Sixth Anz Young Farmer Contest Grand Finalist Named

Sixth Anz Young Farmer Contest Grand Finalist Named

Dwayne Cowin is the sixth Grand Finalist to be named in the 2015 ANZ Young Farmer Contest.

The twenty-nine year old took first place at the Waikato/Bay of Plenty Regional Final in Paeroa on Saturday 11 April after a very close and tense Evening Show.

Mr Cowin went home with a prize pack worth over $10,000 including cash, scholarships and products and services from ANZ, FMG, Lincoln University, Ravensdown, AGMARDT, Silver Fern Farms, Honda, Husqvarna and Vodafone.

This will be Dwayne’s second attempt at Grand Final level after competing in the 2014 Grand Final. This will also be Dwayne’s last attempt at Grand Final as Contestants are only allowed to compete at Grand Final twice. He is not the only Grand Finalist in their second attempt at Grand Final Level, Matthew Bell the Tasman representative and Sully Alsop from the Taranaki/Maanwatu region are both previous Grand Finalists who will be gunning to take out the Grand Champion title.

Dwayne will be balancing training with his work as Livestock Operations Manager at Lochinver Station. For what spare time he does have, Dwayne enjoys fishing and water-skiing on Lake Taupo in the summer and hunting during the winter months.

Dwayne also took out top honours in the Ravensdown Agri-Skills Challenge.

Mr Cowin is off to the Grand Final in Taupo, 2 – 4 July where he will battle it out for the Champion’s title and more than $270,000 in prizes.

The Waikato/Bay of Plenty Regional Final Practical Day was held at the Paeroa Race Course the where a knowledgeable crowd watched the strong group of eight contestants display the best of their farming knowledge and skill. The contestants were put through their paces in a variety of challenging modules, from stock judging to engineering, touching on all aspects of farming from practical, hands-on tasks to theory and business components.

Second place went to 29 year old Ravensdown Agronomy Technical Manager, James Bryan, of the Cambridge Young Farmers Club. He took home $2,900 worth of prizes. He also took out top prize in the AGMARDT Agri-Business Challenge.

Third place went to dairy farm owner Brady Mitchell (30) of the Reporoa Young Farmers Club and fourth place went to 23 year old share milker, Josh MacDonald, of the North Waikato Young Farmers Club.

The Lincoln University Agri-Growth Challenge was won by Brady Mitchell and the crowd-pleasing Silver Fern Farms Agri-Sports Challenge was won by 23 year old, Thomas Harliwich from the Te Kawa West Young Farmers Club.

The 2015 ANZ Young Farmer Contest features seven Regional Finals culminating in the Grand Final.

Alongside the ANZ Young Farmer Contest Practical Day events New Zealand’s future farmers were in competition too in TeenAg and AgriKids competitions.

The TeenAg competition was taken out by Shanae Hoffman and Graham Johnson from Te Awamutu College.

The AgriKids competition was won Ethan Morris, Anna Morris and Ben Pettigrew from Elstow Waihou Combined School.

ENDS

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