Te Akau Tuesday Update

David writes:

It is a full on week at Te Akau Stud - today we are putting on fertiliser by both truck and by air.  We fertilise about 2000 acres by plane and about 2000 acres by truck.  The plane is spreading the hills with straight super phosphate and each year we do 100 acres of lime - putting on a ton of lime to the acre and a capital super phosphate dressing of 100 cwt to the acre.

With the truck we are putting on 300 cwt of 20% potassic super to the acre and we are doing 100 tons of lime - so all up about 400 tons of super phosphate and 200 tons of lime.

Even though the Waikato is as dry as it has ever been, our stock are all doing extremely well.  The horses from the sales are loving this weather and absolutely thriving.  Breaking in is going well and the first group of young horses will be ready to go into the stable next week.

I thought that Derby Day at Ellerslie was a huge success and I have a feeling that the first two horses in the Derby are pretty exceptional and will really add to the New Zealand breeding industry in the months ahead.  Karyn and I will be going to Ellerslie again tomorrow for Auckland Cup Day and we have some nice chances so we are looking forward to being back in Auckland.

Last night we welcomed Aussie and Leslie Browne to stay at the farm - they are based in Christchurch and it was lovely to spend time with them - they are long term friends and owners who are very passionate about their horses and about our industry.