Farming to the conditions

A continuous focus to find the balance of farming profitably within the constraints of their environment is what motivates Paul and Kerry Harmer to run Castle Ridge Station for the next generation by working with the environment.

The Harmers have learned over 30 years that farming in the Ashburton Gorge at high altitude (the homestead is at 650 metres above sea level) has extreme weather, from hot, dry summers to harsh winters and short growing seasons, so have adapted their stock policy to best fit.

Paul’s parents Peter and Mary Harmer purchased the station in 1992, to then buy part of neighbouring Clent Hills in 2004 and the freehold part of Barrosa went through Tenure Review in 2011.

All of the Harmer’s children – Ben (24), Sam (22) and Annabel (19) are showing an interest in farming. Ben is currently working for the Ensors at Glenaan in the Rakaia Gorge after working at Armidale with partner Kate Campbell, who is woolclassing. Sam has recently completed the New Zealand Merino Company’s Wool Classer Scholarship programme and Annabel is planning to start vet school
at Massey University after returning from a gap year in the UK.

“It’s incredible to have two passionate female woolclassers in the family with Kate and Sam. It was extra special to have Kate, Ben and Sam the top three in the National Merino Judging last year too,” Kerry says.

“Growing up here, I have always been fascinated by the whole process, from the sheep right through to the garment. If you know where a product is going and what it’s going to be used for, you have that in the back of your mind when you’re classing.” – Sam Harmer, Woolclasser

Sam is passionate about her flock of 50 ultra-fine ewes (13 micron) ewes she is building up. “Growing up here, I have always been fascinated by the whole process, from the sheep right through to the garment. If you know where a product is going and what it’s going to be used for, you have that in the back of your mind when you’re classing, when you’re taking fleeces out,” Sam says.

Sheep are the backbone of the farming operation with a dual focus between terminal store lambs and their merino contract with Icebreaker (18.5 micron). All merino wool that meets specifications goes to supply their 10-year Icebreaker contract as a longtime supplier to The New Zealand Merino Company (and a part of Icebreaker’s Growers Club).

With the property prone to snow at any time, Castle Ridge continues to employ the age-old art of blade shearing for their main shear in August.

“Blade shearing leaves more wool on the sheep, which is crucial for our climate and altitude so we really worry about the fact there’s not many new blade shearers taking on the skill,” Kerry says.

The station’s main animal health pressure comes from footrot. With their lamb cheque in February they go on to purchase Merino ewe hoggets from two other properties that have similar conditions. The Harmers started a few years back on a long-term plan to build up naturally tolerant animals. They are working together with son Ben with an elite ewe mob so that the station can have its own footrot tolerant rams to select from.

Despite Castle Ridge’s extensive nature, the Harmers put much effort into lambing time. Starting around September 20, most tend to lamb in early October. While the two-tooths lamb a month later on the hill, the rest are split into mobs and shedded off daily with any obvious spares bought in.

“While Merinos are not renowned for their mothering abilities, Armidale genetics do have good maternal traits, which has improved our ‘survival to sale’ percentage.” Kerry explains.

The onfarm team has reared up to 800 lambs with automatic lamb feeders. “We absolutely hated seeing lambs dying. Not only because it’s a loss of profit, but it’s an animal welfare and caring thing.”

The 2024 drought meant a lot more reared due to ewes being lighter and them dropping off one lamb to go travel further to forage, Kerry explains.

The lamb cheque has sometimes made up more than half the farm income from the February on-farm lamb sale by PGG Wrightson and Hazlett. It’s become one of the biggest on the annual calendar since 2005, with close to 8,500 Poll Dorset-Merino cross lambs sold with up to 80% going prime. Any leftover lambs are taken through winter and sold after they’re shorn in July for their half-bred wool.

They credit part of their successful lamb operation to the introduction of Poll Dorset rams to their mixed-aged ewes to get around the challenging climate and terrain. The Harmers have been buying their Poll Dorset rams from George Lowe’s Windermere Stud, near Ashburton, for more than 20 years.

“We are just stewards for a short space of time. Our job is to leave an environment in a better place for everyone who has a relationship with it, not just us as owners.” – Kerry Harmer, Castle Ridge Station

Not only do the Poll Dorset-cross lambs seem to thrive in the environment and are up and running as soon as they hit the ground, but there is also a short turnaround, as they are only on the ground for four months before being sold. It gives us the best of both worlds: fine wool and good finishing lambs.

This season has been one of one of the toughest, with Castle Ridge getting just half its annual rainfall.

“We had a really dry summer, and it’s basically carried on. We’ve had less than half our annual rainfall to date. Usually, we make around 1,000 bales of lucerne baleage, and this year, we only got 380 and had to buy in bales and 100 tonnes of barley.”

Their last significant rainfall was snowfall in October 2023 and it went from a cold spring to a dry summer, with their autumn window for growth shut down with the first frosts arriving in the middle of March 2024. There was no good winter rain until late July 2024.

“We normally grow 300 hectares of turnips and swedes (winter feed) but after getting the swedes in and spraying off the next paddocks for turnips to feed young stock we made the call against putting the drill in the ground because of the rain shortage. We’ve had seasons like this before. But it’s a bit different this time. Usually, we can rely on rain in the autumn, but we didn’t get any, and we didn’t get as much snow either.”

The most efficient and cost-effective option was to concentrate on feeding barley to ewes with the poorest condition scores. The main ewes got some barley at tupping on top of diminished winter crops and baleage brought in.

“Our cost of production will be significantly higher, but we have to look after our capital stock and grazing off farm isn’t such an easy option for Merino ewes. We could get rid of cattle as far as the heifers go, but that’s about the only class of stock we could send away grazing realistically. The cows will just work around hill country blocks and use some of the fat off their backs that we’ve been building up the past couple of years.”

Kerry says farmers this year have had to accept they would not get every last dollar and the stock would not look as good as they wanted, but nobody could be perfect all the time.

As part of being a grower for Icebreaker, the Harmers are part of the ZQRX programme, a pioneer quality assurance programme committed to strict animal welfare codes and having strategies to protect and enhance the natural environment.

The swedes and turnips are drilled with an Italian ryegrass using a cross-slot drill,something they have done for the past 20 years. The focus is on preserving and growing soil in a high wind erosion area. The Harmers have been relocating some of their winter grazing to reduce the nutrient load near Environment Canterbury (ECan) “sensitive” lakes red zone, as they’ve required consent to farm for a number of years.

Castle Ridge is in the Ashburton Lakes Catchment,which encompasses some 58,000 hectares that includes 13 Lakes, the Te Araroa Walkway, numerous recreational hunting, fishing, water, tramping, and snow opportunities, and is enjoyed by many in the extended community.

In 2019, the four farmers within the catchment joined the Ōtūwharekai Working Group, which includes members from the local iwi, Department of Conservation (DOC), LINZ, Ashburton District Council (ADC), ECan, Central South Island Fish & Game, the Ministry for the Environment, and the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) to look to collaboratively halt and reverse the degradation of ecology and values in the region.

On the back of that, in early 2023, the farmers officially launched the Ashburton Lakes Catchment Group, which falls under the Mid Canterbury Catchment Collective, to actively monitor impacts on water quality in a planned way and work on mitigation strategies to lessen their environmental footprint on their own farms.

“All the heat is on us as the landowners, but actually, we are only part of this, only part of the problem, and only part of the solution. So, we want to build the science knowledge with everybody collaboratively. Up until now, the finger has been pointed at us as the sole cause of it all, based on computer modelling and assumptions,” Kerry says.

Since September 2023, farmers have been measuring water quality where the water enters their properties, at a midpoint, and as the water departs. These nitrate tests range from less than 0.002ppm to 1.05ppm, which is extremely low, Kerry says. Some are less than 10% of the nitrate levels in the drinking water of the Ashburton town water supply.

“It would cost over $1 million to do all the fencing that previous regulations have suggested. We need to have ways to water stock that enables them to use it but with minimal impact. Long term, we are committed,but nothing happens overnight; this is a long-term challenge.” She says in up to 60% of areas measured, the water quality does not change or improves as it travels through the properties. In June 2024, they received a grant from MPI over the next four years from the Catchment Extension Services Fund, which will allow them to further their research and work to develop practices that will improve their environmental footprint in the basin and then share their findings with others.

The catchment group has been a part of a Plant & Food trial ‘Pushing the boundaries of catch crops’, which is enabling them to trial sowing oats, ryegrass and ryecorn in July. These
crops both grow in a cold time of year and soak up nitrogen behind the winter grazed crops.

The Harmers will continue to work collaboratively towards an environmental outcome and hope they will be able to reach a sensible, sustainable solution for their children to continue farming.

“We are just stewards for a short space of time. Our job is to leave an environment in a better place for everyone who has a relationship with it, not just us as landowners. Our hope is that our children will be able to continue to improve and enhance the environment while continuing to farm into the future,” Kerry says.