Clean and green image no longer enough - bring on the organics

By Glenys Christian

What a change in farmers' attitudes to organics.

Who would have thought 10 years ago that the Dairy Board would be testing an organic spread in the British market?

Or that one session at this week's Dairy Expo in Hamilton would focus on natural production technologies which could deliver many of the benefits and none of the downsides of genetic engineering?

Both examples show a coming-of-age and awareness that the clean, green labels which New Zealand likes to use are not enough.

Increasingly suspicious consumers want to be certain of the goodness of what they are eating or they simply will not buy.

But the board is sensibly playing down the launch of its Anchor Organic spread in Britain, by using Austrian milk to blend with a low percentage of vegetable oil in the new product which is being tested on consumers.

While the British market is a huge one and the Anchor brand commands a very considerable presence, the board wants to make sure everything is right before it encourages New Zealand dairy farmers to switch over to organic production in large numbers.

With conversion being a lengthy process it does not want to send farmers off down a false path.

Meat NZ, meanwhile, has opted to drive the process from the production end. Together with AgResearch it is in the process of setting up two farmer groups, one in each island, whose members will convert their properties to organic methods.

The move is the result of highly successful seminars held last year which Meat NZ directors said showed some of the most favourable responses to the introduction of a new technology they had ever seen. One commented that farmers who were already widely respected as top performers using conventional management systems were some of the first to register their interest.

This shows a recognition among such producers that they must always stay a jump ahead, and hopefully this will encourage those not so bold, or so profitable, to follow in their wake.

Manawatu dairy farmer Geoff Kane says he is "not organic by any means."

But when it came to spending $10,000 a year using chemical sprays to try to control ragwort on his farm, he knew there had to be a better way.

The answer is the ragwort flea, which local bodies are releasing over the next few weeks, not only in the Manawatu, but further north as well.

The insect eats the ragwort right back to the roots, and means a saving in time and money by not having to use a winter broadcast spray of 2,4D followed up by spot spraying with Escort and 50D.

"With more lifestyle blocks around you just can't put the helicopter over," Mr Kane says.

Ironically, the former winner of the Young Farmer of the Year title says the biggest problem he faces is from fellow farmers who complain he has done nothing to control the noxious weed, not knowing of his wait for the flea's arrival.

"The farm looks a bloody mess," he admits, "but we can't keep pouring chemicals on."

In two to three years' time the ragwort should all be cleared and he will be a step closer to those overseas markets for organic products which seem so far off and fickle at present.

* Glenys Christian can be contacted on glenys@farmindex.co.nz