Staff enjoy scope of station life

01-04-2008 | Not Specified

The romance of high country farming is alive and well at Puketoro.

Like many extensive high altitude farms, Puketoro is a bit like a magnet for staff who want to work on a property with scope.

Manager Read Lougher says he doesn't have to advertise for staff, and always has a waiting list for work.

He has a special attachment to the farm - he was raised here because his father Roger managed it for Des Williams for 40 years until 1997.

Puketoro is home to him, and he clearly relishes the challenge of his role. "I was born and bred on the coast here, and started work here as a shepherd in 1987."

"I came back to help while my father was having a back operation, and he was laid up for 18 months."

Read worked at Puketoro during the time many of the farms on the Mata and Ihungia roads were sold for forestry and planted in radiata pines.

Like many farmers, he didn't want to see the land planted in pines, but knew the property needed capital investment to develop it. "The Ingleby Company came in with the wherewithal to do that."

He's been working for Ingleby since Puketoro was purchased in 2001, and says he's encountered plenty of criticism about foreign owners.

People criticising the foreign ownership of NZ land have blinkers on, and don't necessarily understand what's happening on the farm, he says.

Ingleby puts a great deal into the local communities on the East Cape as well, he says. "We sponsor East Coast rugby, the Eastland Rescue Helicopter Trust, and a 4WD fund-raiser for the Mata School."

Further afield, the company offers scholarships at both Lincoln and Massey Universities.

On the farm the support network the company is building is excellent, Read says.

All the farms have satellite internet access, and last year the company took all the managers to Denmark and Sweden to meet the board of directors and other farm managers from its other farms in Tasmania, the United States of America, Europe and South America.

Kerry Steiner, Puketoro's stock manager, also enjoys the scope of the farm. He's been in this role for the past 16 months, but worked here previously as head shepherd.

Other staff members are head shepherd Andrew Williams, shepherd general Sonny Haig, junior shepherd general Para Nukunuku, who is studying for level 1 AgITO, shepherds Andrew Meehan, Alan Edwards, and Vernon Waru and general hand Bruce Shirkey.

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