| 25 Baygold REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT .iP NewtK The . ha bush and :etland area at The Station filters and cleans water from the surrounding ha catchment area. Wetland development takes out top award 027 200 7747 | chad@p3earthworks.co.nz | Te Puke , Tauranga, New Zealand BAY OF PLENTY BASED GPS EXCAVATORS | GPS BULLDOZERS | GPS SCRAPERS | EARTHMOVING Having the right machines and GPS precision control tools for every job is vital in today’s competitive earthmoving industry, says Chad Empson, director of Bay of Plenty-based P3 Earthworks. Chad and his skilled team excavated and shaped the extensive wetland area at Baygold’s kiwifruit property in Te Puke that recently won accolades at the Bay of Plenty Ballance Farm Environment Awards. Olivia Mausauola and Josh Easton, of Baygold Ltd, won the Regional Supreme Award, recognising the environmental stewardship focus driving the new Baygold development. “Having GPS machine control played a massive part in helping us excavate that wetland,” says Chad. “It was e ectively a swamp with topsoil on top. Had we broken through, we could have easily ended up with a machine in the swamp.” As it was, the team completed the excavation without incident and successfully delivered the wetland design plan to project speci cations. Sensor-based GPS machine control enabled the work to be done with absolute precision. As well as the wetland area, the P3 Earthworks team delivered all bulk earthmoving and site formation works required for the award winning Baygold orchard site and facilities. Chad was born and bred in the Bay of Plenty and this is the main area of operation for P3 Earthworks, though their reach goes as far south as Wellington. Chad founded the business as a sole charge operator in 2016. P3 Earthworks has since grown exponentially and today employs a team of 23 operators and two management sta . “The secret to our success is having a can-do attitude and a positive mindset. People nd us to be professional and easy to deal with. We’ve worked with Baygold for nearly three years now and have also picked up other local kiwifruit developments. We’re a preferred contractor for Fulton Hogan and HEB Construction in the Bay of Plenty.” Chad rst entered the industry 15 years ago as a machine operator. A big chunk of his earthworks career was spent in the mines of Western Australia, honing his skills on bulk earthmoving projects. Bringing that know-how back home gave him the kick start needed to launch his own business. P3 Earthmoving has a state-of-the-art eet of bulldozers, tractors, scoops and excavators along with bucket attachments like Doherty D-Lock tilt couplers and tilt rotators (‘steel wrist’) that enable jobs to be completed fast and e ciently. For bulk earthworks, P3’s big Fendt tandem scoop is the ultimate implement: “Using that, we can move 400 cubic metres in an hour – or 4000 cubic metres in a day!” GPS MACHINE CONTROL HOLDS THE KEY TO PROJECT SUCCESS Olivia Mausauola and Sam Johnstone, of Baygold Ltd, topped the field at the Bay of Plenty Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BF(A) in March to claim the Regional Supreme Award, along with several other category awards. The success is helping to showcase the nature-enhancing focus that underpins Baygold’s new kiwifruit orchard venture in Te Puke. ȊΖ’m very excited that we won the Supreme Award as sustainability and environmental management is a real passion of mine,” says Olivia, Baygold’s Relationship and Sustainability Manager. The BF(A 0 3 Bay of Plenty Supreme Winner’s Open Day, held in mid-April, was well-attended despite the timing being a little tricky in the midst of the busy picking season. ȊΖt was great to walk around with some of the local growers and talk about what we’re doing here.ȋ Called The Station, the 3 ha property got o to an interesting start under Baygold ownership with the development of an extensive wetland area. Olivia says when the property was first being investigated for purchase, the engineer’s report showed that part of it lay in a ȵoodplain that could not be utilised for production. One option for this land would have been to simply create a couple of ponds. “We wanted to do something better than that and wondered what else we could do. “We reached out to the Bay of Plenty Regional Council as well as our local iwi and they were both really supportive. Ζt turned out that NΖWA was also wanting to implement a proMect to monitor the performance of constructed wetlands across the country. From there, everything fell into place.ȋ The . ha bush and wetland area at The Station was completed Must over a year ago. Olivia says the preliminary data coming through from NΖWA so far is looking very positive, showing how the wetland is working as anticipated to filter and clean water from the surrounding ha catchment area. Olivia says another exciting spin-o is that the wetland is already attracting rare birds and other species. Planting of the 1 ha kiwifruit orchard area is still a work in progress. Ζt is all very new yet Baygold is fast emerging as an environmental champion – and not just for the wetland development. A carbon zero trial with Zespri is also underway. ȊΖt’s the first one of its kind and still in the very early stages. We will be collecting data on our emissions over a year and will then look at how we can reduce those emissions going forward. Ζt’s a really good trial for us to be in as it gives us a chance to be a part of it at this formative stage rather than having to play catch up later on.ȋ Other awards for Baygold’s Olivia and Sam at the Ballance Farm Environments Awards were the Bayleys People in Primary Sector Award, the Hill Laboratories Agri-Science Award and the Rabobank Agri-Business Management Award. The judges noted their commitment to guardianship of the land, as well as taking care of their team by providing real and meaningful support to sta. ȊThe people side of the equation is definitely one of the main reasons Ζ like working for Baygold and there are lots of dierent ways to become involved in the company. ȊΖt is an exciting time for us all right now. We have a big site here with a lot going on, including an accommodation complex for the RSE workers who moved in recently >in March@. “We’ve got a big shed for our machinery team to do our vehicle servicing and maintenance and we’ve also got a sewing area to manufacture our own canopy covers. (ventually, we’ll have our own oɝces here too.ȋ “It’s a really good trial for us to be in as it gives us a chance to be a part of it at this formative stage....ȋ
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