Showcasing the Primary Industries to the next generation

The Fencing Contractors NZ team were delighted to participate in the inaugural Westpac Agri Futures event in March, which was held as part of the 2021 Rural Games programme.

The Agri Futures morning was created to promote Primary Industry careers to year 12 and 13 students from around the region and included sites from the NZ Shearing Contractors Association, the Southern North Island Forestry Association, the New Zealand Arboriculture Association, the Ministry for Primary Industries and various training institutes.

Board member Mike Renner was joined by Certified Fencers Mike Billinghurst and Craig Shortall, who kindly donated their time to spend the morning encouraging 500+ kids to have a go at wire tying on a practice rig, which Mike Billinghurst had created specifically for teaching purposes. It was fantastic to see many of the region’s Ag-studies kids demonstrating a solid basic skill set. Others needed some work on their technique but everyone who had a go enjoyed the opportunity to get their hands on some wire and get some practice in.

Practice was key, ahead of the afternoon’s Clash of the Colleges competition, which saw 60 teams of senior and junior students compete in teams of four across 30 modules of all things primary-industry related, including three fencing modules. The kids were required to do everything from milking a cow and plant washdown to wool classing and body condition scoring, as well as paper-based modules that covered seeds, weeds and fertilisers.

Mike Billinghurst assists with wire tying at the Westpac Agri Futures morning

The fencing modules saw the teams wire-tying, attaching an insulator to a post and attaching battens to a wire fence and were scored on their use of health & safety equipment, the correct use of the equipment provided, fencing technique and whether the end result was fit for purpose. Our thanks again to Mike, Mike, and Craig who were also joined by Nick Leifting as the judging panel for the fencing modules.

While fencing clearly wasn’t for everyone, we were pleased to take down the details of several students who showed real promise and were keen to undertake some work experience. We are hoping to match these young adults with Fencing Contractor members in the Manawatu region who would be willing to offer work experience for a day or two. These arrangements will likely be made through the various high schools.

If you’d be interested in offering some work experience, please get in contact with Heather Kawan at heather@fencingcontractors.co.nz or phone 0274322033.

Our thanks go to Farmlands, Stockade, Waratah, Gallagher, WIREMARK®, Summit Steel & Wire, Bayonet and NorthTec for all supporting our drive to encourage more students into fencing, by contributing to an epic goody bag.

Special thanks also to Summit Steel & Wire for donating a Leatherman Multi-tool prize for our ‘Guess the Staples in the jar’ competition, won by Palmerston North Boys High student Hunta Gledhill.

It was a successful day and we look forward to participating in further Agri Future events.

Hunta Gledhill with his new Leatherman Sidekick multitool