WORDS BY RICHARD RENNIE, IMAGES BY GINA ENSOR
Ben Todhunter humbly admits that as a family they have been “chipping away” in recent years on some pieces of work across Cleardale’s 1,700ha, located up the Rakaia Gorge. In reality, there has been a swag of almost constant activity to mark the time he and wife Donna Field have been on the fourth-generation property, completing work both on the land and on the genetics of the livestock they have put upon it.
The couple are a good combination for a modern high country farming business. Ben brings his lengthy farming experience, analytical eye, and market focused business ability, while Donna has a deep understanding of environmental demands and challenges that are part of any station’s day to day mandate to manage.
Donna is a co-chair of the Whitcombe Landcare Group, director of the New Zealand Queen Elizabeth II National Trust for the past seven years and is also on the High Country Advisory Group.
The group provides advice to the Commissioner of Crown Lands on the management of Crown pastoral land in the South Island.
For his part Ben is also a director of StockX and the New Zealand Merino Company. He was also a Nuffield Scholar in 2006, completing his scholarship on the integration of conservation and farm production, something of a blend that captures both his own, and Donna’s, experiences on the land.
In light of today’s expectations upon farmers around environmental stewardship, Ben’s work back in 2006 appears very prescient.
Back then in his report, he identified how over time minimum environmental standards would become a prerequisite for access to many of New Zealand’s markets for primary produce, and with it the value of developing common environmental standards for products.
He also noted how in most other countries the relationships between conservation groups and landowners are different to here in New Zealand, with greater recognition overseas that dealing with landowners can lead to more enduring outcomes than a “command and control approach”.
This was matched by a greater acceptance from landowners that it was acceptable to work with conservation groups.
On the land itself, one of the major steps undertaken over the past decade has been the installation of irrigation on Cleardale’s easier country, prompted after experiencing some droughts through the early 2000’s.
With a conservation order on the Rakaia River preventing any water take there, but allowed on tributaries including Little River, Ben partnered with electricity company Mainpower to develop a 1mW hydro generating station along the river, a project that provided the head for gravity fed irrigation.
Today 210ha is under centre pivot irrigation, providing good finishing country and security against unpredictable summer dry conditions up the gorge.
Assorted land purchases through the years have expanded the station’s size, while Ben has also focused on doubling down on the station’s livestock genetics business.
Cleardale has been selling Merino rams since 1954, but in the last eight years have been able to offer sires from their SX Fine Wool breed. Ben describes the SX as an effort to breed a sheep with the growth rates and robustness of a cross bred capable of handling any environment, but with a high value Merino—like fine wool. Those cross bred traits include good reproductive capacity, capable of achieving 140% lambing percentage, with high survivability from scanning to weaning.
“The crossbred wool gig is hard, and you really need to be in fine wool or out of wool altogether, to make money out of it today.”
Bred to thrive in most conditions, with good foot rot and worm resistance, the SX Fine Wool produces a fleece that ranges from 21–25 microns.
As a director of the NZ Merino Company Ben appreciates more than most the value of quality, fine fleece which as a fibre is being greeted with ever increasing demand from clothing manufacturers globally.
Its use for both outer wear and layered active wear is finding strong appeal with consumers keen to source their clothing from certified, sustainable sources and steer well clear of synthetic sourced products.
“We supply SmartWool which has been experiencing a growth rate of 12% a year compounding. With a micron level of 21–23 there is a strong demand there for our fibre, particularly at the lower micron level.”
He does not see any significant lift coming in sheep numbers globally to meet that, and despite some competition from the likes of South America, he believes New Zealand’s fine wool reputation will hold it in good strength as this demand continues to grow.
Cleardale has had its first SX Fine Wool ram sale and Ben is keen to build up the station’s client base in coming years. This includes extending into the North Island, and in anticipation of that he is incorporating facial eczema tolerant genetics this year.
“We also have our rams in the B+LNZ progeny test which will provide a good indication of where we sit in terms of those key traits like growth rate.” The stock is also entered into the Australasian database for fine wool genetics.
Meantime, in anticipation of growing demand for lower greenhouse gas emitting genetics, Ben is having 14 different sires measured in respiration chambers to capture their emissions and to add into their breeding index data.
“This will also give us a good idea of where we sit emissions wise which do seem to align well with production traits.”
He sees the next few years as an opportunity to fine tune the Cleardale genetics and is quietly proud to have helped develop a constructive solution to the wool conundrum many farmers are battling, including those who may not particularly want to convert their genetics to a shedding breed.
“We are also trying to breed a few more lambs ourselves, taking them through to get 75mm of low micron wool off them before they head to processing.”
That same market focused approach to breeding is also being applied to Cleardale’s Angus beef genetics.
Ben has always focused on breeding cattle capable of performing well in tough high-country conditions, with highly functional cows that consistently deliver calves with above average weaning weights, and capable of restoring body condition on average quality pasture.
The pillars include being “sound” and able to cover ground and forage, being quiet and “safe” to work with. The third pillar “steak from grass” is a consumer-focused trait that includes good intramuscular fat levels, a key factor in providing a great consumer steak eating experience.
The fourth pillar is “sink”, that is an environmentally focused animal that provides the opportunity for carbon favourable operation, one ultimately underpinned by having efficient cows with good offspring growth rates.
A recent trip to the United States confirmed the opportunities that exist to incorporate US genetics into the herd to build on the eating experience.
“We travelled through California, Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, Missouri, Kansas, Montana, Illinois and Ohio looking at bulls and talking to American Angus breeders and marketers. They are significantly ahead of us in the US in terms of their carcass traits, thanks largely to the Angus Certified beef programme they run as part of their branding.”
Meeting and dining with invited chefs were an eye-opening experience into how good quality beef is measured, with significantly greater emphasis placed upon the eating experience than the beef’s environmental footprint.
“The opportunity for New Zealand in the US is to nail the quality, and then to layer in the grass fed environmental story into that product.”
The visit has Ben keen to incorporate more US Angus genetics into Cleardale’s bloodlines. This includes to achieve better marbling, a reasonably heritable trait that is so integral in the final product’s taste and eating experience profile.
“At present I also feel that maybe there is greater opportunity for us in Asia than in the United States, playing off the grass fed- pure quality offering we have.”
Leveraging off Donna’s environmental knowledge, Cleardale has also invested in a private conservation project with other shareholders at High Bare Peak, covering 540ha. Focusing on regenerating it back into native bush, the group’s members bring their own particular skills in pest and weed control, and plant care.
“We are not so keen on introduced species and want to work with what native and regenerating vegetation there is. We have also worked on a project up the Rakaia Gorge with our neighbours, removing ‘homestead’ weeds.”
These weedy trees like sycamore, ash, and cotoneaster, and climbers such as ivy and Chilian flame creeper, present a huge threat to our existing bush and forest remnants.
“We have put in a walkway and carpark for the public, with a lookout up the gorge which is proving quite popular as a short stop on the Inland Scenic Route. We put this in to showcase the location, biodiversity and cultural values and as a management tool to stop people abusing the space with random track creation, and illegal camping and its associated problems.”
Other conservation projects include a couple of QEII covenants and support for a large predator control program aimed at protecting the special birds that nest in the braids of the Rakaia River such as the Wrybill Plover, the only bird in the world with a bent beak.
Tourism is an area that may hold further potential in the future as side business for Cleardale, with the recent purchase of a property near the Gorge bridge that lends itself well to a possible commercial use.
The environment they are working to preserve also delivers the occasional film crew keen to take advantage of the station’s stunning environs in the lee of the Alps, and only an hour from Christchurch.
Advertisements produced there have included work for Fuji, ANZCO, the NZ Merino Company, and German based workwear company Engelbert Strauss.
Longer term they are working to incorporate carbon capture as an income source, an area many high country stations are keen to build into station income streams, given the vast amount of regenerating vegetation stations have, throughout the South Island.
“We are also thinking ahead about the next generation, what the station could offer them— they are all working, but who knows, they may be interested in coming back.”