Kaharoa Cow Cockies off to agriculture grand finals

A team of three pupils from Kaharoa School are confident as they head to the AgriKids New Zealand 2017 Grand Final in Palmerston North.

Chloe Marshall, 12, Maggie Guyton, 13, and Daniel Bates, 12, won the Waikato/Bay Of Plenty regional event held in March in Te Awamutu.

"It was a surprise, we won by one point," Chloe said.

Daniel is currently overseas and has been replaced by Sam Gifford, 13, for the Grand Final event.

Regional winners from Otago/Southland, Aorangi, Tasman, East Coast, Taranaki/Manawatu and the Northern region will be competing.

Sam said the team, who have called themselves the "Kaharoa Cow Cockies", were confident in themselves and their abilities as they had been doing lots of training and practice.

He said the event would feature "farming stuff, a few hands on things", with some general knowledge testing.

Chloe said the knowledge part would be about areas such as grass, planting and growing, things they would have learnt growing up.

The team was given help and training for the event by Maggie's dad, a farmer.

The team will head to Palmerston North on Thursday, compete on Friday and on Saturday will have a "fun day", going to the movies and Palmerston North's Lido Aquatic Centre.

Kaharoa School principal Warwick Moyle said he was delighted the team had got into the national finals.

He said the children selected for the team came from farming backgrounds.

"It's one of our strategic intentions to promote rural character. It's our point of difference."

The FMG Young Farmer of the Year Grand Final will also be held during this time.