Dion Gordon, Canterbury

Kirikiri is a 400 hectare, irrigated coastal dairy farm in Canterbury, south of Ashburton beside the Rangitata River. 

Dion and Kristie Gordon took over the property in 2014 in an equity partnership with Craigmore Sustainables. Kirikiri spans two farms, employs eight staff and winters 1,450 cows. 

The physical parameters of Kirikiri are shown in the table below:

Kirikiri dairy farm (Photo: Dave Allen Photography)

The farm is a mix of heavy and light soils. This serves them well as the seasons change, with the light soils supporting good growth in the spring and the heavier soils holding onto moisture in the dry periods. It supports a pasture mix of ryegrass, white clover and plantain, and they supplement with a small amount of PKE, silage and wheat fed in the shed. 

Flooding has been a major issue in the past, including 25 hectares of land lost when the Rangitata burst its banks in December 2019.

The environment has always been at the heart of Dion’s approach to farming. “We want to leave this land even better than when we took over”, he says.

Greenhouse gas numbers have been calculated using Overseer and their results from 2018 to 2022 can be seen in the table below.

*The weight of methane is shown here without conversion to carbon dioxide equivalence (CO₂-e) because this is how it will be reported in the farm-level pricing mechanism.

**Includes CO₂ emissions from fertiliser, noting that these will not be included in the farm-level pricing mechanism. 

As shown in the table above, total emissions and nitrous oxide emissions have decreased over the period since 2018. Methane emissions have risen slightly, albeit declined from 2021 to 2022. This is likely due to fewer cows eating more feed now than in 2018.

As well as reducing emissions, the changes have resulted in less nitrogen losses from the system.

Dion uses OverseerFM for Kirikiri farm’s greenhouse gas numbers. To find out more about this tool and others, see our Know Your Numbers page. 

Three main actions led to the reductions in emissions achieved on Kirkiri since 2018: 

• Decreased N fertiliser from 279 kgN/ha to 148 kgN/ha to meet the 190 kgN/ha nitrogen cap – decreased nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide emissions.
• Decreased stocking rate from 3.8 peak cows/ha to 3.6 peak cows/ha. This reduction was offset by an increase in milk production/cow from 411 kgMS/cow to 448 kgMS/cow, 1,502 kgMS/ha to 1,587 kgMS/ha, and total milk production from 596,634 kgMS to 630,599 kgMS – increased methane and decreased nitrous oxide emissions.
• Decreased supplements fed from 1,595 tDM to 1,189 tDM – increased pasture intake and utilisation, less processing of supplements and decreased supplements made on farm – decreased carbon dioxide emissions.

To read more about how these actions and others reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, see our Current Actions page.

The focus on emissions began in 2018 when they had a higher than usual empty rate, but didn’t want to buy in more animals. This led to a reduced stocking rate (of around 2%), which worked so they continued with it.

The process was further helped by the flooding in December 2019, which wiped out around 25 hectares. They destocked the equivalent, and even after that land had been restored, they didn't restock to the same level, instead retiring and planting flood prone areas. 

"We've just tried to do a better job with what we've got," says Dion.

Milking at Kirikiri farm (Photo: Dave Allen Photography)

A focus on feed budgeting and management helped drive per cow performance. They have also improved the quality of cows and in-calf rate. Milking times are now shorter, which means the farm team can pay closer attention to animal health and are more focused on getting all of the elements of the farm system right. They have also decreased their nitrogen use. 

These changes were incremental over the years following 2018, during which time there has been regular reviews of the system, ongoing feed budgeting, and adapting to other drivers including local freshwater regulations and expectations from Synlait, who they supply to.

Further refinement of the system is planned over the next 1-3 years, including selling poor performing cows earlier, and potentially reducing stocking rate further or maintaining the stocking rate but buying-in higher BW cows.

They would also consider reducing the stocking rate and growing their own maize (rather than buying-in) if the Government’s farm-level pricing system for agricultural greenhouse gases has a significant impact on profit beyond 2025.

Below are some suggestions from Dion to help other farmers get their heads around the opportunities and challenges in reducing agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to a changing climate: 

• Be engaged – this means understanding what your greenhouse gas numbers are and what they mean to your farm so you can think about what you might do about them. It is also about knowing how policy may impact you.
• Bring someone in to provide constructive advice – this will be more effective than regulation (at least regulation on its own).
• Focus on what you can do and what you can control.
• A lot of gains are made by doing the basics better – strive for operational best practice and that benefits the broader business as well.

"A lot of gains are made by doing the basics better," says Dion. "A lot of these changes are not as hard as you think, and you're probably doing more than you realise."