increase font size
Peter and Karen West.
Meeting other entrants and finding out about the work everyone else was doing were highlights of the Ballance Farm Environment Awards for Waikato finalists Peter and Karen West.
“It was interesting to see what everyone else had been doing off their own bat, most of it common sense stuff for the future of their farms,” Peter West says.
“We also got good feedback about what we’re doing and ways we can improve ourselves.”
The Wests, who won the region’s LIC Dairy Award, milk 409 cows on 144ha (effective) on the edge of the Hauraki Plains west of Ngatea.
The couple started 50:50 sharemilking in 1985 and three years later bought the first 35ha of what is now the 109ha farm they own. The balance of the farm is leased.
As first-time Ballance Farm Environment Awards entrants, he says they wanted to be proactive and better prepared.
“There’s a big truck coming and we can sit in the middle of the road and wait for it to run us over or we can be proactive and put something in place to protect ourselves from it,” West adds.
“It’s not a scary truck; we just like to stay ahead of things. We don’t want to get caught by regulations and end up on the back foot.
“The message is to be aware of what’s happening and how things can affect you, your farm and your area.
“That’s where the awards were good. We met some cool people and gathered some good ideas.”
He says their farm is at the ‘what’s next?’ stage of development and the networking and personal growth as a result of the awards has come at the right time.
“There’s all this environment stuff coming up and we have an interest in how we can do things better, how we can be more sustainable on our block of land and how we can make a difference.”
Thirty years ago, as a young sharemilker, former Waikato farmer Snow Chubb realised he was bucking a trend when he started planting trees to provide shade for his cows, but he knew the animals would appreciate what he was doing.
OPINION: As an on-farm judge for the Ballance Farm Environment Awards for many years, I’ve witnessed first-hand how dramatically New Zealand agriculture and horticulture has transformed over the past three decades.
The Ministry for the Environment is joining as a national award sponsor in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA from next year).
OPINION: Spring is a critical season for farmers – a time when the right decisions can set the tone for productivity and profitability throughout the year.
Fertiliser co-operative Ballance has written down $88 million - the full value of its Kapuni urea plant in Taranaki - from its balance sheet in the face of a looming gas shortage.
According to the latest Federated Farmers banking survey, farmers are more satisfied with their bank and less under pressure, however, the sector is well short of confidence levels seen last decade.
Farmer confidence has taken a slight dip according to the final Rabobank rural confidence survey for the year.
Former Agriculture Minister and Otaki farmer Nathan Guy has been appointed New Zealand’s Special Agricultural Trade Envoy (SATE).
Alliance Group has commissioned a new heat pump system at its Mataura processing plant in Southland.
Fonterra has slashed another 50c off its milk price forecast as global milk flows shows no sign of easing.
Meat processors are hopeful that the additional 15% tariff on lamb exports to the US will also come off.
OPINION: The release of the Natural Environment Bill and Planning Bill to replace the Resource Management Act is a red-letter day…
OPINION: Federated Farmers has launched a new campaign, swapping ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ for ‘The Twelve Pests of Christmas’ to…
