| 85 nzdairy RURAL SERVICES » Cambrilea Weedspraying CAMBRILEA’s team of 25 plant and operate 11 Hilux spray rigs Karen Phelps Cambrilea boasts an impressive 700 strong base of Waikato-Bay of Plenty clients. As one of New Zealand’s largest registered chemical applicators Cambrilea boasts an impressive 700 strong base of Waikato-Bay of Plenty clients ranging from private dairy, sheep and beef farms to Landcorp, Kiwifruit orchards, councils, utility companies and infrastructure providers such as Downers and more. It operates eleven 4x4 sprays rigs and a team of 25 staff, annually applying through handguns over three million litres of spray mix and also client knapsack releasing maintenance of the 300,000 natives grown each year at its on farm nursery in Cambridge, which have been planted for various clients. That nursery has grown from producing 30,000 plants in its first year to what it is today and since its inception has grown over four million natives planted and maintained by Cambrilea. It has also supplied to numerous wetlands, solar farms and New Zealand infrastructure projects. Fourteen years ago Cambrilea was one of the first to undertake full service riparian planting and has since become a one stop shop for riparian planting of waterways and is a registered chemical applicator and holds aquatic as well for waterways. “We haven’t planted one pine tree on principle, we are farmers. We only plant natives,” says Charlie Lea who started the company in 1997 with operations manager Jason Cameron and second in charge Adam Clerke minority shareholders now as well. Cambrilea has recently completed what is believed to be New Zealand’s largest man-made bat sanctuary reserve, transforming an 11-hectare maize paddock in Tamahere into a thriving ecological habitat. Cambrilea oversaw every aspect of the project. The area was sown with clover and ryegrass before a man-made wetland was established with weed matting, and a one-kilometre winding footpath was laid through the reserve. Around 375 mixed specimen trees were planted in strategic locations to provide roosting habitat for the bats, with GPS mapping used to position the largest trees. Cambrilea also laid approximately 2.8 hectares of mulch and planted around 47,000 mixed-species plants across individual forest patch areas, creating a connected corridor through which native short-tailed bats, pekapeka, can navigate from the river upward into the canopy. It now holds the ongoing maintenance programme for the sanctuary and pest control with AT 230 traps in place. “We’re a really big team, that’s what people like about us,” says Charlie. “We can get in and get the job done right with our great team.” A key point of difference at its on-farm nursery, where it grows up to 30 species suited to riparian restoration, erosion control and landscaping, is its use of Daltons one-litre grade pots and trays, that are also recyclable. Charlie says these are much bigger plants than the half litre T-28s that more of the new pop up nursery/planting crews use with those single use trays ending up in landfill or worse. “Cambrilea’s big one litre plants result in only one chemical release and an average 97% survival rate in the last ten years unlike the smaller T-28s that require more maintenance visits and have poorer survival rates,” says Charlie. Charlie and wife Helen are active farmers and Waikato Ballance Farm Environment Awards supreme winners for 2017, bringing more than 30 years of farming experience to the business whose approved contractor list spans regional councils, Fonterra, Transpower, Meridian Energy, Downer and Fulton Hogan. Helen is a qualified landscape architect and former head landscape architect for Hamilton City Council. Their three daughters Chelsea, Sophie and Georgia help on the 300ha breeding and finishing farm, which grows maize, winter lambs, lambs 750 Coopworth ewes and calves 125 Ratanui Hereford cows and sells 50-60 yearling bulls at their annual on farm sale with their 14th sale planned for this year. “We understand the frustration of investing time and money into plants that struggle to thrive,” says Charlie. “Everything we do is about getting the best long-term result and value for the clients and these projects. I think this shows in our annual repeat business from our loyal clients of 29 years in business.”
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