RURAL PEOPLE: Ross & Andrea Naylor
Business Rural / Spring 2013
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future 115ha will be put into lucerne and 73ha into kale for dairy support. While the water irrigation project will obviously broaden the farm’s ecnomic base, Naylor is clear that the motivation is not about financial gain. Indeed, there will be none in his lifetime, he points out: “It’s simply about securing the future of the property’s water rights for future generations,” he says, The expanded irrigation system will allow the Naylors to increase the number of stock units carried on Spennymoor from 10,000 to 12,500. They run 3200 quarter-bred ewes and winter 2700 hoggets, 1600 of which go to the works as winter hoggets and the remainder in the spring/summer period. They keep around 1100 replacement hoggets for breeding. The quarterbred flock is a strong merino breed, with wool averaging 22.5 microns. They also run 50 hereford breeding cows, and keep the calves to fatten, Around 200 dairy heifers have been grazed on the property for the last 12 months. Ross Naylor is the fifth generation of his family to farm in the Matakanui area after his family settled there in 1875 and started farming in 1878. The family bought the original sections of Spennymoor, the property Naylor grew up on and now farms, in 1910. The Naylor block, which had been part of Matakanui Station, was named after the birthplace of Ross Naylor’s great-greatgrandmother in Durham, England. In his spare time he writes. He has written books on the history of education in the Manuherikia Valley and the Matakanui Rugby Club, and is helping complete a book about the tenure of Matakanui Station, from its beginnings in 1857, when John Turnbull Thompson surveyed the area, until 2014. He employs his son, George, 25, who has a Diploma of Agriculture and Farm Management from Lincoln University. He is looking ahead to George becoming the sixth generation of Naylors to farm the land, and to carry on the family legacy and history in the area. Andrea Naylor assists with paperwork and helps on the farm more hands on when needed. Daughter Ingrid, who is a registered nurse, is also helping on the property at present, after spending time on her OE in Europe. Ross Naylor is looking to employ another young staff member and says the diversity of the farm operations provides a good learning opportunity.
Stage one of the irrigation project on the Naylor farm at Matakanui involves the construction of two dams, which will feed water to a centre-pivot. The earthworks is being done by Roger Wilson Contracting.
The motivation is not about financial gain... It’s simply about securing the future of the property’s water rights for future generations.
Providing specialist engineering expertise for designing farm irrigation and effluent ponds Mt Aurum Engineering Consultants Ltd, 3 McLellan Place, Wanaka
Phone: 03 443 5159 Mobile: 027 456 0022 Email: info@mtaurumeng.co.nz www.mtaurumeng.co.nz
Roger Wilson Contracting Ltd Irrigation Dam Construction • Dairy Conversions General Farm Earthworks • Mole Plowing Stock Water Schemes Land Development for Centre Pivot Irrigators Proud to be the selected contractor by Ross and George, to carry out the development earth works for there new irrigation scheme.
For all your Shearing and Dipping requirements Phone Paul 027 547 3653 | 03 447 3653
620 State Highway 85 RD3 Alexandra Contact Roger 027 432 7664 Email: wilsoncontracting@xtra.co.nz
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