The Pasture Princess

Farming photos from Canterbury and Marlborough

I mentioned last week that I would be on a trip around the north part of the South Island over the Easter break. Along the way I took some interesting photos, from vineyards, lucerne paddocks and salt factories in Marlborough to deer, irrigation systems and lavender in Canterbury. Here are just a few of them.....

Irrigators in Canterbury

Central pivot and border dyke irrigation near Mt Hutt, Canterbury

Lucerne paddocks in Marlborough....

and Canterbury.....

Deer farming in Canterbury

Alternative farming in Canterbury

Farming lavender and goats on a lucerne and plantain break

Salt factory in Marlborough

Vineyards in Marlborough

Bee keeping in Marlborough

Wishing you all a Happy Easter!

Since I arrived in New Zealand in early February, I have spent most of my time either in the AbacusBio office in Dunedin, or visiting farms all over Otago and Southland (and a few in Canterbury). So for a change, I am going to be a tourist over the Easter break! Over the next five days I will travel north from Dunedin, via Cantebury and the north east coast of the South island, including Kaikoura (excellent location for whale watching!) to Nelson and Abel Tasman. I keep hearing about the 'heat-wave'  forecast for home over the Easter weekend, which would be very nice here for a change! Unfortunately, it looks like more rain and cold weather will be on the cards. Oh well, I will just have to eat more easter eggs!

Hopefully I will get a chance to see some farming in the north too, which will be different to anything I have experienced so far down here in the south. Expect to see some photos next week. I wish you all a very happy Easter!

No farming as yet, but a couple of photos!

Well five days in to being in New Zealand, and no farming to report on as yet! The weekend has been spent trying to find accommodation for the next two months, and some wheels to get me around. No luck on the house front yet, as the students are due back this week from the summer holidays, meaning that short term let is proving difficult. Hopefully a car may be sorted, thanks to Chris Adams, my host when I was in New Zealand in 2009.

Despite quite a few rain showers on Saturday, i did get a chance to go for a long walk along the beach in Dunedin, and came across a viewpoint which overlooked Dunedin's prime location for trotting! See below at a photo of one of the horses out training. From what I have been told so far trotting is a dying sport this far south in New Zealand, with very few going to watch the monthly races. I think I will have to go for a look myself next race day!

In response to my comment about New Zealand having a higher rainfall than average for this time of year, I had an email from a friend of mine in the North Island, where a very different story has been reported. The North Island has had an exceptionally dry summer with drought being a problem .These are his words:

"production is well down on dairies, cows being sold, slaughtered, dried off early etc, rain just before xmas saved the day and recent storms have caused severe flooding. Shows the variation and microclimates around nz and the difference between north and south islands".

 

 

Touch down in Dunedin!

After a very long journey and four flights (including 2 hours queing to clear customs in LAX!), I finally arrived in Dunedin on Wednesday afternoon( NZ time). Peter Amer of Abacus, and my host for the next week or two picked me up from the airport and took me straight to Abacus to meet the team, and for a much needed shower!

In my mission to stay awake for as long as possible on Wednesday, I went for a long walk along St Claire Beach and watched about 50 surfers riding the waves! I'd rather them than me. Unfortunatley for me, New Zealand hasn't had much of a summer this year, so it really is like home from home! The warmest it has been since I arrived is 17C, and there is rain forecast for this weekend. This wet summer has kept the farmers happy though, at this time of year the land is usually very dry and barren but this year everywhere is green and lush.

I am keeping busy here preparing a presentation for the Abacus team on Monday to fill them in on what we do at innovis, what I hope to achieve while I am here and how sheep farming is different at home to here in NZ. That should start some interesting discussions!

Abacus have a group of 15 Brazilian farmers coming over for four days next week, and I will be accompanying them and Simon Glennie (beef and sheep consultant for Abacus) on a tour of farms and research stations across the South Island, from Dunedin to Invercargill, Te Anau and Queenstown, including a tour of the Alliance meat processing factory in Invercargill. That should be a good introduction to farming in Southland and Otago, and I will have a full report from the trip the week after next.

No photos as yet I'm afraid, but I'm sure I will be out with the camera on the weekend and I will be uploading some on here as soon as possible. Bye for now!