Initially, BJ was a little apprehensive about the Coopworth breed which he thought had a reputation for lacking constitution, having bad feet, being susceptible to internal parasites and lacking growth.
“They’re giving us a lot more lambs, fewer deaths and bearings, are easy care, free-moving and excellent mothers. Unfortunately they don’t last quite as long as Romneys because of teeth wear, particularly in drought years,” he says.
“Most importantly, we don’t have to take any precautions against FE now. I don’t think we would be farming sheep now if we hadn’t developed an FE-tolerant flock.”
The station normally winters 4000 ewes and 1500 ewe hoggets but with the threat of a drought looming this summer BJ has opted to reduce his sheep numbers and maintain cattle numbers. This decision was based on the better outlook for beef than lamb.
“Last year we wintered 14,800 stock units but this year we’re back 1000su on that.”
BJ also decided not to mate his ewe hoggets last autumn because he found it difficult to get them up to an acceptable mating weight and as two-tooths to lift their condition score after weaning ready for their second mating.
“I decided we had two options. One was to mate hoggets and sell all lambs as stores and the second was not to mate hoggets and finish our lambs. We have chosen the latter.”
This year only 3200 ewes have gone to Coopworth rams and 1260 ewe hoggets are being wintered. Rams went out on March 1 for 50 days so lambing began in late July. Any dry ewes are culled.
Ewes are normally in paddocks two weeks before they lamb on to pasture covers of 1200kg drymatter/ha depending on the season. Weaning takes place over several days in the first week of November in satellite yards in the centre of the farm. Most lambs are drenched and spread out over the easier country.
Waikohu Station has been in the Holdsworth family for 105 years and BJ and Annabel Holdsworth are the fourth generation to farm it. BJ’s great-grandfather moved from a farm in Hawke’s Bay after buying the original block from relatives. It was twice the size then but was split in half and developed by two brothers.
After leaving school BJ worked on several farms in the area before heading overseas for his OE. In 1999 he returned to take over the running of the farm from the stock manager. He told his father he didn’t want the farm to dominate his life – he wanted it to be a lifestyle and his father agreed with the concept.
