The five finalists have been decided for the Otago Daily Times and Rural Life Year of the Farmer initiative. This week, rural editor Sally Rae talks to the first of the finalists, Heriot-based Rural Champions Stefan and Holly Roulston, about dairy farming in West Otago.
There's a meal planner on the wall of the Roulston family’s kitchen in West Otago outlining the dinner menu for that week.
From pork belly and steak and wedges to Holly Roulston’s cutely named Chilli Conked Out — and not a takeaway meal in sight — it’s a sign of a very organised operation and that extends out of the homestead and on to the farm.
It is a busy time of year with calving under way on Stefan and Holly’s dairy farming operation, Toropuke Dairies, near Heriot.
Fortunately Stefan, who grew up on the land first bought by his great-grandfather and grandfather, had a work ethic instilled in him "right from the word go", while Holly is also no slug.
Always knowing he wanted to be a farmer from a young age, Stefan recalled how every day after school and at weekends was spent helping his father. He would rear lambs and sell them, before moving on to working on the farm.
That all-important work ethic had been passed on to his own children — Adriana (11), Mason (9) and Parker (8). The night before the ODT visited, the children had prepared the evening meal for when their parents came in from the calf-shed.
Over calving, they could often be found in the calf-shed — "so much laundry", their mother quipped — and would accompany their father on night checks.
Toropuke Dairies milks about 820 cows and the total farm area comprises about 540ha, including a leased property.
The Roulstons also run beef cattle and do some cropping. They make all their own supplements on-farm and winter on-farm.
As Holly puts it, the couple consider themselves caretakers of the land and their ultimate goal is for the next generation to continue the family tradition, but without putting pressure on them to do that.
At this stage, all three children reckoned they would be taking over the property, announcing they were going to build a village on it.
The couple’s own farming journey has not always been easy — there was a point when they were going to leave the farm — and for Holly, the transition from city girl to country lass was initially challenging.
From Dunedin, she had met Stefan briefly at a pub when she was 18 — "I was like, eeewww, I don’t want to marry a farmer" — and the pair met again some time later when she was working in a bar and they remembered each other.
Following his parents’ separation, his father asked him to return to the farm and the couple moved to West Otago in 2007.
Holly is candid as she recalls those days, saying she initially hated it. She found it isolating; dairy farming was an anti-social occupation and she liked people, and farming itself was also foreign to her.
But once she got a grasp on it all and discovered how fascinating the industry was — from the AI process to how the milk got in the vat — and she started "fitting in", her views on country living changed dramatically.
The couple married in January 2011 and the arrival of their first child opened up a lot of doors when it came to community immersion. They became involved with West Otago Young Farmers and it "just flourished from there", Stefan recalled.
Stefan is proud of Holly, especially looking back at when she first came to the farm and was thrown into the deep end, milking cows and rearing calves.
With a great group of girlfriends now around her — "I’d be lost without them" — Holly said she now had no desire to leave the area.
Toropuke Dairies was very much a team effort, involving their "great" team of staff, which Holly described as their number one asset.
There was also a strong partnership between Stefan, who focused on the hands-on farming, and Holly, who did all the book work and was also involved with calf rearing.
Stefan, who has a Swiss mother and spent time working in Switzerland where he learned to speak Swiss-German, has dyslexia and struggled at school.
While good with his hands — he was in the top 2%-3% in woodwork in New Zealand — it was a different story with reading and writing.
"I don’t think I could be farming as we are, we wouldn’t be as big as we are, without Holly," he said.
"We are a good team because we are two halves of the whole," Holly added.
It was a hard life, going to school with dyslexia, he recalled. Adriana, who has the lead role in the Heriot School production of Aladdin, also has dyslexia but is blessed with artistic flair. Her parents made a point of celebrating her strengths.
All three children were helpful in the home and on the farm. They knew to put their clothes in the washing machine and they would eventually leave home knowing how to feed themselves "and wash their own bloody clothes", Holly laughed.
Television was rarely switched on and they noted the change in their children, who now occupied themselves outside. A movie night once a week came complete with Happy Hour with soft drink, popcorn and chips.
All three loved hunting and, once a week, Stefan would take a different child out with him to hunt. That one-on-one time was valuable, Holly said. In the summer, the family enjoyed a favourite swimming hole nearby in the Pomahaka River.
Over the past five years, the couple said they had felt — as many in the farming sector had — like everything was "getting thrown at us".
"I’m like, we’re doing a good job, come and have a look. It’s green and beautiful," Holly said, indicating the expanse of farmland surrounding the homestead.
They established a Facebook page recently for their farming business and, while that had resulted in "lots of CVs" being sent in, it was a good way to share knowledge about what they did.
They also signed up to Farmer Time, an initiative which saw farmers matched with classes of urban school pupils, in a bid to educate young people about farming and farming practices.
Stefan’s farming philosophy centred on having good staff and, by treating staff well they got the best out of them, he believed.
He preferred to get jobs done properly rather than quickly, and led from the front, not afraid to get his own hands dirty.
He enjoyed the challenge of the dairy industry, producing off the land and seeing healthy animals, and he was passionate about the need to get a good positive image of farming. Education was key and that was why they signed up to Farmer Time.
Stefan joined the local volunteer fire brigade on the suggestion of his wife, who said "do something for the community".
It was very social and he enjoyed getting off the farm and mingling with other locals, including non-farmers. There were not too many callouts and there was a good support network among them after tough callouts. Being a small community, often they knew the people they were dealing with.
He is also in his third year of involvement with West Otago Rural Kids (Work), a voluntary organisation which was originally Cubs.
About 30 children were involved and activities around the district included the likes of a visit (and ice-cream) to the Tapanui Museum, the distinctly southern pastime of swede-carving, and orienteering.
He also helped out with rugby; his children have finished their first season of tackle rugby, while Holly is chairwoman of the board of trustees at Heriot School and has weekly meetings with the principal.
From a foodie family, Holly also has a cookbook to her name, a project which was hatched during Covid-19.
Previous involvement with taking cooking programmes led to her offering a meal-planning service in Gore, including the menu and shopping lists and New World packing the groceries, when My Food Bag was not available in the town.
During lockdown, Stefan’s brother and his wife — a photographer — were staying on the farm and the pair teamed up.
Holly created the meals and plated them on dishes fossicked from secondhand shops, while her sister-in-law photographed them.
The result — aside from filling the freezer for calving — was a highly-professional cookbook called Holly in the Kitchen which sold 400 copies, with three set aside for the Roulston children, and is still available as print-on-demand.
Reflecting on their lifestyle in the kitchen of their home, Holly was counting her blessings.
"I think we’re so lucky. I get to sit here and look at that view ... it’s a wee slice of paradise, I reckon.
"I wouldn’t be anywhere else."
