10 | A bit more time for Chris Dillon now Chris now has more time to focus on the family farm at Balfour. Chris and wife Rochelle grow cereal crops – wheat, peas and barley. Karen Phelps ARABLE » Chris Dillon Fert Wholesale Direct Ltd Farmers, are you concerned about improving your fertiliser efficiency and environmental footprint? Then Fert Wholesale Direct Ltd can help, as we have helped Chris Dillon. The ONE System which through independent trials shows a doubling of response to N. And more recently, our Revolutionary Compound Urea/SOA product where every granule contains both forms of N. Contact Shane Harold on 021 0235 6491 or shane@fertwholesale.co.nz Chris Dillon is enjoying a bit of free time now he’s completed his role as provincial president for Southland with Federated Farmers. He’s enjoying spending more time with family and reflecting on his achievements over the past three years. Holding regional council to task on “quite a few things” figures highly. He lists the water directive council instigated during a drought banning all irrigation in 2022 as a triumph. “We came up with a logical more practical solution for farmers going forward so people could use their effluent spreaders and stored water for example. So it was a more targeted approach to saving water. Farmers shouldn’t have been caught up in the ban. That was one of the first wins,” he says. Southland Federated Farmers also highlighted the issue of gravel build up in the rivers, which contributed to the flooding of the region in 2023. “In the past this natural gravel build up was better managed. But in 2023 it caused more flooding with a smaller amount of rainfall, under half of the rainfall that you would expect to result in a flood. We can be more resilient by spending a heap on raising flood banks or just removing the natural gravel build up. It’s a work in progress to find a practical solution going forward.” Other things Chris feels have been “ticked off” for local farmers include winter grazing regulations. “The Southland executive stood strong around this which has seen a set of guidelines and everyone working to best practice rather than overarching regulation, especially around the slope rules,” he says. “We also stood strong against the emissions pricing and refused to join the He Waka Eke Noa - Primary Sector Climate Action Partnership. This is still on-going but we didn’t want to sign up to a bad deal.” Chris now has more time to focus on the family farm at Balfour. It was just over 200ha when he started working on the farm in 2000. Land acquisitions have seen the property expand to 960ha. Chris and wife Rochelle grow cereal crops – wheat, peas and barley – totalling 600ha of their land holding. The remaining 360ha is used as a grazing operation incorporating deer, dairy heifers and lamb grazing which compliments the cereal rotation. Their business also incorporates 170 beef animals and grazing 3500 lambs and 1000 hoggets. Chris says this has given diversity to their business so they spread their risk and use the land in the way it is best suited. “While we were battling against government we are now battling against prices. Cost of inputs has gone up and what we produce has gone down.” Chris remains on the National Arable Executive for Federated Farmers: “Southland is in really good hands with the executive we’ve got going forward, continuing to work hard on behalf of farmers to help facilitate practical solutions that will work for farms, the environment and wider region.”
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