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Hamish Best and Conscious Valley: Selling Beef and Lamb to Wellington Chefs

Hamish Best turned a sales and marketing background into a short-supply-chain beef and lamb business that serves some of Wellington's leading restaurants.

Who is Hamish Best?

Hamish Best is a New Zealand farmer who, with Caroline Flood, runs Conscious Valley, a beef and lamb farm about eight kilometres from the centre of Wellington. His public profile comes from a single awards report, Rural News Group's coverage of the 2026 Beef + Lamb New Zealand Awards, so this entry stays close to what that report says.

What makes the story unusual is geography. Most beef on this site comes from stations far from any city. Conscious Valley sits within a short drive of the capital's restaurants.

What is Conscious Valley?

Conscious Valley produces beef and lamb for the Wellington market. The awards write-up describes the product as low-food-mile meat for people who want consistently high-quality red meat with a short supply chain.

The report does not give the farm's size, herd numbers or breeds, so none are stated here.

How does Conscious Valley sell its meat?

Best drew on his sales and marketing background to build relationships with leading Wellington chefs. The meat appears on the menus of many of the city's best restaurants. The write-up does not mention a direct-to-consumer channel, so that is not claimed.

This is the reverse of the commodity model, where a farm sells animals to a processor and takes the price of the day. Here the farm talks to the buyer first.

The 2026 Beef + Lamb New Zealand award

Conscious Valley was recognized at the 2026 awards for its premium local market strategy. The judges praised the way the farm asks customers what they want and adjusts its products to match, uses all cuts while growing its product range, and has built collaborative relationships that helped it grow.

They also described an end-to-end value chain for the local market, with farm systems adapted to consumer demand.

The Key to Best's Success

The judges' comments are the best evidence of why the business works, and the bullets below follow them closely. The source does not report sales, prices or margins.

A fair note: a model built on restaurants depends on a small number of relationships and on the cuts those kitchens will buy, which is why the judges' point about using the whole animal matters.

  • Ask the customer: the farm adjusts what it grows and sells to match what buyers want.
  • Use every cut: selling the whole carcass avoids leaving low-demand cuts unsold.
  • Widen the range: the product line has grown rather than staying fixed.
  • Build partnerships: collaborative relationships helped the business grow.
  • Control the chain: the farm runs from paddock to plate for the local market and fits its farm systems to demand.

How Conscious Valley compares with big New Zealand stations

At the opposite end of New Zealand beef farming is Wi Pere Farms, a 6,770-hectare Gisborne station with 4,600 cattle, described on the Te Puni Kokiri page on its 2022 trophy win. Mangaroa Station, in the 2015 Ahuwhenua report, shows a mid-sized hill-country model.

Together they show three answers to the same question: large scale, mixed breeding, or direct sales close to a city.

Keep reading

For more stories about farms that sell close to the table, visit farm.FM's ranching section, or try a farm.FM story about selling beef direct.

Timeline

  1. Before 2026Best and Flood build Conscious Valley as a local beef and lamb supplier to Wellington
  2. Before 2026Best builds relationships with leading Wellington chefs using his sales and marketing background
  3. 2026Conscious Valley recognized for premium local market strategy at the Beef + Lamb New Zealand Awards
  4. 2026Judges cite customer-led products, use of all cuts and an end-to-end local value chain
  5. 2026Awards winners announced and reported by Rural News Group

Frequently asked questions

Who is Hamish Best?

Hamish Best is a New Zealand farmer who runs Conscious Valley, a beef and lamb farm near Wellington, with Caroline Flood. He sells to leading Wellington restaurants.

What is Conscious Valley?

Conscious Valley is a beef and lamb farm about eight kilometres from Wellington's CBD. It supplies local, short-supply-chain red meat and was recognized at the 2026 Beef + Lamb New Zealand Awards.

What award did Hamish Best win?

Conscious Valley was recognized for its premium local market strategy at the 2026 Beef + Lamb New Zealand Awards, with judges praising its customer focus and local value chain.

Sources and further reading

Profiles are compiled from public sources and reviewed against them. See our editorial policy to suggest a correction.

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