Compost replaces chemical fertilisers on South Otago dairy farm

Regenerative agriculture suits Mark Anderson down to the ground.

He is focussed on putting as much life and diversity back into the land as possible, and says the benefits to the entire farm, and his own well-being, are evident.

"The landscape is generally a mirror image of the farmer. If it's healthy, then the farmer's healthy and it's the same for the animals," he says.

Mark is the sixth-generation Anderson to farm the 600-hectare property between Balclutha and Gore, but the first to move away from a conventional farming system.

Initially, it was stress that made him seek out a more natural alternative to intensive farming.

"There were a series of tension events, so increasing debt, low milk pay-outs and I had an auto-immune disorder. So we decided to look at the root causes and address them."

Research led Mark and his wife Madelaine to regenerative agriculture, and they have never looked back.

One of the first things to go was the fertiliser silo in the farmyard.

"I had to get my head around re-establishing the nitrogen cycle naturally and the mineral cycle."

For nearly a decade, Anderson has worked at improving soil health and increasing plant diversity, and it is starting to pay off.

"When botanists from Lincoln University were here they counted over 30 species in this paddock and we've also introduced agroforestry."

Young walnut and pecan nut trees are planted 25 metres apart in the paddock.

"I've heard that for every species you introduce, you bring in at least another four."

Apple and pear trees and native plants are being planted on other parts of the farm too.

Anderson is designing a system that comes under "the umbrella of alley cropping" - a system that harvests food from the alleys between the grazing paddocks.

He wants the farm to produce nuts, fruit and honey, as well as tasty greens for the milk-producing cows.

Moving away from using chemical fertilisers to replenish the soil has helped the bank balance.

"Profitability has improved because we're not spending $200,000 to $250,000 a year on fertiliser!"

It has been replaced by high stock density grazing, with cows recycling nutrients, effluent spreading, bale grazing and composting.

This year, Mark has made three kilometres of compost rows. Each is three metres wide and 300 metres long.

"It's mainly from willow along the river that we chip. We use that as the carbon source. Then we'll add slurry or cut grass and grow cover crops beside the rows."

It is spread onto paddocks at about seven to 10 tonnes per hectare.

Under his system, the cows are no longer supplementary fed off-farm products like grains. This is also a big saving.

The rich, deep-rooted pastures provide a nutritious bovine diet. This is topped up with hay that is made on the farm.

"It's what cows were designed to eat. That's why they've got long legs. The grass is supposed to be up to their bellies, so (the grain) is just another input that we could remove out of our system."

Mark says the regenerative tools he is using on the farm are far from ground-breaking.

"I mean, it's just what used to happen really before we started burning more diesel and replacing people with machinery."