Organic milk is in demand - nationally and globally, and it is starting to outstrip supply. The Co-op has 110 farmers in its organic programme, and there is opportunity to grow.
Te Aroha farmer Mark Spooner shares his experience being part of the Fonterra organics programme and the improvements for his 225-cow farm by going organic.
What led you to organic farming?
We went on a trip to the USA and saw that they were starting to focus on pasture-based farming and whole foods. There was quite a strong organic market over there. We reflected on our approach and realised that our principles of sourcing good food and the way we farmed fitted organics well. It was then a case of finding how we could make it financially viable. We found that the Fonterra organics programme could enable us to do that, provided we met the organic standards of Fonterra’s export markets.
Regulations are increasing for all farms; it’s no longer such a significant leap to organic, but you get paid a premium. Once we had approval from the bank and a Fonterra contract, we were ‘all go’ to start the three-year transition to certified organic.
"In hindsight, I wished we’d done it earlier. It’s the best thing for our business. It’s future-proofed our business."
Tell us about the transition process
During our journey to become certified, we found our structure and principles were very close to being organic. We only had to change and tweak a few things on-farm. We dropped the little bit of spray that we used to use and found we no longer needed to use urea. Being a low-input conventional farmer probably made it easier. Don’t get me wrong, it was a journey, but it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be, and the result was well worth the effort.
How are you farming differently now?
We’ve learnt some lessons and retrained a bit, but it wasn’t so much farming differently but rather looking at the way we were farming, to get a different result. Weed management is an example. A farmer once told me the weed itself isn’t your problem, it’s the environment that the weed is living in that is the problem. On our farm, we had buttercup problems in certain areas. So, we aerated those paddocks and the buttercup problem went away. We didn’t need chemicals. Sometimes, the answer is actually on the farm. It’s just the way you look at it. It’s been a perspective change for me. I look at things very differently, even outside the farm gate now.
What advice would you give other farmers looking to transition to organics?
To start with, you need to ask yourself if the cows are capable of going organic. Is the cell count under control? Is mastitis or lameness an issue? From an animal health perspective, any on-farm issues you have while conventional farming will continue as an organic farmer, but you won’t have the same tools in the toolbox to mitigate these. If your animal and soil health are in a good place, then organics could be a good option. You can learn what you need to. Ultimately, it’s still farming. It’s not that different to what farmers are doing conventionally, in essence, but you have to be on board with the principles and standards of organics.
How has it impacted your farm's bottom line?
When we looked at organics, farmers were going through a global period of volatility in milk payouts. We were keen to reduce our on-farm risk and future-proof the sustainability of our business. We saw a drop in production initially. Some of that was through a drop in cow numbers, but this season, we will be back to within 5% of our conventional production and with a payout in the high $11 range. That makes our business look very healthy.
What is the future looking like in terms of demand?
The Co-op has quite a broad, diverse portfolio when it comes to its customers and locations. We’re not heavily leveraged in one market. We’re also seeing a diversification into a lot of infant formula. If one customer decides to turn off, we have another customer sitting there, and these are high-value customers demanding high-value products. We’re looking at a good few years of strong demand for our product, and I think that will only grow.