Ballance Farm Environment Awards

Gisborne District Council invited local farmers to enter the 2011/12 Ballance Farm Environment Awards to share knowledge of sustainability with others. The overall objective of the awards is to promote sustainable land management of New Zealand farms believing that role models and education are effective tools to improving farming practices.

About the awards

The New Zealand Farm Environment Award (NZFEA) Trust has formed a partnership with the Gisborne District Council and the Hawkes Bay Regional Council to bring the competition to the East Coast region.  

Gisborne District Council wishes to encourage and support local farmers who are both top producers and top environmental managers.  Farmers and horticulturists have an opportunity to participate in the prestigious Ballance Farm Environment Awards.

Shaun Burkett (GDC), David Clark and 2 judges

The annual Ballance Farm Environment awards recognise farmers who are farming in a way that is environmentally, socially and economically sustainable. The addition of the East Coast brings the number of regions involved in the awards to 9.

The 2010/11 awards

The 2010/2011 Ballance Farm Environment awards included 4 entries from the Gisborne area, with David Clark’s cropping property at Manutuke and Ray & Grace Newman’s sheep, beef and forestry enterprise at Te Karaka, making it through to the final judging.

David Clark’s cropping operation at Opou Station, Manutuke won the ‘Ballance Agri-Nutrients Nutrient Management Award’ and the ‘Hill Laboratories Harvest Award’. The Ballance Agri-Nutrients Nutrient Management Award rewards the recipient for the wise use of nutrients for productivity while demonstrating excellent care for the environment, and The Hill Laboratories Harvest Award recognised the recipient’s excellent soil management over the predominantly heavy clay loam soils.

The Supreme Award winners were Steve and Jane Wyn-Harris for ‘Marlow Hill’; their 358 hectare sheep and beef farming business in Takapau, Hawkes Bay.

The 2011/12 Ballance Farm Environment awards, along with 7 sponsored awards contain a specific regional award for applicants from the Gisborne and Hawkes Bay regions; the “East Coast Farming for the Future” award. This award will recognise sustainable farming systems that include provisions for the future impacts of climate change.

Read the media release - Opou Station wins 2 farm environment awards
Read the article in Conservation Quorum Winter 2011 edition