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On Farm Story
FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 16, 2022
A seasoned campaigner There isn’t much that is routine on Lorne Peak Station in northern Southland. Neal Wallace talks to Matthew Tayler, someone who is brutally honest and looks for things that work rather than things he likes.
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ATTHEW Tayler acknowledges he made mistakes last year, conceding he was slow to read key weather signals and ignored key triggers that subsequently had significant impacts. His mistakes were readily identifiable, but rather than dwell he quickly corrected them and made changes on his northern Southland high country station. “I bought 800 ewes with lambs at foot plus 4000 store lambs early in response to a bumper spring, but then feed ran out when just 20mm of rain fell in each of February, March and April.” He ended up selling 4000 store lambs in April but by then it had compromised ewe condition. “This flowed through to this season with ewes in poor condition last winter at set stocking, leading to poor lamb growth and survival over lactation meaning a disappointing weaning draft of 5%. “Weaning weights were lower overall leading to a delayed kill this summer.” Tayler realised he needed a flexible class of stock he could quickly quit when seasons conspire against him, something he previously adopted but didn’t utilise last year. Lorne Peak Station is a 5600ha high country property at Garston, about 20km south of Kingston, a town sitting at the southern tip of Lake Wakatipu. It lies towards the west, north and south, and is a property of contrasts, but also opportunity. Lying adjacent to the Mataura River is 300ha of flat, rich, silt loam suited to fodder beat and red clover, plus 1200ha of light, stony glacial outwash soils best utilised for lucerne. Part of the area is irrigated but Tayler is in the process of
expanding the area to 300ha. The balance of the property is rolling to steep clay terraces and tussock country rising to steep hill country, peaking at 1500m above sea level before dropping into the Nevis Valley. “We are more agriculturists than graziers,” Tayler says. “Having this balance is one thing, but the key is how we take advantage of that.” Matthew and wife Shona are the third generation to run the pastoral lease, which was bought by Matthew’s grandfather in 1960. They took over the management from his parents Phillip and Jenny about 10 years ago. They have two children, Logan and Prue. Lorne Peak Station Limited owns the stock, plant and the pastoral lease and leases two farms off separate family trusts. Behind the company Shona and Matthew’s family trust owns the shares, designed to make future succession to their children easier. Tayler recalled his grandfather’s attempts to cultivate the flats were unsuccessful due to rocks damaging cultivating equipment, prompting the ominous name, Siberia. Improved equipment and techniques allowed those flats to be developed by wintering dairy cows, providing Tayler with flexibility and options. Stock carried this year shows that flexibility: 13,500 Romney ewes, 3800 hoggets, of which 1500 are mated, 1800 winter trade
HIGH COUNTRY: Bulls being finished on Lorne Peak Station.
LEARNING: Lorne Peak Station owner Matthew Tayler says how he measures performance and business success has changed over the years.
lambs, 350 Angus cows, 100 in calf heifers, 150 trading heifers, 180 R2 steers, 380 calves, 50 R1 Friesian bulls, 700 R2 Friesian bulls, 600 contract winter grazing dairy cows and 300 cull dairy cows which are killed in June or July. The aim is to have flexibility to weather the seasons in a climate he says is comparable to Canterbury. Irrigation has added to that flexibility. “The way it has worked for us with irrigation, is that we fatten 800 to 1000 R2 Friesian bulls.” “I call them my elastic band because they are so flexible and can be killed quite quickly at anywhere between 250 and 350kg CW.” He tends to buy them in the autumn, a time of year when sellers are wanting to destock ahead of winter.
Lorne Peak has between 700mm and 900mm of rain a year and Tayler says most years they get that amount. “We always get our annual rainfall at some stage during the year, it’s just a matter of when we get it.” Another consideration when Tayler took over Lorne Peak from his parents, was the option of tenure review. That process, since halted by the current Government in its first term, enabled pastoral lessees to negotiate the sale of rights they have in the lease to the Government for the right to freehold the balance. The land surrendered tends to have high conservation and ecological values. Tayler says the farm was managed to give a clear differentiation between
productive and ecological values should tenure review be an option. He attempted tenure review four years ago but was rejected due to the lack of resources at Land Information NZ and the Department of Conservation but also because DOC believed the remaining significant inherent values would not benefit from further protection. It was obvious entering the process would have been contentious and an endorsement of the state of conservation values which reflected the way Lorne Peak has been managed. “We were never keen to go into tenure review until we knew how it we could operate once the farm had lost its summer country. “I didn’t want to be playing catch up, I wanted to front foot it.” The decision by former Lands
BIG COUNTRY: Lorne Peak has between 700mm and 900mm of rain a ye
