Profile: Uptake's John Davis brings a lifetime of farming knowledge to the successful Soil, Plant, Animal Health, Nutrition and fertiliser business.  

The agricultural roots of Taupo man John Davis run deep.

Born in Kurow, John’s parents owned a farm in the isolated area of Papanui at the top end of the Turakina Valley.

“The centre of the area was the school, I walked then rode a bike.  Most others rode horses but it used to annoy me trying to catch my horse at the end of the school day whereas a bike was easy to catch!” says John. 

John enjoyed his time at primary school. “The school only had about 10 kids but we all loved sport.  I chose rugby and every Saturday in winter I was off to Taihape to play midget rugby,” says John.

As a child, John loved the freedom that farming brought and spent hours running through the bush and hills and swimming in the river.

When John grew older, he attended Palmerston Boys’ High School. “The first few days at high school I was lost and pretty homesick. I longed for the freedom and hated the bloody bells ringing telling me to be somewhere which I often wasn’t,” John reminisces.

After his school years were finished, John was pleased to leave and go back to farming, running a big shearing gang.

“I had free time again but with new disciplines which was good,” adds John.

John’s passion for playing rugby was still burning. He played rugby for more than 20 years. “I become involved in setting up rugby tours and it was during one of these tours that I learnt about soil-plant nutrition just by accident.  I had experienced a lot of scouring in my own sheep and knew it was Copper related but didn’t know why and armed with this new knowledge it changed the way I thought and entered a new chapter in my life,” says John

In 1984 John took a massive risk.  At the time he had an association with a helicopter company that had just started spraying suspension fertiliser, which was a novel idea in those days, and they offered him a sales job in Blenheim. 

“The most dangerous job was to tell my wife and kids that we were going to pack up, lease the farm and go and do a job I had no experience or training in,” said John.

“I succeeded and enjoyed my sales role and the freedom it offered.  Not only was I paid and paid well, I still had a farm and went to places that I had only dreamed about.  I stayed in Blenheim working all the area from the Rangitata to the West Coast to the Sounds and Nelson,” adds John. 

John started making blends and changing the standard way of putting on the same fertilizer each year as he could see it was missing something in the soil to produce happy, healthy plants and animals.  He soon learned that changing the way farmers think is the hardest thing but he pioneered all for his love of Farming! “I believe in the Circle of Life, Healthy Soil, Healthy Plants, Healthy Bees, Healthy Animals, Healthy Humans which provides a Healthy Immune System,” adds John.

“This eventually led to a direction that took us to the head office in Taupo and the sale of the Blenheim plant.  At this time our contract with the helicopter had expired and it became a new sales experience and direction,” says John.

John’s business partner explained it as:  There is the easy way, there is the hard way and easily the hard way”. “It teaches you well though and here we are today 30 odd years later doing it and we have done extremely well,” comments John.

“Would I choose to do it again?  Hard to know, but it has taken me on a life adventure that would be impossible to even dream of and many friendships and business relationships to treasure forever,” John said.

About Uptake:

Since 1984 Uptake has been changing the issues on the land related to soil, plant & animal health.  Improving production, weight gain and cost effective methods.  Helping farmers think smarter. We are looking for like-minded people who want to do best by their animals, environment and us. Uptake currently have their head office in Taupo, a factory in Hastings and a new factory which has been built in Napier this year.

Uptake Office

PO Box 743, Fleet Street, Taupo

Phone: 07 378 2604

Email: info@uptake.co.nz

Website: www.uptake.co.nz

Factory Phone: 0800 999 116

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