Donald's Farm NZYF

10/07/2024

Today is supposed to be our planned start of calving. With 40 cows already calved, things are moving pretty quickly around here!!

Milk Bar
NZAgbiz

31/05/2024

We hosted Conservation Volunteers NZ on farm today to run their corporate planting challenge. This year they managed to plant another 4,411 native plants on Donald’s Farm, taking the total number of natives planted since May 2023 to approximately 23,500!!! With more planting days planned this winter, we expect to surpass the 25,000 mark soon. This will be an amazing transformation for our waterways, and will also go a long way toward achieving our environmental goals!!

27/05/2024

2024 FINALISTS ANNOUNCED! This Primary Industries New Zealand Award recognises an emerging leader, an individual who demonstrates commitment, passion and leadership in their career within primary industries. With thanks to the Emerging Leader Award sponsor Lincoln University and congratulations to these finalists:

Claire Williamson, Velma & Beverley
Jordi Hoult, Ministry for Primary Industries
Sam Waugh, Donald’s Farm

View all the categories & their finalists at: https://zurl.co/CJE5

13/04/2024

Congratulations to farm manager Sam on his successes this evening! He took out second place in the FMG Young Farmer of the Year Northern Regional Final, as well as the Agribusiness, Agrisports, and Agriknowledge awards! A stellar effort ✨

13/04/2024

Farm manager Sam has had two very busy days competing in the FMG Young Farmer of the Year Northern Regional Final! He has just taken the stage for the quiz, which is the last challenge he has to tackle before finding out how he has placed overall- wish him luck!

25/03/2024

We love being part of Open Farms every year. It’s amazing to see these results come through and shows that providing opportunities to connect with our urban mates can only be a good thing!!

10/03/2024

Thanks so much to everyone that made it to our Open Farms event today!

We have the final results for Billy the bulls weight - 336kg. Congratulations to Tony T. Your guess of 340kg was the closest.

28/02/2024

Check out this fantastic interview with our farm manager, Sam! He's doing great things at Donald's Farm to give city tamariki an insight into farm life 🐮🐮

Lessons on Donald’s Farm cover a lot of ground – and the livestock on it.

23/11/2023

Good luck to our mate Sam Waugh from NZ Young Farmers Donald's farm who will be donning his gumboots tomorrow and walking around the farm for 24 hours to raise money for I AM HOPE and Gumboot Friday.

19/11/2023

In 4 days time, our farm manager Sam and Alex, the founder of Nature's Den, will be donning their gumboots to begin a 24 hour walk around the farm in a bid to raise money and awareness for the charity I AM HOPE. This is an amazing charity that provides counselling services to NZ's youth!

You are welcome to join us on our walk between 10am - 3pm on Friday. We will also be holding a number of fun activities for young and old, alongside a coffee cart and lunchtime BBQ for visitors to enjoy, and of course plenty of ways for you to donate to I AM HOPE. If you cannot make it on Friday, but would still like to donate, please click on the link below and donate away!

https://givealittle.co.nz/fundraiser/2023-gumboot-crusade

21/10/2023

We are very excited to be working with Nature's Den to raise money for and awareness of the awesome work I AM HOPE does for youth in NZ. Come and join us as our farm manager Sam and Natures Den founder Alex will be walking for 24 hours around the farm in their gumboots.

Join us for an incredible journey of community, resilience, and compassion!

On Thursday November 23rd at 3pm, Alex & Sam will be slipping on their gumboots and attempting to complete a 24-hour walk on Donald's Farm in Brookby.

This challenge isn't about the miles walked or the duration of the walk; it's about coming together to raise awareness and much-needed funds to support I AM HOPE's important mission.

Nature's Den & Donald's Farm NZYF invite you to join us at the start of our walk on Thursday evening. This remarkable event is all about supporting I AM HOPE's Gumboot Friday, and we would love for you to be a part of it.

From 10am on Friday, the event is open to the public.
☕️ We will have a coffee cart serving until 1pm.
🌭 We will have a sausage sizzle between 12-1pm with all donations going to I AM HOPE.
You may even have the chance to meet our I AM HOPE ambassador, who will be there to speak with our young learners, spreading hope and resilience.

Throughout the day, we've lined up a variety of fun-filled gumboot activities suitable for all ages. Test your aim with the kiwi gumboot throw, lace up for a gumboot relay race, and take on other exciting challenges.

As our 24-hour walk draws to an end on Friday November 24th at 5pm, we would be honoured to have you join us in the conclusion of this incredible journey.

Nature's Den is more than a forest & farm school; it's a place where the community unites to create change, raise awareness, and stand together in the face of adversity. So, put on your gumboots, bring your family and friends, and be a part of this fantastic event that supports a cause that truly matters.

Let's come together and make a difference in the lives of our young ones 💙

Location: Donald's Farm, Ara-Kotinga, Whitford. You will see us at the start of Ara-Kotinga on the right, just past the intersection with Whitford Park and Brookby roads. Look out for our signage.

Entry: gold coin donation to I AM HOPE

Our Donation Page: https://givealittle.co.nz/fundraiser/2023-gumboot-crusade

Event Page: https://facebook.com/events/s/2023-gumboot-crusade/251786864142764/?mibextid=Gg3lNB

18/10/2023

Awesome news from our calf club kids! A photo of Logan & Snowy has been chosen as one of the winners of the Pohutukawa Coast Ag Day Competition and a photo of Jemma & Harmony was awarded Highly Commended 💕🐄

29/09/2023

We can't help but share more snaps of our calf club kids, Logan and Jemma, at the Brookby School Ag Day! How good is it to see kids getting into agriculture?! 🥰🐮🌱

A huge thanks to NZAgbiz and Milk Bar for supporting calf club efforts at Donald's Farm this year- you're awesome!

New Zealand Young Farmers | Northern Region Young Farmers | Franklin Young Farmers

27/09/2023

Our awesome calf club kids had great success at the Brookby School Ag Day!

Logan, with calf Snowy, got first place for leading, second for care and condition, and reserve champion dairy type.

Jemma, with calf Harmony, secured second place for leading, first for care and condition, champion dairy type AND overall champion calf!

NZ Young Farmers | Northern Region Young Farmers | Franklin Young Farmers

05/09/2023

The girls enjoying some baylage in their herd home 🐮🌾

NZ Young Farmers

30/08/2023

This season we have had multiple planting days, organised by Conservation Volunteers New Zealand and Trees for Survival 🌱

Hundreds of volunteers have visited our farm to plant 18,400 native trees, well exceeding our goal of 16,000!

Volunteers included students from 5 schools, multiple corporates and members of the general public.

This is the beginning of our 7.5 hectare riparian planting project- this winter we've planted 1.4ha!

A big thanks to Goldpine, Cyclone Wire (Fletcher Wire Products) and Gallagher Animal Management who sponsored the materials needed to fence our planting area, and Auckland Council who provided a grant for this project through their Waterway Protection Fund 💪

NZ Young Farmers

02/08/2023

Every good farm needs good working dogs, and Donald's farm is no exception! Meet our canine crew: Maisy, Kate, and Rose. Their job is to help get the cows in.

Have your got four-legged friends helping out at your place? Share a pic with us in the comments!
NZ Young Farmers

25/07/2023

A double rainbow at Donald's Farm! How's it looking at your place today?

NZ Young Farmers

19/07/2023

Why is farm manager Sam mowing the paddocks? It's not to keep the place looking tidy- it's to show our visitors from Mellons Bay School how much a cow eats every day- about 120kg (wet weight)!

NZ Young Farmers | DairyNZ

03/03/2023

Selling in the NZ Milking Shorthorn Assn Inc AGM Sale

7 March 7pm start via Bidr

https://bidr.co.nz/auction/1983

Dungannon Sid Cher

Donald’s Farm is making available a calf for purchase. Donald Pearson had a passion for Milking Shorthorns, we would like to offer someone the chance to purchase a Milking Shorthorn of their own.

This calf’s pedigree features Donald’s cow families, and the sire features Norwegian Red bloodlines.

Donald’s Farm shorthorns are milked in a jersey herd, on rolling to steep heavy clay soils on the outskirts of Auckland.

She is Genemark verified to Sire and Dam.

28/02/2023

Great article, discussing some of the awesome work we are doing!!

A dairy farm on the outskirts of New Zealand’s largest city is also an outdoor classroom for future generations of farmers.

24/02/2023

Looking forward to showing some visitors around our farm 😀

New Zealand Open Farms Day - Sunday February 21 2021- Free Farm Visits - Reconnect with our Food, Land & Farmers.

21/12/2022

This time last week we entered a number of our Milking Shorthorns into the Waikato Branch NZ Milking Shorthorns On-Farm Show. We entered stock across 4 categories; Spring born heifer calf, Spring yearling heifer, 3-year old cow in milk and 4-year old cow in milk. A great competition where the judges travel around to judge each of your stock on farm. We managed to get a third placing in the Spring yearling heifer class with our heifer Dungannon Rocket!!

16/12/2022

Something a bit different for us today… 😂

We were so excited to be involved in the AM Show’s final show for the year as part of a big surprise for host Ryan 👏

Princess did a fantastic job on live TV! 📺

NZ Young Farmers

08/08/2022

This year at Donald’s Farm we decided to bring back the calf club program. Donald Pearson loved having kids out on farm at this time of year to learn about caring for calves and training them to be shown at the local schools Ag days. So we’ve brought it back. The students are in good hands with Emma, a calf club judge herself, running the program this year. We have 4 students; Aimee and Jimmy from Clevedon Primary School as well as Mylie and Logan from Brookby Primary School. The program began about 3 weeks ago with the kids selecting and naming their calf (Aimee chose Molly, Jimmy chose Maggie, Mylie chose Toffee Logan chose Cookie). Since then the kids have spent time bonding with and getting to know there calf, and have recently been learning how much to feed there calves, brushing and in last few days started taking the calves for walks outside the calf pen.

We have had some great support from the local Franklin community with a number of people donating calf club gear. A special thanks must go to Claire McArthur Mortgages who have sponsored each student with a calf care kit and covers for each calf. Support like this makes a big difference!!

We will keep you posted with how the kids go and hopefully they can bring home some ribbons!!