36 | RURAL PEOPLE » Ohotu Station- Dean Francois Flexibility pivotal on sprawling station Supplementary feed grown at Ohutu Station. Bottom: Manager Dean Francois with Jordan Barns and Ezekiel Anderson. Richard Loader Taking pride of place few short kilometres east of Ohakune in the Ruapehu District is Ohotu Station, one of eight sheep and beef farms owned by the Atihau-Whanganui Incorporation. The Incorporation was established in the 1970s to manage 42,000 hectares of Maori owned land, which had been leased out by the Crown for many years. That land was progressively resumed and managed by Atihau from 1970. Flat to steep hill country, Ohotu embraces 1550 hectares of historic land inclusive of 150 hectares of waterways and native blocks that have been fenced off. Steeped in history, in ancient times Ohotu was a Maori inhabited area and there are special sites where battles occurred when Maori raiding parties came from the Central Plateau, through the area and across to the Whanganui River. When the Europeans came there was a lot of sawmilling in the district and the Carter Family started milling and farming at Ohotu. The original workshop remains on site. At the mailbox the farm sits 624 metres above sea level and rises to 746 metres but the biggest climatic in uence is Ohotu’s close proximity to Maunga Ruapehu. “It’s like living next to one big iceberg, says Dean Francois, who for the last decade and has been Ohotu’s General Manager. “The property lies north-south, so when we get a mean southerly it just screams up through here. We get a massive spring when the pasture just takes off and virtually nothing for the rest of the year. We irrigate 70 hectares with a centre pivot. This summer we irrigated for 50 days or so.” Dean has been farming since leaving school 35 years ago at the age of 15 and says he still has the ‘farming bug’ that he had working on his father’s leased railway block of land. Four years ago Dean took over managing Tohunga, another one of the Incorporation’s properties, and says that refueled the passion for farming because the farm needed an extra bit of care to bring it up to a high standard once again. “Farming is so diverse. Some days you might have a plan, and that plan will change overnight. I might have been going to draught cattle and the next thing the Wrightsons’ agent wants a unit of fat lambs. That’s where you need a good team around you. In one phone call you might change all their plans for the day. I have guys that just go, ‘yep, righto – we’re going to do that.” Dean says the Incorporation has a lot of hill country farmland and Ohotu acts as a trading/ nishing block. “I prefer to refer to it as trading because we’re always looking to achieve a margin, for anything. Broadly my role is about ensuring we have systems in place to take the stock in from Atihau’s other farms and that there is the right motivation in the team. “Our biggest thing is to be exible, because we have to be able to maintain Atihau’s capital stock. If it gets dry we have to be exible enough to take young stock on and get a margin, or make decisions to trade out of lambs quicker. We have to be in a position to market what we have got as a trading store stock. If I can’t take stock at Otohu, I in uence the other farms to sell store stock to protect the capital stock.” Ohotu winters 380 weaner steers, 250 R3 steers, 1200 R2 steers, 100 R3 heifers, 180 R2 heifers and 1000 ve year of ewes. “We kill cattle 12 months of the year,” says Dean. “Every week we’re killing cattle. We will kill something like 1600 Angus cattle a year, 17,000 trading lambs and 1000 ve-year-old ewes. The majority of the stock coming to Ohotu is Atihau bred but in the springtime Angus Pure tagged cattle are bought in. All lambs are sold to Ovation, with the majority of cattle sold to Auckland meat processors.” Proud to support www.foleystransport.co.nz 0800 385 4248 Ohotu - Dean Francois DA WINDLE LTD Raetihi for all your livestock transport needs phone kerry on 027 222 3431 Proud to be associated with Dean Francois - Ohotu Station Phone Jacky 027 255 7171
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