LandWISE Chairman, Hugh Ritchie, and wife Sharon were named Silver Fern Farms Hawke’s Bay Farmer of the Year in April 2014. This follows Hugh’s father David Ritchie being given the same award in 1990. Both generations are recognised for their innovative farming practices, focus on sustainable production and care of soils, and for their very significant contributions to industry and their communities.
Hugh is a LandWISE Founder, being involved from the very start and contributing immensely to development of strip tillage, initially to stop wind erosion and then as a standard practice to reduce costs and care for all types of cropping soils. Hugh has chaired LandWISE since it was incorporated in 2003. He has had many industry and community roles and is currently on the Boards of FAR, Irrigation New Zealand, LandWISE and a member of the Process Vegetables Sector committee.
Farmer of the Year Awards Judge Peter Keeling noted the level of innovation across all aspects of the Ritchies’ business, including irrigation. He said, “The fact Hugh referred to the buyers of his products as clients was telling, and they had some very clear and written business goals.”
The organisers stated: “This is a large-scale business both in livestock and cropping using the very latest technology to make efficiency gains in production and optimise profitability with the better land competing with dairy returns. All this is achieved with a strong focus on sustainable farming and a passion for the environment and his soils”.
We congratulate Hugh and Sharon for this well deserved award.
Other winners on the night were:
- Hugh and Di McBain, who farm 300ha, won the Pan Pac Hawke’s Bay Farm Forester of the Year award for outstanding planting since 1974. (Hugh and Di are neighbours of Hugh and Sharon – well done Otane!)
- Mike Barham won the Laurie Dowling Memorial Award for five years of work with the East Coast Rural Support Trust that covered droughts, floods, and a weather bomb.
- Lincoln University student Patrick Crawshaw won a $3000 scholarship from Lawson Robinson.
A field day will be held at the Ritchies’ farm on 8 May 2014.