Pokaiwhenua Newsletter

November, 2022

Well, what a couple of months weather wise, with heavy rain events and frosts that killed crops and young trees. I hope your plantings didn’t suffer too badly. We had just replanted some more plants at the Duxfield reserve after those heavy winter frosts that killed a few to be hit again, although to be fair we have been reasonably lucky with low losses.

We have had Duxfield, and Lichfield sites released, and the blackberry sprayed. This is important to stop the grasses and weeds strangling the life out of the plants, so I encourage you, if you have on farm plantings to get out there and check on them so they get away to a great start and it becomes a successful planting.

We were successful with our funding application to the Waikato River Authority for 100k to be spent on plants in 3 distinct areas. Those being Riparian, wetland and steep sideling’s that could be retired. Basically, you will need to prep the site and have the fencing sorted then it’s a $1 per plant and for that you’ll get a plant and a free releasing in Oct of the first 2 years So if you’re interested then give us a call and I’ll come have a look As I need to have all the sites sorted by the end of February.

It was good to see many of you at our FEP & GHG days with Fonterra and Beef and Lamb. Glad to hear that you found them helpful and enjoyed the opportunity to get these done. Lunches went to bad either. We are looking to run more in March so if you missed out then keep an eye out or give me a call.

We are sorry we had to postpone the coffee cart and opportunity to drop in with experts on aspects of your FEP’s due to my Farm manager having a stroke and yours truly having to take over the day to day running and milking. He has started on a very long rehabilitation journey, and we wish him and his family all the best.

We have also had a successful application with SWIFT for a project on the Whakauru stream at the new Trades Centre. This project requires clearing all the scrub and some unwanted trees and replanting in native to enhance the area along with placing a table or two so it can be enjoyed over lunch. Its great to have a project in town that urban people can get involved in catchment development. We will be looking for the odd volunteer so keep an eye out for the call up.

Dates to remember

This week on Wednesday 23^rd at 1030am.

Carbon Farming and the ETS and how it can work for you.

Stephen Veitch is coming along to tell us all about it and answer your questions.

Lunch to follow

7^th December at our Lichfield site

Landcare trust are holding a biodiversity day from 10am till 130pm looking at what’s in our stream that we need to look after and then looking at pest control.

Lunch provided.