| 31 Farming for the future at Omamari Karen Phelps Pamu-owned Omamari Station has just completed its conversion into a TechnoGrazing unit. The process has taken ve years and is proving incredibly bene cial, says farm manager Brendon Egan. “We have far better grazing management of our pastures and feed quality is very easy to control,” he says. The intensive ef cient beef grazing system has seen the farm divided into a grid of grazing cells from 0.7-1 ha. Each ‘system’ on the farm will comprise 15 cells and graze 25 bulls. The farm has 138 systems and 2500 bulls. Paddocks are fenced off with electric fencing, which can be driven over by farm bikes with the fences springing back into place for easier management. The system also includes a new watering system based on portable small troughs linked to a larger water system for replenishment. Cattle will be fed from grass grown on the farm with no bought in feed or crops grown. This means precision is required around pasture management as the short eight-month growing period for the stock means there is no margin for error. On some days this could mean 130 mobs needing to be shifted. It’s a big change for the 1300ha effective/2440 total units. The sheep and breeding cows the farm once ran have gone and been replaced by the TechnoGrazing system. Around 1040ha has been planted in pines and 100ha of manuka bush and wetland area retired and designated QEII National Trust. Waterways have been fenced off and riparian planted. The TechnoGrazing system was initiated because of the challenging summer dry on Omamari RURAL PEOPLE » Omamari Station - Pamu Paddocks are fenced off with electric fencing, which can be driven over by farm bikes with the fences springing back into place. Station. This system has the added bene t of supporting more integration of dairy-beef across Pamu farms. In Taupo Pamu has around 25 dairy farms and calves are reared to 100kgs before heading to Pamu’s three yearling farms in Northland. They then head to Omamari Station at 18-months-old to be nished. “Because this farm gets thrashed in the summer, we were only doing all right one year out of ve due to the dry,” says Brendon. “By putting in TechnoGrazing cattle comes here in the autumn and then we farm them through the winter and start killing in October/November. Our goal is to have 90% killed by Christmas. Then in November around 1000 14-month-old calves are bought in, which means we halve the usual stocking rate over summer. It’s a little intensive, shifting fences with little mobs but out of the ve of us here, four have spent time on dairy farms, and it’s not as intensive but the grazing management is quite similar.” The farm also uses Waterwatch, an app for remote tank water monitoring, FarmIQ farm management software, and FARMAX to record farm performance data, forecast future expectations and investigate unlimited scenarios for potential changes to the farm system. An electric fence app trial with Gallaghers is underway with a Bluetooth aerial installed in the shed to send electric fence voltage levels to phones. Mercury Energy will start to build a wind farm on Omamari Station next year with at least 16 towers. It will be another big development for the farm in what has been a number of years of unprecedented change as Pamu prepares to farm for the future. The intensive ef cient beef grazing system has seen the farm divided into a grid of grazing cells from 0.7-1 ha. Silviculture Specialists Planting - Pruning - Thinning 021 135 8898 SEARLE FORESTRY CONTRACTORS LTD Proud to support Omamari Station
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