| 49 nzdairy DAIRY PEOPLE » Hawkes Bay Pastoral With absentee farm owners, Gerard’s role comes with both responsibility and autonomy, making all day-to-day operational decisions. Mix of responsibility and autonomy Russell Fredric Servicing Hawke's Bay with locations in Waipukurau and Hastings 068588983 & 068783289 It is business as usual for Gerard Boerjan and Marlene Honings, but that does not mean farming and milking nearly 1500 cows is without its challenges. Gerard, with Marlene’s support, is the manager of Hawkes Bay Pastoral and has been in this role since 2012. The farm split milks 1480 cows in two herds on a platform of 400 hectares in southern Hawkes Bay. With absentee farm owners, Gerard’s role comes with both responsibility and autonomy, making all day-to-day operational decisions including organizing contractors and repairs and maintenance. Born in the Netherlands and attaining a Bachelor of Science degree, he has successfully managed dairy units in Portugal, Brazil and New Zealand over a farming career spanning 30 years. As with many other dairy farms, recruiting staff through the Covid pandemic has been dif cult. “I’ve been working hard on getting good staff in place,” Gerard says. “It’s been pretty hard because we had a challenging couple of seasons, but now we are in a happy place with our staff.” Marlene’s work includes the general upkeep of several of the farm’s house sections and their facilities which includes two swimming pools and two tennis courts. She also helps out wherever needed and rears 420 replacement calves as well as looking after the couple’s three teenagers. The farm comprises 645 hectares plus 100 hectares leased six kilometres away which provides grazing support and grass silage. Gerard’s goal is unashamedly distilled into a simple business philosophy which is to maximise production at the least possible cost, but “there’s probably nothing new there,” he says. However spiralling costs and a more stringent regulatory environment is creating more pressure on the bottom line despite the buoyant payouts of recent years. Changes in environmental regulations also mean looking to alternative options for maintaining production. One of a group of rules within central government’s Essential Freshwater package which became effective in July last year is the 190 kilogram per hectare synthetic nitrogen fertiliser cap, commonly known as the 190 N cap. To mitigate the nitrogen restriction, one solution is the use of gibberellic acid, (GA3) a naturally occurring hormone involved in regulating plant growth which, on Hawkes Bay Pastoral’s farm, is mixed with urea. When applied to pasture, GA3 stimulates growth through mobilisation of plant energy reserves, resulting in leaf and stem elongation. An application can be used as a tool to manipulate pasture growth and assist in matching feed supply and animal demand in the shoulders of the season when anticipated pasture growth is low. “It’s paying off, we are getting good results with it, but there’s a limit how often you can use it.” During the past two years the balance of Hawkes Bay Pastoral’s gully areas have been fenced off reducing the graze able area by 20ha, while about 6000 native species were planted last year. “We are about to start with a number of projects under the Tukipo Catchment Group for which we got some funding to get some environmental projects done, fencing, planting and creating wetlands.” A planting programme completed about 10 years ago “is very nice to see how it established itself”, Gerard says. “It helps with the aesthetic appeal of the farm, it makes the farm more interesting and it does attract some wildlife as well and getting environmental outcomes that we’re looking for as a nation is also good.”
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