| 73 nzdairy “We mix that feedlot with our maize, and silage that we’ve grown at home. The cows love it, it’s good for them, and it stops it being dumped.” DAIRY PEOPLE » Mt Oliver New ef uent system. First lot of dung beetles Sophie Tanya & Murray Frost. A dairy farm that needed lots of love Virginia Wright When Murray and Tanya Frost bought Mt.Oliver at the start of the Marlborough Sounds 10 years ago it was running 220 cows doing 70,000 kgs of milk solids, on what was then around 170 hectares. They knew they were buying a dairy farm that needed a lot of love and in the end there was so much to be done that Fonterra deemed it a new conversion. A key part of that was the ef uent treatment. “Their ef uent was kept in a small unlined pond and distributed over three hectares through a travelling irrigator. There was no stormwater diversion from the cowshed so when the rst rain came the water was running straight down the creek. I like to say it wasn’t rundown because it had never been run up,” says Tanya with a laugh. Despite surprises such as electric fences that had no power running through them, and a notable lack of water troughs, Tanya’s gut feeling that the farm had a lot of potential proved to be the case. Ten years later the farm has just won a Farming Award at the Cawthron Marlborough Environment Awards, proof positive that Tanya’s gut feeling bore fruit, and that care for the environment was an intrinsic part of the numerous decisions and improvements that have been made. The new ef uent system is a good example. Having introduced irrigation for 70 hectares of pasture with the necessary K-lines, they were then able to take proper care of their ef uent. “The ef uent comes down off the cowshed into a big sump where it’s separated into solids and liquids. The solids fall through a screen into a shed and the liquid goes into a 2.6 million litre ef uent pond which can store liquid for up to three months,” says Tanya. The liquids can then be diluted and used as a very thin ef uent on the irrigated pasture which effectively recycles nitrogen and reduces what they need to apply for the same amount of grass growth. That large holding capacity, which also collects their diverted stormwater, helps them to manage even extreme ooding events such as in June this year. “We haven’t pumped out any ef uent since June because the ground is that saturated that all it would do is leach nitrogen into the waterways,” explains Tanya. They’ve reduced their palm kernel (PK) usage and are working to cut it out all together in favour of using only New Zealand-grown options. They installed 10 kilometres of fencing using recycled grape posts from a Marlborough vineyard. They’ve worked the paddocks over twice to get rid of the gorse, brownrot, and any other weeds, then planted them with summer crops for the cows, and ultimately pasture. To avoid pugging and nitrogen leakage on their new pastures from their 450 cows, roughly double the original number, this year they wintered 150 cows off-farm, knowing the farm could easily handle the rest. They use locally produced mussel shell lime, a byproduct from nearby mussel farms, and feed-lots of grape marc, the by-product left over when their juice has been taken for wine. ‘We mix that feedlot with our maize, and silage that we’ve grown at home. The cows love it, it’s good for them, and it stops it being dumped,” says Tanya. The list goes on, with plenty for all the visitors to see on the eld day that followed the winning of their Environmental Award, and plenty still to come. The transformation is well underway but there’s more to do, says Tanya. “We haven’t nished yet, it has had its challenges but all in all we’ve loved and still love what we’re doing.” M 021 838 912 E scott.martin@wattsonelectrical.co.nz W wattsonelectrical.co.nz H2OFLO Ltd. • BaileyWater Tanks & Installation • Plumbing Fittings Taps & Valves • PVC & Polythene Pipe • DaveyWater Pumps • Irrigation Design & Installation • Tree Felling & ChainsawWork h2oflo@xtra.co.nz | 027 684 4129 Proudly supporting Mt. Oliver
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