| 39 nzdairy Reducing nitrate emissions has ‘huge impact’ Virginia Wright It’s nearly 25 years since Hayden Ussher and his partner Gillian Dalley first started sharemilking on the farm that had been in Hayden’s family for three generations. 25 years later and with the purchase of some neighbouring land they, and the bank, now own 135 hectares effective milking between 290 and 320 cows, depending on the season. Situated in Fernside, near Cust in North Canterbury, they decided four years ago to maximise their use of its heavy, peaty soil and no longer import the carrot pulp, bailage and molasses they typically brought in during the season. They manage instead with what they grow themselves on their milking platform and their 89-hectare support block 30 kilometres down the road. “We make hay on the dairy platform and the support block which we feed out when the cows come back off the support block after winter leading up to calving, but once calved they’re 100% pasture fed,” says Hayden. They run a herd of Kiwi-Cross cows which Hayden describes as being “smaller in size which is well suited to our heavy land at around 450kg each, good capacity, and get in calf easily and just carry on year to year.” Having come back from their peak of milking 360 cows eight years ago they’ve cleaned out the older, lower producing cows with high empty rates and while their stock numbers may be lower, they’re happy with their production which is up to around 410kgs milk solids per cow. While they could be seen as running an environmentally sustainable farm Hayden is clear that the reason they adopted various things – for example their switch from the conventional use of urea and super-phosphate to Magnify’s liquid biological fertiliser – was first and foremost economical: that it has brought with it a 51% per cent reduction in what their greenhouse gas emissions were nine years ago is a happy byproduct of that original decision. “We’ve been using Magnify for 15 years and the environmental benefit is massive, we’ve met and exceeded what the government require from us in terms of gas emissions already,” says Hayden. “Obviously most of the greenhouse gas emissions are effectively from methane and nitrate leaching. Magnify regularly organise testing of the dung and urine and how much the stock are excreting onto the ground, then by doing herbage testing as well they know what’s in our pasture through the season and we know what the cows are eating. That gets sent off for independent evaluation and the methane and nitrate emissions from the herd are calculated,” explains Hayden. DAIRY PEOPLE » Hayden Ussher and Gillian Dalley Hayden Ussher and partner Gillian Dalley run a herd of Kiwi-cross cows at Fernside, North Canterbury. Fertiliser and Agricultural Lime Spreading 2 trucks carrying up to 25 tonne loads - nothing too small “With over 40 years behind us, we’re the little company that’s big on experience.” Keith 027 496 9150 or 03 313 3937 plaskettfert@xtra.co.nz “We were looking to reduce our nitrogen input on the farm when we started and we now use about 35 – 40 units of nitrogen a year where the Ecan regulations at the moment are restricted to 190 units per hectare per year. By reducing our nitrogen emissions we’ve had a huge impact on reducing our greenhouse gas emissions from our stock.” The figures speak for themselves and while Hayden is the first to admit that his farm is relatively small in scale he knows that Magnify have done trials on far larger dairy farms with similar results, all trials having stood up to the scrutiny of being peer reviewed. “While they still spend as much on fertiliser as they did when using conventional fertiliser Hayden has no doubt they’re saving money elsewhere. “We have what I call healthier pasture with higher energy levels, higher dry matter levels and lower protein levels which are all beneficial, so we have less health issues in our stock;better reproduction with lower empty rates, and with an all-pasture system and the size of our stock their milk production is pretty good as well,” he says. While Ecan’s computer modelling system “Overseer” assumes each cow’s annual urine deposit of nitrogen to be around 600 – 700kgs a year, testing shows theirs is down to 100 kg’s a year. Work is underway for Ecan to accept actual figures rather than their current one-size-fits-all approach, thus allowing farmers like Hayden Ussher and Gillian Dalley to easily meet new government regulations. FOR ALL YOUR FENCING, BALING, DRILLING, STRIP TILLING, CULTIVATION & RURAL CONTRACTING NEEDS 0274 272 710 addiecontractingltd@xtra.co.nz
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