Root for your grower of the year

The scene at the Hawke's Bay Showgrounds during last year's National Horticultural Field Day. This year it will be held on July 8, with its regular events, including the Hawke's Bay Young Fruitgrower of the Year competition.

Young growers

Entries are now open for the Young Grower of the Year competition, which includes the Hawke's Bay Young Fruit Grower of the Year competition. It will start at the National Horticultural Field Day at the Hawke's Bay Showgrounds on July 8 and end the next day with a speech, quiz and awards night in Hastings.

The quest opens with a single national Young Vegetable Grower of the Year competition in Christchurch next Thursday, but no Hawke's Bay growers have entered.

Also on that day will be the first of five regional Young Fruitgrower of the Year contests, including the Hawke's Bay contest in July, from which the first two placegetters will win a study trip to Nelson including flights, accommodation and expenses, while the winner also goes to the national finals in Pukekohe on July 20.

Meanwhile, nominations are being sought for the national Horticulture Industry Awards which will be presented during the Horticulture Conference in Nelson on August 4.

Horti field day

The National Horticultural Field Day is set to continue into its fourth year of significant growth, and in the 10th year since the concept was pioneered as the ICE Expo by the Hawke's Bay Fruitgrowers Association in 2007.

A joint venture with the Hawke's Bay A and P Society, it fills a void for horticulture, one of New Zealand's most significant export industries but at one stage having little to expose its innovation, technology and expertise.

Organisers say it's growing to meet the industry's demand with full support of its founding partners, seeing exhibition space increase to make room for more exhibitors and the BNZ Seminar Series moved to a dedicated venue.

Historically the National Horticultural Field Day was the week before Mystery Creek (being held this year on June 15-18) but it has been moved into July to enable more people to take part in both events.

Trade sites sales are very strong with past exhibitors quickly rebooking their sites, and a great level of interest from new attendees who see the potential of a strictly horticulture event.

This year it will be held in association with Horticulture New Zealand's RSE Conference, which will be held in Napier in the days beforehand. As the Field Day grows, it is also expanding to include vegetable and cropping industries and businesses, to enhance the apple-focused event.

Know your onions

Onion growers and others interested in the further development of New Zealand's biggest export vegetable crop, are gearing-up for the Onions New Zealand Research Workshop in Hawke's Bay next month.

The workshop on May 24 will be held at the Centre for Land and Water, Ruahapia Rd, just north of Hastings, and hear details of experimental cropping in Hawke's Bay, as part of a Onions New Zealand-Ministry of Primary Industries Sustainable Farming Fund project Enhancing the profitability and value of New Zealand onions.

The crop has been grown by Gerry and John Steenkamer on an irrigated site at the LandWISE microfarm, and was harvested in February.

The experiment involves close monitoring of a paddock of boom variety rhinestone, and while the file of information is becoming quite, er, bulbous, it will continue over the next year, and aims to provide the industry with tools to monitor and manage low yields and variability in onion yield and bulb quality.

The workshop is the day before the start of the 14th LandWISE conference, in Havelock North on May 25-26.

Dairy awards

Here's the one about the tannery worker and the schoolteacher. That's Mark and Jaime Arnold who are Hawke's Bay's only finalists in the New Zealand Dairy Awards. It's a couple of decades on from their lives and former careers in Napier and now they're sharemilking in Southern Hawke's Bay. They won the Hawke's Bay-Wairarapa Share Farmer of the Year title and face winners from 11 other regions in the hunt for national honours at the NZ Dairy Awards in Wellington on May 14. The zone's dairy manager of the year finalist is Lance Graves, of Martinborough, while Nicholas Bailey of Greytown, fronts the area's hopes in the Trainee of the Year category.

Dairy women

Three finalists have been named in the Dairy Woman of the Year contest, the winner of which will be named at the Dairy Women's Network conference in Hamilton on May 4. The finalists are Westport-based Landcorp business manager Rebecca Keoghan, dairy farmer Renee Rooney, of Inchbonnie, near Greymouth, and Waihi based LIC farm solution manager Michelle Wilson.

Sheep awards

Entries in the New Zealand Sheep Industry Awards close tomorrow. Entries can be made in several categories, recognising the top farmers, breeders, scientists and innovators. The awards ceremony will be held in Masterton in July.

Shears hopes

The Royal New Zealand Show's Great Raihania Shears in Hastings this year can expect an increase in the number of top competitors as they strive for places in the New Zealand team for the World Championships in Invercargill next February. Its the last of six compulsory rounds, after which six shearers and six woolhandlers will be named for the selection series finals in Christchurch in November. Ultimately only two will make the team, the front runners being Hawke's Bay shearers Rowland Smith and John Kirkpatrick, and woolhandlers Joel Henare, of Gisborne, and Pagan Rimene, of Alexandra.

The big night

The Napier Port Primary Sector Awards tonight at the Hawke's Bay Showgrounds events centre are expected to attract an array of former winners of the anchor title, the Hawke's Bay Farmer of the Year.