It’s now or never for Young Farmers’ finalist

“Now or Never”

for Young Farmers’ finalist

Riverton sharemilker Sam Hodsell is in the running for the Young Farmers’ grand final in Christchurch. Karen Trebilcock slipped on her redbands to find out why the competition is so important for Sam.

Sam Hodsell is going to have to find some time off work to study for the Young Farmers’ grand final in Christchurch at the start of July.

With 600 cows to look after, the busy 28-year-old 50:50 Riverton sharemilker spent only the Friday beforehand swotting up for the Otago Southland final in early March. But winning that means he’s now heading for what he knows is a “now or never chance” of having a crack at the grand title. A member of the Thornbury Young Farmers Club since 2015, he’s entered the competition once before, coming third in the regional final in 2016. When at Southland Boys High School he was part of Teen Ag, the junior Young Farmers, but left the area to study a Bachelor of Agriculture at Lincoln University.

While there, he picked up a DairyNZ scholarship in his second year and still takes part in scholarship activities when needed.

Back home on the family farm after university, he realised he didn’t know many people around him. His family is from Northland and moved to Southland when he was eight, selling the family farm along the way.

“Mum and Dad went 50:50 sharemilking in Southland, I think to see if they liked it down here, and then bought the farm we’re on now.”

His older brother does the tractor driving and maintenance and his sister works in Invercargill but none of the extended family moved south.

The Thornbury Young Farmers Club member won the Otago Southland title and is heading to Christchurch for the grand final at the start of July.

Join the club

“So I joined the club to meet people. We’ve got a really good crew of young people around here, all doing different things.”

Club members come from as far away as Ohai and Drummond. They include sheep and beef, deer and dairy farmers as well as rural professionals including vets.

“You’re getting tested on things you do every day and if you’re passionate about agriculture it all helps.”

Left: Sam and Jenna in the crop paddock ready for wintering onfarm. Right: Sam Hodsell, his partner Jenna Hansen, and Scrub, the farm dog.

The chairman is James Fox who is an ANZ rural lender, based in Invercargill.

“You meet lots of people in Young Farmers and through them there are lots of resources to tap into when you need to know something.”

And it’s just not the Young Farmer contest Thornbury club members have in their sights.

Runner up in this year’s Dairy Industry Trainee Awards was club member Cameron Smith of Dacre and Samuel Spencer of Otautau, another club member, was third.

But it was the Southland Young Farmers competition where Sam first came second this year with the top four from it going through to the Otago Southland final.

The Otago Southland event was going to be part of the Southland A&P Show at Donovan Park in Invercargill but when the show was cancelled because of Covid-19 Level 2 restrictions, it was decided to still continue with the contest.

“It was weird, having no one watching. There were just 100 of us.”

He had half an hour to complete each of the eight practical modules which included picking breeding rams, tractor driving, cooking eggs three different ways and identifying soil profiles.

WorkSafe took them through a check of hazards in a dairy while a written exam and a buzzer quiz finished the day.

“We’d been practicing the buzzer quiz at club meetings for months so I was okay with that although I was pretty quiet near the end of it.

“The whole competition is a lot of fun and afterwards many of the judges sat us down and took us through what we should have done so you learn a lot too.

“You’re getting tested on things you do every day and if you’re passionate about agriculture it all helps.

“But the things you don’t know, it really opens your eyes to other farming practices.”

Farm ownership in sights

This year he’s finishing his third year sharemilking for his parents with his partner Jenna Hansen who he met at Lincoln.

“Dad had had enough of milking cows so I took over first as a manager and then as a contract milker.”

He bought his first stock, a mob of 100 sheep, when he was 12 and four years later bought 20 cows and leased them back to his father.

Dabbling in the share market while at university and trading heifers out of the North Island built further equity.

He also fitted in a year in Western Australia swathing canola.

“I set some goals when I left uni. I like having financial targets.”

Buying his first farm is firmly in his sights.

He’s on target to reach 300,000kg MS this season for the first time on the 250ha family farm which is half sand hills and peat and half heavier soils.

The windswept southern coast is in sight and although he would love to re-fence the farm into paddocks of even size, he knows taking out the shelter belts would be the worst thing to do.

The cows are producing 500kg MS each on grass and about 300kg DM of silage and palm kernel. They’re wintered on, along with the young stock. His dad has 150 bulls on a run-off nearby as well.

Sam is passionate about his breeding and picks bulls from both LIC and CRV Ambreed doing his own AI, with his father, for 12 weeks. No follow up bulls are used.

“We’re really concentrating on breeding worth (BW) but also those traits that improve longevity such as fertility and health.”

The crossbred herd has a BW of 160. Planned start of calving is August 5 and he tries to keep milking through until the end of May but it depends on the southern weather.

At the end of April the cows went on 16 hour milking.

“They get pretty tired at the end of the season. It’s a five kilometre walk to the furthest paddock and it just makes it easier on everyone.”

His family will be travelling to Christchurch for the grand final plus his friends from Lincoln are promising to be there too.

“It will be good to see everyone.”