Latest news with #BallanceFarmEnvironmentAward
Scoop
03-07-2025
- Business
- Scoop
From Building On What's Going Well, To Keeping Your Consumer Front Of Mind: Top Kiwi Farmers Share Their Tips
They say the best thing to do with good advice is to pass it on to others. That premise works as the inspiration behind a new video series for Kiwi farmers called 'Tips for Good', which launched in June. The series features previous Ballance Farm Environment Award winners who share their tips and advice on what they've learned on their farming journey. The series was created by Ballance Agri-Nutrients and began with tips from Ballance Farm Environment Award ambassadors Hamish and Simon Guild, the two brothers behind High Peak Station, a deer, sheep and beef farm in Canterbury. The brothers also featured on a recent episode of A New Zealand Food Story with Ben Bayly on TVNZ 1. Ballance General Manager Customer Jason Minkhorst says the Tips for Good series was created as a way to share knowledge from people who've already 'trodden the path' in creating both sustainable and profitable farming practices. 'This year marks 30 years since we became part of the Ballance Farm Environment Awards. We recognised that the previous winners have a huge amount of knowledge to share with the rest of the farming community; what's worked for them, what to watch out for,' he says. 'This was another way for us to bring that advice out to a wider audience.' The series will run over the next several weeks across social media and through online channels and will feature farmer advice set amongst some stunning rural landscapes across New Zealand. Jason adds the campaign speaks to the collective nature of the co-operative and its more than 16,000 shareholders. 'We're all in this together, and if our farmers and growers are winning, then so are we. We're much stronger as a collective than we are apart, so why not share what we've learned along the way,' he says.
Otago Daily Times
04-06-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit
Photo: supplied Lloyd McCallum Winton For services to the dairy industry and the environment. Winton dairy farmer Lloyd McCallum, 65, was not looking for any recognition, nor did he expect it. But being included in this year's King's Birthday Honours was "a nice surprise", Mr McCallum said. "The world's full of doom and gloom these days, but yeah, it was a nice surprise. "It puts a little bit of a skip in your step." The former three-term Environment Southland councillor was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the dairy industry and the environment. "It's not the end of the journey. There's still more to do," he said. Mr McCallum is a church elder, an award-winning dairy farmer and active community member in Southland. He was one of the original Southland sheep and arable farmers to convert his property to dairy production in 1991, a move that helped to bring prosperity and growth to the region. He has won several farming awards, including Westpac NZMP Dairy Farmer of the Year in 2002 and Ballance Farm Environment Award for best dairy farm and Lincoln University Farmer of the Year, both in 1997. He was a member of the original Fonterra Shareholders Council (SHC) between 2000 and 2013, providing leadership during a period of significant change in the dairy industry. He has been involved with many industry bodies including the South Island Dairy Event committee, Livestock Improvement Co-op, and the Southland Demonstration Farm. He was elected as an Environment Southland councillor in 2013 and became deputy chairman in 2016. Significant improvements in the Southland waterways are now visible due to policies made by Environment Southland in his tenure. He has been instrumental in leading farmers in best practice farm management and taking responsibility for environmental effects. Mr McCallum was one of the first co-chairs of Whakamana te Waituna Charitable Trust, which is focused on improving freshwater quality in the Waituna region of Southland.
