Sustainable Dairying

North Canterbury dairy farmer Cam Henderson has worked hard to get a foothold in the dairy industry but he’s now a leader with a passion for new technology and innovation. Among other innovative approaches, he is using bale grazing to minimize the environmental impact of grazing winter cows on the light, stony soils of his Waimakariri property. He is also a founding member of the Waimakariri Landcare Trust, (WLT) a local catchment group trying to proactively work out ways to farm sustainably in the Waimakariri district. Another local dairy farmer, WLT chair Sam Spencer-Bower, is a part of a multi-generation farming family also committed to that goal.

Cam grew up on a farm in the Waikato, qualified from Auckland University with degrees in engineering (specialising in robotics) and finance. After travelling for a couple of years after his studies, Cam took up corporate roles with Fonterra. It was a steady career path with decent prospects, but he had a hankering to run own business. Dairy farming fitted the brief nicely and in 2009 Cam took an assistant manager (2IC) job at a farm in Mid Canterbury. Two years later, with support from family and bankers he bought a 190ha sheep and beef farm at Burnt Hill, about 40 minutes north-west of Christchurch.

It’s out on a stony plain near the Waimakariri River, light land and once considered marginal for dairy. But Cam, being Cam, was keen to see what he could do. Setting out on a “shoestring budget”, he stretched the conversion as far as his wallet could stand, right down to hiring single people like himself because it would cost him less for accommodation. He even shared a house with one of his staff for three years to save money. These says he and wife Sarah are on a firmer footing, with 238ha of their own plus a 200ha support block nearby, leased from renowned golfer Sir Bob Charles.

Contract milkers Steve and Kate Overend now milk the 750 Kiwi-cross cows on the Henderson’s farm, allowing Cam to pursue several industry roles, including deputy chair of DairyNZ. Locally, he’s a founding trustee of Waimakariri Landcare Trust, (WLT) a farmer-led initiative to support long-term, sustainable agriculture in the Waimakariri district.

Sam Spencer Bower is chair of WLT. Originally known as “Next Generation Farmers”, WLT aims to develop and showcase progressive farm practices, investigate practical solutions to help farmers continue reducing environmental risk, while remaining profitable for future farming. Farmer-led “pod groups” share, explore and test ideas for each theme, with industry experts brought in as required. An aim of WLT is developing and showcasing farm practices that are progressive, providing a balance between profitability and environmental responsibility.

Among his qualifications, Cam holds a certificate in Advanced Sustainable Nutrient Management from Massey University. As a result of these studies, he has begun bale grazing, to reduce the environmental impact of grazing winter cows. An AgResearch trial shows hay bale grazing causes less soil damage, less runoff and better welfare when compared to traditional winter cropping systems.

Bale grazing is a practice originating in the High Plains of North America which has been adapted progressively for the New Zealand farming landscape. With a three-year soil armour trial completed in Southland by AgResearch—and the Quorum Sense ‘Regenerative winter grazing innovations’ case study—a growing number of dairy farmers and other graziers are starting to use consider bale grazing to maintain pasture cover to protects soil from sediment runoff and damage to soil structure. Done well, this should leave enough plants alive to recover quickly - without mechanical interference.

Cam says the method has multiple benefits. “We get one cut of silage out of it late October and have individually wrapped round bales, leaving them where they fall out of the back of the wrapper. We've got about 1200 bales just lying all over the paddocks now (in late summer) and going into winter we just cut the bales open for the cows and let them eat the surrounding grass.

Each paddock in the 100ha lease block next to the home farm gets grazed for about three days out of the year, otherwise the rest of the year is just growing feed for the winter. It’s just trying to cut back on mud, on cropping costs and fertiliser. It's a very low-cost system. And there’s obviously no feed transition because it's all grass-based, plus the environmental benefits by keeping a living root in the soil.”

Cam noticed early on that bale grazing made it easier to see urine patches where the grass was soaking up nitrogen. “We're trying just to see whether this could be an option for a lot of farmers. There’s a lot of less productive, dry land out there that so other people could be doing the same as what we're doing.”

For Cam, it’s been a response to the pressure of running a fully irrigated property that needs high yield to pay its way. “I am thinking we can try something similar for irrigated pasture. We can grow 15 tonnes of grass under irrigation, which is about the same yield that we get out of our kale.”

Finances aside, Cam clearly enjoys the challenge of tweaking farm systems, much like he might have in his uni days, when he played around with robotics.