48 | ‘Staying ahead of the game’ farm focus The family has planted around 40,000 trees overthe last ve years with the idea of putting this land into the ETS and claim carbon credits. Karen Phelps King Country farmers Olivia and Matt Buckley aim to face the challenges of farming head on. “We need to front foot the current challenges and make changes to ensure we stay ahead of the game by designing our own future,” says Matt. Both Matt and Olivia grew up on farms: Matt on the current properties and Olivia, who is a quali ed vet, hails from a Canterbury farming family. They met when Olivia was posted to work on the Buckley family farms. Matt’s family has been farming in the King Country at the current location since the 1950s when his grandparents purchased the rst land holding. Over the generations more land has been added to the family business and today Eight Mile Farms Ltd comprise multiple units. There is a 770-cow dairy farm on 340ha effective at Eight Mile Junction between Te Kuiti and Piopio. The breed is predominantly Friesian and last season the farm produced 275,000 kgsMS. Next door is a dry stock property comprising 400ha called Spring Valley. This is where the family grow out dairy heifer replacements and bulls. There is a small ock of Wiltshire-Texel sheep used to breed terminal sire ram hoggets for their terminal mob and hoggets on their other properties. They also farm some steer and heifer calves for beef production. The holdings are rounded out by their sheep and beef properties, all located next to each other around 30 minutes from the dairy farm in the Rangitoto district: Waipa, 600ha, Rangitoto is 580ha and Waihanga 490ha. Around two years ago Matt and Olivia took over ownership of Eight Mile Farms Ltd and this has RURAL PEOPLE » Eight Mile Farms • to page 50 allowed them to make signi cant changes. With increasing summer dry they’ve drought proofed the operation with the timing of stock purchases. While the farm used to be a predominantly spring purchasing entity now this is exclusively in autumn, which Matt says allows them to manage the summers better re stocking rate, grazing, feed supply etc. They’ve also placed greater focus on environmental considerations including land use. They aim to winter R2 Friesian bulls at 1200kgs of liveweight per hectare on their best land. Sloping ground is stocked at 1000kgs of liveweight per hectare. The sheep operation is stocked at 10-12 sheep per hectare depending on age, class and where they are grazing. “We’re aiming for high growth rate livestock. So the less time they are on farm the better. The Kelso sheep genetics have EBVs very high for liveweight gain and carcass yield. Same for Friesian bulls – they are ef cient meat producers and good converters of pasture to protein. AFFCO is proud to support Eight Mile Farms Super Air have a modern eet of SpreadSmart equipped aircraft, delivering market leading fertiliser and lime application bene ts. Contact: James Watson - Phone: 027 226 4998
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