Westfarms is a 900ha Intensive cropping farm located in Wakanui, Mid Canterbury.  They focus on Precision Farming, forward thinking and are always looking at pushing the boundaries to continually innovate and grow.

It’s humble beginnings date back to 1925 when James West and his father purchased 110ha of land and began farming livestock and grain.  Later joined by both his sons (Roger in 1959 and David in 1966)  they worked hard together to develop the operation into what it is today.

Irrigation began in the 1970’s, and today the farm is fully spray irrigated by 9 center Pivots.

Deer were added to the livestock mix in the early 1980’s, and then the 50/50 mix of cropping/livestock began to change.  Adding Pivot Irrigation was a big game changer; this sparked the transition to bigger machinery, bigger paddocks, yield mapping and more intensive cropping and stock for off season grazing only.

In the late 1980’s a seed cleaning company, Westham Industries was founded.  Westham started with the intention of cleaning Westfarm’s seed, but soon expanded their client base to include many other area farms.  Westfarms also direct sells their own brands of grass seed, Apollo and Voyager, which have been very successful.

David’s son Andrew joined them on the farm in the late 1990s after traveling and working throughout Europe and North America.  David and Andrew currently run the operation together, leasing back the land Roger still owns after he retired in 2014.