Testimonials
"For any farmer looking to gain more information about the resources on their property then this process is going to be, and will provide, an up to date solution. It will also package the information into a user friendly series of maps and tables that allow for in depth analysis of farm information all targeting improvements in productivity across the farm at the time aligned with environmental sustainability. In essence I would not buy or run a farm without this level of information. In fact it would underpin my analysis of matching land use to land type, designing the farm reducing or removing environmental risk. Precision agriculture is creeping into the sheep and beef pastoral enterprise and to get precise with pasture monitoring, erosion control investment, grazing patterns in relation to monitoring productivity gains across the farm you need this type of information outlined in the Land and Environmental Plan (LEP).
"The fundamental component of the LEP is the physical resources assessment. The physical resources drive your business by growing the pasture, crops, or forestry. The rock type, soils, aspect, slope, climate, erosion potential, vegetation, and other variables that can occur on your farm are packaged into land use capability units that establish a level of productive capability across the property. At the same time the units provide a level of conservation requirement that needs to be implemented to maintain that lands capability. This enables a farmer to work within its sustained capability, maximizing production and at the same time achieving a level of environmental management.
"The LEP work also looks at all environmental issues on a property and provides some solutions to dealing with those issues. Most of the solutions involve common sense practice. The other major benefit is that this information can be fed to other supporting professionals such as fertiliser representatives and feed budgeting consultants to re-enforce their decision making processes with the farmer. At the end of the day the LEP provides data to the farmer on their current status environmentally and they are often surprised at how they have understated their level of management already in place.
"Farmers should consider this as an essential investment in the future of the high value enterprise they are farming."
- Simon Stokes
Land Management Officer
Hawkes Bay Regional Council
