Don Morrison has spent just eight years off the family farm. Four were spent studying finance at Lincoln University and another four practising in the sector in London.
But the call of home and sheep farming between the Hokonui Hills and the Blue Mountains was too strong to resist for Don and his wife Brigette, who came home in 1990 to continue the legacy his Scottish-Māori family started in 1875.
The Rosedale farm consists of 465 hectares. It was twice as large before he and his brother, former Beef + Lamb NZ chair Andrew, split the land between them, enabling succession for both. Four years ago, it got into medicinal cannabis.
Don's cousin and viticulturalist, Timbo Deaker, identified that Southland has great potential for growing commercial cannabis. Morrison was licensed by the Ministry of Health to plant 3.5ha of a low-THC plant, which means it isn't psychoactive and is not an illicit drug.
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