Fitz-Herbert went home with a prize pack worth more than $10,000 including cash, scholarships and products and services from FMG, Massey University, Ravensdown, Median Energy, AGMARDT, Silver Fern Farms, Honda, STIHL and Vodafone.
He also won the Meridian Energy Agri-knowledge and Massey University Agri-growth challenges.
Fitz-Herbert is a seasoned competitor of the FMG Young Farmer of the Year – this will be his second consecutive year competing at grand final level, and his last.
Contestants are only able to compete at grand final level twice. Fitz-Herbert placed 5th in the 2015 grand final.
Fitz-Herbert will now go to the grand final in Timaru, from July 7-9, where he will battle it out for the grand champion’s title and more than $162,000 in prizes.
The Northern regional final featured a strong group of contestants with plenty of knowledge and talent on display. The eight contestants were put through their paces in a variety of challenging modules touching on all aspects of farming from practical hands-on tasks to theory and business components.
Second place went to James Rogers, 30, of the Marton Young Farmers Club. The sheep and beef farm manager took home a cash reward of $700 from FMG, a $250 account credit from Meridian Energy, a W20 water pump from Honda, $1000 voucher for the purchase of outdoor equipment from STIHL and products and services to the value of $600 from Vodafone. Rogers also won the AGMARDT Agri-business Challenge.
Third place went to Ray Hirst of the Fitzherbert Young Farmers Club.
The 29-year old owner of Kiwi Calves also took out the Silver Fern Farms Agri-sports Challenge and the Ravensdown Agri-skills Challenge.
Alongside the FMG Young Farmer of the Year Practical Day events New Zealand’s future farmers were in competition too in TeenAg and AgriKids competitions.
The top three teams from the AgriKids competitions and top two TeenAg teams will also compete at the grand final in Timaru in early July.
The TeenAg competition was taken out by Feilding 1 from Feilding Ag with Charlotte Nimmo and Cameron Brown.
Second place went to the Jacob Dearlove and Josh Kowalewski from Feilding High School.
Third place was taken by Feilding 2 with Esther Jewiss and Sheldon Mayo from Feilding Ag.
The AgriKids competition was won by Rangitikei Rouseys made-up of Joshua Poppe, Harrison Major and Baden Cullis from Feilding High School and South Makirkiri.
Opiki 1 took out second place – the Opiki 1 team was made-up of Kendyll Barrie, Sam Lahmart and Charlotte Wells who were from Opiki School.
Third place went to the Hiwinui Hunterways made-up from Lily Stewart, Nikki Baker and Calum Roseacker, all students from Hiwinui.
The 2016 FMG Young Farmer of the Year features seven regional finals culminating in the grand final.
• For more information go to www.youngfarmercontest.co.nz.
