Mike Petersen of Waipukurau says winning the 2001 Hawke's Bay Farmer of the Year competition helped spur him from the farm to the boardroom. He is chairman of Beef+Lamb and along with other agribusiness directorships.
"We were knuckling down after I returned to the family farm in 1987 but Iwanted to measure ourselves against others," he said.
It gave him the confidence to enter a national farming award, which he won, and stand for the board of Meat and Wool NZ, the forerunner of Beef+Lamb.
"Winning the Farmer of the Year award certainly helped in my off-farm activities. Farmers who want people on these organisations who are good farmers first and foremost.
"So it's all very well to come in from the corporate world but farmers do trust farmers," Mr Petersen said.
He still farms sheep and beef on the family farm south of Waipukurau and still farms the way he did when he won the competition - finishing lambs and cattle.
"We simplified the system away from a breeding operation which doesn't suit us climatically here," Mr Petersen said.
"We moved into finishing lambs on crops in summer and grass in winter, and we also finish bulls year round."
He said said he would probably stay on the farm until the end of his days, although these days his father helps out more as the corporate world beckons, helped along with his teenage children.
"There is something about it. It's always in the blood.
"I'm away from home about four days in the week at the moment and there is nothing better than coming back to the farm."
