Māori dairy farmers in the prestigious 2012 Ahuwhenua Trophy can reap fantastic benefits just by being in the competition, according to the Chief Judge Doug Leeder.

“The Ahuwhenua Trophy – BNZ Māori Excellence in Farming Dairy competition is a great way of growing your business,” he says.

The Chief Judge says Māori landowners who put their businesses on the line can reap the rewards which include great feedback, supported by free entry to DairyBase and DairyNZ on-farm analysis.

This year’s competition is the fourth bi-annual Dairy competition. Te Puni Kōkiri is a Gold sponsor.

Previous winners, Dean and Kristen Nikora, owners of Cesped Lands Ltd, are on record crediting the competition with helping them through an economic downturn. Praised for their innovative farming and commercial practices, and a well-managed growth strategy by the 2008 Judges, they remained at high risk during this testing time.

“Thank heavens they asked the big questions,” Dean said of the Judges. “When the economic environment did change and our dairy payout crashed we had already put ourselves in a mitigating position.” Between 2008 and 2010, Cesped not only came through the downturn a lot stronger, they increased their wider investment by approximately 1,000 cows. Both Dean and Kristen went on to take up further leadership opportunities.

As usual, this year’s competition has two judging rounds. The First Round Judges (Peter MacGregor, Independent; Paul Radich, Fonterra; Paul Bird, DairyNZ; Duncan Matthews, BNZ) are tasked with assessing all entrant farms to identify the three finalists.

The Finals Judges are Doug Leeder; Stephen Veitch, BNZ; Tafi Manjala, DairyNZ; and Paul Klee, Fonterra.