Counting Sheep

She’s a hard road finding the prefect farm, boy. Especially with the high standards of a family that had a significant influence in the creation of one of New Zealand’s leading wine companies.

August 2006 addition

Life and Leisure

Peter and Joanna Masfen and their son Rolf (who runs the family-owned investment properties) took 10 years to find everything they wanted in a farm. Like the southern men of the advertising campaign for Spieght’s beer – on such a hard road to finding the perfect women – the Masfens’ perfect-farm checklist too year to fill.

In 2002, when they learned that a share in a large Southland station might be for sale, they moved quickly. They had identified this province as one with ample average rainfall. The fact that the rain fell evenly throughout the year was of particular interest. Mount Linton is one of the country’s oldest private stations. It lies on the eastern side of the Takitimu Ranges bordering Fiordland National Park in western Southland and has been farmed by the McGregor family for 103 years. At 11,000ha it is one of the largest private farming enterprises in the country with a capacity to winter-over a total of 100,000 stock units. With 4200 ha of easy and well-watered downs country, a considerable portion of it could be converted to dairy although that is not what the current owners wish to do.

Peter Masfen, who chaired (and was also the largest single shareholder of) the large wine producer and exporter Montana Wines before its 2002 billion-dollar takeover by UK liquor giant Allied Domecq, believes there is a great future for the New Zealand lamb industry. He is impressed with the significant portion of the high-value internationally traded lamb that New Zealand accounts for and sees in that an opportunity for strong branding and distribution of product.

“The position with lamb production contrasts with that of beef production, where New Zealand will continue to be price takers. But the New Zealand lamb industry has revolutionized its product and image from frozen carcass commodity to a chilled product, cut and packaged for the top end of the market and with a shelf-life of 16 weeks. And chilled New Zealand lamb sells at the very top of the price range for meat.” With this in mind the Masfens set about finding their perfect property and over the years they looked at a good many. “Water is gold and access to water will become more and more important in New Zealand. In considering Mount Linton, we were impressed not only with the adequacy of water supply in the region but also with the fact that the rainfall is spread fairly evenly throughout the year, providing a significant benefit over most other areas of New Zealand.”

Mount Linton is a blessed property in many ways and the arrival of one of the country’s leading entrepreneurial families wanting to partnership heralds another chapter in the history studded station with good fortune. Water is one of its main bounties. On its western boundary the Wairaki river is flanked by numerous streams running off the Takitimu Ranges these capture the high rainfall coming across the Tasman. However the annual rainfall is 760mm to 1500mm across a farm that varies in elevation from 120m to 800m.

Coal is another Mount Linton blessing. In 1948 the government compulsorily acquired rights to a seam of high quality coal running under Mount Linton near the township of Ohai. The resulting substantial financial settlement was crucial in funding massive development of new pasture and an infrastructure of roads, fences, buildings and drains that would be, even today, the goal of many a large station.

This was driven by then-owner Noel McGregor the father of today’s Mount Linton McGregor, Alistair who owns the property in partnership with the Masfen’s. Noel McGregor id described as a visionary farmer who harnessed the largest of modern machinery to break in the land. Four new International TD-9 crawler tractors were worn out, an excavator capable of digging 100 meters of drain a day was in permanent use during the immediate post-war period and prior to aerial top dressing (later pioneered on the land) 20 tonnes of lime were spread every day by 10 trucks working full-time in rotation.

“This is a property with great infrastructure,” says Rolf who has become very interested in learning about farming. It pioneered the use of wide stock lanes, which as Alistair McGregor points out, mean large numbers of stock can be moved long distances by very few men. They are also helpful for moving men and equipment around the property.

Other characteristics the Masfens sought in their ideal farm included good grass and long growing periods. Producing good lambs requires having many planets in line, indeed. This is limestone country but Mount Linton is the beneficiary of an ancient volcanic eruption in the adjacent Takitimus that created a bountiful layer of topsoil. This good soil, coupled with the long daylight hours of Southland summer, provides excellent grass growth.

Top genetics are also required to capitalize on such fortuitous factors. Ewes need to produce high numbers of healthy lambs capable of converting feed into weight gains. Mount Linton has 55,000 ewes and 24,000 ewe hogget’s Romney, Texel-Romney and Texel-Suffolk breeds.

The strength of this flock lies in the fertility of its ewes and the ratio of muscle to fat in its fats-weight-gain lambs. Texel stock were introduced in 1990 to produce larger, learner and higher-yielding carcasses. In this high tech world of modern farming, sophisticated genetic tests at Mount Linton’s 270ha sheep genetics unit, adjacent to the main farm, detect the sought-after carriers of extra muscle genes. These genes promote fast, lean weight gain.

Sheep earn the largest portion of Mount Linton income predominantly through lamb sales (wool makes up 12% of annual income). However, the property also carries 2000 beef cows and a performance-recorded Angus herd of 800. This herd is, genetically, among the top in the country for key indexes (Angus Self-replacing and Ease of Calving)

Mount Linton is a property with great pastures, water, stock, infrastructure and a history second to none, leading agricultural innovation. But also of great interest of the Masfen family is its size. “It makes it possible for us to come to a property of this scale and add value,” says Ralf. “Mount Linton is not presently involved in processing, branding or marketing its production.”

And this, as observers of the history of Montana Wine well know, is something the Masfen family knows a great deal about. Peter explains: “The experiences I’ve had with Montana, in terms of large –scale agricultural development will contribute to the ongoing success of Mount Linton.”

In addition to the joy of sharing elements of farming there with their family (sons Rolf and his wife Belinda, Anatole and his wife Melissa and daughter Eugenie and her husband Raphael), Peter and Joanna are committed to further harnessing the potential of the property. “Undoubtedly the high standard of development of the property is one of the things that we were attracted to but we were also most interested in the opportunity to considerably increase performance in three main areas,” says Peter

On the 42,000ha old downs country the goal was to reticulate water and provided additional stock shelters in of reduced size. After just three years, 100kms of polythene-piped water from all-weather spring on higher ground runs to stock troughs spread throughout the downs. A massive tree-planting programme is well under way and last year’s planting represented the largest annual a shelter belt planning in Southland’s history. Their third goal is to continue the further development of the 4500ha of hill-country tussock into fully productive pasture. Initially the land is spayed and grazed heavily by cattle to break down the scrub before being over-sown and fertilized ready for more intensive stocking.

Peter’s only regret in relation to Mount Linton is that he doesn’t spend more time on the property. It takes four hours of flying and driving to get there from Auckland. Peter and Rolf say their role is in providing progressive direction long-term planning and support of professional management, then staying out of the way of the 37 permanent staff who run the property under general manager Ceri Lewis.

“I just love this,” says Rolf who along with Peter and Joanna, is the most involved of the family members. “It is an opportunity to learn a whole new discipline.”