Kiwis finalists in Aussie farm awards

Horned merino rams will be swapping pasture at Bendigo Station for downtown Queenstown during the Running of the Wools on Waitangi Day. Photo / Bendigo Station

Two New Zealand farm managers are in the finals of the inaugural Zanda McDonald Award, a transtasman agri-business initiative created by the Platinum Primary Producers (PPP) Group.

Athol New, 29, farm business manager of Synlait's Dunsandel Dairies based in Rakaia, and Luke Wright, 32, farm manager of Landcorp Farming's Stuart Farm, Te Anau, Southland, have been invited to the PPP annual conference in Darwin in June, where the winner will be announced.

They will be joined by third finalist, 27-year-old Emma Hegarty, beef extension officer at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (Daff) in Queensland, Australia.

Shane McManaway, PPP chairman, says the three are to be highly commended for their contributions to their agri-business communities and that he and the judging panel " Julie McDonald (MDH, Queensland), Melinda King (Whitney Pastoral Company, New South Wales), Charlie De Fegely (Ararat, Victoria) and Pat Gunston (Allflex Australasia, Queensland) " were extremely impressed.

"All the candidates were exceptional and it was a tough job deciding who would go forward. We now have three extremely high-calibre contenders. The next stage will certainly be exciting."

The winner will receive a tailored prize package based around spending quality mentoring time with PPP members relevant to their business sectors. The prize also includes a place on the Rabobank Farm Manager's Programme, valued at around $7000.

The late Zanda McDonald, a Queensland cattle producer, was a founding member of the PPP Group (a transtasman networking syndicate comprising more than 120 of Australasia's leading agri-business professionals).

The award is a PPP initiative created in his honour and as an opportunity to give promising young agri-leaders a helping hand.

Running of the wools

A spectacle not seen in Queenstown for decades will be staged again next month as more than 300 merino sheep run through the town centre to herald the start of the inaugural Hilux New Zealand Rural Games over the Waitangi holiday weekend.

The "Running of the Wools" is planned as a dramatic celebration of the region's farming heritage evoking memories of early settlers and highlighting the merino's continued importance to New Zealand's rural economy.

The Hilux New Zealand Rural Games feature several national championships for sports including speed shearing, sheep dog trials, speed fencing, gumboot throwing and coal shovelling as well as four Highland Games "heavy" events and the Trans-Tasman Anzaxe Wood Chopping Championship.

Quad confusion

Research from James Cook University reveals farmers are confused about quad bike safety, and most manufacturers are resistant to adding safety features to their bikes.

It comes after quads last year officially surpassed tractors as the most dangerous piece of farm equipment in Australia. Most fatalities were from crush injuries or asphyxia after bikes rolled on riders. A study from JCU's Mt Isa Centre for Rural and Remote Health and College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Science, led by Professor Sabina Knight and Associate Professor Richard Franklin, has found many farmers don't know who to ask about the dangers of the bikes or how to lessen them.

"There is a lot of misinformation out there," said Knight. "Some farmers believed that horses were the most dangerous form of transport on the farm, followed by two-wheeled motorbikes, followed by quads."

"In fact it's completely the opposite. Agriculture is Australia's most dangerous industry and quad bikes are predominantly associated with serious injury and death."