Northland farmer Ken Hames always has an eye to the future.
So, when he pays local school children $1.20 for each tree they plant on his Paparoa farm he is already thinking about what will happen when they’re adults.
“Seventy percent of them will be living in cities,” he said.
“Rural New Zealand needs to get wider NZ on side to lock in our licence to farm and this is how we can influence the next generation.
“There needs to be a game plan for that to happen and farmers have to play their part.
“We’ve got to lead by example and a lot of farmers are doing that.
“We’ve got to be thought of positively.”
And he not only gets farming’s environmental message across to the youngsters he employs.
“Sometimes their parents come along to help them,” he said.
He bought his first farm at 23 after completing an agricultural degree at Massey University, always having planned to go farming.
But 10 years later he sold that 260 hectare block and bought the 370ha property just 6km away that had been farmed by his father and uncle. As well as the larger scale the fact it was on a school bus route was an attraction as he’d met and married Janine, a vet working out of Ruawai. Their children are David, 19, who’s in the army and Suzy, 16, completing her second to last year at high school.
There was plenty of work waiting for him.
“There were only 23 paddocks but there are 120 now,” he said.
Ken Hames has spent 10 years making environmental enhancements on his farm.
Ken has also been on the Northland Beef and Lamb Farmer Council for the last nine years and admits there are some headwinds out there.
“Individually, some farmers feel knocked about,” he said.
“It’s been going on for some years but sheep and beef farmers have a big task ahead when it comes to water quality accords.
“And there’s more volatility in their income and product prices.”
They need to have their debt at the right level and if confronted with a large amount of fencing and planting required to meet future environmental standards, chip away at the task ahead one small piece at a time, he believes.
When it comes to big issues on the horizon for the sector he’s quick to name meeting NZ’s carbon reduction goals.
“We haven’t got our heads around it and I probably haven’t thought about it enough,” he said.
“We need to get a 10-year plan in place and my thoughts are, is there a win:win situation?”
That could perhaps involve sheep and beef farmers doing a deal with their dairy farming counterparts to plant trees on their properties while being compensated by a share of milk flow income.
Ken already has 25ha of pines on his farm, planted almost 20 years ago. To establish the block he took on a 25% investor because he couldn’t afford the outlay himself at the time. He thinks that once the trees are harvested they’re likely to be replanted. The land is not suited to regenerating manuka and despite high returns for manuka honey he believes production is more suited to low-cost Northland land where there are few neighbours and therefore not a variety of feeding sources for the bees.
His second concern is the threat posed by synthetic meat.
“It worries me,” he said.
“Will consumers pay a premium for naturally grown beef versus a low-cost product?”
One factor he is relying on is the rise and rise of wealth in Asian consumers, which he first saw up close during participation in a FAME programme a decade ago.
“It taught me how to think about a customer focus and the consumer’s point of view,” he said.
And he believes telling the NZ story can help a great deal, giving information about how farmers are doing the right thing and care for the land where food comes from.
“We’re all in the same boat,” he said.
And while industry bodies have a big role to play sometimes he feels the message can be more powerful coming from farmers, whether it be through establishing their own brands for products or using social media avenues.
“New Zealanders are sometimes modest and they don’t like telling their story,” he said.
A more recent role he’s taken on has been as chairman of Extension 350, an innovative Northland project launched three years ago and involving the Ministry for Primary Industries, DairyNZ, Beef and Lamb NZ, Northland Inc and the regional council.
“It’s all about farmers learning from farmers and there’s been strong interest,” Ken said.
There are seven clusters of target, mentor and associate farmers up and running so far and three more dairy clusters are to be added next year.
“People have got in behind it, got involved and made it happen,” he said.
“It helps farmers achieve their goals and they’re not always financial. You hear stories at field days which are quite moving.”
And perhaps the most forward-looking of his governance roles is as national chairman of the Duke of Edinburgh Awards, which he’s held for the last year.
Closer to home he heads out to the bush with local students and a teacher on some of the three tramps in each of three years they must complete as part of the adventurous journeys component of activities that also include involvement in community services and hobbies.
“They have to be motivated,” he said.
“We’re teaching them citizenship.”
