Our Environment – Turihaua Angus

Turihaua Angus (the business) and Turihaua Station (the property) together are a magical combination and are the heart and soul of our family’s past, present and future.

We feel so grateful to be farming this piece of paradise beside the ocean and to have taken on the cow herd of Turihaua Angus that was so well managed by Hamish and Angela. We hope to continue this legacy and love of cattle tied in with environmental stewardship for our three boys and many generations to come.

In recent years our environmental focus has been on soil and water management and native habitat restoration and creation.

Soil Management

In 2010 We fully converted to biological inputs, and now biannual applications. We aim to build better water-holding capacity by improving soil carbon through organic matter by rotational grazing.

We created more diversity in the pasture by applying seeds and utilising better grazing techniques. Worm numbers and overall soil health has increased significantly by supporting and allowing biology to do its job.

Water Management

Extensive water reticulation has been developed over the last 20 years by storing huge amounts of water in spring-fed dams. These have been fenced and planted to give the best quality water.

The farm has around 140 troughs supplying 90% of the farm with good water. The Turihaua Stream has been retired and planted with natives.

Environmental Restoration

Over the past 5 years, we have fenced off and planted 26 hectares across the property including the 4-kilometre length of the Turihaua Stream. This has been supported by contributions from Trees that Count and MPIs 1Billion Trees Fund.

Further, we met a 50% contribution by the GDC Natural Heritage fund in planting our water reservoirs. This has led to a total of 26,000 native trees being planted on Turihaua since 2016.

Our focus for this has been to reduce bank erosion, filter runoff to improve water quality in the stream and the benefits of shading for stream biodiversity.
We have retired a block of plantation harvested in 2018 and planted this in manuka with this being a nursery species for naturally regenerating natives along with another large corridor between two reservoirs.

We have undertaken a baseline fish survey in 2018 with Long Finn eels and found that overall stream health was deemed poor – shown by excessive snails and algae. We hope that long-term the shading and filtering effects of planted riparian margins will improve this and we now have a baseline study for comparison. GDC have commenced regular freshwater monitoring including EDNA which we are excited about.

We are passionate about creating corridors for birds between our 3 QE2 blocks with our next focus being planting the tributaries up towards bush blocks. We have a pest control plan and look forward to further growing this as part of the Whangara Community Catchment Group.

In 2023 we were awarded the Balance Farm Environmental Awards for Livestock and Farming for the Future which has been so encouraging on the path of farming Angus Cattle with the environment at the forefront.