New Zealand - Land of milk and honey? Holwellcourtfarm's tour 2017

[holwellcourtfarm]

What ya doing now?

Do keep up @Hurdle bunter

Childcare

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

Picture courtesy of Blacklabel Photography - check out his FB page for some awesome Catlins scenery!

Next time

 

[onthehoof]

How far south are you coming, third weekend in september can be a little rough, it will be spring down here and early summer 'up north' is possibly the best way to describe it..
..which can mean anything!!
.. bring a range of clothing

So how long would your 'winter' be compared to North island

 

[onthehoof]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/40692229

 

[Kiwi Pete]

So how long would your 'winter' be compared to North island

It really is a tricky answer to give an answer to. I sometimes skip to Taranaki over winter and it doesn't feel like winter when I land, warm and wet.. but it is winter, and everyone is wrapped up..
I'd call winter: end of june til September; but it can start to pack up in March, or throw something nasty up in September...

Winter here is pretty kind I think, it just gets wet! It could be ten degrees warmer up north but they'll feel just as cold as we do
Central Otago is much higher so they have a goodly long winter, much more extreme heat, cold inland as you'd imagine! And dry with it. Where I live may be 3 hours by road but is totally different.
Fonterra farmer will be 3 weeks into calving or so, dairy farmers down this end will be just getting the odd live one born now. A good month later..
I could type more and more and explain it less and less- and it's luck mainly.

Friday- 45 minutes away from here there were houses with two feet of water in, and I was feeding out in a paddock in the tractor and hardly making a mark.. (with care).
Saturday.. Frosty start but then a shower..
Sunday.. Frosty and warm- had a garden day and burnt prunings in a drum.. tee shirt and shorts

It's madness

 

[FonterraFarmer]

It really is a tricky answer to give an answer to. I sometimes skip to Taranaki over winter and it doesn't feel like winter when I land, warm and wet.. but it is winter, and everyone is wrapped up..
I'd call winter: end of june til September; but it can start to pack up in March, or throw something nasty up in September...

Winter here is pretty kind I think, it just gets wet! It could be ten degrees warmer up north but they'll feel just as cold as we do
Central Otago is much higher so they have a goodly long winter, much more extreme heat, cold inland as you'd imagine! And dry with it. Where I live may be 3 hours by road but is totally different.
Fonterra farmer will be 3 weeks into calving or so, dairy farmers down this end will be just getting the odd live one born now. A good month later..
I could type more and more and explain it less and less- and it's luck mainly.

Friday- 45 minutes away from here there were houses with two feet of water in, and I was feeding out in a paddock in the tractor and hardly making a mark.. (with care).
Saturday.. Frosty start but then a shower..
Sunday.. Frosty and warm- had a garden day and burnt prunings in a drum.. tee shirt and shorts

It's madness

A wet winterss day at 10c here is colder than a dry winters day at zero in London.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

A wet winterss day at 10c here is colder than a dry winters day at zero in London.

Is that why I was the only one out at the Nuggets wearing short pants?
I always find the North to be really sticky damp compared to what I'm used to (and come back home sick) and a few days at home brings me right.
It's only a few hundred miles but it could be a different country.
Turn on the t.v. news, and sometimes wish it was

 

[Hurdle bunter]

It really is a tricky answer to give an answer to. I sometimes skip to Taranaki over winter and it doesn't feel like winter when I land, warm and wet.. but it is winter, and everyone is wrapped up..
I'd call winter: end of june til September; but it can start to pack up in March, or throw something nasty up in September...

Winter here is pretty kind I think, it just gets wet! It could be ten degrees warmer up north but they'll feel just as cold as we do
Central Otago is much higher so they have a goodly long winter, much more extreme heat, cold inland as you'd imagine! And dry with it. Where I live may be 3 hours by road but is totally different.
Fonterra farmer will be 3 weeks into calving or so, dairy farmers down this end will be just getting the odd live one born now. A good month later..
I could type more and more and explain it less and less- and it's luck mainly.

Friday- 45 minutes away from here there were houses with two feet of water in, and I was feeding out in a paddock in the tractor and hardly making a mark.. (with care).
Saturday.. Frosty start but then a shower..
Sunday.. Frosty and warm- had a garden day and burnt prunings in a drum.. tee shirt and shorts

It's madness

Taranaki[emoji7]

 

[Gulli]

A wet winterss day at 10c here is colder than a dry winters day at zero in London.

I always struggled with winter over there. Rarely got lower than 3 or 4 degrees but it was a horrible cold. Doesn't help that most farmers houses up north don't have things like heating or insulation or even walls which don't have holes in

 

[kiwi pom]

What ya doing now?

Mrs kp was offered her old job back so is now working full time and earning more than I was by working mostly Monday to Friday 8 til 5. Benefits of an education
So I'm at home looking after the kids, until I'm told otherwise

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

Mrs kp was offered her old job back so is now working full time and earning more than I was by working mostly Monday to Friday 8 til 5. Benefits of an education
So I'm at home looking after the kids, until I'm told otherwise

How did you get on in the UK?

 

[FonterraFarmer]

Is that why I was the only one out at the Nuggets wearing short pants?
I always find the North to be really sticky damp compared to what I'm used to (and come back home sick) and a few days at home brings me right.
It's only be 50km, but it could be a different country.
Turn on the t.v. news, and sometimes wish it was

I thought that looked familiar.

 

[kiwi pom]

How did you get on in the UK?

Really good. The kids enjoyed being with their grandparents and uncle and I caught up with a heap of mates.
The place gets more built up every time I go back and the traffic is ridiculous, where's everyone going at 10 am on a Tuesday? surely everyone should be at work
I can see why you want to leave.
On the other hand if I could afford somewhere to live out of town near my parents I wonder sometimes if we could live there, a lot to be said for living near family and old friends, it is still "home" in a way.

The idea soon passes though

Although if I had a chance to farm here or the UK I think I'd still pick the UK, no idea why

 

[Hurdle bunter]

Really good. The kids enjoyed being with their grandparents and uncle and I caught up with a heap of mates.
The place gets more built up every time I go back and the traffic is ridiculous, where's everyone going at 10 am on a Tuesday? surely everyone should be at work
I can see why you want to leave.
On the other hand if I could afford somewhere to live out of town near my parents I wonder sometimes if we could live there, a lot to be said for living near family and old friends, it is still "home" in a way.

The idea soon passes though

Although if I had a chance to farm here or the UK I think I'd still pick the UK, no idea why

Is your Mrs a kiwi or a Brit? How old are your kids?

 

[kiwi pom]

Is your Mrs a kiwi or a Brit? How old are your kids?

She's a Kiwi. Stole her off the locals when I got here
Daughters 3 and boy child is about to turn 5 so keep me busy

 

[stewart]

Really good. The kids enjoyed being with their grandparents and uncle and I caught up with a heap of mates.
The place gets more built up every time I go back and the traffic is ridiculous, where's everyone going at 10 am on a Tuesday? surely everyone should be at work
I can see why you want to leave.
On the other hand if I could afford somewhere to live out of town near my parents I wonder sometimes if we could live there, a lot to be said for living near family and old friends, it is still "home" in a way.

The idea soon passes though

Although if I had a chance to farm here or the UK I think I'd still pick the UK, no idea why

Everytime we go back we find the same, every where is built up, it is good to catch up with family and mates but apart from that I wouldn't dream of going back (It wouldn't be a dream more like a nightmare).

Interesting comment that you would pick the UK to farm, I have done both and prefer farming in NZ. I must do, I now have dual citizenship and can choose which country to live in.

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

Everytime we go back we find the same, every where is built up, it is good to catch up with family and mates but apart from that I wouldn't dream of going back (It wouldn't be a dream more like a nightmare).

Interesting comment that you would pick the UK to farm, I have done both and prefer farming in NZ. I must do, I now have dual citizenship and can choose which country to live in.

I think we could see some big changes in what it means to farm in the UK over the next few years. I've thought since the referendum that the UK would retain some type of subsidy but all for environmental gain and Gove's recent comments haven't changed my view. However, I suspect it will be more practical to base a farming business around what the market wants in NZ than here.

NZ does have an environmental lobby, as the outcry about the proposed raising of Lake Mannapouri and the scrapping of Project Aqua shows, but there seems to be a certain practicality about them. In the UK the environmental lobby is much less compromising and they are very influential in government circles. Nobody appeared concerned about the effect on farming of extending the closed season for hedges until September, for instance.

I'm willing to take my chances with NZ. And that's before you factor in the increasing development of the UK that @stewart and @kiwi pom have mentioned.

 

[BLG]

In the late seventies there was a kiwi over here spraying aphids and applying fertilizer with a Cessna Agtruck named Barry Ridden He operated sometimes from part of the perimeter track at the former second world war airfield at Zeals, on the Wiltshire/Dorset/Somerset border. He sprayed some wheat for me on one occasion.

He had a couple of accidents that I know about, one being when he was applying solid fertilizer near Chard. Having filled his hopper, he found that he wasn't going to get airborne in the field length available. He jettisoned the load, but still partially went through the hedge, losing one undercarriage leg and wheel in the process. As he flew over the field and seeing the leg on the ground, he elected to go to Compton Abbas airfield to have the inevitable accent. I was up there a few days later and saw the aircraft being repaired. He had obviously made a good fist of landing on 1 wheel and holding the wing up for as long as possible, as the damage was minimal.

On another occasion, I was driving past Coldcot Farm, near Stourhead and saw the aircraft crashed underneath some power lines.

I thought at the time what a risky procedure it was. Not my sort of flying at all.

You may be interested in this, last year one of my drivers was going down to a field to do some discing next to our neighbours airstrip and got there just in time to see a topdressing plane dump his fert after not making it to the air. He got to the end of the runway and was still on the ground and after dropping the fert went through two fences 5mtrs apart and broke every wire but the bottom but still managed to return and land. Shows the strength of the undercarriage and the skill of the pilot. If my driver had been a minute earlier she would've been parked on the other side of those fences setting up the discs and things would've been a bit more serious!

The pilot came down and apologised to her for breaking the fence and she said he was shaking!!

Two days later they were flying the same plane again and buzzing her as he took off.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=232983000419907

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

You may be interested in this, last year one of my drivers was going down to a field to do some discing next to our neighbours airstrip and got there just in time to see a topdressing plane dump his fert after not making it to the air. He got to the end of the runway and was still on the ground and after dropping the fert went through two fences 5mtrs apart and broke every wire but the bottom but still managed to return and land. Shows the strength of the undercarriage and the skill of the pilot. If my driver had been a minute earlier she would've been parked on the other side of those fences setting up the discs and things would've been a bit more serious!

The pilot came down and apologised to her for breaking the fence and she said he was shaking!!

Two days later they were flying the same plane again and buzzing her as he took off.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=232983000419907

A bit of a weight issue

 

[stewart]

I think we could see some big changes in what it means to farm in the UK over the next few years. I've thought since the referendum that the UK would retain some type of subsidy but all for environmental gain and Gove's recent comments haven't changed my view. However, I suspect it will be more practical to base a farming business around what the market wants in NZ than here.

NZ does have an environmental lobby, as the outcry about the proposed raising of Lake Mannapouri and the scrapping of Project Aqua shows, but there seems to be a certain practicality about them. In the UK the environmental lobby is much less compromising and they are very influential in government circles. Nobody appeared concerned about the effect on farming of extending the closed season for hedges until September, for instance.

I'm willing to take my chances with NZ. And that's before you factor in the increasing development of the UK that @stewart and @kiwi pom have mentioned.

The NZ environmental lobby is very strong, as the proposed raising of Lake Manapouri demonstrated, the raising of the lake would have substantially increased the power output, raising the lake 100' would hardly be noticed, the sides are pretty steep and high.

Most farmers in NZ and the UK care for the environment, after all they have to live in it, it is generally the urban dwellers who have an impractical view around environmental concerns,as the UK has a larger urban population it could be argued that NZ appears to take a more practical approach, the big concern is the following the Green party have here and the power they could wield if they gain a number of seats in parliament.