Business South March 2021

| 119 Family making a difference at Hawea Richard Loader Finn, Justine and Geoff Ross on The Saddle - returning to their farming roots. L ake Hawea Station’s placement as a finalist in the Restoring Nature Award in the recent Sustainable Business Awards is a clear demonstration that farmers can be amongst the country’s greatest environmental custodians. “It was a way of saying that as a farmer you can be a net positive environmental contrib- utor and run a productive farm at the same time,” says Geoff Ross who along with his family bought the station in 2018. “ That supports Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s recent study that showed a huge number of beef and lamb farms are already carbon positive. A lot of farmers are doing the types of things we’ve done at Lake Hawea but by do- ing it and being a finalist in the sustainability awards demonstrates the value of what many New Zealand farmers are doing.” Geoff and his wife Justine had both grown up on farms—albeit in the North Island. Attending Lincoln University Geoff always intended to move into farming but found him- self working in advertising and then consumer brands. “We started a vodka company and were then involved in a fragrance company, a skin care company and more recently a craft beer company. So, that took us away from farming for a couple of decades—but the intention was always to get back to farming.” Having bought Lake Hawea Station two and half year ago, the family took over the farming side 18 months ago—fulfilling a dream to return to their farming roots. “While Justine and I have done so many things in our life, most days it feels as though Lake Hawea Station is the biggest project we’ve taken on. We have an appreciation for just how hard farmers work and the diversity of the skill set required.” Embracing 7 kilometres of lakefront, Lake Hawea Station encompasses 6500 hec- tares—500 hectares of flat land that can be traversed by tractor, 2500 hectares of hill country that’s grazeable all year round, and the remainder fairly high summer grazing country. Flat terraces under irrigation by the lake are the farm’s powerhouse while gullies running off the lake towards the mountains in an east- west direction provide good spring/summer farming. “In the spring the north facing slopes are very warm and are the first to shoot away. But in the middle of summer it’s the south facing slopes that manage to hold the green grass.” The farm is home to 8500 merino sheep— well suited to the area of course—and 200 pure Angus cattle. Moving to a breeding cattle herd, all progeny will be sold store. “The cattle play an important role in devel- oping new pastures—their grazing effect is part of building regenerative pasture. Run the right way, cattle can also help with soil seques- tration, which as yet we still haven’t meas- ured. And we’re moving towards regenerative pastures as well.” With the environment a key focus on Lake Hawea Station, the first thing the Ross family did was calculate their carbon footprint— emissions largely from methane, nitrous oxide and a little carbon dioxide. F ounded in 2006 by neighbouring Kiwifruit farmers, NZ Humates Ltd is one of New Zealand’s rst companies to specialise in humates—one of the world’s oldest forms of compost. Humates is a completely natural and organic substance, rich in humic and fulvic acids—the active ingredients of soil humus. Humates is food for the soil; perfect for building up soil organic matter. Since its inception, NZ Humates has seen an ever increasing interest from farmers and growers aligned with New Zealand’s drive for a more sustainable way of farm- ing. Based in Te Puke, NZ Humates’ products are available throughout New Zealand with the supply of both dry and liquid products through approved distributors. “We’re currently seeing a large uptake of our products in the South Island, particu- larly around Central Otago,” says Sam Uf ndell from NZ Humates. “We’re thrilled one of our clients, Lake Hawea Station, is a nalist in the 2020 Sus- tainable Business awards, in the Restoring Nature category.” Extracted from Gippsland in South Eastern Victoria and regarded as one of the highest quality sources of raw humate in the world, NZ Humates’ dry product is branded AusMate. “The relative advantage of AusMate is that it’s rich in fulvic acid, crucial for bringing the chelated nutrients and fertilisers into the plant cells and turning them into readi- ly absorbable bio-available forms,” explains Sam. “NZ Humates does several liquid products including TriMate, which is extracted from our raw humate, is rich in humic and fulvic acids and an excellent source of carbon. Fulvic Express is our most popular product and facilitates the plant’s uptake of nutri- ents and fertilisers, promoting assimilation and metabolism within the plant. Humic Supreme is a superb product and in my opinion should be used more widely to enhance the nutrient holding capacity of soil, particularly to facilitate the uptake of iron, copper, zinc and manganese. Both AusMate and TriMate are organic and BioGro certi ed.” Targeting the diversity of farmers and horticulturists passionate about building up their soil fertility and organic matter, Sam explains that a key bene t of NZ Humates’ products is that farmers do not need to apply as much fertiliser. “Humates has the ability to make fertiliser application more ef cient and signi cantly reduce leaching. You’re leaching far less nutrients, nitrogen and carbon, which are more readily held in the soil for uptake by the plant when the plant requires it. This is excellent news from the perspective of environmental sustainability, kaitiakitanga and stewardship.” Our products have the ability to: • Add soil organic matter • Help plants grow deeper root systems • Increase fertiliser effectiveness and reduce costs • Retain nitrates, carbon and nutrients in the soil, instead of them being lost into our waterways and atmosphere Our Fulvic Express works in the soil to chelate minerals and trace elements, turning them into readily absorbable bio-available forms. Fulvic acid has the ability to act as a superhighway for nutrients, taking them from the soil into plant roots and enhancing penetration through cell walls. This leads to larger yields and richer plants, enhancing the health of those eating them – your animals and our people! 0508 HUMATES (0508 486 2837) Email: info@humates.co.nz Humates – the best source of humus and soil organic matter www.humates.co.nz Enriching the soil... Calculating carbon sequestration from all the vegetation showed Lake Hawea Station sequesters more carbon than it emits and therefore carbon positive. Fencing off the lake, while implementing a huge stock water system and running fresh water through many of the paddocks was followed by fencing off other waterways and planting 10,000 native trees endemic to the area. The Ross’ goal is to plant 10,000 trees each year for the next decade. Identifying rare biodiversity in the area has led to endangered species being protected. “There’s the only wild population of the Western Grand Skink left living in New Zealand and therefore the world. “There’s a very small and precious popu- lation of them so we have done a lot of pest control around that. We have the second rar- est fish in New Zealand—the Clutha Flathead Galaxiid. “We have a rare Cyprus hebe—there are only two wild stands left and one of them is on the Station. We have the kārearea—the native falcon and we also have a rare tree daisy. So we have identified where all these species are and put in pest control and fencing to support that biodiversity.” The Ross’ environmental focus fits well with their own family values as well as doing the right things for Mother Earth. But Geoff says it also drives a business advantage. Consumers and customers world over are looking for low carbon food and fibre from provenance that has a large amount of biodi- versity. Consumers want to see right into your backyard and if that’s a place that’s carbon positive, rich in biodiversity, with strong water, with a strong animal welfare policy—then that is the place that will achieve premiums for their products.” SUSTAINABILITY Lake Hawea Station