Guidelines for preparing whole property management plans for high country farms

Whole document (PDF file, 927 KB)

Summary poster (JPEG file, 1.7 MB)

Template for preparing plans (DOC file, 273 KB)

This project which has been led by Dr David Norton was funded by grants from the Sustainable Farming Fund, Merino Inc., Federated Farmers High Country and the High Country Accord. The Guidelines, which represents the final output from this project, have been developed to assist high country farmers prepare management plans for their properties. Hard copies of the Guidelines are available from David Norton (email david.norton@canterbury.ac.nz).

Three factors increasingly make management planning a necessary part of high country farming; (i) resource consent requirements, (ii) the need to be able to demonstrate sustainable land management as part of product marketing, and (iii) the desire of some high country farmers to continue managing significant inherent values on their properties after Tenure Review. The Guidelines outline an approach to management planning that is designed to assist farmers prepare their own plans.

Management plans are divided into four parts:

Introduction: This part includes sections on the management plan context, vision and goals for the property, summary of property management, and opportunities & constraints to achieving the vision and goals. The vision and goals are perhaps the most important section of the management plan as it describes the vision that the farmer has for their property and the goals that need to be met to achieve this vision.

Management units: This part provides both a division of the property into management units and the identification of management objectives for each unit. These management objectives outline the key approaches to the management of each unit and reflect the underlying economic and environmental (including social) values of the property.

Management approach: This is the biggest part of the management plan and includes sections on finances, infrastructure, pasture and soils, stock, plantations and woodlots, plant and animal pests, native biodiversity, recreation and historic resources, agrichemicals, energy & water efficiency/quality, and health and safety. These sections discuss the strategic approach to different aspects of property management required to meet the goals for the property.

Implementation: The final part of the management plan includes sections on monitoring and plan implementation. The monitoring section outlines the methods that the farmer will use to monitor the consequences of management actions. Many of the management actions assessed in the monitoring section relate back to the specific performance targets set with the individual management goals and as such provide the quantification of the success of management at meeting these goals. The implementation section discusses how the plan will be implemented, the way that farm operations will be reviewed, and the role of external stakeholders if any in this review.

To further assist farmers in preparing management plans, an electronic management plan template that can be downloaded and modified to suit the circumstances of individual properties is avaible. The Guidelines document provides the guidance on how to fill in the template. While the management plan approach developed in this project was developed for high country farms, it should be equally relevant to hill country farmers, or to any land manager who wishes to plan for the full range of economic, environmental and social issues that farmers face today in managing rural land in New Zealand. Such an approach to land management is becoming important as consumers increasingly ask for assurances about the environmental sustainability of the farming operations that the products they are consuming or wearing have come from.