Page 113 - Hereford Magazine 2022

Passion for

agriculture

Hereford Youth team member Sam Tipping waits as youth coordinator Rebecca Paterson confers with judge Gemma Hain at the
Wanaka Show during the 2020 World Hereford Conference. Photo: Kate Taylor.

ereford Youth member Sam Tipping is Looking back, Sam says he couldn’t have done it without
passionate about the way people look at help from his mum, “the lovely Tui”, who looked after the
agriculture, and has loved his time in the cows while he was away.
Hereford Youth family. His Waitomo lease block finished in 2020, which coincided
H Sam, 28, grew up near the Waitomo Caves in with his move to Timaru, still with the BNZ. Apart from
the King Country, spending a lot of time on his grandparents’ keeping two cows and two heifer calves, Sam moved the rest
farm, Te Toko Station, and helping his parents rear Friesian- to fellow Hereford Youth member Mark Daniel Murphy’s
Hereford calves. After a gap year at a Canadian summer camp, Longacre Herefords stud, and he is now the owner of the
he started his own fencing business, buying a tractor and former Kamaro cows.
post rammer. While fencing, he bought his first 25 registered Ensconced in life in South Canterbury, Sam is part of the Hinds
Hereford cows from GBH Herefords at Pukekohe. Young Farmers Club, South Canterbury Young Professionals, and
“I didn’t know a lot about breeders, but I saw these Hereford the Pleasant Point Rugby Club – the Mud Dogs.
cows on Trade Me and I had cash on me at the time. With the He has competed in the Royal Agricultural Society’s NZ Young
fencing business I had been able to save up and had help from Judge of the Year, winning the right to compete in Australia, as
my parents for grazing, plus a couple of lease blocks.” well as Young Farmers stock judging for seven years.
The fencing became a holiday job when he went to Massey “I didn’t know about NZ Herefords at the start, but once I was
University in February 2014 to do an agricultural science at university, Hannah Gibbs pulled me aside and told me about
degree. By the time he finished, he was doing more commerce Future Beef. Her family was kind enough to give us a few steers
papers; a family friend had tapped him on the shoulder about to break in and compete with at Future Beef. Once I aged out
banking, which led to a focused final year and a place on the of that – I’m probably still the oldest novice competitor they’ve
BNZ’s graduate programme. ever had at Future Beef – I was lucky to be selected for the NZ
“At the start I wanted to be an environmental consultant Hereford Youth team. We went to the Australian Hereford Youth
and by the end of it I was a banker. I was never the smartest Expo, with three of us placing in the top five of the herdsperson
cookie in the room, so a bit of life experience and a different award, then we competed at the Boehringer Ingelheim World
story helped me get the position.” Hereford Conference in March 2020 in Wanaka. That was a hell
He was a graduate in Hawke’s Bay in early 2017, and of an experience as well.”
after a short secondment in Masterton he headed to BNZ’s Sam captained the team to first place honours.
Agribusiness centre in Hamilton. “The best way to describe it all was a cross between cattle
He’d often driven past the Waitomo/State Highway corner showing and young farmers,” he explains.
property of Ross Flintoff’s Palisades Herefords. “We were all holding back trying to scope out the other
“I’d always watched his cows and the Herefords were a competition, but once the ice was broken, we were all good
bit ingrained in me by then. I approached Ross, introduced mates after the nine days and still keep in regular contact over
myself, and said, ‘if you ever want to get out, let me know’. social media.”
Sure enough, a few years later, he sold his cows to me; I sold
my tractor and post rammer and bought the rest of his herd.” Thanks to Melissa Goosman’s Bread and Butter podcast for
Sam called the stud after his family trust, Kamaro, which some of the information in this article.
has the first two letters of all the siblings’ middle names.

Year 2022 HEREFORD MAGAZINE 111