James Blair Named 2026 Young Grower National Champion
James Blair, an agronomist for AS Wilcox and the Pukekohe regional champion, has won the 2026 Young Grower national title.
That's the message from Dr Stuart Davis, LeaderBrand's sustainability manager, who recently won NZ's highest horticulture honour - the Bledisloe Cup for 2024.
The Cup is awarded by Horticulture New Zealand annually in recognition of individuals who have made an outstanding and meritorious contribution to the horticulture industry in New Zealand over decades.
For more than 35 years, Davis has championed the use of science and innovation to enhance sustainable vegetable production.
It's said that there's nothing he doesn't know about growing vegetables.
Davis, 65, grew up in Pukekohe, but his folks were not involved in vegetable growing. He went to Massey University and while doing a postgraduate scholarship, developed a system of containerised transplants for vegetables - put simply, growing seeds in pots for later transplant rather than growing directly into the soil. This innovation was quickly taken up by tomato growers in Gisborne.
"They started doing this even before I completed my studies," he told Hort News.
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For about half his career he worked for Watties, where he applied science to such things as crop scheduling. In 2002, he joined LeaderBrand and was almost immediately involved in developing an integrated pest management programme - at that stage, to deal with a lettuce aphid problem.
Davis has been a director of Vegetables NZ and chair of the Vegetable Research and Innovation Board and is currently the Industry Stakeholder Advisory Group Chair for A Lighter Touch.
Much has changed since Davis began his career in the late 1970s.
He says in the early days it was unheard of for a grower to have a science-type person involved in their business.
"These days virtually all vegetable growing operations employ an agronomist - even medium sized operations either someone in the family with these qualifications or have a trained agronomist on staff," he says.
As for the future, Davis says he has no plans to retire and will continue to work because he loves the job.
