Winery enterprise wins South Island Farmer of the Year

Winery enterprise wins South Island Farmer of the Year for 2013

Marlborough entrepreneur and winemaker Peter Yealands has won the prestigious Lincoln University Foundation South Island Farmer of the Year award for 2013.

The finals were held at Lincoln University with Chief Judge Nicky Hyslop saying the Yealands entry stood out for its innovation, entrepreneurship and vision.

The winner’s prize is a $20,000 grant toward overseas travel for study, research, marketing, or a combination of these.

The Yealands entry, one of six finalists from throughout the South Island, also won the Silver Fern Farms ‘Plate to Pasture’ award for consumer awareness, and the Lincoln University award for best use of technology and innovation, receiving $5000 for each.

“Peter impressed us with his philosophy of ‘think boldly and never say it can’t be done’,” Hyslop says. “He also demonstrated outstanding innovation inside and outside of the winery business. That was backed up by sound business practices integrated into every aspect of the operation, and a holistic ‘vine to bottle’ approach. Peter showed he was a visionary and had the will and the tenacity to convert that into a successful farm business enterprise.”

Andrew, Karen and Sam Simpson from Lake Tekapo were runners up with their high country merino sheep station, Balmoral, that has diversified into forestry, deer, cropping, property development, conservation recreation, value-added processing of their wool and meat. Hyslop says this entry was also notable for its vision and entrepreneurship, the extensive skill set within the family operation, its business and governance structures, and international networking.

The BNZ award for best human resource management, and the award for resource use efficiency were both taken out by North Canterbury dairy farmers Alan and Sharron Davie-Martin, winning $5000 for each.

“We had an outstanding group of finalists this year, all of a very high calibre,” says Lincoln University Foundation Chair Ben Todhunter. “They each in their way represented some of the best examples of the high performing, innovative, leading edge farming that is coming out of the South Island. This very high standard of entry represents not only a strong future for this competition, but for New Zealand, as we seek to encourage, promote and reward farming excellence.”

The six finalists were:

Neil and Philippa Gardyne from Otama, near Gore, who 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 large scale 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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