Lincoln foundation finalists selected

Press, 5 July 1985, Page 10

Lincoln foundation finalists selected

Five sheep farmers have been selected as finalists in this year’s Lincoln College Foundation annual farmers .award. The winner will be announced on the first day, Tuesday, of the annual Lincoln College Farmers Conference which is part of the Agricultural Week. Each of the five finalists will give a paper at the conference next week and the winner will be announced at a dinner on Tuesday evening. The speaker at the dinner is Mr Jon Gadsby, the television actor. Before the conference each of the five will be interviewed by a judging panel, but the main emphasis will be on the farmer

showing the best financial return over the last five years. Two of the finalists are from Southland, one from North Otago, one from MidCanterbury and one from North Canterbury. Their farms range from 120 hectares to 15,000 hectares, and their stock units from 1400 to 17,000. Two of the farmers, Mr David Morrow, of Mount Somers, and Mr Peter Byars, of Merino Downs, both run Romney sheep. Mr Morrow won the South Island Romney Farmer Award earlier this year. He runs 5400 sheep and 100 breeding cows on 460 hectares. Mr Byars runs 3000 sheep,

fattening cattle and deer on 175 hectares. Mr John Hopcroft, of Gummies Bush, runs 4500 Coopworth sheep on his 210 ha farm. He won the cents-per-kilogram of lamb meat competition run by the Coopworth Society last year. Mr Rodney Patterson, at age 30, the youngest of the five finalists, has a 15000 ha high country run carrying 18,000 Merino sheep and 400 cattle at Omarama. The other finalist is Mr Robert Hewett, of Domett, who used to be a professional geologist and has been farming for 10 years, and who runs 160 Borderdale sheep on 116 ha. Seventeen sheep farmers entered for the award, and

each of their farms was inspected by a judging panel. Mr Neil Gow, senior lecturer in farm management at Lincoln College, is coordinating judge for the award. He reported on the farms to the Lincoln College Foundation Trustees who selected the finalists. The Lincoln College Farmers Award carries a cash prize for an overseas study tour. The travel award has to be taken up within 15

months; the winner reports to the trustees within three months of returning from overseas. This is the third 'year the award, held each year in conjunction with the annual Lincoln College Farmers Conference, has been offered. The intention of the award is to recognise outstanding and innovative farmers who are providing leadership in farming, and are likely to benefit from overseas study.