Shocked and humbled were Grahame Webber’s overriding emotions when he learned he was to be recognised in the 2025 New Year Honours.
But it almost wasn’t to be for the Fonterra farmer based in Cambridge, given that he just about deleted the email informing him of his King’s Service Medal.
“I thought it was spam. It was only when my wife Jenny took a look and said ‘I think you’d better read it’,” says Grahame. “It was overwhelming. I never dreamed someone would put my name forward. I had to think about it for about a week to decide if I should accept it.”
The King’s Service Medal celebrates people who have made outstanding contributions to their communities and in Grahame’s case, outstanding contributions to local government and farming governance.
Brett Alexander, who serves as one of Fonterra’s Regional Managers, says Grahame is a shining example of all that’s good about the Co-operative.
“He is staunch supporter of the Co-op and what it stands for,” says Brett. “Over the past 30 to 40 years, he and Jenny have helped some young farmers get into the industry and progress their careers because they’ve been there and have done it themselves. Grahame’s farm is in a highly competitive milk supply area, but he has stood firm and committed to Fonterra and we are so proud to have him as an owner of our Co-op.”
Dairy farming is in Grahame’s blood. A self-confessed “can do, will do cow cocky”, both of his parents had dairy farming backgrounds and after a few sharemilking roles in Waikato, in 1967 they bought a farm in Horahora, near Cambridge.
Grahame and Jenny eventually bought the Horahora property from his parents and farmed there for 15 years until selling it and purchasing a larger property at Marotiri just north of Taupō. It’s now run by their son Richard and wife Anna, milking 1,040 cows on 360ha with four staff. Grahame says they have sold 35% of the company shares to Richard and Anna to “give them some skin in the industry.”
Part of the reason the award came as a shock to Grahame was that he didn’t think he was doing anything particularly special. His CV would beg to differ.
He was a member of Cambridge Federated Farmers from 1982-2020, chaired the Dairy Section of Waikato Federated Farmers from 1989-1991, was a Director of the New Zealand Dairy Group from 1991-1994 and a Waipā District Councillor from 2001-2022, serving as Deputy Mayor from 2010-2019.
Grahame says one of his career highlights was serving on the Cambridge Community Board from 1998-2022 where he implemented an annual tour of the urban-based board to visit rural communities to learn of their local issues.
“The idea is to build some urban and rural relationships. To get a real understanding of the concerns among rural folk you need to go and speak to them in their own patch. It’s part of being involved in all the things you need to do to be a good councillor, something I put my heart and soul into.”
That heart and soul is evident in a project Grahame takes particular pride in. For the best part of the last three decades he has been tending a historic site at Pukekura, near Cambridge. The site is significant because it’s the location of a butter factory built by Henry Reynolds, an Englishman who emigrated here to take up dairy farming. It was this factory where the first Anchor butter was made in 1886.
“Not many people know about the history of that site, so they’re amazed when I tell them it was where the butter they have on their toast was first made! It’s important that we recognise the history of our industry.”