Source: Natural Performance Limited (NPL)
Natural Performance Limited (NPL) is kicking off their series of Regenerative Growing workshops in Matakana on December 7-8. Whether you’re a farmer, lifestyle blocker, or keen home gardener, the experienced team is committed to delivering what you need to make powerful, positive changes on your property.
The workshop has an emphasis on practical tools. As well as presentations, networking with likeminded people, and a talk on Permaculture by local guest speaker Trish Allen, participants will be getting their hands dirty at ‘Matakana Meadows’, a local farm with a vision to regenerate the soil and land, and having it give back to the community.
NPL coach Jake Herron recently relocated to Matakana to manage Matakana Meadows. Located within walking distance from the village, it covers 125 hectares of effective grazing land, plus another 125 hectares of native bush and streams. The owners brought Jake and his partner Emma Gaustad onboard earlier this year to transform and manage the farm in a regenerative fashion.
Both have a background in conventional farming. Jake’s focus shifted to regenerative practices in 2019, and Emma is newer to regenerative farming but is picking it up fast and great at asking hard questions to keep Jake and the NPL team on their toes.
Jake started his farming career at a sheep and beef station in Wairarapa, alongside his grandfather, aunt and uncle. He then went on to work on a range of farms around New Zealand, as well as in Canada and Australia.
“Working at a large grain cropping operations in Western Australia, growing barley, wheat and canola, my mind was just blown by the amounts of chemicals going on,” Jake says. “Some of those crops had 9 passes or more between seeding and harvest. Before harvesting, the whole field was desiccated with glyphosate – to make sure all the crop in the paddock would dry evenly, so the grain then went into the works with that on them.”
Jake’s stepfather had already sown the seed of using more natural options to support soil fertility, like promoting lime instead of superphosphate. Coming back to New Zealand, Jake was keen to explore this further.
“I somehow accidentally liked Jono Frew’s social media account and that’s where I first heard the word regenerative agriculture,” says Jake.
Not long after that, Jake participated in NZ Beef and Lamb’s future leaders programme called ‘Generation Next’.
“As part of that I had to find a mentor, so I reached out to Jono, and he was really enthusiastic to support me”.
Inspired by the programme and by Jono’s mentorship, Jake started thinking outside of the box of conventional farming. He went on to start a company called ‘Life’s Style Farming’ with the idea to lease multiple smaller lifestyle blocks and farm them in a regenerative fashion, and to prove that anyone like himself could get into farming with little to no equity. However, Jake quickly got snapped up by the owners of a 160-hectare farm, who offered him to lease that instead.
“Through that, I learned a lot of hard lessons. I bought my first unit load of lambs the day before China closed its borders due to covid and lost a whole lot of money right from the start. I was working for myself for the first time, learning to be the one accountable for the business and learning a way of farming that was new to me. A combination of bad timing and lack of funding made us pull the plug after two years, as I didn’t have the funds to get over the the hump and being financially viable on that property,” says Jake.
“I wasn’t winning, but I sure learned a lot about farming, and about building up my own resilience. I learned that if I let a perceived failure stop me, then I would never get anywhere in life.”
Over this time, Jake had kept in contact with Jono. The timing worked out that Jono was ready to bring someone onboard to join as a coach at Natural Performance, and Jake was available! A while later, Jono took on a new client in Matakana who needed a farm manager, and he put Jake and Emma’s names forward for the role.
“When Jono called and asked if Emma and I wanted to come up to Matakana, our first reaction was Auckland? – No way!” says Jake. “But we came up and had a look and realised it was our dream job. It is an opportunity for Emma and me to work together on a very special project that fulfils everything that we wanted to do.
The plan is to open a farm shop on the property, where you can call in on your way home from work and get all the fresh produce needed to cook a hearty meal.
“Meat is on the cards, and raw milk, fruit and vegetables,” says Jake.
We are very lucky in that the owners are sharing this big somewhat utopian vision with us, but we are still grounded in real world business expectation – so we’re not just tipping money into something that isn’t going to make a good return.”
Asked what he thinks of his new hometown, Jake says he loves it. Some favourites include the Matakana Pub, the Sunday Country Market, and the diverse and welcoming people. “For the first time in my life, the majority of my social group are not farmers!”
About the workshop
The workshop will be held on Wednesday 7 and Thursday 8 December, at The Stables, Matakana. Each day will run from 9am to 4pm and lunch will be provided.
As a bonus, local guest speaker Trish Allen from Rainbow Valley Farm is going to have a talk about permaculture, and the principles in there that align with all sorts of different farming types.
Link to book here
https://naturalperformance.co.nz/shop/p/regenerative-growing-workshop-matakana
What you’ll take away with you by the end of the workshop:
– An understanding of the functions and processes at play above and beneath the soil, so you can enable regeneration of your soil and the surrounding ecosystem.
– How to start relying less on inputs, and create resilient, profitable, regenerating and functional agroecosystems.
– A perspective shift to help you identify and observe the limiting factors and changes on your property, and the tools you’ll need to address those limiting factors
– Be empowered to move your projects forward to deliver positive outcomes for your land, people and business.
Topics covered includes:
– The principles and ethos of regenerative agriculture
– The power of photosynthesis
– The foundations of soil health and function
– The importance of ecosystem-wide diversity
– Adaptive grazing management, animal health and genetics
– The benefits of ruminant animals in food production systems
– Maximising hydrological cycles
– Silvopasture
– Small and large scale composting
– The use, benefits and timings of biostimulants and mineral applications
– How to carry out health checks on your soil, plants and animals to identify limiting factors, benchmark and monitor trends.
– The opportunity and ease of our new farm planning service
UPCOMING TOUR DATES
22-23 February – Nelson
15-16 March – Kerikeri
19-20 April – Invercargill
10-11 May – Morrinsville
7-8 June – Fielding
21-22 June – Ashburton
Website: www.naturalperformance.co.nz
Facebook: www.facebook.com/NPLregenerativeagriculture/
