| 7 ARABLE » Graham Talbot Farm history extends back to WW1 The farm’s family history extends back to the dawning of WW1 when current owner Graham Talbot’s grandfather and his brother bought 1200 acres. Sue Russell As the crow flies, 11 km straight west of Timaru sits historic Kingsborough Farm, a cropping/sheep enterprise sitting on 700ha of good rolling land, suitable for growing cereals on and growing sheep. The farm’s family history extends back to the dawning of WW1 when current owner Graham Talbot’s grandfather and his brother bought 1200 acres, working it together. When Graham’s great-uncle returned from war the property was split into two separate operations. Skip forward a generation Graham’s father Edwin then took over running the farm, along with his brother, farming the property as a partnership. When Uncle died in 1973, Edwin kept farming it until Graham, who returned to the farm upon leaving school, gradually assumed control. “We actually added some more land as opportunities presented, so today of the 700ha, we own 550ha.” When Graham first returned home a small portion of the land grew cereal, with the bulk of the farm operating as a sheep farm, getting up to 6000 ewes and 1500 hoggets over time. “We’re now back to 1500 ewes and we’ve substantially increased our cropping footprint to 450ha. This land is suitable for cropping. We don’t carry any irrigation, but our heavyish clay soil holds a bit of moisture.” Graham says the farm is thriving with a good mix of the crop and sheep activity now well established. “We buy in lambs and autumn finish them. We do 5000 winter lambs. It provides a good solid reliable income stream and spreads the risk.” On the cropping side, the farm grows feed barley and wheat, peas and grass seed, crops suitable for dry-land cropping. The combine harvester used to gather the crops actually sits on tracks and 4-wheel drive because Graham says every three or four years the ground gets very wet. “This year we had two massive rain events on our spring barley crop and then it turned dry, so our yield dropped to 50% of what we would normally harvest. The rain events are almost worse than the dry, in my opinion.” Cropping runs through a five year rotation, which Graham says suits with the winter lambing activity. Three crops are harvested every two years. Along with overseeing all the farm activity Graham is a great supporter of Federated Farmers. He’s South Canterbury’s Arable Chair which takes him into meetings with other Executive members, where a raft of agricultural issues are openly discussed. “One of the things about Federated Farmers is that its very much seeking and representing the farmer on the land, facing their challenges daily. We’re big on advocacy and carrying these concerns up the chain to National Council and into forums where our concerns get aired in spaces to influence policy decisions.” Another huge positive in being involved in the organisation is that it offers farmers to socialise and rub shoulders with other successful farmers. In the case of the Arable farming cohort, Graham says one thing Federated Farmers has advocated for is to allow these farmers to use their own seeds and in terms of the sprays these farmers needs to produce healthy crops. With an attitude that ‘you’re better to be in the room doing something, than being shut out of the room doing nothing, Graham says Federated Farmers adopts a mature approach to engaging with legislators and policy decision makers. He also believes that ‘Groundswell’, did a lot of the heavy lifting to get the public on side. “It was a great initiative, getting people on the streets and woke the government up a bit.” Another concern Graham and many in Federated www.standrewstransport.co.nz Cell: 027 329 555 Phone: 03 612 6605 Main Road, St. Andrews PO Box 137, Timaru Email: satrans@xtra.co.nz Proud to be associated with Graham Talbot Helping build businesses from the ground up. Foundry56 — we dedicate ourselves to crafting innovative solutions for our clients. Proud to support Graham Talbot +64 3 688 6644 office@foundry56.nz foundry56.nz Level 1, 56 Bank Street, Timaru Jess Williams (03) 684 5184 jess@turnbullgrainandseed.co.nz Sam Thacker (03) 684 5184 021 0839 3321 sam@turnbullgrainandseed.co.nz Farmers, is just how busy farmers are every day, attending to compliance, reporting, auditing obligations ongoing “I would very much like to see greater uptake in membership too. We need all farmers to come on board to give us greater financial capability to fight the good fight and to provide the array of services we do.” Graham’s been four years in the role of Arable Chair for South Canterbury and says while he doesn’t necessarily attend every forum, he enjoys the engagement at national and local level.
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