Frequently asked questions.

The objective of the Ballance Farm Environment Awards is to promote sustainable land management on New Zealand farms and orchards. We believe that positive role models and opportunities for learning are the most effective tools to improving farm practices.

The Awards recognise and celebrate sustainable farming and growing practices through an annual awards programme, which is run in 11 regions throughout New Zealand.

Regional Supreme Winners are asked to host a field day on their winning property shortly after their awards event. This is organised in conjunction with your regional management team.

Regional Supreme Winners are invited to represent their region at the New Zealand Farm Environment Trust’s National Sustainability Showcase, which is held in June annually. The Showcase provides an opportunity to meet and share ideas with Regional Supreme Winners from the other 10 regions.

Regional Supreme Winners will also be invited to participate in interviews for an opportunity to be considered for the Gordon Stephenson Trophy. Recipients of the Gordon Stephenson Trophy also become the National Ambassadors for Sustainable Farming and Growing.

This is a prestigious award and there are commitments associated with being the National Ambassador. These are managed in co-operation with the New Zealand Farm Environment Trust and they must fit in with your farming operations.

Any additional involvement with the Ballance Farm Environment Awards is at your discretion.

You can enter the Ballance Farm Environment Awards each year, unless you are named as the Regional Supreme Winner. Regional Supreme Winners are ineligible to re-enter the Awards for three years.

The three-year stand down period also applies to anyone who has been a Trustee of the New Zealand Farm Environment Trust, or has been a Chair, Judging Coordinator, Judge, Regional Coordinator or a member of a regional Ballance Farm Environment Awards Management Committee.

Our regions follow the same boundary lines as Regional Councils. If your property falls within more than one Regional Council boundary, you would normally enter the region where you pay the majority of your regional council rates.

If you are unsure of which region you should enter, please send us an email by clicking here.

Entering the Awards takes around 10 minutes, and can be done by completing an online form by clicking here.

Once you have entered, your Regional Coordinator will be in touch and will send you an information pack with details about the awards and a Getting to Know You Form. You will be asked to complete this form electronically or via hard copy. This will provide us with an overview of your business and help us select the most appropriate judges for your property. Most entrants have said that they can complete this form in about an hour.

A Judging Coordinator will contact you to organise a suitable time for the judges to visit your farm. While no formal preparation is required prior to judging, it is worth taking time to review your farm and decide how you would like to showcase your property to the judges, to ensure that they see the parts of your farm which you are most proud of.

Use the time to identify areas of your farming business where you would like some advice and use the broad knowledge your team of judges can offer. You should allow approximately 2.5 to 3 hours for judging on your property.

If you are selected as a finalist, then a second round of finalist judges will re-judge your farm. Again, this should take approximately 2.5 to 3 hours.

And that’s it, aside from checking your diary to ensure that you are able to attend your regional awards function. All judged entrants are given a complimentary ticket to attend this event.

Yes. The Ballance Farm Environment Awards are open to all farming businesses, regardless of which businesses they purchase their goods or services from.

According to the judges, the best time to enter your property is when you feel that it is not ready. If you wait until the farm is perfect – you will never enter!! Even if you don’t win an award the first time you enter, the feedback you receive will be invaluable in helping to improve your business, and you can always enter again in future years.

Though we run a ‘Muster’ campaign encouraging entries from July to October each year, we are happy to accept entries to the Ballance Farm Environment Awards at any time throughout the year. You can enter via our online form or by emailing us.

Farmers enter the awards for many different reasons including:

• using the opportunity to benchmark their property against their peers
• gaining knowledge from an experienced group of judges, who include rural professionals and farmers who are passionate about sustainability
• receiving free, confidential, constructive feedback (both verbal and written) about their farming business
• assistance in setting goals that link sustainable farming practices to long-term profitability
• confirmation that their current farm management practices are sustainable
• sharing their ideas and expertise with the wider community
• being recognised for the great things they have accomplished on their property.

Any farming operation is able to enter the Awards provided it can be defined as a business enterprise that is based on the productive or amenity use of soils or other natural resources, including but not exclusive to agriculture, horticulture or viticulture.

Farming operating structures may include (but are not limited to) farm owners, sharemilkers, farm managers (with the farm owner’s agreement), trusts, partnerships and corporate entities.

It should be noted that a three-year stand down period applies to anyone who has been a Trustee of the New Zealand Farm Environment Trust, or has been a Regional Supreme Winner, Chair, Judging Coordinator, Judge, Regional Coordinator or member of a Regional Ballance Farm Environment Awards Management Committee.

The late Gordon Stephenson, Waikato farmer and conservationist, first mooted the idea of a farm environment competition in 1991 as a way of recognising farmers who were trying to balance farm productivity with environmental protection. The intention was to get farmers thinking about sustainability and to ask themselves, “can what is being done now, still be working successfully in 100 years?”

In honour of his contribution to the success of the farm environment awards, the National Ambassador trophy bears his name.

The role of the National Ambassador is not about having the best farm or generating the highest production figures. The National Award is given to the Regional Supreme Winner who is judged to be the strongest ambassador for the promotion of sustainable and profitable farming in New Zealand.