Just 18km down the coast from Karamea, the farm sits right on the beach and milks 325 cows on 122 freehold hectares as well as 48 leasehold hectares to produce about 135,000kg milksolids.
The northern stretch of the West Coast has a microclimate that is almost tropical, with few frosts touching the farm, but a good rainfall of 2100mm dousing the soil.
“They call it the winterless north up there and there’s not a lot of frosts,” Greg Daly of Greg Daly Real Estate said.
“The farm is run by a couple who bought it for the lifestyle and fishing. You can wander down to the beach after milking and don’t have to go far to get any of those fish. It’s an amazing lifestyle opportunity in a rarely available location.”
At $2.95 million, including a 14ha support block within walking distance for the stock, it’s also one of the more affordable dairy farms available, with the 48ha lease run in conjunction with the farm for the past seven years and signed up for another seven.
Cows will be wintered on the farm this year, with 8ha of Swedes planted for winter feed. Another 8ha is planted in barley to be cut for silage and fed during autumn, while 5ha is planted in Pasja brassica for summer feed. Along at the support block where the calves are run, 250 bales of balage are cut each year. As well as feed produced on the farm, about 500kg of grain or molasses for each cow is fed during the season through feeders in the dairy.
At the dairy, everything is set up for a one-person operation with automatic cup removers, auto teat sprayer, meal and molasses feeding and air drafting. The 28-aside dairy has Reid plant installed and a yard capable of holding 360 cows.
Beyond the dairy are numerous support buildings encompassing a five-bay implement and calf shed, a two-bay workshop, another five-bay implement shed, a three-bay haybarn, a storage shed of about 40m2 and a covered fertiliser bin. Home base is a four-bedroom house with a sleepout.
The stock is also available for sale, including 225 mixed-aged cows at $1900, 106 rising two-year-old heifers at $1500 and 85 rising one-year-old heifers at $810. The herd begins calving on August 1 and follows a mating plan that had seven weeks of artificial breeding followed by Jersey bulls that were removed on January 5. The sale price includes Westland Milk Product shares.
For further details contact Daly on 0274 783 594 or 03 762 6463 a/h. It can be viewed at www.gregdalyrealestate.co.nz.
