2027 Dairy - Conditions of Entry

Conditions of Entry

The competition will be held on a national basis and up to three finalists will compete to determine the supreme winner of the Ahuwhenua Trophy Excellence in Māori Farming Award.

This competition is for Māori dairy farming businesses, where the entrant is clearly able to demonstrate they are in the majority decision making position relating to that farming operation.

It is expected that Māori dairy farm Owners, Partnerships, Trusts, Incorporations, Lessees, will meet these criteria, as well as some sharemilking positions where Māori hold a majority equity and decision making position in that particular dairy farming business.

Entrants must be able to provide stand-alone accounts for the dairy enterprise. This is to cover the situation where the entrant may run a number of associated farming enterprises which may be amalgamated under an overall set of accounts. Entries of more than one property owned by an entity will be permitted provided the foregoing criteria are met; allowance for this will be taken into account by the judges.

A DairyBase analysis will be undertaken and to support this all entrants must be able to provide financial accounts for the dairy business entered in the competition for each of the last 3 years along with supporting physical information (cows, ha, milk solids, labour etc) for the same 3 year period. Learn more about the DairyBase process here.

Entrants must:

• Complete the Entry Form
• Complete the DairyBase registration form (if not registered) and the Farm Business Description (L1) questionnaire, all of which are available in electronic format here.
• Provide their last 3 years of financial accounts: 2023/2024, 2024/2025 and 2025/2026. If those for 2025/2026 are not available at the time of entry please advise when they will be provided, but meanwhile submit what is available.

All entrants will receive a copy of the financial and physical analysis. To the extent possible we will also provide benchmark information with other properties.

Please note: you will receive a Guide for Entrants with full details about the process upon entering.

Confidentiality

Entrants' names and all information supplied will be treated as confidential by the organisers and all those engaged in analysis and judging, and will not be passed on to any outside party.

Dairy Competition

The Dairy competition is held every third year alternating with Sheep and Beef and Horticulture. Previous Ahuwhenua Trophy winners are required to stand down for the next succeeding competition. This applies to all farms owned by the winner.

The organisers reserve the right to alter the conditions of entry, judging arrangements and details of information for future competitions.