Pete Fitz-Herbert's final tilt at the FMG Young Farmer of the Year title gets underway in Timaru on Thursday.

The Hunterville sheep and beef farmer has plenty of regional final experience under his belt and is in his second grand final following last year's fifth placing.

And it will be his last for the 30-year-old who has competed for about eight years.

His intensive preparations included physical work as well and plenty of reading as battles for the top prize against six other regional winners.

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"Preparations have gone as well as they can," he said.

"I've still got to maintain life and work at the same time. (But) I reckon I've done a full academic year worth of study all up over the last eight years.

"Hopefully I should be pretty prepared for the practical side of the competition. I've done relatively well there in the past."

While he could prepare as well as he could, things still had to fall his way, he said.

"You never know what's going to get put in front of you. The competition can have a lot of variety to it."

While Mr Fitz-Herbert will be too old for young farmers beyond this year he wanted to stay involved.

"Hopefully I'll be able to have some involvement in the future in some capacity. It's given a lot to me so I wouldn't mind helping out."

Mr Fitz-Herbert is also in the running for the people's choice award and people can vote for him by visiting www.fmg.co.nz/peopleschoice/Taranaki-Manawatu/