Opotiki farmers win top award

Working to their strengths and ‘‘doing the right thing’’ by the environment has seen Opotiki dairy farmers Jared and Sue Watson take out the supreme award at the Bay of Plenty Farm Environment Awards.

The couple have been 50:50 sharemilkers since 2002 and milk 282 cows once a day on a 120 hectare platform in the Waiotahe Valley.

Jared and Sue’s win was announced on February 24, where they also won category awards for soil management, dairy farming and for the environment.

Ninety five hectares of the milking platform is owned by Jared’s parents Kent and Cherry Watson.

Sue and Jared lease 25ha to the dairy unit and carry 54 yearling and 21 mixed-age beef cattle on the remainder of their 74ha block, which also has a 15ha block of native bush.

A 10ha support block is also leased nearby and grows maize, lucerne and winter oats.

At any time of year, floods can inundate up to 80 per cent of the Waiotahe Valley property, which is just 20 metres above sea level in a valley with a river running through it.

Jared manages this challenge with a no-pugging policy and two loafing pads and a feed pad. As well as river flats, the farm includes a moderate to steep runoff block.

The Watsons employ Adam Rowson full-time and Alan Thoresen part-time on the farm.

Their cows milked 109,561 kilograms of milksolids in the 2015-2016 season and they credit a recent shift to once a day (OAD) milking for re-igniting their passion for the industry.

‘‘Before we changed to OAD this season I was seriously wondering how many more years I could keep dairying – now I’m enjoying farming again,’’ Jared said.

‘‘The cows still get moved several times each day but shifting them takes way less time than milking. Calving was much easier too – in fact I enjoyed it this season.’’

Sue is a financial accountant in Whakatane and said her offfarm income and the support of Jared’s parents have been instrumental in the success of the change to OAD milking.

It has also enhanced family life for them and their sons Luka, 12, and Niko, 10.

‘‘Jared no longer has to rush off for the afternoon milking and he’s so much more relaxed.’’

The change of farming practice had reduced costs and resulted in healthier, happier humans as well as cows, said the judges.

They have more time to focus on the environment and continuing the tradition of planting trees begun by Jared’s great grandfather.

They are the fourth generation to farm the Waiotahe Valley property and live in a restored family home built in 1888.