DAIRY NEWS JUNE 13, 2017
STH ISLAND DAIRY EVENT // 35
John Luxton
Adapting for change NEW ZEALAND does dairying better than any other country, but it must continue to improve in all aspects of its business. John Luxton, a keynote speaker at this year’s South Island Dairy Event (SIDE), suggests we are in a period of significant change in farming and in society, and he is keen for farmers to consider how best to adapt to change. Luxton oversaw the development of DairyNZ as chair from 2008-2015. He led the dairy industry through a strong growth phase, played a key role in policy and legislative changes in NZ, and has championed dairy R&D and education. “Dairy still exceeds all other primary exports from NZ put together,” he says, “and is similar in value to all other nonfarming exports. But as producers of food, our ways to market are changing. Every day we see the emergence of new technologies, and a widening gap between progress and society’s ability to cope with its consequences. “Who would have thought a decade ago that many of us would today do our purchasing and banking over our cellphones, that we could monitor our farms remotely, and that companies like Uber,
Expedia, Airbnb and Amazon would all be selling services without owning the assets they sell. “But whether it is an impending shift in the nature of work as technology changes production systems, or the ethical implications of re-engineering and what it means to be human, the changes we see around us threaten to overwhelm us if we cannot understand and direct them. “To do this, we need to keep ourselves informed, and put more effort into reaching out to our urban community in a variety of ways. We also need to preserve our ‘social licence’ to continue to farm.” What can farmers control? Obviously, farmers have some control of their farms and into the market through dairy and meat processors. But with so much change, it’s important for farmers to know what can they influence and how. Luxton says farmers can control and improve many things. His presentation will detail 10 controllable aspects of farming available to dairy farmers: people, health and safety, onfarm presentation, sustainability, water, effluent management, animal welfare, cow management, pasture management and food safety.
FIND YOUR PLAN ‘A’ NOW IS an ideal time to talk about
resilience and robustness, as improved milk solids returns start to take some of the pressure off dairy farmers. Planning is the message Debbie Kinder and Noelle Fox, consultants from FarmWise, Livestock Improvement Ltd, will give during their ‘Find your plan ‘A’ business’ workshop at the South Island Dairy Event (SIDE) at Lincoln University from June 26 to 28. This workshop addresses how to make businesses and farm systems economically sustainable at the long-term average milk price. The pair will be looking at how to balance physical and financial performance with milk price volatility across
seasons. “Over the past three years, farmers have focused on improving onfarm cost structures, tightening their belts to combat the low milk price environment. This is an appropriate short-term reaction, but we are now into a secondary phase and it’s time to look at the longer term,” Fox says. Now is a good time for dairy farmers to critically examine their systems and objectively review and plan for what needs change. “It’s not easy balancing finance and performance on farm; dairy farmers are constantly having to juggle demands, from cows and pasture, to environment and finance. What helps people to focus is a plan.”