Pongaroa farm a winner P
"We know our soil is healthier. We are always looking for opportunities to improve, we’re never just sitting on our hands."
ONGAROA sheep and beef farmers Shaun and Tracie Baxter have won this year’s Horizons Ballance Farm Environment Awards.
In just 14 years, the Baxters have progressed from weekend farming in a partnership on a small lease block in Hawke’s Bay to running their own 1740-hectare breeding and finishing business southeast of Dannevirke.
The Baxters also won the Beef + Lamb New Zealand Livestock Award and the CB Norwood Distributors Ltd Agri-Business Management Award.
The award judges praised the couple’s progress, noting their ability to capitalise on expansion opportunities.
The judges commended Shaun and Tracie, who operate under the business name Agri Enterprises Ltd, on a property where all facets of sustainability can be seen.
The Baxters bought what is now their home farm, Wairakau, in 2002, with their lease partners Gerard and Shiree Hickey holding a share for an agreed period.
The home farm, which was the primary subject of judging for these awards, is 700ha effective and winters 5700 stock units, with a sheep to cattle ratio of 70:30.
In 2008, the Baxters leased the 280ha (effective) Range block, 20 minutes away, and bought it in 2013.
In 2015, they began leasing the 350ha (effective) Lakeview, 45 minutes away.
This property is overseen by Shaun and Tracie’s eldest son, Mark, and they also employ another shepherd in the business.
Second son Andrew is a shepherd on Patitapu Station nearby and daughter Nicole is in Year 13 at Feilding High School.
As well as running the farm books, Tracie works seasonally as a wool handler for a local shearing contractor.
The home block has 350ha of flat to easy rolling country, with the balance medium to steep hill.
“This appealed from the beginning because we were clear we didn’t just want to store farm,” Shaun said.
But the country tends to summer dry, so the addition of the Range block, higher back towards the Puketoi Range and summer safe, has rounded out their operation.
Each block has its own capital stock but dry autumns see the shift of some home ewes to Range for the tupping period.
The introduction of Lakeview into the mix has allowed them to begin breeding their own replacements, progeny from highlander rams over their romney ewes. All other ewes go to terminal sires.
The judges said stock were in excellent condition and there had been a significant production lift in the past five years with weaning weights and live weight gains increasing despite more lambs and calves on the ground.
Shaun attributes much of this to their sustained use of the Stockcare farm productivity monitoring programme and their switch to the Abron approach to fertiliser with humates, trace elements and lime added to phosphate in reactive phosphate rock (RPR) form.
“We switched to Abron because we wanted to look at what was going on under the ground, not just what was growing on top,” he said.
Shaun now does thorough quarterly soil assessments.
“We know our soil is healthier and what we are growing is better quality feed.
“We are always looking for opportunities to improve, we’re never just sitting on our hands.”
The judges said the Baxters’ pride in their property and what they did was clear.
“It was a pleasure to drive around a property where maintenance and continual improvement was an obvious focus,” they said.
The judges also noted the Baxters had extensive industry involvement, including Federated Farmers and field days.
They won the Tararua Sheep and Beef Farmer of the Year in 2014.
Shaun won the Young Farmer of the Year in 1997 and son Mark is following in those footsteps with a Shepherd of the Year title last year.
Shaun is also on the governance board for the Smedley Station cadet training farm.
Dannevirke dairy farmers Paul and Lisa Charmley entered their second Ballance Environment awards and won the LIC Dairy Farm Award and Massey University Innovation Award.
The Charmleys have used technology to make their farm more efficient. Their innovations include using a drone to detect cows in heat.
In their cowshed, automatic drafting and cup removers have been installed and cellphone app technology is used to improve farm efficiency with a C-Dax machine measuring pasture growth.
“Entering the Ballance Farm Environment awards isn’t about winning, but about keeping on track environmentally,” Lisa said.
“The goalposts in farming have shifted and farmers are more conscious of their environment now.”
Entering the awards this year and in 2015 gave the couple an “external perspective” on their farming business.
Along with their two awards this year, in 2015 the Charmleys won the Hill Laboratories Harvest award.
They are determined to put back more than they take, leaving something for the next generation, including their two children Reuben and Pippa.