White Rock Mains, owned and operated by Duncan and Tina Mackintosh, was announced the Regional Supreme Winner at this evening’s 2019 Canterbury Ballance Farm Environment Awards run by the New Zealand Farm Environment Trust.

The Ballance Farm Environment Awards champion sustainable farming and growing through an awards programme which sees one Regional Supreme Winner selected from each of the 11 regions involved. These Regional Supreme Winners will be profiled at the Awards’ National Sustainability Showcase in Hamilton, on Thursday 6 June, with each in the running for the Gordon Stephenson Trophy.

The Mackintoshes are Regional Supreme Winners thanks to their determination and hard work, particularly in regard to helping their environment prosper. The couple recently established a 91ha QEII covenant on-farm.

It was the Mackintoshes’ strong community spirit, and their involvement with many social initiatives, that really impressed the judges. The family’s local school, North Loburn, is just one of the beneficiaries of their generosity of spirit through the Garden to Table programme Tina is integrally involved with.

An enviro-school with gold status, North Loburn loves the programme, which starts with growing  produce, and runs right through to picking, cooking and eating what is grown together. Tina is passionately advocating for the inclusion of meat to teach kids about where it comes from, and its nutritional benefits.

Another initiative dear to the couples’ hearts is the Shear-A-Thon they devised to aid in suicide prevention. The 24-hour shearing challenge saw $45,000 raised by the local community, with $10,000 donated to four different organisations playing essential roles in mental health and wellbeing.

The judges said of the Mackintoshes’ achievements: “Duncan & Tina Mackintosh impressed us with their strong focus on their animals, people and land. They demonstrate a willingness to adapt and change as new information becomes available and maintain excellent monitoring of stock, land and business.”

Of their experience entering the awards the Mackintoshes say: “It is a good opportunity to get a feel for where we are sitting – we’re open to ideas and being challenged. While the environmental side of things is important, the awards are not just looking at the environmental footprint of the farm – it’s the whole system, so there’s that much more to what you can learn from the judges.”

This year, Duncan and Tina Mackintosh are not only the Regional Supreme Winners in Canterbury but also the esteemed recipients of the:

Bayleys People in Primary Sector Award – focused on the all-important people side of the farming and growing business;
Beef + Lamb New Zealand Livestock Farm Award – this recognises the livestock farmer who demonstrates the need for long-term land and animal stewardship;
Massey University Innovation Award – this recognises the farmer or grower that demonstrated Kiwi ingenuity for solving a problem or pursuing a new opportunity
Predator Free NZ Trust Predator Free Farm Award – this recognises the efforts of land managers to successfully control animal predators to achieve native biodiversity outcomes;
Each year, the Ballance Farm Environment Awards ceremonies, the National Sustainability Showcase, and winners’ field days offer a unique, pan-sector forum for networking and the sharing of ideas and information among farming/growers peers, agribusiness professionals and the wider community.