The Balancing Act

Sarah Perriam visited Dan and Gee Harper at Quartz Hill Station and was impressed by their balancing act in diversifying land-use change to be both profitable and environmentally sensitive.

Sometimes when you talk about balance in hill country farming it could be in reference to how it is subdivided to the north or south, or its balance of steeper blocks versus flat paddocks. In this day and age, balance in farming is managing the margins to fund regenerating more of the environment.

Already well-known as custodians of the high country in Canterbury’s Rakaia Gorge, and as the 2009 Canterbury Ballance Farm Environment Award winners, Colin and Hilary Guild and their daughter Georgina (Gee) and son-in-law Dan Harper have mastered the balancing act. Quartz Hill is a 2,800-ha high country station split off neighbouring High Peak Station in 1988 when brothers Colin and James Guild split the station bought by their father in 1973.

In 2021, Dan and Gee, with their four children, continue to forge forward with the station’s ethos – an inspirational appetite to farm for consumer demands.

The premium menu of products farmed at Quartz Hill includes 55-day aged hand-picked Angus beef and highly marbled Southern Station Wagyu beef; hemp hearts and hemp oil; ZQ accredited wool; Omega-3 Te Mana lamb; along with a hunting reserve, backcountry accommodation and corporate hosting.

Driving around the station’s supporting Windwhistle property, Valehead, showcased the bravery the family have to try new things. They had just harvested their hemp crop and you could see the persistence required to see through opportunities, such as Wagyu which takes three years before turning a profit. The diversity of their product range had management challenges with low to no chemical use on the chicory, or finding ways to set up centre pivot irrigation whilst retaining the important established shelterbelts.

Originally of a farming family in Pōrangahau in Central Hawkes Bay, Dan certainly doesn’t strike you as one just chasing the latest trends, explaining their strict profit margin policy each land class had to perform to alongside the ecological benefits.

Gee and Dan have aspirations of equal opportunities for their young family of four, and to achieve their business values and goals they worked with Gee’s parents, Colin and Hilary, to establish a governance structure. ‘We appointed Richard Green as the chair of the station’s board and it’s been a game-changer for us all to have someone so competent to bounce off. It’s provided us with the management structure to meet the wants and needs of inter-generational farming,’ explains Gee.

Irrigation was another game-changer for the Harpers, with 200 ha at Valehead under pivot irrigators that are high enough to walk over the maintained hedgerows that provide the essential shelter for the livestock and the two-metre hemp crop at windy Windwhistle. ‘We use variable rate irrigation technology to ensure we only use what we need. It’s giving us the controlled rainfall to farm effectively,’ says Dan.



The profits from the station continue to fund their environmental goals such as the 3 km of native riparian planting at the head of the Selwyn River and the 300 ha of regenerating bush on the hilltops of High Peak.

The success of Dan and Gee’s six-year tenure continuing the legacy from Colin and Hilary has seen the financial success of their farming operation give them the ability to try new land-use opportunities in balance with their current deer, sheep and beef operation.

Balance in the paddock continues back at home with the lively atmosphere of four children who all love being out on the farm with their parents. The first three children were all born premature with a collective 12 months spent in neonatal in Christchurch whilst they were balancing their irrigation development at home.

The impressive jugglery the Harpers perform along with their supportive farm staff is for the longevity of farming in the high country for their children and others to enjoy, along with farming food for a discerning consumer.



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