Allan and Sonia Richardson

November 2005
Allan and Sonia Richardson are sheep and beef farmers, with 310ha organics compared with 1000ha conventional in Heriot, West Otago. They are developing a branded approach to organic produce, conventional produce and sheep genetics. Allan and Sonia want to break out of the commodity production cycle into branded, valued-added products on fixed contracts. Maybe one day the Avalon brand will be worth more than the farm, they say.

Allan is a former national president of Young Farmers and grand finalist in the YFC contest. He is very keen on making the most of the farming opportunities in New Zealand and building added-value on farm produce.

The 1300ha farm is on rolling to steep Otago hill country with reliable rainfall and good pasture growth. It carries 15,500 stock units in 11,000 Perendale ewes and more than 200 Angus-cross and Angus cattle, which are fed on pasture only with minimal chemical inputs. Organic farming is carried out on 310ha, with a further 200ha in the conversion process. The aim for the whole property is to maximise output while containing farm input costs to 35% of farm revenue. The low inputs means that animal health treatments are kept to a minimum (one drench for parasites in a lifetime for organic livestock) and the most disease-resistant stock can progress from the conventional to the organic approach. The stocking rate across the whole farm is around 11.5 SU/ha.

1000ha is carrying 8600 Perendale ewes plus replacements and 100 Angus-cross cattle. Farming holistically is very important to the way the Richardsons farm. It is a decision-making process based on triple bottom line recording and recognising that any decision made affects the whole system, it is never in isolation. Part of managing holistically is the grazing plan where stock are rotated all year apart from lambing, on a planned rotation based on full pasture recovery, not a set 21-day rotation which some people use. To make this successful, they need as many paddocks as possible and are subdividing down to about 4ha. Those paddocks are then cut up more into smaller cells with temporary fences. The Richardsons are into their third season with the natural soil conditioner Probitas and they have been monitoring the results with soil and herbage tests. They expect to be applying only Probitas lime and specific trace elements in future.

With almost year-round rortational grazing the pasture species are improving, with more clover and even timothy reappearing. The aim is to move forward with all-grass wintering with a hay silage buffer. Pastures are left until they are well up the growth curve, which lets the best plants like clover and herbs recover, and stops them from getting eaten out. Higher residuals helps regrowth and also builds up organic matter.

310ha of the Avalon property is now certified organic by AgriQuality. This land has been farmed organically since 1998, and now carries 2200 Perendale + Texel + Wiltshire ewes, and 120 Angus finishing cattle. Allans interest in organics was sparked by a Kelloggs rural leadership programme in 1997. Allan and Sonia toured UK, Europe, Scandinavia, Canada and USA in 1999 when they won a Nuffield scholarship studying organic production and marketing systems. Organic status was achieved in 2002.

Allan took the disease-resistance breeding and low chemical inputs approach up another level by achieving organic status and continuing to produce at a high level. The aim is to achieve from the organic block 90-95% of what is achieved on the conventional farm, on a per hectare basis. Richardson admits he is still learning. Timing is everything, as it is much harder to achieve good production organically, compared with conventionally. Youve got to see any possible problems before they develop.

The processor and butcher are also certified and the organic lamb and beef cuts are sold to restaurants and on mail order through the Avalons website. The Queenstown resort Millbrook is supplied. Without a large volume of meat, high-end outlets are deliberately targeted. However, another challenge is to add value to lower value portions of the carcase. On the local mail-order market, meat is couriered to web site customers from an Invercargill butchery. Avalon also supplies organic livestock to PPCS for export. The returns have been over $5/kg, which is about $1/kg higher than conventionally reared lambs.

Organic farming includes holistic management, homeopathic treatments instead of drenches and vaccines and Probitas soil conditioner, based on lime and silica. The components of Probitas mobilise locked-up elements in the soil by utilising the naturally occurring currents which run east-west in the ground. This is called electrolysis, which is the ability to move elements about using electric currents. Herbage tests have confirmed a rise in utilised trace elements.

Avalon has 1400 stud ewes, of which 800 are farmed organically (500 Perendale).

The additional challenges of farming organically provide the environment to sort out the best performers which are also disease-resistant.

Allan is combining the best production and resistance traits of three breeds, Perendale, Texel and Wiltshire, offering purebreds, crosses and composites for sale.

The Bonneview Perendale flock has been performance recorded since Allans father Colin began sheep breeding in 1968 and the stud ewes now number 1100. They are high-performance sheep in fertility, growth, meat yield, worm resistance and facial eczema resistance. The FE resistance is confirmed sporidesmin testing and comes about because of the high health status, Allan believes, because FE is not a problem in West Otago. Protection against grass staggers and even external parasites is linked. Half of the recorded sheep on Avalon only get once drench in their lifetime.

Ram hoggets are evaluated with FE and footrot resistance tests before use as flock sires.

In the first Advanced Central Evaluation (ACE) genetic analysis 154 breeders representing dual and terminal breeds agreed to take part. This was a NZ wide selection involving top high performance studs. Some 1415 sires were analysed for terminal traits of growth, meat yield, and fat. Bonnieview's 55/01 came 8th and was the highest placed dual purpose ram of any breed. This is a tremendous result for Avalon, because if BV 55/01 had been used in the Alliance Central Progeny Test for 2003/4 he would have been ranked first, based on these results.

Allan also has Avalon Texels with 100 ewes and Avalon Wiltshires with 240 ewes.

Composites are also available, with half Perendale, quarter Texel and quarter Wiltshire. They offer fertility, survival, fast maturity, multi-disease resistance, hybrid vigour and clean points and less dags. They are produced by putting Texel-Wiltshire crosses over Perendales.

The Texels were first introduced in 2000 and have been bred-up since then. The Texel-Perendale crosses offer great meat, yield, growth and conformation. They can be used as terminal sires over Romney or Coopworth, lifting meat yield and conformation in dual-purpose flocks.

The Wiltshires were first introduced in 1999, using NZ sources, and now Allan is looking to recorded Wiltshires from Australia. The Wiltshire has some traits which will be very valuable in the future. It has the ability to shed belly, crutch and body wool. It has good fertility but the growth and meat characteristics have been poorer than Perendale and Texel. Resistance is not as high as the Perendale but there does appear to be some facial eczema tolerance.

With 17 years of selection for worm resistance, as well as performance traits Avalon already had the genetics to handle the toughest sheep environment of all, organic sheep farming. Unlike many organic farmers Avalon has been able to maintain the same stocking rate on the organic block as the conventional farm (currently 11.5 stock units / hectare). This is at a sheep to cattle ratio of 88:12. The organic stud flock of 800 ewes is fully recorded using Studfax and SIL. The Avalon elite Perendale, Avalon Texel and Avalon Wiltshire are all farmed organically. All sheep are on a one life time drench, maximum policy. The flocks are all genetically linked so the organic genetics are equal to the Bonnieview Perendale genetics. Organic rams are raised organically then farmed conventionally from weaning under a minimal drenching programme. From 2006 Avalon will be offering certified organic rams.

Allan launched the Ultimate sheep project on 2004, with a target date of 2012. He aims to breed high fertility, high growth rate sheep without having to rely on high levels of inputs. Among the key traits will be 60-65kg mature live weights, high fertility, hogget lambing at 100%, half of the lambs to the works at weaning, premiums for meat yield, multi-disease resistant, one lifetime drench, no dagging, crutching or belly wool and constitution to last six years in the flock.

Avalon had an association for the Richardsons, because it was the name of Colins first farm, but it was also chosen as the brand because it was easy to sight and to remember.

A long-term goal is to franchise organic caf/deli under the Avalon brand. Another is to sell the Avalon Farming System, including their genetics and organic market access. The system would help people along the same path from conventional to organic production.