Taratahi congratulates Farm Environment award winners

Taratahi congratulates Greater Wellington Ballance Farm Environment award winners

Rebecca and Richard Tosswill taking out the Supreme Award at the Greater Wellington Regional Awards was great news for Taratahi and its students, says CE Arthur Graves.

The Tosswills are strong supporters of Taratahi offering regular "on farm" placements to students at their Te Awaawa property.

Ballance Award judges described the couple as "Innovative and forward thinking, driving by a passion for change through social responsibility."

Graves says the Tosswills operation and values are a perfect fit for Taratahi’s farming education ethos.

"At Taratahi we strive to find farms that are at the top of their game to give students the best head start in their farming career. Time spent at the Tosswills Te Awaawa farm is worth gold to students as they can see how a farm that consistently sits among the best performing farm business units in NZ operates."

"The Tosswills also offer our students a real nurturing environment as the Te Awaawa operation is enhanced by strong family values.

"As environmental excellence isn’t just a "nice to have" these days but an integral part of any successful farm, Taratahi students placed at Te Awaawa learn first-hand how sound environmental practice is a critical part of a high performing farm system.

"Taratahi puts great value on our strong relationship with the Tosswill family and the superb job they are doing of not just farming but nurturing the land and the Taratahi students who get to be part of the Te Awaawa team," says Graves.

- The Tosswills, who have won the region's supreme award, have been farming Te Awaawa, a 646ha sheep and beef hill country property near Masterton for the past 10 years.

- The couple farm 3000 texel-cross ewes with 1000 replacement ewe lambs. They have reviewed their sheep policies and added a trading component in the past few years to provide flexibility in their summer dry environment.

- They run 100 angus breeding cows and 20 to 25 replacements are mated and calved as two-year olds.

- They retired 12.5ha of highly-erodible country in 2012 and planted a variety of trees through the regional council's afforestation scheme.

- The introduction of a sediment dam has reduced the amount of sediment entering the waterways and any run-off from some cattle yards.

- They have retired two small blocks of limestone spring wetland areas into QEII National Trust covenants, which are a source of stock water, with a third smaller one in the process of being fenced.

- More than 2000 poplar and willow poles have been planted for erosion control, shade, and fodder in drought.

ENDS

© Scoop Media