Remaining lambs, including those born to a terminal sire, are transferred to other Landcorp properties specialising in finishing. There, they are finished between 18kg and 20kg CW.
Lamb numbers are down to 13,000 by Christmas, helping the station to get through the typically dry Gisborne summers.
Heading back to the woolshed and covered yards complex on Parikanapa Station.
About 4600 ewe lambs are retained as replacements and manager Andrew Solomann hopes for a full Landcorp Waihora Romney flock within the next three years.
“When we bought the farm we should have replaced the rams straight away, but it took a year to do that.”
This season, Parikanapa is running 1100 vetted in-calf cows, 400 18-month steers, 420 weaner steers, and 400 weaner heifers. Breeding is targeting a straight Landcorp Angus herd.
Solomann said cattle wintered well on Parikanapa. They finish 300 two-year steers annually, aiming for 300kg CW, transferring about 100 rising two-year-old steers to Landcorp finishing farms in spring.
Rainfall
Rainfall on Parikanapa Station was 70% below average this season.
From Christmas to mid-April the farm, southwest of Gisborne, had 220mm of rain, putting it on par with the 1982-83 drought, manager Andrew Solomann said.
To get through, Parikanapa had its usual safeguard of off-loading 4000 lambs before Christmas and 112 steers for processing in December. They also reacted quickly to a Nelson meat processor’s shortage of ewes, sending two units south two days before Christmas.
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