Tuesday November 3rd Our first stop of the day was to be Napier Airport where we were to meet up with Dr. Virginia Williams who had flown up from Wellington, and is to travel with us for the next few days. The journey from Lake Taupo to Napier took us up and over the Kaimanawa & Kaweka Ranges. We drove through miles of steep undulating land covered in tussock shrublands before we came onto a volcanic plateau, followed by a large plain on which is planted one of the largest man made forests in the Southern Hemisphere.
Driving down the other side saw us enter the famous wine producing region of Hawke’s Bay and Napier, where a severe earthquake killed over 200 people in 1931 and caused the earth to move and rise in a way that Hawke’s Bay airport is actually built on what was originally the sea bed!
Virginia was born in the Hawke’s Bay area and after picking her up at the airport, she was obviously comfortable in giving us directions to our first stop of the day, Rissington Genetics.
We were welcomed by John Absolom, the co founder of the company that I have an association with in the fact that they supply the breedlines for the M & S Prince’s Trust lamb group in Wales, which I facilitated a few years ago under the Agrisgop program. John was given the advice a few years ago, "the sooner you Kiwis stopped trying to make your Romney sheep do everything and concentrate on producing separate terminal and maternal lines, the faster your progress will be". Hence the development of the Primera, a terminal line and the Highlander, as a maternal line. Millions of dollars have been spent upon genetic improvement and the breedlines are now used world wide. Genetics and not cosmetics was certainly the message, and is an area for the Welsh sheep industry to ruminate upon!
John took time to show us around the 3000 acre family farm, now run by his son Ben. The farm stocked 300 suckler cows (70 Simmentals and 230 Stabilizers) and 1500 ewes (1000 Highlanders and 550 Primera multiplier flock) John took great pride in driving us up to the highest point on the farm and showing us the panoramic view of the Hawk’s bay area. We finished the visit having lunch at the family home, where his wife Star was a gracious host.
We then travelled onto Hastings to meet with Dr. Mark Fisher, a specialist in bioethics, who I was able to question on the role of society in animal welfare, and at whose door the cost of animal welfare should lie. At 4p.m. discussions came to an abrupt end, the beers were opened, and the whole office stopped work to watch the Melbourne Cup! Apparently the whole of New Zealand and Australia comes to a stop to watch this annual horse race.
The day was finished off with us being hosted for dinner by Steve Murphy, General Manager Operations for Silver Fern Farms. This large beef, lamb and deer processing company is structured as a farmer cooperative, and is therefore owned by about 20,000 farmer suppliers. Its head office is based in Dunedin, with support offices in Christchurch on the South Island and Hastings on the North Island. They operate 21 processing facilities throughout the country, employing more than 7,000 staff in the peak of the season. Steve explained how the processing sector has gone through a period of rationalisation in New Zealand with companies merging and plants having to be closed. The current exchange rate and the strength of the NZ dollar was a huge concern for a country that exports most of its lamb and price projections for the season were bleak. The possibility of lamb making 3.5 $/Kg dw with production costs at 4.2 $/Kg was not what his lamb suppliers wanted to hear.
Another day full of enjoyable and learning experiences.
Driving down the other side saw us enter the famous wine producing region of Hawke’s Bay and Napier, where a severe earthquake killed over 200 people in 1931 and caused the earth to move and rise in a way that Hawke’s Bay airport is actually built on what was originally the sea bed!
Virginia was born in the Hawke’s Bay area and after picking her up at the airport, she was obviously comfortable in giving us directions to our first stop of the day, Rissington Genetics.
We were welcomed by John Absolom, the co founder of the company that I have an association with in the fact that they supply the breedlines for the M & S Prince’s Trust lamb group in Wales, which I facilitated a few years ago under the Agrisgop program. John was given the advice a few years ago, "the sooner you Kiwis stopped trying to make your Romney sheep do everything and concentrate on producing separate terminal and maternal lines, the faster your progress will be". Hence the development of the Primera, a terminal line and the Highlander, as a maternal line. Millions of dollars have been spent upon genetic improvement and the breedlines are now used world wide. Genetics and not cosmetics was certainly the message, and is an area for the Welsh sheep industry to ruminate upon!
John took time to show us around the 3000 acre family farm, now run by his son Ben. The farm stocked 300 suckler cows (70 Simmentals and 230 Stabilizers) and 1500 ewes (1000 Highlanders and 550 Primera multiplier flock) John took great pride in driving us up to the highest point on the farm and showing us the panoramic view of the Hawk’s bay area. We finished the visit having lunch at the family home, where his wife Star was a gracious host.
We then travelled onto Hastings to meet with Dr. Mark Fisher, a specialist in bioethics, who I was able to question on the role of society in animal welfare, and at whose door the cost of animal welfare should lie. At 4p.m. discussions came to an abrupt end, the beers were opened, and the whole office stopped work to watch the Melbourne Cup! Apparently the whole of New Zealand and Australia comes to a stop to watch this annual horse race.
The day was finished off with us being hosted for dinner by Steve Murphy, General Manager Operations for Silver Fern Farms. This large beef, lamb and deer processing company is structured as a farmer cooperative, and is therefore owned by about 20,000 farmer suppliers. Its head office is based in Dunedin, with support offices in Christchurch on the South Island and Hastings on the North Island. They operate 21 processing facilities throughout the country, employing more than 7,000 staff in the peak of the season. Steve explained how the processing sector has gone through a period of rationalisation in New Zealand with companies merging and plants having to be closed. The current exchange rate and the strength of the NZ dollar was a huge concern for a country that exports most of its lamb and price projections for the season were bleak. The possibility of lamb making 3.5 $/Kg dw with production costs at 4.2 $/Kg was not what his lamb suppliers wanted to hear.
Another day full of enjoyable and learning experiences.
Great blog, Huw - we are enjoying following your travels - what a wonderful range of hosts and experiences - funny to think of you watching the Melbourne Cup over there - I listened to it in the middle of the night on the radio - don't worry about the farm - we checked your sheep last week and they looked much better than usual...Sam Trebeddau
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