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The finalists for this year's Ahuwhenua Trophy for Maori farming excellence have been described as kaitiakitanga in action.
Onuku Trust's 72 hectare Boundary Road dairy farm south near Lake Rotomahana pipped the Mawhera Incorporation's dairy unit near Hokitika for the prize.
Te Tumu Paeroa chief executive Jamie Tuuta says they had similar stories of shareholders with a desire to regain control of their land who have built up well run, profitable farms which are environmentally sustainable.
He says they show they understand their land.
"So whether it's Onuku within that Rotorua catchment fencing waterways, planting waterways, to the way in which they run stock numbers on the farm, through to Mawhera, where their chairperson on Friday night said they were rain farmers because they have adapted to a very wet environment and they adapted in terms of the stocking rates you would usually see on a dairy farm, their's were much lower," Mr Tuuta says.
He says the farms showed how they exist to serve the social and cultural objectives of the shareholder group.
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