Much to gain from Ballance awards

Northland's 10 supreme Ballance farm environment award winners since the competition was launched in 2005, pictured prior to the naming of this year's winner.

Okaihau dairy farmers Craig and Suzanne Johnsen met some awesome people during their involvement with the Ballance Farm Environment Awards.

The couple, who milk 260 cows on 94ha (87ha effective), with a 38ha run-off nearby, entered the awards for the first time last year because they wanted to showcase their attractive, productive family farm.

The property's location, on a busy corner of the Okaihau plateau, gives it a high profile, but they say they do whatever they can to demonstrate that they are responsible when it comes to sustainability.

"We do everything by the book, and we take our environmental footprint very seriously," Mr Johnsen said.

Entering the 2016 awards had allowed them to highlight the work they were doing to the wider community, while the judging process gave them a valuable opportunity to benchmark their operation against other dairy businesses, and find out what they could do in future to make further improvements.

Mrs Johnsen said the experience was inspirational, and she and her husband had enjoyed mixing with the other entrants.

"We met some awesome people," she said.

The judges were impressed with their operation, awarding them category wins including the LIC Dairy Farm Award, which recognises the important role that herd improvement plays in a sustainable farming business.

They also praised their best-standard record-keeping and comprehensive health records.

"Herd reproductive performance is excellent, and the herd BW is in the top 10 per cent nationally," they said.

The couple said the Dairy Farm Award had been welcome recognition of the hard work they had put into their herd genetics.

They were in the process of changing to a crossbred herd, which they believed was benefiting the farm and increasing profitability."

They took great pride in the health of their herd, because "happy cows equal happy farmers."

And they encouraged other farmers to enter the awards, "because there is always something to learn and improve on the farm."

Entries for the 2017 Northland awards close on October 31. Entry is free. Go to www.nzfeatrust.org.nz for the form.