About us
Donna Day and Dave Lawrence - both born and bred Southlanders. While older children and grandchildren are spread around the globe, we live at Tikana with our daughter Demi.
An upbringing immersed in farming and livestock ensured Donna’s innate ability with livestock. From being one of New Zealand’s first female jockeys she moved on to successfully train Thoroughbred racehorses. Her ability and focus on animals saw her take on many roles from nurse to management in veterinary practice.
Dave was a city boy with a yearning for farming. This defaulted to a career in veterinary practice. Dave has had a long and dedicated involvement with the deer industry through both veterinary and farming endeavours. These efforts culminated in his receiving The Deer Industry Award in 2005.
We knew we had something special when we became guardians of this small farm in 1995. Retirement from veterinary practice before the millennium allowed us to fulfill a dream. We can indulge our passion for livestock and farming with our Wapiti deer stud at Tikana.
Mindful that the size of our farm could limit our income from farming we built a straw bale cottage in 2003 to provide accommodation for travellers to New Zealand.
An upbringing immersed in farming and livestock ensured Donna’s innate ability with livestock. From being one of New Zealand’s first female jockeys she moved on to successfully train Thoroughbred racehorses. Her ability and focus on animals saw her take on many roles from nurse to management in veterinary practice.
Dave was a city boy with a yearning for farming. This defaulted to a career in veterinary practice. Dave has had a long and dedicated involvement with the deer industry through both veterinary and farming endeavours. These efforts culminated in his receiving The Deer Industry Award in 2005.
We knew we had something special when we became guardians of this small farm in 1995. Retirement from veterinary practice before the millennium allowed us to fulfill a dream. We can indulge our passion for livestock and farming with our Wapiti deer stud at Tikana.
Mindful that the size of our farm could limit our income from farming we built a straw bale cottage in 2003 to provide accommodation for travellers to New Zealand.