In 2016, the fifth Ahuwhenua Young Māori Farmer Award will be announced. Entries close on 29 February and the category this year is dairy.
Te Tumu Paeroa spoke to the inaugural winner Tangaroa Walker to find out what difference the award has made to his career.
Setting Goals
When Tangaroa Walker won the inaugural Ahuwhenua Young Māori Farmer Award in 2012, he talked publicly about his goals. By the time he was 40, he wanted to own two farms and two holiday homes.
Nearly four years later, Tangaroa says those long terms goals remain but he’s learning to be more flexible in how he gets to them.
“Everything changed since I won. I was always so clear about what I wanted to do and the things that I wanted to achieve but things keep changing now cause of the different opportunities that come up.”
At the time he won the award he was 22 and a lower order share milker for an equity partnership in Southland, a job he had taken on with a view to becoming a contract milker.
Winning the Ahuwhenua award provided an almost immediate boost to his career.
“It’s a bit of a risk employing a young fulla, ‘cause you haven’t had time to learn from your mistakes. But after I won the Ahuwhenua, that risk was a lot smaller ‘cause I had proven myself.”
Out on the farm
The following year, Tangaroa got his first contract milking job.
“It was tough, really tough. I liked it though, I like a good challenge.
“The farm was a bit run down. I thought ‘I’m going to jump in here, put my foot on the pedal and just work my arse off that first year and get the place up to a standard that I could enter it into the dairy industry awards’. But I just couldn’t get it there, it was so hard.
“I had to run 1000 cows, as well as 450 young stock, do all the cultivating and silage, do everything. I had six staff working for me at one stage. I was there for two years. But to be honest, it burnt me out. It burnt me out quite a bit actually, but I learnt heaps.”
He has no regrets though. Knowing he can comfortably run a 1000 cow farm has given him confidence and helped him refocus his goals. He is still contract milking, and farm ownership is still clearly in his sights. But he’s not in as much of a hurry as he once was, and he’s relishing the opportunities that come his way and the chances he gets to advance his own career and help others on their way.
Networking and Opportunities
“Everything that happened after Ahuwhenua has had a snowball effect.
“A lot of people said, it’s all about networking. I didn’t really know what that meant at the time. But if people see potential in you, it opens many doors.”
And using those opportunities has already seen Tangaroa recognised as an emerging leader in the dairy industry.
He recently took part in a KPMG’s emerging leaders’ programme and he’s on the Primary Industry Training Organisation’s Dairy Industry Partnership Group - taking a special interest in ways to attract and support more young Māori into the dairy industry.
His advice to other young Māori interested in dairy farming is to look at the long term career options.
“Ask where you see yourself farming in 20 years’ time. Young men these days are driven by two things - money and women, and you don’t get much of either of them on a dairy farm. There’s not money for a young fulla coming in, there’s definitely not women ‘cause you’re way in the middle of nowhere.
“But what got me through was having goals and looking forward to those goals.”
Te Tumu Paeroa
Te Tumu Paeroa is a Gold Sponsor of the Ahuwhenua Trophy Awards. It also supports the Ahuwhenua Young Māori Farmer Award through the Māori Soldiers Fund.
Chief Executive Jamie Tuuta says support for the Ahuwhenua Trophy complements Te Tumu Paeroa’s role to protect and build Māori land and assets.
“We work with Māori landowners to help realise the potential of their land.”
“By supporting the Ahuwhenua Māori Farmer Award, we want to encourage young Māori who have the potential to be future leaders in farming and land management.”
All those who enter the competition benefit in development of their leadership skills through interview preparation and supportive feedback from an experienced judging panel.
Want to enter the Ahuwhenua Young Māori Farmer award?
Applications are open until 29 February 2016. Entrants need to be between 16 and 25 years old as at 31 December 2015, currently employed on a dairy farm, of Māori descent and currently enrolled in or have completed within the last year, National Certificate in Agriculture Level 3 or higher.
As well as a cash prize, each of the competition finalists will receive a $1,500 training scholarship to help with their professional development.
To enter or for more information visit www.ahuwhenuatrophy.maori.nz
