Rahiri Farm

Bill and Sue Garland have lived at Rahiri Farm since 1968, when they purchased 120ha and became the third generation of the family to own it. Over the years they have devoted considerable physical effort and financial resources to growing their farming business - and to preserving and conserving the land and ecology around the farm that supports it.  

They have also spent an enormous amount of time communicating with farming groups, educational organisations, and the wider public, about their experiences in applying the best possible farming principles and actions along the way. 

Rahiri Farm now covers 420ha of rolling to steep gullied country that abuts an 8 kilometre section of the Maungatautari Sanctuary Mountain pest-proof fence in central Waikato. 30ha of the farm is inside this fence and under a QE2 covenant. Outside the fence, the Garlands run sheep and cattle, and are developing a sustainable farm forestry plan.  

The farm’s core business is supplying (through TK Meats based in Te Kuiti) beef to the North American market for hamburgers and lamb to Whole Foods, a high-end US supermarket chain that demands high animal health and welfare (no antibiotics and no GMOs), as well as best environmental practice from its suppliers. A trip to the USA in the early 1990s (when Bill was on the Meat and Wool Board) led to a meeting with the founder of Atkins Ranch, a farmer-owned business supplying high quality meat to North America. As a result, Rahiri Farm was one of the first to supply TK Meats and continues the association today. Bill says the rigorous production standards set by Atkins Ranch brings discipline to the farm systems. 

Investments in genetic gains in the animals have doubled productivity over their time on the farm. “Our animals are twice as efficient, and our environmental footprint is significantly smaller”, says Bill. 

Conservation has been at the core of farming activities since Bill’s father Rex identified and protected an area on the property that was to become the 11th QE2 covenanted block in the country. Bill explains Rex could see that erosion control, including soil and water conservation were going to be key to a sustainable farming future. The Ministry of Education uses this and other areas on Rahiri to teach children about the value of biodiversity, as well as local history as evidence of early Māori activity has been discovered within the covenanted area.  

Bill explains he recently gained valuable knowledge from Ngāti Raukawa historian Nigel Te Hiko (who sadly passed away in 2020, along with his brother Alan, from Covid), about the history of the area and its role as a pathway between Gate Pā in Tauranga to Kāwhia on the West Coast. This information is now going to be documented and included in the Rahiri Farm environment plan. 

In the 1980s, several heavy rain events causing soil erosion and infrastructure damage to fences and culverts was the catalyst to having the farm soils mapped by the local council. The results of the mapping lead to identification of erosion prone areas and a massive planting programme followed, initially of poplar poles, to mitigate further events. About 40ha (approximately 10 percent of the farm) of remnant forest has now been fenced off. 

Development of wetland areas has played a significant role on the farm. One 1.2ha block, surrounded by five hundred meters of fence, has particular significance, as it contains high quality harakeke that is understood to have been used by Māori for weaving. Sue has gathered hundreds of seeds and has re-planted the resulting seedlings. Further plantings of rare species have been carried out over time. This area has also been put under a QE2 covenant and named after Bill’s aunt and uncle (Nelson and Mariana Garland) who owned the land previously. 

There are a total of 45 wetland projects across the farm that, as Bill explains, not only provides habitat for birds and pollinating insects - but also prevents stock losses through wandering into gullies, protects the land from erosion, reducing flooding and sediment loss as well as capturing E. coli, phosphates and excess nitrogen, and enhances the quality of water entering waterways. 

Stock policy is also key to erosion management, with different classes of stock being matched to grazing areas appropriate to the potential damage they could cause. 

In the early 2000s, a forestry project began on a steep, erosion and weed-prone part of the property. Fencing off the area stream-lined mustering, with time no longer wasted recovering stock lost in the gorse.  

Bill drew on his time as part of a discussion group at Whatawhata Hill Country Research Station, and the assistance of a forestry consultant, to draw up the forest plan. The 17ha area is now home to Tasmanian blackwood, Acacia, Eucalyptus and Cyprus trees, as well as natives such as totara, rimu, kahikatea, tanekaha and kauri. 

The aim is to develop this into a continuous cover forest, with selected trees harvested at different times, allowing time for new trees to replace those harvested, without clear felling. The resulting ‘specialty’ timbers have the potential to be used for high value premium furniture, and the like. The species mix ensures different maturation rates. Cyprus is ready to harvest around 40 years after planting, while totara and kauri could take 120 years, and rimu up to 250 years.  

In 2018, Bill and Sue hosted the then Environment and Agriculture Ministers to launch a national Good Farming Action Plan for Water Quality. Their ambition was to help farmers and growers identify environmental risks, and create a plan to mitigate those risks, while maximizing the productivity of their land. Bill said at the time that this approach would not only benefit water quality moving through farms and into waterways but would also ensure farmers took a closer look at what areas could be cultivated, what pastures could be improved, and what unproductive areas could be utilized for water protection. It would also identify where areas could be enhanced through planting and fencing, where shelter and shade could be created for stock, enabling improved stock movement around a property, offsetting carbon emissions and providing healthy habitats for critical biodiversity. 

In addition to all of this, the Garlands have played host over many years to school and business groups to share their values, their knowledge, and what the farm has to offer. “It gives us great pleasure,” says Bill. 

The future is always on the agenda at Rahiri Farm. Bill says they have been planning since the 1980s, and the plan is continuously revised and updated, with a focused eye on the financial sustainability of any activity, including ecological restoration. He advises people to plan for work that can be carried out over a number of years, “only do as much as you can manage, and think long term.” 

See also: 

https://www.ruraldelivery.net.nz/posts/Maungatautari-Sanctuary-Project-2014-2017-04-02-22-17-45Z