When a bushfire tore through the 800-plus hectare Winona property in 1979, it decimated infrastructure and put the enterprise on the brink of collapse.
The bushfire wiped out most of the sheep on the property 20 kilometres north of Gulgong, as well as most of the fences.
There was very little money for inputs which led Colin Seis to investigate alternative methods of farming.
Mr Seis took Winona from near extinction to now running a successful Merino stud, a 4000-head commercial Merino herd producing 18 micron wool, and a native grass seed operation selling two tonne of seeds annually.
"My father had always implemented high input farming," Mr Seis said.
"He was using the best science available to him at the time.
"After the fire we had no choice - it was so severe it nearly broke us.
"We had to find a way to survive and that began with regenerative farming methods.
"We couldn't afford fertiliser so we had to find another way.
"Without fertiliser, the native grasses returned.
"We were still plowing but we then moved to a zero-till system."
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Over many years, Mr Seis has developed this farming method and he has received a lot of recognition for it.
That was not the case in the early days as anyone who wasn't following conventional farming methods was frowned upon.
"I know regenerative farming has gained worldwide recognition now, but when I started practicing it, there were not many others also doing it," Mr Seis said.
"There was a bit of pushback from farmers but it was mainly from agronomists.
"At the time it was quite a radical way of farming.
"Now it is more common place and widely accepted.
"Although, I still get a bit of pushback today."
On the back of the success of his low input zero-till system, Mr Seis went a step further to better manage his grazing system.
"In the early 90s, I looked at some grazing management practices," he said.
"I adopted them and combined it with intensive rotation.
"We have about 70 paddocks here at Winona, and split the commercial herd into two, sometimes three groups.
"They graze a paddock for two days and are moved on.
"This creates time for the pastures to fully recover before being re-grazed.
"The sheep are not allowed back on that paddock until the pasture has fully recovered.
A Rhodesian scientist, Allan Savory watched huge wild herds in Africa.
"They would graze and then not return to the same spot for six weeks and the pasture would be fully recovered.
"Nature gets most things right."
Mr Seis believes gaining scientific support for his practices played a big part in their acceptance.
"When I started this, I could see positive changes so I started to measure things.
"I encouraged the CSIRO and other researchers to come and see what I was doing.
"I didn't think anyone would believe it.
"The CSIRO, Sydney University, Canberra University, and Melbourne University have now all done studies on it.
"These studies helped give my practices credibility and stopped a lot of the pushback."
Mr Seis now conducts workshops all over Australia on his regenerative farming practices with more scheduled for September (Queensland) and in October (Victoria).
"I do a lot of speaking tours. In the early days people were curious after hearing about what I was doing," he said.
He has written a book outlining his practices, and including a bit of his family history, called Custodians of the Grassland.
"The book looks back further than just my experience," he said.
"I found my family was involved in farming back in 1798 when my convict ancestor was granted a parcel of land to farm.
"My family settled here at Winona in 1868 and to get where we are now is a proud achievement."
