Lincoln University played host to hundreds of farmers, researchers, veterinarians, accountants and scientists in June for the annual South Island Dairy Event (SIDE).
Established in 1998, the event has evolved over the years from a networking event to be one of the largest dairy conferences in New Zealand.
In recognition of its 25th anniversary, the event featured 25 exhibitors and an impressive array of keynote speakers including Fonterra’s Chief Science and Technology Officer Jeremy Hill, former Australian SAS medic Dan Pronk, Meat the Need co-founder Siobhan O’Malley, and economist Cameron Bagrie.
Attendees also enjoyed a field trip at Ashley Dene and Lincoln University Research Farms, as well as informative sessions with workshops and panels covering a wide range of topics.
On Farm Excellence Strategic Programmes Lead Olivia Thomson says the event offered a chance for the Co-op to network with farmers in a fun, relaxed environment. “SIDE is a very different event from other conferences held in the agricultural space. Whereas field days tend to be sales-focused, SIDE is more around learning and networking. Even the exhibition stands are more informational and transformative in their content,” she says.
“We had great farmer engagement throughout the conference. Our large stand definitely stood out in the exhibition space and we had a chance to discuss our compliance simplification programme one-on-one with farmers. For those who didn’t make it north for My Connect, it was an opportunity to find out more about the Co-op’s updates,” she says.
“We had lots of questions about the compliance simplification and received a lot of compliments – ‘it’s awesome’, ‘you’re finally hearing what we’ve been saying’, ‘you’re making our lives easier’. Several farmers had already gone in to do their farm dairy records and had seen the data integration. We were able to talk through the upcoming updates to the app. That was really well received.”
Run by farmers, for farmers, SIDE tends to attract some of the industry’s more progressive and influential farmers. This year was no exception.
Workshops and panel discussions covered a vast range of topics including managing a high-performance team, drivers to nitrogen loss to water and mitigation strategies, health, safety and wellbeing, succession planning, winter grazing, irrigation and water use efficiency, genetics, coaching, contracts, dairy beef, on farm resilience, and career development.
Presenters included not-for-profit catchment management organisations, industry stalwarts, scientists, researchers, farmers, district councillors, business managers, and rural coaches.
Olivia says farmers were very interested in on farm mitigation techniques available and novel technology. “We’ve got an emissions reduction target to 2030, which farmers realise is only five seasons away. For some farmers, it’s not a priority yet, but others were very engaged,” she says. “We had the opportunity to use the Co-op’s greenhouse gas scenario tool at the stand. This was developed in-house and is currently in its early iterations but is due to be available online in the new year. It gives farmers a chance to see which lever or which area of their farm system has the most impact. Some things have a bigger impact on emissions than others. The farmers who ran through the scenarios were surprised to find that the areas they were looking to focus on were not actually the areas having the most impact. Imported feed for example had a significant impact on one farm. Farmers found the tool really beneficial.”
Preparations are now underway for the 2025 event in Timaru. Coverage of SIDE 2024 can be found on side.org.nz