TONY ORMAN
Wairau valley dairy farmer Evan White is the new president of Marlborough Federated Farmers. His election at the November meeting of Marlborough Federated Farmers follows the stepping down of previous president Scott Adams, who was recently elected to the Marlborough District Council in the Awatere-Wairau ward.
Evan sees his role as president is to listen to members and ensure their voices are heard and lobby for them both at a local and national level.
“It’s so important to spread the word about how important and valuable the work Federated Farmers does for all of New Zealand, “he says. “I’m concerned about the amount of poorly thought out legislation coming from central Government which just makes no sense at all. We have no option but to push back against unrealistic, unworkable rules.”
He believes New Zealand farmers are world leaders and will continue to become more efficient.
“We are constantly improving and changing our farming methods. You only have to look at our track record. We just need good solid data and reason to invest in future technology.”
Evan White grew up on the family farm at Spring Creek, owned by his parents Adrian and Marlene White. Adrian and Marlene still live there with Evan’s niece now share-milking the farm.
Reflecting on those early years he described himself as fortunate to grow up on the family farm.
“From an early age I had plenty of opportunity to ‘muck in" with pretty much everything on farm. Our farm gave me a taste of everything. We were dairy, sheep, cropping and beef farmers all rolled into one. I probably didn't appreciate or understand the skills we developed as we grew up,” he says.
Evan admits to probably not fully appreciating or understanding the skills developed as he grew up. The satisfaction of getting the cows milked, assisting in the birth of a newborn animal, getting hay or silage made and in the pit / shed before rain and growing a successful crop or getting animal up to weight (prime) cannot be under estimated.
“The rewards sometimes flow through to the financial side but not always and that's farming but I always feel a sense of achievement knowing our efforts are helping to feed not only NZ but the world.”
Evan attended Lincoln University completing a Diploma of Agriculture and a Diploma of Farm Management and then travelled to the US on the Minnesota Agriculture Exchange Programme.
On returning to New Zealand, he went into partnership with his brother Spencer, 50/50 share-milking the home farm at Spring Creek. Then followed a move to Canterbury, managing a couple of dairy farms before 50/50 sharemilking for Dairy Brands (now Dairy Holdings) at one ion the farms they then owned in Culverden.
Later Evan returned to Marlborough where he met his wife, Katrina. Together they share-milked the Spring Creek family farm before entering into an equity partnership with his parents.Fifteen years ago, the couple expanded the operation to purchase and convert “Birch Hill” in the upper Wairau valley to dairying where 800 cows are currently milked through a 54 bail rotary.
He sees a top challenge for farmers in today’s ever-changing and ever-evolving world faster than ever. These days with the aid of technology farmers aim to farm smarter, be more efficient and understand that what works today may not be good enough tomorrow.
“My challenge is while dealing with the day-to-day farm work, also constantly looking forward to the future and looking at ways to improve how I farm and to keep up with and knowing which new technology to implement on farm".
The majority of farmers always aim to leave the land in a better state than found.
“Another challenge to us as farmers who love been outside on the land is how to deal with the constant flow of compliance issues and how to keep up with all the new rules and regulations which are taking up much of our time now,” says Evan.
Katrina and Evan have a son Thomas who at 15 years of age, eagerly helps on the farm. Off-farm the family’s favourite activity is taking their boat out on the lower Wairau River and having fun waterskiing and ”biscuiting”.
