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Clean sweep for NBHS students
Competition was hot on Saturday 26 March as over 60 teams went head-to-head in a bid to take out the East Coast FMG Junior Young Farmer of the Year and AgriKidsNZ titles. It was a clean sweep for Napier Boys’ High School in the FMG Junior Young Farmer of the Year competition, with the top three spots taken out by Napier Boys’ students. Quinn Redpath and Cameron Brans are the East Coast FMG Junior Young Farmer of the Year Winners for 2022, with William Murphy and Harvey Trent coming in second, and Matt Bennett and Ryan Redpath in third.
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Meanwhile, the Farm Girls team, made up Hannah Tyler, Zita Pedersen and Eva Pedersen from Sherwood School took out the crown of 2022 East Coast AgriKidsNZ winners. Both the East Coast AgriKidsNZ and FMG Junior Young Farmer of the Year contests were held alongside the FMG Young Farmer of the Year Contest in Waipukurau. East Coast FMG Junior Young Farmer of the Year winning team teacher Rex Newman said Quinn and Cameron were very excited to make the Grand Final, saying they couldn’t believe their luck. “It’s an amazing competition, we’re so lucky to have it,” he said. After the challenge of Covid, the pair were just happy to get to the competition in the first place. They knew they had their work cut out for them, knowing that everyone there had a chance at the top spot. “They couldn’t take anything for granted, they tried to make sure they answered everything as accurately as they could,” he explained. The hard work will continue in the lead-up to Grand Final, with Newman explaining that the team will be working on their practical skills as well as learning each other’s strengths. The AgriKidsNZ runner-up spot was taken out by The Agri-Beasts made up of Hannah Newman, Kaitlin Bush and Phoebe Mitchell. Following in third place was the Omakere Shepherds team, made up of James Martin, Caitlyn Humphries and Madi Hunt. The top two FMG Junior Young Farmer of the Year teams and top three AgriKidsNZ teams have been invited to the FMG Young Farmer of the Year Grand Final in Whangarei this July.
First place getters Cameron Brans and Quinn Redpath of Napier Boys’High School. William Murphy and Harvey Trent, also of Napier Boys’ High School were placed second.
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Proposed r ural water supply regulationsover the top, unacceptable
By Jim Galloway, President Federated Farmers Hawke’s Bay
The primary industries have continued to be one of the pillars of our economy as New Zealand weathers the disruption of the global pandemic. I know that the Hawke’s Bay’s farmers and growers have been proud to keep putting quality food on the tables of families here and around the world.
We’re used to dealing with the vagaries of the weather but an even bigger challenge is the ‘regulatory exhaustion’ from all the new rules and requirements the government throws at the sector – emissions pricing, one-size-fits all freshwater regulations rather than rules tailored to each region’s particular requirements and priorities, the socalled ute tax, planning changes that may be even more cumbersome than the current RMA…. Hawke’s Bay farmers are particularly puzzled and irked by another round of catch-all and impractical restrictions, this time on drinking water quality assurance. Of course we need safe drinking water. And yes, the serious water contamination episode in Havelock North in 2016 showed the need for beefed up standards and vigilance. But the response – two new acts of Parliament and the centralization of council ‘three waters’ infrastructure into four mega entities - seems like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Federated Farmers put a compelling case to government and the new water services regulator Taumata Arowai that rural suppliers providing water to fewer than 50 people should be exempted from the sorts of comprehensive compliance, daily water testing, chlorination requirements, etc, that are aimed at bigger town and municipal supplies. But we were turned down. The upshot is – as confirmed by a recent Federated Farmers survey of nearly 1000 farmers around the country – there’s a real risk that a quarter of the tens of thousands of small rural water suppliers will discontinue supply to neighbouring households if new rules compromise their ability to supply livestock or irrigation water, or to avoid administrative hassles or liabilities. Around a third of the farmers in our survey say they will ‘wait and see’ what the final form of the “acceptable solutions” for small rural suppliers Taumata Arowai comes up with. At this stage, the proposed solutions are anything but acceptable. The vast majority of respondents to the Feds survey, both suppliers and consumers, seemed happy with their water supply arrangements. Ninety per cent of consumers were satisfied with the quality and taste of water supplied to their households, with only 1% not satisfied. Based on the multitude of comments that came in, the vast majority were very resistant to the idea of regulation extending to their situations, either as suppliers or consumers. It was also notable how many suppliers were run by volunteers (94% of dual purpose and 96% of household-only). It was also evident that many schemes are undertaken on the basis of goodwill and informal arrangements. Relatively few invoiced for water consumed.
And after all, the drinking water a farmer may supply to a few neighbours’ houses out of goodwill, is the same water his/her own family drinks. They have a very real incentive to ensure the water is safe to drink and it has nothing to do with regulations. As one farmer commented: “Bureaucrats should butt their noses out of our private lives. Most people making the rules are academics who wouldn’t know a spring if they fell into one.”
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