What's coming up this week

Waikato Farm Environment Winners 2019

About a decade ago Adrian Ball says his ego and arrogance had him cranking out the milk production on his Waikato dairy farm. The higher the production tallies, the happier he was. Then the environmental movement really struck a chord with Adrian and Pauline, and Adrian had a health scare. Now they run a much lower stocking rate, have no bobby calves because they're into dairy beef and they don't use imported feed like palm kernel. Supplementary feed comes from farm-grown lucerne and maize silage. Nitrogen leaching has dropped dramatically and is well below levels seen as acceptable. Meanwhile farm profitability is still well above the district's average.

A sign of the times

Jo Jack is a keen woodworker also runs sign-making classes for woman in rural communities. She makes rustic wooden signs of all shapes and sizes and sells most of them via her Gingham Girls Facebook page. What started as a hobby is now a full-time business for the Balclutha woman who was a police officer for 18 years. Jo designs, stencils, cuts and paints the signs in a converted shipping container beside her home and she employs a couple of high school students to help with the sanding. Originally, the signs were made from wood milled on her husband’s 400 hectare farm but now she has started using timber from a local sawmill because demand has out-grown supply.

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Full Episode for Friday May 24 2019

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From the Archives ....

Smart As Farming

A not-for-profit farming organisation has released a new, easy to use environmental monitoring app.

The SmartFarms app lets farmers track their environmental performance and provides data to prove the quality of their farm environment is improving. The information may help gain better access to high-value markets overseas.