A clear vision to challenge the square
The Rocks Station

Strath Taieri farmer Lynnore Templeton doesn’t mince words, especially when talking about the 5200ha block she and husband Andrew run sheep and beef on. “Tough, low-rainfall, huge variants in weather and wind-blasted schist rocks everywhere”, she says matter-of-factly, before adding with a twinkle in her eye, “and we absolutely love it!”

“Early on we realised that rather than fight the environment, let’s work with it,” says Andrew, starting a sustainable journey that now informs every single decision made on the farm.

This challenging landscape has also forged the Templeton’s farming ethos – one recognised with the 2019 Otago Ballance Farm Environment Awards Regional Supreme Award.

While both hail from farming families – Lynnore just down the road in Middlemarch and Andrew in Tarras a few hours away, they didn’t farm straight away after completing degrees at Lincoln University. “My older brother got the farm,” says Andrew, “so we went into the corporate world to save money for one instead.”

After 12 years in banking and the wool industry for Andrew and a career in sales and marketing in animal health for Lynnore, they finally bought their dream spot.

“Actually it was all we could afford,” laughs Lynnore, “but the time was right”. “We had to give it a crack. If it worked, it worked,” says Andrew.

Today their vision is as clear as the river that runs through their property: to produce world-class fibre and protein via an environmentally sustainable system, innovative thinking and never being afraid to “challenge the square” – something that obviously comes quite naturally, as Al Brown found out after chatting to them both.