Club Yarn

Written by Corey

Eight trucks, 32 members, and a mission to fill some freezers. After a short 4WD trip through Poplar Station and onto DOC land, we arrived at the Hope Kiwi Lodge. Kit was unpacked, tents were pitched, and plans for the afternoon began coming together. Three parties set out to take on the surrounding country wherefrom these efforts, one yearling hind was shot for the afternoon. A good first night was shared with some local trampers before we all called it a night and prepped for the following day of hunting. Five teams set off for the hills at the break of dawn, fed and eager to see what the country could provide. Over the day, lots of ground was covered. Some teams reaching elevations of 1840m and walking up to 35km! A whole range of animals were seen including deer, pigs, and chamois. The day was filled with exceptional views and some unreal terrain, which was topped off with the club bagging two decent-sized stags and two young spikers. The guns and boots were hung up and the club treated themselves to a well-deserved beer and a feed to finish off the last night at the Hope Kiwi Lodge. A sleep-in was enjoyed by many as the rain dampened an early morning hunt the following day. After a good clean of the hut, the utes were packed, and we were on our way back to Lincoln after a successful trip in some awesome South Island backcountry!

TO GIN OR NOT TO GIN? SILLY QUESTION!

Thanks, LUSA for helping facilitate another great event, Sunday 13th March. A few of us from Lincoln Uni attended a Gin Tasting and cocktail event, put on by Wine Divine a local Rolleston small business. It was an event open to the public, so we bought tickets directly from Wine Divine but LUSA were awesome with organising and paying for free transport for us to get from Uni to and from Larcombs Winery, where the Gin tasting was held. It was yet another great event for students, sadly not many attended, but those who did make it a great time. The Gin tasting was fun and educational, with the friendly people from Racketeer Gin there to give their family-ran small business backstory and explain how it’s made. We all had a laugh making a cocktail each and the platter of food was scrumptious as always. This was the second tasting event, previously we attended the LUSA organised wine tasting with Wine Divine, which went so well, that the attendees wanted to attend the gin tasting and future events as they are good value but done in a fun, interacting and engaging way with loads of humour and laughs. I would like to thank LUSA for being so awesome for these events as it was great to network with other students in a relaxed and beautiful location of Larcombs winery. We are all looking forward to more events from LUSA, Postgrad Soc., and/or Wine divine!

Rumour is that the next one is possibly a cocktail tasting event, so keep your eyes out for when that gets advertised.

By Tash Smith

Written by Grace Moscrip

The anticipated 1st weekend trip of the year to Central Otago/ Maniototo

35 young farmer enthusiasts set off on Friday the 18th of March, heading toward Central Otago for what would be one heck of a weekend! The first day include a farm visit, which was at Orari Gorge Station. This impressive station encompasses sheep, beef, and deer. A highlight of this farm was the Beef and Lamb NZ trials which are running at Orari, looking at the practicality and outcomes of a lower input system (e.g., no tailing, less drenching, etc). It is fair to say Robert and the team are operating a very profitable business and leading the pack in terms of industry improvement and genetics.

We then began the long drive down to Lake Hawea with an essential stop at the Fairlie Bakehouse for a pie, then to Bendhu Station just out of Omarama. Bendhu is a high-altitude sheep, beef, and deer farm which has fought many challenges in the surrounding environment. Hamish has undertaken an impressive amount of development into a legume-based pasture sward to ensure a more reliable source of feed. From here, we headed to Lake Hawea for fish and chips for dinner, followed by some initiations involving a refreshing swim in the lake and many other activities! To top off the day, the Lincoln Station, Mt Grand kindly hosted us for the night in their woolshed. A great location for an awesome shindig.

After a dusty Saturday morning feed on the BBQ, we then headed down the road to Lake Hawea Station. Lake Hawea Station is home to 6,500 hectares of mostly very steep high country which borders the lake itself. This was definitely a highlight and was awesome to see how tourism and events can be added into a farming system, along with the impressive amount of regen paddocks, with over 30 species. This property was also the first accredited carbon positive farm, sequestering 2.5 times more carbon than what is emitted.

From Lake Hawea we drove the scenic route to Alexandra for lunch and some supplies, and then back on the road to Armidale Merino Stud. Armidale is a 4th generation farm and is one of the leading studs for Merino in New Zealand. They had a great display of fleeces which some of their top rams and ewes have produced, followed by a viewing and discussion around some of their premium sires (very impressive looking rams). After visiting Armidale, we headed to a dairy farm in the Maniototo, which is the minority of farm systems in the area! The 300ha irrigated property is home to 1000 cows and a newly built 60 bail rotatory. Gaz the contract milker, along with the Maniototo Young Farmers Club supplied amazing hospitality with a BBQ dinner at the shed and free beers. After dinner, we headed to the Patearoa Pub for a great night with the local young farmers, followed by another night in a woolshed at the Crutchley’s. It’s fair to say the scenic Sunday morning drive over Danseys Pass was not loved by all – but was well worth it for the weekend antics.

Thank you to everyone who came on the trip and made it one to remember. Also, thank you to the rest of the exec for organising and pulling it all together. See you on the next one!

O’Week 2022’ didn’t go off with a bang as we’d hoped. It was more of a complete fizz (in the worst way) of isolations hitting hard in week two. Nonetheless, we soldiered on and put on what we could for you guys to at least have some sort of a welcome! The best day was probably Clubs Market, with the best to-date ‘Goodie Bags’. The weather was primo, although windy, and the Forbes balcony DJ kept the vibe going. All masked up, Clubs had some great exhibits and we could see their smiley faces through their eyes. The Outdoor Cinema was a scorcher but it was nice to chill for a while in the bean bags with a cold red bull to watch some classics. The Food Truck Picnic brought all the good with yummy fried chicken, Fritz Weiners, smoothies, and some sweet tunes. Postgrad Wine Mixer was a heap of fun, where they learned about different wines during a tasting from Wine Divine all while grazing on yummy platters and listening to live music. Very sophisticated!