Taranaki drought leaves farmers limping toward season's end
Limping towards the end of the season is how Richard Walker describes the situation he's facing due to prolonged drought in coastal areas of Taranaki.
In 24 hours just over 100mm of rain fell in the district, such that those taking a farm walk on Gray and Andrea Beagley’s property near the township had to dress for rain and cold. Beagley is the president of Tararua Federated Farmers Dairy section.
He says it’s important organic people get to together for an annual conference because they are a minority. “As Fonterra has found out, we are stretched far and wide around the North Island, so getting like minded people together and sharing ideas is fantastic. We don’t get lot of extension services or discussion groups from the levy we pay to DairyNZ so this is a great benefit to is to see new ideas and the old ideas being rekindled.”
Bill Quinn from Paeroa, who runs a facilitation and education service for organic dairy farmers, says their biggest challenge is having a secure marketplace. He says the Fonterra programme fell short of expectations because they wanted 50,000 cows in the programme and they ended up with 27,000.
“So it wasn’t a case of not having a market, it was case of not having supply. Their announced programme is that they will only pick up milk in Waikato—Bay of Plenty and not in any other region. But people in the group want to stay in the organic business despite what Fonterra is planning to do. One thing people focus on quite dramatically once they get into organics is the difference between production and profitability. There is a classic saying: ‘production is vanity and profitability is sanity’.
Quinn says organic dairy farmers outside Bay of Plenty and Waikato are looking at developing a ‘milk hub’ that will take their milk and sell it to a range of processors.
“There is worldwide demand for the full range of organic products. The domestic market is also strong. You only need to look at the shelves in any supermarket and see the range of products such as cheeses and yoghurts that are on offer.”
But Quinn concedes the organic dairy industry faces some challenges. Organic dairy farmer numbers have dropped from about 107 to about 95. But with a good marketing plan there is no reason why the industry can’t expand, Quinn says. “The demand for our products is certainly there.”
