2005 Winners

2005 Hill Laboratories Best Harvest Farm Award and Ballance Nutrient Management Award

Paul and Ann Jarman


On their 343 ha farm near Darfield Paul and Ann Jarman are showing that the traditional arable-livestock mixed farm, based on good science, is a sustainable agricultural system for the Canterbury Plains.

The Jarmans’ excellent, well monitored farming practices have won them two awards at this year’s Ballance Farm Environment Awards. The Ballance Nutrient Management Award, and the Hill Laboratories Harvest Award. About 200 ha are cropped annually, and up to 5500 stock units are wintered on the property, including merinos, finishing lambs, and dairy cows wintered for neighbouring dairy farms.

The cropping regime uses a mix of tried and proven crops like wheat, barley, and peas as the mainstay of the system, but also includes some specialist high risk/high return crops like radish seed, tall fescue seed, and carrot seed. Cropping risk has been further reduced by the development of irrigation, crop drying bins, and shelter trees. A big change came seven years ago when they started trialling no-tillage methods for crop establishment to try to improve soil conservation, moisture conservation, soil structure improvement, and for time and cost saving. “A prime motivation was the older I got, the more tired I got of driving round on a tractor all day,” says Paul.

The move has been a success and tractor hours have reduced by half. Instead of using contractors they have now bought a drill to do the job themselves, and the soil has been regularly tested. “Measurements indicate organic matter in the soil is building up, we’re getting enhanced moisture holding. It also has the ability to hold heavy traffic more. Therefore it is a more stable platform for dairy grazing in winter.” Irrigation supply is limited, and efficiency has been paramount. About half the farm is irrigated from two wells using a travelling rotorainer.

The better soils are irrigated, and priority is given to high value crops. A long term programme of objective fleece measurement has been used to select replacements for the base flock of 1600 Merino ewes. They also closely monitor the worm burdens by faecal egg counts, and DNA test for footrot resistance. Paul says they entered the awards because they support the
concept. “It’s important for the farming community to see some positive stories.”

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2005 ANZ Grow Award

Nick and Michele Ward


Temuka cropping farmers Nick and Michelle Ward have a very down to earth approach - grow good crops and grow them well. One of their goals is to remain smallscale specialised producers rather than large scale commodity producers. Another is to carefully monitor and look after the farm environment through a range of measures. “In cultivation we are very conscious of the soil structure,’’ Nick says. “Our philosophy is don’t treat the soil like dirt.’’

For the quality of their operation they have picked up the ANZ Grow Award at this years Ballance Farm Environment Awards. The judges recognised that not only do they grow good crops, but they have grown other areas of their business and lives like sustainable profitability, professional relationships, and community involvement. The 265 ha unit is run as an arable farm, but they do trade some livestock and graze dairy and beef cattle.

Besides cereals and sometimes peas they grow a range of specialist seed crops including a range of grasses, turnips and rape, and vegetable seeds. Another specialist crop is garlic and shallots. He says the crops they grow now are ones they know from experience grow well in the area. Nick is the fourth generation of his family on this land, and he and Michelle have been farming in their own right for seven years. “We’ve built on what my parents taught us – do the basics well and give everything 150 per cent.’’

They run a very stringent cropping rotation taking six years from grass to grass. “If we have a depletive crop we try to follow it up with a restorative one.’’ Soil testing is done over 50 per cent of the farm every year, and an annual nutrient budget is compiled for every one of their 40 paddocks. Detailed records are kept of every paddock for traceability.

Soil moisture is monitored, and fertiliser spreading and irrigation are computer controlled. He says they try not to put on more than 65 units of nitrogen at once, and try to put it on after rain. Fertiliser is applied after soil tests have determined need. Nick says they direct drill where they can, but always use minimal cultivation. “We try to get crops in with four passes or less. We always like to have our ground ready six weeks before planting to encourage weeds to germinate.’’ Through attention to detail Nick and Michelle have developed a wellearned reputation as good growers.

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2005 LIC Best Dairy Farm Award

David and Karen Ellis (owners) and Hamish Johnson and Amy Kingan (sharemilkers)


David and Karen Ellis's efforts in achieving very high production levels on their South Canterbury dairy farm while making sure it is environmentally sustainable have
won them the LIC Best Dairy Farm Award at the Ballance Farm Environment Awards. After heading south from Te Puke 10 years ago in search of cheaper land prices they farmed at Morven before selling that farm to convert 533 ha into a 2000-cow dairy farm at Orari in 2002. They also run a 280 ha support block near Waimate where they live. In the second year after conversion production on the dairy farm is expected to be 1700 kg of milk solids per hectare or 450 kg per cow, well above the average for the area. “To gain high production we use a lot of vegetable waste, which is a cheap source of supplement,” David says. Having the support block also enables them to control the level of feed all year round on the dairy farm. “We are cautious about costs and try not to throw a lot of expensive supplements in.”

The have regular farm walks to monitor feed demand. This enables them to judge nitrogen requirement so that it is not used unnecessarily. Good staff relations are important for running a big farming business. Lower order sharemilkers Hamish Johnson and partner Amy Kingan manage the dairy unit. “They are on a percentage which gets the best out of the farm. The better they do, the more they make.” “We've got very good staff, a very good bank, and a very good farm consultant. We make decisions as a team. That is the strength of this place.'' David says one of the reasons for their success is the square shape of the farm, giving a maximum walking distance of only 1.2 km.

This minimises cow foot problems. The farm is irrigated by four centre pivots, which can get water on the whole area in 29 hours. “They’ve all got water meters with data logs, so we know how much water is going on.” He says the wells are monitored regularly. The farm has a bigger area for effluent disposal than required by the consent, and effluent is easily applied through one of the centre pivots. Lower amounts of nitrogen fertiliser are used on this area. They also source a lot of chicken manure which is good for building up the organic matter in the soil.

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© 2009 Environment Canterbury