March 10, 2026 • 5 mins
The New Zealand winner of the Zanda McDonald Award, 32, from Te Hoe in Waikato, is the founder and owner of Ohinewai Harvest Ltd and Dhaliwal Ag Ltd. He has built a diverse horticultural and cropping business and is recognised for his entrepreneurial approach to growing, leadership within the vegetable industry and commitment to creating opportunities for the next generation in horticulture.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
So yesterday I spent the day in Christchitch for the
Impact Summit, and last night had the good fortune and
great honor to end see the Zander MacDonald Award for
twenty twenty six. We had an Aussie winner. His name
was Bryce Nayland. And we had a key we winner.
His name was Khan dally Well. Khan joins us on
the country today and I'll tell you what you beat off.
(00:22):
Chloe Butcher Harries and Lana Marshall, good Southland girl. They
were very impressive candidates. You must be wrapped to have
won this KRN.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yeah, I think a testament to that. Chloe and Lana
they had a lot of great initially as they were
pushing in their community. So I was very fortunate and
quite taken back when my name was called out. So yeah,
wonderful opportunity to be a part of and and honor
(00:53):
the spirit of the award.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
So when you guys got up, the sixth finalists got
up in the afternoon to present your cases. Three these
three New Zealanders. If you don't mind me saying so,
carn And I know you're of Indian descent, but you
sounded like a Nassi. You still sound like a Nassi
to me.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yeah, yeah, I think that I'm not too sure where
that actually comes from. But I am based up in
northern whit Ketto and we sit caught quite Barna district
and close to the hills, one of the last few
dairy farms, so I think those hills are having an
influence on the exit I've picked up over the years.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
So Carn Dally, well, let's have a look at your backstory,
because it's a very good one and a very impressive one.
After gaining experience as a rural banker and a fertilizer rep,
you went back farming, but not dairy farming like your parents.
You went into market gardening. Why market gardening. That's a
tough gig.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah, yeah, it is a tough gig. I think between
my wife and I, Bry, we were kind of I
grew up the very farm. I came from a small scale,
so I kind of saw the challenges of what what
thenges around reinvesting in the business and the flexibility that
gave you. So but we always wanted to go farming,
(02:06):
but what we found it was hard to go and
invest in dereks is a really capital intensive industry. We
are part of so to get scale from the start
was a real challenge. So we looked at a whole
lot of other things and at the time we didn't
really take into account the risk profile of them because
we were young. So we decided to start a horticultural
(02:30):
based business. We saw a lot of opportunity in that market,
so we went into cropping and we grove watermelton for
the local market. We developed the blue rear orchid which
are exported into Australia and we've just built ten hecty
read kvy fruit orchard. So it's been a real journey,
but the opportunities that has given us, as you know,
(02:52):
it's given us what we've wanted to achieve and and
a great entry point was at scale into the into
the sector.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
How does the keyw go on? Wak at our region.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Very good. So in Towinga, as you may know, there
is a shortage of land, so Auckland and wipe At
the fastest grown regions for kiwi fruit plantings in New Zealand.
So they don't like the frost, so we do prostmetic
with water. But other than that it is a very
ideal climate to grow kivy fruit.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Carticulture and market gardening in particular is a fraught way
to make a living. It can have rich rewards, it
can also spank you big time. You got hit by
cyclone Gabrielle.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Yeah, that's right. So one of our big years and
our annual crop in business, we increased our plantings and
took on a quite a substantial contract and we invested
a lot and unfortunately cyclone Gabrielle came in and wiped
out the whole lot. I remember gett a phone call
from the lease landowner not to come down. But I
(03:57):
think you can look at that two ways. You can
look at that as hey, maybe this isn't for us,
or what could have we done to change it? And
we never asked the question what if a one fifty
year event came through? And I think we need to
be asking that now. So we went away from that,
rebuilt our business in a different location and split up
all our blocks across Four Leafs Farms. And since that day,
(04:20):
we've mitigated a lot of that risk and we had
a lot more resilient business out of it.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Yes, spreading the risk. Finally, what does the next twelve
months hold for you? As the twenty twenty six Sanda
McDonald Award winner.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
I think the biggest fit my hand up in this
for the award is to expand on really big I'm
really big on building expertise because expertise we knew are
passionate about something and apply then they create grade outcomes,
and my grade outcomes that I want to achieve are
(04:53):
in the primary sector. So I'm wanting to build on
those expertise, specifically around the technical capable of production systems
that's partial and cropping around leadership styles, how to lead
through difficult situations and bring your team along, because we
can't do this outres and we've learned that's the hard
way in our business. So I'm really keen to draw
(05:17):
on expertise and use it to do a better job
in prim re sector.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Can DEALI well there. Twenty twenty six Xander McDonald Award winner.
You're beat off a couple of stunning entrants and Chloe
Butcher Harries and Lana Marshall. Well done and I'm sure
you'll do a great job as an ambassador over the
next twelve months.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Thanks for your time, No beautiful, appreciate that. Jamie, good
on your mate.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Thanks carn very impressive young man,
So yesterday I spent the day in Christchitch for the
Impact Summit, and last night had the good fortune and
great honor to end see the Zander MacDonald Award for
twenty twenty six. We had an Aussie winner. His name
was Bryce Nayland. And we had a key we winner.
His name was Khan dally Well. Khan joins us on
the country today and I'll tell you what you beat off.
(00:22):
Chloe Butcher Harries and Lana Marshall, good Southland girl. They
were very impressive candidates. You must be wrapped to have
won this KRN.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yeah, I think a testament to that. Chloe and Lana
they had a lot of great initially as they were
pushing in their community. So I was very fortunate and
quite taken back when my name was called out. So yeah,
wonderful opportunity to be a part of and and honor
(00:53):
the spirit of the award.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
So when you guys got up, the sixth finalists got
up in the afternoon to present your cases. Three these
three New Zealanders. If you don't mind me saying so,
carn And I know you're of Indian descent, but you
sounded like a Nassi. You still sound like a Nassi
to me.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yeah, yeah, I think that I'm not too sure where
that actually comes from. But I am based up in
northern whit Ketto and we sit caught quite Barna district
and close to the hills, one of the last few
dairy farms, so I think those hills are having an
influence on the exit I've picked up over the years.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
So Carn Dally, well, let's have a look at your backstory,
because it's a very good one and a very impressive one.
After gaining experience as a rural banker and a fertilizer rep,
you went back farming, but not dairy farming like your parents.
You went into market gardening. Why market gardening. That's a
tough gig.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah, yeah, it is a tough gig. I think between
my wife and I, Bry, we were kind of I
grew up the very farm. I came from a small scale,
so I kind of saw the challenges of what what
thenges around reinvesting in the business and the flexibility that
gave you. So but we always wanted to go farming,
(02:06):
but what we found it was hard to go and
invest in dereks is a really capital intensive industry. We
are part of so to get scale from the start
was a real challenge. So we looked at a whole
lot of other things and at the time we didn't
really take into account the risk profile of them because
we were young. So we decided to start a horticultural
(02:30):
based business. We saw a lot of opportunity in that market,
so we went into cropping and we grove watermelton for
the local market. We developed the blue rear orchid which
are exported into Australia and we've just built ten hecty
read kvy fruit orchard. So it's been a real journey,
but the opportunities that has given us, as you know,
(02:52):
it's given us what we've wanted to achieve and and
a great entry point was at scale into the into
the sector.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
How does the keyw go on? Wak at our region.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Very good. So in Towinga, as you may know, there
is a shortage of land, so Auckland and wipe At
the fastest grown regions for kiwi fruit plantings in New Zealand.
So they don't like the frost, so we do prostmetic
with water. But other than that it is a very
ideal climate to grow kivy fruit.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Carticulture and market gardening in particular is a fraught way
to make a living. It can have rich rewards, it
can also spank you big time. You got hit by
cyclone Gabrielle.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Yeah, that's right. So one of our big years and
our annual crop in business, we increased our plantings and
took on a quite a substantial contract and we invested
a lot and unfortunately cyclone Gabrielle came in and wiped
out the whole lot. I remember gett a phone call
from the lease landowner not to come down. But I
(03:57):
think you can look at that two ways. You can
look at that as hey, maybe this isn't for us,
or what could have we done to change it? And
we never asked the question what if a one fifty
year event came through? And I think we need to
be asking that now. So we went away from that,
rebuilt our business in a different location and split up
all our blocks across Four Leafs Farms. And since that day,
(04:20):
we've mitigated a lot of that risk and we had
a lot more resilient business out of it.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Yes, spreading the risk. Finally, what does the next twelve
months hold for you? As the twenty twenty six Sanda
McDonald Award winner.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
I think the biggest fit my hand up in this
for the award is to expand on really big I'm
really big on building expertise because expertise we knew are
passionate about something and apply then they create grade outcomes,
and my grade outcomes that I want to achieve are
(04:53):
in the primary sector. So I'm wanting to build on
those expertise, specifically around the technical capable of production systems
that's partial and cropping around leadership styles, how to lead
through difficult situations and bring your team along, because we
can't do this outres and we've learned that's the hard
way in our business. So I'm really keen to draw
(05:17):
on expertise and use it to do a better job
in prim re sector.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Can DEALI well there. Twenty twenty six Xander McDonald Award winner.
You're beat off a couple of stunning entrants and Chloe
Butcher Harries and Lana Marshall. Well done and I'm sure
you'll do a great job as an ambassador over the
next twelve months.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Thanks for your time, No beautiful, appreciate that. Jamie, good
on your mate.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Thanks carn very impressive young man,
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