Save ‘industry’ for the farm workers
Back in the early nineties when I started milking cows the strategic application of nitrogen fertiliser commonly in the granulated form of Urea was widely promoted. That was done by government agencies, fertiliser sellers, farm consultants and industry good agencies (now Dairy NZ) as the cheapest way to grow grass, and at $200 (now $700) a tonne many started adopting it as good option.
A few years later PKE meal (Palm Kernel Expeller) came into the country and was quickly adopted by dairy farmers as a relatively cheap, easily fed out way to fully feed animals as a complement a pasture-based system.
It enabled farmers to run a profitable stocking rate while buffering themselves against seasonal droughts or inclement weather which can play havoc with a grass-only feed budget.
In less than two decades these two inputs, nitrogen fertiliser and PKE, have become demonised in the eyes of the environmentally concerned public and are often highlighted as the root of all evil that lead to ‘industrialised,’ farming systems.
In my opinion there is no such thing as an industrialised farming system in NZ, yet this term is frequently bandied around by Greenpeace, politicians and the misinformed public when they are moaning about the dreadful destruction dairy cows and dairy farmers are inflicting on New Zealand’s environment.
Personally I’d be keen to hear a definition of ‘industrialised’ farming so when people are moaning about the impacts of farming in general they could tell me exactly what farmers in particular they are talking about and where they are.
There are only about 12,000 dairy farms in this country so it would not be too difficult to identify who the terrible ‘industrialised’ farmers are and call them out if they are doing wrong.
But no, I think many of the people complaining the loudest and tearing down the reputation and self-esteem of the 36,000 people who work in the dairy industry aren’t interested in helping or suggesting any positive change, they are using one of the hardest working and committed sectors in Aotearoa as a scapegoat to highlight their own causes whether it be votes, a call for taxes or funding for climate change agendas. Much of the anti-farming propaganda we hear comes from overseas (the UN) where one of the calls is why use limited resources to feed corn to methane emitting animals to produce expensive protein when the hunger of poor people could be alleviated directly from the corn? This one has done the rounds of Facebook and attracted plenty of anti-farming vitriol on-line.
People in New Zealand concerned with climate change obviously do not realise that most dairy cows in New Zealand and I’d say just about all red meat producing animals in New Zealand do not eat much more than grass – they don’t get corn – nothing a human could digest anyway.
That is the whole point of doing it . . . feed the animal low cost grass and the animal turns it into highly nutritive and delicious human food – meat and dairy products.
A simulated study needs to be done with a test case scenario extrapolating exactly what would happen to humans in a world without animal protein, asking; how many babies would die?
Whose economy would collapse? And how would it affect our health, strength and lifespan?
Everyone loves telling farmers what they shouldn’t be doing but no one is offering many sensible proven ideas on what we should be doing.
Personally, although 40 per cent of the human population is currently fed using food grown using synthetic fertiliser (including nitrogen), I have used less and less of it over 17 years and I do not use PKE at all . . . however when my accountant looks at my bottom line, I think he wishes I had.