| 3 RURAL PEOPLE » Invernia Holdings Walnuts growth area for diverse family business Invernia Holdings embraces dairy, dairy beef, sheep and an expanding walnut plantation. Richard Loader Family owned and operated Invernia Holdings is a diverse farming business that embraces dairy, dairy beef, sheep and a growing plantation of walnut trees. Owned by Russell and Cathy Hurst, the sprawling North Otago property is located on the Waitaki River, with most of the farm nestled on the emerald plains. Encompassing approximately 2500 hectares of irrigated flats, there is also a small piece of irrigated hill country and another small piece of dryland hill. The farm has been in the Hurst family for the last fifty years, when Russell’s father moved over from the hill and put the farm into border dyke irrigation. For the last three years a major capital project has been underway replacing the border dykes with spray irrigators. That project will continue for a further five years. Russell and Cathy’s three sons, James, Henry and William are progressively returning to the family farm to support their parents, each taking responsibility for specific parts of the business. Henry returned four years ago and is now 50/50 sharemilking on one of the four connected dairy units on the farm, while James has been back for two years and looks after the dryland hill, nurse cows, sheep work and the walnuts. William will join his brothers in due course. Thirty-one year old James left school at fifteen and has been farming all his life, including eight years spent in Omarama on a couple of different farms working with sheep and beef, dairy support and dairy. Being outside, working with dogs and the constant variation are among the things that James loves most about life on the farm, and his commitment to farming extends to governance roles within the industry. “At the moment I’m the North Otago Federated Farmers Vice Chair for Meat and Wool. I’ve been involved in Feds for just a year, but I was heavily involved in Young Farmers prior to that and did three years as Regional Chair.” The dairy farming operation includes 2500 Friesian cows, with a contract milker on one of the units and a lower order sharemilker on the other two. “We don’t send any bobby calves to the works and try to fatten all dairy culls over the winter before they go to the works,” says James. “All bull calves get put onto a nurse cow and then sold as dairy/beef calves at an on-farm sale in February. Most heifer calves are kept for replacements.” The farm is home is home to 3500 ultra-fine merino sheep. All whethers, the sheep are bought in as hoggets and kept till they are about seven years old. “We were up to 5000. Their job was to graze the border dyke head races, but as we change to spray they’re losing area so we’ve reduced numbers. Now that we’re increasing our walnut size area, there will be more sheep needed to graze under the walnuts.” Currently there are approximately 500 walnut trees, covering 5 hectares, but a new irrigation system going in this winter will enable a further Dairy Systems Irrigation Domestic Security Systems Calum Reid - Registered Electrical Inspector 0800 360 063 • www.calect.co.nz www.facebook.com/calectelectrical Electrician Services - we take on anything electrical We have 10 vans & 15 electricians available to everyone in the North Otago, South Canterbury & Mackenzie Basin areas. 24-Hour Service Member Electrical Contractors Association of NZ MASTER ELECTRICIANS On Call 24/7, Calect is available day or night. We reschedule other work to PRIORITISE faults so that they are fixed as quickly as possible. FREE QUOTES NO MATTER WHAT, WE’RE ON THE JOB! A fixed price guarantee on EVERYTHING quoted. 3000 trees to be planted, bringing the total area to 26 hectares, and a larger commercial scale. “Harvesting is all mechanised, so there’s not a lot of labour content as opposed to some horticulture. It ticks all the environmental boxes because there’s not much fertiliser or spray required. You get about three tonnes per hectare at the moment, but the new variety will hopefully yield eight tonnes per hectare. The walnuts are washed and dried, and taken to a co-op in Christchurch who do all the deshelling and marketing, and we get paid by the KG.” Invernia’s diversity of operation provides valuable protection against a market downturn in any one of the income streams. Proud to support the Hurst Family INVERNIA HOLDINGS LTD
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=