SFF Project Summary
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Quarterly Update: June 2006
Updated:
18 February 2009
www.forestry.ac.nz/nortonlab/home
Guidelines for preparing whole property management plans for high country farms [926K PDF]
Template for preparing whole property management plan
Project description
This project which has been lead by Dr David Norton (Rural Ecology Research Group School of Forestry, University of Canterbury) was funded by grants from the Sustainable Farming Fund, Merino Inc., Federated Farmers High Country and the High Country Accord. The Guidelines, which represents the final output from this project, have been developed to assist high country farmers prepare management plans for their properties. Hard copies of the Guidelines are available from David Norton (email david.norton@canterbury.ac.nz).
Three factors increasingly make management planning a necessary part of high country farming; (i) resource consent requirements, (ii) the need to be able to demonstrate sustainable land management as part of product marketing, and (iii) the desire of some high country farmers to continue managing significant inherent values on their properties after Tenure Review. The Guidelines outline an approach to management planning that is designed to assist farmers prepare their own plans.
Management plans are divided into four parts
Introduction
This part includes sections on the management plan context, vision and goals for the property, summary of property management, and opportunities & constraints to achieving the vision and goals. The vision and goals are perhaps the most important section of the management plan as it describes the vision that the farmer has for their property and the goals that need to be met to achieve this vision.
Management units
This part provides both a division of the property into management units and the identification of management objectives for each unit. These management objectives outline the key approaches to the management of each unit and reflect the underlying economic and environmental (including social) values of the property.
Management approach:
This is the biggest part of the management plan and includes sections on finances, infrastructure, pasture and soils, stock, plantations and woodlots, plant and animal pests, native biodiversity, recreation and historic resources, agrichemicals, energy & water efficiency/quality, and health and safety. These sections discuss the strategic approach to different aspects of property management required to meet the goals for the property.
Implementation
The final part of the management plan includes sections on monitoring and plan implementation. The monitoring section outlines the methods that the farmer will use to monitor the consequences of management actions. Many of the management actions assessed in the monitoring section relate back to the specific performance targets set with the individual management goals and as such provide the quantification of the success of management at meeting these goals. The implementation section discusses how the plan will be implemented, the way that farm operations will be reviewed, and the role of external stakeholders if any in this review.
To further assist farmers in preparing management plans, an electronic management plan template is available at www.forestry.ac.nz/nortonlab/home that can be downloaded and modified to suit the circumstances of individual properties. The Guidelines document provides the guidance on how to fill in the template. While the management plan approach developed in this project was developed for high country farms, it should be equally relevant to hill country farmers, or to any land manager who wishes to plan for the full range of economic, environmental and social issues that farmers face today in managing rural land in New Zealand. Such an approach to land management is becoming important as consumers increasingly ask for assurances about the environmental sustainability of the farming operations that the products they are consuming or wearing have come from.
Quarterly Update: June 2006
The web page has now been running for just over one year and appears to be getting an increasing number of hits with April and May 2006 the two highest months so far. All four GPS collars have now been retrieved and initial results include: (i) sheep travelling 7-9 km over the summer grazing period; (ii) use of multiple camp sites, even within the same area; (iii) strong preference for tussock grassland over herbfields and scree; (iv) influence of topographical features on habitat use (e.g., streams as barriers). The data are now being fully analysed and a report and scientific paper will be produced. The Glenmore environmental and farm management reports has been completed and are with the Murray family, and Otematata reports are in preparation.A draft management plan has been prepared for Glenmore Station, and the more generic guidelines will be produced in the second half of 2006. Planning has commenced for two workshops on the project results which will be run in late October or early November 2006.
March 2006
This has been a quiet quarter for this research project because of other commitments, although progress has been made on several of the milestones. A draft environmental report has been prepared for one of the study properties and a second is in preparation. The whole property management plan has been further developed, and two of the four GPS collars on merino wethers at Otematata have been retrieved and show promising results. One project group meeting was held in February and a presentation on the research made to a New Zealand Institute of Foresters meeting in March. Tragically, the project manager, Rod Patterson, died in February. Rod was a key inspiration and driving force behind this project. Kit Mouat is the acting High Country Accord contact for the remainder of the project.
September 2005
This has been a quiet quarter with the main work being GIS analyses of biodiversity data and collation of economic data. In addition, we have undertaken further work obtaining GPS data on property fence lines. No newsletters were produced during this quarter, but the project website www.highcountryaccord.co.nz\biodiversity continues to be accessed at a steady level. A presentation on whole property management planning was made to the Otago Regional Council high country forum in Queenstown in September
June 2005
The main focus during this quarter has been on entering the data collected during the 2004/05 summer biodiversity surveys and its subsequent analyses. We have also commenced work on collecting data on the economic profile of the two study properties which has also involved starting GPS mapping of fence lines as a basis for subsequent economic and biodiversity analyses. No newsletters were produced during this quarter, but the project website www.highcountryaccord.co.nz\biodiversity continues to be accessed at a steady level. A presentation on aspects of this project was made to the Federated Farmers High Country Section annual conference in June.
to March 2005
During this quarter we completed the biodiversity surveys, produced our second newsletter and established our web page. The field work component of the assessment of biodiversity values on Glenmore and Otematata Stations was completed at the end of February 2005. Good weather conditions allowed the full extent of both properties to be visited and we now have a good spatial map of the main plant communities present across the two properties which will provide the basis for future modelling. We also produced our second newsletter which was again circulated to some 500 people, as well as copies being provided at the Omarama High Country Accord seminar in March and the Federated Farmers Molesworth field day, also in March. The project web site is now up and running and can be found at www.highcountryaccord.co.nz\biodiversity . The web page has been designed to be relatively light on images in order to make it easy to open for people working with poor internet connections to download. Although not scheduled until later in the project, work has also been commenced on the development of whole property management plans and covenants as an alternative to the current two-way split in tenure review. Some initial ideas on the possible approach to whole property management planning were presented to the March High Country Accord Omarama seminar.
to December 2004
A number of activities were undertaken during this quarter. At the start of the quarter we established our project management group with Richard Burdon as chair, Ben Todhunter, deputy chair, Rod Patterson project manager, and David Norton research coordinator and financial manager. The initial phase of the project involved the selection of study sites and after a visit to several properties in Canterbury and Otago we have selected two, Glenmore Station and Otematata Station, for the project. The two families involved are very supportive of the project. A report has been written on property selection and can be found on our web site (www.highcountryaccord.co.nz/biodiversity). We produced our first newsletter in October which was circulated to some 500 people in the high country and elsewhere. Additional copies can be obtained from our web site. The survey of biodiversity values on the two properties commenced in late November 2004 with two University of Canterbury students, Tammy McMahon and Maria Bosman, employed to undertake the field work. Dr Peter Espie provided considerable field assistance for the students as they started field work. A presentation was made at the MAF office in Wellington to central government policy makers in December 2004 by David Norton and Rod Patterson on the project.
