The president of the Hawke’s Bay Deer Farmers Association for the past four years, he’d also like to see more young people like him getting into deer farming.
And like most of his fellow Firstlight venison shareholder suppliers, Richard is increasing deer production in his family farming business in Central Hawke’s Bay.
“This year has been quite hard for many people in the industry because schedule prices have not been good enough. But at Firstlight our returns are on the improve and our forecast is even better for next year.
“We no longer look for the spring schedule, we look for the average over the whole year for when it suits our system. I like the team environment at Firstlight – we are not competing with each other.
“Hopefully people are in the industry for the long haul because the markets and the future definitely look positive.”
Richard and his wife Emma live at Glenbarr, in the hills west of Ongaonga, on one of the four blocks of land owned by the farming family’s Riverslea Trust.
The trust also includes Richard’s parents, Nick and Jane, who are based at Takapau.
The farms employ Richard, Nick and full-time farm worker Glenn Sirett.
Richard and Emma, in their early 30s, have two children – Sam who has just turned five and started school at Ongaonga – and three-year-old Chloe.
In between looking after the children Emma squeezes in part-time work. She is a radiation therapist who works 300 hours a year on a casual basis for MidCentral Health in Palmerston North.
Worth the weight
Glenbarr, which runs up to 500m asl, is the deer breeding property with 230ha of its 269ha deer fenced.
It runs 750-800 hinds, depending on the season and Richard’s objective is to increase this to 900 hinds.
Farm facts
- 715ha farming business
- 800 Red hinds
- Finishing progeny for Firstlight venison
- Bull beef component
- Specialist pastures
- Cash cropping
- Small area irrigated.
“In theory Glenbarr is summer safe with an average rainfall of 1850mm, but that hasn’t happened for the last two years,” Richard says.
He is hoping for a top-up soon for the soil moisture levels and says he really should be mowing the lawns twice a week at the moment.
But only 26mm of rain fell in February, well down from the average of around 110mm they usually get.
Even their 20ha plantain, which went in during spring 2012 and usually grows like a rocket, is looking a bit off-colour on their free-draining volcanic soils.
Richard is devoted to his deer which make up the major contribution to the farming business.
All the progeny on the farm are weaned off in late February to early March at an average of 53kg, although that might be down a couple of kilograms this year because of the dry. Maize has helped keep weights up this year.
They go off to either of the two Takapau finishing properties – the 205ha Te Ketea, which is the home block for Nick and Jane, or a few kilometres down the road to the 91ha Oruawharo Road block.
From there the weaners are finished on specialist crops such as lucerne and plantain to an average minimum liveweight of 96kg.
That weight has increased by 1kg a year thanks to better genetics and better feeding, Richard says.
“I remember when we used to draft them and aim for anything over 87kg. Before that it was 85kg and now we are at 96kg. The sky is the limit so my aim is to try and do 1kg every year although environmental factors can stop that.”
One of the dams on Glenbarr.
In a photograph on Richard and Emma’s wall Artie is fifth in a soldiers’ crew rowing for the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces eight on the Nile in Cairo in 1940 as part of the New Zealander’s Maadi Camp Rowing Club.
They were rowing against the Cairo River Club – a champion Egyptian rower donated one of his own trophies to mark the occasion. It was this cup that they won twice in a row over two years before bringing it back to NZ that has become the main competition cup for secondary school rowers in this country.
Richard carried on that tradition at Wanganui Collegiate, where he crewed in the eight, quad and in a four, winning a gold medal for the under-17 four.
But rowing and farming in the hills of Central Hawke’s Bay don’t work too well together, so farming won out.
Richard left school after the sixth form, and went to EIT in Napier for a certificate in agriculture.
“I learnt a lot at EIT, and I would recommend it is a very good starting point for a career in agriculture.”
He followed this up with a Massey University diploma in agriculture.
Then he headed to the South Island, spending a year at Quartz Hill in the Rakaia Gorge, before coming home in 2001 to farm with his parents.
