Family farming, rugby and wine
Family, farming and wine go hand-in-hand for a Central Hawke’s Bay couple as Kate Taylor discovers.
John Ashworth’s face breaks into a grin as he poses for a photo with wife Jo in grape vines on their Takapau farm. ‘‘I’m not used to doing this without a wine glass in my hand,’’ he says with a laugh.
An early summer heat wave has been sweeping New Zealand. The tree-shaded garden cellar door at Junction Wine – at the junction of SH50 and SH2 south of Waipukurau – looks idyllic and inviting.
John’s a former All Black and a farmer with a taste for pinot noir. The story of family, the farm, rugby and wine is all part of the Ashworth tourism story. ‘‘It’s a stress-free system,’’ John says. ‘‘[The ewes] are moved regularly so they’re waiting for the sound of the bike. They recognise Jo. People like to hear that … and see her do it. We have a lot of self-contained motorhomes staying here and they like getting out on the farm and being up close to the animals.’’
Jo says they had Swedish visitors at the cellar door who loved sitting under the trees with their wines and being joined by the owners in their farm clothes. ‘‘They had been to the bigger wineries. But this is a family home in the country. It’s not just another winery … and they loved it.’’
She says their business is proof of family, farming and wine coming together. Their three sons and their families are entwined in decisionmaking - especially when technology is involved.
Leith is Junction’s wine maker alongside a winemaker role for Wine Portfolio - and lives with wife Tracy and their three children at Maraekakaho. Their 28 hectare block is also home to the farm’s replacement ewe hoggets. He was instrumental in dealing with the regional council when the farm extended a large dam last year.
Shay is a rural bank manager in Manawatu, where he lives with partner Kate Hurley, and sources the farm’s store lambs. He was also in charge of the farm’s farm environment management plan under the council’s Tukituki Plan Change 6. Shay manages the farm’s cloud-based financial management tool, Figured. Tyler – married to Sarah with one child – is a commercial bank manager in Hastings. He deals with the accountant, lawyer and also does their GST returns.
John says everyone is copied in on emails and shares the decisionmaking. Their sons’ involvement is invaluable. ‘‘They take a lot of the pressure off us. We want to enjoy these years and enjoy where we live and what we do. This is a new era of regulation and the boys have grown up with it, we haven’t. It’s so necessary now with the winery with quality assurance and sustainability.’’
A wander around the Ashworths’ home will alert any newcomer there’s rugby history in the family. John played from 1977 through until his final tour, to South Africa with the 1986 Cavaliers, retiring one year before the 1987 Rugby World Cup.
His passion for wine was born during an All Black tour to France when he was given a pinot noir which he describes as having ‘‘gone to his toes’’. The couple bought 243ha at Takapau in 1986 after selling their farm in Canterbury a year earlier. With the addition of neighbouring blocks, the farm has increased to about 364ha.
They run 2200 romney ewes with about 1200 of them put to romney rams from Holmes and Michael Warren’s Turanganui Stud in South Wairarapa. They scan 170 per cent (without triplets). The romneys lamb in mid-August with twin ewes lambed on the northern side of the farm, which is freedraining and gives them a better survival rate. The southern side of the farm is wet country in winter.
The farm’s older ewes were lambed six weeks earlier than normal this year (mid-July) with one third of the progeny sent to the works straight off mum. The first draft averaged just under 19 kilograms carcassweight.
Jo says they are deciding on the best rams to use over those older cull ewes after experimenting with kelso, poll dorset and south suffolk rams. The Ashworths don’t get to send as many romney lambs to the works straight from mum, but they average 22kg-plus from them. They normally fatten 100 heifers a year but haven’t this season because of price and grazed 150 dairy heifers instead. The Ashworths have about 50 mixed cattle of their own and reared 20 friesian bull calves for the first time.
About a year ago the family extended a dam on the farm to help future sustainability – a wise decision given the demise of the Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme, John says. The smaller dam was already used to irrigate some grapes. They have trebled its capacity, to about 25,000 cubic metres, and put in a bypass so they can continue to take from the dam when the river level is low. They plan to fence and plant around it.
The extra water will be used to grow more lucerne to give certainty of feed for more store lambs.
They grow 10ha of peas, grown in rotation around the farm, for McCain. A couple of paddocks of sovereign kale will give at least three feeds to the lambs and complement lucerne and plantain before being shut up for cattle to graze in winter months.
The property includes 10 hectares of grapes developed over 17 years. Among many awards, John says he has two Junction
It's a stress-free system. [The ewes] are moved regularly so they're waiting for the sound of the bike. John Ashworth
Wine highlights – an Air NZ Wine Awards gold medal for their 2014 Possession pinot noir and an award for champion commercial white wine in Hawke’s Bay for their 2016 Pastime pinot gris.
Junction Wine labels reflect John’s rugby bias with names such as Sideline, Side Step, Runaway and Late Charge. The newest addition is their 2017 carbonated bubbly called Persistence. ‘‘We’ve developed the vineyard over the past 17 years, increasing the area as we could afford it year on year,’’ John says. ‘‘We want to grow the label but keep it in the family so the next step is quite a big one for us. We’re looking at whether we should keep extending and put in a little winery or extend the farm side of the business. Do we stay local or buy some land elsewhere and grow some syrah … or do we push what we do best here ... or do we buy a breeding block and utilise the Takapau farm for finishing? The boys are looking at those questions.’’