Tim and Jo Loe and their South Wairarapa property “Oporua” have come a long way in their 22 years together. The farm was larger, and a sheep and beef unit, when Cantabrian Tim arrived in the Kahutara district south of Featherston to take on the job of managing the place for it’s new owners, Wellington men Alfie des Tomb and Simon Crawford.

Three years after arriving, Tim began farming some of his own stock on the property. “They have always been great to be in partnership with,” he says of the men who are now his former bosses.

Tim Loe could tell you a thing or two about positive partnerships, compromise, steep learning curves and imaginative solutions. These days on part of Oporua he runs what the award judges described as “a well organised farming operation”. It’s a dairying business that ticks all the boxes for Fonterra’s best farm practises, the judges said, and “the owners have created a strong net equity, a viable and sustainable structure”.