2 February 2001 Secondary students show strong regional interest

Wrightson AGMARDT Young Farmer Contest "fever" starts young and Lincoln University knows the chief symptom - a hot demand for Regional Final tickets by secondary school agriculture students.

To meet the interest of these youthful contest followers Lincoln University provides four complimentary entry tickets per school in the various districts which host regional finals.

The tickets, allocated through the teacher in charge of agricultural  studies, cover free admission to both the daytime practical skills section and the evening session.

This year's Regional Final locations are Dannevirke, Hawera, Cambridge, Warkworth, Darfield, Pleasant Point and Gore, with the first one on 31 March and the last on 25 May.

"The enthusiasm of the high school students is a good indicator of a healthy future for this national icon event," says Dave Hawkey, Marketing Manager at Lincoln University, one of the contest's principal sponsors.

The need to be multi-skilled in farming impressed itself last year on agricultural students of Tokoroa's Forest View High School, who were among those taking up the free ticket offer. They attended their local Regional Final in Matamata.

"The AgriSports competition made our students appreciate the need to be multi-skilled in farming," said Mary-Ann Mathis, the teacher-in-charge of Agriculture at Forest View.

"The variety of the activities challenged the students by making them realise the wide range of skills tested and also gave relevance to their school work.

"The requirements of contestants to give a short speech and to be interviewed are things they do at school but which they did not expect to be necessary skills in farming.

"It was also good for them to see the range of occupations connected with agriculture which the contestants had, and to see women competing well."

This year's Grand Final of the Wrightson AGMARDT Young Farmer Contest, in which all the regional winners compete, is in Wanganui over 5-7 July.

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand.