thisNZlife

OAK FARMING

WHO: Kees and Kay Weytmans

WHERE: Waihirere, 15km north of Gisborne

LAND: 32ha (70 acres)

WHAT: eco lodge and venue, forestry, highland cattle, deer, sheep

WEB: www.knapdale.co.nz

In the best romantic tradition of the Kiwi OE, Dutchman Kees (pronounced Case) Weytmans met his wife-to-be Kay while she was in Nepal and followed her home to her family farm near Gisborne. Thirty-four years later, they preside over a beautiful property where Kees’ love of trees in general and oaks in particular is evident everywhere you look. Highland cattle and deer graze among well-tended trees. Autumn puts on a glorious display of colour around their stunning Knapdale Eco Lodge, a wedding and function venue built from locally grown timbers.

They also sell artisan salami made from their venison, but carbon credits for their trees earn them more than their animals.

Kees grew up in the shade of 200-yearold oak trees in Udenhout, a small village in the south of the Netherlands. Some were planted in Napoleon’s time to shade future soldiers as they marched.

“In Udenhout, Quercus robur grows to magnificent proportions. They were planted by peasant farmers in productive woodlots as well as by the village authorities,” he says.

Oak trees are permanently etched in his consciousness.

“Not only the shape and its massive pruned trunks, but especially by its use. It’s the best locally grown construction timber (in the Netherlands). It lasts centuries in farm buildings, churches, windmills, and bridges. It is also very common for all kinds of high-end furniture: tables, chairs, cabinets, beds, doors, and more.”

For hundreds of years, Dutch merchant ships were built from oak, although the local resource was exhausted by the 1500s. This led to the establishment of the first forestry plantations in the Netherlands.

It’s no surprise that Kees planted oaks, and cypress, acacia, and walnut. He

chose a hybrid Q. robur x petrea line that Appletons Nursery has sold for many years due to its good form and vigorous growth.

Q. robur naturally grows in the English lowlands on heavy wet soils, while Q. petrea grows higher up on drier sites. Nursery founder Eric Appleton thinks some of the acorns brought by the first settlers from the UK were very early hybrids of the two species, not F1 crosses. Because they grow so well, they've been successfully propagated for nearly 200 years, half a world away from their original habitat.

Kees' first planting block was 0.8 ha on tomo-susceptible volcanic ash soils, set out according to an agro-forestry model. His marauding Highlander cattle still graze this paddock, so Kees – cheerful, indefatigable and endlessly resourceful – hooked up an ingenious system of electric fencing to protect each tree while still allowing stock to graze 98% of the pasture.

The trees are now nine years old, and Kees has been meticulous with his pruning, losing just four of the 265 trees he planted. He's taken a lot of guidance from his farm forestry mentors.

“(The late) Ian Nicholas and Ian Brown both advocated removing any branch when it reached the size of the base of your thumb. It does slow down growth, but my aim is to grow my oaks as straight as possible without creating significant pruning wounds that can cause rot.

“During the silvicultural stage (when trees are carefully managed), I'm not at all concerned about growth in itself. Only form matters. Once I have a six, eight or

"The real wealth sits in the pleasure of seeing my oaks grow. Just like my forebears, only faster."

sometimes 10 metre straight trunk, I will let the oak develop. It will start to form big branches above the pruned section and that is when the growth will start.”

The trial block's early performance was so promising, Kees planted another 3ha of the same species, but these haven't grown as fast as they're on more challenging soils.

The intended rotation is at least 80 years. Kees says for the first 50 years, it will be a farm forestry project, delivering multiple benefits: grazing livestock, carbon sequestration, and improved animal welfare because of shelter the oaks provide from wind and sun.

“The real wealth I have created however, sits in the pleasure of seeing my oaks grow. Just like my forebears, only faster.”

FEATURE

en-nz

2021-08-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-08-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://thisnzlife.pressreader.com/article/281934545931461

NZ Lifestyle Magazine Group