Colostrum, the first milk produced after a calf is born, is valued in farming circles for its concentration of naturally occurring proteins, peptides, antibodies, growth factors, vitamins and minerals.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is one of the most nutrient-dense ingredients that mammals produce,\u201d Sarah Kirkland said.<\/p>\n
Elm Lab\u2019s formulations contain colostrum at levels that are uncommon within the skincare industry, she said, accounting for about 72% of the finished product.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost skincare products market one hero ingredient that is not [present] in meaningful levels. In our products, the colostrum is doing 90% of the heavy lifting.\u201d<\/p>\n
The idea for the business emerged after the birth of the couple\u2019s middle child, who experienced severe skin sensitivities.<\/p>\n
Looking for products she felt comfortable using on her own family, Kirkland investigated the potential of colostrum-based skincare and making the products herself.<\/p>\n
Looking abroad<\/p>\n
Elm Lab invested heavily in European testing, with its products undergoing dermatological assessment and its baby range receiving paediatrician testing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew we were coming out as a new brand with a new ingredient and we wanted that validation ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Customer demand has helped drive rapid growth.<\/p>\n
Elm Lab products are stocked by Baby On The Move New Zealand, with launches planned at Auckland Duty Free and one of Australia\u2019s premium baby retailers.<\/p>\n
The company is also seeing increasing demand from overseas customers, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States, so Elm Lab is also eyeing future opportunities in those markets.<\/p>\n
Kirkland said the company\u2019s research found that searches for colostrum skincare in the US had increased by 256% since 2024.<\/p>\n
A family business<\/p>\n
For the Kirklands, the business is built on more than 170 years of family history.<\/p>\n
William\u2019s ancestors arrived from Scotland in the 1850s, first making money in the Australian goldfields before purchasing the Taieri Plains farm.<\/p>\n
Elm Labs co-founders Sarah and William Kirkland. Photo \/ Biddi Rowley<\/p>\n
The property has remained in family ownership ever since.<\/p>\n
The family\u2019s history includes stories of floods that once engulfed the property, forcing earlier generations to evacuate by boat.<\/p>\n
At times, floodwaters covered so much of the surrounding area that milk had to be rowed to the railway station for transport. <\/p>\n
Family records also detail the arrival of steam plough engines imported from Scotland and demonstrations that drew attention in local newspapers.<\/p>\n
The farm\u2019s original homestead, built by the family after arriving in New Zealand, stood for generations before being destroyed by fire.<\/p>\n
Elm Lab co-founder Sarah Kirkland went from corporate lawyer to skin care entrepreneur along with her husband Will.<\/p>\n
Today, the homestead\u2019s image features in Elm Lab\u2019s branding alongside references to Elm Grove, the family farm named for the elm and oak trees planted by earlier generations.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a beautiful farm. Everything is green, and there is this incredible sense of history.\u201d<\/p>\n
Family records also document generations of innovation, including ancestors who helped introduce mechanical milking technology and new farming machinery.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere has always been this history of bringing something new into farming. This is our chapter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, the 333-hectare farm milks about 550 cows.<\/p>\n
The Kirklands produce all supplementary feed on-farm and operate what Kirkland describes as a low-footprint, grass-fed system.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe only milk what we can produce on our own farm.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elm Lab invested heavily in European testing, with its products undergoing dermatological assessment and its baby range receiving paediatrician testing. Photo \/ Greta van der Star<\/p>\n
The farm\u2019s history remains central to the brand, from the mature elm and oak trees planted by earlier generations to packaging inspired by the property\u2019s heritage.<\/p>\n
For Kirkland, the opportunity extends beyond a single business.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have beautiful green pastures, an incredible farming story and an incredible product.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Elm Lab expands into new markets and develops additional products for babies, children and adults, she believes New Zealand\u2019s agricultural reputation could help open doors in the global skincare industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve always had global ambitions.\u201d<\/p>\n
The other businesses that won a Fieldays Innovation Award are Wellington-based Enivo, Cambridge-based Scanabull, Hamilton\u2019s elert and Trussed Systems from Waihi Beach.<\/p>\n
Enivo won the Young Innovator of the Year Award for biodegradable plant pots made from New Zealand forestry and primary industry waste.<\/p>\n
Scanabull won the Prototype Award for a phone app that delivers live cattle weights.<\/p>\n
elert EQ won the Early-Stage Award for their wearable health monitoring device for horses, while Trussed Systems won the Growth & Scale Award for their Truss House Portal Frame.<\/p>\n
Fieldays visitors can vote for the People\u2019s Choice Award recipient until tomorrow.<\/p>\n
Tom Eley is a multimedia journalist at the Waikato Herald. Before he joined the Hamilton-based team, he worked for the Weekend Sun and Sunlive. He previously worked as a journalist at Black Press Media in Canada and won a fellowship with the Vancouver Sun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Colostrum, the first milk produced after a calf is born, is valued in farming circles for its concentration…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[10779,170774,138,13163,7224,4190,238782,2109,3233,128744,71,7568,374,7189,111,139,69,9629,69162,8205,19764,238785,3621,238784,1037,238783,73393,61,7188,3382],"class_list":["post-473105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-awards","tag-booming","tag-business","tag-colostrum","tag-dairy","tag-demand","tag-elm","tag-family","tag-farm","tag-fieldays","tag-from","tag-honour","tag-innovation","tag-lab","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-otago","tag-plains","tag-rare","tag-received","tag-sixthgeneration","tag-skincare","tag-sourced","tag-startup","tag-taieri","tag-tap","tag-to","tag-uses","tag-using"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}