Careful custodians of the land in Wairarapa

Farming through the past three years of drought in South Wairarapa has been hard yakka on Eringa, a 1050-hectare hill-country property at Longbush. Managers Daniel and Jo Houston have battled to keep their stock, and the farm's finances, in good health reports The Dom Post.  It would have been no surprise if the owners, Wellington eye surgeon Keith Maslin and his wife, Shona, had decided to take advantage of a surge in land values to sell up. But for them the farm, though owned for only seven years, has become a family treasure that will be handed on to the next generation. This is a comfort for the Houstons. After losing their last managing job when the farm was sold, they took on the management of Eringa in 2002 as a fill-in till the right job came along. Now Eringa has grown into the right job. Originally a middle-sized farm struggling to achieve a lambing percentage of 110 per cent, it has grown with the purchase, at regular intervals, of three neighbouring properties.The Houstons have been given a free rein under the budgetary oversight of adviser Phil Guscott, and encouraged to run the farm as if it were their own property. The only difference between them and other farmers is that the ultimate financial risk lies with the farm's owners in Wellington. That is not the virtue it seems, Mr Houston says. "People assume you've got it easy because you don't have the financial worries, but in fact it's the opposite. Someone else has put their faith in you and given you their money, so you take much more care." Mrs Maslin says the purchase of Eringa seven years ago was a leap into the unknown. "We were tossing up where to invest and our adviser said, 'Why not farming?' and we thought about it and agreed, 'Why not?'. "I had been brought up in the country and Keith had worked on farms as a student, so we had an affinity. We weren't quite sure what we were getting into, but we have had the best advice and have been very lucky with Daniel and Jo."