At the AGM shareholders watched as four celebration cakes were cut, each representing a facet of the incorporation's development: the incorporation itself, the linked Morikau Incorporation, the Te Āti Hau Trust and the new Awhi brand.
They heard their dividend for the year is again 65 cents and they chose between seven candidates for the three seats on the incorporation board that were up for renewal.
The winners were the three incumbents, Mullins, Shar Amner and Whatarangi Murphy-Peehi. Mullins said this could be a signal that shareholders want the incorporation's eight-year programme to increase profitability to continue.
She was impressed by the talent of the others who stood - Steph Osborne, Chris Kumeroa, Murray Haitana and Sarah Bell.
"It's good to have the consistency, and it's really great to have people stepping up too."
After the meeting everyone sat down to a lunch, and there was a lot of talk and greeting.
"It seems like people come not just to hear and to understand what's going on but they also come to catch up with family and friends and new acquaintances."
For the first time the meeting was filmed and available online for people who couldn't get there, which was appreciated.
Its Te Āti Hau Trust gave out $317,048 in education, cultural, event and kaumātua grants this year.
It is in year three of an eight-year programme to increase profitability while maintaining and improving care for the environment.
Part of that has been the launch of its own brand, Awhi. The Awhi Ruapehu Angus brand was launched in Auckland in February, and the incorporation also provides a lot of beef to Angus Pure New Zealand.
Awhi Lamb is exported to the United States weekly, and there is also now Awhi Honey. Milk from its Ruapehu dairy unit could get the Awhi brand in future.
The incorporation has fewer stock, but production has increased. Staff numbers have risen to 68, doubling in five years, boosted by the beekeeping operation.
Incorporation chairwoman Mavis Mullins speaks to hundreds at the Whanganui racecourse. Photo / Facebook
In other developments, management of the incorporation's Hapuawhenua dairy unit has been brought back inhouse. That makes it easier to meet the incorporation's "quite strict" standards - including those for animal welfare.
"The animals on our farms can get the best of life while they're with us," Mullins said.
And three of its stations have been merged, in a move that will stop inappropriate and unsustainable land use, fence off erosion-prone areas and veer production away from sheep and beef and toward honey, mānuka and wetlands.
This season the incorporation should be able to put organic honey, sourced from the remote Whanganui basin, on the market.
"There's quite a substantive block that qualifies for organic certification."
It will no longer do any cropping on slopes of more than 20 degrees, and Ruapehu iwi Ngāti Rangi has taken on monitoring its waterways.
Six students from its Awhiwhenua cadet training school - based at Te Pa Station - graduated at the AGM, and those that achieve have work and accommodation at three other stations.
The incorporation aims to provide jobs for its own, and career pathways that allow them to look further up the value chain, Mullins said.
"It's really inspiring to see those coming through."
The chief executive officer is Andrew Beijeman, who said the total worth of the business is about $160 million, and its debt is $39.6m. It sold $24m-worth of product, an increase of $2.35m on the previous year.
That figure was boosted by high prices, and Beijeman expects those to continue into the next year. It had a net surplus of $3.2m.
That's not a big return on a large asset, but he said it is typical for a farming business.
In the past few years farming profitability has been based mainly on capital gain - and it's hard to put a value on the incorporation's land.
Its eight-year programme is aimed at increasing profit, and has already tripled that from $1m in 2015.
Some shareholders were unhappy with the debt level, which has increased from $31m in the previous year. The increase does not breach limits imposed by its bank and is due to saleable product that has not be sold yet, Beijeman said.
Some of that is $3.3m for lambs, which are being held for weekly supply to the US. Another $2.7m is honey that is harvested but not yet sold.
Prices for honey with low levels of ultra mānuka factor (UMF) have dropped, but the incorporation didn't have much of that, Beijeman said.
"The business is continuing to give growth, not just in profit but in the long-term future of the business. The brand is growing, the environmental footprint is decreasing. We are doing good things in a lot of places," he said.
