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Mahurangi College students Mary Innes (left) and Tessa Berger are off to Timaru in July after winning the Northern Junior FMG Young Farmer of the Year title last month. They will go up against other regional finalists, aged 13 to 18 years, from around NZ at the Grand Final where their farming skills will be put to the test. They will compete across seven disciplines or modules, with a mix of theory and practical tasks, based on the food and fibre sector. However, the exact tasks won’t be revealed until the day.
Both Tessa and Mary are from well-established farming families in the Kaipara Hills.
They say they enjoyed the regional final where they were put through their paces in modules including fencing, on-farm risk management, forestry, wool grading and soil testing.
“It was fun and the overall atmosphere of the day was awesome,” Tessa says. “The Face Off round – buzzers with quiz questions – for the top five teams was very competitive, but very cool. Te Radar was the host and he made it very funny. Everyone involved in the day had done an awesome job of making sure the event ran well.”
The girls prepared for the competition by improving their general agricultural knowledge through a combination of research, talking with their parents and going out on the farm. Then a week prior to the competition, they were sent a Tips and Tricks sheet.
“We studied hard over that week and put time into learning and practicing fencing, in particular,” Tessa says.
“We have definitely realised that one of our weaknesses is the Face Off round so we are going to prepare for the grand final by memorising lots of general facts.
“We’re also going to simulate the buzzer round to get happy preforming under pressure.
“At the regional final, we met Tim Dangen who was 2022’s Young Farmer of the Year. He was very supportive and is sending us study resources, and he will also take us for a practical day later this month.”
In the grand final, Tessa and Mary will be one of 28 teams competing for the title of FMG Junior Young Farmer of the Year 2023 Champions. They will face five challenges – an exam, modules, a farmlet, a speech and the top five teams will do a Face Off quiz.
A total of 142 teams registered for regional finals across the country, and the top two teams from each will compete in Timaru.
