38 | Producing quality heifers and cows at Koromiko Hugh and his wife Lucy farm a 2288 hectare hill country property. This year’s positive beef and lamb prices are timely and appreciated, but are heavily tempered by the hits of the past two seasons, Hugh Dampier-Crossley says. “It’s great to see; beef’s obviously on a real high, lamb prices are better than they were, but sheep were pretty average last year and our costs have all gone through the roof so this needs to be sustained. It will take another year or so to get back to where we were. “These droughts have got a big lag effect. All of last year we were in drought, it was a bloody tough year, 2024.” Hugh and his wife Lucy farm a 2288 hectare hill country property, Koromiko Farm, inland from Cheviot, North Canterbury. Things were looking particularly bleak in December when Hugh offloaded some ewes and lambs, but 170mm of rain that followed over about two weeks combined with dull, overcast weather was an absolute saviour. Koromiko supports 470 Angus mixed-age cows which includes 130 heifers, in addition to 2900 ewes and 700 hoggets, with the older sheep being Romney and anything six-tooth and younger, Romtex. A change in the stocking policy means the ewe numbers will be reduced to about 2000 and the cows increased to about 600. The main focus of the cattle operation is to produce quality heifers and cows that perform on the hill country, while increasing the cattle herd “is what I’ve always wanted to do”, Hugh says. “I prefer my cattle a lot more to sheep, but haven’t really been able to make it stack up; we probably didn’t have the water to be able to do it.” However, the farm now has 500 litre water troughs in 95% of its paddocks which enables more cattle to be supported, sourced from an existing water scheme with two springs. “We’ve got a turbine near a creek that booster pumps that up to some big storage tanks and then it’s gravity fed all round the farm from there. There’s probably 120-odd troughs around the farm. Before that there might have been 20 paddocks with troughs in and the rest were natural water dams and creeks.” Koromiko’s steers are sent to Five Star’s feedlot near Ashburton at about 460 kilograms, with the genetic focus on positive fats, a moderate frame and soft, deep cattle that can winter well on “pretty average” feed and still produce a good calf, with temperament also highly regarded. All the top bull calves are kept entire. The steers are sent to Five Star pre-Christmas after one winter MEAT & WOOL » Koromiko Farm Ltd at about 450 kilograms liveweight. “For the next couple of years we will be mating as many heifers as we can just to get our numbers up to the 600 cow mark.” Despite the challenges and many variables of sheep and beef farming, there are parts of running a hill country property that are still immensely appealing, and for Hugh and his family a big plus is having horses and mustering. In 2022 Hugh and his brother Ben competed in the Mongol Derby, regarded as the world’s longest and toughest, on semi-wild Mongolian horses for 1000 kilometres. “I use horses on the farm quite a bit. My wife and the kids all ride, so I like to try and use them as much as I can and that’s probably the thing with going into cattle. It’s not all about the money; it’s a bit about lifestyle as well.” • LIVESTOCK CARTAGE • GENERAL FREIGHT • BULK & FERTILISER 99 Ward Rd, Cheviot 7310 03 319 8644 | 0276 776 787 • SustainableWater Design Consultants • Stock Water Systems • Commercial and Residential Irrigation • Water Features and Ponds • GPS Mapping and 3D Design Capability • Irrigation Audits and As-built Plans Water Architects www.wai-design.co.nz Proud Collaborative Partners of Koromiko Farm Ltd Russell Fredric Koromiko’s main focus of the cattle operation is to produce quality heifers and cows that perform on the hill country, while increasing the cattle herd
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