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Southern Rural Life Journalist Yvonne O'Hara has asked DairyNZ Chairman Jim van der Poel some questions about the DairyNZ annual report for 2017/2018, which was released before his annual meeting in Invercargill on 31 October.
Q What is DairyNZ particularly proud?
2017/18 was a great and productive year for DairyNZ and we are proud of the work our farmers have done to care for their cows and to continually reduce the environmental footprint of dairy products.
All DairyNZs are designed to support our farmers.
I believe that the dairy sector is of vital importance to this country and contributes enormously to the living standards of New Zealand.
Throughout the year, DairyNZ represented our taxes payable on everything from research and innovation, advice on agricultural practices and environmental change to political and sectoral events.
Tomorrow dairy
The key among the achievements in which DairyNZ participated was the launch in November 2017 of the new Dairy Tomorrow Dairy Milk Strategy.
The dairy industry tomorrow is the plan that will bring New Zealand's dairy products in the future as a high-performance, sustainable and responsible sector.
Dairy company Tomorrow has six commitments to achieve the next decade, including protecting and cultivating the environment for future generations. to build the most competitive and resilient dairy companies in the world. to produce the highest quality and most appreciated diet of dairy products. and be the leader in the field of animal care on the farm.
Response of Mycoplasma bovis
DairyNZ has made significant resources available in the fight to eradicate M. bovis – including 40 DairyNZ employees involved in the matter, co-operation with the Ministry of Primary Industry, significant support for farmers and technical advice from experts,
We expect M. bovis to remain significant next year.
Research high
During the past year, we continued research programs that offer invaluable tools for information, innovation and exploitation for dairy farmers.
DairyNZ is part of the research program to reduce nitrate content (FRNL)
which examines how feeding of different types of pastures and crops can reduce nitrate leaching. Another DairyNZ, Leap21, launched by contributing, began last season and explores future dairy systems.
Q What do you think DairyNZ can do better?
DairyNZ always reviews what we do and how we can improve the way we work and deliver to farmers and New Zealand.
We regularly work with our farmers to get their feedback on what we can do better.
What do you see as the biggest challenge for DairyNZ?
The dairy sector is working to reduce the environmental footprint of dairy products.
That is why a huge focus and resources go into it.
As a rural community, we are committed to cultivating within the limits of the environment and maximizing value from our pasture farming systems.
Most dairy farmers are committed to doing their own to achieve this vision, and they have been working hard for the past 20 years to achieve environmental goals.
Of the major waterways on dairy farms, 97% (over 26,000 km) is now fenced to keep cows outside and 99.7% of regular stock junctions now have bridges or drains to protect water quality .
The vision is clear
We know that New Zealanders especially appreciate the waterways and want clean streams, lakes and rivers to swim, play and fish.
This is why we launched a multimedia campaign (1 November) "Vision is clear", underlining the industry's commitment to improving our waterways and calling on all New Zealand to travel.
Q What do you see as the biggest benefits?
DairyNZ considers continuous improvement of water quality as one of the biggest benefits the dairy sector can achieve in cooperation with other sectors and all New Zealanders.
We also see the benefits of the new dairy dairy strategy tomorrow as extremely important.
The six commitments and 22 objectives of the strategy collectively accumulate in the specific areas in which we want to make progress in order to be credible and credible, productive and competitive.
Q Do you believe that you will fulfill your goal that 80% of New Zealand agrees that dairy farmers are good environmental managers, that 100% of farmers comply with guidelines and good practice standards and that 90% by 2020?
The goals are for one reason and we want them to be successful and we work hard to achieve them.
As part of the dairy strategy, we are looking at the new steps we must take to continue the upward trend of the strategy in these areas.
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