32 | Sheep, beef and deer at Craigmore Bringing rams back from the hill block. Sue Russell David and Miriam Bielski manage a sprawling, historic sheep, beef and deer station, stretching 10,300 acres some 30 minutes inland from Timaru. The property, owned by Forbes and Brigid Elworthy, has been in the family since 1864 and carries significant value to family and all who call Craigmore Station home. All staff live on the property and the business is divided into three main activity centres – sheep, beef and deer – each with their own manager who reports to David on a regular basis. In this way, he’s able to keep a clear sense of how the overall business is operating and make necessary management and strategic decisions to support its continued development. This was Rural South’s third opportunity to talk with David about what is currently occupying his attention and that of the team as we draw toward the end of 2024. “We’ve had a good season so far as far as spring is conceerned. We’re focussed on trying to make the most of good spring growth and sticking to the plan to mitigate the impact of dry soil conditions if and when these occur,” David says. That means feeding all the stock as well as they can, including putting in summer crops to feed the lambs. A strong feature of how the station is managed is to always look ahead and plan for when paddocks need to be taken out of action and where this will mean stock are moved to. “We’re always assessing the balance between continuing to feed and grow our stock and when it is the best market conditions and return for us on stock being sold or processed. When we do meat contracts, we’ve always got this thinking at the back of our minds.” With good moisture and soil temperatures in late September, helping to push grass and crop production David says he’s feeling reasonably optomistic about the overall situation of Craigmore Station. MEAT & WOOL » Craigmore Station 2 FEATURING PROGENY FROM OUR TOP VELVET SIRES Sale also live on Bidr THREE YEAR OLD VELVET SIRE AND YEARLING HIND SALE 8th on Farm Auction Monday 16th December 2024 | 1.30pm | Viewing from 12.30pm Visit our Website - www.forestroadfarm.co.nz A selection of our top yearling Hinds will be up for auction including progeny from new Sires Irwin, Hendricks and McLeod 902 Gwavas Rd, Tikokino, Hawkes Bay | Grant 027 230 8531 | grantcharteris@gmail.com Visit us at forestroadfarm.co.nz or on Facebook@Forest Road Farm - NZ Red Deer Unlock your herds potential velvet breeding by buying from us LET’S MAKE IT HAPPEN THIS YEAR - see you at the sale Lazarus 13.96kg @ 7yr 1st 4 yr Red Velvet National 1st 4yr HB & NI Velvet comp Brexit 9kg @ 5yr Pure Warnham Craftsman 9.60kg @ 6yr 1st 4yr HB Velvet comp 1st 5yr HB Velvet comp 3rd 5yr NI Velvet comp Forbes 9.30kg @ 6yr 1st 5yr HB Velvet comp Kryptonite 12.10kg @ 5yr 1st 4yr HB Velvet comp 2nd 4yr NI Velvet comp Amisfield 8kg @ 3yr 1st 3yr HB Velvet comp 3rd 3yr NI Velvet comp Jess Williams (03) 684 5184 jess@turnbullgrainandseed.co.nz Sam Thacker (03) 684 5184 021 0839 3321 sam@turnbullgrainandseed.co.nz www.standrewstransport.co.nz Cell: 027 329 555 Phone: 03 612 6605 Main Road, St. Andrews PO Box 137, Timaru Email: satrans@xtra.co.nz Proud to be associated with Craigmore Station He’s always looking at commodity prices stating at this time cattle and deer prices are quite good. The focus with sheep is to try to sell as many lambs off ‘mum’ as possible. Subdivision is another ongoing focus, with a further 50-60ha of country on Craigmore that will be subdivided. Hand in hand with this is the desire to build up blocks and preserving existing stands of native specimens. A detailed farm environment plan in map form, created through the use of HawkEye software developed by Ravensdown, is guiding how the land will be developed. David says having a plan he and the team can easily see, rather than reading through screeds of pages describing land-use development is a really effective tool. “The map generated by the software enables us to identify where hazards are, where fencing is, or will be developed and just makes sense from a working document point of view. We use this map as the basis to develop the land in manageable chunks of a year or two, so we can programme those costs into our budget. It just makes it much more understandable and doable.”David says having the plan future-proofs the decisions he makes, admitting that in the past he has put fencing in situations where he should have given the matter more thought. A clear policy, with the aim to ensure that any water leaving the property will either be filtered through wetland or fenced off, gives a strong nod to improving water quality outcomes in the future.“We do have to watch though the speed at which water moves along the creeks on the property to ensure valuable nutrients are not lost. Some creeks are absolutely fine, while others we may need to slow up.”In the 5-10 year plan, the map shows 67 ha planted in exotics, 40 ha in poplar and 35 ha of biodiversity plantings. The plan will continually roll over as future development is factored in. Driving the decision to develop the quality of the environmental plan was the station’s contract with Farm Assurance Programmes Plus. NZ Farm Assurance Programmes are voluntary nation-wide farm assurance programmes, originally developed under the Red Meat Profit Partnership, a joint Primary Growth Partnership initiative between NZ red meat sector and MPI. The programmes give confidence to consumers world-wide that meat and wool produced for our sheep, beef and deef farms is authentic, genuine and safe. Overseeing a large and successful farming enterprise, requires in equal measure passion and common-sense. “The environment and the financial side are equally important. The latter creates the resources for us to care for the former. It’s about finding balance between aspirational achievement and the day to day profitable operation of a large farm.” Pest control is another important activity on Craigmore Station and David says this is again an activity requiring balance of thought and approach. “We have got to be careful. We are getting plagues of rabbits now becaue we are very good now at killing stoats. We have very large limestone rocky outcrops where rabbits thrive. Ferrets and stoats were introduced to control rabbit populations.” Similarly, where and what trees are planted along little creeks needs to be thought through carefully. David says the practice of planting willows along small creeks can slow water movement up too much, impacting on water airation levels. “We’re planting poplars along our big rivers as we see this as the best place to control water movement and assist in improving its quality.”
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