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The winner of the 55th Young Farmer of the Year will emerge from among the winners of 11 district and seven regional competitions when the Grand Final is held in Timaru over three days in July.
In a departure from the traditional format, which has district competitions starting in October, this year the organisers have decided to trial a shortened programme in the Northern and Waikato Bay of Plenty regions. The objective remains to find New Zealand’s best Young Farmer while reducing the large amount of pressure on regional member volunteers to deliver events.
The Northern district and regional finals will be held on February 17 and 18 at Kaikohe. The following four contestants will represent Kaipara Young Farmers. They will be hoping to make it through Day 1 to qualify for the Regional Final and, ultimately, to represent the Northern Region in Timaru.
Zarnie Fergusson
Fergusson is chair of Kaipara Young Farmers and secretary for Northern Region YF. She finished fourth in the Northern Region final last year, so hopes to go at least one better this year. She lives at Kaukapakapa on her grandfather’s dairy farm, which is run by 50/50 sharemilkers while she acts as farm owner on his behalf, looking after compliance, capital maintenance and staff management.
Her main job is beef farming. She leases land in Waitoki and Kaukapakapa, where she finishes whiteface steers and breeds registered pedigree Hereford bulls, after selling her registered Angus herd last year and switching teams.
Her goals for the year are to produce sound, high finishing weight, low birth weight Hereford bulls for dairy beef production. She has been putting a lot of energy into the genetic recording and background of her cattle to achieve this. She is also experimenting with more obscure beef breeds for finishing stock, including Friesian crossed with Fleckvieh, Normande and Viking Red. All three of these breeds produce excellent herd replacements, so if their male offspring finish well as beef steers, it will give dairy farmers another viable beef option other than the standard Angus or Hereford.
Kate Hawkings
Hawkings is a Warkworth-based digger driver and is proud of finishing first in the digger driving module in the 2020 district finals, which gave her a great opportunity to expand her knowledge and skills across the 10 competition modules. She is looking forward to this year’s competition, as she now has an appreciation of the skills needed to compete and hopefully win.
She is currently secretary and publicity officer for Kaipara YF and events coordinator on the Northern region executive committee. Last year, she was on the Grand Final committee, which she found a fantastic experience, enabling her to take part in designing the competition for the finalists, as well as organising a digger driving challenge on the AM show.
Jamie Hodges
At 20, Hodges is the youngest of the local entrants and he is looking forward to learning new skills from other young farmers. He also says it’s a good event to be involved in and heaps of fun.
His farming aspirations started at college when he attended the Taratahi Training centre in Masterton one day a week, where he gained credits in level two agriculture. He subsequently completed levels 3 and 4 agriculture NZQA certificate through the Whangarei A&P internship, which was an on-farm two year course. He is now working on a bull beef farm in Wellsford. During this period, he has gained experience in livestock and dog work, as well as fencing, driving tractors and calf rearing, but he knows he still has much more to learn.
Daniel Richards
Richards is vice-chair of Kaipara Young Farmers and currently manages the family dairy farm at Tomarata, milking 300 cows on a split calving rotation. His ambition is to become a contract milker or 50/50 sharemilker when the right opportunity arises.
He has previously entered the Young Farmer of the Year competition, reaching the regional final. He has also competed in the Northern Region dairy industry awards, finishing second in 2021.
Richards is enthusiastic about the Young Farmers awards, believing firmly in their role in raising the profile of agriculture among the general public, as well as providing a great opportunity for young farmers to test their skills and gain knowledge about other parts of the agricultural sector.
Best of luck to each of our Kaipara Young Farmers competitors!
