36 | Award-winning breeders & meat producers Bernadette Cooney MEAT & WOOL » Middlehurst Station Ltd Hells Gates. Photo: Tony Hewitt. Mike Warren 027 446 5312 or 06 307 7841 Guy Warren 027 848 0164 WilliamWarren 027 824 9327 Turanganui Romneys Inter-generational, high country merino farmers, The Macdonald’s of Middlehurst Station are award-winning meat producers with 25 years of breeding and stud flock operations. Gearing up for shearing, lambing, and annual mid-summer ram sales, Middlehurst farm manager Henry Macdonald says their investment in a breeding programme that creates dual-purpose merino lambs with high-quality meat, carcass traits and wool targeting a 19 micron. This meets the specification to supply specific brand partners. “We’re getting a more even line across our sale rams which follows through across the whole flock,” says Henry. Henry is one of six family members who each play a pivotal role in daily operations across the 16,550-hectare station in the Upper Awatere Valley and 786ha finishing farm in Cheviot, where 4000 hoggets each year are finished, of which a proportion is used for their own brand, Middlehurst Farm Store. A business that began in 2020 and has already scooped six gold awards for its prime merino lamb at recent Outstanding NZ Food Producer Awards. Henry’s sisters Sophie, Lucy, and Skye cover production operations, both online and out of their Kaikoura farm store. Henry manages Middlehurst Station and Cheviot finishing farm, while parents Willie and Susan oversee business in general from their home at Middlehurst. Between them, they run about 11,000 merino sheep and 1200 Angus cattle. “So, we’re running 4700 ewes at Middlehurst this year of which 500 are stud ewes with DNA pedigree. And we winter 2200 ewe hoggets at Middlehurst, and the balance is fattened and wintered at our finishing farm in Cheviot,” says Henry. “Out of that 2200 hoggets that we’ve wintered at Middlehurst, 1200 will remain on the property as replacement stock.” Grass-fed, sustainably farmed merino is part of their breeding program and there is now an emphasis on animal health Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs). • LIVESTOCK CARTAGE • GENERAL FREIGHT • BULK & FERTILISER 99 Ward Rd, Cheviot 7310 03 319 8644 | 0276 776 787
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