Our Farms
Manager: Chris Dwyer
Apiti Heights, located in the Northern Manawatu with a milking platform of 245ha (effective), consisting of 160ha flat and 85ha rolling hills. Apiti Heights has a drystock grazing ability on 147ha. Balance of the farm is in natural bush. Apiti Heights milks 700 spring calving Kiwicross head, moving to a Jersey only herd. Roster is 6/2 with four full-time staff. Located in the Apiti regions, it is a great community with plenty to offer for anyone who enjoys hunting, fishing and the great outdoors.
Grandbend
Manager: Adrian Waugh
Grandbend is located just north of the Apiti township, our flagship Northern farm is peak milking 970 Spring calving Kiwicross cows. Grandbend has five fulltime staff on a 6/2 roster. 300 cows are wintered on the farm with the remaining sent to our support blocks. Young stock leave the farm at a minimum of 100kgs and return in-calf R2 heifers.
Tableflat
Manager: Shaun Woodman
Tableflats is a 302.65ha farm located north of the Apiti township near the region’s famous glow worm caves. Tableflat milks around 675 Kiwicross cows. Young stock leave Tableflat at a minimum of 100kg returning as in-calf R2 heifers. Tableflat is Spring only calving. Tableflat operates on a 6/2 roster with four full time staff to allow time to enjoy family life or the great outdoors at the farm’s doorstep.
Te Marama
Manager: Steve Lu
Te Marama, located in Kiwitea north of Feilding (10 mins) is a 425ha (330ha effective), Spring and Autumn calving dairy platform. Te Marama operates a 6/2 roster with five full-time staff. Te Marama is peak milking 940 Kiwicross cows (650 Spring and 290 Autumn). 100 cows are winter grazed on farm with the remainder sent to one of our support blocks.
Waihora
Manager: Shawn Southee
Waihora farm is located in the Opiki, Manawatu. Only a short drive from Palmerston North & 20 minutes from Himatangi beach. The local primary school is only 5 minutes from the farm. Waihora is 340 ha, peak milking 1,000 cows. Calving is split with 300 cows calving in the autumn to reach the winter quota. We have modern infrastructure with calf sheds, feed pad and feed bunkers. We have a well-established team that has worked together for a long time; Manager, Assistant Manager & 3 Farm Assistants. Waihora Farm is a frequent winner of the annual Hopkins Farming Group award “John Hopkins Supreme Farm Award”. This is awarded to the farm that has the highest return on capital for the season. Waiharoa is our flagship farm and 2019 and 2020 winner of the Dairy Business of the Year, Best Lower North Island Farm Performance Award.
Tollbridge
Manager: Paul Henwood
Tollbridge farm borders the Manawatu river in the Opiki area and offers tranquil scenery including the old Opiki toll bridge, which is where the farm gets its name from. The river also poses a flooding challenge with 100 ha in the Opiki spillway, the team has spent many hours after work winding down with a fishing rod at the river. On a clear day if you look north there are views of Mt Ruapehu. We are a 13 min drive from Palmerston Norths Square (city center). Milking 650 cows on 222 ha. We have split calving with 200 winter milkers. 100 ha is irrigated with K-lines to improve summer production, along with summer crop. Our team consists of 4 full-time staff, and operates on a 6/2 roster. Our main focuses are on animal health and growing quality pasture. The team vision on Tollbridge is to improve the farm for future teams and generations through sustainable practices.
Blythe
Manager: Tammy Evans
Blythe is situated in Opiki. It consists of top quality soils that once grew potato crops and is supported by center pivot irrigators. We have an older style 44 ASHB dairy shed that flows well and 750 quiet cross breed cows calving in Spring. Ours is a well set up property with a strong emphasis on keeping staff safe and happy. Our working roster of 6/2 means our four full-time staff are well-rested and get good family time! We challenge ourselves to think outside the square by pushing boundaries and trying new ideas. A source of pride is the number of staff that have moved up to higher roles both within the group or externally.
Tokomaru
Manager: Javier Pardo-Diaz
Based only 25km south of Palmerston North and a couple of minutes’ drive from the Tokomaru Village, which has its own kindergarten and primary school, Tokomaru Farm reaps the rewards of being close enough to town but still enjoying the country life. The Tokomaru River is a well-known swimming spot, offers good trout fishing and conveniently runs through the farm. Calving 670 spring cows and 360 autumn cows. Tokomaru use a medium input system over 310ha with a 60 bale rotary shed and feed pad. Tokomaru Farm pride themselves on having the lowest Somatic Cell Count (SCC) of all the Hopkins Farming Group farms, averaging below 100,000 SCC per season. Tokomaru won the John Hopkins Supreme Farm Award in 2014 for the highest return on capital and have continued to develop staff that have progressed their careers through the group and outside the group. Tokomaru operates a 8/3 roster with five full-time staff.
Kohunui
Manager: Colin Thompson
Kohunui is a beautiful 646 ha property at the top of the Kawhatau Valley. The property has 260 ha of flat land, 180 ha of hills with areas of native bush and scrub, 124 ha of regenerated scrub and 82 ha running into the Ruahine ranges of native bush. It has free-draining Kiwitea silt loam soil. This a support block for the dairy farms, running the autumn heifers for the farms and also carrying spring heifers from various farms. We purchase empty cows which are mated and sent back to various farms. Kohunui is run by a full-time manager with the support of a part-time worker and staff from the farms within the group when required. Kohunui offers some seasonal challenges but provides a great lifestyle for people who enjoy the outdoors with great access to walking tracks, hunting, trout fishing and we are also an access way to huts in the Ruahine ranges with permission required seasonally. Kohunui is a part of Horizons Regional Council’s Sustainable Land Use Initiative (SLUI) and also registering for QEII Status.
Tahuna
Manager: Jason Whale
Tahuna is a 375ha property near Bulls.
Approximately 230ha of the property is irrigated with the soil being a mix of coastal sands.
The property is primarily a wintering block and also used to rear replacement stock for the group and produces supplement for the group and Tahuna use.