Business Rural North Summer 2021

| 37 Wairio Station based on co-operation Prone to flooding, the farm can lose 280 hectares or more in a major flood event. Spring lambs at Wairio (below). Richard Loader RURAL PEOPLE » Wairio Station “We grow the heifers out, put them to the bull and sell them back to the hill country, in- calf. Because we’re breeding from them as yearlings we’re also reducing the carbon footprint”. G rant McGhie has managed Pamu’s Wairara- pa sheep and beef finishing property Wairio Station for the best part of 37 years. Having just turned 65, Grant can say with confi- dence that farming has been his career of choice and his passion. “I left school and hopped on a horse on the hill country with a team of dogs and I’ve been farming ever since. For me it’s caring for the animals and working with good people.” Twenty minutes southeast of Featherston in an area called Kahutara, Wairio Station is a 1450-hectare low lying flat property that embraces ten kilometres of river boundary along the Ruamahanga, with parts of the farm lying adjacent to Lake Wairarapa. Prone to flooding the farm can lose 280 hectares or more in a major flood event. This year there have already been three floods, two of them rising 4.8 metres, while there were no floods at all in the previous two years. Because of the threat of flooding, Wairio is pri- marily a finishing farm, reducing the risk of stock loss during lambing time. “We don’t have a lot of ewes here but we lamb 2300 one season ewes and transfer in more lambs, mostly from other Pamu breeding farms throughout the North Island, buying in other lambs outside of Pamu to make numbers up. “When the lambs come here November onwards they might be 100 days old. Over a five-year average we’ve finished 18000 lambs per year at 18.8 kilos on the hook.” Wairio also finishes 973 steers at an average of 311 kilos on the hook, mostly born and trans- ferred in from other Pamu farms at a variety of age groups. Neighbouring Pamu dairy farm, Wingpoint, sup- plies Grant and his team with a good proportion of its dairy cross/Stabiliser (Focus Genetics) calves, which would have been destined to be bobby calves. “We grow the heifers out, put them to the bull and sell them back to the hill country, in-calf. Because we’re breeding from them as yearlings we’re also reducing the carbon footprint. We keep the steer calves and grow them out for meat.” In addition to meat, Wairio Station currently grows 180 hectares of crop per year, of which 65 hectares is summer lamb feed, 45 hectares is maize for the neighbouring Pamu property, and another 70 hectares is peas, barley or squash. Nine hectares of established flax and cabbage trees have also been granted QEII Covenant. While Grant is 65, four of his team members range from 67 to 61. “We’re a bit of a Dad’s Army,” says Grant. “But we get the work done and the last five-year aver- age was $770,000 net profit each year. The year before last we achieved a $1.1m net profit. “Looking after the stock is the big contributor to those results, but it really comes down to atten- [Type a quote from the document or the summary of an interesting point. You can position the text box anywhere in the document. Use the Drawing Tools tab to change the formatting of the pull quote text box.] [Type a quote from the document or the summary of an interesting point. You can position the text box anywhere in the document. Use the Drawing Tools tab to change the formatting of the pull quote text box.] Gri Crutching & Shearing Services NickGri th 027 261 5230 gcsservices@outlook.co.nz GCS strives to provide quality shearing and crutching in shed and over trailers. We provide our services all over theWairarapa fromAlfredton, out to the coast of Tora and down toWestern Lakes. Proud to support Wairio Station tion to detail, doing some hard yards, doing things at the right time, having good communication with people and just getting on with it.” When Grant finally gets the urge to retire from farming, he owns a property at Ngawi near Cape Palliser, an old cray boat and a bulldozer. Life is good.