Kent and Michelle Rochester – KM Farming

Kent and Michelle Rochester farm at Manypeaks, where they are bringing up their boys Thomas and Kobi on their beautiful property surrounded by trees, cows and lush pasture. 

Being on the south coast, Manypeaks receives reliable rainfall and is generally a great climate for growing grass almost all year round. Kent's first foray into holistic planned grazing was in a particularly dry autumn when they were struggling for grass. They were overstocked and both the cattle and the pastures were under pressure. He began by changing his grazing management, decreasing the amount of time cattle were grazing on one paddock and increasing their grazing density.

This approach changed everything. They saw the pasture recover and bounce back, and this led to experimenting with different density and grazing techniques. It was also the gateway into multi species fodder crops, summer cover crops and biological stimulant and inoculants.

Kent loves to experiment and this is very apparent on his farm - there is always an interesting trial or project going on, and all lessons learned are applied to how they manage the farm. It is a beautiful place with a healthy farm ecosystem and some very happy cows, which is testament to the management style of Kent, Michelle and their team of workers. We are very excited to welcome Kent and Michelle to the Dirty Clean Food farmer team!