Warwick Howie finished his job as a PGG Wrightson livestock representative to go fulltime farming, just weeks before the recent devastating storm hit the South.
When he spoke to the ODT, he still had no power at his Lawrence home and he and his family were showering at his in-laws. It was, as he put, ‘‘a bit of a surreal feeling’’, and the novelty was wearing thin.
It had not been his intention to return home to fix fences and cut trees up and he said he had quickly discovered his fencing ability was a little like his rugby career where he got ambition and capability quite mixed up. But he also acknowledged it could have been worse.
Mr Howie was recently farewelled by his colleagues with bowls and laughs at the Clyde Bowling Club, his departure marking just on 20 years as a stock agent, having worked for ‘‘two good companies and two good bosses’’.
It was eight years ago that he started with PGG Wrightson in Lawrence, prior to that he spent 12 years with Alliance Group; firstly a year in Oamaru as a trainee and then, when he moved to Outram, he covered the area which included Milton, Otago Peninsula and through to Clarks Junction.
Alliance was in a strong position back then and he enjoyed his time with the co-operative before moving to PGG Wrightson.
While he enjoyed lamb drafting and getting to know his clients, the role could be fairly insular and what he had particularly enjoyed about his PGW role was the variety of work.
It could be ram sales or store stock, dog sales or calf sales — ‘‘you ride the seasons, just the variety is really good’’.
He covered the patch from Beaumont to the coast near Milton and continued to serve some clients on Otago Peninsula.
Mostly, he dealt with owner-operators, some who had been on their farms for a long time, and it was a ‘‘pretty good area as far as good people go’’. He also enjoyed dealing with other agents around the South Island.
Mr Howie was brought up on a small farm near Invercargill and was always keen on farming and genetics. Earlier in his career, he worked for AgResearch both at Winchmore, near Ashburton, and Tara Hills at Omarama.
In recent years, he and his wife Jane (nee Paterson) had been leasing a property off family in Lawrence and latterly added the farm run by her father and uncle, giving them a total of 1250ha between the two blocks.
It got to the point that, after effectively doing two jobs for 10 years, he could not keep doing that and fulltime farming was something of a dream come true for Mr Howie, who thought from an early age that he would never be able to own a farm.
Mr Howie’s father established the Glenwood Angus cattle and Suffolk sheep studs in the 1970s and his son was keen to expand the cattle stud, given they now had more scope for cows.
He wanted to grow those numbers from 70 to about 100 to 120 and to sell about 25 bulls each year. The Suffolks were more of a hobby with about 60 ewes and the sheep focus was on their commercial operation.
Both he and his wife were now much more hands-on with farming and it was very much a team effort, involving other family members as well.
