Rabbidge Farms

Southland farmers Dean and Sarah Rabbidge have used dairying as an escalator for the historic mainstay of their family business, sheep and beef. And they’re continually looking for opportunities to on the rolling country of their farm at Glenham in Southland. 

The couple have made the most of the dairy sector to generate the cash and the steady returns to now invest further in drystock. “Dairy’s been nice to be part of, and it’s got us through where we wanted to get to, and now to buy our own sheep and beef property.”

Dairying allowed Dean to come home to the farm, created diversity in the business and generated enough income for sheep and beef to stand alone as the family’s sole income earner.

“So, the dairy unit was a big catalyst for our business growth – and especially farm succession. It ticked all those boxes for us.”

Dean and Sarah have now been farming in their own right on the family unit for five years. “We’ve invested a lot ourselves but fortunately we’ve had very supportive parents who’ve been so open and willing to support us in what we’ve done.”

Dean converted part of their property to dairy in 2013, with virtually no sector experience apart from two weeks at Lincoln. “We started the conversion on the 28th of February, and we were milking cows by the 27th of July. She was a baptism by fire.”

He ran that unit by himself for the first five years, then had a manager on for the following nine. Now it’s the start of another era, as dairy cattle exit the property.

The whole operation is just over 750ha – 540ha in their ownership, with the remainer under long-term lease. The Rabbidges run 4800 breeding ewes, 1500 hoggets, 100 finishing cattle and 45 breeding cows.

Historically they’ve also had 100 dairy heifers to replace the Rising 1 year-olds and R2s, but the last of the heifers will be sold by the end of May.

Dean describes the farm as pretty easy rolling country with annual rainfall of about 1.1 to 1.2 metres, he says he can almost bank on 100mm a month, and the driest months are June and July. “We’re pretty solid, feed budget-wise. We look at growing 14 tonnes of dry matter annually. That’s with no urea – that’s just rainfall and grass.”

Unlike many parts of the country, their greatest limiting factor is wintering capacity, “whereas once you get north of Gore, the most limiting factor is probably summer carrying capacity.” To get through, they grow swedes, kale and fodder beet in the winter.

Dean is still waiting to find that year of ‘status quo’. “An opportunity will arise unexpectedly and fortunately we’ve always been in the position to capitalize. There’s always opportunity like that round the corner and if you’re set up for it then you can make the most of it.”