Fed up with the effects of repeated droughts, regenerative farming has 'worked wonders' for a Hawke's Bay farmer
Stuff has published a great article on the regen ag learning experience out at Mike Hunsberger's 750ha sheep & beef farm, Karaka, out on Kahuranaki Road towards Elsthorpe.
Added 12 months ago
After years of successive droughts and dry summers, Hawke’s Bay farmer Fanie Erasmus turned to regenerative agriculture to improve the farm’s resilience, and it has been “working wonders”.
Erasmus manages Karaka Farms, a 750 hectare sheep and beef breeding and finishing farm made up of two blocks and holding about 5500 animals.
Increasingly dry conditions and disenchantment with the chemical approach led to a rethink and three years ago the farm set up trial blocks to test a regenerative system.
“We got to the point where things needed to change, we couldn’t just keep going on the way we did. Fertiliser was one of the massive major expenses in our budget and we didn’t see the benefit or the money return on it.”
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