They encourage their four children to have input into their farming operation, even though they all have careers outside the farm.
Diversification, flexibility, and maximising both the potential and opportunities their environment creates, are also key drivers for the family.
Mr Sanders is an equal shareholder in Mt Campbell Station, near Alexandra, along with two brothers, Jeffrey and Christopher, although he and Mrs Sanders take care of the day-to-day operations.
They have four adult children: Ben, Alice, Olivia and Virginia.
Alice is a lawyer in Wanaka, while Virginia is a store manager in Dunedin and is studying theatre at university, as she wants to be a full-time actor.
Olivia is a former journalist and Affirmed’s lower South Island business manager.
Ben is a sharemilker with 400 cows at Waipahi.
Alice spends a day a week helping out on the 8673ha leasehold and 263ha freehold property, while the others help out when needed.
Each has been asked to come up with possible alternative income streams and to research and explore the practicalities of those ideas.
"We are looking at what we can do with what we have got," Alice said.
"We want to utilise assets without a big financial outlay and we are privileged to look after this land."
They run about 7000 merinos and supply Italian clients with the 17.5 micron wool.
They also run about 350 cattle.
Mr Sanders is of the second generation to be born and bred on the station, and moved away in 1980 to work on other properties in South Otago and the Mackenzie region for 35 years.
"I went out a single man and came back a married man," he said.
"I married the governess."
Mrs Sanders said she was not a governess — rather a correspondence school teacher on a property in the Mackenzie basin when they met.
The family returned to the station a year ago.
She is now a relief teacher at St Gerard’s School in Alexandra, and works on the farm when needed.
They are continuing the irrigation development started three years before on 113ha of freehold land, and there is the potential for another 100ha to be irrigated.
They built a 12m high dam also on freehold land, which was finished last year.
"We decided to put the irrigation in as the Otago Regional Council wanted to see the water being used in an efficient manner and it was done to protect our water rights," he said.
They hope to see between 10% to 20% improvement in production.
They originally reared Herefords but are moving towards Angus as they offer more options including selling to a feedlot or the Angus Pure programme.
They want to add another kilogram of wool harvested, currently at 4.5kg.
"We might change our system to bull breeding or lamb fattening or change the whole farming system," he said.
They are running a sub-clover trial at 700m for Advance Agriculture, to see how well it smothers hieracium.
"They [Advance] bring the technology and I just do the strong-arm stuff," he said.
Their lambing percentage is 92%.
"We would love to enter the 100 club, with 100% lambing as well as increasing lamb weight, because I am greedy," he quipped.
Mrs Sanders said they were extremely proud of their children and the transition the family made when they moved back to the property was made much easier because of the support they had received from them and Mr Sanders’ long-time friends.
