Tirau chicken farmer Jeff Collings is working hard to decarbonise his operation.
Tirau chicken farmer Jeff Collings is working hard to decarbonise his operation.
Reducing carbon emissions in primary industries is a hot topic these days, but Tīrau chicken farmer Jeff Collings of Nicholson Poultry is one example of a farmer that shows what’s possible.
Collings is working hard to decarbonise the 130,000-bird farm and has already made multiple changes to the operation, including switching to electric vehicles and installing solar panels on his chicken sheds.
“I always wanted to be as green as possible, but once we got on the farm, the options just opened themselves up,” Collings says.
“I like to think that all I’m doing is basically showing that it’s not impossible and that it’s economically viable; it’s saving money.”
Collings says the recent price drop of solar energy and electric vehicles (EVs) have made his mission of getting the farm as close to carbon zero as possible a “no-brainer”.
“We’ve put on 50 kilowatts of solar onto the farm and bought four EVs. We have replaced the farm quad with the Nissan Leaf, we got a Tesla, the new LVD EV T60 ute and [my parents] got the Kia Niro.
Jeff Collings of Tirau believes going green is the right thing to do.
“We were burning through about $9000 worth of fuel a year, and that’s dropped to absolutely zero with the EVs. It’s not many years to pay back the cost of an EV at that rate.”
The solar system provides heating and cooling in the sheds and he also tries to decarbonise as many of the combustion engines as possible.
“We’ve replaced petrol blowers with electric blowers, and got electric mowers - it’s all working out really well,” Collings says.
The electrification efforts required an investment, which Collings says was made possible thanks to an ANZ Business Green Loan and helped to convince his business partners - his parents Trevor and Francie and wife Heather.
Collings bought a LVD EV T60 ute for his farm.
“Add in the [clean car] rebate from the government and it just made good business sense - we found we could easily afford the next step.”
His long-term plan is to further decarbonise the farm. To achieve this, more investment will be needed, but for Collings, it is the right thing to do.
“If I had a little badge on my shoulder - the clean green carbon zero badge - I’d wear it with pride,” he says.
“I want the poultry industry and farming, in general, to just move along this road. And it’s a road that we need to follow, it’s just a better way to do things.”
