Simon and Lou White were named East Coast Regional Supreme Winners in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards in 2025. Photo / Alan Gibson
With limited agricultural infrastructure on the East Coast, farmers Simon and Lou White decided waiting for someone else to act wasn’t an option.
Instead, they invested in their own seed dryer, supported by $500,000 from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, to help address a long-standing regional gap.
The $1.4m project was completed in time for the 2024 harvest, and about 15 growers in the region now use it.
“Last year it dried over $1m of crop,” Simon said.
“That’s the grower value – the export value would have been about double that. We’re set to do more this year.”
The dryer can handle any seed type but is primarily used for high-value fine seeds such as carrot, radish, rocket and onion, much of which is exported.
Each seed requires its own temperature and humidity settings, and the dryer provides full control rather than relying on weather and hoping for the best in the paddock.
Fine seeds are just one part of the Whites’ operation on their fifth-generation, 1015ha (900ha effective) farm at Ōtāne, south of Hastings.
About 600ha is in a five-year crop rotation, with 400ha under pivot irrigation, producing fine seeds alongside malting and feed barley, feed and milling wheat and vegetables such as peas, beans and sweetcorn.
Export squash goes to the Japanese market.
Their children, Millie, 12, George, 11, and Oscar, 9, spent the end of their summer school holidays hand-weeding the squash and are true outdoor kids, Lou said.
While the 2025/26 summer has so far spared them the worst of the weather that has battered parts of the North Island, the Whites know how quickly conditions can change, having faced a significant clean-up after Cyclone Gabrielle.
Their resilience was recognised last year, when the Whites were named East Coast Regional Supreme Winners in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards, followed by Hawke’s Bay Farmers of the Year.
“We’re always going up against Mother Nature,” Simon said.
“This year has been good. We’ve had decent sunshine and heat.”
When Simon and Lou took over the farm in 2007, they diversified the cropping programme, and now grow 12 to 15 different crops annually.
About 90% is grown on contract, including with McCain, with some cereals sold on the spec market.
Technology plays a key role in keeping the system running smoothly, with improvements every season.
“All our tractors are now with GPS, syncing with our phones so we can see what seed was planted where and when, how long it took, and what nutrients were used.”
The 400ha of pivot irrigation is also controlled by an app on his phone, and with the variable rate pivot sprinklers, every drop of water can be made to count.
“We can target individual crops and the places in the paddock that need irrigation using the soil moisture meters.”
They’re also early adopters of Halter, virtual fencing technology, for their bull-beef operation.
About two years ago, they started fencing for the collars, and in early 2025 fitted them to the first of the 500 to 700 bulls they finish each year.
“We’ve had very little problems. Every bull has accepted them,” Simon said.
“They do break the odd one. They’re bulls, and they like to rub, and with a 500kg animal, they’re going to break one or two, but it’s only that.
“They’re robust.”
He’s been pleasantly surprised with how calm the cattle are.
“We thought there might be problems because they now only see us about once a week, but they still come up to us and sniff our boots.
“It just shows what feeding an animal well and making sure it has clean water will do for their temperament.
“We have them in mobs of about 20 to 50, and they get shifted every day with Halter, sometimes twice a day if it’s cold and wet.
“They finish really well.”
Besides the cattle, they take on about 10,000 store lambs each winter. They go to the works as the new crops get planted in October.
Simon thinks robotics will be on the farm, but in the future.
“We’ve looked at it, but with the price it is at the moment, we would definitely be guinea pigs, but it is moving fast.
“If we don’t take it on, I can definitely see our kids using it.”
The Whites also run Kanapu Hempery in partnership with Isaac Beach and Kirby Heath, growing hemp on-farm and selling seed oil and flakes nationwide.
“We’d just started, and Country Calendar came and did a programme on it. We got massive exposure when we were quite small.”
Alongside that is Humble Flour, a milling wheat business supplying mainly artisan bakers across the North Island, which runs with business partner Hamish Glendinning.
Between cropping, livestock, processing and value-added businesses, Simon’s days are long, mostly spent out on the land.
Supporting him are three full-time staff – Doug Maulder, Dave Easton and Anthony Ward – with contractors brought in when required.
“It is long days, but it’s not every day. When we get time off, we make sure we enjoy it.”
– Karen Trebilcock For NZ Farm Environment Trust