Day 10 - Oamaru

We departed our hotel in Twizel of the South Island around 8:30 am this morning. We drove and enjoyed the mountainous scenery for a while and then stopped for breakfast in Omarama. It was a neat little town that was full of antique shops and souvenir stores. Some students purchased coffee and pastries from the café. We seem to notice that meat pies are a speciality in New Zealand.  Some students even decided to have some ice cream for breakfast since we knew it would be one of our last chances to try the Hokey Pokey ice cream, famous to New Zealand (a toffee ice cream). We then got back on to the road and headed towards Oamaru.

Along the way to Oamaru we passed the Waitiki Dam, which is the first power station on the Waitiki River. The Waitiki plains changed from sheep to dairy production in recent years. We then went on our way to Oamaru. Oamaru is the largest town in North Otago and is home to some of New Zealand’s best 19^th century architecture, including a Victorian Precinct. Oamaru is a town that still reenacts its heritage through numerous festivities where the townspeople are seen dressed in garments from the 1800’s. The town is split into the South and North sides. We were able to see numerous buildings that were built in the 1800’s and that are still being used and preserved. The buildings were made of local stone found in Oamaru. This town is especially interesting because it is known as the steam punk capitol of the world. Throughout the town we were able to observe the numerous pieces of welding artwork that is composed of scrap metal. A lot of the students grabbed lunch at local cafes and restaurants, trying to consume as much local food as possible before our departure tomorrow. Some shops that were found in the town included a Saddle Shop and numerous souvenir shops. Students were also able to walk to the harbor on the Pacific Ocean and enjoy the view.

Building from the 1800’s in Oamaru

Train artwork in Oamaru

We then headed to visit Ard and Wilma Van Leeuwen’s dairy enterprise, which contains over 24 milking robots. The enterprise consists of twelve dairy farms which are owned by the couple, but have a ranging variety of management. Some are managed by contract milkers, 50/50 sharemilkers, and family members. Overall, the enterprise consists of 12,000 head of Holstein, Jersey, and Kiwi cattle on over 7,000 hectares. Some of the dairies are pasture based with the New Zealand normal setup of milking cows in a rotary milking shed. However, they have chosen to experiment with conventional ways of dairy farming by housing milking cows on the farms in barns.  Three of these twelve farms are adopting new technological techniques by milking with robots. Each robot is able to milk up to 60 head of cattle. They recently put up a barn that holds 1,500 head of cattle and 24 milking robots. They have both Lely and DeLaval milking robots. They believe the robots to be extremely beneficial and efficient to their business because the robots are able to help them in more ways than just increasing production. The robots are able to measure things such as milk production, milk content, somatic cell counts, weight of the cow, and helps with heat detection. Additionally, they have seen their cows produce 2.5 times better than when they were not housed in barns. Using this system, they are able to milk year round, rather than when they could not while being pasture based. Each cow wears a pedometer around her neck to track how many times she has been to the robot. If the cow has been to the robot an adequate number of times to be milked in a day, the robot will be able to look this up and send her away to prevent over milking. The robot attaches the milking machine to the cow using lasers. If there is an issue attaching the milkers, the robot will try seven times and then send the cow on her way. It takes around 6.5 minutes for milk prep and for the cow to be milked.

Kiwi in front of the milking robot

Milking robots in the barn home to 1,500 cows

               The Van Leeuwens grow their own feed for their animals. They feed their animal’s maize (corn), lucerne (alfalfa), soy, grass, and more. Additionally, they have a very efficient waste management system that includes scraping lanes, transporting the waste to lagoons, and using the waste as fertilizer in fields. The Van Leeuwens run a very efficient enterprise and are not afraid to try new technologies and do whatever possible to keep their cows comfortable. Some additional techniques they practice include placing rubber mats in each stall of the barn, as well as having an automatic feed pusher to push excess feed to cows at certain times of the day.

Automatic feed pusher

We headed towards Ashburton to enjoy our last night in New Zealand. The feel of the students seems to be quite mutual; it’s a bittersweet feeling of being sad to leave such a beautiful country where we have learned so much and made friends and memories that will last a lifetime. However, we are all very excited to share with our friends and family at home what we learned, and how this trip will help us in our future endeavors. Thank you for keeping up with our trip, and we can’t wait to see you all soon!

Day 9 - Holden Station

                As we left Ashburton and turned towards the Southern Alps, we got a surprise stop at the Tin Shed, a local store that sells Merino Wool products at a fair price. Many of us bought gloves, socks and a lot of souvenirs for our families. After leaving the Tin Shed we stopped at the small town of Geraldine. At Geraldine, we browsed some local shops for the ever elusive perfect gift, and managed to grab a bite for breakfast – it was tea time, after all! Even though the temperatures were in the mid 40s, some of us opted to try some new flavors of ice cream. All aboard again, we barreled on through the mountain gorges to our destination for the day, leaving the green fields and dairies of Cantebury behind us.

                Holden Station is nestled in the Mackenzie area of the South Island and encompasses an area of 22,000 hectares. Held within their grounds are 10,000 Merino sheep, 6,000 red deer and 1,200 cattle of either Hereford or Angus blood. Where we stopped for lunch at the station was at an elevation of 1200 feet, though the land reaches a crest of 6000. As our stomachs filled with a smorgasbord of food (such as pizza, mince pies, and venison sausage) and told us we could eat no more, we headed over to a lounge to talk with Patty Boyd, the station manager.

                Patty provided a brief overview of the station, going into how the red deer were provided to the farm, the AI program for their Merino and cattle, and their marketing of wool. In order to effectively run the station, they hire on at least five shepherds and a “tailing” crew in the summer. All shepherds that work at the station have to bring their own team of working dogs – usually five or six dogs – that can often times cost as much as $5,000 per dog.

                The Merinos are bred for their super fine wool of 17 microns. The price per kilogram was once at $18, though the price has halved in recent years. The sheep are shorn once a year on contract and will provide upwards of four kilos of the extremely soft wool. Being a wool breed, Merinos aren’t known for carcass value – a trait seen in the North Island sheep – and are slower growing. The differences in breeds and what products are gained from them is largely due to the vegetation available to them – Merinos can produce high quality wool on poor forage, while the high quality forage in the north is best for producing the high quality meat lambs.

Flock of Merino sheep at Holden Station

 

                The red deer first arrived at Holden Station through capturing them in the wild during the late 1980s. After a respectable population of deer was on the station, the owners opted to bring in genetics from England, Hungary, Yugoslavia and the U.S. The lines acquired will increase their velvet production and, of course, venison. Any breeding hines on the farm are usually culled at the age of seven, as the quality of meat is purported to decline after this age. Once their velvet stag numbers were as high as 1400, though they’ve now decreased to 500, all of which have their velvet harvested within a span of six weeks. The antlers that are wrapped in velvet have a significant growth rate – so fast, it’s believed to be one of the fastest growing organisms known to man, as Patty said.

Net gun used to capture wild deer

Stags at Holden Station

 

                Holden Station started their beef herd with a small number of Hereford cattle. As time went on and the herd grew, they had been approached by numerous producers looking for an Angus bull to use on first-calf heifers to get the lower birth weights and calving ease needed to keep their heifers in production. The station recognized the lack of supply of Angus genetics, and jumped at the chance to provide this service. They now have a small Angus herd, separate from the Herefords, and are usually sold through what is called a “board auction” (similar in some respects to a silent auction) and is held at the station.

Hereford bulls at Holden Station

 

                Patty discussed a problem that the station, and many others, are plagued with: rabbits. These fluffy, herbivorous rodents have no predators and will reproduce at staggering rates. They held a rabbit drive a while back and in the span of eight hours, shot 4500 of these little buggers. And it was only over a fraction of the farm area!

                As we wrapped up our visit, we turned towards Lake Tekapo, with the Southern Alps rising behind them, the highest peak – Mount Cook – towering over the region. We continued our approach to Twizel as the sun slowly sank behind the mountains in the distance, the light of the setting sun casting a brilliant light over the peaks, and supplying us with a dazzling sight to end our day.

Lake Pukaki at dusk with the Southern Alps behind

Day 8 - South Island and Christchurch

This morning we woke up bright and early to leave our hotel at 7:15 AM to catch an 8:40 flight from Wellington to Christchurch. It was a hop, skip, and a jump 30 minute flight from the North Island to the South Island.

As usual, Meg, Kendall, and Kaitlyn had to be wand checked after walking through the screening. They did pass the wand inspection.

Upon arriving in Christchurch, we met John, our new bus driver. He is a character like the rest of the Kiwi’s. Then we departed to make our way to the first farm destination, David and Hillary Ward’s mixed cropping farm.

Along the way to the farm, Ron talked to us about the new region and some of the history. In February of 2011, there was a major 6.2 magnitude earthquake that killed 185 people and had 11,000 aftershocks. Many people moved out of Christchurch after the quake.

We met David outside his “hotel” office where he started telling us about his operation. He has three main enterprises on what he considered a moderate sized farm with 380 hectares: mixed cropping, finishing sheep, and finishing deer.

Sheep grazing at David Ward’s operation.

 

He began by showing us what he planted with, a Cross Slot no-till drill, and how it worked and how he has moved on with precision planting. They get less moisture in this area than other parts of the country, so he was saving money by using no-till systems as well as building soil health. He didn’t use a lot of fertilizer because of the deer and sheep farming and then his planter also fertilized while seeds were put in. His soil health had everything to do with his no-till system. He dug into the ground to show it to us; it was crumbly and nutty and the rye-grass helps it aerate. He is also looking for more land to possibly get bigger and to help out more of his workers that have been there for a while and help get them started with farming.

Soil structure of a rye grass field at Ward’s.

The crops David focuses on include rye-grass, onions, beet radish, corn salad, spinach, barley. Rye-grass and the radishes were mainly used for feeding stock. Barley and wheat were mainly for selling for crop. When the rye-grass grew, he would chop it and sell it as straw to dairy farmers. Onions were marketed to some countries in Asia.

The integrated pest management for David includes not using many chemicals, and if he did, he rotated the types of chemicals he used. He also rotated his crops as a main source of pest management.

He finishes about 20,000 lambs and 1,000 deer over the course of the year. With the lambs, he finishes different breeds of lambs and depending in market prices, he will put more effort into finishing a certain breed but generally starts with black faces then goes into crosses then ends with light wool breeds. With the deer feeding, he tries to start feeding them while they graze, then offer barley out of a feeder, then eat barley throughout the winter. That is how he adjusts them to eating barley during the entire winter; this helps him get greater overall gains. 

After finishing the tour with David, we headed into Ashburton to eat lunch. Then we went out to visit Ted and Sue Rollinson’s dairy farm and meet Tom Hannigan, the sharemilker.

Some dairy cows grazing with the milking barn in the background at Rollinson’s.

When Ted got there to work, the farm was one of the first three dairy farms in the Canterbury area. We met in the carousel parlor and then headed out to the paddocks to look at the cows. As we headed to the paddocks, we could see the flood irrigation system they used. Because they were located close to the river, they were able to utilize flood irrigation. There are concerns with the flood irrigation and nitrogen leaching. He told us that when he bought the farm, some people said that dairy cattle could not be farmed there. But he bought it anyways and proved them wrong. The soil is really stony and it has actually been to their advantage to have cows on there. When cattle walk on common areas, they can compact the soil greatly and they don’t develop muddy areas that reduce grass growth. Overall, the farm is a low input cost farm, and that has helped the farm stay out of debt.

Crystal and Kimberly getting a photo with the dairy cows at Rollinson’s operation.

The gang taking a picture after a group of Rollinson’s cows were moved to a new paddock.

 

When breeding and culling, they look at the PW (production worth) and BW (breeding worth). His 1,400 cattle consist of Holsteins, Jerseys, and many Kiwi (Holstein-Jersey) cross-bred cattle and are hardy to the weather and elements. They have very high production at 6.6% fat and 4.7% protein.

To end the day, we drove back to our hotel in Ashburton to eat supper and relax for the evening.

Farm Stay

Farm host speeds to deliver students to bus on time

 

Last night everyone was broke up into groups of 2-4 people. We had the unique opportunity to stay in the home of a New Zealand farm family.

The boys (Corey, Austin, Peter and Clint) stayed with Charles and Joules Simpson. The operation had 1,100 head of cattle and 7,000 sheep. The boys learned about shearing sheep. Charles said if a shearer can’t shear 250 sheep a day he isn’t worth his weight. The boys claim their farmstay was the most fun. They don’t care what any of us say and Corey is moving in with them.

Audrey, Brittney and Caroline were greeted with a cute, tiny orange kitten at the bus stop. Having just been found wandering along the road by their host, they decided to bring him home and name him Dakota. The farm had Angus bulls and Romney/Cheviot cross sheep on it. The paddocks are leased out to Roger’s son and daughter living down the road. They also had a black lab that is used for hunting and two other cats. Dakota must have eaten something interesting because he was very gassy and Pia, their host, was calling it “blowing off” compared to what we would say in America.

Mikayla, Katie, Kristi and Cady stayed on a sheep and cattle farm. They enjoyed visiting with their host and older children. One of their daughter-in-laws owns a farm on the southeastern coast of the North Island. She showed them beautiful photos of their livestock grazing next to the ocean.

Wiyaka and Kimberly stayed on a Romney stud farm. They tried Vegemite and decided it was not for them. The girls probably had a more exciting ride back to the bus stop than the rest of us. As their host pulled up there were flashing blue lights right behind him. A police officer stepped briskly out of the car and walked over to the driver’s side. At the time their host did not even know he was being pulled over. Many giggles were exchanged amongst our group. While he was quite a bit embarrassed, the officer kindly let him off with just a warning.

Megan and Jennifer stayed on a farm where they raised replacement dairy heifers. Their son owns two goat dairy farm and a dairy farm.  They enjoyed visiting with their host and learning about their culture.

Kendall, Amanda and Julie stayed on a sheep and cattle farm. They were a techno farm. This means that he does everything based of sections and cells. He sections parts of his paddock off with electric wire and moves it every two days. The cells contain all of the nutrients that the animals require.

Lacey, Jessica and Lea stayed on a farm that raises 3,500 sheep and 120 beef cows. They keep 900 replacement ewe lambs a year and fatten the rest. The girls enjoyed learning about the grading system in New Zealand and some of the different practices within the sheep industry.

Makayla, Kennedy, Emily, and Crystal stayed with John and Sarah Vickers.  John is a retired contract cattle buyer.  Now he raises Suffolk sheep and Friesian bulls for beef.  The couple have a beautiful house built in the craftsman style situated around a courtyard.  It was beautiful.  The girls had a great time visiting with the couple and meeting their pets: Roy a terrier mix and Max the cat of the house.

Everyone really enjoyed this unique opportunity to learn more about the everyday lives of New Zealand farmers and also enjoyed eating and drinking common New Zealand foods. Staying in the homes of a family allowed everyone to get a better understanding of New Zealand culture.

Day 7 - Wellington Day

After being dropped off by host families, we took off for Wellington, the capitol city of New Zealand.  The first place we visited in Wellington was Beef + Lamb New Zealand. We met up with Andrew, Rob, and Rob and they talked about the beef and sheep industry in New Zealand.  Beef + Lamb New Zealand is an institution that uses levies (checkoff dollars) to make a confident and profitable beef and sheep industry.  They help farmers make informed business decisions and promote their collective interests.  They get about $4 a head for beef and less than $1 per head of sheep, both collected at slaughter.  The group talked about the global market and stressed that they were an open market, so their prices were based on international markets.  They also have created benchmarketing tools like a lambing percentage calculator and a whole farm business analysis.  They also survey around 550 farms per year, which is 4.3% of commercial beef and sheep farms.  They use the data collected to forecast farm revenue, expenditure, and profits.

Afterwards we had lunch in downtown Wellington.  People ate a places like Burger King, McDonalds, and the Verve (which was a local café with sandwiches, pizzas, and pastas).

Then we went to the Ministry of Primary Industries, which is the equivalent to our USDA.  On the walk to the MPI building, we got a chance to see the Beehive which is their capitol building.  At MPI, we met with Mark who was a trade analyst.  Mark explained the wide range of duties that MPI has such as animal welfare, biosecurity, food safety, and research.  One of the most important practices the MPI does is biosecurity.  New Zealand is an island nation, so if any harmful insects, plants, or diseases were brought into the country, it could devastate the economy.  They have dogs that sniff luggage coming into the country to make sure nothing harmful gets in as well as border patrol agents. 

Bee Hive (Parliament Building)

 

Both Beef + Lamb New Zealand and the MPI talked about trade.  New Zealand exports a lot of what the country produces, as the population is small and they can’t consume all that is produced.  Overall, they export about 90% of production.  The United States, Eastern Asia, and Europe are some of the country’s biggest trading partners.  Products that New Zealand exports include dairy, beef, lamb, wool, venison, pip fruits, and wine.

Following the MPI visit we traveled to Mount Victoria to look at Wellington from an awesome vantage point.  We were able to see some awesome views of the harbor and ocean.  We even saw a ferry headed to the South Island! We ended the day fairly early so we could pack up all of the items we’ve bought over the past 6 days so we can fly to Christchurch tomorrow!

View of Wellington, New Zealand

View of Wellington, New Zealand

View of Wellington, New Zealand (Round building is West Pac- Rugby plays there)
 

Group photo of students in Wellington, New Zealand

 

Day 6 – Napier to Martin

We started the day stopping at Hastings Farmer’s market. There, we were able to sample jams, honeys, pastries, cheeses, meats, macaroons, olive oils, and salad dressings. It was very interesting to compare the different tastes and textures to the United States. We also enjoyed freshly prepared baked goods, coffee, and fruit juices. Some of us even found a few items to purchase.

Group photo before leaving our hotel on Hawke’s bay beach in Napier. 

Next, we ventured to Maranoa Red Deer farm. There, we spoke to John and his son Daniel about the many aspects of their red deer and Friesian bull farm. Around 1,500 deer are raised at this farm. It was very interesting to learn about his unique industry that is not found in the United States. We even had the opportunity to get up close to and walk amongst six red deer heins (does). We were very impressed with the size of the deer when compared to our native Whitetail and Mule deer. At Maranoa farm, they harvest the red deer for both velvet and venison. We learned that each stag is able to produce about 10 to 13 pounds of velvet. Additionally, the velvet is sold for US$225 per pound. The main market for velvet is Korea and is used as a supplement for many adding healing benefits for humans and animals such as arthritis, high blood pressure, and rebuilding damaged muscle. The Friesian bulls are run with the red deer as they complement each other’s grazing patterns.

Brittany, Wiyaka and Corey. Everyone had the opportunity to get up close and personal with the red deer at Maranoa deer farm. 

Austin holding a rack from one of the stags on the farm.

From there, were travelled to John and Jane Heald’s sheep and cattle farm. Upon our arrival, Jane had lunch prepared for all of us. She prepared a large variety of traditional New Zealand dishes and a birthday cake for Jennifer!

Jennifer with her birthday cake.

It was all very delicious. At the Heald’s farm, they raise Highlander sheep and Stabiliser cattle, both of which are composite breeds. The Highlander is a crossbred sheep of Romney, Texel, and Finnish Landrance breeds. The Stabiliser is a crossbred cow of Angus, Hereford, Simmental, and Gelbvieh breeds. The Heald’s have about 10,000 breeding ewes, 300 breeding cows, and 600 Friesian (Holstein) bulls on about 5,000 acres. In one year’s time, the Heald’s market 12,000 to 13,000 lambs. On this farm, we had the unique opportunity to tour their many beautiful paddocks. On the tour, we were able to view the landscape and their many flocks of sheep and herds of cattle.

Flock of sheep on Heald’s farm.

The view from the top of one hill at Heald’s farm, Brittany is sporting our animal science department long sleeve. 

A highlight for everyone today was venturing through the Heald’s beautiful pastures. We snaked through patches of trees and across streams, we popped around the sides of hills into flocks of hundreds of sheep. We climbed hills higher and more beautiful than any of us knew existed. We took hundreds of photos, but the beauty of New Zealand is impossible to capture in a simple photo.

Group photo on top of the same hill with the valley behind.

 

Day 5 - Rotorua & Napier activities

We started out the day at the Kairuru Hereford stud farm. When we arrived it was still early and there was a heavy fog over all of the landscape. Jane McDonald informed of us the security precautions that we should take in case there was an earthquake. She told us to not take cover under any overhead lines and to watch out for the rocks on the steep mountain side of their land. This farm consisted of 500 acres. They produce purebred Polled Herefords to sell. They gave us a tour around several of their paddocks to view the beautiful scenery as well as to look at some of the bulls. Graham, their son, was in love with Kennedy. He would not leave her side and walked arm in arm with her the entire time. He was a very sweet boy. After the tour they invited us into their house for tea, coffee, and scones. The owner Kevin was very proud of the bulls he raises and had a sale playing for us to watch. They were very friendly and welcoming. We left them with a gift and offered one to Graham. As we were departing the entire family stood by our bus and waved goodbye.

Graham and Kennedy

Herd bull at McDonald Hereford Stud Farm

We then traveled to Huka Falls and Taupo Lake. The Falls flows out of the lake and it is so powerful that it prevents salmon and eel from swimming upstream. This is important for the ecosystem of the lake. The Falls were a bright blue and very beautiful to see. We read that 200,000 liters goes over the Falls every second. It was so powerful that you could hear the water before you could see it. There was a hotel that overlooks the Falls and to stay here it is $4,000 a night. The hotel view is so nice that they have recorded Queen Elizabeth and Prince Henry have stayed their several times, it is rumored that Osama Bin Laden has also stayed there.

Huka Falls

 

After that we had an hour and a half bus ride to Trelinnoe Farm and park. The bus ride was long but allowed us to view the mountainous region. Our guides name was Bruce Wills and his family farm sheep and cattle. He has 1,000 head cattle and 4,000 head of sheep on 1,100 hectares. After we talked about his animals and production he took us on a tour through the family garden of trees. His father planted over 20,000 trees, which consisted of 100’s of varieties. The park was beautiful to walk around even in winter! In the middle of the garden there was a tennis court and a small lodge where his parents lived. The garden overlooked the mountainous scenery.

Kiwi fruit on the vine

Students enjoying a good crisp apple

Our last stop of the day was at Derek Barns kiwi, apple, peach, and stone fruit orchards. He drove us through Hawkes Bay and showed us all of his orchards that he owned. They have tall hedges surrounding their trees to help protect from wind and spray drift. We were able to try both the kiwi and apples today. He grows golden kiwi’s and they were delicious! He also mentioned that if a kiwi has a lot of seeds it has been pollinated well. It also takes about 20-30 hits from a bee on the flower to be pollinated. The apples that he let us try were the Granny Smith and Jazz apples. Apples have never tasted so good! The first bite was very crisp, juicy, and delicious. He even let us take one for breakfast. They also have olive trees and his wife pickles them. For the olives to be fermented well, it takes about 4 months.

We have the night off and most of us plan on exploring a little bit. There’s lot of choices of local restaurants that we are excited to try. Our hotel is facing the Pacific Ocean. There’s a beach that we can walk alongside, however, it is not a swim beach due to the steep side of it.