Our history

Riverlea farm 3000 acres of improved country in the Northern Midlands an easy 20 minute drive South of Launceston, Tasmania, Australia.

Riverlea Farming has been operating in Tasmania since 2018. The hub of operations is at “Fairfield” North of Epping Forest. The family business is owned and operated by Ben and Stephanie Tait. The Tait’s are not new to farming.The name “Riverlea” comes from the name of the Tait’s home farm sold in Mid Canterbury, New Zealand before moving the business to Tasmania. Ben’s parent’s John and Jill farmed at “Riverlea” near Mayfield for almost 40 years. John’s father Jim moved to the Mayfield district in 1947 with the assistance of the soldier settlement scheme. John was one of four brothers to go farming between Mayfield and Ashburton in the 1980’s.

“The 1980’s for the Tait’s were a mixed bag of triumphs and challenges, that era forged resilience and values that still drive us today. These values are to work together and work hard, to be self-reliant and self-contained. We are motivated to look after our soil and environment to produce livestock and crops that we are proud of. We strive to do this without wasting a drip of water or a blade of grass. We aspire to farm by best practice and we do so encouraging education and embracing science and technology.”

Core business for the Tait’s for the last forty years has been red meat and seed production. Ben and Steph moved the business from Canterbury to Tasmania to seek more opportunities in this sector. The return’s in Canterbury were threatened as the emergence of dairy and dairy support sectors contended as best land use.

“New Zealand is a magnificent place to farm. Learning the ropes in a competitive environment will only serve us well. New Zealand is spoiled for tempered climate growing regions but only has a limited population to feed. Because of this, many markets are dependent on exports and are exposed to the volatility of markets, currency and governance. Our strategic advantage in Tasmania is that we are in a one of the few tempered climate growing regions in Australia. Our farm produce supplies a large domestic population, we farm with access to water, services and markets.”

Steph grew up on a large family farm near Tisdale in Canada and first travelled to New Zealand after studying agriculture at the University of Saskatchewan. Steph’s family farmed cereals, pulses, canola, hemp and lucerne(alfalfa) for seed with leaf cutter bees. Ben and Steph were involved in the development of seeding equipment with Bourgault Industries and were exclusive importers of that range to New Zealand before selling the business to focus on farming.