Close to 400 Early Entries in Dairy Awards

2 December 2011

Close to 400 Early Entries in Dairy Awards

Nearly 400 entrants have taken advantage of a prize incentive to enter the 2012 New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards before December 1.

Entries remain open in the New Zealand Sharemilker/Equity Farmer of the Year, New Zealand Farm Manager of the Year and New Zealand Dairy Trainee of the Year competitions. They are being accepted online at www.dairyindustryawards.co.nz and will close on December 20.

National convenor Chris Keeping says 381 people had entered the awards by December 1 to be eligible to win one of three Honda XR125 Duster farm bikes each valued at $4000.

“We are extremely happy with the way entries are flooding in. We are about 50 ahead of the same time last year and some regions had already met their entry targets.

“It’s been an excellent spring for most farmers across the country. When this is combined with strong dairy returns and a positive outlook, farmers are obviously in a buoyant mood and feel pretty good out there.

“If this level of interest continues we are on track to receiving a record number of entries.” Just on 497 entries were received in 2011, with the record being 508 set in 2010.

Mrs Keeping says 99 entries had been received in the sharemilker/equity farmer contest, 112 in the farm manager contest and 170 in the popular dairy trainee contest by December 1.

She says some region’s that have previously struggled to attract large numbers of entries were doing well and some more traditional regions were having a slower start.

“We are really impressed with the response we are getting in Northland this year, with 20 people already entered in the sharemilker/equity farmer contest and a further 27 entered in the other two competitions. With possibly more entries to come, this is a huge increase on last year when Northland attracted 24 entries across the three contests.”

The New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards are supported by national sponsors Westpac, DairyNZ, Ecolab, Federated Farmers, Fonterra, Honda Motorcycles NZ, LIC, Meridian Energy, Ravensdown and RD1, along with industry partner AgITO.

Entrants first enter one of 12 regional competitions being held around the country. The three winners from each of those regional competitions will then progress to the national final, which will be held in Auckland in May next year.

The early entry prize of the three Honda farm bikes (one for early entrant’s in each contest) will be drawn on March 29, 2012, to ensure entrants meet the prize draw terms and conditions.

More information on the awards can be found at www.dairyindustryawards.co.nz.

ENDS

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