Crown Rock Station

Crown Rock Station is a lamb and beef operation helmed by partners Dave Eason and Ruth Armstrong. The third-generation high country farm that sits at the boundary of Otago and Southland continues to build on good practices put in place by earlier generations, while working to meet the new challenges of a changing climate and shifting markets.

The Station is the only Crown lease holding in the Wart Hill area from a 1926 subdivision that still holds the original home block and the separate run block. Life partners Dave Eason and Ruth Armstrong own the home block (445ha) and lease the run block (3640ha). The blocks range from the high country down to the finishing pastures. They’re connected through a legal right-of-way on what is now a young forestry block.

Some years back, they had the option to freehold the run block, but the Crown wanted 37% of the finishing land, so they’ve opted to continue with a lease and recently signed a new 99-year term with first right of renewal.

As members of the High Country Accord Trust, Dave and Ruth help uphold the rights of pastoral leaseholders. The Trust’s mission—to ensure the long-term economic, environmental, and social sustainability of the South Island High Country—reflects the values of Crown Rock Station.

Crown Rock Station has around 600 cows going to bull, and 8700 ewes. They stock predominantly Angus with some Short Horn, which helped increase milk production for calves. Key challenges for the Station are distance and climate.

The station ranges from 3 -1250 metres above sea level. Snow and cold are always issues, though the changing climate is resulting in less snow. The landscape drives the production cycle. They put their ewes and cows in the high country after weaning. The ewes are moved down to the run block in April, and the cows in May-June. They run two separate flocks with all the older ewes and hoggets (R1 and R2), and bulls wintered at the home block.

They’re looking at their sheep genetics to move the live lambing rate from the current 117% closer to their 162% scanning rate. Their ewes are predominantly Romney, and they may move to  Perendale crosses to increase lamb hardiness.

Other climate-related challenges have been the regular flooding of a key road in, and their Spring pasture growth rates are changing. They don’t use supplementary feed and have managed to continue this by running 100 fewer cows over the last year. This has eased pressure on pasture while still delivering a similar number of calves.

Dave credits his grandfather and father with setting up strong foundations that have worked well for the three generations farming the land. His grandfather bought both blocks in the sixties, his father took them on in the seventies, and Dave bought them in 2009. Cattle broke in the highland, clearing the tussock below 3000 feet and helping to generate good pasture. They continue to use few fertiliser inputs, relying on regular liming.

In the shearing shed, Crown Rock blends the old with the new. They still blade shear a portion of their flock. Blade shearing leaves around 20–25mm of wool on the sheep, retaining protective lanolin and providing “cheap insurance against the cold,” as Dave calls it. This method also enables them to employ seven shearers in a four-stand woolshed.

Wool production is finally turning a corner. Through years of barely covering shearing costs with the price they were getting for the wool, Dave and Ruth stuck with it. Dave says, “We never gave up on wool, and right now there’s a shortage, prices are rising, and there’s more promise than we’ve had in 15 odd years.”

They’re supplying directly to the innovative company WoolWorks, New Zealand’s only wool scouring service (and the largest wool scouring facility worldwide), which extracts wool grease during the scouring process. This product is further refined into Vitamin D3 for supplements and Cholesterol NF, a crystalline powder used in the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries.

Distance is another perpetual challenge for the station. It’s a two-hour trip across the blocks. Dave holds a pilot’s license and uses a Robinson R22 for access to the further reaches and for some mustering access across the vast expanse. Not a cheap bit of kit, but the machine is proving to be value for money with the efficiency gains.

Crown Rock has also found economic opportunity in pest management. Wild deer are now part of the station’s diversified income stream. They undertake three culls a year, harvesting around 300 deer for both human consumption and pet food markets. It’s an example of adaptive thinking: turning a challenge into a benefit that contributes to the station’s overall viability.

For Dave and Ruth, the future of Crown Rock Station lies in balancing heritage and progress. The land tells the story of a family that has worked it for three generations—but it’s also a story of resilience in the face of change. The new realities of climate change, market shifts, and environmental expectations all demand that they evolve, just as the land has.

At Crown Rock Station, a sense of stewardship, rooted in family, community, and respect for the land, remains as solid as the rock it’s named after.

https://woolworks.co.nz/