East Coast farm stays green year-round
A substantial hill country sheep and cattle grazing farm — divided into three separate blocks, each with its own supporting infrastructure — is being marketed as “summer safe”.
Torlea Station, about 82km northwest of Gisborne, is a 602ha property comprising the 257ha Rangariri Block; the 305ha Mountain Block (with 29ha of QEII covented bush reserve); and the 39ha Home Block.
Ranging from 520m to 800m above-sea-level, the station receives more than 2m of rain annually. And this certainly boosts productivity; records show the station carried 2,291 cattle units and 2,747 sheep units over the 2018 winter.
Last year Torlea deliver a lambing ratio of 127 per cent, despite being hit by a storm in the middle of lambing season, while also producing a 90 per cent calving ratio.
The freehold property, at 3286 Whakarau Rd, will be auctioned at 1pm on April 12, through Bayleys Gisborne. Salespeople Simon Bousfield and James Bolton-Riley say it runs a straightforward sheep breeding/ finishing programme, while cattle are bred with the intention of selling Hereford bull calves and 16-monthsteers and heifers, plus replacement heifers.
Bousfield says a comprehensive fencing programme, implemented over the past three years, has seen assets repaired and upgraded. Fencing now consisted of a mix of conventional post and batten and electric fencing.
“The farm has generous portions of flats – all of which have groundbased fertiliser applied on a rotational basis with new grass being sown. The remainder ranges from easy to medium-contour, with some steeper country throughout the Mountain and Rangariri blocks.
“Fertiliser on the hill country pasture is flown in, with three grassed airstrips within a 4km radius of Torlea’s perimeter.”
A large reliable spring with clean water situated high on the Mountain block is an ideal reticulated water source.
The station has a four-stand woolshed adjacent to a night pen capable of holding up to 1,000 sheep; a two-bay 61sq m workshop; a threebay implement shed, with lock-up saddle room; three sets of satellite docking yards, with three-way draft additional to the main set of covered yards; a covered set of cattle yards, with crush on the Home block.
Accommodation includes a fourbedroom homestead, plus two pairs of one-bedroom worker cottages.