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East Coast Supreme Winners Mark and Jane Johnson.
Sheep and beef farmers make up eight of the ten regional supreme winners at this year’s Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEAs).
John Ladley, Beef + Lamb New Zealand (B+LNZ) general manager South Island, says the BFEAs are an opportunity for farmers to showcase the work they are doing to minimise their environmental footprint while producing protein for New Zealand’s consumers and export markets.
“As an organisation, we are pleased to support these awards and it’s even more exciting when red meat producers are so well represented in the regional supreme winners,” Ladley says.
“We warmly congratulate these winners who are demonstrating outstanding environmental stewardship and thank them for the fantastic work they are doing both behind the farm gate and within their communities.”
He says 24% of this country’s total native vegetation lies on sheep and beef farmland and many of supreme winners are actively protecting and enhancing the native vegetation and biodiversity on their farms.
“These farmers are running highly productive and profitable businesses while investing significant time and money in conservation work to protect the health of their soils, water and native biodiversity,” says Ladley.
Each supreme winner will host a field day on their farm and Ladley encourages farmers, rural professionals and the wider public to get along to these field days.
“The fieldays are a great opportunity to see how these businesses tick and how these winning farmers successfully strike a balance between profitability, productivity and sustainability.”
Regional Supreme Winners
With entries now open for the Ballance Farm Environment Awards, organisers have launched a campaign to bust some of the biggest myths they think might be preventing farmers and growers from putting themselves forward.
Michelle and Tony Roberts didn't inherit the farming business they have today. They’ve built it from the ground up.
The bumpy road you travel on teachs you a lot, believes Don Watson. And that’s the message he and wife Kirsten, supreme winners of the Auckland Ballance Farm Environment Awards, aim to pass on to their three sons.
Helensville farmers, Donald and Kirsten Watson of Moreland Pastoral, have been named the Auckland Regional Supreme Winners at the Ballance Farm Environment Awards.
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