Northlanders lead the way

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Source: Rural News - Management - 22 May 2007

Hearing that Evan and Shirleen Smeath had been named the supreme winners in the Northland Ballance Farm Environment Awards was definitely the highlight of the last two weeks for me.  Not only that, Bryce and Heather Lupton were also given the Tawapou Coastal Natives Family and Community Life Award at the same ceremony.

These two talented couples have made extraordinary progress over recent years through their diligent planning and use of high-profit strategies.  It has been my privilege to work alongside them as they have achieved profit gains of more than 50% over the last three years. 

Yes, 50% improvement in profit.  Now that's impressive!

How did they do it?  Essentially they have applied the Six Laws of Farming Profit that I wrote about recently.  The have used daily profit indicators as decision making tools on all the critical aspects of their farming businesses.

Evan and Shirleen have been eCOGENT members for about 10 years, and that has shone through in the way they have lifted their performance in every year that I have known them.  They now run 260 contented looking Jerseys on 105 effective hectares, and they have worked to reduce the impact of their steadily increasing herd on the environment by draining their formerly swampy land, putting in a feed pad and managing grazing intelligently to avoid pugging and nutrient runoff.

Despite all the extra work and capital expenditure it has involved they continue to increase profit each year.  And that is simply because they use profitability measures and forecasts and make decisions based on profit.  About ten years ago they went from a split herd to all autumn calving, based on the improved profit from that move, and now they are going back to spring calving, again because that is the better option for them.  Their flexibility is commendable.

Not only did they win the overall Award, they also won the Ballance Nutrient Management Award and the LIC Dairy Farm Award for theirbreeding and nutrient management programmes.  It is a real pleasure for me to see them continue to make great progress on difficult land.

Heather and Bryce Lupton are also winners.  Their Award was particularly for their contribution to their community, but they have also increased the profitability of their farm business through careful setting of goals and working out strategies to achieve them. 

The Smeaths and the Luptons have reflected and focused on the need to be responsible in the way we treat our soils, waterways and environment.  We all need to act for the sake of the health of our stock and the food they produce and not because legislation for cesactions upon us. 

To me it makes so much sense to ensure that soils, plants, livestock and people remain healthy and productive.  To do otherwise means that our farm businesses will become unsustainable, and sooner than we think.

What I have learnt, and these two talented couples have shown, is that running a farm business this way can also be profitable, and that these profit levels are also sustainable. 

With people like them in dairying, the long-term future of the industry looks much more healthy.

Peter Floyd is the Managing Director of eCOGENT.biz
www.ecogent.biz ph 0800 433 276

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