(Story written in Dec 2024 and first printed in Angus NZ Autumn magazine April 2025)
Being 2.5 hours from the grocery store and 20-something kilometres up a gravel road has not put the team at Waikura Valley Joint stations off hosting the North Island’s largest on-farm sale.
And it didn’t put off the buyers from bidding on the 11,000 lambs, 1500 ewes and 220 cattle on offer in early December.
In fact, the sale was such a great success that managers Sean and Steph Roberts are planning to lift the number of cattle they sell next year.
It’s an operation in logistics and a huge undertaking for all the station staff and the Hazletts’ marketing and selling team. But the pros far outweigh the downside of having to muster, wean and present a whole lamb crop and lines of ewes and older ewes in a single swoop, along with selected lines of cows with calves at foot, and 15-month steers and heifers.
Back to station sales
In the four years that Sean and Steph have been at the station, inland from Hicks Bay on the East Coast, they have been working hard on building the performance of the stock and the reputation of that stock.
Selling lambs was a mission so they began talking to a few different stock agents, and built a relationship with Hazlett Livestock agent Richard Johnston who showed an interest in selling in an on-farm sale.
“Richard was really excited about the possibility and we were pleased to be able to reinstate the on-farm sales that all of the stations up here used to have,” Steph says.
“It used to be a big deal with each station selling one after each other and buyers going from sale to sale.”
Hazlett Livestock are a South Island company originally, where selling in an on-farm auction is much more common, so Richard could see the potential because of the iconic location and the proximity to finishers in the Waikato who understood the growing reputation of the stock coming out of the Waikura Valley.
Being able to save significant cost was also a big factor – selling on-farm saved the costs of trucking, yarding and selling at store lamb sales in Gisborne, 3.25 hours away over roads still being rebuilt from the Cyclone Gabrielle wrecking-ball of February 2023, Sean says.
“It also fits really well with the lower staffing model we run here, and helps get all the lambs off before grass growth slows or we go dry. In the past we have had a big weather event and the road has been compromised and we haven’t been able to get lambs out.
“At this time of year, the road is good, the lambs are looking really well grown and in two days are weaned and sold straight off mum – it’s a pretty hectic time but we drop the stocking rate, reduce the worm burden and can put any feed into the other stock and then the big cheque comes in,” Sean says.
“Plus the budget runs January to December and so the sale has a big effect on that – we can plan when the money is coming in and know that a certain amount of stock is going to be sold in each financial year,” Steph adds.
The stockwork all happens in a week – weaning ewes and lambs from all the stations – and this year was far smoother sailing as they knew what to expect. The Hazlett Livestock agents spent three days drafting everything into lines of 500-1200 lambs, based on unit loads so that all of the 22 truckloads left the station full.
Based on feedback from last year’s buyers, the station has invested in bigger sale pens to showcase bigger sample lines.
Forty buyers turned up on the day, along with seven agents and bidding over the phone and online with BIDR was brisk for the cattle.
Richard Johnston says they were thrilled with the way the sale went and the stock and the workflow of the week was a credit to the station managers and staff.
“We planned it for six months and everyone worked towards the date – we had 10 or 12 larger lamb finishers turn up and north of 100 buyers were watching online, with 23 bidding on the livestream sale.
“We take huge pride in the fact that a sample line is a genuine sample and after getting samples of 50-60 last year, the station staff really stepped up to put in new pens to hold 150-180 lambs per line which made a huge difference to the confidence of the buyers.
“And even just coming here and buying at the station has a really different feel about it – buyers can see the stock in their home environment and know that they will do well. lambs were selling 20-25 cents/kg above the market, which had come back in the preceding three weeks.”
He was pleased with the prices, with 11,000 lambs averaging $86/head and the tops selling for $138/head to repeat customers. One unit load even went to Gore in the South Island, while the rest sold into the King Country, Waikato and Bay of Plenty finishing country.
Nine-year-old cows with calves at foot sold online into the Waikato for an average of $1950/head and a couple of lines of smaller 15-month-old heifers and steers sold well, so that next year Sean plans to keep 350-400 steers to sell at the sale.
He keeps 300 heifer replacements for the herd and 185 heifer and 220 steer weaners are usually sold privately on-farm to repeat buyers.
Stepping stone to career-defining role
Sean and Stephanie have been at the helm at Waikura Station for four years now, and in the words of Steph, “we are not packing our bags any time soon”.
Both have families in Northland, but Otiwhiti-trained Sean had worked around the Hunterville and King Country areas and then the couple spent five years on Waikoha Station in the Hamilton area before looking for the next stepping stone for their career.
WIth some Lincoln Uni extramural study around feed budgeting under Sean’s belt, they were taken on as managers for half of the property, but six months into the role, the General Manager left and Sean was promoted to managing the five combined stations as one.
Staff were rationalised and now he has four shepherds and one general under him, with casual mustering help for busy times throughout the year.
Notwithstanding the isolation, or maybe because of it, they say the community is very strong and they are surrounded by really awesome people.
“We really only go to town (Opotiki) every two or three weeks and now we have two little ones, it will be more like three or four-week intervals.”
Beau is three and Harriet was just eight weeks old at the time of the December sale.
“The kids are really good travellers, but also all our rural suppliers are really good about sending stuff up with anyone passing by,” Steph says.
“We get so many visitors – probably more than we had in the Waikato.”
She has taken on the role of administrator for the Waikura Joint stations, but is currently on maternity leave.
While staffing could be an issue, the couple say all current shepherds are locals so it is home for them, however, the isolation could still have its challenges.
Shortly after they arrived they lost a shepherd, Tau Kingi, who had worked on the station from his 20s to his 70s. Tau worked on the station until his passing and will be forever remembered as a legend, they said.
“He would’ve not wanted to live anywhere else – so he went out doing what he loved, really,” Sean says.
Another character would ask for a cheeseburger delivery from anyone leaving the valley and when in hospital in Gisborne for a procedure, the station owners took time to visit him and deliver a couple of burgers – such is the closeness of the staff and community.
The station is a stunning place to live – the narrow river valley leading in from Hicks Bay opens out to a big valley surrounded by the Raukumara ranges, a diverse mix of steep hill, flat and rolling country that grows bountiful grass due to the three-metre annual rainfall.
“It’s a very unique place,” Steph says. “When you are in here it’s awesome – it’s only when you have to go somewhere it’s a pain in the bum.”
Lifting infrastructure and performance
The family-owned station is well supported by the owners who have high standards and are very keen on it all being tidy and presentable, so the infrastructure has been improved over the years, with good lanes, housing, sheds and three new sets of cattle yards. Sean has overseen 60km of new fencing at the station.
Fertiliser application is scheduled for 2025, as there has been a hiatus of four years, and Sean is really looking forward to seeing the pastures perform.
His focus has been on fencing, pasture control and stock performance and he has seen a gradual but impressive increase in stock performance.
When he arrived, the cows were scanning 70%, but a clean out of older cows, and better mob and pasture control through subdivision, has lifted that to 94% in the mixed age cows and 98% in the R3 second-year calvers. The yearling heifers calving first as R2 cows have been scanning about the 85% mark.
The Angus cows are mated to Hallmark and Twin Oaks Angus bulls and the B mob of
200-300 white-faced cows are joined with Snake Gully Limousin bulls.
Black Angus Limousin cross calves are left entire as bulls as they grow quick and are high yielding. The 220 straight black Angus bull calves are steered and sold privately as weaners, along with 185 heifers, but Sean is considering retaining more to sell at the December sale.
The bulls are out with yearling heifers on November 20 and mixed age cows on December 20.
Mating can be hard on the bulls due to the broken nature of the country, so they are block-tested each year and mated at a ratio of one bull to 40 cows in mating mobs of 170 cows to 4 bulls.
“We chuck in some spares for the second cycle,” Sean says.
Rogue wild bulls were a problem when Sean arrived, but now with improved fencing he encourages the shepherds to count the bulls through the gate to ensure no rogue bulls have joined in the mob.
Sean and Steph have been seeking out more ‘athletic, nuggety bulls’ and are happy with their selection, buying 10 two-year-old bulls and five or six yearling bulls from Hallmark and Twin Oaks Angus studs.
“We are chasing maternal EBVs, but also 200 and 400-day growth as we are selling weaners, but still want to think of 600-day growth for our clients finishing the steers.”
Changing times for wool
Sheep performance has also improved, with the stations docking twinning ewes at 175% and 145% over the whole flock. Sean has started mating hoggets and sold 800 hogget lambs at the 2024 on-farm sale, retaining the rest of the hogget lambs for trading or to go into the breeding block.
Sean and Steph work with Greg Tattersfield from FarmPro in Gisborne, who is a farm systems specialist and vet. Greg visits about four times a year and helps guide them through decision making, in conjunction with consultation with the owners who visit for a couple of months each year and have had family members stay and help with the big on-farm sale.
One decision has been to move to mating the Romdale ewes to Kaahu Genetics White Wiltshire rams and mating the B mob to Snake Gully Sufftex rams.
“We trialled the Wiltshires for one cross over the two-tooths before deciding to go all in over the ewes,” Sean says.
“Logistically it’s a long way for shearers to come as we have been using Johnny Kirkpatrick’s shearers from the Hawke’s Bay, and being this remote the clip length can vary if we are having trouble getting the weather and timing right.
“We are also a high-rainfall area so colour has been poor, discounting the price.
“We might just go to the half Romdale Wiltshire cross because even the half crosses have cut dagging and crutching time impressively.”
Deer and pig problems
Being surrounded by the Raukumara ranges means they need to manage the wild deer and pig population in order to manage the grass covers effectively.
“We run two 100-day rotations through the winter and stock are being shifted onto 3000kg DM/ha so that’s pretty appealing to the wild deer – and they can eat a lot of grass,” Sean says.
All the shepherds have pig dogs and enjoy pig hunting and the station pays to feed their dogs to encourage them to keep the wild pig population under control, which is working well and means there is no wild pig problem on the station.
Pig control is important for protecting new lambs and maintaining TB control as the station is under C10 movement control.
Deer are managed through staff and family taking what they need; however, with the high numbers, they have started managing the population with the helicopter, recovering as many as possible.
Station history
Waikura No1 was originally allocated to certain Māori owners under the Native Land Court Act of 1885. In 1894, the block was sold by the owners, mainly members of the Waititi family, in a freehold title to Mr Cartwright Brown of Napier, who also had the lease of Whangaparaoa Station at Cape Runaway.
Under Cartwright Brown, development began with a few permanent buildings before Edward D Holt bought both Waikura and Whangaparaoa blocks. At the time, the only access was by the Whangaparaoa riverbed. From the Cape, goods were shipped by Billy Walker’s scow to Opotiki or by Richardson and Co’s ships to Auckland or Napier.
Development under Holt included cutting bush and building more buildings, and slowly other settlers established other stations, Mohau, Rewetu, Pakira and Mataroa.
The work was hard and repeatedly interrupted by earthquakes, bushfires and storms.
Huge optimism and extensive clearing of bush in the 1910s/1920s was followed by rapid decline in soil fertility and economic downturn from 1920 to 1935. In the 1940s and 50s, a new start with conservative management preceded booming production once fertiliser was applied by air.
A Swiss family consolidated ownership of Waikura, Pakira, Rewetu and Mohau under Waikura Joint stations in 2012, adding Te Kumi station in 2016. The family have established a manuka oil distillery business, where manuka brush is harvested off various established plantations. The station is also well supported by a roading division, which shows in the excellent infrastructure on the station.
