A Weekend on the Farm

This weekend Bree and I took a trip to the hill country and spent the weekend at Mt. Huia Farmstay. A farmstay is like a bed and breakfast but is located on a farm and in this case we stayed in a separate cottage. The Mt. Huia Farmstay is located just 9 km away from Managaweka which is about 1 hours drive North of Palmerston.

We first drove up to Taihape which is renowned for its gumboots and holds a gumboot throwing competition every year. We had lunch and in keeping with the town theme Bree bought a pair of gumboots. Unfortunately I couldn’t find anything suitable in my size, none of the pretty boots came in a women’s 11. There was a bull riding event taking place but Bree decided that it sounded “too dangerous” to watch and so we headed out to Mt. Huia.

Our hosts, Virginia and Neil, had put us in Hodd Cottage which is a 3 bedroom house located just down the road from their home. Virginia gave us a large basket of food for breakfast and Bree and I went off to explore the cottage and surrounding area. The cottage was lovely, with its own fenced yard full of flowers, a large kitchen and a back deck that looks out onto the surrounding fields. We had chickens that we could feed and one that kept trying to get into the kitchen! Best of all the cottage had a very large bathtub! Since we arrived in New Zealand we have only had showers (not Bree’s favourite) so it was a nice treat to be able to soak in a bath.

From the cottage it is a short hike down through a nearby pine plantation to the river. We hiked down and spent some time walking along the river bank. Then we went to visit the sheep and chickens and finished the afternoon with a game of croquet in the back yard.

The next morning Neil took us on a tour of the farm. For me this was the highlight of the weekend as I have been spending too much time reading papers about farming in New Zealand and not enough time out in the field. Neil loaded up the dogs (must have been 6-7 of them) into a trailer hooked behind the quad and off we went. Bree decided to ride with the dogs – brave girl! Neil took us up into the hills behind the house were they have both sheep and beef cattle grazing. They run Dorset/ Romney cross sheep which bring in income both from wool production and from meat production. They have angus based cattle that they raise through to finish. They also own some land closer to Palmerston that they use more for finishing of the cattle as it is lower in elevation and has a slightly different growing season.

The hill country is all dryland agriculture (no irrigation) but it is still relatively lush compared to what we would see at home. In New Zealand almost all of the grassland areas that you see on the North Island are actually what we call pastures as they are not natural grasslands and they are all mainly agronomic species. These areas would all be native brush but most of these areas were logged and then burned and now grazing pressure as well as fertilization maintains them as open pastures instead of dense shrub/ forest. One of the main forage species is ryegrass and this is mixed with other grasses and clovers.

Fertilization of these pastures is done aerially and depending on the terrain some cultivation and resowing of grasses can be done. In some of the flatter fields Neil plants a Brassicaceae species that makes good forage for the sheep and can be used in rotation with the other pastures; in the fall that will get plowed under and sown back into grass. The regrowth is fairly rapid and these areas can be grazed year round although growth slows substantially in the winter months. This allows for the use of smaller pastures and more rapid rotation between them. The mix of cattle and sheep works well as the different animals select a slightly different set of species.

Neil put us to work and we were able to help muster sheep. I have worked with cattle but sheep are a little different. We herded one group into a different pasture and then we brought a group of younger lambs into the corral area to drench them (basically give them medicine to deal with intestinal worms). Bree was right in the chute helping out and asking a steady stream of questions like only a 6 year old can. We also separated two bulls out from a pasture of cows. You can tell the animals are used to be worked with and they were easy to handle with a pretty small “flight zone”.

It was great fun and it gave me a chance to see some of the farm and to talk with Neil about the farm, the sheep and beef industry in New Zealand and agriculture in New Zealand in general. I am now starting to develop a list of similarities but also of key differences between our two countries in our approach to cattle farming and in agriculture in general. The trend of declining farm numbers but the increase in larger farms is happening here as is the fact that the age of farmers continues to rise (the average age in Canada according to the last census is in the 50s). If young people don’t move in to take over the farms who will farm these areas in the future? Will farming be all big business? It is hard to tell but the similarities are there.

After the tour we stopped by some blackberry bushes and had a nice snack before heading back to the cottage to pack-up and drive home. I  was brave enough to take the back road route home and it was a beautiful drive. I still find the steep drop-offs along some of the roads a bit unnerving but as I get used to driving on the left side it is becoming a little easier. We arrived home in time to do the Sunday grocery shopping and get organized for the week ahead. We both thoroughly enjoyed our weekend away and I highly recommend the Mt. Huia Farmstay for anyone interested in a little country relaxation.