He Mihi:
Tena koutou katoa e aku Rangatira,
Anei te reo o te haukainga e karanga ake kia koutou, mai tata mai tawhiti, haere mai haere. E tangi ana te ngakau ki nga mate huhua o te wa. Kua wehe atu koutou ki tua kua haumumu o koutou reo kua piki atu ki te pae o maumahara. Haere atu koutou ki Paerau, koutou kua wheturangitia moe mai ra, whakaoti atu.
Ka tau mai ano ki papatuanuku, kia koutou e pae nei ki runga te mata o te whenua, tena koutou katoa.
First and foremost your trustees acknowledge and pay respect to those dearly departed since last we met and or communicated being the AGM last December 2022. To our whanau who have experienced the loss of loved ones over this period our sincere condolences and aroha.
The following report has been generated to update owners on the management of your papawhenua under the auspices of the Oromahoe 18R2B2B2 Trust these past 6-months from December 2022 – May 2023.
GOVERNANCE:
Overview
The past 3-years of COVID-19 including harsh environmental events to presently experiencing a severe downturn in the economy have all played a major part in shaping both the governance and operational team to develop and adopt a resilient response to counter the impacts imposed by these challenging circumstances.
The trustees are trusting and confident of the efforts expended these past years that operationally the farm business is being managed satisfactorily with the appropriate policies, procedures and systems in place to meet our compliance and regulatory obligations.
Accordingly, trustees have disposed of monthly meetings and have for some time been practicing quarterly meetings. At these meetings, the focus being our governance responsibilities and in particular the development of a Strategic Plan, which will be presented at a proposed meeting of beneficial owners on the 16th & 17th June for discussion and feedback. We look forward to seeing you all there, nau mai, piki mai, haere mai.
AGM
Two (2) AGMs were held concurrently on the 10th of December 2022, for the end year reporting periods of 2021 and 2022. Although successful on the day in obtaining a quorum, this was duly responsible to respective beneficial owners in exercising their proxy votes.
The uncertainty of assembling a quorum from years past motivated the trustees in recommending that the Trust order be varied to practically counter the noticeable downturn in beneficial owner’s attendance from years past.
Beneficial owners voted and approved on the day the following Trust Order changes;
That in accordance with the Trust Order; Section 28; Clause (6) (a) (refer also to Substitute Trust Order 11 October 1999) the quorum of 30 beneficial owners to now being 21.
Additional to Clause (6) (a) the quorum of beneficial owners to form a quorum be present personally, or by proxy vote and or electronic means inclusively, at the meeting.
Furthermore; in accordance with Clause (6) (c) the vote shall be conducted by a show of hands, be substituted to read; by secret ballot.
Trustee rotation for the 2021-year end period was Lucy Taurua-Mason and Merle Tipene, for the 2022-year end period being Wiremu Tane and Geneva Proctor. Lucy and Merle announced their resignations with Geneva and Wiremu opting to stand again.
A robust election process ensued with 8 nominations received. The four (4) successful nominees in being elected were trustee elects, Jennifer Rutherford and Peter Baltus and returning incumbents Geneva Proctor and Wiremu Tane.
We again take the opportunity in sincerely thanking Merle and Lucy for their unselfish display of passion and loyalty in offering their skills knowledge and experience in shaping the Trust to what we see today, and wish them both; thank you, kia kaha, kia manawanui kia ora and all the best for the future.
Strategic Planning
As a reminder our Strategic Planning journey started in 2021 with the assistance of BDO to create a draft, which trustees presented to beneficial owners at our June 2021 Hui. Following feedback from beneficial owner’s trustees have been diligently working to further develop and fine tune the plan in creating smart goals to align our visionary goals with a road map to ensure future direction and clarity are maintained.
OPERATIONS:
Farm
With Lloyd Brennan’s resignation as reported upon at the AGM, we embarked on a recruitment process taking around 3-months to find a suitable replacement. After conducting rigorous interviews with suitably qualified candidates, the trustees decided upon an internal appointment by promoting the assistant manager to the vacancy. Accordingly, we are pleased to announce and confirm Dean Candy as manager and look forward to introducing him and his whanau at our hui. We have committed to continue support our staff and improve farm management practices with the appointment of AgFirst consultant Andrew Drysdale on a monthly basis and have experienced first hand the benefits of his knowledge and experience in multi ranges of farm best practice management from the paddock to the farm office.
The past year has not been without its challenges, and recently Cyclone Gabrielle was one of these events. Compared to our Te Tai Rawhiti and Kahununu whanaunga the farm faired reasonably well, with general damage, e.g. from fallen trees on the fence line. The Trust applied successfully receiving funding from the Cyclone Gabrielle farmer and grower recovery grant of around $8K.
The Trust has experienced extraordinary market fluctuations in the sale of finished bulls over the season which has directly resulted by a drop in returns amounting to around $100K which is extremely disappointing given the hard work of staff to grow and maintain pasture to ensure that the bulls are presented at premium weights and value at date of sale.
It was noted in the Chairpersons AGM report that the change in stocking policy were forecasted to affect our profitability margins for the 2021/22 and 2022/2023 year. Our YTD profit and loss report is attached to this report.
Our stocking policy this year to buy weaners and take them through to finishing has been tracking as expected. We now have 580 bull weaner calves on farm along with nearly 750 rising 2’ year olds. However as Autumn disappears with the onset of winter there is a shortage of local weaner replacement calves equating to a higher demand and increase in purchase costs to now casting our net further afield impacting with increased transport costs in addition to the former.
Sheep ewe numbers are down to 930 this year from originally 1200 as management opted to not carry lamb ewe replacements as normally practiced in the past. Further, the strategy being based on income, in that to increase bull numbers per ratio of sheep yielded a far better return.
A new development has been undertaken in the “Bruce’s” area of the farm, to fence the waterways and install troughs with further developments to our intensive technograzing system. We hope to carry out another development such as this in the 2023/2024 year.
Cell Towers
We have a lease arrangement with Spark and One NZ (formerly Vodafone) and we are presently reviewing the 3 yearly lease terms and conditions, currently returning us a total of $23,000 per year.
Environmental
We were granted $48,000 in NRC funding to fence and protect waterways and plant out the same areas in Manuka to assist offset our carbon emissions footprint. 30,000 seedlings were purchased from Kauri Park in Kaiwaka, who also planted the targeted areas in a little under 3 days. The process has now been completed incorporating our maori values as responsible kaitiaki of our taiao.
Forestry
We are continuing discussions to sell our three pinus radiata blocks comprising in total 24.5ha which were delayed due to COVID-19; however this is proving difficult with fluctuating markets impacted upon by unprecedented weather events and increased transport and shipping costs for example resulting in poor returns. No decision has been made as yet as to what replanting looks like, with the trust undergoing investigations as to different options.
We have in recent times engaged with a local sawmill operator to investigate the milling of our pockets of native Totora blocks in using a selective and sustainable method that promotes a minimal impact on the surrounding trees, flora and fauna. It will be replaced by Totora seedlings propagated from his nursery. The venture is overseen by MPI who have a strict compliance regime in place to manage and monitor the entire harvest and replacement process. The anticipated commercial returns far exceed that of the pinus radiata.
Economic
We are currently investigating an investment policy as recommended by accountants BDO and considering different strategies for investment over the coming year to further increase the Trust’s assets with diversity always at the forefront of mind.
Diversity in business models if pursued will kick start a review as to whether the Trust has the appropriate business structure in place to manage and minimise risk to its assets. If this were to happen it would signal positive signs in the maturity of Trust commercial development opportunities.
Community Outcomes
Last year we conducted a successful home-kill meat distribution to beneficial owners reaching over 30 local families. This distribution covered whanau in Waitangi, Paihia, Okaihau Kerikeri and Oromahoe. Our intention is to carry on distributing when our meat supply allows, with our next distribution targeting owners in other areas such as Moerewa, Kawakawa, and beyond as practicalities allow. This was viewed as a successful day with pleasing feedback received from humble and grateful owners.
We are currently looking to undertake more community projects and have been pleased to be able to koha a lamb to the Oromahoe School’s Matariki Festival, a koha to the Marae to urgently replace its aged gas water heater and to the Waitangi Marae in supporting the hosting of his year Waitangi Commemorations day.
Grants
The Trust are once again pleased to announce the approval of $16,500 in education grants and the aged pension grants to our 60+ beneficial owners of $3,750, a total of $20,250. For the second year we have collaborated with the Maori Education Trust (MET) based in Wellington who added a further 40% for education grant recipients, on top of the Trust Contribution.
Trustee Yvonne Menary has undertaken to review comprehensively the grants process and she looks forward along with the trustees in making a presentation to owners for discussion and feedback, anticipated to be at our Hui in June 2023.
Succession Planning and Other
This upcoming year it is envisaged that trustees will introduce workshops/discussions incorporating;
trustee governance training,
succession to land share interests of maori freehold land customarily from deceased parents, types of entities (e.g. whanau trust) for owners to consider and adopt prior to succession applications being processed by MLC, to prevent fragmentation of a whanau share interests in their respective land blocks.
Update for discussion around crown shares (46506.801)
Kia ora,
Wiremu Tane
CHAIRPERSON