Chairperson Keegan Hassell reports on the HBHS Young Farmers Club.

The Young Farmers Club at HBHS is a great social club for boys who have a passion for farming. You do not need to have a farming background, as long as you have an interest in farming and the great outdoors. This club is also a great way to gain knowledge and meet people in the farming industry, especially if you are interested in a future career in this industry.

At the start of the year, we went to a sheep and beef farm Open Day in Te Kuiti, which is a farm used by Growing Future Farmers. There was information about the Growing Future Farmers programme and how it works. While we were there we watched the sheep dogs training, sheep being shorn and had a go at drafting sheep. We had a sausage sizzle lunch and met some of the cadets who are doing their training there as well as students from many other schools.

In the middle of the year, we visited the Lumsden Dairy Farm in Ohinewai. This was a great trip as some of our members haven’t had much practical experience and we really appreciated the Lumsdens for allowing us to visit their farm and for sharing their knowledge and experience with us. We got to do some fencing, safety workshops, assisted with bringing in the calves, and with the milking. We saw a vet in action with a cow who was in trouble and we had an interesting meatworks session with Tim Lumsden, an Old Boy who was our previous club chairperson and is now an apprentice butcher. In this meatworks session we had a look at the insides of a dairy cow and learnt about the different stomachs. We also had a quiz about the farm and the top five went into a face-off quiz. This was to gear us up for next year’s Junior Young Farmer Of The Year competition. We also had a delicious barbeque lunch.

Over the year we have had a few guest speakers come to talk to us about deer farming, Growing Future Farmers, and Fonterra. This has been very interesting and it has given us information about future career opportunities.

Through the Young Farmers Club there is a chance to get involved in volunteering out in the community. Earlier in the year some of our seniors from the club participated in Arbour Day and planted hundreds of trees at Waiwhakareke Nature reserve. We enjoyed a walk around the more established part of the reserve after lunch to see how our trees might look in the future. At the Waikato A&P show held recently, some of our club members including myself volunteered and helped out with the running of the show. We also volunteer at the Waikato Show, which unfortunately did not happen this year due to COVID-19. Field Days is also another great volunteering experience. These events are a great way to meet new people and gain service hours!

We also recently had our end-of-year traditional activity for our club which is paintball. This year we decided to try Tour Of Duty Paintball in Cambridge. This was a lot of fun and a great way to end the year.

Since Tim Lumsden left the chairperson’s role, I have stepped up to this role for the Young Farmers Club in 2022. I have thoroughly enjoyed the year, the farming trips have been interesting and I have learnt a lot. I have also enjoyed the volunteering roles and meeting new people at the events. I would like to thank Mrs Leanne Cumming for her support in my chairperson role and for all her hard work in running the Young Farmers Club.