True. Water contamination from farming is very controversial here in Canterbury (Chch area - apologies if you already knew that) which is why he made a point of mentioning how they filter the solid & liquid emissions from the cows before it makes it to the water.
This video is udderly fantastic! Such a teat to watch. :) Thank you for making all your amazing videos showing people what NZ is like, and I'm glad you like my home town (Chch). Looks like you've already left, otherwise I'd be delighted to say hi & show you some kiwi hospitality. Good travels!
One of your best episodes, loved it, so interesting seeing a dairy farm in action, and how amazing nice were the owners to show you guys around and film, loved it!!!!
Been on a dairy farm in Shepparton, Victoria Australia for 2 weeks on school holidays with my parents year 1970 best experience of my life. Early morning starts getting Cows in for Milking and Tractor rides.plenty to do.
Great video. That's a really well run farm and very well explained the challenges around farming and what goes into it. Thats an impressive farm and great to see so many systems in place and the use of rotationally greasing and the protection of water ways. Theres often alot of negativity spread around dairy farming and farming in general.
Not far from this farm is the Selwyn River. There are a few very nice picnic spots with swimming holes where we used to go swimming as kids. Nowadays you can't anymore. Back then there were only enough cows in the area to provide milk for the Christchurch area. Now it's a huge industry to make milk powder for the Chinese market. There are way too many cows now and the immense amounts of manure gets washed out and accumulates in the rivers making them unfit for swimming. there's too much algae in them.
Absolutely it’s a disgrace money before health, let’s not pretend everything Rosie and it’s all lovely and natural.. fresh water for drinking is unfit for consumption.
Yo, Zane here, the milking fella from the video. Currently studying agricultural science at Lincoln University and I'd love for a bit of back and forth about the mechanisms and nuances behind the waterway quality here in NZ. I agree that it's a shame about the rivers, what's your perspective/understanding of how it's gotten to the point it's at?
@@zanecoates7082you should have that debate with those like Dr Mike Joy. Lay folk just know that they can’t swim in or drink the river water since the explosion in dairy. Dr Joy points the finger at dairy intensification. I wonder if he’s right. It certainly seems he is.
Farms have gotten away from mixed farming and putting on as many cows as possible so "old-fashioned" rotational grazing dosen't work anymore. NZ cows are fed onl enough for maximum milk production not to have decent weight on them. Everywhere you look practicall skinny as cows.@@zanecoates7082
@@zanecoates7082Just a few generalisations. There were 'blue babies' around Hinds/ Ashburton in the early 1970s due to high nitrate water in shallow wells, when the area was mainly cropping. The NZ Farmer magazine had Nitrophoska fertiliser ads in the early 1960s, well before Kapuni Urea Plant was ever built in Taranaki in the early 1980s. NZ imported urea from places like Japan. I think the algae in the rivers is also a symptom of increased atmospheric temperatures. The snowfall on the Canterbury foothills would last for months in the 1970s, early 1980s I have been told. The 1980 Canterbury dairy land area was 20K hectares which increased to 190K hectares by 2009. Massey University has an online page 'Canterbury, NZ dairy companies 1882-2001 timeline, that shows the multitude of small dairy companies on the plains, Banks Peninsula, Kaikoura over the years.// This project was probably the first steps towards industrial dairying on the plains. Moving on from the old roller type milk driers 1973, "$1.5 million project to spray-dry milk produced by town supply and factory supply dairy farmers has been undertaken in Christchurch city. The project is the joint effort by the Tai Tapu Central Co-op Dairy Co and the town milk co-operative, Canterbury Dairy Farmers’ Ltd." The early large scale dairy conversions at places like Dorie, Dromore and Culverden were well publicised and later Apple Fields and Tasman Agriculture. An additional dairy conversion kicker on the plains was the Flour Mills allegedly not paying the wheat growers for two years. "Age and source of Canterbury plains groundwater Report No. U02/30" ECan has this 2002 report by GNS online. Has illustrations of the complexities of the water system. Also to remember that the Department of Conservation is NZ's largest deer farmer as well as their other livestock, goats, pigs etc. Their Alpine deer etc also put E. coli into surface water.
There are dairy farms here and then there are the other dairy farms. Those who have no clue how to farm, how to care for their herd, their land, their finances... So rapt that you got this experience 👨🌾👩🌾🐄🐄🐴👍🌞
All I can say is: You have Luck on your side. Always finding the good stuff (Even with a little smells). Thanks for another awesome video. Always the best. Regards from South Africa 🇿🇦.
@GlenAndMado Don't you people sleep. You are 11hours ahead of S.A. My son stays in Blenheim, he phones us early in the morning. Then it's night time by him. Thanks for your entertainment.
The only time l have seen the irriagtion units was down in the South Island. I’m an ex dairy farmer, and we farmed in a more fertile region of NZ so water was never an issue.
Im not sure its the same now but in the past cows had absolute right of way on rural b roads in other words if you hit a cow with your car, you were liable
Intensive dairy farms on alluvial soils (like Canterbury) means nitrates and phosphates enter the water aquifers very fast. The truth is Dairy in NZ is one of New Zealand's largest polluters of water. Cantabrians as an unfortunate side-affect have higher rates of colorectal cancer in NZ caused by high nitrates in drinking water. This vlog doesn't investigate in depth. Sure, Jase is a lovely farmer who I'm sure is doing the best he can, but let's call it for what it really is - environmental vandalism with negative health consequences for people.
Let me get this straight, if you want to drink non pasteurised milk in NZ, you have to go to a dairy farm and drink from the cow's teat? Can't buy non pasteurised milk. I believe that it's illegal.
You can't on sell Raw milk, but you can sell direct to consumer (in NZ), but the farmer probably will get more for on selling for export than direct to public
At least the cow manure goes back to fertise the farm. Where as your @#$ ends up in a big smelly shit hole and has to be treated with toxic chemicals. And if you live in Auckland there is a good chance it will end up on the beach where you like to swim.
