DairyNZ: Smoothing the road for Kiwi farmers

DairyNZ chair Jim van der Poel. Photo / DairyNZ

Content brought to you by DairyNZ.

Jim van der Poel is the chair of DairyNZ. Today DairyNZ is at the Labour Party Farmer Forum to help get bipartisan support for regulations that encourage good farming practices.

OPINION

Right now on dairy farms around the country, the first calves are being born, generally in the middle of the night.

Farmers are managing crop rotations, wintering, new season budgets, and weather.

They’re having conversations with their bankers and insurers. Kids are home for school holidays.

That is just life for farming families and everyone has to balance their own challenges.

In the background for farmers, as with other industries, are pending political cycles.

These can bring changes to regulation, uncertainty while policy is decided upon, and a disconnect between national and local levels, while decisions are made.

And to paraphrase Nuffield Scholar Kylie Leonard, it’s best for farmers to be at the table, rather than on the menu.

DairyNZ is an industry-good organisation, representing all 10,600 dairy farmers.

Our duty is to help keep them and their farming businesses moving forward.

In the past nine months of a changed government, we’ve seen several policy changes begin to roll out around methane targets, ag out of the ETS, further reform of the RMA, and the beginnings of a new pastoral sector group.

Much of this we’ve advocated for on behalf of farmers and we welcome – particularly in a time of high inflation and input costs.

It is our job to keep engaging, and we do so with information that is supported by world-class scientists and farm system expertise.

We are submitting on behalf of farmers in regard to climate targets and emissions reduction plans, immigration and workforce development, the biosecurity act and freshwater standards.

We are following closely impending government changes to genetic technology regulation.

And today we will attend the Labour Party Farmer Forum because we will do what we can to help get bipartisan support for regulations that are logical and support good farming practices.

Hopefully, then we can bed down those rules and not have them disrupted every few years.

DairyNZ has 17 years of science and research to specifically benefit dairy farmers.

It is important we share our knowledge with decision-makers to ground policy in reality.

Much of our knowledge aligns with the realities of the global market, which is changing the way we farm.

Just recently at the Primary Industries NZ Summit, we heard from Rabobank that 80% of New Zealand’s exports are destined for countries with mandatory climate-related disclosures either in force or on the way.

New Zealand dairy farmers have always innovated and will continue to do so.

This is the basis of New Zealand’s prosperity and today we stand proud as an internationally competitive dairy farming nation.

We produce over 20 billion litres of milk a year and bring in $25 billion in export revenue.

Dairy employs 55,000 people and last year accounted for about 36% of all New Zealand’s goods exports.

New Zealand dairy farmers have a solid reputation as producers of safe, low-emissions, high-quality milk who uphold the highest standards of care for animals and the environment.

The success of dairy underpins the success of the New Zealand economy and the wellbeing of New Zealanders.

At the end of the day, farmers and politicians surely have a similar end goal – a prosperous, safe, secure country and strong links to the outside world.

It’s good to be at the table so that on behalf of our farmers we can chart a more enduring course for sustainable growth.

So today I will join our chief executive, along with our farmer-elected directors, and senior DairyNZ staff and experts, to make these points and update on the progress made by Kiwi dairy farmers.

Because at the end of the day, when dairy does well, New Zealand does well.