Coby Warmington wins 2025 Ahuwhenua Young Māori Farmer Award
Coby Warmington, 29, a farm manager at Waima Topu Beef near Hokianga was named at the winner of the 2025 Ahuwhenua Young Maori Farmer Award for sheep and beef.
Entries are open for the 2024 Ahuwhenua Young Māori Farmer Award, for up-and-coming young Māori working on dairy farms around the country.
The award was inaugurated in 2012 and is designed to recognise the achievements of young Māori in the farming and horticulture sectors. In 2024 the competition is for dairy - in a three-year cycle, young Māori involved in horticulture and sheep and beef are also recognised.
Nukuhia Hadfield, chair of the management committee which oversees both the AYMF and the senior Ahuwhenua Trophy competition, says Māori agribusiness continues to grow, and for this to be sustainable, the industry needs young innovative leaders. One of the pathways for developing this cohort of leaders is with the AYMF award. She says the growth of the sector also means that there are new career opportunities for rangatahi.
"In the relatively short time the AYMF award has been running, it has brought to the fore come outstanding young Māori men and women who have already excelled in their careers. Since becoming finalists or winners they have moved up to new and more responsible roles and many have become inspirational role models," she says.
Hadfield urges young Māori wāhine and tane to enter this competition and also asks that their employers and mentors encourage them to do so as well. She said that past finalists and winners have said that being involved in Ahuwhenua opens new opportunities and networks and gives them the self-confidence to achieve their full potential.
"The Ahuwhenua whānau that runs the competition is both welcoming and supportive - entrants will have a great time," she says.
The 2021 winner of the competition, Quinn Morgan later went on to win the up and coming farm leadership award.
Entries forms and further details are on the Ahuwhenua Trophy website. Entries close on Friday 9 February and the finalists will be announced in late March 2024 with the winner being announced at the Ahuwhenua Trophy awards dinner on Friday 17 May 2024.
Fonterra has unveiled the first refrigerated electric truck to deliver dairy products across Auckland.
Research and healthcare initiatives, leadership and dedication to the sector have been recognised in the 2025 Horticulture Industry Awards.
Virtual fencing and pasture management company Halter says its NZ operations has delivered a profit of $2.8 million after exclusion of notional items.
Manuka honey trader Comvita slumped to a $104 million net loss last financial year, reflecting prolonged market disruption, oversupply and pricing volatility.
The Government has struck a deal with New Zealand's poultry industry, agreeing how they will jointly prepare for and respond to exotic poultry diseases, including any possible outbreak of high pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI).
The conversion of productive farmland into trees has pretty much annihilated the wool industry.