Doug Avery on Resilient Farming

Doug Avery’s farming journey has shifted from seeing himself as a victim of his environment, to empowered and thriving. For many, many years he had struggled with low rainfall and extensive dry periods, but he has successfully adapted his practices to suit an increasingly dry farming situation.

He says he now understands how important it is to work with nature and not against it. He’s recently started up a business talking to farmers about his experience and sharing his insights. It’s called Resilient Farmer. 

One of Doug’s lowest points was in 1998 when he realised he had worked for ‘zilch’ all year. A friend of his encouraged him to attend a conference on lucerne, by a Lincoln scientist. It was the turning point that Doug desperately needed.

Ironically, lucerne had been grown on his farm for 80 years. His grandfather had grown it and Doug still grew it, however he had only been using it for hay and silage.

He had never thought about using it as a pasture plant, which is what the scientist was advocating for dry areas. Lucerne performs well in drought areas, but Doug had never considered it as a pasture species, because he was so locked into the rye grass/ clover model, even though it was failing him.

A gradual process of change began and Doug planted out some paddocks in lucerne. 

Doug calls himself a “farmer turned professional yakker”. In 2015 he spoke at 66 events and to more than 6000 people. He has also spoken to Australian farmers on two trips across the Tasman. The high level of interest generated by the roadshow series has surprised him, he says. “I’ve had a huge amount of feedback from the rural community.  I never realised the extent of rural well-being until I started out on this, and getting the message of emotional resilience across is a big part of the communication process.”

The first stage was to create a relationship with others around the country facing similar challenges to those he had faced. He has also taken his experience in growing lucerne to combat drought conditions to Argentina in October 2015 on a week-long sponsored study tour. The huge success of this work attracted international acclaim and continues to influence farmers working in dry areas today.

He jointly owns ‘Bonavaree’, the Grassmere family farm on the dry East Coast of the South Island with his son Fraser. 2015/2016’s dry hot summer has resulted in many more farmers having to face the dreaded ‘D’ word. According to many weather experts, farmers can expect to face drought conditions more frequently in the future, so Doug’s knowledge and experience will become increasingly valuable.

After a hot dry summer with a few medium rain events, Bonavaree continues to enjoy success.  In the 2015 season there were a record number of lambs with an average carcass weight of over 19 kgs. In addition, the mating weight for ewes has increased, running at 5kgs above previous highs. The occasional rain helped maximise lucerne production reinforcing the benefits of adapting farm management systems to suit local conditions. Doug maintains you don’t have to drain rivers to make profitable farms.

He says, “We are dealing now with a system which can no longer be called ‘poor man’s irrigation’. Coupled with this is a hugely better environmental process.  We need to spend far more energy looking at high profit low damage systems of farming.” 

Doug has used his speaking engagements as an opportunity to offer support to farmers dealing with drought, advising them to attack this type of challenge with a plan. He says, “Put in place ideas and strategies that enable you to move forward into the future.” He advises farmers to speak up and seek advice, nobody should soldier this situation on their own. “Avoid doom, gloom and despair merchants, they’ll just drag you down!” says Doug.  “You can’t fight drought or overcome farm problems if your own brain is fried! Its important to keep things in perspective, communicate with others and share problems.”