All Black rugby and New Zealand farming are continually innovating to ensure they stay on top of their 'game” says Graeme Smith General Manager – Animal Nutrition Ballance Agri Nutrients.

'If you could put the 1987 World Cup winning All Black team on the field against the cup winning 2011 team, they would be seriously disadvantaged because while it's still technically the same game, it's vastly different to what it was 27 years ago and the same is true for farming today,” says Graeme, who will be the keynote speaker at the Ballance Farm Environment Awards dinner in Tauranga on Friday February 28.

Graeme Smith General Manager – Animal Nutrition Ballance Agri Nutrients.

The finalists in the 2014 awards are: Bruce and Judy Woods dairy farmers of Edgecumbe, Rick Burke and Jane Loney sheep and beef farmers of Katikati, Heather and Lachlan McKenzie, dairy farmers of Kaharoa and Harriet and Trevor Hamilton, dairy farmers of Rerewhakaaitu.

The top performers in both rugby and farming are those who learn from the past but also maximise modern technology and adapt to rapidly changing rules and public demand.

Graeme, a committed rugby fan, says farmers are adapting rapidly to changes which impact on their business and the awards showcase how farming can be both environmentally sustainable and financially viable.

'People don't enter these awards to win prizes. They do so to learn from each other and those who judge their properties. Most have to be actively encouraged to take part as they don't think they are ready, or that what they are doing is anything exceptional. In fact the farmers these awards showcase are representative of what is now largely normal behaviour on New Zealand farms, but it's also pretty special.

'New Zealand farmers on the whole have a strong sense of stewardship for the land and a desire to do what they can to pass it on in a better condition to future generations.

'That is not, unfortunately, the image so many of our urban population has of farming because farmers being proactive in caring for the environment don't make headlines, or the six o'clock TV news,” says Graeme who has been involved with the awards for the past 12 years and is a board member of the New Zealand Farm Environment Trust.

The awards are about sustainable farming, and says Graeme, that means farming which is both environmentally and financially sustainable.

'To survive farmers need to be able to earn a living and feed a share of the rapidly growing world population, while looking after the environment. Globally there is less land from which to produce more food and that requires farmers to find ways of increasing production while reducing their environmental footprint, and in New Zealand they are doing that.”

Although more stringent legislation and regulation is affecting farming today, Graeme says most farmers are self-policing and well aware that if they don't operate with due consideration for the environment, consumers in New Zealand and around the world won't buy their produce.

In the years he has been involved with the awards Graeme says he has been continually impressed with the farmers and growers who have entered, and the judges and organising committee – mostly volunteers – who make them possible.

'I strongly encourage people to put themselves forward to be part of the next awards because by doing so they not only help showcase the best of farming practices, but also learn from the judging process and other entrants.”

The winner in the 2014 awards will be announced at a celebratory dinner which begins at 5.30pm on Friday February 28 at the ASA Arena in Tauranga.

To purchase tickets to the dinner of find out more about the awards, go to: www.nzfeatrust.org.nz or contact Kirsten Winter phone 0275 721 244or email [email protected]