Large-scale dairy conversion farm on the market

A large-scale dairy conversion farm complete with a huge, lake-like reservoir has been placed on the market for sale.

Strathallan Station, 26km northwest of Gisborne, is a 1213ha property milking 1000 cows.

The reservoir is large enough for recreational kayaking and duck hunting and sustains not only the farm’s irrigation needs, but also its milking shed requirements.

The property was a sheep and beef unit before undergoing conversion to dairying in 2009. Strathallan Station has been operating a once-a-day milking programme, producing

254,567kg of milk solids and feeding

800 calves (20,000 milk solids) in the

2018/19 season.

The freehold property at 198 Humphreys Rd, Waipaoa, is for sale by tender through Bayleys Gisborne, with tenders closing at 4pm on July 17.

Bayleys Gisborne salespeople Simon Bousfield and James BoltonRiley say Strathallan Station is between 40-240m above sea level and has a man-made 1800sq m reservoir from where water is filtered and pumped to a 30,000-litre holding tank before being treated through a dosatron dispenser and circulated to tanks and large troughs.

Apart from rain water, a natural well supplies the four dwellings on the property.

“The farm is consented to run up to 1100 cows,” said Bousfield. “Stock production records show Strathallan Station reared 800 calves. Of the 400 heifer calves, 200 were exported, predominantly to Asia. The 400 bull calves were sold at various ages Two hundred cows and 100 bulls went to meat processing works.

“The property has consent to take on an additional 100 cows under its split-milking permutation.”

Farm building infrastructure on the Waipaoa property includes:

• A fully automated 54-bail Westfalia rotary milking shed built in

2010;

• An effluent treatment pond consented to handle excrement from more than 1000 cows;

• A large nine-bay calf-rearing and implement storage shed; and

• A dormant 264sq m woolshed next to 302sq m of covered yards suitable for handling calves.

Accommodation on the property consists of four residential dwellings for four full-time staff.

Bolton-Riley said the property’s topography consists mostly of rolling paddocks and easy hill country near 40ha of flat land, sustaining an effective milking area of 700ha.

He said that Strathallan Station had been subdivided into 218 paddocks as part of the dairying conversion, with larger paddocks separated by conventional post and batten fencing and smaller ones by electric fencing.

All the paddocks are accessed by well-maintained stock movement lanes.