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Holistics Win Over Farmer
RUNNING Merinos on coastal South Otago hill country may seem odd but for
Balclutha couple Geoff and Andrina Kitto it has proved to be the right decision.
About 19 years ago they bought 400ha of undeveloped, forested, steep, rough
and rocky country at Kaka Point and set about an extensive development programme.For
the first few years they grazed other people's stock. Seeing how well the
stock did, they decided to buy in their own dry stock and after considering
Perendales or crossbreds settled on cast-for-age Merino wethers sourced from
Richard and Annie Snow's Morven Hills property.
“We wanted low input and the Merinos have the wool value that other breeds
wouldn't have had," Mrs Kitto said.
In spite of the wet winters, which knocked the sheep around a bit, the cast-for-age
Merinos performed so well that they were encouraged to try wether hoggets,
this time bought from Russell and Jeanette Emmerson's Forest Range property
at Tarras.
And, strange as it might seem, the micron at 15.5 to 17.5 has not coarsened.
The Kaka Point property now winters 2400 Merino wethers.
Four years ago the Kittos were encouraged by the Emmersons to attend the
first South Island holistic management course run by Australian educator
Bruce Ward.
Mrs Kitto decided to see what it was all about but her husband dug his toes
in! After 30 years running an agricultural contracting business, which he
had recently sold, he believed he had picked enough of the good points about
farming and, with the simple low-input Kaka Point property ticking over nicely,
didn't want more work.
"I was sceptical about holistic management and apprehensive about what it
might involve," he said. "I was totally reactionary!" It was a typical case
of fear of the unknown.
But for Andrina it offered new opportunities to improve not only their farming
but their lifestyle. "I thought, why not explore new ideas to test
if we should keep doing what we'd been doing or change," she said.
It took Mr Kitto about three months after that first module before he decided
to attend the second module with his wife. The Christchurch venue also appealed.
"I thought the social side of meeting other farmers would be good," he said.
Mr Kitto said to his surprise he enjoyed the robust discussions and the way
the course questioned what farmers did, and was impressed that not just farmers
attended but their wives and, in some cases, families.
"It opened my eyes to the opportunities holistic management had for our farming
and lifestyle," he said.
He was surprised to also find out just how little he really knew about soils,
soil micro-organisms, trace elements, pasture species and their growth habit,
the effect different grazing practices had on pasture production and quality,
and how it all linked together to produce increased profits.
"It challenges conventional thinking and farming practices," Mr Kitto said.
"We now test every decision we make and where our dollar is best spent."
Financially, holistic management encourages farmers to decide what their
profit will be and then tackle the need for and cost of farm inputs instead
of traditionally accepting profit as what was left over after all the sums
had been done.
John Cutt, Southland Times, Saturday March 1st 2003. Reprinted here
with the kind permission of John Cutt and the Southland Times.
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