Farmers and horticulturalists growing quality food and produce, while caring for the environment and their communities, are being encouraged to enter the 2017 Ballance Farm Environment Awards.

The awards are not about winning major prizes or overseas travel, but instead about sharing positive farming stories, ideas and expertise with the wider farming community and the general public.

Taking part in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards was a rewarding experience for 2012 winners Jim and Barbara Hitchcock.

Supported by major national and regional sponsors, there are prizes to be won but the greatest value entrants receive from taking part is input by knowledgeable judges and meeting like-minded people.

It was with the aim of boosting entries from drystock and dairy farmers, horticulturalists, beekeepers and others involved in primary production on a large or small scale, that members of the management committee of the Bay of Plenty awards hosted an information event at Comvita on Thursday.

Entries for the 2017 awards close on October 21, followed by a round of judging by a team of farmers and rural professionals who as well as assessing entrants, share their knowledge and advice.

Entering the awards is the right thing to do for the image of farming and horticulture, says former entrant and Bay of Plenty awards judging co-ordinator Margaret Wright.

Margaret and fellow committee members are not only encouraging farmers and growers to enter and but also those who work with or know of farmers and horticulturalists who run their businesses in ways which are environmentally and economically sustainable, to nominate them.

Among the speakers at Thursday's event was Jim Hitchcock who with wife Barbara won the supreme award in 2012 for the way they and their sharemilkers Rhys and Kim Meredith run the 190ha dairy unit called Castlerock Farm in the Mamaku Ranges near Rotorua.

Jim says he had for several years suffered 'gentle” persuasion from a friend to enter. It was the mounting pressure on dairy farmers in the sensitive Rotorua Lakes catchment and what Jim perceived as a lack of understanding by the public of what farmers were doing to mitigate environmental impacts which finally decided him to enter.

'I saw the awards as an opportunity to tell our story.”

Castlerock Farm went on to win the supreme award and so impressed was he by what the awards stand for, that Jim has become chairman of the Bay of Plenty management committee.

Entering wasn't a daunting task, says Jim.

'All up it probably took about eight hours of my time and when it came to judging, that was a great process. The judges made some recommendations about work we could do and we've done most of them. We were totally surprised to win any awards, let alone the supreme one.”

Kiwifruit growers Graham and Mavis Dyer who won the supreme award in 2011, also found the process very rewarding.

Growers and farmers have important stories to tell and those stories have meaning for consumers, especially in overseas markets, says Graham, who predicts that in future every box of fruit exported from New Zealand will carry the growers' photos.

'Perhaps there will even be photos on the fruit itself. Consumers will be able to scan a fruit label with their phone and see images of the orchard where it was grown.”

The environment awards are another way of telling those stories and showcasing all that is positive in horticulture and farming, he believes.

Mavis says she enjoys entering the awards, the people they met and they experiences they enjoyed and she encourages other growers and farmers to enter the 2017 awards.

The overall objective of the awards is 'to promote sustainable land management on New Zealand farms believing that role models and education are effective tools to improving farming practices”.

'Don't wait until you have finished everything you want to do on your farm before you enter, because you will never be finished,” says Margaret.

Entries for the 2017 awards close on October 21, 2016 and the awards evening will be on February 24, 2017, at the ASB Baypark, Mt Maunganui

For more information and to enter, go to: www.nzfeatrust.org.nz/ballance-farm-environment-awards or email: [email protected]