South Island Agricultural Field Days

Where have I been?

Why I've been at the South Island Agricultural Field Days.

Hot dog!

Yes I have.

What's special about the SIAFDs?

 Why it's that it is all and only about stuff farmers want to see and buy.

Things like tractors and silage wagons,

irrigation systems,

socks and ear tags,

all sorts of stuff.

But what was I doing?

Why I was manning the NZYF site

mostly by myself

because we also had the Tasman Regional Final

which Cole Groves won

Goose came a very close second.
The by myself bit is cause everyone else was super busy putting contest together
and pulling it apart.

We had AgriKids and TAG Regional Finals

and, very cool.

What Now!  came to film AgriKids for their teleshow

and we will be helping them to make a farming fun as show later on.

I just have to find a kid who can milk a cow by hand in the studio

and a kid who knows about bees.

But most importantly

we had the

Tasman/Aorangi Regional Fencing Competition

Ok so watching a fencing comp is a bit like watching paint dry

(would have said grass grow but when you know what goes into growing grass it is actually quite interesting watching it grow)

In the yellow shirt is Lance and the orange is Craig.

They ran the show.

All I had to do is get the competitors, the venue, the prizes and get rid of everything afterwards.

It is a much improved competition now

because of our relationship with FCANZ

Pretty darn exciting you know.

I have wind burn from being outside for three days.

So un-natural for me to be outside all the time.

I got to talk to lots of people and made some really good connections.

It was a good three days.

Now I am counting down the hours to 8 Seconds bull riding tomorrow night.



It never rained!

True, absolutely true. It did not rain at Waimumu/Gore/Invercargill

I was thrilled.

In fact it was hot, earth parching hot and the best thing there was no cold Southerly to ruin the hot, hot sun.

Dunc and I drove for seven hours to Waimumu - from wintery Canty to balmy Southland - visited with the Waitane Club chair Don and soon to be Mrs Don, Jess at the NZYF stand.

They are a young power team if I ever met one.

Next day, Thursday Dunc dropped me and President Richie

(there are a few Richies in NZYF - this one is a sharemilker from Bay of Plenty who also has kiwifruit and in his downtime is President of NZYF)

anyway we were dropped off at Waimumu Field Days

(in Southland, dropping off means an hour each way - thanks Dunc)

I got to watch my first ever fencing competition.

these are the winners. You'll notice not a sword in sight.

They are Waitane Club members and are not fencing contractors

I think they are dairy farmers.

This upside downness is why I could/would never build a fence,

that and I don't know how.

And kneeling - not my thing at all.

and fiddling around with wire

and having to use upper body strength

and I would get crazy about perfect spacing of the wires or the gate not hanging evenly and you have two hours to get the fence done according to the instructions given so it's not like you just rock up and wack a fence up.

That's what you do on your own farm when it only has to keep stock in.

This was a Otago/Southland Region competition organised by MoffDog

(that might actually be spelt MoffDawg, will have to check)

I would post a photo of him but quite frankly his shorts are too short and have holes in them.

At the end everyone (one girl, yay Rebecca! rest are lads) stands around and has a beer.