Located at Atarau in the Grey Valley, the farm sits on terraced country with the majority covering river flats that have 200ha of pivot irrigation in place.
Greg Daly from Greg Daly Real Estate said the addition of pivot irrigation, 200ha of new grass and the balance of the farm undersown, gave it the potential to achieve production targets not yet seen on the West Coast.
“This place had the first pivots on the coast and its size and quality makes it the closest thing we have to a Canterbury farm here.”
The first pivots were installed three years ago, with more added each year and a new mainline now being installed to the top terrace to take irrigation to those paddocks. Water consents for irrigation are in place for 440 litres a second for 35 years.
As well as irrigation, the farm has had 200ha of new grass in the past few years, with the remainder of the property undersown. Supplements are made on the farm, including 300 bales of balage, and fodder beet is regularly grown to feed to the cows through autumn until the end of the season, with 20ha of it in the ground this year. Inputs have also increased and cows are now fed a kilogram of wheat at milking up until Christmas, plus two to three kilograms a day of palm kernel in trailers through the season.
Between irrigation, new grass and more inputs, production has climbed from 363,000kg MS from 1000 cows in the 2010-11 season to 506,269kg MS last season and the targeted 650,000kg MS this season.
Cows head down a central lane to the 56-bail rotary dairy with its automatic cup removers, meal and molasses feeding, and a silo and crusher to handle feed. A substantial metalled feedpad with feed troughs is set up for feeding the cows.
Effluent is collected in a two-pond system with a solids removal screen, with the liquid then irrigated onto 140ha of pasture by K-line, or it can go through the pivots when irrigating.
Four homes cater for owners and staff, including a substantial four-bedroom summerstone homestead set in landscaped grounds. The second home is a four-bedroom, two-bathroom house, and there’s a four-bedroom summerstone home and a two-bedroom cottage.
The price for the farm is by negotiation and will include 466,636 Westland Milk Products shares. For further information contact Daly on 03 762 6463 or 0274 783594. It can be viewed at www.gregdalyrealestate.co.nz.
