| 111 Wide range of skills Adding value to wool Dave likes to help any prospective clients with a free site visit. Kelly Deeks Russell Fredric With a background in farming and another 30 years of experience in the viticulture industry, Blenheim’s King Contracting Limited knows what its clients need out of their earthmoving, land development, and project management contractor with owner Dave King offering free of charge visits to any project anywhere in Marlborough to discuss and advise. Dave has been running King Contracting for 25 years and his business has evolved over that time. Initially operating primarily in the viticulture industry, spraying, trimming, mowing, mulching, harvesting, and developing new vineyards and running a large team of staff, King Contracting scaled back in the late 2010s and Dave started offering the full range of earthmoving services as a one-man-band, as well as continuing with his passion for vineyard development and management. He loves getting outdoors and up into the high country to look after his customers. While the agricultural sector is a bit quiet during this current downturn, Marlborough’s viticulture industry continues to forge ahead with new development projects lined up for Dave into the new year. With a wide range of skills to handle any project, King Contracting services farmers, vineyard owners, and residential properties with land contouring and development, flood and fire protection, scrub RURAL SERVICES » King Contracting / Matthew Tayler Proud to Support King Contracting 10 Horton Street, Blenheim P: 03 578 9239 M: 021 954 274 E: parts@automarine.co.nz King Contracting Limited specialises in providing earthmoving, land development, and project management services to farmers, vineyard owners, and residential properties. Out there doing it David King 0274 356 690 kingcontracting@xtra.co.nz clearing and stump removal, farm track building and maintenance, farm fencing, dam construction, stand-off pads, culverts, water storage, drainage, pipe laying, and the design and build of wetlands. In collaboration with other local skilled operators, King Contracting has the ability to scale up to meet the demands of large projects. Dave says his farmer clients look for an experienced contractor who knows what they require and has the competency to deliver it. “Having done an awful lot of this I end up giving a bit of advice because I can see what my clients need and know how to achieve it,” he says. “As owner/operator, I’m doing the job myself and I’m not a young guy who is just there for the wage. I’m there because I love my work and I aim to leave my customers thinking I’ve done a fantastic job, and more than what they expected.” In the viticulture industry, Dave has worked in every aspect of it over the past 30 years. “I’ve harvested on vineyards and I know exactly what it’s like if a vineyard is put in incorrectly or without the proper considerations of how and why things are done a certain way.” Dave likes to help any prospective clients with a free site visit where he can scope out their project and offer any suggestions about a different, better, or more economical way to achieve the required result. “This is a great way to ensure that when I get there to start the job, we’re both in the same paddock.” Looking to add value to wool is part of the decision to bring a large lease block into Lorne Peak Station’s already expansive sheep and beef operation. The station is run by Matthew and Shona Tayler on 5600 hectares of which 5300 hectares is Crown pastoral lease and the balance freehold. It is part of an enterprise covering 12,000 hectares that supports a massive 40,000 stock units. Lorne Peak Station has been in the family since 1960 and lies in a north-south orientation a short distance south of Lake Wakatipu, with Kingston Station on its northern boundary. The Tayler’s primarily run a hill country sheep and beef breeding and finishing operation along with some dairy support and employ seven staff. Three years ago, a summer-safe 600 hectare farm in Northern Southland owned by Shona’s parents, Jim and Anne Moore, became part of the business through a succession plan. Last year Kingston Station was added to the stable through a lease and is fully integrated into Lorne Peak, partly to provide the opportunity to trial growing quarter-breds. “Stock classes go from here up there; it’s not a stand-alone unit. Ten years ago we were fully store stock, we used to sell everything store. We used to sell a lot of lambs in the autumn which usually went to Canterbury. It was very hit-and-miss. “Over time we’ve progressed the farm to now finishing all our own stock so we haven’t got that risk of being at the whim of our finisher. When we took Kingston Station on, to stock that we ended up buying a lot of quarter-bred lambs.” Because Matthew did not want to “play around” with the genetics of Lorne Peak’s core flock, a key part of the lease is trialling a flock of 2000 quarterbreds to produce approximately 20 micron wool with the expectation of achieving better returns. “If it works that’s the way we will go, possibly.” “On Lorne Peak we are on an eight month shearing pattern with our Romney ewes, but that costs us about a dollar a sheep each time we shear. We had to make a decision whether we go and add value to our wool, going finer, or to take labour out of the equation by going to hairless sheep.” This approach underscores Matthew’s attitude of giving something a go. Even if the result is not altogether successful, he believes there is still value in the process and what was learned.During the past 15 years he has focused on improving stock performance by improving the fertility of pastures and introducing crops such as fodder beet and lucerne. Collaborating with Beef and Lamb New Zealand, networking in the industry and using tools such as FarmIQ and Farmax, while having a close working relationship with Silver Fern Farms has also been extremely valuable.Matthew is a southern South Island representative on Beef and Lambs’s 12 member farmer research advisory group.This season on Lorne Peak has been reasonably favourable overall due to being farther enough north to escape the worst of Southland’s dreadfully rainy winter and spring this year.“The hoggets are exceptional this year and we [pregnancy] scanned better. We probably didn’t lamb where we could have, the weather just took that edge off it; the extra lambing percentage never quite came through, but the ewes have all been well and they’ve all got good condition on their back.” Kelvin Murray - kelvin@sinclairtransport.co.nz - murray@sinclairtransport.co.nz PROUD TO SUPPORT MATTHEW TAYLER Ph: (03) 236 0466 Fax: (03) 236 0467 LIVESTOCK, GENERAL CARTAGE & FERTILISER SPREADING For all your sheep shearing requirements within the Southland region, contact Andrew at:
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