No.8 Wire: Champ shows no sign of slowing down

Chris Keeping. Photo / Christine McKay

The big question across shearing sports is how long David Fagan will keep going.

The King Country shearing legend, 53 last month, ventured south to win the Pleasant Point Gymkhana recently with the fastest time and also the best quality points. He then won a Speedshear (fastest time for a single sheep) in a local bar. Fagan emerged in the 1981 Golden Shears senior final, where he came third. He's been an open-class competitor since and Saturday's win was his 629th in an open final. No other shearer has reached 300.

He has won the biggest international events many times and he's mastered speed and quality in the speed event sector ranging from the 20 seconds of a speedshear to nine-hour workday tally records of more than 700 ewes or 800 lambs.

He was still good enough to represent New Zealand in the UK last year, has been a backbone of the New Zealand Shearing Championships organisation since its inception in his hometown Te Kuiti in the 1980s and is a long-serving delegate to Shearing Sports New Zealand.

Made an MNZM in 1999 and an ONZM eight years later, is it possible there's more in store for this rural and sporting legend?

Award entries open

New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards will close on November 30 and organisers are encouraging dairy farmers who are keen to progress their career to enter.

National convenor Chris Keeping says 321 entries have been received to date in the Sharemilker/Equity Farmer of the Year, Farm Manager of the Year and Dairy Trainee of the Year competitions. A record 572 people entered the awards last year and it is hoped to achieve similar numbers.

Entering the awards can help people identify ways to lift farm management and performance, and create opportunities, she said. www.dairyindustryawards.co.nz.

30 years of calf scheme

IHC is celebrating the 30th anniversary of the scheme that has seen farmers around New Zealand donate 130,000 calves to generate more than $28 million to help people with intellectual disabilities and their families. Far North calf scheme canvassers Brian and Penny Coutts, Frank Gudgeon, Loren Holland Kearins and Paul Allen have 155 weaned calves pledged for the Wellsford sale on December 1 and 38 more pledged for the Kaikohe sale on December 3. More canvassers will be needed in the Far North early next year. Ph 0800 442 500.

Early success

Two Hereford calves born 30 days early this spring created a major breakthrough in shortening gestation length -- the gap between conception and birth.

Both calves had normal birth weights and are in good health. Shortening gestation length is at the forefront of dairy genetics, as a way to help farmers bring late calving cows forward, and get more "days in milk". LIC estimates revenue implications run into tens of millions of dollars.

MIE backs Hewitt

Meat Industry Excellence chairman John McCarthy says recent Silver Fern Farms road show meetings such as the one in Whangarei on October 30 underscored the opportunity to achieve a farmer-owned and controlled industry. MIE acknowledges SFF chairman Rob Hewitt's efforts to strengthen the co-operative model and will support his bid for reelection. McCarthy has also urged farmers to vote for Fiona Hancox in this year's poll for SFF farmer-elected directors.