Thursday, 12 July 2018 14:55

Embrace sustainable farming to survive – ambassador

Written by  Sudesh Kissun
Jacqui Hahn. Jacqui Hahn.

Waikato Federated Farmers Vice President Jacqui Hahn is one of 15 dairy farmers chosen as New Zealand’s climate change ambassadors.

It's not surprising given that the Te Kuiti farmer has been obsessed with protecting the environment ever since her childhood. 

“Ever since I was a little child, it was pretty much ‘fence off that bush for me’,” she says.

Hahn, who holds a bachelor in environmental management, says she strongly believes sustainable farming is the future.

“If we don’t embrace sustainable farming, we won’t survive.”

Hahn and her husband Sofus milk 1400 cows on three farms at Te Kuiti, including the one she was born and raised on.

She says they run the farming business profitably and sustainably and are serious about reducing onfarm greenhouse gas emissions.

She describes most of their farms as “intensive system one”; pasture and home-grown silage and maize make up the bulk feed for cows. Winter crops are fed and fodder beat is being trialled.

Palm kernel expeller (PKE) is on its way out;  last season one farm used a load of PKE. Hahn says “we are moving away from it”.

Buying extra PKE during the high payout year wasn’t all good, she adds.

“During the high payout year, when I looked at our figures I decided there was whole heap of PKE we shouldn’t have bought because we didn’t actually make any more money from it.”

Hahn says they don’t put too much focus on productivity, instead they focus on micromanaging animal health and efficient pasture utilisation.

We avoid wasting inputs like fertiliser because “wasting it is losing money and likely increasing emissions”.

“We aim to apply to seasonal requirements this past season we used 69kgN/ha down from 120kgN/ha; you don’t have to add extra quality is more important than quantity”

 On their farms, Hahn has put up about 30km of fencing around any running water. 

Work on protecting about 50ha of wetlands is progressing.

She says dairy farmers have done great work fencing waterways and continue working on environmental issues. But she says what people call environment is NZ is different from what Europeans regard as the environment.

“In Europe, when they have cows outside they think it’s organic; as organic cows are required to be out 17% of the time. We should be careful not to put labels on what others think.”

Hahn’s advice to other dairy farmers is don’t take the foot off the pedal on climate change and the environment.

“Pick off things you can do; look at critical source areas, take the worst of them and attack them,” she says.

“It’s a work in progress; keep working at it. I still can see areas to improve, we’re not finished and see this journey as a life-long one but then I will never be happy because I’m a perfectionist.”

More like this

'A complete dog

OPINION: It's not just a rural banking inquiry that farmers want. Freshwater farm plans are another major headache for farmers.

Action, not words

OPINION: The new Government may be farmer friendly, but it's not love, rather action that farmers want.

Drought classification welcome news - Feds

Federated Farmers Marlborough Province says it welcomes the announcement yesterday that current dry weather in the top of the South Island would be classified as a medium-scale adverse event.

Climate change a constant!

OPINION: Leo Cooney's opinion article (December 5) “Carbon Credits a Discredit” rekindled for me questions about climate change, the ETS, and indeed the whole matter of climate change formerly known as global warming.

Featured

Govt urged to reduce ETS units

The Climate Change Commission wants the new Government to reduce NZ Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction volumes as son as possible.

Dairy sheep, goat woes mount

Dairy sheep and goat farmers are being told to reduce milk supply as processors face a slump in global demand for their products.

Alliance's Pure South cuts win gold

Meat co-operative Alliance Group has bagged four gold medals at the Outstanding NZ Food Producer Awards, achieving top honours for every cut entered.

Dairy demand on the rise

There is increasing evidence that dairy demand is on the upswing, according to Rabobank senior agricultural analyst Emma Higgins.

Fert use tumbles as prices spike

Fertiliser use in New Zealand over the 18 months is about 25% down from what it consistently was for the previous decade or more, says Ravensdown chief operating officer Mike Whitty.

National

Waikato dryer sold

An independent milk spray dryer in Hamilton, destined for liquidation, has been bought by a South Auckland goat milk processor.

Machinery & Products

Samasz sets its sights high

Since its arrival in New Zealand, Polish mower manufacturer Samasz, currently celebrating 40 years in business, has carved a niche…

Trojan keeps on going

The DR200 Trojan farm two-wheeler motorcycle was introduced over 28 years ago, when the engineering team at Suzuki New Zealand…

Still going strong!

The saying goes ‘if it ain’t broke -don’t fix it’, so it’s no surprise to see an old favourite in…

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

'A complete dog

OPINION: It's not just a rural banking inquiry that farmers want. Freshwater farm plans are another major headache for farmers.

Action, not words

OPINION: The new Government may be farmer friendly, but it's not love, rather action that farmers want.

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter