Striving on the snow line

Lake Ohau Station hasn’t changed a lot in its management since three generations of the Weatherall family passed the baton of custodianship over in 2007. The private rich-lister New Zealand family have full faith in Tom and Sally Moore to run the station – as a traditional high country station.

“There’s a lot of similarities of how we run the station now as was when I was working around Omarama in the mid-80s – shorn off the hill on blades then back out onto the hill,” says Lake Ohau Station manager, Tom Moore.

Tom and wife Sally came to Lake Ohau in 2016 following a career managing stations such as Lindis Peaks and Bendigo Station. “You learn something new in every place.”

With the leasehold’s topography stretching from the western shores of Lake Ohau to the 2220metre-high peak of Mt Peterson, over half the station comprises the dramatic mountain range in a glacier-carved valley.

Tom explains the juggling act of autumn musters bringing the ewes off their summer blocks and wethers down to the snow boundary to spell the South Temple in advance of the harsh snowfall they get mid-late July. The history books of Lake Oahu have documented the run holders that walked off the station in the 1880s under the pressure of the elements. Their farming calendar annually remains similar to decades prior, which works with the unique environment that Tom describes as having to be in the top 10% of harder high country places in the country.

The couple only get in casuals over the busy period, with Sally shifting and feeding out to stock on the flats. Ewes are fed out to from June to October before shearing from the 10th – 20th September and back out on the hill mid-October for lambing. Hoggets are shorn mid-October followed by wethers being brought in at the end of October for their haircut with the blades and back out. Once everything is back out on the hill, the low country is shut up to make as much silage as they can for the following season.

“We don’t have the country to do anything different – it’s wool and store stock. It’s not the easiest place to run, terribly windy and cold,” Tom explains.

With a dry season this year they worked hard to feed ewes better over the June/July period and then get the wool off mid-September, as they didn’t have any silage left and Tom believes this could impact next year’s wool clip.

Two-thirds of Lake Ohau’s income comes from the 30,000kg wool clip that annually goes into their 75-bale Icebreaker contract with a further five bales to a Nike contract and 16 bales to Mons Royale. Tom says it’s challenging with costs rising and whole clip contracts being in decline every year since 2019.

“Last year we couldn’t fill the Icebreaker contract with our wool strength and quality back. We weren’t able to feed everything as good as we would have liked and then a dry summer. We are back filling the contracts this year but it was tough,” Tom says.

The Moores buy Glenmore Station rams every year as they like their big bodied sheep with above average fleece weight of ideal micron for their wool contracts (17.5 micron in the hoggets with 18 – 20 micron in the two-tooths to mixed aged ewes and wethers).

They like to run a meatier rear end for both body structure and to provide consistent store lambs to Mark Ewiing every year. Mark’s late father Dick had been purchasing from the station since they arrived in 2016 to send to Canterbury for fattening.

“We don’t have the country to do anything different – it’s wool and store stock. It’s not the easiest place to run – terribly windy and cold.” – Tom Moore, Manager, Lake Ohau Station

“We have a limited selection for genetic gain with Glenmore being the only merino stud left farmed in the same condition as us, but also that our ewe replacements are limited each year as this is really wether country.”

Tom explains that his ram selection is balanced between wool and structure. While micron and wool weights are the priority, shoulder, feet and rear end are just as important to ensure they get a good-framed animal that requires minimal input in a harsh environment.

“Last year we couldn’t fill the Icebreaker contract with our wool strength and quality back. We weren’t able to feed everything as good as we would have liked and then a dry summer. We are back filling the contracts this year but it was tough.” – Tom Moore, Manager, Lake Ohau Station

“I don’t look much into the EBVs as I believe if you feed a sheep property they will produce. I do look at the foot scores though with 1,000mm plus annual rainfall.”

The owners want the station to run traditionally and to ‘tick along’. Money for development needs to come from the station profits, which Tom describes as ‘very little fat in the system’ to meet the rules and regulations from their leasehold in the Ruataniwha Conservation Park area.

They have been fencing off Lake Ohau and surrounding rivers, such as the Dobson River, doing as much as they can each year as finances allow. The challenge of doing so has been the inability to even scrap a track for access for fencing without needing a consent.

“The expectations are high and we are trying our best to chip away at the environmental requirements whilst keeping up with general maintenance.”

Stafford Weatherall and Mary (nee Sutherland of Benmore Station) built the original shearer’s quarters in the early 1970s as they saw an opportunity for low-cost accommodation for visitors to this isolated spot who came to tramp, duck shoot, ski at nearby Ohau ski field and fish the lake’s renowned salmon and trout.

The accommodation was closed on their departure in 2007, and demolished in 2012 when the new shearer’s quarters, a beautiful, modern lodge for groups of up to 24. The lodge is now managed by Karen and Geoff Friend.

The owners, along with the Moores, continue to look at diversification options, including trophy hunting, accommodation and/or land development to boost the revenue of the station.

“You do need to spend money to make money, but everything to diversify income is a huge capital outlay to the return on investment. So here’s hoping Merino prices improve.”

Farm facts

• Lake Ohau Station, Mackenzie Basin
• 8,322 hectares leasehold 550 metres above sea level, through to 2,100 metres.
• 6,000 merinos (2,500 ewes, 2,000 wethers and 1,500 hoggets) and 140 cows