Hawke's Bay hill country.
Steep, green and quiet. Hard country to farm, and the making of a good wagyu.
The farm behind the beef.
Litherland is a family farm. Mark and Bridget Litherland run the herd on the steep hill country of inland Hawke's Bay.
The cattle spend their lives outside on these slopes, with room to move and three years to grow into themselves. Mark has planted oak through the gullies that run between them — shade for the stock, cover for the soil, and black truffle underneath.
Our first cow.
Shine was the first purebred Japanese Wagyu on the farm — the start of the herd, and much of it still traces back to her.
Oaks in every ephemeral valley.
Mark has planted oak groves through the farm's ephemeral valleys — the gullies that run only after rain — to protect the land and keep the water pure. One planting, working six ways.
Pure water, held soil
Oak roots hold the steep gully soils and filter the run-off, keeping the water leaving the farm clean.
Shade & shelter
The groves give the herd shade in summer and shelter in a southerly — calmer cattle, better beef.
Resilience & fodder
Deep-rooted and drought-hardy, the oaks drop acorns as extra autumn feed for the stock.
A working truffière
Every oak and beech is inoculated with black truffle — Buddy, our truffle-trained dog, hunts the valleys each winter.
Native fauna
The sheltered valleys give native birds and insects a protected corridor through the farm.
A 200-year offset
Cork bark regenerates year after year — long-lived oaks that hold carbon for two centuries.
Steep, green, quiet.
One farm, two harvests — and the same hills behind both.