From childhood, Trevor Peters, of Millers Flat, knew he wanted to be a farmer.
He went from growing up on his parents' farm near Hedgehope, which had been part of a returned soldiers farm settlement programme ballot, to this year marking 50 years of farming.
He and wife Karen, along with their children, Clayton, Morgan and Justine, now own six properties.
''We turned a $7000 gift into 62,000 stock units from 1974 until now,'' Mr Peters said.
That is vastly different from Trevor's father Stan's story.
Stan and brother George had spent their childhood in the Anglican Orphanage Home in Dunedin but when Stan was 12, they had to work for the Pinckneys at Glenaray Station in Waikaia.
They were gardeners for two years before an argument about blackbirds and a suggestion about where the birds could be shoved, saw them sent to work for the station's fencing gang, cutting posts for Lands and Survey.
''During the depression, someone from Lands and Survey said the posts were no longer required,'' Mr Peters said.
''They took the horses the boys used, shot them, and told Stan and George to hit the road as they were no longer employed.''
They parted company at Brydone and Stan walked almost the length of the South Island before finding work at Woodbank Station, Kaikoura, where he remained for four years before enlisting to fight in WW2.
''He often said that was when he got his break in life as he had nothing else going for him,'' Mr Peters said.
While training at Blenheim he learned to fix false teeth.
He shipped out from Lyttelton, eventually went to Greece, where he was captured and then spent the rest of the war at a Stalag in Austria.
He was eventually discharged and in 1945, he and George won the farm ballot.
He married Margaret and they had three sons and a daughter.
Later the family sold the property to buy Longlands in Waikaka.
Mr Peters left school at 15, started working for a contractor, and became a shepherd before spending three years on Argyle Station, Waikaia.
His father had a stroke in 1974, and he had to ready the farm for sale.
However, as he and his siblings had $7000 equity each in the property, he borrowed $21,000 from his brothers and sister, and bought it.
By 1975 he had met and married Karen and they lived in a caravan on the farm.
They had three children, paid off their debt to his siblings and spent 14 years on the farm, taking it from 2100 stock units to 4000 stock units and carrying out extensive development.
They then bought a property at Beaumont, and then more farms.
Their children now own a farm each.
The Peters established a joint venture with North Island-based Wairere Romneys and sold Wairere rams throughout the South Island.
After 20 years they dissolved their partnership to become Peters Genetics.
Now they run terminal ewes, Romney, Romney-Texel and Angus cattle studs as well as commercial flocks.
''For us the biggest thrill is to see other people get better performance and returns with our genetics,'' Mrs Peters said.
These days, Mr Peters is recovering from a knee-replacement operation.
''I am a weekend farmer now , but I am still scheming, so watch this space,'' he said.
Southern Rural Life