Mark Slee’s parents Syd and Morrell converted the original 365ha family sheep farm south of Ashburton in 1987. Mark and Devon began managing this in 1991 and have since grown the business to 2640 cows, buying the family farm, two neighbouring properties and a run-off in the process.

Operating efficiently and managing resources carefully are clearly major drivers for the Slees who stress they are “learning all the time” but “like to think we are doing the best we can”. They believe the growth of their operation allows this. “Once we had some scale we were able to step back and really focus on improving in many areas,” says Mark.