Martin Albrecht

Mart, as he is usually known, is the driving force behind the goodGround Company. He has had a long history of involvement with the farming industry and Lifestyle Block living. It all started 35 years ago when Mart and his wife Laurelle bought a 4 hectare block of land in Silverdale, north of Auckland. They spent most of their leisure time developing this lifestyle block, fencing it, planting shelter belts and improving the pasture to sustain a mixture of livestock. No one knew much about lifestyle block practices in those days so Mart had to learn the hard way by making a few mistakes and learning from them.

This experience convinced Mart to seek a career in the farming industry. He took a job as a shepherd on a 700 hectare sheep farm in the heart of the Waikato. Interestingly, this property was just down the road from the family farm of goodGround.com writer, Ron Giles. This was an intensive sheep farming operation and gave Mart the practical knowledge he needed about all aspects of raising sheep. After this learning phase, Mart took a position as Farm Manager on a large Paparoa sheep and beef farm owned by the well-known Northland farming identity, Bruce Leaf.

After a few years there, Mart decided it was time he had his own farm and purchased a small farm in a secluded inland Waipu valley, where he still lives today. The location was well-chosen as Mart soon gained the job of Farm Manager for the Carter Holt Harvey 750 hectare Forestry Farm right next door.

Mart pioneered many of what have become accepted forest/farm practices for such dual purpose operations. In addition, he gained a heap of knowledge about forestry management and how to marry that with a sheep farming operation - just ask him sometime about trying to stop sheep from nipping the tops off newly planted pine trees!

After eight years, the size of the pines saw the end of the sheep farming phase and Mart moved onto various other ventures such as:

• providing advice and services to lifestyle block owners
• exporting live sheep
• developing the first-ever feedlot dairy farm in New Zealand
• starting up a tractor parts supply business
• becoming a forestry consultant advising on small forest plantings
• starting up a wood furniture manufacturing operation

Mart’s most recent move has been into marketing rural real estate, specializing in farms, farmlets, coastal blocks and lifestyle blocks. His wide variety of farming expertise has seen him become a successful salesperson in the Northland. Would-be buyers and sellers want to deal with someone who knows what they are talking about and there are few that can match Mart’s knowledge or experience.

This success has meant he has been able to pursue his long held dream of providing an information service for lifestyle block owners.

Outside work, Mart’s main interest is Refereeing – he is Chairman of Northland Rugby Referees and is still an active referee.

So, if you have any questions about your block that you would like Martin to help you with, simply email him, and he'll have an answer for you within 48 hours!