25 Mar 2011

Inaugural award winners

1:03 pm on 25 March 2011

Hawke's Bay sheep and cattle farmers Steve and Jane Wyn-Harris are the supreme winners of the inaugural East Coast Ballance farm environment awards.

Eight awards were presented at a function in Napier on Thursday night, which recognised the efforts dairy, sheep and cattle, cropping farmers and a winery from the Hawke's Bay and Gisborne / East Coast regions are making towards sustainability.

The Wyn-Harris's 358 hectares will compete later in the year against supreme farm environment winners from other regions for the first national title.

In other awards, Taranaki sharemilkers Aaron and Kate Murdoch have been named the region's sharemilker/equity farmers of the year.

Opunake contract milkers Charlie and Johanna McCaig were awarded farm manager of the year and Tariki herd manager Samuel Humphreys won the Taranaki dairy trainee of the year title.

All three will compete for their respective national titles against other regional winners in Queenstown on 14 May.