The final ram sale at Wharetoa Genetics and the deadline date of the sale of their 413ha farm, Wharetoa Downs, is on December 13.
When Southern Rural Life visited the South Otago farm early one morning last week, Mrs Shaw was baking blueberry muffins to take with her as she drove about 40km to do her weekly volunteer work at a foodbank in Balclutha.
The couple were raised on sheep and beef farms in Wharetoa and met on the school bus.
"We’ve been lifetime buddies," Mr Shaw said.
They married in 1979 and have three children — Sarah, Hamish and Amelia.
Mrs Shaw (nee Mitchell) said all of their children were "totally immersed in farming as children" but had forged successful careers outside of the sector and the South.
The Mitchell family moved from Southland to Wharetoa in 1963.
Garth was 10 years old when his late parents, Gwen and Alan, bought Wharetoa Downs in 1966.
His father had been farming in partnership with his brother in Hillend.
Wharetoa Downs was "pretty rough" and needed improvements to lift productivity, Mr Shaw said.
"My father described it as running 1000 hungry sheep."
Nearly half of the farm was covered in gorse.
"My father was a go-getter and the development has carried on until now," Mr Shaw said.
The improvements included intensive subdivision, creating a network of lanes, water reticulation, cultivating the farm many times and never skimping on fertiliser, even when times were tough.
Mr Shaw left South Otago High School in 1972, when he was 16, to work on the farm.
He had worked nowhere other than Wharetoa Downs.
The longest time spent off farm was a year studying at then Lincoln College in 1975.
"Apart from that, I’ve been here my whole life — I’ve done 50 lambings, all on the same farm."
If he had his time again, he would have spent a few years as a shearer.
His father was heavily involved in farmer politics and the community, which regularly took him off farm. That gave Mr Shaw the chance to manage Wharetoa Downs.
"He let me do things I wanted to do. He was always there as a sounding board and he always encouraged me to try new things, including stock and pasture management."
He learned new ways to farm sheep more intensively by attending local discussion groups.
A Coopworth stud was established and rams were sold by private treaty from 1975.
"My father started breeding Coopworth rams because he wasn’t happy with the rams he was buying — that’s how it all started."
Texel sheep were introduced in 1990 and had been used extensively in the breeding programme.
The 1600 stud ewes on farm now were run in four flocks: Wharetoa maternals, a Coopworth-Texel cross; Suffolk-Texel terminals; Meatmakers, a stabilised Poll Dorset-Texel cross; and straight Texels.
All of the flocks’ data was recorded on Sheep Improvement Ltd.
Mrs Shaw said they also ran commercial ewes, which was used as a "trial flock".
They put ram lambs or ram hoggets over the commercial ewes so the progeny would show the genetic progress a year earlier than if a two-tooth ram was put over the ewes.
Those progeny helped them make breeding selection decisions, she said.
"We are trialling what we are breeding before we offer it to commercial farmers," she said.
The couple farmed in partnership with Mr Shaw’s brother and parents for a few years, but had been farming on their own since 1994.
They have held an annual, on-farm two-tooth ram sale every December since 2000.
About 300 rams were offered at the auction in the woolshed.
Each ram was displayed in the auction ring to a bench of about 300 buyers.
The 24th and final ram sale would be held next month.
Ewe dispersal sales would be held next year — the terminal flock on February 13 and the maternal flock on February 20.
Mr Shaw said organising a ram sale was a huge amount of work.
"We are quite pedantic on things being done right and we will be that way until we are finished."
Stressful times could be more stressful as you got older and it was now time to slow down, he said.
"You know when it is time."
Mrs Shaw said they wanted to sell the stud "while it is in good heart and at the top of its game".
The stud records were in good order and they wanted to exit on their own terms and the ewe flock was progressing at a standard they expected, her husband said.
"There is no ewe that is not up to it, or she won’t be there."
The auction was the biggest private on-farm ram sale run by PGG Wrightson in New Zealand, Mr Shaw said.
He expected the final sale to be emotional.
"Unfortunately, time stops for no man and it’s time to slow down."
He wanted to make it clear they were not selling the farm and stud due a lack of belief in the sheep industry.
"We are still very passionate about the sheep industry."
Mrs Shaw said her husband was constantly thinking about ways to make sheep farming more profitable, no matter the economic climate.
Mr Shaw said sheep farmers were constantly facing new challenges and needed to adapt by being innovative with their breeding programmes.
As sheep farmers’ income came from producing meat, there was an opportunity to grow heavier lambs to make more money, he said.
The average weight of a lamb in New Zealand was slightly more than 18kg — but meat processors only penalised farmers for supplying lambs heavier than 25kg.
Farmers had the choice of either waiting for the sheep industry to come again or they could put their gumboots on and grow heavier lambs.
"There is only one place where success comes before work and that’s in the dictionary."
A heavier lamb was produced by using better genetics and providing better feed, Mr Shaw said.
"With the feeding, all this rocket fuel we grow to fatten these lambs on is absolutely amazing stuff and lambs can grow up to 500g a day, no trouble, but people have to be more innovative and think outside the square. If you do what you always done, you get what you always got."
He believed the future for the sheep industry would include more farms focusing on finishing lambs, similar to what was happening in the beef industry.
If a farmer was unable to finish a lamb to a heavier weight in autumn they should sell them as stores in January to lower the cost of running their farm.
He had considered breeding a shedding sheep which could produce a bigger lambs but he thought it too late in his career to be able to make the genetic gains required.
"There is a huge opportunity out there to bred a shedding sheep with a lot of meat on them."
His list of mentors includes Southland sheep breeder Peter Black, late Canterbury sheep breeder Ron Cox, AbacusBio co-founder Peter Fennessy and Alliance livestock manager Murray Behrent, who taught him how to identify ways to breed a sheep to improve their meat yield.
Meat companies once wanted no fat on carcasses as it was considered unhealthy, but now they want sheep to have intramuscular fat.
"In my lifetime we have come full circle."
One of his biggest regrets as a sheep breeder was farmers continuing to get paid for their lambs the same way they did 50 years ago.
"It is absolutely no reflection at all on the quality and quantity of the saleable meat on a lamb carcass."
After selling the stud and farm, the couple planned to move to Christchurch to be closer to family, including their five grandchildren, who were aged between 2 and 9, Mr Shaw said.
"We don’t want to be ‘special occasion’ grandparents. We want to become ‘old clothes and porridge’ grandparents," he said.
The plan was to buy a 4ha lifestyle block on the outskirts of the city and take some sheep from Wharetoa Downs.
"Anything with a name will come," Mrs Shaw said.
PGG Wrightson Lower South Island livestock genetics rep Callum McDonald said Mr Shaw was passionate about breeding a better sheep.
"That's what drives him — to make things better for his clients, by getting bigger lambs or more meat, he’s big on that and he's always constantly evolving.
"That's why he's got a few breeds. He's always looking for improvement."
