Dean Martin of Glenlands Farm. Photo: Gianina Schwanecke / Country Life
There's something different about the sheep on Glenlands Farm, at the top of the Esk Valley in Hawke's Bay.
The 244-hectare farm which has been in the Martin family since 1970 is home to a range of shedding sheep called the SheepMaster.
Dean Martin, who took over the property from his parents in 2014 with wife Antoinette, says they're a relatively new breed to New Zealand.
He wanted to put an extra frame into the Wiltshire ewes they were already running and was tired of the cost and hassle of getting the wool off.
Follow Country Life on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart or wherever you get your podcasts.
Dean looked to Australia for inspiration where he found the SheepMaster - a meat sheep, incorporating genetics from African, Israeli, and European lines. It stands out because it prioritises lean meat production and minimises fat content.
They imported semen straws a few years ago to develop their own flock and have been operating as a stud farm since.
He said moving to a shedding sheep had taken the "work" out of wool.
"The big thing is getting older. when I was in my 20s I didn't mind crutching and shearing so much, [now that] I'm in my 50s it's not so much fun anymore."
Dean said there was also the added expense of getting wool of sheep, with low returns.
"We're losing money on the wool and there's a lot of extra costs with the wool," he said.
"It's a shame we have to go this way. Wool's such a good product, it tells a good story - environmentally friendly product. You'd think in this day and age that natural fibres like that would be all the rage but people would rather weather plastics instead."
The farm has shifted to SheepMaster, a shedding sheep breed. Photo: Gianina Schwanecke / Country Life
Dean said there was growing interest in the breed, with lots of farmers also looking to introduce the breed to their flocks.
He's never been afraid to try new things on the farm, and neither was his dad who began exploring different fertiliser options in the 1980s.
More recently the farm has adopted regenerative agriculture practices.
Regenerative agriculture is a system of farming principles and practices that increases biodiversity, enriches soils, improves watersheds, and enhances ecosystem services, by capturing carbon in soil and above ground biomass.
"What really spurred me on was the drought we had in 2007," Dean told Country Life.
He had just come back to the farm as a partner and found he had to destock due to the difficult conditions.
They moved to dairy cattle grazing and after playing around with his grazing patterns found he actually had more feed.
"The whole thing about regenerative grazing and stuff is match your grazing to watch the weather is doing at the time," Dean said. "So reacting to a dry period and extending your rounds out helping you to get through those dry periods."
Glenlands Farm, 244-hectare sheep and beef property at the top of the Esk Valley in Hawke's Bay, has been in the Martin family since 1970. Photo: Gianina Schwanecke / Country Life
The other part of regeneration is not always doing the same thing, he said.
"I decided to mix it up by not rotating this year, set stocking and trying to densen up the pastures a bit."
Dean said it took confidence to change farming methods, especially when debt levels are high. People can start small though, by changing grazing in one part of the farm before applying to the whole system.
"We're just like all farmers doing the best with the resources we've got. Regen is just a different way of looking at things."
Learn more:
- You can learn more about Glenlands Farm here.
