From hill country grit to genomics success for King Country stud

Saturday, 6 June 2026

Alan and Kerri Blake co-own Triple Farms Sheep Genetics, where they are combining their passion for farming with modern technology.

Alan and Kerri Blake are living out their rural dream in the heart of the King Country, bringing together modern technology and traditional practices.

The Blakes are carrying on a farming legacy that stretches back three generations and may be one that they pass on to their two boys. The couple took over the family brand, Triple Farms, in 2022 and formed their own stud Triple Farms Sheep Genetics.

The pair have a passion for genetics and sheep and are using genomics to improve the quality of their flock and breed for low input, hardy animals.

They take note of every trait they can, Alan said, “because if we can record it, we can influence it”.

The Triple Farms brand was originally started by Alan Blake’s father, uncle and grandfather before he took it over.

They have been farming around Taumarunui for just over ten years, but bought their properties three years ago. They own two blocks in Ongarue and Waimiha, adding up to about 730ha.

Alongside the stud, their primary business is commercial drystock. They run 3200 ewes, including 350 stud ewes, 850 replacement ewe lambs, 320 breeding cows and 350 trade cattle. With just one farm manager on the Waimiha property, they are busy people.

Alan Blake reckons sheep are his favourite animal and still loves getting out with his dogs to do some mustering.

Alan grew up on the family farm near Te Kūiti, where his grandfather, uncle and father originally started Triple Farms. Meanwhile, Kerri came from a drystock background in the Wairarapa and trained in agricultural science and horticulture before doing a stint wine making in Hawke’s Bay when the couple met.

“I managed to meet a lady who was a winemaker and then convinced her to move to Taumarunui, where there’s no grapes. That’s my magic trick,” Alan joked.

Alan Blake was stoked with how the season had been.

Alan Blake says he always knew that he would be a farmer likes his father, who is now retired but still loves to help around the farm.

Alan purchased one of the Taumarunui family blocks when his father retired a few years back and farmed the property until moving to their current location. He reckoned he’d given the best ten years of his life to that property, which was steep and run down.

The stud has three kinds of sheep, but the most popular is the Coopworth, which has high facial eczema resistance.

“I was really fit because I had to carry everything and I had a kelpie, I’d put a little saddle bag thing on him and he’d carry the fencing staples.

“That place did teach me a lot. I made some good mistakes, but I didn’t make them twice. We learnt a lot about budgeting as well because we had a large amount of debt.”

The farm in Ongarue is steep country and this year Alan and Kerri Blake have introduced Halter virtual fencing to manage grazing.

Alan and Kerri Blake have two young boys, who love getting out on the farm with their dad and are especially keen on hunting.

Alan was stoked with the season this year and reckoned he hadn’t seen a year with such good rainfall and prices in his life, with lambs getting nearly $200 per head. The boost had allowed them to reinvest in the business with more infrastructure like yarding and fertiliser.

Alan and Kerri Blake won two awards at this years Ballance Farm Environment Awards.

The Coopworth ram is bred for good condition and low inputs.

While finishing lambs and beefies is the biggest aspect of their business, the stud is their passion. They sell about 80 rams a year and would like to start increasing that number.

They have three breeds of sheep: the Coopworth, Suftex and Coopdale. Their most popular breed would be the Coopworth. This flock was established in the 1960s and the couple took over the flock from Ashgrove Genetics in 2023 after struggling to find a breed that suited their commercial system.

The breed has been tested and selected for facial eczema for 40 years and have developed an FE gold standard resistance, which is a trait inheritable by 40%. With the stud as partially their passion project, they are able to spend more time focused on breeding.

“We work really hard on low input traits like dag and worm tolerance and our sheep are on genuine hill country … We farm as close to commercial as you can get so we understand commercial farming needs.

“We use all of the technology we can like DNA and genomics to improve our data accuracy … We try to record every single trait we can because if we can record it, we can influence it. Resistance and body condition of the ewes are our focus,” Alan said.

Their Coopdale and Coopworth stud animals no longer require fly strike dip or drench and lambs are only getting drenched for fly strike two or three times before sale day. All of their lambs are DNA tested at docking to ensure parentage and build their records, so they know which animals to continue breeding.

“We’re trying to sell you something we’re proud of and we’ll stand behind … This year we’ve invested a lot of money into embryo transfer. We took the 23 best sheep on phenotype and then ovulated and fertilised the eggs and put them into some of our commercial ewes.”

Kerri reckoned they had got 100 extra lambs from their best ewes, a number that would normally take about five years with regular breeding.

At this year’s Ballance Farm Environment Awards, the couple received the Beef + Lamb New Zealand Livestock Farm Award and Rabobank Agri-Business Management Award.

“It was nice to be recognised and the awards were very well run. The judges were awesome and we got some good feedback. I’d like to see some more entrants,” Alan said.