Enhancing Dairy Farm Resilience in a Changing World

At a time of multiple challenges to farming including changing weather patterns, fertiliser shortages and fluctuating input costs, farmers embracing low input / regenerative / organic systems have built-in resilience to these challenges.

This conference is an opportunity for farmers, researchers and educators from New Zealand and Australia to connect, share insights, and discuss the latest research and on-farm innovations shaping regenerative / low impact / organic dairying.

Topics include:

• integrating trees onto dairy farms

• maximising summer performance per unit of input

• enhancing soil fertility without synthetics

• counting what counts: financial performance in organic & regenerative dairy systems

• update on latest research findings on diverse pastures including impact of pasture diversity and regenerative management on farm-scale outcomes

• herd health - what we can do to improve efficiency and longevity

The conference will be a mix of discussions and presentations with farm visits. There will be an additional small session first thing Tuesday morning for ODPG members and another for farmers and others who are considering transitioning to low input / regenerative / organic systems.

Catering (from local producers) is provided on both days with an optional evening meal on Monday 8 June.

An additional day of farm visits is planned for Wednesday 10 June including to Gavin Fisher's beautiful property, renown for its trees.

SPECIAL GUESTS

The conference will be attended by dairy farmers, educators and others from Victoria, Australia. Their presence at the first conference (Dairy's Regenerative Transition) in 2025 added a very special dimension with presentations, case studies and some great discussions.

Conference Programme

Monday 8 June

8:30am       Welcome / Introductions

8:45am       Welcome Presentation – Nick Collins

9am             Counting What Counts: Financial Performance in Organic & Regenerative Dairy Systems – speaker panel hosted by Conan Moynihan

10:30am     Break

11am           Animal Health session

                     Herd Health - what we can do to improve efficiency and longevity – Dr Alison Dewes

                     De-Railing Dairy with Antibiotics – Phyllis Tichinin

12:30am      Lunch

1:15pm        Farm Visits

5pm Return to venue – social

6:30pm        Dinner

Tuesday 9 June

8am              Optional Breakout Sessions – ODPG member catch-up

8:30am        On Farm Composting and Composting Fertilising Programme – Tony Evans

The Power of Plants – Steve Erikson

Biological Nutrition – Ewan Campbell

10am           Maximising Summer Performance – Siobhain Griffin

10:30am     Break

11am           Farmers Digging Deeper - demonstration site results – Stuart Tracy

                     Impact of pasture diversity and regenerative management on farm-scale outcomes (Whenua Haumanu study) – Dr Sam Wilson

12:30          Lunch

1:15pm       Grass (& Trees) to Milk: how well designed agroforestry can take dairying to another level – Sam Lang

Incorporating trees into an organic dairy farming system – Gavin Fisher

2:45pm       Break

3:15pm       From Grass to Glass, The Story of Schulz Organic Dairy – Simon Schulz

4pm             Next Steps

4:30pm       Close

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS (more details to follow)

Farm Finances

• Conan Moynihan - co-founder of Groundshift, an agriculture advisory business partnering with farmers to build profitable and resilient farm systems. Conan bridges the gap between ecological thinking and real farm economics.

• he will be joined by a farmer panel

Maximising Summer Performance

• Siobhan Griffin - has twenty years’ experience in regenerative farming and forty years’ experience growing organic food in the US. She formed Next Level Grazing, Ltd. in New Zealand in 2018 to share expertise around regenerative dairy and sheep and beef farming.

Enhancing Soil Fertility Without Synthetics

• Tony Evans - former dairy farmer. He was been a founding director of Camperdown Compost, Victoria, Australia which has mostly used the compost in assisting farmers to be more regenerative over the last 27 years.

• Steve Erikson - has been obsessed with farming and especially composting for over 40 years. Fuelled by his partner Jenny’s demand for high quality compost, there has been no escape.

• Ewan Campbell - will focus on biological nutrition

Animal Health

• Dr Alison Dewes - an experienced veterinarian and Masters in Biological Science (Ecology), Alison farmed with her family in NZ and Australia, and has been in a range of agribusiness roles.

• Phyllis Tichinin - trained as a soil scientist and environmental policy specialist, she specialises in coaching farmers to grow foods that heal both people and the planet and in educating consumers to demand healthy food from truly healthy soils. Her presentation will focus on the impact of antibiotic use on dairying

• third speaker - details to come

Diverse Pastures Research Update

• Dr Sam Wilson, Whenua Haumanu - a lecturer and researcher at Massey since 2023. Sam studied agricultural science at Lincoln University, before working in soil research and the agrichemical sector in Canterbury for 4 years. In 2025, Sam completed his PhD on plantain survival in grazed pastures. Sam’s research interests include plant responses to their environment and each other.

• Stuart Tracy - has farmed at Waratah Bay in South Gippsland since the early 1990s. The family milks 600 cows on 270 effective hectares without irrigation and shifted from conventional farming to a new direction five years ago.

Trees on Farms

• Gavin Fisher - a 3rd generation dairy farmer member to be farming on the family farm certified organic for 26+ years. Gavin has been extensively planting trees on the property for 46 years including lots of fruit nut and citrus trees and creating as much diversity in the pastures and with the tree plantings as possible.

• Sam Lang - a hill country farmer, educator and advisor who was heavily involved in the early growth of Quorum Sense. He has a particular passion for farm planning and agroforestry systems, and their potential to deliver multiple layers of value back to farmers, landscapes and communities.