Along with several other organisations, Beef+Lamb NZ helped fund the catch crops for reduced nitrate leaching project. Sown as soon as possible after grazing has finished, catch crops have been the subject of a Sustainable Farming Fund project led by Peter Carey from Lincoln Agritech, with support from Brendon Malcolm and Shane Maley from Plant and Food Research and AgResearch.

Farmers in Hawke's Bay have now experienced two successive years of bad droughts, which has stretched their farm management skills to the limit. Watching this and working with farmers to mitigate the problems are two experienced AgFirst farm consultants based in Hastings - Lochie MacGillivray and Phil Tither. They talked with reporter Peter Burke about what they have seen and what works best.