The Numat story
NumatAGRI’s aim of improving animal comfort and health by protecting their hooves with high tech rubber matting has roots going back almost half a century. It began with Mike Judd who co-founded the company with his father Peter. An animal lover since childhood, Mike dreamed of being a farmer and poured that passion into nurturing animals of all kinds in his backyard from a kid goat to pigeons; guinea pigs to actual pigs.
Mike may not have ended up on a farm but after time as a stock agent, following in his Dad’s footsteps, he and Peter established a multi-generational company that has helped revolutionise dairying in New Zealand.
Appropriately, it was the rise of dairying in the South Island which brought the Judd family from Whangarei to Oamaru and, along with running an auction firm, they established a company which manufactured rubber matting from locally-sourced chips.
The mats were an instant success with local playcentres and kindergartens. One day a local farmer, John Chalmers, knocked on the door looking for help.
He’d noticed his herd were slipping and damaging their hooves exiting his rotary shed, and thought the mats could offer a solution. It took Mike full-circle, back to caring for animals.
NumatAGRI has continued to evolve and over the years, has provided products used in; horse floats and stables; deer handling yards, calf trailers, and feed pads, along with milking sheds and farm tracks. Perhaps the most telling and satisfying NumatAGRI tale is the story from farmer, David Civil, who let his cows decide where they wanted to stand.
They all chose NumatAGRI over other surfaces. You can’t ask for a better testimonial than that.
Left: Today, we manufacture and supply the largest range of agricultural matting products in New Zealand from our Oamaru factory warehouse.