept over winter, plus 140 dairy heifer grazers and 40 Angus Hereford cows. The family run business has been planting trees on uncultivatable land for many years and is a big advocate of the farm forestry model for planting the right tree in the right place. Tree planting is carefully matched to soil type to ensure they’re getting the best from the land. As well as forestry production, the trees generate social and economic value through carbon sequestration. They also provide stock shelter and reduce erosion. Third generation farmer, Byron says his parents David and Helen, started planting pine trees to generate a return on marginal land and protect stock from Tutu. “Although 80% of our income comes from stock, trees allow us to generate a competitive return from our marginal land, not to mention the other benefits like succession planning and protecting erosion prone land,” he says. As well as planting trees we have made changes to address intensive winter grazing and to reduce agrichemicals. These changes are great for animal health and for the farm’s finances and they’re also good for the environment, but you can’t make these changes in isolation,” he believes. Examples of positive changes in winter grazing and reduction of agrichemicals is planting a mixed species winter crop. As the traditional monoculture brassica is not suitable for late pregnancy ewes, Byron plants a grass and brassica mix with added herbs, plantain and kale which the stock perform well on. “The crop gets grazed in summer, winter and spring. The flexibility of when you graze the crop has helped build resilience into our grazing system and protect our production in these changing seasons. To achieve a spring grazing from the mix we can’t pug the paddocks. This means we have to fully feed our ewes over winter which is something that sheep systems have traditionally not done. This is an example of one production benefit we are seeing, not to mention the positive environmental outcomes. 03 425 9695 | 021 195 9920 info@ventureforestry.co.nz www.ventureforestry.co.nz Venture Forestry is proud to be supporting Berridale Ltd Experts in Emissions Trading Scheme • ETS Administration • Carbon Transactions • Carbon Portfolio Management • Permanent Forest • ETS Field Measurement The Team at Agrispray are pleased to be able to work with Berridale Ltd. Agrispray advises on and supplies a full range of farm inputs. Agrispray your complete farming partner. South Otago farmers Byrin Vollweiler and Amanda Snow run a sheep, beef and forestry operation at Berridale. 2023 Open Day; Friday November 24, 10am - 3pm 2023 On-Farm Auction; Friday December 15, 12 Noon Specialist breeder of Maternal and Terminal Rams proven to increase growth rate & meat yield of export lambs. MATERNALS Texel Wharetoa Maternal TERMINALS Meatmaker | Suftex Meatmaker x Suffolk Garth Shaw; 027 273 7037 • Warwick Howie (PGGW); 027 437 5276
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