36 | Pye Group improving cropping yields Matt and Heidi Hart. Kim Bowden BALLANCE FARM ENVIRONMENT AWARDS » Pye Group Significantly improving cropping yields while looking after soil health has helped Rakaia arable farmers Matt and Heidi Hart walk away with a host of accolades from the Canterbury Ballance Farm Environmental Awards. The husband-and-wife team won an impressive five awards - the Balance Agri-Nutrients Soil Management Award, The Bayleys People in Primary Sector Award, the Hill Laboratories Agri-Science Award, the Norwood Farming Efficiency Award and the Rabobank Agri-Business Management Award. The Harts have been managing the 890-hectare Longlane Farm for the Pye Group since 2003, after Matt was lured back from an OE in London to take the job. Despite describing himself back then as a “pretty green 23 year old”, Matt made some astute observations during those early years that lead to a clear vision of how to manage the land moving forward. “What I could see was our soil health was declining over time...It was almost like it was dead,” he says. Matt stayed curious and sought to upskill, completing a course on soil health offered by American expert Neal Kinsey. It was a game changer. “Ten years ago, if you went for a dig around, there was no worms or life in the soil. Now, when you go for a dig, it’s a different story, our soil has really turned around.” He recalls two key takeaways: successful cropping farms benefit from having lighter-footed livestock and some crops are better being left on the land than carted off it. The farm now carries 3,000 finishing lambs, which Matt and Heidi, themselves both breed on sheep and beef farms, have looked after. “Since doing that, we’ve seen an increase in our ryegrass yields and our potato yields, just through returning a bit back to the soil,” Matt says. “We also used to bale all the straw off the property. Now we incorporate that back into the soil after harvest. When you’re bailing straw, you’re Seed processing and drying. (03) 302 9231 | office@cairnbraeseed.co.nz Proudly supporting Pye Group www.skyfarmers.co.nz Contact: Duncan Hart 027 481 1915 or 03 302 8400 e: info@skyfarmers.co.nz Aerial Spraying Aerial Topdressing bailing nutrients and carting it off your farm and then you’re spending money on fertiliser. We’ve started adding some dolomite lime too, and we’ve seen a real improvement around water retention in our soil and soil health.” The Harts believe in data-driven decision- making. Moisture probes are installed on all growing blocks and watering regimes adjusted in response to their results. Likewise, grid testing of soils informs variable rate spreading. “What that means is in every field that’s going into vegetables we’ll test every hectare separately – in a 40-hectare paddock, we’ll do 40 different soil tests,” Matt says.
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