Mr and Mrs Hope, who want their farming operation to be improving all the time, both in terms of production and physically, have been named this year's winners of the New Zealand ewe hogget competition.
The couple received prizes to the value of $10,000 and a Royal Agricultural Society of New Zealand medal at a presentation dinner in Ashburton.
Mr and Mrs Hope also won the Perendale breed section and a special prize for flock evenness.
Mr Hope was "over the moon" to win the national competition, saying it was the combination of 10 years of hard work, involving themselves and their ram breeders.
The Hopes' sourced their rams from the Newhaven Perendale stud in North Otago, founded by David Ruddenklau 40 years ago.
The stud now also involves Mr Ruddenklau and wife Robyn's daughter Jane and her husband Blair Smith.
Perendales seemed to suit the Hope family's farming operation and Mr Hope liked working with them. "They're a great sheep," he said.
When the family took over the 1029ha property 10 years ago, the sheep on the farm were lambing at 82%, for various reasons.
The couple took over the sheep on the property, with Mr Hope saying he could not find anything else that he really liked to buy, and so they found themselves a ram breeder and went from there.
The Newhaven stud had made a "huge contribution" to what they did and had been a great supporter of them, he said.
With the property now lambing at 143%, Mrs Hope was keen to see the lambing percentage reach 150%.
Mr Hope grew up in Palmerston, while his wife was originally from Wanaka.
The couple have three sons: George (13), Toby (12) and Fergus (11) and it was very much a family operation.
The couple farmed the property "50-50" and the boys were a great help.
"They are out there doing it. It's team work all round," Mrs Hope said.
The couple were first-time entrants in the ewe hogget competition, encouraged to enter by Mr and Mrs Smith. A field-day will be held on their farm in November.
Mrs Hope encouraged others to enter, saying it had been very worthwhile.
The process made them think about why they did things and also how far they had come.
It was not always "plain sailing" and, like all farms in New Zealand, it had its challenges, but they had managed to work with the land and climate to get a good outcome, Mr Hope said.
Sheep did very well as it was very healthy country and a lot of development they had done on the property was also now starting to pay off. It was also a great area to live in, with "terrific" neighbours, Mrs Hope said.
The couple were both passionate about sheep farming and optimistic about the future of the industry. The world was hungry, with more mouths to feed every day, Mr Hope said.
The other breed section winners were Scott and Jo Hassall, of Hawarden (composite); James and Jane Hunter, of Waipukurau (Romney); Sam and Viki Holland, of Culverden (crossbred); John and Karen Gilkison, of Morton Mains (Coopworth) and Tom and Sally Moore, of Tarras (fine wool).
Mr and Mrs Gilkison received the award for flock performance, Paul and Prue Ensor (Rakaia Gorge) won the best wool flock and Jeff Farm (Kaiwera) won the large flock award.
Mr Gilkison described the ewe hogget competition as a very important one.
Sheep farmers were not recognised enough in New Zealand for their contribution and "this is a good way to start", he said.
The competition's Southland convener, William Mitchell, said Jeff Farm deserved special mention as it had made a significant contribution to agriculture in New Zealand.
The 1932ha property, on the back road between Clinton and Mataura, is managed by John Chittock, who also trains young people for a career in agriculture.
Mr Chittock set a high standard in farm management and the property had excelled in the ewe hogget competition.
This year, it won the Southland and West Otago competition.
Mr Chittock said Jeff Farm entered the competition "because we love what we're doing and, at the end of the day, if you don't love what you're doing you shouldn't be doing it".
Outlining their hogget selection, he said he was thrilled with how quickly the young men working on the property "picked up what they wanted to see in a sheep".
The competition's national convener Stephen Rabbidge, of Glenham, said the judges did a "completely professional job" in what was an extremely difficult competition to judge.
To judge the national final, Andrew Mackie (Southland), Andrew Craw (Banks Peninsula) and Grant Pine (North Island) travelled 3700km during eight days.
Mr Mackie, who retires this year after three years as a judge, said it had been "quite a phenomenal experience".
"I don't know where you would go in New Zealand to judge something and see so many different properties, so many areas ... and be able to see the expertise that's come out."
He also acknowledged the regional judges who had done the "hard yards" for the national judges, and done a "fantastic job".
The judges had seen some incredible properties and some incredible livestock and he described it as one of the toughest years to judge.
Three years ago, there were 16 properties to judge in the national final, last year there were 23 and this year there were 28 and it was "quite a task".
They had judged hoggets from 42kg liveweight up to 65kg and sheep from the rugged hill country near Raetihi - "that's as steep as you get when you're looking at feral deer walking around and goats" - down to flat country.
One day, during judging at Oturehua, it was -7degC at 7.30am and that was "what people are dealing with in their day-to-day farming".
All the finalists were winners in their own right. To reach that stage was an "incredible feat", Mr Mackie said.
First-year judge Grant Pine, a lamb drafter, said he came away feeling very positive about the industry.