| 83 Future-focused farming in the high country Virginia Wright High Country sheep and beef farm Matakanui Station has been in the Paterson family for generations. Only 2000 of their 8700 hectares in the Dunstan Range near Queenstown are flat. They’re also below the snowline which is around 1000 metres with parts of the station as high as 1500 metres above seaRURAL SERVICES » Matakanui Station level and snow covered in winter. Andrew and Tracy Paterson took over managing the farm in 2004 and achieved sole ownership in 2014, running 10,000 Polwarth ewes including 800 stud ewes and 1000 cattle. From the beginning they’ve integrated their intention to care for the environment with their focus on long-term resilience and self-sufficiency and being able to generate their own power is an integral Servicing Otago and surrounds SHEARING CAMERON Scott Cameron on 027 592 5824 - scshear@outlook.com PADDOCK BY PADDOCK. CORNER BY CORNER. Using our in-depth knowledge of customers’ land, businesses and objectives, we tailor highly specific solutions that differ from farm to farm, even paddock to paddock. To ensure these agronomy-led solutions stay on track for success, we also regularly walk the crops corner to corner to make recommendations along the way. To find out more go to catalystag.co.nz Proudly Supporting Matakanui Station Contact us to discover how our engineering solutions can support innovation in your operation. Cen Eng Limited 03 4473 757 www.ceneng.co.nz 66 Leask Street Omakau INNOVATIVE ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS Based in the heart of rural Otago, Cen Eng is your trusted partner in engineering innovation. Specialising in developing innovative solutions we design and manufacture a wide range of products for the agricultural and energy industries right here in Omakau. Our technical services team also provides water metering, control and telemetry services on a farm level through to design and project management of large scale engineering projects in construction, infrastructure, energy and mining. part of that vision. “It was always the long-term plan to have our own hydro-electric power generation so when we were upgrading our irrigation infrastructure and putting it under gravity we installed connections, and oversized the pipe, so that we could add to it when we could afford it and found a system that would work,” says Andrew. Early discussions were as far back as 2015 but it was in the last two years that the system came together. It’s comparatively inexpensive and will be easy to set up on other farms but for now it’s one-of-a kind. It’s taken the combined knowledge, support and drive of Roger Simpson from Irritech and Matt Taylor from OPR working with Andrew to come up with the robust design which uses irrigation water in an existing underground pipe network. Once it’s been through the power generating turbines the water is returned back to the creek it came from, ensuring that no-one downstream is adversely affected. “All the surplus power goes into the network which we’ve also added 100KW of solar onto to use when there isn’t enough water to both irrigate and run the turbine,” says Andrew. He believes that offsetting the increasing cost of energy consumption has significantly improved the farm’s long-term sustainability and resilience and he encourages anyone working on their irrigation systems to future-proof what they’re doing with larger pipes if they can afford them so that generating their own hydropower is a viable option further down the track. The water testing they’ve been doing for years on Matakanui now shows that the quality of the water leaving the farm is better than when it arrives. Their wetland restoration work, done with the help of the Waiora Manuherikia wetland funding project, no doubt contributes to that as they’ve restored and created a total of 32 hectares of wetlands over three different areas. “We’ve fenced off wet areas, removed willows and planted natives like Carex secta (Pukio also known as swamp sedge) and kanuka that help to stabilise the banks and work as filters. There’s more work to be done yet,” says Andrew. Having recently ring-fenced 50 hectares of regenerating alpine Totara, the Patersons are currently working with the neighbouring farm to protect what will be a total of 132 hectares with a QEII Trust covenant. The stand of relatively rare trees which once covered the land will be one of the largest stands of alpine Totara in Otago. Taking part in environmental initiatives such as the New Zealand and Australia combined research into breeding low methane sheep is a given for the Patersons, just as keeping the environment in mind is central to Matakanui Station’s farming practices and systems. It’s a way of thinking that feeds into the station’s long term security at the same time as it benefits the land, the animals, and everything they produce. Having recently ring-fenced 50 hectares of regenerating alpine Totara, the Patersons are currently working with the neighbouring farm to protect what will be a total of 132 hectares with a QEII Trust covenant. The stand of relatively rare trees which once covered the land will be one of the largest stands of alpine Totara in Otago.
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