Scope for further growth in cow numbers is a consented option for the buyer of a strong performing 272ha dairy unit close to Dunsandel and 40 minutes south of Christchurch.
Bayleys Canterbury rural salesperson Adam Whitelock says the property at 1095 Hororata-Dunsandel Road is already a consistent performer with a moderate cost structure from its 238ha milking platform plus support area, all fully irrigated.
“Production over the past three seasons has averaged about 360,000kgMS from 810-820 cows, but there is a consent in place to take cow numbers up to 920 head and use all the milking platform for the milking herd. Or a new owner could hold numbers and operate it as a fully self-contained unit,” he says.
“This property was converted to dairying in 1995 and has good soils for dairying, combined with tidy infrastructure, that are great for turning sun into grass and grass into milk.”
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Soils are a combination of deep Waimakiriri and Mayfield silt soils and shallower Darnley silt and Lismore stony silt soils. Between 10-15 percent of the property has been re-grassed each year, ensuring high-yielding and consistent ryegrass-white clover pasture production under irrigation.
Water is supplied from the Central Plains Water scheme and there is sufficient volume to irrigate the entire farm area to the required level. Two consented water bores provide back-up water supply but are currently unused.
Four centre pivots cover a large area of the property and a combination of Rotorainers, G-SET and K-line systems deliver irrigation water to the remaining paddocks. Paddock sizes are uniform and accessed by good farm tracks.
The 44-bail rotary dairy shed has received a series of labour-saving upgrades in recent years, including the installation of a Protrack automatic drafting system, Milfos automatic cup removers, GEA automated teat spraying, and automatic vat and plant washing systems.
The farm’s effluent system has also been upgraded and now includes two concrete wedge stone traps before effluent is either directly spread on the paddocks via travelling irrigator from a concrete ‘saucer’, or reaches the storage pond which is consented for the effluent created from up to 920 cows.
The property is currently operating well within the nitrogen cap requirements. The baseline nutrient budget from 2009-2013 was modelled at 95kg N/ha/year on Overseer but for the 2021 season this had been more than halved to 43kg/ha/year.
About 100 bales of baleage is made on the property each year and about another 1,000 is bought in each year along with small tonnages of other supplements.
Whitelock says a big feature of the property is its four dwellings for staff plus a main homestead built in the early 2000s and featuring its own swimming pool.
“Being less than 10 minutes out of Dunsandel and 40 minutes from Christchurch means there is scope for partners, wives or husbands of staff to commute comfortably to work in the city each day.
“This is an attractive and consistent performing dairy unit in a great region, fully irrigated and with scope to grow production,” Whitelock says.
