A Farming Dream

All you have to do is ask, and someone will teach you a few things about farming. That is the advice of 21-year-old Angus Grant, who grew up in Christchurch and has wanted to be a farmer since he was barely out of nappies.

Angus Grant’s path into farming has been quite different compared to a country kid. Seeing financial opportunity in chickens, Angus convinced his father, a builder, to convert his sisters’ playhouse into a chicken coop and consequently, every Friday afternoon back in his primary school days was spent with cartons of eggs dangling from his handlebar as he biked the neighbourhood of St Albans making deliveries. ‘I was buying my own feed and dad picked it up for me,’ he explains. ‘Mum is a pretty good people person and taught me a lot about looking after customers.’

He can’t remember ever not wanting to be a farmer, and his egg money was for one purpose: to buy sheep, and one day buy a farm.

Angus was eight years old when he had his first chat with Allan Findlay, a Southland farmer who owned a rental property next door. ‘I just went over there, sat next to him and started talking about wanting to be a farmer.’

Allan embraced Angus’s enthusiasm, and the next few years saw Angus down in Southland’s Takitimu Mountains during the school holidays and whenever he got the chance; where he was taught farming essentials like crutching sheep, moving stock and swinging a gate – all the things kids growing up on a farm learn naturally.

‘Over the years a lot of farmers have given me their time; I’ve been extremely fortunate,’ says Angus. ‘Farmers love helping out young people and seeing someone who is keen to get started.’

Angus has always been really interested in genetics, breeding and bloodlines, and is always reading up on the topic. In his early teens he came across an article on the Peters Genetics in Heriot, West Otago, and gave the family a ring.

‘I just cold-called them, asked if they had any surplus ewes.’ Owner Trevor Peters said he’d sell him 50 wet-dry ewes, marking the first farm-business transaction with Angus’s egg-sale money. The ewes were grazed on a bare residential block two doors down from his urban home.

He then bought 40 store lambs from North Canterbury’s Sam Chisnall, which he grazed in Christchurch’s northern suburb of Papanui, with help from his dad to fence them up.

Over the years he’s grazed sheep on bare residential blocks and in earthquake red zones scattered throughout the city, pedalling some serious kilometres on his bike. ‘In the early days I’d be at school and get a call saying my sheep had broken out and were on the road, so I’d have to go and sort that out. That always got a laugh from my classmates.’

Nowadays he grazes about 25 blocks around the city totalling 100 hectares. One even borders Christchurch Airport with aircraft of all sizes flying regularly overhead. Stock numbers have grown steadily since he got his driver’s licence and heading dog Moth (given to him by friend Jim Burrows), who enjoys a suburban farm-dog life.

Angus’s operation is mostly focused on trading stock, with Peters Genetics ewes making up Angus’s capital stock, which he buys as cull ewe lambs and crosses with Southdown and Dorset Down rams. ‘I am very interested in breeding, and ram selection is a highlight every year,’ he enthuses.

Always trying to have his finger on the pulse, he buys whatever he thinks will create the best margin.

For the value of a 20 kg carcass weight Romney Downs cross that he can grow out fast, he can buy a cull ewe hogget for the same or less. ‘At the moment you have to be fickle with your money.’

This year he lambed 200 of his own ewes, bought 180 in-lamb ewes, and finished various lines during winter and summer. In total he has between 800 and 1,000 lambs and ewes on the ground at once.

He focuses on break-feeding blocks of oats, rape and annual ryegrass, preferring to grow feed in the paddock rather than have to cover the costly practice of making baleage. Although he always keeps a few bales on hand in case he gets caught short.

Angus has one more year at Lincoln University where he’s completing a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in professional accounting, and minoring in finance. Scholarships with Lincoln Future Leaders and Meat Industry Association have created a near debt-free degree.

This summer he’s completing an agri-business internship with Christchurch accountancy firm BDO, and considering chartered accountancy as a career path, well aware he’ll need significant funds to realise his ultimate dream of owning his own farm one day.

The list of learning curves is long but one stand-out memory was the day the stock truck came to pick up his sheep and he didn’t know he had to crutch them first. ‘I only had a few, and the driver was really good about it,’ laughs Angus, ‘and waited while I crutched them.’

At times he’s shorn his own sheep, but admitting he’s not the fastest or tidiest, he now gets them shorn by North Canterbury’s Dave Brooker who is one of his mentors. He talks regularly to his many mentors in the industry and is aware it is thanks to their generosity of time and advice that he has found his feet in the world of farming. ‘I’m so lucky really, I’ve always had the passion, but I’ve had a lot of help too.’

He concedes farming is a profession where mistakes are inevitable – the aim is to not make them twice. The increase of compliance and regulation in the agricultural sector hasn’t put Angus off his dream and he says it’s important to have a balance of common sense and regulations, amidst the real current challenges of huge costs and low prices. ‘It’s really important to stay optimistic. I am a long way off getting my own farm, but I know I will achieve it.

This article was first published in the Autumn 2024 edition of our sister publication, Country-Wide magazine .