2014 Ahuwhenua Young Māori Dairy Farmer Award

Ahuwhenua winner on track for farm ownership

2014 Young Māori Dairy Farmer of the Year, Wiremu Reid, has his heart set on owning a farm by age 30 and says winning the competition has been a positive step towards his goal.

The fourth generation dairy farmer grew up in Whangarei and moved south with his partner Bettina Tolich in 2009. Since then the young couple have been building up their equity hoping to reach farm ownership by 2020.

"I'm confident we'll get there," says the 24-year-old.

"Ultimately we want a run off, or a lease block, with conversion possibilities; but for the short term we would like somewhere to graze our own stock."

Wiremu was announced the winner of the Young Māori Farmer of the Year competition at the Ahuwhenua Awards evening in Tauranga on the 13th of June.

When he entered, Wiremu was working on Stephen and Janet Pope's 650-cow farm at Otapiri as a lower order sharemilker. He and Bettina have since started their first season 50/50 sharemilking 1150 cows in Ranfurly with the support of Wiremu's parents.

"We're all doing a big marae style partnership," says Wiremu. "My parents are helping out with the wintering and mating. Having them involved means there's more time to do extra jobs that will help us get to where we want to be faster."

Wiremu says he is "humbled" to have won the competition and describes the other finalists as "very, very impressive."

As an applicant, Wiremu was assessed on a range of skills and attributes including his commitment to farming, training and education, expertise relative to his position, community involvement, plans for the future and personal attributes.

The runners up for the award were 50/50 sharemilker Joshua MacDonald from the Waikato and Herd Manager James Matheson from Gore.

To improve his business management skills, Wiremu is studying towards the the Diploma in Agribusiness Management through Primary ITO. The Diploma is a qualification for agribusiness decision makers who want to upskill and have the tools to give them better business knowledge.

Though dedicated to achieving his goal, he still recognises the importance of family and makes every effort to take time out for his young sons, William and Manu.

"My parents always made time for us so Bettina and I do the same," says the father of two. "We always try and take the boys back North during the calm parts of the year as I think it's important they have a relationship with Whangarei."