The Gullies

[00:00:00]After Richard and Laura Morrison purchased 250 hectares from the wider Morrison family farming operation in Manawatu, they set up the Gullies.

[00:00:08]Here, the focus is on developing ethical livestock genetics and producing premium red meat with minimal environmental impact.

[00:00:16]In addition, they run a farmstay and an artist in residence program.

[00:00:20]>> We're a 270 hectare farm, about 200 hectares effective. We have a bit of a focus on breeding, shedding, and low input um sheep genetic and also have Hereford cattle.

[00:00:34]Ethical genetics is it's kind of like a a fancy word that can mean all sorts of things these days.

[00:00:43]For us, it was about using genetics to look after one the animals and the welfare of for animals, but also people on the farm.

[00:00:52]With costs increasing and squeeze on pricing, um we sort of need more scale to generate an income. And so, yeah, using genetics to actually take a lot of the work requirements out of our livestock, um whether that's easier calving for cattle or a lot less dagging, drenching, shearing, tailing for the sheep, but also putting in disease tolerance uh like facial eczema and worm tolerance as well.

[00:01:21]I've always maintained a couple of breeds. One's the um the Wiltshire sheep. So, I've got the New Zealand's original flock here. So, we've always tried to maintain the Wiltshires as a pure flock. But I was always worried that their performance might stagnate compared to the productive gains that the rest of the New Zealand sheep were making. So, I needed to start recording them, but also benchmark them against the wider sheep population with another breed. So, that was why we developed our low input composite breed running alongside the Wiltshires, so we could connect our Wiltshires essentially into the the wider New Zealand sheep flock.

[00:01:59]Wiltshire's came into New Zealand in 1972 and my father and grandfather purchased the entire flock in 1982. So, just about my whole lifetime I've sort of grown up with Wiltshire's as part of the farming business and yeah, it's quite quite nice to sort of carry that on and also nice that the industry's pivoting towards shedding and low input sheep and we've got that flock ready to service the needs of the industry.

[00:02:25]For the last 3 years I've been involved with a shedding sheep breeders group which is basically trying to lift the profile, lift the connectedness of shedding sheep, also improve the genetics of shedding sheep in New Zealand. So, for 3 years we've selected a ram that goes onto the central progeny trial um run by Beef and Lamb. And and this year one of my rams was selected for that which is quite nice.

[00:02:52]People talk about technology on farm and at the end of the day the way scales and the data collection is sort of the interface of it I guess but it's what's in behind the scenes and what's really going to push our industry forward is the genomics work. Also, the yeah, the performance data and the system that we use to make selections on a whole range of traits.

[00:03:15]It's really exciting and and it's quite a new frontier for for I think sheep farming in in in New Zealand.

[00:03:22]We're actually working alongside AgResearch at the moment. They're looking for the shedding genes and initially they anticipated of discovering about four or five genes to do with shedding but they're up to 16 to 20 now. So, so it's a little bit more complicated than they think but but yeah, some sheep grow a fleece and shed it off. Some consistently shedding all the time. Some grow very little wool at all and and others are quite hairy.

[00:03:50]We know the genetics have got the right brew of genes, I think, and and there's also trigger genes. So, all sheep might have a couple of the genes, but if they don't have the other accompanying genes in and the environment, they don't get a chance to express. So, all we're doing is focusing on the really good short shedding ones and almost no wool at all and putting them in the mix.

[00:04:12]>> When I first moved to Mason and moved here to the galleries and thinking about the big picture and and the long game, I wanted to understand what my contribution would be.

[00:04:25]I got involved with Federated Farmers, Beef and Lamb, Rural Women, and lastly, um you know, the the tools that are being developed on farm for farm practices, I guess, that demand a bit more of a market representation of needs. So, AgriZero um farmer focus group is another role of mine. And future thinking.

[00:04:46]Richard and I exited his wider family farming business coming up to 6 years ago now in 2020. And a privilege of buying this farm outright was that it came with uh three-bedroom cottage.

[00:04:59]Yeah, we're entering into our 6th year of offering on-farm accommodation. It's very much a self-contained option where we kind of set it all up. It's a kind of nest, if you will, that people can come in and and I think largely feel immediately comfortable. They feel like it's homely, but a little bit luxurious. And it's a real joy to offer that.

[00:05:21]So, we're entering into our fifth anniversary now of the Agollis Arts Residency. It's been really lovely to offer this ongoing opportunity for artists and seeing those light bulb moments, whether it be, you know, above a farmer's head or an artist's head. And yeah, showcasing our farm, our system, our family, our opening our doors to the arts world and breaking down those barriers and seeing farmers come out and see just how we never clock off, you know, and that's not a martyrdom piece.

[00:05:51]It's a showing the understanding of this isn't just a a 9-to-5 job. And I think that's the first kind of connection that we build with an artist because artists never tune out either.

[00:06:03]Yeah, there's there's quite a bit more commonality than you might expect.

[00:06:06]Everyone's away laughing and gets real joy out of seeing the talent of an artist or the sheer hard work that goes into yeah, into farming and and producing food for this country.