Dairy farmer and share-milker Ricky Douglas Munro, 49, appeared in the Gore District Court this week charged with assaulting a man on the morning of September 18.
The court heard the victim was working in a recently excavated ditch on a Heriot farm part-owned by Munro.
About 11am, the defendant pulled up in a side-by-side farm vehicle and parked beside the ditch.
The police summary said the victim then began repeatedly pointing at the defendant and then at the bottom of the ditch.
Munro walked down to the bottom of the ditch and a heated argument started between the two.
During the exchange the victim shoved past the defendant with his forearm, causing Munro to lose his balance.
In response, he grabbed the victim and began punching him in the head repeatedly, before walking out of the ditch and leaving in his farm vehicle.
The victim had a small lump on his forehead and grazes on his face and complained of sore ribs as a result of the attack.
The two men had known each other for a long time, but things had soured between them in the past three years, the court heard.
Counsel Jono Ross said after animosity between the two, things "came to a head" on September 18.
In a victim impact statement, the man said they had not been "the best of friends" for some time.
Mr Ross said that comment was telling.
He also said his client had no prior violence convictions and it was the victim who first made physical contact.
"[The defendant] acknowledges that he overstepped the mark by his retaliation."
Judge Catriona Doyle told Munro using his fists was never the answer.
"Rise above it," she said.
The defendant was convicted, ordered to pay $500 to the victim and his sentence was deferred for 12 months’.
If the feud was not resolved, and things flared up between the two again within those 12 months, Munro would be resentenced, the judge said.
"And we’ll be looking at quite a significantly different sentence," she said.
