The Roy family of Glen Islay Station had previously tried with mixed results, but the breakthrough came when they added herbicide spray to the process, ominously called "spray and pray".
James Roy, the station's manager, told the recent Meat and Wool New Zealand annual meeting hosted at the Southland property that even with that element of hope, he was now quite confident about the process.
For an investment of about $1000 per ha, or $257 a stock unit, he has lifted carrying capacity at a lower capital cost than buying land.
Depending on the type of vegetation, Mr Roy said the block was sprayed with a herbicide then "hoofed and toothed" by cows over winter before being sown with turnips.
That process started with a herbicide spray in September, four litres a hectare, total cost of $66 a ha, and again in November, three litres a ha at a cost of $105 a ha.
The next day, 2kg a ha of brassica seed, at a cost of $24 a ha, and lime, 2.5 tonnes a ha, total cost of $200 a ha and DAP, 300kg a ha, $400 a ha, was applied.
Urea at 150kg a ha, at a cost of $105 a ha, was applied in March.
At a yield of eight tonne a ha, Mr Roy said that equated to 11.5c per kg of dry matter, competitive with the cost of baleage or silage without taking account of the lift in fertility and stocking rate.
The transition from brassica to grass started with a herbicide spray in late September followed by the application of grass and clover seed.
The species was a mixture of short and long rotation grasses, determined by the lie of the terrain but aimed so not all the pastured seeded at once.
Mr Roy said the base pasture was nui, applied at 40kg a ha, but with Matrix and banquet varieties on the warmer front country.
They have also tried some germinal sugar grass.
The blocks have a history of regular fertiliser, but Mr Roy said they lacked the right pasture species for the lie and terrain of the land.
The results from "spray and pray" were marked.
A second year pasture block which was carrying 4.5 stock units a ha prior to development was now carrying double that.
Another block able to carry 300 to 350 single-bearing ewes was now carrying 480 to 490 twin-bearing ewes and weaning the lambs at heavier live weights than achieved with those carrying singles.
He still has between 1000ha and 1400ha to develop and depending on the longevity of the pasture in the land he has developed, he may repeat the rotation.
Mr Roy said the development allowed him to push more stock on to the hill country and free up the 480ha of flats for grain and dairy cow wintering.
The Roy family originate from the Clinton area, but when James Roy's grandfather had the opportunity in 1979 to buy Glen Islay, he did so with great fanfare, paying a then record auction price of $1.28 million.
He had seen potential in the property, evident by changes he initiated and which continued with James Roy's parents, Bruce and Helen, and now their sons, James and Tom.
A network of tracks gives all-year-round access to paddocks and blocks, while four sets of sheep yards and two sets of cattle yards make handling livestock easy.
The ewe flock is moving towards Perendale, after a Perendale ram was put over what Mr Roy described as "a traditional Romney" flock.
This resulted in lambing percentages increasing from a consistent range of 112% to 115% from Romneys, to about 130% now.
A third of ewes went to a terminal sire.
Mr Roy lambs hoggets and achieves a lambing percentage of 60%, which he said was acceptable.
The cow herd is Hereford, which go to Hereford and Angus bulls.
Hereford-Angus cross heifers are then put to an exotic bull.
Rising two-year-old heifers average 87% to 91% calving.
Mr Roy said the goal was to finish all lambs and cattle as prime, and most years he achieved that, the exception being last year which he said was one of the driest seen.
He tried to get as many lambs away prime as possible at weaning to give him space to finish the balance.
The average lamb weight as at last week was 17.23kg but should rise to 17.5kg by season end.
Mr Roy said his goal was to have prime cattle ready for slaughter at 18 months, with about four-fifths sold then at target carcass weight of over 240kg.
The rest were kept to two and a-half year old.
Crops have been a relatively recent venture and were grown in conjunction with two other Roy-owned properties: a 240ha farm at Otama Valley and 2450ha property between Clinton and Owaka bought about a year ago.
Between the three farms they grow 350ha of crop: 40ha of oats for Harraways in Dunedin, 280ha of spring barley and 30ha of winter wheat.
Eventually Mr Roy said he planned to develop the Clinton property using the skills learnt at Glen Islay, with those two properties becoming breeding and dairy grazing blocks and Otama a finishing farm.
Mr Roy said he could not accept the apparent grazing limits on Glen Islay and always believed that with development and sowing the right pasture species, it would be more productive.