Jamie Falloon on Farming Challenges

Jamie Falloon was born and raised on Bowlands Station during the time his father, the late John Falloon, was a National MP and for a term, Minister of Agriculture. Jamie went to Otago and Canterbury universities where he attained degrees in accounting, forestry and management, and returned to farming in 2005 when his father died. For the past decade he and wife Georgie and their three children have farmed 1,200ha of owned and leased land. Jamie has been president of Federated Farmers in Wairarapa for the past two years, coping with major issues of water quality, regional planning, farm safety and local government reform.

Bowlands Station goes back to the first pastoral lease in the Bideford district of about 30,000 acres in 1858, followed by several changes of ownership and subdivision until local farmer Henry Falloon (born in Ireland) purchased the central farm, homestead and woolshed in the late 1800s. Since then it has been in the Falloon family, most recently fourth-generation John (died in 2005) and fifth-generation Jamie. After fire claimed the third homestead in 1991, John and Philippa had the fourth one built nearby, where Jamie and Georgie and their children Joe, John and Anabelle live.

Bowlands is 850ha effective of finishing flats and hill country, also containing a 4ha vineyard, plus 250ha of forestry. It runs 8000 total Coopworth sheep and Angus Hereford-cross cattle. Jamie and Georgie employ two farm workers. In the past decade Jamie has been intent on improving the resilience of Bowlands’ dry hill country through recent droughts in 2008 and 2013. He has introduced crops such as plantain, chicory and clover mixes and tried other different feeds and crops. He has also leased nearby land for lamb finishing.

Jamie Falloon gained an accountancy degree from University of Otago and then added a forestry degree from University of Canterbury. He worked from 1995 onwards for Fletcher Forests in log trading and as a sales representative for supplying industrial clients like pulp and paper mills. He worked at Winstone Aggregates in sales and then as an executive for Turners & Growers in Auckland, specialising in import and export tomatoes and export avocados. He left Turners & Growers in 2005 and took the young family back to Bowlands from Auckland.

When Jamie left school in 1986, the subsidies were being removed from agriculture and forestry, and he was encouraged to study for a non-farming career. But while living in Auckland, Jamie and Georgie discussed the opportunity to go back to the farm with Jamie’s parents. “We were lucky to have that opportunity”. When John died, the change in career and move home was made.

Aged mid-30’s, Jamie said he had a rose-tinted view of farming from the outside and found the practical reality a lot harder than it looked. “The best thing is that you are your own boss and you have got control of a multimillion-dollar business,” he told the local newspaper after appointment as Wairarapa Federated Farmers president. “Farming is a challenge and you get rewarded for your ability. But the environment is a big challenge – you can have a bad week of weather which can ruin your whole year.”

Bowlands has a 10acre vineyard which is 17 years old containing mainly pinot noir with some pinot gris. It is leased to leading Wairarapa winemaker Paddy Borthwick, who is based south of Masterton near Gladstone. Jamie had considerable trouble keeping the rams out of the ewes in his first year farming so he put them into the vineyard behind eight-wire fences to eat the good pasture covers between grape rows. But they learned to force holes through the netting, ripping it down to gain access to grapes, out of sight at the back of the vineyard. “It was fair to say that there was not much fruit sold that year and I also realised that growing grapes wasn’t as easy as it looked.”

Jamie was elected president of Wairarapa province in October 2012 when then-president Paul McGill moved to Landcorp in Wellington. He had served a short period on the provincial executive prior, and had time on the Meat Industry Action Group and on the farming reference group for the Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC).

Three major topics are currently occupying Jamie’s time and his thinking for the federation:

1. The new generation regional plan and balancing environmental values with the economy, as well as educating the urban population about the importance of farming and the environment.
2. Worksafe guidelines for taking passengers on quad bikes.
3. Proposed local government amalgamation to create a unitary government in the greater Wairarapa/Wellington region.

With reference to topic one, GWRC has provided a lot of time for consultation and Jamie and Federated Farmers staff have spent a great deal of time and energy on understanding, submissions and responses. Wairarapa has a water-use project to investigate sites for water storage, the best of which should proceed to feasibility studies around the end of the year.

Jamie says his time spent on Federated Farmer activities is considerable but that he needs the challenge outside of farming activities and enjoys the representative roles, meeting different people and the feeling of making a difference.