Smart farming for the Future Lynne Strong CCRSPI conference feb 18th 2011 A Farmer Case Study on Socio Economic Issues facing Australian farmers in peri-urban areas

1. Smart Farming
for the
Future
Delivering a culture of change
Lynne Strong – CCRSPI
conference

2. I wear many hats
but first and
foremost I am a
farmer.
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3. Farmers know
less than 7%
of Australia
is suitable
for food production
We must get this right.
Our farmers feed and
clothe more than 60
million people
worldwide
Source: www.dfat.gov.au/facts/env_glance
Image: www.waste2energynow.com
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4. And the
farmers producing
this food are finding
the resources
to do so
increasingly scarcer
&
more
expensive.
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5. We already have most of
the tools we need – we
just need a “different way
of thinking”.
Transferring the science into on
farm action

6. The Strong’s hierarchy of needs for
the successful transfer of climate
science into on-farm action.
Firstly, farmers need scientists to be honest
about:
• What they know and what they don’t know!
• What they can and cannot predict.
• How it fits into the big picture.

7. Transferring the science into on
farm action cont..
Secondly scientists need to be able to:
• Distil the climate message into a format that
is accessible to the farmers
IN A NUTSHELL THEY NEED TO STOP
TALKING LIKE SCIENTISTS.

8. Transferring the science into on
farm action cont..
Farmers need the decision makers to:
• Directly involve farmers and their advisors in
designing on ground demonstrations of locally
relevant research.
• Fund and support farmer driven extension -
we don’t want to be just told it works we
want to see it work.

10. Extension needs to be local and
industry relevant to transfer the
science into on farm action.
9 out of 10 farmers learn from
other farmers and to do this they
need to be able to look over the
fence and see the R&D working in
their backyard.

11. CLOVER HILL DAIRIES
• My family and I milk 400 cows three times
daily on two farms at Jamberoo on the NSW
South Coast
• Although the farms are located within two
kilometres the topography and climate are
very different.

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13. KEY FACTS AT A GLANCE
• 2x industry average cows grazed per hectare
• 5x industry average litres of milk produced per
hectare
• 10x industry average water use efficiency per
hectare
• One of Australia’s most water efficient milk
production systems producing 35x the industry
average of litres of milk per megalitre of water
used

14. CLOVER HILL DAIRIES
• The home farm, ‘Clover Hill’ (Farm 1), is 100
ha and is nestled in steep, high conservation
value rainforest country on the north east
face of Saddleback Mountain.

15. Cows on the Hill
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16. CLOVER HILL DAIRIES
• Our second farm ‘Lemon Grove Research Farm’
PL (Farm 2) was established in 2008 to diversify
our enterprise and to undertake agronomic and
pharmaceutical research
• It has 60ha of alluvial river flats at the head of
the sensitive Minnamurra River flood plain and it
receives 33% less rainfall than Clover Hill.

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18. The peri-urban landscape
challenge
• What our 2 dairy businesses have in common
is a high urban rural interface.
• Clover Hill is part of a dairy centric rural
residential subdivision of 12 blocks ranging
from 0.4 to 40ha

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20. The peri- urban landscape
challenge
• Lemon Grove is located adjacent to the
Jamberoo Township. So not only do the
thousand people who live in the village see
our farming practices each day so too do the
tens of thousands of people who pass by on
the highway each year.

21. Main
Road
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22. Turning challenges into
opportunities
• Australia’s best farmland is within an easy
drive of our major capital cities and urban
sprawl is squeezing the agricultural sector.
• This demand is reflected in high land prices
and is effectively pricing commercial farmers
out of the market.

24. Turning challenges into
opportunities
• Our proximity to Sydney (we are only 90 minutes from the
Sydney CBD) and our coastal location has seen lifestyle
farmers pay upwards of $70,000 per hectare for prime
agricultural land.
• No land has been purchased for commercial agriculture in
our region for the last 25 years.
• Like all professional farmers we have found ourselves
under pressure to increase the size of our business to
achieve efficiencies of scale and have limited ability to
expand our farm milk production area.
• So we have had to adapt - something Aussie farmers are
very good at!

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26. Turning challenges into
opportunities
• Our business saw the challenge of this influx of
rural life-stylers as an opportunity and now lease
over 75% of the land we farm from these
lifestylers.
• We have been changing the focus of our business
to meet these issues and many others; including
climate variability for quite some time…it just
requires “a different way of thinking”.

28. Keys to business success
“if I had to run a business on three
measures. Those measures would
be customer satisfaction,
employee satisfaction & cash
flow” Jack Welch former CEO of GE
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29. Image is everything
• At Clover Hill Dairies we started with a mission
to “be” the image we want our customers to
see.
• Our customers want to purchase from farmers
who practice the things they value – whether it
be animal welfare or environmental protection.

31. Image must be created and
actively managed
• Consumers want food that is produced in a
way that is consistent with their own personal
values.
• Our aim has been to develop a highly
efficient dairy system on a small acreage that
meets or exceeds those consumer
expectations.

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33. Communicating the message
• Our website is our shop window for our brand.
• It tells our customers
– who we are
– what we do
– how we think
– they can then see if that aligns with their thinking.

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35. Making the most of what you’ve
got
• The size of our farm has essentially
capped the number of cows we can
milk but it hasn’t stopped us from
increasing milk production.

36. LESS IS MORE
Our aim is to produce
MORE milk, using
FEWER resources, and
generating LESS waste
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38. 1. Breeding
2. Feeding
3. Animal Management
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39. Less is more
We started with an environmental and
animal welfare impact study.
• We select cows that can turn pasture into
milk as efficiently as possible
• We aim to grow as much pasture as we
can so we can graze the optimal no of
cows/hectare

40. *Grow MORE PASTURE
*Optimise stocking rate
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41. Produce more milk/cow means
LESS GHGE/ litre of milk produced 41

42. Working with the best
• Never underestimate the value of starting
with the best genetic base you can afford.
• Our cows are elite athletes they are bred to
perform.

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44. Less is more
And it works!!!!!
• Improving farm efficiency and productivity
of pastures in the past 10 years has not only
driven profitability; it has enabled us to fence
off 50% of our Clover Hill farm for
conversation purposes.

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46. SMART FARMING
• Firstly we have made a conscious decision to
focus on the milk business and stay out of the
real estate business and we outsource the
expertise we don’t have.
• By not owning all our assets we can avoid the
pitfalls of 90% of small and medium size
businesses who fail because of poor cash flow.

47. CLIMATE CHANGE
FARMING
PRINCIPLES
MAKES ECONOMIC
$EN$E
Image : www.eecs.oregonstate.edu

48. THE LANDSCAPE IS DYNAMIC
• Already over 80% of farming land in our
region is owned by lifestyle farmers - so the
opportunity to lease prime agricultural land
improves day by day
• Our farming business is not unique.
Increasingly farmers of the future in many of
Australia’s prime agricultural areas are going
to find themselves having small landholders
as neighbours.

49. 1900 small farms!!!!!!
91% of
Agricultural $
comes from dairying
Just 20 farms!!!!

50. Beyond the farmgate
Beyond best farming practices we are dedicated to:
1. Building lifelong relationships between city consumers
and rural providers. Because it is these urban
communities who will decide the future for primary
produces either as consumers, governments and
decision makers or as competitors for Australia’s
natural resources and our future workforce.
2. encouraging and furnishing opportunities for young
people to enter food value chain career pathways
3. forging cross community and cross border partnerships
to secure our social licence to operate and right to
farm

51. Cross community partnerships
to ensure a
social licence to operate

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53. The rural residential subdivision
• Formed landcare group
• Work together to ensure a
win:win for the farm and rural
residents and the landscape

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55. JAKE
ERIN
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56. BEFORE
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57. AFTER
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58. DURING
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59. DURING
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60. AFTER
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61. Happy cows
and happy
neighbours
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62. BEFORE

63. DURING
AFTER
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64. AFTER
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66. Cows get up close and
personal with the
neighbours
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67. We use a contractor to spread
our poultry manure and lime.
His name is Dave. Here he is Hi I’m
looking at the nutrient map with Dave.
Michael the farmer.
Hi I’m
Michael.
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68. Retain Recycle reuse
Retain
Reuse
Recycle
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69. Don’t worry you
Mmh this organic wont even notice in
fertiliser may be a couple of days
good for the and the grass will be
environment but it’s all green and lush.
a bit on the nose .
Always be prepared to stand in their shoes
Anticipate and work though potential issues
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70. WHATS
HAPPENING
IN
2011?

71. ‘Farm Ready Tools for
Sustainable Dairying in High
Conservation Value Landscapes’

72. Objectives
• Deliver sustainable farming best management
practices and invasive weeds control to improve
connectivity and integrity of native vegetation
including Endangered Ecological Communities

73. Objectives cont....
Trial new perennial pasture systems to show they can:
• be adapted to local conditions to reduce soil
acidification
• increase soil carbon by comparing a legume and
herb based pasture system to a traditional grass
based pasture on rotation of kikuyu and annual rye
grass in a coastal environment.

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76. What we will achieve
• provide guidelines to establish these pastures
• quantify some of their benefits
• identify strengths and weaknesses of the new
pasture system and
• give rise to relevant tools for Australian dairy (and
other grazing) farmers accessible through on farm
and web based learning opportunities.

77. Extension needs to be local and
industry relevant to transfer the
science into on farm action.
9 out of 10 farmers learn from
other farmers and to do this they
need to be able to look over the
fence and see the R&D working
in their backyard.

78. Objectives cont...
• Engage & facilitate youth participation in
natural resource management through
hands on activities and web materials

79. We outsource the
expertise we don't
have .
Our experts include
farm management,
NRM and social
science gurus

80. Building lifelong relations
between rural providers and
urban consumers

81. BEYOND THE FARMGATE
This is how it works
• We forge partnerships with rural youth and
together we design fun and innovative art
and multimedia agricultural education
programs that tap into youth technology

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83. BEYOND THE FARMGATE
• Dairy Youth Australia Inc is a network of young
people who share a passion to tell others about the
pivotal role Australian farmers play in feeding the
world.
• Dairy Youth Australia Inc is committed to developing
within the broader Australian population a deeper
understanding of, and greater respect for, the essential
role played by Australian farmers in producing food
and supporting the nation's economy, community and
rural amenity.

84. BEYOND THE FARMGATE
• With the support of our funding partners Dairy
Youth Australia deliver self managed events and
activities which focus on youth, career
opportunities, the arts and community – all
linked with agriculture
• It all started with $50,000 of seed funding from
Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry

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86. BEYOND THE FARMGATE
Our 2010 Art4Agriculuture initiatives partner with Landlearn NSW and
other sponsors and include:
1. The Cream of the Crop Competition invites students involved in primary
industry and natural resource management studies to create a PowerPoint
about a unit of their studies with the chance to win cash prizes for their efforts.
The winning entries will be loaded on the web providing contemporary
authentic, positive and popular stories about agriculture and the environment
written by young people for young people. This initiative is vital as the changes
to the way farmers manage their properties have moved much faster than
educational resource development.
2. The Archibull Prize –invites students in suburban high schools to learn through
hands on experience about the challenges of housing and feeding the world
with a declining natural resource base. The finished artworks and curriculum
activities must explore and communicate contrasting stories about the future of
agriculture in their local area under the theme "Love it Or Lose

87. ENGAGING THE COMMUNITY

88. ENGAGING
THE CORPORATES

89. HOW OUR PROJECTS WORK

90. We take our
programs into schools
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91. We bring the
schools to us
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92. Why this demographic
• Too often the next generation feel they have no
connection with agriculture
• Today’s student are the next generation of
consumers and decision makers and our future
workforce and they will decide the future for
primary industries.
• They will have to decide how to both house and
feed the world.
• We must play our role in providing them with
the tools to make the best choices.

93. We take our programs
out of the classroom and
into the streets.
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94. We take our projects to
big events like the Sydney
Royal Easter Show
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95. Where the program
and its key messages
can be seen by tens of
thousands of people
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96. Read all about us on
our website
www.dairyyouthaustralia.com.au

97. MY CALL TO ARMS FOR
RESEARCHERS AND FUNDERS
• There is a real and growing need to find innovative
models to get rural and urban communities working
together.
• We will increasingly need to forge cross community
partnerships to ensure farmers have a ‘social license’ to
farm.
• We need to develop and explore new ways to bring
the various community sectors together to capture
long term economic and natural resource
management outcomes.
• Your challenge is to develop and test them.

99. MY CALL TO ARMS FOR FARMERS
• We navigate through a whole raft of challenges
every day and we will also adapt to this one.
• Although we need to primarily focus on our
farms and families, we can and must also play
our role in educating urban communities about
modern farming practices.
• We need to show them that responsible
agricultural production is a legitimate use of
Australia’s land, water and other resources.

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101. Be Proud & Loud
Our customers must see responsible
agricultural production as a
legitimate use of land, water and
other resources and a great career
choice .
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102. Agriculture
is alive & well
&
a great career
choice!!
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103. Take home message
“Smart Farming
it’s not that hard
it just requires
a different way of thinking and foster
a culture of change ”

104. www.cloverhilldairies.com.au
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