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