Five workshops are being run for FAR levy payers, providing the opportunity to develop a farm environment plan using the FEP Template for Arable Enterprises which was designed by FAR's Diana Mathers and approved for use by ECan. Diana says the workshops have been designed to be very practical and that most growers should leave with a plan at or near completion.
"Many farmers are uncertain of what a farm environment plan is, let alone how they should go about creating one. For this reason they are either ignoring the issue, or paying consultants to do the work for them. FAR's FEP Template for Arable Enterprises recognises that the person who knows the most about a farm, is the farmer. It has been set up so that most farmers, with a bit of help at the workshop, can create their own FEP. Most farms in the Ashburton region will be required to have a farm environment plans by January 2017, so we hope as many growers as possible will attend these workshops.
"We limit the number of attendees at each workshop to 16 farms, and have several FAR and ECan staff on hand to help out. When we ran a similar series of workshops in the Selwyn-Waihora Zone in May, we got really good feedback, so we know that the structure works. Most of those attending the Selwyn-Waihora workshops were surprised at how simple the process was, and were very relieved to get their plans done."
Diana Mathers is the Farm Systems Research Manager at FAR. She has worked with a number of arable farmers during their environmental audits and has an extensive knowledge of good management practises.
The Ashburton workshops will be held at Hotel Ashburton from 9:30am – 3:30pm on the following days:
Tuesday 12 July
Wednesday 13 July
Thursday 14 July
Wednesday 20 July
Thursday 21 July
Anyone wishing to attend one of the upcoming FEP workshops should contact FAR as soon as possible to find out more.