Gisborne in two days ...

Seven of us from our discussion group headed to Gisborne this week for our annual trip.  Leaving a wet west coast, we arrived in a sunny east coast. 

Everyone was responsible to getting to the starting point on Wednesday 16th May, Captain Cook (http://captaincook.co.nz/) at 9.00 am.  Having flown in this morning myself, along with John Key, I did get a bit of flak for my 'Yaris' that we hired, but we did manage to put 3 farmers plus me in the car.


Our first port of call was Eastwoodhill Arboretum (www.eastwoodhill.org.nz ).  The arboretum is known for having the biggest collection of northern hemisphere trees in the southern hemisphere.  We had an excellent guide in Ross, who kindly travelled out to take us through the 135 ha block which is now managed by a Trust.  The only disappointment was that we were about two weeks too late to see the full colour, but none-the-less we enjoyed our walk to the top of the hill and the colour we did see. 

View down across the arboretum

Land that was part of the original property but now sold on

At the top of the hill

View from the top of the hill

Known as the Cathedral

 






We could have stayed longer but we had another appointment to get to, so it was lunch in the car. We headed south to Paparatu Station (slightly south but between Muriwai/Tiniroto). The 5570 ha property blew most of the farmers away. To put that in perspective, it is about the total effective area of the 12 farms in the discussion group! The station has 3551 ha effective grazing, and approximately 30,000 stock units (8.4 su/ha). The property is medium to steep hill country with very little flat land and owned by a Maori Incorporation (Te Whakaari).

Team work trying to get the bikes off the trailer!

 

Panoramic view looking south

Some of the scrub sprayed out area ... native regrowth in the riparian area is left

The winter crop put in by aerial appliaction on steep land

The team at the back of the farm ... it might not look it but it was cold, but it was!
Tom, Lowen, Bevan, Sally, Andrew, Duncan, Mike, Mat, Steve and Lloyd

Didn't manage to catch a photo of it, but we encountered our fair share of mud doing the trip around the farm.  With some good team work, we managed to get around the farm in one piece.  We got out the back to see the new yard development and home by the central lane.  Back to the quarters we had a debrief and warmed up compliments of the cook.

With the trust going down a development path, there is still work to be done, focusing on getting the basics right - that means reproductive performance and livestock weights of existing stock, a fertiliser programme to compliment it.

A big thank you to Tom and Lowen (Trustees), Steve (Manager) and Rob (Supervisor - AgFirst) for their hospitality on the day.  The opportunity to go onto the property and share the business with us was much appreciated. 

Note:  Thanks for the spare dry socks Tom!  I think the guys appreciated the spare overtrousers and coats too!

It was after 6pm when we headed back to Gisborne, after our exhilarating ride around the farm.  After a nice long warm shower to thaw out, a bit of polishing the one pair of boots (to remove the mud), we headed out to dinner at USSco (http://www.ussco.co.nz/).  Feedback from the guys was that it was a very tasty meal!  Afterwards the guys tried to find some night life in Gisborne, but largely failed on this front and retired to the unit for a few quiet ones.

Day two, Thursday 17th May, we headed at to LeaderBrand (http://www.leaderbrand.co.nz/).  The hospitality of Richard (General Manager) was great.  We got a very open and frank discussion about where Leaderbrand had come from and what it does.  Some key messages picked up from here was:

• Do what the region does well.
• Risk management - soil types, crop mix, markets, seasons.
• Challenge - not doing what always done but looking ahead.
• Having good systems in place to achieve product consistently and to high level - market confidence.  Attention to detail.
• Be prepared to travel and look at ideas, adapt to own environment.
• Use technology to do things smarter.
• Identify customer clearly, produce what they want, so that they are able to make money out of it.

Line-up of tractors and equipment which made most of the farmers envious.

The business has grown from small beginnings in 1975 by Murray MacFarlane. The currently grow a range of crops - squash, sweetcorn, lettuce, broccoli, salad, watermelon. They have a mix of domestic and export markets. They crop 2600 ha around Gisborne (with 5-600 ha owned and the rest leased) and 400 ha in Canterbury. LeaderBrand employ 230 full time staff and up to 550 over summer. 

Lettuce and salad plants

Discussing things out in the field ... Mike, Richard, Andrew, Pete, Lloyd and Bevan

Lettuce harvester ... only 4 in NZ!

For continual supply of product there is weekly (or even daily) planting depending on season and days to maturity. There are crop managers for each crop who are responsible for the performance of the crop, both productivity and financial. There is a focus on doing as much of the work in the field as possible to reduce handling and cost.




Some of the LeaderBrand product.

More product



Icy Broccoli





 

In the chillers where the salads are packed.

The group thoroughly enjoyed their time at LeaderBrand and all took home some key messages to apply to their farming businesses.
After we grabbed some lunch, we headed north up the coast, with a brief stop at Turihaua Angus ( http://www.turihaua.co.nz/).  We were greeted by Paul and taken through the property which is 2500 ha total run in two operations.  The stud block is 900 ha with 450 cows calving.  The property also runs 5000 terminal ewes.  Of the 200 males born, approximately 60% are sold, with a portion going as yearlings and the rest as 2 year olds.  Turihaua promotes yearling mating and mates about 120 heifers.  The property is hill country and the stud is run as close to commercial.  Last year the stud averaged $9,700 for its 2 year old bulls and $4,500 for yearling bulls.  Heifers start calving 1st July and MA Cows 20th July.  They have been doing yard weaning for 5 years.  Turihaua is also venturing into supplying a local deli and may take this further.

We had a quick look at facilities - the bull ring and the yards, but it was unfortunate that there was no stock to be seen apart from a handful of sire bulls up the driveway.

One of the sire bulls

The facilities in the yards - Paul talking to the crop

It was then further up the coast going to Whangara to the Seymours.  The Seymours are good farmers in both productivity and financial performance.  They are also part of an AgFirst discussion group which has been running for 25 years with 15 - 17 farmers, which is seeing the next generation coming through the group.  It is district focused and provides good community focus as well as farming analysis.  All AgFirst (www.agfirst.co.nz )discussion group participants submit financial accounts to be analysed on an annual basis, and this is entered into a database of 100+ farms.  The Seymours were Farmer of the Year recipients in 2000 and won the Ewe Hogget Competiton in 2008.

The Seymours farm 840 ha effective, with 1000 mls average rainfall.  Although a family property, Charlie and Kerry bought their own land, sharefarmed with the family and eventually bought into the family trust.  Maintenance fertiliser has been applied religiously atleast from 1960s onwards.  They farm Coopworth ewes with facial eczema tolerance (the farm is a known hot spot).  Ewes are 75 kg+, whilst hoggets are 46 kg average at tupping time.  Scanning averages are 200% MA Ewes, 190% 2-tooths and 140% hoggets.  No dries or single 2-tooth/MA Ewes are carried past scanning.  Average lambing % is 180  and 110 for ewes and hoggets respectively.  The lift in performance started in 2000 and is put down to using bolus, genetics, scanning, culling and feeding. 

Cattle are made up of 300 cows (Angus).  Rest of stock sold at 18-months, with steers at 420 kg LWT and bulls 300 kg CW. 

Sheep make up 35 - 38% of total stock units, beef 58 - 60% and deer 4-5%, although deer are now a very small part of the total operation.  Overall stocking rate is 8.5 su/ha, compared with 9.1 su/ha district and 10.1 su/ha top 10%.  Total sheep income (incl. wool) was $187.83/ssu, which is $69 above the top10%.  Cattle income $75.83/csu, a $1.78 above top 10%.  Farm Working Expenses (FWE) were 46% of Gross Farm Income (GFI).  This is on parr with the top 10%, with the district average being 60%. 

A view from the top looking north and to the coast

Thank you to Charlie and Kerry for hosting us and sharing their information ... it was appreciated by everyone and certainly set some high standards for us to achieve.

It was then back to Gisborne, for wrap up.  Half of the crew flew back to Auckland Thursday night, with the rest staying on and travelling back on Friday.

A big thanks to Pete and Rob (AgFirst - Gisborne) for organising things for us ... much appreciated by the group.  And thanks to all the others who allowed us to gain an insight into their businesses.  Thoughts and planning for next year's trip will get underway soon.