Southdown Sheep Society, NZ

SHOWCASE: Mt Taranaki provides a backdrop to Mangaotea Farm owned by Robin and Jacqueline Blackwell, who enjoyed success in the 2014 Taranaki Farm Environment Awards.

The taste of success in the 2014 Taranaki Ballance Farm Environment Awards has whetted the appetite of Tariki farmers Robin and Jacqueline Blackwell.

PASSIONATE ABOUT FARMING: Robin and Jacqueline Blackwell won four merit prizes in the 2014 Taranaki Farm Environment Awards.

The couple, who own Mangaotea Farm, a multi-faceted operation that includes breeding and selling bulls, dairy grazing and a sheep stud, won four merit prizes in the competition, held in Taranaki this year for the first time.

Now held in 10 regions, the Farm Environment Awards are organised by the New Zealand Farm Environment Trust which formed a partnership last year with the Taranaki Regional Council to bring the contest to Taranaki.

Tikorangi’s Trewithen Farm, owned by Faull Farms and operated by sharemilkers Loie and Tony Penwarden, were the supreme winners.

Contest judges highlighted the Blackwells’ commitment to and passion for Mangaotea Farm, which winters 11,327 stock units on a 90:10 cattle to sheep ratio.

At Mangaotea Farm the Blackwells breed angus, hereford and murray grey bulls and buy jerseys as weaners for their annual on-farm sale. The sale has grown from 60 bulls at their first one 17 years ago to 180 yearlings and two-year-olds at this year’s 18th event on September 18.

As well as breeding bulls, they also graze young dairy stock for long-term clients and operate a southdown stud. Demand for their southdowns rams is so great they can’t breed enough.

After the bull sale, bulls can remain on the property until November 20 when paddocks are shut up so 1500 bales of hay can be made in late summer for winter use on the farm and for sale. They also make 350 bales of silage.

Last year’s drought and this year’s dry spell have been challenging. Last spring they made extra supplement to fill any feed deficit. “I like to have it there in case, to have feed in the bank. We’ll keep doing that,” Robin Blackwell said.

The two dry years have also prompted the couple to investigate ways of harnessing water on the property, where annual rainfall is 1800mm.

The 658ha Mangaotea Farm consists of flat to easy rolling country with some steep ridges and gullies. Its high point is 307m above sea level.

Robin grew up in the Tariki area and in 1980 he took over the original 80ha block of Mangaotea that his father, Maurice, had bought in 1963. The couple have gradually increased the size of their holding, purchasing five neighbouring blocks between 1991 and 2009 and leasing a 215ha adjacent property. Their total effective area is 591ha.

They’ve established infrastructure like fenced drains, laneway and shelter with an eye for ease of management. Four kilometres of fenced laneways across the farm allow stock to be moved easily.

The farm takes its name from the Mangaotea Stream which runs through the property. Fencing and planting the stream began in the 1990s and so far they’ve fenced 14.4km of streambank and planted 3300 plants.

They’re also fencing and planting minor tributaries to keep stock out of waterways. “It saves time and money. We don’t lose stock and we don’t have to clean the drains,” said Jacqueline Blackwell. “Fencing the drains means less work in the long run. We don’t have to spend time clearing them because they don’t get blocked and we never lose stock.”

Robin said riparian fencing and planting was part of any development both because it protected the environment and made wintering of cattle much easier. “Any development is viewed long-term. We do it once and we do it properly.”

They’ve also placed two 1.5ha peat swamp areas with mature kahikatea in a Queen Elizabeth II National Trust covenant and they’re planning to establish covenants on other areas of the farm.

Under a Taranaki Regional Council land management plan, they’ve left erosion-prone land in native vegetation or retired it.

They were persuaded by TRC land management officer Jessica Hyland to enter the Ballance awards.

“We hadn’t thought about it but we thought we’d like to give it a go. We like to push boundaries because it’s good to benchmark against others,” Robin said. “But there’s no such thing as the perfect farm.”

The contest provided an opportunity to step back from their business and look at it objectively. “You get so busy in the day-to-day activities that you don’t always sit back and look at the big picture.”

Despite their success, Jacqueline said their involvement with the contest didn’t feel complete.

“We’re always open to opportunities to showcase what we do and we work well as a team, bouncing ideas off each other. We love to showcase our product and compare it against the rest of the country. We genuinely love what we do.”

The couple want to be in the top 10 per cent of farms for performance. She said with repeat clients in all facets of their business, they believed their customers were satisfied. “We think ahead and think about the consumer and the way they would view our property.”

Robin described the level of competition as impressive. He enjoyed the positive atmosphere of the awards evening and found the stories of other contestants stimulating.

Feedback from the judges highlighted the strengths and weaknesses of their operation. “The weaknesses they mentioned were those areas in the back of our minds where we thought we should be doing more. So we’re acting on suggestions to build strengths in those areas.”

One weakness was the lack of written health and safety documentation which, with just one staff member, they had not developed.

Judges said the way the couple managed their multi-faceted operation was a strength, as was their infrastructure, biodiversity, animal health and sustainability. The judges were impressed with their measures to protect stock health and their awareness of the risk posed by movement of multiple stock classes in and of the property.

In time their adult children want to be part of the business. “Our job is to build the brand and set it up for them to diversify and carry it on,” Jacqueline said.

Daughter Zarrah works on a sheep station in Australia, son Hamish is an earthmoving contractor in Marlborough and Daniel is a software engineer in London.

In the past the couple have succeeded in Beef + Lamb NZ’s Steak of Origin awards, three times as semi-finalists and once as a finalist.

This year is the fourth they have entered the contest. Two angus animals and a murray grey were processed at Taranaki Abattoirs at Stratford in March. Semifinalists will be announced on Monday.

Jacqueline said the couple was thrilled with their success at the awards. They won Beef+ Lamb New Zealand’s livestock award, Hill Laboratories harvest award, Donaghys farm stewardship award, and the Taranaki Regional Council sustainability award.

Their team of supporters, including sole employee Mike Johnson, Merial Ancare territory manager Tony Hammond, PGG Wrightson’s Kim Harrison, CMK’s Brian McFarlane, of Stratford, Taranaki Veterinary Centre vet Craig Hassell, BNZ’s Leean Nelson and Alison Sulzberger and Silver Fern Farms’ Phil Morresey, joined them at the awards evening in New Plymouth earlier this month.

Southdown breeder Lachlan Elliot established his Lammermoor stud in 2005.

When Duncan Elliot was a young boy, all he wanted was a shearing hand-piece.

Forget the PlayStation games and other electronic gizmos that his contemporaries desired, he was firmly focused on farming.

Now 16, Duncan, from Lammermoor Station, Paerau, in the south of the Maniototo, started crutching when he was 10 and began shearing his own sheep last year. He, his elder brother Lachlan (20) and sister Brooke (22) have inherited a family passion for the land, and for purebred sheep.

The Elliot family has been on Lammermoor Station since the 1920s and the 5200ha property is now farmed by John and Susan Elliot with their children.

Duncan, who has a Romney stud, and Lachlan, who has a Southdown stud, both with the Lammermoor prefix, were now third-generation stud breeders on both sides of their family.

It had always been an interest for the pair and while it was a passion, it was also very much a business.

Lachlan and Duncan began selling their current crop of rams last week, preferring to sell privately rather than at auction. Both breeds were also used over some of the halfbred and merino ewes on the station.

The Paerau area was known for its very harsh winters, with plenty of frosts and snow, and hot, dry Central Otago summers. It was a testing environment for sheep, which shifted well out of the district, they said.

Asked whether there was any sibling rivalry, Lachlan diplomatically explained there was ”always brotherly competition”.

”But then we both agree a Southdown across a Romney is a bloody good lamb,” he said.

Lachlan established his Southdown stud in 2005, purchasing 14 ewes from Leo Christey’s Mapua stud at Southbridge.

An opportunity later arose to buy fellow Maniototo stud breeder John Mulholland’s stud and numbers had slowly grown to about 270 breeding ewes.

The Southdown is the oldest of the terminal sire breeds in the UK and originated from the native sheep which roamed the South Downs in the south of England for hundreds of years. It was developed into a fixed type in the 18th century.

The first Southdown stud flock in New Zealand was founded in 1863 and the Southdown Society was formed in 1926.

The opportunity to own one of the few Southdown studs in the area was a drawcard for Lachlan, who was also attracted to the breed by it being a good early-lambing sheep, with an ability to finish quickly.

He was looking to sell about 80 rams a year but hoped in the future to build that up to 140 as he continued to increase ewe numbers, while not compromising quality.

He was trying to breed good, structurally sound, well-muscled sheep with the ability to ”get lambs away straight from mum”, but with the frame and length to be able to grow them out to a 21kg-23kg lamb later on.

Lachlan, who has sold rams as far afield as Canterbury and Southland and throughout the Maniototo, said his goal was to breed good, commercial rams for farmers.

He recently returned from a year-long stint overseas, spending time working on a farm in East Sussex, near where the Southdown breed originated. Their New Zealand counterparts were much bigger and with a lot more length to them, he said.

Farming in general in the UK was very different from New Zealand, and he reckoned the UK livestock farming systems were ”probably 50 years” behind those in New Zealand.

Handling stock was not easy; there were no sheep-handling facilities like sheep yards or shearing sheds, and moving stock was also an issue. Traditional breeds were still very much at the forefront, he said.

Duncan’s foray into stud breeding began in 2007, with the purchase of nine Romney ewes from Ron Jones, of Matarae Station, near Middlemarch, and about a dozen from Mr Mulholland. He now had about 100 breeding ewes, most of which were home-bred.

He was enthusiastic about his recent purchase of two rams from Blair and Sally Robertson’s Merrydowns stud at Waikoikoi, which included the top-priced lot of $3200 at the Robertsons’ annual sale last month.

Those acquisitions would bring different genetics, more meat and good wool to his flock, he said.

When it came to breeding, Duncan was focused on fertility, wool, meat production, conformation and maternal ability.

He admitted he was particularly passionate about wool, which was something of a family tradition.

Lammermoor Station has long been renowned for the ultrafine merino wool it produces.

Lammermoor wool, including Romney fleece – John and Susan Elliot used to have a Romney stud – has won many Otago and local fleece competitions, along with national Golden Fleece awards.

Duncan has already experienced success in fleece competitions, including being runner-up in the crossbred section of the Golden Fleece.

This year, he was selling about 30 rams and hoped to raise the number of rams available for sale.

At the same time, he wanted to ”keep the quality up, and the wool and have meat in the right places”. He aimed to produce as even a line of rams as possible.

Both Lachlan and Duncan were involved in all aspects of stud breeding, from looking after their client base to keeping up the paperwork.

Duncan reckoned having his own stud had taught him a lot about sheep. Attending other ram sales and viewing other breeders’ sheep proved useful for comparison..

A boarder at John McGlashan College, Dunedin, he headed home most weekends. Lambing was timed to coincide with holidays.

Several years ago, his ewes were lambing in 30cm of snow, yet the lambs were quickly up and about.

”They’re good lambers, good mothers. The lambs are born and they run.”

Once he left school, he hoped to initially either work on farms in Australia or head to Canada to be a hunting guide.

While the brothers had never been forced into stud breeding, or farming, their mother was delighted they had the interest, particularly at such a young age, and such an understanding of livestock.

Asked about the future of the sheep industry, Lachlan said it needed ”a bit of a shake-up” and he believed farmers needed to ”stick together”. Duncan reckoned farmers should ”get the basics right and stick with traditional breeds”.