Mangapiri Downs organicstud farm is a 503 hectare certified Organic farm registered BIO-GRO License 215.
Our farm received full BIO-GRO Organic certification in March 1989.
We have over 4700 stock units on an effective grazing area of 429 hectares, of semi developed flat/rolling and Steep virgin Red Tussock Hill country and also 74 hectares of trees.
Our Pasture, Sheep, Lambs, Stud Stock, Wool and Cattle carry the
BIO-GRO trademark (www.biogro.co.nz) which means they are certified as organically grown. To obtain the right to use the trademark, we annually undergo a BIO-GRO inspection of our farm, produce and production methods to ensure that they comply with the standards for Organic produce, set by BIO-GRO NZ. These standards spell out just what can and can't be done in producing food and fibre carrying the BIO-GRO Organic trademark and are audited by IFOAM (International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movements), the worldwide umbrella organisation of the organic agricultural movement, with about 750 member organisations and institutions in some 108 countries all over the world. ( www.ifoam.org ) BIO-GRO is one of just 32 IFOAM accredited certifiers audited by IFOAM. There is no better international organic guarantee.
Organic Farming means changing to a balanced, natural, diversified holistic system of farming creating healthy soil using natural fertilisers, sheet composting or sabbatical fallow or growing diverse winter feed mixes & herbal ley pastures. The stock are bred for vitality and natural immunity to disease & parasites. Organic also means No chemicals, drench, dip, vaccines or artificial fertilisers & a move away from monoculture agriculture.
Our organic farming system continued to evolve & it was not until after seven years that Helen and I felt completely happy & comfortable with the organic system we had developed for our farm.
It was a challenge to change over, with not much info or help available. We got a lot of flak from other farmers, bankers (had to change banks), Vets & stock agents especially those first years, many cynical comments like "Your grass won't grow without super!" or "There's NO markets for organic stock!" or " you'll go broke"......Some of the pressure put on us during the difficult transitional change over from 1988 through 1990 was almost enough to make us give up completely. It would have Been good if I had developed a hard thick skin to handle the flak earlier, So I couldv'e just got on with going organic without over thinking it because of what others thought. We made some mistakes and learnt some lessons that helped us put together the farming system we have now that we are very happy with.
Most Countries have between 1% and 15% of their land area Certified Organic, while so called clean green NZ has less than 1% Certified.
Global surface area of organic Agriculture grew by 10 % in 2004.
Australia is well ahead of us, Leading the world with more than 11.3 million Hectares certified Organic now. Followed by Argentina with 2.8 million Hectares and Italy with more than a million hectares. Regarding the share of organic farmland in comparison with total agricultural area, Austria, Switzerland and Scandanavian countries lead the way. Its great seeing other farmers going organic. I think 12 farms/businesses are Certified Organic in Southland now, with others looking to convert. With New Zealands major competitors in Meat exporting (Australia, Argentina) way ahead of us in organic meat production, I hope more farmers convert in NZ so we can keep up !
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