8 May 2006 Consistency was the key for Richard

The 25-year-old Landcorp operations manager won his Regional Final at Otorohanga on Saturday. It might be a Landcorp affair in Greymouth in July – another grand finalist, Elliot Scott from Tasman, holds the same position as Richard in Christchurch.

Richard is a member of Whakamaru Young Farmers and this is only his second time in the competition. He took out his first regional final with a 12 point margin over Cambridge assistant dairy farm manager Tim Van De Molen on 198 points. Third was Murupara-based Farm Consultant Jon Nicholls on 192 with combined Practical/Agrisport winner Morrinsville farm worker Andrew Morris fourth on 189. Richard says he didn't really know what to expect from the event because he hadn't competed in the Regional Final before.

“We were in about the third round of the question session and I had been able to answer quite a few of the questions. I got my confidence up and realised I might have a shot at it. I was only middle of the range with the interview but I was second overall in the combined Practical/Agrisport. I was just able to be consistent right throughout the day without shining through in anything but without having a disaster in anything either.”

While he has now been in a management role with Landcorp for three years, Richard grew up on a dairy farm and kiwifruit orchard at Te Puke before completing a Bachelor of Agriculture at Lincoln University.

The next two months will be spent brushing up on some practical skills, but mainly focusing on the theory side of things to build those evening points.

The weekend’s final gave Richard the chance to meet some of Waikato/Bay of Plenty’s seasoned campaigners – former winners Steve Hines and Gene Roberts and last year’s grand finalist Euan Reeve.

“I’ll be approaching them to help me with my plan of attack,” he says. “I have a fair bit of work to do but I’m looking forward to it.”

The Practical challenges were held at Otorohanga Island Reserve and the evening session at the Otorohanga College Hall – following the theme of Kiwiana Capital of New Zealand. Regional manager Steve Hines says there was definitely a taste of Kiwi in the Ford vehicle challenge.

“The contestants were having a weekend away from the farm to go surfcasting at the beach. They had to load a four-wheel motorbike onto a Ford ute, connect it to a caravan, carry out a safety inspection and pack all the required gear for the weekend.

“They then had to drive the ute and caravan through a skills course, reverse it back through and then cast the surfcaster out to a target on the grass as if they were at the beach.”

The engineering challenge followed the Kiwiana theme as well.

“There was a large silhouette of a jandal. They had to scribe that onto a piece of plate steel, cut it out and construct, using different bits and pieces, the thong on top, to end up with a jandal.”

Richard won a first-prize package of $8995 including Ravensdown fertiliser products and a Honda two-wheel farm bike.

There are only two months to go until the Grand Final is held in Greymouth on the South Island’s West Coast on 6-8 July. Ticket information is available from www.youngfarmercontest.co.nz

The one remaining Regional Final will be held in Dargaville this weekend.

Richard Fitzgerald, Bevan Profitt and Steve Hines, National Bank Young Farmer Competition, New Zealand