| 41 Archie eyes grand final after regional win Winner of the 2024 East Coast FMG Young Farmer of the Year title Archie Woodhouse is gearing up to compete at the grand final in July and says brother Callum, who placed second in the regional competition, will be helping him prepare. “Callum works for Halter and has a lot of experience in research and the dairy industry. We are always bouncing ideas off each other,” says Archie. He admits competing against his brother in the regionals was intimidating. “It was daunting knowing he was breathing down my neck. I guess we have admiration for each others skills and know similar stuff, for example we learned to fence the same way,” he says. The brothers grew up on the family sheep and beef farm at Eketahuna. Archie has only been hands on farming for a couple of months after finishing his Bachelor of Agriculture degree and Masters in Agribusiness but has worked on farms during his holiday breaks, which equipped him well for the competition. His higher education experience made the theoretical side of the competition easier, especially as this aspect of the competition can cover multiple facets of farming from dairy to sheep and beef to arable to viticulture. This will see Archie hitting the books big time, as “it’s quite difficult to study for as you don’t know what you could be tested on,” he says. Archie says the benefits of entering the competition have been numerous: “Firstly it’s the opportunity to meet like-minded people and those that are top in their field from RURAL PEOPLE » Woodhouse Rural all over the country. That’s what I’m also looking forward to in the grand final. “The second part is it tests my skills against the best and by learning as much as I can in preparation it fast tracks my personal skills.” The family works together on the 1000ha farm at Eketahuna, which runs 3500-4000 ewes, 150-200 breeding cows and 600 cattle in total. Everything is finished on farm. Dad, Ian, is full time on the farm and mum, Janet, is an accountant and completes the financial aspects of the business as well as propagating several thousand native seedlings each year to be planted on the farm. Archie works alongside his dad on the farm and Callum too when he is not working at Halter. Although Archie was brought up on a sheep and beef unit he says the future prospects of dairy excite him. “I can see massive opportunities to innovate, invest in technology and other aspects that are hard to apply to sheep and beef,” he says. His long-term goal is farm ownership. To get there he plans to move into the professional agriculture field to broaden his experience and put his theoretical knowledge into use before returning to farming full time. He is looking forward to theFMG Young Farmer of the Year final in July: “It’s a strong competition and it’s a great opportunity to pit my skills against the best.” “Firstly it’s the opportunity to meet like-minded people and those that are top in their field from all over the country.” The family farm at Eketahuna runs 3500-4000 ewes 150-200 breeding cows and 600 cattle. Karen Phelps Archie Woodhouse is chasing national honours at the Young Farmer of the Year Awards after taking out the EAST Coast FMG regional title.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=