Mid Canterbury’s Phill and Jocelyn Everest, with their son Paul and daughter-in-law Sarah, have been hard at work continuing to making environmental improvements at Flemington Farm.
The family farm of 270ha, including 256ha of effective dairying land, just south of Lake Hood, is the base for a herd of 730 to 750 cows supplying a2 milk to Synlait.
The next generation run the farm, while Phill and Jocelyn live nearby. A Carew support block is run in partnership with four other properties for winter grazing and raising heifers.
They breed all their replacements in a closed herd with pastures irrigated by three centre pivots on the fully irrigated property.
Total milk production is 360,000kg of milk solids at about 500kg a cow and 1450kg-1500kg a hectare. The cows are milked twice daily in a 54-bale rotary shed with 42kW of solar panels on the roof providing its energy and an ice bank to chill milk.
Mr Everest said the ice bank was uncommon among dairy farmers, but was becoming more common.
"I think Paul said our power bill for the shed last month was just over $200. One of the guys he was talking with had just spent $2300 for the month."
The pasture mix has 15% plantain and they have already met their 36% reduction in nitrogen losses for the catchment due in 2035.
Initially, they cut their nitrogen use by reducing nitrogen fertiliser from 240kg a hectare to 190kg a year before they had to.
A 15% plantain content gives close to a 15% reduction in nitrate losses and is topped up every year in pastures. Protein content in their autumn feed has been reduced by using fodder beet and this results in less autumn nitrogen reaching the ground via urine when leaching is at risk.
Italian-based hybrid ryegrass in their pasture mix remains active in cooler months and helps to soak up nitrogen in lower soil temperatures and hold soil nitrates.
Only 70% to 80% of their soils’ capacity is topped up with irrigation so there is still room for rain water, and stored effluent irrigated on to paddocks via the pivots is treated as a fertiliser. This is measured with one millimetre of effluent equal to five kilograms of nitrogen and because it runs through a weeping wall the concentration is doubled.
A high-sugar grass being developed by researchers, a coming nitrification inhibitor and a breeding programme to try to get low-methane animals is in their sights to make further cuts to nitrogen losses.
Mr Everest said they had met international regenerative targets with at least five species in their pasture mix including plantain, clover, chicory, Italian ryegrass, hybrid ryegrass.
They get a premium from Synlait for a2 milk and meeting its quality assurance programme.
An unintended bonus of putting solar panels on the dairy shed roof is that it has become cooler for the cows and workers. Surplus energy goes to ice production with a small amount going into the main grid.
They are continuing to do their homework on covering the effluent solids or greenwaste ponds to capture methane or treat it with polyferric sulphate. Their hope is to put the methane through a generator for powering irrigators and they are also looking at putting in a solar bank along a fenceline to carry this out.
The couple planted out a 90m trial area in carex which shades stream water, stifles weeds and reduces nitrates between 2% to 3%.
Impressed by the results, they applied for consent to plant another 650m stretch for a 24% reduction and have plans to extend this further. Nitrate levels will continue to be measured at the top and bottom of the creek.
"So if we can reduce the nitrates by 24% in the water over 650m with another 900m to go then we are cleaning our water as it goes through our drain for the cost of our time planting and a bit of weed control," Mrs Everest said.
"They are three years old now and just doing what they do."
They would recommend the low-cost nitrate mitigation to any farmer with drains running through their properties.
All up, they have planted 24km of shelter plantings on the farm.
A frustration is the paperwork cost of carrying out environmental work.
The couple has been involved with the local catchment group to determine the effectiveness of wetlands in reducing nitrate levels in drains. A small area of 0.064ha has been developed that meets ECan’s requirements to shape it into a type of wetland with restrictions on the amount of soil shifted and a non-consumptive take of 1.3 litres a second from a stream to feed this into the area and back into the stream.
"We are 12 months on and it’s working really well with recent results now running at a 28% reduction in nitrates since we started there," Mr Everest said.
"Currently, it’s running at about 50% so the plants are really starting to grow. The point we want to make is this is a real economic mitigation that is not enabled under ECan rules. It cost us $21,000 to build it and do everything which is less than the consent was going to cost us to build it."
Mrs Everest said there needed to be a closer connection between regulators and farming for environmental work.
"When Phill and I talk sustainably we are talking fourth generation and the children of our children’s children. When the regional councils talk sustainably they talk three years and that’s what they have for a licence to operate.
"That’s my frustration as a farmer and I’m an eighth generation farmer in my family since they came to the boat in Auckland and went farming. That’s our idea of sustainability. I know you have to be sustainable and mindful of farming and we are because we want our great-grandchildren to be farming and supplying food."
