Pah Hill Station Wins Maori Farming Award

Media Release
15.6.2007

Pah Hill Station Wins Maori Farming Award

Pah Hill Station – the farm that almost became a hydro lake in the King Country is the winner of the prestigious Ahuwhenua Trophy in this year's Bank of New Zealand Maori Excellence in Farming Award.

The Trophy, is modeled on the renowned award of the same name, founded in 1932 by Sir Apirana Ngata. The original, cup donated by Lord Bledisloe when the competition was first introduced was presented to Chairman of Atihau-Whanganui Incorporated (AWI) Whatarangi Murphy-Peehi on behalf of Pah Hill Station, at a gala dinner at the Rotorua Convention Centre tonight (15/6).

The station will also receive a replica trophy along with a framed photograph of the presentation, a prestigious medal based on a 1932 design and $40,000 worth of cash or farm-related items including a top model Suzuki quad bike.

Situated 15 kilometres southwest of Ohakune, Pah Hill Station is part of the Atihau-Whanganui Incorporation (AWI). The 1900 (effective) hectare sheep and beef farm supports 11,000 breeding ewes, 650 breeding cows and replacement stock. Last year the farm recorded a lambing percentage of 129 per cent.

Receiving the award from the Minister of Maori Affairs Parekura Horomia and the General Manager of Agribusiness for the Bank of New Zealand Bill Purvis, the Chairman of AWI Whatarangi Murphy Peehi says he was "surprised by the win. It was a marvelous effort from farm manager Larry Walker and his young team."

He paid tribute to his te puna who had the foresight to protect their lands. He also thanked the more than 7,000 shareholders from Atihau-Whanganui.

Minister of Maori Affairs Parekura Horomia congratulated the finalists saying Maori are more than ready and capable to run successful agri-businesses now and in the future.

Farming an effective area of 720,000 hectares worth an estimated $7.5 billion, Maori are the largest natural grouping of pastoral farmers in New Zealand.

Chief Judge of the Award John Acland said Pah Hill was an example of a "very focused efficient operation" that had had kept things simple and achieved very good results.

"There is great trust between the trustees and the manager and this flows right through the whole of the incorporation," he says.

Chairman of the Competition Executive Committee Bob Cottrell says he is delighted with the win for Pah Hill Station and equally pleased with the momentum the competition is gathering.

"This competition has gone exceedingly well. Overall it is developing into a far better event that we ever envisaged. There's a lot more participation. Obviously everyone wants to win but there are a lot more entrants using the competition as a learning experience," he says.

He says the Committee has been proud to continue the challenge set by Sir Apirana Ngata and Lord Bledisloe to encourage Maori farmers to tap into the full potential of their farms.

Pah Hill Station was the Southern Regional Winner of the Competition, the North/Central Regional Winner was the Tuaropaki Trust northwest of Taupo and the Eastern Regional winner was Matariki Partnership – north of Ruatoria.

This is the fifth year of competition, which was successfully re-inaugurated in 2003 after a nearly 30-year lapse.

Beef and sheep competitions were held in 2003, 2004 and 2005 and a dairy competition was introduced in 2006. This year's competition saw 16 entrants presenting themselves to the scrutiny of a panel of highly qualified judges.

Sponsors for The Bank of New Zealand Maori Excellence in Farming Award include Platinum Sponsor Bank of New Zealand; Gold Sponsors Te Puni Kokiri, Meat & Wool New Zealand, and AgResearch; Silver Sponsors Ballance Agri-Nutrients and PGG Wrightson and Bronze Sponsors AgITO and Suzuki.

In addition a number of other sponsors have offered generous support including AgriQuality, PPCS, AFFCO Group, Landcorp, Poutama Business Trust and DB Breweries, TVNZ Marae Programme, the Maori Education Trust, First Sovereign and the Rotorua Trust. .

ENDS

Backgrounder

Ten years ago Pah Hill Station almost became a hydro lake as part of a King Country Energy project. Fortuitously the project was abandoned and, this year the station is the Southern Regional winner in the Maori Excellence in Farming Award.

Situated 15 kilometres southwest of Ohakune, Pah Hill Station is part of the Atihau-Whanganui Incorporation (AWhI).

Former General Manager of AWhI Dana Blackburn says the tupuna of AWhI shareholders lived around Karioi in the summer and migrated back to the Whanganui River in the winter. He says the station was part of an original Maori walking track from Ranana on the Whanganui River to Karioi. It is located near marae at Ngamokai and Tirorangi and sits beneath the historic Te Ranga-a-Kauika Pa site, which is known to house a number of urupa. The site was a principal historical settlement for Ngati Rangi, the main iwi of the area, to which most Whanganui iwi connect. Two streams run through the property providing a constant natural water supply.

Like the other ten properties in Atihau-Whanganui Incorporation, Pah Hill station is on land that was incorporated by the Maori owners in the late 1960s. Most of its land was leased out at that time. In the late 1980s the Committee of Management governing AWhI adopted a development strategy to resume the leased lands and run them itself.

Dana Blackburn says for as long as he can remember the station was leased and managed by the Duigan family. In 1990, when the lease expired, AWhI paid out the family as part of its strategy and resumed farming the land. It required a lot of attention and the Incorporation has allocated resources on an annual basis to bring the station up to the standard it is now in. He describes the land as "strong country," that's naturally fertile and has always had potential.

The 1900 ha (effective) sheep and beef farm comprises flats, easy rolling country and some steeper hill country and farms 20,800 stock units.

Farm Manager Larry Walker says the management and shareholders of Atihau-Whanganui have been very generous in fostering the development of the property. "It's taken a long time for them to get to where they are now and they're naturally very proud," he says.

Larry has farmed in the Rangitikei for most of his working life and has been managing Pah Hill Station for the past two and a half years.

He says in his short time managing Pah Hill he's seen "great deveopments" on the station. These include a big fencing programme – sub-dividing paddocks with about 15 kilometers of electric fencing, as well as erecting conventional fencing around the wool shed. It has also undertaken big spraying and re-grassing programmes and expects to continue both "until the job is done."

Pah Hill Station employs two other permanent staff as well as Larry and brings in outside labour when required.

The station has retired large areas of bush for regeneration under a Department of Conservation Ngawhenua Rahui covenant.

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