Weathering the 'worst drought in 50 years' as an organic dairy farmer

Taranaki farmers have been battling conditions described as the worst drought in 50 years.

"I've been farming quite a long time and, yeah, it's been tough going," Pihama dairy farmer Janet Fleming told Country Life.

She's in her eighth season of milking her herd of 320 kiwi-cross once a day, something she credits with helping "keep cow condition right through".

Part of the success, she thinks, is that her cows get fed twice a day - once during milking in the morning and again later in the afternoon.

"To get that same production, you need to feed them the same, so bar this year we're in with really serious drought, [the] bottom line for us has been better once-a-day milking than twice a day.

"[It's] slightly reduced production, but cost savings across the board just way outweigh it. That's without factoring in the lifestyle balance - that's just a perk."

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Milking once a day is one of her non-negotiables, and means she and the staff are normally finished by 3pm, outside of calving or something major happening on farm.

"It's better profit at the end of the day, better animal health and the lifestyle balance is just a real bonus."

Her other non-negotiable is farming organically. She and late husband Stephen were part of a group of coastal Taranaki farmers, who converted to dairy more than 20 years ago.

At the time, she felt many were "just waiting for us to fail", but they didn't and the public perception of organics has changed a lot since then.

The couple converted to organics wanting to produce better quality food they could be proud of. She feels the challenging journey has set her up well for the hard times.

"We'd been so used to that knee-jerk reaction from urea. You'd put the urea on and, next day, you'd have grass.

"If you get your soil structures, let the plants grow longer, the soil structure you're not damaging it with urea and the plants get the better root system and they actually get the nutrients from the soil.

"That's what I mean, we're in recovery from a drought - a major drought. Two weeks ago, our cows are actually going into green grass and, like you saw, some of it's actually starting to blow in the wind."

Having a good fertile foundation from the maunga - Mount Taranaki - and being near the coast helps too, she told Country Life. A growing range of organic fertilisers is becoming increasingly popular with conventional farmers.

"Now I feel like our toolbox for animal health and fertilisers is as big as a conventional farmer's."

Fleming recognises that organic-certified land is especially rare - it takes at least three years to become certified and even longer to really get the hang of it, she said.

"It's a limited resource land - full stop. Organic land is an even smaller source at the moment."

That's partly why she signed up to Venture Taranaki's 'Branching Out' trial, growing botanicals like calendula, liquorice, ashwagandha, angelica and garlic in one paddock.

"It's just nice to try things out."

Growing botanicals helps diversify the farm operation and is also part of succession planning for her six adult children. Now in her second season, she says the angelica are thriving this year and the ashwaganda also doing well, despite the drought conditions.

"They've actually done really well, considering how dry we've been."

She's excited to see where the trial takes her, adding that taking part of a paddock out hasn't impacted her main business, which is dairy production.

With a bit more rain, she's confident she can grow enough feed to help bank up supplies for the coming winter months.

Learn more:

• You can learn more about Venture Taranaki's Branching Out trials here.