Country Calendar - The Grass is Greener

If I ever get asked what it's like to hug trees I always said that the female race would have to get pretty ugly for me to start hugging trees... We're not greenies or radicals or purists. We're not out to save the planet, but we do realise that our organic system has lots of positives for the environment.

– Organic dairy farmer Gavin Fisher on the stereotypes of 'going green'

...I was told that, for instance, potassium was good and you can grow lots of clover with it and all that sort of stuff. But in the early days we were spreading it ourselves, and it was burning my skin, my eyes, and rusting the bottom of the tractor out. I used to think 'well how can this be good for the soil?'

– Organic dairy farmer Gavin Fisher on using alternatives to commonly-used fertilisers

Since the early 2000s, Fonterra, the major dairy company in New Zealand, has started taking an interest in organic farmers. It may be alien to most in the New Zealand dairy industry, but worldwide, the organic dairy market's worth over $8 billion. Fonterra's now offering incentives to dairy farmers prepared to convert their farms.

– Reporter Julian Cvitanovich, late in this episode

There's been a tenfold increase in the use of nitrogen fertiliser on farms in the past 15 years. It's used to boost pasture growth, but it's overuse has been linked to environmental damage to streams and waterways.

– Narrator Julian Cvitanovich

...if you don't use good observation skills you're not going to be a good farmer full stop. You definitely need to be observant; preventing things before they actually happen is the key. So if you're a bit slack you won't see it, and next minute there's the problem.

– Farmer Gavin Fisher on honing one's observation skills