Molesworth Station Paddock to Plate

Molesworth Station is trialing a “paddock to plate” project where beef bred on the iconic property is processed locally and sold in the Heritage Hanmer Springs Hotel. Manager Jim Ward’s vision is to leverage off the status of the farm and plug into a market where the consumer is interested in the origin of their food.

Molesworth lies 130 km south-west of Blenheim between the Kaikoura Mountains and the Spencer Range. It is owned by the Crown – initially administered by LINZ and more recently by DOC. It has been leased by Landcorp since 1987. It is New Zealand’s biggest farm.

As a farm unit it was formed from the ashes of four pastoral runs – Molesworth, Tarndale, Dillons and St Helen’s, which due to mismanagement and rabbit infestation were surrendered back to the Crown over the decade between 1938 and 1948. In the 1930’s the property was desolate with no vegetation. Erosion had played a big part with bare gullies etc. and the whole place was infested with rabbits.

The early pioneers ran sheep and as many as 97,000 of them were on the combined properties by 1900. In 1949 the sheep were sold off and the property was restocked with cattle. Cattle have been the only class of stock farmed in any major way since then.

The station is now 185,000 ha and is this year is carrying around 9,000 head of cattle. It has carried up to 10,200 cattle depending on rainfall etc. The climate can be severe with summer temperatures up to 30 degrees C falling to as low as 0 degrees C in Winter.

James and wife Tracey took over the property in 2001. They were running Black Hills station which is on the Napier Taupo Rd and Jim had been involved with the Kelly Land Company for some time.

The property was relatively intensive and James says they were looking for a change. James grew up around Gore and was a fencing contractor for some years before moving into farm management.

Harris Meats was originally established by Clare and the late Dennis Harris in 1956. The first shop was your typical “corner butcher” in Seddon Street, Cheviot, with the Harris family living right next door to the shop.

The Harris family has a long tradition of being butchers (five generations). Bryan is responsible for the day to day running of the Harris Meats operation. Nick is Managing Director of Hellers Ltd.

Harris Meats employs approximately 35 staff, mainly at its factory in Hurunui Mouth Road, Domett.

Harris Meats offers wholesale, retail and private stock processing services. They wholesale meat to supermarkets, butchers, caterers, accommodation businesses and restaurants.

Bryan Harris is a little cautious about the Molesworth project and about giving it too much publicity before it really takes off. He says this is very much Jim Ward’s idea and Landcorp has simply given him the OK to do a trial.

The other issue central to the whole idea of local produce is traceability. They have to be able to prove that the meat is what they say it is. Bryan has invested heavily in a system that does that. The tags follow the meat all the way through the process and stay with it. Jim Ward says with that information he can tell the customer where that animal was born, what their chemical or medical history is etc.

There are three expanded blocks at Hanmer which now means Molesworth can finish its cattle. What started as a 186 ha block has been increased further with lease blocks. One of the leases, Toshi Farm, is owned by Japanese.

The main finishing unit is run by Peter Croft.

The finishing farms also have merino sheep which is a recent innovation for Molesworth. Jim Ward has been buying merino stock further south and bringing them back to Molesworth. The issues around merinos on flat finishing farms has always been around their feet – which aren’t well adapted to soft ground.

Heritage Hanmer is part of a chain of boutique hotels through the country. The manager, Tony, is keen on the idea of promoting local product and sees it as an extension of an interest by customers in where their food is coming from. He and his chef will be preparing a launch for the Molesworth beef in the next few weeks.

They are also planning on taking some of the Heritage staff out to Molesworth so they can see where the meat is coming from.