From a young age, Ray knew that he wanted to become a sheep farmer. After leaving school he completed tertiary studies in commerce and agriculture at Lincoln College. Having also got married to the daughter of a farmer, he went on to work at her family's farm near Riversdale before securing a position as shepherd in the Moa Flat area. It was there that Ray and Ruth decided to apply for a balloted farm under the government's citizen settlement scheme which ran for almost thirty years until the mid 1980s. As a result, they drew a 246-hectare block in the Te Anau Basin which they continue to run as a farm thirty years later. They have also diversified into tourism-related activities.