8
July 2015
CANTERBURY FARMING
Okawa FROM
G E N E RA
TI A R E N E T I O N TO G
ON
BY ANN MORGAN David and Rosemary Morrow ran Okawa Hereford Stud at Mt Somers in the foothills of the Canterbury Plains from 1977. They retired last year and passed the reigns to their daughter and son-in-law Penny and Nick France. The stud was originally established by David’s father in 1954. This year marked the stud’s 46th sale and the first the young couple were in charge of.
N
ick who is 35-yearsold met Penny who is 33-years-old when they were teenagers, eventually getting together at University. The couple have moved around, working on various farms before they returned to the stud. They now have four children aged six, five and three-yearold twins. They have two staff — Sam Lock from Methven is the second in charge, and Joe White from Geraldine as shepherd. Their breeding philosophy is — ‘having
bulls that perform well under commercial conditions and produce well grown, profitable offspring’. “We have been back for four years now, returning from Southland where we were stock managing for the Turner family in Mossburn,” said Nick. “We came home and leased half of the farm for a couple of years and David decided last year that it was time to retire, so we took over management of the stud.” David and Rosemary are still living on the property
and David gives the couple advice and helps out with bits and bobs. “It has been a long process to take over the reins. We haven’t just jumped in — there was a lot involved in the process to achieve a good transition of management. We make breeding decisions together and go to sales together and discuss what we need. David’s input is still very important.” The herd is r un commercially which includes winter on hill country for cows which puts pressure
Nick and Penny France have taken over the managing of Okawa station and plan to carry on with the core values of the stud
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