Special Feature – A chip off the old block

A CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK

| Father and daughter Mike and Heather make a solid team on the farm.

Rangiwahia sheep and beef farmer Heather Gee-Taylor is stepping up to take ownership of part of the family farm this year in Manawatū.

At 24 years of age, Manawatū District Council’s youngest councillor is now responsible for farming her own area of the family farm and she couldn’t be more ready. The home farm of Glencorran is 560ha, of which 167ha is now leased by Heather. A few kilometres up the road hosts a secondary finishing farm, adding another 110ha to the operation. “My land is pretty much a skinny strip at the front that leads to the steep, hilly back-county. It is also the hunting block where all the deer are — I enjoy hunting so that’s a wee bonus!” Heather says.

Northern exposure

With Heather’s father Mike growing up on the property, Heather’s love for the land began early. With a special interest in cattle, she began working on Anna and Brent Fisher’s Silverstream Charolais stud on Banks Peninsula a few years ago and developed a liking for Charolais — a breed that is still relatively uncommon in New Zealand. Following her time with the Silverstream stud, Heather won a scholarship to attend the World Charolais Youth Breeders Tour in Canada in 2019 — a country that, along with France and New Zealand, is at the forefront of Charolais breeding innovation globally. As part of the trip Heather also went ranching, an experience that proved to be a real eye opener and highlighted the different approaches people have to cattle farming internationally. “The Charolais Breeders Conference itself was only a week long and it’s a long way to travel so I really tried to make the most of my time over there. “The second part of the week involved going around Charolais studs around Saskatchewan province, looking at the genetics and what breeders do there. There is some stuff that has been developed by Silverstream in New Zealand that is now being used over there which is pretty cool. “There were young breeders from Ireland, Australia, North America and Turkey and we were able to share our knowledge with each other as well. “I stayed and worked on a ranch that was well off the touristbeaten track. The owners were really nice and farmed mostly red Angus cows and Charolais.

| The flock is Paki-iti Romney-based. | Heather is stepping things up a notch this year.

“It was very interesting getting to know their commercial cow operation and even just little things like seeing how the sale yards work over there. “Wherever you breed, you have to breed to suit your type of terrain and we have such steep hill country compared to them. They don’t finish cattle like we do, their cows are always finished in a feed lot.” The trip helped Heather broaden her knowledge of farming techniques, especially the way different types of cattle are used in different types of environments. “At first it was difficult for me to understand that while I was over there (in June - July) it was warm, there was grass and it seemed like they had such an extensive stocking rate, but they don’t even look at things like stocking rate on their pastures like we do. “With winter temperatures dipping as low as -30 degrees, everything is in the barn, so it’s unsustainable for them to have a heavy stocking rate in the summertime. It really made me appreciate the temperate climate that we have here.”

Building the breed

“I have 10 stud Charolais cows which are now included in my operation,” Heather says. “It’s taken a long time to build up the Charolais herd numbers. I didn't get any heifer calves for my first 2 years of breeding so it has taken a while to establish a female herd.” The advantages of this breed are that they are higher yielding and faster-finishing, compared to regular cattle. Their calves are also much easier to recognise and that helps when it comes to creating lines for sale and ascertaining sires if you have multiples. The other factors that must be considered are their large size — Heather budgets them as being 8 stock units each, whereas she puts a normal commercial cow as 6. “Because they’re all recorded at birth, calving them down in an area that is accessible and contained where you’re seeing them every day can be kind of hard in hill country.” There are not many other farmers currently breeding Charolais in the Manawatū, but there are some in Dannevirke and New Plymouth. “I think the breed itself is becoming a lot more popular in New Zealand and farmers are starting to see the benefits here when looking to crossbreed their herd,” Heather says.

Learning and improving

The nature of Heather’s steep land poses a few challenges and requires a fair bit of weeding, but nothing that she can’t handle and the sheep herd is going strong. “I have 160 hoggets on my block and Dad has 650 replacements. Our flock is Paki-iti Romney-based and this works well as they are a local sheep stud. Our lambing rate on

| In June the focus is on rotation and getting the ewes winter shorn. | Well trained dogs are a must.

average is 140 percent to the ram. This is usually pretty stable which was surprising given last summer’s drought,” Heather says. “Our average weaning rate is around 28 kilograms, ideally we would like this this to be higher and it’s definitely something we need to work on. It is definitely most profitable to sell stores either before Christmas or hold on until April. We have culled throughout the season this year and intend on doing so throughout next season." Heather is stepping things up a notch this year, with a little help from her Fielding-based Technical Field Officer Hamish Hogg. “Hamish has been great at recommending summer crops for us and this year we are using a leafy turnip and it works well,” Heather says. With an average rainfall of about 1260mm, there’s no need for irrigation — the properties being very summer safe usually. The finishing block has a reticulated water system — this was installed upon purchasing the block in 2019, due to the inability to graze paddocks effectively without water. The hill block is predominantly sourced from springs and into dams. Alongside the lease land, Heather also works for local cropping contractor Richard Goodwin on his two local sheep and beef blocks. “He has 2,000 ewes and 80 head of Hereford cattle and the land is very similar to ours — spread over two blocks. It’s mainly hill country and he’s just trying to finish his lambs as well as he can.” “I’ll be lambing down 650 odd Romney ewes on that land, which I’ve had to buy in and calving down about 90 Angus cows.”

The road ahead

In June the focus is on winter rotation and getting the ewes winter shorn. Heather says it’s a good time of the year to hook into maintenance and fencing and making sure they’re ready for the next round of calving and lambing. “When we lamb our hoggets, these are moved onto easier country on the hill block,” Heather says. Lambs are finished on the block up the road with cows being used to clean up the rank feed on the hill block. “We keep a pretty constant stocking rate year-round. Our soil types are mainly silt loams on the hill but we do have clay soils which tend to pug in the winter. We just judge our stocking rates and age groups accordingly and have no heavy mixed age cows in wet areas if possible.” Her father Mike is also a busy man this year, as he has an Angus stud herd of 130 cows with 1,600 breeding ewes. “We don’t finish any cattle. This year we have kept all weaner heifers and will take these through to the spring market,” Heather says.

This gives me an opportunity to prove myself and Dad wants to make sure everything’s all good before he hands over the reins”

She is beyond excited to be farming her own parcel of land and taking on some additional responsibility. “Farm ownership is so expensive nowadays that you’ve got to do it smartly. Ideally I’d like to pick up more lease land from my parents or a lease-to-buy agreement in the years ahead. I’ve never expected the farm to be just given to me. The way I look at it is that I may as well make the most of the time that I have while I’m young. “Personally, I’m just focussing on lifting my replacement ewe flock on the lease block and producing good weaning weights in both my calves and my lambs. Dad’s focus is the same.” Her younger sister Lucy works in a shearing gang in the South Island, but Heather says that unlike her, Lucy has no ambition to be a farmer, leaving the land up to Heather to look after.

The community spirit

Off-farm, Heather’s interest in local politics is being reinforced by her part-time study towards a Graduate Diploma in Politics through Massey University, which will add to her 2017 Bachelor of Commerce from Lincoln University. She is genuinely interested in governance and is keen to work her way towards contributing to New Zealand agricultural policy in some way. Since being elected as a Manawatū District Councillor in October 2019, Heather has strengthened the representation of — and advocated for — farmers in her patch. Heather says that while it can be difficult to engage with topics that don’t interest you completely, you do learn a lot about different things that need to be carefully considered on behalf of ratepayers. “It’s made me a lot more aware of my community, more aware of what goes on behind the scenes and it’s very cool to see the passion that people have within the community at a grassroots level.” As if all of that wasn’t enough, Heather is also very keen on spending time breaking in her dogs and horses. Both skills are important to her as she enjoys working alongside animals and watching them mature. 2021 is going to be a busy year for the Gee-Taylor clan, but with Heather forging a solid path towards farm ownership and with a clear view of the future, the years ahead look promising.

Article by: Randall Johnston. Images by: Tobias Meads.

| Mike looks after an Angus stud herd of 130 cows and 1,600 breeding ewes.

| Steep hill country does throw a few challenges into the mix.