A Lake Hawea farmer has criticized critics who accuse his practices of being nonsense on Australia’s first certified carbon neutral farm, saying no sector will move “without trying new and ideally better ways”.
Last Sunday’s episode Hyundai Country Calendar profiled Lake Hawea Station, near Wanaka, and owners Kiwi entrepreneurs and 42 Below vodka founders Geoff and Justine Ross.
It soon received an intense online response from those claiming to be from parts of the farming sector, prompting the TVNZ show to respond to the criticism on its Facebook page.
Aiming to become 10 times climate positive, the pair also introduced alternative techniques in the wool barn to improve animal welfare, including switching music from AC/DCs struck by lightning to Vivaldi.
In response to the naysayers, Geoff Ross shared: New Zealand Herald that agriculture in this country currently faces two major challenges: the need to build premiums for our growers and respond to the global need to become decarbonised.
“With the steps we have taken, both are being achieved,” he said. “We earn significant bounties for our climate positive status and our animal welfare techniques.”
The pair also placed mattresses on the underside of the portholes to protect sheared sheep, and a scorecard system was introduced for the shearers’ performance based on the animal’s experience.
Geoff Ross noted that the station’s environmental plan was written by Professor David Norton of the University of Canterbury.
Norton is an integrated land management researcher and is currently investigating the integration of pastoral and biodiversity values in the high country of the South Island.
“We are always happy to make everything we do with the agricultural sector open source. We exchange ideas and the results of our trials,” Geoff Ross told the herald† “That’s how sectors move forward.”
During the episode – the highest rating of the year so far – he said the decisions about how they would farm were made to appease and educate overseas consumers who mistakenly believe that shearing is harmful to sheep.
On the show, Justine Ross also said the couple’s respect for the farming community is “immense” but that they were “natural disruptors.”
“We wouldn’t get into the industry and not try to ask some questions.”
Some viewers of country calendar, who began screening in 1966, described the Ross couple’s burping manner as “awake” and “PC BS”.
“Not everyone can sell a vodka company for millions and then buy a farm to try [to] promote their fantasy ideas,” one comment read.
The couple sold their alcohol business to Bacardi in 2006 for $138 million. They also have companies Ecoya and Trilogy.
Both come from a rural upbringing and bought the 6500ha high land in 2019. They now keep 10,000 merino sheep.