Pukepoto Farm Trust leans on benchmarks and new tech to protect returns for descendants

# What this story covers

# Why the trust is changing how it measures the farm Trustee Weo Maag describes careful planning and measurable yardsticks as central to the operation. The farm has relied on experience, simple tools like an irrometer and rainfall records, and stock counts to make seasonal plans. That worked, but trustees wanted verifiable, ongoing measurements to compare seasons and explain results to shareholders in writing rather than by memory or anecdote.

# Programme: what it adds Pukepoto joined Beef and Lamb's Hub Farm Programme in October 2025. The programme follows a farm business over several years to show how changes play out in a real system. For Pukepoto the immediate benefit is access to live, accurate measurements of grass growth and other performance indicators. Maag expects that data to test the farm's historical assumptions and feed into the trust's own benchmarking process.

# Practical farm changes underway The field day attendees saw early results and heard how the trust is lifting performance through concrete steps:

• Genetics: making breeding decisions aimed at better lambing and overall flock performance.

• Technology: trialling Gallagher eShepherd virtual fencing collars to open up grazing options and manage stock without physical fences.

Manager Terry Head and visiting advisers are using the hub programme's data to validate past estimates of grass and soil performance and fine tune paddock-level plans.

# Why written benchmarks matter to the trust Maag explains that written benchmarks create accountability and allow trustees to ask factual questions: why did lambing rates change, was a paddock missed for mating, or did a grazing decision affect outcomes? Having documented targets and results also helps the trust set shareholder expectations about production and income, because prices are outside the trust's control but production is not.

# Preparing for future trustees and community outcomes Trust leaders frame the move toward data and documentation as a legacy task. New trustees may bring governance and finance skills rather than hands-on farm experience. The hub farm data and documented benchmarks will serve as practical information for incoming trustees, allowing them to steward the farm's income streams and community payments more confidently.

About 80 farmers, trustees and rural professionals attended a field day where the trust shared early findings. Chairperson Aloma Shearer emphasised the value of sharing practical knowledge with neighbours and the wider industry, and said the trust wants what it learns to help others plan their futures.

# Bottom line Pukepoto's approach pairs traditional stewardship goals—supporting descendants and community—with modern record-keeping and technology to protect returns on limited hill country hectares. The trust is using the Hub Farm Programme and new tools like virtual fencing to turn historical know-how into verifiable data that supports decisions now and hands a usable playbook to future trustees.