FMG Young Farmer of the Year contest trialling new structure

New Zealand Young Farmers members at the 2021 Manawatū district final. Photo / Supplied

The FMG Young Farmer of the Year contest will be offering something a little different for season 55.

This year, the contest is trialling a new structure in the Northern and Waikato/Bay of Plenty Regions.

These will be two-day events, with day one resembling the traditional district contest and day two aligning more closely with a regional final.

The district contests, organised by New Zealand Young Farmers (NZYF) clubs, are usually one-day events.

The change was initiated to take the pressure off NZYF members who helped run the events, chair of New Zealand Young Farmers, Jessie Waite said.

"FMG Young Farmer of the Year does rely quite heavily on our membership base as volunteers," she told The Country's Jamie Mackay.

"They put so many hours into creating ... a district, regional, or grand final – and so we're looking to see whether we can pilot a new structure to streamline it a little bit and take a bit more pressure off, by running a district final on day one and then hitting it with a regional final on day two.

"Northern and WaiBOP are going to be our pilot for this upcoming season and then we'll just see what comes of that and if it's something that we can move forward with."

Young Farmer of the Year kicks off on October 15, 2022, with the first of 11 district contests to be held throughout New Zealand.

The top contestants from each district contest will progress through to one of seven regional finals that will be held between February and April 2023.

From there, the highest scoring contestant wins the honour of representing their region at the FMG Young Farmer of the Year Grand Final set to happen in Timaru in July 2023.

Contestants had to demonstrate the broad skillset of a modern farmer and sometimes had to "upskill in some areas" which added to the challenge, Waite said.

The contest was structured in a way that made winning accessible for all entrants and Waite said she was looking forward to hopefully seeing the first female contestant win the title.

"We have to be careful to make sure that we are bringing all elements of the food and fibre sector to the contest because we are looking for the best young farmer of the year.

"So, we've got the physical side of it, we've got theory … the academic, public speaking, the quiz – there are so many parts to it that I feel like regardless of who enters – people are going to have their strengths."

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Beef farmer Tim Dangen, the latest FMG Young Farmer of the Year, was a good example of this, Waite said.

"I think we've seen that over the last couple of years, how we've implemented new initiatives within FMG Young Farmer of the Year.

"I think the most important part is that we are having the best young farmer up on the stage, like we had with Tim Dangen just this year."

All NZYF members were encouraged to get behind their local district contest whether it be through organising, competing, or coming along as support, Waite said.