Michelle and Tony Roberts have been named the 2026 National Ambassadors for Sustainable Farming and Growing, taking out the Gordon Stephenson Trophy at the National Sustainability Showcase at Christchurch’s Te Pae Convention Centre last night.

“We’re really honoured to be chosen to represent sustainable farming,” Michelle says.

The couple farm deer and graze dairy heifers at Merino Downs, 15 minutes north of Gore.

“After sitting in a room with all the other regional finalists for a day hearing their stories, we’d left the room going, ‘well, don’t worry about this, somebody else is going to win’.”

The couple moved from Taranaki to Southland in the mid-1990s.

“Both Michelle and I had a very clear goal when we left Taranaki, that we wanted to buy our own farm before I was at the age of 30, and sharemilking was a very clear pathway to achieve that,” Tony says.

They sold the dairy farm and bought two adjoining properties, which they converted to deer. They now run 667 red deer, 635 fallow deer, 220 rising one-year-old dairy heifers and 35 sheep.

“There’s not a lot of fallow deer around at all,” Tony says.

“You could probably count them all on one hand, the operators that are operating fallow deer for the trophy market.”

Daughter Kate Roberts and her partner Mark Lieshout have joined the business as part of a long-term succession plan.

“We’re extremely lucky that our daughter Kate has embraced farming, and she loves the land, the animals, and her partner Mark has come on board,” Tony says.

“Now they’ve got a young family, and it’s so great to have our grandkids on the farm, growing up and having the same experiences that we had as kids.”

Head Judge Karen Williams says the pair complement each other.

“Tony is always looking around corners, he’s prepared to challenge conventional thinking and embrace new technology, but every great idea needs someone who can turn it into a sustainable reality, and that’s where Michelle is exceptional,” she says.

The farm carries 7.5km of waterways that all start on the property, each with a wide buffer zone to limit sediment runoff from the couple’s clay soils.

“You do have to be profitable, so you’ve got to make some wise choices along the way, but at the same time, a little bit every year can add up to a lot over time,” Michelle says.

“There’s a whole lot more to the environment – it’s how you nurture your people as well.”

The couple are among the first to trial Nedap SmartTags on deer as part of an embryo transfer programme.

“In our very small trial, 85% of our deer were recorded as having heats when we believed they were having heats,” Michelle says.

Tony encourages people to enter, as the awards made the couple reflect on their own operation.

“We have come away absolutely fizzing from the experience, so get involved and get entering.”

CountryWide CONNECT with Andy Thompson & Sarah Perriam-Lampp is our daily rural show livestreamed from 11am-1pm. Visit country-wide.co.nz on how to watch/listen or download the CountryWide CONNECT mobile app, available on Apple iOS and Android.