Te Kawenata Farm, meaning 'The Covenant', is 320ha of rolling to steep hill country near the coast of Central Hawke's Bay. Just up the road from the Elsthorpe Village, the location and community is the perfect home for Ray and Gemma Munn to raise their young family – Amelia, Niko and Lola.

The company was established in 2016 when the farm was purchased by four entities of family and friends. Today, the farm is owned and managed by Ray and Gemma, and Ray’s parents Allan and Ngaio Munn. The farm originally began breeding traditional Romney Sheep and Angus Cattle, before joining the First Light supply chain in 2019.

Gemma’s father, a keen home-chef, was the one to discover and inspire their First Light journey. The beautiful meat, but also the story and the connection from farm to customer is what Te Kawenata is proud of be a part of. This complements their operation and lifestyle well.

Te Kawenata currently breed-to-finish Wagyu x Angus cattle and is committed to backgrounding Wagyu x Dairy cattle, before passing them on to specialist finishers.

“We love First Light’s respect of the whole animal and way they are continuously looking to extract as much value from it. Their constant innovation and product development is exciting”.