South Canterbury

Saturday afternoon 14th and Sunday morning 15th November. We had met Mike and Jan Studholme at the Christchurch Show and they had very kindly invited us to visit their South Canterbury farm and stay overnight. The drive down the Canterbury plains was, to say the least ,spectacular, with again the same story of the coast on our left, a fertile plain in the middle and snow capped mountains to our right. We saw many large dairy herds with extensive irrigation being practiced on most of the farms. The quality of the dairy farming in this region seemed to be generally superior in terms of cow condition and pasture quality in comparison to what we had experienced in the Waikato region of North Island.

After many hours of driving we arrived in Waimate, 50km south of Timaru and the family home of the fourth generation of Studholmes. Mike and his wife Jan were great hosts, entertaining us for supper with a home killed New Zealand wether lamb, and some fine wine to complement. Mike was very much aware of the family history and how the family home had been established by three brothers in 1851. The current farm acreage is 2500 stocking 2000 Perendale ewes and 350 breeding cattle. The annual rainfall is light at 22 inches and much of the lower ground is irrigated.

The farm was organic until recently, and Mike commented that going organic had greatly improved his awareness of the soil and general pasture management. He attributed flock and herd health to the diverse varieties of grasses present in his sward and good trace element management. The inability to control weeds under an organic system partly influenced the departure from that mode of farming. Mike had also been offered 1200 NZ$/hectare/year to lease his lower ground to some expanding dairy farmers, but enjoyed farming too much to take up the offer!!

We thoroughly enjoyed our brief stay at Te Waimate, and with Mike and Jan possibly travelling to the UK next year we might be able to feed them some good Welsh Lamb.