Rissington Cattle Company

Putting in the Work in New Zealand

Shifting the Beef Industry to the Future

The Absolom family has run the Rissington Cattle Company in New Zealand with an eye toward the future since the beginning. It’s a formula that has served them well: they’ve been here for well over 140 years.

Tag along to get to know a family that has embraced change at every turn.

Farming Is a Long-Term Game

Life at the Cutting Edge of the Beef Industry

Star and her sons Ben, Daniel and Jeremy are the fourth and fifth generations of the Absolom family to operate Rissington Cattle Company, which provides some of the best-quality bulls throughout the country.

It’s not something they take lightly. “It means a lot to me when I think about the generations that have put in a lot of work,” Star says. “Every generation has done a huge amount of work to leave it in a better state than when they took it over.”

An Absolom refuses to take the easy way out, their website states, because their ancestors never did. “We’ve been here for 140 years, and I guess that gives it a deeper connection,” Jeremy says. “To have the chance to be the caretakers of this land is an honor.”

Nothing Good Comes Easy

Small Decisions Have a Long-Lasting Impact

Innovation and change have been in the Absolom family DNA for a long time. One of their most meaningful recent innovations has been research in bulls genetics. Star’s husband, John, who passed away recently, had traveled to North America to study bulls and bring back embryos to widen the gene pool of Rissington’s bulls back home.

Because in every industry, business is always front-loaded: you invest time, money and energy in the present to reap results and benefits years down the line.

Rissington is no exception, with John’s children are now profiting from the blueprint and foundation their father established a generation ago. “The land and the business,” Daniel says, “have to be working in unison.”
An Absolom refuses to take the easy way out, their website states, because their ancestors never did. “We’ve been here for 140 years, and I guess that gives it a deeper connection,” Jeremy says. “To have the chance to be the caretakers of this land is an honor.”

It Needed Their Young Input.

The Future of Farming Is as Exciting as Ever

Star is proud of the work she and her husband have done. “It did take a lot to get the business to where it is today,” she says. “But it was very rewarding work.”

Then they passed the business on to their children because, Star says, it needed their young input.

For Star and her children, the future runs through the next generation of Absolom kids who look over the company. But Ben is stoic about it and doesn’t want to put unjust pressure on them. “You can’t control them; it’s really a case of letting them do what they want to do,” he says. “So that when they do get back here, they are really wanting to be here and, I suppose, take on the mantle of the next generation.”

Whatever happens, the future of farming is exciting. And so is the family’s.