New Zealand Young Farmers (NZYF) is a national agricultural organisation with regional clubs throughout the country. It was formed in 1927 in the town of Fielding

Feilding, New Zealand

Feilding is a town in the Manawatu-Wanganui Region of the North Island of New Zealand. It is located on State Highway 54, 20 kilometres north of Palmerston North....

. The organisation acts as a social network for rural youth around the country and is actively involved in education and promotion of personal skills for its members. There are over 1600 members in 90 clubs around the country, all backed by the national organisation, which has its headquarters in Methven

Methven, New Zealand

Methven is a small town in the Canterbury region of the South Island of New Zealand. It is located near the western edge of the Canterbury Plains, 35 kilometres north of Ashburton. It was originally the railhead of a short branch railway off the Main South Line...

, Canterbury. The organisation's current chairman is Paul Olsen.

History

The first Young Farmers’ clubs were established in Feilding in 1927 and Auckland in 1932, but much of the organisation's early growth came in the south. By the early 1930s, there were eight clubs in the Otago Region alone, and they formed New Zealand’s first Young Farmers’ Federation. The federation rapidly expanded, containing 40 clubs by 1935, over half of them from Otago and with only two in the North Island.

In 1936, the young organisation moved its headquarters to the government's Department of Agriculture in Wellington and adopted a new constitution. This promoted the club's national nature, encouraging more growth in the North island. By 1937, the federation included nearly 120 clubs, evenly distributed between the two islands. The organisation's membership dropped during World War II, but quickly recovered ground after 1945, rising to a maximum of 306 clubs in 1948. A partner organisation, the Country Girls' Club, was also organised during the late 1940s. In 1972 the two organisations amalgamated to become the Federation of Rural Youth. The following year, a new constitution was accompanied by a change of name to the New Zealand Federation of Young Farmers Clubs, a name it kept until 2003 when it became New Zealand Young Farmers. The organisation's head office was moved to Canterbury at this time.

Young Farmer contest

NZYF runs the annual Young Farmer Contest, a major event on the rural calendar. The competition is run on a regional basis, with up to 400 entrants take part annually. The winners from each region taking part in a televised grand final. The contest began in 1969 and was initially run by individual clubs, coming under the control of the national body in 2006. The contest includes both question-and-answer sessions (on both farming-related and general knowledge subjects) and practical sessions involving farm work, problem solving, and business skills. Winners since the competition began are:

• 1969 – Gary Frazer
• 1970 – Alan Anderson
• 1971 – Philip Bell
• 1972 – John Jennings
• 1973 – Nolan Williams
• 1974 – John Miller
• 1975 – Paul Jarman
• 1976 – John Metherell
• 1977 – Keith Holmes
• 1978 – Stephen Ryan
• 1979 – Hans Pendergrast
• 1980 – James Watt
• 1981 – Geoffrey Kane
• 1982 – Colin Brown
• 1983 – Gerard Lynch
• 1984 – Douglas Brown
• 1985 – Malcolm Dodson
• 1986 – Russell Whyte
• 1987 – Leo Vollebregt
• 1988 – Hugh Wigley
• 1989 – Sinclair Highes
• 1990 – Kerry Dwyer
• 1991 – Tony Blunt
• 1992 – Grant Catto
• 1993 – Peter Barry
• 1994 – George Steven
• 1995 – Warwick Catto
• 1996 – Philip Reid
• 1997 – Shaun Baxter
• 1998 – Steve Hines
• 1999 – Richard Slee
• 2000 – Andrew Finch
• 2001 – Gene Roberts
• 2002 – Tim Porter
• 2003 – Robert Kempthorne
• 2004 – Simon Hopcroft
• 2005 – David Holdaway
• 2006 – John McCaw
• 2007 – Callum Thomsen
• 2008 – David Skiffington
• 2009 – Tim O'Sullivan
• 2010 – Grant McNaughton

External links

• New Zealand Young Farmers
• Young Farmer Contest