Vintage 2024: Auckland
Kumeu River's 2024 harvet was done and dusted by mid-March, with light crops ripening quickly in the dry and warm conditions.
Entries have opened for the 2016 Auckland Ballance Farm Environment Awards and organisers are optimistic for the region’s first year in competition.
Mark Ball, newly appointed chair of the Auckland Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA), says all farmers, including orchardists, vegetable growers and viticulturists, are eligible to enter.
“This is also an outstanding opportunity for farmers and growers to show urban Aucklanders and the city’s decision makers what’s happening on farms and orchards in the region,” he says.
“The competition will raise awareness of the great agricultural, horticultural and viticultural industry on the city’s doorstep, and show that the people involved in these businesses are striving to achieve best environmental practice by producing food in the most sustainable way possible.”
Wellsford farmer and Auckland BFEA management committee member Ken Hames describes participating in the competition as a “highly worthwhile experience”.
A former entrant in the Northland Ballance Farm Environment Awards, Hames says everyone in the agricultural or horticultural sectors should consider entering, even if they feel their farm or orchard is not ready.
“You are never going to have the perfect farm. It’s always a work in progress.”
Hames says the feedback from the judges is fantastic “and it’s a great experience meeting the other contestants and learning from them as well”.
Facilitated by the New Zealand Farm Environment (NZFE) Trust and held in 11 regions throughout the country, the awards promote best-practice land management. They aim to highlight the work of farm practices that are environmentally, economically and socially sustainable.
Ball says most people enter because they want high quality feedback on how their farming operation stacks up in terms of environmental and economic sustainability. The competition enables entrants to benchmark themselves against their peers and receive valuable advice on how to improve the sustainability of their operations.
It costs nothing to enter the awards, which cover a wide range of categories, so entrants who are performing well in one specific area have a chance of picking up a category award.
“Even if you don’t win an award, you still get the benefits of having your business reviewed in a productive way that will help you to improve in future,” says Ball.
Entries for the Auckland BFEA close on October 30, 2015. The competition is supported by Auckland Council.
Federated Farmers president Wayne Langford is claiming “some real success” on the 12 policy priorities it placed before the Coalition Government.
Federated Farmers is throwing its support behind the Fast-track Approvals Bill introduced by the Coalition Government to enable a fast-track decision-making process for infrastructure and development projects.
The latest report from ANZ isn’t good news for sheep farmers: lamb returns are forecast to remain low.
Divine table grapes that herald the start of a brand-new industry in Hawke’s Bay have been coming off vines in Maraekakaho.
In what appears to be a casualty of the downturn in the agricultural sector, a well-known machinery brand is now in the hands of liquidators and owing creditors $6.6 million.
One of New Zealand’s deepest breeder Jersey herds – known for its enduring connection through cattle with the UK’s longest reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II – will host its 75th anniversary celebration sale on-farm on April 22.