The Farmer of the Year Award in 2014 was won by Hugh and Sharon Ritchie, of Drumpeel Farms, Otane.
Mr Ritchie's father, David, won the award in 1990.
The new Industry Leader of the Year Award will recognise those that lead from the front through innovation, building creative and empowered teams to deliver significant businesses which enrich our industry and economy.
The Farmer of the Year awards have seen the leading sheep, beef and mixed farming businesses recognised, at the same time being a trailblazer for many other agricultural and horticultural awards established throughout the country to help home skills and ambitions of those producing from the land.
But Hawke's Bay A and P Society president Richard Chambers says its awards' journey "is not over yet" and organisers are building further recognition awards to celebrate the diversity of the primary industries in our great region.
Day in the forest
A comparatively recent addition to the otherwise heavily post-Cyclone Bola afforestation between Napier and Wairoa will be the focus of a Hawke's Bay Farm Forester field day at the end of this month.
Though huge tracts of land north of Napier were put into forestry after the devastating erosion caused by Bola in March 1988, the property now known as Waihapua had remained a traditional hill country sheep and beef farm, with little in the way of tree cover.
The change came after the 320ha property on the McIntyre Access Rd, off State Highway 2 and about 30km north of Hawke's Bay Airport, was bought by the Hawke's Bay Regional Council in 2009 as part of the council's investment portfolio.
The council's vision was for a multi-use, sustainable farm forest to complement other forest and park establishments in the area.
It opted for diversity rather than blanket planting in radiata, taking into account future recreation opportunities, as well as carbon investment, timber, catchment management, and aesthetics.
The field day, on January 31 starting at 9.30am, will focus on suitable siting for trees.
Out to pasture . . ?
An American survey has shown the average age for farmers in one state by the middle of the century will hit 60 unless big steps are taken to encourage younger people to stay on the land.
The current issue of the American Society for Range Management journal Rangelands reports on the demographic trends in the industry in Wyoming, based on statistics, maps, graphs and other data used to follow trends over the past 90 years.
Rangelands says family farms once employed nearly half of the US workforce, but now most farms are corporate, mechanised, larger in size, and fewer in number.
The authors found that more than half of farm operators were older than 55.
In all but two of the state's counties, farming has attracted ever fewer people 34 years and younger. Most counties have also seen drops in the 35"54 age bracket, and it's predicted that by 2050 there will be no "operators" younger than 35, and the average age of farmers in charge will be 60 by 2050.
The authors say that even if farmers' children and grandchildren show interest in agriculture, farmers often cannot afford to keep their land and equipment. They "retire" and sell-often to developers.
