Conservation comment: Farm practices misunderstood

Brian Doughty

I HAVE been banging on for some time about how, as an organisation, Federated Farmers is losing its ability to communicate with the urban community.

We publish all sorts of stuff for our own use but very little seems to make it to our urban friends, and we wonder why they perceive us as living the high life and not giving a toss about them.

If we want to be seen as creditable in their eyes, should we not start making a serious attempt to engage them on as many levels as we can? How often do we hear of people from all walks of life in towns, all over the country, not fully understanding the role that agriculture plays in our economy? Will we ever sit down with them and make an attempt to tell it like it is? I think not.

As a start, let's look at the audited report that has some 25,000km of riparian fencing, or 96 per cent of dairy cattle fenced off from waterways, being done by dairy farmers all over the country, not to mention the sheep and beef farmers starting the very same process.

Firstly, how accurate is the total amount of fencing done? Secondly, just how effective is the riparian planting in catching nutrients leaching into our waterways?

Most of us know that the soil type, slope, width of the riparian planting, stocking rate per hectare, along with the amount of nitrogen applied, all play a part in what will end up in the waterway. Should we not know just how much is leaching, say, from each property, given we have a reasonable understanding of what's acceptable and what's not?

Science has made huge steps in how we farm over the last 100 years or so, big changes can be seen locally from sheep and beef farms, horticulture blocks to dairy farming. The worry is can we, and how do we, convince our urban population that this work has made a difference to our waterways?

Undoubtedly, some say we're not going fast enough or a lot more needs to be done.

Will our urban friends ever understand why and how we do things today as an industry, given not many of them read the farming papers?

Not long ago, most kids from town would have spent some time on farms or in the country, looking and learning - not so today, you say. As a provincial organisation, our federation has attempted to bridge this gap - sometimes successfully, sometimes not - in the past, but we do need to lift our game in future, on national and local levels, using sound science-based research given to the public in a method that can be understood, honest, well-presented and readable in our local media.

As a nation in the 20th century, we grew as one people. Let's give it a crack and try to find that same understanding in each other for the 21st.

-Brian Doughty is past president of Wanganui Federated Farmers.