David Kininmonth 20210625 151123

Opportunities to visit two of the best properties in the Western Districts

There is a great opportunity in the next few weeks to learn secrets of success on two successful grazing properties. 

 The first event is a Perennial Pasture Systems tour at “Mt Hesse,” with manager David Kininmonth. This will be supported by SFS and I will be there to share the latest information on grazing management and tools we developed for MLA.  

 “Mt Hesse”, is a 3,550-hectare property, currently lambing down 18,000 ewes and running 9,000 head of dry stock plus opportunistic cropping near Beeac.  

 What I personally look forward to is hearing how they meet their grazing challenges. In recent wet summers, it’s been how to get rid of excess dry feed, but with winter upon us, the current challenge will be maximising winter pasture growth to meet stock requirements. Of course, the chance to look at their pastures and operation will also be a highlight. 

 The second exciting opportunity is for women involved in agriculture to visit Jigsaw Farms run by Mark Wotton and Eve Kantor on June 8th, 18 km north of Hamilton.  

 This farm was initially a Potter Farm, one of eight set up in the 1980’s to demonstrate best practice farm planning. The bits of the puzzle have incorporated productive livestock, pastures, agroforestry, water storage and more recently carbon farming. 

 It’s a bucket list opportunity to visit a property that’s been so well thought out, and Mark and Eve are happy to share their successes but also what they didn’t get right and would have liked to have done differently. This is really what the day is about, gathering all the pros and cons in the key elements of farm design, so you get great ideas and the confidence to set up a workable system. 

 Further details on these events and to register go to Events – Southern Farming Systems (sfs.org.au)

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