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Waikato farm consultant Stacey Belton.<br />
Consultant hones skills for<br />
new farming demands<br />
As farmers are increasingly required to walk a tightrope between environmental<br />
compliance and farm profitability, the demands on consultants are growing. Stacey Belton<br />
is a former DairyNZ scholarship recipient who’s now helping farmers understand what’s<br />
expected of them.<br />
Waikato farm consultant Stacey Belton has some valuable skills<br />
for farmers facing tighter timelines around increasingly strict<br />
nutrient constraints.<br />
Stacey anticipates becoming increasingly busy in her role as an<br />
agricultural consultant with AgFirst in Hamilton.<br />
Nearly three years into her role since graduating from Lincoln<br />
University with a Bachelor of Agricultural Science, Stacey says the<br />
demands on consultants in the Waikato region are growing as<br />
farmers start to digest the full implications of the Healthy Rivers<br />
Plan.<br />
“There are about 5000 farms in the catchment, each requiring<br />
a Farm Environment Plan, and that brings a lot of demands on<br />
consultants to work with them, often when farmers feel in the<br />
dark about what it’s going to mean,” says Stacey.<br />
The DairyNZ scholar has already been working with farmers<br />
adopting DairyNZ’s Sustainable Milk Plan, and while not as<br />
comprehensive as what the farm environment plans will be, they<br />
are providing a good starting point for many clients.<br />
6 Inside Dairy | November 2016
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