About Our Farm
Farming with The Cullwicks
The beautiful wool blankets we create at Foxtrot Home use lambswool produced at Kate and husband Jeremy Cullwick’s farm ‘Tapahia’ outside Waipukurau in Central Hawkes Bay. It is where Kate and Jeremy live, work and play with their young children Oscar and Bess.
In a previous life, Kate and Jeremy were both vets and met at a Sheep & Beef Conference in 2007 (as you do!) At the time, Kate was living and working in Fairlie in the heart of the MacKenzie Country and Jeremy was based in Dannevirke. After several months of travelling back and forth and keeping Air NZ in business, Kate got a job in Martinborough, a bit closer to Jeremy. Eventually she moved to Dannevirke to work at the same vet clinic as Jeremy, with Kate moving into Small Animal practice and Jeremy in Large Animals and orthopaedics. They were married in 2010 and their son Oscar was born in 2011. Both Jeremy and Kate grew up on farms, helping their parents, and have a shared passion for farming and rural living. Jeremy had always signalled his desire to return to Tapahia to live and work on the land, and in late 2012 they returned to his family farm in Central Hawkes Bay. Daughter Bess was born in 2013 and their family was complete (along with the rescue dogs and cats). Jeremy worked alongside his parents until 2019 when he bought Tapahia from them and branched out on his own. The business employs a stock manager to help run the Hawkes Bay farm.
“Tapahia” is 740 hectares of rolling to medium steep East Coast Hill Country, which carries 75% Romney Sheep with 3100 breeding Ewes and 25% Angus Cattle with 140 breeding cows in the herd. Kate and Jeremy are both passionate about NZ Wool and were excited by the opportunity to utilise their beautiful lambswool to make Throws and Blankets from the wool that they had grown. When Foxtrot Home wanted to extend its range of bedding made from natural and sustainable materials, a range of wool products was a natural choice. The lambswool is a combination of Sufftex and Romney, two wools that blend very well together to create Foxtrot’s beautiful blankets. In the first year of creating wool products, Foxtrot purchased 8 bales of wool from Tapahia, and in the second year with increased demand, they purchased all the lambswool (approx 3 tonnes). In 2024, that looks to have doubled again as demand for their homewares increases markedly! Exciting times indeed!
(At Tapahia, the focus is to breed a sheep flock with great all round performance including great quality wool, facial eczema tolerance and worm resistance. The bulk of lambing happens between Mid-July and Mid-September at both of the Cullwick’s properties. Docking occurs from early September to early October, and the lambs are usually shorn in December)
Kate and Prue (and brother Ben) grew up on their family farm ‘Otonga Station’ in Waimata Valley outside of Gisborne. Half of the 1250 hectare property has been in the family since 1887. The other half consists of ‘Glenora’, the neighbouring property that was purchased to increase the farm size and therefore production, in the 1970’s. “Otonga” is a medium-to-steep East Coast hill country station which runs around 700 Angus Breeding cows and 2700 Romney Ewes. The farm is very special to the siblings and they are determined that the farm will stay in the family for future generations to care for and enjoy . Historical sites on the farm include the fenced-off site of the original homestead with extensive gardens, and a family cemetery.
When the Watson parents retired into Gisborne City, Kate and Jeremy leased the farm from them and became the 4th Generation in the family to farm the property. The couple oversee running of the operation from Hawkes Bay, with the help of a very talented team “on the ground” in Gisborne. The Cullwicks took over the lease on the 1st February 2023, just two weeks before the East Coast was devastated by Cyclone Gabrielle. Much of their first year of managing the property has been dedicated to cleaning up and surrendering to the damage caused by flooding from the Waimata river.
In addition to taking on the management of Otonga in Gisborne, Kate and Jeremy were also keen to continue the genetics of the Waimata Angus Stud started by the Watson parents in the 1970s. In 2022 Kate and Jermey purchased 35 registered females that have the Waimata Pure NZ Angus genetics. The herd has been bred for robustness, to be able to bounce back from adversity such as dry summers and long cold winters, and are a great addition to Tapahia and the land in CHB. The couple plan to breed Angus stud bulls, which will be available for sale by private treaty from this year (2024).
While Foxtrot Home now takes all of the Tapahia lambswool to create their throws and blankets, it will soon also take the wool from Otonga to be incorporated into the homewares.
Both of the Cullwicks’ properties have significant areas with existing Native NZ Bush and at Tapahia, Kate and Jeremy have covenanted 12 hectares of land with the QEII Trust, protecting this area of native bush on the land for generations to come. This QEII covenant has six and a half hectares of existing established native bush, with a further five hectares of this being planted in new natives. This is done in conjunction with Trees that Count, the local Porangahau Catchment Group and the Hawkes Bay Regional Council to assist with natural regeneration of this QEII area. So far five thousand trees have been planted, with a further four thousand due to be planted this Winter and the Cullwicks are excited to look to the future to encourage more indigenous flora and fauna back to the land.
Thank you for taking the time to read about our farming journey, an integral part of the Foxtrot Home story! For more information about Tapahia Angus please contact Jeremy at jeremycullwick@gmail.com or find us on Facebook here.