Century Farms – Five generations call farm home

Five generations call farm home

When Isaiah Gallagher bought part of the Valetta Run in 1917, a legacy was launched.

On 9th April 1871, Robert and Elizabeth Gallagher arrived from County Tyrone, Ireland, on the ship Zealandia. They settled at Brookside and had five surviving children. The family moved to the Mayfield area around 1887 and 10 years later their son, Isaiah married Florence Emmaline Bean. They had eight children. In 1899, Isaiah and his brother, William Glassey (known as WG) formed Gallagher Brothers partnership and purchased and leased various farms around Mid Canterbury. In 1917, the partnership purchased 849 acres of the original Valetta Run, with 421 acres of this land then being purchased by Isaiah and named “Grassmere”. The Valetta Run consisted of 9,228 acres in total, and a large portion of the land was in virgin state with very little cropping done. Gallagher Brothers also purchased 2,215 acres of land at Clearwater, up the South Ashburton gorge, and farmed it for 10 years. William married his neighbour, Elizabeth Lamb in 1924 and they had three children. In 1945, William purchased the 421 acres from his father, Isaiah. In 1952, William’s eldest son, Allan married Shirley Jaine and they lived in a new house, which they named “Bentower”. They had three sons, Struan, Grant and Philip. Allan took over Grassmere in 1966 and farmed it alongside Bentower, running Romney sheep and growing mixed crops; mainly wheat, barley and peas. In 1983, Grant married Tessa Hayward and they raised three children, Jasmine, Dean and Garth. Grant purchased Grassmere in 1984, renaming it “Antrim” and then farmed Bentower and Antrim in partnership with Allan and Philip for three years. In 1987, Antrim was then carrying about 1,800 stock units, mainly sheep, but diversified into deer – raising stags for their velvet and venison, and breeding hinds for replacements. From the mid-1980s, no plough has been used on the farm, with a move to minimum, then vertical tillage. Mechanical stone picking replaced manual in the 2000s, de-stoning the entire farm, making cultivation more sustainable, with better soil structure and moisture retention. Extensive planting of trees and shelter belts was also undertaken and over the 100 years, various small forestry blocks were milled. In 2004, the family partially diversified again into dairy support, winter grazing of cows on kale, barley straw and grass baleage. Fattening of summer and winter store lambs and growing feed barley has complemented this. Antrim Apiaries is the latest diversification. In 2015, groundwater irrigation through a hard hose gun was commenced on 40ha of the farm’s better soils, giving further drought insurance. Jasmine, Dean and Garth are now the fifth generation of Gallaghers on the farm.

| Isaiah and Florence with their children at Grassmere, 1924. William at the back right. | Allan and Grant preparing to shift the Valetta goods shed across the farm on a sledge they built, 1995. | Antrim, 2012. Built in 1924 and renovated in 1996, the home features heart rimu from the Valetta shed floor and oregon milled from the farm.