A Taylor-made winner!

Leabourn, 28, says it was a noticeable step up from the regional competitions held earlier in the year and he appreciated being able to compete for the national title in his home region.

“It was so nice to be on my home turf, there were a lot of familiar faces, and it was pretty special for it to be in Pukekohe.”

When Leabourn won the Pukekohe regional competition in May, he was working as an agronomist at Leaderbrand. Two months ago, he started a new job as a produce lead for fruit importer SKU Ltd in Wiri.

“It’s been great to learn a new skill set and to test myself,” he told Hort News. “I’m really enjoying it and it’s been refreshing looking at the coolstore/ warehouse/packhouse side of the horticulture business.”

Leabourn was one of six young people who competed in a series of practical and theoretical horticulture modules across two days. The competition encourages young people to take up a career in horticulture as well as celebrating their success in the industry.

The competition tested their vegetable and fruit-growing knowledge, along with the skills needed to be successful growers. Competitors completed practical tests in nutrition and fertigation, tractor operation, integrated pest management, keeping everyone healthy and safe, agrichemical stewardship, and horticulture biosecurity. They also did two business activities – innovation and a leadership panel – as well as a speech.

Leabourn won the innovation, business, practical, and young vegetable grower categories, before taking out the national title.

“We were given lapel mics which gave you the freedom to own the stage,” he explains. “Everyone’s speech was amazing; the whole contingent of us did an amazing job. It’s a real recognition of how great the other five contestants were. Such strong competitors and it was a nice group of guys and girls.”

He makes a special mention of Jan Buter, who was runner-up and who also won outstanding leadership, speech and young fruit grower of the year.

“Jan was great, and I really thought he was going to win. He was so confident and knowledgeable about the industry.”

Horticulture New Zealand (HortNZ) president, Barry O’Neil, says the organisation takes great pride in hosting the final in different parts of the country every year and appreciates the support received from local growers.

He says each of the six young leaders worked hard to get to the national competition and blew the panel away with their speeches on Thursday night.

“Four out of six speeches focused on the Aotearoa Horticulture Action Plan outcome area of Nurture People,” O’Neil adds.

“I encourage you to consider how you can contribute to this outcome area of the action plan to attract, retain, and grow great people in horticulture.”

HortNZ general manager of strategy and policy Michelle Sands says it is important to highlight the work of regional organisers who host and run the competitions across six regions.

“Their dedication is what drives this fantastic industry-wide programme, and our young growers wouldn’t have made it to this national stage without them,” she told Hort News.

“It is important for us all to support the next generation of horticulture industry leaders. We are so fortunate to have so many passionate and talented young leaders pursuing careers in our industry.”

Skills Tested

For the Pukekohe regional competition in May this year, Leabourn was up against seven other competitors.

Competitors were tested on their vegetable and fruit-growing knowledge skills, along with the abilities needed to be successful growers.

They completed modules in marketing, compliance, pest and disease identification, safe tractor driving, finance, soil and fertilisers, irrigation and quality control.

Leabourn came into the competition wanting to learn more and enjoy the day, while seeing where his skill set was.

“It came as quite a nice surprise,” he told Hort News. “We had a really good number of contestants this year. A really diverse group with a mixture of outdoor vegetables, glasshouse, and fruit experience – a really good group of people. We had a lot of fun.”

Despite feeling unsure about his performance in the finance module, Taylor also took the best theory and best business awards.

“The finance was a bit daunting for me having only done it very briefly in my first year at university,” he says. “Marketing is a whole different world for me, I’ve never done anything similar to that. I put a lot of work into the marketing in particular so I was pretty happy to get that result.”

For the marketing module, Taylor designed a seasonal advent calendar for growing vegetables aimed at primary school teachers and pupils, making it easier to grow crops at schools.

“My product was just to streamline that. If they had the garden, I could supply virtually everything: the seed, fertiliser, how to grow, when to harvest it and basically all you need to know about growing.”