64 | nzdairy Whole river changed course during event Sue Russell DAIRY PEOPLE » Paul and Rosie Franklin The dam holds 500,000 cubic metres of water and extends over seven hectares. 3.99% 31/03/2023 3.99% OVER 36 MONTHS FINANCE Power Farming Hawkes Bay | 06 879 9998 For all your dairy livestock requirements contact Brownie: Phone: 027 271 4722 Email: sandfly1@xtra.co.nz Proud to support Paul & Rosie Franklin “Back then I was at 320ha and working through pretty tough times. It was really a 1 ½ man unit but I was working it myself. It meant I could put a manager or share milker on to take up the load.” While the bones of Paul Franklin’s farming journey has been very much in the sheep and beef space, several years ago, the central Hawkes Bay farmer made the decision to convert farms to dairying. Today, he and Rosie’s farming business is centred around three substantial dairy farms, two side by side at Onga Onga, 20km west of Waipawa, with a third farm 10 minutes away at Tikokino. Along with this landholding are three owned support blocks with a further two leased. In total, 4500 cows are milked. When NZ Dairy caught up with Paul early April, he had plenty to say about the devastation caused by February’s Cyclone Gabrielle. “The river changed course and we’ve lost 15 ha’s of productive land. We can no longer get the centre pivot around. We’ve had substantial damage to fencing and gravel deposits left on good farm land. I told Council years ago we had a major problem with the river choked with willows and they didn’t do anything about this and now we’ve been left with this mess.” Paul says, unlike when Cyclone Bola visited the district in March 1988, Gabrielle dumped huge quantities of water in a matter of hours rather than days, giving the land no time to absorb the deluge. Asked why he chose to convert to dairying Paul says his farming reality was working really hard day in day out and making very little gain. “Back then I was at 320 ha and working through pretty tough times. It was really a 1 ½ man unit but I was working it myself. Changing to dairying meant I could put a manager or share milker on to take up the load.” Paul says he would like to purchase the leased block if the opportunity presents. The dairy units have always been under a winter milking contract with Fonterra so milk is produced 365 days annually, year in year out. Friesian cows are the breed of choice. The farms are home to 2,500 cows in total. Paul says the breed perform well, holding condition through the pinch times.“We grow grass pretty well around this district.” And Paul has plenty of strong views on where the challenges and lost opportunities are in dairying; much of that responsibility he places on the Government and on the endless stresses of dealing with an ever-increasing barrage of compliances. He says a golden opportunity was lost when Government made the decision to end live-shipment of cattle by April this year. “That’s had a huge impact on my farming business, costing $800,000 in lost income. Instead of banning the practice, they could have turned it around and created a Rolls-Royce system. The Government had a chance to produce a top-class template for a live-export system. What happened when the ship sunk in September 2020 was a tragedy, but this was the wrong response in my opinion.”Paul is equally opinionated on other issues impacting the farmer working hard day to day and top of the list is the huge level of compliance reporting. “I’m getting to the stage in life where we are getting so much thrust upon us. There must be a team of bureaucrats in Wellington who think this is improving things. We’re not getting sufficient lead times to be able to cope and I question some of the things we’re expected to report on. We don’t see our reporting making any differences just taking up more and more time.” He is optimistic though about the place Science will play in supporting environmental gain, with research undertaken by LIC, for example to advance favourable genetics that produce a lower methane gas emitting animal and in improvements in crop genetics that can grow efficiently with changing climate patterns. Understanding how critical access to water is to operate dairy units at peak, Paul is also frustrated by Council’s view regarding farming access to water stored under-ground. An attempt last year to progress approval to use water, if needed, from huge aquifers beneath the ground met with resistance from Mana whenua. “We did the due diligence and proved there is plenty of water that will replenish under foot however we couldn’t get necessary support to advance the application. It’s a real shame. Fortunately I’ve built a dam holding 500,000 cubic metres of water. It expends over 7 ha’s but I haven’t used any water from it this season.” Paul hopes to see a less broad-sweep approach to compliances and as an example he says a decision to build a new workshop for his mechanic to operate from, has resulted in needless input from Geotech consultants, at significant cost to the project. “Because the building is over a certain size I’m required to provide a full geo-tech report. To have a blanket requirement regardless of where the building is located makes no sense to me at all and its typical of our over-regulated environment.”
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