Sustainable success story

Jim Coster has been farming for almost 60 years.

Riparian plan helps dairy station triumph, discovers Carmen Hall.

Jim Coster has been farming Mataiwhetu Station for almost 60 years (his family purchased the property on his 21st birthday) and now his eldest son, Allen, manages operations.

The farm was originally rundown with leaky fences, rudimentary sheep yards, a basic woolshed and no cattle yards. About a quarter of the 300ha was covered in fern and manuka, and plenty of gorse.

However, today the sheep- and dairy-grazing station has been heralded as a sustainable success. The former Meat & Wool Board monitor farm, and supreme winner of the Bay of Plenty Ballance Farm Environment Awards, has benefited from technology and environmental practices.

Coster says measures had been put in place on the farm - located in the lower Kaimai Ranges - to preserve the fauna, flora and Mangakaiwhiria Stream that meanders through the land.

Thousands of trees were planted on the farm, most waterways fenced and land around the stream was retired to take advantage of the Bay of Plenty Regional Council riparian programme.

However, Coster says the process takes perseverance and hard work.

"When you retire land from grazing, you can have real problems. First, you have to have a substantial fence that is cattle- and stock-proof, and it's advisable to run a hot wire at shoulder height to deter cattle from reaching through."

Noxious animals and weeds were other problems, and although the gorse had been beaten any spraying done had to be judicious as there was the risk of killing replacement plantings. Regional council natural resources operations manager Warwick Murray says the council has been working for decades on land and waterway management.

Since 2009, 569 farmers have taken advantage of regional council assistance to improve water quality and farm productivity, he says. The riparian programme uptake was increasing year on year.

Between 2001 and 2005, it averaged 224m of waterway protected annually per landowner, compared with 379m in 2009/10 and 541m in 2012/13.

"This response has been terrific but we'd love to have more landowners on board," Murray says. "Up to 25 per cent funding is available for most work under a riparian management plan and there is a 'trees at cost' option, which enables landowners to get the cost of the plants and trees at the cost of propagation from nurseries."

The Western Bay of Plenty District Council also provides funding for fencing in certain circumstances. Figures show stock has been excluded from 87 per cent of the stream length within the Tauranga Harbour catchment, 83 per cent of Ohiwa Harbour catchment streams and Nukuhou and Waiotahi Rivers, and 93 per cent of stream margins in the Rotorua Lakes.