Te Mania History

Over 90 years of history, experience and innovation. Four generations have farmed one of New Zealand’s largest, leading Angus studs.

Dating back to when Frank Armstrong of Akitio in Southern Hawkes Bay, gave his daughter and her husband Edwin Wilding, four top Angus cows and a bull (Tiniber Bay of Akitio) on her wedding day, the foundations of the Te Mania herd were laid.

The Wilding family and their cattle moved to Te Mania at Conway Flat In 1934.

Bulls were sold from 1943, with the first on farm sale being held at Te Mania in 1967. Frank & Jo Wilding took on the stud in 1952 and Frank was instrumental in setting the Te Mania herd down the path of the performance and productivity based program that we see today.

He installed scales in 1962 to weigh cattle and he started mating the heifers. The late 1970s saw an innovative shift into AI and ET work, which allowed Te Mania to improve their females at lightening pace. Te Mania was involved in a partnership carrying out the first embryo transfer programme of Angus cattle in Australasia in 1978.

Tim and Katie Wilding took over the Te Mania herd in 1882 and continued with a performance driven programme. This resulted in Te Mania being the first NZ herd to use BREEDPLAN, as well as the use of carcass evaluation technology in the 1990s and live heifer export.

DNA technology was a turning point for the stud in 2010, with the use of HD50K to further accelerate genetic gain.

Will Wilding returned to Te Mania in 2014 as stock manager, where he worked alongside brother Sam. Sam developed the Matai Peak agri-tourism operation on farm.

In 2021 Thomas Grothe came into the business as an investor. Thomas and Will are now the sole directors, with Will taking on both the general manager and stock manager roles. The pair have plans to increase feed efficiency and decrease the methane emissions of the herd. The core principles of the herd will remain unchanged.