Wednesday, 04 May 2022 06:55

FMG Young Farmer title finalists

Written by  Jessica Marshall
Waikato/Bay of Plenty's Chris Poole will compete in the FMG Young Farmer of the Year grand final in July. Waikato/Bay of Plenty's Chris Poole will compete in the FMG Young Farmer of the Year grand final in July.

Four dairy farmers are among the seven finalists vying for the FMG Young Farmer of the Year title.

Waikato/Bay of Plenty’s Chris Poole, Tasman’s Jonny Brown, Otago/Southland’s Alex Field and Taranaki/Manawatu’s David Reesby will compete for the top title later this year.

For Waikato/Bay of Plenty’s Chris Poole, age 27, the competition is something of a family affair as his wife, Emma Dangen, was an FMG Young Farmer of the Year Grand Finalist in 2019.

Poole will also be competing against his brother-in-law, Tim Dangen, a sheep/beef farmer, in the 2022 Grand Final.

Tasman’s Jonny Brown manages a dairy farm for Dairy Holdings Ltd, which milks 1,300 cows, and has spent his career rising through the ranks of the industry.

Since graduating from Lincoln University with a Bachelor of Agricultural Commerce and Land Valuation, the father of two has worked in contract milking and farm management mainly around the Canterbury region.

For Alex Field of Otago Southland, this marks the second time he has made it to the Grand Final.

Three years ago, in 2019, Field competed in the Grand Final, winning the award for outstanding leadership skills.

Taranaki Manawatu farmer David Reesby was named a grand finalist towards the end of March.

Reesby is second in charge at his family’s dairy farm near Oroua.

New Zealand Young Farmers chief executive Lynda Coppersmith has called the event series to-date a success.

The grand final event is scheduled to be held in Whangarei from the 7th to the 9th July.

More like this

Road to grand final continues

The first FMG Young Farmer of the Year Regional Final will kick off at the Helensville Showgrounds this Saturday.

Featured

Australia develops first local mRNA FMD vaccine

Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.

NZ household food waste falls again

Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.

Editorial: No joking matter

OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.

National

All eyes on NZ milk supply

All eyes are on milk production in New Zealand and its impact on global dairy prices in the coming months.

Machinery & Products

Leader balers arrive in NZ

Officially launched at the National Fieldays event in June, the Leader in-line conventional PRO 1900 balers are imported and distributed…

JDLink Boost for NZ farms

Connectivity is widely recognised as one of the biggest challenges facing farmers, but it is now being overcome through the…

New generation Defender HD11

The all-new 2026 Can-Am Defender HD11 looks likely to raise the bar in the highly competitive side-by-side category.

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

Full cabinet

OPINION: Legislation being drafted to bring back the controversial trade of live animal exports by sea is getting stuck in the…

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter