| 29 Honing the skills of tomorrow’s farmers Richard Loader RURAL PEOPLE » Panekiri Station Training and mentoring young people passionate about farming as their career of choice has been Ian Brown’s own centre of passion since he has been at the helm of Pamu’s Panekiri Station. The size, scale and operation of Penekiri make it the ideal farm to develop and hone the farming skills of young people, as well as giving them a taste of the life-skills needed on the remote station. Forty- ve kilometres northwest from Wairoa, Panekiri Station is a sheep and beef breeding operation, supplying quality store stock to Pamu’s nishing farms. In addition to its remoteness in Northern Hawke’s Bay, Panekiri Station embraces genuine hill country that rises from 200 metres to 880 metres above sea level and borders the Urewera ranges for 25 kilometres. Of the station’s 9071 hectares, 5244 hectares is effective for livestock, with the balance consisting of production manuka, plantation forestry and QEII covenants with regenerating native bush. Some land has been given to DOC to manage. Panekiri Station is home to 21000 romney breeding ewes, along with 6500 replacement ewe lambs. From weaning in mid-December, lambs are sent out to nishing farms through till April at the rate of 5000 a month. The farm is also home to 2000 angus cows, and 750 yearling heifers. Two hundred and fty of the top steer calves are sent to one of Pamu’s nishing farms with seven hundred and fty steers taken through to two years before sending them to the nishing units. In total there is a team of twelve on Panekiri and Ian enjoys seeing his people progress through the ranks, encouraging them to attain their primary ITO quali cations. The station is broken up into three blocks, each looked after by a stock manager and supported by shepherds and general farm hands. When Ian rst took the Station Managers role three years ago, he was keen to provide young graduates from training schools like Smedley the opportunity to work on Panekiri; a venture that has been very successful. “With the amount of staff we have, we can have a couple of those young people in the team with someone to mentor them,” says Ian. “We’re really ne tuning what they’ve already learned. We help them train some more dogs and get their dog team together. They learn a bit more about mustering on the hills. They have done some of that on their training farms, but it’s different when you get out here on the big hills.” Not all the young people have been graduates from training farms. Last year Grace Watson, who had grown up on a dairy farm, was providing casual docking work at Panekiri. Keen to nd a role in a drystock farm, Grace’s positive attitude impressed Ian and his team and Grace is now part of the Panekiri team, working her way through her ITO quali cations. “We’ve recently taken on another young 18-yearold guy. “With the amount of staff we have, we can have a couple of those young people in the team with someone to mentor them. We’re really ne tuning what they’ve already learned.” 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 Solutions Consultant: Tim Petro 027 3390400 Livestock and Agribusiness consultants. AGRIBUSINESS P: 06 838 8282 M: 027 483 0644 | 027 230 8713 He hadn’t been through a cadetship either but he had done a year’s work on another farm. We are hoping to get another two young graduates next year when they have nished their cadetships on training farms.” Of the station’s 9071 hectares, 5244 hectares is effective for livestock, with the balance consisting of production manuka, plantation forestry and QEII covenants.
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