On their 576ha effective Te Mataa Station at Taipa, most of which drains into the Parapara Stream and Doubtless Bay, Dennis and Rachelle O’Callaghan produce 500kg/ha/year carcass weight by rearing young Friesian bulls.
This is more than twice the provincial average for any form of beef production.
Almost the whole farm is covered with intensive beef systems (IBS), being TechnoGrazing and variations on cellular systems that carry 2400 yearlings in more than 100 groups.
Dennis and Rachelle have changed from traditional set-stocking and up to 60% sheep stock units to trading cattle only on rotational grazing in small groups with two-day shifts.
They were three years as Meat and Wool Monitor Farmers in Northland, during which the IBS were introduced, and have hosted numerous field days in the decade since.
In 2016 they were the Supreme Award winners of the Ballance Northland Farm Environment Awards, along with winning awards for soil management, integrated water management and their livestock.
They have proven that IBS are better for a sensitive environment than set-stocking and that kikuyu-dominant pastures are productive when kept well-grazed and/or topped before winter.
Cattle in IBS give the required level of kikuyu control to keep it nutritious and to allow the integrated ryegrass and clover to grow back in autumn.
No feed supplements are made or brought in.
Bulls are procured at 100kg liveweight (LW) and are taken through their first winter to a 300kg LW target, when they are on-sold to finishers.
Dennis says the younger bulls are lighter on the soil structure of his wet country and are the most consistently profitable cattle class.
Drainage is classed as poor to very poor throughout the farm, and the laneways of the IBS run across the slopes along contour lines to slow down streamlets and help prevent tomos forming.
Hundreds of poplars have been planted in the wettest and potentially most erodible places and all permanent streams have riparian stock exclusion fencing and native plantings.
Fencing is all two-wire powered and the standard winter rotation length is 60 days, speeding up to 30 days at higher pasture growing times.
The mild Far North winters enable sufficient grass growth to keep putting weight on the R1yr bulls, whereas spring growth may not be sufficient to finish 2yr cattle or to fatten lambs.
A Mycoplasma bovis-enforced depopulation two years back gave the O’Callaghan family a good chance to re-evaluate all livestock classes before buying back in.
The cow herd and 2yr bulls were not as suitable or profitable as the younger bulls.
For the annual intake, Dennis prefers Friesian bull calves from South Island dairy farms that are bigger and stronger, but obviously carried the M bovis to the north. Many of the one-year-olds go to finishers in Waikato.
They are run in mobs of 20 to 30 head and half of the 120 mobs are shifted every day, a job that takes two family members or workers on specially-equipped ATVs about two hours each morning.
Every one of the hundreds of cells on the farm has a ground level micro water trough, fed from a reticulated four-site tank storage scheme with line breakage protection.
When asked if he foresaw any further improvements to the farm and its systems, Dennis says he always wanted to be challenged and learn from others.
“If we could put together fixed-price contracts between calf rearers and us, between us and the finishers, and between the finishers and meat companies – that would be the goal,” he said.
He would also like to see the M bovis control system treat non-breeding cattle according to their years of birth.
For example, any 2018 bulls should be kept on a Notice of Direction (NOD) farm until scheduled slaughter, not killed ahead of time.
“By design our mobs are separate in the IBS and we don’t have breeding cattle, so we could keep any infected bulls for their planned stay,” he said.
More detailed water monitoring by the Northland Regional Council (NRC) might also establish that sedimentary and phosphate losses are being minimised by the type of farm management.
When the NRC formed the Doubtless Bay Catchment Plan for a sensitive district all committee members visited the O’Callaghans to see how intensive systems improved water quality, and not the other way round.
A drive to the commanding heights of the farmhouse, about 100m above the sparkling bay, brings the visitor in contact with several curious quarter horses.
Dennis and Rachelle got involved at the Oruru Valley Rodeo Club about 10 years ago and he has served as vice-president and animal welfare officer while she has been secretary-treasurer.
The whole family participates in rodeo, travelling long distances to compete during the summer season, and has a full trophy cabinet and a wall of framed action photos and certificates.
Most recently Ryan, 21, was the NZ open champion and the rookie champion, in the same year, for team roping, a rare achievement.
After an agricultural science degree at Massey, he works on a farm at Matauri Bay in Northland.
Older daughter Gabriel, 23, is a chemical engineer at Golden Bay cement plant, Portland, near Whangarei.
While in her last year at college three years ago, younger sister Tegan, 20, went to the International Youth Rodeo in Oklahoma for barrel racing in an Australian Junior Rodeo Association team, the first New Zealander to attend.
She finished her second year in environmental planning at Massey and is working on the home farm during the break.
Barrel racing and cattle roping events are practised at home, but the most difficult job is to desensitise young horses to all the noise, activity and colour at rodeo events.
Cattle also must be taught before events – rules stipulate 100-150kg for calf roping and over 200kg for team roping.
The national rodeo circuit is 33 events and the O’Callaghans get to about 20 during the year, going as far as Southland.
“We are away for quite long periods, sleeping in the truck and taking four or more horses,” Dennis said.
“It’s really my only off-farm activity.”
Oruru club has been reinvigorated in recent times with barrel racing and fun events, plus riding lessons for all-comers, mainly young women. It now fields a group of competitors in the Christmas-New Year events at other clubs.
