Tuesday 24th July 2018
An event bringing the country to Wellington has won a national award
A ground-breaking event which brought the country to the nation’s capital has received a sought-after award.
Wellington hosted the Taranaki/Manawatū Regional Final of the FMG Young Farmer of the Year in February.
The contest was organised by Wellington Young Farmers and has been named the country’s best regional final in 2018.
The club beat six other NZ Young Farmers regions which were all vying for the accolade.
“We were ecstatic to take out the title,” said Wellington Young Farmers co-chair Sarah Braun.
“Due praise has to go to former club chair Nicola Barton who put in a mammoth effort organising the event.”
It was the first time a regional final of the FMG Young Farmer of the Year had been held in Wellington.
“Our aim was to showcase modern agriculture to a city audience,” said Sarah.
“We were excited to get the opportunity to do this and really proud of how it turned out,” said Sarah.
Eight finalists from across the sprawling region tackled a series of gruelling modules on Crawford Green in Miramar.
“We had to get really creative with the modules due a number of challenges and restrictions we faced,” she said.
“For example, we weren’t allowed to dig posts into the ground.”
“We managed to have a good mix of academic modules, such as fertiliser testing and analysing pasture samples with
current on-farm technology, as well as grunty practical ones to give them a good physical challenge,” said Sarah.
The club was most proud of the challenges finalists had to complete in the popular head-to-head events.
“They required a bit more planning at our end – for example in one they had to build a planter box using a deconstructed
wooden pellet,” said Sarah.
“Once they’d completed their box they had to fill it with soil, plant seedlings and set up an irrigation system. It was
a real crowd pleaser.”
People working in the capital who are passionate about the primary industries are encouraged to look up Wellington Young
Farmers on Facebook.
ends