WHAKAPAPA WIN INSPIRES FINALIST Ahuwhenua Trophy finalist Anahera Hale gives Alex Lond an insight into her past, present and future ambitions as a dairy farmer.
A
n introvert at heart, the last thing Anahera Hale saw herself doing was entering into the prestigious Ahuwhenua Young Maori Farmer competition. But she now knows the competition is entrenched in her whakapapa, after finding out her great, great grandfather won the Ahuwhenua Trophy in 1936. An extraordinary discovery that made Ana emotional talking about even now, she never knew a family member of hers had achieved something like this. “I went from knowing very little about the trophy and its significance, to researching the history after entering and discovering that my great great grandfather was one of the first winners back in the 1930’s.” After a few bad years of feeling lost and struggling to cope after the death of 96
her grandfather, this discovery gave her confidence that she was on the right path, following in her family’s footsteps and felt even more pride in being a finalist. After Anahera went ahead with a last-minute entry, she had only two days to prepare her application and then two more before the judge’s visit. She was feeling extremely nervous and out of place in the lead up, but always felt the support of her whanau with her. “I always felt I just wanted to be authentically me and allow them to judge me based on that.” Growing up in Edgecumbe with a family history working with horses and dry stock, Anahera knew no matter what, she wanted a job working outside and with animals. Her family had no connections in dairy farming, it was just by chance this profession presented itself to her. After the Edgecumbe floods destroyed her home, Ana and her nan moved into
a cottage on a friend’s dairy farm in Whakatane. It was while living here temporarily her interest in dairy farming developed as she sat at home watching the farmer go past each day to milk his cows and complete day to day jobs. In a happy twist of fate, this is the same farm that Anahera has just started working on as a farm assistant this season, after the farm she last worked on was sold and the sharemilkers moved on from dairy. “It’s really quite amazing actually, that this is the farm that inspired me to start my dairy journey back in 2017, and now four years later I’m back to repay the favour”. After completing a course in Agriculture at Toi Ohomai, the Institute of Technology, in the Bay of Plenty, at the start of 2019 Anahera started working as 2IC farm assistant for Rod and Jacquie McPherson, on their 340-cow dairy farm just outside Whakatane.
Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2021
