David Buick and Rebecca Buick have won the 2026 Property Brokers Tararua Sheep and Beef Farm Business of the Year in the Tararua Excellence in Farming Awards.
David Buick and Rebecca Buick have won the 2026 Property Brokers Tararua Sheep and Beef Farm Business of the Year in the Tararua Excellence in Farming Awards.
For farmer, shearer and father David Buick, three words stand out when asked what it takes to own a successful farming business.
Diversification, adaptability and planning are what has seen Buick and his wife Rebecca Buick named Property Brokers Tararua Sheep and Beef Farm Business of the Year in theTararua Excellence in Farming Awards.
What stood out most to the judges was not only the outstanding on-farm performance but the clarity of planning, resilience and leadership that drives their business.
Awards co-chair Trudy Hales said judges saw their combination of performance, innovation, resilience and leadership made them extremely deserving winners.
The pair bought their first farm, Taraora, in 2001 when they were 22 years old, and since then expanded to add Te Rau to their operation in Pongaroa six years ago.
“We realised if we went somewhere isolated, we could pay the same to service a mortgage as you would to lease it and it’s ours.
“Rebecca was working in Palmerston North every day, which is an hour-and-a-half away, and I was shearing all day and doing the farm work at night.”
Buick and his family now farm a total of 495ha and operate a highly efficient sheep breeding, finishing and two-tier bull system, alongside a shearing business servicing 135,000 lambs across the district with up to 20 staff.
They run just over 2000 Turanganui Romney ewes and 600 mated hoggets, achieving lambing percentages around 150%, with all lambs finished to 18–20kg carcass weight.
David Buick and Rebecca Buick have worked hard, planned, diversified and achieved success.
When talking to Hawke’s Bay Today from the Golden Shears, Buicksaid it was his competitive nature that made him enter the awards.
“I’m quite competitive ... and so it’s something I’ve always wanted to achieve, and I remember saying to Rebecca years ago it would be cool to win Golden Shears and Tararua Farm Business of the Year all in the same year.”
He said he was proud to be able to showcase his adaptation, flexibility and diversification, including cropping swedes and lambing triplets on chicory, and his ability to drench more efficiently due to monitoring faecal egg counts and a conversion from cows and calves to bulls.
Buick said they had also bought in a terminal sire Oxford stud, with 100 rams expected to be sold to farmers this year.
“We have got so many levers to pull.
“Our risk isn’t as high, and we aren’t relying on one market or one thing ... the flexibility of our stocking policies to be able to not say, ‘right, this is what we are going to do year in, year out’.”
He said in 2021, a farm accident left him fighting for his life and wondering if he would ever walk again.
The accident happened when he was crushed in a collapsing ditch during drainage excavation on his farm on October 20, 2021, buried up to his chin in sodden dirt.
Instead of looking negatively at the situation, Buick said he used the time to plan and suggested others take the time to do the same.
He said he chose to focus on what he could do rather than what he couldn’t and planned for the future.
“I feel the last three or four years, we are really nailing this farming, because of planning better, and the stress just disappears because you have a plan.”
As for the next steps, Buick said they have just done the due diligence and signed a virtual fencing option for cattle with Halter, operated via network towers and a phone app.
A winners’ field day is currently being planned for early April.
Michaela Gower joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings newsroom. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke’s Bay news and loves sharing stories about farming and rural communities.
