Newspaper Article 1989 – HB farming community praises award winner

HB farming community praises award winner

By ROSE BRIER

Hawke’s Bay farmer of the year Mr Donald Macdonald earned praise from the farming community yesterday for the way he coped with some of the region’s most difficult years.

More than 400 farmers attended a field day at his property, Mangatarata Station in Central Hawke’s Bay. Mr MacDonald was commended by judges – Mr Thomas Crosse and Valuation New Zealand’s Mr Tony Fraser. Flexibility was the key to his success, and an ability to make decisions in difficult situations, they said.

Like most of Hawke’s Bay’s farmers, he faced difficult decisions in the past season.

“Decisions were made based on what I saw at the time – not necessarily what might happen – on a week to week basis,” Mr MacDonald said.

With wife Judy and their two children, they moved to Mangatarata Station in 1980. The farm is run in partnership with Judy’s father Mr Charlie Anderton.

Before that, Mr MacDonald farmed 336 hectares at Wakarara. His summer-dry country farm has far less predictable weather characteristics than Wakarara, but Mr MacDonald is a firm believer in the ability of the Meteorological Service.

“I phone them sometimes when I am making a decision – they are very helpful with long-term seasonal trends – both in 1982/83 and this year. They predicted when it might end,” he said.

For the farmer of the year competition, a short list was drawn up of farmers with the best economic farm surplus each hectare. As MAFTech consultant Mr Ray Guilford pointed out, this is a gross return less costs – excluding drawings, capital and debt.

“This gives a true comparison compared with other farms,” he said.

His economic farm surplus per effective hectare for 1987 was $240.30 and $176.10 for 1988. His percentage return on capital for 1987 was 14.57, and 13.47 in 1988.

The farm is 1013 hectares, or 980 hectares effective area. During the 1960s and early 1970s, the farm had large scale development, in pasture, fencing and buildings, and other facilities. Its fertiliser history was good. It runs from steep argyllite country to rolling and flat land.

Mr MacDonald has been reaping the benefits of the high level of input in those years. During the 1982/83 drought Mr MacDonald was on a sharp learning curve, and admitted he had made mistakes. He “picks peoples’ brains” to eliminate his mistakes.

This season, cattle were sent away for grazing in late November, and in December-January lambs were drafted to 12kg in weight, and 1200 were sent away. Although they were drafted on weight only, the lambs graded well. With as many sent away as possible earlier, “that gave us a breathing space”, he said.

In January and February, the remaining lambs were drafted into weight and condition mobs, and each time the most forward mob was brought in for drafting. Thunderstorms in late January/February provided much needed rain, and enough grass growth to finish all but 40 of the lambs.

The lambs were sent off by early March, with weights of 13 ½ kg or greater. Cows and steers are away grazing to enable weight to be put back on to the ewes for the coming season.

High sheep performance: A feature of the operation is the high sheep performance, and particularly wool production for the country. Sheep income each stock unit was $40.06 for 1988. He runs 12 stock units a hectare, and achieves good wool yields of 6kg and over.

“To get even over 5kg on this country, farmers are doing extremely well,” Mr Guilford said. He shears once a year. Concerns of not having enough feed for more frequent shearing have ruled out changes to this policy.

Mangatarata runs a high ratio of cattle to sheep, in the order of 40:60, a factor which helps high income levels. He has a Romney flock, which started with a Border-Leicester sire in 1980.

Last year the first lambs arrived on May 12. This year, last year’s two-tooths who lost lambs, and mixed-age ewes who lost lambs in the September floods, make up the early lambing mob. After the rain a few weeks ago, this mob was put on to supplementary feeding with maize.

The main mob is being fed hay and maize, although as they are further from lambing, feed is more restricted.

He starts off with 2800 to 3000 ewe lambs, with the first 800 drafted out for slaughter on condition and weight. With the remaining 2000, fleece weights are weighed in spring, and the bottom 20 percent culled out. What is left forms the base flock.

This winter, 5000 ewes, and 2000 ewe hoggets will be carried through.

In 1988 a move to farm 769 dry sheep was a departure into wool farming, when lamb returns sunk to their lowest level. This, in addition to sending live shipment ram lambs off the property last year gave a breathing space with regard to feed. Wool farming was a response to lamb prices – not a protest – and it was profitable.

Mr MacDonald is an advocate of weaning lambs in the paddocks they were born in.

“This has been extremely successful – the lambs have settled quickly,” he said. These lambs did not suffer a two to three week set back in condition compared with other lambs. Ewes are then drafted for conditions and age, then largely set-stocked.

Since 1984, there has been a marked increase in lambing percentages from 97 per cent that year, to 131 per cent in 1987, and 124 in 1988. Mr MacDonald puts this down to a change in the farming mix. Cattle numbers were increased, ewes decreased. Ewes were being better fed at crucial times.

“There was a time when farming was all about numbers – those days are gone now. Performance is more important,” he said.

The drought led to a large incidence of grass staggers, but this was one clear example of how he had learned from previous mistakes. The sheep were left set-stocked, and spread out so he would not need to go near them. There was a production loss associated with staggers, but not deaths as was the case in 1982/83.

Advocates cattle farming: Although higher cattle numbers can provide a headache during a drought, Mr MacDonald is a strong advocate of cattle farming. In 1988 he had 944 cattle. He is breeding toward a base South Devon herd, and uses various terminal sires – Chianina and Limousin. Cattle returns each stock unit have fluctuated from $41.58 in 1985, to $26.84 in 1988.

Cows and some steers are away grazing. The steers will come home, but there is still a question hanging over the cows. Grazing out is normal practise for Mangatarata – every year for the last five he has had cattle off the property grazing.

Heifers that do not get in-calf are slaughtered at 18 months to two years.

Steers are reared to 2 ½ years because they offer more grazing advantages when they are older, and bigger breeds develop muscling later.

Mr MacDonald still faces the difficult decision of what to do with his cows away grazing at Weber. He has already paid for several months grazing, but believes he will carry them right through, even though grazing is costly.

A feature which attracted much attention was a paddock of tall fescue, a drought resistant grass. It drew exclamations of envy from Hawke’s Bay farmers. However, Mr MacDonald said he believed ryegrass out-performed the fescue nine months of the year.

The property has an extensive water supply scheme, with an innovative flushing system in a large dam to keep water quality high.

Mangatarata Station was bought by the MacDonald family in 1908, was sold out of the family in the 1970s, until Judy and Don’s return in 1980.

Photo caption – Mr MacDonald on his Central Hawke’s Bay property yesterday.   Photo: Rose Brier