| 55 “The lambs are mainly a Forbes and Angus Cameron Romney, but we put some blackface Suftex over the two-tooths.” East Coast couple ‘live and breathe farming’ Tiniroto Station is a 620-hectare farm, half way between Gisborne and Wairoa. Richard Loader In the great tradition of kiwi farmers, East Coast sheep and bull finishing farmers Rob and Karen Newman are deeply passionate about what they do, despite the increasing challenges faced by farmers across the country. Rob stresses that it’s not just him – Karen is just as passionate about farming as he is, and has her own team of dogs. “Karen and I live and breathe farming 24/7 – well our whole family does really. It’s all we know. We love being out there in the land and there’s nothing like shifting a mob of bulls onto beautiful feed and watching them graze, and it’s pretty satisfying loading quality stock onto a truck heading to the works. They’re looking beautiful and you think, I’ve done a good job there.” Rob is not fazed that farming is becoming more business-like, and says that is the path they want to follow. “I love farming, don’t get me wrong, but more and more farms are being run as businesses, and that’s not taking anything away from how farming was in the past. You just have to be so much more efficient to survive and be sustainable.” The couple farm two blocks in the East Coast, which Rob says complement each other very well with the nature of their stock finishing operation. Half way between Gisborne and Wairoa, Tiniroto Station is a 620-hectare farm, with a further 100 hectares mainly in native bush and 10 hectares in plantation pines. Half of that property is really good rolling country and is run in cell grazing bull units. The other half is steeper sheep country, but even that only has 60 hectares that is considered really steep. Normally summer safe and not too cold in the winter, Tiniroto enjoys a good grass growing climate. Located in Wairoa, Clearmont is a smaller trading farm encompassing 380 hectares of mainly beautiful rolling country. “There’s 35 hectares of flats and we grow maize for grain on that, grassing it back down with lambs on in the winter. There’s about 120 hectares that are tougher hill country at one end, but the rest is nice gentle rolling country. Anywhere from May to September/October Friesian bulls are bought in and initially placed in Clearmont, where they will stay till February/ April, then transferred to Tiniroto to be wintered for a season before sold as two and a half year olds to the works. In total Rob and Karen finish RURAL PEOPLE » Tiniroto Station NGĀPUTAHI “Breeders of Genetically Superior Seedstock” Proud to support Tiniroto Station Forbes Cameron 06 329 4050 | 0275294050 Angus Cameron 06 329 4711 cameronfamily@inspire.net.nz Please scan our QR Code to read our 2022 Bull Data L to R: Ross Mitchell, Daryl Fergus, Rob Fergus, Tim Petro, Luke Bates, Deano Brenssell. www.fergusrural.co.nz • admin@fergusrural.co.nz Gisborne: Wairoa: Rob Fergus 027 4496007 Deano Brenssell 027 8638923 Luke Bates 027 4211653 Daryl Fergus 027 2092787 Ross Mitchell 027 4048965 Environmental SoluƟons Consultant: Tim Petro 027 3390400 Livestock and Agribusiness consultants. AGRIBUSINESS about 900 bulls each year. The couple have been finishing 7000 lambs each year, but are now aiming to reduce that to 3500. “By the time we take off our replacements, we might have 1700 lambs that were born on Tiniroto and they will go to Clearmont in April, to be topped up with another 1800 that we will buy in store and then finished. The lambs are mainly a Forbes and Angus Cameron Romney, but we put some blackface Suftex over the two-tooths. Shearing costs and the workload involved in dagging is now making us reassess what we do in the future and we may go for a low labour type sheep at some stage in the future, and move away from the Romney breed.”
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