2 July 1998 Entries open for Lincoln Foundation Farmer of the Year competition

Farmers focusing on meeting consumer demand will be eligible to enter the 1998 Lincoln University Foundation Farmer of the Year competition.

The category for the 1998 competition is ‘Premier Supplier’ and it aims to highlight farmers who have modified their management systems to produce a product or products that satisfy processor specification and/or consumer requirements.

The competition is open to all South Island farmers, partnerships, managers etc. and for the purposes of the award a ‘Premier Supplier’ is labelled as a farmer/manager/partner of a land-based unit who has supplied a superior product, as specified by contract or other agreement, to a processor or retailer in return for a price premium, or who has produced and marketed such a product on his or her own behalf.

The aim is to give public recognition to farmers who have looked outside the farm gate and identified opportunities to break free from commodity production by responding positively to changing market demands and opportunities.

"There are many farmers out there who are adding value to their products," says the co-ordinating judge for the Lincoln University Foundation, Neil Gow.

"They're not just saying goodbye to it at the farm gate but moving further up the value chain and producing to specifications and achieving significant returns for this. The 1998 competition will highlight these farmers and reward them with travel grants."

The Foundation invites entries from those farmers who are adding value to their meat, wool, dairy, horticultural, arable or other land-based products. This is either by producing to specifications or marketing the product themselves under their own brand.

The winner of the Farmer of the Year title receives a $7500 international travel scholarship and there are second and third prizes of $3000 and $2000 respectively.

The competition is fostered by the Lincoln University Foundation and Rabobank and is regarded as a way of rewarding innovative farmers who would benefit from an overseas travel award. The Foundation sees the competition as a way of promoting farming in the South Island.

Entries for the competition close on 14 August and are restricted to South Island farmers.

Entry forms and competition prospectuses are available from –

• Rabo Wrightson Finance

• All branches of Rabobank

• Agriculture NZ consultants and other farm management consultants in the South Island

• Errol Costello, Lincoln University, phone (03) 3253832, fax (03) 3253840.

Errol Costello, Centre for Continuing Education, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand