Hill country farmers can get a 40 per cent return on expensive stock water reticulation, Phil Journeaux says.
He's a former Raetihi man and now works in the Waikato office of AgFirst Consultants. He and his colleagues Erica van Reenen and Davieth Verheij, with Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy, spoke in a seminar at the Central Districts Field Days last week.
All were all singing the praises of providing clean water in troughs to hill country stock - rather than muddy water in dams or creeks.
Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy with AgFirst consultants Phil Journeaux, Erica van Reenen and Davieth Verheij. PHOTO/ LAUREL STOWELL
They said doing that, coupled with dividing pasture into smaller paddocks, will increase lambing percentages, make animals grow faster and improve the quality and use of pasture. For farmers it will give peace of mind during droughts and save them from the depressing task of hauling animals out of muddy dams.
"Once the water system is in most of the farmers spoke with some passion about how much they hate dams, especially hauling stock out of them," Mr Journeaux said.
This drive toward stock water reticulation in hill country is a new impetus from Government, Mr Guy said. The aim is to make farms more intensive and profitable.
There were 11 case studies done on farms, five of them in the Horizons Region. It has 1.2 million hectares of hill country.
Water reticulation creates a "virtuous circle", because it also has environmental benefits. It keeps stock out of waterways, which means less E. coli goes in and water is better for swimming. It allows farmers to fence off their gullies, streams, wetlands and patches of bush.
Those environmental gains are important to consumers of New Zealand meat, Mr Guy said.
"The person eating a rack of lamb in London will be able to scan a code and, by panning around, see what's on the farm."
Four seminars on hill country stock water are planned for the region. They'll be held wherever a group of farmers wants to invest in a shared scheme. If they're successful the initiative will be rolled out across the country.
Farmers in the Tutaenui area near Marton already say they are interested in using any water unneeded from the town supply and the Hunterville water scheme.
One of the 11 case studies was of William Morrison's 1500ha farm near Marton. He put in water reticulation in 2014. He uses a diesel generator to pump water from a stream to four hilltop storage tanks. From there it's gravity fed down to troughs.
He's also divided the farm into smaller paddocks and is getter more feed, better stock rotation and the opportunity to fence off streams. His advice to others was: "Get stuck in and do it".
Phil Journeaux and colleagues spoke to farmers at the Central Districts Field Days. PHOTO/ LAUREL STOWELL
Mr Journeaux said some farmers changed their mix of stock after reticulating stock water. On average they added an extra half stock unit per hectare.
Lambing percentages went up an average 12 per cent and they were able to finish more stock, selling them as prime rather than store. Cattle farmers were able to hold cattle through the summer and buy fewer bulls.
Landowners powered their schemes with diesel, electricity or solar energy, and spent an average $350 per hectare to install them and $4.77 per hectare to run them.
The median rate of return on money spent was 40 per cent and the average increase in paddock numbers was from 70 to 144.
Getting pipe diameters right and having enough good quality water to use was crucial, as was working out how stock would flow through the new paddock arrangement.
Ms van Reenen said animals tend to stay close to water sources, and hilltop pasture can go unused. Having water in troughs and more paddocks allowed farmers to retire their less productive land, and irrigate small flat areas.
They could also plant trees and leave them fenced them off until they were mature enough to graze under, and they could fence off "yukky gullies", erosion-prone hillsides and wetlands.
The animals had less liver fluke and were bigger and healthier.
"They walked past dams to get to cleaner water in troughs," she said.
One of the best benefits was the wellbeing of farmers themselves. Reliable stock water saved them spending weekends either carting water or pulling stock out of dams.
