Helping people own their first farm "is part of who I am", Mr Richardson said.
His father Colin launched his first equity partnership about 40 years ago.
"He was well ahead of his time. He was a great farmer but he was an even better businessman."
Scott Walker was the head shepherd at Jeff Farm when he and his wife Kjersti met Mr Richardson and wife Sonia on a "blind date" arranged by a bank manager.
Even though they had no equity at the time, they followed the advice of late Jeff Farm manager John Chittock to chase a dream of farm ownership, Mr Walker said.
The operation at sheep, beef and deer property Jeff Farm in Kaiwera was "highly conventional" and Mr Richardson’s sheep and beef farm Bonnieview, near Heriot, was organic.
"Allan was very passionate and showed us how it could work and it was the only one we looked at," Mr Walker said.
An equity partnership was launched in 2017.
Mr Richardson said an independent director was part of the agreement at the start but they had not called on him for the past two years.
Both parties trusted each other and had a shared goal of the Walkers becoming farm owners.
"We are out to make them succeed, which means you don’t leave every last dollar in the piggy bank."
Farmers with resources and capital needed to help the next generation be successful, Mr Richardson said.
When the organic lamb price dropped, the Walkers struggled to make a profit and they switched to a conventional farming model in 2020.
Walking away from 20 years of organic farming took some time to get over but the overriding goal was the success of the Walkers owning a farm.
"You have to write that in your constitution and you have to go back to that if something gets tough, you can go back to why you started the whole thing."
Mr Walker began working on the farm as a manager in April before signing an equity partnership deal in July.
"So if it wasn’t going to work we hadn’t done anything financially, which was a good idea."
Their latest business agreement had the Walkers owning the livestock and plant at Bonnieview and them leasing 500ha from the partnership.
The deal allowed them increase their equity and benefit more from their hard work, as opposed to earning a salary as a farm manager, Mr Walker said.
Rising beef and lamb commodity prices had helped the bottom line of their business.
"We’ve gone from making a big loss to a massive profit so hopefully we get a few more years like this," Mr Walker said.
The Walkers also lease about 200ha of neighbouring farm Marama from John and Tracy Herbert.
Mr Herbert said farm owners, who had made decades of capital gains, should be willing to "leave a little bit on the table" when negotiating an agreement, such as a farm lease.
He leased the land because the fire in him to be a farmer, no longer burns.
"That is a dangerous place to be, unless you’re 100% in it, it is not going to work out."
At the event, Mr Herbert floated an idea of setting up an entity, where farmers exiting the industry could give 1% of their farm sale price.
The money would then be used to give grants to people, who had no family assistance available, to buy their first farm.
"The only proviso would be at the end of their farming career, they need to give back 1% of their capital gain."
The move could help more families into farm ownership.
Mr Herbert was seeking feedback on his concept.
"If people think it is a bit of a runner, I’m prepared to put a bit of time into it to see if it can come to fruition."
