The 2008 Lincoln University Foundation Farmers of the Year, the father and son team run their Braemorn Farm very differently from when Colin Mavor started.
In fact, Mr Mavor admits that if they had continued farming as they were when he started out, they would not be in business today.
The award category they won was meat production and much of it was assessed on financial results from the past four to five years.
They beat three other South Islanders for the title.
The Mavors supply steers and prime lambs under contract which, while inconvenient (they had to draft stock between Christmas and New Year), it was rewarding financially.
Every three weeks they have to supply 500 lambs and each month 100 cattle to meet contracts.
Another significant change came with the introduction in 2003 of the Horse Gully Irrigation Scheme which provided water to irrigate 240ha, allowing them the flexibility and opportunity to become dedicated meat producers.
That enabled them to triple their annual pasture growth from 5000kg-7000kg dry matter a ha to 15,000kg-17,000kg dry matter.
To achieve that growth their k-line irrigation scheme has to be shifted twice a day, something Stefan Mavor said was not onerous when he saw the resulting grass growth.
Since then they have leased a neighbouring 330ha, doubling the size of their farm.
Last year they wintered 3500 ewes and 750 steers for the Five Star beef feedlot.
They also bought another 400 steers in spring for the feedlot.
The Mavors supply more than 1100 steers each year, making them Five Star's second largest supplier.
Colin Mavor said he started supplying Angus and Angus cross steers to Five Star in 1989 as insurance against the summer dry.
The climate and dry ground conditions meant wintering cattle was not a problem, but traditional dry summers made finishing stock then less reliable.
Rather than work against nature, supplying cattle to the feedlot in spring allowed him to work with grass growth patterns, having all their prime stock off the farm when the traditional summer dry started to bite.
It had allowed them to fill niche markets.
"We have to perform and deliver on a certain day and to specification.
"We can't wait another two or three weeks," Stefan Mavor said.
The first steers arrived on Braemorn as autumn-weaned calves at about 290kg and heavier.
The steers were run at about five a ha with daily shifts in winter and then a 24-day rotation from mid-September and in spring.
Lucerne and baleage is grown on 20ha of leased land at Weston.
"It is a simple system," Stefan Mavor said.
That was the key to their success, his father said.
"If it is simple, you enjoy it."
The cattle start being trucked out according to monthly contract agreements at 440kg from October.
Others were bought in spring to control pasture growth, and on-sold to Five Star when they reached target weights.
There was a ready market supplying cattle to the feedlot from October to December when other farms were not able to supply.
They had cornered much of the South Island market for Angus steers as the greater use of dairy cross-breeding meant Angus cattle were more difficult to source.
"Dairying has pushed Angus cattle further in to the hills and they are harder to get."
Virtually all the steers they bought came from regular suppliers, that history giving them confidence the steers would perform.
"We know they will get there because they have got the genetics."
Stefan Mavor said he was fortunate his father started supplying the beef feedlot when he did because the cash outlay would prohibit a venture supplying 1140 steers as they did last year.
Adding the lease of a neighbouring farm helped grow the feedlot business, which last year contributed about 60% of their turnover.
Similarly, lambs are also finished working with North Otago's climate and pasture growth patterns rather than against it.
More than 75% of the 5000 lambs they bred themselves were sold prime by the end of February with another 1000 to 2000 bought in as store for finishing.
All are gone by April.
The two systems knit perfectly.
The cattle provide clean lamb finishing country on the irrigated area and the Coopworth and Coopdale ewes could graze the dryland country.
Since irrigation had been introduced, weaning had been brought back a month to mid-November compared to mid-December when it was dryland.
Colin Mavor said having a viable business, irrigation and adding the leased block had helped with farm succession.
Stefan and his wife Teresa were partners in the stock and plant and with the leased block, and the business was of a size that Colin Mavor could start to ease back.
The reality was that succession was more difficult for traditional dryland North Otago sheep and beef properties, he said.
Mr Mavor said winning the competition was a career highlight and it was also a vindication of the strategy to concentrate on what they could control.