Encouraging farmers to protect waterways is more effective than enforcement, says Rick Burke, Supreme winner in the 2014 Bay of Plenty Ballance Farm Environment Awards.

Laurie Donald, formerly of Environment Bay of Plenty, explains the conservation measures he helped implement on Pukekauri Farms during the Ballance Farm Environment Awards field day.

Around 80 people attended the Ballance Farm Environment Awards field day at Pukekauri Farm.

'In my view, the way forward is to encourage and assist farmers to retire waterways,” Rick told those who attended the awards field day at Pukekauri Farms in Lund Rd, Katikati on Tuesday.

Rick and partner Jan Loney, together with the Bay of Plenty Ballance Farm Environment Awards trust, hosted the field day on the 350ha farm in the foothills of the Kaimai Ranges, attended by around 80 people. The guests included agri-industry representatives, other farmers and past winner of the awards.

The group took a tour of the farm, stopping at locations which highlighted the conservation work carried out over the past 17 years and the sustainable farm management system employed.

Rick says when he and his late father-in-law Derry Seddon began retiring land, subsidies for fencing and planting were available through what was then called Environment Bay of Plenty (now the Bay of Plenty Regional Council). However, those incentives are not so easily available today.

'Across New Zealand regional councils know areas which should be protected and I believe councils, and stake holders – the community – should rank them on a scale of one to 10.

'Those areas which score a 10 should have 100 per cent funding. This would benefit the environment and assist farmers to retire marginal land.”

Establishing successful pilot projects, for example retiring sensitive wetlands near the Tauranga Harbour, would encourage other farmers to do the same. Rick says retiring waterways is a big issue for farmers, especially if they are a property's only source of water for stock and humans. 'The infra-structure costs to replace them are huge.

'If you want farmers to protect waterways, then you have to give them some serious science around why it's worth doing.”

Pukekauri Farms has 110ha in covenanted mature native bush, wetlands and riparian planting and 28ha in plantation pines, redwoods and Cyprus lusitanica.

While initially it was Derry who drove the retirement of marginal areas and waterways and the planting of natives, Rick says it didn't take him long to realise the economic and environmental values.

'For every gully we've fenced out and planted I tell a story of stock which were hard to get out, or even died. We were spreading fertiliser on those areas which didn't grow good grass but plenty of weeds. Retiring them has saved time and money and improved the water quality.

'That pleases me because I love fishing and surfing and I know all the waterways from this farm flow into the Tauranga Harbour so reducing sediment and improving water quality is important to me.”

To find out more about the Ballance Farm Environment Awards including how to enter the 2015 awards, go to www.nzfeatrust.org.nz