Business Rural Winter 2021

52 | MEAT & WOOL » Simon Davies Leasehold upgrade a ‘simple calculation’ Richard Loader Otago farmer Simon Davies has leased 420 hectares of neighbouring land. New yards have already been completed on the leaseblock. W hen Otago sheep and beef farmer Simon Davies leased 420 hectares of neigh- bouring land six moths ago he committed himself to a $50,000 infrastructure investment, with no end return. Simon’s own 750-hectare farm just an hour south of Dunedin, sits right on the coast next to the mouth of Tokomairiro River. The neighbouring block will provide a total 1170 hectares of which about 1000 hectares is effective. Primarily a breeding operation the Davies farm - known as Coombe Hay - is home to 80 Angus beef cows, 1500 hoggets and with the additional land 6000 romney breeding ewes will the wintered. Simon also contract grazes 130 R1 dairy heifers before being put to the bull and returned in-calf to the dairy farmer. Simon describes the lease land as sharper than his own property, with ridges that are not quite as wide and deeper valleys with more gradient. There are parts of the farm that are definitely not cultivatable. The land is part of a property owned by Simon’s elderly neighbour and had become tired in respect to its infrastructure. A valuable five-year plus three lease agreement has provided Simon with a good period of time to farm the land and the certainty he needed to invest in upgrading the infrastructure within the first 12 – 18 months. The infrastructure will include a central lane, new sheep yards, and upgrading the water scheme in places. The existing electrics use solar panels and batteries and are a little hit and miss. They are certainly underpowered and will be replaced with mains powered fences. In the six months that Simon has held the lease, the central lane and sheep yards have been com- pleted and 2.5 kilometers of new fencing added with another 1.5 kilometres upgraded by stripping all the wires out, adding extra posts and running brand new netting. Although Simon is targeting twelve months to complete the project he is mindful that winter is approaching, bringing with it lambing and one of he busiest times on farm. While the infrastructure project may tail off till after lambing, the extensive work is still being done at breakneck speed, which begs the ques- tion why, especially when there is no return at the end of the eight-year period? “Obtaining the lease was one hundred per cent based on the relationship I had with the owner, who actually lives in Milton but commutes out to the farm every day,” says Simon. “There’s a house on the block that I’m leasing and the owner has his lunches and smokos there. I’m quite happy with that arrangement and so is he. From my point of view he has a free range to potter and do whatever he wants to do. He still has two hectares that he currently looks after.” The owner didn’t want to sell the land as it was and for it to be put into plantation forestry and so leasing to Simon was a way forward, and that leads to Simon’s motivation. Simon Davies’ daughter, Julliette (4) and Murphy along for the ride. • to page 53 Every drop means quite a lot when it’s from Peters Genetics CLAYTON PETERS 03 204 8817 027 222 4421 TERS MORGAN PE 03 204 8849 027 440 7411 JUSTINWALLIS 03 976 6509 027 225 8330 Corner Eden and Elderlee Streets, Milton 9220 Livestock Cartage Specialists 03 417 8485 wynyardtransport@xtra.co.nz