A different outlook

A Canterbury farmer likes to try new ways of doing things so he can get the best from his farm and herd while still caring for the environment.

By Tony Benny

Aveteran Canterbury farmer has always been happy to do things a bit differently, whether it be his affection for Milking Shorthorns, his hybrid barn and pasture system, or replacing conventional fertilisers with effluent, but he’s succeeded in his goal of high production as well as leaving his land in a much better state than when he started out.

Phil Garrett bought Rushbrook Farm at Leeston, south of Christchurch, near Lake Ellesmere/Te Waihora, in 1986 and has farmed it since then with his son Andrew. Originally 103ha, the property has now grown to 440ha and milks 1000 cows, but with young stock usually carries 1750 cattle.

Now nearly 84, Garrett has loved cows since he was a toddler and always wanted to be a farmer, a goal he achieved through hard work, not inheritance.

His parents had a farm in western Southland but when he was two, in 1941, his father died.

“There were five of us and then my younger sister was born six weeks after he died and we ended up coming to Christchurch because Mum’s father lived up here and had a tailoring business and he bought a little five acre [2ha] block in Heathcote [on the city’s outskirts].