31 SIMMONS ROAD, TAUMARUNUI, NORTH ISLAND, NEW ZEALAND
EMAIL US or Phone 0064 7 896 8901
Le Cornu Farms is a third generation farm just on the outskirts of Taumarunui. By third generation we mean that Johns great grandfather, Selby Le Cornu Filleul, was the one to break the land in and make it into a farm.
After the First World War the returning soldiers were offered “Ballot Farms”. These were small blocks of land that could be turned into farms, usually covered in scrub (teatree) or bush. Some were very difficult to get to and very hard to “break in” and others were fairly easy and accessible, like ours. Don’t forget that easy now, was back-breaking in those days. To get into town today takes us 5 mins, way back then took them half a day, and that was if they had a horse.
In the ballot for farms Selby Le Cornu Filleul managed to draw a block of 175 acres or 70.8 hec. with a house on it, one of the better ballots. The area had already been logged of most of the native timber so he set about clearing the regrowth of scrub and pig fern while hand milking dairy cows for the town supply. Every morning the milk was picked up by horse and gig and delivered straight to the doors of the customers in town, no pasteurization in those days. Over the following years he was able to buy three neighboring farms and eventually had 250 acres (101.5 hec.)
Unfortunately he was not to see the fruit of his labours as he died in 1956, the year before John was born. John’s father, Bob, carried on with the expansion of the property and changed to sheep and beef. For a number of years he planted potatoes as a commercial crop using the horse and plow. He increased the acreage to 350 acres (141.5) by continuing to buy small blocks of land adjoining the farm. One in particular is a wonderful spot for painting. It has the remnants of an old woolshed, a wonderful swing bridge over the Taringamotu River and an amazing pumice cliff that was a result of the eruption of Lake Taupo 1800 years ago. When John and I had been married for four years the opportunity to buy yet another neighbour’s property came up and being young and keen to have a mortgage around our necks we added another 350 acres to make it 700 acres (283.5 hec) in all. In 2006 we since sold the 350 acres and are now an organic farm certified with Biogro NZ. John and I have always wanted to be organic farmers but there wasn't the market for the meat....now we export to the UK and soon our beef will be going to the US market. So that is the history of Le Cornu Farms. I hope our children will have the opportunity to carry on nurturing the soil, plants and animals.