Planting native trees to encourage beneficial insects on your farm
Horticultural farm LeaderBrand has planted native trees on its Canterbury land to attract beneficial insects.
Planting native trees to encourage beneficial insects on your farm
Watch Mike talk about planting native trees on LeaderBrand farms in the South Island.
Duration: 04:34
[The title of the video: “Planting native trees for beneficial insects”, and white logos for Te Uru Rākau – New Zealand Forest Service and the Ministry for Primary Industries appear in front of an image of trees and hills.]
[Footage of the LeaderBrand offices in Chertsey, Ashburton.]
[Text on screen: Chertsey, Ashburton.]
Text on screen: Mike Arnold, General Manager, LeaderBrand, South Island.]
[Mike Arnold speaking to camera, sitting next to a planting spade and surrounded by young native tree plantings.]
Mike: I’m Mike Arnold and I’m the General Manager of LeaderBrand in the South Island, and, we’re on a 400-hectare farm in mid Canterbury.
[Overheard shots of the farm showing the offices and then fields with tractors on them.]
Mike: It’s predominantly cropping focused on fresh market produce for the supermarkets mainly, and it’s broccoli, asparagus, courgettes, and then we have a whole lot of rotational crops.
[Close up of broccoli growing in the field and the team at LeaderBrand harvesting crops.]
[Mike walks across a field planted with small native trees.]
[Mike talks to camera.]
Mike: I was approach by Plant and Food to be involved in a project called Hedging Your Bets. And we studied these, um, conifer hedges and pine hedges they had a predominantly around Canterbury and the study was to see what sorts of bugs were in those trees. And I think out of it there’s something like maybe three insects and there’s no real good bugs and there are no predators, no pollinators and so on.
[Mike plants a tree seedling and adds a plant guard to protect it.]
Mike: So then we decided, all right, let’s make a new project now and plant this little native block and let’s study what’s in there. So there’s about 4 or 5 other farmers involved and some really nice little plots like this one here. There’s 7 pollinators in this block here now that we have native bees, hover flies, all sorts of things. And they’re in fact better than bees for pollinating crops. They work when it’s a cold, cloudy day like today. Uh, they’re happy to be out working and pollinating, whereas a honey bee’s a bit cold today, so prefer to stay in bed.
[Mike walks through the new plantings and inspects the trees.]
[An overheard shot of the farm shows a field planted with native trees and a field with rich brown soil next to it.]
[Mike talks to camera.]
Mike: If we can make these little areas like this around the farm and do more of them, that would be our intention because we are big on IPM, which is integrated pest management. And integrated pest management really revolves around starting with all your cultural practices and beneficial insects and everything you can do before the last resort, having to get out an agricultural chemical to control the bugs. And my job and our staff revolves around how can we increase the number of beneficial insects because we know we don’t have to spray.
[A fantail bird is in the young native tree.]
[Inside a nursery, a man looks over trays of native seedlings, while machines water the plants.]
Mike: One thing that I can’t stress enough is the planning that you need to do. So you’ve gotta plan the thing out, okay, the time of the year, your ground preparation. So get some help. If you don’t know, get an advisor.
[Mike talks to camera.]
Mike: Learn by doing is what I say. So do a little bit maybe to start with and learn before you go and do this whole, we’ve done 4 hectares here now, um, do a small area first. We started with, um, say a quarter of a hectare.
[Mike plants a tree in the field.]
Mike: The benefits of doing that is you’ll learn and you’ll reduce your losses. So I think in this large planting here, we’re probably at like 98, 95, 98% establishment, which is fantastic. And what’s what you need. We’ve always sort of led innovation. That’s one of our, the main things we do. We’re regenerative farming and sustainable farming and we practice it big time. Um, so this is part of that part of that whole practice.
[Overhead shots show the fields of the farm planted with native trees and waiting for crops.]
Mike: I mean, this investment here now is probably $80,000. And whilst we may not have an immediate payback on this, we feel, I particularly feel like we’re leading here with somethings that’s gonna be quite big. Customers come here and they see this and they want to get out and take photos and we talk about it and it’s just another aspect of what we do.
[Mike talks to camera.]
Mike: Our aspirations for the future of this farm would be plant more. Um, if you’re mowing a piece of lawn, why mow? Let’s plant into native trees. Let’s have these little plantings all over this whole farm. I’d love people to come here and go, hey, I want our farm to look like this. Any my neighbours and other people in this district, I’d like this whole district to be like this. And I think it could be. Won’t have, I may not see it, but um, what we’re doing here is we’re leading the way and even when I’m not here, it’s gonna be here. There’s some beautiful totara trees already and I’d like to see them in 30 years’ time. Um, it’s just gonna be amazing. Yeah.
[An overhead shot of the farm shows a mix of young native trees, established native trees and fields for crops next to each other.]
[Text on screen: Visit the Canopy website to learn more about planting trees. Canopy.govt.nz]
[Ministry of Primary Industries logo and Te Uru Rākau – New Zealand Forest Service logo. At the bottom of the screen, the text says: Te Uru Rākau – New Zealand Forest Service is part of the Ministry for Primary Industries.]
Encouraging the right insects helps:
- pollinate crops
- control pests naturally
- reduce the time, effort and cost spent on herbicide spraying.
Background
LeaderBrand operates a 400-hectare farm in mid Canterbury. The farm grows fresh market produce for supermarkets, including salad leaves, broccoli, asparagus, and courgettes.
Mike Arnold is a farmer and LeaderBrand’s General Manager in the South Island. He wanted to understand how trees on farms could encourage the right insects. Beneficial insects include pollinators like native bees and hover flies, and predators that control pest insects.
Plant and Food Research approached Mike to participate in a project called ‘Hedging Your Bets’. The project studied conifer and pine hedges around Canterbury to see which insects lived in them.
The results showed the farm’s hedges lacked biodiversity. They didn't provide habitat for insects that could help with growing.
"There were something like maybe three insects and there were no real good bugs and there were no predators, no pollinators and so on," Mike says.
Could native plants and trees help?
Mike and other farmers decided to create small, native planting areas on their farms to attract more insects. Then they worked with researchers to study the results.
The difference was significant. Mike's native planting now supports 7 types of pollinators, including native bees and hover flies.
"They [hover flies] are in fact better than [honey] bees for pollinating crops," Mike explains. "They work when it's a cold, cloudy day. They're happy to be out working and pollinating, whereas a honeybee’s a bit, ‘cold today, so prefer to stay in bed’."
Do a small area first and learn by doing.”
Mike Arnold
The approach
Mike started small, with a planting of about a quarter of a hectare. This allowed him to learn and then refine his methods before expanding to other parts of the farm.
Planning is essential
Mike points out that careful planning and getting an understanding of the ongoing maintenance involved will give your planting project a better chance of success.
"One thing that I can't stress enough is the planning that you need to do,” Mike says. "You've got to plan the thing out – the time of the year, your ground preparation."
He recommends experimenting first to learn and reduce losses before investing in larger plantings.
“Do a small area first” and “learn by doing” he says. Importantly, get help from a restoration specialist or adviser if you're not sure.
Site preparation and establishment
The farm is in a dryland area, so Mike installed irrigation to help get the seedlings established. Irrigation was an important investment for the long-term success of the planting.
Other costs included plant guards, weed control, and trapping for pest animals. He warns these expenses add up and should be factored into planning.
Mike's current native planting covers about 4 hectares. The establishment rate is excellent, with 95–98% of plants surviving.
Choosing the right species
Working with local experts helped Mike choose native species suited to the site conditions. The planting includes diverse species that flower at different times throughout the year. This provides nectar and pollen for the insects his crops need, all year-round.
I'd love people to come here and go, ‘hey, I want our farm to look like this’.”
Mike Arnold
Integrated pest management
The native plantings support LeaderBrand's commitment to integrated pest management (IPM). IPM focuses on using cultural practices, like crop rotation and encouraging beneficial insects before resorting to chemical sprays.
"My job and our staff’s revolve around ‘how can we increase the number of beneficial insects?’ because then we know we don't have to spray," Mike says.
Having native plantings also helps with the farm’s New Zealand Good Agricultural Practice (NZGAP) compliance.
Leading the way
The investment totalled about $80,000. While the financial payback for native planting isn't immediate, Mike sees it as leading innovation in sustainable farming. His vision goes beyond his own farm. He wants to see native plantings spread across the property and throughout the district.
"I'd love people to come here and go, ‘hey, I want our farm to look like this’," he says. "My neighbours and other people in this district, I'd like this whole district to be like this."
Outcome
The project shows that native plantings can provide practical benefits for farms. The beneficial insects attracted to native trees help with pollination and pest control. They reduce the need for harmful and expensive chemical inputs.
More information
The Bioeconomy Science Institute has an article about native plants and beneficial insects.