At Rosedale, a smile can count sometimes more than skill.
Take Zoe Porteous, a 17-year-old city girl who is in her first couple of weeks of a two-year Growing Future Farmers on-farm programme aimed at training the next generation of farmers.
The Waikaka Valley, near Gore, might lack the bright lights of her home town of Christchurch but she candidly admits she hated the city and was very grateful for the opportunity to learn about farming.
As she joined morning smoko alongside three generations of the Morrison family before heading back to the sheepyards for some drafting and drenching, she said: "I’m having the time of my life."
Rosedale itself has helped generations of people be involved in farming; not just family members but also the many young people — including a raft of international visitors — who have passed through its gates over the past 150 years.
That continues today with the training of young people through the likes of Growing Future Farmers and the family’s relationship with several European universities. This year, they have two interns from Purpan, Toulouse.
Most latterly, an agritourism development has diversified the farming operation, giving cruise-ship passengers a genuine agrarian experience.
Rosedale’s current custodians are fifth-generation Don Morrison and his wife Brigitte, who attribute the family’s longevity on the land to adapting and evolving. "That’s what builds your resilience. We’ve seen that with sheep breeds . . . and with activities on farm," Don said.
From its early days as a traditional sheep farm, Rosedale was now a very different enterprise. While breeding sheep was still at the core of the operation, there is also dairy grazing, cereal crops, a foray into medicinal cannabis and, most latterly, even a crop of arnica.
Life at Rosedale had been "incredibly satisfying" — "something I wouldn’t want to swap for anything else" — and the tie to the inter-generational land was one that was strongly felt by Don.
"I absolutely see this in this whole Treaty [of Waitangi] debate now. We, as Pākehā farmers, have that love for the land. We should clearly understand why Māori have the same love for what was their land and was taken away from them."
But while the land had always been there, the crucial thing had been the people — "people working together for that shared goal, whether that’s the great team we’ve got right now or teams we’ve had in the past."
Don agreed the most important thing was attitude; previous experience was not critical.
"It’s the smile. You want to go out and enjoy what you’re doing and enjoy it as a team. Every day you want to get up and enjoy the job you’re doing."
Stock manager Ross Hurrell (68) — whose wife Maria once worked at Rosedale as a farm cadet — has been at the property for seven and a-half years.
Dogs have always played a huge part in his life and with 12 at the moment, he quipped he was going to retire but was only allowed to take three. Besides, he did not have the patience for fishing and "I don’t like the jobs my wife gives me, so I still work".
Mr Hurrell had plenty of experience training young people during his 33 years at Nithdale, at Kaiwera, and he enjoyed working with people like Zoe who were keen to learn, getting them working with stock and dogs, and teaching them practical skills such as fencing.
"When somebody wants to learn, it’s easy and it’s easy for them, they are taking everything in. When I come to work in the morning, she [Zoe] says,‘morning Ross, how are you today?’ It starts the day off great."
Past and present team members were among the 120 people who attended a celebration of Rosedale at the weekend, alongside wider family and others with an association with the property, which had its origins when the Knapdale Run first opened for settlement.
William Cumming, from Banffshire, Scotland, was balloted an 80ha (200-acre) block, as were his four sisters, giving the original 1000-acre Rosedale property, which he later bought in its entirety.
William never married and the property was later taken over by his nephew George Morrison who had also come out from Scotland.
George’s early death saw two of his five children, Les — grandfather of Don — and Stan take it over, and some of the land was sold to enable them to continue. That was later reacquired by the family.
Les’ son George, 87, who still does all the tractor work at Rosedale, left school at the end of 1953 and had been there ever since, his only regret being not going to Lincoln.
Initially working with his father and uncle, he had always worked in a partnership and it was about a balance between being subservient and making a decision, he said.
His father was the stockman and his uncle was a teamster and he tended to gravitate to that side, being more machinery orientated.
George and his wife Marjorie became involved in overseas exchange programme IAEA, which saw young people come from all over the world to work on the farm, alongside usually a pre-Lincoln student or a cadet from the Southland farm-cadet scheme. George was also chairman of farm-training institute Telford for 25 years.
When two of the couple’s three sons, Don and Andrew — third son Phil had a career in the military and is now a consultant — became more involved in the farm, George said he tried to step back and let them make the decisions.
After completing a commerce degree in agriculture at Lincoln University, Don spent four years working in London financial markets before returning in 1990 to farm Rosedale with his father.
Andrew joined them several years later and a period of business growth followed with the purchase of additional properties. Operations were split between Don and Andrew in 2012, and Don praised his brother’s "fantastic" nearby operation.
Rosedale was now 465ha, wintering about 7000 stock units, and it was an achievement the original farm had not been broken up and each generation had been able to support the next into multiple farms, Don said.
While George did have a vision to convert some of Rosedale to dairy, his sons both loved sheep farming and continued to farm sheep, alongside significant agri-governance roles.
Andrew Morrison is a former chairman of Beef + Lamb New Zealand and was recently named chairman of the Wool Research Organisation of New Zealand, while Don is a supplier director on the board of Alliance Group.
Les Morrison established a Romney stud in the 1920s, and when Don took it over in 1990, he embarked on a breeding programme which led to the development of the Rosedale Growbulk sheep.
Les was still alive when Don began breeding the Growbulks and, while Les "absolutely loved" his Romney sheep, he was accepting of his grandson trying a new direction, something which Don appreciated.
Several hundred ram hoggets were sold each year from the various breeds at Rosedale; most latterly, the Morrisons were trying Wiltshires in a bid to meet demand from clients.
Within the stud, methane testing and DNA profiling over the last three years provided a genetic picture of every animal being sold and Don was particularly interested in "ethical genetics", including lamb survival, alongside meat-eating quality.
It was Don’s viticulturist cousin Timbo Deaker who reckoned Southland provided ideal growing conditions for commercial cannabis, with its temperate climate, long hours of sunlight and its rainfall.
Now in their fourth year of growing the crop, Don said it had been a very interesting journey and they were now breaking into the value chain. It could also run at a considerably lower cost than an indoor operation.
While the arnica crop being grown this year was only on a small-scale, it would enable them to see if there was an opportunity to grow more of that herb in Southland.
The Morrisons are now in their second year of hosting cruise-ship tours. After docking in Bluff, the passengers are met by Don in Invercargill, who has a bus licence for up to 30 passengers. If more than that, then a bus driver takes them to the farm and, en route, Don provides both Māori and Pākehā history.
At Rosedale, Ross Hurrell gives a working dog display, followed by a home-cooked lunch provided by Brigette, then a tour of the farm before Lochie Morrison highlights a sheep-shearing demonstration, with the visit wrapping up with smoko.
It was rewarding to tell the story of the lamb and the wool grown on the property and the visitors — many of whom had never set foot on a farm — went away excited about what they had seen. The reviews they received gave them confidence around what they were delivering, Don said.
It did not disrupt the normal farming activities and it was a matter of "using the resource of the farm" which was now providing multiple income streams.
Don and Brigitte’s son Lochie spent four years in London, working as a business development manager for a payroll company.
Prior to that, he ran a small crutching and shearing gang to finance himself through an international business degree at the University of Otago.
That time spent in England made him appreciate how healthy the lifestyle was back on the farm. Now married to Renee and with a young son, Milo, there was "no way" he would want to bring up his children in a big city.
Don described he and Brigitte as the custodians of Rosedale, with a view to wanting the option for Lochie and his brother Dirk, an engineer, to have the opportunities they had and own the farm in the future.
George Morrison, who can still be found working on the farm daily, said he could look with pride at what had happened over the years. Each generation had brought their own strengths, planning ability and desire to achieve in different areas.
Seeing his father still on the farm that he loved was "pretty inspirational" for Don and it was also testament to being able to work with family members.
"Les retired at 86, Dad’s still going at 87, I’ve said I’ve got 24 years to go," he laughed. "I’m still fit, I love what I’m doing right now."
Many of the young interns who had come through the farm had become part of their family, and in some instances they had also hosted sons and daughters.
They saw it as positive payback for the "incredible hospitality" they had received overseas and were unable to repay at the time.
It was also an opportunity to give back to the industry, "because the industry needs good young people with experience to come through", Don said.
Looking to the future of what Rosedale would look like, the family expected the adaption and evolution would continue.
As George reflected on the changes he had seen during his nearly nine decades on the land, he said weighing fleeces was probably the first technical thing he encountered while weighing lambs was a "big step". But what was being done now with computers and DNA testing had "changed the whole scene".
Don said while some aspects of farming had got easier, with the likes of hand-held computers, electronic identification tags and DNA testing, in many ways stockmen and women of his grandfather’s era had greater stockmanship skills, as they only had eye appraisal to go on
Acknowledging those who lived off the land well before his Scottish ancestors arrived and the strong connection he felt to them, Don said it was a very reliable area to farm.
The strength of the soil was recognised in the very early days — it was the first area close to Gore settled for intensive farming. "I think it’s lived up to that reputation," George added.
