10 | nzdairy DAIRY PEOPLE » Capil Grove Limited Environment Southland consents concern Carl and brother Blake manage the day to day operation of the 340ha farm situated at 444 Springhills-Tussock Creek Road. Karen Phelps It has been an arduous, confronting and soul destroying experience for the Lindsay family as they have grappled to navigate Environment Southland’s consenting pathway to establish a sustainable dairy farm at their Grove Bush property just out of Invercargill. In an open letter to Council dated 14 February, Nelson Lindsay has articulated the concerns and experiences he encountered while working through the regulatory processes required to receive consent to change a piece of land already consented for dairy support into a dairy unit. As Nelson says in the opening paragraphs: ‘We had a vision to create an innovative farming system that would improve environmental outcomes and establish a new opportunity for a farming system in Southland. However, the process to gain regulatory approvals to allow our development has brought us significant frustration and angst, and came at a great cost which we fear will hold others back from joining us to develop better, more sustainable farming systems. While the rules are clear, it is the regulatory process and how the rules are managed by Council that have created concern for us.’ In all, twelve pages of detail follow, in which Nelson explains his experience of every barrier met along that journey, which has resulted in consent, which was finally granted in May last year, two and a half years after the application was initially submitted. For son Carl, who along with brother Blake, manages the day to day operation of the 340ha farm situated at 444 Springhills-Tussock Creek Road, the frustrations lie in the inconsistencies and lack of real engagement they experienced by Environment Southland. A reticence to avoid productive conversations that would have kept the application moving forward at a good pace. “We are thankfully now out the other end, but it has been an awful experience for us all. We estimate that our cost to gain consent was $430,000. But in total it will be in the millions for us if we add the cost of lost milk production and the two and a half years of farming in limbo, Its just madness we would have such difficulty with a proposal that improves environmental outcomes.” Overseer modelling proved that there would be an environmental improvement to milk 640 cows and have no winter grazing. “We needed the milk income to pay for the infrastructure to stop winter grazing cattle.” Currently the original farm is home to 850 dairy cows with the second block currently being converted to farm an additional 640 milking cows,” says Carl. Blake and Carl manage the original farm which has a 64 Delaval rotary plant and the conversion which is a 30 aside twin-pit Waikato that’s been modified to milk cows from its original sheep milking purpose. Blake looks after the machinery and cropping side of the business. Carl says, with the help of advice from Pieter at DNMS, massive gains are happening in improving cow nutrition with Dairy Nutrition & Management Solutions Ltd OPTIMIZING GRASS BASED SYSTEMS www dnms co nz | 027 280 0435 peter dnms@gma l com | howard@dnms com Monthly on farm consultation Optimising pasture based dairy systems to maximise profitability Annual plans modelled to ensure maximum profit Monthly body condition scoring & monitoring Qualified nutritional advice Independent annual milking machine check Specialising in slurry with precision injector drill & muck spreading, full baling services, full cultivation service & silage Proudly supporting Capil Grove Ltd
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