Farm ownership for many young farmers worldwide not in a position to inherit land is often seen to he an elusive target. In the past, New Zealand has encouraged new entrants into farming through a variety of government subsidized schemes. The marketplace has also developed various stepping stone ownership structures, such as share farming, which enable new entrants to accumulate capital towards the eventual purchase of land. This paper takes a case study approach, based on the farming andforestry partnerships we manage, that has seen us grow through sharefarming to land ownership with equity partners. The requirement for us to manage risk, particularly since economic deregulation, by both controlling our exposure to risk and controlling the impact of risk on the business is discussed as is the need for us to be focused on growth to ensure long term viability.