Karen McLeod, of Ngāi Te Rangi, was raised on a dairy farm, and it was to dairy that she returned sixteen years ago. But viticulture has always been her passion and, with the help of Rabobank, she and her husband have bought a vineyard in the Hawke’s Bay Bridge Pā Triangle – more than 300 kilometres from their Whakatāne farm. But with a bit of balance, the family makes both ventures work.
She shared her story with Shepherdess.
BOTH myself and my husband, Troy, grew up in Whakatāne but moved away to study and work in the cities. After we had our daughter, Ani, we moved back. She’s sixteen now. She was premature – I had her at twenty-eight weeks – so we knew we needed support and that I wasn’t going to be rushing back to work. That was why we came back and moved on to my parents’ dairy farm. We thought that lifestyle was a bit better for us.
We started by doing one year working on the farm – just to check that Troy was okay with the lifestyle. We went to sharemilking in our second season, and we’ve been milking ever since. We bought our own little dairy farm that joins onto the farm that we sharemilk on, which is my parents’ farm. We wanted to have a little bit of separation between our banking and their banking, so when we bought our herd, we banked with Rabobank. Cameron Peat was our agri manager back then. He’s now a dairy farmer himself!
Viticulture was always an interest of mine, and I did soil sciences for my undergrad at university. When I did my OE, that sort of piqued my interest in New Zealand wine because I saw New Zealand wines on the international stage in these amazing restaurants. So when I came back from London – I lived over there for nearly three years – I went and studied at Lincoln and did my postgrad in winemaking and viticulture. My long-term goal was always to get into the wine industry, but I knew that you had to have a bit of money behind you to do that.
The vineyard came about because – although I’m really busy at calving time on the farm – I’m not so busy in the off-season. I had the time to start looking at another venture. We’re interested in growing premium grapes – that’s where New Zealand excels. We wanted a high-quality grape-growing area, so it had to be in Hawke’s Bay. About the time we started looking, TK Vineyard popped up on the market. It was the perfect size for us and the perfect varieties, and it was in the Bridge Pā Triangle, which is one of New Zealand’s top premium wine-growing areas. It ticked all the boxes, apart from the location. It’s not close to where we live. But, if you want to grow premium, you have to be down there. That’s just the way it has to be.
They actually work quite well together, dairy and viticulture. Dairy is hugely busy through winter. July, August and September are our busiest months, when both Troy and I are seven days on farm. I just focus on doing the calves now – I’ve got myself out of the shed – and doing the admin side of the business. Once the calves are weaned, then I have a lot of time on my hands. The grape growing season starts in October, and you get really busy through the summer months. That works well for us because, by summer, both of us can be off farm.
We’re definitely based in Whakatāne. My daughter goes to high school here so we can’t go down to Hawke’s Bay too much – it’s a three- and three-quarter-hour drive. But once things start kicking off in the vineyard, we’ll go down every few weeks for a block of three or four days. Before Christmas, we go down and get a lot of the vine work done. My parents come down, my mother-in-law has been down and my nieces and nephews come down. It’s become a bit of a family tradition. We take a group down for harvest as well – that’s always a nice job.
Our goal is to buy the rest of the dairy land we farm but don’t currently own. We are constantly discussing these plans with our agri manager at Rabobank and they are helping us work towards this goal. It helps that Rabobank has a nationwide network of specialists and experts in agribusiness that are available to call on.
On a personal level, I am planning to step away from on-farm work and focus full time on the wine. During calf-rearing, from July to October, I still run the wine business as well as coaching netball and volleyball, and Troy runs a junior golf programme, so you could say we are juggling a lot of balls! My goal for the future is to focus more of my energy on growing premium grapes and producing the best wine possible.
More: Rabobank is a specialist agribusiness bank. Their team of agri managers supports hardworking clients like Karen with strong local knowledge and the latest food and agri insights from across the globe. Talk to a Rabobank agri manager today: rabobank.co.nz/banking
Story written as told to Sionainn Mentor-King and photographed by Vivian Gehrmann for Shepherdess magazine. Shepherdess magazine was started around a kitchen table on a dairy and beef farm in the Horowhenua. We continue to come to you from this kitchen table, and from many other farms, home offices and lounges across provincial Aotearoa. The magazine is here to connect, empower and inspire women across rural New Zealand, by offering a place to tell stories of our rural communities. Find out more about Shepherdess here shepherdess.co.nz
In Focus Podcast: Full Show | 10 May
This week we chat with with Katrina Roberts, who is the new Dairy Woman of the Year. She’s a Waikato vet, working with dairy farmers to not only maintain cow health but also improve the efficiency of their farm systems. Katrina also has a background in research and is keen to show aspiring veterinarians that cattle beat cats hands down when it comes to job satisfaction.
Federated Farmers arable chair David Birkett joins us to talk about the arable industry awards, which are open to nominations now. As well as grower of the year awards for maize, cereal and seed there are also special awards recognising teams, environmental endeavours and agronomy.
And, senior reporter Hugh Stringleman wraps up the dairy commodity season for us, following this week’s GDT auction.
