We traveled to Kevin and Jane McDonald's farm where they raise polled Hereford studs. It's a 280 acre family farm that sells around 27 bulls a year. This years sale is the fifth of June. The picture of the Hereford stud is what they believe will be their number one stud bull, because he has the right markings and carcass traits. New Zealand focuses a lot more on the correct white markings and color of Herefords than the United State's does. We got to tour the whole farm in their pickups. One vehicle was a diesel Ford Ranger costing $60,000! However, he receives a 13% discount because he's a part of some group that we didn't quite catch. Because of the drought this year, Kevin had to feed more bales of corn and hay than usual, which cost approximately $120 NZ per bale weighing around 800 kilos.
Kevin is also in a 50:50 partnership with Wrightson Company holding yearly calf sales that run for about 13 weeks. Wrightson deals with more of the financial and paperwork side of things whereas Kevin is involved with marketing and the calves get to the right people at the end of the day. Last year they sold more than 6,000 calves that were between 4 days old and a week old.
Running a tad behind schedule we made a quick stop at Huka Falls which is a major source of hydro power in the North Island. As you can see, the water is very blue. We picked up a quick lunch which was eaten on the bus as we kept moving towards Bruce Willis's farm. Along the way we saw a ton of sheep and trees. The drive reminded Sophie a lot of the Black Hills with the sharp turns and steep hills.
Bruce Willis is the president of the Federated Farmers which represents New Zealand agriculture both locally and nationally. This gave us a chance to learn more about the political side of agriculture in New Zealand. NZ is very environmentally cautious with water quality being a big issue. Bruce said they talk a lot about sustainable agriculture and farming for the future. New Zealand got rid of all farm subsidies in the early 80's and he discusses with other countries how they got through that tough period of time.
We then traveled to Napier where we met horticulturist Win Heuser. We were greeted with about fifty apples of various varieties, including a new smaller apple. This smaller apple is a cross of crab apples and Gala apples. Other varieties didn't even have names as of now, just numbers. It was agreed that the pinova (I'm not sure of that spelling) and a yellow one that wasn't named were the best. We drove through an apple orchard and then stopped at the place where they clean them and pack the apples. One shipment of apples was heading to McDonald's for their apple slices. Win discussed how he continually has to change the type of apples produced to keep up with consumer's demand. He does this by grafting trees instead of wiping out all the trees.
After a long day of traveling in the bus the students are hoping to find some live music in downtown Napier!
Cody Wehner and Sophie Iversen
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