The Farm

Coldstream Estate is run as a mixed farm. Paddocks are rotated between pasture, fodder crop and cereal crops.

The livestock enterprise consists of 3500 commercial Corriedale breeding ewes; 900 ewe hoggets; and each year more than 3500 lambs are finished for export. The sheep produce about 32,000 kilograms of wool each year varying from 25-30 micron, which is sold mostly for apparel manufacture. Around 6000 sheep are wintered on the property; in summer this climbs to over 10,000.

Each year two year old cattle are purchased in the Autumn and finished in the Spring.

The cropping enterprise involves mostly wheat and barley sold to a wide range of uses. Some grass seeds are also grown.

The farm has a combination of dryland and irrigated pastures. The irrigation is separated into spray irrigation and a borderdyke system which derives its water from the Rangitata Diversion Race (RDR), a district wide scheme opened in 1945 to irrigate 66,000ha of farmland. The remainder of the property is dryland.

Conservation has always played an significant part at Coldstream. The deep rooted pastures species combined with the cropping rotation that involves pasture grazed by stock has been improving the soil organic matter for many years. Great care is taken with cultivation of the lighter soils.

The large variety of trees at Coldstream play an important role for stock shelter and to provide ecological biodiversity on the property. While a mixture of both New Zealand natives and exotic trees are planted, Deodar Cedars, Eucalyptus and English Oaks have proved to thrive under our conditions.

Last year a 350-tree oak wood was planted using mainly English Oak interspersed with cherries and hawthorns, which it is hoped will become a haven for wildlife. Some of the stock shelter belts are on a mill-and-replace timber rotation and some are permanent.