| 61 RURAL PEOPLE » Westgate Westgate created a diversified business Westgate Farm has been in the Hunt family for more than 100 years. Kelly Deeks After six years running the family farm at Orakau, Te Awamutu, Sophia Hunt has prepared the operation for a new future allowing her to get back into university as she eyes a corporate career in the agriculture industry. Determined to bid farewell to the bobby truck on her arrival back home to Westgate Farm, Sophia changed her breeding programme and created a diversified business, synchronised to meet market demand. She bred every cow she wanted a replacement from with friesian genetics, and any she didn’t want a replacement from was put to a beef breed. Early mating with a friesian bull got replacement calves on the ground early, and there is a market for selling friesian bull calves up until the end of July, while bull beef can be sold until September or October. “Beef definitely have their place in the dairy industry,” she says. “They provided me an opportunity to focus on breeding only from the cows I want replacements from, and I don’t have to worry about bobby calves.” Westgate Farm has been in the Hunt family for more than 100 years and now it can stay that way despite Sophia heading south to Lincoln University for the next 18 months. The bigger than average friesians at 650kgs live weight have been sold to a Hawke’s Bay farmer who needed to replace their entire herd after cyclone Gabrielle, and another dairy farmer is coming to lease Westgate Farm. Sophia loves the agriculture industry and is keen to see what it has to offer in other parts of the world. She loves to travel, can think and talk on her feet, and is considering what corporate position could combine her loves and her strengths. She will study for her Master of Business (Global Management and Marketing). She is thinking about what the end consumer wants and how that relates to the farmers on the land, about the environmental and animal welfare standards consumers will accept. She is also wondering what farm ownership is going to look like in New Zealand in the future. “It’s already hard to achieve and I think it’s going to get a lot harder, unless you’ve got family land. If I had just really enjoyed farming but hadn’t come from a farming family I would have found it so hard to have an operation which didn’t completely drain all of my energy and still provide a farming model that could grow.” She sees share farming as a great and efficient solution, as are multi-farm portfolios, but what about local investment as well? “Kiwisaver funding the agriculture industry would be a really good use of capital, allowing New Zealand farmers to buy more land and bringing more capital into New Zealand’s food and fibre industry,which would be quite supportive of our economy.” M 027 455 1106 E stephenweck@gmail.com For all your livestock requirements Stephen Weck Livestock is proud to be involved with Westgate Farm.
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