A joint venture farming entity, Te Rua O Te Moko supported our 2011 funding application with the desire to train descendants of the shareholders (Nga Ruanui and Nga Hine) in farming so they can work on and develop their own land to become a highly performing sustainable farming entity.   The training is also supported by PKW Incorporation, the largest Maori dairy farming entity in Taranaki.

Te Rua O Te Moko, near Normanby runs 500 cows on 170ha.  It is the result of four separate Maori trusts coming together to generate economic scale. Both Te Rua O Te Moko and Land Based Training knew it would be a perfect setup to develop a farm training school as the dairy industry was desperately short of good employees and this course gives students the opportunity to succeed.

Te Rua O Te Moko Chairman, Dion Maaka, said one of their strategic objectives is to encourage Maori into the agriculture industry, to enable their vision of one of their own running the dairy farm into the future.  Dion said, “This strategic objective was achieved when Land Based Training partnered with our organisation to run a cadetship for 8 individuals annually.” Dion said he is delighted with the results achieved to date.

Te Rua O Te Moko hopes to get whanau of the 1100 owners back on to the land, through training the next generation and amalgamating the land blocks for better utilisation and control.  The land was joined into a single block over the past four years and this year the training centre was established on the farm with a classroom in the old South Taranaki Agricultural Research Facility.

Maori land owners are increasing their land holdings, which in turn directly affects their need for trained labour. In the dairy industry, instead of selling their land, farmers are now retaining their stock and employing farm managers. These ‘professional’ farm managers have good salary packages based on their sound business skills, communications skills and forward thinking.

The Te Rua O Te Moko Training Facility is committed to training young people who will become the new breed of sharemilkers in the dairy industry.  Up to ten young people will be trained over a 44 week period per year.

All students are encouraged to undertake further study and / or complete diplomas at University.

Ahuwhenua Award

The Ahuwhenua Trophy – BNZ Māori Excellence in Farming Award acknowledges and celebrates Maori agribusiness excellence in New Zealand’s important pastoral sector. This competition is held annually, alternating each year between dairy and sheep & beef. In June 2014 Te Rua o Te Moko Ltd won this prestigious New Zealand Award for Dairy. Read the full story on Stuff.

Te Rua