Business Rural North Summer 2021

| 23 “I enjoy free draining soils anyway; the last two farms I was on was heavy clay soils and you had your challenges.” RURAL PEOPLE » Rangiputa Station Large beef and sheep outfit making gains Russell Fredric Friesians on Rangiputa Station (above). Luke Hemara on the job (above right). Luke Bridge and Leon Albert hard at work (below). C olin Rakena feels he has landed on his feet after 28 years of working for Pamu, (formerly Landcorp) having taken on the role of man- ager at Rangiputa Station three years ago. “I’ve found Landcorp and Pamu very, very good to work for. They’ve been quite supportive through all the time that I’ve been with them,” Colin says. Colin’s iwi affiliation is with Nga Puhi, while the land which Rangiputa Station is on has its origins with Ngati Kahu. Pamu has established a memorandum of under- standing with Ngati Kahu, consequently some iwi members are included in the station’s management meetings. “Anything that we do on the farm, we make sure that they are well aware of what’s happening.” Colin was attracted to the role because of the scale of the 3600 hectare/3300 hectare property and that it is predominantly a beef operation. The station supports 2000 Friesian trading bulls, 1500 Angus cows and 4000 Romney ewes. Due to it being on Karikari Peninsula north east of Kaitaia, Rangiputa consists of sandy ridges and peaty soils, with a widespread chalky-natured pan making it good wintering land with free draining soils, however this also means it is summer dry. Incredibly, the soil temperature in the peat areas can reach in excess of 60 degrees Celsius during summer. “A lot of grasses struggle to survive through that period of the year.” Of the 3300ha effective, 1000ha is used for fin- ishing the trading bulls which are either transferred from other Pamu farms or bought in as rising two year-old’s at about 350 to 400 kilograms, held on the property for one winter and grown to around 600 kilograms. The Angus cows are mated to Angus bulls, but the station has five Simmental bulls that are mated to older cull cows. ‘We keep a 30% replacement rate on the heif- ers and anything that is not up to weight or is a terminal sire is transferred out to one of the other Pamu farms.” Angus genetics are sourced from Focus Genetics and from the nearest Pamu stud farm at Kapiro near Kerikeri to ensure high performing livestock. “We target good calving ease, [ideal] birth weight and good 200-day weight gains.” There is a long-term goal to trade out of sheep and trend more towards the bull finishing because of the difficulty of supporting ewe lambs through the summer. “The reason is that a lot of the other Pamu farm used to supply us those replacements before about mid-December, but a lot of those farms have now gone out of sheep.” With such dry summers water supply is vital. The farm has six bores which are supplemented by a handy surface-water source which ponds on part of the farm is retained by a dam. The key to running the station is farming to its strengths, including the ability to farm through the winter on the free draining soils and to partly destock when needed. This is quite a contrast to Colin previous posi- tions. “I enjoy free draining soils anyway; the last two farms I was on was heavy clay soils and you had your challenges through the winter.” Colin also feels fortunate to have an extremely experienced team of 10 staff to work with. “They are highly skilled and have a lot of experi- ence. They pretty much live and breath their work. Some of them have been here for 12 to 15 years.” Maw Limited covers Agricultural Contracting and Earthworks in the Far North. Services range from cultivation through to baling and mulching, fert and lime spreading, all Maize services and digger work. Call Vince on 021 034 8999 100% AND OPERATED LOCALLY OWNED Far North TYRE SERVICE Alex & Jan Ferrie Owner/Operators 09 408 2915 / 021 401 490 sales@fnts.co.nz 28 Matthews Ave, Kaitaia 0410