70 | nzdairy Compliance storm Richard Loader Farming in Southland since 2010, Maarten Van Rossum is frustrated about what he says is the Government’s failure to acknowledge the signi cant progress made by the farming community in respect to environmental issues in recent years. Maarten moved from Waikato to Southland with his farming family in ’94, when he was just six years old. Apart from three years at Lincoln University and a year spent working on a grain farm in Canada, Maarten has lived in the region long enough to call himself a true Southlander. Farming across two dairy units near Kapuka in the Waituna District, 25 kilometres east of Invercargill, Maarten and his team milk 1700 cows. “Since my time farming, farmers in the Kapuka catchment have put a lot of time and investment into infrastructure including fencing off water ways and we’re very conscious about how we do our winter grazing. We have introduced buffer strips in low lying areas, and creeks. We have back fencing, portable troughs and smaller mobs of cows – just trying to reduce the amount of overland ow and erosion that can happen.” Within Maarten’s own business he has built feedpads to minimise pugging on paddocks, and to effectively utilise silage if it gets really wet during the milking season. “Then there is all the ef uent storage on top of that. So that is the major changes within our business. These changes are all in response to new rules and regulations, but it’s also better farm management practices with better outcomes for the environment, cows and people. Like everything, there is always room for improvement. You put a problem in front of a farmer, and they will gure out a way to solve it and get a better outcome. But that is the part of the dialogue that is getting lost within all the rhetoric, particularly from central Government, and all the way down. There have been a lot of positive on-farm changes, but there has just been no acknowledgement of that The van Rossum family farm across two dairy units near Kapuka in the Waituna District, 25 kilometres east of Invercargill. DAIRY PEOPLE » MKJ Farms – even though agriculture is the country’s biggest export earner.” Maarten says that lack of acknowledgement is causing angst within the local farming community, to the extent that farmers are becoming hesitant to invest in further infrastructure and improvements. “There is no clear path on where it is all going to end. The Government wants to cap us; we need to look at our methane emissions and our water quality; and they are telling us that everything is really bad. “They want to put us in a place where the nitrate levels are set at a target that is so unobtainable that the only thing left for us to do with our land is put it in trees. So, from a business point of view, what do you do? You are not going to keep investing into your farming business if it is not going to succeed. With what is being proposed I think the ultimate outcomes will be worse — because what is the point? With paper work and red tape, farm pro tability is reducing. “There is just compliance on top of compliance, and it is the farmers who have to pay for that and to maintain it. That is all dead money that would be better put towards sediment traps within our river systems, riparian planting, or anything else that could actually improve environmental outcomes. It’s very frustrating for people who actually want to create something.” With what lies ahead, Maarten says there is a lot of dialogue within the Waituna farmers, who are not opposed to change. “I think that is the whole thing with the farming. It is just how extreme the Government wants to take things. I enjoy being outside, being my own boss and working with cows. Farming is continually evolving and as a farmer you are always working things out, improving systems and getting more out of the less. We just need the Government to listen. The way we are going, we might see a lot of hungry people. We might even see emissions increase because ef cient Kiwi producers will reduce production and be replaced by less ef cient producers who will produce at higher emissions levels.” • EXCAVATION • FERTILISER SOWING • BALEAGE & CULTIVATION • GRAVEL/ROCK SUPPLIES • EFFLUENT SPREADING • TRANSPORT www.wilsoncontracting.net OFFICE - 03 216 7777 Phone Shane - 027 659 8066 VETSOUTH ARE PROUD TOWORK ALONGSIDE MKJ FARMS LTD BALCLUTHA | GORE | WINTON | INVERCARGILL | LUMSDEN | OTAUTAU | CLYDEVALE | TAPANUI 0800 VETSOUTH | vetsouth.co.nz Proud to be associated with MKJ Farms Ltd www.caldwellcontracting.co.nz (03 206-6465)
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