Sustainable Pastoral Farming
Greg Lambert, Alec Mackay1, Michael Krause2, Tony Rhodes3
A farmer-based approach to sustainable pastoral fanning by managing environmental impacts and matching enterprises with land capability.
Introduction
The increasing interest in issues concerned with sustainable land management has implications for New Zealand farmers. The implications can be viewed either as threats or opportunities. Some of the implications are:
- the Resource Management Act (RMA) aims to ensure that use, development and protection of natural and physical resources enables people to meet their present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The RMA is only a framework, and Regional Councils have the responsibility for implementation of sustainable land management policies regionally. This implementation must be in consultation with land managers;
- there are potential threats to future agricultural trade in the post GATT era, in terms of non-tariff barriers restricting market access for products in environmental friendly systems. On the other hand, opportunities exist for sale of clean, green produce at premium prices;
- social attitudes regarding some land-use practices e.g., blanket pesticide application, clearing of native vegetation, contamination of waterways, farming of eroding landscapes, are hardening. Early knowledge of the likely direction and implications of these trends will assist land managers in minimising future impacts on the long-term viability of their production systems.
Sustainability has three dimensions: ecological, social and economic, and any one dimension should not be considered in isolation from the others e.g., the ecological advantages of improved water quality in agricultural catchments needs to be balanced against the economic implications for farmers. The best way to achieve change in farming practices is for the farmers themselves to subscribe to the underlying principles governing the need for change. These are good reasons for farmers to be involved in development of guiding principles.
The Project
Funding
The New Zealand Meat Research and Development Council (MRDC) has provided financial assistance to enable a small team of scientists and consultants from AgResearch, Landcare Research and Agriculture New Zealand to implement a three-year community-based project. MAF Policy and the Manawatu-Wanganui and Hawkes Bay Regional Councils are also providing financial support.
The Approach
"Sustainable-farming community groups" have been formed, focused on two previous MRDC monitor farms. This history was seen as an advantage because a considerable amount of information has been collected on these properties over the last 4 years. A core of existing monitor group members has moved into the new community groups.
The Farms
Westview is a 950km (750ha farmed) hill-country property in the Pohangina Valley, Manawatu. It is regarded as having reasonably reliable summer rainfall, livestock farmed are sheep, beef and deer, and the fanning partners also own the adjoining dairy farm. The whole operation runs from 500m altitude in the Ruahine Ranges to the terraces at l00m beside the Pohangina River.
Gwavas is a 1190ha (920ha farmed) property inland from Waipawa in the Hawkes Bay. It is summer-dry, has a balance (50/50) of flats/terraces and easy hills, and is at altitude 260 to 380m. It is a sheep and cattle operation, a significant area of crops is grown, and it includes l20ha of native forest.
The Community Groups
The theme of the Groups is interactive learning, rather than teaching/learning. An Agriculture New Zealand facilitator (each of whom is also a MAP Policy rural policy agent) manages day-to-day issues and Group meetings. Group membership involves a majority of farmers, including partners (i.e., male/female) where possible. The farmer members bring a range of other experience to the group e.g., district and regional councillors). Other members include technical specialists (e.g., scientists, a regional council officer, a banker) and interest group (e.g., Maruia Society) representatives. The idea is to bring together a diverse range of views to facilitate the learning process, but to maintain a dominant farmer flavour at all times. We acknowledge that prevailing "farmer views" of sustainability are very important. However, we also maintain that farmers need to be exposed to some of the differing points of view that exist within the broader community, and to technical information, before they can be expected to have well-informed views.
Outcomes
The desired outcomes include improved understanding by community group members of issues involved in sustainable pastoral farming, and development of a workable method which can be used by other community groups. We hope to come up with several alternative land-use scenarios with a range of probable socio-economic and ecological outcomes. There will be no expectation that the managers of the two properties involved should modify their present farming methods.
The Process
Community groups will meet at intervals determined by the members, probably 4 to 6 times a year. Technical work will continue between meetings. The process will be evolutionary, and each stage subject to group input and ratification. The likely approach involves the following objectives:
- construct physical resource inventories for each property. Identify land capability units, based on factors such as parent rock, slope, soil fertility, drainage characteristics, and vegetative cover. Aggregate these units into farm management units of similar land capability;
- determine the productive potential of each of the land units, and estimate the environmental constraints to achieving that potential;
- agree on an acceptable set of environmental outcomes associated with use of each management unit;
- develop practical tools that can be used to assess environmental health. Test correlations between the practical measures and "scientific techniques". This work will interact with ongoing FRST-funded research on biophysical indicators and stock treading;
- compare potential productivity of units with current productivity, and current environmental impacts with acceptable environmental impacts;
- conduct physical and economic input/output analyses to determine true profitability of each management unit;
- integrate management unit analyses into whole farm management strategies, and determine acceptability of alternative management strategies in socio-economic and environmental terms.
Progress
Two community group meetings have been held for each property. Physical resource inventories have been completed, and a research officer has been employed to co-ordinate technical inputs.
In an initial exercise which was not designed to be exhaustive, community group members were asked to identify issues which were of concern with regard to ongoing sustainability on the properties. They were also asked to nominate "positive"' features of the operations which could enhance sustainability. Responses identified a number of issues, including:
Concerns
| Westview | Gwavas |
| Long-term economic viability | Ditto |
| Decline in rural infrastructure | Ditto |
| Water quality impacts off-site | Ditto |
| Tuberculosis | Ditto |
| Erosion - landslip | Erosion - windblow |
| The Resource Management Act | Water availability on-site |
| Animal welfare issues | Maintenance of soil fertility |
| High social cost involved in farming | Climatic inconsistency |
| Continued pesticide use | |
| Land use competition |
Positives
| Westview | Gwavas |
| Diversified enterprise mix | Ditto |
| Good location - near population centres | Tourism potential/character/history |
| Positive attitudes of owners | Farming commitment and conservation ethics |
| Erosion issues recognised/tackled | Good contour/versatile property |
| Rural repopulation potential | Large scale of operation |
| Low pesticide use | Use of alternatives to ryegrass |
1Sustainable Production Division, AgResearch, Palmerston North.
2 Landcare Research, Palmerston North.
3Agriculture New Zealand, Dannevirke.
Contact for Enquiries
MAF Information Services
Pastoral House
25 The Terrace
PO Box 2526
Wellington, NEW ZEALAND
Fax: +64 4 894 0721
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