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photo: Derek Morrison
United Farmers say replacing sheep and beef farms with pine forests could reduce emissions and improve water quality, but this would come at the expense of local communities.
By converting sheep and beef farms to pine trees, rivers and lakes can be cleaned up while still generating profits for landowners, According to a new paper from the Our Lands and Waters Science Challenge.
Federation Farmers Meat and Wool Chairman Toby Williams told Morning Report Pine trees are an important part of the regional economy as well as the farm, but planting pine trees across the farm could have knock-on effects in regional towns.
“Our concern is that the establishment of sheep and cattle farms will weaken these communities. It means fewer schools and rural communities start to struggle to attract people because there aren’t as many jobs there as there used to be.”
Williams called for a more integrated approach, planting pine trees on farmland rather than converting entire farms.
The push toward pine is driven by falling profits from sheep and beef, and the attractive price of carbon credits produced by pine, but Williams believes there is a future for sheep and beef in New Zealand.
“The outlook for sheep and beef farming remains bright. There are a lot of changes happening in the wool farming industry and hopefully we can get out of the trough.
“Meat prices are a bit different, they will come back. Lamb is a premium meat and we are going through some global issues which are keeping prices down.”
Williams also said people have a short-term view of carbon emissions and while some issues can be addressed in the short term, he is concerned about the long-term benefits.
“What we haven’t done is we haven’t developed the market to use this wood. We need to look for farms where we can grow pine trees and generate income for the farmers while providing some environmental benefits.
“We have to ensure rural New Zealand is productive, otherwise this will be the final straw for us.”
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