| 39 nzdairy DAIRY PEOPLE » Cave Farms Bruce Cave loved his busy farming career Richard Loader What a pleasure to look back over your long working life and say, ‘I’ve loved my whole career’ — and that is exactly what Wanganui dairy farmer Bruce Cave can do. “The farm has taken preference over many things, but actually I’ve loved it. I’ve got enormous satisfaction developing the farm and making it more productive. The move to dairy really kick-started that progress. There was more income and reward to make more improvements as the years went by. I’m now 68, and starting to pull back a bit. Annette is encouraging me to do less on the farm and do a few other things.” Bruce and Annette’s 580-hectare dairy farm is bounded by Wanganui city at one end, and shares a couple of kilometres of coastline. There is also a 240-hectare run-off on the other side of Wanganui that is home to young stock and nonmilking cows. The farm has been in the Cave family since 1950 and was originally farmed as a sheep and beef property. After completing an agricultural degree at Massey University and spending some time shearing, Bruce returned to the family farm in 1982, farming in partnership with his father, Harry Cave, who also captained the New Zealand cricket team in the ‘50s. When Henry died in 1989, Bruce took over the mantle of the farm in partnership with Annette, commencing many years of on-going farm development. “In ’92 we made the decision to convert to dairy, mainly out of frustration with the sheep industry,” says Bruce. “Over the last thirty years there’s been a significant amount of development work on the property, including almost doubling its size, enabling us to increase the herd.” Over the millennia, the coastline has risen up from the sea, blowing sand onto the farm, creating dry sand ridges running west-east with the prevailing wind. Those ridges are interspersed with quite wet and reasonably fertile flats, and is the best land for milking on. “The poorer dry sand frizzles up in the summer time. Our annual rainfall is less than 1000mm and we get a lot of wind during the spring, which dries the country out very quickly, causing major fluctuations in grass growth. Over the years we’ve added four centre pivot irrigators, covering about 220 hectares. We also have our own earthmoving machinery, and there has been a lot of drainage work. To have cows on the wet sandflats with a fluctuating water table in the winter, you need to have good drainage. AFFCO is proud to support Cave Farms Well Drillers Wanganui provide a variety of services, specialising is water bores for farm supplies, stock, irrigation and town water supplies. We supply and install new pumps, replace old pumps, and carry out maintenance repairs on current pumps. For times when bores aren’t working as efficiently as neededWell Drillers Wanganui can restore and clean. Contact WellDrillers on 0800 925 379, (06) 344 7340 or our Consultant, Lyle Sharratt on 0274 132 104 To discuss your needs with our experienced team: Email: Info@welldrillers.co.nz www.welldrillers.co.nz The farm now operates quite successfully as a dairy unit.” As well as milking 1100 Friesian cows on a split calving basis, supplying Open Country with about 500,000kgMS each year, the farming operation includes making its own silage and growing its own crops, and is supported by a team of a dozen staff. Until Christmas, the day-today running of the dairy herd was managed by Gerard and Heni O’Donnell. Bruce says Gerard has been a huge part of the farming operation since the ‘80s, and this year returns as 2IC, with Scott Mosley taking over management responsibility. With the return of Bruce’s daughter and granddaughter to the farming fold, a large calf rearing shed has been added, with virtually all calves being reared either as replacement stock or dairy/ beef cross weaners for sale. “They are doing a fantastic job looking after that operation,” says Bruce proudly. The farm has been in the Cave family since 1950 and was originally farmed as a sheep and beef property.
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