{"id":605298,"date":"2026-09-19T12:40:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T12:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/605298\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T12:40:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T12:40:15","slug":"country-life-looking-for-an-edge-on-a-maori-owned-farm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/605298\/","title":{"rendered":"Country Life: ‘Looking for an edge’ on a M\u0101ori-owned farm"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the past 16 years, the Pukepoto Farm Trust near Taumaranui has never not made a profit for its more than a thousand shareholders, descendants of Ng\u0101ti Maniapoto.<\/p>\n

It’s something the trust prides itself on, as it allows them to give back to the community.<\/p>\n

“We can’t do a lot on 1000 effective hectares, but we can certainly do a little bit,” Trustee Weo Maag told Country Life.<\/p>\n

Now it’s sharing the secrets to its success with other neighbouring farmers as part of Beef and Lamb’s Hub Farm Programme.<\/p>\n

‘Looking for an edge’: Data driven decisions on a M\u0101ori owned farm<\/p>\n

Follow Country Life on Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a>, iHeart<\/a> or wherever you get your podcasts.<\/p>\n

Meaning ‘little hill’, Pukepoto was established by the M\u0101ori Land Court in 1978.<\/p>\n

Trustee Weo Maag inherited his shares from whakapapa on his mother’s side.<\/p>\n

“I’ve always maintained that the land should provide to our people.”<\/p>\n

He said the trust initially started by paying dividends to shareholders, then moved to providing education grants and most recently, kaum\u0101tua grants.<\/p>\n

Returning a profit to the shareholders comes from careful planning, he added.<\/p>\n

\"Key<\/p>\n

Key focus areas for the farm include integrating technology like the new eShepherd virtual fencing collars from Gallagher.<\/p>\n

RNZ \/ Gianina Schwanecke<\/p>\n

“We draw up plans production-wise and expectations based on one season from the other, and then we look to what is it we’re going to produce, what then can we sell.<\/p>\n

“We can’t control what the prices are – we’re at the mercy of the processors, but we can control what we produce.”<\/p>\n

Another important part was having a “yardstick to measure our success”.<\/p>\n

For Maag this meant “benchmarking” to help when explaining farm operations and results to the shareholders.<\/p>\n

“It’s about managing expectations,” Maag said.<\/p>\n

\"Dozens<\/p>\n

Dozens of utes have packed into a paddock next to the wool shed with farmers eager to hear about the key to success at Pukepoto.<\/p>\n

RNZ \/ Gianina Schwanecke<\/p>\n

“I can go, ‘hey, how come we didn’t produce that many [lambs]? What happened? What went wrong? Did you miss a paddock with the ram or something?’ You know, whatever it might be. But if you don’t have anything in writing, then you’re just flying by the seat of your pants.”<\/p>\n

The Pukepoto Trust farm joined Beef and Lamb’s Hub Farm Programme in October 2025. The programme follows a farm business over several years to help farmers see what change looks like over time in a real system.<\/p>\n

Maag said he hoped the programme would help with providing more detailed data as part of the trust’s own benchmarking processes.<\/p>\n

“With the hub farm, we’re going to be able to get accurate measurements around grass growth,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got an idea historically because [of] our irrometer (a tool used to measure soil moisture) and knowing how many sheep we’ve had, ‘oh yeah, we’ll be right’. We know the rainfall.<\/p>\n

\"Pukepoto<\/p>\n

Pukepoto Farm Trust farm manager Terry Head speaking with Darren McNae from AgFirst.<\/p>\n

RNZ \/ Gianina Schwanecke<\/p>\n

“But this is going to provide real live data that we can then go… yeah, we were pretty accurate.”<\/p>\n

It’s also about providing tested data and information for future generations, he said.<\/p>\n

“At some point, someone’s going to replace us. I see the hub farm and the learning from the hub farmers, essentially going to be able to provide information [to] the new trustees who come along, who may not have a greater knowledge in farming, but have a lot of understanding in governance and finance.”<\/p>\n

On the bright autumn day Country Life visited, about 80 farmers, trustees and other rural professionals turned out for the field day where early results were shared.<\/p>\n

“It feels really great to be up there amongst top performing farms in the district.”<\/p>\n

\"Meaning<\/p>\n

Meaning ‘little hill’, Pukepoto hides the true nature of this rugged hill country farm.<\/p>\n

RNZ \/ Gianina Schwanecke<\/p>\n

Trust chairperson Aloma Shearer said there were wider benefits to being part of the programme too.<\/p>\n

“It’s about bringing other people, sharing knowledge that you have with other farmers about performance and what we do here, what can help others, that sort of thing.<\/p>\n

“I’m just hoping that what we’ve got to share with farmers here today, with the industry, is going to be helpful for what their plans are for the future.”<\/p>\n

The field day highlighted how the trust was lifting performance through genetics, making better land use decisions, and integrating technology like the new eShepherd virtual fencing collars from Gallagher.<\/p>\n

“We’re always looking for an edge just to get ahead, to make more money, grow more grass,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the past 16 years, the Pukepoto Farm Trust near Taumaranui has never not made a profit for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[138,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-605298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605298","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=605298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}