Business Rural Winter 2021

56 | Breeding quality stock a family passion W ell known throughout New Zealand, Woodbank Angus Stud celebrate its 85 th birthday this year, a source of great pride for Ben Murray whose great grandfather started the stud in 1936. Woodbank has been in the Murray’s hands since great-grandfather AJ Murray bought the 9000 acre station on January 1 1900. “With the pedigree cattle you certainly feel very proud that we’re the fourth generation to take it on and at the same time excited to move it into the future with all the technology that is now available,’ says Ben. Forty Kilometers north of Kaikoura at the bottom end of the Clarence River, Woodbank is a 1530 hectare property bounded by the Clarence River on one side, the ocean on the other and the Kaikoura ranges always keeping a watchful eye. Beautiful country, the farm encompasses 115 hectares of irrigated flats, 100 hectares of dryland flats, 415 hectares of improved steep hill coun- try and 900 hectares of unimproved steep hill country that is fairly light fragile soil. Drying out in the spring the steep country doesn’t hold a lot of moisture. After gaining a Diploma of Agriculture Ben worked on other High Country farms for eight years before an opportunity arose to return to Woodbank with his wife Caroline in 2008. “We worked for my father for a number of years. Caroline and I purchased the property from John and Robyn as a part of family succession last year.” Caroline is from a sheep and beef farming back- MEAT & WOOL » Woodbank Angus: Ben & Caroline Murray “We love everything about farming. Breeding Angus cattle is what we enjoy and we feel very privileged to be able to continue this legacy at Woodbank.” Your one stop for engineering, mechanical requirements and outdoor power tools PROUD TO SUPPORT WOODBANK ANGUS 66 Beach Road, Kaikoura P 03 319 5481 E dunlea@dunlea.co.nz W dunlea.co.nz Proudly supporting Woodbank Angus 027 755 4065 jandpbutters@gmail.com @GlenallenMerinos M E Our aim is to produce a healthy, robust dual purpose merino that thrives and produces quality wool. PROUD TO SUPPORT WOODBANK ANGUS Harriet Murray (9), helps out with the mustering on her pony. Woodbank Angus sire bull Woodbank 0113, sire of bulls in this years sale. ground in Waiau. She is well used to farm life and does all of Woodbank’s books but would far more prefer to be out on the farm. “Together we are very passionate about farming and we make a great team. Farming businesses have got so complex that you definitely can’t do it by yourself. Both of us need to have a very good understanding of how everything works.” Ben and Caroline employ one full time shepherd and Ben’s father John also continues to play a role within the business. They have two children – Harriet 9 and Tom 7 are budding farmers and love helping out and using their ponies whenever the opportunity arises. Woodbank runs 425 breeding cows, 1750 ewes and 450 hoggets. It’s a hard life for a cow on Woodbank too. They are expected to work behind the farm’s ewe flock maintaining pasture quality, they’ve got to have true form, function and be productive and thrive within the system. The cows have to earn their place to stay in the herd, and they’re expected to perform every year, no exceptions, no second chances. “We aim to breed a moderately framed early ma- turing, easy doing productive female that will thrive in any hill country environment,” says Ben. “They need to be fertile, athletic and efficient producers to work in our farm system and the bulls they produce are what we believe will add value to our customers’ herds. “We believe this is why our customers have such great results with their herds. Because the females run in a pretty hard environment the bulls that we put out into the industry tend to shift pretty well onto other farms. At the same time they tend to be balanced between performance and phenotype, so we try to appeal to 100% of the market if we can.” Combined with neighbours James and Becky Murray, Matariki Hereford Stud, Woodbank will host two on-farm bull sales each year, one in mid-June and the other early October. “It is fantastic having the family relationship. We are just so lucky to have neighbours’ like that we can combine the bull sales with.” Attracting about 300-400 interested buyers and onlookers to the winter sale, it is the country’s larg- est combined on-farm sale. “The June sale is the main sale and we usually have 65 two-year-old bulls available in that sale and then the spring sale is where we sell about 40 yearling bulls. “We love everything about farming, breed- ing Angus cattle is what we enjoy and we feel very privileged to be able continue this legacy at Woodbank.” Big country: Ben and Caroline Murray walk with the dogs on their Kaikoura property, boarded by the Clarence River, Pacific Ocean and Kaikoura ranges.