Forestry Operation
Over half the farm is in forestry these days…that’s a whole lot of trees!
We planted the first block of radiata pine in 1974, with the help of a Forestry Encouragement Grant and the support of NZFS extension officer Tom Muir (a.k.a. “the wee Scot”).
The grants were good schemes, in that the cost to the government was a relatively cheap way of getting the trees into the ground, especially after taking the tax, income and employment that flowed on from that.
Joint venture forestry has proved the key to survival through tough times, enabling the farm to maintain forestry plantings and generate cash flow for farm development.
The major environmental concern for the farm is erosion and the resulting sediment contribution. Planting trees helps with that issue.
The erosion risk ranges from moderate to severe for large areas of the hill country, mostly as soil slip and gully erosion, and dramatically worsened by severe weather events in 2004 and 2006.
Flooding highlighted the vulnerability of culverts and bridges to high rainfall events particularly with summer high-rainfall events on north-facing sandstone country that tends to dry out.
Forestry is the logical and most appropriate land use to control eroding hill country and protect the farm from the impact of future severe weather events, but trees have been on our radar for over three decades.
A new type of partnership with Horizons Regional Council is taking the farm to an even higher level of sustainable land management…and we’re still planting!
See an aerial map of the farm and forest blocks here (the darker green areas are all forest)
Get in touch
Get in touch if you’re interested in the farming or forestry operations, or in visiting the farm