The Charmleys removed old pines and macrocarpa trees from alongside the creek and put in place this new planting a day before the field day.
The Charmleys removed old pines and macrocarpa trees from alongside the creek and put in place this new planting a day before the field day.
There's been a change in dairy farmer mindsets as they move away from production at any cost, to leading the way in caring for the environment, Fonterra's Anna Reddish says.
"There's a move away from using every inch of land to make milk," Anna, Fonterra's sustainable dairying adviser, toldthe Dannevirke News.
"Farmers want to be stewards of the land."
Te Rehunga dairy farmer Paul Charmley shows farm visitors how he divides this flax, resulting in 20 new plants for riparian planting on his farm.
About 35 farmers attended a Fonterra riparian-planting field day at Lisa and Paul Charmley's Te Rehunga dairy farm last week, keen to learn how they, too, could work with their environment.
"We even have a couple of sheep and beef farmers here keen to see what's happening in the dairy industry," Anna said.
The Charmleys entered their second Horizons Ballance Farm Environment awards this year, winning the LIC Dairy Farm Award and Massey University Innovation Award.
But it was entering the 2014 Horizons Ballance Farm Environment awards, a year after taking ownership of their farm, that set them on their sustainable environmental journey.
Some of the farmers at the riparian-planting field day check out plantings alongside the stream.
"After making infrastructure improvements and running a lean management system, the next big thing was the environment.
"We wanted to be proactive, not reactive," Lisa said.
After entering the awards and walking the farm with the judges, they talked about riparian planting and retiring land.
Milking 300 kiwicross (jersey/friesian cross) cows, the Charmleys produced 122,000 kilograms of milk solids last season on their system 2 farm plan.
Lisa now has her own nursery, producing 1500 seedlings this year, with the emphasis on bringing the birds and bees back to the land.
"Fruit and flowers are an important component of what we plant, with perching places for birds and food for the bees," she said.
Te Rehunga dairy farmer Lisa Charmley (left) with Anna Reddish, sustainable dairying adviser for Fonterra.
A month ago the couple logged pines and macrocarpa from the banks of a creek because they were old and dangerous and one had fallen into the creek.
The macrocarpa logs went to Pahiatua and the pine was exported out of the Port of Napier.
But they've left the stumps to help with flood protection as well as planting other species.
"This is a great place to plant up as these riparian areas will act as a filter for nitrogen and sediment," Anna said.
While the field day was a learning tool for farmers, the Charmleys were also surprised to learn Horizons Regional Council subsidises riparian planting.
"This year we're providing a 50 per cent subsidy, with farmers spraying planting areas and planting up," Anna Monk from Horizons said.
"We go for easy-to-establish species endemic to the area because we know they do well.
"In this area a lot of native fish get their insect food dropping from overhanging plantings."
Horizons source plants locally at Coppermine Nursery in Woodville, but with such big demand for them, farmers were told to have their orders in by December for the next planting season.
