Rewarding farmers who embrace sustainability
Winners of DairyNZ’s Sustainability and Stewardship awards in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards have their eyes firmly fixed on progressing a positive future for New Zealand dairy.
Addressing the DairyNZ Farmers Forum in Cambridge, he says the dairy sector is facing different challenges today than what it faced three decades ago.
“Some are a result of our success,” he says.
“The research we did in the 80’s and 90’s helped dairy to outcompete other land uses and we saw dairy expand, especially in the South Island.”
The dairy sector grew by 100% between 1985 and 2015. This meant dairying became more intense and covered a larger area.
Van der Poel says this increased our environmental footprint and the number of high-quality people needed to run those operations.
“And once again science and farmer innovation will be a key factor in finding solutions.”
He says DairyNZ is currently in the decade of research into methane reduction, nitrogen leaching and changing the job on farm through modern farming practices and technology.
Van der Poel says in his view, dairying has a great future.
“We are globally recognised for the quality of what we produce.
“The commitment to funding the science we need to do to resolve today’s issues together with our innovation and resilience will help us get there.”
