Locals Ahuwhenua finalists

Nuku and Bart Hadfield are finalists in the Ahuwhenua Trophy BNZ Maori Excellence in Sheep and Beef Farming Award. Photo / Supplied

Northern Hawke's Bay farmers Bart and Nuku Hadfield have been named finalists in the 2015 Ahuwhenua Trophy BNZ Maori Excellence in Farming Award for sheep and beef farming.

The couple run Mangaroa Station, a 1506ha Ruakituri Valley hill-country property northwest of Wairoa. They are one of three finalists announced at Parliament on Thursday.

The other finalists are Maranga Station, about 30km south-west of Gisborne, owned by Marty and Janice Charteris, and Paua Station, run by Parengarenga Incorporation and one of the northernmost properties in New Zealand, just 40km south of Cape Reinga.

Mr and Mrs Hadfield run 6200 Romney Perendale ewes, 2000 replacement ewe lambs and 70 rams. They also run 500 Angus breeding cows and 400 heifers, and on April 22 will host the first of the finalists' field days in the run-up to the presentation of the awards in Whanganui on May 29.

Their selection means the award could go to Hawke's Bay farmers for the second time in a row. In 2013 it was won by State Highway 5 operation Tarawera Station, run by Te Awahohonu Forest Trust. Last year the award was for excellence in dairy farming.

The Hadfields won the large flock award at the national ewe hogget competition presentations last May, when Mr Hadfield was in the UK as a spectator at the World Shearing Championships.

He has been a prominent open class shearer, including being part of a three-stand world record in 1997. He is now a judge and he and Mrs Hadfield are organisers of the Wairoa A&P Show shearing competition.