Christophers Comment March 2014

Posted by Chris on 25 March 2014 | 0 Comments

CHRISTOPHER'S COMMENT MARCH 2014

I started my last comment with the fact that I was waiting for a wet day to update our activities. We are now in our third drought in four years and as there is no sign of any wet days ahead this comment will have to be written on a fine day as well.

To update from our last comment in September. We ended up tailing 155% which was a very creditable result given the difficulties of trying to flush ewes in the middle of a drought. As expected the survival rate was right up there at 90% which is probably one of our best results. No hoggets were mated because to their drought stricken condition. After tailing Hugh and I debated the idea of rotating the ewes and lambs in three or four mobs. I was initially against the idea this year as I felt there was sufficient grass and we have tended to rotate in the past only when feed was short. However, I was persuaded otherwise and I think it was the correct decision. Our lambs this year have done better than ever before killing out at close to 18kgs and this could have been because of the better start they received. So, what we were hoping would be a good spring/summer has somewhat turned to custard. Looking back on our rainfall records the last day we had 20ml or over was December 5^th last year and the last day we had over 12ml in a day was December 27^th. Previous to that September 13^th was our only other day over 20ml. So I think this has been a contributing factor as to why we got dry quite quickly this year. The saving grace for us was going to be Cyclone Lusi but as usual the forecasters were well astray of the mark. Our farm got 18ml over two days and not the forecasted 'drought breaking' rain that was promised.

So how are we coping? In the spring we made 200 bales of baleage (ten bale equivalents) and we have purchased a further forty. We have also purchased a Hustler Bale Feeder and together with our 100hp Case Tractor (Big Red) we have been able to feed out daily to all the cattle as well as try to flush the ewes on a little grass and two bales of baleage daily. Hopefully a good autumn rain will arrive in time to give us some grass before winter, whenever that maybe this year, and before the supplements run out. Once again it is unlikely we will be able to mate our ewe hoggets. However, we have been lucky in that virtually all our lambs and old ewes had left the farm before the dry hit and at good prices which was a bonus. Good management Hugh.

As foreshadowed last comment big changes occurred late last year. We finally moved house in early November from the farm into our renovated villa in Cambridge. The shift itself was relatively easy as we had been moving things down ourselves for a week or so prior to the removal truck arriving. So now we are officially 'townies' and its not all bad. Our new home is everything and more that we had hoped it would be and adjusting to living in town has been quite easy. We had Christmas here with our daughters and their families. We had a wonderful time at 'the new house'. We continued the time honoured tradition of making our Christmas presents and some great innovation and resourcefulness was shown. We are now trying to get some of the landscaping completed but that hasnt been easy because of the dry conditions. We hydro-seeded our lawn area when we first moved in to make sure we didnt have a dust problem over summer. That has worked well but we now have a lot of summer grass weed so at some stage this autumn we will need to re-grass some of the lawns. I still enjoy heading up to the farm to two/three days per week and it is lovely having family living in our old home – saves me taking a cut lunch to work!

We decided late in the year that we would head to the South Island again to do another of the Great Walks. This time it was the Hollyford essentially a river valley walk from the Eglington Valley, Te Anau to the West Coast. We left Cambridge mid-February in the reliable old farm truck (310,000 kms on the clock) and had a wonderful three weeks away. We had a total of fifteen in our group including our friends Shona and Rupert Bentley and Simon, Jane and Miriam Makgill. We all just loved the area and the history attached to it. So isolated. So beautiful. We all managed the walk, the jet boat and the helicopter ride back into to Milford Sound and are now busy planning our next adventure. Maybe Stewart Island and/or Lake Waikaremoana.

Although these past six months have included some great achievements and many exciting challenges, there has also been some sadness for us. In January 2013 Sue and Pete James from the UK stayed with us. Sue was a Sherwood from the Macdonald side of the family. We had forged a close bond with them on our trip to Britain in 2011 and Sue had spent many many hours on genealogy for us. Sadly Sue died of inoperable lung cancer just before Christmas. She was an amazing lady. We loved her. Friend and neighbour Audrey Bennison died in February succumbing to what she had so bravely fought against for nearly twenty years. We loved her too and will miss her very much.

And Sally, our last faithful four legged doggy friend at Taruna Farm died on Christmas Eve.

Family birthdays included Amy, Stuart, Montfort, Cliff, James and Kate and most importantly moi.....that seventy year old milestone gets closer by the day. Ella was conferred with a Doctorate in her field of Health Sciences at a Graduation Ceremony at the Aotea Centre Auckland in December; we could not be more proud of our daughter. Congratulations and love to Ella from us all. The three little Beeches bear the scars of chicken pox as we speak. Its been a challenging week for Mummy. Beechy and Amy, like our Trans-Tasman friend Mulga Bill, have the cycling craze and are heading to the Hawkes Bay next weekend without offspring to blow-off some steam – that should ease the pain!

Finally, lovely to catch up a couple of old school friends last week. John Niemack from Perth and his brother Rod from Melbourne were across the Tasman for a couple of weeks R & R; great to see you both.