Tangaroa Walker, dairy farmer, industry leader, and farming advocate last night announced as the 37th winner of the Ravensdown Agricultural Communicator of the Year award. 

The award recognises and honours individuals and groups that have made important contributions to the agricultural community by using their skills to effectively communicate issues, events, and information that are relevant to the sector. 

Walker became an instant household name through his Farm4Life Facebook group, where his light-hearted and educational videos gave us a 360-degree view of life as a dairy farmer in New Zealand. Since then, the group had grown to a community of over 144,000 people across the globe. In 2020, Walker launched the Farm 4 Life Hub, a learning platform with a curated digital catalogue of videos that cover everything related to dairy farming. The hub now has over 500 paid subscribers and 4500 freemium subscribers with 200 NZQA students starting this year.  

Presenting the award was Ravensdown’s Chief Executive Garry Diack, who praised Walker as a strong agricultural leader, noting that “Tangaroa is a true inspiration to rangatahi, and an exceptional communicator. Well deserving of recognition in breaking down barriers between urban and rural communities and helping to build the future of farming excellence in Aotearoa”. 

Neal Wallace, President of the New Zealand Guild of Agricultural Journalists and Communicators said, “It is hard not to be impressed by Tangaroa and his life story. He’s a tireless advocate for the rural sector and a perfect example of what this award was set up to celebrate - using modern media to communicate a great message to a wide audience.”