Stefan and Holly Roulston say their different skills complement each other in their West Otago dairy farming operation. Photo / Stephen Jaquiery
The five finalists have been decided for the Otago Daily Times and Rural Life Year of the Farmer initiative. This week, rural editor Sally Rae talks to the first of the finalists, Heriot-based Rural Champions Stefan and Holly Roulston, about dairy farming in West Otago.
There’s a meal planner on the wall of the Roulston family’s kitchen in West Otago outlining the dinner menu for that week.
From pork belly and steak and wedges to Holly Roulston’s cutely named Chilli Conked Out – and not a takeaway meal in sight – it’s a sign of a very organised operation, and that extends from the homestead to the farm.
It is a busy time of year with calving underway on Stefan and Holly’s dairy farming operation, Toropuke Dairies, near Heriot.
Fortunately, Stefan, who grew up on the land first bought by his great-grandfather and grandfather, had a work ethic instilled in him “right from the word go”, while Holly is also no slug.
Knowing from an early age that he wanted to be a farmer, Stefan recalled how every day after school and at weekends was spent helping his father. He would rear lambs and sell them, before moving on to working on the farm.
That all-important work ethic had been passed on to his own children, Adriana (11), Mason (9) and Parker (8). The night before the ODT visited, the children had prepared the evening meal for when their parents came in from the calf shed.
Over calving, they could often be found in the calf shed – “So much laundry”, their mother quipped – and would accompany their father on night checks.
Toropuke Dairies milks about 820 cows and the total farm area comprises about 540 hectares, including a leased property.
The Roulstons also run beef cattle and do some cropping. They make all their own supplements on-farm and winter on-farm.
As Holly puts it, the couple consider themselves caretakers of the land and their ultimate goal is for the next generation to continue the family tradition, but without putting pressure on them to do that.
At this stage, all three children reckon they will be taking over the property, announcing they are going to build a village on it.
The couple’s own farming journey has not always been easy – there was a point when they were going to leave the farm – and for Holly, the transition from city to country was initially challenging.
From Dunedin, she met Stefan briefly at a pub when she was 18 – “I was like, eeewww, I don’t want to marry a farmer.” The pair met again some time later when she was working in a bar.
Romance blossomed and, wanting to be close to Holly, Stefan spent time working on the Taieri while she worked as an insurance broker.
After his parents’ separation, his father asked him to return to the farm and the couple moved to West Otago in 2007.
Holly is candid as she recalls those days, saying she initially hated it. She found it isolating; dairy farming was an anti-social occupation and she liked people, while farming itself was foreign to her.
But once she got a grasp on it all and discovered how fascinating the industry was – from the AI process to how the milk got in the vat – she started “fitting in” and her views on country living changed dramatically.
The couple married in January 2011 and the arrival of their first child opened a lot of doors when it came to community immersion. They became involved with West Otago Young Farmers and it “just flourished from there”, Stefan recalled.
Stefan is proud of Holly, especially looking back at when she first came to the farm and was thrown into the deep end, milking cows and rearing calves.
With a great group of girlfriends now around her – “I’d be lost without them” – Holly said she now had no desire to leave the area.
Toropuke Dairies was very much a team effort, involving their great team of staff, which Holly described as their No 1 one asset.
There was also a strong partnership between Stefan, who focused on hands-on farming, and Holly, who did all the bookwork and was also involved with calf rearing.
Stefan, who has a Swiss mother and spent time working in Switzerland, where he learned to speak Swiss-German, has dyslexia and struggled at school.
While good with his hands, it was a different story with reading and writing.
He reckoned he could not run the business, particularly with the increasing compliance, without Holly, and her input freed him up to do the farming.
“I don’t think I could be farming as we are, we wouldn’t be as big as we are, without Holly,” he said.
“We are a good team because we are two halves of the whole,” Holly added.
It was a hard life, going to school with dyslexia, he recalled.
Adriana, who has the lead role in the Heriot School production of Aladdin, also has dyslexia but is blessed with artistic flair. Her parents made a point of celebrating her strengths.
All three children were helpful in the home and on the farm. They knew to put their clothes in the washing machine and they would eventually leave home knowing how to feed themselves “and wash their own bloody clothes”, Holly laughed.
Television was rarely switched on and they noted the change in their children, who now occupied themselves outside.
A movie night once a week came complete with Happy Hour with soft drinks, popcorn and chips.
All three loved hunting and, once a week, Stefan would take a different child out with him to hunt. That one-on-one time was valuable, Holly said. In the summer, the family enjoyed a favourite swimming hole nearby in the Pomahaka River.
Over the past five years, the couple said they had felt – as many in the farming sector had – like everything was “getting thrown at us”.
“I’m like, we’re doing a good job, come and have a look. It’s green and beautiful,” Holly said, indicating the expanse of farmland surrounding the homestead.
They established a Facebook page recently for their farming business and, while that had resulted in “lots of CVs” being sent in, it was a good way to share knowledge about what they did.
They also signed up for Farmer Time, an initiative that saw farmers matched with classes of urban school pupils, in a bid to educate young people about farming and farming practices.
Stefan’s farming philosophy centred on having good staff and, by treating staff well they got the best out of them, he believed.
He preferred to get jobs done properly rather than quickly, and led from the front, not afraid to get his own hands dirty.
Staff were not expected to do things he would not do. He planned to put in a vegetable garden on the farm for the staff.
He enjoyed the challenge of the dairy industry, producing off the land and seeing healthy animals, and he was passionate about the need to get a good positive image of farming.
Education was key and that was why they signed up for Farmer Time.
Stefan joined the local volunteer fire brigade at the suggestion of his wife, who said “Do something for the community”.
It was very social and he enjoyed getting off the farm and mingling with other locals, including non-farmers.
There were not too many callouts and there was a good support network among them after tough callouts. Being a small community, often they knew the people they were dealing with.
He is also in his third year of involvement with West Otago Rural Kids (Work), a voluntary organisation that was originally Cubs.
About 30 children were involved and activities around the district included the likes of a visit (and ice cream) to the Tapanui Museum, the distinctly southern pastime of swede-carving, and orienteering.
He also helped out with rugby; his children have finished their first season of tackle rugby, while Holly is chairwoman of the board of trustees at Heriot School and has weekly meetings with the principal.
From a foodie family, Holly also has a cookbook to her name, a project which was hatched during Covid-19.
Previous involvement with cooking programmes led to her offering a meal-planning service in Gore, including the menu and shopping lists and New World packing the groceries, when My Food Bag was not available in the town.
During lockdown, Stefan’s brother and his wife – a photographer – were staying on the farm and the pair teamed up.
Holly created the meals and plated them on dishes fossicked from secondhand shops, while her sister-in-law photographed them.
The result, aside from filling the freezer for calving time, was a highly professional cookbook called Holly in the Kitchen, which sold 400 copies, with three set aside for the Roulston children, and is still available as print-on-demand.
Reflecting on their lifestyle in the kitchen of their home, Holly was counting her blessings.
“I think we’re so lucky. I get to sit here and look at that view ... it’s a wee slice of paradise, I reckon.
“I wouldn’t be anywhere else.”
- Find out more about Otago Daily Times’ Year of the Farmer here.
One adult died at the scene and three people suffered minor to moderate injuries.