But fancy new technology is coming to the land.
More accurately to the property of Gerald Dowling and his family.
Mr Dowling and family own a farm near Naseby, on Fennessy Rd.
On it he runs sheep and beef and also some dairy grazing.
But it is also home to an international space tracking facility which tracks space debris smaller than 10cm.
And it will soon house 80,000 solar panels as part of a solar farm development.
The Naseby space tracking facility, tracked an estimated 250,000 additional objects, down to 2cm in diameter, in low Earth orbit.
The Leo Labs Kiwi Space Radar recorded a near collision between two defunct Soviet space objects, a rocket body and dead spy satellite, in late January.
The two objects missed one another by a distance of 6m, with a margin of error of "only a few tens of metres".
The radar was opened in October, 2019 and is likely to get a high-tech neighbour over the next few years.
Bay Energy Ltd, which is owned by Australian company Solar Bay Energy, has received resource consent from the Central Otago District Council to run a solar farm on land off Fennessy Rd — the land is also owned by the Dowling family.
The company also has plans for solar farms in Waimate and Albury, in South Canterbury, alongside multiple solar farm proposals in Australia.
The consent in Naseby was granted earlier this year after it was previously applied for but was withdrawn because it was going to be publicly notified.
The solar farm could produce 50MW, enough to power about 9000 households.
The consent had changed as it added a proposed buffer around some facilities and the development was to be staged.
Due to that and other factors the consent was not publicly notified.
The planned development consisted of about 80,000 solar panels mounted in arrays over an area of about 55ha.
Each array would be ground mounted, and geared to allow the panels to turn to face the sun as it travels across the sky. The maximum height of each array is about 4.5m.
Landscape screening is proposed along the southern sides of the development, between the solar farm and nearby public roads, including the Ranfurly-Naseby and Gimmerburn-Naseby Rds.
Ten inverter structures are also proposed, being primarily spread along Fennessy Rd.
About 8800m of trenching is planned to install wiring and cabling for the development.
The council agreed with the applicant that the planned solar farm had a minor visual impact as the proposal was located away from prominent hills and ranges, being located on farmland on the valley floor and through the proposed landscape screening. The development was to be staged in two stages and the second stage would not start until the proposed landscaping screening reaches 3m in height. All neighbours of the property have given approval.
Gerald Dowling said the land was great for solar farms and that was not its only advantage. It was close to a substation, at the top end of the farm and also Transpower lines.
The land for the solar farm had been used for grazing and would continue to do so though not at the same intensity, he said.
It would be great to have a solar farm and an international tracking facility on the family farm in Maniototo.
No time had been indicated when development would begin.
Solar Bay Energy did not respond to requests for comment. A solar farm has also been planned for land near Tekapo while Christchurch International Airport was planning a 150MW solar farm on land near the airport.
