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From receivership to award finalist
TAUHARA MOANA Trust dairy farm near Taupo is a long narrow block located between Mt Tauhara (Maunga or mountain) and Lake Rotokawa (Moana - water). It’s one of many large-scale dairy farms in the...
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Advantages in leasing out stock?
OWNERS OF capital stock are being encouraged to lease out herds or flocks before values fall. Heartland Building Society's head of rural, Will Purvis, says it's inevitable falling export returns will...
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Dairy to beef and back again
CLIVE AND Jorga Walden sharemilk a 160ha, 415-cow dairy farm and run a 167ha drystock farm to the rear of the dairy property. Both farms, southwest of Mangonui in the Far North, are owned by Clive’s...
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Ahuwhenua winner revisited
THREE YEARS ago Whangara Farms won the Ahuwhenua Trophy for the best Maori sheep and beef farm in New Zealand. Like most Maori farms, it is big – but by no means the biggest. At 7,100ha it carries...
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Hill farmer’s winning
IF HE hadn’t been left a farm, Nigel Faram concedes he probably would have been an engineer. He and wife Ava have lifted Parihohonu Station to incredible heights since they took over the farm in 1961,...
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Winter N warning
BE WARY with nitrogen fertiliser on pasture over winter for economic and environmental reasons, says Waikato Regional Council sustainable agriculture coordinator Bala Tikkisetty. Winter applications...
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Making more from scanning
HOW DO you use your scanning data? Do you even scan? Judging by presentations at one of a recent series of Beef + Lamb New Zealand workshops, making more and smarter management decisions based on...
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Treating grass like dollars in Hawkes Bay
FARMING HILL hill country is never easy but at Landcorp’s Opouahi Station, Hawkes Bay, manager Sam Bunny has succeeded in lifting performance substantially, not that he’s making life easy for the...
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Lessons in soil structure study
YOUR COWS might not be pugging your paddocks, but are they causing unseen compaction and consequent production losses? Scientists at Agresearch’s Invermay campus are seeing this on some dairy farms in...
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Crunch number to plan crops
GET THE calculator out and don’t leave it to guesswork when planning winter feed crops for next year. That was a key message to come out of a Beef + Lamb New Zealand field day on Waiouru Station...
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Cropping know-how lifts livestock output
WAIOURU IS a micro climate, exceptionally cold in winter due to high altitude and proximity to Ruapehu. The township exists mainly because of the army base and now museum. Travelers heading north...
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Governance is the key to succession
THE RIGHT form of governance is critical to good succession planning, says the organiser of a recent two-day summit on the subject held at Massey University. Tom Phillips, of Massey and Lincoln joint...
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Weed control crucial
RESULTS OF a grass weed management trial should serve as a reminder to all farmers, cropping or otherwise, to be wary of over reliance on chemical controls, says the Foundation of Arable Research. The...
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Farm cadet course in demand
WAIPAOA STATION is about an hour inland from Gisborne, just off SH 2. It’s typical medium to steep East Coast hill country and once was a huge iconic station of some 13,000has. However, over time,...
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Buffalo and rhino make big money
MAKING SURE none of the rhinoceros herd is poached during the night isn’t something New Zealand farmers have to worry about but it is typical for an increasing number of South African farmers...
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Lucerne lifts lambs and ewes
LUCERNE FOR lambs, transitioning dairy cows, the interaction of feed and deer genotype: those are just three of the papers at this year’s Grasslands Conference that will list Agresearch’s David Stevens...
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Plan your fungicide strategy
NO FUNGICIDE input will create yield: all you can do is limit the loss of potential output. That was one of the fundamental principles put across to growers last week by the Foundation of Arable...
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Southern dairy ticks all boxes
SOUTH COAST Dairy Ltd stirred up a storm of controversy when it proposed to convert a 200ha sheep and beef property on the wild and windswept Catlin Coast. But a little over three years on, the farm is...
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Previous entrants laud awards experience
ANOTHER YEAR, another round of the Ballance Farm Environment Awards. Media releases from the awards’ parent body, the New Zealand Farm Environment Trust, have been flowing thick and fast since entries...
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Heads up on marketing hype
BEWARE THE marketing claims, and take a hard look at the science and statistical analysis behind them before spending on nutrient inputs. That’s the underlying message in what is sure to prove one of...
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