PERFORMANCE INNOVATION CONNECTEDNESS SCALE
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Jon and Fiona Sherlock took over Otorohaea in 2014.
LIGHTER HEIFERS FIT BILL After taking over Otorohaea, Jon and Fiona sold the breeding herd and switched to a heifer trading policy. They initially ran older heifers but now they buy in about 125 R1-year heifers in autumn and aim to finish them after 1820 months on the farm. Most go before Christmas at about 240kg carcaseweight (CW). Jon says the younger heifers are better for the hills than heavier stock, which can cause erosion damage. But the Sherlocks aren’t committed to selling prime if feed gets short. ‘The theory behind the heifers was that they give us flexibility,” Fiona says. “If it gets dry, they can go.”
SUCCESSION PLAN BRINGS SCOPE Taking over the family farm wasn’t always the number one goal for Jon Sherlock. He and wife Fiona had successful careers off-farm before returning to Otorohaea. But when the opportunity to buy the farm arose six years ago they decided it was what they wanted to do. Fiona, who was raised on a Hawkes Bay orchard, met Jon at Massey University where they both studied agricultural science. In 2004, after a long stint working overseas, the couple teamed up with farm consultant Peter Fraser to establish subscription-based livestock market
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information service iFarm, which was later sold to NZX Agri. They returned to live on Otorohaea in 2009 and started farming it in 2012. In 2014 they set up a company with Jon’s brother Ric and sister Toni to buy the farm from Jon’s parents, Rory and Sue, who had run the farm since taking it over from Rory’s parents in the mid-1970s. “Dad was ready to wind down a bit. Fiona and I were keen to take over and we put a lot of thought into whether we were going to do it on our own account or not.” Jon’s siblings both had off-farm careers – Ric is a geneticist at Livestock Improvement and Toni is an employment lawyer – and weren’t interested in physically running the farm themselves. But, like Jon and his parents, they had strong emotional ties to the property and were keen to keep it as a base for family. So the siblings set up the limited liability company Otorohaea Ltd, taking up equal shareholdings to buy the farm and finance future expansion. “We run a fairly formal board structure, and we officially meet about four times a year,” Jon says. “Everyone brings different skills to the business, so there is a real synergy there.” Fiona says the Sherlocks are a close-knit family, which helps make the system work. Rory Sherlock is a director of the company but not a shareholder. He and Sue live in a new house built on the farm and he still helps out. Jon says it’s a real bonus being able to
Country-Wide
October 2020