Ahuwhenua Trophy 2025: Northland winners take top Māori sheep & beef awards
Northlanders scooped the pool at this year's prestigious Ahuwhenua Trophy Awards - winning both the main competition and the young Maori farmer award.
The drought breaking rain in Northland was greeted with much joy and delight by the more than 200 people who turned out last week for a field day at the farm of Whangaroa Ngaiotonga Trust near the east coast settlement of Whangaruru, about 70km from Whangarei.
The trust is one of two finalists in the prestigious Ahuwhenua Trophy to determine the top Māori sheep and beef farm in the country. The farm consists of 1,100ha of land, about a third of which is farmed and about 1,000 bulls are run on it. The remainder of the land is in commerical forestry, native forestry, and wetlands.
Each of the finalists are required to hold a field day as part of the judging process and to allow members of the public to hear about the farm from the trustees and staff and also to go on a tour of the property.
But the heavy rain, while much needed, quickly turned the farm tracks into mud and the farm tour had to be abandoned soon after it started. However, staff were agile and held a series of presentations including photographs to outline the history of the property and how in the space of just four years it has developed into a high quality operation.
Co-Chair of Whangaroa Ngaiotonga Trust Morris Pita says the day was everything they could have hoped for and more.
He says they had the right people in their beautiful whare who had come from all over the motu to celebrate farming and Māori taking great steps forward on behalf of their whenua and community.
"It's hard not to look and feel the emotion that has come from the day, and it has given us an enormous lift," he says.
Among the VIPs at the field day was Dave Samuels, CEO of Te Puni Kokiri, who described the finalist's field day as brilliant because it enabled people to see and hear what has been achieved.
He says as well as seeing the property it's also about meeting the people. He adds that the Māori view of the land is not widely understood because most people see it simply as an economic asset, whereas from a Māori perspective it relates to whakapapa.
Meanwhile, Nukuhia Hadfield, who chairs the committee which runs the competition, says the field days are a fabulous feature of the Ahuwhenua competition because they get people out into the real hinterland of Aotearoa, enabling them to see the amazing achievements of people who work in remote places and often under difficult conditions.
"Field days such as this show in a very practical way the great achievements of Māori," she says.
The next field day is on Thursday 10 April at the proprietors of Tawapata South, Onenui Station on Mahia Peninsula, where Rocket Lab has its launch pad.
More details about the competition, including its history and past winners of the trophy are available at www.ahuwhenuatrophy.maori.nz
Two butcheries have claimed victory at the 100% New Zealand Bacon & Ham Awards for 2025.
A Taupiri farming company has been convicted and fined $52,500 in the Hamilton District Court for the unlawful discharge of dairy effluent into the environment.
The Climate Change Commission’s 2025 emissions reduction monitoring report reveals steady progress on the reduction of New Zealand’s climate pollution.
Another milestone has been reached in the fight against Mycoplasma bovis with the compensation assistance service being wound up after helping more than 1300 farmers.
The Government’s directive for state farmer Landcorp Farming (trading as Pamu) to lifts its performance is yielding results.
The move to bring bovine TB testing in-house at Ospri officially started this month, as a team of 37 skilled and experienced technicians begin work with the disease eradication agency.
OPINION: Spare a thought for the arable farmer, squeezed on one side by soft global prices and on the other…
OPINION: Labour leader Chris 'Chippy' Hipkins is carrying on the world-class gaslighting of the nation that he and his cohorts…