Matakanui Station owners Andrew and Tracy Paterson. Photo / Shawn McAvinue
Changes to the farm system of an 8700ha high-country sheep and beef station near Omakau are producing results. Shawn McAvinue finds out how Matakanui Station owners Andrew and Tracy Paterson are improving the productivity of their fine-wool sheep and Hereford cattle and how they hope to keep their irrigation operating when dry conditions begin to bite.
A call for a nude rain dance was made at a field day on a high-country sheep and beef station in Central Otago.
Matakanui Station owner Andrew Paterson made the tongue-in-cheek request to more than 80 people on an airstrip overlooking the station near Omakau last week.
The 8700-ha property rises to 1600m on the Dunstan Mountains.
About 2000ha is flat to rolling land and the rest of the terrain is higher, including 9km of skyline.
His take had already been reduced by half this summer, and he expects it to be cut off entirely this week. After the river take is cut off, water in dams outside the station will be available for irrigation.
When the dams become dry, he will cross his fingers and hope for rain.
Rain is needed before his single lamb replacements will be weaned from their mothers on the hills.
“If we take them down now and we run out of feed then we are in a whole lot worse position than if we leave them here.”
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Building dams to store water on the farm will future-proof the irrigation system.
A plan is to convince the bank to allow for four dams to be built on the station, including a 500cu m dam in a gully.
“We have got the water available — it is just not available right now.”
When the station was established in 1859, it covered more than 32,000ha.
When his grandfather Jim Paterson bought the station for £100,000 in 1958, “only the small, rocky corner” of the original station remained.
Despite a session at the Beef + Lamb New Zealand field day being on the economic benefits of mixing cattle breeds, the appeal of breeding straight Hereford remains for him.
“I find it hard to go away from a nicely marked, good-looking, well-put-together Hereford.”