'Drought-proof' farm a big drawcard

A well-developed Tikokino dairy farm is for sale.

As dairy prices recover, a rare opportunity to obtain a drought-proof dairy farm in Central Hawke's Bay is being marketed by Colliers International Rural and Agribusiness.

Ingleton Farms, on Makaroro Rd in Tikokino is a developed 704ha property boasting 507ha of irrigated, fertile and predominantly free-draining soils.

It currently produces 705,000 kgMS/year from 1580 cows.

Colliers Rural and Agribusiness broker James Parsons, said it was a "top performing, well-planned and executed dairy farm in outstanding condition, with a solid base of assets for maintaining the already high levels of production".

A 70-bale rotary shed built in 2008 includes automatic cup removers, an automatic teat spray system, remote control backing gates and a yard capacity of 750 cows.

Three main calf sheds are situated on the farm, with the former 54-bale herringbone shed and woolshed being converted for calf rearing.

A state-of-the-art irrigation system was the infrastructural "pièce de résistance" unrivalled in the Hawke's Bay farming industry, Mr Parsons said.

Its effluent system reticulates to 95ha, with an upgrade in progress to cover 175ha. A recently-constructed effluent pond holds about 200 days worth of storage. The farm's 155ha runoff, minutes from the main block, "has traditionally been used to winter cows on, and grow winter crops including maize silage, lucerne and grass, and is a major asset to the operation".

On site is a quarry for track maintenance. Waipukurau and Waipawa are within a 15-minute drive and the Hatuma Lime Quarry is an eight-minute drive.

"Enhanced by the warm and temperate climate of Central Hawke's Bay, the location of Ingleton Farms is ideally suited not only to dairy, but other agricultural systems," Mr Parsons said.

"A dairy farm offering of this scale and specification rarely frequent New Zealand's property market, certainly in the North Island. The nature of the soil types, and the strength of the irrigation, means the land use will undoubtedly attract a raft of potential end users."¦