Southland dairy conversion pioneers Abe and Anita de Wolde oversee a dairying business milking around 2,800 cows with an energy level that “both impressed and inspired” the award judges.

The couple came to New Zealand from The Netherlands in 1990, leaving behind a family dairy farm threatened by urban sprawl. Daughter Lisanne was a toddler and son Wesley a baby. The de Wolde’s sought adventure, more land and “our intent then was as it remains now, to combine the best farming practices from around the world”.