Finalists manage metres of rain
A sharemilking couple farm alongside a West Coast river revered by Maori, writes Heather Chalmers.
Farming land alongside a West Coast river that is a major source of pounamu and remains a traditional food source is special to its multiple Maori owners.
The Proprietors of Mawhera Incorporation farm a dairy operation along the Arahura River, just north of Hokitika. They are one of two finalists for the Ahuwhenua Trophy BNZ Maori Excellence in Farming Award for dairy.
‘‘The Arahura River is considered a part of our identity and revered with pride,’’ says Mawhera chairman James Russell. ‘‘Ensuring that it is kept pristine and any interface with our farms is of critical environmental importance to us.’’
Mawhera Tuatahi consists of 348 hectares in the Arahura Valley. The milking platform is 257ha, with an additional two support blocks totalling 35ha and an undeveloped support block of 55ha. Mawhera Tuatahi is milking 500 cows this season, targeting 190,000 kilograms of milk solids. Since 2006, it has been farmed by 50:50 sharemilkers Mark and Debbie van Beek, who employ four staff to assist them. All stock is wintered on the farm.
Historically it has been a lowcost farming system that has delivered strong cash surpluses, though this has been difficult to achieve in the last few years because of poor farming seasons.
Ongoing rain made the 2016-17 season particularly difficult, says Mark van Beek. ‘‘We had 650 millimetres of rain in May 2016 – double the monthly average – just going into winter and it didn’t dry out for 18 months. The soil got anaerobic and the grass didn’t grow. We only had one week last season when we grew sufficient feed to meet demand. There was no drying, we never got a week of fine weather, it was raining every second or third day.
‘‘We only grew enough grass during the season for 330 cows and we milked 500. We are System 2, so we don’t normally import much supplement. We had to buy in almost a third of our feed demand last season. It was a real tough season, especially coming on the back of a low payout. We had 18 months of rain and then it stopped in November.’’
While dry in November and December it was not as bad as further north in the Grey Valley and Buller which were declared drought zones. An annual rainfall of 2.8 metres means soil management is critical to the growth of the farm and managing and minimising pugging is essential for high growth rates.
‘‘We’ve got to get the heavy rain off the paddocks as quickly as possible so it doesn’t form puddles. If water sits around too long a clay pan builds up and it becomes impermeable.
A combination of aerating, rolling and spin draining increases pasture production by an average of 25 per cent. Untouched paddocks grow an average of eight tonne/drymatter/ ha compared with 13 to 14 tonne DM/ha for developed paddocks.
Frequent farm walks and feed wedges are used to calculate average pasture cover and growth rates. The van Beeks use the threeleaf principle to maximise growth rates and determine rotation length. The farm is part of a project to measure pasture by satellite, which will be compared with the pasture walk results.
The paddocks have multiple gateways which reduce treading and pugging damage.
The herd has been a CRV Ambreed sire-proving herd for over six years. The herd is a threeway cross using jersey, friesian and ayrshire semen, resulting in an animal able to handle the West Coast conditions. ‘‘We get a lot of cold weather off the sea so we added the ayrshire for hardiness.’’ Some cow families have been retained as purebreds for contract and sire producing purposes.
As a fully recorded herd in the sire-proving programme, the van Beek’s data was used in the development of CRV’s Low N Sires and they have access to their cows’ MUN (milk, urea, nitrogen) values. This will help Mawhera in the future as more environmental monitoring is required.
The incorporation has initiated a management plan for the Arahura River, which is being developed by Boffa Miskell.
Mawhera has 1650 owners and while it talked about entering the farm in the Ahuwhenua Trophy competition in the past, it hadn’t previously felt ready, says Russell.
The historical formation of Mawhera Incorporation dates to the 1800s when Ka¯ i Tahu, by conquest of Ka¯ i Wairaki and Tumatakokiri, gained occupation of Tai Poutini (West Coast).
After the signing of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, the Crown bought 3.1 million hectares of land but excluded 4139ha to be held in
54 reserves along the breadth of Tai Poutini. Of these 54 reserves,
39 were Schedule A reserves
(2721ha) which were for individual allotments and clearly intended to be used and occupied by their Ka¯ i Tahu owners. The balance was held in 11 Schedule B reserves totalling 1416ha and was leased to provide income towards the general social, religious and moral benefit of the owners.
The Arahura riverbed, of huge cultural significance because of its pounamu deposits, was exempt from the purchase.
The land within the Arahura Ma¯ ori Reserve was leased out to European dairy farmers via perpetual leases by successive agents representing the Crown.
The Proprietors of Mawhera Incorporation was established in
1976. In 1993, the incorporation decided to acquire the lease interests in nine leaseholder properties on the south bank of the Arahura River (194ha).
The incorporation bought European freehold land next to the Arahura Reserve and the Mawhera Tuatahi farm in 1994 to increase the milking platform to
201ha. Since 1994, extensive development has occurred using profits made from farming including the additional land.
The incorporation has always used 50:50 sharemilkers to farm the land. Dairy farming is now one of its major investments. In addition to Mawhera Tuatahi is Te Hewera and a third dairy farm on the Karamea Reserve called Umere. Other major investments include commercial and residential properties on the West Coast.
The Arahura River is considered a part of our identity and revered with pride.
Mawhera chairman James Russell