| 29 Emphasis on quality drives decision making Last of the autumn sown regrassing done with Mid Dome in background over looking Parawa. Insets: Mustering in (left) for shearing. Daughter Georgia King with pet cow blossom helping with cattle scanning. Sue Russell MEAT & WOOL » Parawa Station - Maurice King The first frost for the year came mid-February, heralding that autumn isn’t too far away at Parawa Station, half-way between Lumsden and Kingston, Southland. When Rural South spoke with Maurice King, who owns and operates Parawa Station with partner Rosie Hore, the farm was enjoying a beautiful settled day, typical of this time of the year. Parawa Station is a picturesque 1800ha, well ordered property, split in equal measure between 600ha each of flat, rolling and steep hill country. The property carries sheep and beef, with a small herd of deer that are part of a management of the wild deer on to the property. Rosie and Mum Ann have a strong interest in the stud sheep breeding on the farm evolving the stud Texels and Romany’s over time to suit the on-farm commercial requirements and breeding needs of Parawa. The Station has been three generations in Rosie’s family. A good deal of research and advice with lots of effort has gone into worm drench resilience by improving sheep genetics in order to create meaningful on-farm commercial sustainability gain. This has been a focus at Parawa for some many years now with the use of FEC Pak G2, a worm assessment tool. Sheep stools are sampled periodically, assessed via The Cloud at Invermay, with the results informing future breeding decisions, along with resilience testing via measuring performance under worm challenge and Carla testing and dag scoring assisting decisions for breeding selection. Breeding out the need for the reliance on drenching and minimising it as possible has been the aim. Carla testing links the sheep’s genetics to its natural ability to resist worms thus avoiding the need to drench unnecessarily. “We wanted to have conventional drenches as an effective tool to use as and when needed, rather than doing a blanket drenching and increasing the risk of drench immunity. Along with grazing management with cattle, This decision and focus has really paid off for us so far,” says Maurice. In all Parawa Station carries 18,000 stock units comprising 7500 ewes, 2000 replacements along with 750 Angus cows to the bull plus replacements and finishing stock, along with 100 mixed-age Hinds Parawa boasts a good crew of staff made up off three shepherds, a full-time tractor operator and casual labour as required. Rosie manages the stock management and coordination of day to day management of Parawa leaving Maurice to focus more on the business and agricultural side of the operation. It’s a partnership that works very well. A new management tool for the beef operation is being introduced in the form of collars the young beef stock to wear. These collars will control the movement of these animals, eliminating the need for fencing to keep them in a particular space. “The key drivers in this decision for us were to increase pasture production and manage movement of the cattle as well as to help with environmental management and labour efficiency. Maurice feels strongly that this emphasis on quality driving decisions is critical to the success of the whole operation. “As soon as you focus on chasing money production is impacted.” He believes one of the key skills involved in keeping all aspects of the farm ticking over is to learn from all decisions made in the past be they good decisions and especially unsuccessful attempts. “It’s how you actually react when something doesn’t work out as expected that makes all the difference in the world if you can be brave and to own it and learn from it.” Supporting the farm is a whole team of really important people including Peter Young, George Collier and Trevor Cook as well as a supportive family and friends and key contractors. The philosophy is to surround those working day to day on the farm with experts who know things that Maurice, Rosie and the team on the ground, won’t know. It’s an attitude that has brought real gains across animal health, people and pasture management. Having a property with equal measure of three different terrain types brings challenges and along with opportunities. “We’re fortunate to enjoy reliable rainfall and we can use our varied geography to place stock where they are best suited.” He’s also philosophical about making decisions that impact on the land. “I think it is true that how we are managing the land now, may well have some negative impacts on the land that we don’t know about because we’re not going to be around long enough to understand this. It’s probably the way it’s been ever since farming the land began. We have the best intentions in mind at the time with what we know.” Proudly supporting Maurice King & Rosie Hore Brent Eaton 027 485 5994 | Office 027 428 4328 Email ewl.balfouroffice@gmail.com EWL Limited Silage and Baling contractor servicing the Northern Southland District Parawa & Maurice King Parawa & Maurice King PETER LYON SHEARING www.peterlyonshearing.co.nz Peter Lyon Shearing is based in Alexandra, right in the heart of Central Otago, a short drive from tourist mecca’s Queenstown and Wanaka, New Zealand. The company services wool growing clients in Southland, Otago, South Canterbury and Marlborough. established since 1985 Peter Lyon Shearing SHEAR QUALITY
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