Learning from Leaders Project

Overview - Learning from Leaders (LfL) Project

Encouraged by the success of the New Zealand Farm Environment Awards (NZFEA) Trust's sustainable farming publications, several organisations teamed up with NZFEA Trust to support learning from sustainable farming leaders across New Zealand . The project was supported by MAF's Sustainable Farming Fund and project partners included the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA), Federated Farmers of New Zealand, New Zealand Contractors' Federation, Queen Elizabeth II National Trust and the Rural & Associated Contractors Federation of New Zealand. The LfL Project provided opportunities to learn about practical and applied sustainable farm business management options, primarily from farmers who are developing and using them. A feature of the project was the participatory learning approach, designed and facilitated by Annie Perkins and Helen Ritchie at Groundwork Associates.

To download free PDFs of publications and Field Day Follow Up Reports, see NZFEA Trust Tools for Farmers, Tips from Top Farmers or Key Practices for Sustainability sheets in the table below, or our Field Day Follow Up reports section.

LfL learning events

The Learning from Leaders (LfL) Project offered two types of learning events between February 2005 and June 2006. Both types of event focused on learning from farming leaders:
Whole farm sustainability events: These were useful for farmers and rural professionals interested in practical application of whole farm sustainability concepts and their cost/benefit aspects. They were designed for farmers and rural professionals (people from the partner organisations, regional council staff, farmer leaders and other rural service providers) who may have known about some aspects of whole farm sustainability in detail but were interested in learning a systems approach to addressing a wider range of topics.

Topic events: Sessions specific to Tracks & Races, Waterways & Natural Features, Nutrients & Healthy Soils were developed. They were provided both as direct-to-farmer events or as sessions for people who help farmers make decisions about farm activities (e.g. contractors in the case of tracks and races).

NZFEA Trust sustainable farming publications

During a previous SFF funded project, the New Zealand Farm Environment Awards Trust (NZFEA) produced publications on five key components of sustainable farm management. Each publication is a guide to achieving sustainable farm management in a specific topic area: managing nutrients; pasture; natural features; waterways, and creating and maintaining low impact farm tracks and races. These publications are available to download free as PDFs in the table below).

Building on the publications, four working groups composed of farmers and others with skills in the topic area developed approaches to help promote and deliver learning events that are very practical, enjoyable and celebrate local success stories. A further publication on Whole Farm Sustainability was also developed to support the whole farm sustainability events and complete the set of six publications listed in the table below.

These publications use real life stories of BFEA achievers to show how a sustainable farm management approach can deliver financial as well as environmental benefits.

Field Day Follow Up Reports were produced for some of the larger events and these included information about the host farm and recommendations from farmers and rural professionals contributing to the events. You can download a free copy of each of these Field Day Follow Up reports in PDF format below. The combined recommended practices, gathered from over 29 learning events and group workshops and also the previous five topic publications, are available in the Key Practices for Sustainability sheets, also available in PDF format below.

A two-day national workshop in Rotorua brought together over 30 people, including top environmentally-performing farmers from across the country, key scientists, leaders from Federated Farmers and the Dairy Environment Leadership Group, NZFEA Trust members and Ballance Farm Environment Awards judges. This 'wrap up' event for the project produced five farm system topics Tips from Top Farmers sheets and one about leadership in the agriculture industry - available to download in PDF format below. Their recommendations reflect farmers’ practical experience combined with the latest scientific understanding.

Finding information on key sustainable farming topics

The table below is designed to help find information in the publications (mentioned in the previous section) that is related to specific topics. These publications are available to download free in PDF format by clicking on their corresponding links in the table. See PDF tips.

Tips from Top Farmers

Topic	Key Practices for Sustainability	Tools for Farmers	Field Day Follow Up reports
Whole Farm Sustainability	Leading Change [PDF 96K ] Also see the other tip sheets listed below	See any or all of the documents listed below in this column	Whole Farm Sustainability [PDF 1.2M ]	All reports 1-9
Nutrient Management	Managing Nutrients [PDF 101K ]	Nutrient Management, Soils and Pastures [PDF 64K ]	Getting Smart With Nutrients - a guide to nutrient management [PDF 687K ] and worksheet [PDF 362K ]	1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Soils and Pasture	Managing Soil Health [PDF 133K ]	Crops, Pasture Species and Rotation [PDF 60K ]	Growing Greener Grass – a guide to sustainable pasture management [PDF 639K ] and worksheet [PDF 157K ]	5, 7 ,9
Natural Features, Shade & Shelter	Natural Features [PDF 98K ]	Natural Features and Plantings [PDF 62K ]	Managing Natural Features on Farms [PDF 454K ] and worksheet [PDF 656K ]	1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Waterways and Water Quality	Managing Waterways [PDF 123K ]	Waterways [PDF 61K ]	Winning Margins – Managing Waterways on Farms [PDF 1.3M ] and worksheet [PDF 503K ]	1, 6, 8
Water Efficiency and Irrigation	Managing Water Use [PDF 94K ]	Irrigation/water efficiency [PDF 61K ]		2, 5, 7, 9
Tracks and Races		Tracks and Races [PDF 60K ]	Low Impact Tracks and Races [PDF 456K ] and worksheet [PDF 373K ]	1, 6, 8
Planning and Financial Management		Financial and Planning [PDF 64K ]		1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 9
People on Farms		People (including succession and ownership) [PDF 66K ]		1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9
Miscellaneous		Energy, Chemical use, Waste Management, Stock Management and Health [PDF 64K ]		1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

LfL Field Day Follow Up reports

After each learning event we produced a newsletter style report, summarising the group’s findings. Called Field Day Follow Ups, they are a useful record of the day for attendees and help share the resulting good ideas on sustainable farming with others. These reports are available to download free in PDF format below. See PDF tips.

LfL Project Partners