And whenever those tough times occur in communities in the upper South Island area, such as the recent devastating floods in the Tasman region, he offers support and ideas and encourages people to ring him if they need to talk.
"In hard times, farmers can get very run-down both physically and mentally and I believe sometimes people just need that chat to calm things down. In times of personal stress, Brent has also been there for myself and I’m sure others," his nominator wrote.
Aside from that, his expert knowledge and understanding of the farming sector had led to farms increasing their production.
"Brent’s positive impact to the community is huge. He has made such an impact to so many families for over 25 years."
Brent grew up on a cropping, sheep and deer farm in Marlborough and started as a farm consultant in the Tasman area in 1995.
Aside from working for Ravensdown for a couple of years and 18 months as general manager of New Zealand Farming Systems Uruguay which was set up by PGG Wrightson to develop dairy farm operations in Uruguay, he has remained in that role.
His time in South America was an "amazing experience".
While in hindsight, the venture was never going to work, it was worth having that experience to broaden his horizons, he said.
Brent, who was named New Zealand’s farm consultant of the year in 2016, fostered and developed the concept of flexible milking options in New Zealand and later toured Australia to explain the concept.
It was Brent who coined the terms three-in-two and 10-in-seven milkings as he encouraged farmers to look at different options that could create lifestyle and profitability benefits.
"My job is to look at people, their businesses and say ‘how do we make this boat go faster?"’ he said.
But he stressed it was not his boat.
"I’ve never told a single farmer what to do, but I’ve made a lot of suggestions. My father always said, ‘never tell a farmer what to do. It you can influence them, that’s the key’," he said.
He was driven by a desire to help people, whether that was helping out with community events such as a Young Farmers bark-up or running a quiz night, or even just lending an hour to help farmers pick debris from fences following the recent floods.
Often he would take his teenage sons with him and the relief could be seen on people’s faces when they turned up to help.
Brent also did a lot of work with the Rural Support Trust and received calls when someone was in trouble.
He loved his job, saying it had been his passion.
"It gets you out of bed in the morning. You know it’s going to be something new every day, a different set of problems."
— Sally Rae
