| 39 RURAL PEOPLE » Wairakaia Partnership Farm lends itself well to diversification Twenty minutes south of Gisborne, the 600 hectares farmed by Rob and Sandra Faulkner has been in the Faulkner family for almost 120 years. It is an innovative and diverse operation that includes annual cropping, citrus, sheep and beef, timber plantations and forestry pines. Prone to summer dry and seventy five percent steep non-cultivatable land; the farm can be challenging, but Rob says the farm lends itself well to diversification. Rob came back to farm in 1995, having been born and raised there, and says he gets a real sense of the past generations that have worked hard to care for the land before him. “It’s deep in your blood really. You’re always reminded of your forefathers, whether it’s trees they have planted or a fence they put up. There are reminders of their part in the farm around every corner. It also brings with it a pressure to keep the legacy in motion.” Farm livestock includes 1800 high performing Coopworth Romney breeding ewes, along with 550 hoggets put to the ram. “Our aim is always to finish all lambs on farm. We grow a lot of annual clovers and chicory to help put us in a position where we can finish everything. We also have a 150 Hereford cows that we cross with a Simmental bull, finishing all progeny.” A seed maize crop has been grown on farm for 45 years, since Rob’s father’s days, and using the same Gisborne maize seed and milling company, Corson. “We grow eighty hectares of seed maize,” says Rob. “Maize grows well in this climate most years, though last year was an absolute shocker. You need hot dry weather for pollination and we got the opposite. We’re harvesting at the moment and it’s looking quite promising. We hope to harvest a yield of four tonne a hectare. We also grow three hectares of mandarins for the domestic market, which we will start to harvest in the next month or so. I may get thirty – forty tonne a hectare. We’re looking at putting six hectares of lemons in over the next couple of years; just as further diversification.” In total there are about 55 hectares in forestry, largely made up of pinus radiata, with other blocks of macrocarpa, eucalyptus, and black walnuts that Rob’s father and his father before him planted. “A lot of the pines were planted as erosion control, but we’re only 25 minutes from port, so it’s very convenient for when we do harvest. The black walnut is extremely valuable timber that is used for the likes of gunstocks. There’s a contractor with a portable mill on farm currently, milling a small stand of macrocarpa that my father planted in 1961. To have that timber on hand to sell is a valuable income stream, especially at the moment. That’s thanks to the foresight of previous generations on this farm. Farming is not easy at the moment - whether its weather, inflation, low The family also has a 10-hectare orchard with mandarins and oranges. Photos: Agworld Richard Loader commodity prices. I just wonder and hope that the consumer realises the sacrifices made to put food on their table. Also possessed of a strong passion for farming, Sandra is heavily involved in agri-politics, being on the national board for Federated Farmers along with a number of other roles Sandra Faulkner.
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