56 | The Whareama River forms one boundary for the 1,245ha (875ha effective) property and is a resource enjoyed by many in the community. Ballance Farm Environment Awards » Waiteko Farm Creating additional income streams Sue Russell Simon Perry and Meg Wheatstone along with son Matt operate Waiteko Station, a sheep, beef and cropping business in the Wairarapa. The decision to diversify land-use by growing 100+ ha of cash crops and planting pine trees has created additional income streams and resilience to the business, something Meg says has been a positive thing. When Rural North spoke with Meg, the farm was enjoying a lovely autumn day with a chilly start. She says a focus these past few years has been to reinstate the property, following the impact of Cyclones Hale and Gabrielle, particularly around re-fencing and reinstating farm tracks. “Cyclone Hale was when we got all the rainfall, with well over 300mm falling, while with Gabrielle the worst of the rain was north of our farm but it caused devastating flooding in the Whareama River, taking out a lot of our fertile river flats.” Meg says they were incredibly lucky that the flooding stopped just millimetres below their floorboards. Adding to the flooding potential is the fact that the river is tidal through the farm, and when it’s high tide at the river mouth, it acts like a plug, stopping the flow from escaping. Equally though, once the tide turns the flooding recedes rapidly, as happened in Gabrielle. The Whareama River forms one boundary for the 1,245ha (875ha effective) property and is a resource enjoyed by many in the community when the whitebaiting season is underway, as the bulk of access for whitebaiters is through Waiteko. It’s also been identified as a spawning area, something that Meg and Simon are working to protect, along with the local school and catchment group. Waiteko is a partnership between Simon and Meg, with additional investment from Nicholas, Simon’s brother. The children are shareholders in the business as part of the succession pathway. One reason to diversify, Meg explains, was to reduce drought risk and last year, the farm’s gross income was roughly one-third from cash cropping, 35% sheep and the balance from beef. The pine block extends over some 75ha as a future income stream and for carbon sequestration while exotic and indigenous blocks on the property earn carbon credits. “We certainly feel it’s added to our business to widen our farming activities. We’ve got the flexibility of shifting stock numbers and cropping area given the seasonal climate shifts that occur.” Meg and Simon decided, given their experiences of the past few years and their hard work in bringing the farm back into its best situation, that it was a good time to enter the Greater Wellington Ballance Farm Environment Awards, not expecting necessarily to receive any specific awards. Much to their delight, Waiteko Farm received three awards – the Ballance Agri-Nutrients Soil Management Award, the Ministry for the Environment Biodiversity Award and an award from the Greater Wellington Regional Council. “It was a thrill to receive such positive feedback for our work, particularly around building soil quality and encouraging more pasture species, which we felt would benefit the health of our animals.” Meg says with respect to soil management, the focus taken on improving crop productivity through soil improvement. Matt’s been planting a wider range of crops, some to assist with soil condition and improve drainage, others to provide more fibre or other nutrients to the stock. “We’ve got involved in a soil health discussion group which has been informative. We also introduced Dung Beetles a few years ago, and were thrilled to recently discover that they have spread to new parts of the farm. We’ve also been involved in a couple of trials with the aim of improving soil water infiltration.” Dung Beetles, Meg says, are little work-horses, shifting animal dung down into the soil, aerating the soil in the process and enabling additional nutrients to be released, bolstering the soil profile. The Biodiversity Award was recognition of the commitment to planting trees as well as closing up areas, allowing what nature intended to grow, to return to the area. “We’ve also done a lot of pole planting to try to keep the hills together and we’ve done some riparian fencing and planting along the river.” In the future, a wetland area will receive further Accounting and Agri-Support from the world’s first Figured Elite Partner. www.sidekickrural.co.nz Farming is easier with a Sidekick. attention, so there’s always plenty happening on the farm, something that Meg says she enjoys. “There’s always work to be done and when what you do is driven by a sense of stewardship toward the land, then only good can come.” When not helping on the farm, Meg loves getting out with her horses and she plans in the future to open up tracks for horse enthusiasts to enjoy some horse-trekking activities. “I can see that might grow into another lovely activity on the farm and open our farm up for others to see and enjoy.”
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=