Coaster’s Viewpoint


The life of a dairy farmer

I can’t sleep. I know farmers are supposed to be resilient and just get on with things, but how we’re going to get our balage and silage harvested? There are not enough skilled operators here and we won’t have enough food for our cows for the autumn and winter.

The grass doesn’t grow well in the autumn and winter.
We can always feed them crop I guess, except we can’t.
Not without breaking the law. If we graze our cows on crop over the winter, the paddock can’t have more than a 10 degree slope, and we can’t leave footprints deeper than 5cm and we must have it resown before the 1st of November.

If we can’t meet these conditions, we have to apply for a resource consent which will tell us how to farm.
Our cows weigh nearly half a ton each. They’re going to leave foot prints, and we’d be breaking the law!
Winter grazing is practically classed by our government as environmental terrorism.

I’m just a farmer, trying to grow good food for people who think I’m a greedy maniac, trying to destroy the world.
During lockdown, farmers were considered an essential service provider, yet rarely got mentioned.

Minister Parker and Minister O’Connor said when they came out with this law that they consulted with farmers and we were “happy” with these new rules.
They lied; on both counts.

I know I usually try to see the bright side of things.
I’m still farming’s biggest cheerleader but we’re going to have to pull something out of the bag team, or we are gonners. I’m tired, is this just too hard to take ?

A farmer’s wife



The life of a dairy farmer