Northland

The Northland Regional Group covers the area from north of Auckland to Cape Reinga. If you would like to know more about getting in touch with this group, contact the Secretary.

March 2013 Northland report from Doug Sheldon
Drought will be on everyone’s minds at the moment – at writing, we have had almost no rain since Christmas.

Farmers all over the north are digging into their conserved baleage and hay. Our cattle are coping well – the hardy Highlander stands up well under tough conditions.

The Waipu pageant was held on 11th and 12th of January; we loaned two Highlanders (a cow and a heifer) to take part in the parade which was a re-enactment of the arrival of the Scottish settlers in the 1870’s and their lives in Waipu in the next few decades. The pageant is held every 10 years and is an awesome undertaking for those involved in organising and putting it on.

The show season has progressed with some very nice cattle being shown at Clevedon, Warkworth, Pukekohe and Morrinsville. We hadn’t been to Morrinsville before and were most impressed. The setting is very picturesque, under huge poplar (and other) trees which afforded lots of shade for a very hot, sunny day. Martin and Catherine’s Sorrento and her heifer calf, Figlio Rosso, has walked away with Supreme Champion at most of these events. The Kumeu and Easter Shows will complete the current show season.

Dargaville Fielddays has been and gone, this time all three days were hot, sunny and almost windless. A number of members looked us up there and, once again, the Highlanders attracted much attention.

We’re looking forward to our farm walk on 17th March.

Regards
Doug S