Special report | Whakapuawai PROGAMME
Left: The planting day became a family affair. Stacey and Mark Stewart with Mark’s parents Maree and David along with James, 3, Paige 10, and Olivia, 7.
planting
People powered
The Stewart family recently took part in a massive planting programme on their farm near Ashburton which was conducted in partnership with Synlait. Anne Lee pulled on her gumboots and headed along to find out more.
T
hree generations of the Stewart family were on hand in late April to take part in a major planting programme on their farm made possible by their milk company Synlait’s Whakapuāwai programme.
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More than 8000 native trees, shrubs and grasses were planted along 2km of waterways in just three days thanks to the company, keen Synlait staff, ecological contractors Brailsfords – with their innovative planting methods - and of
course the family themselves. Whakapuāwai was launched last year and means to cause to blossom, flourish and thrive. It’s multi-pronged and includes the establishment of the company’s own nursery at its Dunsandel site, the development of a 15ha native landscape haven behind the site, planting programmes on suppliers’ properties and, in the longer-term, community restoration projects within the company’s milk collection area. Synlait supplies the plants and its staff, who receive a paid day each year to volunteer for planting and working outdoors in the programme. The Stewart’s farm at Green Street near Ashburton has been in the family for three generations. Currently farmed by Mark and Stacey Stewart and Mark’s brother TJ with help from their parents David and Maree, the farm was converted in 1982 by David and his father Rod. It’s one of the earlier conversions on the plains and came about after David suggested it could be an option when he returned to the farm in his twenties after working in the North Island on a family friend’s dairy farm. In its first year they milked 110 cows and lambed 800 ewes but by the next year they had sold the sheep and milked 150 Holstein Friesian cows. Now, the 200ha farm is home to 550 Holstein Friesians with a few Reds in the mix too. They calve twice-a-year and have a winter milk contract with Synlait. This year they’ll milk about 360 cows through the winter thanks to a 550-stall cubicle barn built about six years ago and aim to eventually winter milk about 70% of the herd and spring calve the rest. The farm has come a long way from the border-dyke sheep and cattle farm of its earlier years and the whole family is enthusiastic about the next stage of development that will see planting to enhance biodiversity, bring in the native
Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | May 2021
