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Six Farms Make South Island Farmer of the Year Finals

The widest ever range, geographically and in farming types, of entries have made the finals of the Lincoln University Foundation South Island Farmer of the Year competition for 2013.

Six farm businesses will compete in the finals at Lincoln University on 28 November, including a high country station, a multi-farm business, a dairy farm and, for the first time, a winery.

The finalists come from Seddon in Marlborough, the Awatere Valley near Blenheim, Culverden in North Canterbury, Lake Tekapo in the Mackenzie Country, Roxburgh in Central Otago and Otama in Southland.

Judging coordinator for the Lincoln University Foundation Tricia Macfarlane says there was a very high standard of entry presenting the judging panel with a serious challenge to pick out the finalists.
“Regional judging teams were most impressed with the standard of presentation on farms,” Macfarlane says, and the time and effort farmers had put in to preparing for judging.”

Finalists, Macfarlane says, were selected for their innovations on-farm, as well as their commitment to improving profitability, productivity and growth of their business while also implementing sound environmental practices.
“Clear and targeted goal setting was a common theme among the finalists.  Industry relationships were fostered and acknowledged as an integral part of their farming enterprises.”

All finalists will be visited by a judging panel as well as earning points on the finals day at Lincoln for their presentation, the last component of the competition. “The second round of judging will take place during the next few weeks, and it will no doubt prove a challenging task for the panel,” Macfarlane says.

There’s more at stake this year with the foundation lifting the main prize of a travel/study grant to $20,000 (from $15,000 in previous years). For the first time this year’s finals will also see the awarding of four special category prizes of $5000 each:
• ·         The BNZ award for best human resource management
• ·         The Lincoln University award for technology and innovation
• ·         The Silver Fern Farms ‘Plate to Pasture’ award for consumer focus
• ·         The Resource Use Efficiency award for excellence in sustainable resource management.

Winners of these special category prizes will be decided from among the finalists.

The six finalists are:

Neil and Phillipa Gardyne from Otama, near Gore, operate a sheep, beef and cropping enterprise.  They are passionate about the sheep and beef industry and focus on innovative, efficient systems. 

Trevor and Karen Peters from Roxburgh operate a sheep and beef hill country enterprise built on strong succession planning and a real passion for farming, with low cost development contributing to outstanding farm management.

Andrew, Karen and Sam Simpson from Lake Tekapo run a high country Merino sheep station with diversification in forestry, deer, cropping, property development, conservation recreation, wool on-processing, and meat on-processing.  Other commercial activities include a helicopter pad and golf course.

Alan and Sharron Davie-Martin from Culverden operate a highly productive dairy farming operation and continually explore technology to improve systems and production in all aspects of their business.

Simon and Pip Todhunter from Blenheim intensively farm Marlborough East Coast hill country with developed and native tussock hills, carrying ewes, cows and trading cattle.  They continually explore technology to improve systems and production in all aspects of their business.

Peter Yealands from Seddon operates a large viticulture business, focused on innovation and business excellence.  The business is hugely integrated with outstanding environmental balance.

ENDS

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