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The Muster- Keely Buckingham: Dairy NZ · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Billy Joel is the artist, as if you needed reminding,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: that song there called Allentown. You're listening to The Muster.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: We're away up to catch up with Keely Buckingham. She's
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: up in Canterbury this afternoon. G'day, Keely. Hi, Andy.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: How are you going?
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Very well. It's overcast. There's no wind. And it's reasonably
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: pleasant at the moment down here in the south, I
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: think it's fair to say. Perfect.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Yes, it has been. It's been cracking. How good was Saturday?
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, better than Friday.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and Sunday.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. Look, everyone's out in the paddocks at the moment
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: doing the cultivation work, thinking about next season. A couple
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: of reminders today.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think, you know, tractors have been going flat
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: out our way too. And so just a few key
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: messages if you haven't started cultivation yet is just making sure,
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: number one, just making sure you've got that cultivation plan done,
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: those winter grazing plans. So making sure that you've mapped
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: out those swales, waterways, buffer zones that you want left
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  Speaker 2: by the contractors, and then sharing those plans with our contractors.
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  Speaker 2: I know that lots of people do do very well
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  Speaker 2: with having really thorough plans, so if you don't and
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  Speaker 2: haven't passed them on to your contractors to do so yet,
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  Speaker 2: then please make sure that you do that. And just
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  Speaker 2: doing it as early as possible, like sharing that plan
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  Speaker 2: and agreeing on what ways cultivation is being done, the
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  Speaker 2: direction of that and even if it's doing simple things
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  Speaker 2: like fencing off those critical source areas out in paddocks
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  Speaker 2: or swales or zones of the paddock you don't want
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: sprayed out first and therefore definitely then don't want cultivated
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: are just some nice easy tips. The second one is
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  Speaker 2: leaving those buffer zones in grass so that leaving them
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: in grass just means that it acts as a bit
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: of a barrier to slow down that nutrient loss especially
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: around those waterways and critical source areas um and yeah
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: with the rules as well they do need to stay
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: in grass all through winter so um yeah and then
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  Speaker 2: um just around buffer zones just making sure you know
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  Speaker 2: how far those buffer zones need to be so if
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  Speaker 2: it's 10 meters um around buffers i mean sorry 10
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  Speaker 2: meters where slopes are less than 10 degrees and 20
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  Speaker 2: where slopes are higher than 10 degrees so just if
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  Speaker 2: you haven't marked those out before cultivators head in there
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  Speaker 2: then also it's another easy thing to do as well.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: In general how do farmers go regarding these regulations would
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  Speaker 1: you say?
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah I think we've seen a really really good turn
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: towards good management practice in this space and certainly in
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: terms of what we see across the country south and
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  Speaker 2: certainly leading the charge in that space it's very Most
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: of us are very, very aware of what we need
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  Speaker 2: to do to make winter as good as it can
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  Speaker 2: be and have as less impact on the environment as possible.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: So it's really cool to see. Seeing heaps of cool
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: buffer zones and good buffer zones being left in grass,
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  Speaker 2: even just my drive to town every day, seeing what's
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: happening out in paddocks, it's looking really good. but you
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: know especially if you've got contractors coming in to do
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: that you know the liability still sits with you at
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  Speaker 2: the end of the day and so making sure your
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: contractors know the go zones and the direction that you
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: want things cultivated in as well is really important and
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: just on that direction just where possible I guess that's
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: the last message is cultivating across the slope where possible
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: just going and cultivating across the slope can just reduce
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: the runoff and soil loss. And if you can't practically
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: cultivate across the slope, then potentially the paddock might not
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: be as suitable as we would like it to be
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  Speaker 2: for winter cropping. So just something to think about. I
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: know plans are already in place and paddocks are being
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  Speaker 2: shut out to be taken out for crop, but if
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  Speaker 2: it's still an option to consider sowing direction and cultivation direction,
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: then certainly something to think about.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: Kylie, as far as the paperwork situation with winter grazing,
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  Speaker 1: where are we at these days with it? Because I'll
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: be honest, I get lost with what you need to do.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: How bad is it, or is it not complicated?
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  Speaker 2: No, we've got templates on our website around winter grazing
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  Speaker 2: plans and how to do them. It's as simple as
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: having your paddock drawn out on a page, have all
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: your critical source areas identified. Some people like to put
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: where their bales are placed. Having a direction of grazing.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: planned on there as well and just with a simple
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  Speaker 2: thing as an arrow of where you want to start
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  Speaker 2: and if there are parts of the paddock that you
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  Speaker 2: need to graze differently down towards potential critical source areas
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: we might split the paddock up into different grazing direction
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  Speaker 2: sections I see a lot of people now will chuck
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  Speaker 2: a drone up over their crop paddocks and then just
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  Speaker 2: do it on on the computer, overlay the plan on
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  Speaker 2: top of a picture of the actual paddock, so that's
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: a nice easy way to do it as well, if
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: that's an option. So no, not hard, and it's nice
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  Speaker 2: to have a plan because some of the detail can
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: then be passed on to your staff too, and something
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: to refer back to at the start of winter or
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: midway through the winter. Oh, how were we going to
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: graze that part of the paddock? What were we going
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: to do? around that wee hollow part, you know, things
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: like that. So easy to do now and then, you know,
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: you don't have to really look at it once the
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: crop's on the ground until winter starts.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: Good on you, Kayleigh. Good to catch up as always.
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  Speaker 2: All right. Thanks, Andy.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: Kayleigh Buckingham of Dairy NZ. Iron horse is going all
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: over the show at the moment as the weather is
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: allowing it to. You're listening to the muster up next,
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: Mo Topham. And before the end of the hour, Jaden Henderson.