Business Rural Autumn 2021

| 9 RURAL PEOPLE » Raft Creek Farm: Stephen Wright / Mark Adams Destocking part of ‘sustainable farming vision’ Photos: Two-year-old and R1 year stags at Raft Creek near Hokitika. Karen Phelps P amu owned Raft Creek Farm at Hokitika is de-stocking in a bid to meet tightening gov- ernment regulations as well as bring it into line with Pamu’s sustainable farming vision. Farm manager Stephen Wright says the new farm policy is to eliminate its commercial hinds and reduce its lamb finishing operation. Normally the 484ha farm fawns approximately 700 Red Deer hinds of which 400 are stud hinds. It also finishes around 500-600 lambs per year but is currently only finishing those it breeds, around 50. The farm also has a small beef cattle opera- tion, finishing approximately 56 yearling heifers. It’s a bold move but also fits in with Pamu’s aim to not be afraid to try new things and always seeking to grow and improve for a sustainable future in farming, says Stephen. “We recognise our role as guardians of the land and are leading the way in sustainable farming to protect and enhance the environment. This means that innovation flourishes on Pamu farms,” he says. With an average rainfall of 3.65m the farm can get even wetter than this large amount of water. In 2019 for example 4.275m of water fell. This means strict management policies are necessary ‘Massive network’ to call on • from page 8 Phone Andrew: 027 322 1014 or 03 685 5788 QUALITY SERVICE DONE ON TIME ANDREWSWANN CONTRACTING LTD • ROUND & SQUARE BALING • INDIVIDUAL & TUBE WRAPPING • MOWING & RAKING • 6 BALE- BALE CARRIER • DISCING • FODDER BEET DRILLING WITH FERT • EFFLUENT SPREADING • PLOUGHING to mitigate negative effects such as regularly moving deer onto fresh pasture and moving away from winter cropping to reduce silt run-off. All major drains are fenced off. Subsoiling is undertaken to aerate the soil, which assists it to recover and grow pasture when it gets too wet. The dry can have just as quick an effect. With grass roots growing close to the surface, dry weather can affect pasture quickly, says Ste- phen. This has led Raft Creek Farm to focus on short-term pasture species of three to five years duration. This should also help the farm to survive better without winter cropping, he says. The aim is to re-grass 15-20% of pasture each year. Raft Creek Farm mostly breeds deer, supplying breeding stags to other Pamu owned West Coast deer properties and selling a small amount to pri- vate buyers. The farm is part of Focus Genetics, which is New Zealand’s largest red meat genetics company. Focus Genetics uses genetic research and technologies to produce sheep, cattle and deer breeds, which deliver increased returns for com- mercial farmers in New Zealand. Focus Genetic’s Red Deer programme targets a breeding objective of commercially based profit- ability in a venison production system. Selection is for commercial traits highlighting growth, early fawning, medium hind size, and higher yields from the major primal regions. Stephen says that Pamu’s commercial farms cover a wide range of challenging environ- ments and its selection index accounts for the production systems that are appropriate to those environments. The focus is purely on meat production; velvet production is not part of the objective. Stephen says that with a long history of objective selection combined with an innovative approach such as CT Scanning, Focus Genetics is able to select for the traits that strongly affect profitable production systems. Wide use of AI is employed to exploit the most profitable sires available resulting in fast genetic gain and outstanding animals that deliver real results. Hinds and fawns on the way to the shed for tagging. SERVICING We deliver nationwide however we specialise in: • Greymouth • Westport • Hokitika • Christchurch • South Westland DISTRIBUTORS FOR Mainfreight West Coast, Aramex Couriers, Refrigerated & General Freight, Bulk & Livestock Specialists • BP Oil NZ Ltd – Bulk Fuel Delivery • BP & Castrol Lubricants Phone Greymouth: 03 769 9081 | Phone Hokitika: 05 756 8012 Phone Mainfreight West Coast: 03 769 9081 | Email: freight@aratuna.co.nz (03) 768 3405 4 Kaiata Park Dr, Kaiata, Greymouth transwestfreighters@xtra.co.nz PROUD TO SUPPORT RAFTCREEK FARM BULK HAULAGE & STOCK CARTAGE FRE I GHTERS 2011 LTD RANSWEST Specialists in all Excavating and Trucking Work 027 420 2221 | 03 755 7433 can call on,” explains Mark. “We can put them in touch with the sort of people they might need to talk to, so of it’s professional help they might need to talk to their GP, or more practical contacts to help manage whatever their current crisis is.” On the practical front the help from the Rural Support Trust might be as simple as providing a sounding board to help with the sort of nuts and bolts decision that can become difficult when someone’s very stressed, as Mark explains.“ We don’t give advice but sometimes just having someone there is enough. “So for example if there’s an issue around winter feed we can put them in touch with a stock agent which means it’s easier to buy in the feed which is what the farm needs right then. That might be enough to get them through and then we just stay in contact.”