East Otago Catchment Group co-ordinator Stephanie Scott said an IFP covered several areas of farm management including biodiversity, health and safety and the environment. The plan was comprehensive and in-depth. While the government had not yet made the IFP an essential requirement, many farmers were seeing the benefit of being a "step ahead". Creating an IFP offered an option for farmers to "cross credit" the information and become FAP+ accredited, she said.
In 2022, the East Otago Catchment Group received $330,000 in funding from MPI to be used for integrated farm planning over the next four years.
"Every catchment group’s use of the IFP funds looks a little different. We chose to run a course we called Farming With Confidence. It is broken down over a year and brings in experts to cover off each area of the IFP," she said.
So far two groups have completed the course, and the catchment group is calling for registrations to run a third group.
Seacliff beef farmers Yvonne and Steven Dennis farm 430 breeding cows and finish all of their stock. Mrs Dennis participated in last year’s course and said she found it interesting and enjoyable.
While she hadn’t used the plan to become FAP+ accredited, she said creating an IFP under her own steam had been a worthwhile exercise.
"We wanted to be compliant when the time came, and we also just wanted to know we were farming to the very best of our abilities. We could have paid a company to create the IFP for us, but it would have just been a document we would read once, barely understand and then put in the bottom drawer," she said.
"Because I created the IFP, I understand it and can make changes to it as things change over time on the farm."
Mrs Dennis said she particularly enjoyed learning about the biodiversity on her farm and understanding the business at a deeper level.
"It’s given us a sense of direction, changed how we see the property, and influenced our management decisions."
By Alice Scott
