ZQRX Glenbourne Station

Grant and Cheryl Barbara farm Glenbourne Station near Waiau in North Canterbury. Grant calls himself a farmer as well as an environmentalist - he has been using regenerative techniques like direct drilling pasture for more than a decade.

When a major faultline ruptured through the property in 2016, an insurance shortfall left Barbaras looking for ways to reduce costs. They removed commercial fertiliser and and ramped up their efforts in soil health. Grant now claims to be primarily farming the soil - with everything else a by-product of what's happening under the ground.

He's seen year-on-year improvements in topsoil quality and depth and this has, in turn, brought improvements to pasture and animal health.

Grant Barbara
Glenbourne, Canterbury, New Zealand