Gate shuts on farm tradition

By BRIDGET CARTER

Te Kao, one of the country's most northerly communities, has for generations been a centre for dairy farming.

In the 1940s there were 37 farms around the locality, 46km south of Cape Reinga. But over the years the number has shrunk to just one, owned by Allie and Ngaire Wiki.

And now, in the past week, the couple have closed their dairy farm for good, which means the country's most northern dairy farm is at Ngataki, 14km south.

Mr Wiki, 48, says he felt sad watching the Fonterra milk tanker rumble up the isolated stretched of State Highway 1 and into the driveway for the last time. He took some photos to show his grandchildren.

"It just brings back so many emotions and memories of what was once a flourishing dairy community," he says.

The community of Te Kao, which has a camping ground with a restaurant and a small petrol station, feels the same way about the farm closure as it did when the post office shut in the 1980s, he says.

"They saw it as a dairy farming community and all of a sudden there is nothing left."

The couple took over the 120-cow farm in the 1980s after Mr Wiki's parents had farmed the 75.6 ha property for more than 30 years.

He says the regional council's introduction of new environmental regulations, a reduced payout from Fonterra last year and the threat of a drought meant it was time to close.

"With the drought pending upon us, it was just another added stress to the farming operation," he says. "Being so remote, we always wondered if Fonterra would cut us off."

But an official from Fonterra says the company is a co-operative and will always take all of the milk from its shareholders. There were no plans to change that.

Northland Federated Farmers representative Ian Walker says the Wikis are like many other people in remote parts of Northland who are closing dairy farms.

Fonterra was not interested in talking on suppliers at the end of its distribution network because of the transport costs.

"They have not been providing incentives for people in that part of the country to go into dairy farming for some years."

He says the closure of dairy farms in places such as Te Kao meant a population decline and less money for the local economy.

"It is like anything else. It all impacts on services of schools, hospitals and doctors ... New Zealand has been dealing to fringe economies for many years."

Farmers north of Kaitaia had to deal with a lot more weeds than in other parts of New Zealand. The terrain was rugged, drained badly and the soil was poor.

That meant that Far North farmers got 60 per cent less milk out of each cow than in regions such as the Waikato and Taranaki.

"It is hard farming up there," Mr Walker says. "Life catches up with them and that's the end of it."