Until 13 months ago Tony Meads was farming in partnership with his brother David. Sadly, David passed away in August last year, but thanks to a robust structure the farming business carried on. David was also heavily involved in Federated Farmers and had previously served three terms as a regional councillor for Horizons.
The operation has evolved over the years with land purchases and subdivision.
The two brothers started farming together in partnership with their father Brian in 1977 as BD Meads and Sons. At the start of the partnership they bought Brian’s brother Roger’s 270ha adjoining farm which gave them a total of 510ha. They’ve gradually bought and leased more land over the years.
The two family trusts are the shareholders in the farming company with all the land and stock being owned by the company
One of David’s sons, William, has become a director and is involved in the dairy industry. Brian retired years ago.
Tony and wife Lorraine live in Feilding, which works well. Tony was travelling a lot anyway and is now handy to all four farms. Lorraine is a teacher in Feilding.
The shift also leaves stock manager Kelly Jacobs and his family the Waituna farm house to live in.
The Meads’ three children are grown up and are not directly involved in the farming operation.
The Waituna farm runs up to 500m asl and carries 7500 ewes and 370 beef cows. The 7500 ewes are mated but are culled down to 7000 by the time of set stocking for lambing.
Tony says the lambing in the ewe flock usually hits about 140% but they have never reached 150%. “It is still a goal.”
Pursuing hybrid vigour
The Meads family have long been hooked on the power of crossbreeding. Tony Meads’ father Brian originally wanted a tougher first-cross sheep for the then harder undeveloped hill country so he started putting Cheviot rams over some of the older Romneys. This was around the time the Perendale breed was being established. Since then the Meads have kept chasing the hybrid vigour.
Now they have a three-tier set up, which Tony is simplifying. As well as the Romneys there is an 1800-Kelso first-cross flock (from Kelso rams over five-year Romney ewes). Poll Dorest rams go over the Kelso first-cross ewes from which a proportion is retained as a 2000 ewe flock run at the Halcombe block.
All the hoggets are run down country on the lease blocks. A 1000 of the crossbred hoggets are mated but not the 1900 Romney replacements. Scanning in the hoggets is 95% and lambing 66%.
Meads Farming key points
- Family farming business with company structure
- Incorporates breeding, finishing, and trading stock
- Breeding for hybrid vigour in sheep and cattle
- Lambs finished on feed crops at 20kg carcaseweight and sold to Ovation in Feilding
- Flexible autumn and winter lamb-trading policy
- Buying autumn-born heifer calves for breeding purposes, and
- Feed-pad used for breeding cows in late winter.
Scanning in the mixed-aged ewe flock is usually 170% and the two-tooths 155-160%.
This year the early lambing, older crossbred ewes scanned 175% but in the mixed-aged Romneys (mated later) it was 158%, the lowest it has been for some time. The Romney two-tooth ewes scanned 137%.
“It was mainly because it was so dry,” Tony says.
It had been a good summer and while the earlier-mated ewes on the Halcombe block (March 1 to the ram) scanned well, it got a lot drier from March onwards.
“By the time the Romneys mixed-aged and two-tooth ewes went to the ram on April 20 the feed plan was going the wrong way.”
Hogget country
All of Tony Meads’ hoggets are run down country on the lease blocks. About 1000 crossbred hoggets go to Kelso Ranger rams at a ratio of 1:50 on May 1. The hoggets scan about 95%, but 145% out of the ones which are in lamb. The in-lamb rate is about 66% (to the ram). They are mated at 40kg-plus with no teasers used.
With the ewes lambing above 140% hogget lambing is justified but it has been questioned.
Tony says they were tempted to drop hogget mating but they can look after the extra lambs well on the down country. The reason for limiting hogget mating to crossbred sheep is more to do with not having all stock classes as high priority rather than any concern with dealing with the progeny.
“The more lambs we breed the better.”
An option may be to bring mating forward.
Every seven or eight years David and Tony would change the Romney ram breeder but the sheep genetics are still all part of the Wairarapa Improvement Group. Now they are buying Roger Barton’s rams which Tony is “very happy with”.
Lambing on the home farm starts in the last week of August but even there the ewes are split. Having the terminal flock of Kelso crossbred ewes going to the ram on April 1, and then the main Romney flock on April 20, spreads lambing and any risk. Having a significant proportion of the ewes lambing late also suits the grass growth patterns in spring.
Friesian-Herefords are fed out oats and hay on Tony Meads’ Waituna West farm.
Only the Charolais weaners are sold through the saleyards because they present better. The rest go down country to be fattened. The females are killed for the local trade at 18- to 20-months during early January to April. The male progeny are a combination of bulls and steers.
The family have run a Friesian Hereford cross cowherd for the past 35 years, again in recognition of the benefits of crossbreeding and hybrid vigour.
Heifer replacements are sourced on contract and arrive onfarm at 100-120kg. They are fed well to get them growing as fast as possible before mating as yearlings.
They used to buy spring born calves until 2007 when David and Tony Meads started buying in autumn-born heifer calves in July. This was because they were able to feed these calves on quality spring feed through till November-December so they were bigger and more mature. The calves had a more developed rumen by the time they hit the poorer late-summer feed, making it easier to grow the heifers well through summer.
About 100 heifers are calved on the Halcombe block and stay there through to the second mating. They are mated two weeks earlier than the main cowherd, at a ratio of 1:40 for two cycles.
The switch to sourcing autumn-born heifers with the consequent benefits has made it much easier to achieve good mating weights, giving the latitude to use an exotic bull over these yearlings at mating. The heifers are mated to Simmental bulls. However, they are still selected for low birthweight estimated breeding values.
Keeping it informal
There is no formal feed budgeting on Tony Meads’ Waituna farm. The 7500 ewes are run in up to six different mobs on rotations. The 2000 ewes at Halcombe are in two mobs on rotation. The sheep tend to be run in breed groups and the two-tooths on their own. Periodically through winter the tail-end sheep are taken off drenched and preferentially fed (about 10%) with better grass paddocks. The twinning two-tooth ewes go on to crop in late July usually for up to six weeks, which also takes the pressure off the rest of the sheep grazing pastures.
Scanning takes place in July – the Meads don’t scan for triplets.
The cows are sprinkled with the ewes during their rotation of the paddocks, which will hopefully get them through to mid- to late July. Then about 100 cows go on to a feedpad until calving, the rest on to oats and Kale stalks with supplementary balage and hay. The feedpad has a roof with troughs.
Tony Meads says the oats may not have the same high metabolisable energy when compared to pasture but in combination with hay and balage the cows do well. It also gives the cows a good variation in their diet.
There is a heavy reliance on feeding hay and baleage supplements so if Tony can find off-farm grazing he’ll take it.
Shared labour
Tony Meads and four full-time staff work between the farm and the lease blocks because they also do a lot of the cultivation work.
Stock manager Kelly Jacobs manages the day-to-day running of the Waituna farm.
The business also dips into a good pool of casual labour for jobs like docking.
Time is critical when getting green feed crops in November and regrassing in autumn so contractors do the drilling.
“Miss two weeks and it can make a big difference,” Tony says.
Winter greenfeed crops include kale and swedes which are drilled during January. The permanent pasture is sown down in March-April.
The Olsen P levels on the better hill country at Waituna are over 20, but some soil tests are as low as 11 on other paddocks. The pH levels are about 5.6. Lime goes on every 4-5 years at one tonne/ha and sulphur super every year. The down country blocks are more in the 20-35 range.
Lime and fertiliser expenses were about $260,000, and cropping about $120,000.
Major subdivision has taken place over the years on Waituna. The biggest paddocks are now 20-24ha, the smallest 2-3ha.
Gross farm income last financial year was $1200-$1300/ha, which is good considering development on a lease block has yet to kick in. About 1700su were retained.
Poplars are planted out to stop erosion as part of Horizon Regional Council’s sustainable land use initiative.
Tony says the focus has been more on infrastructure development – for example, lanes and covered yards – and replacement-redesign, rather than new subdivision. Paddock sizes have not changed much but vary hugely as the farm is a combination of what were originally five individually developed farms.
The farm systems might seem complex but it is how they have evolved over the years under David and Tony.
Having good structures in place ensures the system works.
