Farmers Sam & Gemma Hain
Farmer Time story – Sam & Gemma Hain
Location of farm: 50km west of Gisborne
Type of farm: Hill Country Sheep and Beef, including Hain Hereford and Romney studs
Matched with: Edendale Primary School, Sandringham, Central Auckland
All about Sam & Gemma
Farmers Sam and Gemma Hain farm Waikura Station near sunny Gisborne, where they live with their two children Lilla and Tom. The family love farming and they love their animals and the land.
Waikura Station is 1050 hectares, which means you could fit about 1000 rugby fields on their farm – so, the animals have lots of space! Their property is primarily a breeding farm where they run Hereford cattle and Romney sheep. They pride themselves as being one of the many farmers in New Zealand producing efficient, high-quality meat for Kiwis and the world to enjoy.
Sam and Gemma are involved with Federated Farmers, in particular the Meat & Wool Council. They’ve been able to share their Farmer Time experiences with the Meat & Wool Council members, and as a result more farmers have jumped on board and been matched with a class.
Federated Farmers is now a proud supporter of the Farmer Time programme, and look forward to being able to assist in the strengthening of this wonderful initiative, via their direct connections with everyday farmers in New Zealand.
Sam and Gemma plan to share more of their farming stories with children across New Zealand and encourage schools and teachers to give it a go, because they know the children will love it!
What made you both get involved in Farmer Time?
Farmer Time aligns with our values and is something we thought was such a positive and important concept for farming.
What have the highlights been so far?
Seeing the kids so happy and enthusiastic when we meet with them. We loved being able to show them the process of shearing on the farm and then seeing their excited faces when they received some wool in the mail. The amazing teacher even sourced a spinning wheel for the children to use with the wool.
What tips would you offer to other farmers who are involved (or are interested in becoming involved) in Farmer Time?
Just do it! You will find the process extremely rewarding. It is not a big time imposition and if reception is tricky, sharing videos and then talking about them later works just as well.
Some recent topics covered in Farmer Time sessions:
In the most recent session, we were able to show them a bulldozer operating on farm. We were building a new fence that will protect the native bush and allow the animals to graze on one side and not the other. In this session we talked about conservation and explained that the fence needs to be deer proof to stop wild deer impacting on the regenerating bush.