Now for sale, the farm produced 326,000kg milksolids (MS) this past season from about 600 cows at the peak, with all except 100 cows carried through winter on the property.
Spreading over a wide valley and up the lower hills near Makotuku, 17km northeast of Dannevirke in dairy country, the farm benefits from the warmer lowland climate of the Tararua district. The flat land extends over 139ha with another 128ha easy rolling country that rises to about 65ha of medium hill and 53ha in forestry close to harvest. A detailed report puts the farm's tree crop valuation at $522,208, with 5828 carbon credits registered by the owner transferable to the new owner. Another 14ha of the farm is considered non-effective land.
The owners converted the farm from sheep and beef and have regrassed the entire milking platform of 260ha in the past four years, with annual pasture performance measured at 14.5 tonnes drymatter (DM) a hectare. An extensive fertiliser history has helped, as has modern tetraploid ryegrass-based pastures conducive to intensive dairy production.
Seventy paddocks subdivide the milking platform, with a central race leading to a 50-bail rotary dairy designed for the future and easy management, from the automatic cup removers, plant wash and teat spraying to the computerised in-dairy feed system. The automated milk monitoring system via electronic ear tag enables daily monitoring of each cow for of litres, protein, fat and somatic cell count as well as weighing and drafting.
The plant wash-down is a state-of-the-art automatic system for maintaining a high standard of hygiene throughout the dairy, with wash water UV treated and filtered. Then there's the extra cooling capacity in the milk storage silos just in case it’s needed during warmer weather. The dairy caters for everyone, with an office, a vet room and a shower.
Alongside the dairy lies a concrete feedpad with feed bins to cater for 600 cows, while effluent from both the pad and dairy is discharged to a storage pond with solids separated to a concrete bunker where leachates are extracted. The entire milking platform can be irrigated with this effluent through 90mm pipes to travelling irrigators, while the solids in the bunker are allowed to dry before being spread on to the paddocks.
Richard Anderson from Rural and Lifestyle Sales said Horizons Regional Council had formally noted the high standard of infrastructure in place on the farm, giving it an excellence grading that only a small percentage of properties in its region had achieved.
"From the comprehensive infrastructure and high genetic merit herd to the careful attention to resource management and environmental responsibilities, it is a farm to be truly proud of.
"It's a top-rate business unit that has been built for the future," Anderson said, "and it's been farmed very well."
A permit to take water from the Manawatu River enables the farm to use a centre pivot and K-line to irrigate 69ha and during the severe drought across most of the country during the 2012-13 season, the farm's production only dropped 5.5%, Anderson said.
"If there's a drought you've got irrigation and if it gets too wet there's the large standoff and feeding area. And you can vary the supplements going in through that feeding area."
In the past, the farm has added straw, barley grain, canola and cotton seed, maize silage, and palm kernel into the feed mix. Supplementary feed grown on the farm for winter includes up to 100 tonnes DM of Triticale silage, 30ha of turnips, and about 30ha of green feed oats.
When calving comes around, an enclosed calf-rearing facility has hot water wash facilities and holding paddocks close to the woolshed to rear the 160 to 180 calves each year. These replacements are reared on whole milk, then grazed on the farm through to April when they are grazed off for six months before returning for mating and carried through to calving the following year.
The farm owner acts as the overall farm supervisor and is supported by a second-in-charge who has been on the farm for 20 years, and two farm assistants. At peak times such as calf rearing and cultivation, casual labour is also employed.
Accommodation for permanent staff is well catered for between three homes, from a four-bedroom, two-bathroom Lockwood homestead, to a 2008 four-bedroom home and a three-bedroom cottage. Located up in the hills on the farm is a hut retreat for a kid's adventure or a bit of escapism.
Farm facilities are also ample, with two large enclosed steel-framed sheds, a hayshed for 500 large square bales, a substantial farm workshop with a separate lube shed, and the calf-rearing shed.
For further information on the farm, contact Anderson on 027 255 3992 or Richard Anderson on 027 543 1610. The farm can be viewed at www.ruralandlifestylesales.com.
