Friday, March 29, 2024

Subdivide and conquer

Avatar photo
Matt Gilbert and his family are making the most of their finishing country with good management. Russell Priest took a look at their farming operation. Photos by Graeme Brown.
Reading Time: 2 minutes

With more than 150 paddocks averaging about 4.5 hectares, subdivision provides key management options for the Gilbert family of Taihape.

Besides maintaining pasture quality and improving utilisation, it gives a more even distribution of soil fertility. It has also enabled them to farm their sheep and cattle separately without one enterprise interfering with the other.

Third-generation Matt and wife Abbie along with their three boys Hadlee, Marcus and Brodie run a 690ha (680ha effective) farming business near Pungatawa, 13km northeast of Taihape in the central North Island. They are ably assisted by shepherd James Barrett.

Matt’s father Len and mother June still have a financial interest in the business and are actively involved in many of the farming operations. 

“This is the type of farming I like now,” Len says. 

“It’s all care and no responsibility. You get your orders in the morning and you go and do it.”

Matt gained a Bachelor of Applied Science in Agriculture at Massey University and returned to the farm in 2002 where he entered into a financial partnership with his parents in 2004.

The original farm bought by Matt’s grandfather was 360ha. A further 180ha was secured in 1988 by Len and in 2007 the partnership added another 150ha block. A long road frontage and main buildings in the centre of the irregular-shaped, 10km-long farm makes it easier to manage.

About 400ha is flat-to-rolling with the balance medium-to-steep. This provides an excellent balance of breeding and finishing country and is one of the strengths of the business.

“A solely breeding operation leaves you very financially vulnerable when store prices are low,” Matt says. 

“However, with our large area of finishing country we are able to add value to those store animals by finishing them.”

The soils are a mixture of sedimentary parent materials (siltstone, sandstone and mudstone), volcanic ash and alluvium on the river terraces. The altitude of the farm varies from about 400m to 800m asl.

Key facts

  • Farming 690ha (680ha effective) 
  • Near Pungatawa, 13km northeast of Taihape
  • 800 two-tooth, 2000 MA and 750 five-year ewes 
  • Flock generally weans 145-150%.
  • Usually 450-500 R1 and R2 cattle wintered 
  • Make $300-$400 margin on trading cattle, double on beef weaners. 

The Gilberts’ R1 Angus bulls.

Animal health

The Gilberts have a policy of drenching stock only when it is needed. Faecal egg counting is used to monitor worm populations in the sheep, especially the ewes. Lambs receive a tapeworm drench three weeks after docking and a month before weaning, a monthly combination drench (selenised) which goes through to early June (replacement ewe hoggets). A barber pole drench is also administered in autumn.

Weaner calves get a quarantine drench using Eclipse on arrival, another a month later and a third in early spring. They also undergo a 10-in-1 vaccination programme soon after they arrive on the farm.

Older cattle get a quarantine drench with Eclipse and another three weeks after they come off the winter crops.

Total
0
Shares
People are also reading