2025 Ballance Farm Environment Awards Waikato Supreme Winner, Tor Pedersen on the family dairy farm. Photo / Catherine Fry
Raglan dairy farmer Tor Pedersen was “pretty blown away” to hear he was the Waikato’s Supreme Winner at the region’s 2025 Ballance Farm Environment Awards.
The 27-year-old contract milks for his parents, Tony and Shona Pedersen, who own the farm that was originally bought by Shona’s parents, Frank and Margaret Colgan, in 1967.
Tony and Shona managed the farm before buying it in 2005.
The original farm has increased from 40 hectares in 1967 to 300ha today.
The farm runs 250 dairy cows on 100ha, with 50ha used as a support block.
The remaining land is a mix of exotic and native trees, including significant areas of untouched or regenerating native bush.
Tor has always had a desire to farm and worked on the family and neighbouring farms as a teenager.
He decided to get some life experience and complete a motorcycle mechanic apprenticeship before returning to the family farm as a farm assistant.
“While I had experience from my childhood, I was happy to come in at the bottom and learn as I went,” he said.
“I wanted to have the right tools to be able to farm to the standard that my grandparents and parents had done before me.”
In his second season, he became herd manager and started contract milking in June 2022.
He carries out most of the milking, and his father works on-farm.
Pedersen smiled and said that Shona “is the boss”.
“She works off-farm but works as required and raises calves to a very high standard,” he said.
“Each year as my knowledge increases, I get more and more involved with the decision making, and my next step will be sharemilking.
“I hope to move into farm ownership eventually with my partner, Natalie, who works off-farm.”
Pedersen acknowledged the high standard of land stewardship that his grandparents started in 1967, and his parents have continued.
He also wants to do the right thing for the environment.
“The land is challenging with swampy river flats that can’t be grazed all winter, steep, hilly paddocks where run-off has to be addressed, and many waterways, including about 3.5km of boundary directly with the Waitetuna River.”
While the water abundance means that the farm water is all from these waterways, there is a responsibility to manage their on-farm actions, considering the impact on downstream ecosystems.
Work with the Waikato Regional Council to remove invasive willow trees in the Waitetuna River and other waterways has made a significant contribution to water quality.
Replanting waterway bends with the correct willow type and other appropriate plants has naturally reduced water erosion.
Vulnerable land has been identified and retired.
All waterways are fenced off, and 30,000 trees have been planted over the past five years.
Planting is an ongoing commitment with the aim of creating native corridors.
“We also have the 150 to 200-year-old native kahikatea stands to protect that have been there a long time before us.”
The farm participated in a Niwa water-quality monitoring initiative, confirming excellent stream health, highlighted by the presence of freshwater mussels and kōura.
Tor’s parents planted poplar trees for shade, which have also served as windbreaks in the valley as they matured, reducing erosion.
The farm has previously had pure Jersey herds and pure Friesian herds, but the family have settled on Kiwi cross cows with a live weight goal of 450kg.
“We used to milk more cows on the same area, but when we dropped the numbers, our production remained the same,” Pedersen said.
“We’ve been able to reduce our imported feed.”
The cows are fed meal in the 30 ASHB shed, and silage is made on-farm from surplus spring grass.
The very dry summer of 2025 did require some silage to be bought in.
Replacement calves are put on the hilly land where they cope well with the contour and, as lighter animals, don’t cause damage.
A four-million litre in-ground effluent pond and weeping wall were installed in 2017.
A travelling irrigator is currently used to spread effluent over 14 paddocks, with a total capacity to cover 30ha if required.
Pedersen was encouraged to enter the Ballance Farm Environment Awards at an on-farm discussion group last year.
“It was reassuring to win and see that what we believe in, others do too.
“It’s been invaluable to see where we are at compared to others and learn from what they are doing that’s different from us.
“I’m just going to keep progressing with my career and try and look after our land so we can farm sustainably for generations to come.”
Pedersen also won the following awards: