This report investigated the possible agricultural and horticultural land use opportunities for 20,000 acres of Carter Holt Harvey forestry land situated in Tokoroa.

A number of opportunities were ruled out due to either production or market limitations. The remaining opportunities were then investigated further with aspects such as profitability, return on investment, the costs of setting up each opportunity and the affect of the proposed emissions trading scheme also taken into consideration.

If the carbon tax was imposed the only profitable options were growing potatoes or setting up a piggery. Before either of these options was considered further research was deemed necessary.

Potatoes at a yield of 33 t/ha is the only option which is remotely profitable if the carbon tax was imposed. However, this option is risky due to the sensitivity of profitability to the crop yield.

A piggery operation has a very high return on capital regardless of whether the carbon tax is imposed or not. However, there may be limitations to the market potential of large scale pig production in the South Waikato. This needs to be further investigated.

If a piggery, poultry or diary goat option was adopted some of the land could be planted in maize/grain/silage/lucerne to provide feed for these systems. The effluent from these systems could be used to fertilise the crops and put nutrients back into the soil.This would also reduce the vulnerability of these enterprises to the cost of external feed.

Additionally some of these enterprises could be run in conjunction with livestock options such as dairy farming, dairy heifer grazing and/or deer and the effluent once again used to fertilise the pastures.

Crops such as maize crops, potatoes, and lucerne could potentially be integrated into a crops programme to maximise the returns from the different industries and spread the risk of changing markets. All of these crops have a relatively low capital development cost.

To read more click on the link below:
Land-use Opportunities for Carter Holt Harvey Forestry Blocks - Tokoroa