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The chair of the Ahuwhenua Trophy committee says a trend for Maori landowners to combine their holdings into more economic units its positive for the Maori agribusiness sector.
All three finalists for the award for Maori farming excellence, which this year is for dairy farmers, are collaborations of smaller trusts.
They are Putauaki Trust’s Himiona Farm and Ngati Awa Farms’ Ngakauroa Farm in the Bay of Plenty, and Te Rua o Te Moko in south Taranaki.
Mr Smiler says all three are milking between 500 and 600 cows and looking to grow through bringing in other whanau interests.
"Because we do have many of our land blocks pepper-potted around our regions, and it’s great to see them working together as whanau, combining their blocks together as economic farm units so that they can build the necessary scale to be sustainable both profitably and environmentally going forward," he says.
Open days will be held at the farms next month, and the winner will be announced at an event in Tauranga on June 13.
FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH KINGI SMILER CLICK ON THE LINK
http://www.waateanews.com/play_podcast?podlink=MTU1NjE=
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