Organic Benefits Show in Farmer’s Bottom Line

By RILKOFF, Matt

A Massey study finds cash incentive will drive decisions to shift from conventional systems, MATT RILKOFF sees how it works

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ECONOMICS will usher in the widespread uptake of organic farming methods, a soil scientist for Massey University’s organic/ conventional dairy systems trial in Palmerston North, Dave Horne, says.

Dr Horne addressed a small group of about 20 farmers at Terence and Jill Whelan’s farm in Patea last week to present an assortment of findings from the ongoing trial.

He was speaking as part of a pastoral workshop about opportunities for organic production and certification put on by the Organic Dairy and Pastoral Group

The Massey trial Dr Horne discussed is the only comparative grassland-based open grazing dairy study in the world.

The organic and conventional systems are managed individually according to best practice, and both are intensively monitored for production, animal health and environmental impacts.

From his brief presentation, it appeared the benefits of organic farming are in line to equal and possibly overtake the benefits of conventional farming, should the price of oil continue to increase and acceptable nitrate leaching levels decrease.

Dr Horne showed how both fertiliser costs and nitrate leaching were significantly less on the organic farm than the conventional, though he acknowledged this would be different from farm to farm.

Though organic production levels were less than conventional, this was offset by the premium price certified-organic farms receive for milk.

“I think it is fair to say the economics of organics will see more farmers take it up in the future. That seems to be the motivation for most people, but I’ve found that after a few years they become much more interested in the environmental advantages of organic production,” he said.

Roydon Phillips and Su Hammond milk 155 cows on 70ha in Okato. The farm is just a couple of months away from being certified organic.

“It’s environmentally beneficial for us to do this and with the way things are going, we could see that it is only going to become more of an issue. We saw being organic as a better place to be in the future,” Mr Phillips said.

The couple said the changeover had not yet benefited them financially, but that was mostly because of two bad weather seasons.

“It’s a different way of farming and now we’re looking at the whole system such as the soil biology, the water quality, the things below ground. I’ve spent a lot of time learning,” he said.

Ms Hammond said the changeover had started as a way to add value to their farm, but they were soon drawn into the philosophy.

“As more people take it up, it will become easier to implement as we’ll be able to learn from each other,” she said.

Fonterra category manager of organics Rick Carmont said the number of organic suppliers to the co-operative had doubled in the past two years. There were 15,000 cows supplying organic milk and the organisation had a mandate to increase this to 100,000.

With the news Fonterra had dropped a proposed transport levy for organic suppliers outside of Waikato, he expected a lot more farmers to make the switch.

“We pay 45 cents per kilo more while they make the transition and $1.05 above the normal payout once they are fully certified. We guarantee that premium for six years and then roll it over every three years to provide a secure financial base for farmers who decide to make the switch.”

Taranaki Regional Council environment quality director Gary Bedford said the council was not yet imposing regulations to reduce nitrate or phosphate leaching into the waterways. He said it was relying on a voluntary reduction from farmers.

“Nitrate runoff is not the biggest problem in Taranaki water. Phosphate presence or absence is what determines weed growth.”

He said the council was not in a position to say organic systems were better than conventional farming, but it does encourage farmers to control the amount of nutrients spread on their land.

(c) 2008 Daily News; New Plymouth, New Zealand. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.