Barry Gray was selected to host this year’s South Otago Farm Forestry Association Field Day after winning a Landcare Trust award for his use of native plants.
Mr Gray said it was "nice to be recognised" with the South Island award.
His interest in trees began when he wanted to plant shelter on his sheep and beef farm. He is the third generation of his family at Graylands Farms, and he and his wife Liz have added other land to it since they took over in 1999. They now have about 660ha.
Their two sons are both involved with the farm, Jeremy part-time and Thomas in between stints in Australia as a livestock scanner.
Mr Gray started with plants that met the criteria for shelterbelts. He wanted species that did not grow too tall under powerlines and that would not interfere with haymaking.
He went for a variety of species that he thought looked nice, with a mix of shapes, colours and attractive flowers.
If he saw a plant he liked in a garden, he would ask what it was and try to source it.
"Some did very well, some didn’t.
"I mixed exotics with natives, to fit the bill.
"Some are very showy, providing food for birds and bees year-round."
There are now more than 100 different species of native trees on the farm. Mr Gray has grown some himself, by digging up saplings that grew prolifically in his garden. Others he found growing in nearby bush and struggled for years to identify them.
Native trees could have a juvenile form that was unlike their adult form. They could also look very plain and unprepossessing until they flowered — a phenomenon many farmers might not have witnessed, he said.
"They look so different when they’re flowering."
Some flourished in combination with others, so Mr Gray had built up knowledge of companion planting that worked well in his situation.
He aimed for a "bush edge effect", which he was still developing.
"I’m trying to get the balance right."
Native trees were in New Zealand before people arrived, Mr Gray said. Seeing what was growing in the wild was an indication of what was suited to an area.
However, he had found some to be erratic seed producers and they might not flower for years at a time.
Endangered and threatened species were likely to be unable to compete with pasture or changing conditions once the land was used for livestock farming, he said.
For biodiversity, he had native trees flowering from spring, when kowhai bloomed, until autumn, when it was the turn of lacebarks.
Riparian plantings and forestry blocks had also been planted at Graylands Farms. Three pine blocks were 30 years old and could be harvested any time.
Mr Gray is trying to time it for when prices are high, but that could change in the period between booking a logging contractor and having the timber on the market.
The trees "provided a lot of shelter" while they grew and "there’s not such a rush" to fell them, he said.
At the field day, he would point out which plantings had prospered under which circumstances.
The field day starts at 1.30pm on Friday, November 25, at 2610 Owaka Highway — the main road heading south from Balclutha.
A tour of the farm in four-wheel-drive vehicles would include information relayed on FM transmitting microphones.
Mr Gray hoped to offer a short bush walk at the end of the tour.
"There’s quite a large totara to see."
A barbecue and refreshments would follow.
