Outstanding in their field

Kelvin Hicks runs Willowmere Organics on 180 hectares at Hororata in mid-Canterbury. Willowmere is his parents’ farm; he now leases it from them along with another lease block, and owns some land of his own. Rolling country is complemented by flats along the Hororata River. The soils are naturally fertile silt loams.

Kelvin and his parents, John and Trish Hicks, were early adopters of certified organic growing in Canterbury, becoming BioGro certified in 1995. They grew grains, peas and carrots for Watties, and raised organic sheep and cattle.

Short-term cover cops

The current farming system run by Kelvin is a departure from the usual reliance on stock on an organic mixed cropping farm. Rather than using the approach of three or four years cropping followed by three or four years stock and pasture, Kelvin uses short-term cover crops