Whether it is diversifying into growing walnuts — or even purposefully growing gorse for shelter — there is no denying that North Otago dairy farmer Russell Hurst thinks outside the box.
Mr Hurst and his wife Cathy received a New Zealand Grassland Trust farming award at the New Zealand Grassland Association’s conference in Oamaru last week.
It was in recognition of an inter-generational family farming enterprise built around community and driven by adoption and diversification, while also a nod to them as community and industry leaders with business acumen.
Those capabilities were on show during a conference field trip to one of the Hursts’ four dairy units on the Lower Waitaki Plains on Thursday.
Invernia Holdings was established by Mr Hurst’s late father Sid, who bought the original part of the farm in 1968, having recognised the potential of water for irrigation on the Waitaki Plains after a series of droughts in the downlands.
Russell came home after two years at Lincoln College in the early 1980s and, in 1982-83, part of the farm was converted to dairy, milking 300 cows.
The Hurst family were one of the dairying pioneers on the Waitaki Plains. Since then, they have expanded, buying neighbouring land and developing it as opportunities arose.
Invernia Holdings now comprises a total land area of 2461ha, including a 300ha runoff of dry land downland and four dairy operations milking a total of 2850 cows.
The balance of 1238ha is support land, which includes grazing of young stock, nurse cows and sheep, and a walnut plantation.
The Hursts had 900 R2 heifers, 900 R1 heifers, 1800 merino wethers and 200 nurse cows.
Sid Hurst originally planted about 50 walnut trees, and his son later looked at them and decided the number was not economic, pushing it up to 400. That was still marginally economic given the development required on the farming operation — changing from border-dyke to spray irrigation — and the plan was to expand it to 2000 within the next three years.
The original farm included a huge amount of shelter, and it had felt sacrilegious to pull it all out. Long-term, Mr Hurst believed the area would be in horticulture.
As the shelter was there, they decided to look at horticulture, and got some experts in to look at the soil types and come up with several different options.
Cherries — which they grew in the 1970s — were quickly discounted, while berries and apples were also ruled out. Apples were profitable but there was a high labour component and no coolstore locally.
Walnuts were fully mechanised and, hopefully, if they could push the yields, then the returns would be somewhere close to that of apples, Mr Hurst said.
Irrigation under the walnuts would mean the grass could be harvested until the trees became productive.
The nurse cow operation was being scaled back as dairy cow numbers were being pushed up to pay for development. The herd was made up of in-calf culls from the dairy herd and low BW heifers. In the past, they had up to 500 nurse cows.
Long term, Mr Hurst still saw a place for nurse cows, but the number would depend on the couple’s sons — they are going through farm succession — and what they wanted to do. In the meantime, there should be room for 100 to 150, he said.
Merino wether hoggets were bought each year and kept for eight to 10 years to graze the head races. In the past, they had run up to 4500. They were the best class of stock for keeping the races clean and the water flowing freely and the fine wool was a bonus, he said.
Before starting the spray irrigation development — which they were about halfway through — there were about 80km of hedgerows around the farm, and the hedge trimmer was based there for a month. All the internal hedgerows had to be taken out while the boundary ones were left.
When the older shelter was planted, Sid Hurst put in poplars and pussy willow, with the idea the poplars would be harvested for timber and the willow would be longer-term lower shelter. Last year, poplars were milled with a portable sawmill.
Looking for low shelter, Russell Hurst planted pine, manuka, tree lucerne, pampas grass and gorse on one of the dairy farms, with the manuka, tree lucerne and gorse providing flowers for bees.
On the next property, he added pussy willow and curly willow and, more recently, native broom, wattle, Douglas fir and crows nest poplar.
While planting gorse ‘‘always raises a few eyebrows’’, Mr Hurst said he had seen all the gorse hedges around Canterbury which provided low, dense shelter.
The other varieties were susceptible to vermin, including rabbits and hares, but ‘‘nothing will touch gorse’’.
Now about halfway through the development of changing from border dyke to spray irrigation, the Hursts had opted for high-rise pivots so shelter could be planted underneath.
As far as any difference in pasture growth, Mr Hurst said he never kept records before, but everyone was telling him that they were growing more grass. They were putting more cows on and managing to feed them, so he could only presume they were growing more grass.
Chris Dennison, who has an arable and dairy farm on the Lower Waitaki Plains, was a former chairman of the Lower Waitaki Irrigation Company that brought the water to the plain.
Relating the scheme’s history, he said annual rainfall in 1969 of 279mm was the same as Alice Springs — ‘‘just about a desert’’ — and all his father had at home were his dogs and rams. Everything else was away grazing.
In the 1970s, farmers voted in the scheme, which was built by the then Ministry of Works, and the first water — provided by a border dyke system — went on in 1974. With a budgeted cost of $2.5million, it blew out to $9m and it was finished in 1982.
In the first year of the scheme, there were three dairy farms, 22 arable farms and the rest were sheep with beef. There were now three sheep farms, three arable and the rest were dairy and dairy support.
The cost of converting from border dyke to spray was $10,000 to $12,000 per hectare. There was a huge capital cost in the move and then the ongoing costs of depreciation, Mr Dennison said.
The conference’s local organising committee chairwoman Julie Kearney was thrilled with the success of the event, which attracted 210 registrations.
There was an ‘‘amazing’’ lineup of speakers, lots of science and lots of questions around the practicalities of that science. The real bonus of the conference was interaction between scientists and farmers, she said.
A highlight was a social event at Totara Estate, the birthplace of New Zealand’s frozen meat industry, Mrs Kearney said.
Also presented with a farming award was Scott Simpson, in recognition of his leadership and innovation supporting agribusiness in North Otago and the wider farming community.
Richard Green received the Ray Brougham Trophy in recognition of his contribution to pastoral agriculture, while Colin Fergusson received the grassland regional award for his contribution to pastoral research.
