Business Rural North Winter 2021

34 | Pasture management crucial at Panekiri Russell Fredric RURAL PEOPLE » Panekiri Station GISBORNE | 743 Gladstone Rd | 06 867 9405 | gisborne@evs.co.nz WAIROA | 46 Freyberg St | 06 838 6099 | wairoa@evs.co.nz www.evs.co.nz Proud to be supporting Panekiri Station Proudly Supplying Quality Shearing Services to PANEKIRI STATION We support all that is best in shearing For all your Aerial Agriculture and Horticultural Services. SMS Certi ed and AirCare Accreditated. Contact: John Chittick - 027 2249039 Matt Wilson - 027 3300482 S tringent management of pasture cover and grazing rotation is crucial to the purely grass- based system of Pamu Farms’ Panekiri Station. Located in Hawke’s Bay 40km north-west of Wairoa and bordered by Te Urewera National Park, Panekiri is is a 9000 hectare /5200hectare effec- tive hill country breeding unit running 50,000 stock units on medium to steep contour. Because of the scale of the property, it is divided into two blocks for more efficient management of its stock, pasture and grazing. For the past two-and-a-half years, Ethan Kennett has been one of the station’s two stock managers. He and fellow stock manager, Michael Henwood, work under a senior manager and each have a team of four shepherds, consequently the 10 on- farm staff collectively have about 80 dogs as key workers on the station. Ethan has worked for Pamu for four years and took up his position at Panekiri ago after working on another Pamu farm nearby in Mahiwi, also in Hawke’s Bay. “I just wanted the next step in my career really.” His path with Pamu has been both challenging and rewarding, especially with working within a well-structured and forward thinking corporation, Ethan says. “When you come into a big company like Pamu you get a lot of help; if you want to progress to a manager or maybe even further they give you as much opportunity as you want.” The station’s 50,000 stock units comprises 21,000 Romney breeding ewes, 6,000 hoggets, 2,500 Angus beef cows and 600 in-calf replace- ment heifers. Each season about 5,000 of the ewes are mated with Texel rams with most of the progeny sold off at as store stock with the aim of meeting pre- Christmas market demand. Because of its proximity to the Urewera ranges Panekiri’s 50,000 stock units include 2500 Angus beef cows, 600 in-calf replacement heifers and 21,000 Romney breeding ewes. “It’s crucial to know what you’ve got in the paddock and you’ve got to be very strict to know when (the stock) come out.” and with 18 kilometres of bush line, Panekiri is less drought prone that some parts of Hawke’s Bay. “We are normally pretty summer-safe, but every now and again the climate might change a bit and we do get the odd dry period.” Panekiri is a purely pastoral-based system and grazing is rotational apart from set-stocking dur- ing lambing and calving. The station does not grow winter crops or pro- duce baleage or hay so measuring and manage- ment pasture cover is critical. During winter the station operates a ‘truck and trailer’ system, sending young stock through a paddock followed by a large mob of mixed-age ewes and about 200 cows. “That rotation will last for about 100 days until they get set stocked.” Under this system the starting cover is typically about 2,300kilograms of dry matter per hectare, grazed down to about 1000kg/DM/ha. Through winter the aim is to grow about 12kgDm/ha per day over 100 days to increase the cover to about 2200/2300kg DM/ha for the next grazing period. “You’ve pretty much got to make the plan and you’ve got to stick to that plan the whole way through the winter. Once you started that rotation you’ve got to make sure that rotation’s going to work. “It’s crucial to know what you’ve got in the paddock and you’ve got to be very strict to know when (the stock) come out.”