The Sutherland family has added an impressive 6000ha to the family’s cornerstone property of Benmore Station.
While they take great pride in this considerable feat, other achievements give them equal pleasure.
The partnership between Bill and Kate Sutherland and his brother Andrew and Deidre Sutherland owns Benmore, a 5600ha property between Omarama and Twizel.
In 1999 they bought 3800ha Ahuriri Downs and neighbouring 2800ha Clay Cliffs in 2015, with the twin stations now farmed as one.
Since 1899 four generations have been on Benmore and all of their five adult children are showing interest in being involved.
From a young age the brothers were attached to the land, keen stockmen with a passion for horses and dogs.
So what’s the secret of keeping such a large enterprise running smoothly?
Bill said their staff were essential to its success and after they increased their workforce they learned to delegate responsibilities.
"Previous to our expansion we were just a two-man band doing absolutely everything. We had both worked around the South Island on high country properties in our younger days, but as far as managing staff we hadn’t had a lot of experience and that was a real learning curve. It’s so important we have good staff to make this operation what it is."
Benmore alone has four fulltime shepherds and a stock manager with past team members being with them for as long as 10 years.
The vast operation is run under the same umbrella with Bill overseeing Benmore and Andrew head of the other stations.
Benmore acts as the finishing property with Ahuriri’s wether lambs and steer calves also coming to its irrigated land for a final feed before going to the works.
Their late father, Jim, had the foresight to start work on the water right for Benmore Irrigation Scheme in the 1970s and its commissioning in 2006 was a pivotal point for the station.
The brothers spent five years putting in 700ha of irrigation at Benmore in between their day job.
Bill said irrigation was the largest farming change on their land.
Without water, it would have been a struggle for just Benmore to support two families.
"Until then we were very much just a store property and at the whims of the market. We sold lambs and calves at weaning so it’s totally transformed our operation. We only had Benmore to the late 1990s and it pretty much gave us the opportunity of making another farm within a farm because of irrigation. To me it was exciting to get that opportunity for the family to move forward."
He said the reward of knowing the next generation would get much of the benefit of it could not be underestimated and they would bring new skills to the table.
Special praise was reserved for Kate and Deidre who had kept communication lines open at HQ, essential work especially during the last big snow in 2015 when power was down for 10 days.
Like other farmers, their biggest bugbear was the growing compliance work put on them. Probably two days of the working week were allocated for a stack of paperwork that was a far cry from writing up the farm diary each evening.
"I appreciate there has to be certain rules and regulations — I’m not moaning about that, but a lot of what we do is over the top at the moment. We’re farmers, but we’re also conservationists and we want to leave the property better than we found it."
They still found time to serve their community.
Bill is on the board of New Zealand Merino and over the years they have both led the irrigation scheme. They have chaired and been involved in dog trials, rodeos, the local school board and saleyards committee and other local events, including their "champion" Kurow rugby club.
Quietly competitive, they were repeat winners of the Otago Merino Association’s Clip of the Year competition and collected the silverware again this year.
Bill said they were passionate about their stock and always looked to improve their genetics in merino, halfbred and quarterbred sheep studs and recorded Hereford cattle at Benmore.
The merino ewes average 17.9 microns and hoggets 16.9 microns with the halfbreds yielding 24.5 microns.
Their wool is linked to accreditation programmes and sold via contracts to the likes of Italian suit makers and Icebreaker.
— Sally Rae
