Wi Pere Trust winners of the 2022 Ahuwhenua Trophy. Photo / Facebook
Māori farming and horticulture excellence has been celebrated by more than 800 guests at the Ahuwhenua awards in Hawke’s Bay on Saturday night.
Wi Pere Trust won the highly prized Ahuwhenua Trophy for 2022 for the top Māori sheep and beef farm. The trust runs a large farming operation at Te Karaka, near Gisborne.
Nukuhia Hadfield, chair of the Ahuwhenua Trophy management committee, said all of the finalists were excellent and each organisation is a great role model for farmers.
“But in the end, Wi Pere Trust has been judged the winner. They are very worthy winners," Hadfield said.
"Wi Pere Trust runs an outstanding farming operation and measures up well in all the other criteria that are part of the judging process."
The other trophy finalists were Onuku Māori Lands Trust located near Rotorua and Hereheretau Station in Whakakī, Wairoa.
Photo / Facebook
The Ahuwhenua Young Māori Farmer Award was won by Chloe Butcher-Herries (Ngāti Mahanga, Waikato-Tainui), an assistant farm manager at Newstead Farms in Puketapu, Napier.
Butcher-Herries said she was "extremely honoured" to accept the prestigious award and to be representing her iwi and whānau.
Young Māori Farmer winner Chloe Butcher-Herries with finalists Puhirere Te-Akainga Tamanui Tau and Rameka Eli Edwards. Photo / Facebook
Her fellow finalists were Puhirere Te-Akainga Tamanui Tau (Ngati Ira, Ngati Porou, Ngāpuhi), a shepherd working on Rototahi and Puatai stations, Whangara Farms, near Tolaga Bay and Rameka Eli Edwards (Ngāpuhi, Waikato-Tainui), the manager at Reon and Wendy Verry’s farms Puketitiri and Waitete in Te Kuiti.
The Ahuwhenua Trophy is the most prestigious award for excellence in Māori farming and was inaugurated 89 years ago.