Farm visit - Waikukurau





Romney rams

The farm I visited in Waikukurau is run as part of her father’s farm and her brothers farm and they have another farm and ground to finish lambs on nearer Hastings. Just on this farm there are 3,900 Romney ewes and 210 cows. Her father purchased this farm in the 90’s to expand his system. He has a Romney and Parendale stud. It was interesting to hear about their breeding system and how 500 two tooth ewes are sold annually for further breeding in a sale early in January. Looking at the animals on this farm they all looked very strong and uniform.

Angus Bull with Angus cross Hereford cows and calves

She also uses some Suffolk and South down rams. The cattle on the farm are Hereford cross Angus calving in November. The cattle are kept for grassland management purposes and are always mixed in paddocks with lambs or hoggets, preferably not ewes as ewes keep the paddocks reasonably good, grazing shorter than lambs. This farm only shears the ewes annually and this does cause some problems with ewes getting stuck on their back at lambing time, but they don't feel it is cost effective to shear them more often. The farm is farmed extensively and is set stocked. They have not put fertiliser down for a few years as things have not been very good. However thing have improved financially and they will probably apply fertiliser this year. We discussed the regulations they are under and she said that they are increasing quickly and thinks it will be similar to the UK within 10years.