24 June 2004 Competition Category Taps into 'Depth of Talent'

"Hill and High Country" is the category for the 2004 Lincoln University/Rabobank Farmer of the Year Competition and entry is now open with application forms available from Lincoln University or any branch of Rabobank.

"We last had 'Hill and High Country' as a category in 1996 when Eion and Noeline Garden of Millers Flat were the winners," says coordinating judge Neil Gow of Lincoln University.

"The foundation's trustees feel that the positive exposure given to hill and high country farmers back in 1996 could be repeated again this year as there was such a depth of entrepreneurial talent in that group and the exposure would also be positive for farming in general."

The definition of the 2004 category is that a hill country property must be running at least 2000 stock units, the returns from livestock should comprise 60 percent of total income and the property must be at least 100 metres above the surrounding ground. By definition, a high country property must have all these characteristics and in addition must have at least 300 metres of relative relief from the surrounding land. The competition is restricted to South Island farmers only.

"It's no exaggeration to say that the encouragement given to farming by competitions such as this is highly important to all New Zealanders when you consider that two-thirds of the country's merchandise export earnings come from the land-based sectors and that agriculture contributes an estimated 17 percent to New Zealand's Gross Domestic Product," says Mr Gow, who is a Senior Lecturer in Farm Management at Lincoln University.

The winner of the Lincoln University Foundation/Rabobank Farmer of the Year title receives a $10,000 travel award and the runners-up receive awards of $5000 and $2000.

The 1996 'Hill and High Country' winners used their grant to travel to the United Kingdom to study silage and other winter feeding options. They travelled throughout Scotland and England and Eion Garden readily admits that his winter feeding systems at Millers Flat have certainly been "raised a notch or two as a result of the experience".

The primary aim of the Lincoln University Foundation is to encourage and facilitate the flow of appropriate people to and from New Zealand, people who can contribute to the development of New Zealand's land-based industries.

The awards are presented to enable top performers to travel, either internationally or nationally, and bring back technology or ideas and adapt them to New Zealand's farming systems.

The awards have been highly successful in achieving this aim and the reports of previous prize winners attest to their value.

Applications for the 2004 competition close on Thursday 23 September. Application forms and a prospectus are available from Errol Costello at Lincoln University, email costelle@lincoln.ac.nz or from any branch of Rabobank, free phone 0800 722 622. The prospectus may be downloaded from http://events.lincoln.ac.nz/lufoundation/

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