The Clutha Agricultural Development Board draws the line under nearly three decades of experimental farming progress next Monday, as it begins the process of winding up.
Project manager from 2005 to 2016, Malcolm Deverson, said he and all those involved with the board were disappointed to see it lapse, but proud of the work they had carried out in improving agricultural practice and profitability in the South.
To mark its closure, Mr Deverson (72) has written a 20,000-word history of the board, detailing its activities since it began, in 1994, in response to the farming challenges of the recent decade.
"Agricultural history is not extensively covered in New Zealand, and this is a story of Clutha’s unique response to new farming challenges, initially in the 1990s. After the restructuring of the whole farming sector through necessary changes in the 1980s, Clutha farmers worked together - initially to increase sheep-farming efficiencies and profitability.
"There was an emphasis on environmental as well as financial sustainability. CF2000 [sheep benchmarking], safe sheep-dipping practices, and a concerted effort against tuberculosis were early activities.
"The late 1990s and early 2000s was also a time when dairy-farming opportunities grew rapidly. Several Ag Board projects looked to support clean dairying practices, such as avoiding effluent runoff, and planting willows as an effluent sink.
"There were so many farmers, businesses, professional and industry bodies and local agencies that did a lot of innovative and challenging work, and their efforts deserve to be remembered."
He said the purpose of the board was to link scientists and farmers for the benefit of all.
"I felt a tremendous support from farmers and businesses for all the activities, trials and projects that we organised. I think we added interest to very challenging times.
"We had world-first beetle releases to attack Californian thistles, and world-first trials on the benefits of probiotics for neo-natal calves.
"We had a Sheep Farmer of the Year competition for several years. We ran about 450 FarmSafe courses for 4600 attendees across Otago and we ran three years of industrial hemp trials."
Mr Deverson said funding issues and an expansion of industry-specific bodies such as Beef + Lamb NZ had led to a decline in the board’s activities since 2018.
The history will be available online from Monday.
