At a time when many sheep farmers are considering a switch to dairying or other sources of income, the Taieri dairy farmer has sold his farm and bought a 5200ha sheep, beef and deer property at Middlemarch.
Also, in a period when orchards are not viewed as a profitable investment, Mr Fuehrer and his wife, Leigh-Anne, have bought a Roxburgh pip and summerfruit orchard.
Given the negativity surrounding both these industries, their decision to invest heavily is an unusual sign of confidence.
"There's a bit of a downturn in orcharding so I thought it might be a good time to get into one.
"I'm a great believer in selling high and buying low."
All his investments are measured in terms of the net return on investment, and they add up, helped by his philosophy of buying low and selling high.
He also believes that constant negativity erodes the heart and soul of an industry, something he has seen in the sheep and beef industry.
His move from dairying to sheep and beef is also a sign the couple do not fit the two farming camps that have formed.
On one side are dairy farmers, oozing confidence on the back of record returns.
On the other are sheep and beef farmers, anxiously awaiting promises of a better future, but in the meantime seeing their overdrafts grow.
Mr Fuehrer takes a different and more optimistic view.
He said the price for his Woodside dairy farm was what he sought and the time was right to buy a sheep and beef farm.
The world was hungry for protein, the exchange rate was easing and the world's sheep numbers falling.
"I am a great believer that there is only so much land in the world, especially for farming."
All industries followed cycles, and that also applied to the booming dairy sector, but Mr Fuehrer said the decision to sell was helped by the fact both he and his wife had tired of milking cows after 20 years.
More than that, he was uncomfortable with new milk processing companies competing for milk and the risk that could lead to artificially high prices as companies shored up supply.
The world's population was growing, increasing the need for food, and there were large areas of New Zealand only suited to farming sheep, cattle and deer.
One difference he had noticed was that dairy farmers tended to put more time and effort ensuring their industry progressed.
He said that could be due to the greater investment dairy farmers had in their processors but also to the large number of young dairy farmers.
Dairying had been kind to the Fuehrers, who started in the industry with $200 and a Morris van.
At one stage, he and his wife were milking three herds.
"You did what you had to do."
It is quite an achievement for a German immigrant who arrived in Paraparaumu aged 8 unable to speak English.
He was encouraged by his parents to work on a neighbouring dairy farm to improve his language skills.
At 15, he realised school was not for him, so he started a joinery apprenticeship while still working on the dairy farm at weekends.
After 18 months, he decided he enjoyed dairying more than joinery.
He started contract milking for a year, graduating to 39% then 50% sharemilking positions and, with Leigh-Anne, their first farm at age 25.
It was 1983 and the Fuehrers won the last Lands and Survey balloted dairy farm, a town supply property at Waikouaiti milking 105 cows.
Over the next 19 years, they bought extra land, expanding the herd to 850 cows milked through three sheds.
They have never been frightened of stepping outside their comfort zone, of trying new ventures and of taking a more hard-nosed approach to the way businesses were run and properties managed.
They sold their dairy farm and bought Taieri Lake Station near Middlemarch, switching from dairy cows to crossbred sheep.
But illness in the family meant they had to move closer to Dunedin Hospital, and after just nine months they moved to the Taieri, initially to a 40ha farm at North Taieri, then a 140ha dairy farm at Woodside, and later a 270ha deer farm in the Silverstream Valley.
His family lost enthusiasm for dairying, so they sold the dairy farm last year and also have the deer farm on the market as they concentrate on their newly bought 5200ha Sutton property.
That policy of experimenting and trying new techniques would be exercised at Sutton, Mr Fuehrer said.
He planned to increase the area devoted to deer to run 1000 hinds alongside 3000 ewes, utilise water rights that had not been exercised, look at the sheep breed to maximise lambing percentages and also at the option of growing cereal crops.
The orchard and Sutton livestock property allowed him to cover his risks.
"If there is a drought as such, things may not be going so well at Middlemarch, but my orchard loves it dry. If it is a wet year, the orchard may not go so well but my farm will."
Keen on the challenge posed by his sheep and beef farm, Mr Fuehrer was weary of the risks of investing in a dairy farm.
"The last thing on my mind at the moment would be buying a dairy farm or converting to dairying. There is just too much heat in the market.
Why would you buy on a high?"