High Peak Station’s Hamish Guild on sustainability, succession and National Lamb Day
There is nothing slow-paced about farming – if Canterbury sheep farmer Hamish Guild’s quickfire first 20 years in the industry are anything to go by.
Guild, who was brought up on Raikaia Gorge’s High Peak Station, started farming the place in his mid-20s.
Now with three children of his own and three businesses running on the farm, those years have gone in the blink of an eye.
“I spent three years at Lincoln University but never came out with a degree,” he said.
“I took six months off, and those six months have very quickly morphed into 20 years.”
The Guild “kids” have achieved a fair amount in two decades.
As the middle child, Hamish runs 4200 Perendale ewes, 1700 hinds, 800 stags and 360 beef cattle.
His older brother Simon runs a trophy-hunting business called High Peak Hunting, which brings in hundreds of international clients, and some domestic tourists.
The youngest of the bunch, Amelia, with her husband Tom, runs 450 beehives to service their honey business Finders and Keepers.
This has all been part of the Guild succession plan to keep the farm in the family name.
“Dad and his brother came in 1973 and farmed together until the late 1980s, and then they split,” Hamish said.
“We now host four families here.”
The fourth was Mum, whose job, he joked, was stopping the siblings from fighting, despite being well-spread across the giant 3750ha station at the head of the Raikaia River.
“By and large it’s successful. We have been doing it long enough,” he said.
“It’s a family so we do family things, but we have got to the point of having a maturity of operations.
“We respect each other for our different abilities and we can work side by side.”
One of the big reasons the family farms animals other than sheep is to keep it both environmentally and economically sustainable.
With wool prices so low, it costs more to shear them, and lamb prices are only beginning to climb again; venison, velvet and beef have kept the farming side of the operation flourishing financially.
Guild and other farmers want to raise awareness for farming on February 15 – National Lamb Day.
In 1882 the first frozen lamb shipment was sent from Port Chalmers in Dunedin to London, which marked the beginning of New Zealand’s multibillion-dollar meat industry.
Guild said National Lamb Day needed recognition from all Kiwis.
“We raise the best lamb in the world, hands down.
“We are one of the most efficient producers in the world in an emissions sense.
“If we give that away, and we produce less here, it just gets taken up by a less efficient producer overseas.
“You end up exaggerating the problem you are trying to solve, and unfortunately, the world does not work in idealism, perfection – we need to just focus on what we can do.”
Put simply, Kiwis can do better by eating lamb.
The average consumption of lamb by Kiwis per capita is declining.
In 2023, it was 1.95kg per person, less than a third compared to our nearest competitor Australia.
“I think if we grow the best product, we should be consuming it and enjoying it.”
After Guild’s father passed away in September, the family had a larger incentive to make this family station run successfully and long-term.
“We have a multi-generational outlook and we take a custodial view of the land.
“We want to remain here, we want to look after it and we want to improve it.”
With seven grandchildren also living on the block, chances are it could work out.
“It is an absolute credit to Mum and Dad for setting that up, we had really good conversations really early.
“It didn’t mean there weren’t significant hurdles to climb.
“I mean, we are living on the farm with my brother, sister and mother in a valley. It is not always plain sailing.”
Overall, though, living on the farm is a dream come true for the Guild family.
“When I am out there, I see the work, the imperfections and the things that need doing… but when you see it through someone else’s eyes, it’s quite refreshing.
“You actually sit back, take a deep breath and realise this is a special place to farm and raise a family.”