First woman winner at Pukekohe

FIRST WOMAN WINNER

AT PUKEKOHE

Words by Glenys Christian. Photos by Matt Silcock

Bernadine Guilleux, Heather Feetham, Barry O'Neil and Nadine Tunley

Heather Feetham rewrote the history books early in May when she became the first woman to win the Pukekohe Young Grower of the Year Competition. But three young male growers who all had their eye on the award and the chance to take out national honours later in the year didn’t make it easy.

Heather, 25, said she was very honoured to win on her first attempt.

“I didn’t know what to expect and there was fierce competition,” she said.

“I’ve taken a lot away from it, identified my weaknesses which I can work on and also build my strengths.”

She thanked her co-workers at T&G Fresh for getting her involved, especially former Young Horticulturalist of the Year, Ben Smith, who she said give up his time willingly to help her out.

Heather grew up in Adelaide and always liked science and the outdoors.

“I wasn’t sure how to make it a career,” she said. That led her to study agricultural science at Adelaide University, then she and her partner, Dave, came to New Zealand in 2017. After some time working in hospitality in Queenstown, they were keen to get back to their careers, so moved to Auckland. She found work at Pukekoke kiwifruit grower, Punchbowl, as a lab technician, then made the move to T&G Fresh working at their Favona Road facility. Now she is a covered crop manager at its GER site in Tuakau where she particularly enjoys the variety of the work involved with growing tomatoes.

“You never have a dull day.”

Heather also took out the best speech as well as the business award. For their speeches contestants were given the topic: How can we as growers react best to this fastchanging world? Heather urged growers to change their mindset from being reactive to proactive. And she used her experience on the netball court to draw a comparison.

“We don’t know when someone is going to pass us the ball,” she said.

“We’ve just got to equip ourselves with the skills to do what we have to when that happens.”

Every generation has faced challenges and to adapt and thrive they all needed to be willing to explore all options and trust the young.

Winner, Heather Feetham talking to Nadine Tunley 200 attended the awards dinner at the Pukekohe Indian Association Events Centre

“Every challenge holds the seeds of opportunity for growth.”

Blair Wilcox, who was named runner-up and also took out the practical award, said no one knows exactly what the future will look like, but there will be continue to be winners and losers.

“A successful and dynamic vegetable business must act and change,” he said.

There needs to be a genuine connection between growers and consumers, and trust must be developed where their interactions cannot be in person so there is a flow of “passion from paddock to plate.”

“We must challenge ourselves to be more open.”

Heather also took out the best speech as well as the business award

Third placegetter, Karn Dhaliwal, a rural banker as well as owner-operator of north Waikato’s Ohinewai Harvest, said vegetable growing had stood the test of time.

“We know how to hustle, to turn up on the day and deliver the goods even when there’s a pandemic,” he said.

“We need to collaborate more between ourselves to work more as one. We’re already ringfenced as the non-farming community regards us as one. But being ringfenced by legislation is what scares me.”

All growers need to speak up rather than appearing to stand cap in hand against market powers. Brydon Wood, a crop supervisor at A S Wilcox, said growers could lose out because of challenges facing their industry at present.

“But if they hunt out the opportunities they could be like Uber,” he said.

That company now has 70% of a market previously dominated by taxi companies, and is providing 14 million rides worldwide every day.

Growers need to be constantly searching for the next best thing, such as vertical farming which will rely on robotics. In the future we might be able to tell from a sensor in the palm of someone’s hand what nutrients their body lacks, and food containing the nutrients they need might then be automatically delivered to their door.

Charlotte Connoley, managing director of SPS Seeds, the event’s gold sponsor, said it was interesting to see the varying backgrounds contestants came from.

“One event can change your career trajectory,” she said.

Master of Ceremonies, Austin Singh Purewal, who was the 2019 winner and went on to take out the Vegetable Grower of the Year title, said he had a flashback to the same event that year.

“I was jobless and needed a mentor,” he said.

He went to work for HortiCentre then T & G Global and used his prize money along with help from the Chinese Growers’ Association to go to Australia “and look at how the big guns operate on a large scale”.

“It all comes down to opportunities,” he told fellow young growers.

“You come out the door with them tonight whether you take them up a day, a week or a year later.”