"Our ‘why’ is pretty easy really — it’s family."
The Waimara Angus stud was founded by Tom and Sally Law in 1988 on a small property in Te Anau with four cows from the Matanaka stud of Monty Ericson (Sally’s father) and four cows from Cottesbrook.
Tom and Sally leased farms for more than 30 years until a move into farm ownership alongside their three children and partners.
In 2022, Waimara Angus — now consisting of almost 200 in-calf cows — moved to Eastern Bush in Western Southland.
Kate Pont (nee Law) said family was at the heart of the business; not only her and husband Chris and their three children, but her parents, siblings Andrew and Becky and their spouses and children.
And Angus cattle were in the family’s blood.
"I think it’s a disease, a genetic defect," she laughed.
A well-respected breeder of stud sheep and cattle and life member of the New Zealand Angus Association, her grandfather Monty was still checking pedigrees and viewing bulls a week before he died in 2015, aged 86.
Tom Law was not born into farm ownership — the son of a greengrocer, he grew up in Waikouaiti and could not recall ever wanting to do anything else but farming, and he spent much of his life working towards the goal of farm ownership.
Kate and Chris went to secondary school together but farming was not on the cards for them back then. Kate left to be a hairdresser and Chris, known as Ponty, left to be a chef — something he later realised he did not enjoy.
Kate said they were very grateful to her parents who were "almost obsessed with things being fair" and being conscious of all their children getting an equal opportunity.
Kate and Chris loved the farming lifestyle and the "awesome" community in which they lived.
A keen dog triallist, Chris is involved with the Waiau Collie Club — he and Kate were previously with the Palmerston Collie Club which celebrated its centennial event in 2021 where Chris was president and Kate secretary-treasurer and the couple provided half the sheep for the event— and Kate has joined the swimming committee.
Last year, Kate undertook Angus New Zealand’s governance training and is social media officer for the breed society.
This year, she spent 10 days in Canada and 10 days in the United States, and described the speed of technology change there as "insane". She expects massive changes in the beef industry in the next five to 10years.
This year, the family took a "quite risky" move with their annual bull sale and "went back to basics". With a focus on customer service, trust and personal relationships with clients, they felt they had lost some of that with the auction system.
So they brought in a Helmsman system to "slow things down for everyone", take some of the pressure off and give the Waimara team a chance to talk to potential bull buyers and see what the goals were within their herds.
Farmers were getting "everything thrown" at them and there was a real need for farmers to get some simplicity back, Kate said.
Among Tom and Sally’s nine grandchildren, there were definitely some future farmers and Kate said they wanted to be in a position to help them and provide an opportunity also to the others to do whatever they wanted to do.
While it might be wet, cold and muddy during a Southland winter and money might be tight, Kate reckoned they "wouldn’t change a thing".
"It’s awesome," she enthused.
— Sally Rae
