On Farm Story

22 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 16, 2022

On Farm Story 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.

MATTHEW 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 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

LEARNING: Lorne Peak Station owner Matthew Tayler says how he measures performance and business success has changed over the years.

Minister Eugenie Sage to end tenure review removed an option for leaseholders for which he says the public are the poorer.

“It is a pity because the public miss out on new access opportunities.”

It sends the wrong message by penalising those leaseholders who have carefully managed their properties.

“It incentivises poor behaviour by not rewarding the good stewards for their past endeavours.”

Each year they grow about 300ha of crops - fodder beat and brassicas, for wintering stock and pasture renewal but also lucerne.

Lucerne makes sense from a bulk perspective, growing three times more dry matter/ha/year than traditional grasses, but also providing 10.5 to 11 units of metabolised energy.

It provides a guarantee his two tooths and hoggets can hit target weights of 65kg and 40kg respectively.

This improvement in stock performance provided by irrigation and lucerne, has made it viable to further subdivide and improve the fertility on the hill country and Tayler says the return on that investment has been significant.

“Lucerne has definitely been a good return on investment by also allowing us to extract value elsewhere on the farm.”

How he measures performance and business success has changed over the years.

Initially it was to hit a target number of animals and performance, but he found he was neglecting other potentially profitable aspects of the business.

Similarly kg product/ha or other performance measures were too narrow focused.

“This approach also led us to neglecting some environmental and people outcomes we value.”

A former accountant, Tayler uses a blend of free cashflow and return on investment alongside product produced/ha and gross margins.

“I am still mindful these are outcomes rather than drivers hence why we’ve come back to targeting a condition score of three for our ewes, which is reasonably easy to measure, and a culture that drives innovation, ownership and growth.”

Tayler says these are more intangible but can be measured through staff interviews and development.

Behind all of this is an understanding of their vision and values: We will lead by always innovating and being a place where people come to learn and grow.

“It is still a work in progress and it doesn’t explicitly talk about monetary reward, so our measure of success now reflects this.”

Ten years ago, the farm was run by Matthew and his father Phillip.

Today he has a team of six helping him: junior shepherd Aiden Sullivan, shepherd Eilish Gardner, general farm hand, handyman Doug Broekstra, tractor driver Mark Taylor and stock manager Hamish McGregor.

His father still helps out.

They are also leasing a farm owned by Shona’s family, a 400ha Mossburn property which is managed by Willie Weatherburn.

Tayler’s focus on flexibility, also reflects the staff he employs, seeking those who are fallible and display versatility and initiation.

The approach to work of current generations differs from those in the past, and Tayler says that is a reality.

“Instead of employing people based on what they know, I look at values and their outlook of life and I back myself to teach them what they need to know.

“People who come to work here are made aware that there is no status quo.

“I’m willing to admit my faults which means I can be seen to be a little indecisive, but it also means I allow space for people to contribute their own ideas.”

The family has always shown a willingness to try new ventures and if they fail once, that are willing to try again with some tweaking.

Early on his grandfather applied superphosphate by air to some foothill country, unaware that the soil was already high in phosphate and aluminium, so got a very poor response.

Undeterred he applied it to another part of the property with different soil and got a phenomenal response.

In 2005 Tayler said his father was approached by a dairy farmer looking for winter grazing for cows.

Agreement was reached and income from the venture funded the development of 500ha of cultivatable land.

“We are not afraid of failure and giving something a go.”

Tayler attended Otago Boys High School in an era he says school leavers were encouraged to go to university, but he was discouraged from going to Lincoln University.

Instead, he studied commerce at the University of Otago which among skills, taught him how to learn and how to research.

“I’m quite happy learning from reading a book, on-line or listening to a podcast.

“It gives me space to reflect and to question how to adapt an idea or make it fit here.”

He takes the view that he should know elements of his business such as soil fertility, rather than relying on a salesman to provide those details.

An example was participating in a Beef + Lamb NZ Innovation Farm programme investigating beef finishing on legumes to avoid issues such as bloat.

The result was to integrate more bulls to utilise the growth of high octane crops which also provides flexibility for the whole farm system.

He especially enjoyed working with experts such as Chris Mulvaney and Derek Moot from Lincoln University on the project, realising the value of collaboration and forming lasting relationships.

Tayler says while his priorities remain, his focus has broadened.

He is increasingly embracing biodiversity on his farm and is currently attempting to gain NZ FAP-plus accreditation.

A wetland on his flats is home to the very rare Gollum Galaxiid native fish.

Extending from the wetland is a dry riverbed which, at times of heavy rain, reconnects to the Mataura River.

Tayler is proposing building a 2ha to 3ha wetland at the junction of the riverbed and Mataura River which includes a fish weir to prevent trout accessing and decimating Galaxiid population.

His is finding the lucerne and irrigation is reducing pressure on the hill country allowing the regeneration of native vegetation.

Stock grazing is also controlling wilding trees, a growing problem caused by an exotic forest across the valley.

In his spare time Tayler is the chief Fire Officer with the Garston Rural Volunteer Fire Brigade, a member of the local Beef + Lamb NZ farmer council, Southland Federated Farmers and various community groups.

I have introduced a whole lot of little tricks that add up to a solution to a summer or autumn dry, but the real trick is knowing when and which lever to pull, which we’ve done better this year compared to last.

Matthew Tayler Lorne Peak Station

WATER MANAGEMENT: Irrigation is a key tool for managing Lorne Peak Station.

>> Video link: bit.ly/OFSTayler