Page 38 - NZ Hereford Magazine 2023

Herefords

help fulfil lifetime
dream

Colraine Lawman 18276.

Words: Kate Taylor. Photos: Supplied

avin Herrick is fulfilling a lifetime goal to own a
farm with Herefords on it.
“From a young boy who always loved animals,
I’m in paradise. I always wanted to buy a beef
Gfarm, it took me until 49, but I got there.”
Gavin and his wife Tracey bought the 782-hectare property,
Okupata, at Oparau, coastal Waikato, in 2020. It has 300ha of
beautiful rolling country at the front with approximately 100ha Gavin’s plan is to supply the dairy industry, including his own
in pockets of native bush and the balance in steeper hills out farm pictured here, with quiet, quality bulls.
the back of the farm. There’s a lodge – overlooking a pond –
that sleeps nine people, and all manner of wildlife can be found, “We’re aware we’re an open window to the world.”
from wild goats, pigs and fallow deer to kereru and pheasants. Sick of paying a “horrendous amount of money” for grazing
They run a Romney flock and a stud Hereford herd, plus replacement heifers off the farm, the next step became obvious.
dairy grazers and white face progeny from their dairy farm. “I thought, ‘well, hold on a second. I’m going to be retiring
Gavin was a distributor in the coffee industry for 23 years. from the coffee industry shortly. Before I do that, I might
“From Arabica coffee beans to Arabica Herefords,” he says go and buy a reasonable-sized farm that can employ a stock
with a laugh. manager and graze my dairy heifers’, and so the opportunity
His love of animals started as a schoolboy, rearing calves came to purchase Okupata in June 2020 from the Atkins
before and after school, and spending school holidays on his family, who had been there for five generations.”
uncle and aunt’s farm in Dannevirke. Gavin retired from the coffee industry and he and Tracey
“I always wanted to be a farmer, but I was a city boy,” he moved to Okupata 18 months later.
says. “My passion for animals has been there forever, and I His first season on the farm wasn’t memorable for the
really couldn’t work out how I could afford to buy a farm. So I weather. They had no rain from December to May, which he
did my tertiary education and became an auditor, worked for says knocked them around on both the dairy farm and the
Travelodge for a while, then got into the coffee industry.” new place, needing 1000 bales of silage to keep them going.
He bought a dairy farm on the edge of Hamilton in 2015 with Fortunately, a normal winter was followed by a good spring.
the idea of shutting it down and having “beefies and Herefords” “We were looking pretty good for the end of December. We
but it was a good business. It’s now 174ha with 375 Friesian made about 480 bales of silage over two cuts and locked up for
cows – down from 400 – with contract milkers French couple hay; we actually had grass coming out our ears. Let’s hope we
Cyril and Toni Pakula. The farm has 23 lifestyle neighbours. don’t get another drought, but at least we’re prepared for it.”

36 HEREFORD MAGAZINE Year 2023