We are delighted to tell you that Pyramid Farm will feature on Rural Delivery, TVNZ1, at 7 am on Saturday 20 June 2020.

Pyramid Farm is the winner of the 2019 Cawthron Marlborough Environment Supreme Award, jointly sponsored by the Marlborough Research Centre and Plant & Food Research.

We think it is terrific to see the Awards and the Dawkins family being recognised in this way.

TVNZ1 on Saturday 20 June at 7am

RURAL DELIVERY SERIES 15, EPISODE 10

Repeats on TVNZ1 Sunday 6.00am (at the discretion of TVNZ)

The Pyramid – Environment and Succession

The Pyramid, the three-generation Dawkins family farm in Waihopai Valley, was the supreme winner in the biennial Cawthron Marlborough Environment Awards in 2019, only the second farm to win the multi-industry awards in more than 20 years.

Begun by Jack and Jean in 1954 and taken over by Chris and Julia in 1978, it is now farmed by Richard and Jess and their growing family while Richard’s brother Paddy and his wife Laura run Pyramid Apiaries, a business that puts hives on the home farms and around the district.

The farming philosophy on The Pyramid has always been to farm to the conditions and make the best use of what they have. Chris Dawkins says he grows what wants to be there naturally while always being receptive to new ideas.

The Pyramid – Land Use and Diversification

Diversified returns from sheep, cattle, forestry, firewood, honey and grapes and a new development called Tummil Block, in the Waihopai Valley have facilitated the farming succession plan for The Pyramid. Sheep form the backbone of the farm with productivity being improved by a gradual change in breed from Corriedale and Borderdale to a Crossbred-based composite breed with better lamb production and milking ability.

Since the 1990s cattle have been traded rather than bred, concentrating on 100 Jersey bulls sourced as weaners from a Dawkins investment in a large dairy farm at Murchison. A 50 ha Sauvignon Blanc vineyard has been established on the property and includes a large storage dam for irrigation, frost protection and stock water reticulation.