NZ Dairy Summer 2020

68 | nz dairy Tristan Strange 027 515 5204 Takaka, Golden Bay strangecontracting@gmail.com Specialising in: · Mowing · Raking · Tedding · Square Baling · Round Baling · Cartage • R esidential •Commercial •Solar •Agriculture •Irrigation control •Communications • F reeview TV •Appliance repairs Office: 03 525 8150 After Hours: 027 681 0040 Email: goldenbay@laserelectrical.co.nz For all your transport and Logistics requirements • Freight • Storage • Bulk Cartage • Livestock • Stock Feed • Fertiliser ON FARM » Wayne Langford M eat the Need, a brand new nationally based charity that supplies much needed meat to City Missions and food banks, was spurred on by Covid-19 and farmers asking how they could help, says one of the founders, Wayne Langford. The charity, which launched on April 17 during lock- down, sees meat donated by farmers, processed, packed and delivered to those most in need. “While there has been a need for a charity like this, to date there has been nothing to connect the dots between a willing farmer with the livestock and the community organisations with the demand, in a regular, reliable supply,” explains Wayne. “We had to make it simple and easy for farmers to donate and for food banks to receive the meat.” Silver Fern Farms is a key partner and provides the supply chain to process and deliver the meat. Farmers simply tell their agent how much meat they would like to donate when their cows, sheep or deer are delivered to Silver Fern Farms and the rest is taken care of. The end result is 500g packs of mince delivered to food banks around the country. So far 600 animals have been donated providing 325,000 meals to families in need. “The food banks have been absolutely blown away. They rarely had meat donated before. Now they have great nutritious food parcels and can also use the money they used to spend buying meat for other things.” The programme has been so popular that Meat the Need is now looking to expand to other items such as dairy. “We have plenty of food to feed New Zealand and this is one way to make a change for good to the food system.” Meat the Need came out of YOLO (You Only Live Once), a popular initiative set up by Wayne when he was battling with depression, where he aims to do a little daily challenge, which he posts on @ YOLOFarmerNZ and social media. Although meant to only be a year long project it is still going strong three years later and the facebook page now has over 25,000 followers. Wayne is a sixth-generation dairy farmer who once-a-day milks 230 cows on his and wife Tyler’s 120ha Golden Bay farm. He has simplified the farming system to low input in order to be able to have plenty of time for his off-farm roles, which include National Dairy Chair for Federated Farmers, Golden Bay Feds President, Primary ITO Stakehold- ers Council, Rural Service Centre Vice Chairman and sitting on the board of Te Whare Mahana. Dairy farmers stepping up to meet Karen Phelps One unique initiative is that the farm has an en- vironmental panel overpinning it, comprised of com- munity members. Called the Farming 2030 Project, the aim is to find out what the community wants the farm to look like by 2030. Wayne says it gives good opportunity for both townies and rural folk to learn about each other. Initiatives that have come out of the Farming 2030 Project include the community “While there has been a need for a charity like this, to date there has been nothing to connect the dots between a willing farmer with the livestock and the community organisations with the demand, in a regular, reliable supply. “We had to make it simple and easy for farmers to donate and for food banks to receive the meat.” undertaking riparian planting on the farm and a fo- cus on organics and regenerative agriculture, which has resulted in mixed species pastures among other things. Wayne is also in the process of creating a heritage orchard on the farm, collecting graftings off heritage fruit trees in Golden Bay. “One of the things I remember as a kid growing up on a farm was eating fruit from the trees. These are the kinds of things falling out of farming so I wanted to bring some of them back so we don’t lose them and it means the community can take some fruit home with them off the farm. As you can imagine, life is always pretty busy here but we’re enjoying the challenges.” Meat the Need founders Wayne Langford and Siobhan O’Malley with Zucchi Leonard (centre) from the Christchurch City Mission.