ODPG field day, Banks Peninsula, October 2008

The Organic Dairy and Pastoral Group of OANZ held a field day at Roger and Nicki Beattie’s property, Aatahua Farm, at Kaituna, Banks Peninsula, on Thursday 30 October 2008.

Objectives of the day were to develop an understanding of Roger and Nicki Beattie’s farming system and discuss options to enhance this system, and to discuss issues and identify marketing opportunities for NZ Organic Meat.
Sue Cumberworth was facilitator. The day began with Roger Beattie giving some background to their farming operation at Aatahua. The property was bought 6 years ago with the aim of expanding wild sheep numbers. Aatahua is 309 ha and receives 625-750 mm rain/year. The farm is in the process of organic certification with AsureQuality, and will receive full status in May 2009. They run 2000 stock units; Murray Grey cattle make up 25-30% of this, and the remainder is Pitt Island wild sheep, some of these crossed with Romneys.

Aatahua was a Lincoln University farm so was well set up 40 years ago, but since purchase significant capital expenditure had been necessary to replace water troughs and water delivery systems. They employ a farm manager and Roger’s brother, Ivan.

The Beattie’s long-term plan was to move away from chemical farming in the belief that it is better for human and animal health. Roger had had a 20 year break from farming and when he came back to it, was sure this was the direction to head. He feels that issues such as BSE, melamine poisoning and foot and mouth will “come home to roost” and that organic food with good traceability will be in strong demand as well as being healthier and ethically more desirable. Roger is sure that the current mainstream focus on productivity at any cost will have to change.

Roger and Nicki’s Pitt Island wild sheep are “tough” says Roger. At this stage the focus has been on survivability, culling any sheep with dags, and later they will select for productivity. Dr David Scobie, from AgResearch, said that they don’t know what traits are best so they take out the worst. There are no foot problems. Dagginess is mostly due to pasture in spring but if it occurs in autumn it will be due to internal parasites.

The Bohipi sheep are another venture on the farm, owned jointly by the Beattie’s and Dr Scobie. These “easy-care” sheep are a mixture of eight feral strains, including Merino, and have a reduced amount of wool on their bellies and backsides. This reduces the likelihood of flystrike and also makes them cheaper and quicker to shear. They have good fleeces, as opposed to Wiltshires which lose their fleece naturally.

Lambing begins in July at Aatahua and lambing percentage is about 80%. The ewes are never drenched. Lambs are weaned in early December, a small number of fat lambs are sold at weaning, most are carried on. The lambs that we saw in the paddock are mostly from Romney ewes and Pitt Island rams. Salt (with the addition of 0.25% kelp) is supplied to stock. Roger has found that the cattle will eat any amount of kelp so limits intake by adding it to the salt. The Murray Greys do very well on this country, but it is a balancing act to make sure the tussocks are not chewed out.

There are only 65-70 acres of flat land on the farm, the remainder being rolling to hilly. Pasture is mainly ryegrass and some clover, and silver tussock. Productivity has been lifted enormously by the application of Optimise fine lime. Soil tests done a year after liming showed a huge increase in earth worm numbers, and thatching has been greatly reduced.
The greatest assets of the farm are the lack of weeds, it is easy rolling country (a motorbike can be used to get around), it is close to town, it is early country (some nice sunny faces) but also the southerly aspect grows grass in winter, not drought-prone (no drought in the last 6 years), it is good finishing country (unlike much of the Peninsula), and there is good natural water.

Disadvantages are the large size of some of the blocks, and the predominance of ryegrass pastures, which Roger is contemplating replacing with mixed-species pastures which may be more productive and have animal health benefits.
Roger’s philosophy about organics boils down to: it is relatively easy because we were already farming without chemicals, so if there is a premium available we may as well get certification and collect the premiums.

Back at the woolshed, suggestions to help lift farm productivity were made. Some of these were:
• As it is good finishing country, try to finish off mothers
• Focus on niche markets and branding of Pitt Island sheep
• Look at lucerne/tall fescue mixed pastures. Existing pastures could be ripped up in dry conditions (Dec-Jan), turnips and Italian ryegrass sown in autumn and grazed through winter, spring sow rape, autumn-sow permanent pasture. Alternatively, on flat country, a crop of wheat (or other cereal) could be grown before resowing into permanent pasture to take advantage of inherent natural fertility of soil that has been in pemanent pasture.
• Plan lambing to fit pasture growth (i.e. lamb later)
• Use electric fencing to reduce paddock size
• Monitor soil biology
• Have clearer objectives with sheep flock (i.e. select an elite flock)
• Prioritise cost-effectiveness (i.e. don’t go for big projects in current uncertain economic times)
• Have some lambs that can be sold early – need good pasture, e.g., rape and red clover, barley and oats, tick beans and oats (need slow transition from one to another - 2-3 weeks)
• Hill blocks could be oversown with clovers (white, sub) and ryegrass (inoculated seed can give lift to wild populations of rhyzobia).
• Work in with other farmers with respect to stock movement, partnerships, marketing.