However, one weekend every May Lawrence hosts the New Zealand Century Farm and Station Awards.
It’s a cracking weekend and, this year, some 34 families gathered from throughout New Zealand to celebrate their collective family fortitude and tenacity over generations.
This takes the total number of families formally recognised over the 21 years the event has been running to an impressive 699.
A massive logistical exercise for the Lawrence community, the event has grown to incorporate a welcome evening at the Tuapeka Vintage Club and bus tours of the district on top of the awards ceremony itself.
It’s all hands on deck to turn on a great show, fitting of the achievements being honoured.
Well done to Eddie Fitzgerald and the NZCFSA committee for once again doing the district proud.
The stories of the Century Farm families are all different but, at a high level, all fundamentally the same.
To retain farm ownership for over a century and, in many cases, now over 150 years, shows they’re surviving wars, depressions, pandemics, droughts, floods and government reforms.
The families often reflect on those events during their acceptance speeches, marvelling at the sheer perseverance of their forebears — often very moving.
What it also demonstrates is a story of innovation.
You don’t get to survive as a business that long without embracing new ideas and driving productivity, sometimes heading off on a whole new land-use direction.
In essence, these farming families represent the broader story of what has kept New Zealand agriculture at the forefront of international competitiveness, and sustained us as a nation.
That legacy continues.
At the Mystery Creek Fieldays this month, the new "Situation and Outlook for the Primary Sector" (SOPI) was released.
The primary sector is now worth $64 billion in exports, a staggering 82% of our merchandise trade.
Farmers again have their heads up and are leading this charge. This is fantastic for rural provincial communities like Clutha.
Encouragingly, returns for next year look equally promising with the clear caveat of evolving geopolitical tensions.
Technology is also now evolving at such breakneck speed that farming at the front edge is becoming barely distinguishable from magic.
We are on the cusp of unlocking major productivity gains. This is an exciting time that will create opportunities for the next generation of farmers to come into their own.
