18 | Lifetime of hard graft behind family farm Corey Prouting with his boy Jack on the farm. Russell Fredric RURAL PEOPLE » Gilbert Timms Proud to be suppliers to Gilbert Timms FREIGHT, FERTILISER APPLICATION, QUARRY SUPPLIES AND EXCAVATION www.shannonbulk.co.nz 0800 SHN BULK Proudly supporting Gilbert Timms There is no indication of seventy nine year old Gilbert Timms or his wife Diana giving up farming any time soon. With a total of 800 hectares in the family’s ownership, there is certainly plenty to keep the couple and some of their family members busy. Well known sheep breeders, Gilbert and Diana have lived and worked on their home farm near Shannon for more than 40 years, having started with just 16 hectares. Today, the 800 hectares comprises three farms; in addition to the 110 hectare home farm, another is a 100 hectare generational property near Levin from Diana’s family line which is managed and halfowned by grandson Corey Prouting, who also helps with the entire farming operation. The third farm is a hill country block of 600 hectares in the Tararua Ranges foothills east of Tokomaru, purchased 13 years ago. About two years ago 80 hectares of flat land, previously a narrow run-off block bordering this farm and the Tokomaru River, came up for sale and was an opportunity too good to miss, Gilbert says. “We had no flat land at all down the bottom around the wool shed to hold stock. Westpac said you’d be absolutely mad not to buy it, it will never come up again.” This, which is now a ewe block, and the hill farm are owned and run as a stand-alone unit under the company name Timms Farm which is a partnership between Gilbert, Diana, son Craig and his partner Vanessa Hurunui. Craig owns a fencing contracting business which is his day job, but his 18 year old son Levi works on the farm providing a labour unit in addition to Gilbert and Diana. Seasonally, the ewe block fattens lambs followed by weaners and replacement ewe hoggets during winter. “We sell our steers off their mothers and fatten off our heifers and we lamb our ewes to the terminal ram and get a draft off their mothers.” “Having some better land gives us better marketing options and a bigger mortgage,” Gilbert jests. It supports 3350 sheep of which 760 are on the low altitude block, 68 in-calf Angus Hereford breeding cows and 16 two year-olds that go the bull on December 1. Craig’s fencing expertise has proven a great asset. “Our focus is just to keep improving the stock; we’ve fenced races right from the top to the bottom and we’ve done a race right down a ridge; you can’t get down in a vehicle, but you can on a motorbike. It took us half a day to get the sheep to the wool shed 13 years ago and now we can get them there in 20 minutes.” Porina, plus winter storms that have resulted in high lamb losses at times have presented some challenges over the years. “It’s very windy and cold so the weather’s a challenge at lambing time and the porina is a headache. We sprayed last year but it’s just a battle, it’s very hard to get the timing right to spray because if it gets cold and frosty, they don’t come up and the spray’s gone in two or three days. Consequently, rather than spending money on insecticide and not getting the benefit, Gilbert is inclined to invest in fertiliser to feed the grass and to build up the soil fertility which will ultimately benefit both stock and pasture. “My ambition as a boy was to get my own farm and we’ve worked hard to get it, and all I want is good stock that I’m proud of. We want to just improve them all the time, that’s the ambition of farming, isn’t it?”
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