Four Blackley siblings involved in Northern regional final of Young Farmer contest

Rachael Blackley (left) will be in the FMG Young Farmer Competition while her sister Julia competes in AgriKids NZ events and their brothers Ben and Cam (right) take part in TeenAg contests. Photo/John Stone

Four Blackley siblings from Purua will compete in all categories of the Northern regional final of the FMG Young Farmer Competition at Kamo High School in Whangarei next week.

On Saturday, March 18, 24-year-old Rachael Blackley will face another woman and six men in a battle to represent the Northern region in the televised Young Farmer of the Year grand final to be held in the Manawatu region on July 6-8.

Meanwhile, in other Kamo High arenas her brothers, Cam, 17, and Ben, 15, will take part in the Northern region TeenAg preliminaries and race-off and their 12-year-old sister Julia will be striving in similar AgriKids NZ events.

The boys and their younger sister are students at Huanui College at Glenbervie near Whangarei.

Rachael said their proud dad Dave Blackley would take a break from the family sheep and beef farm to support his youngsters, but she suspected he would have his work cut out trying to cheer them all on at once.

Rachael and her regional final rivals face a 50-minute examination behind closed doors in the Agmardt Agri-business Challenge at 7pm on March 17, followed by a full test of their farming abilities during the Ravensdown Agri-skills, Massey University Agri-growth and agri-sports challenges from 8am to the afternoon on March 18.

In the evening will be a dinner, an hour-long quiz to be live streamed on Facebook, an awards ceremony and party.

Entries are still being accepted for up to 32 three-member teams of children aged 8-13 in the AgriKids NZ contest and a similar number of two-member secondary school-age teams in the TeenAg competition.

Event organisers told The Country TeenAg competitors would be invited to the awards ceremony.

Rachael Blackley, who has a bachelor of agricultural science degree from Massey University, is assistant manager on a 460-cow dairy farm at Matarau managed by 2016 grand finalist Jake Thomson for sharemilker Ian Douglas, who was a 2013 grand finalist.

She and Clement Lafon, 25, are the only Upper North Young Farmers Club (YFC) representatives among the eight contestants in the regional final.

He grew up on a cropping farm in France and gained an engineering degree before moving to New Zealand three years ago with plans to work as a mechanic, but he now manages a 530-cow farm at Kamo and aims to be the first Frenchman to make the grand final.

Youngest to oldest

The youngest of the six Lower North YFC regional finalists is 19-year-old Daniel Richards, who is an assistant on a 380-split calving dairy farm at Tomarata.

Daniel is treasurer of the Kaipara YFC and he will be competing against club chairman Kurtis Danks, 21, who was runner-up in the 2015 Northland Dairy Trainee of the Year awards.

Kurtis grew up in Wellsford and discovered his passion for agriculture working on his grandparents' dairy farm in school holidays.

Oldest of the eight regional finalists is Colin Beazley, 29. Originally from a sheep and beef farm in North Hokianga, he studied accounting before turning to dairying.

He and his wife Isabelle are now 50/50 sharemilkers with 350 cows - and two children - at Wellsford.

Ryan Morris, 26, manages the 600-cow family dairy farm he grew up on in Mangakahia.

He arrived back in the country from a five-week OE in Europe two days before the district contest which earned him a place in the regional final.

Jack Thomas, 24, hails from Christchurch, but spent his early years on a family farm, worked on a dairy farm after leaving school and later attended university, gaining a commerce and agriculture degree. He now works at PGG Wrightson Fruitfed in Kumeu.

Lisa Kendall, 25, is a member of the Franklin YFC who holds a diploma in agriculture and farm management.

She manages her business Nurture Farming Ltd, which provides agricultural support services to farms and lifestyle blocks in the Franklin area.