12 | Top award comes Ange Davidson ARABLE » Marr farms Hamish Marr with the 2022 New Zealand Small Seed Grower of the Year award at the Arable Awards. Winner of the 2022 New Zealand Small Seed Grower of the Year, Hamish Marr, is humbled to be taking home the top award for his cocksfoot and red clover seed. “It’s a real honour and a privilege to have been singled out by my peers and by the industry. I enjoy working closely with the people involved in the small seed industry and I feel the award is a recognition of this involvement and on-farm achievements,” says Hamish. The Marr’s family farm, Longfield, sits 450 metres above sea level on river terraces between the Rakaia Gorge and Methven in mid-Canterbury. The 500-hectare dryland farm is run by Hamish, his brother Stuart and his father Graham. Hamish manages the arable cropping and Stuart looks after the livestock. Graham is still active on the farm and does the hard yards in the office. The Marr’s all live on farm with their respective families in three separate dwellings. Hamish and his wife Melanie share their home with three daughters, Abbey, Sophie and Annabel, who are the sixth generation on the farm. Wind is a constant so close to Rakaia Gorge and limits what small seed can be grown at Marr Farm. Besides cocksfoot and red clover (both Reaper and Relish varieties), the farm produces wheat, barley, oats, peas, radish and pak choy seed. The property is managed in two distinct rotations in separation, one being based around cocksfoot seed production, the other a pasture phase, both being the same in length with standard arable crops following. Both cocksfoot and pasture are normally in the ground for five years saving both establishment costs and herbicide use. While weed control is vital for a viable small seed enterprise, Hamish is adamant that nothing can be looked at in isolation, and that if you get the basics right in your farming system, everything else will fall into place. • to page 14 “It might seem really simple but getting the right mix of crop and stock, planting the right crop at the right time, using weed and disease control when needed, not overstocking, and harvesting at the right time are essential for a successful farming system,” says Hamish. “Going out into the paddock to look at your crop rather than looking from the farm gate is what I call doing the basics right. It’s also being mindful of why you are doing something and always questioning. We do a lot of our own on farm trials and constantly try and apply the results. There are people out there who just do what they’ve always done without asking why.” Hamish travelled overseas in 2019 on a Nuffield Scholarship to look at glyphosate regulation and how New Zealand farmers could operate should the agrichemical be banned. His focus broadened while overseas to study whole farming systems rather than glyphosate in isolation. He found that most of the northern hemisphere cropping farms fell short on diversity with only two or three different crops in a system which increased reliance on herbicides and insecticides. “A mixed cropping farm in New Zealand has six or seven things plus livestock which has a measure of sustainability about it. You have to diversify. It’s something we don’t even have to think about over here, it’s in our DNA, our ancestors were sheep farmers,” he laughs. New Zealand is globally renowned for its herbage seed production and is one of the top three producers along with Denmark and Oregon. Should glyphosate be banned, New Zealand would no longer be competitive. “The world markets trade in purity and those markets would disappear. We would have to completely change what we do with our farming operation,” he believes. Hamish’s research emphasises the importance of “It might seem really simple but getting the right mix of crop and stock, planting the right crop at the right time, using weed and disease control when needed, not overstocking, and harvesting at the right time are essential for a successful farming system.” @BarenbrugNZ facebook.com/BarenbrugNZ barenbrug.co.nz - Bulk Grain, Silo & Cool Storage- Firewood & Shingle Supplies - Agricultural Spraying- Lime & Super Spreading - Precision Nitrogen Sowing - Swing-Lifting - Log, Hay & Straw, Grain, Stock & Container Cartage - l i , il l - i i l li - Agri l l i - i i - i i i i - i - i i - , , i , i PROUD TO SUPPORT MARR FARMS PO Box 28, Line Road, Methven , i , • Ph: 03 302 8616 : E: philipwareingltd@xtra.co.nz : ili i l . . •• www.philipwareing.co.nz . ili i . . www.jacksonholmes.co.nz Office 03 303 0872 · Cultivation & Drilling · Forage Harvesting · Baling and Wrapping · Slurry & Muck Spreading · Manure & Compost Supply · Supplementary Feed · Mowing & Cartage Syngenta is proud to support Marr Farms and congratulates Hamish on winning ‘Grower of the Year - Small Seed’ at the NZ Arable Awards. ® Registered trademarks of a Syngenta Group Company
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