2003 Winners

2003 Ballance Farm Environment Harvest Award

David and Hillary Ward, Radfield Farm, Fairfield Rd, Ashburton, Mid Canterbury

David Ward and his wife Hillary began farming at Radfield Farm, 4.4 kilometres north-east of Ashburton, 20 years ago. The property had been David's parents farm and since he has taken over he's increased the farm size to 384 hectares. Hillary manages the financial side. The farm has been a mixed cropping unit for some time, but the Wards have expanded into intensive vegetable seed production - seed onions, carrots, cabbage and beetroot for Midlands and South Pacific Seeds, as well as processed cropping for Talleys - beans, sweetcorn, peas.
"The basis of the farm is 90% no-till, but we still need to minimum-till to get beans and corn into the ground," David says. The soils are medium-light Lismore stony and Eyre.

The no-till, direct drill system began 8-10 years ago with the basic aims of conserving water/soil moisture, reducing tractor hours or the need to irrigate and maintaining output. After harvesting, greenfeed is direct drilled to get a double crop or shut up for grass seed. David does a limited amount of burning off, perhaps 10 ha annually.
"If you rarely burn but you can see white clover jumping from $5 to $6 overnight, one burn to get rid of slugs can be well worth it."

As well as cropping, the Wards run 600 ewes and normally finish up to 800 weaner deer, depending on the state of the venison schedule.

2003 ANZ Grow Award

Chris and Diane Bolderston, 583 Coldstream Road, Ashburton.

Chris and Diane Bolderston own a 189 hectare, 550 cow dairy farm 28 kilometres south of Ashburton. They recently sold a 110 ha run-off block and replaced it with a 175 ha support unit. The couple have been on the farm for 18 years after 12 years share milking in Taranaki. Enabling others to enter the industry is a key factor behind their contracting the day-to-day dairying operation to a share milker, using a variable order agreement.
"I think it's vital that we keep producing people who can progress through the industry," Chris says.

Last year the farm produced 1220 kg milk solids/ha (380 kg per cow), with Chris and Diane concentrating on rearing 350 calves and managing the overall operation to ensure a balance of economic, social and environmental issues (triple bottom line).

Managing light Lismore soils and continually increasing the soil's organic matter means the DDT residues in their most affected soils have reduced from one part per million in 1987 to around 0.3 ppm today. Nutrient balancing is the key to their fertiliser programme.
Cowshed waste and water is stored in a sealed tank and reused as liquid fertiliser, waste oil is saved and recycled as are silage covers.
Dead cows are composted because of the area's high water table. Border dyke and spray irrigate the farm.

Fencing off waterways, springs and creeks happened some years ago and the couple have planted a low-lying spring-fed area with flaxes and willows, attracting back herons and pukekos. Owls and quail have come back. Frog numbers are maintained by cleaning half the pond at a time.

Animal husbandry practices reflect the couple's respect for their cows - not feeding antibiotic milk to heifer calves and guzzling with colostrum to protect their immune systems, no inductions and carrying over the best cows not in calf.

© 2009 Environment Canterbury