On June 1 Harepaora Ngaheu began contract milking on a Bay of Plenty dairy farm and, according to his long term plan, should own a dairy farm within 10 years.
It is a spectacular turnaround for someone who five years ago was drifting through life and stumbled on the dairy industry through a training course.
Ngaheu remembers the life-changing moment he first put cups on cows while attending an industry training course in Bay of Plenty.
It was his 21st birthday and the now 26-year old said until then he had never touched a cow and knew nothing of the milk producing process.
“I didn’t even know a cow produced milk after having a calf. I thoughty a cow always produced milk.”
When course attendees were invited to apply for a relief milker’s role Ngaheu said he was the only one with a licence so took it on.
He was instantly hooked, attracted by working outdoors with animals and on the land.
“I loved it.”
Underpinning that new-found enthusiasm was the realisation he had to provide for his partner Aiesha and two daughters, Reve and Kesiah.
Fate provided another significant boost to his life with local farmer Colin Wilson offering him his first job.
Not only did he give Ngaheu a start but helped develop his career and broaden his experience by arranging work on other farms before employing him as a manager this past season and contract milker for the coming season.
From June 1 Ngaheu is overseeing the running of a 160ha farm milking 440 cows and employing one staff member, an important step towards his goal of 50:50 sharemilking in five years.
An Ahuwhenua Young Maori Farmer award finalist in 2016, Ngaheu said the extra year’s farming experience gave him the necessary attitude and skills to be a positive role model for young Maori.
Born in Porirua, Ngaheu moved at an early age with his family to the small Bay of Plenty town of Te Teko where he concedes he did not make the most of school and began drifting through his late teenage years.
But that changed when he was introduced to dairying.
In tandem with the onfarm experience Ngaheu has been studying through Tectra and is up to a level 5 diploma in agribusiness, contributing to his knowledge on how to run a profitable business while developing wider knowledge of dairy farm management.
“We’re tracking along pretty good,” he said.
He hopes his story will inspire other young Maori and Maori trusts to strive to meet goals and to also attract young people into agriculture by using his “if that fella can do it then I can do it” experience, he said.
He also wants to help young people needing a kick-start in life by teaching them life skills and how to save money. He already employs young relief milkers.
A keen rugby union and rugby league player, Ngaheu has decided to hang up his boots to spend more time with his family but will continue his love of hunting, fishing and diving.
The other two finalists were Mathew Pooley, 25, who manages Ngai Tahu’s Maungatere dairy farm near Oxford in Canterbury, and Cheyenne Wilson, 25, an assistant manager of Lochan Mor farm near Ashburton.
The Onuku Maori Lands Trust from Rotorua was named the winner of the Ahuwhenua Trophy BNZ Excellence in Farming Award.
The winning farm is the trust’s 72ha Boundary Road property near Lake Rotomahana, about 30km south of Rotorua on which it milks 220 cows and produces about 90,000kg MS.
The farm has a strong environmental focus being part of Project Rerewhakaaitu, a voluntary local farming initiative to help protect waterways and lakes by focusing on reducing nitrogen and phosphorous loss and operating the highest possible animal welfare standards.
The trust runs four dairy farms, a drystock farm, forestry, natural reserves and a manuka plantation.
Onuku has also developed businesses outside the farm gates, starting an export honey company, Onuku Honey.
The other finalist in the 2018 competition was Mawhera Incorporation, which farms near Hokitika on the West Coast.
Ahuwhenua Trophy Management Committee chaireman Kingi Smiler says both finalists set very high standards in terms of their farming and the governance of their operations.
