First the work – then the rugby

His father worked on farms and as a youngster Blackburn was expected to help at weekends and school holidays. 

“We used to go out and help him put breaks in swedes and other winter crops. We also helped to batten fences or you had to pick potatoes and carrots,” he told Rural News. “We were hauled out on a Saturday morning, because if you wanted to go to play rugby you had to go and work first. I have no regrets about that type of learning.”

Blackburn moved to help run the family farm in 1980, when wool prices were high and lamb prices low. That was the era of $15 and $20 lambs, a situation so bad some farmers in the region contemplated not putting the ram out.

Today, the farm runs 4000 Romney-based breeding ewes and 200 Angus breeding cows. About 10% of the heifer calves are retained as replacements and the rest are sold from October onwards. He says they did consider running drystock, but the country suits the Angus breeding cows. Lambing is quite late.

“We begin lambing in the last week of August and run through to September with the two-tooths. While we are quite late, we still aim to have our lambs off their mothers by December 1 onwards when the prices are good. This is the time when we become involved in dairy support and we run heifers through until the end of April.” 

Not unexpectedly the climate in this area is a challenge, but according to Blackburn it’s changed. 

“When I first came, in 1980, it was considered summer-safe, with good grass growth through the summer. Since 2008, we’ve seen a dramatic change: January, February and March are critical dry periods and it seems to alternate in terms of months.

“In 2014, it was February/March. This year the dry came in January and when the dry comes in January you think, ‘well we’ve February and March to come yet’. But fortunately it wasn’t as dry in February and March as it had been in the past.”

During the winter months the cattle are fed mainly hay and baleage and the ewes are given a winter crop such as swedes and kale. 

In the last ten years, Blackburn and son Hamish have focused on improving the infrastructure of the farm – “fences, fences, fences”. 

They have also increased their fertiliser use and improved stock water reticulation. All this has made the farm easier to manage and run.

The other area of focus is re-grassing and this happens automatically because they lease about 50ha a year to a neighbour who is a commercial vegetable grower. Once used by the grower the land is returned to grass. They have used a variety of grass species and have also planted out some paddocks in lucerne which Blackburn says has helped them through the drier months.