Rob and Mary Ann Burrows were looking for their dream hill block when they sold their 275-hectare flat family farm Beechwood in Culverden nine years ago. While on the hunt, the couple thought the small holding of eight hectares on Marshmans Road in Ashley would do them for the time being. They now describe it as their forever home.

Having always been breeders of Romney rams and Hereford and Charolais bulls, with their two daughters grown up and having left home, Rob and Mary Ann were looking forward to their latter years farming in the hills. 

They kept all their stock when they moved, grazing them on various blocks. Conditions were dry at weaning in 2016 soon after the move, so they sold some stock, and when Lees Valley farmers Rob and Julie Stokes offered to take the cattle up there, there was no hesitation. 

As luck would have it, 18 months later a small block came up for sale next to the Burrows’ ‘temporary’ home in Ashley, which gave them the scope of 43 hectares to finish Herefords.

Before long, a share farm arrangement was made with the Stokes, and Rob and Mary Ann figured with the best of both worlds, they’d be best to stay put. ‘I’d got a wee bit older and wiser by then, and I thought that’d do me,’ says Rob. A winter of fencing had them all set up. 

‘We’ve got more Herefords now than we did in Culverden, with 120 cows up Lees Valley and 50 at this place.’ Rob is philosophical when he looks back to life at Beechwood, which had been home since 1960 and where they’d raised their family. Irrigation rules were changing, and the pull of the hills was getting stronger. ‘We would have looked at more than 30 hill farms … But once you make a decision, you don’t look back.’

Now happily settled on their ‘retirement block’, Rob jokes that Mary Ann sometimes has to remind him that he should not be working full days any more. ‘I tell her, I am doing less, it’s just that things take me longer now.’

He appreciates the bank of knowledge he’s gathered over a lifetime of farming, and the second-nature observation skills like seeing a sick animal, which only comes after decades of involvement in the trade. 

Rob also enjoys being able to carry on doing what he loves, at a slower pace.

Like Beechwood, they still have a feed crop rotation of kale, barley, autumn grass and permanent grass. ‘I always have three paddocks on the go for short rotation.’

He still gets out the door with purpose every morning and doesn’t feel guilty about taking it easier later in the day, especially in the heat of summer when the cricket is on the television. ‘The thing is with a place like this, some days you don’t know what you’re going to do. Then you see jobs that need doing, like a fence that needs fixing, a leaking pipe. Now I have time to fix things.’ 

Computer work also takes up a good chunk of his time, especially with the Hereford breeding side of things, and auctions can be watched online too. ‘I’ve still got my mind focused on breeding that absolute cracker Hereford bull.’ 

Bull names are rotated through the alphabet – they’re onto M this year. ‘I mostly think of good ones at 3 am; my granddaughter Hazel also comes up with a few.’

Rob and Mary Ann have no regrets about never finding their dream hill block, as Rob still gets to enjoy going to sales and heading up Lees Valley, but can work at a slower pace. 

They hold a bull sale each June combined with the Stokes and fellow Marshmans Road residents Tim and Helen Molloy, selling stud and commercial bulls around New Zealand. ‘The sharefarming arrangement was magic, and still is; it’s the best of both worlds. I’m sure you stay healthier if you have things to occupy your mind and your body.’

They are grateful to live in such a friendly neighbourhood where people are helpful at any time of need. ‘I do have to be careful what I say to my dogs now though; the neighbours are close,’ he laughs.