Business Rural North Spring 2021

34 | Innovative couple Virginia Wright RURAL PEOPLE » Three Rivers: Mike & Christie Ferrier W hen the call came through to Mike and Christie Ferrier five years ago offering him the position of farm manager on Three Riv- ers Farm 20 minutes out of Otorohanga, he jumped at the opportunity. Mike had worked for the owners, William and Karen Olive , on their other farm nearby for five and a half years until they’d moved in order to be closer to Christie’s family when their youngest child was about to be born. That was Katie, who’s now six, joining two older sisters Sophie, nearly nine, and Hayley now 12. “It seemed like a good idea to try something different at the same time when we were moving to Whanganui, so I tried working on an Angus Stud farm. But I realised I missed the deer work so we were really happy that they actually rang us up and offered us the job,” says Mike. Three Rivers Farm is set up to spread the risk inherent in farming with the business roughly split into thirds involving deer, cattle and sheep. Of their 2000 ewes 1000 go to Romney for the 500 or so replacements they need, with the rest going to the works, and the other 1000 go to a black- faced terminal ram to make a fast-growing easily identified lamb. They finish between 200 and 250 beef heifers every year, and they run 500 venison-based hinds and 450 velvet stags as well as about 500 weaners from which they keep replacements, with everything else going to slaughter. “We’re servicing two different markets with the deer for the same reason,” says Mike. “We want to spread the business risk, the market risk.” They buy the velvet stags in as two-year-olds with another year to wait before their first velvet harvest. Although they’re looking at the possibility of breeding, for now it’s easier to outsource that side of things with their stags coming from three different local suppliers. “Obviously they keep their best ones and we get the option of their second pick,” says Mike. Each year Mike sifts out the bottom 5% of the velvet-producing stags to lift his average, and while they may start their life on Three Rivers hav- ing been the second pick there’s nothing wrong with their capacity to produce a profit once they get there. “Our average kilo weight of velvet is increasing by about 800 grams a year per stag, so last year we were up from around 5.1 to 5.9 grams. On average, velvet is sold for around $100 per kilo so $80 a stag times 450 stags – that’s extra profit Photos: The four metres water wheel pumps 80,000 litres a day with no power requirements. Three Rivers runs 500 venison-based hinds. basically,” says Mike. The velvet production of each stag is carefully recorded using EID technol- ogy. It’s one of the uses of technology behind Mike and Christie receiving the Gallagher Technology and Innovation Award at this years Deer Industry Environmental Awards “for excellent utilization of farming technologies to improve on farm produc- tivity and managing of resources.” One area of innovation is what Mike jokingly calls “tick control by nature.” Three Rivers has a cattle-tick problem and as Mike explains not only is it mainly in the area where he keeps the stags but once you’ve got ticks you can’t eradicate them. His animal health bill was going through the roof when he heard the local vet talking about how many insects guinea-fowl eat, and in particu- lar their liking for ticks. “So I did some research and it said that guinea-fowl can eat up to 4000 ticks a day per bird. Friends of ours hatched some for us and I’ve had 30 or 40 birds out there for the last 18 months in three mobs. “It’s early stages but last year one mob’s ter- ritory was the couple of paddocks closest to the deer shed and the stags that came out of those paddocks definitely had less ticks than the oth- ers.” Several years ago when Mike was working on the Oliver’s other farm nearby he had some input into the setting up of a water wheel which pumps water out of one of the streams that crosses the farm up to the wool shed. This use of renewable energy also impressed the judges with 90% of the farm being on a reticulated water system driven by this four metre water-wheel pumping 80,000 litres a day with no power requirements. From the wool shed it’s pumped out to eight tanks spread across the farm with any overflow recycled back into the stream. Mike also attributes their win to the detailed Farm Environment Plan they put together as part of a Deer Industry Pilot Program. Everything is re- corded on Google Earth using mapping programs online. It helps identify any environmental hazards such as waterways or wet areas that might need to be fenced off and Mike does a monthly report that goes to the owners and the farm advisor. “For example, part of the natural behavior of deer is they like to wallow in wet areas. You can’t discourage it, they’ll even create their own wallow by splashing water out of a trough if you try, so we’ve recently fenced off 1.5 kilometres of waterway to keep them out and we encourage their wallowing in less sensitive areas.” Contact Ross Chambers General Manager ph: 03 348 5080 or email: ross@provelco.co.nz www.provelco.co.nz Proud to be working with Three Rivers P 0800 873 7937 E admin@otlgroup.co.nz F facebook.com/OTLGROUPLTD/ PROUD TO SUPPORT Mike Ferrier: Three Rivers • Aerial Spraying • Forestry • Topdressing • Bulk Lime • Seeding / Cropping Call us 07 873 6695 | www.helia1.co.nz Agricultural and Commercial Helicopter Services years 42 40