17 July 2024 Three-day camp shows pupils around agricultural industry

High school pupils from across the country experienced a wide range of what agriculture has to offer last weekend as part of a student-led camp.

The Farm 2 Future camp, sponsored by Rabobank, took place over three days and had the attendees visit a range of industry businesses and operations.

Twenty-four year 12 students took part in the event, which was organised and run by Lincoln University students.

The pupils were invited to seven different businesses around Canterbury, heard from a panel of young professionals and toured the university campus. They bunked together at Living Springs after visits during the day.

Locations included larger operations such as PGG Wrightson and Food Stuffs South Island, as well as smaller businesses such as Meadow Mushrooms and Willesden Farms.

Brook Cooper of Christchurch said the camp changed her perspective completely.

The 16-year-old planned to study agriculture at Lincoln but had now changed her mind to food sciences.

“I wasn’t sure what side to go with.

This camp really opened my eyes up.

After hearing from the panel, she became aware of just how many different roles there were in the industry.

“They had so many cool stories.

“I guess I never had anybody show me that before.”

Ben Morris of Waikato said the camp took him “all over the place”, far outside what he learned growing up on a sheep farm.

“You get way more of a perspective of what actually happens.

The 16-year-old had no idea just how large the agricultural industry was.

“It’s all really interesting.”

Sixteen-year-old Gordie Langford of Golden Bay enjoyed being introduced to the world of sheep milking at Jones Family Farm.

It was a type of farming he had never experienced before and knew nothing about.

The mechanics of the farm was interesting, but so was hearing how it operated financially.

“I really liked the business side of things”

Lincoln University Future Leader students Lily McClure and Katie Brown organised and ran the camp as part of their third-year project.

Katie said the purpose of the camp was to introduce young people to the many diverse positions across the food and fibre industries.

“The goal was to get help them find a job they’re actually going to really enjoy.

“Even if they’ve grown up on a beef farm, they might not have ever stepped foot on a dairy farm.”

About half of the pupils had grown up in an urban environment and had no agricultural experience at all.

Lily said they “didn’t want people to think agriculture was just working on a farm.”

The camp purposely took them around a diverse range of operations to capture the entire paddock to plate process.

The pupils were greatly engaged and asked great questions at all the locations, she said.

We basically had to drag them away on the third day.

At the end of the camp Ed Tapp from the Rabobank Client Council told the pupils his journey into agriculture and awarded them each with a certificate.

“You don’t need to come from a farming family to make it in agriculture

“Farm management is a profession now, it’s not just a lifestyle”