Rethinking the Fleece: Grenlands Farm

In the Esk Valley, just half an hour from Napier, Glenlands Farm carries both history and innovation in equal measure. Dean Martin has been on this land since childhood, following in the footsteps of his parents who purchased the farm in 1970. While sheep and beef have always been the backbone of the farm, today Glenlands is embracing change- combining regenerative grazing with a new focus on shedding sheep.

The farm is home to Dean, his wife Antoinette, and their four kids. After studying at Lincoln University and working on farms in Canterbury and Canada, Dean came back home and joined his parents in a partnership in 2007. “Mum’s family has been in the valley for a long time, and Dad moved here when he was 12. It’s always been sheep and beef,” he said.

Today, Glenlands runs around 1,000 sheep and 30 cattle over 244 hectares, with the shedding SheepMaster sheep breed now at the centre of the stud. However, the farm wasn’t always this way. Dean and his family’s path to change started with wool. “We weren’t making any money out of the wool, and there’s a lot of extra work other than just shearing them. In my 20s, I didn’t mind crutching and shearing, but now that I’m in my 50s, it’s not so much fun.”

That desire for change led them to shedding sheep - breeds that lose their wool naturally, saving the labour of shearing and eliminating fly problems altogether. “We started looking into shedding sheep. We tried Australian Whites, and then the SheepMasters. We really like how the SheepMasters are performing, so we’re pretty happy with them.”

The SheepMasters from Glenlands Farm not only shed easily, but also bring size, frame, and eating quality. “They have more intramuscular fat,” Dean explained. “Last season I killed a couple of lambs that were small and I thought they’d be really dry, but they were juicy and succulent still. I see great potential in being able to work on the eating qualities of them going forward.” The SheepMaster breed’s fast growth, low-input systems, and out-of-season breeding could also create a more constant lamb supply. “That’s what the freezing works industry has been crying out for,” Dean said.

Meat quality, out-of-season breeding and reduced labour aren’t the only benefi ts to shedding sheep. “Because they’re shedding, we don’t have any issues with flies - that’s pretty much solved itself,” he added. “The sheep will generally shed in the spring, and usually by October they’ll have dropped most of their wool. Sometimes you’ll see a round circle of wool in the paddock after a heavy rain, where a sheep has been sitting overnight.” Glenlands Farm is having their 3rd Annual SheepMaster sale on 27th November where they will be offering 30-40 rams plus about 50 2th Ewes.

While the sheep are a newer chapter, resilience has long shaped Glenlands. In 2007, a drought pushed the Martin family to rethink how they managed grass. Instead of chasing growth through fertiliser, Dean focused on building covers in spring to last the long, dry Hawke’s Bay summers. It was a turning point toward regenerative grazing.

“We don’t use much fertiliser at all,” he explained. “My fertiliser budget since 2007 has been about $500 a year, which I don’t really spend very often.” By prioritising pasture cover, Dean has found clover persisting under dry conditions when most paddocks elsewhere would have burned off . It’s a system that not only weathers droughts better but keeps soil and water quality front of mind. “We know that we’re going to be dry till March. Therefore, we want to have covers in December to get us through to March without much rain.”

It’s a philosophy tied not just to production, but environmental care. “Sustainability is really important. We’d like to hand the farm on to the next generation. We just do our best, always.”

Resilience was tested again when Cyclone Gabrielle struck in 2023. Three and a half kilometres of fencing were lost, the Mangakopikopiko Stream tore through the farm, and access to half the property was cut off for months. Contractors’ costs were so high that Dean bought a digger to restore crossings himself.

Those first months were pure grit. “After the cyclone, if you wanted to shift animals anywhere, you had to put a fence up first,” he told us. “It was just running on adrenaline and doing what you had to do.” Sheep had to be pushed through gorges to get them home for breeding, paddocks were grazed in blocks instead of rotations, and every move required another fence.

Yet even in crisis, community held strong. With roads cut and communications down, neighbours discovered a patch of cell reception on Glengarry Road. They nicknamed it “the phone booth,” gathering there not just to make calls, but to talk, share stories, and support one another.

“I went down there to make a five-minute call, and I was there two hours just talking to people, catching up. It was great - people were able to share stories and support each other through those tough times.”

Antoinette played a vital role in outreach. Working through the church, she connected families in the valley with funds and support. “There were lots of retired people who had pretty much lost everything,” Dean said. “They’d walked out of their houses with the clothes on their backs.” Helping those neighbours through the aftermath became as much a part of the cyclone story as rebuilding fences and paddocks.

Family is woven through Glenlands’ story. Dean’s father still helps on the farm, and his daughters Charlene and Jorja are hands-on too. “They’re able to help out at busy times like scanning or docking. Charlene is good at helping out with the stud stuff . You hand her the wand and the scales, and she figures out all the technology.”

It’s this blend of tradition, adaptation, and family that underpins the pride Dean takes in his work. “If you’d asked me when I was three what I wanted to be, I wanted to be a farmer,” he said. “It’s not the easiest way to make a living, but it’s rewarding. Working with animals and going through the seasons - it’s great going out there and seeing new life happening in front of your eyes.”

From the shock of a cyclone to the promise of a new breed, Glenlands Farm is proof that resilience and innovation can walk hand in hand. For Dean Martin, farming isn’t just about production - it’s about family, community, and leaving the land better for the next generation.