FMG Young Farmer of the Year 2023: Emma Poole back on the farm after historic win

FMG Young Farmer of the year 2023 Emma Poole at the awards ceremony in Timaru. Photo / Supplied

Emma Poole is still processing her historic FMG Young Farmer of the Year Grand Final win.

The Waikato Bay of Plenty finalist is the first woman to win the event in its 55-year history.

“I still have a big smile plastered on my face and I’m feeling pretty happy about it all,” she told The Country’s Jamie Mackay.

However, the practicalities of her busy farming life mean she has no time to rest on her laurels.

Poole was currently autumn calving, where she joked that her achievements had gone unnoticed so far.

“I’ve come back this morning to some hungry calves that don’t seem to know that I’m a famous lady now, so it’s a bit disappointing they haven’t congratulated me but that’s the way it is with farming isn’t it?”

Poole comes with impressive Young Farmer Final credentials, her husband Chris was runner-up last year – to her brother Tim Dangen.

“It’s all in the family … it’s pretty neat to have those two great men behind me.”

Poole said comedian Te Radar, who is the voice of the Young Farmer of the Year, suggested the pair would have been “mansplaining” everything to her for the last few months – which they did – but it helped her “learn a few tricks”.

Te Radar is a fan, tweeting that Poole won on “guts” and “charisma,” and that her winner’s speech was the best he’d ever heard.

“That was nice of him – he’s got a lot of charisma too hasn’t he, Radar? We certainly had some good jokes.”

This camaraderie extended to Poole’s fellow finalists; Northern’s Lisa Kendall, Patrick Crawshaw of the East Coast, Taranaki Manawatū's Mac Williams, Peter O’Connor, representing Aorangi, Tasman’s Nick O’Connor, and Otago Southland’s Hugh Jackson.

“Just keeping it light-hearted – we had a really cool crew of contestants and the whole way around we were joking and having fun with each other and that’s really what it’s all about at the end of the day.”

Aorangi representative Peter O’Connor missed out on the title by a small margin, and Otago Southland Young Farmer Hugh Jackson finished up in third place.

Poole said the close finish showed that every point counted.

“You can’t really afford to drop any and unfortunately I did drop a few in the very last event [as] the stress and fatigue came on.”

The last event in the Grand Final is a quiz, which O’Connor ended up winning.

“Peter put on a really good quiz and kept me on my toes so he actually came out on top in the quiz,” Poole said.

“It was lucky I was ahead enough to win it in the end but it was very, very close.”

Poole said the quiz was a bit of a nail-biter for all contestants, as rankings were displayed without actual scores.

“It came up that I was on top of the leaderboard but you’re thinking – hang on here – is it one quiz question between us or is it 50?”

The Agri-sports round was a struggle for Poole, where she had to back a tractor onto a trailer and hitch it up.

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“I had my moment and couldn’t get the pin in and made a few crucial mistakes that put me about 10 minutes behind the field.”

She took it in her stride though.

“I’m not perfect, you know, I tried my hardest out there but it was good for people to see that you can make mistakes and still come out on top – so it was a positive story at the end.”

Poole was awarded $90,000 as part of her winnings and she already had plans on where it would go.

“That’s going to be massive for us in our farming system. We’re just a young couple trying to get into dairy farming and we’ve got family support here – we’re pretty lucky – but that kind of sponsorship – is just incredible for us.”

Naturally, as a farmer, Poole will put the money to good, practical use – but with a little bit of pizazz.

“It’ll be nice to get out in the morning and turn on some equipment that starts up first go - and it’ll help keep our staff safe, riding some flash new gear on the farm.”