By restricting access using electric fences, farmers can make sure animals are getting the nutrition they need, and can pan out feed for the whole winter. Photo / Supplied
By restricting access using electric fences, farmers can make sure animals are getting the nutrition they need, and can pan out feed for the whole winter. Photo / Supplied
Livestock standing in mud in miserable winter weather - we've all seen the photographs and the outrage expressed on social media and news story comment sections.
But as Chris Allen and Bernadette Hunt told delegates to the National Freshwater Conference in Wellington, (before the Covid-19 meeting restrictions kicked in), those select winter grazing photos by no means give the full picture.
Allen, Federated Farmers national board member and environment spokesman, and Hunt, Feds Southland Vice-President, "entered the lion's den" (as Hunt put it) of environmental researcher, freshwater scientist, resource lawyer, iwi stakeholder and academic delegates to "expand the narrative" on winter grazing.
They argued that what they considered some of the rigid, blanket regulations proposed in the Essential Freshwater package, (currently on hold), could make adverse impacts on waterways worse.
To some urban folk out for a drive in the country, it can seem simple. They may see cattle in a paddock without much grass when an adjacent slope might look quite green and ask "why?"
As Allen told the Freshwater Conference, farming is a year-round activity.
At a time of year when there's heavier rainfall, poor pasture growth, colder temperatures and less chance for the soil to dry out, livestock still needs to be fed.
"If it was simple, we'd put all the animals into a paddock and shift them out again when the feed was down to the right level. But animals don't behave like that," he said.
"It's like a child in a pantry. They go for the chocolate, and then the fruit and then they'd end up with the Weet-Bix. Animals are not worried about the mess they make trampling over good feed. [With winter brassica crops and the like] they'll eat the leaves, then the stalks and then trash whatever is left or leave it covered in mud".
"It cuts farmers up when they look out there and all they see is mud. It started raining last Wednesday, a week has gone by and it's still raining. How do you manage that?"
"By restricting their access using electric fences, we can make sure they're getting the nutrition they need, and pan out feed for the whole winter."
Allen explained that on his Canterbury farm it can be well into Spring – mid-October – before decent grass growth kicks in.
It can require livestock to be put in confined areas, mindful of where waterways and flow paths are, and supplementary feed given. Thus pasture is preserved for another part of the season.
These are not decisions made on June 1, at the start of winter.
"We make these decisions months and months earlier. Which is the best paddock, what's the soil type, where's the access to water".
"I'm a farmer who started 27 years ago with winter grazing. Each year we have iterated, building on the experiences of the years before. Years ago, the key was animal welfare; it's only in recent years the focus on environmental impacts has come in as well."
"As a sector we've now built up substantial knowledge on what is best practice, and that knowledge is far better socialised."
Some 80 per cent of winter grazing happens in the lower South Island, and as a Southland farmer and Federated Farmers leader, Bernadette Hunt has been in the thick of it.
She said in recent years intensive winter grazing had become much maligned "with an assumption by some that little thought and effort goes into the practice".
"But actually, winter grazing is at least a year in the planning and there are many considerations to balance to achieve the best outcomes for freshwater, animal welfare, farmer and farm staff health and welfare, and increasingly emissions are coming into the conversation too."
Federated Farmers leaders Chris Allen and Bernadette Hunt at the National Freshwater Conference earlier this year. Photo / Supplied
With paddock selection, for example, it's not just a matter of soil type.
"Farmers take that to another degree with an assessment of physiographic zones, taking into account geology, soil type and water flow to help us predict the risk of a particular piece of land to water flow."
"From the roadside, some would question us doing any winter grazing on parts of our property. But what they can't see is the physiographic characteristic ... the lignite below the surface that soaks up nitrates that go below the root zone. Those sorts of nitrate losses are hard to mitigate any other way but we have a geology that does that for us."
Sediment losses on that rolling land can be mitigated with sediment traps and other techniques.
Ironically, the Hunt's lease a block not 12km down the road that might be seen from the outside to be much more suitable for winter grazing – flat and stony (so it doesn't churn to mud). But while sediment loss can be mitigated on this block, it's much harder to deal with nitrate losses.
"So the message is – as with so many aspects of winter grazing – don't judge a book by its cover, or more apt in this case, by a photo," Bernadette said.
"Winter grazing on some of these paddocks might not look as pretty but we know the effects and we make a myriad of interacting decisions to mitigate them as much as we can."
In another paddock on the Hunt farm, grazing is hard to manage if a critical source area has to be fenced off (a requirement under proposed new regulations).
But the Hunts ensure that an adjacent paddock is left ungrazed, so there is rank grass to filter outflowing water before it exits the property.
Another example of taking flexibility away from farmers with rigid rules:
Fodder beet generally requires full tillage for high yields (though there is some experimentation with direct drilling for fodder beet as part of the search for better outcomes). Because of some of the challenges of fodder beet, farmers might look to other crops. But under Essential Freshwaters, farmers face restrictions on land use change/ the amount of land crops can be grown on.
"If you've been feeding your stock on a really high yielding crop like fodder beet, to switch from that you need more land for different crops to feed the stock. So, in some cases people will be locked into practice they may want to improve."
Allen and Hunt acknowledged that while the vast majority of farmers are constantly seeking to do things better, and to learn from mistakes, very long spells of foul weather can catch people out.
And there is a rump of farmers failing to adopt best practices who will need to be encouraged, or forced, to get up to speed.
Federated Farmers is active on improving winter grazing practices, Hunt said.
Feds leaders and members worked with other industry groups last year to interact directly with farmers when problems were are notified, helping the owners with practical advice to improve outcomes.
Feds is also working alongside Environment Southland, and was very supportive of a new initiative earlier this year of flights over winter paddocks.
This wasn't for enforcement processes but to identify paddocks that might pose challenges, then to knock on the farmer's door to offer help at no extra charge, including formulating a grazing management plan.
"There's heaps of stuff going on now to help farmers be more proactive," she said.
