Tree planting transforms farm

John and Christine Pedersen will provide morning tea and lunch at a Mid North Farm Forestry Association field day at their Parakao farm on October 29.

John and Christine Pedersen will next week open their gate to let visitors see how 35 years of tree planting and care has transformed their 232ha Parakao farm into a model of wise land use.

The couple, who this year won the Husqvarna North Island Farm Foresters of the Year title, will host a Mid North Farm Forestry Association field day at their farm at 165 Karaka Rd on October 29, starting with morning tea about 10.30am and with lunch provided.

People are advised to take wet-weather gear as walks are planned so they get to look around the farm's 100-plus grazing paddocks and 40 individual woodlots and plantations featuring a wide variety of species.

Mrs Pedersen said she and John "couldn't help ourselves" when they began planting trees on the farm in 1981 and continued annually until 1999.

"Radiata is definitely a species from which we are going to get a return, but we like planting all sorts of trees. The field day is being held to encourage others to do the same thing."

Farm forestry had been supported in the 1980s, but investment had since declined, which Mrs Pedersen said seemed out of line with the need to plant trees to counter carbon emissions.

"Why isn't there more publicity and enthusiasm for tree planting?" she asked.

Near their house the couple have about a hectare covered with trees grown from seeds and young plants they were given.

There are conifers, oaks, maples, magnolias and many other trees which caught the couple's fancy over the years.

The farm walk will take people out to production woodlots and Mid North Farm Forestry Association president Peter Davies-Colley will talk about prices Northland farm foresters are getting for trees they harvest.

Mrs Pedersen said son Matthew, who works for forest management company PF Olsen, would also be on hand to offer advice.

Matthew had contributed to the farm tree planting as a boy, and Mrs Pedersen said his sister Justine - who had planted her own patch of pines on the farm - had gained a forestry degree before heading overseas.

"Farm forestry has been a family thing all the way along," Mrs Pedersen said.

The farm at present runs 200 rising yearling bulls, 100 rising yearling steers and heifers, 120 ewes and about 170 lambs.

John Pedersen said a tree line which had blown down had been turned into timber used on the farm, but harvesting of the woodlots and plantations was only now "about to come into the pipeline".

The Pedersens won the Northland community conservation and environment award in 2009 and took the 'Land of Life' section of the 2010 Northland Ballance farm environment awards.