Putting their family first has worked well for two generations of Grays on a large station in the heart of Hakataramea Valley.
Barry and Heather Gray own the nearly 4000ha Hakataramea Station with son Richard and wife Juliet.
More often than not, the younger couple’s children, Ben, Sophie and Phoebe, are uppermost in their minds when it comes to the family business.
The two families arrived in the valley 16 years ago after the elder pair developed three sheep farms in Southland.
A key value of their operation was people and being part of their growth, Juliet said.
"We’ve just been blown away by the community up here and moving to what we grew up with and just being able to give our children the opportunity to grow up on a rural property," she said.
"It gives them a lifestyle that I think every kid should be able to have."
Richard said family were a big part of the business.
"This even goes down to our staff, who we treat almost as family as well.
"It’s just the way we farm, and they all come for lunch, we socially interact and we really value their input — our success is their success too.
"Instead of having a heap of titles, we’re one big group and a good crew.’
A senior staff member has been with them on and off for nearly 12 years, and another for nine years.
Younger staff get a good start and the family finds teaching and seeing them progress to the next stage immensely rewarding.
Working together is a privilege, with the senior Grays happy to be farming through their 60s and the younger couple grateful to be on the station because of their hard work.
Duties are shared with Heather and Juliet keeping track of staff management, financials, taxes, genetic data and the huge task of keeping on top of compliance.
Father and son split the farm work with roles often intertwined, but Barry enjoys overseeing the flock and regrassing and Richard the irrigation and deer herd.
"It works because we’ve just done it for a long time," Richard said.
"I think being a big place means we have got our own key roles that we play. For a father and son we are always bouncing ideas off each other and it makes it easy that way."
They have done a vast amount of farm development.
Older irrigation was updated with centre pivots and four years ago six storage dams were built to give 100 days of reliable water.
A mini hydro-electric unit has made them self sufficient except for the pivots and wool shed.
Other work included upgrading tracks and fencing, regrassing and 80km of pipes put in to replace stock water races.
"Our vision is starting to all come together," Richard said.
"There’s always more to do and we want to start planting more trees and shelterbelts and maybe a few native blocks we can enjoy."
They are aware the valley’s fragile soils have to be treated with white gloves.
Strong winds in spring mean they have to be conscious of bare soils, especially crop paddocks over winter.
Cultivation is restricted to under the pivots, with direct drilling the seeding of choice, and they are careful to avoid over-stocking. A drought can punish feed covers so they farm to their environment.
Off the farm, the family is committed to the community, representing horse racing clubs, the local St John branch, watching or coaching children’s sport and at various stages being on local school and hall committees.
Juliet and local woman Sally Newlands run Sole to Soul Hiking, a business providing tailored walks on hard-to-access high-country farms.
The family’s also a big part of the Hakataramea Sustainability Collective — a landcare group formed to support the valley environment and promote profitable and sustainable farming.
Somehow they squeak in time to be on meat quality, biodiversity and carbon-zero trials and programmes for their meat processor Silver Fern Farms.
Ask them what they are most proud about and they will list family first, followed by the station’s stock and production performance and the connection they have with their land and people.
— Tim Cronshaw
