| 71 Honor mustering on two-wheeler. “There are a lot of years in the past where sheep and beef farmers have not made much of a profit and farming is certainly a lot more enjoyable when we know we are making a profit.” RURAL SERVICES » Avenel Agriculture “It’s been very seamless as I shared the yards with this farm in the past,” explains Austin. “It’s been very exciting to increase the size of the business, especially with the way farming is now going.” Technology is also playing an increasing role in the station’s future with Avenel Station recently investing in 430 Halter collars for calves and R2 heifers. “The biggest thing will be being able to increase the cattle numbers so I can better utilise the gullies,” explains Austin. “We’re hoping to add 15 to 20 percent more breeding cows. The beef will be where the biggest increase in productivity will be over the next few years with higher stock numbers and getting more out of the cattle with Halter.” The family is also continuing to invest in other areas including fencing, subdivision, cultivating higher tussock country, cropping and re-grassing. A key focus is finishing all lambs on the property by improving pasture quality through clover and summer crops. “Before, depending on the season, we finished as many as we could but always sold a lot of store lambs because we couldn’t finish them on grass,” says Austin. The station remains a true family operation with Victoria managing the bookwork and helping with farm work when needed. With the fourth generation of the family – their children Honor (18), Leo (17), India (15) and Freida (13) - already showing a strong interest in carrying the legacy forward, Austin admits this added impetus to the desire to grow the business. www.aoteagroup.nz Proudly supporting Avenel Agriculture Call us nowon 03 445 1374 Air Conditioning • Electrical • Communications • Industrial • Commercial • Domestic Electric Andrew Abercrombie Phone: 027 546 6771 Email: aberfenc@gmail.com Abercrombie Fencing Services Timber | Residential | Steel | Farm | Equestrian | Dairy | Retaining Walls “No job is too big or too small” SNOWLINE™ RAMS Congratulations to Austin and Vic Garden on their top management and production on Avenel Station. Austin has been purchasing our Snowline™ and Ranger Rams for many years and is a very knowledgeable and appreciated client. MEAT This is a good example of our Rams, showing great back ends, Huge Loin & Bare patch 6. Contact: John McDonald 027 438 3803 | jjmcdonald49@gmail.com WOOL These are the 6 Ram Hoggets quarantine before flying to Frank Langrish in the U.K. to join our other 14 Rams already there. These Ram Hoggetts were born in October so at 7months of age are already showing great fleeces, averaging 25.6 micron and all sired by 12 sires who had an average carla score of 250 on the carla scale 5 is high. OUR Snowline Rams main focus has been on MEAT, WOOL & WORM TOLERANCE. “They are all pretty keen on the farm, enjoying the animals and stockwork,” says Austin. “Honor is studying a Bachelor of Agricultural Science and that is definitely one of the reasons why we went ahead with leasing more land.”
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=