50 | Seven years of hard work behind farm dream The passion for Herefords goes all the way back to Cory’s grandfather. Fencing has been a major focus on farm. Kim Newth RURAL PEOPLE » Rolling Heights Farm Rolling Heights Farm, a 420ha property between Huntly and the coast, was in a fairly dilapidated state when the Norman family first took it up in 2015. Seven years’ later and the transformation here is remarkable. Charlie and Marie Norman worked hard all their lives to buy the farm seven years ago, but realised they’d need help to get it up and running. From a background in the trucking industry and with some experience of Angus farming in Northland, their son Cory then came on board. Cory’s wife Emily, who works as a psychologist for Ara Poutama Aotearoa/Department of Corrections, shares the family vision and helps out whenever she can to support farm development. “We’ve both enjoyed it here so much,” says Cory, who looks back with some satisfaction at what has been achieved. “We had this mind set that in 10 years we’d have the place fertile and doing well. In fact, we’ve done that in seven years with the help of Bob Longhurst and the team at agKnowledge, who were instrumental in turning around our property. Their non-biased help with fertilisers was 100% what we needed. We were also lucky enough to get some help from local retired farmer Des O’Sullivan, and Nelson Beckett at Beckett Contracting who gave us invaluable advice on silage crops; his service has been second to none.” The barren state of the land at the start was compounded by other challenges such as a lack of water reticulation and barely any standing fences or gates. “We ended up creating one of the biggest solar pumps in the industry in the early days here and that’s been magic for the whole farm. It enables us to pump water from a natural reservoir and gravity feed it across the entire farm.” On the plus side for Cory and his parents when they first took on this property was that over half the land was in pine forestry and a QEII Trust. That pine forestry area is now being selectively and sustainably harvested to supplement farm income. Today, the farm’s fertile pastureland is home to 130 breeding cows, all Herefords. The focus has been on buying high usability stud bulls to cross with their cows, with the aim to calve at medium to low birth weights. “We’re targeting calving ease, good fat and good growth out the other end but, of course, that’s a very difficult balance to find. It’s why I’ve spent so much time on the road going to bull sales across the North Island. I’m pretty fussy and very grateful for the sound advice I’ve had from my knowledgeable colleague, Charlie Limmer.” The passion for Herefords goes all the way back to Cory’s grandfather, Seal Norman, who had dreamed of having his own Hereford stud one day. Krone Xtreme FARMERS... GET YOUR GRASS INTO GEAR, FOR YOUR INDEPENDENT FERTILISER ADVICE CONTACT: : web : agknowledge.co.nz tel 0800 33 73 46 25 Willoughby Street, PO Box 11, PAEROA | 6 Rosemont Rd, WAIHI PHONE 07 862 8643 | EMAIL sally@lynchandpartners.co.nz Lynch & Partners are pleased to be associated with the success of Rolling Heights Farm He would be proud to know that Charlie, Marie and Cory are now successfully breeding service bulls and are about to host their first Hereford bull sale next September. “It took three generations but we got there! Developing this property has been a massive labour of love but we are now so thrilled to see it starting to reach its potential and pay its way.”
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=