21/01/2026
TK Elite Supplier of the Year 23-24 Jefferis Ngapuke Farm 🍾👏
We wanted to have a bit of a chat to the winners about life on the farm…and off it…so we had a catch up with Daniel Jefferis.
He told us that Mum & Dad, Neil and Mary, purchased the land and moved there in 1989; it had originally been part of the historic 3,000 hectare Waitangi Station. They have been farming there and developing the land ever since. In 2022 the neighbouring block Lancewood came up for sale and has been added to the farm as a finishing platform. You might remember Lancewood from the mid-80’s goat boom when it was well known as ‘the goat farm’.
Ngapuke Farm is 1,600 hectares and starts with pumice flats at 250m rising gently to 750m above sea level. It’s geography and geology are thanks to the violent Taupo Eruption 1,800 years ago, when the Roman Empire was at the height of her powers (although the Taupo Volcano actually began erupting 300,000 years ago). The, almost 100m of, pyroclastic flow from this 1,800 year-ago eruption spread up to 90kms into the surrounding regions, including Ngapuke.
Daniel & the Jefferis team send close to 4,000 animals to TK each year and around 3,500 of those are lambs into the Elite Assurance programme. Wairarapa Romneys are their preferred breed and the Jefferis family likes a strong wool animal, as they have a real belief in the NZ wool industry. In fact, Michael, Daniels brother, runs a shearing gang over in Gisborne. Their other brother Tony works on a potato & onion farm and in the off-season returns home and is part of the family team working on the farm. The boys also have a sister Nadia who historically has worked on farm mustering by horseback, and assisting wherever needed. Her partner Phil is a contract musterer and farmworker and they live on farm with their 2-year-old son Joseph. Phil helps out when he can on farm with mustering and drenching.
Daniel likes farming because no 2 days are the same when you are working outside, with animals. There are always plenty of challenges to keep you mentally stimulated. As it’s such a strong & compact family team running the farm they work very well together, having a really solid understanding of how each other works, and they all pull together towards a common goal. They are not slaves to the farm but actually really love spending time there, even when relaxing. Neil is often out on his horse thistle grubbing and the whole whanau gets a lot of joy out of seeing the land grow & develop. Daniel has 2 children, Norah and John, of 18 months and 3 and-a-half years so playground time and messing about at the river also helps them to relax; the Taringamotu River is on the Southern boundary of the farm.
The prize for being crowned Elite Supplier of the Year is $10,000 of travel vouchers and we wondered if overseas was calling…? Not for Daniel & his partner Amy at the moment as their focus is on their young family, but the lucky recipients are brothers Tony & Michael who are really keen to travel to the US to see where their product ends up and how it is marketed. Then the plan is to extend their trip and travel to South America where they will catch up with a cousin, who is dairy farming in Chile! What a great trip they are planning!
What’s your secret to achieving SOTY? we asked Daniel
Firstly, topography and geology again; they have 100 hectares of flats for finishing and they tend to bring their stock down off the hills for those last months to finish them to around 48-50kgs liveweight and then off they go to TK Meats. They focus on year-round supply and also on striving to achieve our market-driven premiums. Because TK incentivises certain behaviours like making commitments on Notebook; as long as they work towards getting as close as possible to our specifications they get rewarded on the killsheet with premiums, and it helps them to achieve Supplier of the Year status!
There is also the great communication between the Jefferises, and George Larsen, Pete (Congdon) and Hylton Bayliss. ‘TK Meats is so cooperative with their farmers and they really back farmers. Hylton is only ever a phonecall away…and he always answers so there is always someone at TK to speak to’ And Daniel said that’s just one of the reasons that they choose to supply TK Meats. Then there is the fact that we provide jobs for King Country locals and they really value that. And TK doesn’t just lead change for changes sake, TK listens to market signals as well as taking feedback from farmers and then they work towards that; they’re a 100% NZ owned company, so they have skin in the game.
Daniel told us that TK is ‘Just good, simple, and straightforward to deal with; they look after farmers'
Mary Jefferis sent us through some cool photos of life on the farm – pictured on horseback is Neil, and we have 3 generations in the next picture being John, Daniel & Neil 😊
Congratulations again to the Jefferis family for your wonderful achievement – we look forward to seeing some of your awesome travel pics! ✈️🐄 🇨🇱
