Meet the Grower: Rob Hewett

When’s a good time to pin down a crop farmer for a chat? Hardly ever it seems! Rob Hewett works a year-round gig with very little downtime but we did manage to catch him for a quick yarn between jobs.

Rob and his father Ian are regular growers for Topflite, contributing blue peas, maple peas and sunflowers for our aviary bird and chicken feed products. We’re extraordinarily proud that the majority of the ingredients in Topflite pet feed are grown locally. For animals it means nutritious feed thanks to Otago’s quality soils; for us it means we can easily stop by and talk crops over a cuppa (and perhaps a pikelet).

Tell us a bit about Oakhill Station. Where is it, what do you grow and how did you end up farming there?

We’re in Dunback, which is between Palmerston and Ranfurly, and our family’s been here for 104 years. I’m the fourth generation and I feel really lucky to be able to farm here. It’s 1500 hectares in total with mixed cropping on about 250 hectares. Wheat and barley are the main crops, with most going to local animal feed producers. 

We like to keep sheep and cattle in the rotation as it is another tool in our kit in the battle to control weeds such as wild oats. 

As a supplement to the farm work, we run a couple of luxury huts on the farm, which people seem to really enjoy. They’re called Wild Irishman and Rocky Ridge, and we have a third going in next year.

What do you love about crop farming?

Well, the worst part about it is there’s always bloody something to do! There’s never a quiet time here. But I quite like growing stuff. It’s good fun and quite challenging.  It does keep you interested because you’re always trying to do better than the previous year. 


You’ve grown sunflowers, blue peas and maple peas for Topflite – what keeps you on your toes with these crops?

Sunflowers are interesting because they look nice but they have their challenges too. We've had trouble with wind in the past and birds obviously quite enjoy them. If the weather behaves, they are a good break crop. The peas go well as long as they stand up straight. 
Last year we had a bit of an issue with them going flat on the ground, which makes it hard to get them up off the deck with the harvester. One in five years, they say, you get a good year on peas. 

What are your plans for summer and the new year at Oakhill?

Around Christmas we start harvesting the barley, then we often have a couple of weeks' break before the wheat starts. We also grow 20-30 hectares of red clover, which gets harvested late autumn. 

Ok, it’s a wet and woolly North Otago day and it’s smoko time. What are you eating?

Always coffee but sometimes there’s a biscuit, sometimes not, depending if Mum has been to the shops! If she has something floating around, Dad usually pinches it and brings it down to the smoko hut. In terms of home baking, she does love a pikelet. Mostly to use up spare eggs, I suspect.

One tool you couldn’t do without?

Well that’s just about everything, but I do like my tractor. It’s a bloody good tractor. We got it about a year and a half ago, so it's got all the mod cons, like auto steering and a modern touchscreen interface. It’s so easy to drive and use.

Sunrise or sunset over the fields?

We're a sunset area here, because when the sun goes down, it really lights up the Kakanui range and puts on quite a show.