By the time I arrived home from the Farmer of the Year field day yesterday it was raining, freezing and dark. Just an hour earlier I was standing in the sun in the yard at Drumpeel, partaking of some yummy Silver Fern Farms product, catching up with some of Hawke’s Bay’s rural clan.
About 264 people attended the 2014 Hawke’s Bay Farmer of the Year field day (according to the man counting at the gate!) at the CHB property of Hugh and Sharon Ritchie and their four beautiful children (sorry David, let’s try one handsome son and three beautiful daughters).
Posing for another photographer so I stole a pic too….
It’s the second time Drumpeel has won the title, last time with Hugh’s parents. But now the farm is a “big bigger” with a few more hectares, a few more crops, a few more irrigators and a whole lot more machinery! Plus the addition of Horonui with its sheep and bull operation (very simple system with much-reduced stock in summer).
Here are some photos…. more people shots tomorrow 🙂
The Ritchie family on the left with Silver Fern Farms director Angus Mabin speaking and field day facilitator Roy Fraser on the right
Thanks to the prompting from the ad on her back … I met Welsh lass Gail Lewis – 2014 UK Nuffield Farming Scholar
And I almost had the same shot of this Eskview Young Farmer (another walking billboard) but he turned at the last minute and I couldn’t exactly holler for him to turn a wee bit!!!
Giant carrots supplied to McCains for dicing (mixed veges)
Sarah Ritchie having an early lunch (and afternoon tea and dinner and tomorrow’s breakfast…)
It’s always a great time for a catchup – Tukituki MP Craig Foss (left), special agricultural trade envoy Mike Petersen and East Coast Rural Support Trust trustee Mike Barham
One of the sponsor presentations…. Jamie Thompson from Ravensdown gives a good spiel
Boys and their toys – a must-view in the lunchbreak (one of several)
Great view north/north-west (ish) from Horonui
and looking back the other way on the same point on Horonui
another stop closer to Drumpeel
Hugh Ritchie
In the Drumpeel yard
Shameless plug for B+LNZ on Horonui
One of the stops lower down on Horonui
and again, looking the other way!
obligatory ute shot!
So many gumboots and boots… then I saw these 🙂
The end. Thanks to the sponsors and especially the organisers, the Hawke’s Bay A&P Society!
rivettingKateTaylor 
[…] Turned on the weather – RivettingKateTaylor: […]
By: Rural round-up | Homepaddock on May 12, 2014
at 2:01 pm
[…] good selection of images from the day can be found on Kate Taylor’s website, rivettingkatetaylor.com. A sample image of folk at Drumpeel is below (thanks […]
By: 2014 Farmer of the Year Field Day | LandWISE on May 18, 2014
at 4:32 am