rivettingKateTaylor

Day One is over. Well technically, day two. We had a “street parade” on the main street – well, the boys arrived in valiants and proceeded to chainsaw a trout out of the block of wood and carve a Jim Hopkins likeness out of a swede.

 Speaking of valiants, it took me a couple of hours to click what was so different about Gorrrrrrrrrrre from when I lived there 20 years ago. No centre parks. The ABCs were legendary in the day (from memory – the Abernathys, the Barclays and the Cavanaghs?) and the centre parks weren’t a safe place to be in hours of darkness. No vampires in the those days, just centre parkies.

Rivettingkatetaylor is in Gorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre for the Grand Final of the National Bank Young Farmer Contest. It has been awesome so far and tomorrow is going to be even better!

Chris Will gave a fantastic speech tonight and I will eat my hat if he doesn’t win that section.

Tomorrow (technically today cos I am writing this in the wee hours) is Practical Day at the Gorrrrrrrrrrre A&P Showgrounds. This has a range of practical events (haha I know what they are and you don’t!!!)

Today was Technical Day….. here’s the press release that went out today. And tickets have sold out for Saturday night – awesome! Make sure you’re watching TVNZ 6 at 7.30pm (Channel 16 if you have Sky). And listen to Jamie McKay’s Farming Show – he’s live from the Practicals and you might even hear yours truly!!

 

Thursday 9th July – Technical Day

The first day of the 2010 Grand Final of The National Bank Young Farmer Contest has tested the brain power of the seven contestants.

The seven Grand Finalists have each won their respective Regional Finals – James Donaldson from Northern, Sam Williams from Waikato/Bay of Plenty, Angus Brown from East Coast, Chris Will from Taranaki/Manawatu, Grant McNaughton from Tasman, Andrew Scott from Aorangi and hometown favourite Pete Gardyne from Otago/Southland.

The Grand Final is being held in Gore this week with today’s Technical Day at The Moth and the Croyden Heritage Aircraft Company at Mandeville and tomorrow’s Practical Day at the Gore A&P Showgrounds. The televised Evening Session at the Gore Multisports Complex, being televised live by TVNZ 6 at 7.30pm on Saturday, has been sold out. There will be 1300 people there to watch Saturday night’s show, including several hundred participants and spectators from the AgriKids competition run alongside the main Contest.

The Technical Day has a number of aspects, known as the AGMARDT Agri-business Challenge and the Lincoln University Agri-growth Challenge.

The contestants had to do a strategic business plan for a local Mandeville Farm, having visited it earlier in the morning.

Market Innovation Challenge was a presentation of a more detailed research project already completed by the contestants identifying an agricultural bio-product that is, or can be, produced on a property of their choice. They had to analyse the value proposition to the customers of this product in the international market, as well as supply chain opportunities for the farmer. The judges for this were Charlie Graham and Stephen Macaulay from the National Bank and Southland farmer Leon Black, a director of Beef and Lamb NZ.

A new section this year, done in a two-hour interview prior to the Grand Final, was the contestant’s “community footprint” judging the impact of each contestant in their communities and what drives them as an individual. This looked at four key areas – NZ Young Farmers, community, family and relationships and environment.

Each contestant also had to face a panel of judges for a 45-minute personal interview at the Grand Final – author Christine Fernyhough, Deputy Prime Minister Bill English and Southland-based financial planner Peter Flannery.

In the human resources challenge, contestants had to resolve a conflict being acted out by an employer and a dismissed employee.

Following the Technical Day, the contestants had to present a three minute speech as part of the Awards Dinner at the Heartland Hotel Croydon on Thursday evening.

The winner of the Lincoln University Agri-growth Challenge wins an international exchange scholarship for a three to four week study tour to a renowned partner University – Cornell (USA), University of Copenhagen (Denmark) or the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (valued at $9,500).

The winner of the AGMARDT Agri-business Challenge wins a $15,000 scholarship towards a career development programme.

The Contest’s $102,000 first prize package, given to the lucky winner on Saturday night, includes a new Hyundai Santa Fe 2.2 CRDi A5 seven-seater valued at $ 55,990, a Honda TRX420FPM power steer four-wheel drive manual ATV valued at $ 14,600 and $10,000 cash from The National Bank.