revisiting the past

I had the opportunity to

revisit my 'old' life on Thursday and Friday last week.

 

It was the 2015 NZYF Contest Grand Final in Taupo

and my 'new' job is now a sponsor.

We were spotted two tickets for the Awards Dinner on Thursday night.

 

(terrible photo I know but the OSPRI logo is up there somewhere)

 

It's a funny old thing going back.

Things were basically the same,

a little more shambolic,

frustration was at about the same level,

as was the fun quota.

 

What was nice was to sit and have the dinner happen around me.

To relax knowing what was going well and not,

but it not being my responsbility.

I loved hearing what everyone had been up tp.

This was more so for the Young Farmers than the staff.

That was super nice.

 

I enjoyed catching up with so many people,

even getting a hug from Spud!

The last and only time that happened was when I left NZYF.

 

I spent Friday wandering the Grand Final Contest paddock

watching Grand Finalists complete modules,

chatting to farmers about OSPRI things,

and having a say on the old stockjudging comp.

 

 

I miss stinky cattle.

Grand Final 2013 - getting there

It's Grand Final time again.

It was Grand Final time,

last week,

which seems about five minutes ago.

My fulla and I headed off on a sunny Friday morning

from Christchurch to Picton.

The weather was fine and we made good time.

We got to Blenheim (the town before the Picton harbour)

and discovered my work credit card wouldn't work.

No worries.

This was followed closely by a txt from the 

Interislander Ferry people 

letting us know that our ferry was delayed due to extreme weather.

Long story short.

Our 6:30pm sailing finally left at 10:30am the next morning.

We took a wander around Picton.

You sure can't mistake the toilets in Picton.

For some reason I posted on Facebook

that we were delayed and voila!

We got a phone call from lovely Claude to say 

come and stay with her family. 

Being polite and naive we really believed we would be sailing soon.

Gosh the ferry people said we would.

We had a 1:30am, 6:25am and finally a 10:30am sailing.

Our hosts thought we were a hoot.

They knew better.

They use the ferries all the time.

We set out early to make sure we were at the front of the car queue.

So that meant breakfast on the road.

Chicken sandwiches.

I love rotisserie chickens.

While waiting in line,

my fulla bumped into his mate from home.

They hadn't seen each other for about five years so 

a catch up was in order.

Culturally this requires sharing food.

Thank goodness for a handy dandy fruit loaf on hand.

We set out on peaceful seas.

Through the Marlborough Sounds and out into 

Cook Strait.

I now hate Cook Strait.

For goodness sake, I have traveling on these ferries

since I was a baby.

My Poppa would take me and Punky Pete across

in the highest of seas and let us run wild

while he propped up the bar and

yarned with his old railways mates.

This was the day I was introduced to sea sickness.

I puked.

I never puke.

My fulla took his sweet time to get a sick bag for me

but I held on,

then I puked and felt so much better.

we stayed with my super uncle for the night

then headed off to Auckland.

We got a flat tire on the very heavy trailer.

Thank goodness for my fulla cause

in  all seriousness I would have sat down and 

cried if I had been alone.

I couldn't even figure out how the jack worked.

And it was already dusk.

And I was super tired.

But my husband saved the day.

We hadn't even got near Auckland.

It was already a long week.

First Nat Com of the year

Yep it rolls around thrice times a year and the dates seem to get closer and closer together.

Basically we get together the seven Young Farmers Regional Chairs and 

a few of the Vice-Chairs so that they can tell us, 

the National Organisation what’s going on out there in the nether regions of Nu Zild.

Plus we help them develop their understanding of what the National organisation is up to, 

have reporting from committees and 

throw in a high profile speaker and a smidge of leadership training – 

this is mostly done by osmosis.

This Nat Coms speaker was the Honourable Nathan Guy, Minister for Primary Industries and 

the general consensus was that Nathan is pretty damn cool and, 

thank goodness there is someone nearer our age and is calm, cool and collected.  

Plus he tweets his own tweets.

This Nat Com was really positive.  

Run by our Young Farmers Board members, 

Cam Lewis took the helm to guide us through the agenda effectively and efficiently.  

We try to make the agenda manageable so a bunch of farmers can sit for two days

in an enclosed environment.  

Though we do make sure there are windows. 

This Nat Com was held at Cam’s family asparagus farm near Levin.  

The farm was a great location, Levin, however was a cautious ok.  

May have been the train tracks that were about 10 meters from our motel rooms.

At the end of the day, Nat Com is the engine of New Zealand Young Farmers.  

The discussions that start in the meeting room continue 

as the friendships continue after the Nat Com guys go back to their home Regions.  

Awesome Young Farmers

New Zealand Young Farmers is a social network,

with some bite.

We are a lot more than just a bunch of farmers in a pub,
that is the most common place to find a Young Farmer.

Our purpose is to grow leaders.

Preferably rural leaders.

So along come helpful people

who are all working towards the same greater goal
as we are.

To strengthen our rural communities,

build our rural industries,

and make our country a better place.

Some of those helpful people are

NZX Agri

who publish our Young Country magazine.

(Jan/Feb just came out today).

Jackie at Young Country has partnered with RuralTV

who are interviewing those who feature in the magazine.

Pete Fitz-Herbert is a great guy with a keen sense of humour

and an even keener sense of adventure.

Pete is chair of our Marton Club and

is good at making the most of his opportunities that come his way.
In this interview you can see his enthusiasm for life
and it's exactly as he is in true life.

Talking about opportunities...
today I had a turn at sharing what I consider to be
"The Best Song Ever Written" on
National Radio on Afternoons with Jim Mora.
My preferred radio listening in the afternoon,
mostly when I'm driving.

It's fun little interview.
A bit about me,
a bit about my Christmas lunch,
a bit about Young Farmers
and then my "Best Song Ever Written"

The cool thing is that you too can chat with Jim

 about your "Best Song Ever Written"

by emailing them at afternoons@radionz.co.nz

Big Wig 2012 v2

Big Wig Day is when we

take our elected Board members

add in our Regional Chairs

and mix with inspirational leaders from the agricultural sector

and let them sit together for about six hours

and the end result is 

young farmers who get a better idea of

how to lead NZYF,

see where someone has gone before them,

figure out there are massive opportunities beyond the farm gate,

start thinking about where those opportunities might take them.

Jason Te Brake, Anne Munro B+LNZ, Cole Groves, Lisa Chapman, Paul Olsen,
Vanessa Hore, Cam Lewis, Kerri Moore, Scotty Heasly,
and NZYF CEO Richie Fitzgerald
at our September 2012 Big Wig Day.

Where we want these ideas to take our Young Farmers

is to the board rooms of our agricultural businesses

and industry good groups.

Already there are many aged out Young Farmers

on many rural boards.

There is hardly place I go without someone 

coming up to me to reminise about their time in Young Farmers.

Whether it's the Minister of Finance or an ex-Chair of Fonterra,

aged out Young Farmers are everywhere.

Here's why, it's simple....

we grow leaders.

While farmers spend their days 

growing crops,

calving and milking,

lambing and mustering

I spend my days talent scouting,

encouraging, supporting, suggesting,

critiquing, developing, pushing, dragging, letting alone,

 and growing young leaders not just for 

Young Farmers 

but also for the industry.

As a prelude to our National Committee meeting
we hold a Big Wig Day.
We invite industry leaders to speak.
Who that is is often dependent on where we are for this day.

This time we were in Dunedin.
ANZ kindly donated a board room for a day
and we invited
Eion Garden, Chair of Silver Fern Farms and
Anne Munro, an elected farmer Director of Beef+LambNZ.

Both were great in very different ways.
Eion with his wealth of experience both as a farmer
and volunteer and as a director and chair of large ag organisations.
Anne with her fresh and determined, why not attitude explaining
that governance experience comes from all leadership opportunities
whether it's as chair of Pony Club, A&P Shows or on a PTA.

I was interested in Anne's answer to the low numbers of women on boards.
A malady in most countries,
even in Norway where it is law to have boards comprised
of at least 40% females.
Like me, Anne is not a fan of affirmative action and
her response was that she felt she was a person on the board
not any different from the men,
and wasn't in her experience treated any differently.

I was reading the 2006 Young Farmers New Members handbook today.
In 2006 all our Regional Chairs where women.
In 2012 of seven, we have two women.
On our board of eight, three are women.

None of us see ourselves as needing affirmative action.
We are there because we have the skills, the knowledge and,
most importantly the confidence to sit at any board table with anyone.

Affirmative action is requested by city folk who don't live in communities
where we have to get on,
have to accept each others foibles and differences,
and have to pull together to get the job done.
That's where I live.
The place where I give my talents and others give theirs
and together we accomplish what we need to
to benefit everyone in our communities,
without fanfare.

That's the type of leaders we choose for our Young Farmer leaders
to meet and learn from because
that's the people we want to them to become.
Accepting of others,
accommodating and determined team players
who are there because they have something of value to contribute.   

'Cause that's how we roll in Young Farmers.

I'm going to have a lie down now.

Still winter in Becks

I'm sitting inside near the sun

but actually within reach of the heat of a heater
reflecting on another successful Nat Com.

It's been a National Committee meeting weekend

and this time we brought the Young Farmer leadership

to Becks in Central Otago.

You remember Becks?

That's were Ben and Nessie live.

Yup the place with two pubs

and four Hore houses.

Nessie's is one of the Hore houses.

Ah makes me laugh every time.

Both pubs are called the

White Horse Hotel

not after the whiskey though but

because for a long time

the Upper Manuherikia Valley was known for 

the high number of white horses that lived there.

The pub above is the original pub and for a long time

it was just the stone building

then the wooden building was rolled across the road on logs.

When it was across the road it was the community hall.

I love knowing this stuff.

Anyway back to Nat Com.

Every year twice a year we bring together our Board

and our Regional Chairs and some vice chairs

together for a two day meeting.

There they discuss and decide a bunch of things for the organisation

like their opinion on any new branding,

timing of Grand Final and conference,

how to engage more with members,

can we really be bothered having an exchange programme.

While my job is to implement what is decided

it is the role of Nat Com to give me direction.

It's like having 20 bosses who are all care

and little responsibility.

This is what our really great bunch of Young Farmer leaders

look like in the freezing cold on the top of the Blackstone Hills

in Central Otago.

Ah the serenrity.

One of the great things about having Nat Com in a rural setting

was that everyone gets to go on a farm tour.

Ben and Nessie have a 10,000 acre high country station.

That means it's a livestock farm pretty dry, rocky, mountainous land.

Ever since Ben and Ness put in a centre pivot two years ago

they have had really good rainfall so

at the moment the Valley is quite green and grass is plentiful.

They have 10,000 merino sheep and a hundred or so cattle.

In the States this would make them ranchers.

In New Zealand they are farmers.

They grow wool for Icebreaker and meat for Silver Fern Farms.

They feed and clothe the world.

Big job that.

Speaking of big jobs,

we met perhaps New Zealand's busiest man

David MacLeod.

We invited him because of his position as a Fonterra Director

and he came an inspired all of us

with his down to earth, good natured, opportunity knocks

story of building from starting his own electrical business

to being a director on NZ largest company and

maybe the world's largest milk supplier.

He has a heap of roles along the way not in the least

Chair of the Taranaki Regional Council,

director of Parininihi ki Waitotara

and is a National Council member of Local Government NZ.

Not bad for a Maori boy from the 'Naki

(his words).

David made his journey from High School to Fonterra sound a bit like luck

but his underlying message was one of thinking strategically,

making the most of your opportunities and not waiting for them to come to you.

But most of all family first.

In a couple of days of really good speakers*,

he was the highlight.

After all the talking and watching the closing in weather,

we finished our meeting,

headed back to Nessie's houses,

got dressed up in our warmest gear,

jumped in utes and disappeared for a high country station farm tour.

This may surprise some but not others,

the young women (they are under 30) on our Nat Com team

are all hands on farmers.

Ness runs the Blackstone Hills Station with her husband Ben,

Keri dairy farms, running one of two farms with her husband Hamish,

Lisa is currently at Lincoln Uni studying Ag Sciences but was a shepherd,

Ruth is 2IC on a dairy farm near Dannevirke.

Dunno why it would surprise people but it does.

Above Ness is explaining the lay of the land,

with a bit of showcasing her working dogs in the yards,

and a good dose of micron and fibre talk with a hand from Scotty the stock agent.

After a day long meeting

(farmers find is exhausting sitting still and listening for hours)

and a rugged, bumpy but relaxed farm tour

we all headed to the shearing shed for a two tooth merino on a spit

(cause only townies like lamb)

and a slap up BBQ dinner,

with a few beers and cake,

as showcased by my lovely assistant Ruth.

(whats the Dairy for Life jacket doing in a shearing shed?!?!)

Visiting Ben and Nessie is one of my favourite things to do.

Like many high country farmers, they love to having people stay

and nothing is a problem as long as the animals come first.

They were wonderful hosts and I can't wait to visit again.

P.S. Even if I did get a speeding ticket on my way home.

*I'll post about Big Wig Day speakers tomorrow.

doing the telly thang

So today on my way to work,

about half way to work which is about 20 minutes along I remembered that

some TV people were going to turn up about 1pm and

do an interview with me about taking ten teenagers to Hawaii on Thursday.

Ten teenagers and Louly Worm that is.

Me and Louly will be doing the taking and

the kids will be following along with dazed and confused stares I’m sure.

As I was driving I suddenly remembered that

Rozzy had called me about 430pm on Friday

to see if it was fine that we do an interview about going to visit with East Hawaii 4-H next week,

which is now this coming Thursday.

At the moment I’m running to keep up.

My way of doing this is to slow right down and focus solely on the next task.

Which is not running at all but boy does it feel like it.

Today's next task was to get my hair cut.

So any thoughts of TV interviews had flown out of my head.

 This was especially bad because when I get my hair done I don't bother with make up

because Sarah, my hairdresser invariably washes off any powder on my forehead and

I end up with a bizarre high tide line across my brow.

This is not attractive but probably only apparent to myself or

are my workmates too polite??

This morning Sarah was able to get a direct hit with a drop of water in my eye

which for a second I stopped before I rubbed

cause I had to do a quick check to remember if I had put mascara on.

I hadn't which was a lucky dodge cause

the only thing worse than no make-up is smeared make up

and I already get enough cracks about Young Farmers partying all night.

But back to the TV thing.

This is how we roll in Young Farmers.

Media people phone up, and TV are the worst or the best depending on your view point.

They phone up and get passed on to one of the managers.

They then ask us what do we have on at the moment that's interesting - ah well.... 

we scramble around thinking what do we have on at the moment. 

Most the world, including Young Farmer members think that once

the National Bank Young Farmer Contest is over then we have nothing much to do at all.

This thought process does make it hard to explain why we employ 15 people but

thoughts are necessarily processed constructively in this modern world.

So Rozzy had txted Kate and Steph from Mt Hutt College,

who are coming with us to Hawaii,

so they could come down and be filmed while I blathered on about NZYF and

taking TAG kids to Hawaii.

These guys were from CTV.

Which is a regional channel most famous for their building named after them,

the CTV Building in which my friend Jo Giles was killed in

during the Feb 22 earthquake that hit Christchurch.

Jo worked as a presenter for CTV doing funky shopping shows and

intelligent personality interviews.

She taught me that being on TV is just like being at home in your lounge chatting with mates

but with really glaring lighting and that you really need make up, lots of make-up.

Rob Cope-Williams presents Rob's World on CTV.

It's all about Canterbury agriculture and i

s not very much like Wayne's World at all,

similarities end at the programme's name.

Rob rocked up earlier than planned,

Kate and Steph were coming but not at the office yet

(mostly because it's so cold here at the moment most people's pipes have frozen and

they had no water for a shower and a hair wash but looked great all the same.)

So Rob and I chatted about Young Farmers and

when the girls arrived we kept chatting but filmed as well.

Then we did all the angle shots and pretended to chat.

Then we moved and the girls and

I poured over a TeenAg Mag at my messy desk

(thanks Rozzy for letting me dump my stuff on your desk, you are such a team player).

While Matt the camera man did angle shots and

then some more angle shots and then they left.

And that's what happens with TV interviews.

A hiss and a roar and then they disappear to do

what they will with your words and images.

tardy

I have been missing in action lately.

My sincerely apologies.



Let's see I spent a week a week ago at Fieldays

in Hamilton

which was pretty bludy freezing.

As much fun as Fieldays proves to be once the sun is up

I have yet to be remotely warm no matter how much clothing I wear.

However the set up day,

the day before Fieldays begins

was hot as it can be in winter!

Punky Pete and I drove up

catching the ferry across Cook Strait on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

See this is Pete on the ferry looking ever so evil with his cocked eyebrow.

 We were accompanied on the ferry by

quite a few utes, trailers and trucks traveling north to the Fieldays.

So many that the ferry check in chick welcomed us on our annual pilgrimage,

almost by name, well with a cheery

"Hi! Young Farmers!"

She did have our tickets in her hand at the time to be fair

and my ute has a mother sized Young Farmers banner across the bonnet.

We drove for 19 hours,

staying with Uncle Denys and Aunty Fliss for Sunday night

(Young Farmers is a charity with a limited budget

so my lovely relatives are much appreciated as they vicariously

support the rural youth of New Zealand by hosting me)

plus a rather long delay

as we parked in the dark on State Highway 1

at Pukerua Bay, just north of Wellington while

we waited for an accident to be cleared.

I always feel conflicted at my uncharitableness

at being annoyed with the people in car accidents.

I remember when I lived in Wellington

being excessively annoyed with some poor soul

who threw themselves on the commuter train tracks.

How rude holding up thousands of weary commuters only wanting to get home.

Once back on the road and heading north to Hamilton

we headed straight up the middle of the North Island

zipping past Mount Ruapehu

and not passing at any great pace the multitude of tractors

and trucks on the road.

See happy, sunny driving at a good pace photo

versus grey, sad struggling up the hill behind lumbering tractors and loaders photo.

But then we were towing a couple of tonnes of gear

in the huge, lumbering Contest trailer

otherwise known as the Uterus

as it gives the miracle of life to the Contest every year.

It's a long haul every year but

supporting and celebrating Young Farmers

at the Fieldays is part of our calendar now.

Our Waikato Young Farmers do such a lot for Fieldays

and having a place for them and any Young Farmers visiting

to gather at the end of the day,

each of the four days for five beer o'clock

is about appreciating our contribution to our rural communities.

All that and this year we have alpacas to play with.

Sarah, Kylie, Craig and CJ are actually delivering this beer.

Truly.

but that's not all

that happens during Grand Final week with Young Farmers.

We have a heaps of dinners, a heap of dinners.

Starting with the

National Bank Grand Final Committee Dinner on Wednesday

then the dress up themed

Awards Dinner on Thursday,

the posh as Sponsors Dinner on Friday night

and then the Show and Ball including Dinner.

For the photos from the Thursday night Awards Dinner

have a look at Kate Taylor's flicker here

Fieldays

The annual pilgrimage to Hamilton beings tomorrow,

at 6.30am.

When I leave for the Mystery Creek Fieldays.

At 6.30am.

Im driving up from Christchurch to Hamilton

over two days

with an interislander ferry in the middle

and a stay with Uncle Denys and Auntie Fliss.

I've made Punky Pete come with me

but only cause he hasn't driven from

Christchurch to Picton

(where there ferry docks)

since he was about four years old.

Though age is just a technicality with him.

Duncy Monkey and I play musical utes this morning.

The rather large and heavy Contest trailer

needed new tires cause they were bulging.

So we met at some random tire place to pick up the trailer

from where Henny dropped it off at yesterday.

I really am over swapping vehicles and

when I get back from Fieldays in a week and a half

I'll swap again

but this time I'll be getting my wee Hyundai i30 back.

If these are my problems and frustrations

how blessed am I?

snow, snow, snow

I drove into Christchurch this morning to pick up Henny and Hills

as they dropped off our retracted sponsored utes.

It's been cold here.

-4 this morning at 7am but by 8am it was 6 degrees.

This cracked my windscreen.

*sigh*

New Zealand Young Farmers

is a not-for-profit

which is just a posh word for a charity.

We are reliant on funding from industry good groups

mostly levy paying organisations such as

DairyNZ and Beef+LambNZ.

We also receive a lot of commercial sponsorship.

I've been with Young Farmers for two and a half years.

I love it.

Where else do you get to muck around creating crazy programmes

that will upskill young rural based people

in leadership and governance skills,

not to mention practical skills

and not to mention the 'brotherhood' of Young Farmers.

It's all about the shared experience.

In that time we have grown.

Boy have we grown.

Back in the day,

 Young Farmer membership was about 8,000.

Five years ago it was 400.

Today we have built it up to almost 2000.

That's a drop in the bucket of rural youth

but it's the cream of the crop.

People join Young Farmers firstly to network and be part of local social network.

Secondly, they catch the vision of education, careers and leadership pathways

which we create with the help from the ag industry players.

Then the members step up and take responsibility for their Club

and their career and education.

Here's the secret....

keep the hell out of Clubs

(unless they ask you to give them a hand).

The strength of Young Farmers comes from the

Young Farmers themselves.

As Network Manager my job is to put opportunities

in front of them and to encourage them to take them up.

It's not my job to do for them

or to organise everything for them.

When I started at Young Farmers,

I was told we work the members as though they were staff.

And we do.

In two years,

we've gone from six staff to 14.

This means we need a reliable supply of cash.

Somebody has got to pay us!

We have pretty creative salary packages.

Those of us who work most closely with members,

 building up the Clubs,

trying not to interfere with the drinking games,

get vehicles.

This year they are utes.

It's not quite the butterfly in South America fluttering and

causing a storm in Europe

but the Japanese earthquake/tsunami/nuclear incident

and the Thai floods

have meant there are not enough of these utes in New Zealand

and so our 'sponsors' broke the deal and

wanted their utes back.

Hmmmm how does a charity get by without transport?

How does it get things done when our members live in

out of the way rural places?
Have their meetings in pubs in random places?

Well we figure it out like we always do.

We pull together in our National Office 'club' and

create our own pathway to meeting our outcomes.

If it's going to be it's up to me was a mantra

I was taught by a wise man a long time ago

and that's what we will do.

Figure it out and succeed.

But if you happen to know a vehicle company that wants to increase

it's share of the New Zealand rural market,

please let us know.

Thanks.

Grand Final modules

The most important volunteer on Practical Day

of the

National Bank Young Farmer Contest

is the time keeper.

This year it was Lucie.

Practical Day starts off with a series of modules.

The modules are based on farming tasks

that may or may not be common.


Brad Lewis (Tara/Man) is grading fleeces here.

This would be pretty hard for him cause he is a dairy farmer.

The Contestants, of which there are seven,

one each from each of the seven Young Farmer Rgions,

come from any and all sectors of the agricutlure industry

including off farm Young Farmers like
Micheal Lilley (Tasman) and Tony Dowman (East Coast)

This is Micheal getting a seeder ready to....

you guessed it seed a paddock.

The Contestants have to so all the modules to the best of their ability

in limited time.

In this module they would have had to figure out how much seed

to load the seeder up with and that involves quite a bit of maths.

Micheal is a vet so this is a liddddlle bit outside of his experience.

Then we have Rural Polytechnic Business Manager putting together

a milking plant.

Tony Dowman (East Coast) has managed a dairy farm before injuryinghis back
and starting work at Taratahi.
This module should be pretty straight forwad for him,
but some times the thing you think you know the best and
haven't bothered to study cause you know it so well
will be the module that will trip you up.
Not that Tony did badly on this module.

Because you have these guys following you around
and they want interviews all the way.
And there's photographers and your every move is documented.
Katherine Tucker was the only female,
in fact she is the third female to get to Grand Final in 44 years.

The point of this Contest is to find the best Young Farmer.
Not the best girl farmer or boy farmer,
just the best farmer.
On farm cuts you no slack if you are a chick,
neither does this Contest.
Either you can do it or you can't.
Katherine can do it
and she can do it better than the seven guys
she beat in her Northern Regional Final.

Sam Williams (Wai/BoP) is getting up close with fecal samples.
Nice work if you can get it.
This is Sam's second Grand Final.
In his last one in Gore two years ago he cut his hand.
A big slash across his palm.
He should have gone to hospital but
he may only had that one chance to win Grand Final
so he stayed and didn't win, but he could have.

Micheal's giving welding a go.
I totally can't remember what they had to do.

Farmer's in NZ seldom scan their own ewes
(It's like an ultrasound but the ewes don't worry about having a full bladder
or have cold gel on their belly.)
but this makes a great left field module for Tony Dowman.

The one module you can count on is the First Aid module.
All farmers need to know First Aid cause help is never near by.
If you are lucky enough to have cell phone coverage you can call for help
but you can't count on that,
nor can you count on the first responders to be able to find you.
Pete Gardyne (Otago/Southland) encounters a pretty realistic car accident.

So in this module the judge watches and listens very closely
to exactly what you say and do.
The trick to this module is slow and steady
rather than panic and fail.

Hoof health is always important for cows.
Yes that's a real hoof but it's not attached to a cow.
If you talk to your local vets early enough,
 they'll collect up things like hooves and dead calf fetuses
and store them up in the freezer
so you can test/teach farmers in how to deal with
what ever animal health issue faces them.
Michael may have an unfair advantage here.
being a dairy vet and all.

It's a long grueling day.
Preceded by a full day of mental challenges,
as if farm problem solving isn't hard enough.
Pete is a great sheep and mixed cropping farmer
who stood up to all the challenging modules,
logging,
dairy,
sheep,
cropping,
engineering,
animal health/science.
And then once you have done those,
there's two head to head race offs
and the AgriSports Final.

And that's not the end of it.

rural awesomeness

Just so you know,

no self-respecting rural person would use the word awesomeness

unless they are a relatively uncool 13 year old

but it is the most appropriate word for the

2012 National Bank Young Farmer Grand Final.

This guy Elliot Scott was the man in charge

of a team of a fair few people who pulls together a massive,

a huge, an epic year of organising, planning and challenging

all for their fellow Young Farmers.

Early in the morning inside Forsyth Barr Stadium, Dunedin,

looking down on the modules on the concrete at the right end and

on the field the AgriSports set up to be raced through in a few hours.

So this is how the volunteer side of Young Farmers works.

We have these great young people who

join Young Farmers.

They blithely go along to meetings,

having a few jars,

meeting people,

talking harvest and calving stuff.

Then they enter the National Bank Young Farmer Contest.

At first they are having a good opportunity for a skills day with their mates.

They have a go at skills modules welding, building, digging, or calving/lambing

(really gross defrosted, limp dead calves or lambs).

They do this for a couple of years

then one year they make it through to a Regional Final.

Then after a couple of goes a Regional Final

they might, might make it through to a Grand Final.

Only eight from each Region make it through to a Regional Final,

only one from each Region makes it to Grand Final.

Katherine Tucker (Northern Region Grand Final Contestant)

in the dairy module at 2012 Grand Final

Along the way the Young Farmer volunteers

will have chaired a Club,

run a District/Regional Contest Final,

organised fundraising, bus trips, hunting trips,

a million and one social activities

and

making really great, life lasting friends.

Chris Will, Cam Lewis (elected the NZYF Board just now)

and Cam Brown (Regional Chair, Taranaki/Manawatu)

Contest is like no other event in anywhere in the world,

the rural world or otherwise.

Three levels - District, Regional and National

400 enter, then 56 (8x 7 Regional Finals)

then just 7 at Grand Final

then just 1.

There is only one winner each year.

We've have been doing this Contest for 44 years.

There have now been 44 Young Farmer of the year.

2012 is Michael Lilley's turn.

That's Micheal in the cloak with his wife Kelly

and the six Grand Finalists.

Grand Final is a gruelling three day event

that has a day of mental challenges,

a day of physical challenges

then a night of conquering rounds of mastermind type ag questions

all the while being filmed, photographed and interviewed.

There are only seven each year.

Only one wins.

Don't worry we train them young these days.

We have AgriKids with their own Contest in teams of three

and TeenAg in pairs.

Training Grand Finalists for the future.

We have a TV series called

The Road to the Young Farmer Final 

so click above and hopefully TVNZ will be generous

and allow my overseas peeps to watch a little of what we do.

The National Bank Young Farmer Grand Final

In all seriousness,

Grand Final week is like giving birth

in the sense that there is a certain amnesia

that takes over once the dust has settled and life is tracking along.

Then you arrive in the host city

and within ten minutes

the franticness of the five days looms ahead of you.

It's a good looming but even so it's daunting.

So here we are in Dunedin

the host city of the 2012

National Bank Young Farmer Grand Final

with seven Grand Finalists

This morning I flew down from Palmerston North

with our Chairman Spud.

We arrived, dropped off and then

I headed out to Invermay AgResearch

to help (watch) Moffdog, Dunky Monkey and Henry

set up the National Fencing Final.

It's all just a pile of sticks here

but tomorrow

I'll show you the National Final in action

as they fence their way up a pretty steep hill.

Really quite steep in fact.

Enough that as I walked back to my ute

I felt sea sick for the wonky horizon.

Though I do have a dose of the flu

so it may have been a fever spike.

More drugs I say.

 It's all on in Dunedin

over the next couple of days.

If you are around come down to the Forsyth Barr Stadium

on Friday and for free watch our seven Contestants

battle it out doing ag modules for four hours,

two 30 minute head to head task races

and then the gruelling AgriSports.

It's a killer.

In the meantime watch

Katherine Tucker

our third female Grand Finalist in 44 years

on Close Up here

fast forward to 18 minutes and she's all yours.