The competition had already been to the other finalists, Whangara Farms and Kiriroa Station, owned and run by the King family, both properties in Gisborne.
This one was on Gwavas Station at Tikokino, bought by Te Awahohonu Forest Trust in 2011 to complement its sheep and beef farm, the 2600ha Tarawera Station on the Napier-Taupo road.
I was interested to see what they had done with the farm as I’d been on Hawke’s Bay’s first monitor farm committee on that property in the late 1990s so hadn’t seen it for nearly 20 years.
It was a property with so much potential but needed a decent capital development spend and those of us who had farmed from the mid 1980s through the 1990s were very constrained as it was a tough time to be farming.
Indeed, the trust went through really difficult times like the rest of us.
It had finally wrested ownership of some of the ancestral land at Tarawera back in the mid 1950s after 70 years of court cases. But the land was underdeveloped and the trust eventually took control of Tarawera Station, which had been somewhat developed but with debt was barely breaking even, in 1987.
Another 8000ha was leased to the Crown at a peppercorn rental of $1000 a year with the trust getting 15% stumpage at harvest of pines that were planted from 1971 to 1986.
The Crown wanted to exit all its lease agreements in the mid 1990s and the trust needed to bring in two joint venture partners for 50% of the forest and borrow $17.5m for its half with stringent repayment requirements by the bank.
It harvested and replanted until 2016 and now awaits the second crop but that big risk allowed it to further develop Tarawera then buy Gwavas from the forestry returns.
A tent marae was set among the beautiful tree plantings the Hudson family had lovingly planted through several generations.
Naturally, we began with a powhiri, which was fantastic and lasted an hour. I willingly lined up and hongied all and sundry then there was morning tea to deal to.
It was a couple of hours from the start before we set off for a farm tour but no one was complaining.
We’ve had a great season here in Hawke’s Bay so there was grass for Africa and plenty of evidence of the development programme over the last eight years with $750,000 spent on water systems and the same on subdivision so there are now 290 paddocks and 650 troughs over 1000ha.
That spend is starting to show real dividends. I’ve always worked on at least a 20% return on capital for development and would like to know where you can get a better return in agriculture.
The previous two financial years showed a reasonable $1400 gross farm revenue with $400 EFS/ha but the in 2017-18 year, on the back of excellent returns and good production, Gwavas made a very credible $1900 GFR/ha and an excellent $839 EFS/ha.
It sounds like the early September storm that affected many east coast farms also hit Gwavas so it won’t achieve those giddy heights this year but looks well set up for a good production season next year given the quality stock and feed levels we saw.
We have been talking for a long time about the potential gains from a lift in the significant sector that is Maori agriculture and this day showed me there are exemplar models out there already for others to emulate.
The competition reaches its climax in Gisborne on May 24 at the awards dinner.
Gwavas will be a strong contender but I hear great things about Whangara Farms and as chairman of the east coast region for the Ballance Farm Environment Awards saw the King family win several categories at our own awards two years ago and heard very good things from our own judging team.
Whichever enterprise wins, they are all great examples of the good work that is being done out there daily.
