Reporoa young farmer in NZ final

Dwayne Cowin during last year's competition. FILE

Reporoa's Dwayne Cowin is the sixth grand finalist to be named in the 2015 ANZ Young Farmer Contest.

The 29-year-old took first place at the Waikato/Bay of Plenty Regional Final in Paeroa on Saturday after a close and tense evening show.

Mr Cowin went home with a prize pack worth more than $10,000 including cash, scholarships and products and services from ANZ, FMG, Lincoln University, Ravensdown, AGMARDT, Silver Fern Farms, Honda, Husqvarna and Vodafone.

This will be Mr Cowin's second attempt at grand final level after competing in the 2014 Grand Final. This will be his last attempt as contestants are only allowed to compete at Grand Final twice. He is not the only grand finalist in their second attempt, Matthew Bell the Tasman representative and Sully Alsop from the Taranaki/Manawatu region are both previous grand finalists who will be gunning to take out the grand champion title.

Mr Cowin, of the Reporoa Young Farmers Club, will be balancing training with his work as Livestock Operations Manager at Lochinver Station. In his spare time he enjoys fishing and water-skiing on Lake Taupo in the summer and hunting during the winter months.

Mr Cowin also took out top honours in the Ravensdown Agri-Skills Challenge.

Mr Cowin is off to the grand final in Taupo, July 2-4, where he will battle it out for the champion's title and more than $270,000 in prizes.

The Waikato/Bay of Plenty Regional Final Practical Day was held at the Paeroa Racecourse where a knowledgeable crowd watched the strong group of eight contestants display the best of their farming knowledge and skill. The contestants were put through their paces in a variety of challenging modules, from stock judging to engineering, touching on all aspects of farming from practical, hands-on tasks to theory and business components.

Second place went to 29-year-old Ravensdown Agronomy Technical Manager, James Bryan, of the Cambridge Young Farmers Club. He took home $2900 worth of prizes. He also took out top prize in the AGMARDT Agri-Business Challenge.

Third place went to dairy farm owner Brady Mitchell (30) of the Reporoa Young Farmers Club and fourth place went to 23-year-old share milker, Josh MacDonald, of the North Waikato Young Farmers Club.

The Lincoln University Agri-Growth Challenge was won by Mr Mitchell and the crowd-pleasing Silver Fern Farms Agri-Sports Challenge was won by 23-year-old, Thomas Harliwich from the Te Kawa West Young Farmers Club.

For more information visit www.youngfarmers.co.nz.