The Southland dairy farmers won the Councillors’ Special Award at the Southland Community Environment Awards last week for their work to improve a peat bog environment on their property.
The Appleby’s run a 260 hectare dairy farm with 580 mostly friesian cows near Drummond and almost immediately got to work fencing off the 16 kilometres of waterways through their farm, with buffers and riparian tree plantings to ensure run-off is kept to a minimum. In addition, they winter all their cows on baleage, swedes and fodder beet produced on-farm.
The farm had previously been a deer farm and the deer had caused a lot of erosion on the banks of the streams, so the decision to fence them off was an easy one, Graeme said.
The couple bought a neighbouring block they had previously been leasing, with a 4.4ha peat bog, which was surrounded in four metre high gorse and other weeds. Since buying the block, and after some discussion with Department of Conservation and Environment Southland, they began restoring the peat bog, which now has a QEII covenant, and were able to develop the rest of the block.
Graeme said if the gorse had been left for another five or 10 years, it would have taken over the entire bog. Transforming the bog back to its original state has not been a quick fix.
While most of the gorse is now gone, it took three years to beat it down. Graeme continues to keep on top of it, spraying the small seedlings that pop up annually.
«It’s just an ongoing thing, we’ve just got to keep on it all the time.»
They also fight off elderberries, rowans, eucalyptus and Spanish heath, which are encroaching on the area.
From the outside, it is hard to imagine the treasures hidden away on the Appleby farm. The couple have transformed an overgrown mess into a home for many special birds and plants including Australian bittern and rare orchids, as well as rare carnivorous plants drosera spatulata and drosera binata.
The farm is also home to a wetland that the Applebys transformed in 2005 from a gravel pit and they planted trees to restore the area to its natural beauty. It is now a haven for ducks and trout.
Jan said their work on the farm came from a desire to be sustainable.
«We’ve had a lifelong interest in trees and conservation. We’re just trying to have a minimum footprint but still have a financially viable farm,» she said.
At the awards dinner in Invercargill, Graeme was «a bit taken aback» by receiving the award.
«The whole thing was very positive and it’s really good to see all these community groups, schools and individuals [taking initiative] … we do pretty well for a small province.»
It was also good to see so many farmers involved, he said.
Environment Southland councillor and award judge Lyndal Ludlow said judging the awards was fairly difficult, but at the same time the winners were clear.
