Barry & Julie Crawford
Rosebank Farm
Waikaka Valley
Barry and Julie Crawford are the fourth generation family members to farm the 330 ha property and they do so on their own. They have three daughters, Fiona 22, Nicola 19, and Lisa 17, who are currently all in Dunedin, but enjoy coming home to help on the farm.
The farm has been in the family since the early 1900's. Originally it was only 220 ha, but Barry's parents had the foresight to purchase two neighbouring properties to make it into the farm it is today, with Barry and Julie also purchasing the Waikaka Valley property. Barry's father, Bill, still comes out to the farm and takes an active interest in the farming activities, helping when he can.
The last fifteen years the Crawford's have been innovative swapping land with a grain farmer neighbour, allowing them to speed up their re-grassing programme, graze the re-growth on these stubble paddocks in the winter, replace many of the fence lines, and in general make a major upgrade of the paddocks. They have been very happy with this system.
In 2003 Barry and Julie changed breeds from Coopworth to Highlander - a decision based on the large genetic base Rissington Breedline had to offer. This change allowed the Crawford's to achieve 160% lambing in 2007, their best ever, having 7000 lambs, including 400 hogget's, equating to 21 lambs to the hectare. Despite the dry season of 2008, their scanning percentage was only 1% back on the previous year, but their lambing was 10%, back due to four days of persistent heavy rain when lambing was at its peak.
The Crawford's also purchase their 2th ewe replacements from Rissington Breedline at a set price. This season the Crawford's purchased an additional 2000 store lambs to finish.
In 2008 the Crawford's changed their maternal breeding programme to that of a terminal system investing in the Primera, supplying lambs to Marks and Spencer, through Rissington Breedline Logistics and Marketing, an exciting opportunity they didn't want to miss. To the motivated Crawford's the set price was appealing given the fluctuating weekly schedule, optimising the additional pledge payment was an aspiration and to meet the required specifications from Marks & Spencer a huge challenge.
The Crawford’s took up that challenge. Their drive and commitment lead to achieving an outstanding result earning an extra 36c per kg pledge payment in 2008, the top RBLM supplier of in spec Primera lambs to Marks & Spencer.
In 2009, again Barry & Julie achieved remarkable results being awarded The Alan McRae Memorial Farmer of the Year Award. This has earned the Crawford’s a return trip to the UK to experience and learn more from Marks & Spencer and their consumers and to gain firsthand knowledge from the meat procurement team of their optimal requirements. This will add further insight as to how they can improve their system even further. A commitment they are certainly up for. In 2009 the Crawford’s supplied 4,533 lambs to the Marks & Spencer program at an average weight of 19.4 kgs, 3,574 (79%) of which met the tight specifications. “We enjoy working with this innovative company, who are making us analyse everything we do”.
The Crawford’s are constantly gaining a better understanding of their farm’s carbon footprint, analysing the farm’s greenhouse gas sinks and greenhouse gas sources. They were also part of the ‘Sheep for Profit’ monitoring group, reporting regularly on their flock condition, live-weight, numbers and stock health.
The Crawford’s are an inspiration to all us all, they set their goals, focus and are driven by success. For Rissington Breedline it is a pleasure to be involved with such a motivated team and we look forward to working together in the future.
