Morrison Farming

Morrison Farming is a large integrated sheep and beef business with sheep and cattle breeding aspects devoted to genetic improvement. The Morrison family has been farming on the home farm near Marton since 1864 and the business now has four properties totalling 1,430 effective hectares. The farming company is owned equally by four directors; cousins John and Graham represent the older generation and brothers Richard and William are sons of John. Richard’s main off-farm activity is chairmanship of Manawatu/Rangitikei Federated Farmers Meat & Fibre and Will Morrison is western North Island Chair on the Beef+Lamb New Zealand Farmer Council.

Morrison Farming has four properties in two blocks 10km apart, near Marton, Rangitikei. The Fern Flats has been the home farm for the Morrison family for 150 years and is 530ha effective. Ten kilometres north, Manga Ra station was only purchased two years ago and is 900ha effective, mainly hill country. The total effective farming area is 1430ha of which 1030ha is hill country and 400ha is flats. Total stocking in the winter consists of 17,000 stock units, 50/50 sheep and cattle. Between 5000 and 6000 ewes and hoggets are mated and lambed each year, plus 420 mixed-age cows and 220 two-year-old heifers.

Morrison Farms grew an average of 7000kg/ha dry matter (DM) in the financial year 2013-14, across 1430ha, a total production of just under 10m kg/ha DM. It achieved 29.5kg DM for each kilogram of product and the income was 20c/kg DM on a $5.84/kg average product price. The net production was 200kg/ha (286,000kg total). The stocking rate was 10.7/ha. The proportions of income were: slaughter lambs 35%, sale bulls 27%, slaughter heifers 15%, slaughter ewes 5%, and ram sales, slaughter cows and bulls 3% each, plus minor portions. Wool was only 3% of income. Annually 250 Hereford bulls are sold as sires, mainly to the dairy industry as yearling, follow-up beef bulls.

The breeding objective is “to breed quiet Poll Hereford cattle that are born easy, grow fast, and can quickly finish to optimum specifications on meat schedules.” They supply dairy and beef farms with bulls that are easy to handle, provide a stress-free calving and the resulting calves earn a premium. Ardo Herefords was started in 1960 and is now one of NZ’s largest recorded Hereford herds. The Morrisons use Ezicalve as the name of their quality assurance and marketing brand. The Ezicalve brand and objectives are shared by Riverton Herefords and Mike and Cath Cranstone of Whanganui.

The Dairy Beef Integration programme led by Dr Vikki Burggraaf of AgResearch and run on the Whatawhata hill research farm used Ezicalve Hereford AI semen and follow-up bulls. The Ezicalve breeders, Will Morrison and Mike Cranstone, use strict criteria for high calving ease, low birth weight in calves, good growth rate and high carcass quality, combined with a quiet-temperament guarantee and a full bull health protocol and physical standard.

Their sheep breeding objective is “to have a ewe flock that weans 160% lambs for finishing before Christmas; that are shorn once a year with no dagging and minimal animal health requirements.”  Morrison Farming has developed a composite called Ezicare, based on Texel, Wiltshire and Coopworth.  A SIL-recorded flock of about 500 Ezicare ewes is used mainly to breed their own rams with some small number of sales. Between 4000 and 4500 ewes and 1000 to 1500 hoggets are mated and lambed annually. The Ezicare ewes have a high reproductive performance producing fast-growing lambs that mature early and yield a 18kg carcass at 100 days. The past two lambings have been 140% and 145% lambs docked to ewes mated and the 2015 lambing should go close to 150%.  John Morrison also maintains a small Wiltshire recorded ewe flock between 200 and 300 sheep.

Livestock class is matched with land type by running breeding ewes and breeding cows on the hills. The flats are used for growing heifers and hoggets, finishing lambs and bulls. Feed supply must be balanced with animal demand. Having scale, multiple species, and a variety of land types facilitates this.

Forage crops, some supplements, fertiliser and good grazing management using rotational grazing, ensures as much feed as possible, converted to as much product as possible. Farm technologies such as Farmax, Cash Manager, performance recording to cattle and sheep EID and an on-farm intraweb supports on-going farm management and decision making.

The four directors have weekly management meetings and monthly board meetings. Expert advice and specialist skills are brought in as required. Daniel Clayton is farm manager on Manga Ra where Will Morrison is the director-designate. The three other directors are more involved with the home farm at Marton. I n addition to Clayton there are two permanent staff members, a junior shepherd Luke McIvor and a tractor driver-general hand, Mike Cash. Contractors are used for fencing and other jobs.

Off-farm, Richard Morrison has been Meat and Fibre Section Chairman for the Manawatu/Rangitikei province of Federated Farmers. The time involvement varies but he doesn’t find it a big chore because of his ongoing interest in the agriculture sector and industry affairs. He has also worked alongside researchers from Massey University since graduation and the ag production systems class used to come to Ardo on a bull buying exercise every year. This year Richard was asked to be the speaker at the annual Massey Ag Awards. He gave the students advice from what he had learned in the 15 years since graduating. This included knowing your industry, knowing your consumers, saying yes to opportunities as they present themselves and entering competitions to see where you sit and what you can learn. Richard has travelled throughout the world both on overseas experience after graduating and with the benefit of agricultural scholarships to the UK, Ireland, Japan, Mexico and Australia.

Will Morrison has been on the Beef+Lamb New Zealand Farmer Council since its formation in 2010 and is now the western North Island chairman. He enjoys the on-farm aspects of attending field days and conference. He participated in the Kellogg Rural Leadership course at Lincoln University and has agricultural experience in Australia, North America, Europe and the UK and Japan.