Diversification and hard yakka

Nestled between Lakes Hawea and Wanaka Glen Dene Station is a traditional high country farm in the midst of change.

It is a third generation family farm, owned and run by Richard Burdon, who took over from his father Jerry, who took over from his father George.

On the station's hillsides, merinos and red deer with giant heads of velvet graze on tussockland in the foreground of unparalleled vistas of mountains, lakes and big blue skies.

At certain times of the year, musterers bring the sheep out of the hills and with their large packs of dogs, workers wearing wide-brimmed hats and moleskins get to work in outdoor wooden yards.

These are picture-postcard images of a high country farm indeed.

Then look down the hill and you will catch an almost continous glimpse of the grey ribbon that is State Highway 6 cutting its way through the farm's low paddocks.

This road carries more than 500,000 vehicles right through the farm every year.

And it is just one clue that isolation is not all encompassing here.

Glen Dene's homestead sits on the shore of Lake Hawea, only five minutes from town.

The children of the farm go to the local school, shopping is done regularly in Wanaka, a tourism hub 15 minutes away, and there is an international airport an hour away.

And the farm is not just high country.

Branch just a little way either side off the road to Wanaka and you will pass by one of Richard's two leased flat blocks, acquired in the past three years to help sustain the farm.

It is in these very differences from other, more isolated, high country farms that owners Richard and Sarah Burdon see opportunity and the means to ensuring Burdons for generations to come will still have a farm at Glen Dene to farm, if they want it.

One might think they would be busy enough running a 6000ha high country farm, but the couple is also expanding into recreation and tourism.

It is a plan that provides them with the challenges they both seem to enjoy, but also one that will reduce their dependence on the farm's income and at the same time add to the long-term sustainability of the family's farming business.

Achieving that sort of sustainability requires taking quite a different approach to that of previous generations, Richard Burdon says.

It requires diversification, expansion and sometimes whole other ways of using land previously only used to grow sheep.

But most of all it requires some hard yakka.

At 7.30am we report in to Richard at the Glen Dene woolshed.

The station runs from the Neck, south between Lakes Wanaka and Hawea to its border with Mt Burke Station near the Hawea township.

It carries about 10,500 stock units, mainly merinos, deer and cattle and the couple also run another 5000 stock units on 300ha of flat land in two leased blocks at Maungawera and Hawea Flat.

There they grow out trophy stags, grow crops, fatten lambs, finish stock and winter dairy cows.

Add to that the recent purchase of the 200-plus-site Hawea Motor Camp, to which they plan to add a further 7ha of land soon; their trophy hunting and adventure tourism businesses; plans to expand in to Glen Dene branded meat products and eco-tourism; Richard's directorship in a Dunedin-based land management consultancy; holiday rental accommodation and the couple's voluntary involvement in multiple organisations, there are few dull moments for those living at Glen Dene.

First on the agenda for the day is meeting the workers to go over what is on.

The station has four full-time staff and a selection of locals who work casually.

Today there are two extras, musterers who work to a rota around several farms in the district, bringing sheep down from the high country.

The farm workers will be lamb-marking, or tailing, making silage and bringing in stags for velveting.

In the morning Richard's deer agent is coming to have a look at the herd and in the afternoon the drafter is coming to draft off some dry sheep for export.

The paddocks have started to brown off in what is shaping up to be a dry summer.

Getting rid of any unproductive stock is paramount.

To top it off, Richard's in-laws are flying in from Australia today.

As we arrive up at the Craigburn yards about 8am, the musterers are already bringing in the first mobs for marking.

Richard takes us along farm tracks in his trusty Nissan Pathfinder.

There are no horses on this station, tracks take workers up as high as possible and mustering is all done on foot from there, in country too high even for horses.

It is impossible to miss the ever-encroaching bracken fern, which provides Richard with a constant battle as he works to convert more land to grass and crop.

It is a big task, involving burning and aerial spraying, followed by oversowing and topdressing, but has allowed the farm to keep the same production levels in recent years, despite retiring other land and lowering stocking rates.

Across the valley are high peaks that were once part of the station.

Richard believes Glen Dene was one of the winners out of the high country tenure review.

When it was completed in 2007, the hills across the valley were returned to the Ggovernment's care, leaving the rest of the station freehold.

The result has been good public access to areas of the the farm, fencing off of wetland areas and the identification of areas of significant importance to Maori.

These are things of which he and Sarah recognise the value.

On the way to check on the Hereford herd, we stop at a fenced-off section of native bush in a shallow gully.

Richard points out the different trees and birds.

Alongside this "ecological corridor" a public access track owned by the Department of Conservation, put in place as part of the tenure process, winds its way up through the farm.

In areas less suited to grazing, the couple plan to plant about 1000 trees each year, including native plants such as flaxes and pittosporums.

They also plan to fence-off and plant wetland areas to encourage an increase in the number of wild fowl.

They see conserving, maintaining and increasing native flora and fauna as an important part of the environmental and social sustainability of their property.

They know this approach to using their land could be more profitable to them than farming, through its potential to translate into recreation and tourism opportunities.

The cows seem content and we head back to the yards to pick up deer agent Brian Duggan, checking on progress in the silage paddock on the way.

Mr Duggan is pleased with the condition of the deer and goes so far as to describe the impressive heads of velvet on the herd trophy stags as "extraordinary".

The velvet itself sells on the market for about $100 a kg, but the stags will fetch much better money as targets in the family's trophy hunting business.

Grown out on the Maungawera block, they are released in to the station's highest blocks in February, where they will become the trophies of mainly American hunters who pay handsomely for the privilege.

At 11am, local vet Gary Walker arrives at the empty deer yards at Maungawera.

A short call from Richard has the staff member responsible for rounding up the deer needing velveting, on his way.

It is about the tenth call he has taken or made since 7.30am, he will go on to make and take about 20 calls by 4pm.

He describes himself as the farm dogsbody and floater, but really he is the chief executive and operations manager.

It is a job that would be next to impossible without the cellphone.

The technology which makes him accessible to his staff, also makes him accessible for his other business and personal interests and the wider Hawea community, with which the Burdon family has been heavily involved for many years, and who often call on him for favours, a hand or advice.

This day, he is organising the use of one of his woolsheds for the school break-up and has told an American friend she can bring her family up to see a New Zealand sheep station in action.

To keep everything on the farm running smoothly Richard is ably assisted by head shepherd Colin Anderson, who has been at Glen Dene for more than 20 years.

The operation owes a lot to Anderson's reliability and passion for the place, Richard says.

The other person it owes a lot to, is his wife of 10 years, Sarah.

"She's the most underpaid person on the property," he grins, " . . . but the most appreciated."

Aside from helping run the farm, holiday accommodation and looking after the couple's children Georgie (6) and Charlie (5), she until recently managed the books and employment of staff.

She calls it "tidying up after Richard".

The recent employment of people to help with the books and human resources of their combined businesses has brought some relief, but life remains hectic.

Adding to that is the latest business venture, the Hawea Camping Ground.

The couple have already started upgrading the camp site and plan to clear, then add to the camping ground another 7ha of adjacent land they previously owned.

They have plans to open a shop in the camping ground, which will sell their own vacuum-packed and branded merino meat and venison cuts.

It will also serve as the hub from which Sarah, who has a degree in the eco-tourism, will develop tourism and recreation opportunities in the area, such as mountain-biking, walking and trail-rides on the farm.

The Burdons already host the annual Hawea-Wanaka Ridge ride (a 35km trail bike loop ride) on Glen Dene.

After lunch, the team at Craigburn needs a hand for a while, so while Richard heads up the hill, we catch up with his parents Jerry and Lesley Burdon at their home.

The home is built about 500m from the Glen Dene homestead, on part of the land the couple retained during the 15-year-long secession process.