Our Story

Committed to Providing Excellent Organic Stud Livestock & Organic Carbon Farming Advice.

Here at Mangapiri Downs, we provide our own unique livestock breeds with decades of breeding pedigree and experience. Whether you already farm organically, are interested in organics, or just want to improve your flock, we can help!

We have been farming sheep and cattle organically at Mangapiri Downs, in Western Southland, since the mid-1980s. It took us years to find the right breeds for our style of organic farming

Since March 1989 no chemicals, drenches, dips, vaccines or fertilisers have been used on our farm, giving us decades to breed many generations of strong organic stud stock bloodlines.

Tim and Helen Gow with 10 year old pet cow *Muffy.*

Early History

The farm has been in the family since 1937 when Dr Peter Gow from Winton purchased Belmont Station, part of the original Mangapiri run. My uncle Brent ran the farm until 1946 when my parents Bobs and Mary settled after their marriage. Bobs died suddenly at 49 on the farm and my brave mother Mary and us 5 children continued farming until my brother Peter and I farmed on our own separate accounts in 1981. I got to work fencing, creating new tracks, shifting old house on, building shearing shed & connecting phone & power. I named my 469 ha bare block of land Mangapiri Downs & later added organic stud farm®.

Discovering the right breeds

I should have trusted my gut instincts earlier.

I held onto conventional breeds of livestock for far too long. I remember while converting to Organics spending too much money buying top conventional Romney rams from all around NZ. None were any help for producing good organic sheep. There wasn't any organic stud stock available in the 1980s. After trying 10 breeds of sheep over the years (including Romneys, Finns, Lincolns, Romlincs, Perendales and Texels). We found that older rare breeds such as the Wiltshire and German Mutton (White Headed Marsh), and Highland cattle were much more suited to Organics here. I could see they were performing well. They are strong breeds and haven't lost their natural immunity through overuse and dependence on drenches, dips and vaccines.

Once we had made the transition to organically bred Highland Cattle, Wiltshires and German Mutton we found the worm, lice and disease problems we had that we had with the original stock disappeared as we sent away/bred out the conventional breeds (Romney, Hereford etc). We have found stud sires need to be strong old breeds, bred organically, to be any real use on an organic farm. This led to the discovery of a new hair strain of Wiltshire in 1998, which we then developed further with the hair strain from the German Mutton, creating our unique hair meat sheep which we registered and trademarked as Shire®.

Our original Romney ewes during winter in 1986.

Tim with Highland Stud Bull ‘Hairy Mcleary’ in 2004. Photo: Barry Harcourt.

Organicstud Demand

Organicstud® livestock demand was originally solely from other Organic farmers converting and a few conventional farmers that had stuck with us when we went organic. Now, much of the demand comes from large organic farms and many conventional farms interested in reducing costs, reducing workload, getting away from using chemicals, drench and dip, and improving the natural immunity and hardiness in their stock. In the last 5 years there has been a huge growth of interest in out hair Shire breed for farmers that are over the hardship, and financial loses from wool.

We enjoy hearing of the results our stud livestock bring in other farmers’ stock, helping to give them easy-care meat production and a more satisfying farming lifestyle. We have run many recorded sheep studs starting in 1980 with the Mangapiri Romney stud. With going organic my breeding emphasis changed to breeding organic rams for vitality and natural immunity to disease and parasites. After trying 10 breeds of sheep over the years (including Romneys, Finns, Lincolns, Romlincs, Perendales and Texels) our favourite was the Wiltshire. We have been developing a new strain of Wiltshire that has never been shorn & stay hair covered all year round. We named them and registered the trademark Shire®, our number one favourite organic sheep breed for farmers who want very easy-care meat production.

Producing Organic Meats

Our stock is processed on contract for our company Mountain Valley Organic Meats. In the late 80's and early 90's most meat companies thought organics was just a big silly joke. It was frustrating producing organic meat for the growing market demand while it would just get sold as normal conventional meat. We had to become the marketers and sell it ourselves. We took vacuum-packed sample cuts around restaurants, food co-ops and supermarkets in 1990.

One Sunday, we had a breakthrough call from the European executive Chef from the former THC /Gardens Parkroyal in Queenstown who said the lamb we gave him was the tastiest he had ever had and from then on he bought all the restaurant cuts we could supply.

Helen and I get a big kick out of feedback from Chefs and customers and we enjoy eating our organic meat in the different restaurants we supply in NZ (that’s when we can afford it!). It appeared on ABC's The Cook and the Chef.

We've learnt heaps that you must be prepared to supply all year round consistently. Most cuts sell well but other bulk cuts like lamb flap, shoulder & beef mince & stew need good markets too, or they build up to become a mountain of meat boxes.