Te Akau Tuesday Update

David writes:

There has been huge excitement this week with the arrival of our first Burgundy foal!  We are proud to welcome a filly born at Brighthill Farm from a  mare owned by Te Akau Stud called Aventura.

This young sire Burgundy is going to get every chance and represents great value at $6000.  We are are sending at least 20 mares to Burgundy and can't wait to have his progeny in our stable.

This filly is our second one born this past week after we had welcomed our stunning Rock 'n' Pop colt at Waikato stud who sadly lost his mum during the birth.  He is doing well at Blandford Lodge with his foster mum who lost her foal a few days earlier.

I always look forward to the first day of Spring and I am even more delighted to get the rain we have had in the last 24 hours ... about 35 mls.  We were getting quite dry after a couple of frosts and this rain will really get the grass growing for the Spring.  Grass growth is very important to us as we are very heavily stocked up.  It is at these times that we are lucky as we have always put the fertiliser on so our farm takes off grass-wise before a lot of other properties.

We are stocked so heavily at present due to the fact that cattle prices have taken a huge rise and last Spring I was getting about $4.50 per kilo for my bulls but this year could well get $5.50 or even more if the growing conditions are favourable and the exporters have to compete for the stock.

We only have one more paddock of lambs remaining to dock and will probably do this on Wednesday looking at the weather forecast.

I have been away in Australia for the last few days but back home Tuesday night.  I do stay in touch however with everything that is happening at home.

One thing that is giving me the "guts ache" is the way the media is reporting the election campaign.  It is so boring the way they keep going on about these emails that have been sent.  What about the things that really matter to New Zealanders?

I am too busy running our business to worry about who is sending emails but I am never too busy to hear about National,  NZ First and Labour's policy on racing, farming, the economy etc - the issues!

One that is driving me crazy are some parties telling the Stevenson family who they can and can't sell Lochinvar Station at Taupo to. I remember when this farm was very run down and it has been developed by the family into a farm we can all be proud of.

They have spent millions of dollars employing people and developing this farm into a world class unit and politicians want to tell us who can buy it and then wants to have a capital gains tax on the farm ... is this the way we encourage people to invest in business ... invest in new jobs … it should be compulsory for politicians to have some experience running a business! Let me promise them it's not as easy as it looks!