rivettingKateTaylor

Photos make the world go around…. here’s a selection of photos of Will in action at the 2011 National Bank Young Farmer Contest in Masterton over the past week – Wednesday’s welcome at the Masterton Town Hall where Will’s likeness to Prince Harry was first mentioned; Thursday’s technical day at the historic Brancepeth homestead and the speech back at the Solway Copthorne; Friday’s practical challenges, head to head (s) and agrisports at the Solway Showgrounds and finally the evening show at the new Wairarapa College auditorium.  No photos from the ball to follow! Camera was firmly packed away by that stage (RSI in the trigger finger and a wine in the other hand…)

Will Grayling with compere Jim Hopkins at the Masterton Town Hall

Working on a hypothetical plan to secure the future of Brancepeth Station

Will making his presentation to the judges for the Market Innovation Challenge - the contestants had to present a supply chain innovation project of their choice to three judges; Graham Turley the Managing Director Commercial and Agri, ANZ Group; Stephen Macauley General Manager of AGMARDT and Shane McManaway CEO of Allflex Australasia.

Will being the mediator in a human resources challenge (very good actors - as in local farmers - two employers against an unfairly dismissed worker).

Will in the human resources challenge in the Brancepeth library

Will being interviewed by a panel of three judges for 45 minutes: from left Leo Vollebregt 1987 Young Farmer of the Year, Mavis Mullins from the Golden Shears and Dr Patrick Aldwell Dean of the Faculty of Commerce at Lincoln University.

After their brains were turned to mush at Brancepeth, they continued to prepare a speech on a topic they had been given that morning (yeah, like they had time to think about it!). The guest speaker that night was Bj – Sir Brian – the great All Black and AB coach and steadfast Wairarapa farmer but fortunately the boys got to go first.

And then off to Solway Showgrounds to tire out the body as well as the brain. Let’s start with some homekill…

Will in the meat processing challenge - they had to identify 25 meat cuts and 10 offal cuts then break down a sheep carcass to show five of those cuts

In the sheep handling challenge Will had to locate and measure eye muscle mass of 10 stud rams

As well as assembling the milking cups, Will had to identify milking plant components, correctly handle stock to check hoof condition and stock judge four dairy cows

In the fencing challenge, Will had to fit a stay and stay block and construct a Taranaki gate

Will had to use a range of workshop skills to make a 10ft long steel gate with hinges in the engineering challenge

In the cropping challenge, Will had to calibrate a seed drill, choose correct weed sprays and as pictured here, measure dry matter yield of oats in the field and moisture contest of the barley grain

And now Will’s wearing orange for the agrisports, which is like an agricultural ironman – a race against the clock event where both speed and quality count and often don’t go together…..

after some fencing came pole planting (that's erosion control pole planting)

those Ravensdown silos mark the finish line - Will was first home

and the winner is

More photos to come tomorrow – some funny ones from the evening show (involving an over-size $10,000 cheque!) and also some supporter shots from the practical day.

For now, I’m still catching up on sleep from yet another fun-filled Contest week!

In light of the Young Farmer Contest, I was initially looking for a thought with a rural theme for today. But given that last year’s Young Farmer of the Year winner, Grant McNaughton, remembered (as an eight year old) watching Warwick Catto win the title in 1995 and imagined himself getting to the same pinnacle, today’s thought is appropriate afterall.

Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.

~Albert Einstein

My how time flies when you are having fun. Sorry about the delay in posting!

The practical day at the Solway Showgrounds was awesome – dawned fine and sunny with a fresh coating of snow on the mountains but it got progressively darker and colder as the day continued!

To refresh your memories, the Grand Finalists are Shane Munford from Northern,
Tim van de Molen from Waikato/Bay of Plenty, Mike Croad from East Coast, Cam
Brown from Taranaki/Manawatu, Cole Groves from Tasman, Will Grayling from
Aorangi and Hayden Peter from Otago/Southland.

The Practical Day was made up of two Challenges; Ravensdown Agri-skills and Isuzu Agri-sports – thhis information courtesy of Nicola’s Young Farmers press release… (no point reinventing the wheel when she’s done the work!)

Throughout the day the contestants had 40 minutes to complete seven different modules including sheep handling (locate and measure eye muscle mass of 10 stud rams), engineering (use a range of workshop skills to make a 10ft long steel gate with hinges), meat processing (identify 25 meat cuts and 10 offal cuts then break down a sheep carcass to show five of those cuts), cropping (calibrate seed drill and sprayer, measure dry matter yield of oats in the field and moisture
contest of the barley grain), fencing (fit a stay and stay block and construct a Taranaki gate), dairy (identify milking plant components, correctly handle stock to check hoof condition and stock judge four dairy cows) and finally forestry (cut logs to length then stack with a digger and measure volume of logs in the stack). The winner of the Ravensdown Agri-skills Challenge will
take away $14,000 worth of quality Ravensdown products.

During the day the contestants also came together for two Isuzu Head to Head Challenges; the first challenge was to create a gourmet sandwich using the local products supplied. The second was to construct a wheel barrow and then build a block wall.

The big one though was the Isuzu Agri-sports in the afternoon. Thousands of spectators lined the
Agri-sports arena where the Grand Finalists raced against each other to complete all sorts of agricultural tasks. During the Challenge Contestants showed off their forestry skills, set up a water trough, demonstrated quad bike safety, assembled and smoked a beehive, strained a fencing wire, stacked three bales of hay with a front end loader, tasted wine, planted two poplar poles, installed a battery in a ute and then balanced it on top of two half posts, bagged some potatoes, wound up a smartfence and raised The National Bank flag to finish the course; a lot to do in just 40 minutes.

Aorangi’s Will Grayling was first across the finish line, but as points are also given for completing
tasks correctly, it won’t be until tonight’s Televised Grand Final Evening Show at the Wairarapa
College Auditorium that the winner of the Isuzu Agri-sports Challenge will be announced. That Contestant will receive 12 month’s complimentary use of an Isuzu D-Max ute valued at $15,000.

And here’s the bit that pays the bills….

The overall winner of the Contest will take away a generous prize pack valued at $62,000 that includes prizes from Isuzu, Honda, The National Bank, Ravensdown, Echo, Lincoln
University, AGMARDT and Swanndri. The rest of the Contestants will receive
benefits to the value of $4700 from Echo, Swanndri, Honda and The National Bank

Also taking place at the Solway A&P Showgrounds was the AgriKidNZ Grand Final. First place went to Benjamin Cook, David Olsen and Zoe Cook from the Northern Region. Second place went to South
Makirikiri One from the Taranaki/Manawatu Region and was made up of Jack Pilet,
Josh Pilit and Olivia Smallbone. Lauren Collyns, Grace White and Luke Parker
came in third; they’re the MISiles from Masterton Intermediate.

The TeenAg Grand Final also saw some future Contestants showing off their stuff. The  Otago/Southland Region did well with Team Waikaka made up of Robert Gregory and James Gardyne taking out first place, and it was a bit of a family affair with Allan Gregory and Richard Gardyne (also known as the DK boys from Gore) coming in second. Representing the East Coast, Cameron Hassell and Nathan Gunson from Stortford Lodge placed third.

The New Zealand Young Farmers also had their annual inter-region Tug-o-War; Waikato/Bay of Plenty out-muscled the rest and took out the win.

They may forget what you said,

but they will never forget how you made them feel.

 ~Carl W. Buechner