Pastoral farming to remain paramount

Blake Gunn, an Agricom forage systems specialist, was announced as the winner of the Emerging Rural Professional of the Year at an awards dinner late last month.

He says winning the award has given him the confidence that the industry values and is willing to support young up and comers.

“I am proud to be the recipient of the Farmax Emerging Rural Professional for 2022, and will look to use this opportunity to further my skill set to continue to add value to our farmers.”

Gunn started his journey into the primary industries in high school when his family moved to a dairy farm in Rangitikei.

“This began the passion for the primary industries with any spare moment being spent helping out on the farm,” he says.

From there, he went on to study a Bachelor of Agriscience at Massey University, and during his final year he started to focus in on agronomy.

“I believe one of the biggest challenges facing farmers is the level of complexity coming into the industry in the form of compliance and customer expectations.

“This accompanied with the ever-changing climate conditions we are seeing more regularly will create a new level of challenges for the future,” he says.

Gunn says that it is pastoral farming which gives New Zealand its competitive edge, but that the views around it are subject to change.

“In the future, the traditional view that perennial ryegrass is the answer to every question will change,” he told Dairy News.

“The climate across the country varies significantly from the top of the North to the bottom of the South, with each region facing a different challenge.

“Knowing you climate and challenges will allow us to adapt to utilise a whole range of different pasture tools, whether this is the use of alternative pastures such as tall fescue to increase summer resilience or more legume rich pastures to increase feed quality.”

Gunn says homegrown feed is still the cheapest form of feed for farmers to produce, “so whether it be perennial ryegrass, tall fescue, hybrid ryegrass or others, pastoral farming will still be the way forward for New Zealand”.