FEATURE STORY
Coast River Business Journal
March 2021 • 7
‘WE’RE HOPING WE’RE GOING TO BE
ABLE TO PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES
FOR YOUNG AMERICAN PEOPLE TO
BE INVOLVED IN THE FARM.’
David Gasquoine
Pacific Pastures
PHOTOS BY CAROLYN HOARD
CLOCKWISE: Pacific Pastures is a 650-acre free range dairy in Astoria. About 250 calves were
born this winter. A staff member visits with a calf during a feeding time in February.
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The Gasquoines have been self-employed farm-
ers for 40 years and run a dairy farm and a dairy
support block in the Waikato region of North Island,
New Zealand.
“It’s a great lifestyle,” Cathy Gasquoine said of
farming.
“I was brought up on a farm myself,” David
Gasquoine added. “I don’t think I ever wanted to do
anything else.”
The couple has two adult children in New Zea-
land who are also involved in agriculture, as well as
a grandson.
Pacific Pastures’ parent company, Free Range
Dairy, asked the Gasquoines to go to Oregon on
a two-year contract to run the farm. Free Range
Dairy has more than 24,800 cows across four hubs,
including Pacific Pastures, two in New Zealand and
one in Missouri.
Pacific Pastures itself has 1,050 cows that pro-
duce up to 12,000 pounds of milk per cow per year.
The cows graze outside on the 650 acres of pasture
land during the spring and summer and stay inside
a spacious barn during the winter months when the
ground conditions get too wet to provide enough
minerals and nutrients.
“It’s a more sustainable model,” David
Gasquoine said. “We use the pastures as the pre-
dominant feed source, and we have some supple-
mental feed but that’s minimal.”
After their two-year contract is up, the
Gasquoines plan to return home to New Zealand
and leave Pacific Pastures in local hands.
“We’re hoping we’re going to be able to pro-
vide opportunities for young American people to
be involved in the farm,” David Gasquoine said. He
said high school and college students interested in
learning about agriculture are welcome to reach out
to him via email at tekereru.farm@xtra.co.nz.
Mike Wallis, CPA
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