59. On The Udder Side Of The World - A Conclusion

Dairy farmers in the UK are now, more than ever trying to emulate, or at the very least take inspiration from the hugely successful NZ dairy industry.

My main reason for going to NZ was to find out about the Kiwi style of dairying. Instead I found out more about myself.

I am only joking, I could not type that with a straight face. I am going to avoid the stomach-turning clichés that generally litter people’s accounts of their travels. This is just going to be a few paragraphs of what I will remember about the country and what I will take from my experience to aid in my progression up the ladder in the dairy industry.

The good thing about New Zealanders is that they were British a few generations ago. Some of the best of British though. It was the adventurous and risk takers who got on the ships with a sheep under each arm, a bible in their back pocket and a head full of farming knowledge. 

I realise that this is a huge generalisation, completely discounting the Polynesians, other Europeans and Asians that make up the Kiwi population, but where I was in Otago, this was the case. They followed Cook to the opposite side of the world and settled down on the islands that from a non-expert’s view, have geography and a climate pretty similar to the UK, volcanoes aside.

In his short shorts, Swanndri bush shirt and dirty boots, the rural New Zealander that I have come to recognise lives for farming, rugby and a few beers with their barbequed venison steaks (I am focussing on the farming for now). The reason they love farming is not because they are doing well in a successful industry, the industry is successful because they love it. Actually it is not just the rural New Zealanders who love it. I have chatted to various city folk in Wellington, Chistchurch, Dunedin, etc who are genuinely interested in agriculture. Their uncle might own a farm or their grand-dad used to milk cows or they may have no connection to farming at all. But it is pretty much guaranteed that they will be interested in it. 

A typical conversation in a city pub might go:

Me: That was no way a try, his foot was in touch.

City Bloke: No it wasn’t, I thought you Poms all preferred soccer-ball anyway?

Me: Absolutely not.

City Bloke: So are you backpacking round NZ?

Me: Nope, I am working on a dairy farm down/up in Otago.

City Bloke: Sweet as! How are you finding it?

Me: It is great, better than the dairy farming in England anyway.

City Bloke: What’s the difference?

And then a lengthy conversation about dairy farming will ensue.

If I was in a British city and mentioned that I was a farmer, there would be no interest in it. If there was it would probably be negative because I would be a murderer of animals or a posh twat. It is funny really because you would think that food production should really be at the forefront of people’s minds. It is the most vital industry in the world.

The general attitude to agriculture in NZ seems to me to be positive. There is a greater percentage of the workforce working in the industry, and most of the country’s economy is agriculture based. The powers that be tend to not let too much red tape and committees get in the way of progression of agriculture. A great example of the farming industry doing it right is of course Fonterra, where the farmers control the marketing and distribution of the product they produce. In the UK dairy farmers sell their milk at the price not under their control. New Zealand’s geographical position, relationship with China and low population means that it thrives as an export economy. Obviously the UK is very different and the NZ system would not work, but the general positive attitude to farming and the acceptance of how important food production is would improve the British industry no end.

I undoubtedly learnt a lot about the NZ style of dairy farming, hopefully knowledge that I can use and implement as my career in agriculture progresses. One of the aspects of dairy farming I have learnt most about is pasture management. When you look at a cow, everything lends itself to converting fresh grass to milk. That is the direction I want to take in my dairying future, farming on pasture based systems and focusing on milk composition rather than yield. Having now worked on the two extremes of dairy farming, I absolutely have a favourite! Low input – low output, block calving is much more fun than the all year round calving, TMR based herds I have previously experienced.

I am very aware that you couldn’t just pick up a NZ dairy farm and put it in the UK. The milk market and the climate are not the same, but I do strongly believe that the future of British milk production will come to rely on effective management of on-farm resources. Oil prices will go up drastically in my lifetime, which will cause feed prices to rise. It will become even more expensive to bring in silage or plant short term/annual crops. The costs of keeping livestock indoors and maintaining the health of an animal that is producing a huge amount of milk from a vast quantity of food will only spiral upwards. The way forward is a grazing cow, and the efficient use of that green leafy stuff.

New Zealand is a great country. The memories will stay with me; landscapes that day to day consistently keep me in awe of nature must be praised. The place made this Shropshire lad feel pretty insignificant in the world sometimes, but immensely privileged to see some of the highlights of it. I urge you all to visit New Zealand, it is absolutely worth the journey and very nearly worth putting up with the terrible standard of sausages for eleven months.

I thank you all for reading my ramblings and looking at my amateurish photographs. I have enjoyed writing this blog immensely and I am most grateful for the feedback I have received.

I will remain in Old England for the foreseeable future, milking cows, generally enjoying the countryside and trying to find a wife. Maybe in a few years time I will find that I am quite ready for another adventure, and if so, look out for that blog. You could also follow me on Twitter if you want to keep up with my exploits @FLawder.

Until then, then.

Freddie Lawder