Winterhome Farm

Winterhome is a sheep and cattle farm on the Marlborough coast owned and operated by the MacFarlane family. We were greeted by the farm manager, Ben, who gave us a demonstration of sheep herding with two of his dogs. One dog was trained to be less forceful and guided the sheep only by moving around them while the second was trained to bark at the sheep while he was mustering. Ben also gave us a demonstration of sheep shearing. With the current price of wool, it costs more to shear a sheep than the value of the wool that's obtained. Yet it's still necessary twice a year for the wellbeing of the sheep. It was a wonderful visit, and we especially enjoyed seeing the dogs at work.Read more