Tui proof of changing landscape
A first-time visitor has been welcomed by a family determined to improve their farming footprint.
Atui spotted on Waiorongomai Valley Farm in Waikato is testament to the positive impact the van Ras family’s environmental work is having. “I haven’t seen a tui on the farm in our 12 years here,” Johan van Ras says. “Yesterday I took a photo of one. Visually, you can see the changes.”
The tui’s appearance — and other environmental change — is due to a journey Johan and wife Kylie have been on since they bought the farm with his parents in 2010. They have retired a 4.5ha block with poor pasture production and turned it into a native wetland. Their budget and external funding were limited when they identified the area as a potential wetland site, and getting the farm business on its feet was their priority.
In 2019 they fenced off the area, which was planted in 2020 and has been maintained ever since. “Now we are starting to see fantails and tuis,” Johan says. “Hopefully we’ll get some matuku-hu¯ repo soon — that will make me think I’ve won Lotto.
“Environmental DNA samples taken before the wetland was planted provide a baseline of biodiversity in the area. It will be exciting to do another eDNA sample, now the planted area is three years old and the array of biodiversity in and out of the water is changing.”
Johan and Kylie have installed a water treatment system to remove iron, manganese and E.coli from their water so everyone on the farm has quality drinking water — including the cows — and they use trucks with GPS systems for applying fertiliser. This, Johan says, has been a gamechanger in terms of efficiency. “Investing in that saves us about 20 per cent a year in our total fertiliser spend.”
They’ve also planted up to 15,000, Johan says — alongside the Te Puninga waterway that runs through the farm, to help. These trees include Carex, which strengthen the stream’s banks, reduce sediment and help with N and phosphorus run-off.
Waikato Regional Council and the Billion Trees Fund helped fund the planting, covering half the total cost. Johan and Kylie funded the rest themselves, which helps hold them accountable for looking after and maintaining the site.
“In future this will be a valuable biodiversity asset,” Johan says. “The other big difference we’ve made is around effluent management. Putting those measurement tools in place has given us better control of our fertiliser inputs. We’ve saved money and seen decent reductions in N and P losses.”
A DairyNZ event on Waiorongomai Valley Farm this autumn will showcase the work they have done on-farm and encourage discussion about what other Waikato farmers can do to meet environmental objectives profitably.
Power of plantain
In the early days on Waiorongomai Valley Farm, Johan and Kylie’s average N and phosphate losses were about 30kg per ha each year. Environmental measures and their adoption of plantain have reduced that figure to the low 20s.
Johan and Kylie have been using plantain on their farm for several years. As a partner farm in DairyNZ’s Plantain Potency and Practice programme, they’ve had the opportunity to learn from other farmers who have successfully used plantain.
“Using plantain is the right thing to do,” Johan says. “At the moment we’re working with an average of 10 per cent plantain across the farm. If we can get to 20 per cent, we should be able to reduce that N loss to the high teens. We’ll be happy with that.”
Environmental leadership
Since early 2023, Johan has been the Waikato chair for Dairy Environment Leaders — a network of environmentally focused dairy farmers who are committed to creating a sustainable future in dairying and lead by example to reduce on-farm environmental footprint. Supported by DairyNZ, Dairy Environment Leaders (DELs) are actively involved in sharing environmental knowledge across the sector through a network of actively involved farmers who lead by example to reduce on-farm footprint.
Johan recognises the effectiveness of farmer-to-farmer learning. Given his on-farm environmental focus, he wanted to share his knowledge and learnings with other farmers to help them along their own environmental journeys. This led him to an environmental specialist role with DairyNZ, which he started in May 2023. The role sees him leading the industry body’s work to improve the health of the Pokaiwhenua catchment, alongside iwi and the catchment group. This is the first DairyNZ project of its kind that brings Western science and Ma¯tauranga Ma¯ori together to better understand catchment ecological health and how to improve it.
In 2021, Johan and Kylie won the Waikato Ballance Farm Environment Awards supreme award, seeing the competition as a chance to influence change, advocate for farmers and share positive stories from the sector.
They remain committed to reducing their environmental footprint because, Johan says, it’s simply the right thing to do.
All this work has not been easy, though, he says. “You have to make sacrifices, and it’s tough in the early days. It’s the same for every farmer. But in the long run it’s worth it.”
Environmental DNA samples taken before the wetland was planted provide a baseline of biodiversity in the area. — Johan van Ras