In the beginning
Rebecca Trotter is developing a 1ha pick-your-own strawberry patch.
Ben’s interest in bull beef started while working in Waikato for Agricom and meeting FarmIQ steering group members Neil Aitken and Bob Thomson. Neil, who farms bull beef at Pukawa, taught Ben a lot about the practical side of managing bulls, while Bob Thomson filled him in on the likely production and returns. “What I liked was that bull beef farming was science backed, a largely cell grazing system and the output easily measured,” Ben says. The potential growth rates – up to 1.5kg a day also caught his attention. Deciding to go bull beef farming was the easy part but finding suitable land on which to do it was difficult. The dilemma and choice that Ben and Rebecca had to make was whether to buy more expensive land closer to town so they could stay in higher paying full-time jobs, or pay less for more remote land, forgo their salaried jobs and rely solely on farm income. “We looked all over the country for a long time; it was like a marathon…in the end we bought in one of the most
BULL SALE - WEDNESDAY 16TH JUNE 2021- 2PM
On farm- Greenpark, Christchurch
SILVERSTREAM
CHAROLAIS.HEREFORDS
FB & Instagram- @silverstreamcharolais 138
BRENT & ANNA FISHER
03 329 0994 I 027 251 4791 I silverstream@farmside.co.nz Country-Wide Beef
May 2021