Business Rural North Winter 2021

20 | Winter trading a focus for manager Virginia Wright RURAL PEOPLE » Ahuriri Station: Jon Douglas J on Douglas and his family arrived at Ahuriri Station on the outskirts of Napier last year, just three days before the country went into lockdown. For Jon it was another chance to expand his management experience. He started his farm management career as 2IC on Ngamatea Sta- tion, 6500 hectares of sheep and beef farm on the Napier-Taupo road. From there he went through a number of other farm manager positions such as hub manager for four farms over close to 3000 hec- tares just south of Hastings, followed by manager roles on intensive hill country stations in Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne and finally to his current position as farm manager of Ahuriri’s 1180 hectares. It’s a Pamu (formerly Landcorp) farm and he is also now overseeing another of their farms, Opouahi Station, which is 1650 hectares of hill country about 45 minutes up the road. Of Ahuriri Station’s 1180 effective hectares around 95% is flat land which Jon divides into categories A, B, and C depending on soil types and productivity. “There’s around 300 hectares of pretty hard land close to the coast,” he explains. “This country only has a couple of inches of top soil. Below that is mainly beach stones, otherwise known as pea metal – that’s the “C” bracket and fairly unproduc- tive but plays its role through the winter months as it is free draining. “Then we’ve got about 600 hectares of ‘A’ or de- cent land where we do a fair amount of cash crop- ping and lamb rotations, and the rest is somewhere in the middle but not suitable for cropping and tends to get water logged in the winter months. It’s best utilized in the autumn to hold large numbers of stock while our ‘a’ country is building grass.” Despite the Covid-driven lockdown and a widespread Hawke’s Bay drought Jon managed to increase the station’s stock numbers through April and May last year from 7000 stock units (su) up to 13,000su. It was part of his plan to put more focus on winter trading. “For us it’s a safer time of the year where we can usually count on rain, although the seasons haven’t been playing the game this year. We can dry off pretty quickly coming into the summer period which opens us up to a lot of risk if too highly stocked,” says Jon. “Ideally we’d like to sit around 15,000 stock units going into winter if we had normal autumn growth.” The ongoing lack of rain, following on from last year’s drought, means they’ve dropped their numbers to around the 11,000su mark. Having only had 60ml of rain since January grass covers have not had a chance to build in the autumn, and with cold weather not far away Jon fears they may have missed their opportunity for decent growth this side of winter. Despite the drought last year their winter lambs averaged a respectable 21kg carcass weight, but the lack of length in the grass meant Jon wasn’t as happy with the 305kg averaged by the steers. “Last year we managed 1150 cattle through the winter as we had quite a sizeable silage reserve and quite a bit of rough feed on farm. This year we’re at 700, as we’ve dialled our silage back to 800 bales, and that combined with a dry autumn lowered the cattle number for the season.” Jon’s challenge is to find the best fit for the season and the markets as he makes the most of being a full trading farm. The fact that they source • to page 21 Ahuriri managed 1150 cattle through the winter on the back of a sizeable silage reserve but has reduced the numbers to 700 this year with less silage and a dry autumn. Proudly providing shearing services to Ahuriri Station For prompt and reliable service phone Brendan: 021 423 886 or email: b.j.mahony@xtra.co.nz 0274 835 027 m.webster@xtra.co.nz We can help you from hanging up a picture frame to building your dream home! Do not hesitate to contact us today for any rural work too. 06 844 2167 WELL DRILLING EXPERTS FOR OVER 70 YEARS c and irrigation water wells Domesti • d development Bore servicing an • • Bo re security Camera inspections • r surveying - SES Ground wate • services available Full consultancy • hugh@baylisbros.co.nz www.baylisbroswelldrillers.co.nz Barry McCleland and Wayne Cook drafting lambs at Ahuriri Station. Despite the drought, last year’s winter lambs averaged 21kg carcass weight. We have a team of seven plumbers, drainlayers, gasfitters and office staff. Born and bred in the Bay we take on any type of plumbing drainlaying or gasfitting work wether its an emergency to civil or a tap washer - large or small we do it all. Covering all Hawkes Bay. 0800 227 375 milesnathan1@me.com www.capeplumbing.co.nz