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PASTURE MANAGEMENT FEATURE
17
Environmental management
Leading Dorie dairy farmers Rachel and Greg Roadley will be hosting next month’s Pasture Summit. PHOTO ASHBURTON GUARDIAN
Sharing views at Pasture Summit Leading Mid Canterbury dairy farmers Greg and Rachel Roadley will host farmers from around the South Island for a Pasture Summit field day next month. The idea of the gathering is to share the latest ideas and developments on achieving profitable food production from grass and the summit is a collaboration of progressive and committed farm business owners and dairy sector experts from across New Zealand and Ireland. It brings together farmers and local and international researchers to tap into the latest practical and scientific tools, resources and information about turning pasture into profit. The Roadleys farm at Dorie and Greg was a farmer speaker at last year’s inaugural summit, which also included technical input from dairy sector specialists including DairyNZ. Pasture Summit committee member Robert Ferris says this year’s feature farms will show what the sector needs to focus on for the future. “Providing nutritious food profitably through pasture has, and will, provide New Zealand communities with prosperity for generations to come. These two farms are among leaders in the field –
so come and get your boots dirty and see how they tick.” This year’s attendees will have an opportunity to find out what makes the Roadleys’ dairy business consistently and robustly profitable with topics including business financials, a farm walk and discussion on pasture, the herd and how to adapt and thrive through the next decade. Pasture Summit secretary Alistair Rayne says these events are held for farmers, by farmers who believe dairy farming can and should be profitable and rewarding. The event will be on October 2 and follows another event which will be held in the North Island on September 19. “These farmers also believe that our pasture-fed products are best for the consumer and environment,” he said. Other activities and topics at each event will include presentations on the pathways for equity growth (like a new farm purchase joint venture, a farm equity sharing partnership, and a herd-owning sharemilking start-up). These examples are designed to demonstrate what’s achievable when combining strong free cashflow and capable managers. To register, visit pasturesummit.co.nz
The story hasn’t changed much, in the 10 years since Agri Optics inception – we need to be smarter with what we do on-farm to not only maximise profit but also minimise our environmental footprint. And our current position with regards to this Government’s environmental regulations make it even more poignant. Precision Agriculture (PA) has long been touted as the way to reduce or redistribute input use, maintain or increase crop and pasture production, all the while focusing on using technology to measure, justify and implement the decisions being made on-farm. Today’s PA suite at Agri Optics includes tools and technologies such as AquaCheck soil moisture sensors, Halo Farm Systems telemetry and farm control options (milk vat monitoring, pond level sensors, effluent management, weather stations and much more), Smart Soil Surveying to better understand your soil types and manage inputs (water and nutrients in particular) in a more targeted way, Smart Fertiliser
Management to better understand and manage your soil nutrient levels at a spatial level and Trimble PurePixel for identifying crop and pasture variability. The Agri Optics team is passionate about PA and simplifying what can seem like a daunting topic to farmers. It really can be as simple or as complicated as farmers want to make it but, like anything, the more you put into it, the more you get out of it, often resulting in increased gross margins across the farm. Agri Optics founder and director Craige Mackenzie says “it’s hard to be green when you’re in the red” so we need to put our best foot forward and front foot these regulations by using PA to put the right input, in the right place, in the right time, in the right manner and the right amount. For more information on how precision ag could be implemented to help strengthen your farming business give the team at Agri Optics a call. Advertising feature