Our cows .

Although we are keen on strawberries we are also keen on what you could say is our first love…..cows. In fact, before Dairy’s Berries was even a thought we were both milking cows.

We both grew up in farming families, Fraser in the North Island and Astra-lee in the South Island- and funnily enough both became the next generation farmers of our families - with our siblings choosing different career paths. After having both attended Massey University we both then ended up in Walton farming. It was here that we met.

Six years ago we started farming together - making up what we would say is a perfect team. Being two people who have a real thirst for knowledge, being self confessed soil geeks and having a genuine concern for our environment, we started looking into alternative farming practices such as biological farming which focuses on soil health as a key driver to running a successful farming business. From here we really started going down the rabbit hole, finding out as much as we could in regards to improving our soils on farm to then grow the best quality feed for the cows….and when the girls are happy, we are happy!

It has been a journey so far and we have made many changes to our farming practices such as introducing a ‘performance based pasture approach’ in addition to our traditional pasture rotation planning, we have introduced new plant species (both in our pastures and through native plantings on farm), released dung beetles to enhance the recycling of nutrients and removed herbicide sprays from pasture paddocks among many other things which will be discussed further within the ‘journal section’ of the website each month.