Out of the blue come five farms

Ata Rangi Pastoral Ltd aims to produce 3 million kgMS from the five farms by 2020.

Owned by two Kiwis -- farmer Gerard Donald and financier Brent Cook – Ata Rangi last year bought 5732ha of forestry in Whakamaru. The farms will stretch from Tokoroa to Whakamaru. About 2400ha will remain in forestry, 500ha will be cropped and grazed and 233ha riparian planted.

Contractors are busy clearing land, removing stumps, cultivating grass, building milking platforms and lining effluent ponds.

Ata Rangi general manager Stephen Veitch says contractors are working six days a week to ensure the Atiamuri farm starts production on August 1.

About 1600 cows now grazing off site will move to the farm on August.

Each farm will have 1500 cows – three cows/ha. Cows will be moved between farms as each farm comes on line, Veitch says.

Milk will be supplied to Fonterra on six- and 10-year contracts, allowing the company to stagger the purchase of Fonterra shares over this time.

Sustainability is a major focus for Ata Rangi; main contractor J Swap has used a GPS-guided digger to outline the farm according to three rules: no disturbance of slopes greater than 25 degrees, no discharge of soil or sediment into waterways (a 10m boundary has been set around waterway sites) and there is a setback of 25m from the Waikato River and lakes.

Veitch says Ata Rangi is building a business that is economically and environmentally sustainable. Transparent communications with local councils and iwi is part of its strategy.

“The project was finalised quickly and we kind-of popped out of the blue; so there were a lot of questions from the community, some of whom don’t support forestry conversions.

“We’ve had several meetings with the local iwi -- Raukawa Charitable Trust – and the local regional councils to set the record straight. We strongly believe economic and environmental sustainability go hand-in-hand; you have to be in the black to be green.”

Ata Rangi is transparent about its water use; telemetry will be used to measure surface and groundwater takes.

“By shutting off valves we can only take 30 cumecs (m³/sec) out of the the river and 15 cumecs out of the bore holes; this information will be in the cloud for everyone to see and is part of our transparency policy.”

Each farm will have weeping wall effluent management; solids will be separated from the liquid before the pond and irrigation on the land.

Gibson Construction is the dairy shed builder and Waikato Milking Systems is providing the milking gear. About 54 machines and 70 people are involved in the conversion.

Veitch says co-owner Gerard Donald has worked with the companies below on projects.

He says J Swap is providing two out of the six crews. “We find J Swap very helpful; they have a site foreman who is our first point of contact. They have experienced operators and good machinery with few breakdowns.” This is important because time is tight.

Ata Rangi’s five farms- Atiamuri, Mangakino, Twin Lakes, Tokoroa Downs and Whakamaru will start production over the next 12 months.

Trusting in the long term

The developers of the Ata Rangi Pastoral project are taking a long term view, says Veitch.

This is that their Kiwi-owned family asset will pay dividends long term.

The low payout is on their minds but they are confident prices will bounce back by the time the five farms are in full production, he says.

“One of the owners is a dairy farmer and the other a financier; they have researched the industry at length and have looked at supply/demand demographics.

“They are taking the long term view; while we’re developing in a low payout environment we believe in the payout coming up as we get into production.”

However, Veitch says the owners are reviewing the farm systems and discretionary spending.

“We are forecasting 3 million kgMS with a system 3 and 4; we are reviewing the cost of additional feed going in and whether we pull it back to a system one or two.”

Ata Rangi history

Ata Rangi Pastoral Ltd was founded this year by Brent Cook and Gerard Donald.

The company was set up in response to growing demand for quality protein worldwide, particularly in Asia, and the changing tastes of wealthy consumers. 

“This has created increased demand for the high quality, safe food New Zealand farming systems are known for. ARPL is a long term project to produce [such] food in a sustainable, innovative and economic manner for the benefit of NZ.”

Ata Rangi says its farms signify a new beginning, or ‘dawn sky’, reflecting the transformative nature of land conversion: land in forests since the 1920s will be livestock pastoral farms. 

ARPL’s environmental plans are:

• Fencing all waterways with a minimum 10m set back 
• At least 0.5m perimeter earth bund to prevent sediment and nutrient runoff
• All nutrient application mapped by GPS
• All water usage monitored  
• Water efficient cowshed design, with green water recycling 
• Effluent spread from not more than eight cows/ha, greater than the minimum required.