The 121ha property for sale at Ratana, 19km south of Wanganui, includes a 65ha milking platform and adjacent 56ha support block that carries all the replacement stock and winters the herd. Periodically, the support block is used for the milking herd as well.
A further 104ha lease block is run in conjunction with the milking platform, and another 15ha leased as further support land. Both these leases can be negotiated by the new owner. The freehold and leased properties are linked with water reticulation, tracking and layout.
Knud Bukholt from Bayleys says it’s an affordable dairy unit with a rateable valuation of $2.45 million, with the option of the lease blocks and resource consents for 800 cows.
“The property was converted about six years ago and has maintained production between 125,000kg and 145,000kg milksolids (MS) across both the freehold and lease blocks,” he says.
“The lease blocks have two years left under the current arrangement and the owners of these blocks have indicated they are prepared to renegotiate terms and conditions with the new owners for the next 10-year increment.”
The farm is milking 380 cows this season for a forecast production of 130,000kg MS or 342kg MS/cow. Last season it milked 375 cows for 140,035kg MS, 373kg MS/cow.
Chicory, maize and fodder beet are grown for supplements and last year it also bought in 100 tonnes of palm kernel, 250 tonnes of maize silage and 150 tonnes of grass silage.
“They’ve got a good feedpad, silage pad and the shed has been built to cater for expansion with resource consents for 800 cows.
“So, if more land came up in the future that’s a possibility and all the surrounding land is flat country ideal for dairying.”
The farm lies a few kilometres off State Highway 3 and, with the leased blocks, wraps around three sides of the tiny Ratana village.
Water for the farm is sourced from the village water scheme at a rate of $1.60 a cubic metre and the annual water rate is usually about $24,000. The water is stored in four large plastic tanks beside the dairy then pumped into the main reticulation system that supplies two good-sized troughs in most paddocks.
The farm has been well laid out on the flat to rolling landscape, with some hills on the support land, Bukholt says.
One well-designed lane runs through the property, with the support block at the far end of the milking platform accessed by road as well. Metal is sourced onfarm for the lane.
The milking platform is split into 25 main paddocks with the support block split into 14 and pasture is renewed following crops. About 24ha is sown in crops each year and usually resown with a rye-and-clover mix.
From the paddocks, the lane leads to the 54-bail rotary dairy that was built in 2010 and has Westfalia plant with provision for full automation.
The circular yard holds 400 cows and a three-bin feedlot next to the dairy has capacity for the whole herd.
Dairy effluent is stored in a 3.5 million litre pond before being pumped to travelling irrigators over 50ha of the milking platform, with consent for 80ha. Solids from the effluent pond and feedpad are also spread over the farm.
Two well-constructed, four-bay implement sheds cater for calf rearing, with one bay concreted for a lock-up area. An older haybarn and a disused dairy offer further storage while 30 tonnes of palm kernel can be stored in a concrete-based bunker and silage in an earth-banked pit.
A cottage-style three-to-four bedroom home caters for an owner-operator or manager and is close to the dairy.
The farm has been supplying Open Country Dairy. There is the option of buying the farm as a going concern with the Jersey and Friesian herd, replacements and an assortment of machinery.
The cows are recorded and artificially inseminated from October 15 to January, with the bull going out in the first week of December. The herd is timed for calving from July 20 and usually dries off by May 20.
The property is for sale by negotiation. For further information contact Bukholt on 027 222 6161.
