'You’ve got to try and remain optimistic'

In July it was announced that New Zealand is going to treat methane differently from other greenhouse gases going forward, and that agriculture would be removed from the country’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). Sheep and beef farmers Alistair and Genna Bird from Canterbury on the South Island, say it’s a big relief.

“We were set to be starting to get taxed on emissions at the start of 2025, and there was just so much uncertainty about how the whole process was actually going to happen. I think the change in government, the new government have come in and said we’re going to have more of a science based approach, we’re going to revisit the numbers, revisit the targets, and actually try and have some workable solutions out there before we start taxing you.

“At the moment there’s not really any commercially available methane mitigation options be that genetics or bolus or different feeds, so the farmers were kind of left to pay this tax,” says Alistair.

If tax on emissions where to go ahead, for the Birds, it would have cost their farm business between $15,000 – $20,000 a year.

“The other one was, they weren’t actually going to allow farmers to offset all of that greenhouse gas emissions with the amount of sequestration they have on farm. The native trees, the shelterbelts, the forestry, only some of that was going to count.

“So we’ve got a bit of a pause. They’re talking now about 2030 before any of this comes in. We’ve got a bit of time to do some work and try and come up with some options. Hopefully cooler heads will prevail and we can actually not ruin the industry while trying to achieve some sort of methane reduction,” says Alistair.

Since October, there are a lot more farmers in parliament. Minister of Agriculture of New Zealand Todd McClay, is also boosting farmers’ confidence by recognising how non-sensical it would be to send food production overseas to countries with higher emissions.

Farm

Alongside farming sheep and beef, Alistair and Genna offer on farm accommodation and trails for horse riders. Both of which have proved vital for the farm’s sustainability.

“I think from a sheep and beef stand point, things are tough. With output prices as low as they are and costs as high as they are. But I think you’ve got to try and remain optimistic and positive, there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon. Whether it’s going to eventuate in the next 12 months is anyone’s guess but there are some signs of things improving out there,” says Alistair.

New Zealand tends to be thought of as being largely populated with sheep, but Genna explains this isn’t necessarily the case.

“Traditionally when people think of New Zealand, aw there’s a lot of sheep farms, but because of what Alistair was saying about it being tough, people are dropping off. There is nowhere near as many sheep farmers around, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s just a cycle. I think it’s quite comparable to back in the 1980’s. That time was economically very tough. Everything goes through cycles. We know many people that had to walk off their farms for sheep and I wouldn’t be surprised if that happens again,” says Genna.

Their farm, known as The Grange, has very diverse land types for its 620 hectares, ranging from high country to the flats. The pair run a spilt sheep flock and they tweak their system each year.

“It’s very tailored. We’ve learnt a lot off our families as well. They’ll give us advice. They don’t necessarily say they would do the way that they did back then. So, that’s quite cool too, having both dads alongside going, we did this but it’s probably not a good idea to do that now,” says Genna.

Beef

While sheep farming has taken a bit of a hit in recent years with declining numbers, beef has held its own.

“The beef industry has probably bucked the trend and has actually risen, so people are probably moving away from the sheep industry and into the beef just with lower labour inputs and lower costs to get your final product. Probably a more stable market as well.

“The beef market has been pretty stable right the way through for the last four, five, six years. It hasn’t had the big peaks and troughs like the sheep market has and we’re looking at really good returns for beef at the moment with what’s happening in the USA,” says Alistair.

Genna laughs while gazing in my direction. “Tracey’s probably wondering why are you farming sheep then,” she says.

“The reason behind that is our country is quite fragile,” explains Alastair. “So if we had 300/400 beef cows running around the hills instead of the sheep, I think it would degrade it quite a lot. We would get a lot of erosion.

“We’ve got about 100 beef cows, all Angus. They calf from 1 September on the flats and then we put them up on the hill and about December they come down, back on to the flats for the bull to run around with them for six – eight weeks. Once the bull is out, they go back up on to the hill to forage around until end of April when it’s time for weaning.”

Wrapping up the call, I wish Alastair and Genna all the best for lambing, as they were due to start on 1 August, a few days after the podcast was recorded. They explained that they manage this busy period with the help of their three kids, as it isn’t feasible to employ extra hands. Like many in Northern Ireland, they are working with what they have as best they can.

To listen to the full podcast with Genna and Alistair, visit Spotify and search, UFU podcast Farming 24/7.