Busines Rural Summer 2017

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Business Rural | 83 RURAL PEOPLE » Jeremy, Murray & Ruby Baird
and cropping Jeremy’s farm goal
50/50 livestock to cropping.
“We’ve got just under 2000 ewes and they’re
run on my parent’s farm. We graze about 400
dairy heifers on the leased block. We get them as
calves in December, and graze them right through
to mating and then they go home to have their
calves. We graze hoggets over the spring on the
lease block.”
Once the hoggets are gone, the lease block is
shut up with surplus grass sold as silage. Jeremy
says they typically collect 160 tonne each year.
The farm grows about 200ha of winter wheat,
80 hectares of spring barley, 50 hectares of autumn
barley, 36 hectares of oats and 30 hectares of peas.
Jeremy says that all the wheat is grown for the
dairy feed market, supplying about five different
feed mills. While a yield of eight tonne/ha can be
expected from the older winter wheat, the better
crops will produce 12.5 – 13 tonne/ha.
The farm aims for 9-10 tonne/ha for autumn
barley and 8 tonne/ha for spring barley.
The oats are all grown on contract to Harroway
and Sons, with an expected yield of 7 tonne/ha.
“The peas have changed a bit this year. We used
to grow white peas but we couldn’t get them this
year so we have a mix of garden peas and maple
peas for the export market.”
Recently everyone’s breath was held tightly
when an unprecedented November snowfall
dumped 4 inches of powder on 50ha of crop,
flattening it.
“We sat there for two hours in the shed not
knowing what to do,” says Jeremy. “We phoned the
agronomist and he came and had a look. No one
could tell us what was going to happen for a couple
of days and then it all stood back up again.”
Murray says that the area is frost prone with late
frost affecting flowering in both winter barley and
winter wheat. Peas have also been affected in the
past.
Drought is the next challenge with a decent
drought occurring once every 7 years, which can
be reasonably relied upon.
“We plant a variety of autumn and spring crop
to mitigate against drought,” explains Murray. “The
autumn crops do the majority of their growing
through the spring when there is reasonably reliable
rainfall and just have to finish off during the months
when it’s getting a bit drier. Whereas your spring
crops can get quite severely impacted by drought.”
Jeremy says that, despite the snow, this season
is looking alright with a lack of disease pressure so
far through the season. The farm has come through
a reasonable winter with low rainfall and good crop
survival.
Going forward, Jeremy’s vision is to move from
a fixed livestock and fixed cropping programme to a
more integrated regime.
“I’d like to see the cropping enterprise helping
the livestock enterprise financially and the livestock
enterprise helping to get better yields for the
cropping.”
Austin Bros (1980) Ltd
Specialists in:
• Electrical Work
• Waterpumps
• Fisher & Paykel Authorised Agent.
Newcastle St, Riversdale, Southland
PH: (03) 202 5890 E-mail:
Pleased to work
with Golden Flats
Warren Kennedy
BUILDING LTD
18Wigan Street, Gore Phone 027 292 4437
PROUD TO SUPPORT
GOLDEN FLATS
Call us today 0800 427 739
PH: 027 681 4444 | EMAIL:
GLEN & MICHELLE MITCHELL | 824 LUMSDEN-DIPTON HWY, LUMSDEN 9794
GLENRAE RAMS
G e n e t i c s f o r G a i n s
Proud suppliers to the Baird family
Coopworth and Coopdale rams that
breed top performing, easy care ewes
and high quality lambs
“We plant a variety of
autumn and spring crop to
mitigate against drought.”
Harvesting wheat on the Baird family farm at Golden Flats.