Seasonal Farm Update

Wairarapa Moana Incorporation

Te¯na¯ koutou

It has as always been another very busy period for the farms.

It’s been a tougher spring for the Central Plateau than we would have liked, with a wet early start, along with low sunshine hours, challenging the team as they worked through the peak milk period.

Fortunately, the grass has now taken off, lifting our pasture covers and raising the spirits of our teams, who have put in an extraordinary effort to keep our business moving in the right direction.

The farm teams held up well despite all the COVID restrictions, and continued to work really hard through one of the busiest times of the year. The Taupo team provided a lot of support through this period, ensuring food and essential supplies were provided to the farms during the strict isolation period – a reflection of the awesome spirit and commitment of the WMI team as a whole.

We also completed this season’s farm pride projects, with a focus on tidying-up or removing some of our derelict infrastructure, in an effort to lift the overall presentation of our whenua and ensure old material and buildings don’t cause any hazards on-farm. One of the other benefits of this work has been our ability to recycle thousands of tonnes of old concrete into valuable race metal (photo below), providing a win:win for what would have otherwise been landfill waste.

Despite delays to our planting team’s ability to work onfarm due to the COVID restrictions, we were still able to put in over 16kms of shelter-belts (22,000 native plants and poplar trees!) as part of our programme for the spring. The initiative is part of our Whakamaru Whenua programme to improve animal shelter, create greater biodiversity across our dairy farms and of course reduce our carbon footprint. A lot of effort is being put into further understanding our environmental footprint. Continued planting will be a valuable part of our Whakamaru Whenua strategy moving forward.

Our business is in good shape as all eyes now turn to the summer!

Native shelter belts and biodiversity planting on farm.