Twin success story outlined at Willowbank field day

:   Basking in the sun . . . Attendees of the New Zealand Grassland Association conference field...
: Basking in the sun . . . Attendees of the New Zealand Grassland Association conference field day at Willowbank, near Tarras, take in the sunshine and the properties history at the farm last week. Photo by NICOLE SHARP

Dry weather and rabbits can do crazy things to a man - just ask Gordon Lucas.

He moved to Nine Mile Station, near Tarras, as a 19-year-old after his parents bought the 2223-hectare block.

The annual average rainfall is only 500mm with dry summers and there can be more than 100 days of no growth over winter.

When Mr Lucas stepped on to Nine Mile it was running 800 half-bred ewes, 700 wethers and 400 hoggets.

The land had been degraded by rabbits, although rabbit numbers were not high, so Mr Lucas set to implementing a Catchment Board farm conservation plan involving seeding, fertilising and setting aside land for five years, left ungrazed, to restore vegetation.

His father had been told it would be a great stepping-stone for the lad.

''I am still stepping on that stepping-stone 50 years later,'' he said laughing.

Some big steps along the way included a flock change to merinos in 1989, almost 30 years since Mr Lucas started farming.

There had been a rise in fine wool prices and Mr Lucas took the opportunity, selling the halfbreds and purchasing a range of draft merino ewe lines each year.

Mr Lucas said the merinos run at Nine Mile today would not be there without the expertise of stud classer Jayne Rive.

Mr Lucas had dealings with Dr Jim Watts, who developed the SRS merino breeding system in the mid 1990s. Miss Rive had followed up on an initial consultation between Mr Lucas and Dr Watts and in 1999 she began classing every sheep every years.

Nine Mile Pastoral farm manager Justin Wilson said fertiliser was applied to 600 hectares of hill country on a three year rotation at a cost of about $100 per tonne with the use of an aeroplane.

He agreed with Mr Lucas the merino sheep had come along way on the property.

''Jayne Rive pushed the merino as a dual-purpose sheep.''

With the help of Miss Rive, the station selected ''200 ewes that were above the rest'' who became known as ''the pink ladies,'' Mr Lucas said.

The animals became the stud and were registered four years ago and now about 100 rams are sold annually. That mob now runs 600 ewes and with the help of Australian breeding lines are a sufficient dual purpose sheep, having a good carcass weight and good wool.

The property now runs close to 8000 polled merino sheep and about 870 cows.

But those attending the field days were also interested in the story of Willowbank, a 167 hectare property with an additional 27 hectares of Department of Conservation land that is leased. Mr Lucas and his wife Spin bought Willowbank in 1992.

With an additional growing season six weeks longer than Nine Mile, Willowbank is known as the finishing block, with Nine Mile the ''engine room'' and the breeding source.

It has undergone intensive irrigation over the past two years, now running three pivots, a rotorainer and K-line system, irrigating about 148 hectares of the property.

Mr Lucas said Willowbank was previously partially irrigated by a border dyke system using water from the Lindis River. However, water allocation meant they could only irrigate two days a fortnight ''simply not enough to do the job.''

Less water was available over summer, making irrigation difficult on free-draining land with borders designed to operate with a specific volume of water.

Similar challenges were experienced under the rotorainer, in soils with variable water-holding capabilities.

The system was then changed to K-line, shifted twice daily with a return period reduced to five days.

Willowbank runs 2800 merino hoggets and about 620 dairy cows.

The property is having significant earthworks done to enable pivots to be installed.

Greenfeed cereals and brassicas have been used to generate seasonal feed while they are building organic matter on lighter ground and allowing the weeds to be dealt with.

Willowbank farm manager Ben Nielsen-Vold said between 600 and 700 hoggets were sold pre-winter and they were left with around 2200 hoggets to feed through the winter.

The hoggets arrived from Nine Mile in early February and with the feed available Mr Lucas said ''they hit the ground running''.

Mr Nielsen-Vold said the dairy cows arrived in the first week of June and were at Willowbank for about 72 days.

This year Willowbank would also have fodderbeet planted for the first time.

''We'll see how we can do it here,'' he said.

This season was the first season Willowbank had been fully irrigated and Mr Lucas was proud of what had been achieved. When asked, with such quality feed, if dairy cows would ever be milked on the property he responded with ''[I] don't think so''.

The priority has always been the merino hoggets.

Farm consultant Peter Young said he was given one major instruction about Willowbank from Mr Lucas - he did not care as long as the merino hoggets were top of the list.

''They are farming something they enjoy and something that they are good at,'' Mr Young said.

BY NICOLE SHARP 

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