The long game: Farming for future generations

Pouarua Farms is Hauraki peat country returned to five iwi through Treaty settlement, and it is now run with a planning horizon stretching decades ahead. This case study follows the farm's move away from an all-dairy platform into blueberries, arable cropping and dairy beef, guided by what the whenua itself is suited to.

Cow numbers have dropped while per-cow production improved, unproductive peat country has gone back into wetland, and emissions have fallen as a result. The owners describe farming the land according to its own strengths rather than pushing it to be something it is not.