NORTHERN FaRmiNg LiFEsTyLEs June 2013 gorse, scrub and tobacco weed while preserving natives, cleaning out a lake and watercourses, putting in and improving dams and undertaking a comprehensive fencing programme.
grazing we’ve been working in with the farmer next door and are looking to expand,” Toki adds. The farm grazes 100 weaners and 150 Friesian and Jersey cross rising two-year-olds while the present 150 Merinos clean up ragwort and provide export quality wool.
The family has a diverse range of skills and training which is serving the enterprise well. Oldest son, Toki, is a family company director and a toolmaker with an engineering background.
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“A good 80% of the leased land is effective. With winter coming we have to bring in a certain amount of hectares to develop grass ahead of us so that we can increase the stock numbers.”
A good 80% of “ the leased land is
Tupari views expansion in the wider ambit of local increased employment. Toki describes farming today as having to meet economies of scale. As well, in unlocking a block’s potential often ‘old school’ skills and equipment are needed to compensate for lack of capital. “Structure and planning are needed to build the farming operation. Pooling innovations and experience while working together can spread out to hapu development, particularly if linked in to Ministry of Primary Industry seeding and development resources.”
effective. With winter coming we have to bring in a certain amount of hectares to develop grass ahead of us so that we can increase the stock numbers.
”
Tupari started out with 500 Merinos and the farm’s productivity has been steadily built up under a largely organic approach that utilises fish fertiliser.
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The family ties in their improvement wor k with preservation and enhancement. MPI has undertaken an onfarm study of native species regeneration and Tupari has planted ponga and flax, the latter sourced by the community. A native tree nursery is also in the frame. The farm’s distinctive stone walls have required repair and adjustments to control bigger stock numbers and Tupari has used larger rocks to make landscape features, highlighting their ever flowing spring ‘Wai Aatarere’.
“For the last two years of dairy
Tupari Te Whata in his workshop with a walking stick he is presently carving
held all over the world. After an arts cultural exchange in 1986 with Kaikohe’s Canadian sister city, Duncan, on Vancouver Island, he has forged closer ties — a link symbolised through a
The Te Whata family is very involved with the wider community, outside of farming commitments. Tupari’s wife Molly began the first play centre at Tautoro, and both she and her husband have contributed to Maori tourism in Tai Tokerau for many years. Tupari is a Mormon bishop, and he teaches theology. But he also finds time to cut firewood for the elderly.
14 foot poupou, a carved panel, which stands outside the Duncan council buildings, while a five-foot Thunderbird totem from Canada commands the entrance to the Far North District Council chambers.
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He is also a Master Carver fin of repute and has works being a
Detail of walking stick — (customer’s tupuna with flute)
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