Eighty-eight students from six secondary schools from around Waikato took part in the inaugural Agri-Skills Education event on last month.
Hosted by St Peter’s School, Cambridge, in collaboration with Owl Farm, the event gave students from around the region the opportunity to experience a day similar to the FMG Junior Young Farmers regional competition, which will be held on April 6 in Ngatea.
The day was to encourage school students to enter the regional competition and engage with the purpose of the Young Farmers Clubs and build relationships with schools and students.
It also gave the food and fibre industries the opportunity to work more closely with students and provided schools an opportunity to come together and appreciate the range of skills that are needed in the food and fibre sectors.
Owl Farm’s demonstration manager, Jo Sheridan, played a key role in organising the event and managing health and safety.
An important strategic objective of Owl Farm is to provide educational opportunities and exposure to dairy farming, which demonstrates career opportunities to students, through events such as this one.
Students spent the morning in workshop modules learning a range of skills from Owl Farm’s partners and local businesses.
Teams of people from each of these businesses took time to help provide interactive activities showcasing elements of food and fibre farming scenarios, challenges and management practices.
The skills in the modules were tested in an agri-race in the afternoon, modelled on the FMG Junior Young Farmers competition.
Under the direction of Hamilton City Young Farmers Club member Steve Law, members of Waikato/Bay of Plenty clubs took the lead in organising and adjudicating the agri-race.
This highly competitive event featured nine challenges per team, each requiring completion within a set timeframe.
The challenges encompassed a variety of skills, such as mastering permanent and temporary fencing, executing a termination knot, installing an end insulator and identifying fertilizer samples, native trees, crops, and grass seeds.
Participants also demonstrated proficiency in mixing spray ratios, assembling a cluster of cups, and skillfully stacking hay bales onto a pallet using strops.
The energy was high among the students. Cheering was loud and judges felt the pressure.
Matamata College won the race based on time but, when the scores were meticulously calculated, they were pipped at the post by the St Peter’s Year 13 team, with Te Awamutu in third place.
Cambridge High School also had a strong representation from its Year 10 cohort, who competed against much older students.
St Peter’s School Head of Agriculture and Horticulture Rebecca McGuire said pathways into New Zealand’s primary industries need to be encouraged, and highlighted to students as they are the next generation of food producers.
“Student and school support for this Agri-Skills Education Day demonstrate that there are youth who aspire to be part of our food and fibre industries. These students are problem solvers, innovators and have a natural passion to be involved.”
St Peter’s Agri Centre offers many courses for its students. These include Agriculture and Horticulture Science in years 9-13, and Agribusiness and practical primary industry courses in years 12-13.
This article first appeared in our sister publication, Dairy Farmer.
