Middlehurst Station: Farming for the whole family
Family traditionally heritage sees in the the eldest high country son inherit the farm and the siblings and parents migrate to town. That’s not the case for the Macdonalds of Middlehurst Station, covering 16,550 hectares in the Upper Awatere Valley in Marlborough. The family is on a mission to be the base of multiple businesses for all ages.
IT IS NOT ONLY THE MERINO THAT IS ABLE TO thrive under the New Zealand high country conditions, but inter-generational family entrepreneurship, with one such family setting new standards that we should all be inspired by.
In an aim to establish a sustainable, productive family farming business, the Macdonalds of Middlehurst Station want to make sure high country traditions are maintained and passed on, but they aren’t afraid to do things differently.
Willie and Susan Macdonald didn’t grow up at Middlehurst but were both raised in the high country; Willie at Davaar Station near Te Anau and Susan at Halfway Bay near Queenstown. Together, they managed stations Cecil
Peak and Mount Nicholas before moving north in 1998 to rugged inland Kaikōura where it ranges in altitude from 550 metres to 2,500 metres.
Middlehurst has been home for the Macdonalds’ four children Sophie, Henry, Lucy and Skye. ‘We had a pretty free-range upbringing with a correspondence school shared by the three neighbouring high country stations,’ explains Lucy. ‘Boarding school in Christchurch was a major change for us!’
After high school, the four all went their own ways with Sophie studying beauty therapy and working for Sounds Air, Henry working as a shepherd in the North Island at Okare Station, while Lucy and Skye headed to Australia, Lucy to work on cattle stations and Skye in resort hospitality.
All four extensively travelled around the world before returning home. ‘When you’re overseas, you realise how much you’ve got back home and how our products are so special,’ says Lucy. Who, along with sister Sophie, is now based in Rangiora making a mark in the family business.
The Macdonalds have proven they are not just a farming family, but producers of luxurious food and fashion, environmental guardians and hospitable hosts. Willie and Susan have built a successful merino stud and are both involved in all aspects of farming, from mustering, shepherding and wool classing to accounting, planning and implementing new technology. Partnering with Fratelli Piacenza Wool Mills in Italy, Susan has turned the raw material into incredibly fine-spun 50/50 Merino/Silk textile used in bride and groom couture.
The station has also recently completed a mountain lodge to cater for hunters, mountain bikers, corporate groups and tourists.
The 2020 Covid Lockdown saw them move into their latest project, ‘Middlehurst Delivered’ after compliments from guests and a rising enquiry level as to how they could buy meat to take home.
‘As a family, we started thinking about how we could diversify enough that we could all become a part of it,’ explains Lucy.
Lucy and Sophie pulled together the business plan for the farm-to-plate home delivery meat business with a simple
product offering of a half or whole sheep, subsequently matching their sustainability goals.
11,000 merinos are raised in the Awatere Valley, with the lambs finished at a Cheviot property on nutritious pasture. The cuts are prepared by local butcher Harris Meats and arranged to be delivered in a chilled courier from Rangiora overnight.
If Covid has brought us closer to how our food was produced, for the Macdonalds of Middlehurst it has brought them closer to their vision of what sustainability means for their family’s futures.
‘As a family, we started thinking about how we could diversify enough that we could all become a part of it.’