Young Farmer of Year finalist

Press, 21 July 1978, Page 9

Young Farmer of Year finalist

Mr S. J. (Stephen) Ryan will represent the Canterbury region of the Young Farmers’ Club movement in the final of the Skellerup Young Farmer of the Year contest, which will be held in Christchurch on Thursday, August 3.

Aged 28 years and recently married, Mr Ryan is a member of the Waihora Young Farmers’ Club, in which he has held a number of offices, and is also currently vice-chair-man of the Christchurch district of the movement and its representative on the meat and wool section of North Canterbury Federated Farmers. One of his interests in Young Farmers is in encouragement of personal development and this means basically through debating.

The Christchurch district of the movement has some 70 debaters and is reputed to be one of the strongest districts in the country in this respect.

Mr Ryan debates for the Waihora club and before Mr John Gordon left Radio New Zealand in Christchurch as rural broadcaster he was taking part in his ‘farmer comment” programme.

Born in Christchurch, he was educated at Tai Tapu School and then at St Bede’s College where he stayed five years. While at St Bede’s he made his initial contact with Young Farmers and was chairman of the school club. Out of school he did a diploma of valuation and farm management at Lincoln College, which he completed in 1972. Then he worked on the home farm at Tai Tapu for three years before winning a Young Farmers’ exchange,

which took him to the United Kingdom for six months in 1976. Including visits also to Europe, Canada and the United States he was away for about a year. Since then he has been back at home working for the family company, which farms 230 ha of light loam to heavy peat. It is a mixed farming property with 1200 Romney breeding ewes and a cropping programme, including 32 ha of wheat, a similar area closed for white clover seed, 28 to 32 ha in peas, and sometimes 12 to 16 ha saved for Manawa and Paroa ryegrass seed. Before he went on the Y.F.C. exchange he represented the North Canterbury Minor Association at cricket for a number of years and for two years was captain of the team. A change in the format of the final of the Skellerup Young Farmer of the Year contest starting last year has been the inclusion of a practical section in which the contestants have to perform some practical farm skills and with a personal interview this accounts now for about a third of the points. This is done in advance of the evening session when they have to answer short questions and also give longer comment type answers, identify visual presentations such as by slides and also present a prepared statement.

Mr Ryan has competed in the contest twice before, on one occasion reaching the regional final.