Spread over flat to easy-rolling contour on soils capable of good production, the farm is joined by an 80ha leasehold block for dairy support, making it a self-contained unit.
Claude Shepherd, from Barfoot and Thompson in Kerikeri, described the farm as impeccable and farmed faithfully for the past 12 years by a father and son team.
"It's one of the tidiest dairy farms you'll walk into – the dairy, house, everything is as neat as a pin.”
"They've treated it as a working lifestyle and farmed conservatively with no palm kernel or brought-in feed. The thing I like about it is you could intensify it as much as you like.”
"It's self-contained so you can have the heifers at the end of the property and grow them out big and strong. And if you grew maize on the lease block you could do very well."
The farm has dropped cow numbers in the past four years to suit lifestyle changes and now has 142 spring-calving cows which produced 41,000kg milksolids (MS) last season. Cows calve from July 10 onwards and calves have been reared on whole milk. When they milked 160 cows, the farm averaged 49,700kg MS over a seven-year period, still grass-based and self-contained.
Until this year, the neighbouring lease block was 26 effective hectares, but that was recently increased to 52ha. Shepherd said the lease block was predominantly flat country and half of it was close enough to the farm's dairy to consider including it in the milking platform.
The farm is split into 40 paddocks with a central race leading to a well-maintained 20-aside herringbone dairy with Nu Pulse plant. An abundance of farm sheds have been maintained well over the years and encompass a four-bay calf shed, several barns, a five-bay implement shed and a three-bay storage shed.
A spring on the farm provides a good gravity-fed water supply and also supplies two other farms, though it has first access. The lease block has water gravity-fed from a council dam that supplies Kaitaia.
In the paddocks a mix of clover and rye dominates the pasture, with kikuyu also present. This forms the basis for the all-grass system for the dairy farm, with 23 tonnes of urea used last season, or 120 units a hectare. Underneath is Kaitaia clay loam, a mix of Riponui sandy clay loam and Manonui clay loam.
Overlooking the farm is a well-presented three-bedroom home with a deck along the northern side and set in attractive landscaped gardens.
The farm is five kilometres from Kaitaia and beyond that are the beaches and bays that lure holidaymakers to the far north. But living on the farm, it's all just down the road.
"It's a good area, close to town and beach and the farm still has production upside to it."
A tender date has yet to be set for the sale. For further details contact Shepherd on 09 407 9321 or 0274 410 436.
