2005 Winners

2005 Canterbury Region Supreme and Environment Canterbury Water Efficiency Award Winners

Jenny and Han Klisser with Paddy Boyd

A very strong performance in all areas of profitable and sustainable land management has won Paddy and Barbara Boyd (the managers of Haldon Station in the Mackenzie Country) this year’s BFEA Supreme Award for Canterbury.

Judging co-ordinator Doug Archbold said his team had a difficult task in choosing the best performer from a group of excellent entries. The Boyd’s have shown an outstanding grasp of the complex skills required to run an operation of this size. Their ability to implement systems to protect and improve soil and water values, manage weeds and pests whilst producing a healthy profit in such a fragile environment, are simply outstanding.

Their system of reusing borderdyke water to irrigate further land gives them an edge as this system protects and improves soil and water values in a dry and fragile environment.

Innovative use has been made of deer to control briar which was taking over in many areas. Paddy says the country was effectively " buggered" for sheep. Large mobs of deer stop the briar re-seeding, and chew off all the young shoots, and it has now got to the stage where sheep can be grazed after the deer.

Haldon runs about 6000 deer, 11,000 sheep and 1000 cattle. The station also has Merino, Hereford, and Angus studs. Paddy says they finish all their own stock, and breed the majority of the replacements.

As well as winning the Supreme Award, Paddy and Barbara also won the Environment Canterbury Water Efficiency Award.

The 14,000ha Haldon Station was bought in 1991 by the Klisser family when they sold their bread making business. Paddy Boyd stayed on as manager, having been on the farm since 1982.

Han Klisser said Paddy Boyd was doing a fantastic job, "without him we couldn’t have done it. Standards have been set, and we have been improving year by year." In turn, Paddy said the Klissers had been hands off, allowing him to get on with development. All development was done out of farm income.

The Boyds and Klissers will go on to represent the region at the second Ballance Farm Environment Awards National Sustainability Showcase to be held this year in Christchurch on July 29.

2005 PPCS Best Livestock Farm Award

Tony and Becky Marett and Rosemary and David Morrow (owners)


Tony and Becky Marett run a high producing livestock unit in the Canterbury foothills near Mount Somers with a lot of attention to environmental sustainability. They are the winners of the PPCS Best Livestock Farm Award at this year's Ballance Farm Environment Awards.

The farm, Okawa, is 800 ha, and is owned by Rosemary and David Morrow who live on the property. It is mostly rolling downs with some medium hill country. It runs about 4500 Romney and crossbred ewes, and about 300 Hereford breeding cows, and most of the young stock are finished there.

They also run a Hereford stud and have an annual on farm bull sale. “We are trying to run a high producing unit, breeding for easy care characteristics”. Tony says. He says they aim to farm sustainably. This includes conservative nitrogen use and a sparing use of sprays, while at the same time trying to find alternatives to spraying. Regular soil testing is done to determine just how much nutrient the soil needs before fertiliser application. They believe that high nitrogen use is unlikely to be sustainable in the long term.

Some of the important springs on the property have been fenced off, and a lot of tree planting, both exotic and native, has been done on the farm, especially in places difficult to manage. An area of snow tussock along the roadside has been protected under a QEII Trust covenant.

While they have done some tile drainage in paddocks, genuine wetlands have not been drained. Direct drilling is used widely for re-grassing. In combination with shelter belts it protects against wind erosion. Tony says they closely monitor internal parasites in the stock so that they only need to drench when necessary. Stocking rates are on the conservative side. “We’re not at the high end,” Tony says. “We think we have sensible stocking rates to allow for the fluctuating seasons in Canterbury.”

Animal health, food safety and traceability are important issues for the Maretts and Morrows because they are targeting top-end overseas customers. Lambs are marketed through contract to a UK supermarket chain, while steers are marketed through contract to Japanese restaurants.

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© 2007 Environment Canterbury