Old Boy Tim Nelson and his wife Alice have won this year’s supreme Hawke's Bay farming trophy, the Silver Fern Farms Hawke's Bay Farmer of the Year. This is the second year that the couple have entered and they feel that the improvements they made this year in response to the judges’ comments are what won them the competition. The judges made mention of the “outstanding monitoring, analysis, uptake of technology, involvement of professional mentorship, environmental management, planning and the astonishing animal performance” demonstrated by the couple’s farming practice.

Tim grew up on a sheep and beef farm in Bridge Pa which his parents still farm and Alice was raised on a lifestyle block in Prebbleton near Christchurch so farming is truly in their blood although they met in London while on their OEs. Alice was doing “ a few horsey things” and Tim was “pretending to be a builder”. After their return to New Zealand, they bought their farm at Puketitiri in 2011 with financial assistance from Tim’s parents and havn’t looked back.  The couple farm 315 hectares in the high country, running a Friesian bull trading and sheep breeding operation.

The Hawke’s Bay Farmer of the Year award celebrates excellence in pastoral farming in the region and the judges were pleased to note that, in spite of the drought, the operations they visited demonstrated superior performance in all types of livestock and terrain.

Article added: Friday 30 October 2020