Prime Minister Christopher Luxon travelled to Wairoa this morning to meet with the mayor and victims of the floods.
Video / NZ Herald
By Ann Revington and Doug Laing
It was a return to some sort of normality and life must go on when the postponed 80th annual Turiroa Angus bull sale was held last Thursday at the Powdrell family’s State Highway 2 stud south of Wairoa.
Although there was a sniff of rain around, it was a far cry from eight days earlier when the East Coast Angus Bull Week feature had to be put off because of a storm that resulted in the nearby Wairoa River flooding hundreds of homes.
It also threw Wairoa into a week-long state of emergency with frightening memories of Cyclone Gabrielle, which devastated the district on February 13-14 last year.
Studmaster Andrew Powdrell and a soon-to-be-dispersed lot during Thursday's 80th Turiroa Angus bull sale. Photo / Paul Taylor
The sale, with a catalogue of 53 (less two withdrawals) to be knocked down, was all done in little over an hour, thanks to the educated and smooth patter of Wrightson PGG Livestock auctioneers Cam Heggie, of Waikato, and Neville Clark, of Gisborne. The opening sale went for $12,000, the top price of $17,000 to Orere Stud, Gisborne, at lot 22, and the final hammer fell at $7000. The average sale price was $8930.
In full flight: Auctioneer Cam Heggie gets the sale going with great gusto and an eye for the best bulls in the ring. Photo / Paul Taylor
Half of the last sale price for lot 53 was directed to Wairoa’s June 2024 Flood Mayoral Relief Fund, for which the Givealittle accumulation had passed $215,000 by Monday afternoon.
Wairoa District Mayor Craig Little, a farmer from Ohuka northwest of Wairoa, wearing the chains at one of the district’s most prominent annual events, thanked the stud for the gesture, which followed that of Nūhaka stud Kenhardt Angus, with half of an $8000 sale earlier in the day.
The mayor told the gathering it was a big occasion for Wairoa and it needed “a day like this”, listing several institutions and services that were gone.
Studmaster Andrew Powdrell said a week was a long time in sports, and also in bull breeding, but on Thursday afternoon they were thrilled to be celebrating 80 years and those who had gone before them. He thanked clients, some having a 40-year association, many helpers and his wife, Tracey, and Lighthouse Lions.
The punters watch the hammer fall on another of the prime lots at the Turiroa Angus bull sale. Photo / Paul Taylor
Most intent on acquiring new stock will have visited the stud to inspect the bulls weeks in advance, and even the last 24 hours to validate the first impressions, but Heggie and Clark still pushed and prodded with a variety of well-used assessments of those Powdrell paraded in the ring.
They were “well marbled”, “pedigree, performance, profit”, “nice-fitted frame”, “visual muscles easy on the eye”, “if you’re gonna like him you’d better like him now” — and so it went, as if any of the cattle aficionados needed any reassurance.
Celebrations
The introduction began with the oldest and youngest family members, Olivia and Ella Powdrell, cutting the birthday cake in the bull ring.
The stud was begun in 1944 by Walter Powdrell and wife Ruth, daughter of R.E. Jefferson, a Wairoa Hereford stud breeder who gifted his son-in-law five Aberdeen Angus bulls as a wedding present.
In the same year, Walter took over the Turiroa homestead block from his father, Thomas Powdrell.
The stud continued under the late Rick and Olivia Powdrell, and their son, Andrew, and Tracey took over its management in 2017.
Six generations earlier, two brothers, John and Joseph Powdrell, left Cheshire, sailing from Liverpool in 1856 on the Indian.
They worked at Te Aute with the Rev Samuel Williams and then took up land at Poporangi, before moving to a property just north of Wairoa (Maungaruhe), driving 750 sheep from Te Aute over rough country.
After selling that property and their wool clip, they bought Turiroa, building a sawmill on the banks of the Hurumua Creek.
They imported a steam engine, the first seen in Northern Hawke’s Bay according to Early Stations of Hawke’s Bay, by M. MacGregor, 1970.
Mayor Little said the 80-year-old stud was an outstanding achievement for the family, Wairoa and the nation.
The mayor and Nema were also acknowledged, as were those who had lost their homes in the previous week’s flood.
Auctioneer Heggie paid tribute to three generations of Walter and Ruth, Rick and Olivia, and Andrew and Tracey Powdrell and their profound advancements that had shaped the industry and technology propelling the stud into the future.
“This would enable the stud to make more informed decisions, passing on the benefits to the buyers with their unwavering commitment to quality,” he said.
Just before the auctioneers took over, Heggie said they ran large mobs of bulls that had not had everything go their own way.
He said the first bull in the ring was all meat and muscle, and it fetched $12,000.
One of the top prices was lot 3 with his champagne history, Paratrooper ancestry and impressive marbling making $15,000.
A minute’s silence was held for those who had died this year — Jan Bayly and Rick Orr, and Damien MacPherson, one of the three men in the recent fishing tragedy.
