FMG Young Farmer title finalists
Four dairy farmers are among the seven finalists vying for the FMG Young Farmer of the Year title.
Steve Henderson is the first Grand Finalist to be named in the 2015 ANZ Young Farmer Contest.
The 29-year-old sharemilker took first place at the Otago/Southland Regional Final in Queenstown on Saturday, February 7.
Henderson went home with a prize pack worth over $10,000 including cash, scholarships and products and services. He also won the Lincoln University Agri-Growth and Ravensdown Agri-Skills challenges.
This was Henderson’s third attempt at regional final level of the ANZ Young Farmer Contest. He is a very active member of the Waitane Young Farmers Club as well as the Winton Fire Brigade. He sharemilks 320 cows on a 112ha property alongside his wife Tracy near Winton.
Henderson is off to the Grand Final in Taupo, July 2-4 where he will battle it out for the Champion’s title and more than $270,000 in prizes.
The Otago/Southland Regional Final featured a strong group of contestants with plenty of knowledge and talent on display. The eight contestants were required to complete a variety of challenges that all touched on all aspects of farming from practical hands-on tasks to theory and business components.
Second place went to 25-year-old Waipahi sheep farmer, Logan Wallace, of the South Otago Young Farmers Club. He took home $2,900 worth of prizes.
Third place went to Riverton dairy farmer John White (30) and fourth place went to Justin Davie (26), of the Thornbury Young Farmers Club.
The AGMARDT Agri-Business Challenge winner was John White and Justin Davie won the Silver Fern Farms Agri-Sports Challenge.
The 2015 ANZ Young Farmer Contest features seven regional finals culminating in the Grand Final.
New Zealand dairy farmers are set to be the first in the world to receive access to a new digital physical milk pricing tool that enables them to fix the price for their physical milk.
State farmer Pāmu is opening its farm gates this summer in an effort to give the rural sector the opportunity to see how large-scale, multi-system farming is delivering productivity and profitability across New Zealand.
A five-year study has found that the cost of reducing emissions without technology may be significant and unsustainable for Northland dairy farmers.
DairyNZ says Waikato farmers need certainty on Plan Change 1, but they say that certainty must be matched with practical, workable rules and a clear transition that doesn't get ahead of the new resource management system currently under review.
While the Government has moved quickly to make commercial hauliers' lot easier during the current fuel crisis, they appear to be stuck in the creep box when it comes to the agricultural industry.
Waikato farmers have been told that the Government’s new planning system legislation and the region’s Plan Change 1 (PC1) “won’t mesh together very well”.

OPINION: Central Hawke's Bay farmer Mark Warren recently told the Hawke's Bay Times it's time for a conversation about allowing…
OPINION: A nation that relies as heavily as NZ does on functional global shipping lanes will have to do its…