Jim Ward has been the supervising manager of the 186,000 hectare Molesworth Station for over 12 months. Situated west of the inland Kaikoura Range it carries 44,500 cattle stock units with around 80 horses for stock management and at the height of the season there can be ten permanent staff.
Basically divided into summer and winter country, the cows are mainly in the Wairau, head of the Clarence area, on the western side of the Acheror river during the summer. They go in after weaning in September, are mated and calved, coming out for calf marking in April, before going into the winter country on the eastern side of the Acheror, lower Clarence, Dillion, Halfmoon and the head of the Awatere valley.
"Around 22,500 cows are wintered with calves on," Jim explained, "we wean, cull, Tb test and draft in the spring, and the bulls go out in the middle of January for mid November carving."
Originally from the Catlins area in Southland, Mr Ward spent 9 years on a property on the Napier - Taihape Road, either side of the Rangitikei River, managing 25,000 stock units made up of 1,100 calving cows and 10,000 ewes and supporting stock. He was attracted to the challenges of managing Molesworth and also the significance of the special historical nature of the station.
"We were looking for something new. Our career path has always been property management, we have always said that, we have always wanted to do this sort of thing and Molesworth is right up there for us, it's a good challenge and the history is really special."
Currently the biggest challenge for New Zealand's largest station is bovine tuberculosis. "That's our number one priority, it's throughout our district and north Canterbury, and we are not going for control - we are going for eradication."
