In the second part of this two-part series, B+LNZ looks at how a Central Canterbury farming family has diversified their sheep and beef business to generate a return on their investment in irrigation.
Dairy grazing, cash crops, standing feed and solar energy all complement the King family’s sheep and beef enterprises and these were all discussed at a recent B+LNZ Stock, Solar and Strategies field day held on their 1110ha property near Windwhistle in Central Canterbury.
Dairy grazing
Dairy grazing is an important part of the King’s business and in December every year they take on around 320 dairy heifers. These stay until they are about to calve as two-olds, so they will have around 640 dairy heifers on the farm for most of the year.
Cropping rotation
The district is called Windwhistle for a reason and to preserve soil, particularly in spring when Nor Westers can prevail, the family uses minimum tillage as much as possible.
The crop rotation is typically a brassica followed by a fodder beet crop (which is sold as a standing crop) and then into a permanent pasture mix of 12kg/ha diploid ryegrass with 4kg/ha each of red and white clover. Fraser expects to get seven years of production out of this pasture before it does back into a brassica.
Californian thistles are a problem, and Fraser says they will occasionally grow a hybrid grass to try and deal with these weeds.
Barley is grown for the feed market, and they aim for yields of 10t/ha.
Always looking for an opportunity, they have grown radish and ryegrass seed crops in the past as well as milling wheat.
The Kings have also leased out land for potatoes, but Fraser says this crop is particularly hard on the soil.
Other crops grown include triticale and forage maize.
Pinch periods
Fraser says the two pinch periods in the year. These are at set-stocking in spring, if grass-growth is slow to start, and again in early autumn when they are flushing ewes, finishing lambs and trying to ensure dairy heifers hit their weight targets.
They do keep two bunds full of grass silage which they can open if they need to, and Fraser says they could be using more nitrogen to help boost grass growth at critical times of the year.
Solar power
The installation of a bank of solar panels has been a gamechanger for the family who were racking up power bills of around $27000 to drive the four centre pivot irrigators on Shelterdale and pump water to them. (The Kings are one of only a handful of farmers that don’t receive their Central Plains Water under pressure as their land lies above the canal.)
Thanks to power generated by the sun, they are not only powering the whole farm, but they are also generating a credit of around $7000 for the power they are selling back to the grid.
Fraser says they took out a low interest business sustainability loan to install the 244 panels which cost $165,000 (including clearing some trees). They worked with Ashburton based company Auric Electrical who installed the panels and the infrastructure.
Fraser said they had budgeted on a rate of return on investment of nine to 10 years, but the system has been so successful, it will take six to seven years to pay off.
“We are producing 12 percent more power than we thought we would.”
While they still receive a power bill in the middle of the irrigation season, when they can’t make enough power, at other times of the year they will receive a credit.
Fraser says working with local power company Plains Power, they have forward fixed a retail rate for the power they use and sell power at the spot rate.
The panels require minimal maintenance, just the occasional clean, and Fraser says they have stood up well to the Nor West gales that can buffet the farm. They have had no problem getting insurance for them and didn’t need a resource consent.