Hayden cruises into the Grand Final

It was a clear cut race to find the winner of The National Bank Young Farmer Contest on Saturday. He may have come third in 2010 but Hayden Peter made sure he made a convincing show of taking out the 2011 title win over the seven other Contestants at the Otago/Southland Regional Final in Winton.

A combination of a solid performance across the board and a great night on the buzzer, coupled with a win in the Lincoln University Agri-growth Challenge, meant that 28 year old stud stock manager Hayden was in front of the pack for the whole Evening Show at the Winton Memorial Hall.
Hayden was feeling “quite relieved” after the big win having competed a few times now.

“I was third last year, fourth the year before and sixth a few years before that so I’ve been getting closer every year; because of that there was a bit of expectation for me to do well so there was some added pressure this year.”

“I was quite concerned that I’d done poorly during the Practical Day so I was a bit nervous to see how that score would affect me during the Evening Show.”

Hayden had nothing to worry about; retaining his lead with a sound practical score. He said the Practical Day had some tough challenges and it was the Lincoln University Agri-growth Challenge that he felt the most comfortable with.

“I was quite confident with the interview; I like to keep up to date with what’s going on in the agricultural scene and current events in New Zealand which I think paid off.”

He may have won the Regional Final, but there’s no time to rest for Hayden as he was straight back into artificially inseminating sheep today on the stud stock farm he manages. He’s got a busy week ahead with more of the same but hopes to find time to sit down and make a plan for how he’ll prepare for Grand Final. That will include getting in touch with previous Grand Finalists and mapping out strengths and weaknesses.

Not only will Hayden represent Otago/Southland at the Grand Final in Masterton from June 29th to July 2nd he also took away a prize pack worth $10,250 on Saturday.

The pack includes a Honda XR125 two-wheeled farm bike valued at $4000, a $1500 Lincoln University Scholarship, $1000 cash and $500 towards a capability development programme from AGMARDT, a weekend hunting trip courtesy of Isuzu valued at $1000, Ravensdown quality fertiliser products worth $1000, a range of Swanndri clothing valued at $750 and The National Bank will provide $500 cash.

The rest of the field was very close with only a few points separating the remaining seven at some stages.

Twenty nine year old sheep farmer Nathan Parris came in second followed by first-time Contestant Simon Paterson (28) who also won the AGMARDT Agri-business Challenge. Craig Moffat, a 26 year old sheep farmer from Balclutha, placed fourth.

Reuben Hopcroft (29) from Riverton had a strong practical day, winning the Isuzu Agri-sports Challenge as did 28 year old Bruce Paterson from Otautau who took out the Ravensdown Agri-skills Challenge.

The Road to Recovery Auction was able to add an extra $4,800 to the Earthquake Recovery Fund when items from Honda, Ravensdown, Echo and The National Bank were auctioned off during the Evening Show, bringing the grand total to nearly $25,000.

AgriKidsNZ had so many Competitors this year that they had to hold extra preliminaries on Friday afternoon to fit everyone in. Around 180 children competed for the chance to go to Grand Final and the top three who made it through were the Buckeroos from Tokanui Primary, the Sloppy Joes from Riversdale Primary and the Romahapa Butchers from Romohapa School.

TeenAg also had a great turnout with 25 teams turning up to compete. It was Teamo Supremo from Gore High School that took it out though; Jasmine Simpson and Bridget Henderson were pretty happy to take it out over the boys. Coming in second was Team Waikaka made up of Robert Gregory and James Gardyne followed by Allen Gregory and Richard Gardyne from the Grain Slaves.

For those that missed the action at the Winton Racecourse and Memorial Hall, the Otago/Southland Regional Final will be screened on TVNZ 7’s Road to the Young Farmer Final on June 18th.

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