Get Informed
Info Day
Our objective is to inform you of the various facets of organic farming and provide information to encourage you to take a closer look. Therefore, we run regular Info Days so that you can listen to our panel of professionals and then ask questions openly and receive their opinions along with the opinions of other farmers attending the seminar..The details of our next Info Day are:
Date: Friday 7 November 2008
Time: 9.30am to 3pm
Location: Te Awamutu Club, Albert Drive
Cost: $25pp including lunch
Speakers and their proposed Topics
Janette Perrett, Organic Dairy Farmer in HamiltonI have been involved with farming all my life and we are now dairy farming organically in Hamilton, milking 155 cows on 50ha. We have four adult children and are blessed with six grandchildren. Milestones have included obtaining 450MS/cow and successfully milking once a day for a complete season. We used to apply urea as well as feed meal and maize silage. We were in the mainstream of the dairy industry, simply doing the same as everyone else. But I had always wondered why the cow pats were still on the ground from the last grazing and why was the pasture pulling? The cows were walking out of a full paddock of grass bellowing with hunger, the young stock were becoming more worm drench resistant, the herd had continual diarrhoea, and where had all those frogs gone?
The ultimate turning point came when long black hairs started growing on my right arm where the daily drench had been leaking! What was in this stuff, and what was getting into my skin?
November 2006 we decided to convert to organic farming.
I have organised the InFo Day to share those who have helped us with the change over.
To be Certified Organic is challenging, and not for everyone, but to take care of our soils and stay sustainable for the future is:
- Human health & disease are directly linked to nutrition
- Nutrition comes from agriculture & only agriculture
- Farming should be all about health
- Farmers hold in their hands the health, well-being & longevity of their fellow humans
- Arden Anderson
I am passionate about promoting the best nutrition for this generation & the next, to enhance healthy living. We are not on this earth to live a life of pain & illness.
Micky Cunningham, Tutor and Course Manager, Agriculture NZ
‘Bugs & the Beasts in the Soil Food Web’.
I currently work as Course Manager and Tutor for Agriculture New Zealand, a PTE that does agriculture and horticulture training across New Zealand. Our Organics Course is one of our fastest growing programs. Before I came to New Zealand, I studied and worked overseas (South Africa) and was involved for 20 years in wholesale plant propagation, nursery management, native bush regeneration (habitat restoration in ecologically sensitive areas) and ethno-botanical research (traditional use of herbs and medicinal plants). I was also active in various rural development projects and grassroots community training programs in South Africa.
It was in the course of tackling rural development issues in a marginalized Third World setting, as well as researching how to sustainably grow commercial crops of wild-harvested plants facing extinction, that I learned that approaches based on monocultures and use of chemicals were flawed in their logic, creating more problems than solutions. This led me gradually into Organics. As new research unfolds, the scientific logic of organic systems becomes more apparent, and sadly organics is often given a bad name when people get emotional and throw the science out the window. The key is really about building biodiversity above and below the soil.
Brenna Barber BVSc – as a practicing vet she will speak on her observations from bothsides of the ‘coin’.
Back in the eighties, I undertook the Veterinary Science degree as a ‘passport’ to pursue zoological studies on safari in
I have always held strongly to the holistic approach of management and medicine, and the premise that problems are multifactorial.
To this end I have offered my scientific and technical knowledge as part of an overall package. Some farmers wish to use only the ‘tools’ in my truck, and to these I explain the benefits and limitations of these treatments. Others wish to explore other options and blend my science into their systems. I strive to offer the best service tailored to individual philosophies.
In my opinion there is no ‘hard and fast rules’. Instead there is what works well for some and what works well for others.
There is of course the opportunity to listen to each other and gain from the wealth of experience in our own communities and globally.
I look forward to these conversations.
Tineke Verkade - reg nurse, classical homoeopath, naturopath, medical herbalist
‘Animal health and the homoeopathic remedies’.
Tineke Verkade was born in Holland and immigrated to New Zealand with her family in 1977. She had trained and graduated as a Registered General Nurse with qualifications in Nursing and Tutoring in Nursing. On arrival in New Zealand she worked as a senior staff nurse at the Waikato Hospital.
Tineke has always had an interest in complementary therapies and whilst continuing to work as a senior staff nurse, she trained and studied at the South Pacific College of Natural Therapies and gained her Diploma in Naturopathy and Medical Herbalism. Concurrently, Tineke studied at the Bay of Plenty College of Homeopathy in Tauranga, gaining her Diploma in Classical Homeopathy. She has been in private practice since 1991. Following her Diploma in Classical Homeopathy, she completed an Advanced Diploma in Homeopathy. Tineke also holds a Batchelor of Science Degree, Complementary Medicine.
A love of working with natural health and the knowledge obtained through many years of medical experience has led Tineke to develop a true respect and understanding of working, in particular with homeopathy and herbs in a healing way. Her genuine concern for the overall health of the land, animals and people is the driving force behind Tineke’s commitment to natural health methods.
Bill Quinn – Organic Dairy Farmer in Paeroa.
‘Pasture diversity’.
Bill has been an organic pastoral and horticultural farmer since 1985. He has run numerous discussion groups as well as promotional field days and workshops. Bill has also implemented many very successful educational programmes across the organic sector.
Bill has worked relentlessly promoting and encouraging sustainable agriculture for the past 20 years and has a wealth of knowledge to share with fellow farmers.
Grant Paton – CEO, Environmental Fertilisers
‘The benefit of their usage’.
I grew up on a conventional dairy farm on the outskirts of Matamata [Hinuera Valley], went to Hinuera Primary School, then Matamata Intermediate and then Matamata College, then went to Massey University and completed a Bachelors Degree in Agriculture with a soil major. From there I spent 2 years fencing in the King Country and then 3 years in Melborne, Australia making plastic agriculture film. I then came back to New Zealand and went sharemilking – milking 540 cows for 3 years. After this I worked for a number of fertiliser companies, and finally 18 years ago developed and sold biological fertilisers.
My real passion is in research and development, specifically developing new microbial inoculated mineral dense fertilisers that aid in the sequestering of soil carbon.
Dr Greg Tate – Crop Health Services
‘Why biological farming’?
Greg Tate was raised on an orchard and a dairy farm both north of Auckland. In the 60s and 70s he gained Agriculture Science degrees at Massey and a PhD degree in California. He worked as a scientist (plant pathology) for 30 years with MAFResearch, MAFTech and HortResearch, resigned in 1995 to set up Crop Health Services, continuing with conventional disease management research and consultancy. In 2004 by chance he attended workshops by Dr Elaine Ingham on the soil foodweb and Dr Arden Andersen on soil and plant nutrition. He realised the error and irrelevance of his research career fighting diseases, made a dramatic paradigm change and turned his back on plant pathology, embracing instead soil and plant nutrition as the cure for plant disease and most problems facing farmers today. He is now on a mission to educate farmers on the damage conventional methods are doing to soil, pasture and animal health, to recognise the crucial role of soil biology and to assist farmers rebuild soil health, grow dense, nutritious pasture, solve stock health problems and increase product quality and yield.
Greg will answer the question ‘Why biological farming?’, covering his own experience, why pests and insects target crops, what is a healthy soil, how conventional agriculture destroys soil health and reduces nutritive value of crops, what is biological farming, the required changes and the methods used.
Mike Daly – EM Distributor
‘Efficient micro-organisms and their use as fertilisers, teat sprays, & water purifiers.’
Mike Daly was raised on a farm in Canterbury. After studying agricultural science at Lincoln University in the mid 70’s he began a 20 year career in agricultural research working for MAF and AgResearch, specialising in sustainable farming methods and in particular organic farming techniques. While attending an international conference on organic farming in Brazil in 1992, he heard a presentation on EM and was invited to research this technology in NZ. After three years of research he considered the technology had great promise and set up a Trust, the New Zealand Nature Farming Society, to develop EM in NZ.
Mike will talk about; What is EM?, how it works, and he will present research results using EM in various farming systems; and most importantly identify some key applications for Dairy Farmers. Mike will demonstrate how to prepare and use on-farm this low cost technology called EM.
Scott Fraser
I grew up on an ‘alternative’ sheep and beef
farm in the North King Country. My parents both had BAg. degrees from Massey
and yet were often labelled as the ‘worst farmers in our district’ – so much
for a university education! I was 1 of 6 children, but was the only child with
any interest in farming, and from an early age was destined to take over the
family farm. However I was not going to farm like my parents – with their
‘airy/fairy’ alternative views that obviously did not work (my teenager view).
No, I was going to use modern scientific methods with all the trimmings –
sprays, drenches, fertilisers - all the trappings of modern warfare - oops, I
mean farming. Well, that’s how I started my farming career. I aspired to be
like the neighbours – they had the right idea….. or did they?
They say you spend your lifetime trying not to be like your parents, and generally you end up just like them. I think I have come full circle. After 30 years I now have three science degrees and the same approach to farming as my parents had back when I started my farming career. My ambition is to develop the thinking and knowledge needed to support sustainable farming. With the benefit of conventional and “alternative” farming experiences and some scientific knowledge under my belt, I feel that I’m ready to embark on a new journey – a synthesis of soil science and practical farming experience.
Copyright 2008 Organic Oasis