From growing potatoes, and despite not having a farming background, he established Landpower, one of the bigger agricultural machinery retail businesses in New Zealand and Australia.
Mr Whyte was born and bred in Invercargill and left school at 15 to be an engineering apprentice at Sheetmetalcraft Ltd in 1960.
''The company I worked for did a lot of farm machinery in those days, altering combines to bulk machines and building grain-storage facilities,'' Mr Whyte said.
''I got involved with farmers by working on their machinery and I thought it looked like a good way of life.''
He completed his apprenticeship by age 18, then leased a small farm in Lochiel, near Winton to grow potatoes.
''At that time land sold for 100 an acre.''
Harvesting was done by hand, which limited any growth potential and most potato growers could only manage about 8ha (20 acres).
''We couldn't get potato harvesters in New Zealand at that time as they were on a list of machinery that couldn't be imported.
''I went to Wellington to see the then Minister of Agriculture Brian Talboys. I got a meeting [with] him and he provided me with an import licence and foreign currency, which you had to have at that time. I was then able to import one from England.''
He said the harvester allowed him to expand production to a profitable 80ha (200 acres) and that became his main business.
''From there, I quickly acquired another five farms within three years, then land prices suddenly escalated to $1000/acre.
''As opportunities presented themselves I couldn't see how I could miss.''
He said people asked about buying their own harvesters, so he got another import licence and starting bringing them in to sell throughout New Zealand.
The farm machinery business was ''on the side'' and then by 1975 it grew into his first company, Farmrite. He started importing other brands, such as Lely.
He said the machines were brought into New Zealand partially assembled and completed here.
''It was a totally inefficient system, but [was] the way we had to do things.''
He said at that time there were no trucking businesses in New Zealand as the state owned the railways in a monopoly and everything had to go by rail.
''New Zealand in the 1960s was almost a communist country and we accepted it because we didn't know any better.''
During the following years he added other franchises to his stable and expanded into Australia in 1982.
''By the 1990s, selling farm machinery was my main business activity.''
Farmrite became Landpower in 1995 and now has 25 retail outlets in Australia and New Zealand with 380 employees employed throughout the group and its headquarters is in Christchurch.
It sells Claas, Amazone, JCB and Grimme.
''Half [the outlets] we own and half are independent,'' he said.
He chose those brand names as they were all third-generation family companies, all based in Germany and all came with solid reputations.
In addition to his farm machinery operations he was one of the first people to enter the deer industry, establishing a deer farm near Lochiel in 1977. It was sold in 1985 to the Eastern Deer Company in Hawkes Bay.
Landpower is still owned by Mr Whyte and wife Pam. They have two children - Kerry and Barry - and two grandchildren.
At 68 he has no intention of stepping down.
''I will keep on with my life's work.''
- Mr Whyte is attending celebrations near Winton on October 10 to mark 100 years of Claas.
ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY
Herby Whyte says farm machine technology is advancing at ''an amazing pace''.
He said all farm machinery manufacturers were using wireless sensory technology and GPS systems in their machines and vehicles, especially for precision farming systems.
Proof of placement technology for fertiliser and chemicals was now available.
''My view is it will be standard farm practice in Southland where fertiliser and effluent is cut or injected into the ground.
''If they spray it on to the ground there is always going to be a risk of run-off and we want to minimise the chance of it getting into the waterways,'' he said.
''Greenseeker technology can be used for selective spraying.''
The optical sensory system uses cameras that look at paddocks, recording crop health and colour.
''It is used extensively in Australia for spraying broadacre weeds and that technology is now available in New Zealand.''
Rather than using the full width of the boom to spray the total area the system's camera takes a photo of the particular weed, then the computer sets the nozzle on it and sprays just that weed.
It also looks at crop health, including identifying where fertiliser has been placed, mapping it for the future.