Corey, 31, and Debra,32, live on the 200ha farm, which was bought in 2011, and runs to 450m asl. Linda and Lindsay live on the home farm Riverview which is 680ha and runs to 600m asl.
Riverview is in trust and the new block is owned by a family partnership. All the land is leased to the family farming company Switzers Hill. Along with Corey and Paul, Linda and Lindsay also have a daughter, Sarah, in Auckland who is a vet.
Corey has been determined to be a farmer even when he was doing his building apprenticeship. In the weekends and any spare time he had would be spent on the farm which is 40 minutes Gore and 10 minutes from Heriot.
Younger brother Paul, 30, spends a lot of his spare time working on the farm. He and Lisa live in Gore, where he works as a livestock representative for local company Rural Livestock. He also spent time working on other farms and stations before living in Gore.
Corey and Debra have two children, Briar who is three in December and six-month-old Ellie. Debra is a primary school teacher but is now a full-time mum. She is no novice to farming because she grew up on stations her father Trevor Roughan managed.
When Corey was still a builder she would come out and help Corey on the farm.
“I learned to chuck a muesli bar in my pocket as Corey wouldn’t stop for lunch,” she recalls.
Having Linda to come in and help look after the children allows Debra to help out on the farm.
“It’s great as Linda asks me whether I want to be in with the kids or out on the farm.”
Linda is in charge of the accounts and farm bookwork, a task Debra and Lisa will eventually take over. Linda gives little away on the operation’s financial figures, but Cory says last season they averaged $104/lamb, 80 18-month-old-heifer and steers averaged $1060/head. Fertiliser costs were $15/su.
Paul and Lisa also have two children, Declan, 3, and Charlie, five months. An obvious sense of pride comes to the fore when Lindsay (54) and Linda (early 50s) talk about having the next generation coming through on the land.
‘I learned to chuck a muesli bar in my pocket as Corey wouldn’t stop for lunch.’
They get a buzz out of having their grandchildren out on the farm with them, not hundreds of miles away in a city or even overseas.
The extra land bought by the Roulstons has added a new dimension to their farming operation. They no longer have to sell cattle store so can finish all their stock.
Stock are moved between the two farms via a forestry road on a 2000ha forestry block which runs along the southern edge of the farms. Only the hoggets and cattle are moved between the farms.
The rams go out on Anzac Day and lambing starts on September 20. Scanning this year was 177% over the whole flock with 173% in the two-tooths and 180% in the ewes (they don’t scan for triplets). The lambing has been 150% for the past three years.
Corey says this year they were hit by bad weather in October and are likely to be back 10%.
The Roulston's home farm at Riverview looking down to the Pomahaka River.
Corey and Debra Roulston took off overseas in 2007, working in London and travelling around Europe for 18 months. Debra thought Corey would miss the farm and not cope.
“He was such a farm boy and when he was not building, spent every spare moment at the farm.”
However, he enjoyed his overseas experience.
Six months after they came home Corey gave up working as a builder and went farming. He worked three days a week on the farm, the other three for a neighbour, Matthew McKenzie.
“Matthew is an awesome stockman so I had two good teachers.”
His teachers must have been good because in 2012, Corey won the Merial Ancare West Otago-Southland ewe hogget competition in his first attempt.
