"Cows are milked in a 50 bale rotary shed. The property has an effective grazing area of 325ha – consisting of mostly easy and medium contour pasture on sandy loam and sandy silt soils, with some steeper slopes on the farm's boundaries," Rasmussen says.
"The milking platform comprises 280ha, with 45ha of additional runoff pasture. The farm also has an untended 1ha pinus radiata woodlot."
The farm is located at between 320m and 510m above sea level, and is located in an area with a recorded annual rainfall of between 1300mm to 1400mm. The property consists of four individual titles, and is connected by an underpass under Matahorua Rd which allows for easy stock movement throughout the paddocks.
"Stock water is sourced from Lake Opouahi and is gravity-fed into two large water tanks before being circulated to five smaller tanks. A gravity-reticulated system then supplies most of the stock troughs through alcathine piping," says Rasmussen.
Farm building infrastructure on the Tutira property includes:
• a 50-bale DeLaval rotary milking shed built in 2005 with hydraulic drafting gates and office;
• an adjacent concrete-floor five-bay implement shed/workshop;
• a decommissioned 52-aside herringbone milking shed;
• a 20-pen calf rearing facility with capacity for up to 200 calves, along with a lockable four—bay implement shed/workshop and an old four-stand wool shed with wool room;
and
• cattle yards, a half-round hay barn, and two-bay lockable workshop
The accommodation on the property encompasses:
• a four-bedroom/two-bathroom homestead heated by two free-standing fires – one of which is used to heat the homes hot water;
• a separate four-bedroom/two bathroom manager's residence;
• a three-bedroom workers' dwelling; and
• a two-bedroom open-plan single men's quarters unit.
Franklin says about 25-ha of the farm is planted in cropping pasture – with an average of 500 bales of baleage cut on the property annually. He says the property operates an extensive pasture fertilisation programme through annual application.
